Portfolio/Multi-Topic Overhaul Terraria's Difficulty.

[totallydeadaccountdude]

Currently as is Terraria's difficulty varies WILDLY from place to place. Some areas are VERY hard while later stages are easier than them! This causes a lot of problems, including overwhelming, sudden difficulty spikes. This includes stuff like Post-Golem, and pre-hardmode to hardmode. The game doesn't prepare you for upcoming enemies and events enough.
I recently asked a group of forum members (@Kyouko Tsukino, @General Milky, @caneurysmFever, @Scarecrow, @Snickerbobble in a forum convo, plus @QuackersDelta and @Baconfry in a later steam convo) a couple of questions.

Question 1: What is the hardest area of the game?
What came up the most (Just barely, though) was the Lunar event, which makes sense! It's end-game, so there's really nothing to talk about here.

Question 2: What is the easiest area of the game?
Pre-hardmode/the BoC/EoW - Skeletron stretch was considered the easiest part of the game by most of the folks I pulled in. Again, while this makes sense, but the problem with pre-hardmode is that it's TOO easy. It's TOO forgiving, and makes the player TOO powerful. You can get the most powerful armor within the first hour. (I once decided to dig down to hell when I only had lead weapons, armor and a demonite pickaxe. I got hellstone before killing Skeletron. That's how easy it is.) Plus with the addition of prefixes such as Warding, this makes bosses and enemies even MORE weak.

Question 3: What is your least favorite part of the game?
Multiple people stated that they disliked the pre-mech area of the game, and for a good reason too.

The 1.1 part of the game becomes snail speed for me. I love this game but sadly this part is a complete drag. We go back to simple ore mining, except this time you can't skip from copper to gold like before, you have to go through each tier of tools in order to mine the next. If we could mine titanium and down with a molten pick, it would help speed up this slow part of the game, and have some checks so ore isn't too rare. X amount of ore within a 200x200 block area, something like that.

3. Probably hardmode ore collection. This includes chlorophyte, too, because unlike everything else it's nearly impossible to take this at your own pace. It's a time sink no matter how you go about it, and I get eager to just continue.

Post-WoF/Pre-Mech is the slowest part of the game. The only thing you're really able to do outside of mine is farm for rare drops from enemies and buy stuff. Nothing else. There's no events you can do that are fun.

Question 4: If there was one area you could make harder, what would it be?
Multiple people said that pre-hardmode needs to be harder.

4- Pre-hardmode. It does nothing to prepare the player for the rest of the game - just lulls them into a false "I am a God" feeling. 1.0.3 pre-hardmode needs a comeback.

4. Eater of Worlds, in normal mode. It's pretty pathetic for a boss. Expert fixes a lot of problems the boss has, I wish the normal version got a few of those changes (specifically, heavy hitting head damage, and resistance to grenades).

uh, I think there's a part of the game between the dungeon and the WoF that's a bit on the easy side

I also personally think Skeletron is too easy, and the Underworld is too as well. The problem is is that the enemies in the later stages of pre-hardmode (dungeon-hell) do weak damage, especially because Crimtane & Shadow, which mitigate most damage sourcs. We NEED to buff Skeletron, EoW, the dungeon's enemies and Hell.

Question 5: If there was one area you could make easier, what would it be?
Most of the complaints came from Martian Madness & the Solar Pillars, which is understandable. Martian Madness has saucers which are FASTER than the player, causing them to usually guaranteed damage to the player unless they huddle under a roof and cheese the boss, which takes forever. This enemy needs to be changed, it's too unfair to the player.

The big difficulty increases stem from multiple areas.
1. Going from Pre-mechs/post Twins and/or Prime - DESTROYER.
2. Martian Madness
3. Solar Pillars.
4. Post-WoF

The big difficulty decreases stem from multiple areas as well.
1. EoW/BoC fight - Skeletron
2. Queen Bee - Hell

Here's the problem with these areas.
Nothing in-game prepares you for the further challenges, because pre-hardmode always stays at a static "Easy" difficulty, but then you get to Hardmode and WHAM, you're getting absolutely demolished by forces much stronger than you. This happens with Post-Golem too and the damned Martian Madness invasion, because the UFOs are way too fast in their second phase to be able to react to OR run away from. Your only chance vs them is using either a singular accessory (Tabi) or hiding under a roof and shoot potshots at them.

Here's my suggested buffs/nerfs.

1. Give Skeletron 5,500 HP on the head and 1,000 HP on the hands, increase damage of hands and head speed.
2. Give the Eater of Worlds and Brain of Cthulhu more health and damage.
3. Increase Queen Bee's HP to 4,000 and bee damage.
4. Make demons do 50 damage again.
5. Make lava slimes do 40 damage as opposed to the measly 15, and give them 70 HP.
6. Fire Imps should teleport every time they're hit.
7. Destroyer should be vulnerable to debuffs, like the rest of the mechs, and probes should drop hearts 66% of the time instead to 33%.
8. When WoF is defeated, pots smashed will give Greater Healing Potions instead of Healing.
9. Martian Saucers shouldn't be faster than the player in the second phase.
10. You only need Molten Pickaxes to mine the hardmode ores, BUT need Mithril/Orichalcum anvils to craft most of hardmode's goodies, and Titanium Forge for forging.


Thoughts?

 

[Scarecrow]

I feel like instead of the Martian saucer being slower than the player, the attack should be altered a bit. the beam could start off weak, then after a second or two, it will shoot at full blast. So instead of instantly having a huge chunk of your HP taken off, you would only have a small amount taken off.
The reason why I think this should be, is because it is definitely possible to dodge the UFO laser, it's just excessively difficult for such a devastating attack. I fear that if the UFO was made slower than the player, they would run little to no risk of being hit by the laser at all, because of its limited range. This way the UFO is still just as hard to dodge, but won't basically guarantee you to die fighting them.

 

[totallydeadaccountdude]

I feel like instead of the Martian saucer being slower than the player, the attack should be altered a bit. the beam could start off weak, then after a second or two, it will shoot at full blast. So instead of instantly having a huge chunk of your HP taken off, you would only have a small amount taken off.
The reason why I think this should be, is because it is definitely possible to dodge the UFO laser, it's just excessively difficult for such a devastating attack. I fear that if the UFO was made slower than the player, they would run little to no risk of being hit by the laser at all, because of its limited range. This way the UFO is still just as hard to dodge, but won't basically guarantee you to die fighting them.

Guaranteed damage is frustrating but, I suppose.
Maybe 2nd phase's laser could start moving around too?

 

[Mattix]

Umm, I think the Molten Pickaxe for all 3 HM ores would be a bit too easy.
But, remember when you had to collect all 3 tiers of chainsaws and drills to make the Hamdrax?
Now you only need to kill the mechs.
I think the Destroyer needs to have debuff immunity, because Ichor Shower was its bane in the early 1.2
Lava slimes need to be buffed a lot! They are just one of the weakest enemies in the Underworld.
As for Imps teleporting after a hit... It would make them pretty much like Necromancers in the Hardmode Dungeon.
Did Golem's fireballs get a buff in damage? Because they used to deal, like 25 damage, so even rangers would take ~3 damage from them.

 

[Scarecrow]

Guaranteed damage is frustrating but, I suppose.
Maybe 2nd phase's laser could start moving around too?

that would be even better. if the targeting laser instead of damaging you would follow you, start flashing before the laser firing, then the targeting laser would get enveloped in that huge light beam. It would better mimic the charged beam cannon as well.

 

[totallydeadaccountdude]

Umm, I think the Molten Pickaxe for all 3 HM ores would be a bit too easy.
But, remember when you had to collect all 3 tiers of chainsaws and drills to make the Hamdrax?
Now you only need to kill the mechs.
I think the Destroyer needs to have debuff immunity, because Ichor Shower was its bane in the early 1.2
Lava slimes need to be buffed a lot! They are just one of the weakest enemies in the Underworld.
As for Imps teleporting after a hit... It would make them pretty much like Necromancers in the Hardmode Dungeon.
Did Golem's fireballs get a buff in damage? Because they used to deal, like 25 damage, so even rangers would take ~3 damage from them.

I wouldn't say getting HM ores is difficult, but annoyingly slow and tedious.
Ichor Shower also destroys everything else. If anything at LEAST it should be vulnerable to various debuffs.
That's the point, it helps you get used to an enemy and adapt to them.
Golem's fireballs did a fair amount of damage AND inflicted on fire when I was playing Ranger, so I'm very sure it was buffed.

 

[FlakMaster]

Question 1: What is the hardest area of the game?

Contrary to most, I don't actually find pre-Mech that bad. In terms of difficulty, the HM Jungle really is something. If you don't have a super weapon such as a Megashark, Shotbow or whatnot, you're going to have a bad time. I even had a Megashark and I still couldn't freely fly through a cave system without having 5 hornets chasing me from behind and dropping me to double digit health/death.

The Dungeon can be a little hard, but you have access to insane gear at this stage.

Question 2: What is the easiest area of the game?

This varies on whether you are willing to 'break' progression in Pre-HM or not. Examples include getting a Space Gun/Minishark/Meteor armour before even attempting EoC/BoC/EoW, skipping straight to Molten tier before exploring the Jungle and Dungeon and so on.

I personally try to stick to what is intended as much as possible. So, according to that, I'm probably going to say the whole of Pre-HM after you have got enough movement accessories and a decent weapon. It's too hard to decide on a specific part.

Question 4: If there was one area you could make harder, what would it be?

Sure, Pre-HM could be harder. I think the bosses in Pre-HM are in a sweet spot (barring Normal Mode EoW), but maybe there could be something a little more threatening in, say the Dungeon. Expert Mode or not, I always found exploring the Dungeon in pre-HM to be very trivial. At least the Jungle has hornets that can snipe you from nowhere, and those damnable jungle spike slimes.

Question 5: If there was one area you could make easier, what would it be?

I can't comment on end-game yet, because at the moment I've just defeated the Golem (but need to farm him for damnable sun stones) and have already explored for half of what I need from the HM Dungeon. I've only got a little to go to hit endgame, from what I am hearing about it.

I don't think there's any part of the game I want to simply 'make easier'. A lot of people have problems with the Destroyer, I still don't (not even with Expert). And any further down the line I kind of expect to be very difficult.

Now that I've followed on the questions, I'll move on to specifics.

There's no events you can do that are fun.

I don't know, Pirate Invasion is pretty fun.

1. Give Skeletron 5,500 HP on the head and 1,000 HP on the hands, increase damage of hands and head speed.

Is this for Expert Mode or...? Because he already has quite a bit of health and a lot of speed. There's a tonne of people stating that EM Skeletron is stupidly difficult. I didn't feel that, but meh.

Also, is this considering the fact you seem to get molten before Skeletron? I wouldn't buff something based on how you can kill it with a weapon/armour tier above what it is placed on.

2. Give the Eater of Worlds and Brain of Cthulhu more health and damage.

Normal Mode BoC is fine, EoW definitely not. Expert Mode EoW is fine, and for BoC I haven't battled him in the harder mode yet.

3. Increase Queen Bee's HP to 4,000 and bee damage.

Yeah, this looks like for normal mode. Sure, why not?

Also, did you know that bees do over 50 damage in Expert Mode HM? Mining hives are the worst...

6. Fire Imps should teleport every time they're hit.

I don't know, that'd make them a huge annoyance to face in obsidian structures.

7. Destroyer should be vulnerable to debuffs, like the rest of the mechs, and probes should drop hearts 66% of the time instead to 33%.

The Destroyer is invulnerable to debuffs because of a glitch that happened when it died with debuffs. Because of that, it is not likely to change. I don't agree with probe heart rate increase, because you can kill a lot of probes quickly and just eliminate any health lost. If you want to nerf the Destroyer, that's fine, but some other way would be best.

8. When WoF is defeated, pots smashed will give Greater Healing Potions instead of Healing.

Don't see a real need. You can craft them if you're desperate, or farm Hallowed/Corruption/Crimson mimics.

10. You only need Molten Pickaxes to mine the hardmode ores, BUT need Mithril/Orichalcum anvils to craft most of hardmode's goodies, and Titanium Forge for forging.

This wouldn't change much, considering that you can be a mythril/orichalcum anvil very quickly (let alone the pickaxes already), if not instantaneously if you have plenty of crates waiting to be opened.

 

[CanSteam]

first we need ideas of what debuffs WOULD affect the destroyer. which debuffs would be effective but not overpowered enough to the point where it would completely DESTROY the destroyers difficulty? i'm thinking ONLY the original fire, as there are little piercing weapons that inflict On Fire! in the whole game, and the On Fire! is factually the worst damage over time debuff in the game.

 

[General Milky]

number 7 would make Destroyer pretty easy to rek because then you could pretty much frostburn multiple segments and watch it take like 500 DoT per tick. That might be an exageration, but I think Destroyer's difficulty isn't exactly in how tanky it is, because it actually dies pretty fast.

I also want to lay out that the update is still brand new, so of course people will say the lunar pillars are super hard. It's only been a couple days, give it some time and the hype will die down. Remember when Wall of Flesh was thought to be near impossible to solo without a star cannon?

Martians might be actually unforgiving, though.

 

[totallydeadaccountdude]

I don't know, Pirate Invasion is pretty fun.

The Pirate Invasion seems like it's designed for post mech. I agree, though, it's really fun!

Is this for Expert Mode or...? Because he already has quite a bit of health and a lot of speed. There's a tonne of people stating that EM Skeletron is stupidly difficult. I didn't feel that, but meh.

I've yet to play Expert Mode, this is for normal mode. I feel that once you get to this tier you have either Minishark, Demon/Tendon bow, or whatever and Shadow/Crimtane armor, the boss at this stage should be easily doable. Skeletron's head is too slow, it's like fighting a snail. You shoulda seen 1.0.3 Skeletron, 6000 HP, fast speed. He was insane.

Also, is this considering the fact you seem to get molten before Skeletron? I wouldn't buff something based on how you can kill it with a weapon/armour tier above what it is placed on.

This is based on having appropriate weaponry/armor, not sequence breaking.

Normal Mode BoC is fine, EoW definitely not. Expert Mode EoW is fine, and for BoC I haven't battled him in the harder mode yet.

Eh, BoC could be a BIT stronger.

I don't know, that'd make them a huge annoyance to face in obsidian structures.

Good point, perhaps giving Imps a raw damage/health increase would do? Not sure.

The Destroyer is invulnerable to debuffs because of a glitch that happened when it died with debuffs. Because of that, it is not likely to change. I don't agree with probe heart rate increase, because you can kill a lot of probes quickly and just eliminate any health lost. If you want to nerf the Destroyer, that's fine, but some other way would be best.

I did not know this. Though I still think a heart increase is needed.

Don't see a real need. You can craft them if you're desperate, or farm Hallowed/Corruption/Crimson mimics.

It'd just help. Hardmode attacks can be REAL brutal.

This wouldn't change much, considering that you can be a mythril/orichalcum anvil very quickly (let alone the pickaxes already), if not instantaneously if you have plenty of crates waiting to be opened.

Crates rely on a lot of luck, though. I feel that this change would just reduce the annoying tediousness that plagues early hardmode.

All feedback is appreciated, guys!

 

[DestroyerArcher]

9. Martian Saucers shouldn't be faster than the player in the second phase.

That would have helped a lot. I ended up camping the saucer, because it kept killing me.

 

[Battle Bee]

You can actually use a grappling hook to easily dodge the Saurcer's deathray.

Well, not easily, but it works. Keep grappling out of the way of the rays. Best done on platforms, otherwise the flames the rays leave behind will be painful.

 

[FlakMaster]

Remember when Wall of Flesh was thought to be near impossible to solo without a star cannon?

People actually said that?

Wall of Flesh is such a wuss when you have a bit of distance from it.

 

[Battle Bee]

People actually said that?

Wall of Flesh is such a wuss when you have a bit of distance from it.

Well that was back when people didn't know how to actually fight it.

 

[FlakMaster]

've yet to play Expert Mode, this is for normal mode. I feel that once you get to this tier you have either Minishark, Demon/Tendon bow, or whatever and Shadow/Crimtane armor, the boss at this stage should be easily doable. Skeletron's head is too slow, it's like fighting a snail. You shoulda seen 1.0.3 Skeletron, 6000 HP, fast speed. He was insane.

So, what you want already exists at a grander scale in expert mode

Now that we do have expert mode, though, there comes the question of whether certain things should be hard in normal mode any more. Because, despite what all the elitists liked to bellow down their horn, this game was already quite difficult to the average gamer. Especially during first experiences. I mean, it's pretty logical for something to be easy when you know precisely how to deal with it. But that's what too much people extract their sources from, and completely ignore how difficult it might have been for them first try.

The Mechanicals in Expert mode would have been stupidly hard for me, had I not already have plenty of experience with them in normal mode. All I had to do to compensate for the extra challenge is either be more careful, or prepare to a greater degree, or a little bit of both. And yet, some people lack the ability to have a good enough DPS figure to take Skeletron Prime down on normal mode.

Eh, BoC could be a BIT stronger.

As something that can do over 20 damage consistently if you don't keep him off your back, and the next boss up from Eye of Cthulhu, I say it's fine as it is if even not a little too much. I've always found the Brain to be more difficult than the Queen Bee and Skeletron on Normal.

Good point, perhaps giving Imps a raw damage/health increase would do? Not sure.

Interestingly enough, the Imp already has high defence for a Pre-HM mob. I felt that the hard way when I was doing a masochistic playthrough where everything had 5x health, defence, damage and 10x knockback resistance. The only weapon that could kill it quickly was (pre-buff) Flower of Fire, because it has I believe the highest base damage of all pre-HM weapons.

Anyway, that's not relevant. Maybe the projectile could do with a speed boost, as it is just employing the same tactics that players should have experienced enough of facing Goblin Sorcerers and Magic Casters.

It'd just help. Hardmode attacks can be REAL brutal.

Greater Healing potions only need three pixie dust and one crystal for 3 pots, and that's pretty easy to do. Also, you get more crystal bullets per crystal, so you would have a higher yield of resources per shard anyway.

Crates rely on a lot of luck, though. I feel that this change would just reduce the annoying tediousness that plagues early hardmode.

Though they do, I've always got something out of a good twenty crates. And because you can effectively invalidate half of the game's exploration just from standing next to a lake and throw a line, some people will have tonnes of the stuff.

Well that was back when people didn't know how to actually fight it.

I understand, but I very quickly learned how to stay on my own feet by just maintaining distance. If everyone that thought he was impossible because they were using melee and didn't bother killing the Hungry, then that'd make complete sense.

 

[totallydeadaccountdude]

So, what you want already exists at a grander scale in expert mode

I'm trying to smoothen out the gameplay. The game has these huge difficulty spikes (Hardmode, Post-Golem) that are EXTREMELY overwhelming. If we make certain things harder it would both help the player learn about mechanics AND make these spikes less overwhelming. And a lot of things are TOO easy. Specifically Hell, EoW, and Skeletron.

Now that we do have expert mode, though, there comes the question of whether certain things should be hard in normal mode any more. Because, despite what all the elitists liked to bellow down their horn, this game was already quite difficult to the average gamer. Especially during first experiences. I mean, it's pretty logical for something to be easy when you know precisely how to deal with it. But that's what too much people extract their sources from, and completely ignore how difficult it might have been for them first try.

The game should still have challenge, even in Normal mode. Although I do feel that some things are a bit pushing it (2-shot killing enemies, basically). A game with no challenge would be boring, right?

Interestingly enough, the Imp already has high defence for a Pre-HM mob. I felt that the hard way when I was doing a masochistic playthrough where everything had 5x health, defence, damage and 10x knockback resistance. The only weapon that could kill it quickly was (pre-buff) Flower of Fire, because it has I believe the highest base damage of all pre-HM weapons.

Anyway, that's not relevant. Maybe the projectile could do with a speed boost, as it is just employing the same tactics that players should have experienced enough of facing Goblin Sorcerers and Magic Casters.

That might work too. A raw damage increase also might help, as the projectile is ALSO destroyable.

Greater Healing potions only need three pixie dust and one crystal for 3 pots, and that's pretty easy to do. Also, you get more crystal bullets per crystal, so you would have a higher yield of resources per shard anyway.

Hm. I guess. Maybe if it was uncommon?

Though they do, I've always got something out of a good twenty crates. And because you can effectively invalidate half of the game's exploration just from standing next to a lake and throw a line, some people will have tonnes of the stuff.

I still think that sitting at a lake for an hour to get stuff to avoid running around mining for an hour a bit pointless. Plus newer players aren't going to think of something like this unless they went on youtube or something to look up a guide. A simple skip of the most tedious part of the game would be great.

 

[FlakMaster]

I still think that sitting at a lake for an hour to get stuff to avoid running around mining for an hour a bit pointless. Plus newer players aren't going to think of something like this unless they went on youtube or something to look up a guide. A simple skip of the most tedious part of the game would be great.

I find how fishing affects this game to be a little odd too. But, what's there is there. I quite frankly do not enjoy fishing, as that kind of relaxation isn't the reason why I play Terraria.

 

[totallydeadaccountdude]

I find how fishing affects this game to be a little odd too. But, what's there is there. I quite frankly do not enjoy fishing, as that kind of relaxation isn't the reason why I play Terraria.

I still stand by the molten pick being able to mine ores. Suggestions are here for change afterall, right?

 

[FlakMaster]

I wouldn't complain at the end of the day. Molten Pick's speed is god awful, so most would feel inclined to get an upgrade.

 

[totallydeadaccountdude]

I wouldn't complain at the end of the day. Molten Pick's speed is god awful, so most would feel inclined to get an upgrade.

Having to get the drills though is a waste of time, I've found. If people want to upgrade, they'll upgrade.