Other Suggestion: Fast Start setting.

[Angel2357]

(Goodness, I hope this is the right category.)

So, I love Terraria. More specifically, I love about 90% of Terraria. I'm not crazy about the Solar Pillar or Moon Lord, but that's because I don't deal well with the immense pressure they use. What I actively dislike, though, is the beginning of the game. That period of time where you don't have things. Sure, going back to copper shortswords and wooden yo-yos after a week with a Terra Blade makes you feel wimpy, but that's not what I mean. I mean the other stuff. That you take for granted. So, I want to suggest an optional setting for when you create a character, named Fast Start, which would allow you to get your foot in the door and start the game faster and more comfortably.

Letting a first time player do this might take something away, though, so here's the first part of the suggestion: Much like choosing which type of spreading biome you want at the beginning, Fast Start can only be chosen for a character if you have beaten the Wall of Flesh at least once on that account.

The specifics that I'm picturing:

• You begin with Hermes Boots in your accessory slots. (There is a 33% chance that these will be Flurry Boots instead.) Now, this may be excessive. If it is, I'll provide an alternative: Instead, you begin with Nice Boots in your accessory slots. These slightly increase your movement speed and jump height while slightly reducing falling damage. And, combining them with Harpy Feathers and potentially some Fallen Stars lets you turn them into Hermes Boots. The slow movement of the very beginning is excruciating, allowing dashing or simply smoothing out your movement beyond what you have itemless would make the game much simpler to start.
• You begin with a Magic Mirror in your inventory. (There is a 33% chance that this will be an Ice Mirror instead.) Recall Potions are nice and all, especially since they're an instant recall, but despite their relatively common droprate sometimes you get RNG'd out of them. (This has happened to me. It sucks.) These and the Boots are relatively common to find in chests, but again, you can get RNG'd out of them, and this happens much more often. Spelunking for hours on end trying to find just one [quack] mirror is no fun, and this or being able to craft magic mirrors (by using glass plus fallen stars, maybe, as this would still require you to explore places and brave danger) would heartily rip out that potential period of time.
• A tangential suggestion: Being able to mulch Magic/Ice Mirrors at a work bench to make Fallen Stars. Whether you picked Fast Start or not, this would give all those dupe mirrors a use.
• You begin with a standard iron grappling hook in your inventory. If this is excessive, an alternative: You start with a Hook in your inventory, and killing skeletons with a hook in your inventory causes them to drop chains instead of Hooks. Movement early on is infuriatingly limited, and while starting with rocket boots or a double jump bottle would be somewhat silly, giving you some vertical movement (or the ability to gain it faster than usual) would be greaty. Otherwise, you sort of have to grind 4% chances from skeletons and then spend quite a bit of iron, or gather 15 of the same gem. Those are rare(-ish), hard to spot (without a spelunker potion, which is unreasonable to get so early) and have other uses (admittedly, mainly cosmetic), so it's not an ideal solution.
• You begin with a copper hammer in your inventory. Because come on.

While there are other things I'd love to start a game with (such as rope coils, healing potions, some heart and mana crystals and a weak suit of armor), this is the bare minimum of what I want. Admittedly, I already do more or less this through passing down items from other characters (plus a money trough because sometimes you get two and the one slime staff that I just keep passing down because the drop rate and not being craftable is unacceptable), because the alternative is spending a few hours mindlessly spelunking in the caves, but seeing it made official would be great.

 

[Lord Garak]

If you know you can just give yourself these items I don't see a point in making it an actual mode. Personally I find having things handed to me extremely boring.

 

[Teh Manticore]

Rather than set items you're given, I'd wonder what it'd be like if you could select from a range of starting gear (or gear sets) that vary across the things you've suggested. One set starts with a 2nd tier pickaxe and 5 mining potions; one starts with a basic bow, 50 flaming arrows, and an ammo potion; one starts with 100 clay and one of each common plant seed; one starts with a basic fishing rod, 10 worms and a fishing potion, etc etc. Maybe you could start with a magic mirror or boots or other great accessory but each one costs one less heart to start the game with?
It would be even better if playing the game unlocks these options for new characters made on your PC, whether it be achievements that unlock it, or you unlock the gear sets from an NPC for 1 platinum each, etc.