So, you’ve beaten the Wall of Flesh. Now what? You pick up the 8 gold coins, the healing potions and the pwnhammer and head up to the surface. You feel triumphant in your victory over the underworld menace. And then you get killed right away.
Hardmode in Terraria is nothing to sneeze at. You may think you were equipped with the best armor and weapons at the start of your fight with the Wall of Flesh, but you’re in for a world of hurt if you think your current stats can protect you against the aggressive monsters that await you in your vamped-up hardmode world.
For starters, the Corruption (what? I didn’t mention that before?) will start to spread. The Corruption is exactly what it sounds like: a blighted land that lays necrotic and toxic in swathes in and below your world. You don’t notice it at first, but then the purple rot will creep up on you all of a sudden, and you become alarmed.
You’re also introduced to a new spreading biome: the Hallow. This shiny new area is deceptively colorful and bright, gleaming rainbows and vibrant-colored trees on the surface - hell, there are even unicorns and pixies around, except they’ll attack you. All biomes have an underground area, and the underground Hallow is iridescent pastel pink with magenta water and bright pink enemies. You’d likely fall into a state of adoration if the belligerent residents didn’t attack you on sight.
These two contagious biomes each have their own music cues, which are funky and new and might have you searching for the soundtrack after playing.
As expected, there are many more bosses in hardmode, including a vamped-up version of the Eye of Cthulhu ominously named The Twins. There are three “mechanical bosses” that have a chance to randomly spawn each night after you destroy an altar (wait, I didn’t explain that either?). Demon altars, or crimson altars if your world spawns the Crimson, can only be broken in hardmode, and once they’re broken they spawn more precious ores to mine and collect for armor and weapons. You can have your random spawn of 3 of the following: cobalt or palladium, mythril or orichalcum, and adamantite or titanium. In addition to these ores/bars, there are others that spawn into the world/become available later on as you defeat bosses, such as hallowed, chlorphyte, and luminite. Luminite bars are used in crafting the highest tier armor and weapons, which are a godsend against the final boss: the Moon Lord.
But let’s step back a bit. You don’t actually see the Moon Lord until you defeat the Lunatic Cultist, which then spawns four lunar pillars: solar pillar, vortex pillar, nebula pillar, and stardust pillar. Each pillar is suited for a different fighting approach (melee fighters, magic users, ranges fighters, summoners). Once you defeat enough monsters specific to each pillar, you can attack the pillar itself and destroy it. And once you defeat all four pillars, you get the message “impending doom approaches...”
You have a full minute to prepare for the Moon Lord’s arrival - all the while, the screen distorts and the background music becomes strange and muffled. And then, all at once, the screen goes white and a loud, guttural roar signals his arrival. The fight is long and difficult (plus the big baddie takes up the entire screen), even for the most well-equipped players. But the satisfaction of beating the beast is vanquished is immense (you get some sweet loot, too).
All in all, Terraria is the crafting, mining, fighting experience you’ve probably been wanting even if you didn’t realize. I encourage you to play the game yourself and find your preferred fighting style, whether it be melee, ranged, magic, or summoner. There’s something for everyone in this 2D adventure.