Part 8: On Top of the World
#8 - On Top of the World
Hello everyone. Welcome back to Rivershire.
I think before we get started with our expedition into the earth, we need to expand the base some. We now qualify for at least one more NPC, and once we make a little bit of progress in the game, we'll need a whole bunch of rooms.
First things first. The loom is another useful crafting station, and it will allow us to finally start processing all of those cobwebs we've been finding all over the caves.
7 cobwebs creates 1 silk. We have 225 cobwebs, so we can make 32 pieces of silk with a single leftover piece. For the most part, it's used to create furniture items. We can make sofas and beds, for instance. But you can also use silk with some materials we don't have quite yet to make cosmetic armor sets.
Basically you have no reason to not collect every cobweb you can find. We'll always have a use for it, even if it's just Fashion Souls.
In fact, we can already create one cosmetic item, and several banners. The banners have no use besides looking nice and colorful. We won't be making these, but the option is there.
This here is what our silk is claimed for. Like so many other things, I should have made one of these a very long time ago. "But DoubleNegative," you may ask, "what good is a bed?"
To you, my hypothetical friend, I answer this: beds let us move our spawn point. So once I put this down and use it, we won't respawn out in the middle of the forest.
So let's start expanding our home. After the discussion upthread, I've spiced up my building style with several new room types. Be sure to say which you like!
While out looking for more wood to build rooms with, I decided to spice up the little bridge I built a few updates back. It looks a lot nicer now.
I have at least 5 more hours of recordings after this one and these trees that I planted? They have yet to grow back.
I figure it the base is going to be a shitty giant tree, then I may as well own it. So the center of the base is now the tree's trunk.
It's difficult to get an idea of what the base looks like from these small screenshots, so I'm going to post a large picture of the finished product.
The first room is done!
A simple pentagon shape is a good starting point and looks nicer than a box efficiency room.
A small stepped pyramid is my personal favorite of the four new rooms I built. Yes I know it's off-center. I've already fixed it!
The third room is a fatter stepped pyramid. I do not like it, to be honest.
The fourth room has boobs.
While setting up and putting finishing touches on the rooms, this notification pops up. Heather here will heal us and remove (most) debuffs for a nominal fee. She will show up once we have used at least 1 Life Crystal.
(Click for bigger version)Here's the final base. Like I said, be sure to post about which of the four new rooms you like best.
Heather also has this to say. We haven't yet even found the dungeon, but it's something to look forward to. I've said several times now how dangerous the Crimson is. The Dungeon? It makes the Crimson look like child's play. Before the first major patch of the game, the Dungeon used to be one of the two places you went to if you wanted a challenge in the endgame.
And also to head it off, please don't take this as carte blanche to post all your thoughts about the dungeon or the other place. We'll find them in good time.
So, now that the base has been expanded, how about some of that spelunking I promised last time? And, to me, the best place to start is under the tree right next to our tree fort.
That Tungsten has laid un-mined for far too long. So that's as good a place to start as any.
I also can't adequately put into words how much I love the flying carpet. Being able to hover in midair makes getting stuff on the ceiling so much easier.
Only a little ways past that last shot, look what I found hiding in the darkness. That brings us up to 180 HP! That number is where I'm also going to put a hold on using any new ones. I said it before, and I'm going to repeat it now: 200 HP is when bad things can start happening.
This little trap marks another of the ones you can find underground. There's absolutely no chance this one could ever hit you, thankfully. This is a poison dart trap. Step on the button on the left side of the screenshot, and the stone head spits out a poison dart that will damage you for 40 HP, and then deal even more as poison tick damage. You won't often be killed by these, but they can be the start of a very painful chain reaction.
Here's what the world map has to say about where we are, versus where the other tunnels we've been exploring are. It's a bit of a ways, but there's no reason we can't manually dig a tunnel to connect the two.
This is as good a place to start as any other.
Digging in this game often involves long tunnels to nowhere, so don't be afraid to create them. You never know when a tunnel you're digging will connect to a larger cavern system.
After several solid minutes of digging, something pops up in the upper left corner. Let's make our way over and investigate it further.
Of course, be sure to keep your eye out for gemstones.
Success! The tunnel has finally connected to the chamber that weird red thing is in.
This is a Crimson Altar. These things are usually found in the Crimson underground itself, but they also uncommonly appear all over the rest of the world. They're typically used to create boss summoning items. So it's handy to have one relatively near your base.
Also, and this is very important, you should never ever hit them with a hammer, unless you feel like you need to be suddenly missing half of your max HP.
The Crimson Altar was about half a screen away from the other caves we explored previously.
Now we can access the large cave system from our base!
Shall we continue exploring?
Well that dead end didn't take very long to reach. There's an awful lot of water under us, though.
A little ways back in the cave, we find another passage hidden under some stone.
Ooh, devious. You see that chute in the ceiling in front of us? That's a hint that there's a boulder fall trap.
The local undead are not making things easy on us, though. Skeletons are another enemy type that only spawns underground, and they're also the embodiment of spiteful RNG. You see, skeletons and another enemy we haven't met yet both drop an item that is absolutely essential to making exploring easier. You can kill dozens and never see one.
Hello there sneaky boulder.
By mining out the "active stone blocks" underneath it, we can trigger the trap at no danger to ourselves.
I could watch this gif all day...
Hey asshole, don't think I don't see you down there!
This is the other enemy that embodies spiteful RNG, and shares a drop with the skeleton. This is the piranha. They show up more often in another surface biome, but they do spawn underground as well... for some reason.
While exploring, we hit the motherlode of emeralds.
In fact, we have enough to get the thing I've been hunting for!
This guy here is gonna signal the end of this expedition. The Hoplite only spawns around an underground biome added in 1.3, the marble biome. This guy is not somebody you want to take on with our current gear level. Plus, y'know, we're utterly out of both torches and wood.
We'll put these Javelins to good use, but obtaining them cost us 122 health, out of the 180 we have.
Back at the treefort, we can finally build a grappling hook. The three easiest ways of obtaining one are as follows:
1) get 15 gemstones, craft at an Anvil
OR
2) get a 3% drop rate "hook" item from a skeleton, a piranha, an undead miner (the dude with the mining light we saw), a Hoplite, or an undead viking.
THEN
you combine that hook and 3 chains at an Anvil
OR
3) Buy from a mid-game NPC we won't have access to until sometime after the first boss for 2 Gold coins.
Hooks are so important, they have their own dedicated inventory slot as well as a dedicated hotkey to use them. By the way, there's also a second page of equipment. It's not used quite as often as the others.
I think the default keybinds put the hook key on E. But I've played too much Just Cause 2, so my grappling hook keybind is and will always be F.
Here's the hook in action. Because we made ours out of emeralds, it's a pleasant emerald green color. The hook is yet another item that will also let us trivialize falling damage, though you have to be careful when using it. Every Terraria player has at least one story where they were falling and went to use their hook to save themselves, only to splat on the ground because the hook moves somewhat slowly.
The hook will also let us even more easily mine anything in hard to reach places, as well as let us climb to otherwise inaccessible heights.
In fact, now that we have it, the era of using rope for spelunking is largely over. We'll still always carry some with us for the odd time we need it, but for the most part we'll now use the hook to climb out of and descend into pits.
Such a feeling's coming over me
There is wonder in most everything I see
Not a butt in the sky
Got the sun in my eye
And I won't be surprised if it's a dream
I'm on the top of the world
Looking down on creation!
NEXT TIME: Slime is falling from the sky!