How can I make Terraria easier to play with controllers?

As of version 1.3.1, the PC version of Terraria has official controller support. It has presets for PS4 and Xbox One controllers, as well as custom support.

I had this same question a few weeks ago when update 1.3 came out, and I picked Terraria up again.

I highly recommend checking out the XInput Game Support Mod. It can be a little quirky to hook up, and as of now (few weeks after 1.3 Terraria released) it has a few bugs that they're trying to patch quickly. However, it helped my hand cramps a lot, as using an xbox360 controller is a lot less physically straining for me.

The forums can explain the setup better than I can.

Link is here on the Terraria forums: http://forums.terraria.org/index.php?threads/xinput-gamepad-support-mod.1260/