General tips

Exploration

• You won't find any weapons or armor lying around or on enemies, only Recipes to make them can drop or be found. (Exception: Hard Mode Bosses)

• Finding portals to other islands can be tedious. The Arcane Compass is your friend! If you look carefully at the animation when you use the compass, you can judge not just the direction to a portal and its color, but how far away it is and if it's below or above you.

• A small world makes it easy to find portals so that you can move on quickly through the game. A large world has much more resources available to mine and collect. You can make up to three worlds and use your character in any of them without penalty.
• Explore! Just digging around gets you XP. (Periodically drops from blocks that you break)
• Need to dig down? Select your pickaxe, aim straight down right under your feet and hold down the action key. You will dig and drop down at the same time.

• Need to climb up? Select a dirt or sand block, aim straight down at your feet and rapidly click the action key.

• A Mining Drill is very fast for exploring underground. It cuts through up to seven blocks at once! It's also a good way to stay alive underwater by digging faster than the water can fill the "air" blocks.
• Building a bridge using dirt blocks to get to a far away land mass is easier than you think. You don't have to place each block one by one. Switch to 1st person view and hold down the block placement button while advancing. If you see that you are moving too fast for the placement and you are about to overshoot the bridge, very briefly release the button to advance and press it again. This technique is excellent for building structures as well.
• On the world map, there will be faint, partial lines which indicate which maps are connected via portals. If world A is connected to world B, world A will have the line originating from it going towards world B. World B will not have a line going back to world A. This indicates the direction of possible portal travel, and it means you should not look for a portal on world B that goes to world A.

Combat

• Using a weapon with a element to counter your foe's element makes your life easy (or hard if you use the weak element to that type). Fire > Earth > Electro > Water > Fire
• Most melee creatures can't reach you if are 2 (or more) blocks higher. Be ware some of them can jump up to four blocks high to catch you.
• Foes will never follow you on a drop that does damage to them. It's a good way to flee if you have HP to survive the fall.
• Even the tougher creatures die almost instantly if completely submerged in water. Try to lure them in.
• Any skill or attack with AoE effect can damage foes over blocks or walls.
• Getting out of mana points too quickly? Moonstone Blocks drop a Mighty Mana Potion upon destruction. It's also a good way to "mark" places you visited.

Item Storage/Resources

• All Resources have a purpose. Make chests and store everything until you figure out what you need. Pick a world to make a temporary or permanent base to put all your chests into for a centralized storage.

• Your chests and buildings will not be damaged or looted by enemies.
• If you need a particular metal resource for crafting, know that the 1st place you find it will have the lowest density of that ore. Quickly moving on to the next Island where you find it will be much more efficient overall. 

Lights

• Lighting can be difficult in this game. You need to place torches everywhere if you don't want to hold one in your hand all the time. One trick is to craft a Miner Helmet (Workbench II) and place it in the vanity head slot. You still get the stats from your main headpiece, but you'll also get the light from the Miner Helmet.
• With Altar II and above you can craft Wisp potions that provide light.

• Holding a torch in your hands provides brighter and further light than placing a torch on the ground or on a wall.
• A certain random event provides five placeable glowing blocks upon completion. It will be obvious which event this is when you are doing it. These blocks will produce purple light wherever they are placed.
• Some things don't produce light even if it seems like they should. (Ex: the glowing yellow blocks from a certain world and the craftable halo vanity item)

Other

• Ranger is probably the easiest class to play and to start with, but Warrior and Mage can be stronger in late game.

• Wondering what to improve next? Priorities remain the same throughout the game: 1-Get each type of crafting station, 2-Improve your digging tools, 3-Improve your weapons and armor, 4-Level your crafting stations.
• Unlike other games, the choice between 1st and 3rd person views is not just a preference. You will want to switch between these view styles frequently. Get used to both. Battle is much easier in 3rd person. Construction is much easier in 1st person.
• The timers for random events in the worlds begins when you first view the planet map. Each planet/world has its own event system, so you can have up three quest events at a time as there is a maximum creation of three worlds at a time.