Trouble with the Pumpkin Moon Event [Classic] [first-timer]

[sarteck]

Equipment:
- Specter gear (Mask on Loadout I, Hood on Loadout II)
- Menacing Terraspark Boots, Lucky Celestial Shell, Menacin Celestial Emblem, Angry Hand of Creation, Lucky Greedy Ring in Loadout I
- Warding Terraspark Boots, Lucky Celestial Shell, Guarding Celestial Cuffs, Menacing Star Veil, Quick Ankh Shield in Loadout II
- Mythical Rainbow Rod, Mythical Rainbow Gun, Demonic Shadowbeam Staff, Godly Heat Ray for main weapons
- Thorns, Mana Regen, Magic Power, Ironskin, Swiftness, Regen, Titan, Lifeforce, and Inferno for Potions
- Murderous Xeno Staff and Superior Optic Staff for Summons (need to upgrade to Ruthless)
- Ruthless Queen Spider Staff and Mystic Nimbus Rod for sentries
- Buffs from Sharpening Stone (useless for me), Bewitching Table for extra minion, Crstal Ball for Bewitched buff.
- Mount: Pigron from Scaly Truffle

I was getting my ass handed to me after I used my first Pumpkin Moon medallion. I am guessing this means I am certainly not ready for Pillars.

I was holding my own for a while, and I feel that if I was more conscious about switching my loadouts (my whole intention for making two sets in the first place), I could probably survive.

Additionally, I was relying pretty heavily on the Rainbow Rod for homing, but tried with the Heat Ray. I'm just so bad at aiming. When I get the hang of it, I can do a hell of a lot more damage to trees and such.

The Pumpking is a nightmare, but I made it even worse by summoning the event at my regular arena next to spawn. I kept getting trapped in my narrow spaces while trying to buff up and got out to fight after I died, and he was camping my spawn point. (I didn't even think to use my SHellphone for teleport t the Ocean or Underworld., just kept dying over and over until I was able to get out.)

He's also WAY too quick for me, even with boots. I can fly away on Pigron if I go straight up, but I'm wondering if I shouldn't try another mount. (I also often forget I HAVE mounts, because I've only ever needed my Unicorn against one boss fight, can't remember which.)

Here's a map image of my arena as well (right next to spawn). I'll be fixing the trapped issue (been meaning to rebuild that base maybe a little higher up and just have a Teleporter at spawn that leads into the base).

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3258312543
[Incidentally, other base areas of my work are screenshotted similarly on my profile publicly as well if you want to comment on them to give any advice.]

So, the reason for my topic is to ask you vets what I should be concentrating on. Do I just need to adjust my technique as I described above? Should I try to add more potion buffs to my mix? (Been meaning to fish for Armored Cavefish so I can stock up on Endurance Potions.) Should I build a specific kind of arena for the event? (Those Horsemen just ran from one end to the other and never stopped, I was unable to actually kill any except for two or three I trapped.)

[Zereph]

I can already see a few things. Your weapon. Get the Razorblade typhoon from Duke Fishron and use that as your primary weapon until you get Nebula blaze (where you can use both in different situations). Get the clinger staff from a corrupted mimic if you can if youre playing on a corruption world (it acts as a very powerful zoning weapon and allows you to control sides). Get the frost hydra sentry from the ice biome chest in the dungeon (biome keys are a rare drop from any snow biome enemy). The UFO Xeno staff is very good until you get the dragon one using summoner celestial pillar essence and then eventually terraprisma. The best mount is the broom, followed by the pirate ship and then the ufo below expert difficulty. Make sure with your armour youre using the spectre hood for health regen, not the mask. As a mage that healing will make a massive difference. You might want to make an afk farm (youtube guides) too for money to upgrade your accessories to either menacing (imo the best) or warding. (might be better for you if youre finding youre getting hit alot). Keep in mind too, theres permanent buffs you can get from throwing certain items into shimmer and consuming them (eg heart crystal, mana crystal, life fruit etc). Wings are generally better than terraspark boots (especially late game) but they become even better when wings are paired with the accessory Soaring Insignia dropped from the Empress of Light boss expert difficulty and above and allow for infinite flight (I never really need arenas when I have those two items equipped). In master mode, the 7 accessories I use (1 extra from defeating wall of flesh expert and above and 1 extra from playing in master mode) for my mage are: Mana cloak, Celestial Emblem, Sorcerer emblem, Celestial Cuffs, Celestial Shell as well as Celestial Starboard (Wings) and Soaring Insignia. If I had to go without two, itd be the two emblems with sorcerers emblem being the weakest. More than happy to join youre world and give you a hand if you need :)

[sarteck]

Originally posted by Zereph:

More than happy to join youre world and give you a hand if you need :)

Awesome, and thanks for the detailed advice, man! I might take you up on that at some point, but I'm just kind of back and forth between a project I'm doing for work and playing the game, so holding off on multi-player until we get said project done and I have more continuous free time.

Originally posted by Zereph:

Get the Razorblade typhoon from Duke Fishron and use that as your primary weapon until you get Nebula blaze (where you can use both in different situations).

Oh, I thought I was supposed to do the Pumpkin Moon and Frost Legion stuff before Fishron--you think it's okay for me to take him on now?

Originally posted by Zereph:

Get the clinger staff from a corrupted mimic if you can if youre playing on a corruption world (it acts as a very powerful zoning weapon and allows you to control sides).

I was on a Crimson World, but I'm actually in the process of moving all my stuff to a new world. I chose Random, and looks like it's got Corruption, so I'll be sure to look for that.

Originally posted by Zereph:

Get the frost hydra sentry from the ice biome chest in the dungeon (biome keys are a rare drop from any snow biome enemy).

I got the Hallowed and Desert Biome keys, but that's it so far. My Snow biome is so Hallowed I'll have to dig deep in between parts of the Dungeon for it. (I'm actually surprised I never got a Jungle one; I've fought Plantera like a zillion times trying to get Seedler and spent a lot of time there farming stuff.)

Originally posted by Zereph:

The UFO Xeno staff is very good until you get the dragon one using summoner celestial pillar essence and then eventually terraprisma.

Yeah, but if I'm struggling with Pumpkin Moon, I should probably not attempt Pillars yet, right?

Originally posted by Zereph:

The best mount is the broom, followed by the pirate ship and then the ufo below expert difficulty.

Well, I'm on Classic, so I'll try for the UFO. I struggled with the first Martian Invasion, but was fine the second time around when I triggered it farming Souls of Flight, so that shouldn't be too much of an issue. The only problem is getting used to using the damned thing, heh.

Originally posted by Zereph:

You might want to make an afk farm (youtube guides) too for money to upgrade your accessories to either menacing (imo the best) or warding.

I was actually wondering this, too; I wasn't sure what the best pick for accessories was. Thanks for the tip there.

Originally posted by Zereph:

Keep in mind too, theres permanent buffs you can get from throwing certain items into shimmer and consuming them (eg heart crystal, mana crystal, life fruit etc).

Yep. I made sure to get all the permabuffs I can right now. Wish I'd found that Shimmer pool earlier, would have been insanely useful in transmuting the excess accessories I had for Ankh Shields and such into the ones I didn't have, hahaha. Also love the new looks on most of my NPCs. (I still have to shimmer a few of them. Well, I guess ALL of them again, now that I am starting a new world.)

Originally posted by Zereph:

Wings are generally better than terraspark boots (especially late game) but they become even better when wings are paired with the accessory Soaring Insignia dropped from the Empress of Light boss expert difficulty and above and allow for infinite flight (I never really need arenas when I have those two items equipped).

TBH I am quite afraid of starting Expert mode when struggling in Classic. I'll see if I can "git gud" enough on this Large world (my last was Medium) and maybe think about Expert. I fear Master is going to be out of my league for quite some time.

Originally posted by Zereph:

Originally posted by Zereph:

Originally posted by Zereph:

Originally posted by Zereph: