How Well Does Terraria Teach New Players?

[@davidhower7095]

I feel like the Guide should respawn naturally if there are no valid houses in the world.

[@Throarbin]

yes

[@Espartanica]

A tiny shoebox house should spawn when you make the map, to prevent spawning into danger all night, and to show exactly what the bare minimum for a house is.

[@Hadeles]

@@Espartanicait should have a couple missing walls and blocks, perhaps a little bit of grass and vines on it

[@fearlessgabe1509]

Do people forget about the tutorial existing?​@@Espartanica

[@Espartanica]

@@fearlessgabe1509 Yes. Because PC doesn't have one.

[@GaimnginHell]

When I played Terraria I heard from my friends if you dig deep enough You can get to hell so without upgrading any gear I reached the underworld with a damaged copper short sword only to die

[@Throarbin]

sounds awesome

[@DesolateLavender]

Username checks out.

[@Ryu1ify]

Hey, they were right

[@SealWithoutHat]

You truly were, gaming in hell

[@PiyushSingh-r9h]

Large world??

[@SouperMediocre]

my friend Judah is currently playing through terraria - he streams every Saturday. He had a moment in one of the streams where he thought he could eat bombs because it said "consumable". He threw 3 before he realised that he was throwing them and not eating them. "Can I eat bomb" is just something we quote all the time now

[@Hadeles]

the Demolitionist casually explaining what "popping candy" is:

[@crow2596]

OMG I USED TO THINK THAT TOO

[@twotruckslyrics]

i thought this with dynamite

[@brad2400]

​@@twotruckslyricsDid you survive? 😂

[@twotruckslyrics]

@@brad2400 no 😅😅i also thought bombs and dynamite didnt hurt you

[@lordfawful9469]

The most surprising revelation in this video is that Throarbin associates with people who don’t play Terraria

[@Throarbin]

I know, it's disgusting

[@ColddogMedia]

Let alone MINECRAFT players 🤢

[@justenoughrandomness8989]

@@ColddogMedia those are fine, minecraft and terraria are not at odds (or at least they shouldn't be)

[@muchotexto4248]

​​@@justenoughrandomness8989 They are close allies (Also try it)

[@mortsllaf]

@@justenoughrandomness8989it’s a joke

[@anonymousfog501]

17:30 THE WALL OF *FRESH* 🔥🔥🔥

[@ungratefulmango]

WALL OF FRESH 🗣️🗣️🗣️

[@scootaloodash1351]

Freshly out of hell

[@Bupboy]

That wall is dripped the hell out 🥶🥶

[@VentureCAM]

🗣️💯🔥

[@CaedmonOS]

So fresh and so clean.

[@maddockemerson4603]

As someone who started playing solo in like 2014 with basically no information (I got it cheap, and this was back when folks still described the game as "Minecraft in 2D" so that's almost all I knew) I'm amazed at just how oblivious both these players are. You'd think they'd at least go into Settings and read the keybinds, right? If there's one piece of advice I wish I knew when I started, which would make playing the rest of the game virtually blind possible and even enjoyable (obviously it's up to you whether or not to give them this advice) it's this: *The Guide is the most important NPC.* Protect him and keep him _in_ your main base. And that's not just because he gives you vague directions when you press the Help button, or because he's required for the WoF, but because of the Crafting submenu. If, every time you find a new material, you show it to the Guide, he will point you in a general direction almost every time that leads to seeing the whole game. This character single-handedly does what a Wiki is meant to do - granted, in not as much detail, but without spoilers, and crucially, _in-game._ For blind playthroughs, this NPC makes or breaks the experience.

[@omegahaxors9-11]

My first day I saw he had a weapon and figured he could defend himself. He died to a slime.

[@thetacrim]

On my first playthrough i was solo and looked up basically everything on the wiki lol

[@tekbox7909]

I think part of the reason why they didn't look up keybinds and most likely also didn't spend much time on the guide was probably cause they were in a call with friends. That makes you less likely to just sit down and read quietly for a while. Speaking from experience.

[@anthonynguyen1289]

Looking through keybinds is the same as reading an instruction booklet/manual. A good game should be able to teach you the basic controls from actual gameplay and not looking it up. This doesn’t mean make tutorials that take hours to do, but create a short prologue that gets you accustomed to what a button can do or how combat works. Like think about rpgs that have tons of mechanics, but condense what you need to know in gameplay sections.

[@IM_Botic]

prob confused why theres a godly weapon of massacre made out of... copper sword?

[@YumiONS]

My first playthrough took 6 years… My friends and I forced our ways through it with the help of the guide and achievements to show us the way… the best playthrough I ever did to be honest…

[@Throarbin]

6 years? Dang, that's commitment. Well done

[@YumiONS]

@ early hard mode really killed us…

[@Losqq]

I wish i had playtrough where my friend just didn't speedrun the playtrough and not give me a change to do anything, i regret for not playing alone

[@enesefe1183]

this is cap

[@YumiONS]

@@enesefe1183 If you say so…

[@ProneInfidel]

We NEED more, as long as they’re fine with it. This is actually very entertaining especially cause u can relate

[@tybirous3417]

Maaaan. I first played this game like ten years ago, but seeing these folks leave the stumps behind sent me right back to 2014. I did the saaaaaaaaaame thing, and I still can't explain why I did. I THINK the idea was when cutting trees naturally, you do it at waist high, give or take. Maybe I thought stumps needed a tool to remove, idk

[@LadyKEM]

I pretty recently started playing Terraria, and I am so glad that I always prioritize house building at the start of these kinds of games. Part of what could be messing with your friends is the multiplayer aspect. For some reason, most people are less likely to talk to npc's when with friends. The guide basically asked for a house, and between that and the achievements I managed to slap a poorly constructed wooden hut together before my first night. I also remember not knowing how to open my inventory or craft things without talking to the guide

[@smithsmith6402]

Yeah when he started talking about the requirements for a bed I was like 'But the guide tells you all the stuff you can make and the objects needed to make them.' The moment you realize the guide does that, you're set on an endless path of finding materials, bringing them back, and trying to make everything interesting you can with them.

[@LadyKEM]

@@smithsmith6402 I wish that there was an achievement or that the game highlighted the guide crafting box the first time. I had zero clue that this feature was a thing until post Eye of Cthulu, but it's super handy. When I put the minishark in there I immediately started to gather the ingredients for the megashark, only for me to check the wiki and realize that it needed items I couldn't get until after wall of flesh

[@jakubewert4795]

For anyone wondering - quick stats at 0:10 are a little outdated. Terraria has reached 60.7 milion units sold a while ago! That's approximately 0.8% of entire human population

[@Gatorboy5678]

Damn. Only 0.8% of people have lived.

[@Arch_rblx]

We need to purify 0.8% left of the world! ARRG! Where is my Clemtaminator

[@serinawong3019]

That makes me so happy as a terraria veteran.

[@sunstorm750]

that's around the entire population of italy! even a lil bit more!

[@Gatorboy5678]

@@Arch_rblx Well really it would be “we need to purify 99.2% left of the world!”

[@lochie2804]

"The wiki is your best friend" "Any game that requires you to search up stuff online isn't a good game" Terraria is probably my favourite game, but I feel unsure about how good it is for new players when looking at the contradicting views above. (They aren't quotes from the video, just some stuff I remember)

[@Aelinbunn]

It doesn't require you to search stuff up online, but I do agree it could be much more clear.

[@Cyrus_T_Laserpunch]

Using the wiki is something us old players needed to do, the game wasn't as helpful back then. Though this guy did really hurt the chances of his friends by making these 2 completely new players play an expert mode world, the Guide is supposed to help new players so they don't have to go to the wiki, but the Guide can't survive the night without shelter on expert.

[@1un4cy]

If it's too clear then there's no discovery. You're meant to find things on your own, you can very easily get through the whole game even if you miss half the stuff. That makes subsequent playthroughs much more rich to find the new stuff.

[@umbaupause]

@@Cyrus_T_Laserpunch I feel like this is such a weirdly common mistake for veteran terraria players to make. Expert mode is NOT a good first experience, but time and time again I've seen people be like "nah nah it'll be fine" and then these players effectively have to carry the newbies like deadweight. Which is bad for both sides. The players carrying will have a hard time, but way more importantly, the new players have a high chance of feeling completely out of place. And when THAT happens, they might detach from the game and just decide that 'they don't get it'. I remember seeing a 5 player attempt with one veteran, who pushed the group to just play expert cause 'ah it's easy guys' and they quit before hardmode cause nobody but the one guy got anywhere, and they all just got handed progress.

[@simplysmiley4670]

@@umbaupause It's because it's the most rich in items experience with bosses having something more going for them. Hell, I remember starting out and going immediately for expert solely because of hearing it has more things in it and I decided I didn't wanna miss out on anything.

[@farsalzhrany]

When I played it for the first time, I genuinely thought that getting tungsten armor is the end game 😅

[@Throarbin]

Really? That is hilarious

[@klaibefhuoaiuwehjklbdfsnxnik]

Wdym its the best armor set.

[@chielvandenberg8190]

I was like this too, I literally thought I was about halfway at the eye of Cthulhu and that the brain of Cthulhu was a late endgame boss, I was so proud of my endgame crimson armor… XD

[@fanboy7181]

Same but it was gold for me

[@ironmask8860]

Bro when I first started playing years ago, I thought skeleton was the Final Boss. 💀

[@Abizely]

The world spawn should be immune to the graveyard biome, most new players will die a lot and making the spawn even more dangerous because they keep dying feels harsh.

[@thescrambler6354]

Grave yards just need to be overhauled. They end up just being a chore to clean up

[@mikerider2014]

Forget new players, I've played this game for god knows how long, and didn't put 1+1 together about "where all this mist comes from" only to see it clearing up while I was cleaning up all the death stones from dying to event enemies over and over.

[@glitch8173]

i agree, they end up creating a snowball effect of deaths, especially if you die caving on the first night for example, leading to a good 10 minutes of tedious deaths

[@JohnPork-je1qv]

when i got terraria i decided its my favourite game without a second thought after an hour or two of playing, from my experience its great as a beginner

[@excalibur2038]

In 2014 when i first played the game and had no internet it was insanely painful, i almost gave up if not for a friend who knew how to play that i could ask for advice at school. Atleast back then it was horrible for a beginner and i would have quit if not for that friend

[@SirBitesALot101]

@@excalibur2038Playing terraria with friends is the best experience ever

[@andyv2209]

I had the completely opposite experience. I want to like it but i keep getting stuck and dying and it's so frustrating.

[@SirBitesALot101]

@ Are you playing on normal mode or on harder difficulties?

[@JohnPork-je1qv]

@@SirBitesALot101 first playthrough was normal, i siwtched to expert and master after

[@lizzievanelsen2222]

When I played through the game as a pro player guiding a newbie the newbie left the stumps as well, but not because they thought it would grow back, but because they were clicking the wrong place on the tree to get the stump initially.

[@Throarbin]

Yeah, it's possible that happened with the second noob in the video. But the first one really did think it'd grow back, lol

[@lizzievanelsen2222]

​@@Throarbin Maybe the first newbie thought that the trees were like cacti from Minecraft.

[@mrmonsterhunter808]

@@Throarbin Okay but like... Trees don't do that in real life. That's not a fault in terraria's design

[@GrieferBT]

@@mrmonsterhunter808well no one said it was

[@nuclearocean]

I tried introducing newbies to Terraria on 2 separate occasions. All 3 of them left stumps!!! It's insane

[@johnwright2217]

I can't figure out why they thought that leaving the stumps would let the tree grow back if they were going off of Minecraft logic, since it doesn't work in that game either. I've helped friends through Terraria for their first time before, but even then they didn't need too much help.

[@dzintars8034]

I think it's a combination of not knowing that you can chop it down fully, clicking right at the bottom is something that you have to do knowingly, and a bit of trying to use game logic, since you don't immediately know that you can plant more trees/how long they grow, what acorns are that drop from trees. idk the thought process can be confusing and I don't really blame the player for not knowing what the game expects of you.

[@Gamesaucer]

@@dzintars8034 You indeed have to chop it down at the bottom... just as in Minecraft. You don't know how to plant more trees right away or how long they take to grow... just as in Minecraft. You don't know how acorns work at first... just as you don't know how saplings work at first in Minecraft. Literally the _only_ thing meaningfully setting the two games apart in terms of how growing trees works is that in Terraria, you can chop down most or all of the tree at once. It's reasonable not knowing what the game expects of you, of course. But that doesn't make it less weird that they seem downright allergic to using Minecraft logic when gathering wood.

[@murlocmaster6969]

​@@Gamesaucer Sugar Cane and Cactus logic applies

[@WintryFox]

​@murlocmaster6969 It doesn't, though. That's not how trees work in real life or in any game I can think of.

[@riverpubby]

@@Gamesaucer To answer the tree question above: in minecraft, most people will start the block that’s at eyeball height. In Minecraft, you have to break The. Whole. Tree. Down by yourself In terraria, the tree breaks entire on its own when you break the block at eyeball height. And leaves the stump. Idk why people are acting like they’re so weird for not knowing how to break the stump, it would be like being mad that someone playing animal crossing for the first time doesn’t know you can dig up stumps by eating fruit, it’s reasonable they thought the stump was supposed to stay and it would make sense if they just thought you got a different item to remove them later.

[@Oddigan]

"Expert mode seems to detract a bit from this experiment." "He made me play Dark Souls." "Understandable, have a nice day."

[@BodiePagelow]

As a person new to the game, I can say the amount of new stuff added between hardmode and pre-hardmode is incredibly overwhelming. I found myself searching online for the weapons to use because I literally had no idea where to even start.

[@codystuckey5785]

i remember me and my friends thinking fishron was the end game and i made it my life goal to “take all the truffle worms” not knowing they continue to spawn

[@Throarbin]

That is awesome! lol

[@codystuckey5785]

@ damn i can’t believe you replied that’s dope, just wanted to say keep the good vids going this was so creative and entertaining

[@gerjose3944]

I remember playing psvita terraria thinking okram was the final boss breaking my ass killing fishron first just to end up oneshoting okram with the fishrom spell book bc aparently u where suposed to kill him before fishron

[@codystuckey5785]

@@gerjose3944 i didn’t even know abt ocram then i thought he was the endgame

[@GabrielBrooks-k6x]

@@gerjose3944 Ocram IS supposed to be the final boss, with Fishron being optional. The only problem is that Duke Fishron is just so much harder than Ocram.

[@gregoryzfschmitt5968]

I begun to play terraria this year on mobile and the tutorial world helps a LOT. No spoilers, just a simple guide on how to make things. If this could return to PC way more people would benefit from it

[@NowiDaManakete]

One thing I've noticed is people play games differently when they are being watched by someone that has played. I think what happens is they expect you to help them get the information faster. If you remember your first time playing you probably didn't have help and learned the game naturally and then slowly learned how to play it

[@OkiDokiChloe]

This was refreshing to watch, most of the time when I'm watching new Terraria players on Twitch or youtube there's spoiler after spoiler on how to progress, go here, do this, do that.. etc just constantly filling the chat & ruining the surprise of the first time playthrough. You only get one first playthrough of a game, glad you're giving them the organic experience.

[@armanthefunny]

I also had that "no digging straight down" mentality coming from Minecraft. The first world I played in 2012 I was digging my "mine" as a staircase at a 45 degree angle from a cave where I set up my base. I was genuinely confused when monsters would spawn in my fully lit house lol. This brings back memories

[@zekeram129]

Literally 80% of the actual problems they had were because of them being in Expert Mode. The Guide is more than self-sufficient on the first day in Standard Mode and literally tells you all of the first five minute stuff they've been struggling with.

[@Sparky19090]

I played with friends years ago and didn't enjoy it, didn't know what was happening, was dropped in a late game world, didn't understand. tried again like 2 years ago and have put like 400 hours into it, needed a second chance with a new group that was better help

[@Zechasaur_]

That's dope that you gave it a second chance, but I don't think that first experience was the fault of Terraria, basically any game that you'd join late in progression would be much harder to understand than the start

[@charliecharlie2705]

My bröther in Christ you started them in Expert mode

[@Throarbin]

He made me play Dark Souls. He's lucky I didn't throw him into GetFixedBoi Legendary

[@aimbotxd7992]

@@Throarbin Blind terraria expert mode is way harder than dark souls.

[@Bupboy]

I started playing in expert mode so i could get better at the game immediately I have no regrets despite the many minutes staring at a respawn timer

[@velvetdraws3452]

@@Throarbin dark souls and terraria are completely different games??? experience in one wont translate to the other

[@passel5953]

@@velvetdraws3452 its not about experience, it's about vengeance

[@thegooddoctor4353]

Maybe because I'm a gen-x gamer so I've been gaming for literal decades, but the first thing I do if possible is go in settings to look at the controls. That step is so helpful and I can't believe it's STILL not a thing everyone does.

[@kaioluis01]

For my luck, the first time I played Terraria, I did on Xbox 360, so I played the tutorial first. When I bought it on Steam I was flabbergasted it dosn't have a tutorial, and wondered how a new player on pc is supposed to know what to do.

[@alexconnolly5448]

same

[@spacemanifestdestiny3542]

These are the actions of people who aren't actually interested in the game and are just playing it to make their friend happy. I've seen it plenty of times before from myself and other people in my friend group. The directionless mining, wandering aimlessly, repeating things that do nothing like stabbing through a door, they're entertaining themselves because the game isn't entertaining them. I've tried to teach this game to other people a few times, to mixed results. When people just weren't interested in the game, it looked exactly like this.

[@audo6848]

Exactly. They're being so intentionally obtuse, not using basic logic or just experimenting with anything at all... I don't know how OP didn't notice how clearly disinterested in anything this game had to offer his friends were.

[@WolfieElsworth]

That makes so much sense! It's a brilliant game when you give it time. Totally don't have over 4k hours on my Steam for this, nah...

[@gingersolacemusic7590]

Starting them out on Expert probably didn't help much with that issue

[@st.haborym]

Sounds about right

[@TJ-hg6op]

@@gingersolacemusic7590There are a lot of terraria snobs who believe expert is the “right” way to play the game and assume that classic mode is worthless and too easy. They forget that for people who haven’t played the game for a long time, even classic mode is difficult.

[@Blutzen]

I can definitely tell you when I first started playing the game I left stumps, too, because it was not obvious to me that the tree was only breaking from the point I was clicking and up; I assumed that because the game didn't force me to break every block individually like Minecraft, and a _majority_ of the tree was auto-breaking, that anything it left behind must have been on purpose.

[@MasacoMike]

There's this somewhat-recent series I've been binging for the past few weeks (shoutouts to Blake and Cloud!) where they played through the entire game on Classic WITHOUT looking at the wiki, while only using hints and suggestions from the comments and their Discord server. It's really interesting to see how they developed their own strategies and progression completely off-grid from what's considered the "norm". They fumbled around a LOT, but with enough time and experience they were still able to figure things out just fine!

[@MasacoMike]

And yes, they also leave the tree stumps too! Was genuinely surprised by how often this happens...

[@MasacoMike]

@@connectedgamers1753 Sure! The channels are @/blakeluvsu1 and @/CloudedPov; should be easy to find the Terraria playlists on their channels. They both record their own POVs, so when they split up you can see what one of them is doing while the other's off screen.

[@Asiago9]

My first experience with Terraria was on the Xbox 360, after having watched some Terraria playthrough videos, and I remember not having trouble figuring things out, I feel like Terraria is one of those games where watching/playing with somebody else your first time through is incredibly useful

[@CiromBreeze]

To be fair, the console versions of the game have a tutorial.

[@Asiago9]

@CiromBreeze I never understood the tutorial, so I just learned by watching other people play

[@Zorothegallade-rpg]

Terraria is a game that rewards curiosity, if a player starts off thinking "Oh ok, all I do here is mine and fight" they won't have much motivation to figure out other stuff.

[@benjamindeh873]

I started terraria not too long ago and I can attest... ITS NOT NOOB FRIENDLY. - Chests are hard to see most of the time, they blend a lot with the brown background. Particularly when you dont yet know what they look like - The guide dying with no idea how to revive him is dumb - "Walls" being a background object is obtuse. I remember building a house and trying to change it in multiple ways, knocking down doors, blocks, and rebuilding them in different shapes, thinking maybe the shape of the room was wrong, or maybe I needed double wall, or maybe I couldnt have a door until a friend explained me a wall was the background thingy. - By the time I and my friends figured to build a house, we had like 84902830482040 tombstones all around the spawn point. Making the place a graveyard, with even more monsters. It took us weeks to even know that was the reason, only when an experienced friend joined - We had no idea about the spreading terrains and how it worked, so that ended in a couple worlds filled to the brim with red/hallow/black blocks. - I kept trying to find ways to go in to the castle without skeletron killing me, digging in through different spots, trying to outrun skeletron thinking I was supposed to run deep in to the castle past his chase point or something. - The "No more NPCs come unless you have houses" is dumb. Just let them arrive and ask for a house, they dont do anything for you unless they have it. I simply wanted my 1 house. Only reason another NPC ever arrived for me without my friend telling me about the multiple houses is because I built a second level to my existing house, with enough requirements to count as its own house And soooo many other things. Its a great game, and I love the "go explore" hands off approach, but perhaps its a bit TOOOO hands off. I like secret and logical things which one can find on their own. But obtuse nonsensical rules that are specific to the game, not explained, and without any hints to find them out are just bad game design.

[@dwight3555]

Completely correct

[@Tiagocf2]

Terraria is very unintuitive, like how is someone supposed to know how to go to hardmode if not by accident? You have to kill a somewhat rare mob and drop the loot into lava? 80% of the game is locked behind that lol

[@benjamindeh873]

​@@Tiagocf2 I summoned the wall of flesh by complete mistake. I killed the demon that carries the doll when it was flying over the lava and it fell in. I didnt even see it, I didnt even know what happened, I just saw this wall thing appear and died to it. Then I went down again looking for it, and couldnt find it. I checked the same spot where he spawned, left, right, nothing. I went back to the surface, already one or two dolls in my inventory, no idea how to use them or why, so curious about this item I started to see if I could buy, find, or craft needles to use on the voodoo doll. Eventually (Probably days later) I found out how to summon the wall of flesh via google. If a game depends on google. Not a great game design experience.....Unless hard mode is supposed to be an obtuse secret?... Then the fact that every time you destroy an altar, a random block in the world changes to corruption is big bull*** (Particularly because you have no way of knowing). I was already 100000% sure I had cleaned or quarantined every corruption zone, so I was now busy doing other stuff, and next thing I notice, half the world is now corruption and its already at the edge of my city. Although I guess this is a bit more forgivable, and perhaps even intentional to keep some level of pressure on the player. I am a bit thorn on this one. I like the "lets keep the threat of corruption going" But I dont like the "Player is very efficient and did everything right, but you kick them in the nuts, they dont even know you did it, and might think they made a mistake somewhere instead, or they might think corruption randomly appears anywhere so its impossible to ever be rid of it"

[@echo_thebatdragon6943]

I'm sure I'm the odd one out here, but most of the mechanics are logical: - Think of minecraft, you have to build all 4 side walls. They don't just automatically become obtuse because you've built 2 and a roof. Terraria is 2d. Instead of building 4 walls and a roof, you basically get to build 3. It stands to reason that having a house without a wall.. wouldn't work. The walls function to tell the game that "This is a house." Without them, there's no way for the game to decipher what's inside vs outside. (That doesn't make them functionally easier to understand, but they are required for a reason.) - Not all chests are in front of a brown background. There's a lot of the brown ones in front of the green surface entrance to forest caves. This shows what they look like before having to find them in the underground layers. Plus, it's a chest. Most games have very similar chest designs. Same goes for the vases. - The guide can't revive without a house due to late game mechanics (although there's surely a work around to have him spawn at the original spawn location by default). - Graveyards do need a revamp. Yes, they're great for some people, but beginners should have an easier way to handle them before they become an automatic (and self-reinforcing) death trap. There is something to be said for "a bunch of graves = a graveyard" thus removing graves will help, but removing them can cause enemies to spawn as well so... - To be fair, the dryad should explain world spreading better. Or there could be some sort of world notification/informant for new players to find out easier. - Skeletron. The cursed old man literally tells the player "I can't let you enter until you free me of my curse" (or something to that effect) if you talk to him. There is no reason to believe that entering the dungeon will let you escape him, even if you don't talk to him. - All I have to say is, would you want to come if there was nowhere to stay? I mean an empty house is literally the trigger for an NPC to move in, there's no way around this. There would be no reason for them spawning without one beyond simply taking up space by your logic. That being said, I do agree, some (read: most) of the game mechanics are rather unintuitive. The guide has a lot of information, and you can certainly get through the game without learning most of it, albeit it's probably a lot harder that way. A lot of hints are well.. rather direct, but without explanation (as they are just hints) so most new players wouldn't read them as hints. The rules are (mostly) not obtuse or without reason, but should definitely be more obviously defined/outlined in-game.

[@benjamindeh873]

@@echo_thebatdragon6943 -Walls being not walls is not intuitive - Expecting 3d behavior (background walls) in a 2d game, where there's absolutely no other 3d mechanics makes no sense. - NPCs needing a house to arrive to you is counterintuitive, because there's initially nothing telling you so. I went for a LOOOOOONG time without building a second house/story. There's no reason for it. - Voodoo doll = First/only item you benefit from actively destroying. I picked it up and thought "YAY! Crafting item, lets see if I can craft something without it...nah? Lets see if I can craft needles somehow" In ANY OTHER situation you want to save whatever from the lava. Yeah it has some intuitive things which reward logical experimentation,(Such as destroying red blocks with explosives). But its NOT noob friendly, and its essentially unplayable without google/a guide.

[@gingersolacemusic7590]

Man, they really don't seem like they're enjoying the game all that much. I can't imagine starting them out on Expert Mode was helping much with that, no wonder they were dying so much

[@lightning4743]

i started terraria on my own after watching the "when i say this word this thing spawns 10 times" video from the youtuber "adrian" and at the time i didn't understand anything while watching but the game looked fun and I've heard about it before from people mentioning it when talking about minecraft so i decided to try it and well.... my first experience was kinda hell, going in with a minecraft mind set, not knowing what anything does or how the crafting works and all i had was some fading memory's of the adrian video, at the end i had to resort to some wiki tabs but not on the crazy level that you do with mods. but to be honest I'm thankful i finished it cuz terraria is just one of the best games ever straight up, right now i have around 4000+ hours on it either from playing alone/with friends or modded, god bless relogic for this wonderful game.

[@DakoIa]

I can still remember my first time playing and honestly my only big blockages were wall of flesh and fishron. But outside of that i didnt really have many problems, shoutout my boi Andrew the Guide for always having my back on the recipes

[@DexTag]

I remember I also left the stumps behind and it had nothing to do with growing back, but I cant even say exactly why. Its more like a feeling of the shape of the tree. Anything you encounter in the world is mined once and that's it, so trees were like Ore for me, and it just looked like the right spot to cut it since it's thinner

[@aseldesu]

woah didnt think id see you here

[@Kozaki09]

bought the game years ago, got overwhelmed immediately at that start and dropped it. A few years later, a friend of mine got me to play with him along a few others and guided me through it. Was one of my best gaming experience ever

[@X3Knot]

My friend helped me out learn it, since at first glance I just didnt get into the game as much. But once he taught me I got so into it I had to pause it for a while for my studies..

[@SnesySnas]

Joel crafting a crafting table, then saying "I don't know" to being asked how he crafted it hurt enough But then he says the samething again AFTER crafting a furnace? My soul.....Lmao

[@simplysmiley4670]

And an anvil. That is comical severity of memory loss.

[@Isaacool]

He might not realize he’s creating anything and sees the creating as part of the inventory

[@ProbLiable]

this reminds me of a fun idea I thought of, "terraria but you have amnesia" where you can only do stuff specifically said to you or that can be accessed, like seeing the control screen and talking to the guide

[@plasmabasher]

Your friend comparing Terraria to Final Fantasy must be so hilarious for Terraria Uber-fans to hear, knowing that Terraria's very first beta was, in fact, inspired by Final Fantasy

[@o123steve]

13:02 you can get on the minecart using m2, but you have to press r to get off and he probably didn't know that.

[@Bupboy]

Wait how else are you supposed to minecart? Ive always right clicked

[@zaccheus5270]

@@BupboyPressing the mount button close enough to a track puts you in the minecart on the track.

[@Ryu1ify]

​@zaccheus5270 See even I didn't know that and I've been playing since before lead was even a thing, I always just pressed the grapple button to get off the cart

[@anbuagent12]

We need a David Attenborough version of this where you just do the accent over all the footage.

[@ArtAgma]

0:50 I feel Terraria is pretty popular tho? It's the 7th most sold video game. That doesn't just happen for no reason.

[@soulsofwar8985]

"I am wondering why it didn't break into the main stream" with all due respect, it is the 7th highest selling game of all time. I'd consider that main stream

[@-ism8153]

Somehow it feels like everyone who really cares about games as experiences (not necessarily people that play them rarely or play competitive multiplayer) plays Terraria and everyone else doesn’t.

[@brad2400]

Highest selling and mainstream are very different things tbh mainstream is generally something alot of people play casually, i dont think people play terraria casually they either get really into it or drop it on the second boss

[@SilentOnion]

you know many people have games in their steam library that they've never touched? if it was mainstream then you'd hear about terraria a lot but you really don't

[@soulsofwar8985]

@@SilentOnion I feel like I do hear about Terraria a lot. Like it doesn't come up in Media but if you ask any random person they've probably heard of it. They might just think "It's 2D Minecraft" or something but they've at least heard of it

[@brad2400]

@@soulsofwar8985 the fact that people still believe terraria is just 2D minecraft is all the proof one needs to know it isnt mainstream

[@benjaminbarras2139]

Good job to KZbin recommending this beauty to me 16mins after release

[@Daedalus-Inc]

I watched a couple videos from a channel called “Tale’s alive on the inside”, who played through the game blind, without the wiki. It took a decent amount of effort to learn how to place doors.

[@twotruckslyrics]

need to watch this

[@Bupboy]

To be fair Doors have some strange placement requirements compared to, say, minecraft

[@WowTeh]

*There should be a tutorial option which teaches the players these things:* - How to cut down a tree (they have to cut down a whole tree including the stump) - How to mine and place blocks (and how to toggle the auto select while mining) - How to make AND use a workbench. (the tutorial will tell the player this is how most crafting benches are used) - How to make a basic house (explaining the door thing, the background wall thing, and how to make and place torches) - How to craft and equip armor (the tutorial could use wooden armor and it could also explain set bonus during this) This would be enough since it gives the player a safe shelter. The tutorial could ask the player if this is enough help, or if they want to continue with an "advanced tutorial" *If the player chooses the option for advanced tutorial, this is what it will teach the player additionally to the previous things:* - How to craft a table and chair to make valid housing, explaining that making houses will make all kinds of npc's move in. - How to make and place platforms. - At this point the tutorial will tell the player to go explore and it depending on the player's discoveries, it will help more. - If player finds accesory: will explain how to equip it, and that u cant equip two of the same accesory. - If player finds any ore: will explain the player needs to craft a furnace to melt it, and an anvil to craft with it. - If player discovers a rare mob drop: will explain that a lot of mobs in the game have rare drops and that the player got lucky here. - If player discovers a minecart track: will explain that the player can ride it and how to. - If player discovers any loot chest: will hint that the player can take the chest with them, to place it in their own home. - If player dies: will explain gravestones and will hint that "if too many gravestones are gathered near each other, it might get dangerous" and that they can be mined. Stuff like that, all of this being optional so people that wanne play the game blind can click "no tutorial" or "skip tutorial", or the option for a "simple tutorial" or "advanced tutorial" I feel like most noobs that have no friends to teach them will play an hour at most and then never again because they are just confused.

[@Engineer266]

Mobile and old-gen console have a tutorial very similar to this, and I have no clue why it's not on PC too.

[@HackersRUs]

As someone who also left the stumps when I first played, my logic was: when you're cutting down a tree you cut just above the base.When the tree explodes, I just assumed that was how much wood the tree provides and stump is naturally what's leftover

[@solgerWhyIsThereAnAtItLooksBad]

You put him in expert mode, you madman

[@zaftnotameni]

honestly the most fun I had with terraria was back when completely blind and refusing to look up anything and slowwwwly learning the game, the game is at its best if you know NOTHING about it

[@thewolfstu]

Oh, I had a fun idea. Imagine if when the guide dies or if they players interact with them for the first time they dropped "The Guide's Guide" which acts as an in-game wiki on all of the items and has a helpful guide for new players. Maybe even have it as an item you spawn in with.

[@Throarbin]

That definitely would be interesting. Another person said that the Guide should respawn even without suitable housing which I also like

[@thewolfstu]

@@Throarbin Yeee, that would also be a good idea. I have thought about this side of things a bit as a game dev myself, being how to have a game with obtuse or complicated mechanics while still making it new player friendly.

[@arijeanz]

1. having to read a bunch before starting a game is generally a no no in game design. it's just not very fun inho 2. some of the funniest bits of terraria are figuring out how the game works, theres almost a physical comedy to it: -accidentally killing a bunny and having the gore splatter everywhere 😨 -mining trees with an axe, but chopped wood w a pickaxe ?? -walking into the evil biome, getting an immediate feeling of mysterious dread, and then getting bodied by one of the flying monsters -babys first boulder. need i say more. ofc, a guide doesn't have to spoil any of this, but i feel like a key aspect of terrarias fun is just blundering around having no clue what is going on. reading a guide would ruin that feeling imho

[@thewolfstu]

@@arijeanz yeah, not a text dump before a game, trust me I know that well. lol I more so mean just a reference book for people who might get lost. A little in-game wiki of sorts.

[@sponge1234ify]

​@@arijeanzMaybe something like "Here's the lines you need to tell new players:" and it'll be all the early messages you get when you talk to the Guide and asks for help

[@overthinkingeverything6722]

I was watching someone else on KZbin try Terraria for the first time and he said smth along the lines of "idk why everyone keeps telling me to use the wiki when they can just talk to the guide" and honestly it was a very interesting point. Most people use the wiki to find specifics because they've either played the game long enough to figure out the basics, or because they're stuck and just use Google imo. When the game gives you a person literally called "The Guide", you'd think it would be more common to actually talk to bro xD. Don't tell me everyone wasn't scrambling to him when 1.4 dropped and the wiki hadn't updated xD

[@pedrokotii2417]

Honestly, I'd love if you had a restriction where you can not lie. You do not have to answer, but anything you do say, has to be 100% truthful and accurate. If they needed further help, give them a timer (let's say 25% of the episode duration) where they can (without alerting you) tune in on you narrating. Could be fun!

[@Doodle128]

I never once sat there and clicked on a workbench, in fact, I just got the hang of it immediately, besides making houses, it's possible console version's restrictions (I fisrt played on xbox 360) act as sort of a guide

[@UnknownPerson-lq8gy]

Yeah. It was super confusing. Admittedly day 1, the moment a bunny attacked me is the moment I realized that everything is likely super aggressive. The tutorial and information videos I watched were extremely unhelpful. I just entered Hardmode and I’m still not really sure what to do and had to look up stuff to progress. The lack of knowledge is the real challenge so far.

[@Csitstd]

I think checking the controls in the settings when you start a new game is totally worth it. It saves you a ton of frustration and helps you spot cool features or tricks you might’ve missed. It’s basically like getting a quick tutorial without the hassle.

[@PhotonDemonZ]

0:47 Terraria and I share a birthday??!!

[@Neodactyl]

: O

[@MegaLpso]

I played terraria for the first time with friends last week, and In my opinion...no the game isn't really beginniner friendly and it's rather confusing. Even with 4 friends playing with me, it felt like Im stuck and making no progress, just dying over and over again. The only reason i figured out how to do anything besides fight and mine was because my friends told me.

[@dancingwithyourghost9087]

9:20 I have like 20 hours and never new you could set spawnpoint

[@lefurtif_lef2]

Me tooooo😂

[@h0lric]

20 isn’t that much

I reckon breaking the tree trunk first and then the stump is more of a STARDEW VALLEY thing. Then again, I don't know all Minecraft players, so it's possible that many do hit the second block of the tree for no reason... Oh wait, there is ONE reason to do that, that I remember I also do: to reach up on trees that are over 7 blocks tall. Yeah, that.

[@Khellyshine]

I've taught about 7 people how to play the game and every single time I make them enter the dungeon before we kill pre-skeletron >:)

[@Silvarrus]

Years ago I don't recall any of me or my friends when we first got the game struggling at all to do any of these things lol Trees? Chop them down. Got an Acorn, huh. Ok, can we remove stumps? Check. Ooooh is that a chest? Instalooted. Clicking on the crafting table happened, but was immediately figured out afterwards. "Gonna go stab the table brb" There was a 3 wide shack up within 30 seconds of starting our server half inside the spawn destroy range; "Who keeps destroying my outhouse?!" We totally overused scaffolding to climb though, and rope meshes the size of the mountain lol

[@Anthony-df2ez]

As someone who just started last weekend, not at all whatsoever. Ive had to pull up google at least 20 times in my 10 hours of playtime so far

[@Throarbin]

Sounds about right

[@Zechasaur_]

Yeah, I been playing terraria for about 12 or so years, and I still be using the terraria wiki to this day 😂😭

[@Khellyshine]

@@Zechasaur_ Same here, 10 years and there's almost never a day where I am playing and I do not pull up the wiki

[@lunethheart]

Kill the foating eye... Noob: but i killed 30...

[@patroka]

Yeah, the fact that it’s so easy for new players to accidentally lose the guide before learning how to make NPC houses seems like a pretty crippling problem

[@tateflores]

I tried to play Terraria back with my friends in 2020 and just did not get it. Finally played it again this year and figured out how to play it through just doing things and the wiki. The wiki was pretty much a permanent fixture in my tabs list for two months.

[@enor9379]

Its crazy how many problems wouldnt have happened if smart lock was on

[@FlorizDev]

I had a terraria world i regularly played on when i was younger. Had a massive house and stuff, but the only bosses i had killed was eye and slime boss, and didn't know other bosses than the bee boss because my friend said he had killed it, but didn't know how to spawn it.

[@RandomestRandomer]

Earlier this year I got my friend to try terraria for the first time, He's now playing infernum, safe to say he enjoyed it, I did guide him with my 1k hours of experience though but I made sure he got his time to shine sometimes (especially since I myself have a skill issue sometimes)

[@ow0439]

Tbh, terraria is not Noob friendly if u dont watch guide in YT. I personally learn all the basic from the Tutorial in Demo mode on android (in 2015) and starting from there. It do help alot like making house, diffrent ore, crafting, how to use platform, ect. I found out about boss exist when I looted the suspicous eye inside a chest in a cave and use it but dont know how to craft it again. It’s fun but frustating cuz I have 0 idea what to do and yeah it’s just a pain without watching guide in YT.

[@blipbuggaming2942]

Try offering the interior design advice when they build a base help nudge them in the right direction

[@afriendlyfox]

When I started out Terraria, I wanted to not check out the wiki to not be spoiled. I had a ton of Minecraft experience though, but I never figured out pylons, classes, reforging, fishing and a bunch of other stuff I didn't even know was in the game, and the one time I went to hell, I didn't find anything and didn't suspect it was required for progression. I have only got past of Eye and Brain of Cthulhu, Skeletron and Queen Bee. Then I decided to follow a walkthrough and realized I missed a bunch of crucial things

[@tinycandleman]

My first Terraria experience was Infernum Calamity with my friends with thousands of hours in the game. They didn't consider that someone might not know how to play terraria. It was pretty rough.

[@nezunskyfire292]

That's well beyond the pale for a new player lmao, I'm sorry you had to go through that.

[@skraaaaz]

the thing that tires me out the most in any rpg games is inventory management. its so annoying having to sort and empty out your stuff everytime you come back and go out. i know there are ways to manage it but i rather quit. coming back to the game after a while completely forgotten what items you have and what their use is. this is also really uninviting you back to the game. i had the same feeling with the game new world. coming back seeing all my vaults filled with items not knowing what i can throw out but i have to manage the inventory to progress further i really hate this. to sum it all up into one sentence i don't wanna feel like a warehouse worker in the end.

[@ThatExplo]

When I first played terraria i went: "Well, it's just 2D Minecraft, lets dig down." I selected a medium size world, dug. didn't find metal or anything after about an hour of just going directly down so i quit the game.

[@Drie_Kleuren]

Yes! This is very funny and entertaining... Keep this series going :) I also had 1 noob friend to get the game. But we got the worst most awfully seed ever. Corruption on both sides and no caves, No biomes, no chests, just stuck. My friend didnt want to start over a new world (because the seed/world was just awfully) he was so attached to his 120 wood and 70 dirt and clay... We played for 30 minutes, he didn't enjoy the game. He stopped and never played again.... I wish we got a better seed, because we found nothing, no cave, no stuff. Very little room and evil biomes on both sides. I could travel through it since I know the mods and how to dodge them, but for a very noob beginner it's impossible... Having a good first world/seed is very important. It can really make or break the experience...

[@abadgurl2010]

Should have named the world as wood, so you get a lot of trees at spawn. Or one of the other special names that gives you specific world generations. Basically, certain world names are like special Easter eggs/seeds for having special playthroughs.

[@Bixus]

Can't believe I've been playing this game for 8+ years now

[@xrafter]

I also left the trunk thinking like them. The trees got to regrow somehow. As a new player I thought "mediumdcore" gets me more items from killing "players" thinking the NPCs are "players. U didn't know for sometime that losing my loot was because of it.

[@Flyingpheonix500]

If I was never introduced the game by friends I would never understand how to craft most things, and probably how to summon most bosses, and for housing who would know to put a chair and a table? The game doesn’t really explain to you what to do.

[@mateocortanage]

This seems like SUCH a fun idea. I've been playing Terraria by myself for the past few years & haven't found anyone to play with. These games are so much fun with other people sharing the joy

[@SorcerorNobody]

Thinking leaving a tree stump will let it regrow is honestly so bizarre because that's not how trees work in real life, it's not how they work in Minecraft, I suspect it's not how they work in many if any other games. And yet they both came to that same weird supposition so obviously they have some kind of rationale for thinking that, even if not consciously???

[@QuantumWaltz]

Right? I'm still trying to figure out how they got there. I remember MY first playthrough, when I also chopped a tree down and left a stump, but my response was not "oh that's how trees are," it was "oops, must have chopped it at the wrong spot to get the whole thing." And then I changed my chopping point and stopped leaving stumps except where decorative. There are some resources that make sense to leave a bit of so that they come back. Some resources are clearly ones you have to completely remove and re-seed. Trees, I would think, would always be the latter of this. Berries of some kind would be the former, in my assumptions. This isn't always the case in games that have berry-type resources - but more often than not it is. ...Chlorophyte being a renewable resource at all was a mind-blowing discovery though, hahaha Ores are not typically in the "renewable" category of resources in my brain.

[@dwight3555]

It works that way in The Forest, every time you sleep, each tree stump has a 10% chance to grow back and destroyed stumps are forever erased. Players simply assume that if the tree doesn't disappear in one go, that's a good indication that the stump is actually a spawner, since it clearly requires additional conscious effort to be destroyed.

[@QuantumWaltz]

@@dwight3555 That's a good assumption, actually. Makes sense from a game design perspective, I guess. It falls apart in a grid-based game like Terraria where you have highly refined control over how you destroy things. In The Forest, I think stumps are always left the first time you chop the tree down, no matter where on the tree you chop it? I have little experience with the game. (Also I had to remember that The Forest is a video game on its own because the Terraria biome is also called the Forest and I was getting absurdly confused.)

[@scarlettboggs6381]

Watching your friend play for the 1st time unlocked a core memory in my head. I remember in my very 1st world, i built my npcs houseing very different from how i do it now. I gave them each their own little house and a tiny yard of 10 blocks (5 on each side) with a fence and everything, and lamp posts to light up the night. It was really cute but really ineffective at keeping them safe. So then i started making the classic shoebox apartment complex for them instead. I did this for every world after, but the charm of that 1st town was too cute and i left it to stay. That world is corrupted and im unable to play it now, but i hope the npcs are doing well in their little town. :)

[@snoring_cat_enjoyer]

Great idea of the video👍 Sadly I got into Terraria by my friend that played for some time already and he ran through the game without basically any comments about why we did one thing or another. Then I spent quite some time reading Terraria wiki and some guides. I wish I had that "completely blind" playthrough like your friends had in the video, but now I have more than 2.3 thousands of hours and learned about almost every aspect of the game. Interestingly I was in the opposite side of situation several times,so I taught some newbies how to play and i really tried not to destroy/spoil (I guess there is better term for that - "backseat") their playthroughs by my advices,only hinting something if really necessary. Take care of your friends, even if they are new to the game, because Terraria is great for those who are patient enough. Also feel free to correct me, my English skill is not that good and have a good day 👋

[@Gamesaucer]

ScytheSasin: "This vulture is not realistic enough!" Also ScytheSasin: "I must leave this stump so that it can magically un-chop itself over time!" Really I'd think leaving a tree stump behind would be _less_ likely for someone who's played Minecraft, but apparently not... Though I guess all that goes to show that a mechanic simply "making sense" is not the same as it being intuitive or easy to learn.

[@aconfusedwitch1817]

I feel like these guys just weren't very interested in the game tbh. Not holding it against them, terraria isn't for everyone, but I think they would have done far better if they were more into it.

[@pedroivo434]

12:40 isn't that invincibility attack from the jellyfish only on expert and master mode? Why are you putting noobs in expert straight away?

[@grotebaby1827]

In hardmode you just mute yourself and let them figure out everything themselves

[@Jordynowo]

joel yearns for the mines

[@ArdentCadenza]

I remember my first play through. I spent ~6 months getting to the Eye of Cthulhu, a month in the rest of pre-harmode, and 5 days in hardmode before defeating moon lord. I figured out housing by placing a torch in a sky island which caused I think the driad to spawn. Yes, it took 6 months to figure out housing. After that though, I discovered the wiki, which changed everything.

[@YourPalKindred]

Y'know it's weird. I don't remember actually learning how to play Terraria, it's like the knowledge was implanted in me from birth. I do know our first playthrough (I say our because it was with 2 friends) took months to finish. I still have flashbacks to getting repeatedly obliterated by turtles when farming for the turtle armour

[@theguyman256]

"Never broke into the mainstream" meanwhile being the seventh best-selling game of all time

[@theguyman256]

on a more serious note, how quickly new players will learn the ropes of terraria (or any new game) is partially dependent on what we call "Game literacy". Many game affects, including things such as simple as WASD, may be unknown/unintuitive to some players. For example, Joel has played minecraft before, so he is privy to survival game elements such as crafting, chopping wood, and building. I, have a lot of experience with alot of games, so terraria wasn't too hard to get the basics of the first time, meanwhile someone with much less experience might not even understand the hotbar

[@Throarbin]

It is very popular, and yet it would seem a lot of people have no idea what the game is. Meanwhile almost everyone knows of all the other top selling games around it. It's weird.

[@electricant55]

No shit, it costs next to nothing. How many people played it more than an hour?

[@BearBearYT]

“Go kill the worm thingy” “Go kill that big eyeball” “Go kill the floating skull” “Mmm deer”

[@EMan-xj5cz]

I played terraria for the first time in like 5-7 years (I had only played the ps4 demo) like a year or two ago, I got through most of it without a KZbin guide because as long as you know what boss is next then thanks to the ingame guide it’s pretty good

[@apersunthathasaridiculousl1890]

Playing Terraria for the first time with no experience or wiki help was probably the most fun game experience i’ve ever had, especially with friends!

[@thestickopia4619]

I kinda have first hand experience with this question. When I first played the game it was with my cousin. He introduced me to the game and the first time I ever played through it he was there as well which gave me the direction I would’ve needed as a dumb idiot child. Then years later with one of my friends before I meet him he tried the game and didn’t like it cus he didn’t know what he was supposed to do. I then encouraged him to give it a second chance in multiplayer with me and he said that ya. Me being there, and I already had like over 1500 hours in the game, helped a lot and now like me he loves it

[@kevindewaynelowe]

It has no tutorial and dificult due to being different. Almost no games use battle arena creation as a requirement for boss fights.

[@Throarbin]

well, it's not technically a requirement, lol. I didn't used to build arenas at all

[@6171boots]

there is a tutorial too, at least on mobile anyway, i don't know about the other devices

[@kevindewaynelowe]

@Throarbin Sad to say for me it is. Maybe I should try a no arena run.

[@kevindewaynelowe]

@6171boots You get a npc that can tell you stuff. But slimes eat him pretty quick.

[@EternalToasters]

As someone with 1000+ hours in terraria, this is painful to watch. I had to help my friend when I introduced him to the game and that is also a pain.

[@stormRed]

Bar none one of the best genres of content: an expert watches a noob while silently judging.