One of the reasons that the adventure-survival-building game Terraria has kept its lasting popularity is its broad modding community. Having celebrated its tenth anniversary and its final update, Terraria players who want to try something new are turning to mods.
The Calamity Mod offers much more than standard Terraria mods and can be more accurately described as a total overhaul. It adds an incredible amount of new content to the game, including everything from bosses to crafting recipes to biomes.
Updated May 16, 2022 by Erik Petrovich: The Calamity Mod Terraria fans have played for the last few years has received a major update, expanding its already huge variety of additions to the celebrated survival-crafting game. Terraria's Calamity Mod now includes another biome – Space – and a handful of new bosses and items that can be found throughout the game. The Calamity Mod is unique in that all the new content is spread throughout regular progression, not just at the end of the game after defeating the Moon Lord. It's one of the most popular Terraria mods for a lot of reasons, and with tModLoader available on Steam it's pretty easy to get working.
7 The Calamity Mod Is Not Available In Steam Workshop
Terraria does have Steam Workshop support, technically, but it doesn't allow for game-changing add-ons like The Calamity Mod. Terraria's Steam Workshop page only houses cosmetic mods and customized worlds, like addons that change textures or add a world where the player has everything at the start.
To download The Calamity Mod, head to the official Terraria forums, and don't forget to install Tmodloader alongside this addon. Tmodloader lets players customize mods when they launch Terraria, and it's the best way to get it working with Steam.
6 What To Do Before Installing The Calamity Mod
Install tModLoader and Check Version Compatability
Before installing the Terraria Calamity Mod be sure to install tModLoader. This is a mod management tool that is essential to getting the Calamity Mod working in Terraria. The tModLoader tool is downloadable on Steam and functions as a separate launcher for the game in your library. Additionally, make sure that the version you download is compatible with the most recent build of Terraria - as long as you download the most recent version of the mod, you should be fine.
Backup Existing Saves, Or Start A New World
Before installing The Calamity Mod, or indeed any mod that changes how the game works on a base level, be sure to create copies of your existing worlds. The save isn't found in the game's folder, it's actually found in your Documents folder (the Application Support folder for Mac users). Navigate to the Terraria folder within, and there should be a Players folder containing save data. Back this up to save yourself a headache later on.
5 The Calamity Mod Is Much Harder Than Vanilla
The Calamity Mod is an impressive mod that fundamentally changes how Terraria is played. In the vanilla game, bosses are faced sporadically and things are more peaceful than they are not. As the name might suggest, The Calamity Mod not only doubles the content in the game, but it makes already-existing content more difficult.
The difficulty curve for new players is much higher, and it's best to play through the vanilla game first if it's your first time in Terraria. Just about everything added in The Calamity Mod is much harder than the normal experience, so make sure you're used to the way Terraria works before diving in..
4 New Weapons, Armor, and Other Items Are Found From The Start
Mods that extend the life of games older than a decade tend to add expansion-like content at the end of normal progression or offer an experience completely separate from the base game. The Terraria Calamity Mod is different because all of the new content it adds is discovered throughout, rather than at the end or in a specialized separate world. It works with existing saves just as well as fresh saves, though it's best to see everything the mod offers from the start.
There are more than a dozen new tiers of weapons like Wulfrum, Reaver, and Godslayer. There are dozens of unique weapons included, too, that can't be crafted and can only be acquired from treasure or enemy drops.
3 There Are Six New Biomes...
The Calamity Mod is a huge addon, and nothing is more impressive than the addition of six new biomes, as well as a handful of major structures that can spawn throughout the world.
The five new biomes included in the mod are:
- Sunken Sea: A flooded, aquatic zone located underneath the Underground Desert
- Sulphurous Sea: An acidic sea that replaces the sea generated in the Dungeon side of the world.
- Abyss: A dangerous, void-inspired area beneath the Sulphurous Sea
- Brimstone Crag: An area with floating lava, islands, and brimstone at the left of the Underworld
- Astral Infection: A new infectious area that spawns upon the defeat of the Wall of Flesh randomly in the world
- Space: An area featuring planets, endgame loot, and three new bosses alongside a variety of powerful end-game items
Each of the new areas houses new bosses, events, enemies, items, and blocks unique to that zone. The new structures (Evil Island, Shrine, Planetoid, and Arsenal Labs) all house unique items and content, too, and are well worth exploring high and low to find.
2 ...And More Than 24 New Bosses
Terraria is known for a few things: a beautiful pixel art style, a seamless blend of building and exploration, and incredible music. What it has over many other games of its ilk, though, is the crazy number of bosses that can be encountered throughout progression. The Calamity Mod adds an impressive 24 new bosses alongside hundreds of unique new regular enemies, doubling the boss count of the vanilla game.
The bosses are completely unique, too. There's a Giant Clam miniboss, a few variant bosses like the Devourer of Gods or Crabulon, and even a Slime God boss added in pre-hard mode. There's even a new endgame boss: the Supreme Calamitas. Bosses like the Supreme Calamitas or The Devourer of Gods will prove to be challenging even for the best-equipped players.
1 The Proficiency System Improves Gear Over Time
One of the more interesting changes that The Calamity mod makes is its addition of a leveling system. To level up these stats, the player just has to deal damage to an enemy. Each level up gives a boost to other stats, like overall damage, crit chance, minion knockback amount, and projectile speed.
The new mechanic adds five attributes to the game (Melee, Ranged, Summon, Mage, and Rogue) that each affect the player in different ways. Melee, for example, affects everything Melee-related, while Summon improves mana and minion abilities. The damage dealt to enemies has to be more than 5, though, so misses and blocks don't count for skill XP gain.
Terraria is available for Android, iOS, Nintendo Switch, PC, Mac, and PlayStation and Xbox Systems