Terraria 1.2

[Zork Nemesis]

The Twins decided to spawn on me again, this time I was ready. Wings and Phoenix Blaster/Crystal Bullets for the win.

Then Destroyer spawned next night, he proved a bit more problematic.

On the other hand, the requirements to forge Excalibur are reduced. Somehow it's weaker than the Keyblade I found though.

[lyn]

I never really gave this game a chance until the patch and I have become addicted to it. So many fun little things to collect and neat places to explore. One of my favorite things is to decorate my house with cool things I find while on my adventures. Just defeated Plantera tonight and off to the jungle dungeon tomorrow, hopefully. Here's a picture of my toon so far.

VIEW CONTENT:

I feel so pretty!!

[Zork Nemesis]

I may have possibly found the best weapon in the game.

You know those biome specific chests in the Dungeon? If you find a key (which I believe you find as a rare drop from any monster in the specific biome in hard mode), go out of your way to open that box.

I found the key for the Crimson box and after much pain (hard mode dungeon sucks), I managed to reach the box to get a set of throwing knives. They're no ordinary knives, these are the Vampire Knives. First off they have infinite ammo unlike traditional knives. You throw five at once in a loose spread and can throw very fast (Muramasa fast). With my gear they do about 40 damage (each). The best part about them is that 10% of the damage dealt with the knives is restored as health. So if you're landing direct hits at point blank with all five knives per toss you can potentially heal 20 health per throw.

With these knives, and in combination with the Frost Armor set (obtained from Ice Golems in Snow biomes during blizzards) which gives all of my attacks the ability to cause "frostburn" (basically it lights everything on fire, 100% chance), I managed to successfully tear apart the Twins, the Destroyer, and Skeleton Prime in a single game night without once using a healing potion. Upping the ante I also laid waste to Plantera no less than four times without breaking a sweat.

These knives are freaking amazing! The Wiki agrees with these two points:

-This weapon essentially makes you invincible in any combat situation, even against all of the Hard Mode bosses, and deals extreme damage to boot. It's easily all-around the best weapon available in the 1.2 update.

-Because of the weapon's life-stealing capabilities, it is possible to solo any boss with 400 health without ever going beneath 300, so long as this weapon is used. It is also possible to kill a boss without dying without having any armor or accessories equipped.

That said, reforging them is damn expensive. 50 gold without a prefix.

[The Domer]

I never really gave this game a chance until the patch and I have become addicted to it. So many fun little things to collect and neat places to explore. One of my favorite things is to decorate my house with cool things I find while on my adventures. Just defeated Plantera tonight and off to the jungle dungeon tomorrow, hopefully. Here's a picture of my toon so far.

VIEW CONTENT:

I feel so pretty!!

Awesome pic!

[darklin0]

I may have possibly found the best weapon in the game.

You know those biome specific chests in the Dungeon? If you find a key (which I believe you find as a rare drop from any monster in the specific biome in hard mode), go out of your way to open that box.

I found the key for the Crimson box and after much pain (hard mode dungeon sucks), I managed to reach the box to get a set of throwing knives. They're no ordinary knives, these are the Vampire Knives. First off they have infinite ammo unlike traditional knives. You throw five at once in a loose spread and can throw very fast (Muramasa fast). With my gear they do about 40 damage (each). The best part about them is that 10% of the damage dealt with the knives is restored as health. So if you're landing direct hits at point blank with all five knives per toss you can potentially heal 20 health per throw.

With these knives, and in combination with the Frost Armor set (obtained from Ice Golems in Snow biomes during blizzards) which gives all of my attacks the ability to cause "frostburn" (basically it lights everything on fire, 100% chance), I managed to successfully tear apart the Twins, the Destroyer, and Skeleton Prime in a single game night without once using a healing potion. Upping the ante I also laid waste to Plantera no less than four times without breaking a sweat.

These knives are freaking amazing! The Wiki agrees with these two points:

-This weapon essentially makes you invincible in any combat situation, even against all of the Hard Mode bosses, and deals extreme damage to boot. It's easily all-around the best weapon available in the 1.2 update.

-Because of the weapon's life-stealing capabilities, it is possible to solo any boss with 400 health without ever going beneath 300, so long as this weapon is used. It is also possible to kill a boss without dying without having any armor or accessories equipped.

That said, reforging them is damn expensive. 50 gold without a prefix.

hat sounds so awesome! I have not found any biome specific keys yet. I have gotten 3 turtle shells. I just need some of the jungle biome ore.

[Zork Nemesis]

Another biome chest prize: Piranha Gun from the Jungle box.

Looks like another boomerang at first, then you learn that it's distance is based on how long you hold the attack button. If you hit something with it and continue to hold the attack button it will maul the target's face off until you let go of the button or die. If something else is nearby when the first target dies, it will jump to it and continue to do so until you let go, you die, or everything else is dead. It's damn cool. DPS wise it's pretty damn strong. About 30-40 damage per bit and it hits as fast as a Minishark.

[Larry]

I looked around a bit, those keys have a 1/4000 chance of dropping.

[Will T.]

I've been taking my 1.2 world very slowly - I started with a completely new character so as to get the fullest experience of everything right from the beginning. I've beaten the Eye and Brain of Cthulhu a few times each now and just finally got a full set of Crimson armor + gear, which I intend to use in fighting Skeletron. I haven't yet ventured to the Underworld as I'm playing on a Medium world and have yet to get more than 2/3 of the way down towards the bottom of the map (I have to stop and examine every crevice I find, which leads to the discovery and exploration of massive cave systems, but not a whole lot of downward motion). I'm still a fair distance from Hardmode, but I'm looking forward to some of that new endgame gear.

[Zork Nemesis]

So have I mentioned just how OP the Vampire Knives are yet?

Yeah, they are, i'm practically able to speed kill every boss in the game with them, even Golem (the jungle temple boss) who's supposed to be the FINAL BOSS OF 1.2. In terms of speed, I spawned the Eye of Cthulhu for fun. I was able to kill him in roughly five seconds where using any other seemingly OP weapon (such as a Possessed Hatchet with a 130 base damage) took considerably longer. They have such ridiculous DPS and the added lifesteal aspect, these knives are completely game breaking and simply finding them lets you do whatever you want regardless of how far you actually are in terms of item progression. I have already killed Plantera at least eight times and Golem ten times. Since finding them, the only things still capable of killing me are the traps in the temple and Bone Li who's just a massive pain to fight.

That said the key for the box is still super rare and reaching the box in the dungeon provided it isn't right at the surface is a massive pain that I wasn't able to pull off until I got a Death Sickle during a Solar Eclipse.

So here's some other things about new hard mode to point out.

-The Steampunk girl sells a tool called the Clentaminator. For a whopping price of two platinum (200 gold) you get one of the best tools for biome management. It uses solutions for ammo (25 silver each from her, with one exception) and basically converts a screen length worth of blocks to whatever you're using at the time. I ran from spawn to the ocean with about 250 solutions (both directions) and was able to convert the entire surface world to Hallow with it.
--There's currently five solutions: one for Purity (no corruption/hallow), one Hallow, one for both Corruption and Crimson, and one for Glowing Mushrooms. Steampunk girl sells Purity if she lives in Purity, Hallow if she lives in Hallow, and Corruption/Crimson during Blood Moons.
--The Glowing Mushroom solution is sold by the Truffle.
-She also sells teleporters. You have to wire them together (2,000 wire limit on distance) but if you take the time to set them up you can cross the entire map with ease or better yet: make your safe house completely secure by eliminating the need for exterior doorways.
-Glowing Mushroom biomes can now exist on the surface, music and all and even a unique surface background. In fact there's a unique shop NPC who moves into a house specifically constructed in a surface Mushroom biome: the Truffle. And no he does not do the "Truffle Shuffle", he says so himself.
-Concerning Plantera. Plantera spawns if you break a glowing pink bulb in the underground Jungle. Its first form attacks by walking into you (it's climbing the walls) and shooting. Second form at half health it gets faster and spawns a crap ton more tendrils that can be attacked. I don't know the full extent of it since I'm just wasting it with the Vampire Knives, but it looks like a hell of a fight. It always drops a key to access the Lizhard temple you can find in the Jungle.
--When you defeat Plantera, Chlorophyte Ore blocks spawn throughout the Jungle and the more you kill Plantera, the more you can find. The stuff you can make from the ore is better than Hallow gear but it takes six ores to forge a single bar.
--Other Plantera drops include a new handgun, a grenade launcher, a thorny vine shooter, a flail that shoots at things, a guitar/axe weapon that happens to be the second most powerful weapon in the game, and a battle pet summon.
-The Lizhard temple is pretty vicious. Even with the Vampire Knives I died in there. Bring Wire Cutters with you because the place is lined with more traps than an Indiana Jones movie set. The place has a number of chests lying around but they all contain Power Cells, which are used to spawn Golem.
-Golem is a rough fight (though Vampire Knives once again); because you're so deep in the temple and because the temple blocks are nigh indestructable you have no choice but to fight him in a small room potentially littered with traps and spikes (Wire Cutters help). His first form consists of him punching you with extend-o-fists and shooting eye beams and bouncy fireballs while occasionally jumping. When you knock out 15,000 HP (2/3) his head detaches and becomes invincible, requiring you to target the body for another 8,000. He becomes more aggressive with the eye beams and the jumping gets a lot more rapid.
--Beating him yields no money. He does however drop some amazing gear. A staff that throws boulders, a boomerang-style weapon with an obscene base damage, the strongest pickaxe/axe in the game (Axesaw, not to be confused with the Hamdrill), and the Sun Stone which gives massive stat bonuses in daylight.
-Solar Eclipses are a random event that occurs less often than a Blood Moon, but should be taken much more seriously. During a Solar Eclipse you have no daylight and you get attacked by numerous creatures that are references to horror stories and movies: vampires, swamp things, frankensteins, reapers, and The Creature (Eyezor). Basically it's like a crazy hard Goblin Army that lasts the whole day. A few things of note drop here: Death Sickle which is a fantastic hybrid melee/ranged weapon, Moon Stones which are the opposite of the Sun Stone, and Broken Hero swords which are used to craft the most powerful weapon in the game.
-Broken Hero Swords; you need three. Craft one with Night's Edge to obtain True Night's Edge. Craft a second with Excalibur for True Excalibur. Both weapons fire sword beams, though Night's Edge is significantly more powerful than most everything. With a third Broken Hero Sword, craft it with a True Night's Edge and a True Excalibur to get the Terra Blade; the most powerful sword in the game.
-Pirate Invasions also happen too. They can occur randomly like Goblin Armies or you can spawn them with Pirate Maps that drop from anything in Ocean biomes. Pirates are vicious and many have ranged attacks but they drop some cool things. For starters a crapload of cash. There's also pirate themed cosmetics, a Lucky Coin which increases coin drop rates, and a Cutlass which is a great rapid-fire weapon. Completing a Pirate Invasion allows you to get a pirate for a resident, who sells more pirate cosmetics and Cannons.

[Guardian]

Gah tried to beat the twins through a traditional graviton sky duel and barely lost. I've got one more mechanical eye so I might try again later.

[Zork Nemesis]

Gah tried to beat the twins through a traditional graviton sky duel and barely lost. I've got one more mechanical eye so I might try again later.

I did it with Angel Wings, full Frost Armor, and a Phoenix Blaster loaded with Crystal Shot. Just gotta know how to dodge them.

[Will T.]

I've thoroughly explored the dungeon on my world now. Still a few locked gold chests to open, but I think I've found all of the good gear they can contain already.

Three of my biome chests are rather close together, each one in a separate short "branch" off of a big "hub" type area at the start of the dungeon. The one that wasn't there? The Crimson chest, which is down a long maze of hallways, close to half a mile from the rest of the dungeon, almost deep enough to be part of the Underworld. Obviously this is not a good place for it to be if I want to get back there in hardmode to open the chest! So I took the most insane-yet-ultimately-helpful action I could think of: I dug straight up until I hit the surface in order to have direct access to it. I had no torches, only using magic weaponry to create small bursts of light so that I could see brief flashes of what was ahead. The whole digging process took close to 30 minutes. Luckily there were a few caves in between the chest and the surface, which meant much less digging than anticipated. It was also directly underneath the Crimson, which allowed me to come up directly beneath a chasm and climb the rest of the way out from there.

I'll have to fight a bit for those other three chests, but at least getting the Vampire Knives (the Crimson Chest has a 100% chance of containing them) will be a simple matter of jumping into that hole and climbing back out. Now to hope they don't nerf them horribly before I can get them...

[Zork Nemesis]

I've completely rebuilt and moved the shelter for hard mode on Nking's server. The next time you join you should spawn in the default location and the shelter will be a short walk to the right. There's a small house with a teleporter suspended above a lava trap. Flip the switch next to the teleporter and you'll be taken into the shelter. The shelter's made out of dungeon bricks I looted from another world and is high enough that no ground spawns will appear if you're in it, but low enough so that we won't be harassed by haripes or wyverns.

[Will T.]

1.2.0.3 went live today. Sure enough, Vampire Knives were nerfed.

The attack speed, damage, knockback, and life return of Vampire Knives has been lowered slightly

Hopefully it's not a huge change and they're still powerful enough to abuse. Care to report on the change for us, Zork?

On the plus side, it appears that the dungeon will not spawn hardmode monsters until after Plantera is defeated - if you want to raid those chests, do so before fighting Plantera. There is also a variety of new furniture, including glass, hive (made from Crispy Honey blocks, which come from contact between honey and lava), and fancy gold stuff dropped by pirates, plus some new player-craftable wooden furniture.

Lots of other tweaks and fixes all around as well.

[Zork Nemesis]

Hopefully it's not a huge change and they're still powerful enough to abuse. Care to report on the change for us, Zork?

Not a significant difference. The DPS was reduced a bit but it's still possible to tear apart Plantera without much effort. Might not be able to solo a hard mode boss naked with them now though. To be fair I've got mine with the best prefix (Godly) and i'm wearing good armor for them: Hallow armor, Fire Gauntlet (adds "On fire" to attacks, speeds up melee attack speed), Moonshell (Werewolf form at night, bonus to physical stats), and a Sun/Moon Stone (stat boost during day/night respectively).

Concerning the dungeon changes, the Spectre armor is the reason why; it was too easy to get early and is ridiculously powerful. When the whole set is worn magic damage has a healing kickback as well. You could easily grab a Magic Dagger from a Mimic, farm up some ectoplasm for the armor, and go to town on everything with just as much OPness as the Vampire Knives. Then there's also the popular combo of this armor with Magnet Sphere or Golden Shower. That armor also got a bit of a nerf in the patch.