A bias Calamity Mod Review.

[Toxophilite [East]]

So, I finally reached a point in Terraria's lifespan, where I'm interested in testing out some popular Mods. There's a few reasons I wanna do this & that's why I wanted to get all of my biases out of the way first, before I start publishing my findings. Firstly, I wanna make it clear that I haven't dived as deep into 1.4.1 as I'd of liked just yet, as there's still a long list of things I'm interested in testing & experimenting with, but for the most part, I feel like I got a full & healthy 1.4.1 experience that I'm satisfied with.

That's where things might get a bit tricky for my review, because as a person who's never played any Terraria Mods before, one of the common selling points I've been hearing over the years, is that some Mods are a clear representation of what Terraria should be & then later when 1.4.0 was released, the sentiments didn't change. The main criticisms I kept hearing repeatedly, were how such-&-such Mod did this or that thing better, & why didn't they just do this-or-that thing!?

This is one of the reasons I'm going in with a slight bias, because either way, I'm expecting these Mods I'll be playing, to be superior experiences to 1.4.0 & 1.4.1. That's not the only criteria I expect to be met either, & because the things I'm looking for these Mods to do are very specific, & very intentional, it was only fair to express them now & openly, so it doesn't appear that I'm developing issues with execution as things progress, or that I'm moving the goalpost.

The leap from 1.3.5 to 1.4.0/ 1.4.1 did the following things for me:

1. Make the flow of gameplay feel much more approachable & consistent.
   • Tooltips on items, character dialogue about progression, general tips on loading screens etc.
   • The Bestiary, basically creates an in-game encyclopedia that enhances immersion & player agency.
   • U.I. & other control based customization, that allows the player freedom to approach the game in a much easier way.
   • Visual cues & more environmental storytelling, this was completely absent in some area of the game in 1.3.5.
   • The World is now just as much a character as the new NPCs, enemies, Bosses & Player Character.
   • Aside from a few egregious additions, the overall experience is very balanced now & there is really no right way to play anymore.
2. "The devil is in the details" & this is a pretty consistent theme in 1.4.1.
   • This principle goes from placing potted plants, to putting a hat on a hat. There's little charming things you will miss in 1.4.
   • Every loose end, nook & cranny, was looked at in the newer updates, from flower patches to cosmetic trees.
   • An Underground Cavern village looks/ feels nothing like a village on the surface, & neither do the updated Biomes.
   • The newer upgrading paths for newer or previously useless items has been dramatically balanced & improved!
3. The gameplay loop is much more complete & satisfying in 1.4.1.
   • It doesn't matter if you're fishing, "farming", spelunking or throwing gold at NPCs, all are valid ways of progression.

My expectation are pretty high because there was a clear intention made with 1.4.1 that I'm expecting the Mods to compete with. It's very clear with Journey's End that the ultimate goal of the developers was to make Terraria feel like a much more complete experience. There's very little fluff that was added for the sake of adding more "stuff". The 1.4.1 updates are very intentional & very deliberate; for me to hear as often as I do, that some Mods are what 1.4.0 & 1.4.1 should have been, I'm interested to see what I take away from them.

One more bias I'd like to get out of the way, before starting my review, is that I don't like most Mods for video games; especially for games that are already good at what they do, but there are some exceptions to the this; I'm familiar with Mods having to do with mostly RPG games, such as The Elder Scroll: Skyrim & the Fallout Series. Some Mods like more skins for characters in Fighting Games, like Street Fighter Series, or Super Smash Bro Ultimate, I also enjoy, because a lot of times they are additions that only make sense & make you question why it is that the developers didn't add it to the original game in the first place.

That's my main bias, if a Mod adds to a game, something that should've already existed, I'm usually already a fan. My main dislike for many Mods is the "too much sugar in the Kool-Aid" effect. When I start asking questions like "why is this here?" or "what's the point of this?", it's a representation of adding "too much sugar" & that's a personal bias of creating powercreep & item/ gameplay disparity for no-good-reason.

The first Mod I'll be trying is the most popular & commonly recommended, Calamity! From what I've seen (tMod Loader), this Mod is divided into many parts, such as "music/ no-music", & other options like more vanity items, changes to weapons & effects? I have no idea what any of this means & am looking for the most optimal experience. Before I start my review, are there any recommendations?

 

[qwerty3.14]

The first Mod I'll be trying is the most popular & commonly recommended, Calamity! From what I've seen (tMod Loader), this Mod is divided into many parts, such as "music/ no-music", & other options like more vanity items, changes to weapons & effects? I have no idea what any of this means & am looking for the most optimal experience. Before I start my review, are there any recommendations?

I think the 'no music' thing is because of data limits. Sound files are huge and a mod can only be so big to be allowed on the mod browser, so they had to split it into 2 mods.

 

[Toxophilite [East]]

Ok, so before I give my first impressions, I just wanna say that I really hope things start to improve soon, because there are a number of things I already don't like about this Mod & I haven't even reached the Ocean Biome yet. I'll try my best to be openminded & to not be extremely nitpicky, but keep in mind, my expectations for this Mod were set rather high, due to community hype & constant recommendation.

Just to place certain complaints I have into perspective, I want to compare some of the common complaints I'd often see about Terraria 1.4 & draw a indirect comparison toward this highly recommended Mod. I guess I'll list my initial complains about Calamity so far & reference common 1.4 complaints as they come to mind, seeing as how they aren't as relevant as my initial opinion of the Mod so far.

Initial Calamity Mod complaints:

1. Item description "text bloating" (a common complaint for Card Games).
2. Enemies are way too easy to cheese, even in Calamity Mode settings.
3. The spike in power of the player happens way too fast (still in the initial Overworld Forest).
4. The starter Minion is waaay too powerful, even better than the Slime Staff!
5. Some enemies seem out-of-place & way too gimmicky.

With all due respect to the creators & everyone who worked on this Mod, before I give any further critique, I understand that creating something that's in your mind & bringing it to fruition, is something to be praised, & I commend you for your work, but I must be honest in my critique, & I trust nothing I have to say is taken in bad faith or as a slight. That said, this here made me roll my eyes...

I can only assume this is a result of limitations on what a Mod can do (??), but this is unacceptable to me. Presentation, even when it comes to Mods is very important & as a person who plays Skyrim & Fallout Mods, the idea, in most cases, is to either integrate with, assimilate with, or out-right outdo the original creators, when it comes to adding newer features (i.e. Sky UI, Unique Uniques, Skyrim Redone etc).

Next, let's talk about the starting equipment... it's waaay too powerful. As I've been saying in this forum & the Steam forums for a good while now, balancing a game isn't just about playing the numbers game, it doesn't quite work like that. The reason that Minions are locked behind certain points of player progression, is because of an often overlooked, abusable gameplay mechanic called "synergy".

Don't get me wrong, I saw very quickly what you all tried to do by trying to make the Squirrel minion "dumb", but I happen to be not only a Summoner Class connoisseur, but also a master of leashing & controlling my Minions. Because your starter bag contains a Star Crystal, the A.I. of the Squirrel Minion is easily bypassed by removing the buff directly & just re-summoning, for free. "Tah-dah!" your Minion is h*lla OP!

Don't even get me started on those starter Throwing Bricks... my goodness!

Now, don't get me wrong, this here shield-thingy is very cool in concept, but poor in execution. This is where the "devil in the details" comes in, the part of game design that also gets overlooked. Terraria is a building game, just as much as it is an adventure game. Having an item, especially this early in progression, block player vision is sloppy & unacceptable. I almost fell to my death, because I wasn't sure if I'd build a platform under myself or not; at the same time, as you can see in the image above, I was being attacked.

I inevitably had to use a Recall Potion (yet another starter item), because I didn't see a faster, offensive alternative to surviving this scenario.

The part that worries me is that I'm already annoyed & I haven't even made it beachside yet. I'll continue to play, just to see if there is a point in the Mod where the difficulty to power-spike ratio starts to make more sense, or perhaps the level of immersion or gameplay mechanics increase dramatically? Whatever the case may be, I'm expecting some of these early-game oversights to carry-over into late-game as well. I'll try to keep an open mind... [more to come]

 

[Toxophilite [East]]

Okay, so I can finally report on a few things I actually do like about this Mod, but the things that I don't like are unfortunately, more in number. Let's start off with some good news though!

• I really liked the Brave Goldfish Warrior enemy! I didn't see that one coming!
• I like the concept of mixing up the different enemy A.I. once the player reaches more hostile Biomes (this is bad though).
• I'd originally though that the starting items made cactus irrelevant, but that's not the case, those ball projectiles are super fun!

Unfortunately, that's about where I stopped having fun. One of the things that surprised me the most so far about this Mod, is how the words "artificial difficulty" floated around so much. This applies to both the critiques I'd hear often about Master Mode in 1.4 & also the ForTheWorthy World Seed. There's quite a dilemma I've come across that I hope I'm wrong about, but even if I am, it creates yet another problem that Journey's End fixes in 1.4.1.

1. The difficulty spike for the hazardous areas beyond the Overworld Forest are waaay too steep, but... but, but, but, the Player's Character is also way too powerful fundamentally, this creates a series of early-game problems from what I can tell.
   • This means that Player Degeneracy is heavily promoted in Calamity Mod, or...
   • ...there's a "right way" to play, to which, if this is the case, I'm already not a fan.
2. I've already run into a World Hazard that appears to be fatal (water in the Tundra Biome), on-top of already-overwhelming-odds, so this leads back to my first concern, yet again.

This creates quite the disparity for a player like myself, who's natural instinct is to out-smart the game... at all costs. Is this the correct way to play, or am I missing something? Keep in mind, I already have access to several Weapon-types, afforded to me in a started bag & I've also taken the liberty to craft some of my own items, my selection of materials & options are quite good, but I'm still left in a quandary. If this is the "correct way to play" (as shown above), this neutralizes a rather large number of options I actually enjoy using, such as the Spikey Cactus Balls.

The only other solution I've thought of, is digging-straight-down, in hopes of finding some ore, to see what these pieces of scrap metal might do? "But I don't wanna dig, I wanna fight!" This is an issue that Journey's End already solved for me, you can fish, "farm", fight, finesse or finance your way to victory, I don't see any of those options so far. I'm only engaging the game in the manner the Mod is presenting to me, nothing more, nothing less.

What I'm learning rather quickly is that I'm powerful enough to "cheese" the enemies, but not quite powerful enough to engage them. There's nothing that discourages this kind of behavior either, because my Squirrel Minions is just... so strong. If it's possible for me to gain access to a Summoning Potion, to where I can Summon more Squirrels, well... it just becomes the more desirable option.

In the fighting game community, this is what's described as a "polarizing option", where a character is so good at one thing, but extremely bad at others, that it's almost a handicap to try playing any-other-way. This is considered undesirable & will typically place that character in a negative light as either being "cheap" or "spammy", sometimes described as "not fun to fight against". I'll keep digging to see what happens next.
-----------------

Update: 02/01/2021

I made it as far as the Crimson Biome, once I started getting into a rhythm with summoning my Minion & choosing the proper times to attack with the Spikey Cactus Balls, which is swiftly! However, I'm starting to see a pattern. It's safe to assume that this Mod adopts the "solar system" philosophy, whereas, the farther from home you go, the more harsh the journey. This is just an assumption though, based on what I feel the Mod is trying to communicate to me.

Before I continue, here's a few differences between vanilla Terraria & Calamity Mod that I'm seemingly being taught. In the vanilla game, harsh Biomes are usually treated as obstacles (similar to the chilled debuff in the Tundra on Expert Mode); meaning, once you get through it, there's typically a drop in the difficulty spike to give the player a moment of respite. That doesn't seem to be the case in Calamity Mod, it appears, at least to me, that the farther out you go, you are essentially going to run into more & more harsh terrain.

It may be a bit difficult to make out, but here I'm fighting my first set of Face Monsters & boy does it take nearly everything I have to take them down. if I didn't know any better, I'd think the Zombie Merman from the Blood Moon Event in 1.4 were inspired by these Calamity Face Monsters. I enjoyed the adrenalin rush, but this is bad design & I'll explain why in a moment. Needless to say, it was enjoyable being able to use my actual weapons again, but the amount of resources required, are a bit too much.

Yes, I enjoyed having to jump, space the enemy out & move around in a smart manner, but... this was me dragging the fight to a much safer place, where had all the advantages. This is where the fight is going to eventually happen...

...it's important to note that these thorns do about seven (7) points of damage per hit. This means that fighting those enemies in their natural habitat, at my current state isn't very wise. In addition, even if I somehow managed to get across, so far I haven't run across any items or weapons' that lead me to believe the possible power-up I'd get is worth the risk, or will off-set the difficulty spike. None of the vanilla Crimson-based weapons are gonna help me either. Welp, time to go home, I guess?

I really, really don't feel like digging... not with all this cool, new equipment I'm wielding (I wanna kill things)! So, I decided on a different strategy, I'm gonna start building houses & see if there are any new or interesting NPCs that might help me out in some way or another. I want to exhaust every, possible, option I can think of before I start digging. If I have to dig, I'm already not a fan...

 

[Insanity10150]

Yeah, earlygame calam is the worst part, also good job starting in death mode. Also, do you have QoL mods like recipe browser, veinminer, or boss checklist?

 

[Toxophilite [East]]

Yeah, earlygame calam is the worst part, also good job starting in death mode. Also, do you have QoL mods like recipe browser, veinminer, or boss checklist?

Oh, no... I did ask before starting if I was missing parts of the Mod that might warp the experience in a negative light (seeing as how it was broken up into parts). Are these Mods strongly recommended?

Edit: Also, I'd like to keep my experience as spoiler-free as possible. A Boss list seems as if I'd give me a heads up about dangers that i might actually enjoy more as surprises.

 

[Etotheipi]

Recipe browser might be considered a spoiler for you then. If you're looking for a good QoL mod then get luiafk and/or alchemist npc lite.

 

[Insanity10150]

Recipe browser might be considered a spoiler for you then. If you're looking for a good QoL mod then get luiafk and/or alchemist npc lite.

Some of luiafk's stuff is kinda op tho. Like the inf. potions and stuff. Still good tho.

 

[Etotheipi]

Some of luiafk's stuff is kinda op tho. Like the inf. potions and stuff. Still good tho.

Yeah, you have to choose which stuff you want. Calamity is quite hard though, so I think it is a fair balance.

 

[Bed_breaker117]

but Veinminer is just true conveninece when mining ores.

 

[Etotheipi]

but Veinminer is just true conveninece when mining ores.

Yeah, you just gotta make sure you don't accidentally add none-ores to the whitelist or you will vein mine a bit more than you intended lol.

 

[Bed_breaker117]

yeeeeah lol.

 

[Doodles]

The problem with Calamity is that it likes to go off and do it's own thing. It doesn't really pay attention to the balance vanilla creates.
I'll just warn you that Calamity is without a doubt a mod for skilled players and it will get, much, much harder in the hardmode and post-Moon Lord sections of the game.

 

[Insanity10150]

Etotheipi good job on the 50$

 

[Toxophilite [East]]

Well... building houses was indeed a valid way to get the power boost I was looking for! Immediately after setting up furniture, the Guide (who was killed on the first night) & Merchant NPC moved in. Luckily, the Guide was able to tell me what I should be doing with all that scrap metal & the Merchant gave me easy access to an Anvil, Bug Net, Piggy Bank & a nice place to sell my extra items (I already miss the NPC happiness system, the fact that there's no economy here is gonna take some getting used to).

I'd originally set my eyes on getting a hold of some Summoner's Potions, but that was only if I was forced to dig... & I reeeally didn't feel like doing that. Luckily, there's an equivalent to the Flinx Gear in the Mod, which I think is called "Wolfram" stuff? I now have slightly better armor, with some minor stat bonuses & two flying saucer Minions. Since I now had something familiar, I needed to test my abilities, mostly to see if this Armor Set was similar to the Flinx Gear in power & effectiveness, though this set is much easier to obtain.

I must say, the power scaling in the Mod is extremely odd. I know for a fact that my Character is a bit stronger, but something is still off about the combat. I'm still finding myself having to resort to backpedaling/ cheesing normal enemies, as if I was fighting the Celestial Pillars in Hardmode. This wouldn't be such an issue, if it didn't feel like I was always being flanked or surrounded. I'm starting to feel like I might need three (3) Minions, just to get past the Crimson, but once I do that... is it gonna be worth the effort? I feel like upgrading in this Mod is gonna be like a revolving door.

Aside from the poor balancing, I'm starting to get the hang of what I think Calamity wants me to do. In a sense, this appears to be a crafting Mod. I'm starting to think that most, if not all of my most powerful equipment is gonna be obtained by gathering materials & making it myself. I mean, I don't have an issue with that, it's cool I guess... I just think that it's pretty repetitive if that's always gonna be the case. It was nice, at least in vanilla Terraria, not knowing where your next big upgrade would come from; it could be a drop, an item you fished up or it could be a lucky/ rare purchase.

I guess this is the part where I cape for 1.4. I'm hoping that I'm wrong, but the ability to treasure hunt, in whatever manner you preferred, is a LOT more impactful than I previously realized. I'm really looking forward to seeing new, powerful items in some of the chest I'll eventually come across, but considering the manner in which this Mod is progressing, I have an aching feeling, that's not gonna happen.

• I already miss the small ponds with Dragon Flies, zipping around, letting you know the area was "safe".
• I already miss the Zoologist, knowing that I'm probably not gonna receive a new Mount for farming enemies.
• It's not a huge deal, but I also miss having a designated NPC to sell things to, everything's gonna sale for the same price... all the time.
• I already miss having Whips in the game as a Summoner. I never really cared much about them until now... no *whip cracking* for me.

Whelp, time to get back to it, I guess. Let's see what Calamity offers that's unique to the Mod itself, that I can't experience in Journey's End!

The problem with Calamity is that it likes to go off and do it's own thing. It doesn't really pay attention to the balance vanilla creates.
I'll just warn you that Calamity is without a doubt a mod for skilled players and it will get, much, much harder in the hardmode and post-Moon Lord sections of the game.

Can't argue with that... but I wanna keep an open mind & see where this rabbit-hole goes. I've been hearing good things about Calamity Mod since... it feels like, forever!? I'm sure it eventually gets good, but so far, it doesn't come close to Journey's End IMHO. My mind might change, but now that I'm getting the hang of the progression loop, I highly doubt it.

P.S. Oh yeah, & congratulations @Etotheipi !!

 

[Toxophilite [East]]

I've been mulling over this in my head, for a while now, trying to see if I could effectively communicate just how weird progression in Calamity Mod feels. I keep saying things are "overpowered", but then in the same breath, claim that the difficulty spike is too high. After some thought, I feel as if I can give everyone the perfect, visual example of what I mean.

The picture above (added markers & highlights), is a showcase of me engaging up to seven (7) Calamity-powered Zombies, head-on! I'm currently using the Wolfram Set, two Flying Saucer Minions & a Copper Hammer as a Melee Weapon (extremely effective strategy I found btw). This feels off, but I don't mind it so much because the basic principles with this power-up still exist. I can easily kill them if I'm smart, they can easily kill me if I make a mistake. As odd as it may be, it works! If progression was consistent like this, I wouldn't have an issue with Calamity Mod. Progression would be weird, but it'd still be fun, right?

Let's look at what happens to my power-up, after only moving a good-ways to the left or right, in hopes or reaching the Ocean Biome...

Is this Calamity Mod, honestly telling me that I need to make yet another major upgrade... already, just to get past the World Evil? You know, as a person who actually enjoys difficult games, I'm finding it very hard to like this Mod. I like the weapons & I love the upgrades, but it's like, by the time you get to really use them, on the opponents that actually matter, they stop... working!? For as highly recommended as the Mod comes & has been for years, how is this acceptable design??

I honestly feel like, in any other game, if a player was to walk a few feet & discover a massive spike in difficulty like this, as if there was some... demarcation line, makes a substantial upgrade in response... but still can't pass, would be heavily criticized. Just to show that this isn't anything new to me, there's a similar situation in a game called Dark Souls, where there's a Graveyard, right behind the starting Shrine, with a similar spike in difficulty, possibly more. The only difference between these two, is that the more notorious game actually warns you, via visual & character storytelling.

There are options I'm considering, as I could invest in crafting yet another Minion... already, with some feather items I collected from Desert Enemies, or... I could start digging & exploring caverns, even if I don't feel like doing it. I'm still tryng to make sense of how so many Terrarians adore this Mod, but dislike Master Mode & ForTheWorthy in 1.4, they're difficult, no doubt, but at least they're fair. This feels like bulls**t difficulty for difficulty's sake.

 

[Doodles]

It's very interesting to see you review Calamity with no experience at all, will you be planning to review other mods too? Because I recommend Thorium, it's a lot more fair, and respects vanilla balance a lot more. Also, if you want a new summon, go to the underground desert and kill an enemy called "Stormlion" until you get the Stormjaw Staff.

 

[Toxophilite [East]]

It's very interesting to see you review Calamity with no experience at all, will you be planning to review other mods too? Because I recommend Thorium, it's a lot more fair, and respects vanilla balance a lot more. Also, if you want a new summon, go to the underground desert and kill an enemy called "Stormlion" until you get the Stormjaw Staff.

I'll considering it, but this review is mostly inspired by my own confusion/ curiosity about the common critiques I've often seen about 1.4. As a person who adored the updates, thoroughly (even though Summoner still feels Modded as h*ll), I was very surprised at how many others strongly disliked them, going so far as to say "I can't wait until such-&-such Mod gets updated, this or that addition is bad &/ or lazy". If they disliked 1.4 so much, surely the Mods must be superior, which lead me here.

I had my doubts going in, admittedly, because Journey's End is a superb update IMO. You can tell the amount of love that went into that update, before ever fighting your first Boss. I wasn't expecting to be this disappointed though. I don't see a reason not to try out Thorium so... sure?!

 

[Doodles]

I'll considering it, but this review is mostly inspired by my own confusion/ curiosity about the common critiques I've often seen about 1.4. As a person who adored the updates, thoroughly (even though Summoner still feels Modded as h*ll), I was very surprised at how many others strongly disliked them, going so far as to say "I can't wait until such-&-such Mod gets updated, this or that addition is bad &/ or lazy". If they disliked 1.4 so much, surely the Mods must be superior, which lead me here.

I had my doubts going in, admittedly, because Journey's End is a superb update IMO. You can tell the amount of love that went into that update, before ever fighting your first Boss. I wasn't expecting to be this disappointed though. I don't see a reason not to try out Thorium so... sure?!

Also, I recommend you get some quality of life mods to improve your experience:

-AlchemistNPC Lite: Above all others, this is the best quality of life mod. It adds various NPCs that do helpful things, like a brewer that sells buff potions, or an NPC that sells various rare accessories.

-Recipe Browser: Allows you to search up the crafting recipes of any item, as well as seeing all the results of using a certain component, similarly to the Guide.

-Veinminer: Allows you to set a hotkey to mine an entire vein of ore.

-RODHTDS (Rod of Discord Hotkey that doesn't suck): Allows you to set a hotkey for the RoD. In Calamity, where the RoD has a crafting recipe, and is HIGHLY recommended, this mod is a lifesaver.

-Luiafk: Adds a bunch of items that make the game a lot less "grindy" (infinite buff potions that work just by being in your inventory, instant arena builders, instant hellevator builders, etc.).

- Boss Cursor: When a boss is alive, an icon onscreen points to where the boss is.

-Boss Checklist: Adds a menu with a list of bosses and events you can fight (ordered in the intended progression). Provides information on how to summon bosses, the loot they drop, and your statistics on fighting them.

-Fargo's both World Evils: Allows Corruption and Crimson to generate in the same world.

Those are just some of my recommendations, feel free to look around and find things that suit you.

 

[Toxophilite [East]]

Okay, so before I give my latest critique, there's a few things I wanna say. I really believe that a lot can be learned from this information, but I do also wanna thank everyone who gave suggestions for additional Mods to add, that'll make my experience more enjoyable. The Mods that intrigue me the most are a.) Alchemist NPC, b.) Veinminer & likely c.) Recipe Browser (which, from the way it sounds, just keeps me from having to consult with the Guide over every lil' new item I get).

Now alladats out the way, I must say, I'm pretty fed up with this Mod right now. I finally swallowed my pride, "cheesed" my way to victory (which appears to be the right way to play) & guess what... that was the answer. Even while cheesing the World Evil, I was still having trouble trying to cross, the Crimera's weren't any less annoying to deal with, right alongside... sliding, Wolfram Robots. I swear, if I roll my eyes any harder, they're gonna pop outta my head!

That's right, you guessed it, I built the classic "sky bridge". Now don't get me wrong, if an area is beyond your skill level in Terraria, that's what the building mechanics are for, so that you, the player, can be creative & do some classic problem solving. The real issue I have here is that-this appears to be the rule & not the exception. "Powerful enough to cheese, but not quite powerful enough to engage". What makes me even more upset, is that after getting to the other side of the World Evil, finally, it was just as I expected... it wasn't even worth it.

Why the difficulty spike? What exactly was the Calamity Crimson trying to keep me away from? I'm certainly NOT gonna go below to investigate, at least not right now. Here's the even-more-annoying part, I was able to observe all the different A.I. I would've had to contend with, had I tried to get through that area "legit" & guess what, there's f**king jumping Spiders! Why though!? So you mean... there's enemies who not only dominate the ground, enemies who make the air somewhat unsafe & larger enemies who'll pose as walls-of-death, to distract you... on-top of all this, that place also has ground enemies that can "mind-game" you too!!?

I'm sorry Calamity, but umm... exactly what tools do you provide the player with, this early, that compete with these kinda odds? Unless you have a Calamity-equivalent to the Fledgling Wings or Bundle of Balloons, that I somehow overlooked or somethin', you've got some serious explaining to do!!

Anyhow, I finally make it to the... Ocean... Biome?? Gotta say, I didn't expect that, very cool! But of course, you're not allowed to smell the roses in this Mod so... it didn't take long for yet another set of tanky-a** enemies to come & try to make my life miserable again. I needed to at least see what they dropped, so I killed two & peaced tf out (via quit & save game btw)! ✌ Oh, no-no-no Calamity Mod, we're metagaming now. I gave you-your chance to be fun & fair, we're done playin' nice here!

There's some throwing spikes that seem to do about 15+ damage, so, I'm defiantly coming back here to farm. Then I'll likely use the sky-bridge to farm the Calamity-Crimson for gold. I'll probably start posting less updates, because I don't think my complaints are gonna change much, I feel like I understand how this Mod works now. Unless something completely awful happens, I'll restrain from beating this Mod up any more than I already have. You can tell the creators worked very hard on it, it really does have nice visuals, it's just not fun to play...