Game Mechanics Easy Mode (An easier difficulty where players can take it easy)

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Aurora3500

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UPDATE: As of 1.4, this suggestion has been fulfilled in the form of Journey Mode!

Is even Normal Mode too difficult for you? Wish that the enemies weren't as strong or that you got stronger? Perhaps you don't want challenging monsters and just want to build, fish or mess around? Easy Mode is coming for you!

Expert Mode was one of the 1.3 update's best additions of the game, it alone increases accessibility for more players of Terraria from those who don't want the game too difficult and for those who really want a challenge. To expand on the current Normal and Expert Mode in Terraria I'm making a few more difficulty modes to further expand the scope of Terraria's difficulty similar to other games which have up to 3-5 difficulty levels, which accommodates all beginners, rookies, veterans, and masters.

The goal of Easy Mode is to benefit players who want to focus on the more non-combat oriented features of Terraria, most of which includes building, fishing, exploring, and other things. But because there still needs to be an incentive to have players play the game in its original normal state through Normal Mode. Things like Drop Rates from enemies would be slightly reduced, and achievements wouldn't be able to be earned in Easy Mode. The assumption is that players who choose to do an easier difficulty than the base game won't care about things like achivements or challenging enemies.

If this were implemented, Easy Mode would be a world generation option alongside Normal and Expert Mode available from the start (Because it makes little sense to lock the easiest difficulty setting in a game). Perhaps with Green Text with the message being "For anyone who wants to relax."

Now for all the new features

For this suggestion, Green Text refers to Easy Mode Stats.

Mechanics
  • All Player Weapons gain an additional 2% Critical Chance.
  • Game Achievements can't be earned in Easy Mode.
  • Normal enemy stats are decreased. They are 50% compared to Normal Mode Stats.
  • Overall enemy spawn rate is reduced.
  • Spawn Limits for all biomes are decreased (Meaning that if the Jungle had a limit of 11 enemies present at once, it would have 9 now)
  • Spawn Limit and Spawn Rate are not increased during Nighttime.
  • All crafting recipes only require 75% of their ingredients compared to Normal Mode (Only affects recipes that require multiple of the same item)
  • Debuffs on the player last 25% less longer.
  • Drop Rates for enemy items are slightly decreased.
  • NPCs move into houses quicker if their conditions are meet.
  • Player does not lose any money on death.
  • All Tools have +1 increased Range.
  • There is a 50% less chance to catch junk while fishing.
  • Only 50 tiles of connected liquid are required to be classified as a lake for fishing (36 for Honey) (800 for Oceans)
  • Penalty for small lake sizes is decreased.
  • Only 200 tiles of connected water are required to no longer catch junk.
  • Bait power for all bait is increased by 5% (Except Truffle Worm).
  • Fishing Power for all rods is increased by 5%.
  • Natural 10% increased chance to get crates while fishing.
  • Mining Ores except for Chlorophyte yields 2 instead of 1 as a drop. (Only works for Ore Naturally generated. A player placing down an ore and mining it again will only yield 1 drop.)
  • Zombies can no longer break doors during a Blood Moon.
  • Possessed Armors can no longer break doors.
  • Skeletons and Skeleton variants can no longer break doors.
  • Breaking Demon/Crimson Altars generates more Ore compared to Normal Mode.
  • More Life Crystals are created on World Generation compared to Normal Mode.
  • Lava does less damage to player on contact.
  • Corruption/Crimson can't spread in Pre-Hardmode
  • Corruption/Crimson and Hallow in Hardmode can only spread to blocks up to 2 blocks apart, rate of spreading is also reduced.
  • Breaking a Demon/Crimson Altar can no longer cause a random block in the World to become Corrupt/Crimson/Hallow.
  • Corruption/Crimson and Jungle can no longer grow thorny vines.
  • Chlorophyte grows quicker in the Jungle
  • King Slime can no longer spawn randomly on an outer 3rd of the map. King Slime can only naturally appear in the Slime Rain.
  • Only 50 enemies have to be defeated for each Pillar in the Lunar Event to remove the Pillar shields.

Events
  • Slime Rain now requires the player to have 180 Health and 12 defense at minimum for it to occur.
  • Blood Moon now requires the player to have 160 health instead of 120 to trigger.
  • Eye of Cthulhu can only spawn naturally if the player has 240 Health instead of 200. Other spawn conditions of Eye of Cthulhu are still the same.
  • Goblin Invasion can only occur if player has 240 Health instead of 200 including its other conditions.
  • In Hardmode, Pirate Invasions can no longer occur naturally after breaking a Demon/Crimson Altar.
  • Goblin Invasions will no longer occur naturally after the 1st Goblin invasion is defeated.
  • Solar Eclipses will no longer occur naturally if the player has beaten Plantera.
  • Mech Bosses in Hardmode have a decreased chance of spawning naturally if a Demon/Crimson Altar is broken.
  • Martian Probes are much slower and take a little longer to trigger Martian Madness Event compared to Normal Mode.

Bosses
Bosses have reduced stats and are slower overall compared to Normal Mode. Normal Mode stats are still listed for comparison to Easy Mode Stats.

King Slime
HP: 1200 (2000)
Damage: (Damage Stat is missing from the wiki. Will add it when it comes back)
Changes:
Not much is changed. King Slime hops less frequently compared to Normal Mode.

Eye of Cthulhu
1st Phase:
HP: 1600 (2800)
Damage: 10 (15)
Changes:
Eye of Cthulhu will now only transform into its 2nd Phase at 25% Health (400 HP)

2nd Phase:
HP: 400/1600
Damage: 15 (22)
Changes:
EoC charges much slower at the player. Interval between floating around player and charging is increased.

Eater of Worlds:
HP:
Head: 45 (65)
Body: 90 (150)
Tail: 180 (220)
Damage:
Head: 14 (22)
Body: 7 (13)
Tail: 5 (11)
Changes:
When the EoW splits up into segments, only one of the segments will attempt to charge and attack the player at a time.

Brain of Cthulhu:
HP: 650 (1000)
Damage: 20 (30)
Changes:
The BoC will teleport less frequently in its 2nd phase. Knockback is also more effective against the BoC while it's in phase 2.

Skeletron:
HP:
Head: 3300 (4400)
Hand: 300 (600)
Damage:
Head: 22 (32)
Hand: 14 (20)
Changes:
Skeletron overall moves slower. If day comes while fighting Skeletron, it will not transform and gain the ability to one hit kill the player. The Dungeon will still be unlocked if Skeletron is defeated with the fight dragging into daytime.

Queen Bee:
HP: 2800 (3400)
Damage:
Melee: 20 (30)
Stinger: 16 (22)
Changes:
Queen Bee's charge attack is much slower. It will not shoot stingers as rapidly.

Wall of Flesh:
HP: 6000 (8000)
Damage: 35 (50)
Changes:
Overall attacks are just slightly slower. Nothing else is changed about the WoF compared to Normal Mode.

Mech Bosses have their stats reduced to the state they were in with the 1st 1.2 Update. (1.2 up to 1.2.2) Overall their attacks and movements are slower and the Twins only transform to Phase 2 at 25% health.

Plantera:
1st Phase
HP: 25000 (30000)
Damage:
Melee: 38 (50)
Seed: 32 (44)
Thorn Ball: 48 (62)
Changes:
Plantera's can no longer fire seeds that poison.

2nd Phase
HP: 8750/25000
Damage:
Melee: 50 (70)
Changes:
Plantera moves slower in Phase 2 compared to Normal Mode. It doesn't have as many Plantera Tentacles compared to Normal Mode.

Golem:
HP:
Head (Combined with Body): 12000 (16000)
Body: 6000 (9000)
Fist: 5600 (7000)
Damage: All of Golem's Attacks have 75% Damage compared to Normal Mode Damage Levels.
Changes:
Golem Fists will always fire at the slowest speed regardless of health they have remaining. Golem's Body hops less frequently.

Duke Fishron:
HP: 42000 (50000)
Damage: All of Duke Fishron's Attacks have 80% Damage compared to Normal Mode Damage Levels.
Changes:
Duke Fishron is slower compared to Normal Mode. Sharknado/Cthulhunado attacks release less Sharkrons compared to Normal Mode. Duke Fishron only transforms to Phase 2 at 25% of Health (10500/42000)

Lunatic Cultist:
HP: 24000 (32000)
Damage: All of Lunatic Cultist's attacks have 80% Damage compared to Normal Mode Damage Levels.
Changes:
Lunatic Cultist's Lightning attack doesn't fire as many bolts compared to Normal Mode. Other attacks are slower overall. If the Lunatic Cultist has 2 or more Mirages, the player can hit one of them without causing the Phantasm Dragon or Ancient Vision to be summoned.

Moon Lord:
HP:
Head: 30000 (45000)
Hand: 17500 (25000)
Core: 37500 (50000)
Damage:
Phantasmal Deathray: 100 (150)
Phantasmal Bolt: 50 (60)
Phantasmal Sphere: 75 (100)
Phantasmal Eye: 50 (60)
Melee (Eye Socket): Unchanged (80)
Changes:
No changes for the Final Boss aside from reduced stats. Fight is the same as Normal Mode.

This would consist of most of easy mode. Because Combat isn't the main focus of a lower difficulty, players of any skill levels would play this mode to focus more on other parts of Terraria. The enemies and bosses may sound extremely easy with these new stats and slower patterns in place, though many players and especially beginners still struggle to do Normal Mode in terms of how difficult the enemies and bosses are. This Mode would give them a greater chance at playing through the whole game. The Penalty of not earning Achievements and lower drop rates on Easy Mode would still serve as a motive for players to play Normal Mode and up. If there are other reasonable mechanics that you'd like to see added or changed geared towards non-combat Terraria activities, let me know and I'll try to implement it in this suggestion if it seems reasonable.

EDIT 1 (August 28, 2015):
Fixed a few bugs with this suggestion with the help of @felis
  • Removed yielding twice as many results for bricks and walls being crafted.
  • Mining Ore will only yield 2 of the drop if its ore naturally generated from World Gen. Once the player has it in their inventory or gets ore from other sources aside mining, it will only give 1 if the ore is placed and mined again.
EDIT 2 (October 27th 2015):
Implemented some suggestions from @Zidane471 and @Patano
Enemy Spawn Rates are reduced overall
Spawn limits for all biomes are slightly decreased
All crafting recipes only require 75% of their ingredients compared to Normal Mode (Only affects recipes that require multiple of the same item)
Spawn Limit and Spawn Rate are not increased during Nighttime.
Softcore Characters no longer lose any money on death.
Removed Player Weapon and Defense Buffs
Normal Enemy Stats are decreased to 50% rather than 75%
 
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Just found two glitches:
Crafting recipes for building blocks and walls yield twice the amount they normally do compared to Normal Mode.
Then the player could repeatly craft blocks to walls and walls to blocks and get a lot of blocks out of nothing(almost).
Mining Ores except for Chlorophyte yields 2 instead of 1 as a drop.
Maybe only for natural ores?

Other things are pretty good, especially for builders.
 
Whilst some people would not mind this there are a few things in the current state of Terraria which is equal to easy mode but this does limit some of the gameplay to its early status. By default if you just do everything up to the point of wall of flesh and simply not kill it you can just then sit there in pre-hardmode.

But obviously that way does prevent pretty much half the game from ever being played so I can understand the reasoning by the prospect of easy mode. ^-^ A nice casual adventure would be a nice break from combat, bosses and being attacked while building :p

A Nice tip I recommend for builders is if you can get yourself a royal slime accessory, this item is incredibly powerful. More so in hardmode than anything and is easily obtained either by expert or trading seeing as most people dont use it.
 
A Nice tip I recommend for builders is if you can get yourself a royal slime accessory, this item is incredibly powerful. More so in hardmode than anything and is easily obtained either by expert or trading seeing as most people dont use it.

Yes, it's so useful when I build my underworld mushroom farm. If not, a Lava Slime would destory it.
 
This is a pretty good idea for Builders and people who just want to relax without fighting the constant horde of mobs that Terraria provides. Also works if you're a NOOB! JK, great post.
 
The amount of effort that went in to this is really amazing, however I have question - are there really that many people that find normal too hard? I mean if you just want to build, let's have a builder mode like in minecraft, or have endgame items that allow to completely block enemy spawns and invasions.
 
The amount of effort that went in to this is really amazing, however I have question - are there really that many people that find normal too hard? I mean if you just want to build, let's have a builder mode like in minecraft, or have endgame items that allow to completely block enemy spawns and invasions.

I think the main reasoning was for those who enjoy the build aspect over the actual gameplay. Some do not want to play to end game in order to have the best equipment to build with and more so the supplies. When you think about things like that the simple mobs doe prove an issue for builders without good armor, weapons and tools but this only really accounts for builders :]
 
Normal mode is pretty damn casual compared to that... monstrosity *shudders* but I mean I really see this more as a world OPTION then type...
 
I agree with this but, I do have some comments to help the creative process.

I want to point out with weapons and armor, 1.11 and 1.04 is a strangely small number. With those rates a weapon with 100 base damage would barely hit 111. The most powerful melee weapon in the game would see a 22 damage boost. With Armor it is even worse, in normal mode defense caps around 50, this change gives just 2 extra defense and in the end only lowers incoming damage by 1. (Max is currently 152, this change would give a maximum of 6 extra defense and reduce damage by a maximum of 3.) By comparison banners grant +50% damage given and -25% melee taken. (These values are doubled in expert mode.) The point is the game combat wise, wouldn't be that much "easier". In addition, the easy mode enemy stats are still 75% of normal mode. May make more sense to drop enemy stats to ~50% and skip the weapon/armor buffs entirely.

I think enemy spawn rates should be lowered for two reasons. First, it makes keeping enemies away easier when constructing. Second, it discourages farming enemies for items. Certainly, the proposed lower drop rates will help with this but, things such as banners or other rare items would still be easily farmed in easy mode and brought to normal mode.

The rest of the changes look good but, be cautious with the easy of fishing. Many good or great items can be found in some form by fishing; crates, quests or directly fished up. So think carefully about fishing balance. (I'm not overly well versed in fishing so I am little help.) I for one would be very pleased to be able to play without constantly watching my back, even in normal mode.
 
how about the player starting with more health? let's say 250 at the beginning.
and earlier acces to certain items? (such as bars being easier to smelt by requiring less ores and certain weapons/armour pieces being obtainable from chests rather than drops) slower npc movement?

not implying that this would apply for me nor most of the other players though.
but i see where you are going.
but then again, people who don't know how to play or lack the ability to perform as well as others,
usually wouldn't know what objectives they would have to follow in order to make progress throughout the game.
this, however. applies to bigger audiences than just the less capable. (to put it nice. i'm not trying to offend anyone.)
when i first played the game, i had NO clue what to do.
and i'm pretty sure we've all been there at some point.

so for every future player's sake, i think the game should have atleast somebody or something to tell you what to do.
perhaps your own character could fulfill this task?
like.. stating what he/she ''thinks'' what he/she should be doing next.
or pointing out certain hints, for example; while walking on the crimson/corruption biomes, your character could say ''i sense great evil in here..'' to trigger somebody's curiosity and urge to explore. and when you find a voodoo doll, your character could say something like; ''is this a voodoo doll?.. i wonder what would happen if i threw this in the lava?''

the point you stated about being able to build constructions without being disturbed by annoying mobs.
i can partly agree with this one. however, we do have minions being more than capable of keeping mobs off bay.
but then again, it would be nice to build things without having to worry at all.
certain area's insist of annoyances that just prevent you from builing in peace. (damn you paladin!)
a reduced spawn rate would be nice?(which would apply for all monsters in all areas ofcourse)
 
I've made an update to this suggestion based on feedback, here is a copy of the New Changelog:

EDIT 2 (October 27th 2015):
Implemented some suggestions from @Zidane471 and @Patano
Enemy Spawn Rates are reduced overall
Spawn limits for all biomes are slightly decreased
All crafting recipes only require 75% of their ingredients compared to Normal Mode (Only affects recipes that require multiple of the same item)
Spawn Limit and Spawn Rate are not increased during Nighttime.
Softcore Characters no longer lose any money on death.
Removed Player Weapon and Defense Buffs
Normal Enemy Stats are decreased to 50% rather than 75%

so for every future player's sake, i think the game should have atleast somebody or something to tell you what to do.
perhaps your own character could fulfill this task?
like.. stating what he/she ''thinks'' what he/she should be doing next.
or pointing out certain hints, for example; while walking on the crimson/corruption biomes, your character could say ''i sense great evil in here..'' to trigger somebody's curiosity and urge to explore. and when you find a voodoo doll, your character could say something like; ''is this a voodoo doll?.. i wonder what would happen if i threw this in the lava?''

I would personally enjoy seeing this feature implemented in Normal/Expert Mode as well. Because I agree that it is difficult for a 1st time player to know what to do (I ultimately resorted to the Wiki to learn how to progress through Terraria when I 1st started playing), and the Guide doesn't explain the more complex features. Perhaps including a toggle option if players want this enabled or not.
 
It should be less rewarding though, because an easy game is a boring game. Not alot of people like to play games that are boring.
 
This and a couple Expert accessories (particularly royal gel as mentioned earlier in the thread) would pretty much be a builder's dream. We still don't have a proper builder-friendly mode, so this would definitely be a nice addition.

I would advise against modifying crafting recipes, though, as that could have really weird results. (Plus, any lazy player can just jump over to an Easy world to craft stuff for less.)
 
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