Terraria Discussion

[Uber!]

I seem to be stuck on the 3 mechanical bosses. Have not had any luck at all. I did ok on the twins but the other two just destroy me.

[Will T.]

Skeletron Prime has a knack for showing up right as I finally find the rare ore I'm looking for, after 15+ minutes of digging blindly in caves a good 5-minute hike from my base. I choose to exercise passive resistance until either he grows a conscience about his unending cruelty or I finally scrape together enough ores for some Hardmode-suitable armor (going for Palladium currently since that's what I have the most of right now; I'll keep upgrading as I survive for longer and longer stretches and can mine more).

I'm both eager to face and dreading facing the Frost Moon someday - dreading because it's apparently the hardest nighttime event in the game, and eager because just listen to the music for it:



Heck, I might just start a small world and bring one of my old endgame characters in to mow down the Wall of Flesh and Hardmode bosses ("mow down" might be a stretch for the mechanical guys) and try it out (all my old worlds are corrupt sadly, so I can't do it there).

[The Domer]

I seem to be stuck on the 3 mechanical bosses. Have not had any luck at all. I did ok on the twins but the other two just destroy me.

I think the twins are by far the hardest. You should be able to beat the other two if you can beat the twins. Have a decent size arena with a campfire, heart lantern, and make sure you potion up beforehand.

[Boss Llama]

Well, after getting utterly annihilated like 30 times in a ludicrously deadly goblin invasion last night, I did come away with a magic weapon I rather like - the Shadowflame Hex Doll. That has been making my hardmode life much more tolerable (and much longer!) than it was before. Combined with some mana and casting related accessories, I feel like I can be a bit less useless on some of the bosses now :-D


Also, regarding the boss summoning items... a post by the guy who seems to officially handle public interfacing for the TShock crew said he believes it is slated to be fixed in the next release. Hopefully soon!

[Will T.]

I finally got my Palladium Armor, and after redesigning my boss arena to make it ~4x larger, I was able to take down the Destroyer! I was hit by a Solar Eclipse immediately afterward, which was interesting to say the least. Sadly I had far less luck against the Twins - Spazmatism's phase-2 flamethrower locks onto you relentlessly if he can get close enough to use it, so trying to fight with melee is pretty much begging for death.

[Zork Nemesis]

I finally got my Palladium Armor, and after redesigning my boss arena to make it ~4x larger, I was able to take down the Destroyer! I was hit by a Solar Eclipse immediately afterward, which was interesting to say the least. Sadly I had far less luck against the Twins - Spazmatism's phase-2 flamethrower locks onto you relentlessly if he can get close enough to use it, so trying to fight with melee is pretty much begging for death.

Frost Armor, Megashark, and Crystal Bullets is one of the best ways to bring down the Twins, but make sure you also have wings and plenty of space to fly around, the Twins are a fight where you really want to keep moving in all directions. Since you're not playing expert, try and reforge as many of your accessories to Lucky (+4% crit chance) as well if you decide to roll this build. Extra damage is moot on the Megashark since the damage per shot is low, but if you're not too confident Warding (+4 defense) is also useful to soak up a few extra hits. It's incredibly helpful if you haven't done so to farm Mimics for a Philosipher's Stone, which reduces your potion cooldown by 15 seconds. You can also combine the stone with a Band of Regeneration to get the effect and a health regen bonus. Furthermore a Cross Necklace (also from Mimics) increases your invincibility frames when you get hit, which can be paired with the Star Cloak (again from Mimics) to also cause stars to rain when you take a hit. If you can farm the Wall of Flesh, a Ranger Emblem wouldn't hurt for this build however you cannot get an Avenger Emblem until after you beat all three bosses however as the new recipe calls for at one Might, Fright, and Sight soul each.

If you can manage it and want a little extra damage, farm a few Spider Fangs from Black Recluses in spider caves. From those you can build the Spider Queen Staff which is pretty much a deployable turret. It'll shoot at the boss and add a little extra damage. There's also a Spider summon staff you can craft from those guys, but I think the Imp Staff you probably already have is more useful due to the ability to set things on fire for bonus damage, which stacks with Frostburn.

You can do the same thing for Skeletron Prime too. That particular gear combination has very good ranged DPS and is very safe for the first set of hardmode bosses. This set is less effective on the Destroyer however as the shots don't penetrate and the Destroyer is immune to the Frostburn effect you get through the Frost Armor. Orichalcum is more useful on Destroyer if you have access to it due to the set bonus of shooting flower petals at what you hit; otherwise Adamantium or Titanium is just more helpful in the defense department. I used Orichalcum in combination with the Daedalus Stormbow (dropped by Hallow Mimics; you can force spawn them by crafting 15 light souls into a special key and placing said key in an empty chest anywhere) and Hellfire Arrows (the Demolitionist will sell these in Hard mode, otherwise craft Hellstone bars with Wooden Arrows) in my Expert fight against Destroyer and was able to exceed 10,000 DPS by raining explosive arrows on the coil it spawns in.

[The Domer]

Beat Plantera last night! What an awesome battle. Can't wait to start farming for late-game gear and try out some of the new end-game content.

[Boss Llama]

On the Ville server, Domer, or elsewhere? Just curious, since I know that changes some spawns around and such.

[The Domer]

On the Ville server, Domer, or elsewhere? Just curious, since I know that changes some spawns around and such.

I've been playing on a server with a buddy from college. So, not on the Ville server.

[Boss Llama]

Ok cool, was gonna say - I didn't think I missed *that* much last night!

[Boss Llama]

As a heads-up, there was yet another Terraria update today, so TShock is pending update as well.

We did kill our first mechanical boss on server today (Skeletron Prime showed up during a blood moon), so anything depending on that will now be in play.

[Will T.]

Did you know you can get a solar eclipse multiple days in a row? They're ridiculously profitable - I just stand on the bottom shelf of my boss arena and drop a yo-yo into the mass of monsters and rake in close to 50 gold by the time night falls - but they make it hard to do anything else.

The Megashark helps against the Twins, but it isn't enough. It seems my Destroyer arena isn't big enough for them as I found them latching onto me with no trouble at all. I'll have to build it bigger again before I give it another go.


EDIT: Skeletron Prime just random-spawned on me, but the Megashark + the Daedalus Stormbow ensured I scraped by with the win. I highly recommend this bow in conjunction with the Endless Quiver (combine 3,998 arrows [four full stacks] at a Hardmode-ore anvil) as it will let you rain down an infinite number of arrows. You can get it from Hallowed Mimics, which you can force to spawn by crafting a Key of Light out of 15 Souls of Light, then placing it in an otherwise empty chest. It's great for Skeletron Prime in particular as you can rain damage onto all his parts at once, then pick them off one at a time with the Megashark, which also benefits from the Endless Musket Pouch, the Musket Ball parallel to the Endless Quiver.

EDIT 2: I FINALLY managed to defeat the Twins using the Megashark, Daedalus Stormbow, and a whole bunch of defensive potions. That's the mechanical bosses down - next up is Plantera!

[Will T.]

Just a quick heads-up about today's update: it has introduced a bug which removes the "Quick stack to nearby chests" button upon accessing a Money Trough pig's inventory. You can get it back by entering the shop dialog with any NPC and exiting out. The devs are aware of it, and it's slated to be fixed in the next patch, whenever that is.

[Will T.]

I found and broke Plantera's bulb before I meant to, but it turned out to be a much easier fight than any of the mechanical bosses, mainly because Plantera is quite slow and very predictable in its attack patterns. Now that I've gone through the first four Hardmode bosses, here are my tips to anyone else still stuck:

- Find and use the Cross Necklace. Hunt down every Mimic you can (not Hallowed or Crimson Mimics - it has to be the regular ones) until one drops this item for you. When equipped, it doubles the mercy invincibility time after taking a hit. This effectively halves all damage from close-range, rapid-attack enemies, such as the Destroyer's body segments, Spazmatism's flamethrowers, Skeletron Prime's head-spin and melee hands, and Plantera's attempts to charge at you. It's even worth giving up otherwise combat-useless equipment (e.g. a GPS) with a Warding modifier for this, as it will more than make up for the defense loss. You can combine it with a Star Cloak at a Tinkerer's Workbench to get the Star Veil, which calls down falling stars whenever you take damage. It's not hugely helpful against the bosses, but it gives the item a little more everyday practicality.

- Pack lots of potions. Ironskin, Endurance, and Regeneration Potions help immensely, as do any which boost your weapon of choice. Greater Healing Potions are the best healing potions to use since they refill 150 HP per use. If you have a Philosopher's Stone (or better yet, its HP-regenerating upgrade, the Charm of Myths), use it to reduce the Potion Sickness time.

- Defensive modifiers are great. Warding is the best defensive modifier for equipment, and can add up to 20 extra defense if all your equipment has it.

- Palladium armor's passive healing is extremely helpful. You can restore as much damage as you're taking in some of the fights if you're careful about dodging, especially stacked with a campfire and Band of Regeneration/Charm of Myths.

For the specific bosses:

- The Destroyer: This is probably the easiest boss simply because it's so easy to control and predict his movement. Build your arena in an elevated position without solid blocks in the middle, and he'll be forced to breach into the air like a porpoise and crash back down, giving you a great opportunity to rack up damage while he's doing basically nothing. Use a piercing or otherwise multi-hit weapon to nail multiple body segments at once. Run back and forth when his head goes underground to minimize the chance of getting caught under his body "loop" and being lassoed in for massive damage. Kill probes as soon as they spawn, because they have a 33% chance to drop a healing heart.

- Skeletron Prime: Despite having 5 separate targets to keep track of, he's a lot easier than the Twins simply because each part does very little beyond flail about. Focus on his limbs first, because once he's just a head, his only attack is melee. Try to hit all of the limbs at once with your attacks if you can (the Daedalus Stombow's arrow rain works perfectly for this) to wear them down equally, then pick them off one by one when they're all low on health.

- The Twins: Make your arena bigger for this fight than for the other two! It's what finally let me win after dying endlessly. In phase 1, move primarily horizontally when they're charging at you and vertically when they're not - they will stay at the same horizontal distance from you when using their special attacks no matter how quickly you run, so horizontal movement is wasted movement. They're less likely to hit you if you move up and down. Move in a circle if one is firing while the other is charging. Focus on killing one of them rather than both as fighting both in phase 2 at once is incredibly difficult. I suggest targeting Spazmatism first as he's much more dangerous in phase 2 (but the Cross Necklace/Star Veil helps hugely!), so destroying him will leave you with only the much less threatening Retinazer.

- Plantera: Surprisingly, Plantera was much easier than the other three - although he certainly wasn't a pushover! Carve out or find a large open area in the Underground Jungle near a bulb before the fight. Plantera spawns a good distance off-screen and moves incredibly slowly, so you can move to a nearby open area from a bulb if you need to. Wings and a multi-hook like the Ivy Whip are all you should need to dodge, though wooden platforms can help too. Equip the Cross Necklace/Star Veil and have a strong melee weapon ready for phase 2, in which he gets much faster and tries to sit on top of you until killed. I had the good fortune of acquiring the Terra Blade before this fight, and it helped hugely to have the combination sword+projectile.

[Boss Llama]

An apt topic Last night we finished off the mechanicals and eliminated Plantera a couple times, to pave the way forward. Eclipses have started, which aren't too bad so long as you remember to open (or leave open) the pits, and close the doors.