The (Unfinished) Terrarian Handbook!

Here are a few helpful tips and techniques that will help people to play Terraria safely, efficiently, and might make your gaming experience a lot more fun.

Most of what's written in this handbook refers to the PS3 console version of Terraria, since it's the one I own and I am unfamiliar with how things work on PS Vita. I may do some research and work with other people later on to figure out how PS Vita and PC versions of Terraria work, but the Autosave Technique and some versions of Duplicating Items should work with all versions.

First and foremost, before rummaging through other players' chests and taking items that look useful, shiny, or hard to get on your own... Please make sure to ask permission and they say it's okay for you to take their items.

Which brings me to my first technique to prevent item loss in your world, which includes items in your inventory, items that are equipped and even structures and housing that you have built!

Before I get into that though, I should probably explain the various ways to back up your Terraria Save File.

1.) Backing up your Terraria Save File

WARNING!

Be careful when utilizing these techniques, as you may lose your saved data if done incorrectly.
If you have trouble understanding these techniques or aren't too good with computers, it's probably best just to skip this section or any others you might have trouble with.

There are a few ways you can back up your save file. Most of these techniques work with other saved game files as well. But be warned, you are messing with data that contains your saved game information. Refer to the warning one more time if you are unsure. I take no responsibility for loss of data, this is merely an explanation of how it is possible to back up your saved games.

1a.) The easiest way is probably to back up to the cloud if you are a Playstation Plus subscriber. I'm not sure how this works, as I have never been a Playstation Plus Member, but I'm pretty sure all you have to do is go to your worlds list, highlight the world you wish to back up to the PS Plus cloud and hit L1 or R1. Whichever button it says on the bottom of the screen that says "Upload." Then, when you want to restore your saved world, just hit the one that says "Download" while you have a world selection highlighted. Be careful though, as I have heard that the cloud has problems sometimes and if you have another world selected when you hit "Download" you may overwrite the data of that world. It's probably best to try this on a new world slot to make sure you're doing this the correct way and to get a handle on how this technique works.

1b.) The second way to back up your save file to a USB Flash Drive, also known as a Flash Disk, Data Stick, etc. Before being able to use your flash drive with the PS3, you'll have to stick it in your computer and format the drive to a FAT or FAT32 file system. Be careful, as formatting a flash drive will erase any data, files or information on the flash drive.

First, select the PS3 Saved Data folder under the Game menu on the Playstation 3 Home Screen (aka XMB). Once you hit X on the folder, a list of Saved Game folders will appear. Scroll down... all the way if you are an avid gamer, until you see the folder labeled "Terraria." Next, hit X on the folder and a Terraria file should appear within the folder. Then, hit the Triangle button and select "Copy." Now, a menu will come up asking where you want to copy your saved file. Select your Flash Drive, usually labelled "USB Flash Drive" and hit the X button. Once the progress bar reaches 100%, your save data will reside (in stasis) on your flash disk and you can retrieve it by plugging your flash drive in, going back to the "PS3 Saved Data" folder, select "USB Flash Drive" located on the top part of the list, hit the Triangle button on the Terraria file and copy it to your Playstation 3. Make sure this is what you want to do though, as copying the previous save file back to your Playstation will overwrite the Terraria Save File currently stored on your Playstation 3.

1c.) The third method is good to use if you do not have access to a USB Flash Drive or don't have a way to format the drive to FAT or FAT32 format. It will allow you to copy your save file to a different user on your Playstation 3 system IF you have created other users. You'll want to follow the instructions in 1b.) until you see the "Copy" option. From there, hit X on "Copy" and select either "Different User" or the name of the user you wish to copy the save file to. You can then log on as the other user and restore the saved file to your user account by following the same directions and selecting your user name when copying the file in order to restore it. The only trick to this is that you will have to delete the Terraria save file from the other user before being able to copy it or restore the save file to the other user's profile. So, that being said... be careful which user you are logged on as when choosing to delete your Terraria save file.


Okay! On to the next technique!

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2.) The Autosave Technique

This is my favorite, since I'm always using it and it keeps my world (items, inventory and buildings included) safe from people that take my things and like to destroy my stuff that I spend time working on. It's extremely useful if you know how to do it right and becomes rather simple the more you do.

First, go into one of your worlds, I'd uncheck the "Play Online" option so that you can do this without being bothered. It's easy and doesn't take long at all. Once in your world, simply press start to pause the game, go to "Settings" and now "Gameplay." Next, highlight the option that says "Autosave" and hit X once or twice until it says "Autosave Off." Autosave will remain off until you decide to turn it back on, but if an update comes out, it's always good to check and make sure that the options weren't reset and that Autosave is, in fact, still in the off position.

With Autosave being off, the game will not save the game for you. When you want to save you will have to pause the game and select "Save Game." I'd reccomend you do this often if you are building or mining/foraging/farming for certain items. Don't forget to do this, because if you forget to save and turn the game off, your progress will not be saved.

Now, if you are playing online with other players in your world and they decide to start taking things from your chests or destroying your buildings you've worked so hard on, DO NOT save your game manually. When you decide to exit your world and return to the main menu, select the option that says "EXIT WITHOUT SAVING." (Or just turn your system off or Exit Game via XMB menu by holding the PS/Home button) Afterwards, the next time you load your game, all the items and buildings you had before people started doing what they do will miraculously return untouched. Now, if you found or recieved any items or started building anything new after people started "abusing" your world will be lost. So Exit Without Saving or Save & Exit at your own discretion.

Basically, there are 2 things here you need to remember. "Autosave Off" and "Exit Without Saving."

This method will become easier to understand the more you use it, if you decide to do so. If it's too complicated or you'd like to build in offline mode, you can always turn Autosave back on in the Settings Menu.


Onward my friends! To the legendary technique of duplicating items...

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You will need to turn Autosave Off while doing this and save manually in order for this to work.

3a. ) Duplicating Items (Online)

First, what you'll want to do is grab an empty chest and any items you wish to duplicate from your world, then save the game. (This will be the only time you want to save your game until the duplicating process is complete.) Next, have a friend that has a little free time (and preferably knows the Autosave Technique) open their world and set it to invite only. This works if they set it to open invite too, but if you have other friends that play Terraria, they might join the game also and take the items you're duplicating unless you notify them first. I always tell people that join my friends world "No taking or breaking plz" to avoid that from happening. I found that Invite Only makes the duplication process much faster as well, since you don't have to wait for the game to pop up on the Games List menu.

Next, have your friend send you anywhere from 3-10 invites depending on how much you need to duplicate. Accept the invite and join their world. Place your empty chest as close as possible to the place you enter their world. Open the chest and place the items you wish to duplicate in the chest. You can click the "drop all items" icon to the left, but you might want to avoid placing items in the top row of your inventory, as those items will not transfer to the chest upon clicking the "drop all items" icon. Now, pause and click Main Menu and be sure to click "Exit Without Saving." That way, all the items you had upon entering their world will still be in you inventory when you enter again.

Finally, press triangle, accept another invite and repeat the process as many times as necessary to duplicate items to the quantity you wish to have. Once you think you have enough, place all the duplicated items in your inventory (and/or safe and piggybank), save the game, return to your world and drop off your now massive quantity of items!

You can even put the items back in the chest(s) in your friend's world AFTER you save and you will both have all the items you duplicated. I usually do that as a gift to the other player for letting me dupe in their world.

I know it sounds like a long complicated process, but once you get the hang of it, it's relatively easy to do.



3b.) Duplicating other people's items without item loss

While in another person's world (make sure to ask permission before doing this!) you can take items from their chests, put them into your inventory and save when you have all the items you need. Once you save, put all the items back into their chests (where you got them from, if they were nice and organized) and exit without saving. You'll have the items that were in your inventory when you saved and they still have all the items you took as long as you put them back before you left their world!


3c. ) Duplicating Items (Offline)

First, you'll need 2 or more controllers in order to do this. Open your world, turn on your second controller and sign in as a user other than the account you're currently using. (You might need to create another account if you don't have another to use already.) Next, with the second controller, put any items you wish to duplicate into the second player's inventory. Now, save your game and put the items back where you got them from (if you're a neat freak and organize everything like me). Now, drop all the items in Player 2's inventory into an empty chest. At this point, I'm not sure how things work, as I haven't tried this myself, but I'm sure it works. What you'll want to do is either pause the game with Player 2 and Exit Without Saving OR just turn Controller 2 off.

Now, turn controller 2 back on and sign in with the user account you used before. Drop all the items you wish to dupe (the same ones you placed in the chest before exiting without saving on controller 2) into your duping chest and Exit Without saving again. Repeat the process as many times as needed to duplicate your items to the maximum amount or however many items you need!

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4.) Creating Useful Player Profiles

Along with duplicating items, you can also create different player profiles to suit your needs! Whether you would like different character classes for battling bosses, a player to drop off building materials or other useful items for other Terrarians, or you just want another character to use that has different armor or vanity sets so you don't have to go to your wardrobe for a change of clothes. I'll be doing this tonight so I have a few characters that are more useful to my needs.

First, (you don't necessarily have to do these first two steps, but it helps so you don't have any items missing from your main character's world)

Step 1. Turn Autosave Off.

Step 2. Duplicate any items you want your new character (or characters) to have in their inventory.

Step 3. Create a new character and enter the world you have the duplicated the items in.

Step 4. Load up your character with said items. (Don't forget you can load up your safe and piggybank too if you'd like. Safes and piggybanks are character specific. Meaning, your safe and PB items are saved with each character you have, they are not universal and transferred between all your characters.)

Step 5. Save!

And you're done! As long as you have Autosave Off, you can enter other players' worlds and drop off building materials, armor and weapons, whatever you want as many times as you want as long as you have Autosave Off and Exit Without Saving.

You can even make a character for each class: Close Quarters Melee Weapons, Ranged Fighters with guns and the sort, and Magic based sorcerers with spells and staffs, etc, etc. Personally, I'm going to create a character with a safe and piggybank filled with building materials because I love seeing what other players come up with when it comes to building unique housing, structures and dungeons.

Great start! I've used that autosave off technique for quite a time. Its really helpful.

Thanks! I'll be updating it soon when I have time to type up some things. I tried to stay on topic without throwing my spaztastic wit in there. Quite a task for me sometimes lol. Need to rearrange it a bit to emphasize the more important techniques. I could create separate threads for each topic? Or at least separate ways to back up save data from in-game techniques.

Just use an index and just post each thing one at a time. I might be able to organize it so when you click "Glitches" it goes down to where you talked about glitches.

Updated Item Duplication Techniques... might need some editing. I'm going to test the Offline Duplication tonight to make sure it works. The color on the Warning message keeps jumping around every time I edit the thread too. I proofread all of what I wrote before and it all sounds right to me. There were a few other things I wanted to add, but I can't remember what I told you to remind me lol! I'll have to check my playstation messages and write em down. I'll keep adding things as I play and think of other useful information

Exiting via XMB got my game corrupted.

Again?

Exiting through XMB or holding home button and Quit Game has always worked fine for me. Every now and then the game hits some sort of error and I get 3 beeps from my Playstation and a forced reboot, (most likely an online connection error?) but haven't had anything "gamebreaking" happen. I guess they're still working the kinks out on the PS Vita version? That's weird Ty. Have you done anything to your Vita that it would hold a grudge against you? Like... dropped it... or tossed it on a table like you don't care about it's well-being anymore? lol

dropped it? oh dear god

I drop mine a lot but it is still fine xD

there's a crack on the bottom right of mine on the silver rim.

LOL as long as it works...

Well, you know what they say... if you can't duct it...

I have a vita duplication glitch that is much quicker than some methods mentioned:

Ok so pull out your magic mirror after going to your inventory and hovering over (Highlighting) the item you want to dupe. Have your magic mirror ready with the item highlighted and use your magic mirror. As the screen is about to go black hit triangle and then X and if you time it right, you will dupe the item. It takes some time to get the timing down but you can catch on easily. Note that you can only do this in someone else s world and not your own.

I've seen someone doing that in my world. I was wondering what they were doing... and how lol. Nice find! I'm gonna try this later. Sucks it only works in someone else's world tho.

Yep, I just tested this and you need to be in someone else's world since there is a slight delay due to the internet of both players being a bit delayed.