Terraria is an amazing game, allowing you to explore a vast world filled with dangers. It has bosses, a spreading darkness to fight and NPC to recruit to your village. In short, it’s an enormous game that will keep you occupied for a long time.
Yet a long time has passed since the release of Terraria, and while updates still happen every now and again, it’s rarely adding too many things. If you want to start a new adventure in Terraria and have it feel like there’s plenty to discover, the Starlight River mod is for you. Before starting it however, there are certain things you should keep in mind.
10 It’s Endgame Content
The mod adds a lot to the whole game, but it’s mostly geared towards endgame builds. Since you have to start a new world to play it, it’s better to take your time doing the usual things like building your base and growing your character’s health.
You’ll still have plenty to discover, so it won’t be playing vanilla Terraria again. Just make sure to bring down a couple of the main bosses; as a rule of thumb, you can go up to the Brain of Cthulhu, with no need to get to Skeletron.
9 Don’t Mix With Other Mods
After so many years, Terraria is filled to the brim with excellent mods that offer anything from simple quality of life to befriending spirit animals. People love the game and its core mechanics so much that they’re always building something new within it.
Something as ambitious as Starlight River however doesn’t combine well with most of them, since mods tend to change the base parameters of the game, and when two mods try to change the same parameter, problems happen. Even something as simple as the Smart Cursor mod can prevent you from solving some of Starlight River’s puzzles.
8 Cooking
A new mechanic the mod adds is the ability to do something with all the bunnies you’ll accidentally kill while testing the new weapons; cook their meat! That of course isn’t the only recipe you can make, and you’ll be able to combine all sorts of enemy drops and foraged goods into food that give temporary bonuses.
These bonuses tend to be good but short, with their effective timer being affected by how much you season the food. Add a little salt and pepper and your ten-second buff becomes extended for up to two minutes!
7 New Weapons
Don’t skip anything you find, even if it seems weak. Give every weapon of this mod a try, at least to get a vibe of how it’s supposed to be used.
A lot of them not only have unique mechanics but also very intricate animations; while not every weapon is going to be for you or your build, you can always feast your eyes on how pretty they look.
A few standouts include a crossbow that shoots two sets of arrows and a spear that improves in size the more you use it.
6 Old Merchants New Sales
While there are plenty of new NPCs to meet in Starlight River, you shouldn’t forget the ones that have been there from the beginning. A lot of them have new items in stock, items that will become invaluable in your new adventure.
With the aforementioned cooking mechanic, the way you get the salt is by buying it from the basic merchant. This is why it’s a good idea to stock up on the basics before heading for the modded adventure since having all the old NPCs can give you plenty of new toys to tackle the journey.
5 New Dialogue Window
It’s not hard to realize when you’re approaching an NPC added by Starlight River; they’re all anthropomorphic animals with a lot of detail. Talking to them however won’t open the normal dialogue box but a new one, with its own design and prompt to continue talking.
Pay attention to what they say since it will be crucial to understand how to advance in your adventure, like where to go or how to solve a given puzzle. If you’re having trouble using this new text box, simply change the camera zoom to the minimum and it’ll work as intended.
4 Follow Proper Order
Starlight River brings many changes to the game, all of them amazing. But in terms of progression, there’s a certain order you need to do things to get the most out of the mod.
This might seem like it goes against what Terraria is all about, mostly exploring freely, but you’ll do plenty of exploring.
The best way to go about things is to explore the surface until you have some bosses under your belt, then once the Starlight mechanic is introduced you’re ready to go to the underground desert. At that point, you’ll have all the mechanics you need to explore more freely.
3 New Materials
While a lot of new items and weapons can be found lying around inside chests, most of them need to be crafted. Some can even be upgraded, and with how stunning these weapons already are, giving them more power can only be a good thing.
A lot of biomes have new materials in them, yet to have a head start you should pay close attention to the frozen areas since they contain Aurora Chunks. And once you unlock the Starlight power, keep a lookout for a new meteorite material once it falls, with its own enemies to boot.
2 Boss Arenas
Bosses in games like Terraria and Minecraft follow a similar structure. Since you can summon them nearly anywhere, players often build an arena to have a clear advantage against the boss, and if for any reason you lose you can always try again and modify the terrain to solve your weaknesses.
The main bosses of Starlight River have their own arenas, and part of the challenge is even getting to them. Once inside, the outside world turns to black so your full attention is on the boss.
This change makes them feel more like a Megaman boss than something out of Terraria, and it's a great change of pace.
1 Don’t Overlook Anything
Starlight River is a massive mod, and while you’ll certainly miss things added to your adventure, do your best to pay attention to your surroundings. A lot of things that seem like backdrops are actually objects you can interact with, like a berry bush offering food.
This is most important during dungeon delving since to even reach the new bosses you’ll need to solve their puzzles.
These can include following a ghost or redirecting a light with mirrors, and the only way to solve them is to click on the background, paying attention to when your cursor changes shape. A sharp eye will get the most out of these star-showered lands.