Originally posted by electricdawn:

The boss spawner do give clues, but in case of Bonemass it's a bit on the vague side. I had completely forgotten about the bones until I had literally tried EVERYTHING that dropped in the swamps, except, of course, the bones. :P

Also, portals are a thing. You ALWAYS have the materials for a portal on you.

Edit: Punctuation is also a thing. I tend not to read a wall of text without any punctuation, because it is REALLY hard to read.

The trickiest thing about withered bones was just remembering that they actually exist. Their purpose clicks pretty quickly if they are in the front of your mind. The fact that they are found almost exclusively in crypts does make you think that there is something important about them, and they also partially share their namesake with the boss so there's that too.

However the boss spawning item is discovered differently from how deer trophies and ancient seeds were found, so you do have to figure out where the rules deviate from what was previously established. A lot of people will develop a habit of dropping every one that they accidentally pick up when they know they aren't ready for Bonemass yet; when people go to crypts they are usually thinking about iron after all. And they will miss others because they simply are not eye-catching. You can block them out of the list of things that your brain is looking for without necessarily meaning to.

They are a low-profile nuisance until you actually feel ready for the boss, whereas the earlier boss items demand minimal consideration because they can be located a stones throw away from your first base and you need less of them.

I don't know what more they could do to remind the player that they need them beside a different message though. I would not be against the devs giving withered bones some manner of green radiance similar to Bonemass, just to see them more, keep them fresh in our minds as we cross them. Just a little quality of life thing, even if it helped us spot out those ones we stashed at home for safe keeping at the beginning of the swamps all that time ago.