Go Hard Or Go Home: A Guide to Terraria's Hardmode Bosses and Hordes

Been playing Hardmode and just don't know how to fight those bosses? Have those hordes had you in lockdown? I'm here to help!

==FOREWORD==

I understand that the guide is out-of-date. I shall be making a new guide in due time, once I've learnt how most of everything works. This guide won't get any more updates because Terraria is no longer 1.2, so please look forward to "When The Going Gets Rough, The Tough Go And Have A Little Cry In The Corner: A Guide to Terraria's Hardmode Bosses and Hordes 1.3"

Introduction

Hello! As the overview has suggested, this is a guide to dealing with Hardmode. It involves teaching you, the player, how to beat the bosses; mutilate the mobs; trespass on the temples, that sort of thing. I’ve been striving to keep it up-to-date (with the original coming out roughly at 1.2, and the latest version being 1.2.4.1) with new weapons, changes to damage and crafting, and alternative strategies, all whilst keeping the guide interesting enough to read that you want to keep on scrolling. I appreciate all of the people that’ve given this a look, be it for a cursory glance or for a thorough critiquing.

Just a few things to mention: Since Corruption and Crimson are nearly the same in function, whenever I refer to the Corruption, I'm also talking about the Crimson. It'll save time and needless repetition. In terms of crafting, unless you're tinkering accessories together, everything after (and including) the Mythril/Orichalcum gear will require a Mythril/Orichalcum Anvil to craft - if a time comes where clarification is required (on both of the previous points) I shall do so. And when I'm talking about damage numbers, this is talking about damage before defence modifiers. Unless you're fighting the bosses with a sword and a smile, they won't do as much damage as is shown in their stats.

And keep in mind; this is a guide for playing the game solo. If you're playing with friends, there's more room for error as others will be targeted, giving you room to breathe, but there's more people pinching the good loot, so you'll have to share. If you're cool with sharing, then that's alright, since you're playing with friends, but if you're doing it solo for some reasons, then I'm here to help! With the pleasantries out of the way, let's get going!

The Start of Hardmode

So it's begun. You've dug through Terraria's crust and broken into the Underworld, you've crafted Hellstone gear, and you decided it's time the Guide paid tribute to the blood god. With a terrible scream, the Wall of Flesh awakens for a fight to the death against the one who would awaken it. After a battle that takes you past several abandoned obsidian complexes, the Wall finally crumbles, leaving behind a box made of Demonite with several prizes within. With the Wall's death, the ancient spirits of light and dark are released, leaving stripes of the Hallow and Corruption near the epicentre of the map. In these corrupt lands, new enemies begin to appear alongside lighting that could easily blind those expecting darkened caves, meaning you've finally activated Hardmode.

The astute player would notice that amongst the Wall of Flesh's prize box drops lies a Pwnhammer. This is the first Hallowed item that players will get, and it carries a tooltip that reads "Strong enough to destroy Demon Altars". With hammer in hand, you head to places where corruption already existed in the world, possibly taking note of how quickly the greenery is being tainted by evil, and start breaking the altars one by one. As you get notifications of the world being blessed with new ores, you get attacked by Wraiths, a Hardmode enemy that likes to travel through the scenery to get at you. Once they've been dispatched, it's time to go spelunking. With the new ores spawning, old mines can have new surprises in store, provided you don't get mauled by the mobs.

Once you've managed to craft some fine armours and tools from the new ores, it's time to put them to the test! If you were lucky enough, you'll have fought enough mobs that one or two of them dropped a Mechanical item. They look like this: ...be very careful when handling these, at least at night time. One mis-click'll have an unprepared digger smeared across the floor like a Jackson Pollock painting before they can say "WHAT just woke up?!"

The items represent the boss they summon, these being:

• The Destroyer
  
• The Twins, and
  
• Skeletron Prime

Each has origins in bosses fought by the player previously (unless said player had to deal with the Crimson), with the Destroyer being reminiscent of the Eater of Worlds, the Twins being advanced recreations of the Eye of Cthulhu, and Skeletron Prime being an homage to the original Skeletron. They fight in a similar manner to their predecessors, but are highly dangerous and should not be taken lightly.

If you don't want to wait around for a random enemy to drop high-tier summon items, you can go right ahead and craft them yourself. Each item will need 5 Bars of Iron or Lead, and two different items depending on which item you want to craft:

• For the Eye, you'll need 6 Souls of Light and 3 Lenses
  
• For the Worm, you'll need 6 Souls of Night and 6 Rotten Chunks or Vertebrae
  
• For the Skull, you'll need 3 Souls of Light , 3 Souls of Night and 30 Bones

Once it gets dark, it's a simple case of using the item for the boss you want to fight, and the Mechanical boss will start a fight.

But wait! With the newest update, strange things have been happening. Players feeling the earth move beneath their feet, the air getting colder around them as they realise they're in for a terrible night. Yes, once you've started Hardmode, the Mechanical bosses have a very small chance to spawn randomly at the start of the night if they have yet to be defeated. Each has their own warning message, allowing you to prepare accordingly.

"You feel vibrations from deep below..." means The Destroyer will spawn.
"This is going to be a terrible night..." means The Twins will spawn.
"You feel the air getting colder around you..." means Skeletron Prime will spawn.

(and as one eaphillipson has mentioned, if you get this message, but aren't prepared to fight just yet, try saving and quitting the game, then returning to the world - the boss shouldn't spawn for the night)

With information on the bosses' spawn patterns now on tap, let's start getting some intel on the bosses themselves!

Meet the Destroyer: Captain Chufty

The Destroyer

The Destroyer is by and far the biggest of the bunch, with a proverbial lake of health compared to the other bosses' health pools: 80,000HP! The Destroyer, being based on the Eater of Worlds, is an amazingly long bot, clocking in at around 86 segments compared to its predecessor's 50 segments. However, whilst the Eater of Worlds' segments each had their own life bars that would cause the Eater to split and shrink as you sliced it up, the Destroyer's segments all share the same life bar, meaning it doesn't split up as you damage its segments enough. You'd think this is bad since the boss won't shrivel away the longer the fight goes on, but in reality it makes the fight easier since your target will always stay the same whether it has 80,000HP or 8HP.

To make up for this, the Destroyer releases small probes once a segment is damaged enough. They hover independently of the Destroyer and will attack the player with laser fire for around 25 damage, or they'll try slamming into you for around 50 damage. If you keep attacking the Destroyer in different areas and don't deal with the Probes, they can swarm you and riddle you with laser holes. Unfortunately for the Probes, they're quite weak; 200HP to a Probe, which means two or three decent attacks will slay them. They tend to drop a Heart when destroyed (not guaranteed), so smash some of them open if your Potion Sickness is still acting up.

And similarly to how the Eater of Worlds worked, the different segments have different attack and defence stats, although this doesn't come into play as much as it did with the Eater fight. The Head has the highest attack power with around 70 damage a hit, but has no defence of its own. The Body has two types of attack: it can either shoot you with lasers at around 22 damage a shot, or slam you with its enormous stage presence for around 55 damage. Each segment has a defence stat of 30. The Tail, if you ever get to see it, does the least damage at around 40HP a hit, but has the highest defence at 35. Again though, since most of the segments you need to worry about are the Body parts, the Head should only be worried about if you've seen it burrow into the ground recently, and the Tail is a bit player.

The Destroyer is special in that it’s currently the only boss with a fully functional immune system, and thus can’t be debuffed. This is to make up for its multi-segmented nature – too many Frostburnt segments could spell death for the player’s PC more’n anything!

On being defeated, The Destroyer drops:

• roughly 12 Gold Coins
  
• between 20-40 Souls of Might
  
• between 5-15 Greater Healing Potions
  
• between 16-44 Hallowed Bars
  
• and on some occasions, a Destroyer Trophy

Meet The Twins: Double Trouble

The Twins

As you might be able to guess from the name and the picture, The Twins are a dual boss fight, based loosely on the Eye of Cthulhu, and in order to get their loot, you need to defeat both Eyes. They're referred to as The Twins in the Mechanical Eye's tool-tip and in their summon/defeat announcements, but the individual eyes have names, to help differentiate between each other. Red-Eye is Retinazer, and Greenie is Spazmatism. Stat-wise, they're pretty similar to begin with. Retinazer will start with 20,000HP and 45 melee damage, Spazmatism will start with 23,000HP and 50 melee damage. Both eyes have the same defence of 10.

However, they're Mechanical versions of the Eye of Cthulhu, and tiny 8HP servants won't cut it for these two, so instead, Retinazer fires lasers at you for around 20 damage, whereas Spazmatism shoots cursed fireballs at you for 25 damage, with a chance to be set alight for a few seconds. Like the Eye of Cthulhu, they'll hover away from the player to take shots at you, and after a few seconds of firing will start charging at you. Spazmatism will snap to a horizontal position next to the player, firing every second or so, and will charge in short bursts, making it the tougher of the two to dodge. Retinazer is relatively calmer than its twin, hovering above the player on a 45° angle and moving slower to stabilize. When Retinazer starts charging, it'll cover a bigger distance, but will move slower, letting you separate the two to target one over the other.

But this is Hardmode Eye of Cthulhu! So once an eye loses enough health, said eye will shed its biological exterior to power up.


Once Spazmatism decides play-time is over, it'll lose its iris and reveal a lovely set of pointy teeth and its bolted underside. In this form, it'll have some 9,000HP, its defence increases to 35 (I guess padding INCREASES damage?) and its attack pattern will change. Apparently, the iris was a limiter, since instead of focusing the fire into ranged balls, it opts to barf cursed flames at the player, flamethrower style (dealing around 30 damage a hit). Whilst it's doing this, Spazmatism homes in on the player, but its movement speed slows to a crawl, letting the player keep it at several dozen arms' lengths. However, once it's done torching the place, Spazmatism'll start charging at the player, covering larger distances than even its twin, and at considerable speeds, being able to catch up to a player running at full pelt. You can bait it into charging and then run in the opposite direction to give yourself breathing room, but it'll keep up the offensive for around eight to ten charges (each of which accompanied with a monstrous roar) and then return to the cursed flamethrower until it's put out of its misery.


Once Retinazer's stopped playing pretend, it'll lose its iris and replace it with a giant beam focus. This transformation, coming in once it's downed to 8,000HP, also changes its stats, bolstering its defence to 25 points. Once it changes, Retinazer ceases its charging runs, opting to make like a Touhou and start spamming lasers everywhere. Retinazer has two modes of firing: one where it'll stay above the player and shoot lasers slowly, at around 25 damage a hit, and one where it'll stay horizontal to the player and double its firing speed, with the lasers doing around 20 damage a hit. It'll swap between these two firing modes periodically, meaning a player with decent manoeuvrability could keep Retinazer to one side and dodge nearly every single laser. As it loses health, the time between laser shots in both modes shortens, to the point where "beam spam" is an understatement.

Once both eyes are defeated, the second eye will drop:

• roughly 10 Gold Coins
  
• between 20-40 Souls of Sight
  
• between 5-15 Greater Healing Potions
  
• between 20-35 Hallowed Bars

...and since the eyes are separate entities, when one is defeated, it has a chance to drop its respective trophy, even if the other eye is still alive:

• Retinazer will drop the Retinazer Trophy
  
• Spazmatism will drop the Spazmatism Trophy

(oh, and don't worry about the cord connecting them - it's merely decorational)

Meet Skeletron Prime: King of the Boss-Bots

Skeletron Prime

Skeletron Prime is the last Mechanical boss on this list, and is potentially the toughest to defeat. Being the progeny of Skeletron, Prime has had several improvements given to it. Instead of two arms, Prime has four, and each serves a different purpose:

• The Prime Laser (top-left) is the most annoying of the four arms. It keeps a lock on the player and will very occasionally fire a laser at the player for around 25 damage. Bumping into the arm will do somewhere in the region of 29 damage, although it won't make any attempts to swing at you, opting for the ranged approach. When Prime goes into a head-spin, the Laser will fire faster, giving it more chances to hit you with no damage penalty. Along with its low melee damage and a defence of 20, the Laser has 6,000HP, making it the weakest of the four arms. Be sure to break this arm first if you can.
  
• The Prime Cannon (top-right) fires bombs into the air that take a few seconds to land. They pass through wooden platforms, but will explode on solid blocks like Grenades; the explosion can deal some 40 damage to the player if they're unlucky enough to be close to the explosion when it goes off. The Cannon itself does around 30 damage if you bump into it, though like the Laser, it won't try and swing at you, preferring to keep away from you. When Prime starts spinning, the Cannon will fire faster, littering the place with explosions. With a defence of 23 and 7,000HP, the Cannon is a dangerous arm that can be nerfed if you use an arena made of wooden platforms.
  
• The Prime Saw (bottom-left) is one of Prime's melee-based arms, acting similarly to Skeletron's arms; every so often, the Saw'll try to slice you for some 56 damage by swinging at the player. During Prime's spin-cycle, the Saw'll home in on the player with worrying accuracy, keeping up with them over hundreds of blocks and hovering over the player to deal constant damage. With a defence of 38 and 9,000HP, the Saw is the most dangerous arm, being able to ruin a slower player's HP whilst tanking damage with ease.
  
• The Prime Vice (bottom-right) is the other melee-centric arm, acting similarly to the Saw; swinging at the player to deal damage with its strikes. Strangely enough, the Vice can't grab you or restrict your movement, meaning it's almost the same as the Saw. However, unlike the Saw, during the spin-attack the Vice will keep swinging at the player in a somewhat unpredictable manner. If you see it pull back, it'll try striking you, so take measures to avoid it when the Vice comes at you. With each strike dealing around 52 damage, a defence of 34 and 9,000HP, the Vice should be treated with the same caution as the Saw.

These are but mere appendages, though, and destroying them only serves to make the fight easier. If you have the time to kill them, do so, but in order to win, you have to break Skeletron Prime's Head. Being the main section, the Head has the beefiest stats: 28,000HP, 47 damage on graze damage, and 24 defence. Normally, Prime's Head will swing back and forth from the player's left side to the right, keeping above them at all times. His arms will swing along with the Head, albeit at a slower speed. If you get closer to the Head, it'll try to put more distance between you and it, and if you try running away, Prime will accelerate to keep up with you, meaning he'll almost always be on-screen.

After some ten seconds or so of sweeping motions, Prime will let loose a monstrous roar, grow spikes, and start spinning towards the player, intent on shredding them. In this mode, Prime is at his toughest, doubling his attack and defence, but is also at his slowest, letting you get some easy attacks in on him. When he's spinning, he'll pull his arms in close to defend himself, which can make damaging him a somewhat risky prospect.

A final thing to mention is that whilst The Destroyer and The Twins will flee come daybreak, when Prime sees the sun, he goes berserk and will engage what's known in some circles as the "Dungeon Guardian Manoeuvre", where he'll immediately rush the player and reduce them to ludicrous gibs. During this manoeuvre, his attack peaks at 1,000, and his defence hits 9,000, making him take scratch damage from every attack in the game. He can still be defeated, provided the player has the dodging skills of a ninja and the patience of a saint, but every attack will deal 1 damage, meaning it's best to only try and defeat him in this state if he was about to be defeated (eg he has less than a thousand HP left)

On destroying the Head, Prime's remaining arms will self-destruct, and the player will be rewarded with:

• roughly 12 Gold Coins
  
• between 20-40 Souls of Fright
  
• between 5-15 Greater Healing Potions
  
• between 19-35 Hallowed Bars
  
• and on some occasions, a Skeletron Prime Trophy

( as an addendum, I'm genuinely amused that the images I threw together for this guide have ended up so widespread on the internet - be thankful I didn't watermark 'em! ;V )

Basic Tips'n'Tricks

So as you can tell, the three Mechanical bosses look like tough customers. Don't let their giant health bars and stats get you down, though! There are ways to balance things in your favour!

Time

Since the bosses can only be summoned at night, there's a hard time limit installed on them of 9 minutes, if you summon them right as night comes.

Arena

Each Mechanical Boss can travel through the land, giving them an advantage if the land is jagged and random. For the Destroyer, flatten out a screen or two's worth of land (or around 200-300 blocks if you have a small screen) and place walls around so enemies can't break in during the fight. For The Twins and Prime, build those walls high, have over-hangs to the sides so floating enemies can't intrude on the battle (very useful if you're in the Hallow, since those Gastropods lasers sting), and place a row of wooden platforms between the walls so that Prime's bombs can't hit you and you still get room to move if the bosses get too close to you.
Adding on to the arena, you can also place a couple of items as "decorations" to boost your health regeneration slightly.

A Campfire (made from 20 Wood and 5 Torches) will give you slight health regen...
...whilst a Heart Lantern (made from a Life Crystal and 4 Chains) will also give you health regen. I haven't got a good idea of HOW much health they regen, but it couldn't hurt to have both active at once.

Just remember, having one on-screen will give you a buff, letting you know it's active - they have an impressive range, meaning so long as you have one each of the items every hundred blocks or so in the world, you won't need to have dozens of campfires razing the landscape!

Buffs

The alchemy system is a godsend for solo players. Always save any ingredients you find, since you can use them for a variety of buffs, such as:

• Ironskin (+8 Defence, 5 minutes)
  
• Regeneration (Boosted Health Regen, 5 minutes)
  
• Featherfall (Slow-fall and increased jump height by holding Up, 5 minutes)
  
• Endurance (-10% damage taken, 4 minutes)
  
• Heartreach (magnet pull for Hearts, 8 minutes)
  
• Lifeforce (+20% Max HP, 5 minutes)
  
• Rage (+10% Crit-Strike Chance, 4 minutes)
  
• Wrath (+10% damage, 4 minutes)
  
• Warmth (-30% cold damage - useful for the Frost invasions, 15 minutes)
  
• Well-Fed (+2 Defence ,+2% Crit-Strike chance, +5% melee speed, +5% damage, +50% minion knockback and +20% move speed; 3-15 minutes based on item used)

Some of these are limited by biomes (eg Rage and Wrath), but most others you can get from fishing (inside crates), so if you're not up to crafting, head for the water!

Accessories

When choosing Accessories, there are several choices for each class. Do you go for something that lets you move faster, or something that lets you do more damage? Whatever you decide to use, you can put Prefixes on the Accessories to have them give you small stat-boosts. The stats that can be boosted in this way are Damage, Defence, Movement Speed, Melee Speed, Crit Strike Chance and Mana. With the exception of Mana (always grants 20MP), each prefix can boost its stat by 4% (or 4 points for Defence). The best prefixes for each stat are:

• Warding (+4 Defence)
  
• Menacing (+4% Damage)
  
• Quick (+4% Movement Speed)
  
• Violent (+4% Melee Speed)
  
• Lucky (+4% Crit-Strike Chance)

To get +20MP, you'll want the Arcane prefix, but keep in mind that Mana caps out at 400MP.

As for what to wear, this comes down to the specific role you're playing. Some catch-all accessories will work with any player though:

• Charm of Myths, the result of tinkering a Philosopher's Stone and Band of Regeneration together. Gives better health regeneration and reduces Potion Sickness to 45 seconds. Very useful if you're unable to dodge attacks too well.
  
• Avenger Emblem, made by tinkering the Warrior, Ranger and Sorcerer's Emblems together. Instead of 15% to Melee, Range or Magic damage respectively, this emblem gives you a straight 12% damage increase. Getting one of these requires killing several Walls of Flesh, but you can wear it with one of the other emblems (depending on your class) to get an even bigger damage boost!
  
• Frozen Turtle Shell, a rare Ice Tortoise drop. When equipped, if you're knocked to less than 25% of your total health, this item will grant the Ice Barrier buff that gives you 30 defence. Think of it as a safety net until your Potion Sickness runs out or you can get to a Nurse in time.
  
• The Obsidian and Ankh Shield, gained by tinkering an Obsidian Skull with a Cobalt Shield for the former, and an Obsidian Shield with an Ankh Charm for the latter. The Ankh Shield is the preferred choice since it gives 4 defence and resistance to several debuffs, but since getting the accessories for the Ankh Charm can be very time-consuming and luck-based (1% drops from Hardmode mobs - have fun!) the Obsidian Shield is just as useful at half the defence. Both shields prevent knockback, and damage from fire blocks, though the latter part won't come into play during boss fights. A must if you want to fight mobs without being buffeted everywhere, missing shots and so on.
  
• Spectre Boots (Hermes/Flurry Boots + Rocket Boots), Lightning Boots (Aglet + Anklet of the Wind + Spectre Boots) or Frostspark Boots (Lightning Boots + Ice Skates). Each pair of boots is a viable option for fights, since they'll let you accelerate faster and have longer flight time with Wings. The Spectre Boots are the easiest to obtain, followed by the Lightning Boots, and finally the Frostspark Boots which can grant greater acceleration to anyone fighting on ice.
  
• Cross Necklace and Star Veil, a rare drop from Mimics for the former, and a mix of a Cross Necklace and a Star Cloak for the latter. Both increase your mercy invincibility time, with the Veil giving the added bonus of dropping 30-DMG stars on enemies. If you have both, the invincibility time will stack, so if you have slots to spare, you can flash for a good two seconds from one hit!

One Last Tip

Never. Stop. Moving. The bosses float like butterflies and sting like eighteen-wheelers, so you'd better be moving in sync with them to avoid damage. The only time you should stop moving is if you need to line a shot up, and even then you should be moving in one direction (eg floating or flying) to keep the bosses from removing chunks of your life bar. If you're near death, run like billy-o to avoid damage until you can drink a Greater Health Potion, or keep a Nurse nearby to get a quick boost. The bosses won't lock onto her, but they'll still hurt her, so don't waste time.
And no, I’ve not forgotten Wings. They’re covered in the next section!

Aerial Tips'n'Tricks

There are several kinds of Wings in the game, and they can each reach different heights depending on which you choose to wear. Should you want to take flight, this is the section on how to do so!

A few things to mention: All of the Wings that can be crafted are made at an advanced Anvil, so keep one to hand if you’re out and about whilst gathering things. They'll also require 20 Souls of Flight if they're crafted, with each pair of Wings listing the special ingredient(s) needed to make them. Wings will give you greater control of your direction, giving you better horizontal acceleration when in flight. Wings will also negate fall damage (so replace that Lucky Horseshoe!) and allow for slow-fall if you hold the JUMP key (which defaults to Space Bar), letting you get more distance if you’re traversing the land. They’ll also stack with any rocket boots you have, letting you fly for longer! Finally, mix them with a Featherfall Potion for MAXIMUM AIR CONTROL

Tier 1

The simplest wings to obtain, these are rudimentary wings that’ll let you take to the skies with little risk to life and limb (relatively speaking). They’ll only allow you to climb to 53 blocks of height, but sometimes that’s all you need!

• Demon/Angel Wings: Creator’s Conscience. Both require 10 Feathers and 25 Souls of Night or Light to craft.
  
• Fin Wings: I don't even need to say it. These are an Angler quest reward once you breach Hardmode. Wear it with a Fish costume for extra amusement!

Tier 2

Only one item fits this tier, letting you climb 60 blocks in the air before descending, and wouldn’t you know it – it’s a special item!

• Jetpack: [VGS]. An exception to the idea of wings, this backpack will give you rocket-powered flight for the low cost of 40 Gold! In order to get this, you’ll need the Steampunker, who’ll be described in detail later. This backpack has a special feature: hold the UP key as you ascend, and you’ll fly higher, faster! Useful for beating a hasty retreat from bosses or dangerous monsters.

Tier 3

Based around small insects, these wings are somewhat difficult to craft, each requiring a Hallowed/Jungle mob drop. These wings will let you reach 67 blocks of height before descending, and will glow when you fly/hover!

• Bee Wings: The Flight Of. Requiring a Tattered Bee Wing from Moss Hornets to craft, they’ll glow a faint blue colour when in flight.
  
• Butterfly Wings: Flowery Soul. To make these wings, you’ll need to defeat a Moth in the Hardmode Jungle and hope they drop Butterfly Dust (50% chance means you won’t be hunting too long). They’ll glow pink when in flight.
  
• Fairy Wings: Hey, Listen, etc. Technically the easiest to craft, they ONLY require 100 Pixie Dust to craft. They’ll glow a yellow hue in flight.

Tier 4

These wings are crafted from monster wings, and are notably harder to obtain as a result. However, you’ll be able to fly to a dizzying height of 72 blocks before beginning your descent. Find the ingredient and get to slaying Wyverns!

• Harpy Wings: No longer gender-specific! These are crafted from a Giant Harpy Feather that rarely drops from (you guessed it) Harpies. They’re basically the Harpy’s wings, except they aren’t powerful enough to indefinitely carry a person who’s carrying enough weapons, armour and accessories that they could call themselves a travelling merchant. Can be obtained without going underground!
  
• Bone Wings: How do these even work? Crafted from a Bone Feather, these wings resemble a pair of Demon Wings that have since been skeletonized. Probably don't aim for these yet.
  
• Bat Wings: Fangs not included. Crafted from a Broken Bat Wing, these differ from the Demon Wings by looking more like a bat’s wingspan – replete with little hooks at the end! These only drop from Vampires in the Solar Eclipse.

Tier 5

Vaguely resembling the elements (final wings notwithstanding), these are all crafted with rare monster drops, most of which don’t spawn until later on into the game. On having these, you’ll be able to reach heights of over 80 blocks!

• Leaf Wings: Mildly tropical. These wings are a special case in that they don’t require crafting at all – if you’ve situated your Witch Doctor in the Jungle, go talk to them at night-time and he’ll be selling these lovely wings for the modest price of 1 Platinum. They have lower flight speed than the other wings of this tier, but their max height is the same. The easiest (and near-best) wings to access provided you’ve completed the necessary set-up.
  
• Frozen Wings: Borrowed from the strongest. These cryogenic carriers can be crafted with an Ice Feather, which rather bizarrely drops from an Ice Golem. The implications are rather confusing to ponder…
  
• Flame Wings: Phoenix Down. The hot pick for anyone wanting to cosplay their favourite anime character. These are crafted with a Fire Feather, but the enemy that drops them won’t spawn until you beat a Mechanical Boss.
  
• Ghost Wings: How d’you think they flew? Crafted from ten pieces of Ectoplasm, these wings are translucent, and pair off nicely with end-game armour for obvious reasons.
  
• Beetle Wings: No submarines required. A late-game pair of wings, you’ll need eight Beetle Husks to make these. Like the Ghost Wings, these pair well with their respective armour.

Tier 6

This and the next tier are firmly situated in “end-game” territory. Tier 6 has two sets of wings, both of which can hit 86 blocks of height before falling.

• Festive Wings: Twinkly! These wings resemble decorated Christmas trees, and rightly so considering the enemy they drop from – Everscreams. This guy’s covered later on in the guide (way, way later on), but these wings are neat in that they drop ready to use – no crafting necessary!
  
• Hoverboard: Make like it’s 2015 1989! The first non-armour item that could be crafted from Shroomite Bars. Requiring 18 of the aforementioned bars to make, this board will grant you similar flight to the Flying Carpet, letting you hover if you hold the DOWN key down. What you don’t get told in the description is that this lets you fly forwards at immense speed, outrunning anything that isn’t moving like a bat out of hell. Since it’s powered by small rockets, this won’t ascend as fast as Wings, but by god will you get somewhere fast if it’s horizontal to you.

Tier 7

Finally, there’s the Spooky Tier. Both these wings are made from Pumpkin Moon drops, and give the best flight height of any pair of accessible wings, at 91 blocks of height.

• Spooky Wings: Spooky. These require a Spooky Twig to make, and resemble cobweb-coated tree branches. Good for convincing friends you’re an Ent descendent (a descend-Ent?)
  
• Tattered Fairy Wings: Long-lived. These are made from Black Fairy Dust, and resemble a pair of aged, tattered fairy wings.

You should be able to figure out which sets of wings can be obtained at certain parts of the game based on how you obtain them. There’ll be reminders of the later-game Wings as we come across them.

(The last pair of wings will be described when we get to the Duke Fishron page)

ArmourGeddon!

So you've got your basic gear, but what do you do for Armour? Well, with the introduction of random ore selection when you break Demon Altars, there are three new sets of Armour to choose from alongside the usual Cobalt-Mythril-Adamantite gear: Palladium, Orichalcum and Titanium, which are orange, pink and silvery-white respectively. When you break a Demon Altar, there's a 50-50 chance that you'll get a new or old ore. Once you know what ores one world has, that world can't then get the other ore type, meaning if you want to try out each ore, you'll need to either make another world, or go fishing.

Since these are new armours, Re-Logic saw fit to give them interesting set bonuses, which means that in armour choice, there's now two distinctly different types of armour, that I shall personally define as Passive Armour and Active Armour (feel free to call them whatever you like, this is for the simplicity of the guide)

Passive Armour Sets

The reason I call the old armour sets "Passive" is that compared to the new armours, they give a set bonus buff to stats based on the helmet you wear instead of a set bonus based solely on the armour.

Cobalt
Cobalt Armour is the first Armour set you can get, and as a result is also the weakest in defence. The Chestplate gives 8 Defence and +3% Crit Strike Chance, and the Leggings give 7 Defence and +10% Movement Speed. The headgear you wear will determine your bonus:

• The Hat gives 2 Defence, grants the wearer +40MP and +9% Magic Crit Strike Chance, with a set bonus of -14% Mana Cost
  
• The Helmet gives 11 Defence, grants the wearer +7% Movement Speed and +12% Melee Speed, with a set bonus of +15% Faster Melee Speed
  
• The Mask gives 4 Defence, grants the wearer +10% Ranged Damage and +6% Ranged Crit Strike Chance, with a set bonus of 20% Chance to not use ammo

Cobalt is easily the worst armour set to use out of the Hardmode armours, and should be swapped out for better gear as soon as possible.

Mythril
Mythril Armour is the second Armour set you can get, being between Cobalt and Adamantite in defensive capabilities. The Chainmail gives you 12 Defence and +5% Damage, and the Greaves give 9 Defence and +3% Crit Strike Chance. Again, the headgear you wear determines your bonus:

• The Hood gives 3 Defence, grants the wearer +60MP and +15% Magic Damage, with a set bonus of -17% Mana Cost
  
• The Helmet gives 16 Defence, grants the wearer +5% Melee Crit Strike Chance and +10% Melee Damage, with a set bonus of +5% Melee Crit Strike Chance
  
• The Hat gives 6 Defence, grants the wearer +7% Ranged Crit Strike Chance and +12% Ranged Damage, with a set bonus of 20% Chance to not use ammo

Mythril has better stats than Cobalt, and could be used to fight the Mechanical Bosses in a pinch.

Adamantite
Adamantite Armour is the third Armour set you can get, beating out Cobalt and Mythril in defensive stats quite easily (the Helmet alone offers more defence than the entire Cobalt Mage and Ranger set), and should be obtained as soon as possible. The Breastplate gives 14 Defence and +6% Damage, and the Leggings give +4% Crit Strike Chance and +5% Movement Speed. Once again, headgear determines bonus:

• The Headgear gives 4 Defence, grants the wearer +80MP and +11% Magic Damage/Crit Strike Chance, with a set bonus of -19% Mana Cost
  
• The Helmet gives 22 Defence, grants the wearer +7% Melee Crit Strike Chance and +14% Melee Damage, with a set bonus of +18% Melee and Movement Speed
  
• The Mask gives 8 Defence, grants the wearer +14% Ranged Damage and +8% Ranged Crit Strike Chance, with a set bonus of 25% Chance to not use ammo

Adamantite is the best passive armour set you can get until Hallowed, which I'll cover later. For now, let's cover Active Armour!

Active Armour Sets

I call the new armour sets Active since no matter what headgear you wear, the set bonus is always the same: something that activates on striking an enemy. Their effects can remain useful if the other sets' bonuses don't strike your fancy.

Palladium
Palladium Armour is the Active analogue of Cobalt, being its alternative Hardmode ore. The Breastplate gives 10 Defence, +3% Damage and +2% Crit Strike Chance, whilst the Leggings give 8 Defence, +2% Damage and +1% Crit Strike Chance. The headgear boosts stats as follows:

• The Headgear gives 3 Defence and grants the wearer +7% Magic Damage/Crit Strike Chance and +60MP
  
• The Helmet gives 5 Defence and grants the wearer +9% Ranged Damage/Crit Strike Chance
  
• The Mask gives 14 Defence and grants the wearer +8% Melee Damage and +12% Melee Speed

The set bonus for having full Palladium Armour is that on striking an enemy, you get 5 seconds of Rapid Healing, where you'll heal 15HP over 5 seconds. Not the greatest of effects, but if you can keep dealing damage, you can keep your health topped up slightly whilst waiting for the Potion Sickness to subside.

Orichalcum
Orichalcum Armour is the Active analogue of Mythril, being its alternative Hardmode ore. The Breastplate gives 13 Defence and +6% Crit Strike Chance, whilst the Leggings give 10 Defence and +11% Movement Speed. The headgear goes as such:

• The Headgear gives 4 Defence and grants the wearer +18% Magic Crit Strike Chance and +80MP
  
• The Helmet gives 7 Defence and grants the wearer +15% Ranged Crit Strike Chance and +8% Movement Speed
  
• The Mask gives 19 Defence and grants the wearer +7% Melee Damage/Movement Speed/Melee Speed

Having full Orichalcum gives you an interesting set bonus: on striking an enemy, a flower petal will strike at high speed, dealing around 20-30 damage and piercing enemies as it goes. The petals can occasionally miss faster enemies, but this is rare. The set to use if you want to keep the heat on enemies.

Titanium
Titanium Armour is the Active analogue of Adamantite, being its alternative Hardmode ore. The Breastplate gives 15 Defence, +4% Damage and +3% Crit Strike Chance, whilst the Leggings give 11 Defence, +3% Damage/Crit Strike Chance and +6% Movement Speed. The headgears are:

• The Headgear gives 4 Defence and grants the wearer +16% Magic Damage, +7% Magic Crit Strike Chance and +100MP
  
• The Helmet gives 8 defence and grants the wearer +16% Ranged Damage and +7% Ranged Crit Strike Chance
  
• The Mask gives 23 Defence and grants the wearer +8% Melee Crit Strike Chance/Damage

Wearing full Titanium will, on striking an enemy, give you Shadow Dodge for 20 seconds, meaning the next attack will not hurt, and you’ll get longer mercy invincibility (status effects will still occur). Once used, you have to wait 20 seconds before it can be reactivated. Useful for avoiding potentially deadly strikes!

Melee Methods: Weapons!

You want to fight with swords and polearms? Congratulations! You're gonna have the hardest time landing strikes on the Mechanical bosses, thanks to their irritating habit of actively keeping their distance. Thankfully, Re-Logic have given fighters some interesting new options for dealing damage without being up-close and personal with the mobs. This doesn't mean that regular swords and flails aren't useless, however!

Swords

There are several swords that're useful for fighting Hardmode mobs, some of which shoot beams on being swung:

• Adamantite Sword and Titanium Sword - both swords are the final ore-swords you can get before fighting the Mechanical Bosses, with very similar stats (44DMG on Adamantite, 46DMG on Titanium) - Decent enough swords that can be made without too much difficulty.
  
• Phasesaber - an auto-fire blade crafted from a Phaseblade and 50 Crystal Shards. At 43DMG, it's slightly less powerful than the oreblades, but its auto-fire ability and fast swing speed can make it useful in frenzied skirmishes.
  
• Beam Sword - a rare sword that can be found from Armored Skeletons, this sword has a base damage of 52, swings VERY fast (even compared to the Phasesaber) and shoots a beam at the cursor when swung. The beam has the same stats as the sword itself (including any imbuements) and can't be refired or swapped out until you hear the "MP full" blip. This can be very useful for taking out ranged enemies, and swings fast enough that twitchy mouse-clickers can finely dice hordes of mobs in a panic.
  
• Frostbrand - an Ice Mimic drop, this sword is similar to the Beam Sword; 49DMG and a Fast use-time, a bigger sprite means you can hit more enemies per swing, and on swing, an ice bolt is fired towards the cursor. Unlike the Beam Sword, the ice bolt can pierce an enemy before dying, making it a bit more useful for taking out hordes. The Frostbrand similarly has a cooldown rate, meaning you have to wait for the *blip* before you can change weapons.
  
• Breaker Blade - a Wall of Flesh drop, this sword is the biggest in the game. Cause some strife amongst the undead hordes by hitting them from across the room! It only deals 39DMG and swings slower than the oreblades, but its knockback and range can easily make up for a low damage output.

Spears

Of the many spears in the game during Hardmode, two can be obtained before the Mechanical Bosses (with another becoming available once you’ve defeated one):

• Adamantite Glaive and Titanium Trident - the basic ore-spears, these ones are dangerous to enemies with multiple segments and enemies that can go through walls. The Glaive can deal 38DMG whilst the Trident can deal 40DMG. Once again, decent enough spears that don't need to be bought or found.
  
• Mushroom Spear - Bought from the Truffle, this wonder of weapons design can be useful to players who want to deal extra damage to enemies. Dealing a basic 60DMG per thrust, it’ll leave behind mushrooms that’ll deal half the spear’s damage. Not only that, but these mushrooms will also have any imbuements that you’ve got active as well, allowing for even more damage! Just remember, it thrusts VERY slowly compared to other spears, so it might not be the best choice for quick damage.

If you can set up an overworld Mushroom biome before starting Hardmode, along with a house, you can get the Mushroom Spear the moment you defeat a Hardmode boss. It’s no longer the beast it once was, but it’s still highly recommended.

Other

Along with the Swords and Spears, there are also flails, boomerangs, scythes and lethal joke weapons. These offer ranged combat for the melee master.

• Dao of Pow - the original particle smasher. Crafted from a Dark Shard, a Light Shard, and seven Souls of Light and Night, this flail is the best you can get before fighting Plantera. With a base damage of 49, there's also a one-in-three chance to confuse enemies, making them run away for a few seconds. This can also be used to hit enemies from a decent distance, and will do damage so long as the flail is out. This is the key weapon for defeating the Destroyer, so be sure to craft it as soon as possible!
  
• Flamarang - for far-reaching fire! Crafted from an Enchanted Boomerang and 10 Hellstone Bars, this weapon isn't the greatest option for Hardmode, but it's the best you can craft until the Destroyer meets its end. 32 base damage and a decent range can keep mobs at bay, but it'll probably not see much use in the Mech fights.
  
• Bananarang - don't slip up! A rare drop from Clowns, these things can be stacked up to ten, but they can't be auto-fired, they don't ricochet off walls, and fly a shorter distance than the Light Disks. Even so, with 40DMG and an Insanely Fast use time, twitchy clickers can fill the screen with loaded potassium. Since they're a rare drop from a rare mob, don't expect to get too many of these things.
  
• Ice Sickle - not exactly cold cut. A rare Armored Viking drop, this scythe is somewhat decent at area control. Swing, and a spinning ice blade will move towards the cursor, coming to a stop a short distance away whilst still spinning in place. It can hit an enemy several times before breaking, but will break if it hits a wall. A base damage of 40 means that this can deal some heavy damage to large, slow enemies, and can be fired several times before needing to "reload" - useful if you can get it.
  
• Anchor - a deep sinker! A "rare" drop from Wooden Crates once Hardmode kicks in, this sinker'll deal a modest 30DMG to whatever it smacks in the chops. However, it's not best used for singular monsters - acting like a Harpoon, but using Melee modifiers and lacking autofire, you can lob this on high, land it behind your enemies and drag that anchor right through the lot of them! It also has a longer range than the Dao of Pow, giving you range over power.
  
• KO Cannon - Knock 'em out! A rare drop from mobs during the Blood Moon, think of this as the Chain Knife on steroids. 35DMG, auto-fire, and a range of 17 blocks, this cannon fires a boxing glove on a chain that'll retract once it strikes an enemy or wall. It can fire the moment it's back in the gun, meaning your fire rate is dependent on the distance between you and your target. Get right up to an enemy and you can potentially stun-lock most beasties!

With these weapons to hand, the MechBosses will fall in no time! But weapons aren't the only thing to think about. You'll also need Accessories and Buffs!

Melee Methods: Accessories and Buffs!

Weapons are essential for actually dealing damage, but another thing you should remember is Accessories. You can pick and choose from the general items I listed earlier, see what works for you, but if you're going Melee, you'll need something a bit more specific to your class.

The Warrior's Emblem is a Wall of Flesh drop that gives +15% damage to any Melee weapons. A godsend if you feel you're not quite doing enough damage with your weaponry. This DOES stack with the Avenger Emblem from earlier.

This one is dependent on luck, unfortunately, but with a decently-sized jungle, you should be able to find Feral Claws (green) without too much trouble. The Claws give you +12% Melee Speed, which on its own is decent enough. The Titan Glove (blue, dropped from Mimics) increases melee knockback by some 70%. If you have both, you can then tinker them together to get the Power Glove (yellow), which gives you both buffs in one. But THEN, if you have an Avenger Emblem, you can tinker the two together to make the Mechanical Glove (grey), which will give you increased knockback, and +10% melee speed and damage. This stacks with the original Avenger Emblem and Warrior Emblem, if you have enough Emblems to go around. Whilst the Mechanical Glove is the best to get, any of the other three will also do in a pinch.

The Moon Charm is a rare Werewolf drop which, when equipped at night, will turn its wearer into a werewolf. Whilst in Werewolf form, you get:

• +1% Melee Crit Strike Chance
  
• +5% Melee Damage
  
• +5% Melee Speed
  
• +5% Movement Speed
  
• +3 Defence
  
• Minor buff to jump height and speed
  
• Minor health regen (1HP/2sec)

Since all the Mechanical Boss fights take place at night, this item will always be a boon, although if you want to equip other items, you could theoretically give your items decent enough Prefixes and render most of the Moon Charm superfluous. Your choice though!

Buffs

Melee players have some limited scope when it comes to buffs. The regular four will work very well for the fighter, but before delving into the main article, let me tell you about Ale.

It's delicious, nutritious, requires only a Keg and a Mug to create, and on using the item, your character consumes the entire item, glass and all. When drunk, you lose 4 Defence, but you gain +2% Melee Crit Strike Chance and +10% Melee Damage/Attack Speed. If you're using an Ironskin Potion, this'll halve its effectiveness but leads to a lovely trade-off for melee players. Just remember, your character has a potent liver, and will metabolize the whole glass of ale in 2 minutes, so if you intend to fight for prolonged amounts of time, bring as much Ale as you can!

Alternatively, you could also knock back some delicious fermented rice! Yes, Sake can be purchased for only 5 Silver coins each, and will last twice as long as Ale! If you’re short on glass, start praying to the Random Number God and hope he bestows upon you a Travelling Merchant bearing oriental goodies!

Now that that's done with, let's get to the interesting part of the 1.2 update: Imbuements!

Imbuements

Imbuements are buffs specific to the Melee class that will give any melee-damage weaponry a special effect for 15 minutes. You can get the Imbuing Station once the Witch Doctor has moved in for 7 Gold, and with the right ingredients you can craft Flasks. Using a Flask will give you the Flask's power for 15 minutes, making your melee weapons (boomerangs and sword beams included) do an extra type of damage!

As the picture shows, there are eight flasks, two of which you can't make until you've killed Plantera. And depending on the world you have, you'll either be able to make Flasks of Ichor or Flasks of Cursed Flames. Each Flask requires a Bottle of Water and five of an item, so I'll only mention the special ingredient to save letters.

The eight flasks (and how to craft 'em) are:

• Flask of Fire (top), made with 5 Hellstone Ore, this lets you burn things with melee attacks. One of the two Imbues you can get before Hardmode.
  
• Flask of Party (top-right), made with 5 Confetti, this lets you fill the screen with silly confetti. Only use this is you want to mess around.
  
• Flask of Poison (right), made with 5 Stingers, this lets you poison enemies, much like the Blade of Grass does naturally. The other pre-Hardmode Imbue, this can be useful in different situations where enemies can't be set ablaze.
  
• Flask of Nanites (bottom-right), made with 5 Nanites (crazy ain't it?), this lets you confuse enemies, much like the Dao of Pow does naturally. Can't be obtained until the Cyborg moves in.
  
• Flask of Cursed Flames (bottom), made with 5 Cursed Flames, this lets you burn things with cursed melee attacks. Good for the Hardmode bosses, deals more damage, and can't be removed with water, although if you have the Crimson, the only way you can get this is if you get Corrupt Seeds and make some Deep Corruption. This gets the Cursed beasties to spawn and you can get your flasks.
  
• Flask of Ichor (bottom-left), made with 5 Ichor, this gives your melee weapons the ability to remove 20 Defence from mobs for a few seconds. An average of +10 damage doesn't sound like much, but it really adds up after a while. You can only get this if your world is blighted with The Crimson, meaning if you're in a Corrupt world, you'd best make another world and hope for blood.
  
• Flask of Venom (left), made with 5 Vials of Venom, this'll inflict enemies with Venom that'll deal more damage over time than Poison, and is resisted by fewer enemies (at least from what I can tell). This'll only become available from the Witch Doctor once you've slain Plantera.
  
• Flask of Gold (top-left), made with 5 Gold Dust, using this'll make enemies drop more money. Simple enough. Use this if you want all the money that you'll ever need.

You can only have one imbue active at a time, and using a new one will overwrite the old one. Know which imbuement to use and you should be good to go!

But enough gear talk; let's talk strategy!

Melee Methods: LET'S WRASSLE!

So we have the gear, we have the buffs, now all we need is the bosses! Naturally, there's three Mechanical Bosses, and they CAN be fought in whatever order you want. The best order to take them on for a Melee player is Destroyer-Twins-Prime, since one of the Destroyer's crafts can simplify defeating the other two bosses.

(also, if you can access them, use Flasks of Ichor to deal more damage to the bosses)

The Destroyer

The best method for dispatching The Destroyer is to have a flattened area of land, with walls to bar the entry of any Hardmode enemies. Have one of the spears I mentioned earlier to hand, the Dao of Pow or Anchor, and the Phasesaber to deal with Probes. And just to be on the safe side, bring a Hunter Potion so that you can spot The Destroyer when it's underground. Once it's night time and you've buffed yourself, whip out the Mechanical Worm and start the fight! The Destroyer will start off-screen and immediately charge towards you, so be ready to dodge the head and follow up by smashing its bodywork with the flail of your choice and your Spear. Dealing enough damage to the segments will cause them to release Probes to harass you with laser fire and personal space invasion. The Destroyer itself can also shoot you with several dozen laser at times, provided you're near its body parts and they can shoot at you. The damage dealt by all of the Destroyer's parts can give you cause for concern, but remember, the Probes can drop Hearts every so often, so break them up if things get hairy. If all else fails, fly into the sky to dodge as many of the lasers as you can until you can heal again. Keep up the offensive on The Destroyer and it should eventually fall. And don’t worry about landing the last hit when it’s underground – the loot will drop on top of you to minimize digging frustrations!

(see next section on what to do with the drops - not enough room here!)

The Twins

With The Destroyer summarily humiliated, let's move onto the terrible twosome. Since these guys will almost always be out of reach, the best bet for this fight is the Dao of Pow - swing it right and you'll do quite a bit of damage! - and the Light Disks (or Bananarangs if you have 'em) - have a full stack to hand and you can keep up the damage even if you're making tracks. Also, try using a Flask of Cursed Flames, since the Twins' "skin" is flammable, letting you do lingering damage until they get mad.

If you can, try making some platforms above your Destroyer arena, and add a bunch more platforms to the left and right so you can get some running space. Spazmatism'll be able to keep up with you due to its higher speed, but Retinazer has higher accuracy due to its lasers' low travel time. You can defeat them in any order you like, but try to avoid having both Eyes enraged so as to have an easier fight.

My personal preference is to defeat Spazmatism first, due to how easy it is to attack; it'll always stay horizontal to your position, and its charges, though short, come in thick and fast, making Spaz rather annoying to deal with. Once it bares its teeth, it's time to keep your distance. Spaz'll move slowly enough that you can get some easy hits in on it with the Light Disks. If you have Wings and Featherfall, you'll be able to fly around Spaz with relative ease once it starts charging; when it charges at you horizontally, hold down to freefall and watch as it flies into the distance. Hit the ground? Hold Up and Space to fly almost right into the stratosphere! Spaz'll have difficulty catching up to you vertically, and once you hear the flamethrower, it's back to the Light Disk offensive. If Spaz catches you with the flamethrower or charges, wait until you're downed to half health before using a Greater Healing Potion to avoid wasted health. Repeat this until Spaz dies.

With Greenie down, it's time for Red-eye. Retinazer is slower, so if you wanted to, you could go up and poke it with your Gungnir or Mushroom Spear - if you have the latter, you can do extra damage as it's charging at you, provided you're good with prediction. Since it hangs above you, damaging it can be a bit tougher though. Once Retinazer starts focusing, it's time to fly. When it's above you, high-tail it to the side to throw its aim off, and keep lobbing those Light Disks at it! When it changes fire to spam lasers, take flight (the old Up'n'Space routine) and you should dodge all the rapid lasers. Once it's back to the slow fire, drop back down to the ground, all the while lobbing Disks - if you're lucky, they'll overlap with Retinazer's sprite and keep doing full damage as both the Disks and the Eye try to return to you (this'll work on Spaz, although it moves WAY faster, meaning less damage will be dealt over time). As Retinazer loses health, it'll fire faster, so you will eventually start taking damage more often. It's not as immediately damaging as Spaz, but there's more constant damage, which'll slow your health regen down. With enough Light Disk destruction, Retinazer should also fall, granting you some hard-earned loot.

Skeletron Prime

With The Destroyer and The Twins dead, it's time to defeat Prime. Once again, the Dao of Pow and Light Disks will be useful for this fight, as will the platforms from The Twins fight. At the start of the fight, start swinging the Dao of Pow or the Disks at Prime, avoiding his swings when they come by. When Prime starts spinning, you can use the Excalibur or Gungnir/Mushroom Spear to deal constant damage whilst Prime is slowed down. Since you have the most defence of all the classes, the Saw and Vice won't do too much damage, but don't let them score too many hits on you, as your health bar might drain faster than you can regen it. The Cannon shouldn't be a threat if you're on the wooden platforms, and the laser doesn't fire too often until the headspin phase, at which point it'll do less damage than Prime's spinning head. If you think the arms are getting too rowdy, do the usual Up'n'Space manoeuvre to get some breathing room whilst flinging the disks at Prime. If Prime goes into a headspin in the air, try to hover in front of Prime by holding up and backing away whilst swinging the Excalibur or Gungnir. You should be able to match Prime's speed and do some heavy damage until Prime stops spinning. Just remember, when Prime is spinning he can deal an average of 90 damage a strike, so don't get hit if you can avoid it. Keep up these attacks and Prime should finally succumb, earning you the final set of souls!

More Dakka! Weapons

If you're going down the path of the ranger, you're going to have an interesting time. Hitting the bosses isn't going to be as big of a problem as it is with Melee, and if you have deep enough pockets and resources, ammo won't be a problem. But for now, let's talk weapons!

Bows

From the bows you can get, I can recommend four of them: the two Ore-Repeaters and the two Bows dropped from mobs.

The Adamantite Repeater and Titanium Repeater are decent enough bows that you can craft with ores (12 bars of each). With 37 and 38 damage respectively, the Titanium Repeater is slightly more powerful, but they're both practically the same. Hold the mouse down to auto-fire arrows, and they'll accept all forms of ammo. Simple, but effective.

The blue bow is the Ice Bow, a rare Ice Mimic drop. This thing is quite a powerful at 43 damage a shot, but you have no auto-fire, and each shot comes out as a Frost Arrow, which fly faster but lose the original arrow's special property. Weirdly enough, they don't cause Frostburn damage. This isn't the best bow if you want to use special arrows, but if you want sheer power, start clickin'!

The grey-and-red bow is the Marrow, a rare Skeleton Archer drop. This thing does less damage than the Repeaters at 36 damage a shot, but arrows fired turn into bony arrows that fly at outstanding speeds - think of a high-velocity bullet, and you get an idea of how fast the arrows fly. You could easily snipe enemies and other players in PvP with this bow. Just remember, the bone arrows won't have the original arrow's special stat, if it had any.

If you want to use special arrows, use the Repeaters. If you want power, use the Ice Bow. If you want speed, go with the Marrow. Quite a spread!

Guns

There's five guns you can get in Hardmode before defeating The Destroyer or Skeletron Prime: The Phoenix Blaster, The Shotgun, The Clockwork Assault Rifle, the Uzi, and the Gatligator.

The Phoenix Blaster is the easiest gun to get out of the lot, being craftable from a Handgun and 10 Hellstone Bars before even activating Hardmode. It's the second-strongest of the four guns listed above, at a base damage of 23, but only shoots one shot per go. This is useful at times if you need accuracy, but later guns (if you can get them) will fire more bullets per shot at the cost of less damage per shot.

Speaking of which, the Shotgun. Can be bought from the Arms Dealer for 25 Gold, this slow-firing weapon fires four pellets for each shot in a spread. Very useful on bigger enemies if you can get the shots to land, but their spread makes it terrible at long range, with a base damage of 21 per pellet. Useful for The Destroyer if you can't get the Clockwork Assault Rifle.

And now it's the Clockwork Assault Rifle! A drop from the Wall of Flesh, at only 19 damage per shot, this might seem like a bad gun. However, it has burst-fire that will shoot three rounds in rapid succession. This only costs you one bullet, meaning you can effectively triple your damage if you can shoot straight. Definitely the gun of choice for fighting the Mechanical bosses, since it's easier to find compared to the next two guns...

…first up, it’s the Gatligator. An item that’s sold by the Travelling Merchant for 35 Gold, this thing looks the part, but is it any good? With a cone of fire that makes the Minishark look accurate, this thing can be difficult to use at long range. However, it has a damage of 21, fires Insanely Fast by default, and shares the Megashark’s special quality: a 50% chance to not consume ammo per shot. That’s right; you’re firing a hundred percent more bullets per bullet. It’s amazing for close-quarter skirmishes. Which brings us to the last gun I’ll recommend…

...the Uzi. A gun that drops from Angry Trappers in the Jungle, this gained notoriety when 1.2 was released thanks to its hilariously broken drop rate (1 in 80,000), but this was soon fixed to 1 in 200. Don't ask why it's a vine monster that drops this, I'm not entirely sure either. With a base damage of 30, this gun is comparable to the Megashark due to its fire rate and bullet speed. The best gun to use, if you can get it.

Starcannon

The original hilarity launcher. This is a special ranged weapon that uses Fallen Stars for ammo. Crafted from a Minishark, 5 Fallen Stars and 20 Meteorite Bars, this cannon can deal some serious damage well into endgame with a base damage of 62. Since Fallen Stars aren't exactly the most common of items, you'll want to save any Stars you find for the bosses. When fired, a star will pierce near-infinitely (at least, I've not seen it burst after hitting enough enemies) and will keep going until it either hits a wall or flies for a minute, whereupon it'll explode. Since the Stars can't be recollected, you'd best make every shot count, and since the Cannon chews through ammo (a use time of Very Fast), you're going to run out of ammo fast. The Cannon still gets the "chance to not use ammo" perk granted by a Passive Armour set bonus, so you can get more shots out of it, but since you can only have a stack of 100 Stars at a time compared to the 999 of arrows and bullets makes this a niche weapon. A niche that appears on The Destroyer, along with several bullet holes.

I think I got away with myself for a second there. Before we move on, allow me to mention that if you're able to get the Starcannon to deal 100+ damage, the stars fired will be considered as Falling Stars, and whilst they won't do the damage of a Falling Star, they'll still drop as Fallen Stars, letting you retrieve them and greatly increase their usefulness. As of 1.2, this is a lot easier to do thanks to the addition of extra damage boosters and the Ranger's end-game armour. Just remember to pick them up afterwards – they vanish at daybreak!

Now then, onto the next section!

More Dakka! Ammunition

Guns are good, but they're no more'n shiny bits of metal until you load 'em up and start pulling the trigger. There are two main types of ammo for your weapons that'll fit most of their respective weapons. Arrows are used with bows and repeaters, and Bullets are used with most guns. Since there's an Ammo window to the side, you can store four types of Ammunition in there to serve as extra holding room and as the first ammo type used. Your guns and bows will take from the top to the bottom, and if there's nothing there, it'll start scrolling through your inventory, from top-left to bottom-right. Make sure to arrange your ammo accordingly! The last thing you need is to run out of one ammo type and nearly kill yourself with explosions!

Arrows

There are eleven types of arrows to be had in Terraria, all of which can be crafted through some means. Of the ones listed, the last two (Venom and Chlorophyte Arrows) can't be obtained until later on into the game. Everything else is a-OK!

• Wooden Arrow - the classic. Can be crafted with one Wood and Stone each to make 5 arrows. 4 Damage
  
• Flaming Arrow - the hot topic. Can be crafted with three Wooden Arrows and one Torch. 6 Damage, and can set enemies alight
  
• Frostburn Arrow - freezer burn. Can be crafted with five Wooden Arrows and one Ice Torch. 7 Damage, and can give enemies Frostburn that can't be put out in water.
  
• Unholy Arrow - piercing looks. Can be crafted with 3 Wooden Arrows and one Worm Tooth, or bought from the Arms Dealer for 40 Copper at night after killing an Eater of Worlds. 8 Damage, and can hit up to 5 enemies in a row.
  
• Jester's Arrow - no joke. Can be crafted with 10 Wooden Arrows and one Fallen Star. 9 Damage, can pierce indefinitely for a few seconds before exploding.
  
• Hellfire Arrow - careful now! Can be crafted with 25 Wooden Arrows, 5 Torches and one Hellstone Bar. 10 Damage, flies faster than other arrows, and explodes on hitting something.
  
• Holy Arrow - heaven's wrath! Can be crafted with 45 Wooden Arrows, 6 Pixie Dust and one Unicorn Horn. 6 Damage, and summons stars wherever they strike for half the arrow's damage.
  
• Cursed Arrow - water-safe! Can be crafted with 35 Wooden Arrows and one Cursed Flame. 14 Damage, and can set enemies on Cursed Fire.
  
• Ichor Arrow - pulled from the gods. Can be crafted with 35 Wooden Arrows and one Ichor. 15 Damage, and can Ichor enemies to lower defence.
  
• Chlorophyte Arrow - on the rebound! One Chlorophyte Bar makes 50 of these. 16 Damage, and act similarly to Meteor Shot (can pierce once or bounce off a wall once) - interestingly, they bounce off walls on an angle that sends them roughly back to where they were fired.
  
• Venom Arrows - don't drop these! Crafted with 35 Wooden Arrows and one Vial of Venom. 16 Damage, and can inflict enemies with Venom.

The damage indicated is just the arrow's damage. When fired from a bow, the damage is added onto the bow's damage, making for lots of pain with the right set-ups.

Bullets

Guns use these lovely bits of ordnance. Again, the Chlorophyte, Nano and Venom Bullets won't be accessible until later on, but it's best to make their presence known.

• Musket Ball - no longer takes a minute to reload! Can be bought from the Arms Dealer at 7 Copper a shot, does 7 Damage, and is used to craft half of the other bullets.
  
• Meteor Shot - bouncy! Crafted from 70 Musket Balls and one Meteorite Bar. Deals 9 Damage and can pierce an enemy, unless it's already bounced - probably runs out of momentum.
  
• Silver Bullet - just stronger! Crafted from 70 Musket Balls and one Silver Bar, or can be bought from the Arms Dealer during Blood Moons or after Hardmode activates. These deal 9 Damage and have a bit more kick to 'em than Musket Balls do.
  
• Crystal Bullet - fragmentation! Crafted from 50 Musket Balls and one Crystal Shard. These deal 8 Damage, and will break into shards that do 3/5th of the original shot's damage. Good for larger beasts or crowd control.
  
• Cursed Bullet - high damage! Crafted from 50 Musket Balls and one Cursed Flame, these deal 13 Damage, have double the knockback of a Musket Ball, and will set enemies on Cursed Fire for a short time, dealing extra lingering damage.
  
• Ichor Bullet - no called kidney shots. Crafted from 50 Musket Balls and one Ichor, these'll deal 13 Damage and will inflict Ichor onto the enemy for extra damage. Also useful for spotting enemies in the dark, as the Ichor effect lights 'em up like a Christmas tree.
  
• Chlorophyte Bullet - what's accuracy? Crafted from 70 Musket Balls and one Chlorophyte Bar, these'll do 10 Damage and will home in on enemies! Use it with the Shotgun for some real fun!
  
• Empty Bullet - D.I.Y. Once Hardmode starts, the Arms Dealer sells these for 3 Copper apiece, and on their own they're useless. But with the right items, they can be crafted into some deadly little pellets.
  
• High Velocity Bullet - Wanna see me shoot again? Crafted from 50 Empty Bullets and a Cog acquired from the Steampunker, these bullets deal 10 Damage and will travel faster than any other bullet type.
  
• Party Bullet - Party mode active! Crafted from 50 Empty Bullets and a piece of Confetti, these do 10 Damage a pop and, in terms of crafting costs, are considerably cheaper than Musket Balls whilst being stronger than Silver Bullets. If you don't like confetti, skip these.
  
• Nano Bullet - Don't ask how they work. Crafted from 50 Empty Bullets and one set of Nanites, these'll deal 10 Damage and can confuse enemies. Although you can't get Nanites until the Cyborg moves in, so these won't be available yet.
  
• Golden Bullet - Better than silver! Crafted from 50 Empty Bullets and one piece of Gold Dust bought from the Merchant, these do 10 Damage, and enemies killed with these shots will drop more money. They basically pay for themselves!
  
• Exploding Bullet - TORGUE! Crafted from 50 Empty Bullets and some Explosive Powder from the Demolitionist, these bullets do 10 Damage, but will explode in a small radius wherever they land, meaning you can hit multiple enemies with decent aim. You can also groups back easier with these. Just watch out! These CAN hurt you.
  
• Venom Bullet - Hyperactive blowpipe! Crafted from 50 Empty Bullets and a Vial of Venom, these bullets deal 14 Damage (can't fit any more into a casing) and can inflict enemies with Venom for a short time. The Witch Doctor sells Vials of Venom once Plantera is dead.

As you can see, just as many choices as arrows, with lower power but higher accuracy. Just remember that in order to swap ammo types, you'll have to fiddle with the inventory screen, potentially mid-battle. Order them as you think you'll need them!

More Dakka! Buffs'n'Stuffs

With guns'n'bullets you should be good to go, but if you want to take extra precautions, here's some Ranger-specific information for you!

Buffs

Along with the recommended buffs, there are a couple of Ranger-specific buffs available. The first of these is known as the Archery Potion. Made from Bottled Water, Daybloom and a Lens, this gives you +20% Arrow Speed/Damage for 4 minutes. Just remember, this is only for bows and repeaters; other ranged weapons are unaffected by this buff. Use this if you intend to blot out the moon with arrows!

The next two Ranger buffs you can get will lower your ammo usage - a potion and a placeable decoration. The first is an Ammo Reservation potion, and the other is granted by a Travelling Merchant item: the Ammo Box. Both of these buffs give you a 20% chance to not consume ammo each for 7 and 10 minutes, respectively. Just right-click the Ammo Box wherever it may be placed and you’re good to go!

It’ll stack with other similar bonuses, but not in the way you’d think. Each bonus is applied one after the other, so you can’t equip just armour pieces that specifically reduce ammo consumption and use the Gatligator indefinitely. You take the weapon’s original chance to not consume ammo when fired, and then start detracting from the chances. Just to make things simpler, think of the percentages as fractions, and subtract those from your chances of using ammo when you fire. As an example:

• If a weapon has no natural chance to not use ammo on shot, it has a 100% chance to use ammo when fired.
  
• You subtract your armour set’s bonus (eg 25% chance to not consume ammo with Adamantite, or 1/4): 100 – (100/4) = 75% chance to use ammo when fired.
  
• Then you take the previous chance of 75% and subtract the Ammo Box bonus (20%, or 1/5): 75 – (75/5) = 60% chance to use ammo when fired.

And this is for a regular weapon. If the weapon already has a chance to not consume ammo (like the Gatligator’s 50% chance), you subtract from 50% instead (which, with the previous stats, would land you a 30% chance to use ammo when fired)

It’s a little complicated, but the best way to think of it is you get all the ammo reduction you can get, ‘cause you’re going to be shootin’ a whole lot!

Accessories

There's a surprisingly low number of Accessories that're useful solely to the Ranger. Along with the choices offered in the Basic Tips'n'Tricks section, there are two Accessories you can equip to increase your Rangerly capabilities:

• The Ranger's Emblem, a once-bugged drop from the Wall of Flesh with an abnormally low drop-rate, 1.2 has since fixed this issue, making it as common as the other Wall drops. When equipped, you get +15% Ranged Damage. This applies to anything that delivers Ranged damage, so if it shoots, this'll buff it!
  
• The Magic Quiver is the other rare Skeleton Archer drop. When equipped, this increases arrow speed and damage by 10%, and gives a 20% chance to not consume an arrow when fired. Again, one for the bowmen in the crowd.

With this worryingly short section over, let's talk robots!

More Dakka! LET'S GET STUCK IN, BOYS!

Once you're geared up with enough ammunition to shame an NRA member, it's time to buff up and summon the beasties! For the Ranger, you could get away with killing The Twins last, since their Souls don't craft any Ranger weapons any more. I'll still order the bosses by Destroyer-Twins-Prime though.

The Destroyer

Since The Destroyer is a big ol' segmented monster, anything that pierces will deal significant damage to it. So if you've got a Repeater or the Starcannon, you can make VERY short work of this beastie. You can either use the Starcannon for straight-up DPS, or you can turn the Fallen Stars into Jester's Arrows and increase their usefulness by an order of magnitude, at the cost of initial attack power. Once The Destroyer is activated, dodge its Head, line yourself up with its body, and start shooting the Stars or Jester's Arrows along its body. You'll know you're doing it right because there'll be an unearthly amount of clanking from damage ticks, and you'll be surrounded by Probes. After a short while, The Destroyer will burst from the ground again, giving you another prime opportunity to wreck its bodywork. If you're having health issues, rise to the skies and start taking pot-shots with a bullet-propellant (either Explosive or Crystal to damage multiple parts at once) until you can refill your health bar a bit.

After some three or four piercing runs, The Destroyer should finally die. Before you fight the other two bosses, I'd highly recommend crafting the Hallowed Repeater and Megashark from The Destroyer's drops. This greatly simplifies the remaining Mech fights.

The Twins

If you choose to fight these two before or after Prime, your methods shouldn't be too different if you have the Megashark (the Gatligator can be substituted if you’ve been pounced on by a wild Twins spawn – just account for the wild cone of fire!)

Load that sucker up with all the Crystal Bullets you can gather and let rip on the Eyes (if you have the Crimson, you could also make some Ichor Arrows to lower their defences with a Repeater before tearing the Eyes to shreds with crystal shards)

Before fighting them of course, make sure to build yourself a wooden platform arena so you have some horizontal room to breathe. Since Spazmatism is the heavier hitter, I'd recommend taking it out first this time. Since Spaz hovers horizontally to the player, shooting it is hardly challenging at all. With the Crystal Bullet's fragmentation capabilities and the Eyes' large hitboxes, you can do some major damage to the Eyes when they're charging (and when Spaz chases you to shoot fireballs at you). Once Spaz bares its fangs, it's time to take to the skies. With a Featherfall buff (with wings for added flight time), you can goad Spaz into charging and riddle it with Crystal Bullets as it comes back for another run. Whenever Spaz is barfing flames, you should take that time to back up a bit, heal if necessary, and continue the Crystal offensive. Before too long, Spaz should shatter, leaving you with Retinazer.

Since Retinazer also likes to hover in a specific location, you have two options: either stand still and tank the lasers it shoots (goes against the "Don't Stop Moving" thing, I know, but the lasers are weak enough that you can take a couple of hits), or run away from Retinazer and lead your shots so it runs into the Crystal Bullets. The fragmentation really messes the Eyes up as you can gather, so keep riddling Retinazer with rounds and eventually its beam focus should appear. You'll want to keep up the air manoeuvres to avoid its lasers, as I suggested for the Melee fighter earlier, and around 98% of the lasers should miss. Since its movement is predictable, you should be able to fire at where Retinazer will be and keep dealing damage to it. Before too long, Retinazer should fire its final laser as you deliver the killing blow, granting you some well-earned sellin' Souls!

Seriously, the only thing that a Ranger can make from the Souls of Sight is the Fairy Bell, so you can make that, then sell the rest of the souls at 80 Silver a pop.

Skeletron Prime

Prime is going to be a bit of a tough customer thanks to its flailing arms blocking your shots, but if you have piercing shots or Crystal Bullets, they shouldn't be too much trouble. This is a situation where the Gatligator might see some more use, because whilst it’s inaccurate, its cone of fire means you can point in Prime’s direction and hit most of your shots. Use a raised wooden platform for this fight to reduce the Prime Cannon to a shy melee attack, and if you can, try taking out the Prime Laser to remove its other ranged option. Make sure to keep your distance at all times, since the Vice and Saw will hit you hard. Prime's movement can be confusing, especially when you're dodging his arms, so predicting where to shoot is a bit tougher this time around. Once he goes into the head-spin, you'll have an easy time nailing him with arrows, bullets, stars, what-have-you. If you've got access to Ichor Arrows, use them to lower his defences, and his increased defence during the spin shouldn't be too much of a problem. With enough concentrated fire, Prime should eventually fall, granting you the Souls of Fright. If you have the required items, you can now make the Flamethrower!

Curtain Fire: Weaponry

If you've decided the best offence is a heavy dose of violent lighting effects, you're in luck! There's a wide variety of weapons available, even before defeating the Mechanical Bosses, that'll let you cause seven shades of pain on your assailants. The only issue is that, being a mage, your armour has laughable defence. You won't be able to take too many hits before succumbing to death, which means dodging and damage are a much bigger requirement to survival than with the Fighter or Ranger. First off, let's talk staves!

Staves

These are all wands that will (with one exception) shoot a bolt of magic towards the cursor. Simple enough.

• The Flamelash is a Shadow Chest item that acts like the Magic Missile; hold the mouse button down, and a ball of fire will follow the cursor until it hits something or you let go of the mouse button. A base damage of 34 and a base Mana cost of 16 means this can hit Hardmode enemies pretty decently, although spamming the attack will drain your mana at a rapid pace.
  
• The Diamond Staff is crafted from 10 Platinum Bars and 8 Diamonds. You can get this before even fighting the Eye of Cthulhu, and it stays useful until Hardmode properly kicks in, with a base damage of 23 and a base Mana cost of 8. It shoots a bolt of white light towards the cursor, and can pierce once before vanishing on the second hit, placing it firmly in the “Emergency” tier of weapons.
  
• The Frost Staff is a stronger version of the Diamond Staff, dropped from Icy Mermen, Ice Elementals and Ice Golems. This has a base damage of 43 and a base Mana cost of 14, and it shoots an ice bolt at the cursor that can hit two enemies before vanishing. If you find one of these, immediately swap out your Diamond Staff for it.
  
• The Poison Staff is another straight upgrade from the Diamond Staff. Dropped from a Black Recluse (hope you like spiders!), this weapon fires four piercing poisonous bolts in a shotgun-style spread, and shoots roughly as fast as a shotgun. I've not yet counted exactly how many times this could pierce, but it's definitely at least five enemies. A base damage of 48 and base Mana cost of 22 makes this a must-have if you want crowd control and heavy piercing. Also, this can be upgraded later on, so don’t throw it away!
  
• The Nimbus Rod is unique, to say the least. Dropped from Angry Nimbus, this is a powered-up version of the Crimson Rod. When used, a cloud heads to the cursor (if it can) and will start dropping rain on whatever's beneath it. You can also have two of these clouds out at once, meaning you can hurt twice as many enemies! It has a base damage of 36, and a base Mana cost of 10. Definitely a weapon to have, if only to make it rain on your enemies.

Books

Who knows what sort of weird stuff you can read in these books... well, in reality, they're basically another type of magic weapon that you can auto-fire by holding down the mouse button (with one exception). Of the four books you can get before fighting the Mechanical Bosses, there're three that you can craft, based on the Hallow, the Corruption and the Crimson:

• The Crystal Storm is the Hallowed book, made from 30 Crystal Shards and 15 Souls of Light. This book shoots crystals at the cursor that have a Minisharkesque spread which can also bounce off walls. A base damage of 25 and a base Mana cost of 4 makes this an essential accessory for fighting the Mechanical Bosses, especially considering its high fire speed.
  
• The Cursed Flames is the Corrupted book, made from 30 Cursed Flames and 15 Souls of Night. Think of this as an upgraded Flower of Fire: you can shoot around three fireballs a second, they can hit two enemies before disappearing, and they'll inflict Cursed Fire onto an enemy. It'll also fire and travel faster than the Flower of Fire. A base damage of 35 and a base Mana cost of 12 makes this a useful damage dealer that you don't have to rely on super-rare drops to find.
  
• The Golden Shower is the Crimson book, made from 30 Ichor and 15 Souls of Night. Craft this one the first chance you get. On use, it'll fire three streams of Ichor towards the cursor on an arc, much like the Aqua Sceptre but with a longer operational range. This attack can pierce five times, auto-fires for a constant stream of Ichor, and will lower your target's defence by 20 points for ten seconds, letting you deal even more damage. A base damage of 22 and base Mana cost of 7 makes this a VERY useful support weapon.

The fourth book I mentioned is the Demon Scythe, a rare Demon drop. This doesn't auto-fire, but on use, it will summon a spinning sickle that stays in place for a second or so before accelerating towards the cursor's position at the time of firing. It can strike enemies 5 times before dissipating, and can deal heavy damage to slow or large enemies. A base damage of 35 and a base Mana cost of 14 makes this a very useful book to carry into the Mech bosses, as you can easily set traps for The Destroyer to run into.

Other

Of the remaining weapons you can use, there are four that are unique in their form factor:

• The Laser Rifle is a Wall of Flesh drop that fires lasers. Think an automatic Space Gun and you've got this. Its lasers fire faster, travel faster, and can hit three enemies before disappearing. Each laser has a base damage of 29 and a base Mana cost of 8. This can be used for crowd control and can deal some moderate damage to The Destroyer thanks to its piercing capabilities.
  
• The Flower of Fire is a Shadow Chest find that you can get before Hardmode. When you swing this, a fireball is shot at the cursor, which will then bounce a few times before disappearing. This can only hit one enemy before breaking, but can deal some decent damage, at a base of 44, and can set enemies alight. Spamming this might not be a good idea due to its base Mana cost of 17, but it's useful for the start of Hardmode.
  
• The Flower of Frost is a straight upgrade to the Flower of Fire that's found in Ice Mimics. It bounces seven times before breaking, can't pierce enemies, but deals a base of 50 damage and costs 17 Mana to begin with. It can inflict Frostburn, which can hurt all but two enemies! Take this over the Flower of Fire if you can get it.
  
• The Magic Dagger, found in Mimics, is a dagger that you use like the Throwing Knife. On use, a dagger is thrown at the cursor, but is highly subject to gravity, falling after a second of flight. This can hit two enemies and can deal a base damage of 40 with a base Mana cost of 6. 1.2 buffed this weapon so that you can fire dozens of daggers in a short amount of time, albeit with rapid mouse clicking. Useful for hitting enemies at range with high damage, and its fire speed can stunlock enemies with ease!

Since most of these weapons are rare drops, it's best you make the crafted weapons first before going out to find the higher power variants. Survivability is key!

Next up: Buffs and Accessories!

Curtain Fire: Accessories and Buffs

Weapons and armour (paper-thin though it may be) are decent enough, and can win you the fight with expert dodging. But for an easier time of it, there are a few Accessories and Buffs you can use to give yourself the edge.

Accessories

These items are near-indispensable to a Mage, with most of them involving the regeneration of Mana - just don't wear all of them at once. The sum of their parts most definitely isn't greater.

• The Mana Flower can be obtained as soon as you enter the Underground Jungle, and is crafted from a Nature's Gift and a Mana Potion. When equipped, all spells cost 8% less to cast, and if you run out of Mana, this will auto-use the first Mana potion you have in your inventory, from top-left to bottom right. The cost reduction is somewhat negligible on some items, and if you've got your "Use Mana Potion" key rebound to something you can easily hit in combat (as compared to M - who even uses that?), then this item can be exchanged for another item. However, if you're not good at multitasking, this is for you!
  
• The Mana Regeneration Band, crafted from the Band of Starpower and Band of Regeneration is what the Band of Starpower used to be - along with +20MP, this band will regenerate MP instead of HP, making it a rather useful item for people who can live without using an attack for a short while.
  
• The Magic Cuffs are an item that're crafted from the Mana Regeneration Band and a Shackle. When equipped, you get the usual +20MP, but instead of regenerating Mana faster, any damage you take will be returned to you in MP. This won't block damage, but instead gives you MP based on the damage of the attack you received before defence reductions. I've not used this item myself, but I have friends who swear by its usefulness.
  
• The Sorcerer's Emblem is a Wall of Flesh drop. When equipped, all magic damage is increased by 15%. Short, sweet, and to the point.
  
• The Celestial Magnet is a Travelling Merchant item that can be bought for 15 Gold, being available from the start of the game if you’re lucky and wealthy! With this, your Mana Star pick-up range is increased by an order of magnitude! Or rather, you can pick up stars from up to 22 blocks away from you. It’ll cause the Stars to fly through blocks towards you. The Magnet can then be mixed further with the Magic Cuffs to make the Celestial Cuffs (which combines the effects of both Accessories), or with the Avenger Emblem to make…
  
• …the Celestial Emblem. Crafted from the Magnet and an Avenger Emblem, this’ll give you the Magnet’s effect AND boost your magic damage by 15%!

Keep in mind that if you have a Crimson world, you won't be able to get the Mana Regeneration Band, Magic Cuffs or Celestial Cuffs since the Band of Starpower drops from Shadow Orbs, so it's best to make a Corrupted world if you want these items.

Buffs

Along with the four regular buffs, a Mage can have three other buffs to keep them going:

• A Mana Regeneration Potion, crafted from a Bottle of Water, Moonglow, Daybloom and a Fallen Star, will boost your Mana regen for 2 minutes. Don't use the previous Mana regen buffers as an idea of how fast this refills your Mana, as it will refill fast.
  
• A Magic Power Potion, crafted from a Bottle of Water, Moonglow, Deathweed and a Fallen Star, will give you +20% Magic Damage for 2 minutes. Useful for if you feel you're not doing enough damage. Just remember to bring more than one.
  
• The Crystal Ball is bought from the Wizard for 10 Gold, and when placed and right-clicked, will give you a Clairvoyance buff that lasts 10 minutes and gives you +20MP, +5% Magic Damage, +2% Magic Crit Strike Chance and -2% Mana Cost.

Just remember, if you’ve been playing Mage for long enough, you’ll know the perils of the Mana Sickness debuff, which lowers your attack power by up to 50% if you use two potions in quick succession. The Mana Regen potion is a useful way to counteract this dreaded illness, as are the Magic/Celestial Cuffs.

With all this done, let's call forth the boss music!

Curtain Fire: Let's Get Casting!

Now that you're kitted out and ready to roll, it's time to grab the summon items and unleash hell! Mages will want to take on the Twins first, in order to get some powerful weapons, then the Destroyer and Skeletron Prime for Armour and Souls. As an extra tip, you should always have a stack of Super Mana Potions on hand (seen to the right) so you can keep up the damage (crafted from 15 Greater Mana Potions, 1 Fallen Star, 3 Crystals and a Unicorn Horn; crafts 15)

The Twins

These two will likely be the hardest to beat if your dodging skills aren't up to scratch, thanks to their high damage output and 2v1 advantage. Be sure to make a raised wooden platform that runs a few hundred blocks left and right so you have room to breathe, and start unleashing hell. As with the Ranger's section, you should focus on Spazmatism first, since it's the more dangerous of the two. If you have it, fire at both Eyes with the Golden Shower so you can spot them in the dark easier, or use the Cursed Flames if you don't have the former, as the Twins are susceptible to Cursed Fire. Then start running whilst casting Crystal Storm or Demon Scythes so that Spaz'll charge into the shots. Once Spaz starts charging, start with some air manoeuvres with the Featherfall buff to dodge its movements, and follow up with some Laser Rifle or Crystal Storm fire (depending on their positioning). After a few cycles of this, Spaz should bare its teeth, which is when you should keep your distance. If you have it, swing the Nimbus Rod above Spaz when it's barfing fire, then continue your Crystalline assault. Once Spaz starts charging, you should start dodging with the Featherfall buff. Since Spaz travels a very large distance with each charge, you can get some time to breathe if you send it off-screen with a charge. Whilst it's charging, keep using Crystal Storm if it's charging at you, or the Laser Rifle if it's out of the Crystals' reach. It shouldn't be able to live too long with this form of assault.

After that, it's Retinazer time. You'll likely have caught Retinazer with some stray magic here and there, in which case you'll have less work to do. Keep in mind that it'll still charge at you every so often until it brings out the beam focus. Until that happens, you should fire Crystal Storm and Cursed Flames at Retinazer whilst it tries to assault you with laser fire. Once its squishy exterior falls away, you should switch to the Laser Rifle and keep running. When it's rapid-firing lasers you should jump and hold Up with the Featherfall buff so that the lasers can't hit you. Once the rapid fire is over, try switching sides (left-to-right etc) so that you don't run out of running room, and keep avoiding the lasers. Before too long, Retinazer should die, granting you the Souls of Sight necessary to make the Rainbow Rod and Magical Harp.

The Destroyer

As I mentioned before, The Destroyer might look dangerous, but it is very weak to piercing/multi-hit weapons. If you managed to craft the Golden Shower, the Destroyer may as well self-destruct for all the damage you can deal to it. With proof of how mighty the stream is:

Granted, this is a dated video, showing the 1.2 Destroyer and Golden Shower. It won’t be so easy now, with the 5-pierce limit and the Destroyer’s immunity to debuffs, but the effect is pretty much the same: rusted joints.

Now, if you weren't able to craft the Golden Shower, don't fret! You've still got several options. The Crystal Storm, despite its inability to pierce, can deal some decent damage to The Destroyer's bodywork, and can make short work of the Probes too. The Laser Rifle, Cursed Flames and Demon Scythe can also do some severe damage to The Destroyer due to their piercing natures. If you defeated The Twins first, then you should immediately whip out your Magical Harp, make like it's Dragonforce and fill the area with piercing music. Just remember to grab some health every now and then if you're starting to bottom out, either from the Probes or from a Greater Health Potion, and the Destroyer should be dead within a couple of minutes of constant fire. Just be sure to clear out any remaining Probes so you don't get killed during the victory lap.

Skeletron Prime

Time for the finale with Skeletron Prime! If you made a platform for fighting The Twins, keep it up so you can fight Prime. The thin platforms will allow the Cannon's bombs to fall past without exploding, making the Cannon somewhat redundant. Your main threats are the Laser (with its ranged ability), the Saw and the Vice, thanks to their damage output. Since the Saw and Vice keep swinging at you, you'll need to be able to keep hopping above and around them. This'll make Prime fly all over the place, so short of ungodly dodging manoeuvres, you're going to get hit. This is one of the fights where the Poison Staff can be useful, since its spread fire and piercing nature means you'll almost always hit part of Prime with each shot. When Prime goes into a headspin, back up and either start flinging the Magic Dagger at his skull, cast a Nimbus Rod cloud above his skull, or start spamming the Crystal Storm at him. If you've managed to craft them, the Golden Shower can lower Prime's defence, whilst the Rainbow Rod can replace the Flamelash and can be repeatedly fired at Prime for an average of a hundred damage a shot, potentially more. If you're using piercing or spreading weapons, you might end up breaking an arm or two before killing Prime's Head, which'll make fighting Prime a whole lot easier. If you can keep up your assault without taking too much damage, you'll come out of the battle with Souls of Might.

The Stuff of Legends: Hallowed Gear and Soul Crafting

Once you have the Destroyer's loot, you can begin making the Hallowed gear! These are all the items you'll be able to craft with the Hallowed Bars and (with the defeat of the other Mech bosses) the Souls of Might, Sight and Fright:

• Hallowed Armour (total of 54 Bars)
  
• Frost Armour (total of 46 Bars and three Frost Cores
  
• Excalibur (12 Bars)
  
• Gungnir (12 Bars)
  
• Drax or Pickaxe Axe (18 Bars and one Boss Soul each)
  
• Hallowed Repeater (12 Bars)
  
• Light Disks (total of 20 Bars, 15 Souls of Light and 25 Souls of Might for five Light Disks)
  
• Megashark (Minishark, Illegal Gun Parts, 5 Shark Fins and 20 Souls of Might)
  
• Magical Harp (Harp, 25 Crystal Shards, 12 Souls of Night and 20 Souls of Sight)
  
• Fairy Bell (Bell, 80 Pixie Dust, 12 Souls of Light and 20 Souls of Sight)
  
• Rainbow Rod (4 Unicorn Horns, 60 Pixie Dust, 30 Crystal Shards, 10 Souls of Light and 20 Souls of Sight)
  
• Flamethrower (Illegal Gun Parts, 20 Iron/Lead Bars and 20 Souls of Fright)
  
• Neptune's Shell (5 Shark Fins, 15 Goldfish and Coral, 5 Souls of Night and Light and 20 Souls of Fright)
  
• Pumpkin Moon Medallion (5 Ectoplasm, 10 Hallowed Bars, 30 Pumpkins) (will be described in separate section)
  
• Naughty Present (20 Silk, 5 Ectoplasm and 5 Souls of Fright) (same as Medallion – described later on)
  
• Biome Key (Key Mold, 5 Souls of Might, Sight and Fright, and a Temple Key)

To get all these items, you'll need to kill The Destroyer twice, The Twins three times and Skeletron Prime twice. With the introduction of Hallowed Bars, making the Hallowed Armour isn't as much of a chore, and can be made with up to three Destroyer kills!

This will be split into two sections, with thanks once again going to character limits: One section dedicated to Hallowed Bars (te items pictured above are those items) and another dedicated to purely soul-based items (the next section)

Armour

With Ice Golems now dropping Frost Cores, Hallowed Bars can now craft Passive and Active Armours! Unfortunately, the Active armour only affects Melee and Ranged players, so if you’re a mage, you’re best off making Hallowed Armour! The Plate Mail will give you 15 Defence and +7% Crit Strike Chance, whilst the Greaves will give you 11 Defence, +7% Damage and +8% Movement Speed. As with the Passive armour sets, your helmet determines your set bonus:

• The Headgear gives you 5 Defence, grants its wearer +100MP and +12% Magic Damage/Crit Strike Chance, with a set bonus of -20% Mana Cost
  
• The Mask gives you 24 Defence, grants its wearer +10% Melee Damage/Crit Strike Chance/Speed, and has a set bonus of +19% Melee/Movement Speed
  
• The Helmet gives you 9 Defence, grants its wearer +15% Ranged Damage and +8% Ranged Crit Strike Chance, and has a set bonus of 25% Chance to not use ammo

For those who like swinging swords or shooting the breeze, there’s Frost Armour! Now crafted from Hallowed Bars and Frost Cores (potentially to stymie people getting useful armour too easily), this is the go-to set for those who want to see their enemies glow blue with icy fire! Here are the stats for each piece, as well as how many Hallowed Bars you need to make them:

• The Helmet costs 10 Hallowed Bars, gives 10 Defence and +16% Melee/Ranged Damage
  
• The Breastplate costs 20 Hallowed Bars, gives 20 Defence and +11% Melee/Ranged Crit Strike Chance
  
• The Leggings cost 16 Hallowed Bars, gives 13 Defence, +8% Movement Speed and +7% Melee Speed

As was said before, wearing the full set makes melee and ranged damage deal bonus Frostburn damage! With only a few enemies being resistant to this debuff, it can be a handy way to deal with enemies until you get late-to-end-game armour!
(as a side-note, mages CAN wear this armour, but the only bonus they’d get is defence – 43 versus the Hallowed’s 31)

Digging

Once you've crafted what you want from the Hallowed Bars, it's time to craft the digging tool of your choice - the Drax for drilling fans, and the Pickaxe Axe for acoustic fans. Both are functionally identical to each other apart for how their sprite works - Drax points at the cursor, Pickaxe Axe swings in a certain direction, allowing players to deflect ne'er-do-wells. They're both also able to mine Chlorophyte Ore in the Underground Jungle, which we'll get to later.

Weapons

Melee
Your first task should ideally be to craft the Light Disks, as they can take the place of the Flamarang or Bananarangs once you have five; they auto-fire, ricochet off of walls, and fly further than both of the other 'rangs. The Bananarangs still have more damage (40 compared to a Light Disk's 35), but the Light Disks will be easier to obtain. Also remember, since this is a stacked item, the Light Disks cannot get modifiers, legitimately at least.

The Excalibur should be crafted next, if you want to replace the Phasesaber. A base damage of 47 before Armour set buffs, this legendary Welsh blade swings as fast as the Phasesaber, can be held down to auto-swing, has greater knockback, and can be swung in one direction, allowing you to moonwalk whilst swinging. This is a lot more useful than I make it out to be, since you can use it to deal some decent damage to Skeletron Prime without taking too much damage.

The Gungnir is a must-have if you don’t plan on using the Mushroom Spear. Even if you DO plan on using the Mushroom Spear, carry one of these around anyway. A base damage of 42, a faster swing speed and a very long reach makes this Nordic legend a direct upgrade to the Ore-Spears.

Ranged
Finally, there’s one weapon the Ranger can craft from Hallowed Bars: The Hallowed Repeater.
The Hallowed Repeater fires faster than the Adamantite Repeater and as fast as the Titanium Repeater, and out-powers both with a base damage of 38. This also allows you to use any ammo, unlike the Marrow or Ice Bow which converts suitable shots into their special arrows.

With the Hallowed crafting completed, let’s move on to the Souls!

Need Humanity: Soul Crafting

Thanks to changes to the previous section, this page is going to be dedicated to the items you can craft with souls and other sundries. No Hallowed bars required for these things!

General

If you've ever been hurting for a light source (Crimson World players more than most, I’d reckon) , the Fairy Bell is here to help! Use it, and a fairy will follow you, keeping up better than any Shadow Orb ever could (fairy comes in pink, green or blue, chosen at random on use)

Wanted to go underwater, but hated the whole idea of "drowning"? The Neptune Shell has you covered! Equip this Accessory, and on entering water you'll become a member of the merfolk, fully able to swim and move without hindrance. If you're a fighter and want to keep your Moon Charm, then have I got the deal for you. Mix the Moon Charm with the Neptune Shell to create the Moon Shell, which gives you lycanthropy at night and the merfolk buff in water - just remember, the Merfolk buff supersedes the Werewolf buff, meaning you lose your stats on hitting water. Keep this in mind!

Range

There are two Soul weapons the Ranger can craft, both of which are awesome.

The Megashark is Minishark's older brother: nearly four times as deadly at 23 base damage and a 50% chance to not use ammo, obtaining this beast will simplify the rest of the Mechanical Bosses, and arguably the rest of the game in terms of sheer DPS. It even beats out the Gatligator for both power and accuracy!

The Flamethrower is exactly what it sounds like. Using Gel for ammo (hope you saved that stuff!) and a base damage of 27, this weapon shoots five bursts of flame at the cursor that can pierce enemies, making it great for crowd control. It can't be used underwater (naturally) and any flames that hit water will break at the waterline. This makes quick work of any segmented enemies (like, say, The Destroyer)

Magic

Mages have two Soul weapons they can craft: the Rainbow Rod and Magical Harp.

The Rainbow Rod acts like the Flamelash, but with a ball of rainbows instead of fire. This is the hardest-hitting weapon of its type, with a base damage of 72 and a base Mana cost of 10. You can either use this to hit enemies behind walls, find your way around dark caves, or spam it at bosses to deal some heavy damage!

The Magical Harp is a strange weapon. A base damage of 30 and base Mana cost of 4, this fires notes at the cursor that aren't affected by gravity. The further the cursor is from the player, the higher the note's pitch, and the faster the note flies. The notes can pierce infinitely until they disappear, after four seconds of flight time. If you can't get the Golden Shower, this is the go-to weapon if you need to damage several enemies at once. Even if you can get the Golden Shower, get the Harp as well so you can fire a quick spray of Ichor, then kill everything with lousy beautiful music!

Summons

Summoners have an upgrade from their venomous Spiders in the form of the Optic Staff. Costing 10 Mana to summon, this staff will summon a miniature pair of the Twins that'll float around the player, attacking anything they can for an average of 30 damage. The Mini-Spaz will rush enemies, whilst the Mini-Retinazer will fire lasers at any enemies it can see. And unsurprisingly for a pair of mini robot eyes, they have quite an impressive sight range and will start shooting at things that are off-screen. What makes this particular staff fun is that, with the right buffs, armour and accessories, you can have up to eighteen eyeballs following you at once, ripping hordes to shreds. However, this is offset by the crafting requirements - alongside Souls of Light and Hallowed Bars, you need two Lenses and a Black Lens. If you found one early on in the game, now's the time to use it!

Finally, there are Biome Keys! Save at least 5 of each type of boss soul for later, and once you have a Key Mold and a Temple Key, you'll be able to get some end-game loot!

Robot War Aftermath: What Now?

With the destruction of a Mechanical Boss, a few things will happen in the world:

• The boss you defeated will no longer have a chance to randomly spawn, and similarly enemies will stop dropping their summon items.
  
• The Steampunker will move in, if there's vacant housing available.
  
• The Underworld will have two new mobs (Lava Bats and Red Devils), both of which have new drops.
  
• The Solar Eclipse has a small chance to happen during the daytime.

…and with the further destruction of all three Mechanical Bosses, Plantera’s Bulbs will start appearing in the Jungle!

The Steampunker

This character will move in once you've destroyed a Mechanical boss - possibly out of interest in the robotic monstrosity you managed to murder. She sells the Clentaminator, the easiest (if most expensive at 2 Platinum) method to removing biomes, and Teleporters for two and a half Gold, which (with enough cabling) can take you across the map instantaneously. Depending on the time of day and where her house is situated, she'll sell Solutions (25 Silver each) that are used with the Clentaminator:

• If she's in the Hallow, she'll sell Blue Solution that spreads the Hallow.
  
• If it's a Blood Moon or Solar Eclipse, she'll sell Purple Solution or Red Solution, depending on which flavour of evil your world has.
  
• If she's not selling these, she'll sell Green Solution that decontaminates worlds, returning them to their lush, green splendour. This'll also turn Mushroom Biomes into Jungle, if you want to do that.

Since Hardmode will be active when she graces you with her presence, she'll sell Cogs for 7 Silver each that can either be used to make High Velocity Bullets or be made into Steampunk furniture. If it's daytime, she'll sell the Solidifier for 10 Gold, which can be used to turn Gel into Slime Blocks. During night-time, she'll sell a Blend-O-Matic for 10 Gold, which can craft Asphalt Blocks out of Stone and Gel. Running on Asphalt will allow you to run faster, so if you wanted to you could pave over the entire overworld and run at the speed of sound! Also, if you’re in a Crimson World, she’ll sell the Flesh-Cloning Vat for 10 Gold. This’ll allow you to make Flesh furniture!

She sells Steampunk Clothes during a waning moon, if that's your sorta thing, and she'll also sell a Jetpack for 40 Gold on a waxing moon. Similar to Wings, this has the unique ability to let you fly faster than the wings if you hold Up (or W, whatever you have it bound to). Quite useful for escaping the wrath of a boss.

New Underworld Enemies

Once a Mechanical Boss falls, these two buggers start popping up in the underworld, mixed in with the regular mobs. They probably don't appear immediately so that an unsuspecting player who accidentally killed the Wall of Flesh doesn't get mauled horribly for their actions.

The Lava Bat is the weaker of the two, dealing an average of 50 damage when it hits you. They only have 160HP, so a decent strike can send 'em packing. They have a chance to drop the Magma Stone (which I’ve found out can drop from the Hellbats as well, before Hardmode activates!), which can be used by Melee fighters to deal fire damage with melee attacks. It can also be mixed with the Mechanical Glove to create the Fire Gauntlet. Other than that, they're not too notable, and basically blend in with the other hellions.

The real threat out of these two mobs is the Red Devil. Looking more like a stereotypical Hell beast, these guys spell trouble with their tridents. Bumping into them isn't the problem, though; similarly to the Demons, the Red Devil can fire purple tridents at the player that can do triple-digit damage, being able to take out well-prepared players within a few strikes. They're no slouch when it comes to HP either, at 600. These guys also drop the Magma Stone, but they can also drop one of two unique items: the Fire Feather and the Unholy Trident. The Feather can be combined with Souls of Flight to make Flame Wings, which have the same travel height as the Frozen/Leaf Wings.

The Unholy Trident is a magic weapon that lets you fire the Red Devil's trident at enemies. It can strike four enemies before disappearing and does a base damage of 65 at a base Mana cost of 14, making this a deadly (if slow-firing) replacement for the Demon Scythe.

Calvin's Army: The Frost Legion

During the holiday season (between the 15th and 31st of December), you'll likely have found Presents (seen here ) lying amongst the scattered remains of your fallen foes. If you open these in a Hardmode world, there's a chance that, in its ribbony caress, you'll find the Snow Globe.



It's a fairly low chance, so stock up on Presents. When you finally get your hands on one, for christ's sake, don't use it immediately. You'll see that it has a tool-tip on it that succinctly details what will happen if you use it. Using a Snow Globe will summon the Frost Legion, a pre-1.2 Hardmode Invasion. Before 1.2, these were the toughest hordes you could face, and were pretty harrowing to fight in anything but Hallowed gear (at least for solo players). With the introduction of the Pirates, the Solar Eclipse, and the Pumpkin/Frost Moon, they've become a rather palatable (and somewhat drab) Invasion that can be taken on without too much trouble, especially with the new weapons available to players with 1.2.

It's worth noting as well that these buggers weren't nerfed during the 1.2 update, so they're as they were when they first appeared, way back in the heady days of 2011. Since this is an Invasion, akin to the Goblins and Pirates, you need to defeat a certain number of them before they retreat. As they follow the same rules as the Goblins (80 + 40 per >200HP Player) you'll have to slay 120 Snowmen before your victory is secured. One of the ways they differ from the other Invasions is that they can only be summoned - you won't be in the middle of spelunking and be told that "The Frost Legion is approaching from the West!". The Frost Legion is also the least varied of the Invasions, only having three different types of enemies in the attack; a knife-wielding snowman, a snowball-launching snowman (don't ask about how they're flinging their own flesh at you) and a snowman brandishing a Tommy Gun. In all honesty, it's showing its age a little, but the snowy gits make up for it with attack power.

The Frost Legion: Meet the Snowmen

The three Snowmen you'll expect to face are the Snow Balla, the Snowman Gangsta, and Mister Stabby. Each snowman has the same amount of health (no variances as with the Zombies, Demon Eyes, Pumpkin Moon mobs) and is easily distinguished by the items they're sporting.

Snow Ballas have brown hats with a white trim, and will always have a snowball ready to fling. They have 220HP, a Defence of 22, and can do 55 damage on contact, with the snowballs dealing 35 damage. Be warned that the snowballs will act like sand that Antlions throw, and will turn into Snow Blocks on contact with most solid objects (ie not the player), which can eventually lead to clogs if you have tunnels, or the invasion happens to be near your housing estate.

Snowman Gangstas have black hats with a white trim, and have a Tommy Gun that they're ready to fire at any time. With 200HP, 20 Defence and 50 contact damage, these guys are the weakest of the bunch, but make up for it with deadly machine-gun fire (dealing 25 damage per bullet). Unfortunately for the Gangsta, his arms are made of twigs, meaning he can only fire in a straight line ahead of him, letting you get the cheese for your ham sandwich as you perch above him, dropping bricks on his head.

Mister Stabby is the only Snowman without a hat, but he makes up for this deficiency with a tiny knife. It could also be an icicle. I can't tell. But anyway, this guy's the toughest of the lot, with 240HP, 26 Defence and 65 contact damage. He's also the fastest of the Legion, willing to track you down and plunge his tiny knife into a ♥♥♥♥♥ of your armour! Whilst he's doing his absurdly long stabbing animation, you can use this time to attack or run away. Whatever suits you best.

Since these guys were introduced during the phase in Terraria where Snow biomes were "The Cool Thing To Have", they don't have much in range of drops - 5-10 Snow Blocks and around 4 Silver coins per snowman. Which is at least logical, but defeating these guys is less about the potential money-farming and more about the challenge. And the fact that the Clothier will give away the Balla and Gangsta Hats for free (he probably scooped them from the ground after the attack and tried to sell them - with no takers, he's giving away his stock), and another NPC will move in, provided it's still the holiday period.

But enough of that, let's talk strategy!

Melting the Monsters: Frost Legion Strategy

As I've said a few times, these guys are simple snowmen from a simpler time, where an update didn't try to please Rangers for the developers' blasphemous ways. These guys are easy to fight and easy to trick, meaning you can cheese them so hard you'll have pizzas for days. The one way you can guarantee a safe fight is to dig out a trench (or raise a wall a few blocks high), place platforms above it, and voilà! Instant Snowman Safety, the likes of which a fresh Hardmode player can defeat the Frost Legion with no danger at all!

But say you want to fight them without due preparation. This is a very sensible thing, since the one true reason to fight these guys more than once is to test yourself. Since they were considered tough before 1.2, you'll want to be packing some decent armour - anything beyond Mythril should do you fine, though to be on the safe side, you should fight these guys once you have some Hallowed Armour. As for weapons, anything with a decent range and piercing/splash damage to handle crowds of the icy varmints will help you through the fight.

For Melee players, this will mainly involve spears, flails and chakrams for long-ranged damage. The Dao of Pow is your best bet for clearing a set of the snowmen, killing a fair few whilst scattering the rest. A Titanium/Adamantium Spear can be relied on to pierce Mister Stabby before he gets into stabbing range, whilst the Mushroom Spear can deal additional damage to the hordes. The Beam Sword can be used by mouse-clickers in a pinch to macerate any snowmen looking for a kiss, and can even strike twice thanks to its beam attack, whilst the Phasesaber can reliably deal damage without having to worry about that stupid "luck" factor that comes into finding rare drops. If you're fighting them after having scrapped the RoBosses, you can use the Gungnir for even faster long-range stabbings, the Excalibur for better auto-slicing, or the Light Disks to truly show the snowmen why they shouldn't play with sharp frisbees.

Ranged players will have the time of their life thanks to the myriad of new bullets and arrows you can get. I'd definitely recommend an ore bow (ie Adamantium, Titanium, Hallowed) and some piercing arrows if you're on a nice, flat plane - Jester's Arrows being especially effective thanks to their increased range (the Starcannon will also do if you don't think you're doing enough damage). Holy or Hellfire Arrows will also do nicely for crowd coverage for their star-summons and explosions, respectively. For gunslingers, there's hate-filled Mini-Sentries Crystal Bullets for crowd control, Meteor Shot for shots that pierce one extra enemy, and Exploding Bullets for utter decimation of the snowy hordes (and your ears). As for what GUN to use, there's the usual choice - Phoenix Blaster for basic power, the Shotgun for (again) crowd control, the Clockwork Assault Rifle for accuracy and ammo conservation, and the Uzi/Gatligator for utter spray'n'pray. If you're doing this after having killed the Mech Bosses, you can also use the Hallowed Repeater, the Megashark or the Flamethrower, all of which will make this fight a joke.

Mages have the most amusing weapons out of the lot, purely because of the elements at play here. If type match-ups were possible, the Mage would essentially ruin the Frost Legion for all the heat-blasters they have. The easiest options available are the biome books (Cursed Flames or Golden Shower, specifically - the Crystal Storm is rather piddly in this fight), with the Golden Shower being the front-runner for "Most Ironic Weapon To Use In A Fight". The Laser Rifle and Magic Dagger are of use as well, although they're not as easy to find, and the Dagger has you getting up-close and personal with the Snowmen. The Frost and Poison Staffs are useful for straight-line firing, if you can find them. The Nimbus Rod will also make short work of the Snowmen, provided you can get them to stand in the rain for long enough. Should you have the good sense to get Hallowed Armour first to increase your chances, you'll also have access to the Rainbow Rod and the Magical Harp - the former being good for dealing with out-of-reach snowmen, and the latter being good for widespread desolation.

Arguably the best way to fight these guys is on a flat area, with a couple of screen-reaching platforms to avoid having them all on the same plane. Whilst the Gangsta will be able to hit you easier, the snowmen will group close together, letting you deal damage to multiple mooks at once. Just be warned that you might bump into Mister Stabby, who at least stops to attack. And again, be wary of the Snow Ballas, as they can cause clogs with their snowballs as well as block potential escape routes.

Winter Wonderland: Frost Legion Aftermath

As was said before, when you defeat the Frost Legion, the Clothier lets you have their hats for no charge (though this could change later on, as it did with the Dryad's Pumpkin Seeds). But if you're in the holiday timezone, Santa Claus will move into the world, provided there's room for him.

Yes, jolly old Saint Nick will take up residence during the holidays, saying things involving eggnog and cookies, and even questioning your belief that he didn't exist. Whilst he's in town, he'll sell the iconic Santa outfit at 15 Gold apiece (45 Gold in total), Christmas Lights (in red, green and blue) that can be set up in houses for 5 Silver each, and a veritable cornucopia of Christmas Tree decorations (at 5 Silver each, of course), including the trees themselves at 25 Silver per fir. Just remember, Santa's a rather unstable fellow, being very in tune to the passage of time (rather like some vegetables I've heard mention of in villages), and once the holiday season's over, he'll take his leave in a somewhat undignified fashion...

From Davy Jones' Locker: The Pirate Invasion

If you didn't have any oceanic items hoarded to make your Megashark or Neptune's Shell, you'll have likely headed to the Ocean to get some supplies. With Hardmode active (even before killing a Mechanical Boss), any enemy near the ocean biome has the chance to drop one of these:

This here's a Pirate Map, and if you have one of these, you can summon a Pirate Invasion. You can do this at any time and get some nice loot, but be warned: the Pirates are strong. If you've got Adamantite Armour, they're not gonna care. They'll rip right through you and kill your villagers before you can even evacuate them. For safety reasons, I'd suggest waiting until you've killed at least one Mechanical Boss before fighting the Pirates, so's you can fight them with Hallowed gear (though depending on your class, you might want to beat all three as a precautionary measure)

The Pirate Invasion is similar to the Goblin Invasion in that there's a small chance of them spawning at daybreak, they'll head for the centre of the map and start trying to kill you, and you need to kill enough Pirates in order to defeat the Invasion. An NPC will also move in once you've defeated the Invasion, so long as you have room for him.

Meet the Pirates!

Don't let this generic image fool you; there's a lot more of 'em off-screen. You can expect to fight over a hundred Pirates off without a pause, which doesn't sound like much, but they can hit quite hard and will swarm you if you're not careful.

There are six targets to look out for in the invasion:

• Pirate Deckhand: 200HP, 35Dmg, 16 Defence. This guy's the grunt of the lot, willing to run at you unarmed. The most common Pirate.
  
• Pirate Corsair: 300HP, 50Dmg, 20 Defence. Armed with a Cutlass, this guy fights similarly to the Deckhand, but has better stats, making him a greater threat.
  
• Pirate Deadeye: 150HP, 30Dmg, 12 Defence. Armed with a handcannon, this guy'll run to a spot where he can see you, and start taking shots at you. Should be dealt with before too many appear on-screen.
  
• Pirate Crossbower: 260HP, 35Dmg, 18 Defence. Armed with a crossbow and flaming arrows, this character deals more damage than the Deadeye and can set you on fire, so you should try to take her out as soon as you can.
  
• Parrot: 100HP, 80Dmg, 12 Defence. These Parrots are easily shot down, but don't let their low health fool you! They can easily rip out chunks of your health if you're not careful!
  
• Pirate Captain: 2,000HP, 70Dmg, 28 Defence. The leader of the motley crew, this guy is a priority target. He's the slowest of the group, but once he can see you, he'll pull out a gun-cannon and open fire. Every so often, he'll launch a cannonball that'll explode on hitting land, so keep well away from it! He's also immune to knockback, but hitting him will break him out of his attack, so make sure to keep up your offensive if he lumbers into view. Just as a small note, don't try and confuse these guys - they'll turn around as if they were confused, but they'll still pace towards you, turning an imposing gait into a strange moonwalk.

Considering they can take out some large fractions out of your health bars, you need to treat this with caution. You can prepare the central spawn so that none of them get stuck and they all come at you in a line, but beyond that, it's a case of crowd control and damage dodging.

Loot

Compared to other invasions, the Pirates hold quite a large stash of loot in their pockets. With the amount of Pirates you have to kill, you'll always leave a battle with at least one new item in your pockets. Note that not every single item is dropped by each enemy - you can only get the Parrot banner from the Parrots, and the Captain can only drop the weapons, accessories and banner, albeit at a double drop rate. Everything else can be found in the pockets of the crew:

• Coin Gun - the rarest item in the list, with a 1 in 8,000 chance to drop. This gun is rather self-explanatory: you fire your cash at ne'er-do-wells, with higher value currency dealing more damage.
  
• Lucky Coin - the second-rarest item in the list, with a 1 in 4,000 chance to drop. When equipped, this accessory makes it so every time you hit an enemy, there's a 20% chance money will drop, ranging from Copper to Gold Coins.
  
• Discount Card - the third-rarest item, with a 1 in 2,000 chance to drop. When equipped, this accessory drops the prices in the shops by 20%, and even lowers the cost of reforging!
  
• Pirate Staff - a summon weapon with a 1 in 2,000. This jangly rod summons tiny two-foot-high pirates that'll rush at enemies and attack for a base damage of 32. They won't crit (like every other summon) and if you've got the Optic Staff, these guys won't be as good. But they'll leave behind little turds for you to accidentally step in!
  
• Cutlass - a moderately-rare drop, with a 1 in 200 chance to drop. A melee weapon, this deals a base damage of 52 and auto-swings. Its power outmatches the Excalibur, so getting this on a Melee run is some good fortune!
  
• Sailor Hat - a vanity hat, this has a 1 in 500 chance to drop. Speaking personally, I don't like it.
  
• Sailor Shirt - a vanity shirt, this has a 1 in 500 chance to drop.
  
• Sailor Pants - a pair of vanity trousers, this has a 1 in 500 chance to drop. Highly unresponsive to dyes.
  
• Eye Patch - a vanity mask(?), this has a 1 in 500 chance to drop. Looks sorta like the Sunglasses due to sprite flipping.
  
• Golden Furniture - Whole set includes a Chair, Table, Bed, Door, Bookcase, Chandelier, Candelabra, Lantern, Lamp, Candle, Grandfather Clock, Dresser, Piano, Bathtub, Sofa and Toilet, each piece has a 1 in 300 chance to drop. Expect to see at least one of these gracing your pockets during the fight.
  
• Banners - Comes in Parrot and Pirate! Both have a 1 in 200 chance to drop, with the Pirate Banner dropping from the Pirates and the Parrot Banner dropping from the Parrots.

Next up: Strategy!

From Davy Jones' Locker: Defeating the Pirates, and Meeting the Turncoat

As I've said before, these guys can pack a wallop, especially if they spawn naturally and catch you with your trousers down. If you're summoning them though, have some buffs at the ready, and quaff 'em all once the battle music kicks in.

In order to survive this fight, you're going to need crowd-controlling weapons, things that can pierce enemies. For Melee players, this means whipping out the Gungnir or Mushroom Spear and poking everyone back to the briny depths. You could also try the Dao of Pow to clear the air by confusing everyone, or lob an Anchor above them and somehow knocking them back by dragging the sinker past them. A fighter's main problem will be the Deadeyes and Crossbowers, as they won't want to come up for a tussle. You'll need to bring the fight to them, and by the time you get to them, they'll have likely shot you a couple of times already. Once the Pirate Captain appears, try to take to the air with whatever accessories you have equipped and start lobbing Light Disks at him. You should be able to reduce his damage output until you can get close and start macerating him with whatever auto-fire weapons you might have. Just remember, he's immune to knockback, so try swinging Excalibur in his direction and moonwalking away to keep the damage going. If you see any Parrots flying around, fling a Disk at them before they get too close and you should be set. And if one of the Pirates happens to drop a Cutlass, immediately switch to it and start slicing everyone up in a lovely bit of poetic justice.

Rangers are going to have an easier time of it with this fight thanks to the Jester's Arrows being craftable. Use a Hallowed Repeater with them and start up the fireworks. You could also get some explosive rounds for your Megashark and start spreading the damage on everyone in the area. You might want be airborne in order to get the most out of the explosions, otherwise you'll be stuck hitting the front-runners and wasting potential damage. Crystal Bullets can also work here thanks to the large amount of fragmentation you can get. Once a Captain walks in, target him with everything you've got so he can't fire - remember that you can't take as many hits as a Fighter. Otherwise, it's a case of targeting the Crossbowers and Deadeyes, then clearing up the Corsairs and Deckhands with explosions or Jester's Arrows. Of course, if you've got the Flamethrower, this fight is a lot more amusing as you set everyone alight. Its piercing ability and decent knockback will keep all but the Captain at bay, letting you deal with him with your heavier ordnance.

As a Mage, this fight's going to be a drain on your health if the Pirates get a chance to swarm you. For this fight, use every piercing weapon you have; the Magical Harp might not be able to cause knockback, but it'll cause heavy damage to everyone the notes pass through. This also makes attacking the Captain a bit easier since he'll keep his pace regardless of what knockback you have. The Poison Staff can also clear out a lion's share of the Pirates, although its spread can make things a little difficult if your shots don't fly correctly. Be warned that the Pirates are immune to Poison, so you're gonna be using the Staff for sheer damage. If you have it, the Nimbus Rod can be used to take out enemies that try to jump over walls by breaking their jump with each raindrop. And don't let the Parrots near you. An eighth of your life bar in one swoop is not a fun thing to have happen.

Once you've killed enough of the pirates, a message will pop up reading "The pirates have been defeated!". Clear out the remaining pirates and the music should return to normal. A fun little tidbit with this is that if the final enemies of the Invasion are a Parrot and a Pirate, the music will stop when you kill the final Pirate and ignore the Parrot. You should still dispatch it anyway - blighter does a ton of damage.

With the Invasion successfully routed, a new NPC should move into town: The Pirate!

The Pirate

This guy'll take up residence a short while after you beat the Pirate Invasion, provided your battle didn't run through to night-time, in which case he'll appear in the morning. He'll have one of a variety of silly names when he arrives, and talks about stereotypical pirate stuff with a slight Terrarian dash added to it. He'll sell the following items:

• Cannon: 25 Gold. Place this down, take aim and lay waste to the enemy with cannonballs!
  
• Cannonball: 15 Silver. Used with the Cannon. Deals average of 300 Damage. Not entirely sure if Ranged bonuses affects this.
  
• Sail: 50 Copper. Basically wallpaper, this can let you make convincing ships when you're building!
  
• Pirate Hat: 5 Gold. A black and gold-trim pirate captain's hat.
  
• Pirate Shirt: 5 Gold. A black and gold-trim pirate captain's shirt.
  
• Pirate Pants: 5 Gold. A pair of black and gold pirate's trousers. Apparently looks strange.
  
• Bunny Cannon: 50 Gold. Only becomes available if you've beaten a Hardmode boss and the Party Girl is alive. Think of this as a Cannon upgrade, except instead of cannonballs, it fires Explosive Bunnies! Strap a Bunny to a stick of Dynamite, and you have ammunition!

If the Pirate is housed in the Ocean Biome, he'll also sell a Parrot Cracker for the modest price of 3 Platinum and 75 Gold. When used, this'll summon a pet parrot that'll fly around you. It won't deal damage, but you'll look pretty cool.

Through the Overgrowth: The Hardmode Jungle

Once Hardmode gets going, the Jungle gets an overhaul; there are new creatures lurking in its depths, new plant-life starts to grow, and a strange ore gets generated that can reproduce itself! This all happens when the Wall of Flesh falls, but if you were to attempt to enter the Jungle with Molten Armour, you'd find yourself assailed by a half-dozen enemies that could do well over a hundred damage to you, in quick succession no less. Many times my friends and I would go to the jungle with new gear, and get ground-pounded by inexplicable turtles, or mobbed by hordes of large blue insects known as Derplings. And if you were to be able to get to any of the new ore, you'd be rather peeved when you discover that a Molten or Cobalt pick isn't going to cut it.

No, the best time to take on the Jungle in Hardmode is when you've got the Drax/Pickaxe Axe and Titanium or Hallowed Armour. The extra defence is one thing, the boosted damage stats that allow you to handle the enemies is another. Also, by the time you have the Drax/Pickaxe Axe, another plant will start growing that allows you to progress in the game. But enough of that, let's detail the enemies.

Enemies

Shown here are all the new enemies you can expect to find in the Jungle, on the canopy and in the underground. A few will only appear in the underground Jungle, but the others can spawn in the overworld Jungle, which can make traversing it somewhat difficult. They are:

• Derpling: 300HP, 80Dmg, 26 Defence. You'll see several of these guys as you try getting to your old Jungle entrance. They can easily swarm and overwhelm you with their high HP, damage, and erratic movement. Once you're in the Underground Jungle, they'll stop spawning. Can drop its banner.
  
• Arapaima: 200HP, 75Dmg, 30 Defence. These buggers can give you trouble if you venture too far into the watery depths, as they're quick to attack and, like the Derplings, can swarm easily, especially in deeper pools. Can drop its banner.
  
• Giant Flying Fox: 220HP, 80Dmg, 24 Defence. Spawning at Night in the overworld, these guys might look intimidating, but they act the same as the Jungle Bats they replace. They only drop money.
  
• Giant Tortoise: 470HP, 80Dmg, 30 Defence. Along with Derplings, these guys will be a real pain in your everything, with its ability to leap off the screen and slam down on you, koopa-style. When they're in their shell, their defence skyrockets, but constant attacking will stun-lock them, allowing you to defeat them without too much trouble. Unless there's other enemies on-screen, of course. They can drop a Tortoise Banner or a Turtle Shell, which is important to Melee players.
  
• Angry Trapper: 300HP, 100Dmg, 30 Defence. The Hardmode equivalent of a Man Eater or Snatcher, these guys have a huge reach, being able to stretch over a screen or two to get at the player. Since it can pass through walls, a Hunter Potion or weapons that can go through walls is a must here. Has a low chance to drop an Uzi.
  
• Moss Hornet: 220HP, 70Dmg, 22 Defence. These are essentially tougher Hornets, with the ability to shoot poison stingers a lot faster than their weaker variant. Can drop its banner, a Bezoar (immunity to poison) or a Tattered Bee Wing which can be crafted into Bee Wings.
  
• Jungle Creeper: 120HP, 50Dmg, 14 Defence. I forget if this is a Hardmode enemy or not, but it's best to treat it as such due to its damage output. They can crawl up background walls, which the Jungle is not short on. Can drop its banner.
  
• Moth: 1,000HP, 70Dmg, 28 Defence. These guys are rare spawns that take a bit of time to kill thanks to their HP pool, but when killed, there's a high chance of them dropping Butterfly Dust which can then be made into Fairy Wings. It can also drop a banner.

As you can see, they're quite tough. High-damage weapons are an absolute must for the Jungle if you want to survive. A Melee character's best bet would be the Mushroom Spear or a Cutlass, a Ranger's best option would be a Flamethrower, the Hallowed Repeater and Megashark with Holy Arrows and Crystal/Cursed Bullets (though just about anything will do), and the Mage's best bet is the Golden Shower (if accessible), the Magical Harp, the Rainbow Rod and Crystal Storm for its stunlocking abilities.

Loot

There are two new items that can be gleaned from the Underground Jungle, and they both grow naturally, either within its walls or on the floor.

• Chlorophyte Ore is the (currently) final ore you can find in the game. Requiring at least a Drax or Pickaxe Axe to mine, this green ore can reproduce itself, provided it's connected to Mud Blocks, there's light shining on it, and it's in the Cavern layer. There's a bunch of other restrictions on its growth, but I'll not go into detail on it. There's plenty of it growing in the Jungle, and in order to make Chlorophyte Bars, you'll need 6 chunks or Chlorophyte per bar. These can then be crafted into a myriad of tools, weapons and armour, including the proper end-game armour for each class!
  
• Life Fruit are a lovely little munchable that, if you're at 400HP, will let you increase your health bar by up to another 100HP! When you're in the Underground Jungle, you might see a plant that looks like this: They'll appear when you're using a Spelunker Potion, and are broken by just about anything that can hit enemies, similar to the Crystallized Larva in the hives. Hitting them makes a sound like a boomerang hitting land, or the same sound as a Jungle pot being broken - you should be able to hear it if you're in the Jungle. When you use a Life Fruit, one of your hearts turns gold, and you get a permanent 5HP increase to your life bar. Since they grow naturally, you can get as many as you want, and then sell them once you've hit 500HP!

Next up: Chlorophyte Loot!

Living Metal? Chlorophyte Gear

As you can see, there's a lot of stuff that you can make from Chlorophyte Bars right off the bat - tools, weapons and armour (that could be considered a mix of the Passive and Active styles of armour). The list of items are:

• Chlorophyte Armour (54 Bars)
  
• Chlorophyte Drill/Pickaxe (18 Bars)
  
• Chlorophyte Chainsaw/Greataxe (18 Bars)
  
• Chlorophyte Jackhammer/Warhammer (18 Bars)
  
• Chlorophyte Shotbow (12 Bars)
  
• Chlorophyte Saber (12 Bars)
  
• Chlorophyte Claymore (12 Bars)
  
• Chlorophyte Partisan (12 Bars)
  
• Venom Staff (14 Bars)

Armour

The toughest Ore armour you can get, this is a useful general armour set that a player can get, if they don't have the stuff to make their end-game armour. The Plate Mail gives 18 Defence, +5% Damage and +7% Crit Strike Chance, whilst the Greaves give 13 Defence, +8% Crit Strike Chance and +5% Movement Speed. The helmet you wear will change which stat bonus you get, however since this armour could be considered Active, the set-bonus is the same no matter which helm you have. The helmets are:

• The Headgear, which grants 7 Defence, +80MP, -17% Mana Cost and +16% Magic Damage.
  
• The Helmet, which grants 13 Defence, +16% Ranged Damage and +20% chance to not use ammo.
  
• The Mask, which grants 25 Defence, +16% Melee Damage and +6% Melee Crit Strike Chance.

With full Chlorophyte, you get the Leaf Crystal buff. This is a persistent buff that will fire leaves at any enemy that you or it can see, and any enemies you've attacked. The leaves can travel through land, but will only be able to hit one enemy before disappearing, dealing somewhere in the region of 30-40 damage a hit. The leaves can go on for quite a while - you'll occasionally hear pots break if the leaf misses its target. Just be wary when you're near undiscovered hives, as they can break the Crystallized Larva and trigger the Queen Bee fight.

Tools

There are six tools you can make from Chlorophyte, all of which take the same number of Bars to create, and each being either an automatic or manual item (ie how they're swung):

• The Pickaxe and Drill: dealing 40 and 35 Damage respectively, these have 200% Pickaxe power, letting them dig through just about anything in a flash!
  
• The Greataxe and Chainsaw: Dealing 70 and 57 damage per strike, these have 115% axe power, and are decent enough to be used as emergency weapons! The Axe is better for airborne enemies and clearing swarms off of you, and the Chainsaw is better for dealing damage to larger enemies.
  
• The Warhammer and Jackhammer: Dealing 80 and 45 damage respectively, these blunt objects have 90% hammer power, which isn't as amazing as some other hammers, but are both quick in their own right. The Warhammer is one of the strongest melee weapons in the game, beaten only by three or four other weapons, but this is let down by its poor attack speed.

These tools are markedly better than the Hallowed equivalent in that they have extra range! Yes, they can reach a block further than the Drax and Pwnhammer, which can be reason enough to get them.

Weapons

Now we can get on to the actual weapons! Each weapon has a special ability that'll make you want to get them:

• The Saber is an autofiring blade, much like the Cutlass. It only has 43 damage compared to the Cutlass's 52, but when swung, a spore cloud is fired at the cursor, travelling through walls and piercing enemies for roughly the same damage as the blade itself. This can allow you to barricade yourself out of harm's way and deal damage to enemies without putting yourself in danger, although you will do less damage on average as a result.
  
• The Claymore is a monster of a sword, dealing around 65 damage on hitting an enemy. When swung, the sword fires a green orb at the cursor that flies forward for a second, then succumbs to gravity. The orb can pierce enemies, dealing similar damage to the Claymore, but will break when it hits land. The Claymore doesn't autofire and swings rather slowly, so save this for when you have to deal heavy damage.
  
• The Partisan is currently the second-strongest spear you can get in the game, beating out Gungnir at 49 damage a thrust. Similarly to the Saber, the Partisan will fire a spore cloud towards the cursor when thrust forward, appearing at the end of the Partisan's thrust. This can also travel through walls and pierce enemies, though depending on the thickness of the wall, you might want to use the Saber instead. Otherwise, this is great for hitting enemies a few blocks away.
  
• The Shotbow is the best repeater you can get in the game. Despite having less damage than the Hallowed Repeater (34 against 39), what makes the Shotbow unique is the way it's built. When fired, the Shotbow can fire between one and four arrows per volley, which can spell pain for any enemy or horde depending on the type of arrow you use. Use it with Jester's Arrows and clear a crowd, or with Holy Arrows to call forth Judgement. Maybe even Hellfire Arrows to give the enemies an Exterminatus Sampler Course. Whatever you do with it, remember that arrows fired with this bow can't be retrieved, to avoid ending up with more arrows than you initially fired.
  
• The Venom Staff is an upgrade to the Poison Staff, that allows it to fire five venom teeth at the cursor with a shotgun-style spread. Each shot deals 63 damage, and has a base mana cost of 25 (1.25 Stars per shot!), and will pierce enemies several times before dissipating. As stated before, it’ll fire five teeth that can inflict Venom to an enemy, draining 2HP a couple of times a second for a short time. Very useful for hordes that can be debuffed, just be sure to watch your mana!

With all this new gear, you should be well-stocked to begin taking on the first Hardmode Jungle boss: Plantera.

Meet Plantera: Shop's Little Horror

Here's the first of two Jungle Hardmode Bosses! With 30,000HP, Plantera definitely ranks up there with the Mechanical bosses as one of the highest-health beasties in the game, with more health than each of The Twins and Skeletron Prime! Once you've defeated the Mechanical Bosses (as was mentioned in an earlier section), you'll start seeing little bulbs popping up in the Jungle. You'll be able to spot them, as they're one of the few plants that have a distinct glow to them in the Jungle (the others being blooming Moonglow and Jungle Spores). The bulbs look like this:



If you spot one of these, remember its location, and don't immediately break it on sight. Unlike the Queen Bee, you can't hit this with just about anything to start the fight; only a Pickaxe of some kind will break this. Instead, track out a path to an open area underground, preferably with a small chunk of land in the centre of the area. If needs be, make an open area. Get an area roughly the size of your screen or more so you have room to move. Once you have the necessary requirements, hit the Bulb with a Pickaxe and the message "Plantera has awoken!" will pop up, as Plantera's theme kicks in. The first thing you'll see are its hooks as it starts Ivy Whipping its way into view. The hooks will latch onto blocks and backing walls, can deal damage in the 50s with Hallowed Mask armour, and will move erratically as they change from block to block, so dodging them can be quite tricky. The vines themselves are fine, so don't worry too much about them. Plantera itself will move rather slowly (potentially as fast as the Eye of Cthulhu), but will attempt to overlap with the player to do damage, in a way similar to worm enemies. Every so often, Plantera will fire leaves or petals at you that'll be difficult to spot against backing wall, but you'll hear it fire if you listen closely enough. These move rather fast and can deal some heavy damage (between 30-60 with, again, decent armour), but can be dodged if you spot them in time. Every so often, Plantera'll increase its attack fire rate for a short while, and will occasionally fire a spiky ball that'll deal another 50ish damage with decent armour (I don't have the exact damage numbers, so I'm going based on damage I've taken in the past and so on). This spiky ball is affected by gravity and will bounce all over the place, so dodging will, again, be a bit of a tricky situation.

Once you've beaten Plantera down to below 15,000HP, the bud will break apart and Plantera will become this:

On showing its second form, Plantera will spawn eight Creepers with 1,000HP each that'll do the same damage as the Hooks. They'll act somewhat like the Hungry, except they seem less intent on trying to attack and are cool with just hanging around, being a nuisance. When you deal the damage to the Creepers, they'll simply break, possibly granting a Heart or Star. As for Plantera itself, it'll gain 16 Defence, its ranged attacks from before will be replaced with rose-looking Spores that'll be shot out, and once it's above your character will float downwards with seemingly no horizontal limit. They'll try and hit you of course, but you can break them with a single attack. Try and avoid them. Plantera will also get a speed boost by losing its petals - apparently an open mouth and teeth are more aerodynamic than a closed bud. Who knew :V

Also, a warning: trying to pull Plantera out of the jungle (ie pulling him to the Underworld or Overworld), or spawning him outside of the jungle will enrage him. This means it’ll start flying at you like a sack of bricks, stretching its vines to their limit in order to bite your head off for making it leave the balmy depths. And yes, having an NPC in the area will also cause him to enrage, due to different spawns. Be VERY careful!

The first time you successfully kill Plantera, it'll always drop these items:

• Grenade Launcher
  
• A few dozen Rocket I
  
• The Temple Key
  
• And the usual 5-15 Greater Healing Potions and 15 Gold

After that, there's a guaranteed chance (along with a Temple Key) that one of these items will drop:

• The Grenade Launcher (with a bunch of Rocket I as well)
  
• The Venus Magnum
  
• The Leaf Blower
  
• The Nettle Burst
  
• The Wasp Gun
  
• The Flower Pow

...then there's a small chance of one of these items also dropping:

• The Pygmy Staff (25% chance to drop)
  
• A Seedling (5% chance to drop)
  
• A Plantera Trophy (10% chance to drop)
  
• The Axe (0.5% chance to drop)

With the drops and stats discussed, let's talk strategies!

Grabbing the Pinking Shears: Fighting Plantera

Since Plantera is a boss you can only summon underground, fighting will be a bit of a difficult task, as you're fighting on its terms, not yours. As I said before, try and make an arena somewhere in the Jungle so you can at least get some room to move. You'll want a chunk of land in the centre of the area so you can take some cover from Plantera's petals and spike shots. Bring your usual buffs, and bring along a Hunter Potion or two along so you can spot Plantera ahead of time. Make sure there's a path from the Bulb to the arena and lead Plantera to it. From then, it's a case of (once again) dodging and taking cover when Plantera shoots, then breaking the Creepers before they can deal too much damage.

If you want to keep doing some damage whilst trying to keep away from Plantera, I'd suggest the Chlorophyte Armour due to its Leaf Crystal attacks. For maximum survivability, get all the Life Fruit you can get to beef up your life bar. If you have some buckets as well, grab some Honey from the nearest hive and put it in a little recess you can jump into from time to time. That 30s of health regen could well be the difference between failure and victory!

Melee

For Melee players, the Light Disks are going to be useful in this situation due to range. If you've managed to get the components for it, the Fire Gauntlet will be useful since it'll set Plantera on fire with each attack. You could also wear the Frost Armour in lieu of the Chlorophyte gear so that you have less defence, but deal Frostburn damage on each attack. Add on to THAT the Flask of Cursed Flames to add Cursed Inferno debuff, and you should be doing an extra 14 damage a second due to Plantera being on three kinds of fire. I forget if you can actually set enemies with more than one debuff, but the light show would be pretty sweet. Moving on, if you have the Cutlass you can charge at Plantera and start dicing its hit-points, then backing off with Light Disks, Bananarangs or the Mushroom Spear so that Plantera runs into the disks and 'shrooms. There's also the Ice Sickle's multi-hit ability, which really pays dividends with slower enemies, such as Plantera. Once the Creepers come out, it's time to Cutlass everything again. There're eight of them, and they won't immediately target you, so when you're attacking Plantera, you're very likely to catch some of the Creepers with the off-swings. If things get too hairy, start diving into or out of the Jungle (hope you remember the path!), as Plantera'll take a while to catch up. Just don't run too far otherwise you'll risk despawning or enraging it.

Ranger

For Rangers, one of the easiest ways to win is to get a Megashark with Chlorophyte Bullets or Crystal Bullets. With the Chlorophyte shots, you'll just need to aim vaguely in Plantera's direction and the bullets will aim for their targets. You'll do less damage to Plantera's second form due to the Creepers, but once they're all dead, the Chlorophyte bullets'll go right back to attacking Plantera. This also has the bonus of firing around the central chunk of land (if you have one) so you can deal damage to Plantera without it being able to shoot you back. If bows are your style, bring the Chlorophyte Shotbow along and start firing Cursed Arrows, Ichor Arrows (whichever you have), Frostburn Arrows or Holy Arrows to bring the stars down on Plantera. Since the stars will only break when they pass the arrow's original target, fighting underground won't pose too much of an issue for the stars. If you want to, you could also wear the Frost Armour so as to pile on frostburn damage naturally. When the Creepers break out, grab your Flamethrower or Jester's Arrows and lay waste to their bitey mouths, then continue to riddle Plantera with whatever heavy ordnance you have.

Magic

For Mages, this fight is all about DPS. You want to kill Plantera as quickly as possible so it has fewer chances to hit you. Since every attack can take out a good chunk of HP, you'll want to keep as far away as possible from Plantera. Things like the Magical Harp and Golden Shower will deal constant damage from a decent range, whilst the Rainbow Rod will deal heavy burst damage (an average of 90-100 a shot) provided you can land the shots. With Plantera's low movement speed, this shouldn't be an issue. If you have it, you can also use the Nimbus Rod and pull Plantera beneath the clouds to deal some more constant, piercing damage. Once the Creepers break out, start using your piercing weapons to spread the damage between them as best you can. Things like the Golden Shower (again) and Venom Staff will deal some nice damage to several of the Creepers, as will the Nimbus Rod attacks. Just remember, when Plantera "blooms", it gets a speed increase, so don't get caught off-guard and lose a chunk of HP because you weren't paying attention.

Remember this as well: Unlike the majority of the bosses, Plantera doesn't have a time limit. You don't have to spawn it at the start of night or anything, just hit the bud and it's a fight to the death.

Admiring the Roses Loot

As you can see, there's a fair amount of loot to be plundered from Plantera, with all but one of them being a weapon. I've left out the Trophy since it's obvious what that does, but the rest of the items? I shall go into detail on them now:

Melee

Of the loot available, only two are weapons that can really be called melee weapons: the Flower Pow and The Axe.

Flower Pow
This weapon is the best Flail you can get so far, besting the Dao of Pow in damage and reach. A base damage of 52 makes this an excellent weapon for dealing with airborne creatures, but it also has an extra effect: when the flail is out, petals will be shot at enemies for roughly the same amount of damage as the flail. This can help with doing damage to some enemies, although it has a tendency to miss against faster enemies. Remember to put this to use against groups of enemies to get some extra damage dealt!

The Axe
That's no axe, that's a Gibson 71 with a flying pick-up! *ahem* Sorry about that, let that slip past my bill. What I MEANT to say is that The Axe is the best Hamaxe you'll ever obtain, and is also a sturdy enough weapon to boot. With 100% Hammer Power and 175% Axe Power, this thing easily rivals the Chlorophyte and Spectre tools in terms of breaking speed. It also has a base damage of 72, beating out the Chlorophyte Claymore in power, and besting the Chlorophyte Warhammer in speed. Since it's an autofiring weapon as well, you can use this as an improvised Excalibur! And every time you swing The Axe, you'll play a random guitar chord. Along with the Bell and Harp, you could start getting a band together!

Ranged

The Ranger gets somewhat left behind with loot as well, with only two weapons to their name: the Grenade Launcher and the Venus Magnum.

Grenade Launcher
The one item you're guaranteed to get from Plantera, this is the first proper explosive launcher that the Ranger gets. None of the Hellfire Arrow silliness that goes with bows, and certainly none of that Explosive Ammo piddle that guns get. No, this is a straight up launcher of explosions. You load it with Rockets (strangely enough), and when you fire, a grenade is fired on an arc and will act like the Grenades of early-game; they'll explode when they hit a mob, or after a few seconds. Once they hit a floor or ceiling, the shots get more horizontal movement, making them useful for dealing with mobs on the other side of a wall. The Launcher itself has a base damage of 55, and the basic ammo you get (Rocket I) will deal 35 damage, meaning you begin with a base damage of 90 before armour boosts.

Venus Magnum
A handcannon of epic proportions, this is the best Handgun you'll get your mitts on. Dealing a basic 36 damage per shot, not including the bullet's damage, this beats out the Megashark in terms of per-bullet damage. However, it doesn't have the Megashark's bullet duplication ability, meaning you should save the Magnum for when you have tons of ammo to spare. It also fires nearly as fast as you can click, with an Insanely Fast use time by default, but requiring you to mash that mouse key like no tomorrow to get some real damage out of it.

Magic

The Mage gets a lucky break with drops this time, with three items to their name: the Wasp Gun, the Nettle Burst and the Leaf Blower.

Wasp Gun
Despite its name, this thing is squarely in the Magic camp. If you managed to get the Bee Gun in your escapades, then this gun should be very easy to understand. For everyone else, the Wasp Gun will fire wasps at enemies. Each shot will fire between two and four wasps, and each will do a base damage of 17 at a base Mana cost of 6. You could think of this as homing Crystal Storm, I suppose. The wasps will die when they've stung enough enemies, or traverse into water or lava. Very useful for subsequent Plantera runs!

Nettle Burst
Another throwback weapon of sorts! If you got a Corrupt world, there's a chance you managed to get a Vilethorn in your orb-smashing escapades. This weapon is that, but more so. Dealing a base damage of 24 and a base Mana cost of 12, this can go through walls and will stun-lock groups of enemies at once! This variant can also be auto-fired, which can be useful for certain situations.

Leaf Blower
Originally a no-mana-cost weapon, the Leaf Blower is a strong weapon even after having a mana cost put on it. Dealing 42 base damage and using 4 Mana per leaf, this weapon fires leaves at the cursor that can spray around rather easily. Somewhat like the Crystal Storm except a bit more random in trajectories. Its low mana cost and inability to pierce means you can use it to deal some respectable damage to bosses or large enemies that aren't necessarily bosses.

Other

"But wait!" I hear you type, "what about the other two items? If they don't fit into the Melee-Ranger-Mage sets, then what are they?"

First off, I'm still typing, and this guide is set to Private (right now) so kindly dispense with the silly words. Secondly, the last two items are interesting, in that they give you a buff when used.

Seedling
When used, this will summon a Pet Sapling that'll follow you around. It's purely an aesthetic thing, and is a neat reminder that you got lucky fighting Plantera.

Pygmy Staff
The Pygmy Staff is a whole different kettle of fish. When used, this will summon a Pygmy that'll start fighting for you. Costing 10 Mana to summon, they'll do around 27 damage by throwing spears at enemies. Once you have this Staff however, the Witch Doctor will sell Tiki Armour. Each piece of armour (Mask: 6 Defence, Shirt: 17 Defence, Pants: 12 Defence) will increase the number of pygmies you can have at once, and will also increase minion damage by 10%. If you have the full set equipped, you can have up to five pygmies out at once, all flinging spears at any enemies that wander by. If you then equip a Pygmy Necklace, you can get another minion, allowing you to have a whole Pokémon team of minions running around, each doing amazing levels of damage. With a Hercules Beetle equipped (also bought from the Witch Doctor) you'll boost their damage by 15% and increase their knockback, which will ultimately allow you to sit back and watch everything get reduced to a fine powder from a flurry of spears.

Flowers for the Undead: Plantera Aftermath

Similar to what happened with the Mechanical boss victory, a couple of things happen in the world with the defeat of Plantera:

• The Cyborg moves into town.
  
• The Dungeon enters Hardmode.
  
• The NPCs start selling new items.
  
• Biome Spread (e.g. Hallow, Corruption) will be slowed to a crawl.
  
• The Golem can be summoned.

As you can see, rather a lot happens with Plantera's pruning. This is quite a significant event, as you'll be able to craft Spectre gear with due time. First off though, the Cyborg.

The Cyborg

When you defeat Plantera, the Cyborg will move in, provided you have room for him. He sells Nanites for 10 Silver each, a Proximity Mine Launcher for 35 Gold, and one of four rocket types, depending on the time of day:

• Rocket I is always available, deals 35 damage a shot, and costs 50 Copper per rocket. A full stack'll cost just under 5 Gold.
  
• Rocket II is only available during Blood Moons. Sold at 2 Silver, 50 Copper a rocket, these deal 40 damage a shot, and can blow up tiles. Be careful using these! A full stack will cost just under 25 Gold.
  
• Rocket III is available during the night and during a Solar Eclipse. Sold at a Silver coin each, these deal 55 damage a shot, and have a bigger blast radius than the Rocket I. A full stack of these will cost just under 10 Gold.
  
• Rocket IV is only available during the Solar Eclipse. These cost 5 Silver for each rocket, can deal 60 damage per shot, have a larger blast radius than the Rocket II, and will destroy tiles. If you want to go Torgue-assisted mining, then these are your best friend. A full stack of these rockets will set you back half a Platinum.

Proximity Mine Launcher
Surprisingly enough, doesn't use mines for ammo. Bought from the Cyborg, this launcher will fire a mine that'll roll to a stop and turn almost see-through. If an enemy or player gets close to the mine, it'll explode for 45 damage plus whatever ammo you used for the mine. It'll use the Rockets as ammo, so you could have mini-Dynamite rounds rolling around if you're a crazy guy.

The Travelling Merchant can occasionally sell the Pulse Bow once you’ve beaten Plantera. Fashioned to look similar to Shroomite gear, this weapon deals 65 damage per arrow, and will fire charged arrows that pierce, ricochet and ignore gravity. It essentially fires pulse rounds. The shots can pierce/ricochet five times, will fly forward for three and a half seconds before dissipating, and can even auto-fire! The downside is that, like the Marrow and Ice Bow before it, the Pulse Bow converts suitable arrows into pulse rounds, stripping them of their special capabilities. So if you plan on entering prolonged fights with this weapon, bring basic Wooden Arrows along! Other than that, it benefits from any and all arrow-based buffs!

The Truffle will begin selling Autohammers for a Platinum Coin each, which are used to craft Shroomite Bars. These are primarily used by Rangers, but recent breakthroughs have found ways to craft them into general-purpose items that just about anyone can use: The Hoverboard (detailed earlier) and the Shroomite Digging Claws!

If you ever picked up the Bladed Glove in your Terraria times, you’ll know what to expect from this. Whilst it'll deal 45 base damage, it’s less Freddy Krueger and more Mole Kirby – it swings slower (Shroomite Digging Claw is Very Fast, whilst the Bladed Glove is Insanely Fast), but digs through the land with 200% Pickaxe Power and tears down trees with 125% Axe Power. That’s more than the Drax/Pickaxe Axe AND the Chlorophyte Chainsaw/Greataxe! With the Smart Cursor and the Mining Potion, you'll be able to make tunnels with aplomb. There ARE downsides to this true-blue tool, however. It has -1 range compared to regular digging tools, so it’s not the best for expansive digging. THAT tool will be turning up later. No, the real draw of this item is that you can use it to resurrect your Bladed Glove whilst still having something stronger than a freaking chainsaw in your hotbar!

The Witch Doctor will also start selling Vials of Venom for 10 Silver each, with which you can craft Flasks of Venom, Venom Bullets and Venom Arrows.

As for what to do now? There are two options available. You can either return to the Dungeon, where tougher enemies will start spawning alongside the regular Dungeon enemies, or you can find the Lihzahrd Temple and plunder its loot. Whichever choice you make, there will be some decent items to be had from the entire experience.

Anachronism Stew: The Hardmode Dungeon (part 1)

With Plantera defeated, new enemies start spawning once you're in the Dungeon proper. The flags you see above this text aren't merely decorative (though the lights are). Keep an eye out for them, as they'll tell you what sort of enemies will spawn in certain regions of the Dungeon. The background walls actually define what sort of enemy will spawn, but unless you know what they spawn, the banners are your best hint.

Basic Enemies

There are three types of basic enemies to be found in the Dungeon - these are the most common spawns, and will drop different items based on which enemies you fight.


Rusty Armored Bones will spawn in certain sections of the dungeon that are pre-marked with the Rusted Company Standard. The four types have different stats:

• The Axe-wielder has 550HP, 70Dmg and 34 Defence
  
• The Helmeted Sword-wielder has 400HP, 75Dmg and 28 Defence
  
• The Flail-wielder has 400HP, 55Dmg and 50 Defence
  
• The Chainmailed Sword-wielder has 450HP, 70Dmg and 40 Defence

Each can cause you to either bleed for ten seconds or slow down for five seconds. Amongst the shared Bones' drop-table, they can also drop an Adhesive Bandage that stops Bleeding when equipped.


Blue Armored Bones will spawn in sections of the dungeon marked with the Marching Bones Banner. The four types, again, have different stats:

• The Horned-Helm Bones has 500HP. 45Dmg and 50 Defence
  
• The Sword-wielding Bones has 500HP, 85Dmg and 54 Defence
  
• The Mace-wielding Bones has 350HP, 65Dmg and 34 Defence
  
• The trouserless Bones has 550HP, 45Dmg and 50 Defence

Each can break your armour for a few seconds, halving your Defence. These guys share loot drops with the Rusty Bones, but can drop Armor Polish, which gives you immunity to the Broken Armour debuff.


Hell Armored Bones will spawn in sections of the dungeon marked with the Molten Legion Flag. Again, the different enemies have different stats:

• The Shield Bones has 450HP, 65Dmg and 48 Defence
  
• The Mace-wielding Bones has 500HP, 40Dmg and 54 Defence
  
• The Axe-wielding Bones has 400HP, 70Dmg and 32 Defence
  
• The Sword-wielding Bones has 500HP, 75Dmg and 34 Defence

These enemies will also set you on fire if they damage you, so be wary. They have no unique drops alongside the basic Bones' drops.

A small note about all of the Bones enemies is that depending on the amount of armour they wear, they'll run slower or faster than their brethren. So for example the enemies wearing only leggings will run faster, whilst full-plate armour Bones will move very slowly.

Mages

Along with the three basic Bones enemies, there are also three mages, corresponding to their regions: The Necromancer, the Diabolist and the Ragged Caster. Each will teleport in and start attacking you with different flavours of magic, and when you strike them, they teleport somewhere else and resume casting, making them annoying enemies to deal with.


Necromancers are the most immediately annoying enemies, appearing alongside the Blue Bones and marked with Necromantic Signs. These will teleport in and almost immediately start firing purple lasers. These have no travel time, being able to hit you immediately, will bounce off walls, allowing them to hit you from very far away, and will slow you down for a few seconds. The two different enemies have different stats:

• The Slouch has 300HP, 50Dmg and 18 Defence
  
• The Ornate has 450HP, 35Dmg and 24 Defence

When killed, they each have a low chance to drop a Shadowbeam Staff.


Diabolists can deal the highest damage of the three mages, and spawn alongside the Hell Bones, marked with a Diabolic Sigil. When these guys teleport in, they take a couple of seconds to wait, then fire a flaming bolt at you (which can travel through walls) which will eventually explode. The explosion stays on-screen for a few seconds, and deals damage for as long as it's on-screen. These'll also set you alight, so avoid at all costs. Their stats are as follows:

• Red-cloak's stats are 200HP, 50Dmg and 12 Defence
  
• White-cloak's stats are 250HP, 60Dmg and 10 Defence

When killed they each have a low chance to drop an Inferno Fork.


Ragged Casters will spawn alongside the Rusty Bones, and are marked with a Ragged Brotherhood Sigil. These guys will teleport in, and begin firing white bolts that home in and heavily blind you. These guys won't immediately warp away when hit, so you can score a few strikes on them before the teleport. The two differ slightly in stats:

• Lefty has 400HP, 40Dmg and 20 Defence
  
• Righty has 450HP, 35Dmg and 28 Defence

When killed, they both have a small chance to drop a Spectre Staff.

Rangers

There are also three ranged Skeletons that can appear in the Dungeon, spawning in the three unique areas of the Dungeon:

• Tactical Skeletons spawn in with Hell Bones. They have 400HP, 60Dmg and 28 Defence. These guys wear a SWAT Helmet and will shoot a spread of shots at you with their Shotgun. They can drop a SWAT Helmet, a Tactical Shotgun or a Rocket Launcher.
  
• Skeleton Commandos spawn in with Blue Bones. They have 400HP, 60Dmg and 28 Defence. These guys will take aim at you when they can see you, and silently fire a rocket at you that can deal a hundred damage in a radius. They can drop their Rocket Launcher.
  
• Skeleton Snipers spawn in with Rusty Bones. They have 400HP, 100Dmg and 28 Defence. These guys can be hard to spot, walking slowly and wearing black clothing to blend in with the background. Once they can see you, they'll take aim, and after enough time will take a shot with their rifle. This can deal around 250 base damage, being able to take out moderately healthy players with a single strike, so be sure to swarm the Sniper with attacks so he can't shoot. They can drop a Rifle Scope or the Sniper Rifle.

These guys are somewhat rare spawns, but you should be wary of when they appear, as their ranged capabilities make them fierce damage dealers.

Anachronism Stew: The Hardmode Dungeon (part 2)

Along with all of dem bones, there are a few other unique enemies that can appear from time to time. Some will only appear in certain locations, similar to the usual cast, but others can spawn anywhere. First off, the last of the Skeletons!

Bone Lee

Unlike the Armored Bones, this guy is twitchy as hell. He can appear anywhere in the dungeon, and if you see him, be wary. Wearing a black face mask and a bandana, this guy's the fastest Skeleton you'll see. Dealing some 90 damage on average by diving at you with flying kicks, this guy also has 1,000HP alongside 42 Defence, and can easily rip you to shreds if you don't deal with him quickly. Thankfully, he's easily stunlocked. Catch him when he's high in the air and start smacking him until he falls apart. If needs be, hang in the air and hit him with what you can. He'll have a chance to drop either a Tabi or a Black Belt when he's killed.

Giant Cursed Skull

Similar to the Cursed Skull, this guy'll float through walls to get at you. But unlike Cursed Skulls, they won't try and charge into you, opting to shoot you with bolts. They also won't Curse you, making them more of an annoyance than anything. They have 400HP, deal around 60 damage a shot, and have 20 Defence. They have no unique drops, leaving behind gibs and coins. They'll spawn in occasionally with Blue and Hell Bones.

Dungeon Spirit

These guys are a bonus spawn in the Hardmode Dungeon have a small chance of spawning when you kill a strong enough enemy within its walls (an enemy with over 100HP). When you kill an enemy and this little guy appears, it'll charge right for you, dealing around 70 damage per collision. They have 200HP and 30 Defence, and will ALWAYS drop Ectoplasm, which is required for several pieces of Spectre gear, Ghost Wings and the Bonus Moon summons.

Paladin

Despite what you might have heard about Paladins in D&D games, these guys aren't Lawful Good. Occasionally appearing wherever Blue Bones spawn, these guys are the proverbial bosses of the Hardmode Dungeon. They come packing 5,000HP and 50 Defence, will walk implacably through the Dungeon's corridors, and when they can see you (and sometimes when they don't), they'll start flinging their hammer at you. This'll fly through walls, can reach a startling height of some forty blocks when thrown upwards, and can remove chunks of your health bar with ease, doing an average of 100 damage per hammer. And the best part? He can spam hammers. If you see these guys, they should be your priority target, as they can easily end a Dungeon run. Whilst he's immune to knockback, attacking him stops him from attacking, so by that point it's a matter of how long you can keep up your offensive whilst swatting away any skeletons that may appear alongside him. His main weakness alongside his low speed is his low jump height; pull him towards a corridor with some vertical height, latch onto the ceiling and rain hell down upon him. Killing Paladins can take up to a minute of constant attacking, but once you kill him, he has a small chance to drop one of two items: The Paladin's Shield or the Paladin's Hammer

A basic strategy for the Dungeon? Use piercing weapons for dealing with the large amount of skeletons, and high-damage weapons for the Paladins and Bone Lees. Treat this place as you originally treated the Dungeon, and remember, these guys can't jump too high so use any large rooms for a breather by dancing on clinging to the ceiling. Keep your eye out for the Magic and Ranged Skeletons, and you should be alright.

Loot Drama: Dungeon Items 1

If you've been lucky, you'll have managed to glean a couple of items from the skeletons before having to mirror back (or before getting killed). All of the items listed are usable the moment you grab them, which can make for an amusing turning of the tide if you get an especially good weapon.

Bones' Loot Table

The Bones that spawn en-masse (Blue Bones, Rusty Bones and Hell Bones) can all drop these four items:

• The Bone Feather is the exception to the rule as I am a fool who forgot about this item. You can craft this into the Bone Wings that grant you greater flight than the Fairy, Bee and Butterfly Wings.
  
• The Wisp In A Bottle is currently the best tailing light source in the game. When used, a flaming skull will hover above you, providing a very bright light that can not only keep up with you when you're running full-pelt across the land, but will also stay ahead of you to light the way! You can also control it with the direction keys, allowing you to search for caverns and ores.
  
• The Magnet Sphere is a Magic weapon that fires an orb for 14 Mana (basic) which'll slowly moves towards the cursor. If an enemy is nearby, this'll rapidly fire laser beams at the enemy, dealing 48 base damage a shot. Very useful for dealing damage whilst also attacking with other weapons.
  
• The Keybrand is an entirely not-referential weapon to a not-Disney thing that can deal a basic 57 damage a swing. A nice weapon, but is outclassed by the Cutlass in swing speed and the Chlorophyte Saber in damage spread and crowd control.

Magic Staves

As mentioned before, the three Mage skeletons can drop their respective weapons when killed:

• The Necromancer drops the Shadowbeam Staff, which can deal a base 55 Magic damage for a base Mana cost of 6. When used, a purple beam is fired at the cursor, and will bounce off of walls to cover large areas and potentially hitting several enemies at once. It doesn't have the ability to slow enemies as the Necromancer's version can, but it can be fired faster. One thing to note is that whilst it CAN pierce infinitely, for each enemy you hit with a laser, the damage is reduced until you're dealing scratch damage to later enemies down the line. Very useful for hitting enemies around walls.
  
• The Diabolist drops the Inferno Fork, which can deal a base 65 Magic damage for a base Mana cost of 12. When used, a fireball is shot at the cursor that explodes on contact with a wall or an enemy. This explosion lasts for a few seconds, dealing damage in a wide area (roughly a Bomb's explosion radius). Unlike the Diabolist's bolts, this won't go through walls and can't explode on command, but it CAN damage through thin walls and won't cause self-damage, so if there are enemies getting on your nerves through the walls, punish them for their complacency!
  
• The Ragged Caster drops the Spectre Staff, which can deal a base 70 Magic damage for a base Mana cost of 9. When used, this fires a white bolt that homes in on a target if it can see one. Unlike the Ragged Caster's shots, these won't travel through walls, meaning you'd best know how to curve shots if you want to hit enemies behind walls. Can be useful for dealing lots of damage to a single target.

Guns, Launchers and Safety Gear

The Ranger skeletons can also drop their own loot, as I described earlier:

• The Rocket Launcher, dropped from the Commando and Tactical Skeletons, is exactly what it says on the tin. This'll launch rockets towards the cursor that'll explode on hitting a target. Dealing a base damage of 50 along with the rocket type launched, the rockets have a set velocity and fire-rate which stop you from getting the Unreal modifier on them, but are essentially a point-and-click explosive delivery system. No guessing trajectories like with the Grenade Launcher!
  
• The Tactical Shotgun, dropped solely from Tactical Skeletons, is an upgraded Shotgun. Dealing 29 damage per pellet, this thing might fire slower than the other guns, but it can shoot six pellets per shot over the Shotgun's four, meaning you get more bang for your buck, and the gun is fully automatic. No need to mash that mouse button to spam bullets! This is very fun to use with things like Crystal Bullets (6 shots means 18 fragments!), Chlorophyte Bullets (who needs aim?) and High-Velocity Bullets (catch the flying buggers!), but isn't recommended for use with Explosive Rounds or Meteor Shot due to how they interact with enemies.
  
• The Rifle Scope is a Skeleton Sniper drop. When equipped and holding a weapon that fires bullets, holding the right mouse button will let you see further along the screen to search for an enemy to shoot. The distance you can see is around half a screen's worth, depending on the size of your resolution - I've not had the chance to experiment with this accessory, but it's useful if you have an accurate weapon. This can then be combined with the Destroyer Emblem to create the Sniper Scope. This lets you scope as per usual, but will also give you +10% Ranged Damage and Crit-Strike Chance, letting you ramp up even more damage with the right accessories. And from the Scopes, we move on to...
  
• The Sniper Rifle, which is the other Skeleton Sniper drop, and is undisputedly the strongest weapon in the game. A base damage of 125 means this thing can easily knock a helluva lot of enemies off their feet in the hands of a regular player. In the hands of a Ranger however, this gun can deal upwards of 500 damage a shot, letting it take out all but the toughest of Hardmode enemies in a single shot. The one real weakness it has is its firing speed. The Sniper Rifle is the only weapon to have a firing speed of Snail as its default firing speed, meaning this is best used for removing key targets in a horde. With the right accessories and buffs, this has been shown to deal over a thousand damage on a critical shot. This gun also has its own scoping ability, meaning you can right-click to zoom out and take a shot at off-screen enemies and increase the rifle's crit-strike chance by 15%. It'll benefit from the Rifle Scope accessory by letting you zoom out even further.
  
• The SWAT Helmet is a Tactical Skeleton drop. Wear it to pretend you're important.

Loot Drama: Dungeon Items 2

Continuing on through the 8k character limit, it's time for Bone Lee and the Paladin's loot!

Bone Lee Loot

Bone Lee has two unique item drops that, when combined with an earlier item, can make yet another item:

• The Tabi is an accessory that allows you to dash when equipped. Double-tap left or right, and a cloud of smoke appears whilst you dash forward. You can use this to break into a run immediately, although you can still get hurt during the dash, so don't try dodge-rolling through enemies. They'll point and laugh.
  
• The Black Belt is an accessory that gives you a 1-in-9 chance to not take damage on a hit. If you get lucky and don't take damage, a cloud of smoke surrounds you, and you flash for a couple of seconds. Anything that can leave debuffs will still affect you, but at least you'll have dodged that Paladin's Hammer!

When these two items are combined with the Tiger Climbing Gear (crafted from Climbing Claws and Spiked Shoes), you can create the Master Ninja Gear. This combines the abilities of all four items (wall clinging and jumping, dashing, and damage dodging) into one handy-dandy suit. However, this can make fine movement a little difficult.

Paladin's Loot

The Paladins drop two useful items that are identifiable by their silvery-gold colour scheme and naming sense.

• The Paladin's Shield is an accessory that grants 6 Defence, immunity to Knockback like its Cobalt and Obsidian kin, and will transfer 25% of damage inflicted to team-mates to the wearer. Naturally, since you're in a solo game, that isn't going to matter too much, meaning you can get a straight defence boost at no cost! If you're using an Ankh Shield, I'd skip this item as the Ankh Shield's debuff-immunity is too good to waste.
  
• The Paladin's Hammer is a Melee weapon with a base damage of 90. Acting like a boomerang, this will throw a translucent hammer towards the cursor over the range of a flail, and then return to the player. What I can't properly convey to you in mere words is the speed at which this hammer flies. You can fire it two to three times a second at a group of enemies and reduce them to a fine mulch. I may have forgotten to mention that this hammer can pierce, and by god you'll be dealing some heavy damage with this thing. Just remember, whilst it can tear through enemies, it'll bounce back if it hits land, so make sure you aim it correctly for maximum damage!

Biome Chests

But wait, there's more! Unless you have a blind spot for boxes, you'll have surely noticed the strange chests dotted about the Dungeon even before Hardmode activated. The astute player will notice that the five chests' colour schemes correspond to the overworld biomes, that of the Jungle, Corruption, Crimson, Hallow and Ice Biomes respectively. If you want to open them, you'll need one of these:

These are the Biome Keys, which will unlock their respective chest (Jungle, Corruption, Crimson, Hallowed and Frozen). In 1.2, these were originally dropped by enemies in their biomes (not necessarily biome-unique enemies - just enemies in the biome) by a 1-in-4000 chance. With the Halloween update, this was changed so that people wouldn't be able to access end-game loot immediately and make Destroyer look like a bit of a wally. So instead, we have these:

...Key Molds. In order to craft these keys, you need the Temple Key that's dropped by Plantera, five each of the Souls of Might, Sight and Fright (ie the Mechanical Boss souls), and the Key Mold. When you have all of the items, you'll make the Biome Key of the mold you have. Once you have a Key, you can open a chest! Just remember: You only get four chests per dungeon, corresponding to the "evil" biome you get.

• Piranha Gun: Mr. Nibbles. Found in the Jungle Chest, this gun is a unique Ranger weapon. It fires a robotic Piranha that, should it hit a target, will start chewing at the enemy for a base damage of 32. It'll keep doing this damage over time, and will hurt other enemies that happen to overlap the currently-bitten enemy. In order to keep doing damage, you have to hold the mouse button down, but when the Piranha finishes one enemy, it will fly at the next enemy it can find and start chewing it to death. If it can't find a target, it rehouses itself inside the gun. Useful if you're out of ammo.
  
• Scourge of the Corruptor: "Melee" weapon. Found in the Corruption Chest, this is one of two Melee weapons that can be found. Dealing a base damage of 64, this "javalin" will fire a speedy projectile that, on hitting a wall or enemy, splits into a few mini Eater of Souls. These can bounce off of walls five times, and will home in on enemies should they spot them. Very useful weapon if you've taken a lot of damage and need to fall back, it can also do a lot of spread-out damage, with the Eaters homing in on new targets should their original enemy die.
  
• Vampire Knives: Does not come with time-stop. Found in the Crimson Chest, this is the second Melee weapon that can be found. Dealing 29 damage, using this weapon will throw a set of red knives at the cursor in a large spread. If the knives hit their target, they'll transfer around 8% of the damage dealt to the player as health, at a max rate of 2 Hearts a second (40-50HP/sec). These fire fast, and can allow a Melee player to effectively tank bosses by sitting on top of them and flinging knives like a madman. An absolute guarantee if you're less about dodging and more about damage.
  
• Rainbow Gun: Taste it. Found in the Hallow Chest, this is an interesting Magic weapon. Dealing 45 base damage a hit at a base Mana cost of 20, this gun fires a rainbow that'll stay on-screen for ten seconds, and then disappear. This rainbow will deal damage to enemies for as long as they remain within its beam, meaning you could use it to clear out hallways and ruin the days of several segmented enemies. The rainbow arcs based on how you fire it, making it somewhat difficult to aim, and you can only have one rainbow on-screen at once, so firing again replaces the old rainbow.
  
• Staff of the Frost Hydra: Friendly cold-call. Found in the Frozen Chest, this staff summons, for the cost of 20 base Mana, a Frost Hydra that'll land below where your cursor is. Should you summon him in the air, he'll take residence on a block below the cursor. Acting as a turret, the Hydra will shoot at enemies, dealing a base damage of 100 Summon damage. If you have the Tiki Armour set, you'll be able to boost this guy's damage, but not the number you can have at once. You're limited to one Hydra, so summoning another destroys the first. A must-have if you want to stop weaker enemies, or to deal additional damage to tougher foes.

Now that the bullet points have stopped breaking at the sheer thought of being displayed next to such amazing weapons, let's get started on the crafting material of the Dungeon!

No Paradox Clones Involved: The Use of Ectoplasm

If you were in the Dungeon for long enough to fight some Dungeon Spirits, then I'm certain that you'll have some of this:



This is Ectoplasm. The Dungeon Spirits will always drop one or two of these, and they're used in a variety of things. On 1.2's release, they were pretty common and could eventually be turned into merchant fodder with maybe one or two trips to the Dungeon. With recent patches, they've become harder to find, partly due to the Dungeon Spirit's shyness lowering its spawn rate, and the drop number being reduced to 1-2. So if you find some of these, it's best to keep hold of them. They can be used to craft these tools:

• Spectre Pickaxe: a pickaxe made from ghostly remains, this has a base damage of 32, has 200% Pickaxe power, and has +3 range, meaning you can mine up to nine or so blocks away from yourself!
  
• Spectre Hamaxe: an ethereal hamaxe, this has a base damage of 60, has 115% Axe power and 90% Hammer power, and has +3 range, like the Spectre Pickaxe. This has enough power and enough bulk to be a useful emergency weapon, whilst also being able to tear trees to tatters.
  
• Spectre Paintbrush, Paint Roller and Paint Scraper: These are used exactly like their mortal editions, with the added bonus of +3 range!

Crafting these items requires Ectoplasm and Chlorophyte Bars, so I hope you've not sold those bars yet! The Pickaxe and Hamaxe require 18 each of Ectoplasm and Chlorophyte Bars, whilst the Painting set requires a total of 24 Ectoplasm and Bars (8 per tool).

If you've been waiting a while to make wings, now is the best time to make them! Grab 10 Ectoplasm and 20 Souls of Flight, and you'll be able to make Ghost Wings! These can take you to the same dizzying heights as the Flame, Frozen and Leaf Wings whilst making you look somewhat spooky!

If you've felt that your nights just aren't spooky enough, and that you're just not challenged enough, then grab some Pumpkins, some Hallowed Bars and a bunch of Ectoplasm and make the Pumpkin Moon Medallion! Made from 30 Pumpkins, 10 Hallowed Bars and 5 Ectoplasm, using this medallion at night will summon the Pumpkin Moon, where the legions of Hallowe'en will come up for a fight! The battle lasts until morning, so it's best to use it at the strike of night, and the further into the waves you get (up to Wave 15), the better your chances of exciting loot! Though as a precaution, you'll want to have some decent armour and an arena before attempting this.

If the Pumpkin Moon isn’t proving challenging enough for you, then sit yourself down a minute, wrap that Ectoplasm up in a silk box with some Skeletron Prime souls and make the Naughty Present! Crafted from 5 Ectoplasm, 20 Silk and 5 Souls of Fright, this festive phylactery will call forth the Frost Moon when opened, upon which you’ll be assaulted by even deadlier hordes! These guys are themed after Christmas and all the little things that come from it, and will also last until morning. This is only for expert players!

(both Pumpkin and Frost Moons will be covered later on in the guide)

This section's going to seem a little short now, but the next one will more than make up for it: Endgame Armour!

The Best Offence: End-Game Armour

Now, if you were using the Guide to see what you could craft out of the Chlorophyte, you'll have seen a few things that I haven't mentioned in this guide. Chlorophyte Bars are used to craft the three end-game armour sets: Turtle Armour, Shroomite Armour and Spectre Armour.

Turtle Armour

Originally the Melee end-game armour, this has the second-highest base defence of any current armour-set at a total of 65. Crafted from Turtle Shells (one shell for each piece) and Chlorophyte Bars, each piece of armour is crafted thusly:

• The Helmet (crafted with 12 Chlorophyte Bars) gives you 21 Defence and +6% Melee Damage.
  
• The Scale Mail (crafted with 24 Chlorophyte Bars) gives you 27 Defence and +8% Melee Damage/Crit Strike Chance.
  
• The Leggings (crafted with 18 Chlorophyte Bars) give you 17 Defence and +4% Melee Crit Strike Chance.

Each piece will also increase the chances of an enemy targeting you, which will only really be useful in a multiplayer game. When the whole set is worn, a spiked shell sprite appears on your character's back (unless you're wearing Vanity items), and you gain a boosted Thorns ability. If an enemy melees you, you take the damage, but you then return the damage to your attacker in full. And this is the damage they would have originally dealt to you, not the damage that you take after defence. This could originally be used to easily kill the Dungeon Guardian, provided you had enough players, but since they "nerfed" him, this can no longer be done. Combined with the Vampire Knives, you can sit on a boss and heal back any damage done to you in a second, making for a very sustainable method of fighting. This armour can be obtained before fighting Plantera, so long as you spend some time killing Giant Turtles. This set has since been superseded by the Beetle Armour, which will be detailed in due time.

Shroomite Armour

The Ranger's end-game armour, this can boost your DPS through the roof. In order to create this set, you're going to need the Truffle in your world, as he sells this:


...the Auto-Hammer. With this, you can craft the blue bars shown next to the Auto-Hammer, called Shroomite Bars. These are crafted from Chlorophyte Bars and 15 Glowing Mushrooms, and a full set (including all three helmets) will require 78 Shroomite Bars, or 1,170 Glowing Mushrooms. It's best to set up a small farm if you want to make the whole set, as this is more tedious to obtain than challenging. Since you can only get the Autohammer after defeating Plantera, you’ve got plenty of time to start saving those ‘shrooms!

The Breastplate costs 24 Shroomite Bars to craft, grants you 24 Defence, +13% Ranged Crit Strike Chance and 20% Chance to not use ammo, whilst the Leggings costs 18 Shroomite Bars to craft, grants you 16 Defence, +7% Ranged Crit Strike Chance and +12% Movement Speed. Each helmet costs 12 Shroomite Bars to craft, grants you 11 Defence and +5% Ranged Crit Strike Chance. The different helms correspond to a different type of ranged damage:

• The Helmet (left) gives +15% Rocket Damage.
  
• The Mask (centre) gives +15% Bullet Damage.
  
• The Headgear (right) gives +15% Arrow Damage.

The best idea for these helmets would be to have all three on you, then right-click each as you need them in a fire-fight.

The set-bonus for having any one of the helmets, regardless of helmet type, is the Cloak'n'Dagger cloaking. When you stand still, you'll cloak, taking around two seconds to fully cloak. The less visible you are, the more your ranged stats are boosted; weapon damage, knockback and crit-strike chance of every ranged weapon is boosted, with a maximum damage boost of 45%! This can also make enemies less likely to target you and can get them to drop aggro faster. One final thing to mention is that the cloak won’t degenerate when you’re firing automatic weapons, meaning you can stand still with a Megashark and pelt enemies with super-powered weapons! You'll get the cloak even if you're wearing vanity items, so if you have certain costumes (eg the Creeper costume or the Jack-o-Lantern Mask) you can have minutes of amusement!

Spectre Armour

The Mage's end-game armour, there are two distinct paths you can go down with this armour.

• The Spectre Hood is crafted from 12 Ectoplasm and Chlorophyte Bars, and grants the wearer 6 Defence, but reduces Magic damage by 40%.
  
• The Spectre Mask is similarly crafted, and grants the wearer 18 Defence, +60MP, reduces Mana costs by 13% and increases Magic Damage/Crit Strike Chance by 5%
  
• The Spectre Robe is crafted from 24 Ectoplasm and Chlorophyte Bars, grants the wearer 14 Defence and +7% Magic Damage/Crit Strike Chance.
  
• The Spectre Pants is crafted from 18 Ectoplasm and Chlorophyte Bars, grants the wearer 10 Defence and +8% Magic Damage and Movement Speed.

Now, I know what you’re thinking. “Jakebob, why are you reading my mind? Also, HOW are you reading my mind?! And WHY DOES THE SPECTRE HOOD HAVE DECREASED DAMAGE!?!”

I’ll answer the first two questions with the same answer: don’t ask silly questions. The third one, however, I will answer with this: Set Bonuses. Whilst the Hood has a third of the Mask’s defence (for a total of 30) and actively lowers your damage output, wearing the Hood with the rest of the Spectre gear will grant you Life Steal. Deal magic damage, and 20% of the damage you do is converted into a white orb that flies towards the weakest team member. Hence why I’m personally dubbing it the White Mage set (if someone can come up with a more apt name, lemme know!) – you sacrifice damage for the well-being of yourself and your team. If you’re reading this, you’re likely doing this solo, so all that lovely health goes straight to you! And with enough Menacing damage-boosting Accessories, you’ll not even notice the damage reduction.

So what does this mean for the Spectre Mask? That’s the Black Mage’s outfit. Granting you a total defence of 42, wearing the Spectre Mask with the rest of the Spectre gear will allow you to deal bonus damage! Think of it as the Life Steal being turned into destructive energy instead of restorative energy. When you strike an enemy with magic, a white orb will appear on the enemy that you struck, as with the Hood set. However, the orb will then hunt out a target and hit them for roughly half of the original strike’s damage, with a chance to crit as well! The path-finding is a little silly – oftentimes I would see a bolt fly off-screen to chase something, whilst other times the shots would be about to strike the enemy I’d originally shot, only to have them dissipate on the target’s death despite there being other enemies on-screen. There’s also a limit to how many orbs can be used in a time-frame, so you’ll notice around twelve to fifteen orbs at the most before it dwindles away as they wait for their cool-down to run down. But for the most part, it means damage. Lots and lots of damage.

So if you want to deal damage, go with the Spectre Mask. If you want survivability, go with the Spectre Hood, and reforge your gear to Menacing!

Tomb Raiding: The Lihzahrd Temple

Your other choice on defeating Plantera is to find and plunder the loot of the Lihzahrd Temple. Technically called the Jungle Temple, this is a somewhat-large construct that you can find hidden within the Jungle's depths. Use your mini-map to find out where you haven't been, as it can take up a decent portion of the map. It's a building with dark-orange, somewhat-mossy bricks that can't be broken. Once you find the wall, start digging around the sides to find the entrance - this'll normally be near the top of the Temple. The entrance can be on either the left or the right side, but it'll always be on the top of the temple. The Temple is generated with the map, and can be found before Hardmode is even initiated, but since you need the Jungle Key to open the door, you're not going to be entering it until you've beaten Plantera. And don’t think of teleporting in either – not only does it not work, but you’ll reach the end of the Temple and realise you can’t do anything until you’ve killed Plantera. Hooray for linearity!

Once you're inside the temple, the music'll change, and whilst there'll be a few Jungle and Cavern enemies to begin with, they'll soon be replaced with a couple of unique enemies: the Lihzahrd and the Flying Snake.


Lihzahrd: 400HP, 38Dmg, 20 Defence. Immune to Poison and Venom, these guys are the until-now unseen owners or residents of the Jungle Temple. They move rather slowly, and are rather easy to deal with - until you bring them down to 200HP, whereupon they adopt the stance on the right. When on all fours, they'll run faster, jump higher, and become very resistant to knockback. This can be a bit of an annoyance unless you can deal high burst damage. They have a chance to drop a Banner.


Flying Snake: 260HP, 85Dmg, 28 Defence. These guys will fly at you in a similar manner to bats, and can deal some heavy damage if you don't deal with them quickly. They can drop their Banner as well.

These enemies will spawn with greater frequency than normal, and due to the layout of the temple, they can occasionally pool in the corridors, leading to having to deal with several of them at once. The two lizard enemies share a couple of item drops:

• Lihzahrd Power Cell: This is an item used to summon the Temple Boss. This ensures that you can't run out of chances to fight this boss, so long as the enemies can spawn.
  
• Lizard Egg: Chillin' like a reptilian. This is a pet item that'll summon a lizard. He'll follow you around, much like any other pet items you can get, and will sprout wings to follow you, should you go too far away from him.

Traps

But that's not all! Since this is an old temple, the place is booby-trapped to hell, and can easily beat the crap out of anyone who runs in without thought. There are four types of traps that are activated by buttons, and a basic spike trap that'll deal damage if you touch them.

• Spiky Ball Trap: These can spawn in groups of two to nine blocks, and when activated, will drop a spiky ball that bounces all over the place, dealing 90 damage a hit. These can devastate enemies and players.
  
• Flame Trap: These usually spawn in one or two at a time. When activated, they'll fire a spray of fire forwards over a distance of around ten to fifteen blocks. These'll deal the same damage as the Spiky Ball traps, and can deal heavy damage to multiple enemies at once.
  
• Spear Trap: These spawn in five or so at a time. When they're triggered, a spear will thrust out of the block and can hit anything with a health bar for around 130 damage. Very useful for trapping places, but can ruin weaker players.
  
• Super Dart Trap: Dart Trap Plus. Spawned in normally three at a time, this thing fires poison darts that deal around 80 damage a dart. A nasty thing that can be dodged as easily as their rocky counterparts.

Strategy

The best way to deal with the Temple is slow and steady. Don't run in like a maniac, and keep your eyes peeled for any buttons. If you see any suspicious blocks in the ceiling or the walls, go up to them and remove them with your Pickaxe. You could also have some Wire Cutters in your hotbar and remove the cabling so the traps can't fire. This is also a cheap way to get cabling, if you're planning to get some teleporters up and running. Since the traps can only be triggered by players, you won't have to worry about an enemy running over a trap whilst you're defusing everything. Dealing with all the traps should take around ten to fifteen minutes, more if you're stealing the wiring. The Lihzahrds are easily dispatched if you keep to the skies, and the Flying Snakes will fall in two or three hits from your stronger weapons.

Whilst you're running through defusing the traps and removing all the spikes, you should find some unique treasure chests. These also contain Lihzahrd Power Cells, and plundering every single chest will usually give you around five to seven chances to fight the Temple Boss.

Before too long, you should come across the Altar Room. You'll recognise it as you'll see this altar in the centre of the room:


This'll have a small sun symbol hovering above it, and hovering your mouse over it will show a Lihzahrd Power Cell icon. When you right-click this altar with a Power Cell, you'll summon the Golem.

Meet the Golem: Rock'em Sock'em Robot

Up until 1.2.1, this big guy was considered the final boss of the game, due to the sequence of events that led up to discovering him. With the Lunar events requiring end-game gear to defeat, he's since been superseded by the Moon bosses, making this guy somewhat a breather boss until then.

The Golem itself consists of four parts, with the battle split into two sections:

• The Golem's Head is your main target of the first part of the fight. This part has 16,000HP, 20 Defence, can shoot fireballs from its mouth, and on dipping below 8,000HP, will start firing dual eye-lasers that shoot with greater frequency the lower its health is. Defeating the head will cause it to detach from the body, becoming an invincible floating entity that'll retain its old attacks. It won't fire lasers again until later on in the fight.
  
• The Golem's Body is the second target, and will only become a viable target when the Head detaches. With 9,000HP, this section can be easier than the first section. When the Head is still attached, the Body will occasionally hop to try and deal damage to you with a ground-pound. When the Head detaches, this allows the Body to hop around a lot more, making it harder to target and dodge. The less health it has, the faster it'll jump (for some reason), and once the Body dips below 4,500HP, the floating Head will resume firing eye-lasers, using the same logic as before (lower health means higher fire rate)
  
• The Golem's Fists are extra appendages, attached to the body with chains. Sporting 7,000HP each, these fists will periodically fire at the player if they can realistically hit them (ie left Fist will only fire if the player's on the Golem's left side, and vice versa). As their health decreases, they'll fire faster, with them firing at their fastest (lightning fast) once they're below a thousand HP or so. Hitting them will knock them back to the body, but their fire speed can make them a priority target once his health is low enough.

You only have to destroy the Head and Body to win, but defeating at least one of the fists can make the fight significantly easier, as you aren't being battered to death by chain-fists. Each fist has 28 Defence, and can deal some heavy damage (not exactly sure on numbers)

Strategy

Since the Golem is tied to the physical realm like the player, its encounter can be abused to a degree. The easiest way to cheese the fight is to have a row of blocks with gaps wide enough for the player to pass through, but that the Golem can't stomp through. Then it becomes a practice of aiming shots through the gaps and dodging the fists and laser fire (because they’ll phase through blocks to hit you). However, as was noted in the patch notes of an earlier update: ”The Golem's evil plans are no longer foiled by platforms.”

But let's say you don't want to be cheaper than a pound store. This fight will be a bit tough if you're unprepared, but by this point in the game, you should be more than prepared. Chlorophyte Armour will work well enough for the fight, but if you can get each class's end-game armour, this'll become even more of a cake-walk.

Melee

For Melee characters, there are a few choices. The Chlorophyte weapons will allow you to deal some damage from afar whilst dealing piercing damage. The Light Disks or Bananarangs will allow you to deal damage from range, although by this point they'll be falling behind in terms of DPS. The Shroomite Digging Claws will let you deal some nice damage to the Golem, although it’ll involve getting up-close and personal with the monster. The Flower Pow can be used to hit the Golem's Head from a range, and to deal extra damage with the flail's petals. If you've plundered the Dungeon, the Paladin's Hammer can deal fast damage and hit multiple parts at once with decent enough aim. The Vampire Knives will cause damage to multiple parts as well, with the benefit of keeping your health topped up, provided you got the Crimson. If you got the Corruption, the Scourge of the Corruptor will allow you to deal burst damage and stay at a distance, making this a battle of attrition more than anything. Once the Head detaches, you'll need to start dodging it as well as the Body's attacks, but your high defence should allow you to survive the assault. The Cutlass (and the Shroomite Digging Claws) can be used to swipe the Fists away for some moderate damage, and will fire fast enough that you shouldn't need to worry about being hit by the Fists' increasing fire rate.

Ranger

Ranged characters have a couple of interesting options. The Flamethrower will pierce the Golem, allowing you to deal damage to multiple parts. The Chlorophyte Shotbow combined with one of several types of arrow will cause some pain to the Golem. Holy Arrows will cause tons of additional star damage to the Head and Fists, whilst Chlorophyte Arrows (with the right angle) can hit two body parts. Venom Arrows will fly fast and can inflict Venom on the Golem, dealing extra damage. With guns, the Megashark is still the best weapon for dealing constant damage, whilst the Gatligator will give you greater coverage. Chlorophyte Bullets will allow you to stay out of the Golem's range whilst still dealing constant damage to whatever the bullets choose to hit. Venom Bullets'll deal heavy damage and inflict Venom, whilst Crystal Bullets will deal extra damage if the Golem leaps towards the bullets. If you managed to grab the Venus Magnum, you could potentially kill the Golem faster if you don't mind mashing the mouse key and spending potentially more ammo. If you have the Shroomite Armour, be sure to choose the correct helmet for whatever method you choose, and you should be able to kill the Golem even faster thanks to several damage increases.

Mage

Mages will have an easy time of this fight if they have the Spectre Armour. Even if they don't, there are several options for a Mage character due to their vast spread of weaponry. The Nimbus Rod can be used to deal constant damage to the fists if you latch to the side of the wall and bait the Golem into staying under the rainclouds. Whilst this is happening, you can use the Golden Shower (if you have it) to decrease each part's defence to deal more damage. The Magical Harp can deal damage to multiple parts over time, although you might not do as much damage as you'd like to be doing. The Rainbow Rod is good for burst damage, although you'll need to fire multiple times to get any use out of it. The Leaf Blower is good for DPS if you can get up-close to the Golem, and its spread might let it hit more than one body part if you keep your aim on the boss. If you've looted the Dungeon, the Shadowbeam Staff and Inferno Fork are good for dealing constant damage and hitting multiple parts of the Golem at once. The Spectre Staff will do burst damage, but can only hit one target per shot, so it's best used if you've beaten the Fists to death.

WARNING

Sometimes the Golem’s Altar will be in a strange location. If you summon the Golem when the Altar is too close to a wall or (god forbid) the ceiling, the Golem will get stuck, and will fly into a frenzy. Once you’ve beaten Plantera, you can use Actuators on the Lihzahrd bricks to knock the Altar out and place it in an area with more accessibility, where the Golem won’t get angry. You can even place the Altar outside the Temple and he’ll be a-OK!

Whatever your methods of destruction are, you’ll soon see the Golem fall apart as it bestows great riches upon you!

Reverse-Engineering: Golem's Loot

With the Golem thwarted, you get 15 Gold Coins, 5-15 Greater Healing Potions, 4-8 Beetle Husks and one of these eight items:

• Golem Fist
  
• Possessed Hatchet
  
• Stynger (with bolts)
  
• Heat Ray
  
• Staff of Earth
  
• Eye of the Golem
  
• Sun Stone
  
• Picksaw

There's also a chance that you'll get the Golem Trophy alongside the rest of the loot. As for what the items do? Let's have a look!

Melee

The Golem's Fist is an item similar to the KO Cannon that strikes for 50 base Melee damage. This fires a fist attached to a chain towards the cursor at breakneck speed. When it connects with something, be it wall or beast, the fist will retract and can be automatically fired again. The closer you are to the enemy, the faster you can punch them to death. If you're too close, you might hit through them thanks to invincibility frames, so make sure to find the sweet spot where it'll do maximum damage!

The Possessed Hatchet is a top-tier boomerang, similar to the Paladin's Hammer. Capable of dealing a base Melee damage of 90, when the Hatchet is thrown it'll hunt down an enemy to deal serious damage to it. If it can't see anything, it'll quickly return to you. This can let you hunt down monsters that may not even be on-screen. If you have this and the Paladin's Hammer, remember that whilst the Hammer can pierce groups of enemies, this can be used to whittle down singular enemies with a relative ease, as when it hits an enemy it'll return to your hand almost immediately, allowing you to rapidly Hatchet someone to death. It won't auto-fire though, so you'll be giving your index finger a workout.

Ranged

The Stynger fires special bolts that you can find from the Golem with the Stynger, which can later be bought from the Arms Dealer and the Witch Doctor (strangely enough). Dealing 43 Rocket damage, this shoots a bolt that explodes on hitting a wall or an enemy. This explosion fires shrapnel around that also explodes. Useful for if you want everything in a general area to suffer some major damage. Incidentally, the Bolts themselves do 15 damage, so each shot can deal roughly 58 damage a hit before modifiers are added on.

Magic

The Staff of Earth is an interesting Magic weapon. Dealing a base damage of 45 at a cost of 17 Mana, this fires an arcing boulder towards the cursor. This thing is interesting in that the damage of the boulder depends on its velocity when the enemy is hit. According to information on the Terraria wikipedia, the boulders can do twice the damage listed at maximum speed, diminishing from there. Since you can have several of them on-screen at once, you can use them for a vague amount of area control, though when they're at a complete stop they'll only deal scratch damage - use them to spot enemies that may have spawned in off-screen!

The Heat Ray was originally the other no-mana-cost weapon that was since nerfed. Dealing a base damage of 55 for a base Mana cost of 8, this equips a back-pack on your character (decorational), and when the gun is fired, a laser is shot at the cursor, piercing infinitely. This is similar to the Shadowbeam Staff, but unlike the staff, it won't bounce off walls, and doesn't do less damage for each enemy it hits, meaning if you have a straight line of fire on your enemies, you're going to be roasting everything for the full damage possible. Also good for brightening up a cave on the mini-map!

Accessories

The Eye of the Golem is an accessory that gives +10% Crit Strike Chance. Nice and simple. It can be crafted with the Avenger Emblem to create the Destroyer Emblem. Wearing the Destroyer Emblem will give you a 10% boost to damage and 8% boost to crit-strike chance. If you were to forego most other items, you could wear your class's emblem, the Avenger Emblem and the Eye of the Golem together with the Destroyer Emblem for an 18% boost to Crit-Strike Chance and a 37% boost to your class's weapons (although percentages are tricky figures, so don't quote me on that)

The Sun Stone is an accessory that, when worn during the day, will give the wearer +10% Damage, +2% Crit-Strike Chance and 4 Defence. It's useless at night, but its prefix will work at any time of the day, so keep that in mind.

Picksaw

The Picksaw is the best pick-and-axe combo in the game. With a base damage of 34, this has 210% Pickaxe Power, 125% Axe power and +1 range. This means it's able to break Lihzahrd Bricks and the Lihzahrd Altar, allowing you to move the Altar to a proper arena where you can fight the Golem at your own pace. Just remember, you shouldn't remove the whole temple, as that can kill the spawning of the Lihzahrds and Flying Snakes, which drop the Power Cells required to summon the Golem.

Beetle Husks

These Husks will allow you to craft the Beetle Armour, the Melee player’s end-game armour! As a change-up, this armour has different chest pieces; one designed for offensive players and one designed for defensive/agile players (ie people who can dodge). Here’s how you craft each piece, and the stats they give you:

• The Helmet is crafted from a Turtle Helmet and 4 Beetle Husks, and grants its wearer 23 Defence, +6% Melee Damage, and makes enemies more likely to target you.
  
• The Leggings are crafted from Turtle Leggings and 6 Beetle Husks, and grant its wearer 18 Defence, +6% Movement and Melee Speed, and makes enemies more likely to target you.
  
• The Scale Mail is crafted from Turtle Scale Mail and 8 Beetle Husks, and grants its wearer 20 Defence, +8% Melee Damage and Crit-Strike Chance, and +6% Movement and Melee Speed.
  
• the Shell is similarly crafted to the Scale Mail, but will grant its wearer 32 Defence, +5% Melee Damage and Crit-Strike Chance, and makes enemies more likely to target you.

As you can probably guess by now, the two different sets will grant different Set Bonuses. Both sets will grant you Beetles, based on the chest piece.

The Scale Mail will grant you Beetles when you’re dealing damage to enemies. As you do so, a Beetle will appear to buff your damage and speed by 10%. You can get up to three of these Beetles, boosting your damage and speed by 30%! However, when you stop doing damage, the beetles will disappear in roughly the same time-frame. It’s the set for those who HAVE to be doing ALL the damage, ALL the time.

The Shell will grant you Beetles if you can avoid taking damage for long enough – one beetle will add 15% damage reduction when you take a hit, increasing to 45% if you get all three Beetles. However, you’ll lose a Beetle when you’re hit, so think of them as temporary shields – make them count!

You can also craft the Husks into Beetle Wings, which was covered WAY earlier on in the Guide.

What A Horrible Day To Have A Curse: The Solar Eclipse

So you've just managed to beat a Mechanical Boss. You return to the home base, covered in blood and oil, and you've paid the Nurse's fees. Feeling proud of yourself, you talk to the Guide to see if he can make sense of the strange metals and souls that appeared from the metallic monstrosity, when you get a strange feeling that it's been night-time for a lot longer than usual. You look outside, and you see a strange sight; the moon's covering the sun, causing the light levels to plummet. You go outside to see what's going on, and before you know it, you're being assaulted by beasts you've only heard of in cheesy B-movies and horror stories. Horrible spectres rise out of the ground wielding scythes, vampires come lunging at you, and oh christ that zombie's firing giant lasers get back inside the house

The Solar Eclipse is a rare event that can happen once you’ve beaten a Mechanical Boss. This event has a 1 in 25 chance to happen when the sun rises, and when it does you'll get a notification that says "A solar eclipse is happening!", which is your cue to either take on the hordes or to hide underground. If you're still rocking Adamantite gear, you might want to hide from the horde, as they can easily tear you apart. Otherwise, get outside and start macerating the monsters!

The Solar Eclipse will last until the sun sets, meaning you're in for fifteen minutes of hell, should you choose to rise to the challenge.

The Monsters

Apparently the way the light of the sun shines on Terraria can have a disastrous effect on the wildlife, as the only things that'll spawn in the unsettling darkness are these five monsters:

• The Swamp Thing: 350HP, 80Dmg, 32 Defence. One of the grunts of the Solar Eclipse, this guy can spawn in large numbers and will move with great haste with the idea of killing you. They can drop their Banner and the Broken Hero Sword.
  
• Frankenstein: 220HP, 60Dmg, 18 Defence. No, that's not a typo. The name of the monster is Frankenstein in Terraria, which rather irks me, but I'll not get too annoyed. The other grunt of the Eclipse, this guy moves just as fast as the Swamp Things and should be considered with a similar threat level. These guys can drop their Banner and the Broken Hero Sword.
  
• Reaper: 300HP, 80Dmg, 18 Defence. These guys are similar to Wraiths in that they can go through land, but are much tougher, making them harder to dispatch. When killed, they can drop their Banner or the Death Sickle.
  
• Vampire: 500HP, 80/60Dmg (Humanoid/Bat), 20/30 Defence (Humanoid/Bat). Your first sight of this guy is normally a cloud of smoke as you realise that he's suddenly charged toward you at lightning speed. If the Vampire isn't close enough to you to do damage, he'll turn into a bat so he can get close enough. They can be hard to spot in the darkness, so keep your eyes peeled for them. Very weak to the Stake Launcher, if your first encounter with these guys is after having done a Pumpkin Moon. They can drop their Banner, the Broken Bat Wing or the Moon Stone.
  
• Eyezor: 1,000HP, 50Dmg, 30 Defence. The rarest monster of the Eclipse, your first sign that one of these guys is on-screen is the inexplicably loud laser fire coming from their lone eyeball. These guys will move a little faster than regular Zombies, but are much sturdier than their regular brethren. The lower Eyezor's health is, the faster his movement speed becomes and the quicker his laser fire is. He can drop an Eye Spring.

Loot

There are five items you can get from these monsters, as listed above. Three of them can be used the moment you find them, whilst the other two need to be crafted into something.

The Death Sickle is, surprisingly enough, a scythe that's best utilized by Melee players. Dealing a base damage of 58, swinging this weapon fires an ethereal sickle at the cursor that quickly decelerates to a halt, then spins in place for a couple of seconds, dealing damage to whatever crosses its path. Being able to hit six enemies before vanishing, and also being able to travel through walls, this weapon is indispensable for just about anyone who feels the need to barricade themselves inside their house during dangerous events. This can be used to attack the Golem if the temple generation leaves his head stuck inside a wall. Increasing your melee attack speed will increase the distance the sickle can travel by a decent number of blocks.

The Moon Stone functions similarly to the Sun Stone; when it's night-time, this band grants +10% damage, +2% crit-strike chance and +4 Defence to the wearer. Very useful if paired with the Moon Charm as you'll know when your boost is active. As of 1.2.1.2, this can be combined with the Sun Stone to create the Celestial Stone, which'll increase damage, melee speed, crit-strike chance, life regen, defence, pick-speed and minion knockback. A good all-rounder, and it's not restricted to certain times of the day!

The Eye Spring is a pet item that summons an Eyeball Spring. If you think the name is strange, think of it in a literal sense of the term; it's an eyeball with its optic nerve coiled up into a spring. It'll hop along to follow you, and will fly similarly to the Demon Eyes to catch up with you. Lovely if you always like something staring at you.

The Broken Bat Wing is, on its own, useless. If you craft it with 20 Souls of Flight, you get the Bat Wings which, when worn, can reach the same height as Bone Wings and Harpy Wings. Wear these with the Vampire Costume if you want an extra dash of accuracy.

The Broken Hero Sword is what you should be aiming to get. Dropping from the common enemies of the Eclipse, you should be able to get at least one of these during the invasion. These are useless on their own, but can be crafted with the Night's Edge or Excalibur to make the True Night's Edge and True Excalibur, respectively. The True Night's Edge deals 70 basic Melee damage, and fires a whirling green blade at the cursor, whilst the True Excalibur deals 55 basic Melee damage and fires a straight pink blade at the cursor. The True Excalibur swings faster than the True Night's Edge, which can be more useful in different situations.

These can then be combined with another Broken Hero Sword to create the Terra Blade. Currently the strongest sword in the game, this deals a base damage of 80 and fires a green blade at the cursor. This ghost-sword can hit three enemies before vanishing, making it a powerful means of crowd control, if you can get it. The sword itself is no slouch either, matching the Blade of Grass in size, letting you hit enemies easier. A must-have for anyone going Melee, and for anyone wanting to show off that they survived a Solar Eclipse.

Vanquishing The Horrible "Night": Solar Eclipse Strategy

Since this event lasts fifteen minutes and has several dangerous enemies attacking en-masse, it's best to treat this as a boss battle. However, you're in for a marathon instead of a sprint, as you're concentrating on a limitless horde of triple-digit HP monsters rather than one or two five-digit boss monsters. Bring plenty of buffs with you (three five-minute buffs, four four-minute buffs, eight two-minute buffs and a couple of ten-minute buffs) to last the day, then head to a level plane upon which you can fight. It's best to have an arena specially-made for the attack with raised platforms, torches and so on, but if you don't have one a flat plane will do. Place torches around the area whilst avoiding the monstrosities so you can at least see what's coming towards you. After that, it's all down to crowd control. You need to have weaponry that can stop groups of enemies from coming up to grace your face with pain.

For Melee players, this is a bit of a tough one to gauge, due to the random nature of the Eclipse's occurrence. The Paladin's Hammer is highly effective at stopping the hordes, reducing all but the Eyezor to a fine paste in a couple of swings. The Dao of Pow and Flower Pow are equally effective, with the Dao's confusion debuff making enemies flee giving you room to breathe, and the Flower's petals dealing additional damage as it moves through enemies. If all else fails, the Mushroom Spear is still as useful now as it was in previous times, pushing enemies back with a decent range and dealing extra damage with the spinning mushrooms. The Chlorophyte Partisan acts similarly to the Mushroom Spear, with the spore cloud giving extra reach as it flies forward. Auto-swing swords like the Cutlass and Chlorophyte Saber are useful if the enemies get too close, being able to dice enemies in a flash. If you still have it, the Beam Sword can also make a fine substitute, although you'd ideally have a decent prefix attached to the weapon to let it keep up with the stronger swords. If a Reaper drops his Death Sickle, start using it immediately to keep the hordes at bay. On the off-chance that you managed to find the Corruption/Crimson Key Mold and have beaten Plantera, the Scourge of the Corruptor is useful for picking away at the hordes whilst remaining airborne with a Featherfall buff, whilst the Vampire Knives will let you damage several enemies simultaneously whilst keeping your health topped up.

Rangers will have fun with the Solar Eclipse, provided they've got enough ammo to waste. Since crowds can pop up often, a Repeater (or the Chlorophyte Shotbow if you can get it) combined with Jester's Arrows will easily clear the air whilst also lighting up the region for a few seconds. If you're going with guns, the Megashark is still as useful as ever in culling the horrible hordes. Load the gun with Crystal Bullets or Explosive Bullets to deal a metric ton of damage to enemies whilst keeping them at bay. Should an Eyezor announce itself with laser fire, concentrate your fire on it with whatever you're firing to neutralize it as a threat as soon as possible. If you're using rockets, a Grenade Launcher can be useful in this situation, being able to reduce several enemies to ludicrous gibs in one or two shots. The Rocket Launcher can have its uses, but it's best used if you're in the air, since its shots don't curve. If you've beaten the Golem by this point and been lucky enough to get the item, the Stynger can deal some nasty damage to the monsters, and has the added bonus of not potentially killing yourself in the process. The bolts can be fired straight into the air for a minor re-enactment of an orbital bombardment, although this is a heavily delayed attack and should only be done to show off. The Flamethrower is also useful for handling the weaker enemies in the horde, being able to hold back several of the blighters with ease. If you managed to find the Jungle Key Mold and have beaten Plantera, the Piranha Gun will utterly mince the enemies, chewing through the rotting hordes like an iron wind in a manner that could make a weaker man heave. The enemies' tendency to overlap each other means that before long, all that'll be left of the current horde will be a few bits and pieces that avoided the aquatic armageddon.

Mages are as fortunate as ever in these situations, having access to several piercing weapons over the course of the game. The Golden Shower gets first mention thanks to its infinitely-piercing nature again, with the added bonus of highlighting enemies in the dark! The Cursed Flames are also useful due to their fast fire rate and inflammatory nature, although you could get overrun if it doesn't fire fast enough. The Diamond Staff or Poison Staff have their uses in destroying the hordes, although the Diamond Staff would need a decent prefix in order to keep up with other weapons. If the Mechanical Boss you defeated were the Twins, you could use the Magical Harp to cut a path through the monsters with destructive music, although a lack of knockback could spell your doom with this weapon, which is where the Rainbow Rod would come into use, being able to finish off the stragglers coming up to greet you. The Nimbus Rod, if you have it, will be able to deal some nice initial damage to the enemies, letting you finish them off with whatever weaponry you deem necessary. The Unholy Trident will be able to cut down several of the monsters with its high power and piercing potential, although obtaining the weapon can be difficult. The Nettle Burst will also deal nice group damage, but to get that weapon you'll need to have beaten Plantera, and the random nature of the Solar Eclipse can make weapon choice a bit difficult. If you've manage to defeat the Golem by this point, the Heat Ray will make short work of the hordes, frying all but the Eyezor in a few shots.

The basic thing to take from this is that decent piercing or crowd-controlling weapons are key to surviving this attack. You'll occasionally get pounced on by Vampires, but they can be held back in their bat forms, reducing their momentum (they like changing into human form whilst still flying full-pelt towards you). The Reapers can be tricky if they rise up from the ground you're standing on, but once they're out of the ground, handling them is the same as handling the horde - poke 'em in and resume controlling the crowd.

Once night-time arrives, the enemies will stop spawning and will despawn if they wander off. Be sure to kill them if you can, as their item drops are rare and useful.

Meet Duke Fishron: The Great Old Ones’ Pet

Regardless of your choices that have led up to this point, you’ve wound up at the beach, fishing rod in hand. You’re taking a short break from the rigours of fighting the fierce beasts you’ve encountered by having a nice bit of fishing. As you slowly work through your stash of bait, filling a nearby chest with fish and Frog Legs, you eventually reach the weird glow-worm you found in an underground Mushroom patch. The thing proved surprisingly difficult to catch, since you missed the first two as they burrowed into the mud. Finally, though, you caught one. And you have a good feeling about using it for bait – 666% bait power! That’s got to catch something! You see the bobber sink into the water, and as you yank, nothing comes out. The line snaps, as the water is still for a second. Then from the inky darkness, you start seeing something. Something big. Water splashes everywhere as the beast emerges from the ocean, looking like something from a horror book. Pale green skin covers its body, with a face that looks like a combination of a pig and a walrus, and several pairs of wings keeps it afloat in the air as it charges at you, looking for a fight.

Duke Fishron

Added with the fishing update (shock and horror), Duke Fishron is currently deemed to be the toughest boss in Terraria, with good reason – sitting pretty at 50,000HP and 50 Defence, the Duke can take a hefty beating before it keels over. Not only that, he’s faster than Spazmatism in full charge mode, being able easily catch up to you if you try putting distance between yourself and him. However, he has a somewhat predictable pattern that’ll make fighting the big galoot a bit easier, depending on how you choose to fight him.

To begin with, the Duke will charge you five times, covering a hefty distance each time. If he collides with you (which on the first summon, he probably will), he’ll do around 100 damage. And considering his speed, this can easily carve away at your health bar. Once he’s finished his fifth charge, he’ll foam at the mouth and send a good two dozen Detonating Bubbles at you – these home in on you at a decent pace, but can be popped with a strike from any weapon. If they hit you, they’ll deal around 100 damage, but their main purpose is to fill the screen so you can’t hurt the Duke as easily.

After performing another five charges, the Duke will float in place for a second or two, make a ghastly noise and summon a couple of rings that’ll slowly fall to the floor diagonally. These don’t deal damage, but when they dissipate they’ll summon Sharknados. Not only will the spout deal damage in the hundreds, it’ll spit out a dozen Sharkrons in a somewhat predictable arc. These Sharkrons have 100HP, deal 100 damage, and have 100 defence, meaning they’ll need to be struck with heavy weaponry to defeat (anything that deals over a hundred damage is good to use). Thankfully, the Sharkrons don’t have much thought of survival, and will fly like arrows into the land, dying on collision with any blocks.

The Duke’ll keep up this attack pattern until it reaches 25,000HP. Once it dips below half health, it’ll stay in place for a couple of seconds, grunt loudly, and take on a deep green hue and its eyes will glow a bright yellow. Rather a nice change over spinning violently and exploding to show its TRUE FORM like the Eyes.

In this form, his attack power increases to 150, but his defence drops by ten points to 40. His attack pattern changes up a notch as well. Instead of charging five times, now he’ll charge three times, and instantly break into a loop-de-loop whilst summoning Detonating Bubbles. These can be just as easily dispatched, just that they’ll come at you in a strange pattern. He’ll charge another three times, stay still and summon a singular flying ring. Instead of slowly falling to the ground, this one will chase you down. Thankfully it won’t hurt you, merely bursting on touching you, but the tornado this summons is twice as big as the Sharknado (if you die to it, the game claims you were killed by a Cthulhunado), can hit for 150 damage, and will summon twice as many Sharkrons that have extra health (120 instead of 100) – they fly in a denser pattern, meaning you’ll need to carve a path through them. After doing this, the Duke will resume charging you.

And it’s kind of a given, but being descended from the Pigron, Duke Fishron will phase through blocks to reach you, glowing a dull cyan colour as it does so.

Once you deliver the killing blow, the Duke will explode in a spectacular fashion, body parts spinning rapidly as they fly in the same direction as he did with an ear-rending screech. As you go to grab the loot though, be very wary of any remaining Cthulhunados that may still exist, as they can easily turn a glorious victory into an embarrassing respawn.

Makin' Bacon: Duke Fishron Strategy

Arena

There are two distinct ways to take on the Duke - fight or flight. This method involves standing your ground and fighting. Near the ocean, set up a couple pairs of platforms, around 200-300 of them - enough to give you a couple screens worth of platforms. The Duke’s movement patterns makes it very easy to treat him like a bull - jump over him as he charges, maybe take to the skies as it charges towards you, then just as it charges, drop like a stone to watch it fly away once again. This method’s risky, since he can deal a decent amount of damage on contact. This is the best method for Melee players to use with regards to dealing damage whilst it stands still trying to attack.

The other method is flight - once the Duke is summoned, book it. Drink Swiftness and Flipper potions, and start backing away whilst laying down suppressing fire on the Duke. This method will invariably be slower (especially if you’re going Melee) but if you know how the land is laid out, you can easily outpace the Duke, meaning the worst thing it can do is spit bubbles at you whilst Sharkrons occasionally drop in for a fly-by biting. The Flipper buff will make it so you can rush through water without worrying about being caught by the Duke. Just remember to place platforms on any pit-falls and you should be golden.

Time

Duke Fishron is a unique boss in that he doesn’t have a time limit - you can summon him at any time of the day and fight him anywhere in the overworld. You can even take him on as early as pre-Mech! The only limitation you have is that you HAVE to summon him at the beach. Anything else is fair game. Fight him in the day for better visibility, or at night to maximize the tense mood!

For this fight, I’d actually recommend not using a Featherfall Potion - the Duke moves fast enough that having the buff on would be a detriment to survival more than anything.

Now then, STRATEGY!

Melee

Fighters will have the toughest time with the Duke due to his high contact damage and speed. Before picking a fight with the brute, drink an Ichor Flask to make the fight a little easier. If you’re using an arena, get your cape and start tricking the Duke into charging all over the place, whilst taking passing pokes with your Chlorophyte Partisan or Mushroom Spear. When he summons the Bubbles, fling your Flower Pow, Paladin’s Hammer or swing the Ice/Death Sickle a few times to block their offensive. Continue poking him with your spears, then try getting close at the end of his fifth charge to get a few swings in with your Cutlass, Chlorophyte Claymore/Sabre or use your Golem Fist if you don’t want to risk touching the Duke. Once the Sharknados appear, dodging will be a bit tougher depending on where they spawn - they’ll either block your movement by surrounding you with wind spouts, or they’ll fling Sharkrons that’ll try colliding with you. However they land, you should keep up your attack and keep up your attack until the Duke gets angry. This is when things get interesting, since you’ll have more opportunities to attack and have the capability to deal more damage, at the cost of having more attacks to dodge. Once the Duke summons the Cthulhunado-spawning ring, try running to an extreme left or right so the spout appears away from the centre - the further, the better. The Sharkrons can drop some hearts, but not enough that attacking them is a good idea. Keep up the offensive, taking a quick break in the silence to grab some health, and before too long you’ll destroy the Duke.

If you fight him after the Solar Eclipse and were lucky enough to craft the Terra Blade, you could give the World Tour method a try, since that sword does monstrous damage, pierces enemies so you can clear the Bubbles, and has decent enough range and travel time that you can reliably damage the Duke from a range. You could also try the Light Disks, but that might be a token effort at this point of the game. However, if you’re lucky enough to have found the blighted Key Mold (Crimson or Corruption, it matters not), you can easily keep your range on the Duke with Vampire Knives (for survivability) or Scourge of the Corruptor

Ranger

Rangers can easily commit to the World Tour method if their aim is good enough - a Megashark loaded with Crystal Bullets, whilst slow, will reliably destroy the Bubbles and injure the Duke since he’ll continually charge into the shards. They won’t do much damage, but it’ll be continuous damage.

Now say you want to stand your ground. That’s good as well! You have three options for damage, so if you have Shroomite gear, make sure to equip appropriately. A Chlorophyte Shotbow loaded with Venom or Holy Arrows can deal some modest damage, and Jester’s Arrows will clear out the

Detonating Bubbles and Sharkrons without too much trouble. For explosive damage, I’d suggest the Stynger due to its fragmenting capabilities - similar to the Crystal Bullets, except the shots are a lot bigger and can easily cover a great area with damage. You could also use a Rocket Launcher, just be wary of travel time - try predicting where the Duke will be when you shoot. I’ve already mentioned how useful bullets are - heck, you can even watch me kill the Duke with Hallowed Armour if you want!

Mage

Mages can have an interesting time defeating the Duke - low defence vs high damage means he’ll wipe the floor with you if you give him the chance. The Heat Ray can be used for consistent damage, as well as being able to rip the Bubbles to shreds (though the Nettle Burst can also do this to the Bubbles). The Leaf Blower can deal some nice damage to the Duke, provided he’s up in your face - the spread of the leaves can occasionally cause the shots to miss. If you’ve crafted it, the Venom Staff can deal a hefty bit of damage whilst clearing the Bubbles, though the sting of added damage over time is lost on the Duke. For the start of the fight you can try the Spectre Staff since it won’t mistakenly fly at any Sharkrons, but once the bubbles appear, grab a piercing weapon. You can also give the Inferno Fork a shot whenever the Duke stands still - it’ll clear Bubbles (again) and do a nice bit of damage until he starts moving.

Whether or not you choose to stand your ground or fly through the sky, you’re at risk of taking heavy damage. You can try using the Spectre Hood set to get some added survivability, though the fight will take even longer and you’re at a higher risk of being gored. The Spectre Mask will let you kill the Duke faster, at the cost of having no self-healing.

--==--

For those having trouble dodging the Duke, you can use the Tabi (or Master Ninja Gear for the chance to completely dodge an attack) to double-tap and get some distance on the Duke. Just be wary of which item you choose to remove for it.

Pearls After Swine: Duke Fishron Drops

However you managed to defeat the Duke, there will be glorious loot for you to plunder from its corpse (well, where it died – its corpse will have flown into the stratosphere if you angled it right). The loot you’re guaranteed to get includes 1 Gold Coin (thrilling), several Greater Healing Potions and a bunch of hearts. Then you have a chance of getting one of these five items:

• Flairon
  
• Tsunami
  
• Razorblade Typhoon
  
• Bubble Gun
  
• Tempest Staff

…with an additional chance of the following items dropping as well:

• Duke Fishron Mask (1/7)
  
• Duke Fishron Trophy (1/10)
  
• Fishron Wings (1/15)

The second set of items are independent, meaning if you’re beyond lucky, you’ll get the Mask, Trophy AND Wings alongside your weapon drop. First off, the weapons!

Melee

The Flairon (sic) is the Melee weapon that can be dropped by the Duke. A flail with the Duke’s head as the pointy bit, this weapon has a pretty decent range and a base power of 66, though it has a slow swing speed and can’t be left to hang like the other flails. The real draw of this weapon is that it’s able to auto-fire, and it spawns bubbles that home in with devastating speed. These bubbles rip enemies to shreds to the point where nothing has a chance to live if you have this weapon as a Fighter.

Ranger

The Tsunami is the Bow that the Duke drops. Similarly fashioned to look like the Duke, this bow deals a base damage of 60, and has the best tagline a Ranger could ask for: “Shoots five arrows at a time”. Yes, despite not being an auto-firing weapon, this beauty of a bow multiplies your damage output by five, and allows you to reduce just about ANY enemy or boss to a messy pile of body bits within seconds. As an example, when I was playing through on my Ranger character and obtained the Tsunami at Hallowed Armour level, I was able to defeat Plantera and the Golem many, many times over without buffs. It’s obscene the amount of damage you’re able to put out with this thing, though it doesn’t work too well with piercing arrows due to how damage is calculated for those types of arrows. For maximum firepower, pull out some non-piercing, high-damage arrows and start blotting out the sun.

Magic

Rather interestingly, the Mage has two drops available! The first is a book, whilst the other is a strange gun.

The Razorblade Typhoon is an autofiring tome that deals a base damage of 60 for a base Mana cost of 18. When you cast from this book, a spinning disk is fired from the book towards the cursor at a rapid speed, pinging off of walls like no tomorrow and turning enemies into diced confetti within a second. This weapon is similar to the Magical Harp in that the projectiles can pierce and bounce infinitely, but will only exist for three seconds. But by mercy what a three seconds! This can easily help in any invasions you have to deal with, and whichever Spectre set you use is going to benefit greatly from this book.

Meanwhile, the Bubble Gun is a gun that shoots bubbles. Bet you saw that one coming! This gun has an utterly appalling reach for a Magic weapon, with roughly ten to twelve blocks before a bubble pops. However! The gun has a base Mana cost of 4, firing two to four bubbles per click, and a base damage of 70, meaning this thing is an utter beast when used in close combat. Think of it as the TF2 Pyro’s flamethrower, but with bubbles. Firing at a Pirate Captain will somehow reduce him to bits with a second’s worth of bubble fire. This weapon has the potential to be the most powerful weapon in your arsenal, so long as you can get close enough to your target to shoot them.

Summoner

Finally, there’s a summon weapon! The Tempest Staff is a weapon that costs 10 base Mana to use, and on use, it summons a tornado about the size of the player. The tornado itself can hit an enemy for 50 damage, and whenever it’s possible, the tiny terror will fire itty-bitty sharks at whatever it’s targeted. These can occasionally miss due to travel time and the sharks’ inability to lead its shots, but for the most part this weapon can make for a very useful companion, especially if you’re going full-on Summoner.

Wings

Now we have the Fishron Wings! These wings are the rarest drop from the Duke, having a one in fifteen chance to drop (and with myself being a very jammy git, I got them on my first kill). These wings are currently the best you can get in Terraria legitimately, even better than the Steampunk Wings. Not only do you fly higher, you get faster ascending speed and can move through liquids faster. The wings will also generate particles when flapping, though that’s more of a cool thing than anything important. Their rarity compounded by the Duke’s difficulty to kill makes them a very useful drop.

With this chapter complete, let’s move on!

Smashing Pumpkings: The Pumpkin Moon

And so it was, you finally managed to defeat everything the game had thrown at you. The Mechanical Bosses reduced to scrap metal, the Pirate Invasion sent packing with their numbers greatly reduced, Plantera turned into fertilizer, and the Golem destroyed and reverse-engineered into useful weaponry. Even the unnatural hordes brought forth by the Solar Eclipse were unable to best you, and now you're sitting on end-game weaponry and gear with nothing to do.

Well, never you fear! For Re-Logic has released a new challenge: The Pumpkin Moon. The Pumpkin Moon is a new wave-based assault that's started at night, and continues until sunrise. As you defeat enemies, the next wave is announced, bringing new enemies in greater numbers, until you're left fighting hordes of boss monsters who drop enough items to easily clog your inventory.

In order to start the Pumpkin Moon, you need the Pumpkin Moon Medallion. Crafted from 10 Hallowed Bars, 30 Pumpkins and 5 Ectoplasm, this item can be used at any time, but during the day, you merely hold it out in a rather awkward manner. When used at night, the moon turns into a jack-o-lantern with a devious smile, the chat announces that "The Pumpkin Moon is rising...", and then reads "First Wave: Scarecrow" as a unique track kicks in.

If you activate the Pumpkin Moon, know this: you are in for a hell of a fight. As an example, here's my first attempt at the event (I'd recommend full-screen to get a good look at it)

The first waves are somewhat palatable, throwing basic enemies at you. But before too long, you're beating away Mourning Wood and fending off Hellhounds with great difficulty and whoops there goes your spleen. Again. Do not take this lightly, as the enemies are dangerously powerful and can deal a surprising amount of damage through even the toughest defences.

The Pumpkin Moon will last until morning, at which point the enemies still around will escape. Some enemies might get stuck in dips, letting you score the killing blow on them, but the big beasts will phase through walls to run away from you. However, whilst the challenge is great, the loot is greater, dropping stuff that complements the current end-game gear quite well.

With basic information down, let's start detailing the Hallowe'en Horde!

Scarecrows

Appearing in waves 1-5, 7, 9 and 11, these guys are the grunts of the attack. There are several variations with different stats (400-650HP, 52-78Dmg, 14-26 Defence), and their basic method of attack is to charge at you to deal damage. The Scarecrows without legs will hop at you, meaning they can take you by surprise, but the ones with legs will run at you similarly to regular ol' Zombies. They can also cause Weakness for 60 seconds (too spooky). They have a chance to drop one of their three pieces of clothing (Hat, Shirt, Pants) - given that they spawn en-masse, you should have at least one or two of the pieces by the night's end.

Splinterling

Appearing in waves 2-6, 8, and 10-12, these guys are tougher than the Scarecrows (900HP, 100Dmg, 32 Defence), but appear in slightly lower numbers. They're more resistant to Knockback, and will move slightly faster than the Scarecrows. When killed, they'll always drop between 1-4 Spooky Wood.

Hellhound

Appearing in waves 3-8 and 10-13, these hounds are not to be trifled with. Running in a similar fashion to Unicorns, these guys can catch you off-guard if you're not careful. With 1,200HP, 80Dmg and 38 Defence, you'll need to deal some heavy damage to these guys to knock them over. They can be knocked back, but otherwise handle with caution.

Poltergeist

Appearing in waves 5-8 and 10-13, these are the Wraiths of the attack, being able to float through land and getting flummoxed by decent gaps between platforms. Holding 2,000HP, 90Dmg and 44 Defence to its name, these guys can deal some heavy damage if you don't notice them floating out of the ground. Since their flight capabilities are restricted to "swim through the ground and hope the guy's not airborne", you can keep out of their range with a Featherfall buff or a set of Wings. However, they can take a beating, so try and focus fire on them if you can.

Headless Horseman

Appearing in wave 9 and waves 11-14, this guy's name always confuses me. Too used to TF2's Horseless Headless Horsemann, I suppose. Following a similar attack pattern to the Hellhound, this guy shouldn't be underestimated, with 10,000HP, 130Dmg and 40 Defence. Their only attack is to rush at you on brazen hooves, but they hit like tanks and are highly resistant to knockback, to the point where standing in front of one hoping to stunlock them is a practice in lunacy. During the higher waves, they'll spawn in greater numbers, so your best bet is to stay above them, preferably with platforms. There's a small chance that they'll drop their head as a vanity item (or to be more exact, the Jack 'O Lantern Mask)

Mourning Wood

Appearing in waves 4-6, 9, and 11-15, this guy is the first real threat to your life you'll encounter during the Pumpkin Moon. Sporting a healthy 12,000HP, 120Dmg and 28 Defence, this guy is essentially a boss encounter and should be treated as such. The 120Dmg is on a melee attack, which you should avoid at all costs. If you're out of its reach, it'll try one of two attacks, the first being a spray of gravity-affected twigs that latch on to blocks and burn for a few seconds. These flames aren't too powerful, but they can be a hassle if you don't have any platforms to stand on. Its other attack is to fire twigs at your character. These aren't affected by gravity and can go through blocks, so be sure to avoid them when you can. The shots don't do as much damage as the Wood's melee strike, but can give the Mourning Wood a surprising reach. The Mourning Wood is also able to phase through walls, meaning you can't trap it inside a building and point and laugh - he'll rip your finger off. When beaten, he's guaranteed to drop 30-50 Spooky Wood, and can drop one of these items:

• Cursed Sapling
  
• Spooky Twig
  
• Spooky Hook
  
• Necromantic Scroll
  
• Stake Launcher (with 30-60 Stakes as well)

...once you reach the Final Wave, defeating one of these guys will guarantee a Mourning Wood Trophy item, letting you prove you reached the Final Wave and lived to see one of these guys die.

With less than 10% of the allotted text space left, let's start detailing the big boss of the Pumpkin Moon event...

Meet The Pumpking: Oh Gourd.

Pumpking

Appearing in waves 7-15, this guy will become a persistent threat once you break past the halfway point of the battle. Holding the highest health at 22,000HP, 50Dmg and 36 Defence, this guy is the undisputed boss of the Pumpkin Moon. The Pumpking is similar to Skeletron, replacing the "skull and crossbones" look with something more in tune with the Hallowe'en spirit, floating around above the player to deal damage.

The Pumpking's lantern will rotate between one of three faces to show how he intends to attack:



The sinister look. When Pumpking looks like this, he'll occasionally try and move himself on top of your character to deal damage. Quick movement can mitigate the damage, but you'll likely still take a few hits whilst trying to avoid him.


The mildly concerned look. When Pumpking looks like this, his scythe-arms will periodically leave behind after-images that'll soon accelerate towards you with alarming frequency. When this happens, it's time to start running or flying to keep them from hitting you.



The opera singer. When Pumpking looks like this, he'll spit out small fire barbs that'll latch on to solid blocks and deal persistent damage, much like the Mourning Wood does. If you're not paying attention, these can deal some surprising damage, as they're rather difficult to spot.

Whilst the Pumpking has his mood swings, his scythe-arms will be making swings towards you, in a rather similar fashion to how Skeletron tried to slap you. The scythe-arms are a bit more worrying than some bony hands though, so make sure to avoid its swings! And the scythe-arms can't be destroyed, so you'll be dealing with them until the Pumpking dies.

When you finally defeat the Pumpking, he has a chance to drop one of these seven items:

• The Horseman's Blade
  
• Bat Scepter
  
• Candy Corn Rifle (with 50-100 Candy Corn shots)
  
• Jack 'O Lantern Launcher (with 25-30 Explosive Jack 'O Lanterns)
  
• Raven Staff
  
• Black Fairy Dust
  
• Spider Egg

...and like the Mourning Wood, once you hit the Final Wave, Pumpking is guaranteed to drop a Pumpking Trophy, as proof of your dedication to Hallowe'en histrionics.

Hallowe'en's Secrets: Strategy

As was mentioned earlier, there are fifteen waves to go through. You might be able to figure out the wave patterns from the enemy and boss lists, but for everyone else, here's a handy dandy list:

• First Wave: Scarecrow
  
• Wave 2: Scarecrow, Splinterling
  
• Wave 3: Scarecrow, Splinterling, Hellhound
  
• Wave 4: Scarecrow, Splinterling, Hellhound, Mourning Wood
  
• Wave 5: Scarecrow, Splinterling, Hellhound, Poltergeist, Mourning Wood
  
• Wave 6: Splinterling, Hellhound, Poltergeist, Mourning Wood
  
• Wave 7: Scarecrow, Hellhound, Poltergeist, Pumpking
  
• Wave 8: Splinterling, Hellhound, Poltergeist, Pumpking
  
• Wave 9: Scarecrow, Mourning Wood, Pumpking, Headless Horseman
  
• Wave 10: Splinterling, Hellhound, Poltergeist, Pumpking
  
• Wave 11: Scarecrow, Splinterling, Hellhound, Poltergeist, Mourning Wood, Pumpking, Headless Horseman
  
• Wave 12: Splinterling, Hellhound, Poltergeist, Mourning Wood, Pumpking, Headless Horseman
  
• Wave 13: Hellhound, Poltergeist, Mourning Wood, Pumpking, Headless Horseman
  
• Wave 14: Mourning Wood, Pumpking, Headless Horseman
  
• Final Wave: Mourning Wood, Pumpking

The waves progress based on how many monsters you're able to kill. Each monster you kill has a different score, so you should attempt to focus higher-scoring enemies if you can. The scores are:

• Scarecrow: 1
  
• Splinterling: 2
  
• Hellhound: 4
  
• Poltergeist: 8
  
• Headless Horseman: 25
  
• Mourning Wood: 75
  
• Pumpking: 150

...and to progress to each wave, you need to accrue this many points:

• Wave 2: 25
  
• Wave 3: 40
  
• Wave 4: 50
  
• Wave 5: 80
  
• Wave 6: 100
  
• Wave 7: 160
  
• Wave 8: 180
  
• Wave 9: 200
  
• Wave 10: 250
  
• Wave 11: 300
  
• Wave 12: 375
  
• Wave 13: 450
  
• Wave 14: 525
  
• Wave 15: 675

...so as you can guess, you'll want to try and defeat the Mourning Wood and Pumpkings when they appear, as they'll boost your score dramatically. There's no visible counter, so you'll need to take guesses as to how well you're doing.

Arena

Since this attack has its fair share of grounded enemies, a raised platform some two or three screens long will be useful. You can deal with the first few waves on the ground, then once the Mourning Wood lollops into view, you can take to the platform and rain hell down on your foes (literally if you're a Mage with the Nimbus Rod). Depending on the length of the platform, some enemies might spawn off-screen and come tearing at you. These guys should be dealt with when they appear so as to not lose a fifth of your health bar by accident. Once Pumpking comes along, you'll have to start moving around a LOT more in order to avoid damage - all of his attacks can hit for over a hundred damage, despite what the previous damage indicator might show (though these are mainly his scythe-arms, so take that for what you will). If you've raided the Lihzahrd Temple, setting up a bunch of traps for the weaker enemies to run into is a brilliant idea - the Spiky Ball Traps will deal some heavy damage over a wide area, whilst Flame Traps will set the weaker enemies on fire and still deal some hefty damage. With traps set up, you can concentrate your efforts on the Pumpking, who'll take a heavy beating.

Extra

As there's only nine minutes of Pumpkin Moon to experience, getting through to the fifteenth wave requires a ton of damage per second. You need to be dealing damage all the time, otherwise you'll find yourself falling short at wave 11. Reforge your accessories to Menacing to add a 20% damage boost to your weapons, and then wear your class's emblem to add another 15% damage to your class's weapons. If you want to maximise damage, do what I suggested earlier and wear the Destroyer Emblem and Avenger Emblem to add even more damage to your weaponry, whilst also buffing your Crit-Strike Chance. And if you have enough money to spare, try reforging your weaponry to Legendary, Unreal or Mythical, or the closest you can get based on weapon and damage type. You need to get every single bit of power out of your weapons in order to deal enough damage to the hordes. For the earlier hordes you'll need high-damage piercing weapons, and for the Mourning Wood and Pumpkings you'll need heavy-hitting, concentrated damage. If you have traps set up, this shouldn't be too difficult to focus on.

Specifics

For Melee characters, the best things to use are the Paladin's Hammer for piercing crowd control (or the Chlorophyte Partisan/Mushroom Spear if your luck's out), Vampire Knives for a quick health top-up, and the Golem's Fist or Flairon for damaging the big enemies. If you're on a suspended platform, the Flower Pow can be dangled onto Mourning Wood to do some persistent (if somewhat low) damage. The Pumpking can be attacked with the Possessed Hatchet or Terra Blade, the former for its high damage and homing capabilities, and the latter for its reliable projectile pathing (the last thing you want is the Hatchet getting distracted and attacking a Scarecrow). Also, try using an Ichor Flask to deal more damage to the enemies - that ten extra damage per attack adds up!

For those of you going Ranger, whiskeychris has set up a very useful guide on how to solo the Pumpkin Moon - I highly recommend giving it a look, as my Ranger suggestions would fall flat (it's a useful guide for the Frost Moon as well, which I'll be going into shortly):

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=192455279
For Mages, the Heat Ray will be useful for dealing with the chaff of the attack, dealing high damage with no fall-off, although the enemies will need to be in a straight line for this to work. If you have an arena set up, this shouldn't be an issue. When the bigger enemies start appearing, place some Nimbus Rod clouds in the sky and stay between them. Keep the space between them to around one character width so that they can deal consistent damage to Mourning Woods and Pumpkings. Use the Golden Shower (if you have it) to coat the enemies in a fine ichor and start using the Inferno Fork to begin melting their health bars. Barring that, the Razorblade Typhoon can be relied upon to do some neat damage alongside the rainclouds - you need to be dealing as much damage as possible in order to reach that elusive final wave.

Finally, the loot!

Sweet Christmas: Pumpkin Moon Loot

And here it is. The Pumpkin Moon Loot. An interesting thing to know about the loot system of the Pumpkin Moon is that as you continue through the waves, items are more likely to drop. So killing a Mourning Wood at wave 4 might not yield much, but defeating him or the Pumpking at Wave 15? Guaranteed item drop, alongside the trophy. That is the main reason to reach Wave 15, other than to say you managed it - it's to receive glorious loot!

I listed in the previous sections what drops which items, so I shall get right on with the items themselves. Four of the items are vanity clothes, three of the items (six, counting their respective ammo) are Ranger weapons, one of the items is a Melee weapon, another is a Magic weapon, yet another item is a Summon item, two of the items are crafting ingredients used to make better items, one is an Accessory to be equipped, and two are pet summon items. Oh, and one's a grappling hook.

Clothing

The Scarecrow's Clothes (consisting of Hat, Shirt and Pants) can give you a lovely new look, if make you more endearing to crows.

The Jack 'O Lantern Mask glows with an eerie light. Shroomite Armour-wearing players will get a bit of amusement from this item, as the glowing light keeps shining through the invisibility.

Melee

The Horseman's Sword (replete with "The" in the item name) is the second-strongest sword in the game, beaten only by the Terra Blade. Dealing a base damage of 75, when this sword hits an enemy, a few Jack 'O Lanterns will appear in the corners of the screen and fly towards your target, dealing extra damage. An interesting mechanic, and just to add to the deal, the sword can auto-swing, letting you hold down the mouse button until everything is reduced to diced confetti.

Ranged

The Ranger got a lot of love when the Pumpkin Moon came out - three new weapons, all using new types of ammo and fitting in to the arrow-bullet-'splosive helmet bonuses, these weapons are hilariously powerful.

The Stake Launcher is a crossbow fashioned from Spooky Wood (yet is dropped from the Mourning Wood instead of crafted) that fires wooden stakes towards the cursor. Dealing a base arrow damage of 75, combined with the Stake's 25 damage, you'll be dealing an average of a hundred damage a shot with this weapon. The stake fires at high speed and can strike through nine enemies before breaking on the tenth. This is also, amusingly enough, the easiest way to kill Vampires, dealing well over a thousand damage per strike and killing them instantly (the Wiki claims that, with the right modifiers and bonuses, the Launcher can do 5,000 Damage on a crit, although that would need to be seen to be believed). Once you have this Launcher, the Arms Dealer and Witch Doctor will sell you Stakes for the low, low price of 15 Copper each.

The Candy Corn Rifle will allow you to break out some good ol' fashioned sleuth diplomacy on the creatures of the night. Dealing a base bullet damage of 44, combined with Candy Corn's 9 damage per shot, this'll do around 53 damage per hit. The Rifle fires a Candy Corn kernel towards the cursor that is highly affected by gravity, and will bounce around for a while before finally breaking. The shots will pierce enemies, making for great damage-dealing potential, and can (with decent aim) be fired round walls to deal with enemies who might not be in your line of sight. The ammo is also very cheap, being sold by the Arms Dealer at 5 Copper a "bullet".

The Jack 'O Lantern Launcher is a new contender for the title of "Most Amusing Weapon Of Terraria". Dealing 60 base explosive damage, combined with the Explosive Jack 'O Lantern's 25 damage, you'll be dealing an average of 85 damage per pumpkin. This launcher fires Jack 'O Lanterns towards the cursor that'll bounce around for a few seconds and explode, if it doesn't hit an enemy in the meantime. What makes this cannon so silly is that the Pumpkins are very bouncy - fire indoors and you'll get quite the amusing show. These Pumpkins won't hurt the person firing them either, so you can use this in close quarters without ruining your skin. Once you have the Launcher, the Arms Dealer sells them for the comically low price of 3 Copper each.

Magic

The Bat Scepter is a simple weapon to understand - point the scepter, and a bat flies out of it towards the cursor. Nice and easy. Dealing 45 base magic damage for a base Mana cost of 3, this shoots 1-3 bats towards the cursor that will eventually home in on any targets in the vicinity. This is similar to the Wasp Gun, but the bats will merely die when they hit a wall, so you'd best have good aim if you plan on using this. You can deal some decent damage with this weapon if you're handling singular targets.

Summon

The Raven Staff will summon a raven as a familiar for you. This bird'll fly at enemies to peck their eyes out for 32 damage (basic). It costs 10 Mana to summon a raven, and this staff can be paired with the Tiki Armour set and accessories so you can have a veritable flock of the birds flitting around you. Pairs well with the Reaper Costume and Scarecrow Clothes.

Others

The Spooky Hook is a grappling hook that is similar to the Ivy Whip in function; it can latch onto three surfaces, and when attaching to a new surface, the oldest hook will detach. Beats out the Dual Hook in reach and versatility, so this is a must-have.

The Cursed Sapling summons a Cursed Sapling pet that bears an eerie similarity to the Mourning Wood. If you put enough distance between you and the Sapling, it'll activate its propulsion system and circle around you, lighting up the surrounding area quite nicely.

The Spider Egg summons a pet Spider. This little guy acts like a regular spider, crawling along the floor horizontally, and climbing walls to give you a nice full view of all its lovely legs. If you put distance between you and it, the spider rides towards you on a magical web (please, no jokes about surfing the web - it's been done before, and the last time I did it near my friend, he started frothing at the mouth)

The Necromantic Scroll is a summon-specific item that acts similarly to the Pygmy Necklace, letting you have an extra minion and boosting minion damage by 10%. Combine it with the Pygmy Necklace to have as many summons as possible! The Scroll can then be combined with a Hercules Beetle to make the Papyrus Scarab, which gives you an extra minion AND boosts their damage and knockback!

Crafting

The Spooky Twig and Black Fairy Dust are crafting components. When either of these are combined with 20 Souls of Flight, you can get the Spooky Wings and Tattered Fairy Wings, respectively. These two Wings are currently the best wings you can access in the game, granting you more flight time than the Flame, Frost, Ghost and Leaf Wings! The difficulty in procuring the wings makes their advantage well-earned.

Intermission: Scary Wooden Cut-Outs

Before I continue with the Frost Moon, allow me to quickly go over the Spooky Wood and its crafting capabilities. For the most part, the stuff you can make is pretty simple - doors, platforms, work benches, tables, chairs, the usual sort of stuff. But as with the other wood types before it, you can make Spooky Wood Armour (or to give its exact title, Spooky Armor)

Looking ever-so flash in dark purple with orange markings, this armour is the stuff to wear if you're planning on using minions. Unlike its natural wood brethren, the Spooky Armour is notably more expensive, requiring hundreds of pieces of wood to craft. Each piece grants the same bonus of +1 Minion and +11% Minion Damage, with the differences in defence and crafting looking like this:

• The Helmet is crafted from 200 Spooky Wood and grants 8 Defence.
  
• The Breastplate is crafted from 300 Spooky Wood and grants 10 Defence.
  
• The Leggings are crafted from 250 Spooky Wood and grant 9 Defence

A whole set costs 750 Spooky Wood to craft (ten times more than regular Wood Armour!), and on wearing the whole set, you get +25% Minion Damage, making this the go-to set for damage over defence when it comes to summons.

With this inexplicably short section over (not even a quarter of the character limit used!), it's time to move on to the Final Challenge of 1.2.2!

The Nightmare Before Christmas: The Frost Moon

The Pumpkin Moon's been and gone. You've managed to somehow scrape together a bunch of tools and weapons from the remains of the haunted hordes. Still reeling from the fight, you speak to the new Guide to find out how to craft the Medallion again, and on showing him the Ectoplasm, not only does he tell you how to craft the Medallion, but he also tells you of a new item that summons another invasion! With the new recipe to hand, you grab some Silk, look for a few Souls of Fright that you'd been saving for the Key Mold, and dash to the anvil to cobble together something labelled a Naughty Present:



Once night-time comes around once more, you open the present to see a note that reads "The Frost Moon is rising..."

The moon bears the visage of an off-putting snowman, and you can't help but think "Oh no, not again" as the horde of zombie elves descend.

--------------------

Similar to the Pumpkin Moon, the Frost Moon is another wave-based Invasion attack that starts at night (whenever you choose to start it) and ends at daybreak. As Re-Logic have seen people solo the Pumpkin Moon with noticeable difficulty, they decided that they needed to kick things into high gear for the Frost Moon. That one of the developers commended the devs for a job well done because Yrimir said it was too hard should tell you something about this invasion. With 1.2.3, the Frost Moon has been toned down, with most of the enemies that fire guns firing them a LOT slower, whilst other enemies will deal less damage. It’s no slouch, though – only try this out once you’ve tried the Pumpkin Moon a couple of times!

But anyway, the Frost Moon is very similar to the Pumpkin Moon in that you're attacked by the hordes of the undead, several trees decide to kill you, and the veritable icons of the holiday the invasion represents turn up for a tussle. And to show how much they've decided to crank up the difficulty by, there are 15 waves, alongside five "bonus" waves, that are distinguishable by the fact that when you reach a bonus wave, trophies start dropping. Just to make it easier to understand, let's say that there's twenty waves total. As before, you need a set number of points to proceed, with each monster counting towards that score. And the further into the invasion you progress, the greater your chances are of obtaining loot drops from the five-digit boss monsters! I'll just mark the points required to progress below in a handy-dandy list, and we can get started on profiling the hordes!

• 2: 25
  
• 3: 40
  
• 4: 50
  
• 5: 80
  
• 6: 100
  
• 7: 160
  
• 8: 180
  
• 9: 200
  
• 10: 250
  
• 11: 300
  
• 12: 375
  
• 13: 450
  
• 14: 525
  
• 15: 675
  
• 16: 850
  
• 17: 1025
  
• 18: 1325
  
• 19: 1550
  
• 20: 2000

Santa's Little Helpers: The Northern Horde

Of the enemies that can appear under the glow of the Frost Moon, a good six of them are themed after Santa, his elves, and the things they can create. First up: the cannon fodder!

Zombie Elves

These guys are the first enemies you'll encounter, appearing through the first five waves, the seventh wave, and waves ten through twelve. There are three variants, to make up for their rather bland attack pattern.

• The red-haired elves are the fastest and strongest, but also the weakest, coming in at 500HP, 78Dmg and 14 Defence.
  
• The blonde elves are the middle-men of sorts, sporting 600HP, 65Dmg and 18 Defence.
  
• The bearded elves are the slowest and hardiest, with 700HP, 52Dmg and 24 Defence.

Since they're the runts of the battle, they grant 1 point for each Elf you kill.

Gingerbread Men

These sugary devils will also be amongst the first to die, although they'll be less common than the Elves, appearing in Wave 1, 3-4, 7, 9, and 11-13. These delicious dangers are tougher than the Zombies, holding 750HP, 90Dmg and 26 Defence to their names, and being able to resist knockback better than the Elves. They will also grant 1 point towards the wave total.

Elf Archers

These markselves will be the first annoying enemy you'll fight - becoming a constant threat between the second and eighth waves, they'll fire flaming arrows at you for around eighty damage or so, with contact causing over a hundred damage. They have 900HP and 30 Defence, and can quickly become a nuisance if you don't periodically clear them out. Defeating an Archer will give you 2 points towards the wave total.

Elf Copters

The Copters are even more annoying than the Archers, and will make their presence known with persistent gun-fire. Appearing in waves 6, 8-10, 15 and 17, these buzzards have 1,200HP, deal around 60 damage on contact (with bullets dealing around 80 damage) and have 28 Defence. If they can see you, they'll open fire, and will keep on firing until you either hit them (whereupon they'll hold their fire for a short second, then return to the offensive) or get out of their line of sight. If you're not in their line of sight, they'll fly at you through any blocks so that you ARE in their line of sight. Copters are a priority target as they can deal constant damage. Killing one of these guys nets you 6 points towards the point total.

Nutcrackers

These wooden worries are one of the taller enemies in the attack, and are also one of the tougher non-boss monsters you'll encounter. With 1,800HP, they'll start out walking at you, dealing around 80Dmg and holding 26 Defence. Once you've damaged them enough they'll start pirouetting at you, dealing around 120Dmg and increasing their defence to 42. They appear in waves 3, 5, 6, 8, 9 and 18, and will give you 4 points towards the wave total.

Finally, we get to the jolly terminator himself: The Santa-NK1.

Santa-NK1

Boasting 18,000HP, 120 contact damage and 56 Defence, this is one robot you don't want to tread on. He has several methods of attacking you, chief amongst which being the chain guns equipped to its arms. These'll deal somewhere in the sixty damage region, and with its slow fire speed and poor aim, they can be considered one of its weakest attacks. Then there's the holster on the Tank's back that'll occasionally fire block-piercing missiles at you. These act like one of the Mourning Wood's attacks, being unaffected by gravity and blocks, and will deal around 90 damage per hit (on average). If these attacks don't suffice, then it'll start launching dozens of presents into the air that'll parachute down for around 120 damage. Thanks to the parachutes, they fall slowly, but they can easily catch you unawares. And finally, there's the spike-balls that the Tank will start dropping on the floor. These are one of the most painful attacks in the entire Frost Moon, being able to do around 200 damage. They're difficult to spot amongst the wreckage, with the only clue being a pulsing sprite.

The Santa-NK1 will also do as most bosses do in this game, and on passing the 9,000HP mark will lose the somewhat grim visage of Santa and to reveal a somewhat-endearing robo-skull, a neat little throwback to some obscure movies that you may have heard of. When it's in this form, the Santa-NK1 will become faster, launching attacks in greater density and covering more ground when it isn't attacking. A last thing to mention is that these guys will phase through blocks to reach you, so don't try and trap them!


This boss will appear on Waves 7-10, then skips out the 11th and 12th Waves, and return as a permanent threat from Wave 13 onwards. Santa-NK1s have the second-highest point award at 80, and have a chance to drop either the Elf Melter or the Chain Gun (with Trophies appearing in the final waves, as ya do)

Alpine Horrors: The Classical Christmas Cronies

But don't think that Santa's slaves are the only ones in the attack, oh no. There's also a few natural enemies thrown into the mix as well, based on myths, legends, and blurry photography. I am, of course, talking about the Yeti and Krampus.

Yeti

The Yeti is a towering beast, being the second-tallest non-boss enemy in the Frost Moon. With 3,500HP and 140 damage to its name, these guys are the toughest of the lot, being able to floor even tanky players in several hits. Thankfully, this is only on contact damage, meaning as long as you keep them at several arms' reach, you'll be able to avoid a messy death. They alkso have 50 Defence, so they’ll have high damage mitigation. Appearing in Waves 12 and 14-19, killing one will give you 16 points towards the total.

Krampus

Krampus comes in from the Alps to try and defeat you alongside the more "classical" Christmas enemies. These guys have 2,500HP, deal 110 damage on contact, and have 40 Defence, meaning they’re slightly weaker than the Yetis. Unfortunately, he's also limited to contact damage, meaning it's easy to keep Krampus at bay. He appears in waves 8, 10, 14, 17 and 18, and will give you 8 points to the wave total.

Amusingly enough, the boss of these guys (or what I personally perceive to be the boss of these enemies) appears several waves before they even appear! It's time to profile the Everscream!

Everscream

The Everscream is the first boss monster you'll encounter in the Frost Moon, and is potentially the most tenacious, appearing in over half the waves (4-6, 9-10, 12, and from 14 onwards). These guys have 13,000HP, deal 124 contact damage, and have 38 Defence, and can attack in one of two ways. It'll either fire its needles at you for roughly 70 damage a needle, or throw rolling baubles onto the ground that'll shatter into fragments. The baubles will do damage whilst they're rolling AND when they shatter, dealing some 120Dmg a hit. The needles are highly affected by gravity, and if you can keep out of the Everscream's reach, you won't have to worry about the needles reaching you. If the Everscream can't attack you because you've blocked yourself inside a house, he'll phase through the walls to reach you and resume the offensive. However, they obey the same rules as Wraiths and other such block-floaters do - they'll swim through land, but if you have a high-enough platform they'll be a sitting duck. Killing these violent firs gives you 40 points towards the wave total, and killing them can yield one of four prizes: the Christmas Tree Sword (a melee weapon), the Razorpine (a magic weapon), the Christmas Hook (a twinkly grapple) or the Festive Wings (a flight accessory), with trophies dropping in the final waves.

Ice To Meet You: The Frozen Fleet

(don't look at me like that, you'd've made that joke too)

Alongside the festive freaks and mythical myths, there are a couple of cold characters who'll enter the fray in the double-digit waves.

Flocko

Flocko is the rarest of the lot, appearing only in waves 11, 13 and 16. These guys only have 800HP and 12 Defence, but deal 100 damage and will fling itself towards you at high velocity, catching out people who don't know they're coming. They're also flying enemies, so you'll need to be wary when their presence in the wave is announced. Since they're easily dispatched, Flockos will only give you 4 points towards the total. Not the biggest of threats, but still something to watch out for.

And now, for the leader of the whole shebang... the Ice Queen!

Ice Queen

The Ice Queen is the undisputed leader of the murderous mob - 34,000HP, 160 contact damage, and 38 Defence, she'll turn up at wave 11 and won't go away until the end of the Frost Moon (though similar to the Everscream and Santa-NK1, she'll appear in greater numbers the further into the waves you get). She's the only free-flying boss you'll encounter in the attack, and she refuses to stay still, flying all over the place making it hard to track her. She has three attacks, which define how she moves.

If she's flying from side to side, going off the screen as she does so (ignoring people with huge resolutions), she'll fire frost blasts at you that'll deal around a hundred damage per hit and hit you with Chilled or Frozen debuffs. This is her most common attack, and she's notoriously difficult to hit when attacking like this.

Her second attack is to hover above you and make icicles fall onto your head. These'll do around 110-120 damage (not totally certain, but it's a lot), but this gives you ample time to attack her. She'll still move to try and centre herself above you, but aiming at her is a lot easier as a result.

Her third attack is the most dangerous due to its area of effect, but leaves her vulnerable to attack, as she stays in one spot and spins. Whilst she's spinning, she'll fire out icicles that'll cover the area like a hailstorm, dealing over a hundred damage if you get hit. Since she stays in one position, this is the best time to target your heavy ordnance at her, though anyone without range will be a bit stuck.

Defeating the Ice Queen will grant you 120 points to the wave total, and has a chance to drop one of five items, not counting the trophy: the Snowman Cannon, the North Pole, the Blizzard Staff, Baby Grinch Mischief's Whistle or Reindeer Bells.

Before we get onto strategy, let's take a look at one last thing...

An Evil Present Is Watching You...

Somewhat rarely during the Frost Moon, you might find a small green present, wrapped up in a red bow sitting in amongst the hordes. If you see it, you might get a strange feeling of nostalgia as it leaps up to maul your face off.





Yes, if you move around the battlefield a lot, there's a good chance you'll happen upon a Present Mimic, another Frost Moon enemy. What makes them unique is that they aren't assigned to any one wave, and can appear at any time. They have 900HP, deal a hundred damage on contact, and have 32 Defence, making them slightly weaker than regular Mimics. When killed, instead of dropping a bunch of Gold Coins and a rare item, they'll drop around ten Hearts and a Present, giving you another chance to get that Ugly Sweater you've longed for (from 1.2.3 onwards, these Mimics no longer drop a Present – potentially an oversight, but on the chance that it isn’t, this paragraph will be updated accordingly)

They also count towards the wave total, giving you 10 points per kill, so think of these guys as freebies - provided they don't bite your head off.

With that done, let's talk strategy!

Stay Frosty: Strategy

Basic Info

I've already posted the waves in very fragmented parts here and there, so for those of you not blessed with the gift of text-wall-sift, here's a nice and neat list for you:

• 1: Zombie Elf, and GingerBread
  
• 2: Zombie Elf, and Elf Archer
  
• 3: Zombie Elf, Elf Archer, GingerBread and Nutcracker
  
• 4: Everscream, Zombie Elf, Elf Archer, and GingerBread
  
• 5: Everscream, Zombie Elf, Elf Archer, and Nutcracker
  
• 6: Everscream, Elf Archer, Nutcracker, and Elf Copter
  
• 7: Santa-NK1, GingerBread, Elf Archer, and Zombie Elf
  
• 8: Santa-NK1, Elf Copter, Elf Archer, Nutcracker, and Krampus
  
• 9: Santa-NK1, Everscream, Nutcracker, Elf Copter, and GingerBread
  
• 10: Santa-NK1, Everscream, Krampus, Zombie Elf, and Elf Copter
  
• 11: Ice Queen, Flocko, Zombie Elf, and GingerBread
  
• 12: Ice Queen, Everscream, GingerBread, Yeti, and Zombie Elf
  
• 13: Ice Queen, Santa-NK1, GingerBread, and Flocko
  
• 14: Ice Queen, Santa-NK1, Everscream, Yeti, and Krampus
  
• 15: Ice Queen, Santa-NK1, Everscream, Yeti, and Elf Copter
  
• 16: Ice Queen, Santa-NK1, Everscream, Yeti, and Flocko
  
• 17: Ice Queen, Santa-NK1, Everscream, Yeti, Krampus, and Elf Copter
  
• 18: Ice Queen, Santa-NK1, Everscream, Yeti, Nutcracker and Krampus
  
• 19: Ice Queen, Santa-NK1, Everscream, and Yeti
  
• 20: Ice Queen, Santa-NK1, and Everscream

(lifted from the Terraria Wiki)

As you can see, there are a lot of monsters to work through. It's certainly a lot to get through for one player, which is why you'll be needing the correct set-up.

Arena

As with the Pumpkin Moon, a raised platform will work wonders for you, though the addition of several ranged enemies could scupper you a bit. Elf Archers will be harder to deal with, whilst Elf Copters will bring themselves up to your level to try and shoot you down. Boss-wise, the Everscreams have a poor range, but if they're directly beneath you, their pine needles will still be able to scratch you, whilst their exploding baubles are barely worth a mention. The Santa-NK1 will be a bigger threat, being all about ranged weaponry - an aimed chain-gun, a covering-fire rocket launcher, and a curtain-fire present air-drop can cause you grief, especially during the later waves when more than one Santa-NK1 is on-screen. Thankfully, his most damaging attack (the spike-ball rollers) won't present an issue until you make a dive for any of the items/health in the mess. The platform won't do anything to the Ice Queen thanks to her tendency to hover above you anyway. Setting up Dart/Flame Traps will aid you well, as it did with the Pumpkin Moon, though be warned that the flying enemies won't get caught by them for too long, meaning you'll need to sort them out sooner rather than later. Though this means that you can concentrate your efforts on killing the big boss mobs.

In terms of weapons for actually killing the blighters, the weapons you used for the Pumpkin Moon will do you well here, and any weapons you got during the Pumpkin Moon will also give you an edge. Once again, piercing weapons are good for when you're dealing with the runts, whilst the heavy-hitters are to be reserved for the big boys.

For Melee players, this means the Paladin's Hammer, the Flairon, and if you've managed to get your hands on it, the Terra Blade. The Horseman's Blade will also be helpful for the homing jack-o-lanterns it summons, whilst the Vampire Knives will give you some nice life leech for those panic moments (though again, with 1.2.2, these and the Spectre Set have been nerfed so that they may only heal up to two hearts of health a second - whether this means 20HP hearts or two Golden Hearts is up in the air, but it's a pretty basic cap of 40-50HP/sec). If you have a Cross Necklace or Star Veil, this is the time to equip it! And like last time, Ichor Flasks will let you add more damage to your damage!

For Rangers, the Stake Launcher will provide sweet merriment as you watch a small tree pierce infinitely through the hordes of the sprightly undead. If you haven't yet picked this up, then the Tsunami-Jester's Arrow combo never fails to amuse. Once the bigger enemies come into view, you can either change up to the Holy Arrows, or change weapons entirely. The Megashark once again is an excellent choice, though ammo will be an interesting choice - do you go for explosive bullets, such as Crystal Ammo or (shock horror) Exploding Bullets to cover more enemies, or do you go with Venom Bullets to really start dealing "the mad deeps" to single targets? If you have the arena set up so that enemies fall into a pit, the Candy Corn Rifle will run riot through the enemies, pinging about dealing hundreds of damage per kernel and piercing like a cold wind through wet clothing. Or maybe you've just given up on accuracy and would rather that everything were laid to ruin in the explosive smoke clouds. The Stynger is your primary weapon of choice for this outing, laying ruin to anything you point at, and anything else that's in the general vicinity a couple of seconds later. If you excelled at the Pumpkin Moon, you might also have the Jack O' Lantern Launcher, which'll deal very nice damage in a large radius, and like the Stynger, won't hurt you either, meaning you can be a complete twit and charge in, cannon-a-flarin', and come out moderately unharmed! Be sure to pick the Shroomite helmet that works for you, and you should start getting through to the later waves without much trouble, even accounting for the lack of life leech!

Mages have the ever-interesting choice of items spread out for them. The Heat Ray is the main weapon of choice, being able to fry dozens of enemies if they're standing in a row - perfect for blasting the minions into smithereens. Once the bigger lads come up for a tussle, it's time to break out the Nimbus Rod. This'll let you deal constant damage to anything below the stormclouds for a good minute or so, letting you lay waste to the enemies that saw the silver lining and avoided it. The Golden Shower will let you debuff the mob for a short while, lowering their defences and letting you get more damage in. Though be warned, since it fires in an arc, hitting multiple enemies will be a bit difficult, requiring a thorough spray of the area to really get the damage going. For heavy damage, there's the Inferno Fork. Dealing lasting damage in a wide area, this'll let you cover multiple boss monsters without difficulty, and it'll even set some of the runts on fire! If you managed to last long enough in the Pumpkin Moon, you might have scooped the Bat Scepter from the Pumpking's remains. This'll let you get some decent burst damage on the Ice Queen - her erratic movements will either cause her to fly into the bats, or dodge them for long enough that the bats all catch up at once and dent her health bar. If you didn't get the Scepter though, the Heat Ray will suffice for shooting her out of the sky.

One more thing to note: since this is an invasion/survival wave, this isn't something you can win by destroying enough enemies. Like the Pumpkin Moon, the aim is to get your hands on some delicious end-game loot (or rather, loot that complements the current end-game gear), so don't get down on yourself if you can't break through to the later waves. The boss monsters will still drop their items (albeit rarely) on the early waves, and there's even been a slight tweak so that instead of guaranteeing a loot drop on Wave 15, the later waves just have a higher chance for an item to drop, meaning less clog in your inventory come sun-up. Whether or not you see this as a good thing is a matter of perspective. For now though, let's start profiling the items that you can get!

The Omnipresent Wish-List: Frost Moon Loot

After way too many chapters and sub-chapters, it's time for the bit you've all been waiting for! There's a decent amount of loot in this Invasion - possibly as much as the Pumpkin Moon loot table.

Melee

The Christmas Tree Sword is an Everscream drop that looks like a Christmas tree (weird, ain't it?). Sporting a healthy 73 damage a swing, this sword will launch a bauble when swung, in a similar fashion to the Chlorophyte Claymore. The baubles deal as much damage as the Blade, don't pierce, but can be fired in quick succession, letting you keep the yobbos at bay with ease!

The North Pole is an Ice Queen drop. When thrust forward, this spear launches a piercing ice spear towards the cursor that is mildly affected by gravity, succumbing to its wiles a couple of seconds after you fire it. The spear itself deals 73 damage a thrust, with the icy projectile dealing around half of the spear's damage. What makes this weapon interesting is that the projectile leaves behind non-piercing snowflakes that slowly accelerate towards the ground. You can either lance forwards and essentially carpet-bomb an area with snow, or point skywards and call forth a blizzard on a focal point. The snowflakes are affected by the wind direction as well, meaning if you're a clever worm, you'll be able to compensate for the snowflakes' travel arc and deal tremendous damage to a single large target!

Ranged

(one thing to note here is that these weapons don't have special ammo - all use readily-available ammo and can be used immediately!)

The Chain Gun is a bullet launcher, wrenched clean from a Santa-NK1 and ready for use immediately. Dealing 31 base damage, this gun fires faster than the Megashark and has the same ammo cost reduction on it (50% chance to not use ammo on fire). These stats makes this a straight upgrade from the Gatligator, and can even put the Megashark to shame, with its only clear downside being a spread that puts the Heavy to shame. If you're using Chlorophyte Bullets, this is a non-issue, but use this with Explosive Bullets to really coat the area in EXPLOSIONS!

The Elf Melter is the long-awaited Flamethrower upgrade, which also drops from the Santa-NK1. This festive flamer deals 40 base damage and has a longer reach than the Flamethrower. A pretty decent upgrade, although unlike the Stake Launcher and its innate advantage against vampires, this doesn't do extra damage against elves.

The Snowman Cannon is an Ice Queen drop. With a base damage of 67, this cannon launches tiny snowmen at enemies. The cannon converts regular rockets into homing rockets that can have their velocity boosted (meaning an Unreal modifier is possible), and whose explosions won't harm the user, making this a very necessary drop for rocket specialists!

Magic

The Razorpine is an Everscream drop that allows you to mimic its needly appendages! Costing 5 Mana to fire, this'll do 48 damage per needle before modifiers, and will fire up to four needles per use that act like Magic Daggers - flying forwards a fair distance before falling point-first. The needles won't pierce, but you fire such a high volume of them that you can rip right through crowds.

The Blizzard Staff is an Ice Queen drop that lets you mimic your favourite ice characters! Costing 8 Mana to use, this'll call four non-piercing icicles towards the cursor from random parts of the sky to deal 58 damage per icicle. What makes this weapon interesting is that you can either use it for widespread covering fire, or you can give key targets a huge headache, since you don't need line of sight to be able to fire this - just open space above the enemy (not a weapon for spelunking then!)

Other

Alongside the weapons, there are a few other things you can get - an accessory and three use-items.

The Festive Wings are an Everscream drop that match the flight time of the Spooky/Black Fairy Wings. They come with festive lights attached, making you somewhat visible in dark areas (no glow though)

The Christmas Hook is another Everscream drop that acts like the Spooky Hook (three grapples total, one fire at a time, very long reach). Instead of being purple and branchy, this uses a star hook and fairy light chains - a very potent fire hazard!

Baby Grinch Mischief's Whistle is a rare Ice Queen drop that summons a baby Grinch. He'll follow you around like other pets, and will tie a balloon around himself to catch up with you!

The Reindeer Bells are the rarest Ice Queen drop, coming in at a max drop rate of 1.1%. It also only drops during the Bonus Waves, so you've got your work cut out for you on this one. What does it do? Only lets you ride Rudolph. That's right, get these bells and you've got yourself a mount! An insanely high max speed and a jump height that lets you leap into the stratosphere with a run up (which stacks with existing accessories), Rudolph is a very useful guy to have around. The downsides to having such an amazing mount is that you can't attack (this forces you off Rudolph), you can't Tabi-dash, and your hitbox increases in size. This makes you easier to hit, as well as blocks your entrance through doorways.

Having the Reindeer Bells shows people that your sacrifices to the Random Number Gods were not in vain, sitting alongside the Nymph Banner, The Axe and the Bone Key as the rarest items in the game to get (or hardest, in the Bone Key's case)

In Closing...

This guide has taken a long while to type up (started on the 21st of October), including images, data references and so on, so if you've read up to here, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for reading the entire guide. It ran on a little longer than my last guide, but I wanted to make sure that this was as comprehensive a guide as possible for the player going stag. Granted, that fell apart a bit by the time the Holiday Moon events came out. But since those particular events are less about defeating a single goal and more about surviving the bosses and receiving delicious loot, I feel that the basic information I have given so far should be able to guide you, the reader, to a satisfactory victory. The Final Wave is a target, but don't get down on yourself if you don't manage to reach it, as chances are you'll have done better than an unprepared player would have done, and you might end up getting something that'll turn the tide of battle in your favour, so keep at it!

With the latest updates, I'd hoped to not have much to change, and that the Guide update wouldn't take as long. I guess that got shot down the moment they made several balance changes, didn't it? Goodness knows how long it'll take to update this beast once the Lunar Update rolls out. Hopefully not a month :V

Anyway, I sincerely thank you for reading the whole guide, and hope you've had a good time in doing so!

Item statistics were from the Terraria Gamepedia site. Images are ™ and © Re-Logic, used with thanks.

[Jakebob-Smegheneghan]

can't revoke what aint there lmao i've not paid for a TV licence and i don't even HAVE a telly you can't prove shit

[Aggrogoat]

mate oy couldnt help but notice your ten yeah old steam post had a bit of an oopsie in et so oy thought id come along to post bout it condensationally. is thick to be using ten yeah old item textures on your ten yeah old torial mate. im in the telly with the scotia dispatch right now and im going to have you tellie license revoked for this incorrect course you've charted.

[Jakebob-Smegheneghan]

um... yes? it's a ten year old guide. for an obsolete version of the game. and my response hopefully won't resolve as a URL now.

[Owl]

using 10 year old item textures lol

[Jakebob-Smegheneghan]

Unemployment and boredom (also possibly ADHD but I don't have a confirmation on that yet LOL)

[Neonicalist]

how do people have this much free time and this much patience

[Jakebob-Smegheneghan]

"Go Hard or Go Home" was also what I said to myself before I hyperfocused on it.

[seaque]

holy jesus this is not a guide it's a freaking novel

[vespixa]

good game brother!

[keifercool]

10/10 i copletely forgot about the wave events