Like many YouTubers, I keep a list of ideas ready
in case I need them. After all, I upload rather frequently, so it's important for me to record
sparks I get from the blue so I don't lose them. Unfortunately, not all the ideas make the
cut. Some of them are too complicated, some of them just don't work out, and most of
the time I just never get around to making them. This video showcases 5 of these ideas that were
too short to make into a full-length video. They would be long enough to fill a short, but
I don't really want to do that right now, so I've mushed these five together,
kinda like a Quarter as Terrasteel. Hence, here are five Terraria questions
nobody asked (because I asked them). 1. Is it possible to phase through
blocks if you go fast enough? As you may know, Terraria works in ticks,
which are units of time equivalent to 1/60th of a second. Most game logic only runs once
per tick, so in most cases, units of time shorter than 1 tick just don't exist in Terraria.
This raises the question: is it possible to phase through blocks if you go fast enough? Think of it
- if you move more than 1 block in a single tick, you could theoretically skip the collision check
and move straight through. Since time is discrete, there is no moment where you're
colliding with the block after all, and you'd basically be moving from air to air.
Unfortunately, this is not quite how Terraria works. You can't just skip
collision by moving quickly. Whatever collision logic Terraria uses
doesn't care about ticks like this. You can go 20,000 miles per hour and you'll
still be stopped dead by a single block. You cannot phase through blocks like this in Terraria.
2. How many times can the Shadowbeam Staff bounce? Perhaps the bounciest projectile in Terraria is
the Shadowbeam Staff, which seemingly bounces as many times as it likes within its range...
but how many times can it bounce exactly? Luckily, this question is pretty
straightforward to answer. If you look within the game's code, you can see
that the Shadowbeam Staff has a lifespan of 300 updates. Since it updates 101 times per tick, we
perceive this as a lifespan of just under 3 ticks. This timespan itself doesn't matter
to us, but the lifespan in updates does. Within those 300 updates, it makes
sense that the Shadowbeam Staff can only bounce... 300 times. Pretty straightforward.
However, we're not done just yet. We know it can bounce up to 300 times, but is there
a contraption that exists that can make it bounce 300 times? That contraption would
have to have a gap as thin as possible to minimize the distance between the bounces, as
to achieve 300 bounces, it would have to bounce every single time it updated its position
- i.e. constantly. So, is that possible? I actually originally wrote an eight-minute
script about this topic that was painfully boring, but to make a long story short, you need
to shoot the staff while clipped into a block into a half slab at a very specific
angle like this to guarantee 300 bounces. Due to funky collision shit, it works.
Here's how it looks in simulated slow motion, with a bounce counter mod. Neat, huh?
3. How many enemies can Luminite Bullets pierce? We like to treat Luminite Bullets as bullets that
effectively infinitely pierce, but they actually do not. This is because they lose 4% of their
projectile damage every time they pierce an enemy, rounded down to the nearest integer. Of course,
this means after a certain amount of enemies, the damage will round down to zero and
the projectile will cease to do damage. This makes the amount of enemies Luminite Bullets
can pierce a function of the damage each bullet does, affected by which weapon you shoot it
from and what damage buffs you have on you. For example, if you use a Sniper Rifle and
max damage buffs, you can get these bullets to pierce 101 NPCs, which is actually more
than the limit of Target Dummies that can be placed. On the other hand, using a Minishark
would only let you pierce 20-or-so enemies. Note that this pierce does not depend on
critical strike or damage randomization, since this concerns only the intrinsic
damage value of the projectile. Interestingly, this infinite-pierce-but-not-really
behavior is also exhibited by a few other items, like the Shadowbeam Staff, Magical Harp,
and Jester's Arrow. The Shadowbeam Staff and Jester's Arrows lose 10% of their damage
per enemy pierced while the Harp loses 5%. 4. What's the farthest range
you can mine at in Terraria? We love to talk about mining speed here on
Terratube (hell, I would know), but not enough love is given to mining range, probably because
far fewer things affect or are affected by it. Still, I'm going to pull a 2022
Terrasteel and maximize it. There are two candidates for the maximum
possible mining range - the Laser Drill and the Drill Containment Unit.
The Drill Containment Unit has a mining range of 15 tiles, which is constant
and unmodifiable, which seems pretty long. However, the Laser Drill actually has a
mining range of 16 tiles - note that it's +11, not 11 - and this can be improved to
a whopping 20 tiles with the Toolbox and Extendo Grip, making it the clear winner.
So, twenty blocks it is, right? Well, the Laser Drill has one more trick up its sleeve. If you've
ever used the Laser Drill, or any other tool, you'll know that its tool reach... is square!!!
This means the Laser Drill pointed diagonally actually mines at a distance of 20√2 blocks, or
28.3 blocks - almost double that of the puny Drill Containment Unit, which mines in a circle. How
sad for the Drill Containment Unit. I guess it is better for everything else though.
And lastly, 5. What's the maximum mining speed in Pre-Hardmode?
I believe this has been a top comment on the mining speed video for...
geez, over a year now. Damn, I'm old. Anyway, the answer to this one is simple
- 30 strikes per second. Using the Bone Pickaxe - the fastest pickaxe in Pre-Hardmode
- and reforging to Light, we get a mining speed of 9, or 6.67 strikes per second.
If we then stack it with the maximum mining speed buff, which is 70% and probably consists
of these buffs, we can get this down to a mining speed of 2.7, which conveniently rounds down to 2.
A mining speed of 2 means 2 ticks per strike, or 30 strikes per second. This means it's
only one tier down from the fastest possible mining speed of 1, which is 60 strikes
per second, and the same speed as a base Shroomite Digging Claw. It is half the max
speed, but it's very impressive considering this is pre-Hardmode we're talking about.
So, those are the five quarter-highlights I've decided to include in this video.
They're probably better here over five shorts or something, so I hope you enjoyed them!
Consider subscribing if you loved the video, as it supports the channel, as only about a quarter of
you are. Similar videos should be on the left or right. Either way though, thank you for watching,
and good day and good bye. See you next week!
