Let’s say you’ve just defeated the final Pre-Hardmode boss, the Wall of Flesh, and now you’re advancing to the second main stage of Terraria, called Hardmode, seeking what is new with this transition and how to prepare for what’s ahead in your mighty adventure.
Well, after you’ve successfully defeated the Wall of Flesh, your world permanently enters Hardmode. This transition can overwhelm some beginners or other players because it comes with stronger enemies, new biomes to explore, better items, and some of Terraria’s most well-known bosses of all time.
That’s why preparing before this transition can help you manage everything more easily, know what’s ahead, and overall give you an advantage.
In this blog, we’ll take a look at what Hardmode really is, what changes it brings, how to prepare, useful tips, and a few common mistakes to ensure you’ll have a great experience throughout the game.
What is Hardmode?
Hardmode is the second major stage of Terraria’s game progression. After defeating the final Pre-Hardmode boss, the Wall of Flesh, the world converts permanently to a more difficult version of its initial state, called Hardmode, coming with new content and challenges.
Very different from a normal boss encounter, defeating the Wall of Flesh will change the world’s progression stage. You’ll encounter new enemies that you’ve never seen before, begin mining new ores, and explore new biomes such as The Hallow and the Underground Hallow, alongside the spread of the evil biomes, The Corruption and The Crimson.
Besides all of these new challenges, Hardmode will grant you access to stronger weapons, armors, accessories, and bosses. Compared to Pre-Hardmode, the enemies are much stronger and dangerous; that’s why some preparation will surely make a difference in your experience.
Also, the bosses Terraria is best known for are available in Hardmode. Bosses such as Plantera, Golem, the Empress of Light, and the well-known Moon Lord can be defeated in this stage of the game. If you want to find out more about each one, when you should fight them, and how to prepare efficiently, check out our Terraria Boss Order: A Progression Guide for New Players.
What Changes With Hardmode?
- New Enemies: You will start noticing stronger enemies in areas you have never seen them before. Some of your familiar locations can become much more dangerous, while Hardmode enemies will eventually appear. These enemies are harder to defeat, dealing more damage, having more HP, and new abilities that make them like that.
- New Ores: Hardmode introduces a few new tiers of ores you haven’t mined before. With these ores, you can craft powerful equipment to make your journey even better. You can start obtaining Cobalt Ore or Palladium Ore (part of the first altar), Mythril Ore or Orichalcum Ore (part of the second altar), followed by Adamantite Ore or Titanium Ore (part of the third altar). All these ores must be mined with a tool made from the previous tier to mine the next one, except for Cobalt or Palladium, which require a Molten Pickaxe or better.
- The Hallow: After you’ve defeated the Wall of Flesh and your world converts to Hardmode, a new biome called The Hallow starts generating randomly throughout your world. This biome features a more dangerous version that can be found right beneath it, called the Underground Hallow. Once it appears in your world, this biome, similar to the evil biomes, will start spreading to nearby areas; make sure you keep an eye on this.
- Corruption and Crimson Spread: The second main stage of Terraria’s game progression places greater importance on the evil biomes, causing them to behave differently. The Corruption and The Crimson biomes become much more aggressive and dangerous, with a sudden “V” explosion, a faster spread affecting multiple types of blocks, deadlier enemies, and much more. This spread can destroy the Jungle biome by converting Jungle Mud into Dirt, unless stopped.
- New Content: Not only does Hardmode introduce tougher challenges and stronger enemies, it also adds new content to enjoy such as new NPCs, items, ores, events and much more. As you explore your transformed world, you will begin to see different ways to craft stronger equipment as you get new materials from the mines. Also, with this change, NPCs can become more useful with new shops, alongside new powerful NPCs making their way in, such as The Wizard, The Tax Collector, The Steampunker, and many more.
How to Prepare for Hardmode
As you probably thought, the best time to prepare for Hardmode is actually before defeating the Wall of Flesh. This allows you to gather resources and fulfill your plans safely in Pre-Hardmode, so you won’t face any major problems when moving to the next stage of the game. Once Hardmode starts, everything becomes more difficult and dangerous, so be cautious.
- Upgrade Your Equipment: Before making your way into the second stage of the game, make sure you have strong Pre-Hardmode armor (depending on your chosen class), weapons (such as the Night’s Edge melee, Beenades & The Bee’s Knees bow, Star Cannon ranged weapon, etc.), and accessories (make sure they’re reforged to Warding or Menacing at the Goblin Tinkerer). You don’t need to have every upgrade that’s possible to get, but entering Hardmode with your best equipment available will save you a lot of hours, especially at the start.
- Prepare Your World: You should consider protecting vital areas before advancing to Hardmode. Do some NPC housing, protect important farms and frequently used areas (such as fishing spots, arenas, and storage rooms) from the advanced biome spread that comes with this stage of the game. You can do this easily by creating some gaps or barriers between the exact location and nearby Corruption or Crimson evil biomes.
- Build Some Farms: With Hardmode resources becoming even more important, preparing some farms will save you a lot of time and resources. The most important resources you should look into are Herbs, Bait, Wood, Money, Potions, and Healing Items. Make sure you keep your stocks steady by building these farms to help you up.
- Stock Up: Because of this permanent conversion, enemies become stronger than before, meaning you’ll likely use more healing items and buffs. Before defeating the final Pre-Hardmode boss, make yourself some stocks of useful potions and some crafting materials. This will surely help you throughout your adventure by already having them.
- Organize Your Storage: This might seem like a small detail that’s not very important, but actually it’s more than that. Organizing your storage early will save you a lot of time as you progress. As soon as you enter Hardmode, you will start collecting new items, resources, weapons, and so on. Having an already organized storage area will make it way easier to find what you need, where you need it.
What to Do After You Enter Hardmode
So, after you’ve successfully defeated the Wall of Flesh and entered Hardmode, you shouldn’t focus on new boss fights and speed up the progression process, because it will be very difficult. You should prioritize improving your equipment by mining new ores, and getting familiar with the changes that came with this stage of the game.
- Start Mining: This is the first activity you must do once you’ve entered the second stage of the game. Make sure you start mining as soon as you can in order to obtain new ores that you’ll use to craft improved armor, weapons, and tools.
- Upgrade Your Tools: You’ll need to craft stronger tools to be able to mine some of the new ores that are introduced. Upgrading your pickaxe or drill should be one of your main priorities in the early stage of Hardmode.
- Explore the New Biomes: Start visiting the new biomes, The Hallow and its underground version, and the areas that have changed since the conversion. In these areas, you will find new and fierce enemies; alongside that, new items and materials that will keep up with your progression later on.
- Upgrade Your Accessories: Begin looking for stronger accessories and reforges that match your class and playstyle, because they’re very important and will surely make a difference in every fight. Attributes such as mobility and damage will become much more important, as the enemies and bosses grow stronger.
- Prepare for the Mechanical Bosses: Once you’ve made yourself familiar with all the changes, mined some ores and crafted stronger Hardmode equipment, it’s time for your next boss fights, made up of three Mechanical Bosses: The Destroyer, The Twins, and Skeletron Prime.
Biomes and World Changes
One of the biggest changes that come with Hardmode is the world itself.
The Hallow biome begins generating across the world, while the evil biomes, Corruption and Crimson, become much more aggressive and continue spreading at a faster rate. These biomes can gradually convert blocks, changing the areas with a new appearance and enemies.
The Underground Jungle biome also becomes more important with the introduction of Hardmode, because later on you’ll need to explore it and eventually take on Plantera.
With these changes, it is very important to keep track of your world’s changes and explore it regularly.
Hardmode Multiplayer Tips
Hardmode, or Terraria proper, can be more fun and easier in multiplayer because players can divide the responsibilities among each other and progress together.
For example, depending on the team size, one or two players can focus strictly on mining and resource gathering, while the rest of the team explores the new biomes, fights enemies through mighty dungeons, and prepares new equipment with the items gathered.
Also, a stable Terraria multiplayer server with more players means more enemies and greater server resource usage, especially if you are using mods. When you’re looking for a hosting provider, always make sure the servers they provide can handle all your necessities, including player count, mod setup, a lag-free experience, and so on.
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Common Hardmode Mistakes
Before wrapping up, even if you prepare carefully, mistakes can still happen. Most of them make progression more difficult than it should be, or just create unnecessary problems. That’s why it’s worth taking your time to make sure you know what to look out for as you progress.
- Entering Hardmode Without Preparing: One of the most common mistakes players make is defeating the Wall of Flesh as soon as they can, without preparing their equipment for Hardmode or your world. Entering the next stage unprepared will have a major difficulty spike, because the enemies are way stronger.
- Ignoring Biome Spread: Still a common mistake, allowing Corruption, Crimson, or The Hallow biomes to spread freely will eventually cause problems to important areas, as they’re affected.
- Not Upgrading Your Equipment: Weapons and armor that were powerful in Pre-Hardmode can quickly become outdated as you progress in Hardmode. Start upgrading your equipment as soon as you can.
- Rushing Boss Progression: You don’t need to immediately go and challenge early-Hardmode bosses such as Queen Slime, which is an optional boss, or The Mechanical Bosses. Spend your first time exploring, mining, and improving your equipment.
- Not Protecting Your NPCs: With biome spread and stronger enemies, this can make some of your important areas unsafe. Make sure you keep important NPC housing in suitable locations for you, to make everything easier to manage.
Summary
Hardmode is one of Terraria’s most important progression stages, triggered by the defeat of the Wall of Flesh, the final Pre-Hardmode boss. With this stage, stronger enemies, new ores, biomes such as The Hallow, faster biome spread, new equipment, and some of the well-known bosses make their way into your world, giving you and your friends new goals.
To make this transition easier, you have to continually prepare. Make sure you upgrade your equipment as much as you can before actually defeating the Wall of Flesh, organize your worlds with arenas, stock up on useful potions and resources, and be ready for new challenges.
After you’ve defeated the final boss and successfully entered Hardmode, take your time and start exploring, and slowly build your character’s power until you can finally take on The Mechanical Bosses, and later on the others. You don’t need to rush anything; take everything as a step, and you’ll be fine.
