Difference Between Minecraft and Terraria

Minecraft is without a doubt the most successful sandbox indie games of all time, but it’s definitely not the only such game out there. There are other sandbox games that are inspired by Minecraft but have nothing to do with the already popular world-builder. Terraria is yet another popular title in the same genre that involves building and exploration, but there’s about where the similarities end. Let’s see how the two stack up against one another.

Minecraft

Minecraft is an open-ended, first person sandbox indie game with a focus on exploration and creation. Developed by Mojang Studios, Minecraft is one of the most creative and unique games ever created. Posing as a simple survival and building game, Minecraft is about building structures, collecting items, and fighting off monsters in order to survive. It is more like a 3D virtual world and you are a player inside that world. Your avatar is called Steve who you have to direct through the game to achieve whatever mission you decide. The basic idea is to build; you can build just anything, from a small shelter to a mega-structure to whatever you want. Your immediate mission is to survive.

Terraria

Terraria is an action-packed adventure game inspired from Minecraft. Terraria is a wide, open world that you can explore in whatever order you want. The game intitates with a character created feature and create a world’s feature. You are able to have 6 characters and 16 various worlds all at once and all of your characters may share worlds with one another. You start with three basic tool items – the sword, pickaxe and the axe. You start with building your own house, digging for Ore and other resources you need to survive. Like Minecraft, Terraria encourage you to build, discover, explore and survive, but that’s about where the similarities end. Unlike Minecraft, Terraria is not 3D and everything moves in just four directions: up, down, left or right.

Difference between Minecraft and Terraria

Basics 

– Minecraft is one of the most popular and creative sandbox indie games ever created. It is a simple survival and world-building game with no specific storyline, but with its unique system and game mechanics, it has become a global cultural phenomenon. Developed by Mojang Studios, Minecraft t is regarded as one of the most successful games ever released. Terraria is fairly new to the sandbox world which was initially released for the Microsoft Windows but has since expanded support to other platforms. One major difference between the two games is that Minecraft is a 3D game whereas Terraria is a 2D side-scroller game like Mario.

Premise

 – While the premise of both the games is basically the same – both are block-based sandbox games based on the same building and exploration theme where they encourage you to build, discover, explore and survive. However, that’s about where the similarities end. Terraria is where you start in a world with nothing but three basic tools, a sword, a pickaxe and an axe. You build a house and create defenses around it, in order to survive. Non-player characters can also protect you against the many enemies. Minecraft also has animals and plants for food, materials to build a shelter, but the world out there is not all out to help you.

Gameplay 

– Minecraft is somewhat a virtual world where you have no objectives but to keep building and wandering around for as long as you want. It has RPG elements implemented into it, such as survival, exploration, building and fighting. It has little plot and the graphics are basic, and everything you see can be changed because everything is created by blocks, each of which is made up of a stone or wood. Terraria is a game with pixilated graphics but it really makes the system work. Although, the basic idea is just mining and building,  the focus is more on its RPG elements such as combat, experience, and getting better gear, which makes it more exciting to play than Minecraft.

Objective

 – Terraria does not have explicit goals, but there are subtle ones to go after, from neatly crafted items to the ones you can find in the wild that give you neat abilities. As you move on, your characters will grow stronger and tougher. To achieve this, you need to discover as many armors and weapons as you can. There are tons of enemies as well as items and character-based goals to take on. Minecraft is a better world builder but it rarely tells you what to do next. It has less variety in terms of terrain generation but it makes up for that by being 3D rather than 2D.

Minecraft vs. Terraria: Comparison Chart 

Summary

Minecraft is a world-building game with more focus on building and crafting, whereas Terraria is more about combat and less about building. While both games encourage you to build, discover, explore and survive, Terraria is more of an action-packed game with full of adventure, plus there are more weapons, more enemies, more loot and more everything. However, Terraria is not 3D – it’s actually a side-scroller where the players can go forward or backward and go up and down. That might seem like a con, but Terraria makes this system work really well. In defense, Terraria has tons of different enemies in the game, as well as items and character-based goals to take on. However, Minecraft is still one of the most successful indie games ever created and it is only limited by your imagination.

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