We've all had at least one. That game where you feel the need to not only beat it, but conquer it with ruthless efficiency - kill every boss, collect every item, build the biggest base, find every secret, basically force every subtle nuance about the game be forced to kneel upon your glory. For me (and I'm sure a lot of you), that game was Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. For weeks, I covered every square inch of that castle, catalogued every enemy, leveled up all familiars, the works. Then when Shaft flipped that muther upside down, I went back and did it again.
As technology progresses, getting 100% completion on every game in a console's library is getting more and more difficult, but it's still not enough to stop certain gamers from giving it their all to conquer a game, no matter how long it takes. Case in point, a heavily involved Terraria player took to Reddit to show what was accomplished in-game with about 10 months time.
10 months. Roll that time span around in your head for a minute. That's close to a year's time playing the same game, in and out, hours at a time, which is exactly what HotPocketRemix did.
For those of you that don't play the indie darling, the easiest (and possibly the most insulting) way to describe Terraria is as a 2D Minecraft. There are a variety of different biomes in the game, each offering a different array of enemies, environments, enemy types, etc. Players make their way through the world's floating islands, underwater caverns, vast deserts, and more, mining away for materials to craft equipment, weapons, etc. Gameplay wise, it's admittedly worlds apart (pun intended) from Minecraft, but both feature incredibly expansive worlds. Minecraft's is no doubt infinitely more massive, but Terraria is still nothing to shake a stick at. Despite the map, it's still incredibly easy to get lost in the huge world, and plenty to keep you busy.
HotPocketRemix was a human wrecking machine, as in this particular world, there's hardly a bit of land that's been left untouched. Tunnels were dug, ore was mined, bridges built, and so on.
Given the sheer size of Terraria, especially when you select to play the game's large map, the picture above just doesn't do HotPocketRemix's feat justice, so click here to check out a larger picture. Even then, it's hard to make out a lot of the detail, but Terraria players will be able to appreciate what was done. Keen eyed and familiar players will notice a mind-boggling number of wide hellevators - shafts designed as a quick means to drop into the game's Hellish underworld, the lowest point on the map. Suffice it to say, digging one is a pain in the ass. HotPocketRemix has 26, all of which spire into the skies.
There's also a grid that's been carved throughout the entire underground for easy access to just about any point on the map. On the thread, HotPocket described his world in more detail than can be seen on the picture.
"My designs for this world are heavily based on circles, as you might notice from my house. In particular, I designed my NPC housing to fit in a circle, which "levitates" above my house. In order to have the ores (which act like magnets, I guess) glow more noticeably at night, I also used wire to turn off the torches, which doesn't invalidate the house. I like the effect. I added an obsidian generator below and a small-corrupted boss arena nearby -- the lava makes the ebonstone heart appear to "beat" at night. Above the arena is a converted floating island, which acts as a vile mushroom farm -- flipping the nearby switch harvests the farm using dart traps. For blood moons, I used a large wire system that seals my base and activates the "warning lights". I rarely use it, but it sure looks neat: normal, activated."
"I was able to collect most of the ore underground; I would estimate only < 100 blocks of each reachable ore (excluding hellstone, which I made no attempt to collect) remain accidentally unharvested in my world. In doing so, I also made use of another project I completed while digging out the horizontal tunnels: I had destroyed all lava that spawns in the underground layer above hell. Lava gets in the way during these sorts of things, so I (re)moved it."
That's a lot of digging. However, this is just the tip of the iceberg...
"I decided to make some more "creative" things before I initiated Hardmode. I made a near-perfect mimic farm, which uses dart traps to automatically move mimics off the spawn pads and into the lava traps. The entire area surrounding it is made spawn-unfriendly by using a thin coating of lava to ensure higher spawn rates. I also built a statue farm using my automatic bird engine (which I've mentioned on this subreddit before) as well as a Meteor Head-based soul farm. I also added an expanded arena for the Hardmode boss fights, which is placed near the world spawn so it could be used for invasions as well. I also converted one of my floating islands to a wyvern fight platform and the other I used for a piece of art, surprisingly. I know everyone who plays the game wants to know what it looks like when a meteor lands, so I thought I might capture the event."
And here I was thinking I was all cool with an Obsidian farm...
But the real icing on the cake? For one thing, there's not a hint of corruption, but look at the very bottom left of the map, and you can make out a tiny figure. That's actually a statue of the first NPC players come across, the Guide. For those unaware, getting to one of the game's bosses requires a sacrifice, throwing a voodoo doll of the guide into lava. Apparently, HotPocketRemix wanted something a bit more Mayan-esque. Instead of a pyramid, HotPocket carved out a giant representation of the guide. Wiring was even set up so a handy press of a button is all that's needed for the sacrifice to take place.
At this point in reading, like me, you may feel that "ruthlessly efficient" is no longer an adequate term. In its place, I would like to submit, "HotPocketRemixed."