Once you’ve completed Cantlin in Dragon Quest Builders, your whole world opens up. The game gives you access to Terra Incognita. Think of it as the equivalent of Minecraft’s Creative mode, only with different rules. After this space opens, you can begin sharing your creations with the community, while also pulling other people’s places into your own world via Sharing Stones.
When Dragon Quest Builders’ Terra Incognita opens to you, a whole new set of limitations is placed upon you. This builder and land is a blank slate. You only have access to recipes and realms you’ve unlocked via the campaign or pre-order DLC. While a starter building is nearby with some brick blocks, stone blocks, purple castle floor tiles, and basic furniture, you’re left to your own devices. The surrounding area has enough materials to begin building a cooking station, which you’ll need since hunger still applies in this mode, and some basic materials, you won’t be able to make more elaborate crafting stations and decorations.
It can feel like a bit of a setback, perhaps even moreso than the reset between the campaign locations. You don’t have a Colossal Coffer immediately available, so you can’t take long treks into the areas related to each campaign island and constantly collect new materials. Instead, you have to rely on multiple markers to act as placeholders for any special ruin outcroppings or material nests. There’s a constant back-and-forth, which gets a bit tedious when you’re accustomed to having easy and immediate access to a larger inventory space. The occasional outcropping with pre-constructed materials is a godsend.
At least you can rely on friends and strangers’ creations while you build up your own space. You can set Sharing Stones to automatically bring in random buildings or those belonging to your friend. Be vigilant as you do, as the automatic setting will gradually and continually bring new creations in and out. It’s a bit disorienting. The gigantic smiling face in the screenshot above was in my Terra Incognita for about fifteen minutes, while I built up the skeleton for a basic house, but I found it was replaced by an in-progress creation after I stepped away to the Cantlin-related region to collect ore.
Once you’ve found your footing, there’s even a battle element available. You can head to Terra Gladiatoria, create tickets, and fight monsters. It’s locked off based on progression, just like the building in Terra Incognita. The further you are in the campaign, the better battles you’ll be able to undertake. Which works out well, because you’ll need the improved equipment and recovery items to tackle them. While I’ve experimented with this area, it doesn’t mesh with my free mode playstyle. I prefer to spend my time collecting resources and exploring places related to older lands, not fight it out. It is nice to have the option, though, especially for people who want a little more action. The great part about Terra Incognita is that you can do whatever you want, whenever you want to.
Which brings us to the creation call! Let’s show off what you’ve made in Dragon Quest Builders! Have you been working in Terra Incognita in your spare time? Let’s see what you’ve been working on. I’ll be collecting about 10-20 of the best buildings the Siliconera community creates and will share them and their Summoning Spells in a post next week. If you’re working on something, comment with your Summoning Spell code and what name you’d like me to refer to you as. I’ll summon your place into my space and highlight the best of the best. While I don’t have anything extraordinary to show off at the moment, due to a number of other game commitments, you can see a rather basic home I’ve been building at “VaHAHehAW”.
Dragon Quest Builders is immediately available for the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita.
