Must-have gear and other mandatory preparations for Hardmode?

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SuperJay

SuperJay

Terrarian
I played and "beat" Terraria back in the day (prior to 1.1, I think - a couple years ago) and just recently picked the game back up and started a new character in a new world. I've beaten every pre-Hardmode boss in that playthrough, so I'm basically up to the point where I could fight the Wall of Flesh.

Before I do so, I'm wondering what everyone thinks are the absolutely necessary preparations for Hardmode?

I know there's a lot you can do that may prove handy, but since this is my first time, I'm not looking to get it all perfect before I even see Hardmode. I'm more interested in the "if you don't do X it can ruin your game / world" stuff. The things you'd consider mandatory, basically. Any measures you think are necessary for your base? Any must-have gear?

As far as my loadout, I have every PHM armor set, most weapons except for a couple Underworld items (still looking for a Dark Lance, but my Night's Edge is done), and most accessories that I know of.
 
#1 Put the witch doctor in the jungle, and as soon as HM starts, buy leaf wings from him

#2 prepare a simple arena for pirates/solar. Even a simple box with lava on the side will help tremendously.

Not exactly mandatory, but I consider those to be good for dealing with nuisances.
 
Inb4 "If you don't stop the spreading biomes, your world will get destroyed".

But really, fall into the pit of snakes. Jump feet first into hell, and learn how to make it crowded the next time you go ;)
 
I personally clean up all Corruption/Crimson biomes with a Clentaminator (down to every single block), since the one gigantic one generated via Hardmode is all I need for my resources. The overtaking of a world is inevitable, but that's just part of the game. ;)

Since that aforementioned overtaking is, as aforementioned, inevitable, I build a giant wooden plug in the shape of a staple, or |____|, around and under my village, so that my home hub can remain pure.

Some gear set-ups, discluding accessories, I often look at when I'm entering Hardmode:
Melee -- Molten Armor and Dark Lance, Sunfury, Flamarang
Ranged -- Necro Armor and Minishark, Phoenix Blaster, Molten Fury
Magic -- Jungle Armor, Meteor Armor or Gypsy Armor and pretty much any decent magic from the Jungle, Dungeon and Underworld
Summoner -- Bee Armor and Hornet Staff, Imp Staff

Oceans being overtaken by the biomes is inevitable (can't build a sideways plug; the biomes will spread in the 15 blocks you can't reach on the outside of your world), so I often don't fret. I'd recommend watching over your jungle, but building a large shaft or two is up to you.

An interesting aside: If the Corruption/Crimson spreads too close to your NPC's, they will move out. The Hallow, albeit dangerous, won't force your NPC's to leave; consider these factors when prioritizing your biomes.

And finally, you can optionally build any arena's for the upcoming invasions and mechanical bosses, but I personally don't. Good luck with your world, doc. :dryadcool:
 
Molten armour, nights edge or dark lance. Ranged would be sharanga. Not sure about accessories but fast boots help. Make a hell brief pudge to make WoF easy to kill. Molten armour is must have for hardmode at first so you can farm for cobalt at least to kick some arse (cobalt is blue). Also stay away from chests until you know they are actually chests. These are called mimics and are nasty buggers. Get wings as soon as possible, what free night said. Wings help a lot. Hope I helped
 
Protect the jungle, is can be infected my the crimson/corruption. Hallow doesn't affect the jungle, but the crimson/corruption does. The crimson/corruption replaces the grass on the mud blocks to dirt with corrupted/crimson grass on it. You can't take back the corruption/crimson's damage, so protect it while you can. The jungle holds many end-game items that you NEED. Just protect the jungle from other biomes. Remember, jungle is love, jungle is life.
 
Thanks for the ideas. I don't really follow the tips about protecting biomes, unfortunately.

SolidRock99 said:
Protect the jungle, is can be infected my the crimson/corruption. Hallow doesn't affect the jungle, but the crimson/corruption does. The crimson/corruption replaces the grass on the mud blocks to dirt with corrupted/crimson grass on it. You can't take back the corruption/crimson's damage, so protect it while you can. The jungle holds many end-game items that you NEED. Just protect the jungle from other biomes. Remember, jungle is love, jungle is life.
Click to expand...

I know the Crimson / Corruption spreads, but how do you "protect" your jungle? Do you just do something on the surface or do you have to somehow shield the entire underground areas? Because that sounds horribly tedious.

These tips at least sound more manageable than what's listed in the guide - moving your whole base underground, destroying your current base, moving all NPCs and items and storage and all that, building arenas, battlegrounds for WoF, etc. I do want to see Hardmode (it was the whole point of starting this new playthrough) but some of the suggestions elsewhere make it sound like a ton of work and boredom just to prepare for HM, and the prospect of playing for hours and hours just to do uninteresting manual labor doesn't sound all that appealing and is actually deterring me from following through, but I'm already getting bored and losing interest in the game the longer I sit around in pre-Hardmode. :p
 
Well sadly it can be quite tedious at times, but if you don't feel like moving underground, you could also build a base in the sky. I did that in my current world and there are never any enemies up there to kill them, unless it's an event and I'm up there as well. Just if you do that, make sure you don't build so high as to have Wyverns and Harpies spawn in. In fact you don't have to build too high, maybe 50-100 blocks above the ground, as long as it's a large world. And I did it in the regular forest biome, where hardmode is easiest.

Also, if you want to protect your base from the hardmode biomes, don't forget to build hellevators at least 3 blocks wide, because the Crimson/Corruption and the Hallow cannot spread over 3 block gaps. So 2 hellevators on either side of the land you want to protect, and to be safe, one going horizontally underground a little ways.
 
I really do not understand The whole fuzz about The corruption/crimson/hallow spreading.

Trust me, it isnt nearly as bad as some people make it out to be...

At least in my opinión. The only thing that may screw you over is The generated corruption/crimson/hallow when you slay WoF...
But after that, they just don't spread THAT fast.. I actually sorta ended up helping The Hallow spread because it got a bad spawn in my world, LOL.
 
Thanks. Yeah, given the tedium involved, I do have to wonder if Re-Logic is rethinking the design here. If it wasn't for this vague, ill-formed worry that my entire world is going to be consumed by corruption and thus basically break my ability to progress through Hardmode, I'd have beaten the Wall of Flesh a week ago. As it stands, my excitement about Terraria is already fading because I feel like I'm stuck: I know I need to prepare for HM, but either those preparations are so involved that it's hard to feel they're worth all the work involved, or they're so vague that I don't really understand what to do. So I fire up Terraria, and I sit staring at my cool blue castle that I'm apparently now supposed to evacuate and destroy so I can move into a hole in the ground in order to progress further in the game, and then I sigh unhappily, exit the game, and play something else. :(

So to me, it seems like the current model is having potentially unanticipated (and hopefully unwanted) ramifications for player behavior, where we're essentially being asked to take steps to prevent the gameworld from breaking itself. I like the idea of the corrupt biomes spreading, but if it's literally possible for you to screw yourself out of the materials you need to finish Hardmode by neglecting to take these steps, that's problematic in a number of ways.
 
A molten pickaxe, just get it, or else you won't be able to mine the new minerals.
A water bolt too, it's decent (combined with the breaker blade/night's edge) until you get the golden shower
 
Personally, I never really worry about the Corruption/Crimson spreading. Once you get far enough into Hardmode, you get an item called the Clentaminator that allows you to purge biomes on a really large scale. The only thing it doesnt do fix the jungle once it gets corrupted, and thus thats still a problem.

If your really worried about seeing your house destroyed, you could make a backup copy of your world, then enter hardmode and see what happens. Not a perfect solution, but at least you would have that copy there to fall back to.
 
Raz0r0x said:
Personally, I never really worry about the Corruption/Crimson spreading. Once you get far enough into Hardmode, you get an item called the Clentaminator that allows you to purge biomes on a really large scale. The only thing it doesnt do fix the jungle once it gets corrupted, and thus thats still a problem.

If your really worried about seeing your house destroyed, you could make a backup copy of your world, then enter hardmode and see what happens. Not a perfect solution, but at least you would have that copy there to fall back to.
Click to expand...

Okay cool, thanks for some tangible info. So the Jungle is the biggest worry, and everyone's saying "protect it," but what exactly does that entail? I asked upthread "I know the Crimson / Corruption spreads, but how do you "protect" your jungle? Do you just do something on the surface or do you have to somehow shield the entire underground areas?" But nobody has responded to that. If it's just a matter of building or digging out some kind of barrier on the surface, I can totally do that. If it's more about digging around the entire underground jungle biome and putting up walls or leaving big tunnels, that seems like it would take forever.

And yeah, I periodically back up my worlds and characters anyway, so I'd do so before WoF for sure. At this point I may just go that route to see what all the fuss is about. Sitting around dreading the drudgery of moving everything out of my castle isn't going to change anything. (But seriously why did I even build anything if this was how it was going to end up? What a waste. Ugh.)
 
I have honestly never protected the jungle mainly as the Crimson/Corruption always spawns by it (I have the wose luck). One of the easiest ways is to dig a 3 block shaft down to the bottom of the world on both sides to prevent it from spreading. The rate that the Crimson spreads isn't that fast as I spent 90+ hours in a world without doing anything to the patch of Crimson by the Jungle. Even though you could neglect the Crimson/Hallow/Corruption for a long period of time, I don't recommend it as it would take more time to purify your world after a while.

Other mandatory items are: Molten Pickaxe, Mini Shark, Waterbolt, and the Goblin Tinkerer. If your lucky you could get a Legendary Cutlass on your second Hardmode day (Happened to me, not fun dying over and over)
 
The way I protect the Jungle is by spreading Hallow on either side of it. Hallow doesn't destroy the jungle, so you can basically use holy water/Hallow seeds(Brought from Dryad, use Guide to see recipies.) on either side of the Jungle to act as a natural barrier.

If activating hardmode creates a giant wall of corruption/crimson through your Jungle (Which it can occasionally do) then, well, the only thing to do is rush for a clentamintor and try to clean it out.
 
Raz0r0x said:
The way I protect the Jungle is by spreading Hallow on either side of it. Hallow doesn't destroy the jungle, so you can basically use holy water/Hallow seeds(Brought from Dryad, use Guide to see recipies.) on either side of the Jungle to act as a natural barrier.

If activating hardmode creates a giant wall of corruption/crimson through your Jungle (Which it can occasionally do) then, well, the only thing to do is rush for a clentamintor and try to clean it out.
Click to expand...
Jungle isn't effected by corruption though. > _ >
 
Solvandus said:
I personally clean up all Corruption/Crimson biomes with a Clentaminator (down to every single block), since the one gigantic one generated via Hardmode is all I need for my resources. The overtaking of a world is inevitable, but that's just part of the game. ;)

Since that aforementioned overtaking is, as aforementioned, inevitable, I build a giant wooden plug in the shape of a staple, or |____|, around and under my village, so that my home hub can remain pure.

Some gear set-ups, discluding accessories, I often look at when I'm entering Hardmode:
Melee -- Molten Armor and Dark Lance, Sunfury, Flamarang
Ranged -- Necro Armor and Minishark, Phoenix Blaster, Molten Fury
Magic -- Jungle Armor, Meteor Armor or Gypsy Armor and pretty much any decent magic from the Jungle, Dungeon and Underworld
Summoner -- Bee Armor and Hornet Staff, Imp Staff

Oceans being overtaken by the biomes is inevitable (can't build a sideways plug; the biomes will spread in the 15 blocks you can't reach on the outside of your world), so I often don't fret. I'd recommend watching over your jungle, but building a large shaft or two is up to you.

An interesting aside: If the Corruption/Crimson spreads too close to your NPC's, they will move out. The Hallow, albeit dangerous, won't force your NPC's to leave; consider these factors when prioritizing your biomes.

And finally, you can optionally build any arena's for the upcoming invasions and mechanical bosses, but I personally don't. Good luck with your world, doc. :dryadcool:
Click to expand...
You can build a sideways plug, the ocean's sand doesn't go down forever.
Ziggyzagoo said:
Jungle isn't effected by corruption though. > _ >
Click to expand...
Ya it is, corruption can turn mud into dirt then spread.
 
The ONLY obligatory item/preparation for HM is a proper house with room for many NPCs, and the Molten Pickaxe (mine Hardmode ores). Trust me, that's really all you need.

Extra preparations include:
*Any armor, really. Jungle, Necro, Molten, Meteor, Crimson, Shadow, it doesn't matter. Though Molten Armor is the one with the biggest defense (but is intended for meele players)
*Building your house in the sky (very optional)
*Some high-tier weapon (which is often covered if you were able to kill WoF, or from a drop of the WoF itself once it's defeated). The best for early hardmode are Phoenix Blaster, Night's Edge or any weapon found in the Shadow Chests in the Underworld. Phoenix Blaster can get you far into hardmode.
*Moving the Witch Doctor (obtained by killing the Queen Bee) to a house in the Jungle. During the night in hardmode, he will sell one of the best wings for 1 platinum coin. It helps a lot, but you can make other wings with Souls of Flight. You will later learn about those.

Don't worry about biomes spreading. Trust me. If your house happens to become corrupted once you kill WoF, you can just make it all hallowed pretty fast and never worry about it again. As simple as that! If your jungle is menaced by a wall of corruption, it's not that terrible, it happened to me in my latest playthrough and I didn't have any problems because of it.
Also, the Wall of Flesh will drop the PwnHammer. You will need it.


You should also hurry to kill the Mechanical bosses, since killiong those slows down the spreading of biomes.

This comes from a quasi-veteran of Terraria.
Happy.png


And merry christmas!
 
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  • Have easy access to the sky for getting Souls of Flight. A nearby floating island is perfect, but if you don't have one, just build up until you hear the space music and make a platform about 100 blocks long.
  • Do tons of exploring in the Jungle. Having lots of area exposed on the map will make foraging for Life Fruits and Plantera's Bulbs go a lot smoother. You might also find the Temple early. If you're a melee character, try to find a beehive and beat Queen Bee so you can get the Imbuing Station.
  • If you're a ranger, build the biggest glowing mushroom farm you can, and go harvest it regularly. By the time you are able to get the Autohammer, you should have piles and piles of mushrooms already on hand.
  • Having an ocean grinder wouldn't hurt. Pirate Invasions are one of the best ways to make money, even at the very bottom of hardmode.
  • Go fishing. Like, a lot. If you're smart, then you will have been saving your crates since you started fishing. Hardmode ores and bars will be added to the loot tables once the Wall of Flesh has been dismantled, so opening a hundred or so crates right at the very beginning can give you a huge boost. If you get enough, you might not even need to smash any altars, which will prevent the mechanical bosses from randomly spawning.
 
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