Since being released in May 2011, Terraria developer Re-Logic has kept injecting its passion, creativity, and hard work into the action-adventure sandbox. Through numerous content patches that expanded Terraria's progression, touched up its art style, and provided extensive mod support to the community, Terraria has established itself as one of the biggest indie games out there. This month, Re-Logic has partnered with Klei Entertainment to bring players a Don't Starve collaboration with the latest 1.4.3 patch.
Though the development team has often spoken of every major content patch as the "last one," its claims have been refuted every single time, and the announcement of this patch came as little surprise to members of the Terraria community. With the canceling of Terraria: Otherworld, a more combat-focused spin-off, it has likely given Re-Logic the opportunity to refocus their efforts on the main game, bringing its fans "Journey's End" – the beloved 1.4 patch.
The chief feature of 1.4.3 is the crossover between Don't Starve and Terraria, and the way to unlock and participate in this content is rather simple – namely, it is unlocked through the game's seed system for world generation. Not unlike the world seeds of Minecraft, Terraria optionally asks the player to input a random array of letters, numbers, or special characters, prompting the game's world generation to create a world based on numerous parameters.
In addition to randomized world seeds, Terraria also supports unique "secret" world seeds that dramatically change up the core gameplay in either humorous or otherwise intriguing ways. With the arrival of 1.4.3, it introduces "The Constant" world seed which, when input into world generation through phrases such as eyeforaneye or theconstant, creates a world that utilizes a special ruleset.
In The Constant, the player experiences hunger, which is prevented rather obviously by consuming Terraria's numerous food items. Should they fail to do so, after a period of 10 minutes – starting once their hunger bar has been emptied – they begin to lose 10 HP every second until they either consume a food item or meet their demise.
Terraria's nighttime has also undergone a change, as The Constant brings the player darker nights where being in constant and complete darkness prompts Don't Starve's Charlie to inflict 50 damage to the player until they reach the safety of the light. To make things even more interesting, torches and campfires exposed to the sky will "turn off" during rainy weather.
Another thing unique to The Constant, as opposed to a standard Terraria world, is the existence of spider caves and marble biomes above or near the surface. Anyone who loves Terraria's biomes will likely want to give The Constant a try for this feature alone.
Terraria is out now on PC, PS3, Xbox 360, iOS, PS Vita, PS4, Xbox One, 3DS, and Switch.