To add to what tinyE says above, the best entrance to your mine is a 2 tile wide vertical shaft, with a lot of platforms (every 4 or 5 tiles, depending how high you can jump). To enter your mine, you just press down until you reach the desired depth, to exit it you just jump (or use the grappling hook). Fast and easy mining for everyone ;)

Yeah i've done that... up until i got a lucky horse-shoe... Then i just drop down at max speed to hell and it still takes 30 seconds... twice as long if you have to constantly go down platforms...

Or you create a hole you just drop down with water at the end. To get up you use the magic mirror (so dig the whole at the spawn point or build a bed close to it).

Make it 4 tiles wide then, 2 of them with platforms, other 2 without. Drop on the empty side if you have the horseshoe, on the platform one if you are corpse running. Problem solved ;)
True, and it does work even if corpse running. May require some time to properly move the pool when going lower though, but then again, what doesn't?

I found Magic Mirror to be essential. I really don't start actively playing until I find one, and when I do I usually make sure to pass it on should I get bored and want to play a new character in a new world.

Okay who didn't like my advice? I just got nailed! :P

That's what she said...

I had stages for each specific cave type. One for the first type of caves, one for when mushrooms starts to appear, one in between the mushrooms and lava and finally for lava.

I also had a hole so I can easily access the jungle as well.

Building these accesses is sometimes more fun than just exploring or fighting which is what I love about this game; I enjoy everything about it so I just change what I'm doing when I want variety.

I hope 1.3 is released before the summer, I want to start playing again..

We could always use one of those. +1 :D

Funny you say that, when i played it i had to buy one of those 4 packs and gift it to my friends and one of them was like "durrr durrr pixeis durr durr 2D durrr durrrr plataforms durrrr durrr this will suck" and in the end he was addicted to the game like it was cocaine. It was the last time that i (and the others) had one of those moments where we said "Hey, where did the sun go?". We've spent all the afternoon of a saturday playing and didn't even notice the time fly...

It's awesome is it? :D

It's hard to get into video games that aren't as compulsive as others once you stop playing one that is, at least it is for me.

For me it's really rare, i can only remember 2 times when that happened, Terraria (like i said) and Kotor 1.
That's why i want to play more "survival/craft" games, there's always something extra to do or discover, i've been playing Don't Starve Coop and it's also addictive but due to time issues we only play in small bursts (1 hour), But yeah, it's awesome when it happens... :)

Yeah man!

Terraria 2? Yeah! :D I mean, Nooooooooo!

Might this be it: http://terraria.wikia.com/wiki/Lihzahrd_Temple?
You will need to complete most of the game in order to get in there (or teleport). Please note that it can't be destroyed by explosives.