Holy hell, how do you get to the 15th wave of the Moons?

[KLightningflik]

Finishing up Terraria 1.3, but the last thing I wanted to do was the Pumpking moon and frost moon events. I thought they would be easy seeing how I've defeated all the bosses and have the best gear for end-game, but I can't seem to make it to wave 15...the sun rises by the time I reach wave 10 or 11.

I'm not having trouble surviving thanks to all the hearts they drop, but I can't seem to defeat them fast enough. Is there a really high DPS weapon I am supposed to use here?
I'm starting exactly at 7:30PM but I don't have enough time to complete it, and that's on a normal map. And yes, I've built an arena with a platform over it and portals on both sides so I can easily get away from Pumpking if things get tight.

Going to try again on an expert map later with a friend.

[Pixel Peeper]

Well, what gear/accessories are you using, specifically?

With endgame gear the Pumpkin Moon is ridiculously easy (as in, you reach Wave 15 and then score above 20k and then have to make several trips selling 25 Platinum's worth of crap). It gets even easier at Wave 15 than previous waves because with 5 Pumpkings at a time you get healed constantly.

I reached Wave 15 of the Frost Moon with Spectre and Laser Machinegun, so I can only assume it would be pretty damn easy with Nebula.

There must be something wrong with your accessory setup.

[aboOod ♥]

Use traps, and use the last prism and play on a normal world, use potions, frost hydra, minions,anything that might do damge dosen't matter how much damage,and if you wanna use the last prism bring a looooot of greater manna potions and don't use the manna flower just hit the quick mana button (i use Q) and reforge everything to menecing

[Blaaticus]

i just sorta took hours to make tons of super mana potions and went to town with the last prism.

[Pixel Peeper]

Originally posted by ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) aboOod:

anything that might do damge dosen't matter how much damage

I would actually only pick the very best options since enemies do have some mercy invincibility as well. With 20 Baby Slimes hitting a boss constantly for 1 damage each, you'd almost never be able to damage that boss.

[KLightningflik]

I've got defensive equipment like Solar armor with accessories like celestial shell, warrior emblem, flesh knuckles, worm scarf, etc. I've got the Stardust dragon taking out the small minions and I've tried different weapons like the Terra blade or Phantasm bow spam. Haven't tried the Tactical shotgun yet. I don't have some of the higher tier stuff like the Terrarian or Razor typhoon or I would try those.

Surviving isn't my issue though as you can see from my equipment, it's doing enough damage to make it to the 15th wave. I need something with really high DPS that can kill these enemies quicker...

[IcE]

Arena with spiky ball traps underneath for starters. If you haven't beat moonlord, you want beetle or turtle armor (Chlorophyte is also more than acceptable if you have the Mask) and vampire knives from the crimson chest. Just spam the knives and you can get to wave 15 easily. To beat pumpking just fly in circles around him to dodge his ♥♥♥♥. If you have post moon lord stuff you probably wouldn't need help, honestly.

[KLightningflik]

I've read that water candles speed up their spawn rate, so I'm going to try placing them around my arena as well.

[Pixel Peeper]

Originally posted by KGhaleon:

I've got defensive equipment like Solar armor with accessories like celestial shell, warrior emblem, flesh knuckles, worm scarf, etc. I've got the Stardust dragon taking out the small minions and I've tried different weapons like the Terra blade or Phantasm bow spam. Haven't tried the Tactical shotgun yet. I don't have some of the higher tier stuff like the Terrarian or Razor typhoon or I would try those.

With Solar Armor, Flesh Knuckles and Worm Scarf (all defensive gear and accessories), your DPS output is crippled. That's definitely why you can't reach Wave 15. Worse, since you're using Melee armor, Terra Blade would be the only class-appropriate weapon among those you've listed, and unfortunately it's very weak.

Phantasm bow should be more than adequate if you can keep hitting stuff, but Ice Queens do move around a lot, and obviously it's a Ranged weapon, so not compatible with Solar Armor.

I suggest a much more offensive build. This lets you kill faster, heal much more often (bosses all drop lots of hearts on death) and obviously progress through the Waves more quickly.

For now you could either switch your accessories with more offensive ones and keep Solar Armor (assuming you have a decent melee weapon, maybe Solar Eruption), or keep the defensive accessories and upgrade from Solar to Beetle (offensive version). If you're feeling bold, you could do both.

The Moon events are all about DPS.

[KLightningflik]

^Is there a popular setup people use for DPS? I'm unsure what accessories I should switch out for.

Out of curiousity, has anyone tried summong the Moon events then using the Fishron mount in the ocean biome to cheese them from below the platforms?

[Pixel Peeper]

Common Melee accessories are the Celestial Shell, Celestial Stone, and Mechanical gloves. Destroyer Emblem isn't as good as any of those but provides decent offensive power.

Of course, while Melee DPS is respectable, it's not exactly known as their strongest feature. If you have, say, Nebula armor and a Laser Machinegun, along with more DPS accessories and at least one Mana accessory, you could blow through the Frost Moon easily enough; I did it with Spectre and Spectre is garbage compared to Nebula.

You can try putting every advantage on your side, too. Campfire and Heart Lantern in the center of your arena, heart/star statues (though those are less effective in Moon events because of all the hearts everywhere), Frost Moon minion banners if you have them, and of course buff potions of various kinds, including Warmth potions if you're afraid you've sacrificed too much for your DPS.

If it looks frosty, kill it!

THE RIVERS WILL RUN TRANSPARENT WITH THE MELTED BODIES OF YOUR ENEMIES

[YetiChow]

Nebula Armour makes a huge difference -- 45% increased damage? Yes please. That's not magic damage, that's ALL damage (the boosters proc off of any kind of attack as long as you're wearing the armour); so you can keep using your solar weapons. You sacrifice some defence, but it's not too bad if your accesories are already specced for defence; plus there's the ridiculous healing boosters anyway. The only catch is that you'll need to get close to absorb all the boosters, so you may have to rely on a mount to fly just over the enemies' heads.

Combine that with an AoE "rain" spell such as Blizzard Staff or Lunar Flare (even Meteor Staff if you're hard-pressed; North Pole makes a good melee alternative if you just shoot over the crowd) to clear the underlings, and a Golden Shower to lower the enemies' defence (substitute for Flask of Ichor if you'd rather stick to melee weapons), and you can get some ridiculously high DPS; virtually the same as what you'd have with Moon Lord drops.

Rage and Wrath potions will boost your crit chance and damage respectively, so both of those are helpful if you're not already using them. I assume you'd be using potions anyway, but if you're not already then get on it -- there are several which can directly or indirectly boost your damage output. While you're at it, grab a sharpening station and bewitching table if you haven't already, and a crystal ball if you use any magic weapons. It all adds up...

Also, traps are your friends. You can combine them with spawn-restricted areas to herd the enemies into one small patch, although that's a lot of work to set up; or just scatter a few around your arena to help clear the underlings.

[KLightningflik]

Alrighty, switched to Beetle armor and threw a bunch of damage accessories on like the destroyer emblem, warrior emblem and celestial shell. Going to try this again, might do it over the ocean biome to see if the fishron mount helps.

[ShadyMofo86]

Be better if u went with shroomite armor and the stynger and rocket launcher and a bow with ichor arrows. I tore through the waves with that setup. Though last prism with the nebula armor is just stupid easy.

[KLightningflik]

Yeah, still couldn't get very far beyond Wave 10. Might have to fight Moon lord again to try and build Nebula armor. I've got some really high DPS magic weapons I never use...
Just got the machine gun and razorpine as well.

[Pixel Peeper]

Originally posted by KGhaleon:

Yeah, still couldn't get very far beyond Wave 10. Might have to fight Moon lord again to try and build Nebula armor. I've got some really high DPS magic weapons I never use...

Wow, that's really strange...

Nebula is bonkers. If I could do the harder of the two Moons (Frost) with Spectre and Laser Machinegun, you can most definitely do it with Nebula and Last Prism. I hear Last Prism is crazy good, but it's just not dropping for me. I'm here crying on my big pile of Crystal staves and Meowmeres.