NPCs & Enemies Revamping Console Enemies and Content ft. Slime Staff

Alyxia

Queen Bee
Console Enemy and Content Revamp ft. Slime Staff Upgrades
You might remember the recently removed Console enemies like the Orca and Arch Wyvern, but they weren't too useful and seemed to not be as good of an addition as they could be. This proposal hopes to give a better use to them and make the armor less of endgame-focused sets.

Outlier Enemies - No Real "Group"
Albino Antlion

The Albino Antlion always felt like a weird enemy, not really having any variation besides color relative to the Antlion. I feel that a new item could fix this, the White Antlion Mandible. This would be used in a recipe much similar to the Sandgun to create a Snowgun (which would fire Snow Blocks and Slush Blocks rather than Snowballs or Sand). This could be considered a sort-of upgrade to the Snowball Cannon which has recoverable ammo.

Crafting: 1x Illegal Gun Parts + 5x Sapphire + 10x White Antlion Mandible.

The Snowgun would have slightly better stats than the Sandgun, and could allow players short on Topaz to use Sapphire to get what basically is the same weapon.

Orca/Great White or Mako
The Orca I also found to be weird, and I also found it annoying that it wouldn't drop Shark Fins (due to not being a Shark), so I propose that it is replaced with something like a Great White or Mako, which would replace normal Sharks frequently in Hardmode and drop something like a Shark costume. This would make the Ocean more difficult during Hardmode, add another vanity set for players, and still keep the shark fin drop.

Vampire Miner
I feel like the Vampire Miner was another one of the weird enemies that just didn't really have a purpose, so I thought it could become the Hardmode variant of or a more common version (around 75% replacement rate) of the Undead Miner. For this, it might need a stat boost, but it could potentially stay how it is for most everything else.

It would either drop Bombs (it would drop more of these than the Undead Miner) with somewhere around 4/5 of the time, and 1/5 of the time it would drop a stick of Dynamite (this could make Dynamite a more viable explosive).

A change I also wanted badly to see was it getting affected by the Stake Launcher like the other Vampire in the Solar Eclipse. The Vial of Blood could also gain a sell value, have a decreased droprate of around 2%, and also be dropped by Solar Eclipse Vampires. This could make it more satisfying to obtain. These changes should make the Vampire Miner stick out less, and fit in with the Vampire idea.

Dragon, Spectral, and Shadow enemies - General Changes
After some wiki searching, I noticed there were multiple "Dragon" enemies, and that there was also Dragon armor! I propose that these Dragon enemies could be more blue-tinted and drop blue Dragon Scales, which would be used in the crafting of Dragon armor. These would drop often and in decent amounts (2-4 if the droprate "activates") and have a relatively lower sell value.

The Dragon Scale change could make the Jungle more farmable for many players, as normally not too many players desire Jungle Biome Keys or the other drops later in the game (mainly being there to farm Chlorophyte).

There are apparently also 3 Spectral enemies, which I propose could drop Spectral Shards, used in the crafting of Spectral armor. These would be similar to Light Shards, and be dropped somewhat rarely.

Finally, there is also a group of Shadow enemies. I decided that these could drop Shadow Shards, which would be used in Titan armor. However, Shadow Scales are from the Corruption, so I thought Vicious enemies (Vicious Axe, Vicious Slime, and Vicious Mummy) could be added and drop Vicious Shards. Titan armor could gain a purple-reddish hue to make the crafting ingredients feel less awkward (unlike the other ingredients which fit perfectly).

With these changes, the re-introduction of Dragon, Titan, and Spectral armor feels more smooth. However, I feel that they should be more of a midgame set, and receive nerfs since they're basically copies of Chlorophyte armor.
- To fit its name, Titan armor could be a Ranged tank armor, increasing enemy aggro.
- Spectral armor could be an aggro Mage set, with speed boosts.
- Dragon armor could have a special fire resistance property of some sort, or a fire infliction bonus (like a hardmode upgrade to Molten armor).
- Summoner set - stay tuned, I have something on that later.

Item Idea - Slime Staff Upgrades!
I decided to add these small suggestions in to add usefulness to the Slime Staff (and add another summoning and add more uses for the new items dropped by the enemies.

Shadow Staff
This staff would summon a purple slime that would behave almost like the Corrupt Slime, except it would fire out slimelings, up to 3 on screen at a time, which would latch onto enemies similarly to the Stardust Cell Staff. The main slime would then also individually attack enemies like the original Slime Staff

Crafting: Slime Staff + 7x Shadow Shard @ Hardmode Anvil

Vicious Staff
This staff would summon a reddish slime that would behave like a cross between the original Slime Staff and the Spazmamini from the Optic Staff, jumping around and dashing between enemies, becoming spherical and possibly blurred during dashes.

Crafting: Slime Staff + 7x Vicious Shard @ Hardmode Anvil

Individual Changes to Shadow, Dragon, Spectral Variants
Dragon Hornet

The Dragon Hornet was a good idea, but it was a little too powerful pre-Hardmode and a little underpowered post-Hardmode. I suggest that the Dragon Hornet could be something like a post-Skeletron variant that spawned randomly in place of Hornets. In Hardmode, it would gain a stat buff (through a different variant of it spawning) and spawn alongside Moss Hornets as a reliable source of sometimes multiple Stingers.

I would also move the Beeswax drop into crafting (or even remove it), and I would remove the damage property of it. It's a cool pet to have at first, but becomes annoying later since it has no sell value. If it were moved to crafting, it could have a justification for a sell value and be more satisfying to obtain.

Dragon Snatcher
I would make this replace around 75% of Snatchers post-Hardmode and give it a stat buff to almost match Man Eaters. It would also gain a special spit attack to make it more Dragon-themed, and make it an actually decent enemy in combat against Hardmode players.

I would remove the Cabbage drop and have it drop rarely from breaking grass or some other Block, almost like the Magical Pumpkin Seed, as it feels weird to have to go to the Jungle and kill one specific type of enemy to get it.

Dragon Skull
I would completely remake this enemy to become a post-Plantera enemy. It would receive a buff (so that it would serve as a somewhat weaker version of the Giant Cursed Skull) and gain a spit attack (like my proposal with the Dragon Snatcher). This attack could inflict On Fire!, and the Dragon Skull could join the set of Hell Armored Bones and the Diabolist.

Shadow Mummy, Spectral Mummy, Spectral Elemental
These enemies are pretty balanced, the only change I would make sure to include is to make them slower with higher health (tankier), have a rarer spawn chance, and drop shards with a slightly higher chance. Any special droprates for extra souls that the devs added should be removed, since the souls are supposed to only drop within specific biomes.

For the Spectral Elemental, the Rod of Discord could have a slightly increased droprate, and the Shadow Mummy would gain a Crimson variant, the Vicious Mummy.

Spectral Gastropod
I would slightly rework this enemy to be rarer, and possibly be an additional source of small amounts of Pink Gel (0-1 per kill) in Hardmode, and to possibly have a different AI than Gastropods. One idea I had in mind for this was for it to freeze and have a moment of invulnerability every so often, almost like the Granite Golem, but still be able to fire lasers during this period. Other than that, it was pretty well balanced, and the lower spawnrate is a main concern (so that it doesn't intrude too much on gameplay).

Shadow Hammer
I would completely rework this enemy to be some sort of miniboss, and have a crimson variant (the Vicious Hammer). Unlike the Dark Hammer/Crimson Axe, this would fly around the area it spawned in, and become aggressive upon being attacked (kind of like Biome Mimics). It would be much stronger than its normal variant, and its charge would not be stoppable by attacking, unless a high knockback weapon such as the Slap Hand was used. I feel that these changes could justify the fact that it drops Hardmode Bars.

To keep this enemy up to date, it would also need to drop Palladium, Orichalcum, and Adamantite Bars, and to give another reason to fight it, it could drop its very own item, the Shadow Hammer (or Vicious Hammer for the variant). This would be essentially a weaker version of the Paladin's Hammer.

Shadow Slime
The Shadow Slime is also pretty well balanced, and would just need its own Vicious variant (more on that specific Vicious variant in a second) for the Crimson, and the Petri Dish drop could be moved, as the blue slime pet seemed really out of place dropping from a corrupt slime.

Additionally, in order to make it a little more powerful than the Corrupt Slime, it could (kind of like the new summoning staff I proposed) periodically spawn small Slimelings before it's killed. The Slimelings spawned from its death could also shoot out, rather than only spawning on the death location, to make it more difficult to kill (relative to the normal Corrupt Slime, keep in mind that this isn't too much of a big deal in the grand scheme of things). In order to make this change less annoying, their spawnrate would obviously see a decrease.

Vicious Slime
The Vicious Slime would be the Crimson variant of the Shadow Slime. I noticed that the Crimslime was somewhat weak for a Hardmode enemy, so I thought that the Vicious Slime could, rather than gaining a splitting mechanic, "dash" (jump significantly farther forward, gain a small blur effect) at the player every few jumps, dealing more damage on contact during the dash.

In accordance with the item proposal earlier, the Shadow/Vicious Slime could also drop their respective staves rarely (since not many players will be lucky enough to have a Slime Staff drop).

A Final Idea - Wyvern Armor
You may have noticed that I skipped the Arch Wyvern earlier, and that was because I really couldn't think of anything to do with it (besides removing that dreaded Shadow Key drop)— that is, until I realized that summoners didn't have a set based on the console exclusive drops. If the Arch Wyvern were to drop Wyvern Scales (would be orange recolors of the Shadow Scale [with a possibility for resprite]), those could be used in Wyvern Armor, and maybe even to make another Wyvern summon weapon (would be a weaker Stardust Dragon Staff), I'll call it the Wyvern Staff for lack of a better name. If I ever come up with some good specific boosts for Wyvern Armor or cool mechanics for the Wyvern Staff, I'll update this post with stats on those.

Anyways, I hope you guys liked this suggestion, it's very unlikely that everything will be added, but hopefully one of these ideas can make it into the game in some form later on :)
 
I always forget these guys had vanity drops. I should find a way to integrate those into my suggestion somehow.

Now, uh, I'm gonna be honest here: I don't like this take on a Console Content revival.
A lot of these guys still feel like they're there just 'cuz they look cool. You went the same route I did with the Dragon Snatcher and Skull's new abilities (though simpler), but most of the other changes amount to number increases and new items that make stronger equipment despite the enemy still not being all that tough or interesting to defeat. Granted, I do like the idea of the Wyvern Armor.
 
The reason these enemies were removed was mostly because they were just recolors with excessive health/damage if I remember correctly. If they're brought back they probably shouldn't be normal mode.
That could definitely be a good idea, some of their stats are pretty excessive. In fact, I might go ahead and add that into the post somehow as a note at the end or integrate it in
 
I always forget these guys had vanity drops. I should find a way to integrate those into my suggestion somehow.

Now, uh, I'm gonna be honest here: I don't like this take on a Console Content revival.
A lot of these guys still feel like they're there just 'cuz they look cool. You went the same route I did with the Dragon Snatcher and Skull's new abilities (though simpler), but most of the other changes amount to number increases and new items that make stronger equipment despite the enemy still not being all that tough or interesting to defeat. Granted, I do like the idea of the Wyvern Armor.
Great feedback, I do agree that the enemies seem a little weak for the armor they'd drop, I'll try and modify the post a bit to account for that
 
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Yes, but I was thinking of revamping them, rather than just adding them back in
Consolaria DID make changes to them; I just don't know who thought they were good:
•The Spectral Gastropod got a :red:ty spectral spit thingy that flies a whopping 4 blocks.
•The Spectral Elemental teleports on top of you every couple of seconds, which I'm pretty sure is unavoidable.
•The Shadow Slime throws a ton of goop into the air that spreads the Corruption?????
EscenceWhatthehellareyouonabout.png
(Seriously, whose ideas WERE these?)
And then the rest (including Ocram) just kinda got neglected, I guess, save for newer sprites and a few unique items.
So, enemy-wise, you're on slightly higher ground.
 
weird enemies that just didn't really have a purpose

Replace "enemies" with "content" and you have a really concise definition of all the Console/Mobile exclusives.

With these changes, the re-introduction of Dragon, Titan, and Spectral armor feels more smooth. However, I feel that they should be more of a midgame set, and receive nerfs since they're basically copies of Chlorophyte armor.

This would leave pre-Mech with a total of 13 different armor sets, which is just excessive especially since these would be much grindier than any of them.
The best place to put these armors without would be in Post Plantera which just has 5... and then we get to another problem when you realize post Plantera is a tier that lasts for a total of 30 minutes until you beat Golem and move on.

It's really hard to fit new non-Summoner armors without making a whole new tier to the game or expanding the heck out of Post-Plantera (which would also require some massive buff/rework to Golem so you don't skip it all just as easily, so yeah)

Consolaria DID make changes to them; I just don't know who thought they were good:
•The Spectral Gastropod got a :red:ty spectral spit thingy that flies a whopping 4 blocks.
•The Spectral Elemental teleports on top of you every couple of seconds, which I'm pretty sure is unavoidable.
•The Shadow Slime throws a ton of goop into the air that spreads the Corruption????? View attachment 231295(Seriously, whose ideas WERE these?)
And then the rest (including Ocram) just kinda got neglected, I guess, save for newer sprites and a few unique items.
So, enemy-wise, you're on slightly higher ground.

I wanted to try out Consolaria at one point but right now i'm not so sure. How do you take a bunch of badly designed enemies and make them even worse?
 
I wanted to try out Consolaria at one point but right now i'm not so sure. How do you take a bunch of badly designed enemies and make them even worse?
I mean, Lepus and Turkor seem pretty neat (they're both PreHardmode, I think), and there's a bunch of new items along with revamped(?) old ones, and the armor got changed and has a Summoner variant.
The enemies just... I dunno, man, I guess even the Consolaria devs didn't like 'em too much. (I haven't actually gone and legitimately tested out all the items, though, so maybe it isn't just the items. I've also yet to encounter a Dragon Snatcher.)
 
Replace "enemies" with "content" and you have a really concise definition of all the Console/Mobile exclusives.



This would leave pre-Mech with a total of 13 different armor sets, which is just excessive especially since these would be much grindier than any of them.
The best place to put these armors without would be in Post Plantera which just has 5... and then we get to another problem when you realize post Plantera is a tier that lasts for a total of 30 minutes until you beat Golem and move on.

It's really hard to fit new non-Summoner armors without making a whole new tier to the game or expanding the heck out of Post-Plantera (which would also require some massive buff/rework to Golem so you don't skip it all just as easily, so yeah)



I wanted to try out Consolaria at one point but right now i'm not so sure. How do you take a bunch of badly designed enemies and make them even worse?
All good points, I might end up moving Wyvern Armor to a separate post, as people seemed to like that suggestion a lot more than the other ones.
 
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