Don't Get Bossed Around
The three Hardmode Bosses exist in another league compared to their regular mode counterparts. The big three baddies of Terraria resemble the Normal Bosses in physical appearance, but their durability is increased by an order of magnitude, and their damage-dealing capacity is spectacular. Battles against them are endurance bouts of punch and counter-punch.
Hardmode bosses MUST be defeated the same night they are summoned. If they survive until dawn, you are out of luck. Begin your fights as early in the evening as possible.
Preparation is Next to Godliness
All Terraria Boss battles hinge on preparation, but conquering the Hardmode Bosses requires every conceivable advantage. Don't even think about engaging them until you've completed the following steps.
- Buff up. Use Potions to grant yourself Ironskin, Regeneration, Gravitation, and Swiftness before a fight starts. Also wolf down a Bowl of Soup before each battle.
- Enchant. If you’re wielding a weapon, be sure it is tuned to the highest possible enchantment modifier. Visit the Goblin Tinkerer with a pile of cash in hand and don’t leave until you’re arsenal is maximized. Remember that Accessories can also be enchanted.
- Be Ready to Reload. Hardmode bosses are so much more durable than other enemies that it may be a little difficult to grasp just how many hits you’ll need to connect before taking one out. If you’re using any kind of Repeater or Firearm, your ammunition stores should range into the thousands of rounds.
- Accessorize. Rocket Boots and Wings are a no-brainer, and you’ll want an Obsidian Shield to keep knockback in check. Also consider a Star Cloak.
- Self-Medicate. Greater Healing Potions. Nuff said. If you’re really enterprising, scatter some Heart Statues around and wire them to Timers.
- Construct. Build a multi-tiered and well-lit boss arena from Wood Platforms. Place it very high in the air, preferabily near a tall mountainside at or above Floating Island altitude. This height gives you a lot of room to move and helps against The Destroyer by limiting his mobility. You might want to consider constructing the upper and lower portions of the arena at least partially from solid materials, so as to provide some protection from lasers. For more on arenas, check out the various chapters of our Starter Guide.
- Mechanize. Don’t forget that you’ll need a Mechanical Worm, Mechanical Eye, or Mechanical Skull to summon The Destroyer, The Twins, and Skeletron Prime respectively.
The Destroyer is the weakest of the three Hardmode bosses, yet still possesses a mind-boggling 80,000 Hit Points. He attacks much like the Eater of Worlds, leaping high into the air toward you and arcing back toward earth. His body discharges lasers and flying robotic drones. His attack pattern and speed is pretty much identical to the Eater, though he is longer.
His drones often drop hearts when killed, so try to eliminate them over your platforms to refresh your life. They come in large groups early on but ease up later in the battle.
Use solid walls to avoid the lasers, and Gravitate out of range when necessary. Always stay above the Destroyer. If you get caught inside his loop, he’ll crush you to death.
If you constructed your arena at a great height, you can use the Destroyer’s lasers to track his offscreen position and hit him with a repeater or Star cannon at minimal risk to yourself. At close range, the Dao of Pow is devastating against him.
The Twins are a royal pain. They are a pair of immense conjoined eyeballs connected by an indestructible tether of flesh. Each of the two eyes has its own independent Hit Point total. Each eye attacks with energy weapons, and both eyes are deadly to the touch. Whenever each is reduced beneath half HP, it switches to a higher-damage attack mode.
Two key strategies dominate the Twins battle:
- Focus all of your fire on one Twin at a time. Choose a target and keep wailing on him until he’s dead. Don’t ever split you attack. You don’t want to end up fighting both Twins in their second-stage attack modes at the same time.
- Use Gravitation. Keep from getting caught between the Twins by venturing out from your arena, luring them a safe distance away, and then returning. Fool them into chasing you but never allow them to catch you.
Keep an eye on your life, dodge as best you can, and stay out of melee range, and you can defeat them without too much agony.
Skeletron Prime is just insane. His four limbs each float independently of his head and constantly attack you, and his spinning Skull can render a fully-buffed character hors-de-combat in seconds.
He’s simply not fair. All four arms are dangerous, and the stupid spinning head can end the fight at any moment with a few lucky hits.
The best strategies involve following a list of priorities:
- Never get near the head when it’s spinning.
- Kill the saw arm first.
- Kill the laser arm next.
- Finish off the other two limbs.
- Pray there’s enough night left to kill the Skull
If you’re feeling really cheaty, there’s another strategy you can try. It actually works against any boss, but it’s pretty cheap. Then again, so is Skeletron.
Build an arena of Hellstone, but don’t equip any Obsidian buffs. Substitute a Cobalt Shield for the standard Obsidian Shield to avoid knockback. Hellstone deals some damage on contact, but it is negligible against late game Armor and Buffs. Equip a Cross Necklace, which increases the duration of recovery invisibility between hits. Summon the boss while standing on the Hellstone, and maintain contact with it during the fight. The stone will deal minimal damage to you, but the recovery time granted after each hit will render you mostly immune to the boss’s more damaging attacks. Use the feau-invulnerability to protect yourself as you wail away.
Like I said, cheap. But sometimes effective.
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