Part 26: Now That's What I Call Polka!

#24 - That's What I Call Polka!



Hello everyone. Welcome back to Rivershire. Something we somehow have avoided until this point is that there are multiple traveling vendors. This is the skeleton vendor, and he randomly spawns underground in place of an enemy.

His stock changes based on the moon phase, and his very presence will suppress all active enemy spawns nearby. The wiki claims that his stock changes at 4:30 AM, so the best time to look for him is in the middle of the night.

The joke about the skeleton merchant is that if you can't find him, then the best thing to do is to build an underground enemy farm. I did this by just clearing out a long flat plane and sticking down water candles. There are whole guides out there to show you how to do it properly, but I'm not out to grind mobs. I just wanted to see this asshole.



While the skeleton merchant sells all sorts of items, the main reason you'd want to track him down are for counterweights. If you purchase one of his counterweights, and an item that he sells in the second half of the game, and combine them together with some "white string" (made by combining 30 cobwebs at a loom), then you get an accessory called a Yoyo Bag, which makes the yoyo completely awesome.

The bag lets you use two yoyos and throw two counterweights. The white string makes the yoyos go out farther.

The only other two new items that the merchant sells are the Strange Brew (restores 400 MP and 80 HP) and the bone torch which is just another variety of torch.



The next thing I want to show off is the extractinator. We got this thing from an underground chest way back, but I haven't shown it off yet. What you want to do is get a bunch of silt, slush, or desert fossils. All three aren't very hard to find. Right here, we have 321 blocks of silt.



Then you just hold the use button down on top of the extractinator.



Here's our minerals chest after feeding 321 blocks of silt into the machine. We now have every type of ore and bar in the first half of the game represented. The little yellow blob below amethyst on the right side is amber. Using the extractinator is the only way to get a certain type of pet. Each silt or slush has a 1-in-5000 (0.02%) chance to drop the Amber Mosquito. If you feed in desert fossils, that chance is raised to 1-in-1666 (0.06%). The amber mosquito pet summons a baby dinosaur to follow you around.



The next thing I want to show off is making minecart tracks of our own. A single wood and a single bar of iron or lead ore will give us 50 tracks.



I have a "couple" stacks.



We're building a minecart track clear across the world, with our base serving as the main station. Right now we're building to the right, all the way to the sea, with tracks leading off into the ice caves, the crimson, and the dungeon.

As the game progresses into the second half, we're going to want to be able to quickly get to any portion of the overworld. The best way to do that is with a minecart track. So we're creating a worldwide mass transit system. Nobody wants to see that in progress, though. So just trust me when I say that it's a thing.



Because I plan on using a lot of minecart tracks, I realized I needed a bunch of wood. So here comes the impractical farm. Shown off here is the ruler that the goblin merchant sells. We're setting up a tree farm, and according to the wiki we need at least 16 blocks of clearance. between each level of the farm. I find this is one case where the wiki doesn't know what the fuck it's talking about, because the trees will only grow with 17 blocks clearance.



So we want to put the next level 17 blocks up from where we are. I find the easiest way to measure that is with rope. A length of rope 17 blocks up will show us exactly where to put the next level. So we're going to need to extend this rope out by 1 block, and then place the brick.



The layer of dirt goes next.



Next comes the bottom layer. I like to use ebonstone brick just for the pleasing purple color, but any material will work. What you want to do is space the bottom layer out like I am, with two blocks and then a space. Then just repeat that clear across the bottom layer.



We're going to be placing torches in these open holes. This will illuminate the farm while not impeding the growth of saplings. The torches will also serve as a fine marker for where to place our saplings.



Here I'm using grass seeds. But if I had realized it at the time, I would have just run back and forth across the dirt while hitting it with the staff of regrowth that we use to harvest our herb garden. The staff will cause grass to grow on bare dirt.



Once enough grass has grown, you're going to want to put a sapling on top of each torch. A sapling needs open blocks on either side of it to grow. Grass won't hinder the growth, but strange plants, dye plants, and pumpkins will. Setting up a tree farm during the Halloween event is an exercise in frustration.

You can also see that I've created a dirt backwall and placed it down behind the grass of our tree farm. This will prevent most wild grasses from growing.

Anyway, with our tree farm now set up, we have infinite access to trees and wood. We just need to remember to replace saplings as they are cut down.



Sometimes you need to unwind. I find that shooting the Eye of Cthulhu to death with a minishark helps to do that very thing. It died in 41 seconds, which is pretty awesome.



I don't believe I've shown off the painter NPC, but he sells paints and wallpapers. I thought Matty, the angler, needed some wallpaper more befitting a fisherman. So he's getting a bubbly room.



The painter has been in the game for years, and I don't believe I've ever used him for more than anything but a wallpaper dealer before now. It's dangerous to let me have access to paints, because shortly after I find I can customize shit, I spend all my time doing so.

The three tools in his inventory are a paintbrush (for painting objects), a paint roller (for painting backgrounds), and a paint scraper (for removing paint). He also sells a metric fuckton of paint, and you can even combine two alike shades at a dye vat to make a more vibrant version of that same paint.



The merchant now has a red room.



Whoops, did I say red? I meant really red.



Now the workshop is red!



See what I mean about giving me access to creative tools? I kind of go nuts.



Moving on... let's automate our glowing mushroom farm. You can kinda see them in the dim light, but there are 6 dart traps facing the mushrooms.



We'll buy a lever from the nice mechanic lady.



Then we just get some wire and a wrench of our choice. From there it's as simple as drawing a line down.



It's just that easy!







I've also set up a pumpkin farm.



Pumpkin seeds are pretty expensive, and harvesting a pumpkin doesn't give more. So this farm is not very efficient at all. Each seed takes up 2 spaces, but needs no other conditions to grow. We're also standing in a building made with pumpkin floors, ceilings, and walls. So there's absolutely no mistaking what this room is used for.



But anyway, back to wiring and wrenches. If you buy one of each color wrench, as well as wire cutters, you can make a multicolor wrench. This will let you select what color wire you want to place down, which is awesome for complicated designs.



But if you then combine a multicolor wrench, a ruler, 60 pieces of wire, and a mechanical lens, you get the Grand Design.



Just having it in your inventory will let you see every color and type of wire by default. You can control how bright those wires are, and even if you want to see them all the time.



Using the Grand Design will let you draw lengths of wire for an infinite distance without having to be nearby. This will prove to be more useful later on in the game when we can buy and wire up teleporters. I've run teleporters the old way, and it is a gigantic pain in the ass. The Grand Design makes any wiring project a breeze.



If you right click with the grand design selected, you can choose what type of wire you're placing down, or if you're using actuators.



Clicking in the middle lets you choose whether you're cutting or placing wire. You can even select which color of wire you want to cut.



Finally, so you don't smash into the ash when you exit out of the hellevator, I've taken the liberty of building a small pumpkin building at the bottom. It's nothing special, but it's a small amount of civilization in a very unfriendly place.



For reasons I've also built a bridge to the left, made out of pumpkin.



This bridge goes a very long way. Like, all the way to the left. It stops at the far western edge of Hell. It's actually a boss arena, believe it or not.



While building my pumpkin highway, a passing Hellbat dropped a Halloween goodie bag, and I found this inside.



The bat hook is one of the best grappling hooks in the game. It travels an astounding 32 blocks, making it the best one in the first half and fifth best in the whole game. So we're set on these things for an incredibly long time to come.



So we're going to leave off today on a strange oddity. While I was building the pumpkin highway, I was doing so in server mode. Anyway, while I was busy building the highway, someone connected to my game and started building something. After they finished, they invited me up to take a look at it.









So apparently Yapping Eevee has built a rave house in Rivershire.



Goodbye for now, folks! If you're in the US, have a happy Thanksgiving tomorrow.

NEXT TIME: Final preparations for the boss fight. It's coming up very very soon!