On the topic of Terraria... God, what a wonderful game for alchemizations. Even unmodded, there's SO much great stuff. And I don't just mean the weapons and armor- those do tend to be pretty pricey grist-wise after all- but even stuff like, the potions. People are for real sleeping on the fuckin potions. They aren't generally all that pricey, and flasks of ichor makes any given fight in Sburb SO much easier.
(Fair warning, DO NOT drink the "Red potion". You will die very painfully. Tossing it into the black king's mouth however...)
With that said, I kinda have a rep as the "potions guy" now. And you know, I don't really mind it, but I feel like my lineup's a bit limited!
There's a lot of games with potions, but most of them are kinda hard to get at with alchemy. With Terraria, you just grab the game (assuming you have a physical copy, or some merch which also works) and alchemize it with random fish and plants and you'll probably get the materials you want eventually, and then the alchemiter seems to take it's cues from the game on what things you gotta combine for the potions.
Not so with a lot of other games. I feel like the alchemy system gets stuff mixed up too much with real-world herbalism or whatever. Terraria has stronger, like, iconography or something, so it's not as easily lost in the sauce.
Any recommendations for other media that doesn't tend to get too muddied up when used in alchemy, with cool potions and buffs and things?
Or hell, just any advice you have about buffs in general.
(And is it true that troll blood is a potion unto itself, and does different things based on it's color when drank by humans? Or is that just a fucked up racist rumor?)
Troll Blood Potions isn't even a racist rumor, I think it's a weird joke. Partially because, yeah, their blood if put in a glass vial would indeed look like a potion. And partially because Vampires Are Real. Some Trolls are vampires, and so some of those vampires get their friends to bottle some blood in case of an emergency. I think it helps them heal from injuries, in addition to being a source of nutrition. I don't know if the different blood colors taste like, or if "candy red" blood tastes the same as human blood, or if they can even drink human blood. Might wanna get around to asking a Jadeblood about this. Or how Cherub blood works (how does it change color and does it do that if it's outside of the body).
In terms of Potions, there's a simpler solution there's a SBURB brand original thing you might wanna look into. This is one of those breakthroughs along the same lines as the Alimentator where some genius replayer (unironic use of the term, from me, wow) named ballisticSpectacle futzed around with the game mechanics, found a replicable exploit, and disseminated it to the replayernet for everyone's benefit. In this case, it was in fact an Alimentator hack, and with it we got "Xshakes". The process is a bit involved, so I direct you to reference not only your complimentary Alimentator reference PDF, but also a more dedicated guide/discussion board, but the result is a drinkable solution that provides beneficial effects. Lifeshakes restore Vitality Gel, Pluckshakes restore Pluck (a godsend considering how slowly it can regen sometimes), Voidshakes purge Other Corruption, Lightshakes purge Angelic Corruption, etc. They're all a bit difficult to make, and expensive (Pluckshakes especially), but very much worth it, and more importantly, replicable and documented. Pretty sure it has something to do with Aspect Charges, even though from my understanding eating anything Aspect Charged results in a nightmarish death. Hence why you should really look up a more dedicated guide on this.
In terms of buffs though, potions are generally not the most effective solution. As noted, they can be hard to make, but I also worry about the imbibing process. What if I'm falling into lava and can't bust out a fire resistance potion quickly enough? If someone attacks me and the bottles break? If it tastes really nasty? I think the better thing to do is making clothes that offer buffs or status resists. If I'm going to an associate's Land and it's ungodly cold or lethally hot (or filled with lava), I'll just whip up an outfit which has an innate resistance to that. It's basically always-on, not to mention provides armor bonuses. The only potential downside is that changing clothes takes a while (and exposes your nude forma to the elements and any voyeurs who may be lurking), but a wardrobifier alleviates both issues. Or for a more low-tech solution, captchaloguing a standing metal ring with in-built curtain for some privacy. Don't laugh, I actually did this before I discovered the wardrobifier. It served me well, and bravely sacrificed itself when I used it for impromptu cover during a fight with a laser-blasting boss.
