Hopping Into Hardmode

A Whole New World, Sort Of

Defeating the Wall of Flesh activates Hardmode, a New Game Plus for Terraria. Hardmode differs from the standard game in a number of ways.

• The range of Items available to collect and use increases dramatically. You'll be able to create items that grant amazing new powers like flight.
• New block types can appear, including Cobalt, Mythril, and Adamantine.
• Enemies are much tougher. New varieties of enemies appear in most Biomes, with significantly increased attack power and defense ratings. Your pre-hardmode Weapons will be less effective.
• Bosses are significantly upgraded. Three of the original Bosses have a tougher Hardmode iteration. The Eye of Cthulhu is replaced by Retinazer and Spazmatism. The Eater of Worlds is replaced by the robotic Destroyer. Skeletron is replaced by the frightful Skeletron Prime
• Demon Altars become destructible using the Pwnhammer.
• The Corruption spreads more quickly, and is much more difficult to contain.
• A large section of the World is transformed into The Hallow, a celestial counterpart to The Corruption.
• The Goblin Army is supplemented by the Frost Legion.
• The Wyvern, a new mini-boss, appears.

Should I Activate Hardmode?

The decision to defeat the Wall of Flesh and initiate Hardmode should not be made lightly. Hardmode significantly alters the Terraria experience. The relaxed pace of exploration will, for a time, become frustrating as your suddenly-under-equipped character struggles to gather the most basic of resources. The rapid spread of the Hallow and Corruption means you'll be forced to take new, sometimes tedious measures for containment. The Hardmode bosses are largely endurance matches which some players may find frustrating and irritating.

Conversely, Hardmode allows you to construct an enormous number of new Items. Some of these allow the player to use exciting new abilities like Flight. Hardmode also puts a greater focus on magical Items and {[Spells]] thanks to the presence of the Wizard. If you enjoy tinkering with Crafting or if you have a completionist nature, Hardmode may be for you.

Getting Your House in Order

Time pressure on the player increases when the player enters Hardmode. New enemies make travel and exploration very dangerous, and The Corruption starts to spread at a frightful rate.

It's advisable to make some Hardmode preparations before defeating the Wall of Flesh. Collect some Coins and use the Goblin Tinkerer to buff your favorite Weapons for increased damage and Armor for increased protection.

Collect and store a ton of Sand, Wood, and Purification Powder. You'll need plenty of all three in Hardmode.

Consider consolidating your village into a single walled fortress with space of all of your NPCs inside the compound. A high-rise structure with Wooden Platforms acting as stairs works well. Remember that each NPC's quarters should include at least a Door, a Chair, a Work Bench, and a place to stand. You can assign and check the suitability of rooms via the housing menu.

It is also possible to render your base as a "floating" structure by mining out the blocks beneath the bottom floor. It's a cool effect and can be a practical defensive precaution.

Once you've built your headquarters, mark an area at least 100 blocks from each of the the walls, and build a trench at least four blocks wide all the way around both sides and beneath this area. Full this entire hollow moat with Wood. After Hard Mode activates, the Corruption and Hallow will spread so quickly that you'll need this buffer to prevent your headquarters from being overrun. Wood is immune to Corruption and Hallow, and a four-block wide Wooden wall helps prevent these Biomes from infecting susceptible blocks on the other side. Since NPCs don't spawn near The Corruption, you need the buffer zone.

Depending on your patience, you might want to protect a larger portion of the world this way before Hardmode activates, although there's a chance that you might create a bit of extra work for your trouble. Large zones of Corruption and Hallow spawn randomly the moment you defeat the Wall of Flesh might overlap some of your work. If this happens, dig quickly to any Corruption that's managed to cross your Wood buffer and clean it out completely with Purification Powder.

Also, you may want to stock up on a few handy Items which will be harder to obtain after the World changes. Go to the sea on one edge of the map and gather some Coral and Shark Fins, and scour the desert for some Waterleaf.

Making Your Own Fun

Hardmode has less of a linear focus than the previous section of the game. Exploration, ingredient gathering, and Crafting all occur at a slower and more measured pace.

The three Hardmode bosses are immensely more powerful than the previous four. Their incredible hit point reserves and durability make them a formidable challenge and necessitate long periods of time spent gathering recipe components and rummaging through Chests for random Items.

You're also going to want to gather as much Cobalt, Mythril, and Adamantine as possible. By smashing Demon Altars you cause these rare ores to spawn at locations throughout the World. Seek them out and create Anvils and full suits of Armor. Upgrading to more protective defenses makes Hardmode much easier to enjoy.

Hallowed be Thy Pain

The Hallow is an airy country teeming with Unicorns and rainbows. Unfortunately, it turns out that Unicorns are jerks. despite the cutesy appearance of the Hallow, it is inhabited by mean horrible creatures that try to kill you.

Since the denizens of the Hallow are such terrible hosts, you shouldn't feel bad for harvesting their organs to build cool gear. The subterranean sections of the Hallow are populated by creatures who drop Souls of Light, a valuable crafting material for Hardmode Items.

Swarming is a major concern in the underground Hallow. Use blocks to temporarily close passages and avoid getting hit from both sides, and keep your best available weapon well-stocked. Early on, a Minishark and plenty of high-end ammunition will see you through if you're conservative, but you'll want to upgrade your weapon as soon as you can.

Superstar

One pre-Hardmode Weapon which remains remarkably effective after the switch over is the Star Cannon. The Star Cannon's damage and rate of fire are comparable to the best available Hardmode firearms.

The trouble with the Star Cannon is the relative rarity of ammunition. The Star Cannon uses Fallen Stars as a projectile. Since Fallen Stars can only be gathered, never purchased or crafted, it can be very difficult for a player to obtain an adequate supply.

One solution to this is for the player to build a simple high-altitude sky bridge across the upper reaches of the map. This is easier to accomplish pre-Hardmode, as the presence of Wyverns is not a threat. Running across a flat sky bridge at night allows a player to gather dozens of stars for use as ammunition at minimal risk.

Repeater Por Favor

Another relatively easy-to-craft Hardmode weapon is the Cobalt Repeater. This simple arrow-firing Weapon deals decent damage and is readily constructed from materials available after smashing a single Demon Altar.

The Repeater uses Arrows for ammunition. Unholy Arrows, Jesters Arrows, Hellfire Arrows and Cursed Arrows are preferred, but even Flaming Arrows can be effective in a Repeater.

As rare ores become more readily available, the player may upgrade to more powerful Mythril, Adamantine, and Hallowed Repeaters.

Dao of Pow

One relatively easily obtained weapon upgrade for Hardmode is the Dao of Pow, a powerful flail. Crafting it requires seven Souls of Light and seven Souls of Night. These are dropped by subterranean enemies in The Hallow and The Corruption, respectively.

You'll also need a single Light Shard and a single Dark Shard. Light Shards are dropped by Light Mummies, Dark Shards by Dark Mummies. These can be hunted down in Desert which has become hallowed or corrupted.

It's also possible to take some Pearlsand or Ebonsand from the Hallow and Corruption and transplant it to a relatively safe area. Laying a long, thin, and level layer of these materials often produces Mummy spawns if you step away for a time and then return.

You'll also need to smash at least two Demon Altars with your Pwnhammer to create the Mythril necessary for a Mythril Anvil. Once two Altars are broken, you'll find Mythril scattered throughout the World, ready to mine.

The Dao isn't the best of late-game Weapons, but it's effective enough against most common foes.

Shark Mark 2

One relatively quick weapon upgrade path in Hardmode is the Megashark, the Minishark's awesome big brother. The Megashark requires four components to craft:

1. The Megashark
2. Illegal Gun Parts
3. Souls of Might
4. Shark Fins

Three of these four Items can be obtained before activating Hardmode. The Megashark and Illegal Gun parts are readily available for sale. Shark Fins are a pain to gather, but the process is made much easier by employing Bottled Water, Waterleaf, and Coral in a Gill Potion.

Souls of Might are a much more difficult matter. They are dropped by the Destroyer, the Hardmode iteration of the Eater of Worlds. The Destroyer can be summoned over any corrupted area using an easily-constructed Mechanical Worm, but will only appear at night.

The Destroyer is a very tough enemy. Crazy insane tough. He deals megatons of damage and has so much Health that it is difficult to destroy him between dusk and dawn. If you manage to defeat him once you'll find yourself much better equipped to face the other perils of Hardmode, but winning your first battle with him requires preparation and luck.

Going Airborne

One of Hardmode's great delights is the power of Flight. Flying is made possible by Crafting and equipping number of Hardmode-specific Items.

Two sets of functionally identical wings are available to Hardmode players. These include the Angel Wings and Demon Wings. Wings allow a player to flap and gain altitude, and then slowly descend in a hover.

Wings may be supplemented by Rocket Boots and Spectre Boots to increase flight time and distance. A Winged character in Spectre boots can fly a great distance without grappling or landing.

The key ingredient in Flight-enabling Items are Souls of Flight, dropped by the Wyvern miniboss. Defeating the Wyvern can be difficult, but well-prepared players stand a good chance against him.

Before engaging the Wyvern, equip yourself with either a Demon Scythe, Dao of Pow, or Megashark. Equip the strongest Armor and Health Potions you have access to, and craft several Gravitation Potions. Craft a large number of Wooden Platforms and climb to a Floating Island. Using the island as an anchor, construct two long parallel rows of Wooden Platforms over open space, one a few blocks above the other. These will serve as your combat zone.

When the Wyvern attacks vertically, dodge to the side and strike. When he approaches horizontally, switch elevations between platforms. Use Gravitation Potions to reverse gravity when dodging necessitates it, and then reverse again to return to your battleground. Exercise patience and avoid close range, head on conflict.

When the Wyvern falls, collect the Souls of Flight which drop from his head. Combined with the relatively plentiful Feathers and Souls of Light/Night, you should be well on your way to Wings.

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