PC [Challenge] Build a town NPC (AFK) farm, now they are weaponised!

[ZeroGravitas]

Since 1.3 has implemented NPC's right to bear arms, it seems like a wasted opportunity to still be shielding them away, locked in box cells and cubicles. They want to help!

• So, what housing revisions might be best for NPCs in this light?
• Can you build a NPC powered blood-moon, goblin invasion, etc, farm that beats rushing for lava?
• Might they even protect you from wraiths for a change? (Or be able to forgo the need for a raised housing base?)
• Could they even help take on bosses? (Could this help big-time with an engineer playthough?)
  
• Can you make a regular biome farm, say with just 1 (or 2) NPCs? (So some but not all regular spawns are blocked.)
• Would ghost walls work in this context, to let them shoot out from safety?

Best designs (with screen shots/video) will win epic amounts of kudos! That is all.

[Edit: I've added a bunch more ideas/suggestion below.]

 

[Lucky Lucky Horseshoe]

I know Pedguin has been using a house design with a bunch of platforms so that the NPCs can shoot up or down at enemies. He's been using that for goblins, blood moons, etc.

I think ghost walls would work great for NPC-based defense, as long as there's something to keep them from going through the wall themselves and getting stuck outside. A simple block on the floor next to the ghost wall would probably work for that.

I might play with a few ideas regarding house designs, but it would be on mobile so I couldn't actually do a real NPC test. Platforms and ghost walls seem to be the best potential candidates though.

 

[Snot Bubbles]

Could someone make a list of what each NPC does for its attack? Surely that would be useful for picking the optimal ones.. (I don't have all the npc's in my singleplayer world atm)

 

[perfectodst219]

Could someone make a list of what each NPC does for its attack? Surely that would be useful for picking the optimal ones.. (I don't have all the npc's in my singleplayer world atm)

Guide:Bow and arrow
Merchant:Throwing Knives
Dryad:Leaf circle and defense
Doctor:Heals you and other npcs
Clothier:Magic missle type attack
Dye trader:Scimitar
Wizard:Fireball
Gun Merchant:Minishark
Party girlarty Grenades
Demolitionist:Grenades
Painteraint gun
Angler:?
Pirate:?
Stylist:?
Santa:?
Goblin:?

Please reply with the attacks the ? NPCs do

 

[Lucky Lucky Horseshoe]

I know the goblin tinkerer throws spiky balls. I would guess that the pirate either uses a cutlass or a cannon. I don't have a clue about the other NPCs.

Also, you missed the tax collector. He uses his cane.

EDIT: the NPC page on the wiki lists their attacks. http://terraria.wiki.gg/NPC?cookieSetup=true

 

[perfectodst219]

I know the goblin tinkerer throws spiky balls. I would guess that the pirate either uses a cutlass or a cannon. I don't have a clue about the other NPCs.

Also, you missed the tax collector. He uses his cane.

EDIT: the NPC page on the wiki lists their attacks. http://terraria.wiki.gg/NPC?cookieSetup=true

At least that means I dont need to be a wiki xD

 

[Snot Bubbles]

Could someone explain the concept of a "ghost wall"? I'm not too educated within this sort of thing..

Or link me to somewhere, where it has been explained, of course.

 

[ZeroGravitas]

Ops, sorry, hadn't seen these replies, weirdly...

Pedguin has been using a house design with a bunch of platforms so that the NPCs can shoot up or down at enemies.

Yes indeedy. He actually says: "So this is the most efficient way possible to have NPCs live in your house, and they can attack all around as well..." A bold claim, I wonder if we can totally trump this?

Thanks for the NPC info @Snot Bubbles and...

the NPC page on the wiki lists their attacks. http://terraria.wiki.gg/NPC?cookieSetup=true

Absolutely, it lists their weapons, but little more. What's their attack frequency, AI, etc? The Wiki doesn't even have stock images of them with weapons out yet (if people looking to contribute).

Regarding tactics, a couple of NPCs really stand out:

• Nurse - can heal so fast she could might even be used as a 'tank', or more in a back-line support role, if her powers can indeed be used to heal the other NPCs too/instead.
• Dryad - seems very powerful for this task, with her 'blessing' giving a large area of effect attack (and buffs). One's entire strategy might be based purely around her, with the line of sight NPCs only for bonus damage, or held back purely for sniping/defending against specific threats like goblin casters.
• Demolitionist, Goblin tinkerer (and Cyborg later) - each have multi-hit attacks, that might have massively increased utility when confining enemies to a small target area. It becomes somewhat like a tower defence game (which I like): "shape their paths".

I'm currently still presuming the NPCs would be most use early (pre-lava, even) before the monsters get too much health/defence, but later NPCs do have more damage too (or weapon upgrades, like arms dealer), so please tell me I'm wrong and pirates/eclipses are NPC farmable too!

explain the concept of a "ghost wall"?

Sloped platforms (stairs) or sloped inactive blocks against the side of slid blocks lets things pass through that side that shouldn't. I started to call it 'ghost walls' for lack of a better reference. (I first mentioned it online here, but we haven't trumpeted it too loudly for temple breaking, since it's pretty cheap.)

I had a quick (unplanned) play with these and the cyborg - it seems that because NPCs are smart enough not to walk into walls they won't attack through them either, so they need uninterrupted line of sight (except the Dryad [EDIT: actually, including Dyad - it's weird]). So perhaps best to use ghost walls to trap invaders into a confined kill zone (to rain death on them).

If starting from Pedguin's effort and adapting, I might suggest trying an elevated mezzanine that's just too high for the enemies to jump up to (or even higher (too high to hit with bows?). Or reverse things?; could you have NPCs right below? Will the goblins drop through platforms if you are above, as bait (I forget).

Also, remember that you can do some really crazy things with valid NPC housing (aside from little cells, or boring old hoik house engines), these kind of weird topologies might come especially in handy now. Although, given that you (the player) will need to be there the whole time anyway (for the bad guys to attack) you don't need their housing to remain valid - you could dump them out into the desired places via trap doors (or just mining their floors away).

[Left - Reddit/imgur guide. Right - Power Cosmic's NPC house design on old forum.]

Is tight clumping going to be too risky for various applications? Will they attack bosses (I don't even know)?; build a shooting gallery above Skeletron to take pot shots at him while he swipes at you. Minecart rails for AFK dodging, or keep things simple, etc, etc?...

 

[Lucky Lucky Horseshoe]

Regarding tactics, a couple of NPCs really stand out:

• Nurse - can heal so fast she could might even be used as a 'tank', or more in a back-line support role, if her powers can indeed be used to heal the other NPCs too/instead.
• Dryad - seems very powerful for this task, with her 'blessing' giving a large area of effect attack (and buffs). One's entire strategy might be based purely around her, with the line of sight NPCs only for bonus damage, or held back purely for sniping/defending against specific threats like goblin casters.
• Demolitionist, Goblin tinkerer (and Cyborg later) - each have multi-hit attacks, that might have massively increased utility when confining enemies to a small target area. It becomes somewhat like a tower defence game (which I like): "shape their paths".

• Definitely a good idea to confine the enemies. The combined power of the multi-hit enemies and the single-hit enemies focused on a concentrated area would be insane.

I had a quick (unplanned) play with these and the cyborg - it seems that because they are smart enough not to walk into walls they won't attack through them either, so them need uninterrupted line of sight (except the Dryad). So perhaps best to use ghost walls to trap invaders into a confined kill zone (to rain death on them).

I've never had issues with enemies not going through ghost walls, so they definitely seem viable for confining them.

Also, remember that you can do some really crazy things with valid NPC housing (aside from little cells, or boring old hoik house engines), these kind of weird topologies might come especially in handy now. Although, given that you (the player) will need to be there the whole time anyway (for the bad guys to attack) you don't need their housing to remain valid - you could dump them out into the desired places via trap doors (or just mining their floors away).

Would actuators work? Or would it mess up the chairs/tables?

Will they attack bosses (I don't even know)?

Yes. I've seen them attack the King Slime, and I would guess that if they attack one they attack all.

 

[ZeroGravitas]

Would actuators work? Or would it mess up the chairs/tables?

Sure, actuate their floors and suspend the required furniture above them, out of the way. Only good for post-Skeletron bosses though, so NPCs might have passed peak usefulness by then.

I've seen them attack the King Slime, and I would guess that if they attack one they attack all

OK, cool. But I wouldn't bet on it, given he's one of the rare bosses to collide with blocks. [Edit: Probably will attack all bosses, yeah.]

 

[Lucky Lucky Horseshoe]

OK, cool. But I wouldn't bet on it, given he's one of the rare bosses to collide with blocks.

I think I've seen them attack the destroyer too, but I'm not sure whether I'm remembering that right.

 

[ZeroGravitas]

I think I've seen them attack the destroyer too, but I'm not sure whether I'm remembering that right.

And I've just had them lay into Eye of Cthulhu, so yeah, I expect you are correct.
[DOUBLEPOST=1438633591,1437730861][/DOUBLEPOST]Looks like this Steam user had a similar idea. Skeletron downed using NPCs only. Included hard mode NPCs though, and it was a bit of a free for all. I bet we can do even better.

And the Wiki's NPC housing page has a cool new high density housing example image up:

 

[Gyradosian]

I'll definitely try this out!

I'll probably try something like:

but with more strategic NPC positioning, such as ranged NPCs in high up positions while melee NPCs get taken to the ground.

Or I could try a farm with Dryad in the middle and get enemies to be hoiked into a pit next to her, then get ranged NPCs to attack them from above! Hmm... hmm...

 

[ZeroGravitas]

something like:

Was this you then, or some other go-getter?

Very similar setup to the video above, good demonstration of capabilities, but there's probably room to position the NPCs better and such.

 

[Gyradosian]

Was this you then, or some other go-getter?

Nope, I'm just interested in the concept of an NPC cage match. :]

 

[ZeroGravitas]

NPC cage match

I'm thinking more of an NPCs verses statue mobs card deck-like game; synchonous, turn based, perhaps.

 

[Gyradosian]

This is something that I made very quickly:

No idea if it works, the idea is that the Dryad lives in the middle house and AoE's all of the mobs. Then the ranged NPCs should fire down into the pit and kill the rest. I may have to cut the stairs off the sides for the Dryad AoE to hit enemies, not sure though.

I'm thinking more of an NPCs verses statue mobs card deck-like game

Interesting - I'll try out an arena tomorrow similar to the ones in the video and integrate statue spawning. You could also test how powerful single NPCs are based on how fast they kill a certain amount of enemies, almost like a gladiator ring.

 

[Sulejman]

I believe Dryad's whirling leaves thing is for bonus defence to others, and doesn't damage enemies. Or does it place a debuff on them?

 

[Gyradosian]

I believe Dryad's whirling leaves thing is for bonus defence to others, and doesn't damage enemies. Or does it place a debuff on them?

"When enemies are nearby, the Dryad periodically grants the Dryad's Blessing buff to players in the vicinity and displays a leaf barrier effect. The buff grants +8 defense, and gives the player contact damage. Enemies caught within the circle of the barrier will take 1 point of damage per second, more if you defeated more bosses (and x1.5 during Expert Mode)."

 

[ZeroGravitas]

OK, so looks like Pedguin properly spilled the beans on infinite NPC capacity housing (as also alluded to in the guide linked above). So here are a couple of experimental designs I was playing with the other week, that use this trick. I found that it was actually best to have the NPCs in a pit below the mobs. They never get attacked provided you are above. This lets the goblin tinker's spikey balls get into the action (can't fall down throgh platforms), doing a shed load of damage in a confined area. Better for demolition's explosives too.

On left image (prefered design) you can see the "1"s from dryads' area effect damage. With the pit-less design (right) the mobs all get comically exploded out tot eh sides with each bomb, but it doesn't loose too much damage output. In each case you just keep clicking in more NPCs to the bottom, "L" shaped room, and the flags all stack up above the glass block in the middle of the upper room. (The platform floor in the bottom room ensures there is nowhere 'safe' to stand, while the upper 'room's' spot is only used because it resides inside the bounding box defined by the "L" room's extremities.

These work great on early game blood-moons. Goblin invasions are far trickier, due to the casters. I think if you got the player's height positioning just right then the casters might all teleport into the middle, right atop the pit. It would be a shame to have to spawn block the side areas with lava surfaces (since part of the aim here was to be pre-lava). I'd be curious to know how this kind of setup does against pirates and early solar eclipses, etc.