What is your take on Expert mode?

Random Fellow

Skeletron
Throughout my entire life I have never understood difficulty settings in games. But Terraria is a game I feel conflicted on if they fit or not. I always felt like the player should set up their own goals a,d challenges while playing a game, thus making their own custom difficulty. Terraria has alot of this, from the different types of ores, classes, or ways to fight bosses. Its endless how many challenges you can think of in this game, it's truly fantastic. But my question is: if these actually fit in Terraria?

As previously mentioned Terraria has loads of content and different ways to approach things. So it clearly isnt there to artificially increase playtime.
But stuff like events seem better adjusted in Normal. It's not enjoyable getting murdered by slimes in a slime rain for your first twenty minutes. But I will hand it to the developers, I am fine by stuff like this. I mean, what would be games without a good ol' ":red: you"
So what is your take on expert? Is it just a nice challenge, or definitive way to play the game for you?
 
Personally, I think a lot of power creep in terms of weapons and armor (and features like fishing) has made Terraria somewhat too easy over the years. So I understand the appeal behind something like Expert Mode.

I think Expert Mode makes some fantastic changes to the bosses, but the changes to everything else feel somewhat like artificial difficulty. It feels like a bandaid solution to the power creep problem I've mentioned without actually addressing the core problem of it.
 
Personally, I think a lot of power creep in terms of weapons and armor (and features like fishing) has made Terraria somewhat too easy over the years. So I understand the appeal behind something like Expert Mode.

I think Expert Mode makes some fantastic changes to the bosses, but the changes to everything else feel somewhat like artificial difficulty. It feels like a bandaid solution to the power creep problem I've mentioned without actually addressing the core problem of it.
Yeah, bosses like Skeletron and King Slime I would rather have overall updates rather than just ones for a certain difficulty to make it less artificial. Like Make King Slime like four times it size and change into indifferent types of slimes like spiked slimes. Or give every boss a new desperation attack when it gets lower. Skeletron is maybe the one boss I have grown to dislike in the game because of how boring he gets.
 
I think its way better than normal mode because normal mode has almost no challenge, with Expert you are constantly on your toes and can't just run into danger without thinking or you will die in a few seconds, plus the boss AI changes are brilliant and add a lot of fun to their fights. Early Hardmode is the most fun part because you have to basically play perfectly to avoid death in some cases, and I love that
 
I think its way better than normal mode because normal mode has almost no challenge, with Expert you are constantly on your toes and can't just run into danger without thinking or you will die in a few seconds, plus the boss AI changes are brilliant and add a lot of fun to their fights. Early Hardmode is the most fun part because you have to basically play perfectly to avoid death in some cases, and I love that
Early hard mode is fun, I just wished they kept how events happened in PreHM in normal mode.
Also normal still has alot of challenge.
 
IMO, the most challenging normal mode parts are early hardmode, right after Plantera, and the Moon Lord, the rest of the game is still fun it is just easy for me
 
I've been playing for about 700 hours, and I don't consider myself a 'good' player but just experience has made it easier for me to know what works (like the Gem Robes for mages). Master Mode is really hard for me (I couldn't beat the Moon Lord), and I find it stressful. Normal mode is just too easy now.

But Expert Mode is a great middle. Slimes and zombies are still a challenge. Bosses take some thought, and Old One's Army takes more than just laying down ballistas/lightning auras.

The Expert Mode accessories are the best addition, IMO.

Could it be done better? Yeah, but this game is already one of the best games of all time. Technically everything in the world 'could' be better. This one is great.
 
I've been playing for about 700 hours, and I don't consider myself a 'good' player but just experience has made it easier for me to know what works (like the Gem Robes for mages). Master Mode is really hard for me (I couldn't beat the Moon Lord), and I find it stressful. Normal mode is just too easy now.

But Expert Mode is a great middle. Slimes and zombies are still a challenge. Bosses take some thought, and Old One's Army takes more than just laying down ballistas/lightning auras.

The Expert Mode accessories are the best addition, IMO.

Could it be done better? Yeah, but this game is already one of the best games of all time. Technically everything in the world 'could' be better. This one is great.
I consider it my favorite game ever after analyzing parts of the game in normal mode, just started expert four days ago.
 
I've been playing for about 700 hours, and I don't consider myself a 'good' player but just experience has made it easier for me to know what works (like the Gem Robes for mages). Master Mode is really hard for me (I couldn't beat the Moon Lord), and I find it stressful. Normal mode is just too easy now.

But Expert Mode is a great middle. Slimes and zombies are still a challenge. Bosses take some thought, and Old One's Army takes more than just laying down ballistas/lightning auras.

The Expert Mode accessories are the best addition, IMO.

Could it be done better? Yeah, but this game is already one of the best games of all time. Technically everything in the world 'could' be better. This one is great.
I have nothing wrong with Master mode being a bit unfair. They wanted it to be the true harder verson of the game.
 
Normal mode is a piece of cake, while Master mode is a pain in the neck. Doesn't mean I like expert mode, anything that's easier is what I like.
 
Honestly I feel expert mode is just so much more alive with improvements in enemy AI cool additions in the expert mode items and extra accessory slot via the demon heart once you go expert mode normal mode becomes boring and uninteresting I literally find playing on normal worlds to be painful there is no need to think just kill and everything melts like tissue paper before the player. Plus drop rates are increased making farming for items mush more manageable with only a few enemies having drops that are sufficiently rare to require grinding.

After starting a master world in 1.3 I have not made a normal mode world since, and I will probably never do so ever again. Personally I am perplexed why they made the default Journey mode so pitifully easy normal mode was already pretty beginner friendly so there wasn't a need to make things even easier (not to mention there are two good statues which can't spawn in normal worlds)

Master is what is best described as expert with fake difficulty i.e. using pure stat inflation to make the game artificially harder. Any strategy or tactics which worked on Expert will work on Master so it isn't really that much harder just far more punishing of any mistakes you make.


Expert is thus in my opinion the most balanced and enjoyable difficulty. It provides some challenge but it isn't unfair to the player the one mildly annoying thing is lava slimes dropping lava other than that it is perfect or nearly so. I see expert as the mode for any experienced Terrarian providing the best overall balance of challenge and reward. Normal mode is there for starting players serving as a tutorial mode of sorts while Expert mode is the real meat of the game. Master is an unbalenced mess not worth the time and effort aside from getting some of the exclusive pets and or mounts or if you really want the extra accessory slot.
 
Normal is easy, expert is perfect, and master is just annoying expert. I honestly expected more with master, like give spazmatizm the EoC expert dash. The boss drops are also disappointing in master, they are just an improved trophy.
 
Normal is easy, expert is perfect, and master is just annoying expert. I honestly expected more with master, like give spazmatizm the EoC expert dash. The boss drops are also disappointing in master, they are just an improved trophy.
Master mode isn't supposed to be the new way to play the game. And I think one of the developers at one point said that t was just supposed to be harder and not a complete revamp. So, in short, Master Mode is for those who really want it. But isn't the real way to play the game. and Normal is good for a first playthrough. Expert is perfect
 
Master mode isn't supposed to be the new way to play the game. And I think one of the developers at one point said that t was just supposed to be harder and not a complete revamp. So, in short, Master Mode is for those who really want it. But isn't the real way to play the game. and Normal is good for a first playthrough. Expert is perfect
I'm a console user, so normal mode is difficult enough with the inferior controls. I can understand why PC players prefer Expert, though. I should try beating the game in Expert anyways, I think it'd be worth it.
 
Throughout my entire life I have never understood difficulty settings in games. But Terraria is a game I feel conflicted on if they fit or not. I always felt like the player should set up their own goals a,d challenges while playing a game, thus making their own custom difficulty. Terraria has alot of this, from the different types of ores, classes, or ways to fight bosses. Its endless how many challenges you can think of in this game, it's truly fantastic. But my question is: if these actually fit in Terraria?

As previously mentioned Terraria has loads of content and different ways to approach things. So it clearly isnt there to artificially increase playtime.
But stuff like events seem better adjusted in Normal. It's not enjoyable getting murdered by slimes in a slime rain for your first twenty minutes. But I will hand it to the developers, I am fine by stuff like this. I mean, what would be games without a good ol' ":red: you"
So what is your take on expert? Is it just a nice challenge, or definitive way to play the game for you?
Expert mode is very excellent, but the recently added Master mode lacks additional content that honestly, I find is pretty garbage as it is primarily stat boosts and has more effort in a seed called " for the worthy " No offense, but if AI changes in one seed, but a gamemode like expert changes the AI, why does master mode even exist again... No real items worth talking about outside of the Flying Dutchman....
 
Expert mode is very excellent, but the recently added Master mode lacks additional content that honestly, I find is pretty garbage as it is primarily stat boosts and has more effort in a seed called " for the worthy " No offense, but if AI changes in one seed, but a gamemode like expert changes the AI, why does master mode even exist again... No real items worth talking about outside of the Flying Dutchman....
I mean, the relics are nice for decoration, but that and the black spot is pretty much it
 
Expert Mode, to me, is the natural progression of a game like Terraria. At a certain point, you just naturally become good at or better at building, combat & the overall game-play loop. Once a certain amount of hours are completed, it's not unusual for a player, such as myself, to seek out a more challenging task. Challenge Runs are great, but just making the overall game-play loop more challenging is a better idea IMHO. I can just play the game, not give it too much thought & just enjoy the newer obstacles. 🤔🍹

To me, that's one of the main draws of Master Mode. It really makes you think about the game differently. What if the Wall-of-Flesh wasn't the only Boss that was a DPS race? What if a Boss required that you make not a single mistake the entire fight? These are the kinds of things I want from my games, especially if they have very high replay value. Right now, I'm having fun trying to figure out how to beat Bosses I've killed with no issue for years. I can see how this would injure someone else's pride, but, that's how I personally enjoy my games; I like to be challenged.
 
Expert Mode, to me, is the natural progression of a game like Terraria. At a certain point, you just naturally become good at or better at building, combat & the overall game-play loop. Once a certain amount of hours are completed, it's not unusual for a player, such as myself, to seek out a more challenging task. Challenge Runs are great, but just making the overall game-play loop more challenging is a better idea IMHO. I can just play the game, not give it too much thought & just enjoy the newer obstacles. 🤔🍹

To me, that's one of the main draws of Master Mode. It really makes you think about the game differently. What if the Wall-of-Flesh wasn't the only Boss that was a DPS race? What if a Boss required that you make not a single mistake the entire fight? These are the kinds of things I want from my games, especially if they have very high replay value. Right now, I'm having fun trying to figure out how to beat Bosses I've killed with no issue for years. I can see how this would injure someone else's pride, but, that's how I personally enjoy my games; I like to be challenged.
For me, the master mode feels like a just a stat increased expert mode. No real major AI changes, while I just went to 1.3.5 Tmod launcher Due to how boring I found Master Mode, so I just went and played Eternity Mode as my first Terraria mod. It satisifies me with something genuinely challenging. Extra crafts surprised me.... Though it actually challanges me in the sense, biome management is crucial, good loot that is worth the time, the AI makes it clear, " YOUR FAULT " if you die. The Slime King boss fight got my heart race pumping while Master Mode Kill Slime being all buffed. No offense, isn't worth fighting. The boss fights feel like actual challanges while Master Mode it is find X gear to solve Y boss check box. Including this is also playing on Summoner. I feel Re-Logic should really fix their classes. Summoner has a case of " Extreme RNG " and lack of really any craftables. While Melee is mostly composed of craftables... The item craft : RNG drops really need to be fixed and actually give END GAME GEAR for all classes. Melee has the Zenith, Summoner doesn't get anything powerful, Ranger don't get anything, and mage gets jack that is OP like Zenith. I just find 1.4 a mixed update. I like how they give whips to Summoner, but I find there was a lack of polish in weapon crafting to drop distributions. The blood moon fishing event has nothing for other classes. So I find the new update kind of mediocre. Master Mode i enjoy for the slightly increased drops. Though I just find Terraria really needs to improve the Crafting vs. RNG Drops of weapons and add more weapons for Summoner and Mage. Back on Master Mode. It is half baked. To be very honest... I don't find it very good due to no real AI changes, no pain in the butt debuffs, no items exclusive to the mode that AREN'T BROKEN, The Relics are annoying and more like a slap in the face and will resort to selling them. Fargo's Soul Mod would be a prime example of how to do difficulty correctly in a mod. Give a challenge, but be fair. Every boss fight is actually fun. Found them a good slap in the face that I suits how I enjoy a mod. Terraria's Official Master Mode difficulty isn't worth the time sink while expert mode is. I like how they buffed Eater of Worlds in mastermode. Though it isn't worth it.
 
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