Square jacket for Terraria. A figure wearing silver armor, holding a torch in one hand and a pickaxe in another, jumps feet-first into a large ravine featuring some of the sights and enemies found in the game’s caverns.

I don’t remember exactly when I got Terraria for the first time. What I do know is that actually getting it and attempting to play through it the first time was a very formative moment that marked a big transition period in my life around when I was in middle school, but before I moved. My achievements are marked from 2015 on, but I know I got the game before achievements were added, so I’m assuming that this was around 2013 or 2014. This game was my original game with absurd playtime; in the time since, Quaver, Resonite, and Warframe have each had their time at the top as my newest obsessions in turn. What I know I was a little ashamed of was the fact that my most played game on Steam, with 400+ hours logged on it, was mostly held up by me playing on public servers, my achievements being things that I got only playing on my friends’ long-completed worlds, and in that time, I had never beaten the Wall of Flesh legitimately.

Archipelago has been a huge game-changer for me when it’s come to sorting through all the games I’ve wanted to play, namely in the fact that it’s got me sorting through a lot of good randomizer games, of which Terraria is a pretty notable one by virtue of being core-verified; it’s because of this that it’s always caught my eye when I see it played in AP, because it’s something that’s sat on my shelf for far longer than it should’ve. I don’t entirely know what initially got me going on this game; it might’ve partially been Archipocalypse and potentially been just me wanting to have travel games for a road trip I went on one weekend (though I never ended up playing it while traveling because I did not enjoy building on controller), but ultimately, I got into it and sprinted down the line, realizing that maybe, just maybe, with the motivation I had, I could finally break a decade-long curse. From the looks of it, it took me about a week and a half all in all, and a satisfying 11 days it was: I picked up a class I had no experience with (mixed, generally yoyo-centric melee), setup some not horrible looking houses for my first time playing (though there were some exceptions I’d like to iterate on the next time I play), and tore through the game way faster than I ever thought I would. Finally, after a literal decade of larping, I can finally give my honest takes on Terraria.

My playthrough went pretty smoothly, all things considered, though there were definitely a few hiccups caused by my lack of foresight (and laziness, or determination to make it through to the end) that I never really touched up on. I definitely took the old approach to Terraria housing that left me punished on pricing, and didn’t have the game knowledge to know that the Truffle required a surface house before I built lodging in the existing mushroom biomes underground (though, it did give me useful access to the Underworld, so I’ll need to adapt to that for my next run), which meant I was paying a pretty decent sum for things like the autohammer, clentaminator, and the many reforges I ended up doing (which is definitely a house I should prioritize in the future) and denying myself pylons that I’d later use incredibly liberally (in a small world, this is definitely not something to obsess over, but I wasn’t going to bounce from map’s edge to map’s edge doing everything, especially since I was rocking only angel wings for half of hardmode). I also took a while to find the Shimmer, which I would eventually make into very convenient underground jungle access. The housing situation also meant that I’d quickly go into debt when it came to my crafting setup, as I had different stations in inconvenient to access rooms and eventually ran out of room for chests, which is part of the reason I’m calling said world there after getting the Terrarian and something I definitely want to keep in mind next time I play.

All that said, even when it came to housing, I’m very happy with what I did in this world on its own. When I did finally make houses, I was able to come up with a few interesting designs, especially early on, and put together some cool concepts I definitely want to refine in later worlds. I’m also impressed by the game knowledge I had of both the early game and the yoyo-centric build I wanted to go for and was pleasantly surprised by just how good some of the weapons I didn’t know very were, especially the Daybreak at the endgame and the general flail category from post-Skeletron on. I’m also a bit impressed by my progression: I gave myself a bit more hope that I was right about Eater before Eye (though I wasn’t able to do it here thanks to my lack of game knowledge) and did way better against the Destroyer and Skeletron Prime than I ever thought I would, as I always used to see those bosses as terrifyingly hard (though the Twins was still a struggle of a fight, especially for my build, when Spazmatism exists for most of it). All in all, progress came in meaningful bursts each night and I came out feeling far, far better about my progress each session, even when things were tough.

The greatest flaw of Terraria is how long and arduous pre-Hardmode is: Even when getting shadow gear as quickly as I did, each stage of it is a slow, slow grind, one with limited movement and limited destructive power to actually get you the resources you need to push on. For a yoyo player, the Rally is way too out of the way to be reasonable, but it’s not like I was pushing for that anyways when grenades were tearing up both the Eye and Eater (one of two bosses I had to build an “arena” for, which was really just two elevated platforms): I had learned at that point to resign to not building my class until Wall of Flesh (which I did need to build an “arena” for by having Rocket Boots and basically just building extensions out from certain gaps to run smoothly along the Underworld on), as the best tools were always off-class for me prior to getting the pre-Hardmode flails (Blue Moon -> Sunfury) anyways, and I think it was a bit more sage than I initially realized to skip Molten armor and just rush the pickaxe, as it proved to not really be necessary to push past shadow armor until Hardmode really started to kick in. It was an arduous grind I’m not surprised my younger self could never push through, and it’s disappointing that was the case, as the game in Hardmode is where everything about the game gets interesting.

I did not expect to be so powerful in Hardmode as soon as I got into it, but the best weapons in Terraria at this point were able to keep anything that mattered at a distance and chunk it down, especially my yoyo, which was starting to become more relevant at this point with the Chik (though I could’ve gone for the Dao of Pow at this point anyways, which probably would’ve kept up). At this point, I hadn’t made it to the Shimmer yet, so I made the mistake of re-clearing the Wall of Flesh and selling the emblem (I got lucky and got the melee emblem and Breaker Blade attempt 2), which wasn’t a bad decision particularly, but definitely a waste of time. I was glad I knew to just go ham on the demon altars, but I made the mistake of doing that before crafting the Night’s Edge and beating King Slime, so I had to scour the world for the last few demon altars to craft the last few important things before I could smash those, too. I’m also quite happy that my world got orichalcum over mythril, both because it looks good and also because the armor set bonus proved surprisingly handy for the bits where the armor mattered.

I am certainly very happy I went out of my way to get the Night’s Edge, though, as basically the entire Terra Blade line went far and beyond what I expected it to be to carry my waveclear. The Night’s Edge was a super meaningful craft right off the line of Hardmode and immediately useful, especially in its True form; I’m very used to the legacy Night’s Edge with no projectile at all, so I was surprised to see the unique effects on it, namely the far, far wider projectile the upgrade sends out. The range on the Excalibur I also found ludicrous for a true melee weapon, and the True Excalibur even more so; especially in the Solar Eclipse, this was really all I needed to be carried, and the buffed Terra Blade tears through many lategame events with only my own health management being an issue. I’m a bit disappointed I didn’t get to use my yoyo as much as I thought I would, save for the Chik, as well as the Terrarian in postgame, but I found a lot of creative alternatives for the class instead that I definitely liked a lot, so I’d say it’s a fair trade.

As for finally reviewing the game itself: This is the game I wish vanilla Minecraft was without some of the problems that this being vanilla Minecraft would have (and yes, I’m stealing this sentiment from someone else in the GEARS community). Adventuring is fun, yet bite-sized, quality of life is everywhere to be found for those with eyes to see it, and combat is varied and engaging. It’s a game that’s rich with flair and flavor and similarly ripe with variety: I already know the next run I’m going to do (after I churn through more of my Archipelago game backlog), and it’s going to be vastly different than what I’ve already done. The combat is definitely very fun, especially past pre-Hardmode, but honestly, with how strong some of the Hardmode bosses can hit, I wish there was a bit more mobility than what we’ve got so it doesn’t feel like I’m falling back on healing potions as soon as they’re off cooldown.

I’ll repeat this again: The greatest flaw of Terraria is pre-Hardmode. Yes, I know there are special seeds to immediately start in Hardmode, but that’s not what I mean: I just wish the combat was balanced like it is in Hardmode from the very get-go, with the pre-Hardmode tools feeling as fun and responsive. This game thrives when it’s fantastical, and thrive it does, because the best part of this game is when it goes completely off the rails and gives you access to something that feels like it shreds while still being balanced to your own health pool, and that’s something I know I was wishing for all the way back when I was a kid, bumbling around because I wanted to like the game, but pre-Hardmode was that difficult to get into.

For those with the patience to push through a little bit (and find the joy that can be found in pre-Hardmode, which is definitely still not lacking), Terraria’s combat once it really picks up speed is something that just feels right, and beyond the game’s combat, there’s definitely a lot to do, such that you won’t ever really be stalling in the same place if you put the time into discovering what’s really at your disposal. If you want a sandbox that doesn’t feel like a chore, Terraria is definitely the way to go; robust combat, lots of ways to play the game despite its size, and nothing past pre-Hardmode really feeling like a slog. There’s so much that I wasn’t able to play, and it’s certainly what’s got me looking forward to playing the game again. I am silently hoping the native Linux version gets a bit of love, though, because I was having some issues with it in MangoWM, but that’s for another time.