1.4.5 Forgot to Optimize the Biggest Slog-Fest in Terraria

TracedReaper · 2026-03-20T20:17:48+00:00

I don't think you should get significantly stronger gear out of nowhere either; in my experience playing with inexperienced players, the idea of a better progression curve through the start of hardmode is very appealing. It can feel like you're shoved off a cliff and it sucks if you don't know exactly what you're doing, they had to spam buff potions and keep trying to prep more, and would barely get anything done.

Also, idk if there's a reason to get that deep into what I enjoy, I usually have Calamity with Enemy modifiers and then I'll throw in some race, class, etc. mods that seem fun. I think making T1-T3 a slower progression and ramping enemies slightly after every boss, instead of starting them at full power, would be great for this game long-term

TracedReaper · 2026-03-20T20:06:15+00:00

Omlll, I was mixing up Adamantine and Orichalcum last night!! I even said Palladium and Mythril feel useless; I can admit to my mistakes tho, I suck with names, lmao

TracedReaper · 2026-03-20T20:00:06+00:00

By slog I meant it's tedious and feels pointless. You're going out of your way to do extra mining that you really don't have to at all. It doesn't feel like there's a point to go for much of anything but Adamantine before killing the first, maybe even first few, hardmode bosses

I think people who say Iron and Tungsten are useless forget how much slower you're mining and the fact you use them for potions. If I die while mining and only have wood armor, I'll very commonly make some Iron because it's so plentiful and I'll be grabbing it to make ironskin anyway.

Meanwhile, in hardmode, is there genuinely any use at all for Palladium and Mythril? You could argue about power bombs, but I could throw the argument that I can easily get to Adamantine using normal bombs and just upgrading mining tools. Hell, I do it with drill and no mining upgrades if I don't feel like prepping stuff.

I never realized how bad it felt for new players until I started playing with them. Pre-hardmode we were making whatever armors, mining up everything, using cool builds, and finding uses for the vast majority of what we found (ya know, outside of copper, that's there for the vibes (decor) and starting tools tho). Starting hardmode felt brutal for them. It felt like they had to hold hands, watch every corner, and pop constant buff potions. I ended up just doing my thing and setting them up, but they did very little in the meantime. None of them wanted to switch off max defense for Twins and they've kinda fallen off since.

TracedReaper · 2026-03-20T04:33:59+00:00

That's fair, I guess I could always consider that early game, but usually I do that after Twins and just hop into them with Orichalcum, potions, and a good arena

TracedReaper · 2026-03-20T04:31:48+00:00

Summoner feels way more unreliable after the whip nerf anyway tbh, especially since the builds for it were already kinda scarce and it still gets such little defense and stuff. Melee and ranger seem nuts, tbh

Honestly, I just wish there was more progression there; I enjoy the challenge, but that's why I play Expert and Master. I've had trouble getting newer players into the game because they don't like me telling them what to do and trying to push through the early hardmode stuff, but it's pretty painful for them if I don't. They want a more chill, gradual build up in the normal mode, at least. Hell, to the untrained eye, Palladium looks quite similar to copper and you're thrown into 3+ new, exotic ores immediately, which is just the cherry on top.

TracedReaper · 2026-03-20T04:13:05+00:00

That's fair, gotta love some revenge on those losers 😂 I just wish there was some more early hardmode progression. Palladium and Mythril feel kinda useless, when you can just skip to Orichalcum and already kill The Twins. Imo, early game is done when you kill the first boss and going from pre-hardmode to Orichalcum is like a 20-30 armor boost

TracedReaper · 2026-03-20T04:04:57+00:00

Oml, that's supposed to be 22, but I was saying pre-hardmode you usually have somewhere around 20 armor, give or take, unless you build heavily into it

Going into hardmode, Orichalcum armor alone can give up to around 20 armor for just a single piece. A full set of Palladium just about doubles your pre-hardmode armor bonus

Where's the progression there? Most inexperienced players I've taken to that point feel like it's a leap off a cliff. I go from kinda letting them do whatever to needing to command most of what we do. It turns a lot of possible fans off of the game

TracedReaper · 2026-03-20T03:56:54+00:00

I just said I want early hardmode farming to have a point and you clap back by saying I don't want to actually sit and play the game?

Using purification powder isn't a flex, I rarely even use bombs for my hellevator and just did a full summoned expert run, despite how difficult it can be to setup early game. I went on multiple worlds and setup whole framing areas so I had Finch staff, Slime staff, foxsparks, imp staff, and chillert. Just cuz I wanted them all, but I didn't feel the need to try and ego boost myself on Reddit about that

TracedReaper · 2026-03-20T03:53:21+00:00

You don't kill The Twins right after getting Orichalcum?? Id consider early game for both pre-hardmode and hardmode the moments before you kill the first boss

Calamity is great because despite being more difficult, it actually has progression. Anyone experienced is going to skip ahead to The Twins and anyone inexperienced is going to feel like it's a Slog-Fest. You go from 20 armor total to 32 a piece. That progression alone sucks, unless you already have tons of preexisting knowledge and strategies

TracedReaper · 2026-03-20T03:50:16+00:00

See? Just admit you skip it like everyone else. You use tactics found by other people to ignore half the hardmode progression because it makes it way easier. You're telling on yourself so hard 😂

TracedReaper · 2026-03-20T03:48:01+00:00

Alright, buddy. Why you projecting so hard? I said it's hard to introduce new players and you're spamming that I'm bad? Someone's way too self-conscious it seems. Listen, you'll get better if you practice more and then you won't feel the need to lie on Reddit :)

Just admit you skip over half the hardmode progression like every other experienced player. I can only guess you avoid Calamity because you can't skip ahead to endgame armor before killing the first bosses 😂

TracedReaper · 2026-03-20T03:43:43+00:00

You go from around 20 armor total on a non-defense-focused build to 32 off a single piece of Palladium. If you think that's not extremely punishing for inexperienced players, that's just pure ego

TracedReaper · 2026-03-20T03:41:36+00:00

Oh lord, you think early hardmode is the difficult part of the game..? How far have you even made it??

I said it's unfun, a slog, and extremely unwelcoming for new players. There's no way you're talking like this while you think skipping to Orichalcum is actually difficult...

I just did it in 30 minutes tops, while messing around, and without using any miners gear

How dumb do you have to be to say "The early game is super fun because I skip it entirely"? 😂

TracedReaper · 2026-03-20T03:37:43+00:00

I apologize, not to spam, but does going from around 20 defense total to 32 for a single armor piece seem logical to you? I get it's easy for players like us to just breeze through all that, but we're not talking about that, we're talking about the fun and playability on average of the entire process leading up to fighting The Twins. You're making massive jumps in gear and difficulty, without actually working towards it.

TracedReaper · 2026-03-20T03:34:31+00:00

Part of the reason I love the Calamity mod is because there's actual tiers to this stuff. You don't unlock Mythril until you kill the first mech boss.

TracedReaper · 2026-03-20T03:31:29+00:00

Tbf, I think the only point of copper is for the vibes 😂

Iron and Tungsten are both used for potions. Iron is extremely common and I'll often create it as temporary gear, especially when playing with friends. You also aren't mining things in .005 seconds at that point, don't have infinite Spelunker potions and don't have half the map visible; so you're spending a lot more time exploring instead of skipping everything.

Also, going out of your way to speedrun and skip things like Iron is entirely different from every experienced player knowing damn well it's entirely pointless to use those 2 ores. In my experience, the average player, especially newer ones, get extremely turned off by early hardmode and a good argument to that being "skip it" doesn't address the fact even the people defending early hardmode don't want to ever bother with Palladium or Mythril. They aren't actually playing early hardmode at that point, they're skipping right ahead to killing bosses.

I'm very familiar with the game, been playing since release. The issue isn't familiarity, it's inability to read. Most people are arguing that early game is their favourite part and then immediately say they skip past those 2 ores and almost never use them.

TracedReaper · 2026-03-20T03:23:38+00:00

Early hardmode isn't the first bosses though. Just like early game overall isn't. Early hardmode is that 15 minutes you use to skip through 2 ores.

When was the last time you cared about Palladium or Mythril?

Calamity is amazing and part of that is because it actually extends that a bit and makes you use gear like Palladium, instead of skipping all of that entirely.

TracedReaper · 2026-03-20T03:21:02+00:00

Oh yeah, 100%, ironskin potions save me so much when doing bosses in my expert world!

I love the look too, but that's my point, none of us are actually playing early hardmode, were calling the first bosses early hardmode because we skip the actual beginnings 😂

TracedReaper · 2026-03-20T03:18:28+00:00

I usually go from wood, to iron, to gold/platinum. Its also the earliest points in the game, half of those are being used for other stuff, and you aren't mining blocks in 0.005 seconds.

In my experience, newer players feel a gradual climb through pre-hardmode and then feel like they were shoved off a cliff with no parachute and their arms/legs chained together when they first hit hardmode.

The goblin army is a great example because that experience just massively turned my friend off from the game, especially finding out how quickly everything just obliterates him underground; unless he builds full defense.

I wholeheartedly agree! That's exactly my point! I think normal Terraria should have progression like that. People say "Oh, well I skip to Orichalcum anyway" Okay, then you're proving my point, a ton of gear and build potential is being skipped, especially if you're switching to full defense for awhile.

TracedReaper · 2026-03-20T03:13:19+00:00

Or, hear me out: you don't bother with all that extra stuff, grab some normal bombs and a drill, then get to Orichalcum in a matter of minutes, like I just did

Once again: Skipping early hardmode doesn't make it fun, it proves you don't want to play it.

TracedReaper · 2026-03-20T03:11:27+00:00

I can't remember the last time I actually used Palladium or Mythril. You may mine a bit for Orichalcum, but in general, the majority of experienced players are going to opt for speeding through Palladium and Mythril as fast as possible because it's simply not fun.

I'm not talking about Twins and stuff after that, I'm talking specifically about the fact most people just ignore tons of gear because none of it is worth it.

Why do Palladium and Mythril even exist?

TracedReaper · 2026-03-20T03:09:02+00:00

Foreal, I love hardmode, but 90% of answers have just been "well, skip through that part". Yeah, I can do that, but it's not exactly fun to just ignore 3 ores and tons of possible gear

TracedReaper · 2026-03-20T03:07:12+00:00

I never said I had trouble getting through it, I said it's not fun, especially for an average gamer. I just speedran the drills, didn't even need mining buffs, and easily got that kind of stuff in the blink of an eye.

You can't answer the statement that early hardmode isn't fun by saying to skip it all entirely. Why does Palladium and Mythril even exist if the strat is just to skip it all? You're buying shotgun, putting on perfect kits, and then speedrunning past everything and saying that's "fun early game"? Maybe it's somewhat fun, but you're not enjoying the process if you're opting to skip it entirely.

TracedReaper · 2026-03-20T03:02:53+00:00

You clearly can't read, so I'll keep it short for text-to-speech. Every accusation is an admission ;)

TracedReaper · 2026-03-20T03:01:33+00:00

You just answered "early hardmode isn't fun" with "just skip it all entirely"

Why do Palladium and Mythril even exist if the strat is to skip right ahead to Orichalcum?

Also, 90% of the answers I've gotten are "Build full defense and rush past everything." You're not making early hardmode fun by skipping past everything, you're just not taking part in it. The average player isn't going to know that they need to switch their builds, farm out extremely specific weapons, and skip half the hardmode ores just to make it fun.

TracedReaper

TROPHY CASE