Other Literature Terraria Chess State of the Game [Spring 2024]

[Solar Moon]

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~ Welcome! ~ ​

Hello to new and returning fans of Terraria Chess! The spring season brings a lot of beautiful weather (sometimes) but it also brings a lot of quality of life and balance changes to our beloved Terraria boss abilities. If you are a returning fan, welcome back! If you are new, please refer to my original thread on Terraria Chess.

In Terraria Chess, each boss is an ability you can use in a game of chess. For example, if you choose King Slime, your pieces can now "jump" pieces just like in Checkers. There are also 2 categories of abilities, that being Pre-Hardmode and Hardmode. Every ability in a tier is balanced around the others in that tier. The higher the tier, the more powerful the ability (and usually the more complicated).​

And like the first one, I will provide the resources upfront in case you'd like to explore for yourself first, especially since the quality of life changes are LIVE as of writing this.

• THE TERRARIA CHESS DOCUMENT: The Document
• THE DISCORD SERVER: Discord Server
• THE VIDEO PLAYLIST: Terraria Chess Playlist

~ Getting Started ~ ​

In order to make Terraria Chess more beginner-friendly, I have revamped its introduction pages entirely. The previous "rules" have been ripped out by the roots since they were hardly rules to begin with and acted more like guides. All of the old stuff has been rebranded onto a page called "Getting Started" and has become more oriented towards encouraging new players to explore and play Terraria Chess, without the confusion and - I'm sure - frustration.

With that being said, here are the new official rules:

1. En Passant is legal.
2. Kings can one-shot pieces with extra health and bypass abilities such as dodges, thorns, and invincibility.
3. If your turn puts the King in check (or even potential checks) your turn immediately ends.
4. You can choose to not promote a pawn.
5. You can choose to skip your turn as long as you do not stall and avoid stalemates.
6. Have fun!

I believe it is important my decision behind each rule. En passant has always really been legal, it just has never been in writing. Kings can now bypass invincibility in addition to everything else previously mentioned. Granted, this is just 1 ability, but I did it for consistency. "Potential checks" help things run more smoothly because sometimes people will go back a move or so in games because they saw a huge King Slime chain or a Plantera teleport that technically put the opponent in check. And in some ability descriptions (mainly Golem) it was specifically stated the ability would end if it put the King in check. And thus, I made it baseline, indirectly nerfing King Slime and Plantera. You can choose to not promote a pawn. Not sure why you would, but you can. Number 5 is very experimental, but that's because some Fargo Mod abilities will use this mechanic.

~ Balance Changes ~ ​

Ah, everyone's favorite section. Who fell from grace and who is remarkably busted now? Well, the answer is...

• Wall of Flesh buffs, you can now move 3 pawns instead of 2 (max distance remains 3)
  
• With WOF, you can also move the same pawn twice
• Nerfed Duked Fishron, pawns can still dash 2 spaces but other pieces can only dash 1
• Desert Scourge has been buffed and can now move pawns 2 spaces baseline in addition to moving 3 initial spaces and also being able to dash backward
• Cirrus is officially classified as a "Joke ability" and cannot/should not be used under normal circumstances except pissing off your opponent
• Astrum Aureus has been buffed by removing that you can't kill the King with his explosion. I probably just made him broken. Oops

These changelogs were directly copied and pasted from the Discord server, the home of Terraria Chess. Feel free to join, especially since I will be hosting a tournament with prizes come summer.

THE DISCORD SERVER: Right here!

~ Quality of Life ~ ​

With how expansive and mind-numbingly wordy the document is becoming, visual changes have been made.

• Every ability will have the sprite of its boss on the left side of it
• If the ability has a phase 2, a sprite of the bosses phase 2 will be on the right of it

• Team attacks and modifiers are included
• For example, NPC modifiers will now have the NPCs enlarged and on the side
• Gave "THE LORDE" a very funny visual change

• Nameless Deity' page now has a much more grand visual (mostly because I actually put the sprite of Nameless Deity on the dang page...)
• Utilized red text for key points of most abilities
• Additionally made red text fully consistent (some of them were bolded)

~ Tournament ~ ​

And of course, the incentive I proposed - a tournament challenging mastery over Terraria Chess and its meta. Since Terraria Chess was released I announced a Tournament with a grand prize of $50. This is still happening, and I'm suspecting it'll be around July 6th or July 13th (both being Saturdays). But regardless, if you plan on participating I recommend practicing, especially if you're higher elo so you can wield the abilities to their fullest. Also because I need someone high elo to annihilate our Discord member Verifyd (he's too good.)

~ Future & Goals ~ ​

Unfortunately between the time of this post and the last, I have stepped down from the Ruthless Paper youtube channel. I will spare you the lengthy details, but as co-owner I was neglecting my personal life continuously waiting for Ruthless to return when it became apparent he was taking his more seriously than myself. And so, content will be made whenever it is convenient, not required as I sort my life out.

With that being said, I did also mention in my little announcement that I'd be willing to return full force when the owner does.

Anyways, the next episode of Terraria Chess is the Fargo's Mod episode. It's possible it could be released this very month, though I won't make promises.

As of right now, my timeline/roadmap looks more like this:

• Fargo's Episode
• The Tournament
• Infernum
• Labor of Love
• Community Remix

Of course, it may not stop here, but in terms of new episodes, these are my prime focus. I may do other content mods after this, but it will depend on its content. For example, I would love to do The Wall of Shadow from Homeward Journey, but I'm a weird completionist, I wouldn't feel right unless I did EVERY boss from a mod. I don't want to oversaturate Terraria Chess.

~ Closing Sentiment ~ ​

Well, thank you for reading up on my small little update. I'm just a guy typing away at 11pm hoping someone gets joy out of reading this, but I can't help myself from being creative even if no one does. I'll see you all again once the Fargo's Episode hits (and trust me, it's a good one!)
Take care of yourself, my fellow Terrarians.

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THANK YOU FOR READING!​

MY DISCORD: solarmoon_2885

THE DISCORD SERVER: Right here!
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