Iron Ore is an early-game ore in Terraria that generates upon world creation on the surface, as well as in the Underground and Cavern layers. Its main use is in crafting Iron Bars, which can then be used to craft the Iron tier of tools, weapons, and armor, as well as Buckets, Chains, and several other items. The equivalent of Iron Ore in Terraria is known as Lead Ore.

How to Get Iron Ore in Terraria

Even though this is a regular occurrence in the game, many players may not realize that Iron Ore can sometimes be replaced with Lead upon the world generation, with a 50% chance.  If that is the case, then the only way to get Iron Ore is to use silt/slush/dessert fossils on an Extractionator or by opening crates that are found by fishing. Lead can otherwise be used to substitute Iron in crafting materials, the only difference being that lead equipment is slightly more powerful than Iron ones.

If you do manage to generate a World which possesses Iron Ore instead of Lead, however, it will simply drop from either crates, or as a bonus drop from slimes.

Iron Bars are needed to create the very important Iron Anvil, which means that Iron Ore needs to be obtained before any weapons or armor can be created from metal bars. It is possible to purchase an Iron Anvil from a Merchant straightaway; however, this turns out to be inefficient, as finding 15 Iron Ore to create an Iron Anvil is quite easy early on in the game.