Guide:Eater of Worlds strategies

"Screams echo around you..."

The Eater of Worlds (or EoW) is one of the bosses in Terraria. It is found in The Corruption. Preparation for this boss is both extremely helpful in the fight, and is relatively simple to complete. The following are some hints, tips, and strategies to help you defeat it when first encountered.

Spawn Conditions
Eater of Worlds is spawned by fulfilling one of these conditions:
 * Breaking three ;
 * Using ;

The Fight
Eater of Worlds is a multi-segmented huge worm, and thus, its parts tend to linger for a while. You can damage those parts with penetrating weapons and ammos to deal a lot of damage. It is also very mobile if you decide to fight in Corruption chasm. Thus, it's important to reach the surface (and it's arena if you made it, check below for more info).

Beware that Eater of Worlds, when a segment loses all the health, splits.

Managing the Worms
These 2 worms form a new head and tail, and they will make the fight more difficult. To prevent that, you can try to prioritize the Head segment, which has the lowest defense of the segments, but it is also the most damaging one. Alternatively, you can prioritize the Tail segment, which however is the opposite (more Defense, less damaging).

Careful management of segments can reduce the number of smaller, harder to hit worms. In this case, prioritize the use of non-penetrating weapons, and hit it's head and tail. If you destroy a middle segment, concentrate on the smaller worm, since that the larger one can be easy to predict and dodge.

Expert Mode
Eater of Worlds can shoot, and touching the worm itself causes debuff. And your explosives deal less damage against it, to the point to making them expensive than it's alternative throwing, equally-damaging, weapons.

Weak debuff can be annoying to deal, as you receive 3 more damage from all forms of damage.

Vile Spit can be hard to dodge if you decided to fight the worm inside the chasm, thus fight it on surface instead. However, Vile Spit's trajectory can be easily predicted: it has a fixed trajectory. You can easily dodge it if you constantly move.

Terrain preparation
Like all Bosses, preparing an arena for the fight is probably the biggest factor in your success.

Preface
The Eater of Worlds can only be spawned and fought in the Corruption. As such, it would be best to create an artificial corruption area to fight in. Alternatively, you can find naturally occurring Corruption and create an "arena" there. However, if you plan to create a floating arena, you may have to hollow out a large section of the Corruption to do it, as going too far above the Corruption will be considered exiting it, causing the Eater of Worlds to despawn.

Remember that explosives such as and, and Eye of Cthulhu are your best friend. Explosives can destroy, while the Eye, when defeated, drops. You can use these to create small artificial floating islands made of Corrupted grass and Ebonstone, which can help the boss to not despawn if you fly too high. This hint is helpful to all Biome-inclusive bosses that you will encounter later, by using biome-respective materials.

Building a small artifical island requires that you place a tower of blocks or platforms, and then place corrupt blocks when high enough. It's recommended to place these blocks as soon as you hear the Forest music, because at that point, Corruption ends. After placing enough blocks to make it corrupted, proceed to extend the arena with your own desired design, or use one of those below.

Arena Designs

 * Standing on a wide, elevated platform helps tremendously, because you will be able to see him approaching. The platform can be further upgraded with several levels of Wooden Platforms, to further increase the player's mobility.
 * Since worms cannot navigate in the air, this setup will drastically reduce the Eater of Worlds maneuverability. In such a scenario, the Eater of Worlds can almost always be evaded; getting hit is often a result of the player's own risk-taking to deal extra damage.


 * If you are summoning Eater of Worlds by breaking Shadow Orbs, building a full-scale arena for every third Orb or even trying to get all the way up to the surface is probably impractical. In that case, you will still benefit from taking time for terrain preparation, as they are located in confined spaces and not being able to move around can get you trapped as Eater of Worlds circles around you. Bring your preferred tools for dealing with Ebonstone ( with a pickaxe and/or Bombs or Dynamite if its your first fight, and a Nightmare Pickaxe or better thereafter) and clear out any stone that impedes your movement. Give yourself a clear escape route out from where the Shadow Orb is, ideally to an open area with a good amount of horizontal clearance (there tends to be at least one intersecting the chasm above the Orb; if not, you should probably break out with Sticky Bombs and Dynamite to make one). Place Wood Platforms over deep water and any chasms that present a falling hazard. Smooth out large protrusions on the floor that will get in your way, especially if you're using Spiky Balls. In general, horizontal freedom of movement will likely be more important than vertical, especially as Eater of Worlds will be attacking you either through the ground or the ceiling. Light everything up well, and clear out any stray monsters from the area before breaking the orb. A or  are extremely helpful equipment in this scenario, and any items that well help you ascend up to your prepared arena quickly, such as, are good to have.
 * If the Corruption is located in Snow biome, use the Ebonstone you collected to swap the with it. Unlike, these can't be corrupted, and thus reduce the amount of Corruption in the area, which can be troublesome as per above preface.

Armor and Accessories
Gold armor, Meteor armor (with the Space gun), or Platinum armor is recommended but not necessarily needed, as it is not very hard to dodge the Eater of Worlds' attacks. It is possible to kill the Eater of Worlds with just Iron armor or Lead armor, but the fight will be a bit more dangerous. Pumpkin armor is another viable option, rewarding slightly less defense than iron, but increasing your damage output, which can ensure the fight is completed quickly. Rocket Boots are recommended as they can help dodging. Accessories with Menacing or Warding will be most efficient here, but are not required.

Weapons
Because of its large size and multiple body parts, weapons that can deal damage to multiple sections should be used.

The Vilethorn will not deal damage as quickly as other methods, but will have a balanced damage distribution throughout the entire body. The Vilethorn is obtained from Shadow Orbs in the Corruption. Furthermore, this is a relatively safe weapon to use against the worm as it can be deployed in the worms path and will remain for a short time doing damage while giving you time to dodge. Upon destroying the Eater's head, it will pause briefly while the body segment behind the head is converted into a head; aiming the Vilethorn directly at the head can destroy over a dozen segments in quick succession in this way. A similar tactic can be deployed using Water Bolt if you were lucky enough to find one in the entrance of the dungeon. In confined spaces, the water bolts can ricochet many times and deal tremendous amounts of damage. Your mana should be kept topped up by the stars dropped from killing the segments. Furthermore, staffs (preferably a Ruby or Diamond Staff) can also pierce multiple parts and deal great damage, while using little mana. You can also use spiky balls (drops from the Goblin Army), which will sit there as the Eater of Worlds comes to you, and he will keep touching the spiky balls, so he will constantly take damage.

Guns can be very effective at killing worms, particularly if Meteor Shot is used to pierce multiple segments. The Space Gun acts similarly, able to hit two segments in one shot. The Musket does 33 damage and is easily obtained by breaking Shadow Orbs and is a great gun to get for killing the Eater of Worlds. Bows don't have as fast a rate of fire, but by farming Devourers for their teeth and upgrading to Unholy Arrows (you can also farm Eye of Cthulhu, as it drops them straight), the piercing effect makes them a great choice. Jester's Arrows work just as well, if not better, and are fairly easy to get. The Demon Bow is also relatively easy to get by this point and will work well, but even the Platinum Bow can be used. If a shot can be lined up, about 30 damage can be done to 10 segments, finishing the fight very fast if great care is taken when aiming. The Star Cannon, while very expensive, yet still obtainable for your first encounter, makes a mockery of it, ripping through multiple segments and destroying virtually any in one hit (you will need to get lots of Fallen Stars for this). Also, a Bee Gun can be very effective against the eater of worlds, because of its fast-rate homing projectiles. Even before entering hardmode, it is easy to farm the EoW using a minishark and stacks of musket balls. As it is relatively simple to make a Vile Mushroom and Rotten Chunk farms, you can stock up on Worm Food and summon it continuously and exploit the lesser health of its head to quickly kill it with a Minishark or any rapid firing gun.

Non-explosive consumables, such as Shuriken and Throwing Knives, can be effective since their piercing attack will hit multiple segments while allowing the player to keep a safe distance. Explosive consumables, like Sticky Bombs and Dynamites are very effective, killing all pieces caught in the blast. The player should be careful, however, to not get caught in the blast themselves and should keep in mind that this will destroy the arena. Grenades and Beenades are a less destructive alternative.

Spiky Balls are especially useful, as they can be thrown down where the Eater of Worlds is likely to surface, in the same manner as Vile Powder. This can further be combined with a Flail, firing a Harpoon straight down, or firing a Water Bolt in a confined space, while using a Grappling Hook to keep you from moving. When the EoW surfaces it will quickly be destroyed, although this strategy may require a reasonable amount of armor and health. (You can acquire the Water Bolt without killing Skeletron if you can find one without having to go down into the dungeon.) Similarly, Molotov Cocktails are extremely effective against the EoW, leaving behind multiple flames on the ground that do ~40 damage each and hit every segment of the EoW that moves through them.

Alternately you can lure the EoW in attacking you horizontally while firing a Harpoon at its head. The high firing rate of the harpoon will allow you to kill it without even being hit and this will prevent the EoW from splitting into other worms. Furthermore the head (with a much smaller health and defense) is easier to kill, turning the next body segment into an equally painless target to attack.

Large swords like the Phaseblade, or the War Axe of the Night can deal damage evenly if swung repeatedly at the long worm's arcing body. By focusing attacks on the head, the next segment will already be weakened, likely falling in just one more hit. Because of the way the worm acts when its head is destroyed, it will quite literally feed itself into the meat grinder. The Chain Knife is also a great weapon to kill the boss, but takes a while to kill it. If you have a Ball O' Hurt from breaking Shadow Orbs, or a different flail, you can easily swing it into the EoW and inflict massive damage to many of its segments. This method requires more defense and/or health, however, and preferably a way to avoid knockback.

If you are lucky enough to have found an Enchanted Sword Shrine and obtained an Arkhalis, you may find they are very effective against the EoW.

The choice of the weapon will essentially boil down to how safe you want to play, or how fast you want to kill the Eater of Worlds.

Potions
Healing Potions are recommended, just in case you slip up and do manage to get hit one too many times by the Eater of Worlds. They do not have to be in the hotbar as they are easily accessed using the hotkey for healing (default is ). Ironskin and Regeneration Potions can really help mitigate any hits you take. Hunter Potions can be very useful in spotting the Eater of Worlds as it burrows, making it easier to fight even without a raised platform. Last of all a Bowl of Soup, Cooked Marshmallow, Pumpkin Pie or Cooked Fish will also give you a small additional buff.

The Thorns Potion will damage the Eater of Worlds every time it hurts you and is easy to craft.

An easy way to get out of the chasm if you wish to fight on the surface is to use a Gravitation Potion and a Lucky Horseshoe. A grappling hook like an Ivy Whip can also be very useful.

Farming
The EoW can be a good source of money if you sell the and  that it drops. With endgame armor and weapons, you can quickly defeat this easy-to-summon boss.

Hardmode weapons that swing continuously such as the Phasesaber and Excalibur are extremely effective against the Eater of Worlds. Spears and higher tier Flails can also quickly dispose of the EoW. Simply grapple yourself to the ground (or use a Cobalt Shield) and keep attacking/keep your flail below you by holding. If you have Molten Armor, you will be able to take any damage the Eater of Worlds dishes out, as its killed segments tend to drop Hearts, which will heal you.