Terraria

Terraria
Terraria is an action-adventure/RPG indie game released by independent game studio Re-Logic available via the Steam Store. The game features exploration, crafting, construction, and combat with a variety of creatures in a randomly generated 2-D world.

Released on May 16, 2011, the game is estimated to have sold about 50,000 copies during its first day of release, with over 17,000 players online at the same time during the first day's peak.[1] Over the week, 200,000 copies of the game were sold, making it the top-selling game on Steam for the week, ahead of The Witcher 2 and Portal 2.[2] It remained number one on Steam for the first six days of its release.[3] It was announced that the game would come to PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade in 2013[4] with exclusive content.

Gameplay
Terraria is noted for its similarity to Minecraft and classic exploration-adventure titles such as Metroid.[5] [6] [7] Basic gameplay features day & night cycles, nocturnal & subterranean attackers, world-building elements, and character advancement. The game has a tile-based graphical style reminiscent of the 16-bit sprites found on the SNES.

At character creation, each player has a copper axe, a copper pickaxe, and a copper shortsword. [8] They start out with 100 health. When the character first spawns in a new world, an NPC, the Guide, appears nearby to explain the basics of gameplay.

There are three character difficulties: Softcore, Mediumcore, and Hardcore. They vary only in death penalties. In Softcore, characters drop half their coins. In Mediumcore, characters drop all their items including coins and ammo. In Hardcore, characters die permanently, dropping all their items and becoming ghosts, unable to alter the world. After disconnecting the ghost character is removed from the selection screen.

[edit] Enemies
At night, different creatures may spawn, such as Zombies and Demon Eyes, who will constantly attack the character until morning. At dawn, they all run away, even if they are still attacking the character. Daytime creatures are limited to gentler slimes. However, different biomes may contain powerful monsters including giant worms and hornets, while enemies progressively get harder as you travel deeper. Each night there is a one in nine chance there will be a Blood Moon. Blood Moons spawn more enemies and give zombies the ability to open doors, as well as many other subtle changes, like NPC dialogue and shop inventory.

Characters may also summon powerful boss monsters, such as the Eye of Cthulhu or the Eater of Worlds. Independently of summoned bosses, each map has a dungeon that contains rare items and unusual enemies, and can be safely entered only after defeating the Skeletron boss guarding the dungeon on that map. Defeating the Wall of Flesh turns the current world into hard mode, which contains new enemies, blocks, biomes, items, and more. Hard mode bosses are mechanical versions of the original bosses.

[edit] Unique features
Beyond basic gameplay features, Terraria has several elements not present in the games from which it takes its inspiration. By completing specific goals (such as defeating a boss, or gaining an extra heart), characters can attract NPCs to occupy structures or rooms they have built, including the Merchant, Dryad, Demolitionist, Arms Dealer, Clothier, Nurse, Mechanic, Wizard, Goblin Tinkerer, and Santa Claus. Santa Claus is only available during the Christmas holiday season (December 15–31). Some NPCs need to be unlocked by finding them and talking to them first. Characters may then buy equipment or misc items with coins gained from defeating monsters, selling items, breaking pots, or finding treasure chests hidden within the world. Each map also contains partly random generated biomes with unique monsters and surroundings, such as the Underworld (a lava-filled chthonic area filled with demons and skeletal serpents), the Hallow, a colourful but dangerous biome which is generated after the Wall of Flesh is killed, the Corruption (a dangerous, diseased wasteland full of deadly creatures and chasms full of rare items), deserts, and jungles above and below ground.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.200000762939453px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:start;">Random events may occur in the course of play, such as the Goblin Invasion, which sends a goblin army to lay siege to the characters' houses. Meteorites can fall randomly during gameplay, generating meteorite ore. Events can also be caused by destroying shadow orbs in corrupted map areas (biomes) and creating certain boss-summoning items near demon altars, amongst others. It is possible for King slime to spawn randomly (a big slime which splits into smaller slimes.) There are also some monsters considered mini bosses such as the wizard Tim.

[edit] Resource gathering
<p style="line-height:19.200000762939453px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:start;">Player characters primarily gather resources in Terraria using three basic tools. The solid soil- and brick-based blocks which make up the two-dimensional world can be mined using a pickaxe, trees and certain other structures can be cut using anaxe, and background wall tiles, fixtures (such as crafting stations), and other "placed" objects can be deconstructed with a hammer. The speed with which each tool can be used to harvest resources from the environment depends on the quality of the material the tool is made from and the modifier applied to that item. Wooden and Copper tools (low-quality materials) harvest resources very slowly, but tools made out of higher-quality material (Demonite ore, e.g.) can harvest most resources in one or two swings. Thus, as characters acquire better tools, their rate of potential resource acquisition also increases. In order to get better items and materials better tools are required. Reforging via the goblin tinkerer gives a random modifier to the item at a cost of coins. Characters can also obtain resources from slain enemies, from within chests and clay pots found underground, and from merchant NPCs.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.200000762939453px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:start;">Harvested resources can be crafted into new items and equipment through the inventory screen by standing in front of the appropriate crafting station and selecting the appropriate recipe, provided one is carrying the correct ingredients with them for that recipe. As long as the necessary ingredients are present, new items can be made just by clicking their recipe, as opposed to the often-compared game, Minecraft, in which one must visualize and "draw" the item with the ingredients. There are several types of crafting stations, and most items must be created at a specific crafting station. Some important and powerful items are only available via crafting. If provided with a possible ingredient, the Guide lists all possible items that can be crafted from that ingredient—or players may mix and match items to discover new recipes.

Credits
Terraria Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terraria

Terraria Wikia: http://terraria.wikia.com/wiki/Terraria_Wiki

Official Terraria Wiki: http://wiki.terrariaonline.com/Terraria_Wiki

All information, citation, and reference can be found on these Wiki's.