NPCs & Enemies Monster Hunter NPC

[Dovahkat963]

This is my first suggestion so this is kind of an experiment for me, but here we go.

I was thinking of a quest NPC like the Angler, except he gives you quests to kill certain enemies. For reasons that will be explained below, his quest resets at 7:30, the beginning of the night, instead of 4:30. He defends himself with a hunting rifle, which when used by him looks to function similarly to a musket, but it's also a quest reward and has some special features.
He can spawn anywhere on the surface after the Eye of Cthulhu has been defeated AND you have killed at least 200 of any one type of enemy. The hunter will only spawn if there is another enemy nearby already. He will be shooting at nearby enemies while lying prone, so he would be hard to miss.
When spoken to for the first time, he will say: "I've seen the way you fight. Together we might actually stand a chance against the creatures this world has to offer."

The way his quests work is he randomly selects an enemy you have killed at least one of in the current world (so its in your Bestiary) and asks you to kill a certain number of them. The number depends on the hidden category that the enemy falls into. The categories are common, uncommon, rare, and unique enemies, and the kills required are 50, 25, 5, and 1, respectively. Common enemies are things like slimes, zombies, bats, things you can't go 5 feet without running into. Uncommon enemies would be things like skeletons, giant worms, or enemies exclusive to a particular biome. Rare enemies are anything that can appear on the lifeform analyzer or otherwise just have a very low spawn rate and don't fall into the unique category. The unique category includes minibosses like Biome Mimics and event bosses, plus actual bosses. If there is a summon item for the unique enemy in question he will give it to you when you ask for the quest for the first time that day. His quest resets at the beginning of the night because some enemies can only be fought at night and you might run out of time to turn in the quest if it reset in the morning. Also for enemies with many variants, like slimes and zombies, he won't specify any one variant. Any variant will do. Upon killing the required number of enemies you will get the message "Bounty fulfilled!", so you know when to stop.

There are some enemies he will never give a quest for:

• Enemies exclusive to minibiomes (Spiders, Ravens, Granite enemies, etc.)
• Enemies exclusive to uncontrollable random events (Blood moon, Rain, Blizzard, Sandstorm, etc.)
• Enemies of the opposite world evil, even if you artificially created it.
• Skeletron and the Wall of Flesh, because they both require killing an NPC to summon them, which he is not about to condone.

Rewards for quest completion are:

• 1-25 gold, the amount depends on world progression, with +/- 15% variation.
• 3-5 of either health or mana potions, the tier of potion is the highest tier dropped by a boss you have defeated. (So once you defeat a boss that drops regular potions he starts giving those, and the same for greater potions, and so on.)
• 2 random buff potions. (Can be 2 of the same potion, though this is unlikely.)
• If the enemy he asks you to hunt has a rare drop (rare being a drop rate of 5% or less), he has a 25% chance of giving you that item. If there are multiple rare drops from the target he will only give one of them.
• 20% chance for an exclusive item that depends on number of quests completed (listed below).

After 10 quests, he can give one of 4 class specific weapons:

• The Hunter's Blade, a sword that swings twice with each attack, once forward, then doing a reverse swing back to its starting position. The first swing has half knockback, but hitting an enemy with both swings causes the second swing to deal double damage and knockback. 24 melee damage, fast speed, average knockback.
• The Hunting Rifle, a gun that allows scoping like the sniper rifle, except 'aiming' at an enemy for 2 seconds (hovering your cursor near the target while scoped) locks on to the target, causing your character to track them automatically when firing and gaining +25% damage against the locked target. Unscoping cancels the effect. 28 ranged damage, slow speed, high knockback.
• The Heartseeker, a magic staff that fires a piercing, homing bolt that can pierce 2 enemies, stopping a the 3rd. It isn't true homing, rather it curves towards targets that are near its trajectory. It won't do a 180 to hit something in the opposite direction. 30 magic damage, average speed, weak knockback, costs 5 mana per shot.
• The Pack Staff, a summon weapon that summons a Wolf to fight for you. It is a ground melee minion that lunges at enemies from a distance, or just rapidly mauls them when near them. The lunge can target enemies from up to 30 tiles away, but won't be used against targets that are less than 5 tiles away. 20 summon damage, average speed, weak knockback. Costs 10 mana per use.
• These weapons have hardmode variants that become available at 50 quests, and of course the world needs to be hardmode. They are the Slayer Blade, the Muzzleloader, the Heartstopper, and the Dire Staff. The sword is bigger, the gun gets higher knockback and +10% crit chance, the spell gets true homing and pierces 4 enemies, and the staff summons a Dire Wolf that slows enemies with its lunge. They are all scaled to be post mech boss tier. He stops giving the pre-hardmode versions once the hardmode versions are unlocked.

At 25 quests he is guaranteed to give the Hunter's Mark accessory. This boosts enemy drop chances. It works by making an enemy roll for its drops twice, which can result in a double drop if you're lucky. The effect doesn't apply to bosses. This item is added to the exclusive item pool afterwards in case you lose it somehow.
I think thats everything for his quests, wasn't planning to get that involved at first, hope I didn't lose you there.

His happiness preferences are:

• Likes the Desert
• Dislikes the Snow
• Loves the Arms Dealer
• Likes the Angler
• Dislikes the Guide and the Clothier
• Hates the Zoologist

His happiness quotes:

• "Peace and quiet. No one around to scare off the prey."
• "There are too many people here, I can't hunt with this many bystanders."
• "It'd be nice to have a wall to hang my trophies on."
• "I'm used to long expeditions, but this is a little too far from home."
• "Ah, the desert. Clear sight lines, nowhere to hide. Perfect."
• "Can't stand the snow. Barely anything to hunt, and what's there blends in!"
• "The denizens of the Corruption/Crimson are worth hunting, but this is their turf. Not ours.
• "I love hanging out with [Name of Arms Dealer]. How else am I gonna stock up on ammo?"
• "I can respect [Name of Angler]. He's too young to hunt, but fishing is a good substitute."
• "I don't like [Name of Guide/Clothier]. He's cursed, and you can't trust someone with a curse."
• "I despise that werefox [Name of Zoologist]! Lycanthropes are feral beasts, you can't expect living near one to end well!"

Some other random quotes:

• "Those monsters aren't going to kill themselves you know! Well actually, they sometimes do..."
• "Slash and blast them, until it is done."
• "That's enough bloodshed for one day. You can rest now."
• Before killing the Wall of Flesh and after killing Skeletron: "There is something suspicious about [Name of Guide]'s 'random burn wounds'. I don't like it.
• During a Blood Moon: "You might want to barricade the doors. Those blood zombies can bash right through them, and I don't have enough ammo for that many targets."
• During a full moon, if the Zoologist is present: "I can hear the growls of that werefox from here. She better stay inside or else I'll have to take drastic measures."
• During a windy day: "These strong winds are throwing off my aim!"
• During rain: "Flying fish eh? Sounds like fishing just got a lot more fun."
• During a storm: "Not hunting in that mess. Can barely see, and you might get struck by lightning."

I'm terrible a names, and NPC names are usually references, which I'm even worse at, so I'm not going to try and make a name list.

And that should be everything. What do you think? Good idea, bad idea? Did I forget anything? Besides the names of course.

 

[Jason_c_o]

I'm almost certain I've seen this exact suggestion before...

 

[Quba]

I like the idea but I have a small question. Wouldn't it be better to either have a bigger time limit or even no limit at all ? Finding just one of the rarer monsters can be really annoying and I feel like five would be just too much.

 

[Dovahkat963]

I like the idea but I have a small question. Wouldn't it be better to either have a bigger time limit or even no limit at all ? Finding just one of the rarer monsters can be really annoying and I feel like five would be just too much.

I hadn't considered that, but you're right, perhaps just have a quest persist until completed, then it resets the next day. Or maybe have it persist for 3 days? In case the target is one you don't want the hassle of going after. Starting to realize there isn't an easy answer to that particular issue.

 

[Quba]

I think that another good idea would be to make him give you more quests at the same time, this way you could keep the shorter time limit or make getting the rewards easier.