Character

File:Sandstorm in a bottle animation.gif

A character using a Sandstorm in a Bottle.

The term character or avatar refers to the figure controlled by the player through the game controls. All of Terraria's gameplay revolves around actions performed by the character, and the camera is nearly always locked to place the character in the middle of the screen.

The term player is often used as a synonym with character, but may also refer to the person accessing the game if the topic is unrelated to character mechanics.

Creation and customization

Characters are created in the game's main menu through the Single Player option. This provides you with the options of selecting an already made character for playing, creating new characters, favoriting them, integrating them with your Steam Cloud in order to easily access them on different computers, and deleting them.

Character creation presents the player with a multitude of customization options:

Hair: allows you to choose hair color and hairstyle. Both can be changed in-game through the Stylist, which also offers even more hairstyles to choose from. Note that hair is usually hidden by armor or vanity items unless the Familiar Wig is used. Eyes: allows you to choose iris color. The sclera cannot be changed. Skin: allows you to choose skin color. Clothes: allows you to change the color and appearance of the various default clothing items the character is wearing (character styles). A Dresser allows you to change this in-game. Note that default clothing is usually hidden by armor or vanity items unless the Familiar clothes are used. Male/Female: determines character gender. Both genders are equal in ability but differ in armor appearance, the "oof!" sound when injured, and some NPC dialogue. Gender can be changed in-game by using a Gender Change Potion. Softcore/Mediumcore/Hardcore: determines penalty upon character death. Random: randomizes the Eyes, Skin, Clothes, and Male/Female options.

Only one character can be played at a given time (in similar fashion to how the player may only access one world at a time), but the player is free to create as many characters as he/she desires. Characters are not locked to worlds, hence it is for example possible to start playing in a new world with a powerful character from another world.

Empowering the character

Much of Terrara's gameplay revolves around making the character stronger in order to defeat enemies and bosses. The character becomes stronger in the following ways:

• Player skill improvement in mastering the game controls.
• Increase of health and mana through Crystal Hearts, Life Fruits and Mana Crystals.
• Equipping weapons, armor, accessories, and summoning minions.
• Building secure houses, possibly utilizing traps and lava for defense.
• Being under the effect of one or more buffs.
• Items held in any part of the characters inventory (including slots for equipment, armor, ammo, and dyes), or any of the three personal storage items (Piggy Bank, Safe, Defender's Forge), are all stored with the character, who will bring them to whatever world they enter.

Notes

• The inventory of a given character and sometimes other character properties can be edited by third-party programs known as inventory editors.
• Characters, like worlds, are stored as individual files. A character has the file extension .plr (on the desktop version). On the Windows game platform they can be found in the C:\Users\<username>\Documents\My Games\Terraria\Players directory within their own folders.

See also

• Player stats
• Inventory