The new desert biome

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Katie

Katie

Official Terrarian
Like many others I've come back to Terraria because of the new patch. I am so impressed and I have seen a small fraction of it. I basically wanted to ask people's opinions about the desert biome? Personally I love it, I've read some posts saying that they think the desert is ugly and unnecessary. I've always thought the desert was lacking, the pyramid really helped but even that was pretty small and you were lucky if it even spawned on your world. Anyway what are your pros and cons of the desert biome?

Pros
- it's a challenging area for a new explorer, reminds me of a slightly less difficult jungle.
- I had an awesome mine cart go through mine, might be part of the biome or not but it was cool.
- ores are really plentiful and easy to see, you just have to survive!
- easier now to farm antlions mandibles.

Cons
- the desert rooms with a chest leave much to be desired, a little boring.
- my desert was just a tiny bit too close to my base, I have to go really far out of my way to get to an underground biome.

Please don't reveal other spoilers about the rest of the game, I am very much enjoying discovering it all with no spoilers! Love this game!
 
I think it was definitely great, it provided a lot of challenge with chargers ramming me, and swarmers flying up out of the pits as I ran by in fear. It did get easier, but gets some pretty tough new enemies in hardmode. I thought that the pits replaced the temple, but I was wrong. I definitely think they should be combined, and that you should be able to get both items avaible from the temple like they did with the living wood trees. It's only two items, it can easily fit in one chest. And ya know the small entrance always on the bottom of the temple, or the big one usually burried up top? Imagine instead exploring fossil caverns and seeing a sandstone stairway down into a pyramid, that would be so cool of it was combined with caves!
 
Clone1625 said:
I think it was definitely great, it provided a lot of challenge with chargers ramming me, and swarmers flying up out of the pits as I ran by in fear. It did get easier, but gets some pretty tough new enemies in hardmode. I thought that the pits replaced the temple, but I was wrong. I definitely think they should be combined, and that you should be able to get both items avaible from the temple like they did with the living wood trees. It's only two items, it can easily fit in one chest. And ya know the small entrance always on the bottom of the temple, or the big one usually burried up top? Imagine instead exploring fossil caverns and seeing a sandstone stairway down into a pyramid, that would be so cool of it was combined with caves!
Click to expand...

It'll be fun for me when I hit hardmode! I still have to explore it all and still no pyramid on my world, though I haven't explored the other side of my world so there's still hope :)
 
I think it was a great idea, I've been pulling for the desert to get more love for years. The only problem I have is that it didn't really get a lot of love. The underground desert is kind of boring compared to, say, snow, or the crimruption. It actualy becomes sort of monotonous after a while. Mostly the biome is unrewarding. Sandstone and hard sand don't do anything, they're basically walls of trash. Pots, chests, ore/gem deposits, traps, herbs, minibiomes, special enemies, none of these generate in the desert aside from the occasional cabin. As far as I see the four present enemy types don't drop anything special. It's refreshing and new but it's no place I'd find a reason to return to. I still think a desert-themed boss would have been more fun.
 
Yeh a desert themed boss would have been cool! Maybe more mobs like snakes and proper scorpions would have been exciting - with new item drops for specific desert related potions or armour.... unless that already exists?
 
There is a desert-related armor set and the pyramid contains one of three desert themed accessories, though one is a vanity outfit. There's also one desert themed weapon you can craft, though it's almost as old as Terraria and rather infamous.
 
Xakk said:
There is a desert-related armor set and the pyramid contains one of three desert themed accessories, though one is a vanity outfit. There's also one desert themed weapon you can craft, though it's almost as old as Terraria and rather infamous.
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The Sandgun, of course.
It used to be one of the hardest weapons to make, since Antlions were so rare and only occasionally dropped their Mandibles, and only one at a time.
Making Antlions more common and more likely to drop Mandibles and in greater amounts fixed that.
Of course, if you have some effects to make you sometimes not consume ammo, the Sandgun turns into a sand duplicator, meaning add a little patience and you have infinite glass.
 
Juno Brier said:
The Sandgun, of course.
It used to be one of the hardest weapons to make, since Antlions were so rare and only occasionally dropped their Mandibles, and only one at a time.
Making Antlions more common and more likely to drop Mandibles and in greater amounts fixed that.
Of course, if you have some effects to make you sometimes not consume ammo, the Sandgun turns into a sand duplicator, meaning add a little patience and you have infinite glass.
Click to expand...
Which would be a huge hit if it could use silt as ammo. I still like to troll with it in multiplayer using piles of Pearlsand.
 
@Katie the underground desert is great, go fishing in the ocean and get a reaver shark and you can mine out all the fossil ore you find, its great early game armour and the throwing weapons you can make are really powerful
 
I really like the new Underground Desert. It's fitting and it doesn't feel like it was tacked in for the sake of it. But it does feel somewhat lacking... it feels more like a mini-biome (e.g. Mushroom) than a true new biome (e.g. Underground Ice / Crimson / Corruption).

However, it seems in 1.3 that deserts are more frequent. I keep ending up with piles of sand barely a screen in width dumped all over the place. One desert with underground, one desert without. That's enough for me. :)
 
I like the Underground Desert but it feels boring after you get fossil armor. None of the Hardmode enemies have any special attacks and the only unique drops are two vanity masks.

I feel like the Underground Desert, the Granite, and the Marble all are really cool before hardmode and then completely useless
 
My first reaction when seeing a Charger on the surface was "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" and running the opposite direction(it actually chased me all the way back to my base XD). Come to think of it, my first reaction when seeing a Swarmer was also "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" This is the exact reaction something new should cause in a game about survival.

There are a few things that are disappointing(I would've loved a desert-themed furniture set that wasn't cactus, for instance), but overall the antlion pits are probably my favorite addition to the early game.

Juno Brier said:
Of course, if you have some effects to make you sometimes not consume ammo, the Sandgun turns into a sand duplicator, meaning add a little patience and you have infinite glass.
Click to expand...
I love Unlimited Sand Works.
2lruOxn.png

Even when using a character that otherwise has nothing to do with ranged, I still make it a point to craft a Sandgun and at the very least, Necro Armor.
 
It's pretty cool. I guess unsurprisingly it's a little less developed than other biomes. If Terraria ever gets another big update maybe that will change. For now the only unique thing is the Desert Fossils / Sturdy Fossils, and those are interesting, but to me feel a little underpowered for the stage you get them, especially the amber staff.
 
I love the new desert, it's just so jam packed with caves and unique enemies (especially in hardmode, though I won't spoil it if you haven't seen them yet). I always felt like the desert had a lot of unused potential, and it it still does have TONS of room for cool drops, structures, and maybe even a boss.

I especially like the way that pyramids act like express routes into the depths of the underground desert. Which can be seen here:
image.jpg
 
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