Items [Sprites] Hidden Hearts: Rethinking health progression
- Thread starter Snickerbobble
- Start date
felis
Terrarian
Looks interesting, maybe.
Also, it makes the Life Fruit of some use.
Also, it makes the Life Fruit of some use.
We have a Reaver Shark.
ppowersteef
Paladin
Very doubtful with Expert WoF As I really needed the 400 HP to survive. but other than that, support!
You don't need 20 hearts either to win a Zelda boss.
(Also, I didn't know that you need to defeat 4 mechs
)
You don't need 20 hearts either to win a Zelda boss.
(Also, I didn't know that you need to defeat 4 mechs
)
The Hexagonal Donut
Plantera
I'd be inclined to complain about not being able to have 400 health come Hardmode, but then I have to remember that I've ended up doing that numerous times, to the point where I actually had to go out hunting specifically for life crystals just to use life fruits.
That being said, this is a pretty neat idea, and I'm a massive sucker for those fiery hearts. They look awesome.
It'd also be kinda neat if Lifeforce Potions had a visible effect on top of this (say, replacing your hearts with modified versions of their non-buffed form, like tinting of a different color in their center, or something similar).
That being said, this is a pretty neat idea, and I'm a massive sucker for those fiery hearts. They look awesome.
It'd also be kinda neat if Lifeforce Potions had a visible effect on top of this (say, replacing your hearts with modified versions of their non-buffed form, like tinting of a different color in their center, or something similar).
Fatx_
Eye of Cthulhu
You can say that Breaking Bad reference was *Puts on shades* methed up.Throughout Terraria, you usually upgrade most of your health early on, up to 400 HP in pre-hardmode, and an extra 100 in the late game. With life crystals available at the very start, a player can upgrade up to 400 HP before they even fight the Eye of Cthulhu. The game was originally designed with (pre-nerf) Skeletron as the final boss, which was about the time the player was expected to have 300 or more HP. With the final 100 HP locked away until the end of the game, the progression feels tacked onto the end, because it is. My plan here is to spread out the health upgrades across the whole game, to avoid sequence breaks in pre-hardmode, and to give the sense of upgrading continuously throughout most of the game.
Life: 100/100
First off, new characters would spawn with 10 hearts, however each heart would be worth 10 HP rather than 20. The player would still start off with 100 HP total.
Life Crystals
Through mining, the player can increase their maximum HP by 10, up to 200 HP. Trying to consume a Life Crystal at 200 HP will only make the clinking sound.
Life: 200/200
So, now what? The player's got 20 hearts but only half the health! Our brave adventurer would soon come across the Underworld and discover..
Blazing Hearts
"Burning with passion.."
These demonic hearts require a Nightmare/Deathbringer Pickaxe or better to mine. This means the highest health the player can have against the Eater of Worlds or Brain of Cthulhu is 200 HP. With these spooky hearts scattered around the underworld, it encourages exploration through hell, as right now, all the player really needs to do is mine hellstone safely from within hell towers for a molten pickaxe, fight Wall of Flesh, and move on. Due to multiplayer issues, as well as old worlds without Blazing Hearts, these will also be craftable with 1 Life Crystal and 8 Hellstone Bars.
Life: 300/300
With all hearts blazing, each heart is now worth 15 HP. The highest health available to fight the Wall of Flesh would be 300. Could be difficult, but keep in mind we've been getting more and more buff potions, stronger weapons, and gear, since 1.1. Looks like our adventurer defeated the Wall with only 300 HP! Now what?
"The ancient spirits of light and dark have been released."
Time to check out the Hallow!
Dazzling Hearts
"Breaking good"
Blue, crystalline hearts can be found in the Underground Hallow, giving this easily skippable biome another reason to visit. They grow similarly to Life Fruits. These require an Adamantite/Titanium Pickaxe to mine, finally giving those tools a purpose. Upon each one used will give the player 5 additional HP, up to a maximum of 400 HP, surely enough to face the mechs. As mechs now spawn on their own, with Dazzling Hearts, there would now be a pre-mech flag, where mechs will not spawn naturally until a player has 400 max HP, similar to how the Eye of Cthulhu won't spawn until the player has 200 HP (which is a little too late I think, 150 sounds more like it?)
Life: 400/400
All hearts are now a shimmering crystalline blue, now worth 20 HP each. The brave warrior takes down all 4 mechs like a boss! Time to head on over and become king of the jungle.
Sweet Hearts
"Hard as a rock!"
Pink candy hearts are located within the underground Confection, and grow just like their Dazzling counterparts. They function nearly the same.
Life: 400/400
With all hearts encased in rock candy, it's time to take down rock 'n rollin' Plantera! ..after the mechs, that is.
Okay, I think you know how this part goes. The player collects Life Fruit to increase HP by 5 again, up to 500 max HP.
Life: 500/500
With max health reached, the player continues on and finishes the last few challenges left within the world. Good job player, thanks for playing!
Wait..
That's it?
NOPE! With new hearts, there would be some new items to craft as well!
Heart Lantern
This thing slightly increases regeneration and is made from a Life Crystal and 4 Chains. It is hung from the ceiling.
Blazing Brazier (Oops, dark background, click here to view it better)
When placed on the ground, all nearby players gain a 15% increase in movement speed, perfect for the Wall of Flesh battle. When players run within its area of effect, a fire trail blazes behind them as they run. Made from a Blazing Heart and 4 Iron/Lead Bars.
Dazzling Mirror
"Mirror, mirror, on the wall.."
Hang this thing up on a wall and it will increase all attacks by 8%, as long as you're within the mirror's area. As the mech battles are timed, this will help those struggling to finish before dawn. Take that, Skeletron Prime! The mirror is crafted with a Dazzling Heart and 20 Pearlstone.
Box of Candies
"Eat me."
This delicious box of goodies are placed on tables and platforms. The dangerously sweet taste causes your blood sugar to rush, granting you an extra 5% critical strike chance. These confectionery dishes are crafted with a Sweet Heart and 20 wood.
Tree of Life
The little tree sways joyfully with 3 bouncing heart fruits within it. You can't help but feel inspired by this happy plant. You reach into your potion bag and take a swig, to realize you feel more revitalized than ever. Potions consumed around the Tree of Life heal by 15% extra, as well as an extra 5 defense of protection. The tree is crafted with 3 Life Fruits, 5 Chlorophyte Bars, and 10 Rich Mahogany. It must be planted within a pot to function.
That's about it! I'll leave you with a little animation of health upgrades, a Hallow version and Confection version:
These changes will help prevent sequence breaking (a new player might find themself with too much health, decreasing challenge and fun in the early game), spread health upgrades across the game for a more accomplishing feeling, and give us fun new items to use as decorations or minor buffs. Buffs and stats are up to change. What do you think?
Special Thanks to @AntithesisEK for the Blazing Heart idea. 200 HP against WoF and into Hardmode would've been rough without that extra 100 HP! Also, for that cute Tree of Life!
MournfulRelic
The Destroyer
I think that the Tree of Life should fill you with determination. 
5raptorboy
Terrarian
My only problem with this is that Expert Mode exists now. I know that some people can beat these bosses in Expert without full health, but does Expert Mode have to be that much more brutal?
I really like Expert Mode, and I play it because I want a challenge, and honestly, I think that some things could be added to make Expert Mode even more of a challenge, and I wouldn't have that much of a problem. It's just that in my opinion, this is too much for Expert Mode.
I really like Expert Mode, and I play it because I want a challenge, and honestly, I think that some things could be added to make Expert Mode even more of a challenge, and I wouldn't have that much of a problem. It's just that in my opinion, this is too much for Expert Mode.
Snickerbobble
The Painter
I believe that Expert Mode should be balanced around the game, and not the other way around. Currently Expert is balanced around the current game in mind, if this suggestion were to make it, changes to Expert would need to be made.
I hope to see more changes to Expert in the future, as sadly now it's mostly bumped up stats.
sirlegend87
Terrarian
dear sir, i hate to burst your bubble, but previously, you would have had to collect 15, so if anything, the life crystal grind has been lessened, so rest easy knowing that if this becomes a mod/update, you will have less to worry about with the whole "life crystal grind" and you can spend more time doing what you love, be it build, mine, or straight up kill stuff, i personally like doing the latter, i'm fine with peeps who like building and mining!happy slaying/building/mining, friend!
that is an idea i can get behind!i don't wanna see the boring gold, i wanna see shiny CRYSTAL, or the abyssal emptiness of FIRE...the way i put that... ._.
welp, anyways, i love this idea as an expert thing, i see myself as a mid-level player, able to deal with norm mode pretty well, but dying thousands of times within one expert world, but this appeals to me for an expert world, as masters of expert could use the greater challenge, and beginners would need time to adjust, when i think about it, it really is "oh hey i have 400 hp...meh..." what you did was smart!
same, buffed stats shouldn't be everything, the new strats aren't very easilly noticed usually, so les add some slight health limits!
MegaMage314 🌳
Living Tree
Not sure what makes you say that, with this it would go from needing 15 life crystals to get 400 hp to needing 10 to get to 200 hp, 20 blazing hearts to get 300 hp, and then 20 dazzling hearts to finally get to 400 hp. That's over three times as many hearts for the same effect.
sirlegend87
Terrarian
true, but at least they look different, so you don't get bored so easily, no?besides, now they're in specific environments, so you have a general area where you can go, thus sorta making everything easier in the long run!
MegaMage314 🌳
Living Tree
But that just means you have to stay in the same place to find them instead of exploring the entire underground. They might look a little different, but mechanicaly they're all exactly the same as regular old life crystals.
sirlegend87
Terrarian
sometimes staying in one place for something can be a good thing, think about it like this: you're playing some linear rpg, and you have to grab like, 20 mcguffins that you MUST get JUST to progress the story, and they're scattered literally EVERYWHERE, miles away from each other, that's life crystals on a smaller scale, and what do you call that example?I call it annoying and bad game design.
i see the life crystal mechanic as flawed, you have to grab the max you can hold before you can move onto the next one, which barely DOES ANYTHING, i like the idea of using items to work your way up hp-wise, but when you can do most of it at the beginning it sounds kinda dumb...
However, i can see ways it could be very bad, such as hunting down more items, in a smaller area (i kinda like this personally, cuz you don't have to look as long or hard, less like "here's a pickaxe, hunt down 20 mcguffins that are miles apart" and more like "hey, you have to hunt a few things down, but they get closer together as time goes on, so while the first few will be hard, it'll get much easier, happy hunting!"), more items could be a chore with bad worldgen, and some of us have limited time to hunt stuff down and just wanna murder bosses, which i can understand, so while hidden hearts would be great for better general progression (no more "oh hey, 400 hp....ok....meh...", and more "woah!i wonder what my new set will look like!"), heart crystals could be the better option for those with a time frame.
that's just one of the examples, so i can see that the argument can go either way...so yeah...
i see the life crystal mechanic as flawed, you have to grab the max you can hold before you can move onto the next one, which barely DOES ANYTHING, i like the idea of using items to work your way up hp-wise, but when you can do most of it at the beginning it sounds kinda dumb...
However, i can see ways it could be very bad, such as hunting down more items, in a smaller area (i kinda like this personally, cuz you don't have to look as long or hard, less like "here's a pickaxe, hunt down 20 mcguffins that are miles apart" and more like "hey, you have to hunt a few things down, but they get closer together as time goes on, so while the first few will be hard, it'll get much easier, happy hunting!"), more items could be a chore with bad worldgen, and some of us have limited time to hunt stuff down and just wanna murder bosses, which i can understand, so while hidden hearts would be great for better general progression (no more "oh hey, 400 hp....ok....meh...", and more "woah!i wonder what my new set will look like!"), heart crystals could be the better option for those with a time frame.
that's just one of the examples, so i can see that the argument can go either way...so yeah...
ReusableLime20
Slime Collector
1. This thread makes me want to try WoF at 300, was it?
2. This would be really cool to have(and I might skip the life fruits just to have those cool looking crystal hearts. Can those be last please?)
2. This would be really cool to have(and I might skip the life fruits just to have those cool looking crystal hearts. Can those be last please?)
SnailsAttack
Dungeon Spirit
The underworld ones would presumably be like trees in that you cant just mine the blocks underneath. The others generally follow the "spawn after X happens" rule.
_tenfictions_
Official Terrarian
This is in Antiaris, so if you want to see it in-game, install the mod.
Uchiha sasuke
Terrarian
I like the concept of burning hearts but not the one of dazzling hearts. Life fruits are up there with planteras bulb for things that are heavily luck reliant and gate progression by forcing the player to stay in an area they already explored and run around like an idiot hoping one spawned. Just have the WOF drop a health boost.