Fighting The Eye of Cthulhu in v1.2

This short beginner guide will outline my experiences fighting the Eye of Chtulhu in v1.2, and go over a few tactics to make the battle easier. Technically, this could apply to previous versions, but this is just how it happened in my first world of v1.2. I'll first go over items, armour, etc., then talk about the battle itself. I hope you find this guide helpful. Enjoy!

Introduction

The Eye of Cthulhu is one of the first bosses you will fight, if not the first. This fight is pretty simple, and involves two stages. In the first stage, the Eye of Cthulhu will hover around pretty slowly, and try to fly into you a few times. Also while hovering, it will spawn Servants of Cthulhu, which are basically Demon Eyes, but with much lower health. In the second stage, the Eye of Cthulhu no longer spawns Servants, and moves much faster. It's main attack here is to run into you.

Knowing what takes place during a boss fight is very important, as that allows you to plan ahead, and be ready for what is to come.

So, what happens in the first stage: the Eye of Cthulhu hovers, flies toward you, and spawns Servants. With this in mind, you will need something that can take out the Servants, while still damaging the Eye.

What happens in the second stage: the Eye flies toward you at a much faster speed. For this stage, there are some options. For me, I want something that can deal lots of damage up close, seeing as the Eye is going to be very near me in this stage. You could also pick something that does a good amount of ranged damage if your max health isn't too high.

Now, that I have established a plan, I can go ahead and pick out some weapons.

Weapons

For the first stage of the fight, I chose the Sapphire Staff (you could have any color, not just Sapphire :) ). The Sapphire Staff, along the other gem staves, were added to Terraria in v1.2.



This is a ranged magic weapon, that does 19 damage. It also uses very little mana, so you can fire off a bunch of shots without draining all your mana at once. Also, the Sapphire Staff goes right through many of the smaller enemies, so it is perfect for this fight. You can shoot at the Servants, and the shot will kill the Servant, and keep going through to the Eye.


To craft this weapon, you need 10 silver bars, and 8 sapphires. I definitely lucked out with this weapon, because very early on I found a few small sapphire deposits underground. But like I said, you can use any other gem, which may be easier to find than sapphire, such as amethyst or topaz.



Now for the second stage, I chose a Trident. Now, you might say that the trident is kind of a pain to get, especially at the beginning, but it worked very well against Cthulhu.



The Trident is a spear that does 10 damage. That's not really a lot of damage, but when you consider the amount of time that it's in contact with the enemy, that's a lot of damage. I found that as long as I dodged most of Cthulhu's attacks, I could easily spear the crap out of him when he flew above me again.

To get a Trident, you can only find it in underwater chests. So, you'll either have to go the ocean (on the far sides of the world), or hope to find one in another underwater chest in the world.

Armour/Items

The armour for this fight is pretty self explanitory: the armour with the highest defense you can currently get! The armour I had for thie fight was (well, i didn't actually have a full set), silver helmet and greaves, and iron chainmail. This seemed to serve me pretty well, but it could have been better. A full silver armour set would probably be plenty, seeing as the set bonus is +3 defense.

As for accessories, I had a Cloud in a Bottle, Shackle, and Aglet. These are the core items I used. Mobility is the real key to this fight, aside from understanding the two stages of the fight. If you know what to do during each stage, and can effectively dodge the eye, you already have a good chance.

The Cloud in a Bottle allows you to double jump, so dodging the Eye's attacks is much easier. If you can find one, it's an excellent choice. The Cloud in a Bottle is found in underground chests.

Shackles are pretty easy to come by, as they are dropped by zombies. Shackles give you +1 defense, which is always good for a boss fight.

Last but not least, the Aglet. Aglets give you +5% movement speed. This is another very useful item for dodging the Eye, and for mobility in general. Aglets are found in surface chests.

Other useful items:
Band of Regeneration: always nice for regenerating lost health
Band of Starpower: especially good for the first stage, allowing more magic shots per second
Feral Claws: helpful for second stage, where melee is a more potent solution*

*I just wanted to note that the feral claws are found in underground jungle chests, so it might not be that easy to get if you haven't yet defeated the eye of cthulu. I mainly included this as it would help later in the game when farming the eye for ores.

The Fight/Tactics

Now that I have picked my items, I am now ready to summon the Eye of Cthulhu. To do so, you need a Suspicious Looking Eye. These are found in underground chests, and can also be crafted at a Demon Altar (or Crimson Altar) using 6 lenses. Another thing to note, is that the Suspicious Looking Eye can only be used at night.

Tactics:

Arena- making an arena or battleground is a great way to get the upper hand in any boss fight really. For the Eye of Cthulhu I just flattened out a piece of land, making it easier to move, so I didn't have to worry about jumping across the terrain and fighting at the same time.

Another popular, and very effective, arena is to make a big box in the air, and have some rows of wooden platforms. This is very nice as it lets you see the Eye most of the time, where if you fight him on the ground, he will sometimes disappear into the ground.

Potions- mana potions are very important when using the Sapphire Staff, and are almost always necessary when you don't have a Nature's Gift or Band of Starpower. Also, health pots are good if you don't have a Band of Regeneration

Eye of Cthulhu Form Change- this is a big moment in the fight, and a chance to deal HUGE damage. When changing forms, it hovers and spins in the air for a few seconds, allowing you to damage it uncontested

Keep Servants at Bay- whatever you do, don't forget about the servants, or think they can't hurt you... they can! Try to deal with them as they spawn, or else they will swarm you, and deal a ton of damage


The Fight: The actual fight is pretty simple. During the first stage, I try to keep a healthy distance between me and the Eye, and hammer it with the Sapphire Staff. Also, I try to keep aiming right at it's pupil, so I can shoot the Servants right as they are spawned. I continue that until it's health is low enough to change forms. At that point, I switch to my trident, and get ready to be up close. Now, anytime I can get near the eye, I take advantage and hit it with the trident. Dodging is a little trickier here, since the eye moves faster. So I always try to stay one step ahead, and jump over it when it flies down toward me, and when it flies back up toward me again. That's really all there is to it with this weapon combo. Just keep damaging it with the trident, pop a health pot every once in a while, and you're golden.

After you've defeated the Eye of Cthulhu, the main drops are hearts, health pots, and Demonite ore/Crimtane ore. I got Crimtane, seeing as my world started with the Crimson biome in place of Corruption.

Conclusion

The Eye of Cthulhu is a pretty straightforward boss, and defeating him is pretty simple. There are many effective weapon combos that could be used, but the Sapphire Staff and Trident was just one that I found to work pretty well, pretty early on. Later in the game, when you have better weapons and items, you can summon the Eye and farm it for Demonite/Crimtane very easily.

I hope this was of some use to you, and good luck with this weapon combo, or any other you can come up with!

[Upsilon]

Did you really need all that? I just spammed shurikens and knives

[Upsilon]

Noob you just need to get 6 lenses from demon eyes then you need to find a demon altar.
Use it like a crafting table and craft the mysterious looking eye

[Kippy]

How do I spawn him in?

[Bongo Dan]

thanks for the help but on the second stage i would bring a good bommerang

[GeneralZegg]

Thank you seaz!-[KOA!!!

[pon]

Good guide, thanks for the help!

[GeneralZegg]

Thanks for the reply Annoth! I said feral claws mainly for later in-game when you're just farming the eye of cthulhu for ores. I guess i should mention that. I think I'll also add the bit about that type of arena, if you don't mind.

and btw, thanks for the demoneye :D

[Monoblos]

Dude, Feral Claws? That's jungle underground, not a place for people who didn't even beat the eye yet!
Also you used a picture of the cloud in a balloon instead of the cloud in a bottle. ;)

And for the arena: You should make a box in the sky with several lines of wooden platforms in. That way you will always see exactly where he is (else he can "hide" in the ground) and are able to jump to higher/lower platform lines for doging his attacks, which should work even better than a cloud in a bottle.

But generally your guide looks like some solid work, nice formatting, all important points in... good job!
Take a demon eye for it: xD