Hypothetical Idea - Rod of Harmony-esque upgrade to the Lazy Explorer: How good is it really?

[Baark0]

For those who don't know, the Rod of Harmony is an item in Terraria that serves as an upgrade to the Rod of Discord, an item that lets you teleport to the mouse cursor. Overuse of this item will damage the player, whereas the Rod of Harmony lets you use it as much as you want. The catch is that you can only get the Rod of Harmony after you've beaten the final boss of Terraria, which keeps it from destroying the game's balance.

The recent thread about an endgame Walking Cane got me thinking: how would a Rod of Harmony-esque upgrade to the Lazy Explorer work, and would it even be that good? The basis for this thought experiment is that 1) the upgrade would require both Charged Spark Arcs and Dark Tatters, and 2) it would functionally be a Lazy Explorer with infinite durability and no sanity loss on teleport.

Sure, on paper, infinite teleportation sounds crazy, but if it was locked behind Charged Spark Arcs and Dark Tatters, you'd only gain access to it by the time where most of the game's progression based content has been cleared at least once. Other than travelling across the map at record speeds, I don't see many uses for this item.

I guess you could bring it to Fuelweaver? But by that point you'd already have access to at least one Shadow Thurible, so it's usefulness there isn't as high as one might assume it would be. If you wanted to teleport i-frame with it, it doesn't seem nearly as good or convenient as Wanda or Wortox's teleport i-frames. Having to swap to the item before you can teleport would likely make it much clunkier to use than just kiting. There's also the chance whatever you're fighting de-aggros randomly, further interrupting the flow of the combat.

Honestly I think the main reason something like this won't ever be added isn't that it'd be too strong, but because it'd basically defeat the point of playing Wortox lategame, and Wanda and Winona would be marginally less appealing due to everyone else having access to super fast map travel.

[WilsonHiggs]

I prefer new interesting items that c&p old items but buffed just to ditch said items

Lazy explorers are strong and one of the best items in the game when the player lose the fear of wasting their chest filled with orange gems

[Evelo]

We don't even know what the "final boss" is yet if there is any. So maybe the Spark Arcs and Posessed Atriums are just the first steps? I think it's better to hold off on this discussion because this update arc isn't completed yet.

[Cheggf]

I don't think every single item needs to be replaced with a rift version. The Lazy Explorer's teleport and durability system are perfectly fine, the only issue is how expensive and tedious it is. You get 20 teleports then you need to make an entirely new walking cane with an entirely new walrus tusk (or deconstruct it after 19) and go all the way down into the ruins, blah blah blah. That is way too much, so nobody ever teleports except when actually necessary such as in the AFW fight.

I've always thought that at 0% the Lazy Explorer's gem should just shatter. It retains walking cane functionality, but can't teleport. You can socket a new orange gem into it just like you can socket a gem into a moon lens or whatever they're called. It's the same orange gem cost, it's just you don't need to keep getting new tusks and going into the ruins. I'd actually start using the teleport functionality if I could do this. Orange gems can pile up, especially if you're going for them on purpose.

[Maxil20]

I would take a combination of Cheggf's socketing orange gems while having OP's no/reduced sanity penalty later on. I like the LE, but even with the socking perk you would eat though a ton of sanity items given each telepoof is -15 per cast. I feel like having it reduced to ~-5 would be a neat QOL later on, while still needing orange gems to reliably mass telepoof around, which is nice for endgame worlds where orange gems are by far the least used of the gems.

[WilsonHiggs]

2 hours ago, Maxil20 said:

I would take a combination of Cheggf's socketing orange gems while having OP's no/reduced sanity penalty later on. I like the LE, but even with the socking perk you would eat though a ton of sanity items given each telepoof is -15 per cast. I feel like having it reduced to ~-5 would be a neat QOL later on, while still needing orange gems to reliably mass telepoof around, which is nice for endgame worlds where orange gems are by far the least used of the gems.

It barely consumes sanity and never was so easy to recover it with the new farming system, bananas,  leafy meat recipes and the CC crown

4 hours ago, Cheggf said:

That is way too much, so nobody ever teleports except when actually necessary such as in the AFW fight.

I just kill mctusk each winter plus open sunken chests until I can have a scaled chest filled with lazy explorers. I simply change to a new one when they reach 5% (dumb mechanic) and, when I have a lot of 5% I go to the ruins and refresh them

I use it a lot and it solves a lot of the lately discussed "problems" of "map is too big", "there are gaps in surface and caves", "we need more speed", "give us lineal boring progression applied to lazy explorer"... Idk why people love to accumulate resources if they never use them

[NoodlemanNed]

if they could at least tone down the sanity drain on lazy explorer it would be a nice qol change because right now it is way too high.

[Maxil20]

9 hours ago, WilsonHiggs said:

It barely consumes sanity and never was so easy to recover it with the new farming system, bananas,  leafy meat recipes and the CC crown

It absolutely eats through sanity. One telepoof through isolation isn’t that bad, but if you are telepoofing multiple times (which the post suggests you would be doing), you will absolutely be going through your sanity bar. 3 telepoofs is -45, which is already on par with things like using a telelocator staff at that point. This is especially highlighted in the endgame, where most players with the crown don’t want to dip their sanity below 85% because then it stops the enlightened crown from emitting light, which is arguably the crown’s most important perk and especially in the caves.

Sanity gain options are certainly better than they were, but you also need to factor in the time loss of making/eating the sanity food. Reaching a destination 1 minute quicker is not going to matter much when said minute you saved was spent earlier harvesting 12 bananas and cooking them into 6 shakes you binge eat to get your sanity up, let alone the additional time of going to the caves equivalent of Antartica to break down/recraft all the explorers.

[RatSkinner]

I hope I don't come off as mean but I think complaints about the sanity drain of the lazy explorer are kind of silly. Its just a simple challenge the item tasks you with, you know of it going in, and you can plan around it, it works perfectly fine. I also think balancing items around the enlightened crown is kind of silly, not everything needs to bend to its will and if things conflict with other items by sheer circumstance that's fine, its a slight hurdle you can get over, like wearing a miner hat or any other light or sanity option. I feel like lowering the penalty of the item makes the game less interesting and centralizes a item that is already good for many different reasons. That being said I very much agree with the sentiment of letting you socket a orange gem back in, it'd let you use it more liberally and give me a reason to dip into my massive orange gem reserve.

[YouKnowWho142]

14 hours ago, Cheggf said:

I don't think every single item needs to be replaced with a rift version. The Lazy Explorer's teleport and durability system are perfectly fine, the only issue is how expensive and tedious it is. You get 20 teleports then you need to make an entirely new walking cane with an entirely new walrus tusk (or deconstruct it after 19) and go all the way down into the ruins, blah blah blah. That is way too much, so nobody ever teleports except when actually necessary such as in the AFW fight.

I've always thought that at 0% the Lazy Explorer's gem should just shatter. It retains walking cane functionality, but can't teleport. You can socket a new orange gem into it just like you can socket a gem into a moon lens or whatever they're called. It's the same orange gem cost, it's just you don't need to keep getting new tusks and going into the ruins. I'd actually start using the teleport functionality if I could do this. Orange gems can pile up, especially if you're going for them on purpose.

I really like this idea. I wonder if any other item would benefit from an idea like this also

[WilsonHiggs]

25 minutes ago, Maxil20 said:

It absolutely eats through sanity. One telepoof through isolation isn’t that bad, but if you are telepoofing multiple times (which the post suggests you would be doing), you will absolutely be going through your sanity bar. 3 telepoofs is -45, which is already on par with things like using a telelocator staff at that point. This is especially highlighted in the endgame, where most players with the crown don’t want to dip their sanity below 85% because then it stops the enlightened crown from emitting light, which is arguably the crown’s most important perk and especially in the caves.

Sanity gain options are certainly better than they were, but you also need to factor in the time loss of making/eating the sanity food. Reaching a destination 1 minute quicker is not going to matter much when said minute you saved was spent earlier harvesting 12 bananas and cooking them into 6 shakes you binge eat to get your sanity up, let alone the additional time of going to the caves equivalent of Antartica to break down/recraft all the explorers.

But precisely in late is where the player is swimming in sanity food that is on hand thanks to the polar bin

[00petar00]

9 hours ago, WilsonHiggs said:

But precisely in late is where the player is swimming in sanity food that is on hand thanks to the polar bin

You have completely ignored what @Maxil20has said, it is easy to make sanity food but the time invested doesn't make it worth doing to use lazy explorer and crafting them regularly isn't that fun either.

We should be able to just plug in a new orange gem and lazy explorer doesn't need to break when it hits 0%, it should function like walking cane until it is recharged and sanity drain should be lowered.

[WilsonHiggs]

7 hours ago, 00petar00 said:

You have completely ignored what @Maxil20has said, it is easy to make sanity food but the time invested doesn't make it worth doing to use lazy explorer and crafting them regularly isn't that fun either.

We should be able to just plug in a new orange gem and lazy explorer doesn't need to break when it hits 0%, it should function like walking cane until it is recharged and sanity drain should be lowered.

Most of the time you use the telepuff function at day unless you play Wendy with night vision elixirs, wx or use moogles in the surface. By the time night comes you have already regenerate that sanity wasted.

The most crucial moment when you use the telepuff is in mid combat to evade an atack or do space between enemies and you. The sanity can add up to the insanity auras of the enemies and turn the combat.

Even if you waste time cooking, you are investing time in one thing to have an opportunity of saving time tomorrow. Is the same investment we do in other areas of the game. Sanity food was never as easy to amass as now and, without items draining sanity, are underused because you lose sanity during combat due to sanity auras and a little during dusk and night which is countered by clothing 

 

Having downsides is interesting for the situations they can create instead of the non sense of lately with flat items with 57362 upsides and 0 downsides 

 

 

About it being refuel able with orange gems and not breaking at 0%, is something I suggested several times including this topic

Edited May 6, 2025 by WilsonHiggs

[cropo]

Wouldn't this be pretty unfair to Wortox?


I really like the idea of a lazy explorer simply being turned back into a walking cane, and as meaningless as it is going back up to 17 damage.

Either that or let me toggle the teleport ability so I stop accidentally activating it.

[00petar00]

4 hours ago, WilsonHiggs said:

Most of the time you use the telepuff function at day unless you play Wendy with night vision elixirs, wx or use moogles in the surface. By the time night comes you have already regenerate that sanity wasted.

The most crucial moment when you use the telepuff is in mid combat to evade an atack or do space between enemies and you. The sanity can add up to the insanity auras of the enemies and turn the combat.

The point I am making is that even If lazy explorer was buffed minimally and it was changed to allow us to add orange gems to recharge and maybe increased the number of uses, we'd want to use it more and not just in fights. 

4 hours ago, WilsonHiggs said:

Having downsides is interesting for the situations they can create instead of the non sense of lately with flat items with 57362 upsides and 0 downsides 

To you maybe but I prefer items without impactful downsides that are usually difficult to obtain, I want to feel strong after I kill every single boss and get late game items as otherwise there'd be no point in playing past X amount of days besides building.

Edited May 6, 2025 by 00petar00

[WilsonHiggs]

19 minutes ago, 00petar00 said:

The point I am making is that even If lazy explorer was buffed minimally and it was changed to allow us to add orange gems to recharge and maybe increased the number of uses, we'd want to use it more and not just in fights. 

Is funny that you say I ignore parts of comments when you also do it. You recover most of the sanity used on telepuffing by simply wearing a tam or CC crown and eating normally (most dishes recover atleast 5 sanity) so, by the time night comes, you have recovered most of it if not all.

I use them a lot and I play warly and never had problems with sanity

 

19 minutes ago, 00petar00 said:

To you maybe but I prefer items without impactful downsides that are usually difficult to obtain, I want to feel strong after I kill every single boss and get late game items as otherwise there'd be no point in playing past X amount of days besides building.

Nah, as you always show up, you want everything at no cost and with bigger power. Precisely, not getting $tupid progression in this game makes so we have something to do in late other than building. Fights are still engaging and redoing content is still worth unlike games which the progression you want

Honestly, I don't get how you engaged with the dst franchise if you don't like downsides unless you use mods to change the game... Only now we are getting bland designs cuz noisy feedback from people who don't like the don't starve original idea

Edited May 6, 2025 by WilsonHiggs

[00petar00]

1 minute ago, WilsonHiggs said:

Is funny that you say I ignore parts of comments when you also do it. You recover most of the sanity used on telepuffing by simply wearing a tam or CC crown and eating normally (most dishes recover atleast 5 sanity) so, by the time night comes, you have recovered most of it if not all.

I use them a lot and I play warly and never had problems with sanity

What have I ignored? I am making a point that I want to use the item continuously. What If I want to use it 10 times in a row within a minute?

3 minutes ago, WilsonHiggs said:

Nah, as you always show up, you want everything at no cost and with bigger power. Precisely, not getting $tupid progression in this game makes it have something to do in late other than building. Fights are still engaging and redoing content is still worth unlike games which the progression you want

Honestly, I don't get how you engaged with the dst franchise if you don't like downsides unless you use mods to change the game... Only now we are getting bland designs cuz noisy feedback from people who don't like the don't starve original idea

If you find specific gear overpowered but can otherwise enjoy the experience why don't you limit yourself on what you can use? It makes no sense to me that you want everyone to be forced to play the way you want the game to be but somehow it is too much to ask to not use the item or skill tree when it would otherwise be more fun for you?

I only use client mods and some of them do make the game much easier but no server mods. DST has been getting easier for quite a while now, it hasn't started recently. I did play DS/T much less before Wanda release but it was still thousands of hours, I have pretty much tripled my playtime so the game direction is good for my enjoyment.

[Maxil20]

On 5/5/2025 at 1:10 PM, RatSkinner said:

Snip

I admit you’re right about how not everything should take into account the crown for use. I’m a bit confused on how reducing the sanity would make the game less Interesting, though. The main check would still be having orange gems to reliably use the telepoof, which I think the durability is fine and I don’t inherently want changed other than being able to resocket gems. Reducing the sanity penalty wouldn’t really offset this.

[RatSkinner]

1 hour ago, Maxil20 said:

I admit you’re right about how not everything should take into account the crown for use. I’m a bit confused on how reducing the sanity would make the game less Interesting, though. The main check would still be having orange gems to reliably use the telepoof, which I think the durability is fine and I don’t inherently want changed other than being able to resocket gems. Reducing the sanity penalty wouldn’t really offset this.

I think reducing the sanity penalty to something lower would make it so players would have to be less considerate when using it, simplifying the whole process. Going to -5 sanity from -15 is a pretty big jump all things considered. I don't think this small bit of emergent gameplay is anything mind blowing or deeply interesting but its something I think is worth preserving as I think many of the little things in the game that force you to make tough decisions do, as small as it is it'd make things less interesting. Just because it poses a problem for you to solve doesn't mean it's necessarily bad, in my opinion.

[WilsonHiggs]

2 hours ago, Maxil20 said:

I admit you’re right about how not everything should take into account the crown for use. I’m a bit confused on how reducing the sanity would make the game less Interesting, though. The main check would still be having orange gems to reliably use the telepoof, which I think the durability is fine and I don’t inherently want changed other than being able to resocket gems. Reducing the sanity penalty wouldn’t really offset this.

As said above, isn't a big deal but is a deal that adds up to the rest of "no big deals"