Terraria 1.4.4 update patch notes reveal legendary difficulty

The day is upon us – the Terraria 1.4.4 update patch notes are here for the Labor of Love launch, and they feature a whole host of new details alongside everything announced for Terraria update 1.4.4 previously. The huge patch for one of the best crafting games introduces hundreds of new items, a number of new blocks that in some cases dramatically alter the possibilities available to players, and a whole wealth of quality of life updates such as a massive Terraria inventory size upgrade.

There’s almost too much in the full 1.4.4 patch notes to cover in a single update – however, the update post does reveal a few new details that we didn’t already know about. One particular new addition is an item called the Shellphone – a new upgrade to the Cellphone that now allows you to freely teleport between your original spawn location, your currently assigned bed, the ocean, and the underworld. Meanwhile, the Terraformer is a more potent version of the Clentaminator that allows for even speedier and more controlled environment manipulation.

Also unveiled is a new questline leading up to the ultimate Night’s Edge and Terra Blade weapons, with reworks to their component parts and additional changes designed to make the process of earning them feel “more important and meaningful to players who choose to take it on.” On the other side of things, the Golem and Duke Fishron boss fights have seen some notable buffs to make them more challenging encounters.

Perhaps most excitingly for veteran players is the arrival of three new world seeds – one of which promises to be the most challenging version of Terraria ever. A ‘No traps’ seed does exactly what it says on the tin, making life smoother by removing all those pesky traps. ‘Don’t dig up’ starts you out in the underworld (complete with new early-game flora to help balance accordingly), and tasks you with reaching the terrifying heights of the surface layer, described as “a truly horrifying and inhospitable place that will test the mettle of even the most seasoned Terrarian.”

That’s not all, however, because the Zenith seed is upon us. This ‘Everything’ seed is described as “the true Magnum Opus of Terraria world seeds” and features a mashup of every single seed in the game (including the new Labor of Love) ones, along with some additional features unique to this extra-challenging seed. Re-Logic vice president Cenx notes that this mode also scales everything up – so normal difficulty acts like an expert world, expert becomes equivalent to a master world, and master difficulty will be a new ‘legendary’ difficulty world setting.

There’s so much in the full Terraria 1.4.4 changelog that we can’t include it all here – check out the official post if you want all the nitty-gritty details. However, we’ve pulled out a selection of bullet points that caught our eye as some of the most surprising and exciting additions that we didn’t already know about prior to the release of these patch notes. Re-Logic QA lead Leinfors notes that “1.4.4 has the most extensive set of balance changes added in an update, even more so than 1.4 and 1.4.1, and includes some of the most technically complicated changes made to weapons and other systems.”

• You can now stack Guide Voodoo Dolls! But . . . with great stacking comes great responsibility. Throwing a stack of more than one into lava may have unwanted consequences.
• Gold Critters will appear in gold on the Lifeform Analyzer.
• Significantly increased the range of quick stack to nearby chests.
• Added an option to disable quick trash in the main menu.
• Smashing altars no longer generates random blocks of infection in the world.
• Traveling Merchant now has an extra guaranteed item slot in his inventory in Hardmode. This slot can only contain items from the 4 less common item pools, with the most common items being excluded.
• Traveling Merchant now has an extra guaranteed item slot in his inventory at all times. This slot will ALWAYS contain a painting. Paintings have been removed from all of his other inventory slots, which will slightly increase the odds of obtaining the rest of his wares.
• You can now fish while partially submerged in water, as long as the player’s arms are above the bobber. This includes fishing in an Inner Tube!
• Banners from particularly rare enemies may now drop at 10 or 25 kills instead of 50. This same value will apply to how many kills it takes to complete their Bestiary page.
• NPCs who die will now respawn freely, ignoring the original unique conditions which were required to spawn in the first place. For example, Party Girl will have “normal” respawn odds instead of her rare spawn chance, and NPCs with a required item like Arms Dealer and Demolitionist will no longer require a player to be holding that item to respawn.
• Crate Potion duration increased from 3 minutes to 4 minutes. Potency of Crate fishing chance increased by 50% (This is an overall increase of 25% more crates when fishing with a Crate Potion active).

Our Terraria bosses guide should help ensure you’re well-equipped to go up against the toughest enemies in 1.4.4, while our pick of the best Terraria mods offers some additional ways to customise if somehow all these new updates still aren’t enough for you. We’ve also got a Terraria happiness guide to teach you all about NPCs and Pylons, and an introduction to Terraria potion crafting that will get you up to speed on taking advantage of the newly increased maximum buff limit.