J Bame
Terrarian
So, by now I'm pretty sure almost every player has done a Ranger run. And I'm also pretty sure you've all at least noticed just how rigid and limited your ammo selection is throughout a run.
When using Bows for example, you may have as many as 13 (technically 14, but Luminite isn't part of a run) different Arrow types to choose from, yet you will rarely find yourself using more than 3 (pretty much Jester's, Ichor and Holy) the entire run, with two that you could try but are simply outclassed (Hellfire, Venom). And with Bullets it's even worse, since only two out of 13 (Crystal, Chlorophyte) can be considered any good, with only one (Exploding) that is situationally useful.
And this problem of scarce ammo diversity is caused by two problems:
Before starting note that the numbers here are rough; I did mod a few of these changes in to see how they'd work, but 1-2 hours of "seeing how good this is now" is not solid playtesting so don't take the proposed stats too seriously, instead consider them more like "increased x greatly; decreased y a bit, etc"
With that out of the way, let's get to the changes already.
Arrows:
Flaming Arrows:
+ Knockback increased to 5 from 2
+ Velocity increased to 5 from 3.5
Outclassed in literally every way by the much better Frostburn arrows that have the same recipe with just one block added to the mix. With these buffs the comparison between the two is a lot like Amarok/Hel-Fire, where one simply deals more damage, while the other has better secondary stats.
Bone Arrows:
+ extraUpdates increased to 1
+ Damage increased to 7 from 6
Consistency with Marrow's arrows. You may still prefer Flaming Arrows with their new buff at this stage in the game, but at least it's not a complete ripoff anymore.
Jester's Arrows:
- Knockback decreased to 0 from 4
/ Now crafted in stacks of 50 instead of 20.
Because currently these arrows deny all enemy crowds a bit too well compared to other things in Pre-Hardmode. Making the base knockback non-existent makes them not outclass everything anymore. Also please, don't make me spend a lot of time in my Ranger runs farming Stars for these.
Unholy Arrows:
+ Knockback increased to 6.5 from 3
/ Now crafted in stacks of 20 instead of 5
/ Can now crafted with Vertebrae as well as Worm Teeth
This arrow suffers because Jester's Arrows are a thing and they have significantly better crowd control due to their infinite range and piercing, despite dealing a bit less damage.
Increasing their Knockback makes them much more comparable when dealing with crowds: One is better at simply damaging the entire crowd, while the other keeps enemies away from you more efficiently.
Let's also change the recipe, crafting these 5 at the time is dumb with how rare those Worms are, and limiting the recipe to Corruption worlds is even dumber.
Hellfire Arrows:
+ Damage increased to 14 from 13
+ Explosions no longer make Iframes.
+ Now explodes when making contact with enemies it can't hurt.
In a vacuum this arrow is good because it has good single target damage and decent crowd control, as well as great velocity and amazing knockback. In practice this arrow is never used because Jester's or just Unholy do everything it could be useful for much better in PreHardmode, while there are better single target arrows to be using in Hardmode. I'm giving them just a bit more damage to compare to them better, as well as two other small changes:
The first one, removing Iframes to make them usable as a crowd control Arrow with Multishot bows, and the second, which may sound like the most specific and insignificant change in history but it's incredibly important as Selenians will be hurt by the explosions without reflecting the arrows, making Ranger no longer get unfairly hard-countered by the Solar Pillar.
Holy Arrows:
- Star spawning now has a cooldown equal to the Bow's Use Time
Already infamous for being incredibly strong with certain bows. That nerf changes nothing when used with a conventional bow, but it kills the broken combo these Arrows have with multishot bows by not making it spawn dozens of Stars on hit anymore, because let's be real, that's why these arrows are so powerful right now.
Cursed Arrows:
+ extraUpdates increased to 1
The extraUpdates of Ichor Arrows is the reason they are used as more than just a sidearm to inflict Ichor. Giving Cursed Arrows the same treatment should help them in the same way, since just having good damage wasn't cutting it due to the lack of any good secondary effect.
An alternative would be to make Cursed Inferno an actually impactful debuff, but that's not enough if you want to make them good arrows on their own. That's also something I won't touch since it has been suggested dozens of times already and the solution is always as simple as just making them deal % based damage like they did on Mobile.
Chlorophyte Arrows:
+ No longer makes Iframes on hit.
The piercing ammo most infamous for becoming available at the stage of the game where all good Bows go multishot and thus being completely useless. Removing those iframes it creates is the buff this has needed since 1.2 made them exist.
Venom Arrows:
+ Damage increased to 20 from 17
+ Knockback increased to 7.6 from 4.2
Currently holds the title of highest damaging arrow in the game, not that it means anything since other arrows (most notably Ichor) are almost always better. A massive Knockback increase as well as even better damage will make you want to use these a bit more during the Pillars and general enemy encounters.
This might be a bit excessive if Venom becomes a good debuff.
Bullets:
Silver Bullet
+ Increases total damage dealt by 33% against "Evil" enemies
Evil enemies include all different variants of Zombies and Skeletons (Not Skeletron), Demons, Werewolves (Should one shot them tbh), enemies from the Corruption and Crimson, and the Hungries from Wall of Flesh (Not the Wall itself).
Pre-Hardmode has practically 0 bullet variety, so this is currently the best you can get for your Guns early on. Any other bullet that gets added to Pre-Hardmode would greatly outclass this, so it needs a little buff. It's only fitting to make it a Silver Bullet for some enemies, right?
Meteor shots:
+ No longer pierces. [Funny how this is a massive buff]
+ Now bounces thrice instead of once.
+ Can bounce off of enemies as well as tiles.
- Damage decreased to 6 from 9.
What this bullet truly needed all along is a good gun that doesn't fire extremely fast and also isn't a Shotgun. The only thing that fits that criteria is Phoenix Blaster, but that's just one gun and it doesn't look like there are more coming so this bullet ends up being worse than the regular Musket Balls all the time.
I don't want to keep these useless until they meet the one gun that makes them work, so I gave it a big rework that makes it actually usable with all guns in the game, turning it a bullet with a very powerful bounce mechanic that can potentially be devastating in the right area.
Party Bullets:
+ Now Crafted with Musket Balls instead of Empty Bullets.
That change to the recipe is huge since this makes Party Bullets with all their great stats available in Pre-Hardmode, as well as giving Party Girl a bit of a bigger role in progression. This bullet was never meant to be good, but now it is.
Crystal Bullets:
- Now Split into two shards instead of three.
A lot of Hardmode Bullets are held back by the fact that this one outclasses them all and I believe that these are borderline broken, but they just don't have any good partners in the Late game since everything has a spread. This is a big nerf to their damage, but they might still be really good since Ichor is a thing.
Cursed Bullets:
+ Now pierce three enemies, without making Iframes.
We need at least one piercing bullet in the game. No better subject for that buff than the Bullet type that is awful to begin with and could definitely use a very big buff like that.
Exploding Bullets:
+ Now explodes when making contact with enemies it can't hurt.
Surprisingly enough this is one of the few things that don't need any changes. Just the same specific anti-Selenian buff that Hellfire Arrows also got.
High Velocity Bullets:
+ Damage increased to 15 from 10
Nothing beats the redundancy of making this just ridiculously fast and nothing else when it's already part of the stuff that has the overall highest velocity in the game. Making it deal much more damage makes it way less niche and actually comparable to Chlorophyte Bullets for the "accurate bullets".
Nano Bullets:
+ Damage increased to 13 from 10
+ Can now pierce two enemies
+ Knockback increased to 6 from 3.6
There are not enough places in Post-Plantera where there are too many dangerous enemies vulnerable to Confused to make use of these things. The stat buffs and most importantly the piercing should hopefully make this way better for enemies, keeping the confused as more of a secondary thing that could be helpful.
Another interesting change would be to make Cyborg available in Early Hardmode so the Confused has more places to shine, but that's a story for another time.
Venom Bullets:
+ Damage increased to 19 from 14
+ Knockback increased to 6 from 4.1
Venom Ammo's theme seems to be overstats at the cost of any special effects, except that neither one has good enough stats that compensate for the lack of effects. Let's fix that. These will probably replace Crystal Bullets as your single target bullet in the late game.
Chlorophyte Bullets:
- Knockback decreased to 0 from 4.5
Much like Jester's Arrows, these make enemy encounters a bit too easy so they deserve to be toned down a bit like this. This bullet is overrated
Changes somewhat related to the topic:
Shroomite Helmet:
+ Now increases "varied ranged damage" [Basically anything that isn't a Gun or a Bow] instead of just Rocket damage.
The amount of good Rocket Launchers in the game can be counted in one hand, they are not even close to being fleshed out enough to be considered their own little "subclass". Now this Helmet hits Elf Melter and Piranha Gun (because the game doesn't consider it a gun even though it's literally in the name), as well as whatever new unique Ranged Weapons might be added.
Ice Arrows (
Ice Bow)
+ Now leave a trail of Snowflakes in its path, like North Pole
+ Reduced extraUpdates to 0 from 1 [yes, that's a buff in this case]
Ice Bow is a contender for the title of "Most forgettable weapon in the game" due to having no attracting qualities, being rather rare and having no reason to be looked for due to being worse than even the Mythril Repeater. This buff (alongside giving the main Bow autoswing) hopefully makes it a good weapon.
Bone Arrows (
Marrow)
+ Now split on three bone shards on impact, much like Crystal Bullets
Everything I said about Ice Bow applies to this weapon as well. These two bows are almost literal clones.
Magic Quiver
- Now increases velocity of arrows by +30% instead of setting their extraUpdates to 1.
+ Increased damage buff to 11% from 10% [No, this is not significant or meant to change anything. 11% feels better than 10% and that's the only justification for this]
Since we are in the topic of buffing ammo, I'd want to also change the item that removes most of the niche the really fast single target arrows have by giving it to every single arrow.
When using Bows for example, you may have as many as 13 (technically 14, but Luminite isn't part of a run) different Arrow types to choose from, yet you will rarely find yourself using more than 3 (pretty much Jester's, Ichor and Holy) the entire run, with two that you could try but are simply outclassed (Hellfire, Venom). And with Bullets it's even worse, since only two out of 13 (Crystal, Chlorophyte) can be considered any good, with only one (Exploding) that is situationally useful.
And this problem of scarce ammo diversity is caused by two problems:
- Most ammo types that I consider "viable" are also pretty much broken and incredibly versatile. For example, even if there are many alternatives to Jester's Arrows and Crystal bullets at their point of progression, almost everything is already done extremely well by just those two, so you will rarely have to bother using any other ammo.
- A lot of ammo is pretty much a mass of stats with no secondary effect, or with one that is so irrelevant that it might as well not exist (Looking at you, Cursed Ammo). Therefore if you solve the above problem by nerfing the broken ammo types, the ammo selection will end up being even more rigid than before since almost every choice work the same and the few that do have a somewhat significant effect will be the only ones you'll ever use.
Before starting note that the numbers here are rough; I did mod a few of these changes in to see how they'd work, but 1-2 hours of "seeing how good this is now" is not solid playtesting so don't take the proposed stats too seriously, instead consider them more like "increased x greatly; decreased y a bit, etc"
With that out of the way, let's get to the changes already.
Arrows:
+ Knockback increased to 5 from 2
+ Velocity increased to 5 from 3.5
Outclassed in literally every way by the much better Frostburn arrows that have the same recipe with just one block added to the mix. With these buffs the comparison between the two is a lot like Amarok/Hel-Fire, where one simply deals more damage, while the other has better secondary stats.
+ extraUpdates increased to 1
+ Damage increased to 7 from 6
Consistency with Marrow's arrows. You may still prefer Flaming Arrows with their new buff at this stage in the game, but at least it's not a complete ripoff anymore.
- Knockback decreased to 0 from 4
/ Now crafted in stacks of 50 instead of 20.
Because currently these arrows deny all enemy crowds a bit too well compared to other things in Pre-Hardmode. Making the base knockback non-existent makes them not outclass everything anymore. Also please, don't make me spend a lot of time in my Ranger runs farming Stars for these.
+ Knockback increased to 6.5 from 3
/ Now crafted in stacks of 20 instead of 5
/ Can now crafted with Vertebrae as well as Worm Teeth
This arrow suffers because Jester's Arrows are a thing and they have significantly better crowd control due to their infinite range and piercing, despite dealing a bit less damage.
Increasing their Knockback makes them much more comparable when dealing with crowds: One is better at simply damaging the entire crowd, while the other keeps enemies away from you more efficiently.
Let's also change the recipe, crafting these 5 at the time is dumb with how rare those Worms are, and limiting the recipe to Corruption worlds is even dumber.
+ Damage increased to 14 from 13
+ Explosions no longer make Iframes.
+ Now explodes when making contact with enemies it can't hurt.
In a vacuum this arrow is good because it has good single target damage and decent crowd control, as well as great velocity and amazing knockback. In practice this arrow is never used because Jester's or just Unholy do everything it could be useful for much better in PreHardmode, while there are better single target arrows to be using in Hardmode. I'm giving them just a bit more damage to compare to them better, as well as two other small changes:
The first one, removing Iframes to make them usable as a crowd control Arrow with Multishot bows, and the second, which may sound like the most specific and insignificant change in history but it's incredibly important as Selenians will be hurt by the explosions without reflecting the arrows, making Ranger no longer get unfairly hard-countered by the Solar Pillar.
- Star spawning now has a cooldown equal to the Bow's Use Time
Already infamous for being incredibly strong with certain bows. That nerf changes nothing when used with a conventional bow, but it kills the broken combo these Arrows have with multishot bows by not making it spawn dozens of Stars on hit anymore, because let's be real, that's why these arrows are so powerful right now.
+ extraUpdates increased to 1
The extraUpdates of Ichor Arrows is the reason they are used as more than just a sidearm to inflict Ichor. Giving Cursed Arrows the same treatment should help them in the same way, since just having good damage wasn't cutting it due to the lack of any good secondary effect.
An alternative would be to make Cursed Inferno an actually impactful debuff, but that's not enough if you want to make them good arrows on their own. That's also something I won't touch since it has been suggested dozens of times already and the solution is always as simple as just making them deal % based damage like they did on Mobile.
+ No longer makes Iframes on hit.
The piercing ammo most infamous for becoming available at the stage of the game where all good Bows go multishot and thus being completely useless. Removing those iframes it creates is the buff this has needed since 1.2 made them exist.
+ Damage increased to 20 from 17
+ Knockback increased to 7.6 from 4.2
Currently holds the title of highest damaging arrow in the game, not that it means anything since other arrows (most notably Ichor) are almost always better. A massive Knockback increase as well as even better damage will make you want to use these a bit more during the Pillars and general enemy encounters.
This might be a bit excessive if Venom becomes a good debuff.
Bullets:
+ Increases total damage dealt by 33% against "Evil" enemies
Evil enemies include all different variants of Zombies and Skeletons (Not Skeletron), Demons, Werewolves (Should one shot them tbh), enemies from the Corruption and Crimson, and the Hungries from Wall of Flesh (Not the Wall itself).
Pre-Hardmode has practically 0 bullet variety, so this is currently the best you can get for your Guns early on. Any other bullet that gets added to Pre-Hardmode would greatly outclass this, so it needs a little buff. It's only fitting to make it a Silver Bullet for some enemies, right?
+ No longer pierces. [Funny how this is a massive buff]
+ Now bounces thrice instead of once.
+ Can bounce off of enemies as well as tiles.
- Damage decreased to 6 from 9.
What this bullet truly needed all along is a good gun that doesn't fire extremely fast and also isn't a Shotgun. The only thing that fits that criteria is Phoenix Blaster, but that's just one gun and it doesn't look like there are more coming so this bullet ends up being worse than the regular Musket Balls all the time.
I don't want to keep these useless until they meet the one gun that makes them work, so I gave it a big rework that makes it actually usable with all guns in the game, turning it a bullet with a very powerful bounce mechanic that can potentially be devastating in the right area.
+ Now Crafted with Musket Balls instead of Empty Bullets.
That change to the recipe is huge since this makes Party Bullets with all their great stats available in Pre-Hardmode, as well as giving Party Girl a bit of a bigger role in progression. This bullet was never meant to be good, but now it is.
- Now Split into two shards instead of three.
A lot of Hardmode Bullets are held back by the fact that this one outclasses them all and I believe that these are borderline broken, but they just don't have any good partners in the Late game since everything has a spread. This is a big nerf to their damage, but they might still be really good since Ichor is a thing.
+ Now pierce three enemies, without making Iframes.
We need at least one piercing bullet in the game. No better subject for that buff than the Bullet type that is awful to begin with and could definitely use a very big buff like that.
+ Now explodes when making contact with enemies it can't hurt.
Surprisingly enough this is one of the few things that don't need any changes. Just the same specific anti-Selenian buff that Hellfire Arrows also got.
+ Damage increased to 15 from 10
Nothing beats the redundancy of making this just ridiculously fast and nothing else when it's already part of the stuff that has the overall highest velocity in the game. Making it deal much more damage makes it way less niche and actually comparable to Chlorophyte Bullets for the "accurate bullets".
+ Damage increased to 13 from 10
+ Can now pierce two enemies
+ Knockback increased to 6 from 3.6
There are not enough places in Post-Plantera where there are too many dangerous enemies vulnerable to Confused to make use of these things. The stat buffs and most importantly the piercing should hopefully make this way better for enemies, keeping the confused as more of a secondary thing that could be helpful.
Another interesting change would be to make Cyborg available in Early Hardmode so the Confused has more places to shine, but that's a story for another time.
+ Damage increased to 19 from 14
+ Knockback increased to 6 from 4.1
Venom Ammo's theme seems to be overstats at the cost of any special effects, except that neither one has good enough stats that compensate for the lack of effects. Let's fix that. These will probably replace Crystal Bullets as your single target bullet in the late game.
- Knockback decreased to 0 from 4.5
Much like Jester's Arrows, these make enemy encounters a bit too easy so they deserve to be toned down a bit like this. This bullet is overrated
Changes somewhat related to the topic:
+ Now increases "varied ranged damage" [Basically anything that isn't a Gun or a Bow] instead of just Rocket damage.
The amount of good Rocket Launchers in the game can be counted in one hand, they are not even close to being fleshed out enough to be considered their own little "subclass". Now this Helmet hits Elf Melter and Piranha Gun (because the game doesn't consider it a gun even though it's literally in the name), as well as whatever new unique Ranged Weapons might be added.
+ Now leave a trail of Snowflakes in its path, like North Pole
+ Reduced extraUpdates to 0 from 1 [yes, that's a buff in this case]
Ice Bow is a contender for the title of "Most forgettable weapon in the game" due to having no attracting qualities, being rather rare and having no reason to be looked for due to being worse than even the Mythril Repeater. This buff (alongside giving the main Bow autoswing) hopefully makes it a good weapon.
+ Now split on three bone shards on impact, much like Crystal Bullets
Everything I said about Ice Bow applies to this weapon as well. These two bows are almost literal clones.
- Now increases velocity of arrows by +30% instead of setting their extraUpdates to 1.
+ Increased damage buff to 11% from 10% [No, this is not significant or meant to change anything. 11% feels better than 10% and that's the only justification for this]
Since we are in the topic of buffing ammo, I'd want to also change the item that removes most of the niche the really fast single target arrows have by giving it to every single arrow.
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I love Marrow especially but never was able to get much use out of it...a shame really.
