PC Character with 10+ Hours Deleted Itself

Golden FazGamer

Terrarian
I don't know if I am putting this in the right place since the guidelines of this section and technical support both tell me to put this in the other, so I am gonna put it here and hope for the best, I apologize if I put it in the wrong spot.
So, it all started when I was playing Terraria with a friend, and after a few hours of playing, my computer's battery died, so I spent the next few minutes getting back into everything. So, after I was back on Terraria, I was kicked from the game, probably because my battery died and it took the internet connectivity with it, or some weird reason like that, I don't know why I am always kicked from servers when my battery dies, I just am. Anyway, after I get back on Terraria (note, I am only on the title screen) my computer freezes up, and I mean, completely, no mouse movement, no ctrl+alt+del, nothing. So I am left with only one option, perform a hard shutdown. After I restart and turn my computer back on, and get to the desktop, I decide to open Terraria back up. It opens after a minute or two, and I go to join my friends' game, but there's an issue, the character I have been using for the past few days is gone. So I look through to make sure Terraria isn't just pulling a trick on me and moved it, but sure enough, it's gone. I check the recycle bin to see if it's there, and sure enough, there is my character, Timothy the 1st (it's a long story about why I named it that). I think "hey, if I restore it, maybe it'll show back up", sure enough, it does go back to the folder, but every time I go to the character select screen, it's back in the Recycle Bin. Now, I never did delete the character, I couldn't have, since shortly after I got back on the Terraria title screen and pressed shift+tab to rejoin my friend, it froze. So, I started to wonder if it could've gotten corrupted or not, but I can also rule that out since I wasn't using the character when I had to turn off my computer, so that shouldn't be an issue either. After all of this wondering and confusion, I just decided to come here and post on the forums, since I have no other idea about why this could've happened, much less how to solve it. I will appreciate any advice given, since I don't wanna have to spend another 10 or more hours on a character. I posted a screenshot of the character in the recycle bin so I have some proof, I was thinking about showing it missing, but if it's in the recycle bin, it's pretty safe to assume it's not on the selection screen. I hope I can have this issue resolved soon, so I can go back to progressing in the game. Also, one more question, what armor do you recommend for Cthulu? I tried to fight it with tin and lead armor, and I had a tungsten bow and did a fair amount of damage to the boss, but that coupled with me not having any real healing potions other than the lesser ones, ended up with me being killed, and I had a friend helping me too.
Sorry in advance for the wall of text. help.PNG
 
1. Here's the information on recovering a character:

There are a plethora of reasons files of missing or get corrupted, it could have been a hardware issue, an operating system issue, a user error, a software confliction or some other software issue. Sometimes it's just plain unavoidable. That's why it's highly recommended to keep manual backups of your files after each play session for Terraria. You can copy the World and Characters folders to other location or an external drive. The default location is \Documents\My Games\Terraria.
1. Check the recycling bin: sometimes files or folders will get placed into the recycling bin despite not anything being wrong with them. This is the first place to check.

If this did not solve your problem, or it does not apply to you move to step 2

2. Check the Steam Data Folder: While sometimes the steam cloud can be the very thing to cause the issue, it might also be the very thing that ends up saving you. Navigate to C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\userdata\STEAM ACCOUNT NUMBER\105600\remote (the steam account number is going to be a collection of random numbers and it will be different for each person. Most likely you will only see one folder so click whichever one shows up.) and see if your files are there.

If this did not solve your problem, or it does not apply to you move to step 3

3. Recover your files from the .bak files: Located in Terraria's default save location which is \Documents\My Games\Terraria you should see a worlds and player folder. Click on whichever folder that applies to you and see if there are any .bak files of your old or missing characters. Simply rename the file extension to .plr if it is a player file or .wld if it is a world file.

If this did not solve your problem, or it does not apply to you move to step 4

4. Revert to a previous version: Sometimes when your character or world gets corrupted the file remains in it's respective default save folder but is simply unusable by the game. You can revert to an earlier version of the file so that you don't lose ALL your progress. Using this method some of your progress will still be lost. First navigate to either \Documents\My Games\Terraria\Worlds or \Documents\My Games\Terraria\Players depending on what kind of file was corrupted. Right click the file and select properties. Now select the "Previous Versions" tab and see if anything is there. If so select the version you wish to revert to, click it, and then click restore.

If this did not solve your problem, or it does not apply to you move to step 5

5. Recreate your character using a Save Editor: Please keep in mind Relogic does not officially support or condone Save Editors and other 3rd Party software. In the event all else has failed you can use an inventory editor to help remake your character so that not all your progress is lost. The one that I like to point people to is TerraSVR because it is all web based and pretty simple to use. If you're having trouble figuring out how to use it there's a help button in the top right to help explain it's various features.

2. If you're having issues, use Gold/Platinum armor and farm up a few options. If it still gives you trouble try a couple buff potions like Ironskin. If it still gives you trouble consider upping your DPS with a better weapon. In the event all that fails to give you success on the boss, try modifying the arena you are are fighting him.
 
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I'm not using an arena since I don't think I really need one, I just found a flat area of land with walls to keep mobs out and am fighting him there, and is a Platinum sword and gold bow strong enough weapons?
Also, there is a file in the recycle bin that is a plr AND a bak, and then there is also still the plr in my terraria folder, but it still doesnt show up on the char. select, what do I do?
 
1. Try solution number four on the PLR file in your Terraria folder, if that does not make the character show up in character selection then try solution four on the plr file in the recycling bin after restoring the file. If both of those do not work see if there is a steam cloud backup of your character in solution two. If all that fails, use solution five to recreate your character with the items you had. I do not advise using solution five to give yourself items that you did not obtain legitimately in your run.

2. The arena I use is as follows: Build a wooden floor about 15 blocks from the ground made of platforms, build another set of platforms 5 blocks from the previous layer. Repeat until you have about a full screens worth of platforms. The length should be about 1 and a half to two screens worth. If all that makes sense. Build it at spawn and use the arena for events, mech bosses, and Eye of Cthulu. Use a gold bow with flaming arrows, or, break two shadow/crimson orbs and hope for a gun. Do not break more than two or it summons a boss that you may not be prepared for.
 
I have multiple steam account numbers, and I don't know which one is mine. I checked both, and one has terraria info that isn't mine, and the other one has nothing. And there is no "previous versions" tab on either file. I don't know what to do, so if you have anything else you can tell me to help, please do.

I could do the arena technique, but as I said before, for the eye, I don't think it's needed, I've beaten the eye before without it, and plus, it's gonna deprive me of all the wood nearby, and I don't feel like putting down a million acorns. Also, I know what boss you are referring to at the end, since I've followed Terraria for a while, I just stopped at around version 1.1 and just recently got the game for myself. Also, thanks for your help with the boss fight, I will update you once I attempt it again.
[doublepost=1544579523,1544579442][/doublepost]I still think the .bak recovery might work on the recycle bin file, but I don't wanna try it if you have something else you can tell me.
 
Do you have Windows 8 or Windows 10? I can instruct you on how to use File History, but I'll need to know which one you have so I can tailor the tutorial towards you.
 
I have Windows 8.1, but I did something kind of dumb though, but at the same time may be smart.
I took the bak file out of the recycle bin and renamed it, hoping it would work.
I think "deleted" the other one, hoping it would go to the recycle bin, but it didn't, so now it's gone.
But I think that the .bak might be the original file, so I'm not sure if I'm smart for getting rid of the old one or not
[doublepost=1544587760,1544587714][/doublepost]and I am sorry if I reply late, I just now got the notification that you replied.
 
Well, to use File History we needed the original PLR file that became corrupt in order to restore it. If we don't have that then we can not use file history. You may attempt to rename the .bak to .plr and see if it works but from my experiences with others it is the lowest success rate of all the solutions.

If that fails solution five will at least make it so that you don't lose 10+ hours of progress.
 
See, but that's the thing, I can't prove if that was the original PLR file that I deleted, since this one was older than that one was.
I still think this one is it, it just got converted and put into the recycle bin.
 
After some research it appears Windows 8 and Windows 10 file history has be something set up and enabled from the beginning. So solution five might be your best bet.
 
Actually, my friend and I agreed that since we have enough stuff in our chests, and because she felt bad that I lost a character I spent that much on, we are going to try and restart but just use new characters, it's like a half restart. Anyway, I appreciate you trying to help, and thanks for the help with cthulu.
 
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