Terraria Master Mode: A Primer On The Hardest Difficulty

When beginning a brand new world, players have the choice of selecting the Terraria Master mode option from the starting menu. This is a one-time choice that cannot be reversed since it changes some prominent aspects of the game. It is an extremely difficult mode that is intended for veteran players, and it has its own unique selection of content that is not present in the regular game. So with this Terraria Master mode guide, we’ll show you all of the ways this choice alters the game.

Key Highlights

Terraria has many difficulties for its players, if you’re a newcomer then easy is your go and if you’re daring and experienced, Terraria’s “Master Mode” exists.
With this difficulty, many changes occur then from the previous difficulties of Terraria such as “Classic Mode”.
Terraria’s “Classic Mode” difficulty has these effects:
- Normal health of enemies.
- Can easily be knocked back when attacked.
- Players will drop only half of their coins upon death.
- Damage taken gets reduced accordingly to armor.
Terraria’s “Master Mode” difficulty has these changes:
- Enemies’ health increased 3 times the amount of their normal health.
- Enemies have knockback resistance of 20%.
- Players will drop all their coins upon death.
- Damage taken cap increases to 75%.
Although “Master Mode” is very hard, you can still follow some strategies such as having healing potions and digging hellevators, and getting exclusive items.

Terraria Master Mode Guide

First of all, it should be mentioned that Terraria Master Mode is not the same thing as Expert Mode. That is a completely different category of difficulty, but the two modes share many similarities.

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To make the differences between each mode in the game easy to understand, we will look at all of the major variations between them.

Terraria Classic Mode:

This is the most basic mode in Terraria.

Enemies have the default amount of health and 0% Knockback resistance.
Players drop exactly 50% of their coins upon death.
Damage taken is determined by the defense value of your armor.

Terraria Expert Mode:

This is a step above Classic Mode.

Most enemies possess twice the amount of health as normal, 10% Knockback resistance, and deal twice as much damage.
Players drop exactly 75% of their coins upon death.
Damage taken is increased by 50%.
Both Bosses and regular enemies possess more advanced AI with a higher difficulty of attack patterns.
Enemies can pick up coins dropped by other enemies or players.
Defeated bosses drop Treasure Bags, which contain items not available in Classic Mode.

Terraria Master Mode:

The hardest difficulty in the game.

Enemies possess thrice the amount of health as normal, 20% Knockback resistance and also deal thrice as much damage.
Players drop all of their coins upon death.
Damage taken is increased by 75%.
As with Expert mode, both Bosses and regular enemies possess advanced AI with a higher difficulty of attack patterns.
Enemies can also pick up coins dropped by other enemies or players in Master Mode.
Killed bosses drop Treasure Bags, which contain items from Expert Mode and those exclusive to Master Mode.

We will now go over all of those items that players can only acquire in Terraria Master Mode.

Master Mode Tips And Tricks

Jumping into Master mode is nothing to laugh at. Even experienced players are likely to be pushed to their limits when facing off against the hordes on offer here.

So we’re going to lay down some basic tips and tricks that players should always keep in mind. Most of these are useful in the other two modes as well, but they are especially relevant in Master mode.

Prioritize Armor: After you defeat a boss or discover a new ore vein, a bunch of new materials are likely to come into your possession. In these situations always prioritize crafting Armor before any weapons. A shiny new sword is not going to be of any use to you, if you are not able to stay alive long enough to use it.
Hunt For Life Crystals: Before you even consider taking on a boss, make sure to find as many Life Crystals as possible. These are consumables found underground that increase your life by one heart for each crystal you can locate. Although a significant number of these can be found, only a maximum of 15 Life Crystals can be used per player. I recommend that you get these as soon as possible and then maybe farm some Life Fruit as well while you’re at it.
Use Yoyos: Enemies in this mode hit harder and faster than ever, and they can reduce your health to zero before you even realize what’s happening. In situations like these it’s better to never get close to any monster to begin with. So use the Yoyo class of weapons to attack from a distance, while still maintaining the control that is lost from using other purely ranged weapons like firearms.
Avoid Caverns: The underground is filled massive open caverns that contain lots of valuable resources and items. These are also complete deathtraps where you can get lost in a second. A single misplaced step can send you hurtling down into the depths. So resist the urge to go spelunking where possible and instead opt to dig tunnels around these areas to mine for what you require.

Dig A Hellevator: The Hellevator is used to refer to a long vertical shaft that leads all the way from the ground level of the world to the Underworld biome at the bottom of the map. Digging this is an extremely time consuming task, but the reward is a singular fall that leads you to Hell in less than a minute. You’ll eventually have to come here anyway to progress the game, so this ensures that you can avoid all of those annoying caverns along the way.
Repeat Boss Fights: It can be tempting to move onto the next boss in the sequence when you defeat a previous one. But my recommendation is that you take your time deciding whether that is the correct course of action. Many bosses in the game can drop extremely useful items, but the drop rates themselves are based on chance. Sometimes you may not get an item you’re looking for, in which case I insist that you fight the boss again to get the items.
Potions Are Important: Many players are likely to ignore potions in the game that are not related to Health and Mana recovery. But there are multiple other types as well that provide a variety of effects like increased defense or damage resistances. Invest some time into crafting these for your character, and you will find that there is something available for every situation in the world.

Keep all of these tips in mind, and Master mode should be slightly more tolerable for you.

Exclusive Items

There are two main categories of items that are dropped by Bosses in Terraria Master Mode.

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The first of these are Relics, which are basically furniture items in the shape of their respective bosses. They are 100% likely to drop, and it might actually be more fitting to label them as trophies.

The full list of these can be seen below.

King Slime Relic.
Eye of Cthulhu Relic.
Eater of Worlds Relic.
Brain of Cthulhu Relic.
Queen Bee Relic.
Skeletron Relic.
Wall of Flesh Relic.
Queen Slime Relic.
Destroyer Relic.
Twins Relic.
Skeletron Prime Relic.
Plantera Relic.
Empress of Light Relic.
Golem Relic.
Duke Fishron Relic.
Lunatic Cultist Relic.
Moon Lord Relic.
Dark Mage Relic.
Ogre Relic.
Betsy Relic.
Mourning Wood Relic.
Pumpking Relic.
Everscream Relic.
Ice Queen Relic.
Santa-NK1 Relic.
Flying Dutchman Relic .
Martian Saucer Relic.

The second category of items exclusive to Terraria Master Mode are unique summoning items.

These can be used to call forth Pets, Light Pets or Mounts that are modeled after their bosses. They all have a 25% drop rate.

Royal Delight: Slime Prince can be summoned. Drops from King Slime.
Suspicious Grinning Eye: Suspicious Eye can be summoned. Drops from Eye of Cthulhu.
Writhing Remains: Eater of Worms can be summoned. Drops from Eater of Worlds.
Brain in a Jar: Spider Brain can be summoned. Drops from Brain of Cthulhu.
Sparkling Honey: Honey Bee can be summoned. Drops from Queen Bee.
Possessed Skull: Skeletron Jr. can be summoned. Drops from Skeletron.
Goat Skull: Goat Mount can be summoned. Drops from Wall of Flesh.
Regal Delicacy: Slime Princess can be summoned. Drops from Queen Slime.
Pair of Eyeballs: Rez and Spaz can be summoned. Drops from The Twins.
Deactivated Probe: Destroyer-Lite can be summoned. Drops from The Destroyer.
Robotic Skull: Mini Prime can be summoned. Drops from Skeletron Prime.
Plantera Seedling: A pet of the same name can be summoned. Drops from Plantera.
Jewel of Light: Fairy Princess can be summoned. Drops from Empress of Light.
Guardian Golem: Toy Golem can be summoned. Drops from the Golem.
Pork of the Sea: Tiny Fishron can be summoned. Drops from Duke Fishron.
Tablet Fragment: Phantasmal Dragon can be summoned. Drops from Lunatic Cultist.
Piece of Moon Squid: Moonling can be summoned. Drops from Moon Lord.
Pumpkin Scented Candle: Jack ‘O Lantern can be summoned. Drops from
Hexxed Branch: Tree Mount can be summoned. Drops from Mourning Wood.
Shrub Star: Everscream Sapling can be summoned. Drops from
Toy Tank: Santank Mount can be summoned. Drops from Santa-NK1.
Frozen Crown: Ice Queen (pet) can be summoned. Drops from Ice Queen (boss).
Dark Mage’s Tome: Book Mount can be summoned. Drops from Dark Mage.
Ogre’s Club: Baby Ogre can be summoned. Drops from Ogre.
Betsy’s Egg: Itsy Betsy can be summoned. Drops from Betsy.
The Black Spot: Pirate Ship Mount can be summoned. Drops from Flying Dutchman.
Cosmic Skateboard: Alien Skater can be summoned. Drops from Martian Saucer.