Weapons & Equip - CURSED MASK - Exchange Hearts for "Things"

[Rexsilion26]

- CONTEXT -

I think it would be nice to have some way to remove the extra HP we get, like golden hearts and even normal ones.
It would be interesting if we could exchange hearts for "things", like buffs, items or maybe... unique things.
-
So here's my idea!
______________________________

- IDEA -

My idea consists of a consumable item, the Cursed Mask.
-
Dropped by the Red Demon with a 3.33% chance, the Cursed Mask works as follows:
-
By clicking with the item in hand, the player will be able to choose between 4 offers:

- 1 -
- Permanent Buffs -

Makes all buffs the player have permanent until death.
It costs 5 hearts.
____________________

- 2 -
- Summon Boss -

Summons a Boss of the Biome the player is in.
(In the Jungle, it will summon Bee Queen in Pre-Hardmode and Plantera in Hardmode after the Mechanical Bosses)
(In biomes without specific bosses, it will summon a random boss)
It costs 3 hearts.
____________________

- 3 -
- Best Reforge -

The player will get the best reforging in the next 3 times they craft or reforge an item with the Goblin Tinkerer.
It costs 3 hearts.
____________________

- 4 -
- End Event -

End any event that is occurring.
(This includes invasions, eclipses, blood moons, pumpkin moons, and frost moons)
It costs 5 hearts.
______________________________

Well, that was my idea.
If there's anything you would change, don't hesitate to comment!​

 

[random terraria fan]

so are the hearts permanent or do they heal

 

[Rexsilion26]

so are the hearts permanent or do they heal

It will remove the hearts, but you will be able to get them back using the Heart Crystals or Fruits.

 

[Dapling]

It will remove the hearts, but you will be able to get them back using the Heart Crystals or Fruits.

Okay this is really cool and wasn’t really made apparent in the main post. My only concern is that you’d lose a lot of life fruit doing it this way as they’re worth 1/4th the amount of health as heart crystals.

I would also lower the cost to 1 heart for all of them as you’re exchanging a long term resource for a short term one which is inherently unbalanced against the player, but that’s up to you.

 

[random terraria fan]

why a mask and not like a blood sacrifice alter or something?

 

[Rexsilion26]

Okay this is really cool and wasn’t really made apparent in the main post. My only concern is that you’d lose a lot of life fruit doing it this way as they’re worth 1/4th the amount of health as heart crystals.

I would also lower the cost to 1 heart for all of them as you’re exchanging a long term resource for a short term one which is inherently unbalanced against the player, but that’s up to you.

Golden hearts are less valuable than normal hearts in terms of how much HP they grant.
Crystal hearts grant 20 HP while Life Fruit only grants 5.
The problem is that Life Fruit is harder to find.
-
My idea was to bring a way to remove hearts that, until now, are permanent once we acquire them.
I thought that since they are something we can farm, it would be interesting to be able to "trade" with them.

 

[Rexsilion26]

why a mask and not like a blood sacrifice alter or something?

I was looking a image of Hollow Knight when I had this idea.
It made me think in masks.

 

[random terraria fan]

ok

 

[Coleyohley]

I think the obtainment method is far,  far too difficult (that droprate is pure evil) for what this does. Summoning a boss that isn't Moon Lord (or Skeletron) just requires crafting or finding the summoning item, which are almost always trivial; this would have you kill an average of 30 Red Devils per summon item, and then it will cost you 3 heart crystals or life fruit. It is also worth noting that you will start the fight with reduced health.

This is ludicrously expensive for what it does, but I do like the concept. The item just either needs to be much, much easier to obtain or needs to do something dramatically more impactful.

 

[random terraria fan]

I think the obtainment method is far,  far too difficult (that droprate is pure evil) for what this does. Summoning a boss that isn't Moon Lord (or Skeletron) just requires obtaining or finding the summoning item, which are almost always trivial; this would have you kill an average of 30 Red Devils per summon item, and then it will cost you 3 heart crystals or life fruit. It is also worth noting that you will start the fight with reduced health.

This is ludicrously expensive for what it does, but I do like the concept. The item just either needs to be much, much easier to obtain or needs to do something dramatically more impactful.

good point

 

[QWizard]

This to me seems out of the current terraria norm, I don’t recall any items having a similar type of effect as this one. To me, this seems like something that would be added in a mod and not added to base Terraria.

That being said, this is a very unique and cool idea!

 

[Dapling]

This to me seems out of the current terraria norm, I don’t recall any items having a similar type of effect as this one. To me, this seems like something that would be added in a mod and not added to base Terraria.

I will never ever ever be able to take this statement seriously after stuff like Tabi, Pylons, Empress, Shellphone, and such have been put into the game.

 

[QWizard]

I will never ever ever be able to take this statement seriously after stuff like Tabi, Pylons, Empress, Shellphone, and such have been put into the game.

Pylons use a teleporting feature, similar to the Magic Mirror. More similar to the teleporter with wires, but Pylons remove the necessity to create world-length wires and replace it with necessities close to the core experiences of Terraria. A MASSIVE QoL upgrade & core enhancement in my opinion, and it looks pretty too.
Pylons require creating houses for NPC’s in different biomes (existing feature & some NPC only sell certain items in certain biomes) encouraging themed-houses (fun per se), and require nearby infection to be cleansed (an element of the original dev vision for Terraria). All-in-All, Pylons were & always will be an above and beyond enhancement to Terraria that encourages experiencing more of the core of Terraria.
It’s almost blasphemy to compare Pylons here, they’re in a different league.

Shellphone combines existing items into one, not really that surprising considering the feature of combining many different items together existed before. Doesn’t do anything that you couldn’t already do in multiple items. An -earned- QoL upgrade.

Tabi allows something remarkably simple: a dash. Arguably similar to an affect you could get by jumping and grappling at an angle, and arguably similar to effect you get from Hermes Boots. Surprised you brought this one up, it’s an old item. Existed for a long time

Empress of Light however.. That’s not really a valid comparison here. Empress is a boss, not a utility or gear.

 

[Rexsilion26]

I think the obtainment method is far,  far too difficult (that droprate is pure evil) for what this does. Summoning a boss that isn't Moon Lord (or Skeletron) just requires crafting or finding the summoning item, which are almost always trivial; this would have you kill an average of 30 Red Devils per summon item, and then it will cost you 3 heart crystals or life fruit. It is also worth noting that you will start the fight with reduced health.

This is ludicrously expensive for what it does, but I do like the concept. The item just either needs to be much, much easier to obtain or needs to do something dramatically more impactful.

The drop rate should really be increased.
Maybe make all Underground enemies drop the item after entering Hardmode.
-
The idea of summoning bosses was more focused on bringing a faster way to summon Plantera in the Jungle.
The other bosses are an extra.

 

[QWizard]

The idea of summoning bosses was more focused on bringing a faster way to summon Plantera in the Jungle.

I suggest that a sort of Plantera Bulb “compass” would be more appropriate for making Plantera easier to summon.

Summoning Plantera from using this item would remove the adventure in finding & breaking Plantera Bulbs that grow in the Jungle, the current proper way to engage Plantera for the first time

 

[Stellar Mastodon 267]

I’ve seen lots of suggestions for removing permanent hearts, but this is probably the best way I’ve seen to do it. You actually get something in return. Does kind of promote selling parts of yourself to demonic forces, but Terraria isn’t exactly known for being religiously friendly.

 

[Dapling]

Pylons use a teleporting feature, similar to the Magic Mirror. More similar to the teleporter with wires, but Pylons remove the necessity to create world-length wires and replace it with necessities close to the core experiences of Terraria. A MASSIVE QoL upgrade & core enhancement in my opinion, and it looks pretty too.
Pylons require creating houses for NPC’s in different biomes (existing feature & some NPC only sell certain items in certain biomes) encouraging themed-houses (fun per se), and require nearby infection to be cleansed (an element of the original dev vision for Terraria). All-in-All, Pylons were & always will be an above and beyond enhancement to Terraria that encourages experiencing more of the core of Terraria.
It’s almost blasphemy to compare Pylons here, they’re in a different league.

Shellphone combines existing items into one, not really that surprising considering the feature of combining many different items together existed before. Doesn’t do anything that you couldn’t already do in multiple items. An -earned- QoL upgrade.

Tabi allows something remarkably simple: a dash. Arguably similar to an affect you could get by jumping and grappling at an angle, and arguably similar to effect you get from Hermes Boots. Surprised you brought this one up, it’s an old item. Existed for a long time

Empress of Light however.. That’s not really a valid comparison here. Empress is a boss, not a utility or gear.

I’m not saying that they don’t fit, I’m saying that calling suggestions modded is extremely silly and doesn’t even make sense anymore.

If you suggested pylons before 1.4 you would have been laughed out of the room. They’re basically the entire point of the npc happiness system which is not precedented at all and is a huge sweeping change to the game, they obey placement rules that are 100% unique (being able to place only 1 of each per world is NOT precedented), and their niche was arguably already filled by teleporters (which were hardmode back then) and as a result everyone would have jumped the gun, called them OP and unbalanced and… modded. It’s not blasphemy to point that out at all.

Shellphone also has unprecedented mechanics. Not only does it have the “spawn” mode which can’t be emulated without wiring and was NOT inherited from any of its materials, it needs to be right clicked to change modes which even changes its sprite. That’s unprecedented before 1.4.4, and if you had suggested it before then, people would have said it feels modded.

Tabi uses a double tap for an active movement ability with a cooldown and fixed duration. Can you think of an item before 1.2 that does anything remotely like that? Can you really, confidently say that it you wouldn’t have said it felt modded if someone suggested it back in 1.1?

Empress is a completely valid comparison. She is visually distinct from everything else in the entire game and has attacks which are completely unique compared to all other enemies. Even people who don’t play mods say she feels modded sometimes due to how far removed from all other bosses she is, and they mean it as a compliment.

Cursed Mask, similarly to pylons, fills a sorely needed role by allowing you to remove your your hearts, end events, and more. It also, similarly to shellphone, has several modes you can switch between in a way not yet precedented. Like tabi, it takes advantage of an active mechanic that hasn’t been done before now. Like empress, it would be a good addition to the game that players would actually end up using and appreciating. This item is not adding a billion new mechanics, but interacting with old mechanics in new ways.

The issues with this item are numbers issues (having to spend more than 1 heart on any of these is really really overpriced) and as a result it needs only extremely minor tweaks to fit into the game perfectly imo. Saying a suggestion feels modded has very little grounds to stand on (making it pretty bold to say considering all that stuff I just pointed out) and rarely feels respectful to the creator imo while providing them with very little real feedback they can actually improve the suggestion on. If you want more examples of “items you would have been laughed out of the room for suggesting before they were added” take a look at Shimmer and Grand Design too.

 

[Mille Marteaux]

as someone who enjoys treating HP like a consumable resource and would like to have the ability to remove life fruit hearts from characters, that'd be rad, but i have some details i'd like to poke and prod at like the world's most corrupt surgeon

Makes all buffs the player have permanent until death.

i will happily pay an extra 5 life fruit or life crystals to have theoretically permanent heartreach, lifeforce, endurance, wrath, rage, endurance, summoning, ironskin, and regeneration potions active, let alone advance preparation to also have things such as honey. would it also cause cozy fire, heart lantern, etc to be permanent, or would it just be consumables? this is an effect that gets stronger the better you are at the game and heavily rewards pre-planning and honestly the kinds of things you could do with it makes 5 hearts a steal.

The player will get the best reforging in the next 3 times they craft or reforge an item with the Goblin Tinkerer.

how do you quantify this for accessories? would it always be a max rank reforge so things like quick can appear? what if someone doesn't want warding and gets warding three times in a row? what about the chain gun, which can choose between rapid and godly? a deal with the devil is in the fine print, after all

 

[Rexsilion26]

how do you quantify this for accessories? would it always be a max rank reforge so things like quick can appear? what if someone doesn't want warding and gets warding three times in a row? what about the chain gun, which can choose between rapid and godly? a deal with the devil is in the fine print, after all

I hadn't thought of that.
Maybe the solution would be to simply allow you to choose the modification you want for 1 item in exchange for 1 heart.

 

[QWizard]

I’m not saying that they don’t fit, I’m saying that calling suggestions modded is extremely silly and doesn’t even make sense anymore.

It feels like a mod to me, I’m not going to feel different because you tell me it’s silly to feel that way.

You quoted the same items as me, but you avoid fact that they all do something in Terraria where there is already something existing that is close to the purpose of each of these items. Very weak arguments from you in my opinion, they are stretching pretty far I’ll give you that. Doesn’t matter if they have minor traits about them that are new, I suggest the purpose of these items is what is more relevant than the development behind them.

Shell-Phone & Pylons: Long-Distance Transporation
Tabi: Character Agility (Wings, +Jumps, Grapple, Etc)

This suggested item has the purpose of sacrificing life for something. Never before has this purpose existed, there’s nothing close to it. It is uncharacteristic of -Vanilla- terraria.

There are items that trade attack power for increased survivability, that’s probably the closest thing you’ve got to the concept put forward here.

sorely needed role by allowing you to remove your your hearts

Why is removing hearts a need? I’m curious why you think this is a need. It hasn’t ever existed before, why does it need to exist now?

I don’t mean to shoot down creativity, but if it’s not a need it’s not a need

end events

This idea I can get behind, but only for Journey mode where I already have control of the weather, day-night cycle, and more. If I’m playing on any non-journey difficulties, I don’t need a way to end an event. I’ll experience the event and enjoy the event, it’s part of the Terraria experience.