Tasks before Hardmode

Hmm. Thought I'd be clever and get more summons. Bought the Valhalla Knight's armour and crafted the Dragon summoning staff. Sadly, it turns out, the armour allows more sentries, not more summons. Gah! Means I could still add a few ballistas for example, but in those fights, I found it hard just to place down one of those. Plus, they keep expiring. The plan was to use the UFO and a slightly longer than default dragon. Oh well. At least the armour is nice. Defense is roughly the same, but crit chance is much higher, and it has health regen too, which isn't a bad idea for those wicked wild fights.

To do that, I had to do Old One's Army again, and I gotta say I still prefer the Terra Blade for those events. The reach is so great. The Solar Sword (yeah, let's call it that :D) is awesome for getting at enemies through blocks, but it's kinda random where it strikes so can be hard to hit where you want and it simply doesn't have the same reach as the Terra Blade. Perhaps the Solar Sword would be better for the Moon invasions, and perhaps the Pillar fights too. Those fights are usually more chaotic. Made the Solar Daybreak too (the projectile weapon), but not really used it yet. It might be better for single targets, like the Moon Lord himself? Don't think it went through blocks though.

Made a new arena, and just now realised I may have screwed myself a little if intending to use the Daybreak. It's a 400 blocks wide asphalt 'road', with a few stretches of solid blocks above some parts too. No platforms. Added 3 sets of heart lanterns and bonfires, and the last two Garden Gnomes I had. From what I read, if I manage to get back there after beating the last pillar and before the Moon Lord spawns, he should spawn there. Hopefully that makes it more manageable, as I didn't have an arena last time. It was smack in the middle of the Crimson desert.

Sorry for the poor view due to the darkness, I only fired up the game to take a screenshot. This is roughly the centre of it.
New and bigger arena.jpg
 
Yep, moon lord will spawn wherever you are when the countdown is done. He is also one of the only bosses that never despawns, so magic mirror is a viable option.
 
Sorry for not responding much earlier, the internet connection was awful XD
Anyway, good job getting to Moon Lord.

Generally, I think, this is that part of the game that is somehow kinda... problematic.
Though it might be just my opinion, but I don't really like the whole Lunar Apocalypse thing, because Moon Lord is just unfair, and if you get defeated, you have to go through the whole thing again, and the Lunar Apocalyse is just no fun, with all its ridicolously overpowered enemies. And then there's Moon Lord again...

Prior to 1.4, his deathray didn't passed through solid blocks, which allowed to cheese him with hiding under a roof. But that's not possible now, and when you can't hide, you can't do much just dodge - because no armor will actually save you from that. Even on normal mode, you can't take more than like 3 hits from that at most, even with campfires and heart lanterns around, sitting in a bucket full of honey XD
You could craft the Moon Lord summon item from fragments, but it's nonsensically expensive...

Anyway, I don't like the endgame, but it's part of the game too. Just don't worry too much about it, I'm sure if you try, you will eventually win! At first, he caught you off-guard, but now, you should know a bit better what to expect, so, you have much better chances against him.

Generally, I would recommend, to have lots of potions and stuff ready - either somewhere like a chest there, or just keep them in inventory, and, after the 4th pillar down, just return quickly to your arena, and then use those buffs when he's about to appear.
A good strategy can be to try to kill his 3 eyes about the same time, so you won't be under fire from 1-2 true eyes while you try to kill the 3rd one. because the true eyes are immortal, so, you can't kill them, but they will harass you nonstop. On a side note, if you can kill his head eye, the Moon Lord can't do his phantasmal deathray attack. He still throws a bunch of strong stuff at you (and the true eyes have their own mini-deathray too, but that's less bad as the big one) but his strongest attack is definitelly the phantasmal deathray.

It's also possible, though not necessarily easy either, to cheese him with using the nurse to heal you occassionally. It's not optimal, and she'll move around a lot too, so it's difficult to click her to begin with XD but it's another possible way for dealing with the Moon Lord. it's an unfair fight either way, and even too chaotic with all the stuff around to really see what's even going on XD
But it is doable. I'm sure you will eventually win!
 
To do that, I had to do Old One's Army again, and I gotta say I still prefer the Terra Blade for those events. The reach is so great. The Solar Sword (yeah, let's call it that :D) is awesome for getting at enemies through blocks, but it's kinda random where it strikes so can be hard to hit where you want and it simply doesn't have the same reach as the Terra Blade. Perhaps the Solar Sword would be better for the Moon invasions, and perhaps the Pillar fights too. Those fights are usually more chaotic. Made the Solar Daybreak too (the projectile weapon), but not really used it yet. It might be better for single targets, like the Moon Lord himself? Don't think it went through blocks though.
The Terra Blade is better for the Old One's Army because when it comes to events (especially OOA) linear pierce is very effective. However linear pierce requires a flat surface to be effective, though most events consistent of grounded enemies. During the Lunar Events however, you'll most likely not have terraformed the area around the Pillar. Many of the enemies in the Lunar Events try to move toward you, allowing you to hit them with the Solar Eruption pretty easily.

The Daybreak is pretty good against the Moon Lord, since it has good DPS and good range, allowing you to hit the Moon Lord without much trouble. It also sticks into enemies that it hits, dealing damage over time, and if you stick multiple projectiles into the target it'll take more damage over time. The spear also explodes after a short time or if it hits a block. As a result it is great for bosses.
 
Thanks. I will probably have to redo parts of the arena if I am to use Daybreak against Moon Lord.

Right now I essentially have three things left in the game. Moon Lord, Empress of Light, and Frost Moon. If I assume Daybreak is the weapon of choice against the Moon Lord, what would be best against the others?

Also, would you prefer the Valhalla Knight's armour set, or the Beetle armour set?
 
Wooot! :)

Very chaotic fight and I wasn't sure where I went -- certainly didn't stay much in the arena. Tried to get away to heal when I got badly damaged a few times, but he chased after me, so that didn't really do much. Managed to take him down this time, though, and that's the main thing. I used the UFO mount, and it went well for the most part.
Moon Lord goes down!.jpg


Champion of Terraria.jpg
Got 71 Luminite out of it, and a Portal Gun and Celebration MK2 gun.

Used the UFO during the Pillars fights too, apart from the Solar one. Rough there because enemies kept launching at me. Eventually I pulled back a little towards a mountain of sorts, and then they mostly came at me from one direction, which was easier to handle. But most importantly, those blasted fire worms stayed in the sky and didn't wipe me out.

While I was watching the credits roll, a Solar Eclipse started. Later I tried out the Frost Moon event again, with the Solar Eruption sword.
Frost Moon done, but not by much.jpg
Did manage to get through it, but not by much. Maybe half an hour on the in-game clock. I found it hard to hit the Ice Queen as she kept moving away. Switched to the Daybreak at times to try to get some hits on her, which sometimes worked. Other times I simply had to tank through whatever she threw at me to get rid of her.

Haven't a clue how people can get to the 20th wave here, because it's really hard. Enemies hit surprisingly hard at times, and I see the healthbar going *poof*. Actually died once. But glad I got through it. Now it's only the Empress of Light left. Well, the Frost Legion too, but sadly no luck with the 43(!) presents I managed to pick up by using a Bloody Moon the following day.
 
That must been an epic battle! Congrats!

Moon Lord is a very chaotic battle I think, but, if you do your best, it's certainly doable, though of course it's not easy XD so, again, congrats!

It also seems you had luck with goodie bags. Black yarn - Black cat pet - is super rare!

Also, yeah, UFO mount is very very useful. One of the few mounts I tend to use a lot too. There aren't many mounts that allows you to stay in the air infinitelly, and UFO is one of those. It's extremely handy you don't have to land all the time in the middle of a fight, or invasion or something.

Also great work with Frost moon as well! I'm not sure either, how people get to wave 20 XD it's very tough. Particularly as you said, ice queens. They move around a real lot, and killing them is a big pain, and very time consuming. You can steamroll the event until the point where they appear, but after it, it goes much slower, and it's just hard to get even to wave 15.
They say, warmth potion is very useful there, but I couldn't get to wave 20 even with that XD lol


As for Empress of Light, she's very tough too. I think, one of the key aspects there - or at least it can help a ton - if you can utilise staying in the air infinitely. Such as with the ufo - though it's not as fast as some wings, but you don't have to land.
Also, it can be practical, to use a prismatic lacewing you caught earlier to summon her, instead of just killing one that spawned naturally, so you don't have to wait, and you can start the battle around 7:30 p.m.
Try to dodge her attacks as much as possible. Minions can be a big help too with the battle.
Not quite sure what weapons to use.
As for equipments though, if you plan to use the ufo the whole battle, you can temporarily replace your wings with something else (just don't forget that you switched them out, because then it can turn out bad when landing XD)

Set up a kind of arena, with heart lanterns and stuff - heart statues can be a big help too - but an arena where it's easy to move (fly). I think, you can only summon her in the hallow. I'm actually not quite sure if she enreages outside of it, but I know that I fought her mostly in the air, which wasn't hallow.
Also, side note, if the battle draws long, she does not despawns at 4:30 a.m. but instead, changes into her day form, when all her attacks are one hit KO.
 
It also seems you had luck with goodie bags. Black yarn - Black cat pet - is super rare!
Wow, I didn't know about that. Good thing I didn't sell it, it was a close call! :D Had soooo much stuff and looked through things, I mostly got vanity items and was selling it because I had no more room to store it, and then noticed it looked like a pet, and I love cats, so that paused my hand. It looked really cute too, with the broom and hat. Funny reference really (bad luck/witches).

It's possible I mix this up with a similar-looking hook from one of the events, but it's also possible I got the Bat Hook and sold it, because I had plenty other hooks (and practically never use them any more).

I really do wonder how people get through all those levels though, in the Frost Moon event. It's so quick up to wave 9-ish, but then it slows down a LOT. It was 10PM or so, and I figured "maybe I can get to wave 15, or even 16-17". But ofc, it became a struggle to get to 15, tho I'm glad I got that far and got to test out the presents thing, even if all failed to produce a Snow Globe. Maybe people load up on traps and lave and stuff? Or use post-Moon Lord gear?

No matter, though. My goal was just to get to wave 15 really, to tick off the achievement and try out the Christmas day.

What is there really to do anyway, when the Moon Lord has been defeated? Kinda feels like I'm at the end of the road here. Which is both nice and sad at the same time, if you know what I mean.

How large is the step up to Expert difficulty?
 
Yes, black cat is cute!
I had a playthrough when it was halloween, and got one too, but it took like 200 or more goodie bags XD

I still find hooks useful, even in later game. Although flying really increases your mobility a lot, but hooks still can be useful when building or such.

Also, yeah, I suppose things like frost moon are mostly clearable with very-late-game gear, or even post-moon lord stuff. But wave 15 is doable before too, though quite hard.

What is there really to do anyway, when the Moon Lord has been defeated? Kinda feels like I'm at the end of the road here. Which is both nice and sad at the same time, if you know what I mean.
I know what you mean, yeah. There really not much you can do there... of course, you can build and all, and rematch bosses, and aim for completing stuff like bestiary, etc., but it's often a good idea to start a new playthrough. It's a bit sad, because one epic tale just ended.
But you can always start a new story. And there's always something fascinating in a brand new game too. A new soon-to-be-hero just finds themselves in a forest. It's lush, and green, and mostly paceful, but maybe by the next day, there will be a house there, and in a few, a new greedy adventurer is ready to find their own way to prosperity, and power.
It's really such an awesome tale, and no matter how many times you start, it's always a bit different.

And, you might not finish every playthroughs - I particularly dislike end-game, so sometimes just decide to not bother with moon lord, but even then, stories can be epic. particularly those that are slow-paced, so you can connect a lot with the character. and some challanges can be fun too. like, would you thought, you can prosper even in a world, that's like 80% crimson from the start? That was a really interesting experience too.

And of course, there are many classes! It can be a great idea to try out all of them. And then you can decide on which one(s) your favorite. Melee? Ranger? Mage? Summoner? - and modded offers even more options too.
And there are hybrid classes too. As far as I'm concerned, I guess I usually play mage/melee hybrid. Battle-mage? XD because, many magic weapons offer much power. But you're still a bit calmer when you know you have a sword on your belt too, just in case...

But I have other characters too. One of my strongest characters is a summoner XD And I have some rangers too, I just greatly dislike rangers' ammo management XD But they're often considered the strongest class. I dunno. But all classes are strong. And all can be fun!


As for expert mode, at first, it feels very tough. Things are a lot stronger, but, you can get used to it after a while. Normal enemies are stronger too, so you ought to be a bit more careful, but they're not that bad. Bosses however, are a lot more challanging, and many of them have new attacks.

I know when I first fought expert EoC, I was astonished when it suddenly did those charge attacks, and it wiped the floor with my character. But once you get used to it, it's not that bad. And there are expert-only items, which are all very useful.
There's Shield of Ctulhu, for example, which gives you dash. And it's from EoC! So, you can get dash early on. Although I nearly never use it, because my game is just a tiny bit laggy some areas, not as laggy to be too problematic, but just laggy enough, that double tap nearly never works, so I can't use dash anyway XD But my favorite expert item (since 1.4) is Brain of Confusion (from BoC), which allows you to sometimes dodge attacks! And also has a chance to confuse enemies that touch you. So, think about, you can aquire abilities like from the ninja gear, in mid-pre-hardmode! Things like those are awesome!

But of course, the clallanges are tougher too.
And the higher the difficulty, the more dmg. the enemies' attacks do, so defense, - a stats that that can make quite the difference in classic mode - becomes much less useful in expert mode. not completely useless, but mobility matters more, to dodge attacks, since you can't trust as much in your armor that you could just stand ground and take some hits. A few hits might be okay, but better trying to just dodge stuff. Which means that the true value of armors lies in the set bonuses and other stats, rather than the defense, mostly. Though you can do with things like Adamantite armor too, when you don't have anything better XD - I mention that, because I don't think I ever had the gods bless Titanium upon my worlds XD (but then frost or forbidden armor might be better than adamantite. but still, it's not as bad. But when possible, it's better to look for armors with good set bonuses and stuff. XD

You also could try to put some more focus on other aspects too, like building. Both to play around with build designs, as well as for practical purposes. Having towns up early game can greatly increase your mobility in the world, thanks to pylons.


Also, on a side note, multiplayer could be fun and interesting too!
 
Lots of things to do, try adventure maps, do a play through of each class, try out mods, so much potential in the game. Its all so much fun and I hope you continue to enjoy it.
 
Thank you @Sora_92, excellent run-through.

Did the triple mech boss thing, which with this gear is quite frankly easy. They get torn to shreds, and the twins basically die while trying to transform from phase 1 to phase 2. A few days back I tried it by doing one boss after the other, but in the same night -- which didn't produce the achievement. I'm usually not an achievement chaser, but they are for the most part sensible in this game, so why not.
Triple mech bosses kill.jpg
Small miracle really, but through a couple of blood moons, I "failed" to kill any of the lightning lacewings that popped up. Maybe they spawn a little higher, but still. Solar sword is rather big and wild in the swings. With 14 in storage, she should go down sooner or later. First try and she's down for the count (okay, second since I failed in the real first, when she suddenly spawned out of the blue). Tough fight for sure, with so much light all over the place, and I had a couple of dodgy moments. Had set up with heart lantern, campfire and sharpening station in the hallowed graveyard, but ofc ended up flying all over the place again :D Solar wings are freakin' AWESOME!
Empress of Light down.jpg
Now it feels like I've done pretty much everything. Didn't get a chance to do the Frost Legion yet, and miss almost 140 fishing quests, but no way will I grind out that from here. I do however have a newbie question of sorts, that I've kept wondering about. Why do some of the trees look like in the below image, without a "crown"?
Half-trees.jpg
I'll probably play this save a bit more, but it's coming up on a nice round number 🥵
200 hours.png

Going back to the post above, think I'd like to try out a fresh save with a fresh character -- and probably going for a different class, for example magic. Ranged seems powerful, but I'm not too keen on the ammo micromanagement. I've loved playing as a melee character, getting into the thick of it (at least up to these ranged swords), but maybe magic can be fun too? And it will give me a chance to try out slightly different accessories, and of course weapons and armour.

It's tempting to have a go at Expert mode, but at the same time, it may well be too difficult and get me frustrated. Several of the mech bosses was a very close thing in this game, getting the kill seconds before they would have run off, so with 50% more health or however bad it is, I wouldn't stand a chance to kill them. Defense being less impactful, and magic armour having less defense to begin with, may be a nasty combo too.

I've really liked the game so far, though, and would like to continue, but going into a new world with a "done" character doesn't seem too tempting. Clean sheets is more enticing :)

Kinda wish the end-game had a bit more to it actually, so it would have been possible to enjoy post-Moon Lord gear. Almost seems a shame to not get to truly enjoy these wonderful wings, and not have a reason to grind Moon Lord for more Luminite so I can create even better armour. However, if they were to create even more difficult bosses or events, they'd probably have to include some good loot drops from them too, and the problem would just be postponed another step.

If I decide to start a new game, think I'd like to be more serious about the building at an earlier point. I did put a lot of time into the main base here too, although it wasn't really completed, but overall it was a bit half-hearted. I never built anything under ground, and a bunch of NPCs still stayed in the shoeboxes that were meant to be temporary... I've dreamt about building a giant base with a more proper crafting room, chests room, trophy room, actual rooms, like "unneeded" ones such as bathroom, throne room, garden. But I may not have the creativity for it, given I ran out of steam here.. :D

About mods: I looked up the page on Nexus, but didn't find all that much? I don't use steam, so hope that wouldn't be required to get some nice mods going. I'd probably be mostly interested in more quality of life, and not so much total overhauls. I like the game as it is, without adding 1000 items and 20 classes or something.

Edit: At least didn't end up short on bars :D
Enough bars and ore lol.jpg
 
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Congrats on defeating EoL too!

That's a lot of stuff, but, yeah, I guess, trying a new playthrough sounds like a good idea, I guess, with trying out a new class, some more focus on buildings, etc. And now you generally have a good understanding of the game, so you shouldn't have much problems with stuff.

As for the trees being like that, it's pretty random, really. When you plant acorns - by the way, did you know, that seedlings needs 2 blocks free space on each sides to be able to grow into a tree? except palm trees, they are fine with just 1 block free spaces on both sides - but, then, when trees grow, they will randomly end up looking this way or that. like branch count, and whether they have a top, or not. the variant that has no top is more rare though, and I'm not sure whether they can be shaken (when you hit it with an axe, and something fells from the top - since those has no top. They're just to make forests more varied, I guess. You can chop them too, if you don't like them or something XD

Oh, yeah, also, trying out a corruption map could be interesting too! Since that's the other world evil, you don't really know yet.
If you ask me, I prefer crimson out of the two, but corruption is pretty interesting too, in its own way.

It also works well with mage, though now you can aquire most stuff via special ways anyway. Like band of starpower can be made from panic necklace too.

Indeed, if you plan to play mage, I would like to note on mana.
As mages rely mostly on mana. You surely know by now that you can increase your mana with consuming mana stars made from fallen stars. It's not very important for melee, but mage needs that a lot, obviously XD Additionally, many mage armors add more mana.
In fact, the "base max" mana you can have is 200 - from mana stars - but the technically max mana is 400 - with certain armors and accessories (particularly with arcane modifier) it can be achieved, if you want a mage with a ridicolous amount of mana XD lol (you don't need that much normally though XD)

But of course, when you cast spells, you use up some of that mana, and, while it regenerates when you stop using spells and just stand in one place (or even better if you sit down, I think), if you're moving, it will barely regenerate, and you can't exactly afford to be a sitting duck at boss fights. (if you're a hybid class though, that might be not a huge problem)

But so, as a mage, you ideally want some way to recover mana quickly, so you can keep using spells, particularly crucial at boss fights.
I think, there are generally 3 main ways to do that. (besides the obvious mana stars that enemies may drop)

  • Mana potions. ...they're quite obvious, but they come with a cost. although they recover some mana, they give you the mana sickness debuff, which reduces your magic dmg. at first, I think, it can be like -40% magic dmg. but if decreases very quickly, then wears off.
    If you would plan to rely on them, there's an interesting accessory, the mana flower, that automatically consumes mana potions for you, when you ran out of mana. it's made with nature's gift, a rare flower you very likely came across before in the jungle.
    Mana flower allows you to keep using spells non-stop (as long as you have mana potions in inventory) but doing so will practically glues the mana sickness debuff with -40% magic attack there, until you stop. So, it can be life-saving, but greatly reduces dmg...

  • Another way is the band of starpower, and its derivates. It can be crafted into mana regen armband, which, makes you regen mana a real lot faster. It has a very interesting upgrade, the magic cuffs, that at first seems to be not as good, since it won't make you recover mana as fast as with the armband, but instead, you recover some mana instantly, when you take dmg. and since that can be difficult to completely avoid anyway, it can be very useful as a way to quickly give you some mana. It's particularly great on classic mode, but I like using it even on expert. It also can be further upgraded to celestial cuffs.

  • Mana regen potion. It's not really a viable option for everyday adventuring, but, at boss fights, it's probably the best idea. With a maga regen potion, you can regen mana even when moving, and if you actually stop moving, your mana regenerates incredibly fast. It's extremely overpowered! (also, when it comes to boss fights, magic power potion comes in very handy too which gives +10% magic attack. it does nothing with regen though)
I suppose most players who do mainly mage are biased one way or other? If you ask me, I prefer the magic cuffs over the mana flower (or its derivates), because I really don't like mana sickness XD I suppose that comes from a disastrously failed attempt at fighting moon lord in multiplayer with spectre gear with the hood... That didn't end well... (spectre armor is pretty special, the hood allows you to heal yourself or allies (in multiplayer) - except it won't work at the moon lord battle at all, because the moon bite debuffs makes you unable to use that ability). generally, the hood is great at lots of situations, but comes with a cost which is... -40% magic dmg. and if you get a mana sickness on the side of that... Well, that looks uggly XD lol
But I suppose I'm just biased. Mana flower is awesome too, but I just don't like it XD lol


Oh, and, when it comes to magic weapons early game, it might be not as straightforward as melee or ranger. if you find a wand of sparkling, it's pretty good, but otherwise gem staves are pretty much the early game magic weapons. sadly, amethysts ~ sapphire are pretty bad... But ruby, amber, and diamond are extremely powerful magic weapons for early game. Try to get one of those! If you have no luck with finding ruby or diamond, an expedition or two into the underground desert can get you an amber staff relatively fast (especially if you find an extractinator as well).

Oh, and, you can craft gem robes, from a normal vanity silk robe, and some gemstones. While they give almost no defense, gem robes give you lots of plus mana, so they make sense as early game mage armors. Also get set bonuses with some hats, and it leaves the leg slot open for whatever leg-guard you wanna equip, without ruining said set bonus. And if you're brave enough, jungle armor can be crafted practically pre-bosses, and it has crazy good stats.
 
Thanks. Playing as a mage sounds a bit tricky, perhaps especially in the early game. It was fun to play as melee, but I'm thinking it would be interesting to try something different now, even if it becomes more difficult.

A couple of things I've pondered:
  • What are people's preference between medium and large sized worlds? (This one was medium)
  • Between crimson and corruption?
  • Is it feasible to build nice things in Expert mode, or will enemies spawn on top of you (or NPCs) non-stop and kill you?
On the topic of mana, is it possible to combine items that regenerate both mana and health, since both will probably become an issue? Using two slots for that may not be possible :-/
 
Between crimson and corruption?
Only one thing I can personally throw into the ring, the crimson has more enemy variety in both pre hard mode, and hard mode, crimson has face monsters, Chimeras, and blood crawlers, while corruption has the worms and the flying bois. In hard mode crimson gets the squid and the ghost and the weird crimson slime, corruption gets bigger worm, bigger flying bois, and I believe a corruption exclusive slime
 
As far as world size considered, I usually play small worlds, or used to play those. I try medium worlds now sometimes, and they can be a bit more challanging, because things are naturally farther away, so you have to travel larger distances. It allows for a lot more space for builds, and artifical biomes and the like.
But I don't really go for large worlds, because then I tried (long ago), they often crashed the game. But on faster computers, that's probably not an issue.

On a side note, the evil correlates to the world size too, on small worlds, you have 2 evil biomes (e.g. 2 crimsons) medium tend to have 3~4 (I think), and large can have even more. Of course, evil biomes might spawn on each other too, so on small, you sometimes have only 1 - large - evil biome, with 2 chasms (or sometimes they're created on top of each other. that's interesting too.
It can be convinient to have just one large evil biome, instead of a bunch of crimsons everywhere.


As for "crimson or corruption?"
My general view on them is that, by "atmosphere", corruption is "pretty dead", and crimson is "very alive". so, in corruption, you have things like all those worm-type monsters feeding on whatever things, even the land itself (I'm assuming that the corruption's chasms works somehow like, the land is missing there because was eaten by the Eater of Worlds? Since the corruptions chasms resemble those things where worms move around? How they're called?)
Anyway, on the other hand, crimson is very very alive, so alive that the land itself came alive, and now acts as a large, visceral creature that's dangerous, because it wants to eat up more and more, to feed itself.

So, you have the kinda undead/worm themed gloomy corruption - it has an impressive atmosphere as well - and the visceral gigantic monstrosity where things turn very alive, kinda unnecessarily too alive XD since that's not the normal state of stone, to be kinda made out of fleshy thing, but that's just how crimson is.

Well, I'm kinda intrigued by their atmospheres, and tried to create the personalities of the two fangirls (in my mod) according. I mean, it's half-off-topic, but it might helps explaining what I have in mind about these biomes.
The corruption fangirl is relatively quiet, reserved, and emotionless on the surface (a kuudere-type of girl) and can appear gloomy, or a bit crazy sometimes with dark thoughts. But she also has a side inside that is actually full of feelings like love. Of course, not just towards anything, but she's talking about things like hugging ebonwood trees, "because they deserve the love", and such things. (I suppose, that personality partly comes from, if you look at the corruption, you can see flowers growing there too. they appear wilting, but nevertheless, they're native to that land. there are many colors there too, besides the obvious purple)
The crimson fangirl on the other hand, is a hyperactive genki girl, who talks a real lot, and generally would likely spend time with outdoor activities like jogging. and when not, she'll talk your head off, how cool the crimson is, and how awesome the monsters and stuff that live there. She's really full of life, and she has tons of energy. XD
I think, both of them are cute XD lol None of them are evil, they're just fangirling over their favorite biomes.

But putting aside the atmosphere of the biomes though, on more technical levels, the crimson has somewhat stronger monsters at the start, which can makes it difficult to travel through there at first, but the land itself is usually normal, and posses no real problems besides the monsters. Corruption's chasms works very different, and they can be a huge problem traveling through there at first (without a grappling hook), even if eater of souls aren't as tough as the crimson's monsters - because, when you travel the pre-hardmode crimson, you see 3 type of monsters, but in the corruption, it's almost exclusively eater of souls you see. They're similar to crimeras. Devourers, (a worm-type enemy) are much rarer. Or the other hand, you rarely see crimeras in big swarms, which eater of souls tend to do. It's not rare to have like 5~6 or more being on the screen.
The structure of the land also makes ebonwood a bit more rare, and you nearly never see them forming forests like how shadewood tends to do. There are some here and there, but actual forests of ebonwood trees is a rare sight. Point being, traveling through the corruption is difficult in a different way.

As for treasures and loot, corruption offers some different stuff than crimson, for example vilethorn, a mage weapon, that drops from shadow orbs (corruption equivalent of crimson hearts) sometimes. which is a quite powerful mage weapon for early game, one of the few weapons that can attack enemies even through solid blocks!
the undertaker's equivalent, the musket also has bigger firepower, although slower.
For hardmode special material, there's cursed fire, instead of ichor. cursed fire works like a bit stronger "on-fire" doing additional dps to things it hits. you can use it similarly to ichor, in flasks, tomes, arrows, bullets, etc., as well as making torches that can be used even underwater (ichor works like that too).
Cursed flames are powerful, but you might want to set up a artifical crimson in your corruption world too, because now that you know how powerful ichor is, you might want to have that too at your disposal.


As for expert mode, it doesn't really hinders building attempts, in fact, you can build whatever you want on practically any modes. Well, need to be noted that what you seen in normal mode, that monsters never spawn in towns except for events like blood moons and the like, is not true with expert mode, however, towns do still work rather similar, like, they drastically decrease monster spawnrates. So, like, in a normal mode town, you don't see a single zombie the night. In an expert, you might see 3~4 a whole night. Extremely insignificant.
Feel free to build anything that you want to build!
Of course, building designs can matter strategically, but there's little reason to focus only on what's strategically good. You can combine the two things as well. I know I like to use glass doors as windows for example, which both looks good (I think) and allows you to leave the house via it, if the front door isn't very safe to open, because of monsters.
 
Thanks. I've started a new character in a new world. It's medium size and crimson again (corruption sounded a little boring, and I didn't like the idea of chasms all over), but on Expert mode. Very different feeling now when everything can kill me (and they often do) and movement is severely limited. Hopefully this can turn into a good game too, and maybe I'll be able to build something half-decent along the way. Confused by the tiers of metals because almost all of them turned out different, but I'll get them sorted soon enough.

I'll probably ask for advice on stuff once I get further in, or complain that it's too hard :D

Actually, since you've played mage before, maybe several times, when do you typically start to specialise in a class, or rather, use the intended class' weapon? Not until Hardmode, or do you go with whatever magic weapon you can find or craft pretty much right away?
 
Sounds good! Good luck with the new playthrough too!

Actually, since you've played mage before, maybe several times, when do you typically start to specialise in a class, or rather, use the intended class' weapon? Not until Hardmode, or do you go with whatever magic weapon you can find or craft pretty much right away?
I'm not very strict about things like "only mage weapons", because then it could turn very tough, looking for a wand of sparkling. You might find one early, but sometimes you just don't find any...
But then again, I like to use melee weapons too, so, I usually go like.
Start. Craft a wooden sword. (wooden armor is irrelevant. maybe craft a bow too for early game.) build up, a house with like 2 rooms for the start, then add more rooms, and more houses later. Then, just generally scout the area. If you're lucky enough to have a cave nearby, it can be great. If not, then just start to mine downwards somewhere XD You can try to look for treasures, basically any gold chests can be a good find, though some items aren't very useful, but, things like cloud in a bottle or magic mirror can be a huge help - but you already know that anyway.

For mage, I think, the top priority to look for are gemstones. As well as cobweb. Try to gather all cobwebs you find, and make silk, and once you have enough for a robe, craft one. the basic silk robe is just vanity, but it can be crafted into gem robes, that give you lots of mana. even the lowest tier (amethyst) is great, so, whichever gemstone you find enough of to craft into the robe, craft it. You can replace it with a higher tier later, but for start, any can be good. That most likely means amethyst or topaze, as they're the most common at the higher depths (so, closer to the surface).
You can try to make amerthyst/topaze rod, but they're really garbage sadly. emerald and sapphire are only a bit better, but still not really good. So, the top priority of gems are rubies and diamonds - both which are pretty rare... additionally, it somewhat depends on what ores your world has. the ruby staff needs gold bars, and the diamond staff needs platinum bars in addition to the gemstones, so, if your world has gold, look for rubies, and if your would has platinum, look for diamonds.

Of course, bars can be aquired from crates too, but still.
You can have a bit better luck in other biomes. The ice caverns tend to have more gems, so if you're looking for them, you might find some there, but a desert expedition might pays off more nicely.
Although the underground desert is a dangerous place, but if you can survive there, it's a great place to quickly gather some very good starter gear for a mage.
While it's not rich in most gemstones, its "native" gemstone, amber can be found there in great quantities. There's also fossil in huge veins, you can mine, and extractinate if you got an extractinator - it can be found in the desert often too, though you're not always lucky enough that there's one nearby... But even if you have no luck finding an extractinator, the desert worms may drop 1~2 sturdy fossils. you can get them from extractinating fossil too, but, so, if you have no luck with an extractinator, you might get just enough fossils from the worms while looking for other treasures there.

The amber staff has similar stats to the ruby staff. So, theoretically, diamond is a tiny bit stronger, but amber should be powerful enough if you can't get diamonds. All 3 (ruby, amber, diamond) has autoswing, and pierces up to 2 enemies (well, like, goes through one, and disappears upon hitting the 2nd)
They all have very low mana cost to use, so they're really ideal for early-game mages. They're strong, and the autoswing makes them very convinient to use. With a good modifier, they can easily carry you up to Skeletron!

They also sync well with gem robes, because gem robes give you tons of mana, so you can keep using the staves for very long before you run out of mana.
If you decide on an early-game desert exploration, you can get both the amber robe and the amber staff quite early, and they should do for pre-bosses, basically. you need good mobility and lots of HP and stuff against EoC, but the amber staff should work well there. - and you might find another interesting mage weapon in a desert chest too.

Since you're in a crimson world, there's no vilethorn, but you might get a crimson staff, which can give a little bit of additional fire - or water XD - power. Though, the main thing to look for from crimson hearts is the panic necklace, to craft a band of starpower from.

For later pre-hardmode progression, there are basically 2 mage armors for pre-hardmode, besides the gem robes - jungle armor, which you can make pre-bosses, if you can get the materials. It's dangerous, but doable. It's an armor more focused on giving lots of additional mana.
The other main option is meteor armor, from meteor bars, which you can aquire after BoC there. Meteor doesn't gives you as much additional mana, but I think boost your attack a bit more than jungle armor. Additionally, meteor armor works well with the space gun, a magic gun, because it has no mana cost to use, while wering that armor.

Both are pretty good, and should work fine until early hardmode, where early-harmode tier metals become available (forbidden armor might be an interesting possibility too, at that point, besides the normal early-hardmode ore armors)
The gem staves and a few other weapons can carry you until skeletron, though expert skeletron is very very tough at first - the bee gun might coes hand there - but the dungeon offers a few nice late pre-hardmode mage weapons, and there are some in shadow chests too (or obsidian lock-boxes)

Ah, and, if you don't do pure mage, and wanna carry around other weapons too, when it comes to melee, you might want something that naturally has autoswing. mandible blade for example is pretty decent - and you might get one from a desert exploration anyway. it's a rather small sword, but it has autoswing and relatively fast too, so it's quite handy for early game, for a battle mage. A warrior might looks for bigger swords, but if you have no feral claws, most early game swords has no aotoswing. You can equip a feral claws too though, but you might wanna use that slot for something else. Naturally, stuff like katana works great too, if you're lucky enough to have the traveling merchant have one for sale.
Ah, but for very early game, a sickle does just as well. You can buy it from the merchant, it's not even expensive, and while it might be considered a tool to gather hay, it has autoswing, making it a very useful "sword" for the start of the game. Additionally you gather a bunch of hay, which can be useful for buildings, for example if you like hay roofs XD I know I love using it for roofs.

If the desert is indeed the first target to travel to, setting up a desert town and a forest town and aquiring their respective pylons can make traveling back-and-forth a lot quicker and convinient. A jungle town could come in very handy too (you also wanna get stuff like lots of moonglows relatively early, not to mention the stuff for the jungle armor), but in general, having several towns, like cavern, etc. can just help a lot with traveling.

Also, you would expect that mages are glass-cannons, but they aren't. well, in expert, defense matters much less, and they're certainly much less tanky than warriors, but they have decent defense too, once having jungle/meteor armor. You might wanna keep your gem robes too tough, if you like them as vanity or something. They can look awesome dyed too. Lately I realised how fascinating amber robe looks like, dyed with black-and-white dye. It looks like a frilly gothloli robe, might gives a good looks for a mage or something, maybe with a mage hat, or some pretty hair adornments.
But you can go for armors too, or anything. Vanity can make the character look more unique and helps giving them a "character", or how to say. You usually just wear whatever you find on first playthrough, but later, you might wanna go for more specific looks, something stylish related to the class, or whatever other things related to the character - like a Gi for a "ninja", or metal armor for a "knight", or whatever - or even just something entirelly different. Because, I think, it kind of works like, the first playthrough is kind of "your" adventure, and the character's looks usually isn't high priority. You might wanna aim for them to look cool, but you usually just pick up whatever you find. but from the 2nd playthrough onwards, it works a bit like "I created this character. I named him X. this is the story of X." and so, said "X" needs (well, a name too, of course XD lol, but, also, a sort of looks too, right? a garment, a hairstyle, whatever stuff, to look like that main character you want for their story. It's not a must, but I think you can connect a lot more with the characters that way. And its fun if they have their own, unique looks. IMO.

Edit: nearly forgot.
If you plan an early desert expedition, stock up on granades! They're not magic weapons of course, but they're very powerful and extremely useful there. So, get the demolitionists as soon as possible, and buy at least one stack of granades. be careful using them, but when it comes to the underground desert, it often happens your path is blocked by a horde of antlions below. taking them out without any long-range weapons is very tough if you have no, or just minimal defense, but as long as you're in safety, you can dispatch them with a few hand granades quickly.
Granades also works wonderful against the goblin army, since area dmg. offers awesome crowd-control.
And they can be crafted into variants such as sticky granade, which sticks to the surface of where you threw it, and and does area dmg. (but doesn't destroys blocks like bombs) - you can use them for example to clear out the combies knocking on your door. as long as they can't come inside (if there's a firniture right next to the door on the inside, zombies or such won't be able to open it even at blood moons. but so, they can't come in, but you can't get out either when there are 23 zombies at your door, but like 3 sticky granades right on the door, and you don't need to worry about those zombies anymore. the area dmg gets them on the other side of the door.
 
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Hmm, this is difficult. Not using magic weapons yet either, because I've only found one, and it had a lousy modifier. Bought a robe from the traveling merchant, but not been able to use it yet. Up to Tungsten armour, but feels like I'm naked. Am using a (godly) tungsten broadsword and a (superior) enchanted boomerang (or somesuch name). They do about 15 damage. Mostly use the boomerang, but the sword is nice when I get crowded by slimes. King Slime has destroyed me twice. And I mean destroyed, haha. Even the slimes were laughing and rolling around :D

Have managed to get to the eastern ocean (Angler), past the snow and dungeon. West...? Not yet been able to locate the jungle, nor get through a thick band of crimson. Those guys are not kidding around 😨 Won't be surprised if the damn crimson is right next to the jungle, eating into it already, as little as it can pre-hardmode. Oh well.

I like to take things slow, but this is perhaps a bit much now. But this time it is because it's simply difficult to progress much. Everything is so dangerous, even bats and slimes. I'll keep trying, and see if I can get some nice items at some point, which may enable me to progress a bit.

Actually have 4 life crystals in storage, because I didn't want to possibly trigger Eye of Cthulhu. 180 HP isn't much ofc, but I'd get ruined by EoC anyway.

Unfortunately I've not been able to do any proper building either. I remember this was the case in the first playthrough as well, with the game throwing NPCs at me. I build 2-3 more houses, and BAM, they are full. So wooden square houses it is. However, I've just erected a little abode by the desert oasis and bought the pylon there. If I can do that one more place, it will at least be possible to fast travel a little bit.

So yeah, this step up to Expert is certainly a pretty big one. Enemies with double HP, double damage, and higher defense + knockback protection, and it all adds up to a much more difficult game. Master mode must be incredibly brutal... Don't get me wrong, I'm enjoying it, and there is something to be said about this stage of the game compared to when practically everything dies to one weapon hit.

Anyway, hopefully I can find a decent magic weapon soon, so I can start using that instead of the ranged boomerang. Do have 2 diamonds, but that won't cut it :p
 
For a magic weapon, as risky as it is, try getting the crimson rod by smashing the crimson hearts. This will also let a meteor fall for good magic sets. For bombs, just get the demolitionist.
 
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