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Terraria Echo Coating is perfect for making mischief

The new Terraria Echo Coating is perfect for making mischief in the sandbox game, with players crafting some very funny, dastardly traps using its invisibility

Terraria Echo Coating traps and pranks - a crimson chest that is fading to complete invisibility on one side

The new Terraria Echo Coating is one of the most exciting new features introduced in the Terraria 1.4.4 update Labor of Love. While Echo Blocks – a unique type of block that is completely invisible to the eye unless special glasses are equipped – were introduced in the sandbox game’s 1.4 update, the introduction of Echo Coating has dramatically increased the potential for mischief making and tricky traps – and the community is wasting no time in getting to work.

One of two Terraria coatings introduced in Labor of Love, Echo Coating can be applied to any block or item to turn it invisible. This means that you can now turn entire structures, housing, and even objects such as chests, traps, and pylons invisible should you so wish. The coated items can also now be caused to appear by activating a new 1.4.4 item called the Echo Chamber, which will cause any blocks within its area of effect to appear.

Players were quick to spot a simple way to abuse this new functionality for nefarious means, realising that a combination of Echo Coating and Actuators allows for blocks to essentially be turned completely on and off, both visually and functionally. There are, of course, plenty of fun and friendly tricks you can do with this – but this is Terraria, so where would we be without a little trolling?

As demonstrated by the innocently named CuteFoxNoises on Reddit, who is clearly much less innocent that their name suggests, the combination allows for the creation of a simple trap where a ‘player above’ logic sensor placed underground recognises when someone is passing over it and activates the Actuators placed in a series of blocks along with a nearby Echo Chamber to cause a large chamber to appear around the person in question.

Echo Coating has a lot of potential evil uses… from Terraria

For maximum effect, you can of course use blocks that are too high-level for the user in question to mine their way through. You can also bury the Echo Chamber underground, as detailed by Terraria YouTuber Khaios, to ensure they can’t simply turn it back off again. Absolutely dastardly, if you ask us – we definitely don’t recommend you try this on your friends, however undoubtedly hilarious it might be.

Another player has taken it one step further, however, with a trap concept that would make Terraria creator Redigit proud. By connecting a trapped chest (a unique type that sends out an activation signal when opened) to a series of Actuators, gwabbawaba causes the trapped chest to break when opened, simultaneously deploying a floating, echo-coated Mimic Statue to spawn a mimic chest in its place. A very sneaky method that poses vastly more threat than traditional Mimics, which can be relatively simple for a veteran player to spot due to their tendency to stand in places that are a rather obvious giveaway.

Concept for a trap using echo coating from Terraria

Users in the subreddit are delighted and terrified in equal measure by gwabbawaba’s creation. One player comments, “This really is how Mimics should work,” while another simply remarks, “Don’t let Red see this.” One comment observes that Mimics themselves might be due an upgrade, especially given the presence of several new seeds that employ them including the new ultimate seed that introduces Terraria’s legendary difficulty mode.

If you’re just getting started in Terraria 1.4.4, be sure to check out our Terraria bosses guide to help understand the game’s progression and our Terraria happiness guide to get the most out of your NPCs. We’ve also picked out the best Terraria mods for you. One of the game’s developers has recently been showing off their Terraria drone skills, asking fans to build their own custom courses to push the new system to its limits.