Terraria

[Hirato]

Last tried Terraria near a decade ago. What difficult / world settings do people recommend for learning the game solo?

Just go with normal/classic mode.
I'd personally advocate for a medium world as well; large is too large, and small will see to it that all your boss fights are interrupted by wyverns.
Crimson and Corruption is your choice; I prefer Crimson because the gore palette creeps me out less.

If you fancy a challenge though, I would recommend Expert as the difficulty.
The extra expert-mode exclusive accessories range from okay to extremely good, and the Shield of Cthulthu you get from the Eye is amongst the best.

I'd suggest against any of the special seeds if you're not familiar with the game, that includes both Drunk World and Anniversary seeds.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

A new update is on the horizon, but more importantly they released their sales numbers:

TOTAL: 44.5 million units sold

23 million on PC
9.1 million on Consoles
12.4 million on Mobile

That's a LOT.

 

[Blaine]

Unfortunately, Terraria is in full-blown "GM's girlfriend is running the campaign" mode at this point, but the Calamity Mod is brutally challenging and good fun.

 

[Jedi Master Radek]

Been playing (for the first time) for a few days now. Game is a lot of fun, however I dislike how quickly I have been given the grappling hook, the helmet with lighting and the return home artifact. It was fun to have to carefully place wooden platforms when mining, so you could have a way to savely return home. Placing torches around the way was also fun and it felt I was conquering the place. Now I just zip around ultra fast

 

[Jasede]

Is that a change? I remember it took quite a while to get it when I played. However, there have been many patches and changes.

Do keep playing, the game goes on for a long time.

 

[Jedi Master Radek]

Is that a change? I remember it took quite a while to get it when I played. However, there have been many patches and changes.

Do keep playing, the game goes on for a long time.

Hook was made from topaz, topaz can be found on relatively shallow depth. Helmet with lighting is sold by the merchant that settles in your base after building the second room. Return home artifact was found on the middle depth, when the skeletons and jumping crabs roams. There is also an abundance of return home potions, but I rarely use consumables in games, so I mind those less. Also: if you exit the game when in mine, the game teleports you home, a bad exploit.

To be fair I had a mine entrance in the backdoor, so my explored terrain looks like that :

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Terraria is very lenient on granting players an "out" from most situations. That the game always returns the player to the spawnpoint when reloading a world can be considered an exploit, but from what I hear most players don't seem to care.

The mirror is often found early, and can even be upgraded later to be a part of an all-purpose multitool (and for seasoned Terrarians, that upgrade counts as a material in the upcoming Labor of Love-update, meaning it can upgraded again).

The problem with gems is that they're not that common and are far more useful in other crafts. Still, gem-based hooks are an early way into grappling hooks, but keep in mind that gem-hooks have variable stats based on the material used.

The mining helmet seems like a godsend early on, until you realize it only provides one point of defense. Before you know it you'll realize that you need all the defense you can get, so a sturdier helmet will be needed. There are tons of light sources available anyway, so muck around until you find something that suits you. (And before you ask - there is no hotkey that allows you to easily switch loadouts, but it's a feature that will be introduced in the upcoming patch - which has an ETA of 'late September'.)

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

Terraria is very lenient on granting players an "out" from most situations. That the game always returns the player to the spawnpoint when reloading a world can be considered an exploit, but from what I hear most players don't seem to care.

The mirror is often found early, and can even be upgraded later to be a part of an all-purpose multitool (and for seasoned Terrarians, that upgrade counts as a material in the upcoming Labor of Love-update, meaning it can upgraded again).

The problem with gems is that they're not that common and are far more useful in other crafts. Still, gem-based hooks are an early way into grappling hooks, but keep in mind that gem-hooks have variable stats based on the material used.

The mining helmet seems like a godsend early on, until you realize it only provides one point of defense. Before you know it you'll realize that you need all the defense you can get, so a sturdier helmet will be needed. There are tons of light sources available anyway, so muck around until you find something that suits you. (And before you ask - there is no hotkey that allows you to easily switch loadouts, but it's a feature that will be introduced in the upcoming patch - which has an ETA of 'late September'.)

It's pretty easy to make shine potions too anyway. What was it again? 1 gold ore, 1 moonglow and water?

 

[Unkillable Cat]

IIRC Shine Potions require glowing mushrooms, which means it's easier to get them from chests rather than craft them so early in the game.

I wouldn't waste precious gold in crafting a consumable anyway, but that's just me.

 

[garren]

You do get the basic movement tools and pretty decent weapons too quite early on, but that's probably the point, as the game does go on for quite a while, especially if you're new. I'd personally like it too if the very earliest gameplay would last longer, I think it's a bit too easy to just get something way superior early on with a few lucky drops/finds with like 10 minutes in.

 

[Palikka]

the upcoming patch - which has an ETA of 'late September'

The PC version is already done but they pushed it back for 3 months since they want to release the console update at the same time. Annoying.

Is that a change? I remember it took quite a while to get it when I played. However, there have been many patches and changes.

Do keep playing, the game goes on for a long time.

Hook was made from topaz, topaz can be found on relatively shallow depth. Helmet with lighting is sold by the merchant that settles in your base after building the second room. Return home artifact was found on the middle depth, when the skeletons and jumping crabs roams. There is also an abundance of return home potions, but I rarely use consumables in games, so I mind those less. Also: if you exit the game when in mine, the game teleports you home, a bad exploit.

Would be cool to have a terraria-like game where there wasn't any quick travel items so the player would have to build a way out of the mine. At the end game there could be full elevator systems not just for the player but the deep minerals as well.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Would be cool to have a terraria-like game where there wasn't any quick travel items so the player would have to build a way out of the mine.

There is nothing that says that you must use the quick travel items...

 

[Jedi Master Radek]

The problem with gems is that they're not that common and are far more useful in other crafts. Still, gem-based hooks are an early way into grappling hooks, but keep in mind that gem-hooks have variable stats based on the material used.

Yeah, gems are rarer than ores, which are easy to find, even platinum isn't difficult to obtain. However I still haven't found much practical use for gems. I didn't know that different gem hooks had different reach, it's not written in item description. A lot of Terraria mechanics is not documented in the game, I had to look online to find out you have to make house walls from unprocessed wood, not from platforms. To be fair the last game of that type I played was Graveyard Keeper which had subresources for subresources

I also got an umbrella that lets you fall slowly and I love it, this should be the first movement tool the player gets.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Terraria's lack of internal documentation, and its obsession with using a Wiki-page and just pointing everyone to it, is easily my biggest peeve with the game and the devs.

I think Terraria has the 'subresources for subresources'-thing going on as well, or at the very least can have some multi-tiered crafting schemes going on. The progression for boots, 'stuff' in a Jar, the various information devices and the 'ultimate' protective item can all get pretty wild, just to name a few examples.

But that's a long way ahead in the game. Right now the best (in-game) method is to show items to The Guide, and he'll show all possible crafting recipes involving that item. (Some of those crafting recipes may involve items you won't see anytime soon.) A much faster and more informative way is to just look it up on the Wiki, but that will spoiler things for you as you learn things ahead of time or out of sequence.

Speaking of spoiling things, I'm gonna give you one tip to make things easier: You can find hearts underground which expand your total HP. (There's a similar item for Mana, and it's really easy to get if you can survive being outdoors at night.) That's great and all, BUT once you reach 200 health via this way, an event will trigger which you may not be prepared for, and it will return now and again until you complete it successfully. You will need to complete this event to progress the game, but I advise staying at 180 health until you feel you can hold your own in a fight. (The maximum health you can attain by using this item is 400, so once you're ready to step across the 200-threshold, use as many hearts as you've found, but don't go over 400 as the hearts are useful in other crafting recipes.)

 

[Unkillable Cat]

It seems that the update will drop on September 29th.

There's also a crossover event with the game Core Keeper, so there's that.

 

[Jedi Master Radek]

Terraria's lack of internal documentation, and its obsession with using a Wiki-page and just pointing everyone to it, is easily my biggest peeve with the game and the devs.

100% agree. I managed to spoil myself on wiki ;/ I don't understand how people can't comprehend that system based games can be spoiled as much as story based ones.

But that's a long way ahead in the game. Right now the best (in-game) method is to show items to The Guide, and he'll show all possible crafting recipes involving that item

Didn't know that. Thanks, that helped quite a lot. Now I know I can put dragonfly in a jar

Speaking of spoiling things, I'm gonna give you one tip to make things easier: You can find hearts underground which expand your total HP. (There's a similar item for Mana, and it's really easy to get if you can survive being outdoors at night.) That's great and all, BUT once you reach 200 health via this way, an event will trigger which you may not be prepared for, and it will return now and again until you complete it successfully. You will need to complete this event to progress the game, but I advise staying at 180 health until you feel you can hold your own in a fight. (The maximum health you can attain by using this item is 400, so once you're ready to step across the 200-threshold, use as many hearts as you've found, but don't go over 400 as the hearts are useful in other crafting recipes.)

You speak of a goblin invasion? Done already. I died so much the first time it triggered that my mansion turned into graveyard biome. But I got a godly harpoon gun out of that so the second invasion went more or less smoothly. I dislike how npc tend to stay in their rooms during such events, rather than actively participate in the fight. As of now I killed the first boss, Eye of Cthulu and got a kickass shield. With it I won't have problems when the slime comes raining again and Slime King emerges.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

You speak of a goblin invasion? Done already. I died so much the first time it triggered that my mansion turned into graveyard biome. But I got a godly harpoon gun out of that so the second invasion went more or less smoothly. I dislike how npc tend to stay in their rooms during such events, rather than actively participate in the fight. As of now I killed the first boss, Eye of Cthulu and got a kickass shield. With it I won't have problems when the slime comes raining again and Slime King emerges.

I meant the Eye of Cthulhu. I must have misjudged how far along you were in the game.

As for the NPCs... while they can defend themselves, they'd prefer staying out of it, except for the Dryad. When threatened she casts a buff-spell that boosts your defense and healing rate. Makes her handy to have around.

 

[Jedi Master Radek]

Not really, I killed Eye of Cthulhu in the last hour of my playtime

 

[Palikka]

It's out: https://forums.terraria.org/index.php?threads/terraria-labor-of-love-is-out-now.114357/

 

[Unkillable Cat]

The "Don't Dig Up" seed sounds wicked fun - Wizardry 4-vibes on that one.

EDIT: Gave it a quick look. First impressions:

Not for the newbies

You start on an 'island' in Hell where only Lava Slimes (and some funky wildlife) spawns, and with only the Tax Collector for company. Travel too far to the edges of the world, and regular Hell resumes with regular Hell spawns. Pots on this island only drop Rope, because you'll need lots of it. Getting stone is tricky at the start, and ore even more so.

The biome immediately above Hell is Mushrooms, followed by Surface (not Underground) then surface with Lava (even in the Ice Biome!) and then finally the Corruption/Crimson at the top. As far as I could tell it's night 24/7.

I don't know what to make of this one. It's certainly a challenge and a twist - but whether it's enjoyable is not for me to say - the start is far too rough.

 

[CHEMS]

Unfortunately, Terraria is in full-blown "GM's girlfriend is running the campaign" mode at this point, but the Calamity Mod is brutally challenging and good fun.

Calamity's awesome.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Digging further into the update, I notice that some high-end gear can now be upgraded once more. The aforementioned Cellphone can now be upgraded to the Shellphone. The difference being that the Shellphone has a 'phonebook' where you can pick where to be teleported to. The world's default spawn point, the player's spawn point, the ocean, or Hell.

Checking the recipe I realized that the missing ingredient I needed is found in Hell, and that's when I realized that they messed about with the fishing aspects there, possibly in an earlier update. Before you only needed a Hell-proof fishing rod to catch the various Hell-fish. Now you also need Hell-proof bait, meaning players have to do the preposterous thing of catching snails and flies in a net in Hell! The welcome addition of a Hell-proof fishing hook allows players to use all kinds of bait in Hell, and that can be added to the Angler's Bag to upgrade that further.

(I'll let Blaine decide whether that all sounds like sensible adjustments to make to the game, if he can be persuaded to leave his fishing spot for a couple of minutes.)

Also, it appears that some of the bone-headed decisions of the Journey's End-update have been reverted. The social slots can be used again to house any item, not just a select few. The bosses got a balance pass, with the biggest change hitting the Golem. He got some major HP boosts, but more importantly is what they did to the Temple he resides in. Remember going in there and seeing all those traps, and how easy it was to disarm them? Well, you can't do that anymore, seeing (and disabling) the traps is not possible until Golem has been defeated. Now the Temple actually presents a challenge.

If you were like me and sold off your Dungeon Keys once you'd scoured through the Dungeon and unlocked all the chests, I have some bad news for you. There's a new chest in the game, and it needs those keys. Since it counts as a spawnable monster there's literally an infinite amount of them, making Dungeon Keys yet another ingredient that needs to be farmed. Shadow Keys also get more usage, but you still only need one of those.

There's also an OCD-friendly change to the altars. At one point in the game they had to be smashed, and it would enrichen the world with higher-tier ore... but it would also randomly introduce corruption into the world somewhere, where it usually could spread unchecked and mess everything up. Guess what? They removed the corruption-part of that. Now the more autistic players no longer need to run around with the Clentaminator to plug any 'leaks' in their beloved world. (Like I did once.)

A new addition I may have missed are the 'liquid' bombs. They're like regular bombs except they leave liquids around. Water bombs get everything wet, honey bombs get everything sticky and lava bombs get you dragged before international criminal courts. There's also a dry bomb that takes out all liquids, which can be REAL handy. Speaking of liquid management, say hello to honey and lava-variants of the Eternal Sponge and Bottomless Buckets. (Why terraforming in this game takes on the guise of housekeeping chores is just one of those little mysteries.)

While people could complain about changes made in Journey's End, this update seems to have fixed most of them, which is good. (Master Mode is still a letdown, though.)

 

[Blaine]

Unkillable Cat Calamity Mod still uses v1.3.5.3 of Terraria via tModLoader, and the mod adds so much more and does it all so much better that every official update post-2017 occupies nonentity status in my books. Also, the great majority of post-Journey's End official QoL features that are worth having have been kludged, scripted, or programmed into megamods or standalone mods (automatic door opening, for example). In some cases, mods have gone different routes and added different QoL features that JE doesn't have.

Mind you, it's been a good long while since I've played Terraria/Calamity at this point, and I may never play again. I was never upset about Journey's End, though, because it just doesn't matter all that much. It was basically a wet, squeaky fart that made everyone uncomfortable for a few moments until they moved back to their vastly superior mod of choice.

 

[Hirato]

Checking the recipe I realized that the missing ingredient I needed is found in Hell, and that's when I realized that they messed about with the fishing aspects there, possibly in an earlier update. Before you only needed a Hell-proof fishing rod to catch the various Hell-fish. Now you also need Hell-proof bait, meaning players have to do the preposterous thing of catching snails and flies in a net in Hell! The welcome addition of a Hell-proof fishing hook allows players to use all kinds of bait in Hell, and that can be added to the Angler's Bag to upgrade that further.

It's an either-or; To catch fish in lava you need either a lava-proof rod, or lava-proof bait.
Having both a lava-proof rod and bait just makes the process faster, but it's not a requirement to be able to fish in lava.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

It's an either-or; To catch fish in lava you need either a lava-proof rod, or lava-proof bait.
Having both a lava-proof rod and bait just makes the process faster, but it's not a requirement to be able to fish in lava.

Before writing my previous post, I checked this (using Master Bait) and it didn't work. I even factored in the extended time it takes for bait to catch on, and dug up the Angler's Suit set to boost my Fishing Power. Nothing happened on multiple attempts.

Now I go and try it again... and it works.

Either I hit some massive statistical anomaly, or I missed something despite me triple-checking everything.

Anyway, thanks for clearing that up.