Most areas in the game are as difficult as the player allows them to, some to the extreme degree block phasing enemy for crimson to make getting hearts risky when. That doesn't really have an effect on how pleasant it is to explore through the area (and sometimes even is used to justify unfair quirks, since you can just play around them).
Master Mode being meta only?
An area/ location having its identity is
much more important than a players opinion on how it can be done better, especially if their previous takes on the same game were severely misguided. At a certain point, a person should be humble enough to admit that they
should probably give much more though to their opinions before suggesting a massive change. You're literally going into the
Lions Den with this area, that's also
very optional. Because this section is very opinion based, I'll give some classic opinion myself. There's an area in Dark Souls 1 called the
New Londo Ruins, it's notoriously known for it's early-game difficulty. Wanna know the funny part about this area? It's an area, years ago, that many new players cried about, saying it needs to be nerfed. Wanna know what happened a few months later? They figured out the gimmick behind the place, only to discover that the difficulty was an illusion. Dark Souls 1 is considered a classic because it sticks to its identity & doesn't cave to a players
knee-jerk ego-based responses. You need to learn the game, period.
Why should you be Metagaming if you're gonna play Master Mode? You know... the fact that you even asked me this let's me know that your suggestions to game balance are dangerous to the health of the game, but, because I know that the people who like your posts are gonna try to use~ me not answering this as ammunition, here's a simple response... "
any time you increase the danger & difficulty of a game, resource management becomes that much more prevalent". If you're intentionally turning the dial up to
"kill me please", but you aren't even aware of your common resources, how can you possibly be taken seriously if you start talking about nerfs to difficulty?
Well, not disagreeing with that I guess. The first half left me mildly confused though, what are you trying to imply there?
So-called Cat Statues sure are nice and all, but I feel like you over-dramatize the effect of 1.25 Warding or 0.625 Ironskin Potions. Regen from campfire is more beneficial, much easier to get in sufficient quantities yet is not considered that vital either.
It's not about what I think, it's about the fact the people are complaining about dying too fast, when they have resources that'll increase their survival rate that they aren't using. You can't claim that an area is
too hard, when you're not even putting forth the small effort it takes to counter it. This is why the Metagaming question you asked earlier is absurd. You want the game to be harder, without addressing any of the obvious new threats you'll be facing. At the very least, take some of the bite out of your mistakes when they happen, it doesn't make any sense
not to do that...
They are easy to avoid. Almost every trap is easy to avoid. It's about how much of player's thought is dedicated to a single task of avoiding that hazard (which is a tad too high given the tendency of oneshots if you move through the area faster than careful snail). Also yes, cactuses do have a redeeming quality as they can cleave through the enemies as well. Except it's not the entirely unique layer of strategy, lava exists. A bit different to manipulate, less interactive but more persistent, and most importantly, it doesn't drastically scale with difficulty modes. Cactus can be nerfed without losing that quirk.
It doesn't take much thought to blast your way directly down into an abandoned Sand House, loot the items & repeat, with your biggest worry possibly being Tomb Crawlers or Dune Splicers. Most areas have ways to deal with the gimmicks, if you choose to play into them, that's a choice, it has nothing to do with game balance.
I guess it is a fine puzzle by itself, it just needs to be less punishing honestly. Just to not discourage an average player too quickly.
Optional area isn't an excuse, however. You only ever need Underworld and Jungle to finish the game (unless you count Temple in order to get altar and Dungeon's entrance to summon cultists). Does that mean other dozen of biomes can be as nerve-wrecking as they want?
I'm not suggesting it's an excuse, you are. I think the area is just fine & at most could use for a slight boost in the Weapons you find there. Once you raid the Underground Desert, there's very little reason to return unless you want something very specific, namely Summoners. I'm not going to play into comparing this area to others, because most of the suggestions I see are attempts to strip the game of it's identity in many ways, which I'm 100% against. The area is fine as is, just slightly buff the Weapons is my stance, if anything.
Also a nitpick about Summoner: it may be, just may be, that the biome assisting Summoner the most is actually a reflection of how lacking Summoner's content is, to the point where every bit helps immensely, as opposed to other classes that can shrug off chunks of content with little to no impact.
I mean, if you're gonna Metagame, then
Metagame... it doesn't make sense to compare normal progression to the numbers game. Again, the fact that a good number of you are in agreement that this... somehow makes sense, is exactly why I feel your suggestions should be overlooked. If the problem with a Class is it's durability, which can easily be addressed,
"but I don't feel like it~ so please nerf", is the common attitude, I want no parts of it in Terraria. Everyone's gonna suffer in the long run if shortsighted suggestions like these are taken seriously, so I'm
obligated to be the voice of reason I feel...