Terraria – A basic overview for noobs
Aside from Skyrim, I’ve also been playing Terraria, also known as “2D Minecraft”. One of my mates just bought a copy and asked why there wasn’t any starting documentation for it. Well, there is documentation but you gotta know where to look. I thought I’d write something about starting and where to look for info. Here you go…
(Picture totally stolen from 3FL.)
Terraria is a side-scrolling game where you mine/chop/harvest resources for building better stuff. It features RPG-ish elements in that you can upgrade your character’s health, mana and equipment and go on adventures. This is the sort of game you’d enjoy if you like exploring, hilarious crazy panic, mucking around with friends and hearing things go SQUELCH upon death.
You spawn with a copper pickaxe, copper shortsword and a copper axe.
- Use these tools to gather resources.
Pickaxe digs earth, stone and metal ores – shortsword kills monsters that drop stuff – axe chops trees for wood and acorns.
- Replant trees by placing acorns on grass.
- Use wood to craft a workbench – this is where the awesomeness begins.
All of your resources can be used at the workbench (and other crafting tables that you craft at the workbench) and combined to build better stuff, even better tools. There are several different types of tools and weapons, not just the starting three.
- Do stuff – events trigger NPCs who sell awesome stuff.
Building a house with rooms attracts a merchant, an arms dealer and a nurse. They need one room each with adequate lighting, one chair and table furniture apiece. Other world events like destroying certain things or earning X amount of money will trigger other NPCs.
- Hearts give you permanent health increase.
- Stars give you permanent mana increase.
In some caverns, you’ll find stone hearts. Break these with a hammer (which you craft at a workbench or anvil) to reveal a life crystal, which you can eat to gain a permanent extra 20hp. Collect stars that fall from the sky at night – every 10 stars give you a permanent extra unit of mana.
- Special items can be found randomly in chests around the world.
The game rewards exploring (or cheating). Special items are hidden in chests around the world. These chests can be found in caves, crevices, dungeons, sky palaces and other creepy spelunky places.
- Softcore means you drop money upon death.
- Mediumcore means you drop everything upon death.
- Hardcore means you drop everything and die permanently.
When you create your character, you can choose whether it’s a softcore, mediumcore or hardcore character. When you die, a gravestone automatically spawns at the location of your demise. Gravestones don’t do anything; they’re just funny.
That’s pretty much all there is to it. The two best sites (IMO) for information are:
They’re both essentially the same – really good and full of details.
The official Terraria forums have a server list for if you want to join a public multiplayer server. Else if you’re in Australia, my internet service provider runs one – details here. Not sure if you have to be a customer to use it, but if you are, the traffic doesn’t count towards your quota. Awesome pings too.
Terraria is cheap and available on Steam. :) Enjoy.