Showcase [Showcase] The Mighty Cannonball Arena: Crushing Expert Mode Bosses and Events with no starting gear

DicemanX

Brain of Cthulhu
Many players think that the Daedalus Stormbow is broken in hardmode, but the Stormbow cannot hold a candle to the true terror of hardmode: the almighty cannon! The cannon allows one to cruise through most of hardmode effortlessly.

I updated the Cannonball Arena for 1.3 Expert Mode. The previous version was mainly for use against Pumpkin Moon, and used a Dungeon Spike for protection against projectiles. However, Spikes were nerfed, so I shifted to a Slime Saddle invincibility machine. I also added a plantera bulb spawn area and shifted the arena to the ocean biome to be able to fight Plantera and Duke Fishron. I initially had trouble using the invulnerability machine during the Moon events because I would get periodically ejected when using two dummies side by side. However, stacking the dummies at one position solved this issue, so my thanks to @Moartem for bringing up this idea in his thread (http://forums.terraria.org/index.php?threads/thoughts-on-dummy-engineering-updated-1-2-16.39796/) and for @inomanoms for being the first to indicate that you can stack dummy ghosts with teleporters and hoiks. This ghost stacking is not needed for fighting bosses, but it is necessary for the Moon events.

Below is a video of the arena in action, and then schematics are provided. In my mini-playthrough in the video, I show how you can take a character with no starting gear except for the slime saddle, and use the arena to beat the mechanical bosses and Plantera. Then using the boss drops, I craft a hallowed armor set to take on Pumpkin Moon. Using the Pumpkin Moon drops, I craft the Spooky Set and add summoner accessories to summon Ravens for the Frost Moon and Fishron fights. In the end, I show just how easy hard mode can be, and how you can speed-run the game without needing any hard-to-find gear or time consuming arenas.

Video:




Schematics:

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Note: the Plantera Bulb area and the deep lava pools are OPTIONAL. Use them if you wish to farm Plantera and/or Duke Fishron.


Arena Protocol:

After teleporting to the arena, mount the slime saddle and hop on top of the dummy ghosts. Fire the cannons after starting an invasion or event, or after summoning the boss.

To fight Plantera, step onto the teleporter (while still mounting the slime) to the immediate left of your position on top of the two overlapping dummies, and pull the lever. This will send you to the plantera bulb area, actuating and then deactuating the jungle grass blocks, and breaking a bulb if one is present. You are immediately returned to the same teleporter, so you then have to step back to the right on top of the dummy ghosts to create invulnerability frames.

To fight Duke Fishron, cast a Truffle Worm into the lava pool. Lava pools must contain at least 1000 tiles of liquid, and you must be in the ocean biome to be able to summon Fishron.

Just under 1700 cannonballs are required for each Moon event, and this costs just under 2.5 platinum. However, the profit from Pumpkin Moon is around 18-20 platinum.

Care must be taken using the cannons. The cannon to your side fires cannonballs that travel a short distance upwards before falling down to the spawn area below. However, cannonballs explode after hitting a certain number of targets, so it is possible for a cannonball to explode near the dummy ghosts and override the damage from the Slime Mount. If that happens, then you will lose invulnerability and take damage. This will happen periodically during the Moon events, so equipping a Shield and raising defense is important to not get thrown out of the invulnerability machine. This issue doesn't arise with any bosses except the Destroyer , but only if the Destroyer flies up vertically and causes the cannonball to strike multiple segments. Avoid this against the Destroyer by using the top cannons, not the side cannon, when the Destroyer is moving upwards near your position.

As a side note, the exploding cannonball issue is why you cannot build this arena with a slime invulnerability machine. The exploding cannonballs will kill the slime protecting you, and then you're dead in the water.


Key Dimensions:

The distance from the spawn surface to the top of the dummy statues must be at least 36 tiles to allow spawns to take place. The spawn surface itself is only 16 tiles wide. Lava must cover the surfaces beyond the arena up to 84 tiles to the left and right of the player's position.


World Download:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4b_4cIU1vVBOWJSZ3BMbEszT28/view?usp=sharing

This world download doesn't come with the option to fight Plantera or Duke Fishron - the video was shot using a test world instead. However, the Cannonball Arena in the world offered above can still be used to fight the Mechanical Bosses and any of the Events or Invasions.


Acknowledgements:

My thanks again to the folks working on MechMod, the T-MEC community mod:
http://forums.terraria.org/index.php?threads/mechmod-a-t-mec-community-mod.38088/
 
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Question, does this still work? I DL'd the world file, and tried it, and bouncing off the Dummy with the slime mount did not stop me from taking damage. Some of the other arenas didn't work for me either.
 
Question, does this still work? I DL'd the world file, and tried it, and bouncing off the Dummy with the slime mount did not stop me from taking damage. Some of the other arenas didn't work for me either.

I just shot the video a few days ago, so yes this arena works. I also tested all the other arenas and they are working fine for me too. I'm not sure why things are going wrong for you - can you post a pic of you taking damage while using the slime saddle? Also, which other arenas were a problem for you?
 
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Quick question: following the schematics provided I've built my own, however I have a weird glitch/issue with the 4th hoik block (nearest the top training dummy). It seems to interfere with the mechanics of the dummy system. If I remove the block, I can bounce on the dummy using the slime saddle, the 2nd dummy is active and it all seems to work. With the 4th hoik block in place I can't seem to activate the 2nd dummy. The 'glitch' appears when I remove the block - I can't replace it. That particular placement seems to no longer work. I have to remove the background wall and other blocks and rebuild that section. If it's easier I can upload a link to the world if anyone is able to suggest what's happening. As far as I can see, the build is like-for-like (visually at least) as the one in the OP image. I should note that in order to make the dummy mechanic work with the missing hoik block I have to move the teleporter above the hoiks one block to the left, altering the build slightly to accommodate the teleporter after removing the block.

Thanks.
 
Quick question: following the schematics provided I've built my own, however I have a weird glitch/issue with the 4th hoik block (nearest the top training dummy). It seems to interfere with the mechanics of the dummy system. If I remove the block, I can bounce on the dummy using the slime saddle, the 2nd dummy is active and it all seems to work. With the 4th hoik block in place I can't seem to activate the 2nd dummy. The 'glitch' appears when I remove the block - I can't replace it. That particular placement seems to no longer work. I have to remove the background wall and other blocks and rebuild that section. If it's easier I can upload a link to the world if anyone is able to suggest what's happening. As far as I can see, the build is like-for-like (visually at least) as the one in the OP image. I should note that in order to make the dummy mechanic work with the missing hoik block I have to move the teleporter above the hoiks one block to the left, altering the build slightly to accommodate the missing block.

Thanks.

Yes, upload your world and I'll have a look. Without seeing the world I cannot say why you're experiencing this problem, and it's especially bizarre that you cannot place the block down again. It suggests that a dummy ghost was hoiked to that spot to prevent block placement, but then it is unclear why the ghost would stop there.
 
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B56W2EQT4oaYd0pBbEdjNlR6SlU/view?usp=sharing

Thanks for helping. There's a teleporter for the arena to the right of the main spawn point. The arena is next to the rightmost ocean. It's currently got 3 hoik blocks. Seems to work although I've not tested it on a boss or event yet.

OK I checked it out. You were missing a connection to the inbound teleporter in the arena (unless you removed it before uploading?) which is critical to teleport the other dummy into position. I added the 4th hoik tooth, wired one of your starting teleporters to the teleporter in the arena (via green wire coming from the left in the pic below), teleported in, and jumped on top of the two dummies:

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It's working fine for me! I'm bouncing on two dummy ghosts - you can tell because the lower dummy keeps going through hit animations, and you can also tell based on the frequency of the damage numbers.

How were you teleporting the lower dummy previously? If you removed the 4th hoik tooth just to gain access to the pressure plate and then you stepped on the pressure plate, then the lower dummy ghost would teleport right next to the third tooth, preventing you from adding the 4th tooth. You need to go through that lower teleporter yourself to activate the pressure plate there.
 
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Got it. In my eagerness to build I completely overlooked teleporting into the arena at the start. Got I working now. Thanks for your help, much appreciated.
 
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