Game Mechanics A change that could improve sword shrines

[Zappers²]

I think sword shrines need a change. They're kinda annoying to find since the hole that signifies their present doesn't generate sometimes and when it does, it's not close enough to the surface to be seen most of the time. They also generate all the way at the edge of the world. This makes the swords in the sword shrines not really worth the effort since you'll likely have to blindly mine with low power pickaxes to find them. I think the shrines should be made easier to find but the swords harder to get. Maybe put the shrine closer to/on the surface and keep the sword stuck in the rock. However, you can't just walk over and mine the sword but instead I think it would be fair if you had to have a certain amount of hearts to mine the sword from stone (Yes I did get this idea from the Master sword.) If you attempt to mine the rock without the sufficient amount of hearts, it'll damage you like mining a demon alter with a pre hard mode hammer. Perhaps the Enchanted Sword would require 10 hearts while the Terragrim would take 15. These swords requiring hearts would also mean they're not obtainable at the start of the game even if you're lucky enough to find them which means they would be further in progression and might require buffs to make them a reasonable choice when looking for a melee weapon.

 

[EustaceCS]

Terraria is full of things which are really hard to obtain (or notice in the first place). Some of which are literally class enabling (blue flower from Jungle being worst offender).
To hell with class enabling rarities. People struggle with hardmode ores-from-altars, yo!
And you're complaining about this antiquity

 

[Zappers²]

Terraria is full of things which are really hard to obtain (or notice in the first place). Some of which are literally class enabling (blue flower from Jungle being worst offender).
To hell with class enabling rarities. People struggle with hardmode ores-from-altars, yo!
And you're complaining about this antiquity

Idk what you mean by this. Is this a yeah or neah for the idea? Also I think you're talking about Nature's gift when you say "blue flower from jungle" and I've only played Maga twice but I've never found them to be that hard to find. Also what do you mean people struggle with the alter ores? Like do you mean literally finding them underground or getting their counterparts? (which you can use shimmer for.)

 

[Orchamut]

Idk what you mean by this. Is this a yeah or neah for the idea? Also I think you're talking about Nature's gift when you say "blue flower from jungle" and I've only played Maga twice but I've never found them to be that hard to find. Also what do you mean people struggle with the alter ores? Like do you mean literally finding them underground or getting their counterparts? (which you can use shimmer for.)

I actually don't have an opinion about this suggestion, but I have to say that that reply made absolutely no sense to me either. The Nature's gift is easy to find, right? I only know about it in the first place because of how nearly unavoidable it is to obtain at some point.

On the same subject, actually, Water Bolt is definitely unfair to find and I never would've known about it without checking the wiki.

 

[EustaceCS]

Also what do you mean people struggle with the alter ores?

This.

Also I think you're talking about Nature's gift when you say "blue flower from jungle" and I've only played Maga twice but I've never found them to be that hard to find

RNG keeps screwing me so each time I TRY to target-farm for it - I end up with full complement of pre-Hardmode Underground Jungle loot, including Bee Queen being incidentally summoned and killed few times. And then some. No flower. None of either.
Given that I also failed to ever see Hardmode Zapinator after literal real-life DAYS of trying to get it, maybe I'm just unlucky in general.
Never seen a single Shrine either. 340 hours spent mostly underground - and counting.

Is this a yeah or neah for the idea?

Yeah, actually. Anything which lets end user see some extremely rare content slightly more often is good. Since content which can only be found incidentally, once in a blue moon, is a waste for all involved parties.

 

[Orchamut]

Given that I also failed to ever see Hardmode Zapinator after literal real-life DAYS of trying to get it

I feel you so badly... I don't see why such a fun weapon needs to be so absurdly rare, with no way to intentionally try farming for it.

Never seen a single Shrine either. 340 hours spent mostly underground - and counting.

I've seen like, 2 or 3, ever. And I got an Enchanted Sword the first time I ever played on PC... then never again.

 

[Zappers²]

I actually don't have an opinion about this suggestion, but I have to say that that reply made absolutely no sense to me either. The Nature's gift is easy to find, right? I only know about it in the first place because of how nearly unavoidable it is to obtain at some point.

On the same subject, actually, Water Bolt is definitely unfair to find and I never would've known about it without checking the wiki.

Yeah I feel ya there with the water Bolt. Didn't even know about it on my first mage playthrough. I learned about it from a video but that was so long ago now I can't even remember. Maybe the clothier could have some dialogue which hints at some books in the dungeon being spell books since you're not meant to be able to get the water bolt until after beating Skeletron which unlocks the clothier.

 

[Orchamut]

If it makes anyone here feel better, before 1.4 there was a 2/3 chance that each sword shrine would be a dud without any sword in it.

I can enjoy some ridiculously mega-rare content, but only when it's silly and not useful for gameplay. In Pokemon, there's about a 1/4000 chance for a wild Pokemon to be 'shiny', which is just a different color. In Stardew Valley, you have a teeny-tiny (1/10000 according to the wiki but I've seen one myself so i doubt thats reliable) chance to watch a UFO fly over the end-of-day screen each night, and also an unrelated small chance for an eerie alien capsule to appear on your farm each night-- but none of those examples actually do anything other than making you think 'wow, you don't see this every day'

 

[Solarpower]

Honestly, while being good as a starter weapon, the only benefit of the Enchanted Sword is being one of Zenith's crafting component.
If you are unlucky enough and can't find a Shrine, do fishing and loot your Enchanted Sword from a crate.

 

[Orchamut]

Honestly, while being good as a starter weapon, the only benefit of the Enchanted Sword is being one of Zenith's crafting component.
If you are unlucky enough and can't find a Shrine, do fishing and loot your Enchanted Sword from a crate.

Which is still long and annoying... but at least for me, still more reliable than trying to find one in a shrine. Which does put into perspective what a weird spot the shrines are in.

 

[EustaceCS]

and also an unrelated small chance for an eerie alien capsule to appear

Got my capsule somewhere at 1 year 3 months.
I believe, one of the rarest yet amusing things in that game is a trash can lid hat. Got it somewhere near early Year 3 - and I didn't even farmed for it.
In either case you don't have to pray to RNGesus - nor need these items for the progression.
The rarest thing you need for progression - Red Cabbage Seeds it's called, yea? - can be force-spawned Year 1 or available freely starting from Year 2 onwards. Or can be bypassed completely for a price of your soul, dignity and a fee to Joja

Any of these are nowhere close to Shrines (or Flowers) in Terraria.

 

[Orchamut]

The rarest thing you need for progression - Red Cabbage Seeds

Not only that, but they were also added to the desert cave serpents' possible drops at some point, just to make them more accessible. That was one of my favorite changes.

 

[EustaceCS]

Well, I was lucky enough to start playing SV only recently, with all these bugfixes and improvements in place. So I don't know much about tedium of days of yore...
The only thing that game really needed to achieve Perfection was EnergyTime mod - to make overall tempo much more player-friendly.
*sigh*
Good times...