Mediumcore has, for a long time, been a
punching bag within the Terraria Community. It is constantly insulted, put down, and treated
like trash. As somebody who played mediumcore almost exclusively in 1.2 and 1.3, it feels
like an old friend being harrassed and insulted, one that isn't able to defend himself and
doesn't have anyone willing to stand up for them. Anyone else, that is. I will defend
them, even if I have to stand alone to do it. Also I'm gonna refer to Classic
as softcore in this video. Now, there are valid complaints about
mediumcore and it isn't the difficulty for everyone. Inventory management and organization
can get tedious when you're dropping your items, especially if you die a lot,
and that could be frustrating. Terraria also isn't balanced around temporary
or permanent item loss. Mediumcore does get too emotional after a couple of drinks and they always
want to message their ex. There is the possibility of losing items permanently, and invasions can be
a nightmare if you didn't secure your spawn point. But just because it isn't the difficulty
for you doesn't make it a bad difficulty. The idea that Medium core is
somehow worse than hardcore, or is just hardcore with extra steps, is one
of the most absurd takes that I've heard and I heard somebody claim that the boomstick was
more accurate than the minishark a few days ago. I can understand being frustrated with
mediumcore if you typically play on softcore. It is not a more challenging softcore
- it's a more casual hardcore. If you go into it expecting softcore, you might
get your ass kicked. But I cannot fathom somebody going into medium core viewing
it as a more casual hardcore and then being frustrated that they got to keep
playing instead of permanently dying. Do you genuinely believe that? Have you played
medium core? It's not difficult to get your items back. You'd rather reset the entire game than
face a unique challenge for, what, 20 minutes? Is the idea of having to use sub-optimal gear that
off-putting? Even in the unlikely scenario where you lose your dropped items, you still have chests
full of gear in your base, you've got your arenas and pylons already set up, your maximum HP and
mana, and any shimmer buffs that you've consumed. You have your map data all filled out, NPC
houses built, bosses killed - the items that you carry are not most of your progression.
Another common complaint that I hear is that Terraria isn't built to have you lose items
that it's heavily focused around progression, and if you die you're pretty much completely
screwed and it's not really possible to get anything strong enough to get your items
back so you might as well just restart. I'm sorry are we playing the same game? Terraria
has plenty of easy to obtain weapons, equipment, and armor throughout the entire game,
you just normally ignore them because they aren't optimal. Pretty much every tier
of ore has a sword, a bow, and armor that is perfectly serviceable for fighting off
normal enemies. NPCs sell a lot of the tiers of wings in hardmode. The Arms Dealer sell the
flintlock pistol and minishark in pre-hardmode, and the shotgun in hard mode. You've probably
got the materials to upgrade that shotgun to an onyx blaster sitting around in
chests or you can get them easily. Once you pass the mech bosses, you've got extra
hallowed bars and chlorophyte bars. You can make weapons and armor from those, and sure the
Chlorophyte Claymore isn't a terra blade, but it'll do fine at killing the jungle
enemies to get you back to your terrablade. And oh no, you lost your pickaxe! You had to do
the bare minimum of not selling your old pickaxes, which aren't even worth that much money anyways.
Odds are, even if you sold your old pickaxes, you've got enough hardmode ores
in chests to make a halfway decent one. Even if you're completely out of
items, you can take dynamite to Hell, blow up hellstone to craft a molten
pick, and then mine some hardmode ores. Its anti-mediumcore rhetoric like these
arguments that I see parroted around the most. You take a valid complaint like "I
think it's annoying dropping my items and it detracts from my fun" and then dial it
up with hyperbole like "that makes it worse than hardcore I'd rather lose 20 hours than
spend 20 minutes." Another example - it is completely reasonable to say Terraria
isn't built around dropping items. It isn't. It makes the game a very different
experience and that isn't for everyone. That does not mean the game is unplayable
and miserable if you drop items and that it's unbalanced beyond salvaging because of the
impossibility of getting equipment on-tier. Just because it isn't designed to be played like that
doesn't mean it can't be fun to play like that. There are quite a few people
who like the idea of Hardcore, but get frustrated at the idea of losing a
world in character permanently. This type of person might play how hardcore with autopause on
and save and quit whenever they're about to die, or fish characters out of the recycle bin
because they can't stand to lose them. To put it another way, they want the risks and
excitement of hardcore, but not the punishment. Medium core is built for exactly that. It's a more forgiving hardcore. You don't have to feel
bad making elaborate houses or creations, or spending time fishing for cell phone
pieces, because you won't lose them. And before you say anything about dropping the
angler rewards, just put them in a void bag. Mediumcore is also a lot easier than you might
remember if you've been playing Terraria for a while - it's only gotten easier as the
game has been updated. For instance: The void bag lets you keep informational
accessories and potions in it and still benefit from them, so you don't drop the items, just the bag. You can also suck up all the items
you dropped into the bag and then teleport away. Pylons allow you to easily hop around the world so
you're never very far from the items you dropped. The treasure magnet lets you
pick up items from further away, which is especially helpful if you died in lava. Potions of return exist now, and you can pick
items up in a dangerous spot, teleport away, and then organize your inventory and
teleport back to pick up the rest. You can also just pop them like candy to
get closer and closer to your items. You can keep money in a piggy bank now and still use it, so you can purchase gear
comfortably to help you recover items. And the Sundial exists, and can let you skip blood moons and eclipses instead of
getting spawn camped by them. And sure, that's all nice, but why
would you choose to play mediumcore over softcore hardcore? What does it have that
they don't? Well, I've got four good reasons: Number one, it has a unique gameplay loop where
you're forced to perform with sub-par equipment and it grants relevancy to normally useless
items. It is easy to succeed with optimal gear. In softcore and hardcore, you will always
have the best items and always use them. In mediumcore, you'll be put in situations where
you won't. It's like a mini-challenge run each time you die. You need to use something worse
than you normally would to achieve results. Let's say you die in the jungle temple
post-Plantera as melee. In softcore, it doesn't matter, you respawn
with your gear. In hardcore, well, you died you're dead. In mediumcore, you have
to find a way into the temple with older gear. So what do you use? Well, maybe you mined a bunch
of chlorophyte, so you make a chlorophyte saber, which can attack through blocks, and you use
your old set of hallowed armor. You buy leaf wings from the witch doctor since you have
plenty of money saved in your piggy bank, and then you teleport to the Jungle pylon saving
you the trouble of walking most of the way back, and fight your way into the temple with a weapon
and wings that you normally would never use. You get a rush of adrenaline from the challenge
and risk, and it's very satisfying to pull off. It's really fun facing that challenge and
overcoming it. Here's another example - you are early in the game and died in the corruption
when trying to get a light pet from shadow orbs. You don't have much money, but you have six
gold saved in your piggy bank, so you buy the flintlock pistol, some ammo, and some rope.
The flintlock pistol is normally useless, but in this situation it's great! It's an
affordable ranged weapon that can fight off all the corruption enemies while you make
your way back and climb down on the rope. Situations like that can be a really fun way
to mix up gameplay. It's a puzzle to solve, with as many answers as your creativity allows, and there's a level of excitement
and risk from the danger. Number two is that it teaches you risk
assessment and management in a way that the other difficulties don't. On softcore,
there is almost no reason not to take risks. Dying doesn't matter - you die and, what, you
wait 15 seconds? Maybe you have to make another boss summoning item, and you might drop some
money if you didn't store it in a piggy bank for some reason. You barely get punished for being
risky, so why would you not take them constantly? Conversely, in hardcore, risks are extremely
punishing - you lose your character - so you play in an extremely risk-averse way. You over prepare
until the odds of dying are as low as possible. You are constantly ready to bail out of any
remotely dangerous situation with a recall potion, and you don't learn what risks you can
and can't take you just avoid all of them. Mediumcore toes the line in the middle. You do
get punished for dying - you want to avoid it, but you can make mistakes so you don't avoid
every risk like the plague. You also have to take risks sometimes. Going back to get your
dropped items is risky. So how do you use other items you have to do it? You push the line
of what you can and can't do. Invasions are another great example - you ask yourself,
can I kill goblins like this? In softcore, you'll succeed through attrition no matter what.
In hardcore, you aren't going to try unless you're certain. In mediumcore, you'll have to decide
whether it's a risk you're willing to take yet. If you do die, that's more risk assessment
- what is your backup plan? What weapons can you take out of a chest to fight them off?
Do you try to get your items back first, or kill the Goblins first? You didn't
lose because you died, you were put in a disadvantageous position - how are you going to
use your skill and game knowledge to fight back? Number three - if you typically play on softcore, mediumcpre will make you better at the game.
More effectively than hardcore, I would argue, because mediumcore lets you learn from your
mistakes and keep going. Plenty of people try to improve by playing hardcore and then find it too
difficult and give up because of permanently dying and losing hours. Mediumcore is a training grounds
- you will learn how to die less by playing it. And number four, it can be a fun
multiplayer experience with a small group of friends. I used to play a lot
of mediumcore multiplayer back in 1.2 and 1.3. Hardcore multiplayer never
goes well, but mediumcore creates this interesting dynamic where you're
playing together and helping each other. A lot of the times that I've done multiplayer,
it's more like a few people playing the game at the same time rather than playing
it together. Outside of boss fights, there's not much reason to do things together, but
when you die in mediumcore that is an opportunity to help each other. You escort the other player
back to their body, or you retrieve their gear for them. Obviously you won't want to do this
in large multiplayer games or on difficulties where you're dying constantly, but it can
make multiplayer more engaging with friends. Now, if you do decide to play on mediumcore,
be sure to do these four basic things: The first, and the single most
important thing in medium core, keep. Equipment. Backups. Don't get rid
of old weapons and armor - save them in chests. You will need them.
Pickaxes and accessories too! The second is to set a safe spawn
location. Particularly during invasions, avoiding spawn camping is key. Make sure you
respawn somewhere safe by using a bed in a safe house. Keep your emergency gear in there
or close enough for you to access when you die. Thirdly, remember that your items are dropped
on the ground, not lost. It's really not that difficult to get them back most of the time.
There's no time pressure so you can take it slowly. Don't exit the world - this will
despawn the items. They're going to remain on the ground for an unlimited time as long
as you don't reach the dropped items limit of 400 and you don't leave the game. Lava
also destroys very few items - only items of white rarity. If you died in lava, just dig
underneath it or bring an obsidian skin potion. And lastly, remember that it's your game and
it's up to you how to play it. It is perfectly fine to realize that you prefer softcore and
not having to worry about dying or to say that you feel like hardcore challenges you better
and you like the higher stakes. If you don't feel like playing mediumcore, you can edit
your character in a program like terrasavr or just make a new character to play in the
same world. You can also potentially restore a backup in my games/terraria/players if you
lost a lot of items and are upset about it. Mediumcore isn't for everyone, but it does have a
lot of interesting quirks and can be a really fun experience. I know that I would not be nearly as
good at the game if mediumcore didn't exist and it gets far too much negativity and hatred from the
community. Give it a try - you might be surprised.
