下面列出了默认情况游戏控制。所有这些都可以在标题界面→设置→操纵菜单中的变更。在游戏中，打开物品栏，选择“设置”，然后进入“操作”来访问它们。

• 从一堆物体中取出一个，右键单击。按右键提高从堆放物体中取出的总数。
• 将物品直接放置在物品栏上，点击左击选择物品，然后点击左击放置或点击右键扔出。
• 将物品直接从物品栏放入垃圾箱，按下 Ctrl 同时单击此物体。这个动作可以用来快速释放物品栏中的空间。
  • 以下设置可以在主菜单中更改：设置 > 操纵 > 左Shift迅速丢失。打开这个设置会使应用程序迅速丢失 Shift 键。
• 如果您想快速将物品从物品栏放入开放的存储物品或相反的操作，请按下 Shift 点击左键点击对象。
• 需要将物品从一个开放的存储物品直接放入垃圾箱，按下 Ctrl 点击左键点击对象。
  • 若左Shift迅速丢失已启用，则此操作将无法使用。
• 需要收集一件物品(使其不能快速分层、快速丢失、抛掷或快速储存) Alt 点击左边的对象。这个物体周围会有一个外框来提醒你，这个物体已经被收集了。注：将标记为收藏设备放入设备栏中，并将其放入物品栏中，以清除设备的收藏。此时，您需要再次按住它 Alt 左击点击。

• 要跟一名 NPC 互动，你需要离开 NPC 足够近，近到把光标放在一起 NPC 提示框(提示框)出现在身体上上，当 NPC 提示框发生在头顶时即可)。然后，按键。
• 在从 NPC 按鼠标点击/右扳机键/购买按钮购买东西时，可以增加购买物品的数量。

• 右键单击一个装备(包括位于社交栏中的)，将其更换为相应的盔甲栏或饰品栏。

• 阅读标志、墓石或盒子的名称，并将光标放在上面。
• 按鼠标点击快速制作许多物体(按键提高速率)。

手机方式中使用触摸屏的游戏，使玩起来更容易。大部分操作和游戏非常相似，但仍有一些新的操作。这些操作包括：

• 双击热键栏打开物品栏。
• 双击物品栏中的饰品，转换饰品的可见性。
• 点击地图进入完整地图。

然而，与移动版不同的是，选定的对象将用于屏幕的扩大或缩小。

*MFi stands for "Made For iPhone". Buying an MFi controller will guarantee it working properly on iOS.

Terraria for iOS and Android had PlayStation 3 controller support in earlier versions, but this was removed in a later update.

• Tap and drag an item to move it, or switch its position with another.
• Drag the inventory screen up or down to see more of the inventory.
• Selecting an item and tapping the "Split Stack" button (the button with stacked coins) will take one item and place it in a new stack. If a new stack has been recently created, the item will be added to that one instead.
• Selecting armor or an accessory and tapping the Equip button (labeled with a helmet and a player's head) will automatically equip it in an armor or accessory slot. If the respective armor slot is full, it will be equipped in the vanity slot. Dragging an item to the Equipment tab and releasing will equip it in the same manner.
• Selecting an item the Storage tab Tapping the Take button will add it to your inventory. Dragging an item to the Inventory tab and releasing will take it in the same manner.
• Holding an item over a tab for a while will switch to that tab.

• Any equipable item will automatically be equipped when crafted, bought, picked up, or when the Take button is pressed in the Storage tab.
• Selecting an item and tapping the Unequip button (labeled with a helmet and a player's head) will unequip it and place it in the Inventory

• Tap a recipe and tap Craft to craft one of the item.
• Tap and hold Craft to craft multiple items (the speed increases as you hold the button)

• Selecting an item and tapping Buy will buy the item if you have enough money.
• Hitting Sell in the Inventory tab, or simply dragging an item to the Shop tab will sell it.
• The has an additional spot above the shop. Dragging an item here and selecting Reforge will reforge it.

The touch screen features the players hotbar, housing menu, map, and other utilities. This is referred to by the game as the "Quick Inventory". The quick inventory shows the first ten slots in the players inventory, similarly to the mobile version of the game. The top left button under the hotbar allows the player to Quick Stack to Nearby Chests, which will be greyed out if the player is not near any chest. The middle button allows the player to drop an item they've tapped and held onto, greyed out if there is no item to drop. The top right button is the housing menu, which will be greyed out unless the player is in a .

The bottom three buttons are the World Map, Building/Precision Mode, and the player's Inventory from left to right.

• The World Map appears on the touch screen so the player can view the map as they move, and also has a magnifying glass in the corner which toggles a zoomed-in and out view.
• Building Mode provides a zoomed in view of the player's screen and sorts tools on the left, and building materials on the right.
  • Building materials are sorted in the order they appear in the players inventory, but tools are sorted in accordance with the order Weapon → Pickaxe → Axe → Hammer → Wrenches/Wire Cutters → Fishing Tools, top to bottom.
  • Items on the left can be swapped by holding L for tools and R for building materials and a direction. Up / Down on the D-Pad or Circle Pad will change the item selected. Left and Right only work on the left row, when there are variants of a tool, such as a Terra Blade being able to switch to a Paladin's Hammer, as they are both categorized as weapons.
  • On the New Nintendo 3DS, Building Mode can also be toggled with .
  • The D-Pad can be used along with Building Mode for increased precision when placing blocks.

The Inventory on the 3DS version is very similar to the inventory on the . Items appear on the bottom screen, while an item's statistics will appear on the top. The top ten slots of the inventory will be brightened, indicating items in these slots will appear in the Quick Inventory. Items can be thrown away with , and stacks of items can be split with . Below both the trash and split icon is a drop icon. Armor can be equipped with when selected, but even if that armor is a , it will be equipped in the armor slots and be swapped with any item currently filling the slot.

Also similar to the , items can be dragged between slots opposed to just using button inputs. However, button inputs are still required when equipping or depositing items, as there is no way to drag items between tabs.

On the top of the inventory screen are four/five buttons. The first, being a back arrow, causes the player to exit the inventory. The rest toggle the crafting menu, the inventory, the chest's inventory (if applicable), and the player's armor/accessory screen.

When a chest is opened, controls differ greatly from the regular inventory. To take an item out of a chest, is used, and will loot all of the items from the chest. Items cannot be split or trashed from the chest directly. When the player's inventory is accessed when a chest is available, a quick stack button appears at the bottom left corner of the screen. A deposit button will also appear if an item is selected, but does not share the button shortcut of X with the take button. Thus, the player should be careful they don't trash an item they wish to put back into a chest.

The crafting menu splits up crafting recipes into multiple sections. These sections are:

1. , s, and
4. and (along with certain )
6. Miscellaneous items that don't fit in with the other categories, e.g. Boss Summons, some Accessories, Biome Keys

can be used to switch between categories, and or the button on the touch screen can be used to craft the selected item. Items can be selected with the D-Pad, Circle Pad, or touch screen. Items that can be crafted will be listed before items that cannot, and will have a blue background. Attempting to craft an uncraftable item show the reason it is uncraftable next to the craft button. Similar to items with long tooltips, an item with a long name as an ingredient will have it's name scroll back and forth.

The player's armor and accessories are on the last tab of the inventory. Pressing will remove that armor or accessory and place it in the player's inventory. The five eyes below the player image show and hide the player's accessories, so long as they aren't . can be pressed to view the player's current buffs and debuffs as well as their durations. Buffs can be canceled with when on the screen.

When interacting with a NPC that sells items, the NPC will appear in place of where a chest would appear. Items can be bought from an NPC with , so long as the player has sufficient funds. Items can also be from the player's inventory with . When an item is sold to an NPC, that item goes to the Re-Buy slots, a section of 5 slots where items sold recently can be rebought. Unlike shops in the , exiting the NPC's shop inventory will not erase items in the Re-Buy slots, instead, items in said slots will only be erased if the player saves and exits the game.

• : Controller support for PC, easier binding.

• : Added favorite option for items in your inventory and the mount hotkey.

• : Fixed bug where resetting controls to default would reset quick mana to M rather than J.

• : Added support for Ctrl Z, X, C, and V (clear line, cut line, copy line, and paste into line respectively). Added support for Shift Insert, Shift Delete, Ctrl Insert (paste, cut, and copy respectively).

• : Added map control.

• :
  • M is now used for the new minimap feature.
  • J is now used for quick mana.

• : Keybindings will no longer sometimes be set to "None" automatically.

• :
  • Items Pulsate when hold on the mouse cursor so they stand out against other items on the UI.
  • Items move freely and rotate when falling after being dropped or thrown.
  • F7 shows game debug information.
  • F8 shows connectivity debug information.
  • F9 changes lighting setting.
  • Added 'Auto Select' hotkey.
  • Added ability to place items directly from open inventory.

• :
  • Hotkeys can now be used to change selected item when the is open.
  • Hotkeys to use the / (default is E) added.
  • Hotkeys for Mana and Healing Potions now work correctly with s.

• : Added hotkeys for quickly drinking healing, mana, and buff potions. The healing/mana potion you use is based on the same principle arrows are. Topleft most item first. The buff potions are all used at once.