An Ode To Hallowed Armor (2024)

The Calamity Mod is by far the most popular content mod for Terraria, and I think it’s for a pretty good reason. It adds new areas to explore, new weapons and armor to use, and new tracks to listen to, which are all amazing. But the highlight of the Calamity experience has to be the bosses. Calamity adds many new bosses to fight, many of them far more complex than anything found in vanilla Terraria. And if you decide to play on Revengeance difficulty, like I did, this complexity is increased drastically. To put it simply: Calamity on Revengeance difficulty is stupid hard. Every boss is as aggressive as a pitbull in a preschool, firing out so many projectiles for you to dodge that you hardly have time to consider how much damage you’re dealing to the boss. Face-tanking these attacks isn’t an option in this mod, either. Just a few hits from any boss, even with the best defensive accessories, can result in your death. So, every boss in the Calamity mod’s highest difficulty demands your full focus as to not take too many stray hits. But, then again, you could always just nullify a few of these hits.

For my most recent playthrough of Calamity, I chose to play as the Summoner Class. This class revolves around summoning various machines, creatures, and wild animals to do all your fighting for you. Aiming becomes much less of a priority with this class, but in return, all your armor provides pitiful protection. Optimizing your build as a summoner means maximizing your damage output, increasing your movement speed for better dodging, and just getting good at the fights. Generally, investing in defense is a waste of time, as no amount of Warding enhancements or damage reducing Worm Scarves are going to prevent you from dying in three hits. With all this in mind, I am still a little baffled that I underestimated how powerful a bit of invincibility could be.

When I started my playthrough, I decided that I wanted to collect every single piece of summoner equipment in the game. That means collecting every weapon and every set of armor. As you progress through Terraria, you will be given numerous sets of armor to keep up with the scaling damage of your enemies. However, to make the game more interesting than just bumping up numbers for 50 hours, each set of armor has a unique set bonus that you will unlock when you have all three pieces of a set. One of the benefits of trying to collect every piece of armor is that you will get to see all these set bonuses and deduce which armor set would be best. The Aerospec Armor’s immunity to fall damage is great, the Statigel Armor’s extra jump is pretty sweet, and though it’s not all that creative, the Spider Armor gives a terrific damage boost. But after defeating the Mech Bosses, three deadly machines with their own challenging fights, a new resource was presented to me that would allow me to craft another set of armor. Hallowed Ore found in the underground after the Mech Bosses’ defeat can be crafted into Hallowed Bars, and from there, a set of Hallowed Armor.

I imagine the scientists in the Manhattan Project felt the way I did when I first read the set bonus for the Hallowed Armor. I knew what I had in my hands was a force to be reckoned with, but I had little comprehension of just how impactful it would be. The Manhattan Project was probably more important than a piece of armor in a video game, but I digress. The first half of the set bonus reads: “Become immune after striking an enemy.” What this actually means is that upon hitting an enemy, you will gain a buff called Holy Protection. While this buff is active, you are immune to one instance of damage. Once this immunity is used, it becomes unavailable for thirty seconds. When you begin to understand how Terraria’s combat works, you begin to understand just how incredible this ability is, especially for the frailest class in the game. In a game that requires you to narrowly avoid high-damage projectiles to avoid a swift death, being able to take one of these projectiles without consequence is invaluable. It would be strong enough if it were only one – if you are good enough at dodging, this ability will eventually refresh, giving you theoretically infinite freebies.

Beginning my slaughter of Terraria’s many terrors once again, I saw the might of the Hallowed Armor firsthand. In fights where every hit counts, completely negating one every thirty seconds was literally life-saving. As I progressed through the game, my weapons and accessories changed, but the Hallowed Armor remained. I even had the opportunity to change my armor once or twice. The Tiki Armor, unlocked after beating the botanical beast Plantera, would have given me a considerable damage boost were I to don it. More damage would make the fights shorter, meaning there would be less attacks to dodge overall. However, I passed it up, believing the invincibility to be worth the few extra seconds I would spend dodging certain death. I assumed that my armor’s life span was coming to an end, though. As I reached the latter half of the game, I figured the armor I had obtained so many bosses ago would soon be put on the rack in lieu of a stronger set. Soon enough, I thought this belief would be confirmed.

My first major wall during my Calamity playthrough was Leviathan and Anahita. I’d love to talk about the fight, but first, I have to complain. My first major obstacle was just beginning the fight. Calamity adds many quality of life changes to the Terraria experience, such as making all boss summons reusable. This means that repeat fights, something that is encouraged by Terraria’s loot system, are far more convenient. So, I am dumbfounded that this same mod adds a boss with no summon item. Instead, what you have to do is wait around in the Ocean biome for a particular entity to spawn naturally. Once this happens, attacking this entity will summon the boss proper. That’s all well and good if it spawns for you. But, as it turns out, this entity has some pretty specific spawn conditions. If you don’t look to the Calamity wiki for guidance, you might just sit around in the ocean for twenty minutes or more just waiting for the boss to clock in so you can fight it. I would know. For the first dozen or so attempts, a death to Leviathan and Anahita meant sitting myself on the beach and then walking away to get a snack or file my taxes. Fortunately, I figured out how to get consistent spawns eventually (turns out you need to be actually submerged in the ocean). This is especially good because I ended up dying to this boss a lot.

The Leviathan and Anahita fight opens with just Anahita, a siren who focuses on quick movement and an array of magical attacks. These spells of hers range from boring to actually infuriating. The bubbles mean free hits – they are destroyed by any attack, and though they home in on you, they move very slowly. But then you have Anahita’s music notes. These notes are summoned in a circle, and naturally, they deal damage if you run into them. Not only that, but they also slow your movement if you hit them, making you more susceptible to Anahita’s offense. And as a cherry on top, these obstacles stick around for quite some time. This means that as you are circling the arena frantically dodging Anahita’s other health-chunking attacks, you are prone to run into these notes and have your flow come to a screeching halt. She also has two other attacks that are just as deadly, in addition to a very fast charge that will require precise dodges to avoid. Many of my deaths were in this first phase of the fight alone. Fortunately, the fun doesn’t stop with being sung to death by a fish.

If you live long enough to get Anahita to 40% of her health, she immediately disappears and sics her dog on you. This dog is the Leviathan, and the first thing you’ll notice when fighting him is that he is very big. That is problem number one. Many fights in this game involve circling around the enemy, as this is usually the best way to consistently avoid their attacks. Circling an enemy becomes significantly harder when they take up half of your screen. Problem number two is that it is not just Leviathan itself that’s big. The giant tuna’s main attack is spewing giant rocks in your general direction. This is one instance where the difficulty of dodging these projectiles does not come from their number or complex movement. Dodging a dozen bricks being thrown at you is difficult, but it also wouldn’t be easy if your attacker threw a brick wall. I can’t count the number of times I got clipped by these boulders simply because I wasn’t fast enough to move out of their gigantic radius. And since nothing is simple in Calamity, Leviathan also summons a bunch of what the game calls “Aquatic Aberrations.” That’s a mouthful, so I’ll call them what they are: Little sh*ts. The Little sh*ts are brought into this world and immediately charge at you with ludicrous speed. When they hit you, and they will hit you, they will cancel most of your momentum, leaving you vulnerable to the mile-wide rock hurtling towards your face.

But after you throw your head against this brick wall enough times, eventually you’ll get Leviathan to half health as well. Then, we once again get to see the catastrophic effect Ornstein and Smough had on the gaming industry. Anahita comes back from her ten-minute break to fight you alongside Leviathan, essentially doubling the complexity of an already tough fight. I was lucky to even get to this phase during most runs, but this is where the majority of them ended. I was typically sent back to spawn by Anahita clotheslining me with a treble clef or the Little sh*ts breaking the sound barrier as they latched onto my ankles. But through the flurry of spells and strikes, the frantic dodging and weaving, I had my ever-loyal companion by my side: the Holy Protection buff.

Put yourself in Leviathan’s place for a moment. You are a giant-ass fish who just got woken up from your deep, primordial sleep by your mermaid wife. She informs you that she needs help killing a guy in cosplay and his army of shark-spewing tornadoes. After finding out that his army of shark-spewing tornadoes kinda hurts, you hurl a boulder five times his size directly at him. Said boulder somehow phases through him, leaving the fragile little human completely unharmed. Such is the power of Hallowed Armor. No matter how powerful the attack, as long as I could dance around the pair’s attacks for thirty seconds, it could hit me directly in the kidney and not leave a scratch. It was liberating knowing that in spite of the titanic power these two bosses held, that in spite of the gravestones littering my arena, I could become literally invulnerable numerous times throughout the fight. It didn’t just give me hope that I could eventually overcome these great obstacles. It gave me satisfaction knowing that my clothing must have provided endless frustration to the two bozos.

After so many fruitless attempts, slowly learning the fight and developing unique strategies to deal with each of the phases, I finally scaled this great wall in front of me. I slayed the giant salmon, and after another palm-sweating minute of avoiding the siren’s many execution methods, I defeated Anahita and Leviathan. They gave me a decent summon. But who needs progression when you have pride? With the power of the Hallowed Armor, I defeated the hardest boss I had encountered up to that point in the game. But I was still naive. I just assumed Anahita and Leviathan were anomalously difficult because of the duo fight and three phases. I had no idea of the horrors that awaited me. The next wall I would slam into went by the name of The Plaguebringer Goliath.

After getting my ass handed to me so many times by the Mermaid and her Aquatic Pitbull, I decided that the Hallowed Armor had done its job. It saved me from probably a hundred attacks that would have otherwise torn off a limb. It got me through tough fights, sticking with me through thick and thin. But looking to the future, I knew I would have to keep scaling with the game. My Hallowed Armor spent its last day before retirement getting me through the Pumpkin Moon event. This event gave me several accessory upgrades, but it also gave me a resource called Spooky Wood. With an absurd amount of this wood, I could craft the Spooky Armor. On top of looking sick as hell, the Spooky Armor provides numerous offensive buffs, making my summons substantially stronger. As the health of my foes continued increasing, I knew I would need to increase my damage so the fights would not drag on forever. So, I hung up the Hallowed Armor, giving it the salute such a soldier deserves. Feeling empowered and particularly spooky, I went off to the jungle to fight The Plaguebringer Goliath.

We’ve all seen the scene in a movie or TV show where a character has a series of unfortunate events happen to them, prompting them to say “can this get any worse?” This then prompts the universe to make another unfortunate event happen to them. This was my experience with the Plaguebringer. After being mercilessly throttled by the ocean’s power couple, I guess I just didn’t think the big bee could be much worse. Including the number of times I fought Anahita and Leviathan after my first victory to get particular items, I have attempted their fight 26 times. I have attempted Plaguebringer’s fight 38 times, and I am positive at least 30 of those are before I beat the thing. Attempting to kill The Plaguebringer Goliath broke my body and my spirit. I am a changed man after fighting the same boss 30 times in order to get one measly victory. But what makes this fight so difficult?

The Plaguebringer Goliath, unless you count his little summons, is just one enemy. But this one enemy is big, aggressive, and has a multitude of attacks that require focus and speed to effectively dodge. The first major hurdle and the thing that likely killed me most during this fight is its homing attacks. The Plaguebringer frequently fires off a barrage of bombs and missiles that all track your movements. This can already be tricky, as it requires more attention and caution on your part to avoid the path of these projectiles. But as you are trying to dodge various attacks rapidly approaching your location, this intolerable insect will try ramming its titanium exoskeleton into you. During the first half of this fight, these dashes are only moderately scary. Like the Queen Bee this boss was based off, its dashes in the first phase are a simple, horizontal swipe across the screen. But if you manage to make headway in the fight, these dashes become diagonal. It sounds simple, but the additional dimension of movement makes these attacks far more unpredictable. So, as you are trying to calculate where this bug bastard is going so you aren’t turned into roadkill, you have a dozen small nuclear missiles tracking you. But wait, there’s more.

It’s bad enough when every boss in Calamity takes a giant bite out of your health bar every time they clip your shin. The Plaguebringer decided they wanted to spice up their already frustrating fight. Every time you are hit by any of this miserable machine’s many attacks, you are afflicted with the Plague. This debuff causes you to rapidly lose health during the few seconds it is active. In this fight with multiple sources of danger active at almost all times, just three hits can spell your doom if you have no healing left. And though I got pretty good at these fights, I’m no Terraria pro. I would always get hit by at least a few strikes from the horrible hornet, and if I couldn’t keep myself alive long enough to heal, my life would come to a swift end. My new armor facilitated plenty of damage dealing. However, the Goliath’s health bar never seemed to drop fast enough. By the time I could deal any significant damage to this abhorrent arthropod, it had already finished digging my grave.

After at least an hour of attempts, headstones littered the jungle. My array of wooden platforms rising through the canopy had been turned into a graveyard. The markers of my failures came in all sorts of different shapes and sizes, but they all bore the same name: The Plaguebringer Goliath. Desperation began setting in. I knew that with enough practice, I could get good enough at the fight to brute force my way to victory. But having already grinded out the fight for so long, I was looking for a more elegant answer. Unfortunately, I was at a deadlock for progression. At this time, I had what I believed to be the best gear possible. There were no accessories, armor, or weapon upgrades I could obtain without taking a detour to another, likely more difficult boss. I felt trapped. The Plaguebringer had me cornered. So, I waved the white flag for the day, determined to tackle this challenge again in another play session.

I came back the next day with mixed emotions. I was determined, ready to do whatever it took to overcome the challenge that had flown in front of me. But I was also filled with dread, knowing that it may take another hour of attempts. Perhaps even two. As I looked over my build for any cracks that may have allowed victory to leak, I remembered something: the key to my victory in so many fights prior. I looked to my array of armor stands, where the Hallowed Armor still rested. It almost seemed wrong to take it off the stand. I had earned the armor so long ago. Putting it on would mean a noticeable decrease in damage. I thought that I was too far along for this set to do me any good, especially against the foe I was facing. But when I put it on again, it suddenly felt right. I felt safer, knowing I now had the buffer at my disposal. I changed nothing else about my build. I thought I would try a few attempts with the old armor, just to see if it would make any difference. Because surely just a little bit of invincibility wouldn’t mean the difference between beating the bug and becoming prey to the plague.

After a short trip to the jungle, I summoned my minions, planted my sentries, and drank my potions. As prepared as I’d ever be, I summoned the mechanical menace once again. At this point, I was beginning to find the memory of this fight and its movements in my muscles. As the battle began, I weaved through the flurry of darts and missiles with precision that surprised me. While my summons whittled down the Goliath’s constitution, I narrowly dodged projectiles and dashes coming from every angle. Soon, I took my first hit. But where a failure in my movement would once result in a complete loss of momentum and a tremendous loss of health, it now only meant losing my buffer for a time. The Hallowed Armor had already paid dividends. Undeterred, I continued fighting, my occasional glances at the boss’ health reassuring me. The Plaguebringer was gradually dying. A blessing and a curse.

With the loss of my opponent’s health came my opponent’s second phase. I knew the time had come when I saw the weaponized wasp begin flying above me, preparing to strike from an angle. As the Goliath charged, instincts took hold of my fingers. A dash took me out of the path of the beast, the corrosive armor of my enemy nearly grazing me. But I had no time to celebrate a successful dodge. The petulant predator would keep moving; so must I. During this portion of the battle, the Plaguebringer’s barrage launched even more projectiles, requiring even more attention and reflexes to avoid. But worst of all, it gained a new attack, one that required particular positioning to account for. Occasionally, the Plaguebringer would begin dashing from left to right, all the while launching an array of plagued stingers towards the ground. The space between each needle was miniscule. Avoiding this series of attacks meant moving between the smallest gaps of safety or becoming more prone to the next array of projectiles.

It wasn’t long before I saw the coordinated lines of green death approaching. Even after dealing with each of this technical terror’s attacks multiple times, each one of them was a new source of anxiety. Seeing the small target I had to hit was nerve-wracking. But I knew deep within me was the potential to finally conquer this creep. My opponent may have a giant, mechanical body outfitted with limitless lethal armaments. It may have its deadly disease, capable of melting an ordinary man’s insides in mere moments. It may have complicated attack patterns that will push a Terraria veteran’s dodging abilities to the limit. But there are two things this abhorrent arthropod doesn’t have: determination, and way too much free time. Meeting this obstacle head on, I dove between the stingers like an Olympic diver into a perfect score. At that moment, it was as if I had bullet-hell in my blood.

Though my grace was nearly unmatched this combat, I was far from the perfect warrior. Every once in a while, one of the Plaguebringer’s numerous weapons would hit me, instantly filling my Terrarian’s poor body with the sickly substance that corroded my health bar. Mid-fight, I had to chug a health potion, restoring at least some HP and allowing me to take another hit. But this allowance would be stripped from me as fast as it was given. The Goliath’s tricky dashes caught me off guard again, and I soon found myself in a place I was familiar with. Only a few hearts remained beating at the top of my screen. This hateful hybrid was ruthless, keeping up the assault in spite of our shrinking endurance. I clung to my focus with all my might, dancing between attacks while my minions inched me closer and closer to victory. But I thought this fight would end as so many others had before. And as the Goliath charged at me once more, catching my poorly planned dodge red-handed, I was already preparing myself for a shameful respawn.

Once more, I put myself in the shoes of my opponent. I am a cyborg outfitted with machines and tools I scarcely understand by a creator I will never know. All I know is death. A dozen times now I have educated this lowly human who thinks they can dodge heat-seeking missiles and rapid-fire stingers forever. But this time, they have gotten far. My armor is cracking, silent alarms creating a cacophony in my head. Yet, I can smell the blood in the proverbial water. The end is near for this little pest. Almost recklessly, I charge forward, ready to deliver the finishing blow with iron mandibles. For a moment it seems I strike true. Typical organic; clumsy and imperfect. But as the jaws of death open for this pathetic mammal, I notice something peculiar about their armor, something I failed to notice through the chaos of combat. Their silver plating shimmers with a mysterious, radiant light. The purpose of this power soon becomes evident. 30 tons of machine and malice rush through the space the human occupies, passing through them as though they were a mirage. They remain unharmed. The alarms get louder. Plating falls off my body in chunks. From the inside of a titanium cage, I bleed. The desperate survival instincts of a cornered animal and the impersonal perfection of programming is still no match for the indomitable human spirit.

I finally slew The Plaguebringer Goliath. A pile of loot and remains sat on the platforms spanning the jungle, waiting to be collected. But I basked in the moment. Hours of work had finally come to fruition. It was my first attempt at the fight with the Hallowed Armor. Though it was still a terrific challenge, my beautiful buffer no doubt saved my life multiple times in this fight. Though my damage was lower, I severely misjudged just how much defense the Hallowed Armor granted me. Though the Goliath lasted longer, so did I. It was only a matter of who would remain standing. I stood tall, wearing the early-Hardmode armor proudly.

I can’t say I know if the Calamity developers accounted for people using the Hallowed Armor far past its apparent usefulness. I don’t know if they are aware just how invaluable a bit of invincibility can be. I like to think they are. My journey through the Calamity mod’s Hardmode was very challenging, testing my reflexes and pattern memorization more than most games. I can only imagine how much more grueling the experience would be if I didn’t have that ever-dependent companion on me all that time. I shudder to think how difficult these fights would be if every hit destroyed my health bar. However, I try to focus on the positives. I try to focus on the feeling of satisfaction I gained when I saw my armor negate these fatal blows. I think of the sense of pride I gained at the end of a difficult fight, knowing that my legs, plate, and helmet carried me through to victory. I think of Hallowed Armor, and how much I adore it.

Thumbnail image by Rhenn Taguiam.