As the fabled 1.4 tModLoader day approaches, I think it's important to be ready for it well into the future. Thankfully through steam, all updates are available to users who have purchased a game. It takes a bit of brainpower to setup, but it ensures that you won't be left in the dark when Steam updates Terraria or tModLoader.

Step 1: Download and install 2 files, the Steam Depot Downloader and an install of .NET core that is above version 2.1

For the Depot Downloader, simply extract the files to a convenient folder. You should know where the folder is located for later, so extracting to somewhere simple like a folder inside Desktop is preferred.

For .NET Core, Follow the link above and select the most recent version of .NET (As of writing this guide, it is 5.0). Follow the next page down to ASP.NET Core Runtime, since this package is for running programs that rely on it. Pick your operating system and click on one of the Installer links. It does not matter if you install x64 or x86 or even the Hosting bundle, as all of them function almost identically. To install it, simply run the executable downloaded, and it should walk you through.

Got both? Good.

Step 2: Press Control + R and type "cmd" into the box that comes up to open the Command Prompt (or Windows Powershell). From here, you must navigate to the folder where the Depot Downloader is contained. By using the command "cd" we can specify where the folder is and go to it. For example, if you extracted the downloader to the desktop in an additional folder, you can type "cd c:/users/YOURUSER/Desktop/depotdownloader-2.3.6". Finally, we can use Depot Downloader to issue a single command.

"dotnet DepotDownloader.dll -app 105600 -depot 105601 -manifest 8115792227484220109 -username YOURSTEAM -password YOURSTEAM -dir c:/users/YOURUSER/Downloads/Terraria1.3.5.3" Now I'm sure you're a little confused with this command, so don't type it yet, I'll break this down.

"dotnet DepotDownloader.dll": This calls for DepotDownloader to run. "-app 105600": This selects the targeted Steam application. an ID of 105600 stands for Terraria. If you wish to search for other game's app IDs or similar, you can use a handy website called Steam DB "-depot 105601": This selects the targeted Steam Depot for the application. This is usually for split releases on seperate platforms, the Windows release being 105601. Change to 105602 for Linux and 105603 for Mac. "-manifest 8115792227484220109": This selects the update in the specific depot to download. Again, you can use SteamDB to find this by searching through the Depot's manifests. The ID of 8115792227484220109 stands for the Windows Depot's 1.3.5.3 release. The id of 8445078731500628527 can be used for 1.4.1.1 Windows, another popular speedrunning version. "-username YOURSTEAM -password YOURSTEAM": This is to prove you have bought Terraria on steam, otherwise the servers will deny you. Steam guard is also required if you have it. Don't worry, Depot Downloader is made directly by a Valve employee and all the code is open source. "-dir c:/users/YOURUSER/Downloads/Terraria1.3.5.3": This is an optional command tells the downloader where to place the files. It can create new folders or drop it in an existing folder. The downloader defaults to within the folder where it is installed to if this command is not present.

After all this, you finally have a copy. You can choose to run Terraria.exe directly out of the folder, or replace the steam install folder with it.

Frequently Asked Questions

"What happened to all my characters? They look corrupted!" Don't fret, they aren't actually corrupted. This is simply an issue with showing the character when there is new content available. If you are downgrading to 1.4.1.1 from 1.4.1.2 you may simply get a bugged character, but in older versions the game may crash. To prevent the characters from showing, you can move the .plr files of the character to another place entirely.

"Why not just use tModLoader?" Like I mentioned above, the tModLoader team is actively working on making tModLoader for 1.4. Once that day happens, this method will be easier to obtain a 1.3 copy. Also, a lot of code has been refactored in tML to focus on modding, which could impact hidden things like RNG and multiplayer stability.