If you haven’t already dug deep into Terraria, 2022 is the perfect time to start.
Thanks to more than a decade of constant development, Terraria has become an icon of online gaming. The open-world game has a polished gameplay loop around exploring, crafting, and challenging difficult boss fights. All of that takes place in a randomly-generated world that changes as the game progresses.
If you’re interested in picking up Terraria in 2022, here’s everything you should know.
What is Terraria?
Terraria is a procedurally-generated sandbox game built around exploration and combat. Players start with very basic tools and weapons with the goal of improving their strength to take on new areas. Terraria features a very in-depth biome system, which includes designated evil zones including a hell layer. Unlike similar games, Terraria features dozens of boss fights meant to challenge the player and gate progression.
A major selling point of the game is its massive amount of content. From its release in 2011 to 2022, Terraria has gone through over a decade of content additions and adjustments. There are dozens of ways to improve characters and thousands of items to collect and craft.
If the single-player content ever gets boring, Terraria fans can host online worlds to team up with friends and take on the world together.
Is Terraria different from Minecraft?
Due to its blocky art style, mining-based progression, and similar release date, Terraria is often compared with Minecraft. While both share the same core concept, Terraria leans much heavier into RPG elements with more complex combat and progression. In fact, the addition of several bosses and an endgame makes Minecraft more like Terraria in 2022.
Terraria has a ton of boss fights which can cause drastic changes in the world. Randomized loot is also a major difference, and worlds can entirely evolve as the game progresses. While not strictly enforced, gear progression in Terraria is a wide tree with several branching paths similar to RPG classes.
Minecraft and Terraria are entirely different games that only share a few core mechanics. They appeal to different groups as a result but many gamers do enjoy both.
Does Terraria still get updates in 2022?
Even after multiple “final patches,” Terraria still receives constant content and quality-of-life updates from the developer Re-Logic in 2022.
The most recent major update was a crossover with Don’t Starve in November of 2021. In between content patches, Re-Logic often issues updates to improve Terraria’s balance and gameplay.
In addition to all the official Terraria content, players can augment their gameplay experience with the Steam workshop. There are hundreds of user-made Terraria mods and updates available in 2022. These range from simple interface tweaks to full-blown overhauls and texture packs.
The most popular Terraria mod is Calamity, which features a leveling system, new bosses, new biomes, and tons more. Terraria players must be on PC to take advantage of fan content.
