Plantera

Plantera is a Hardmode boss. After at least one of either The Destroyer, Skeletron Prime, or The Twins has been defeated, one or more Plantera's Bulb's will appear somewhere in the Underground Jungle and the message "The jungle grows restless" appears. Destroying one of these bulbs, which requires a Pickaxe or a Drill or an explosive, will summon Plantera.

The fight against Plantera takes place in two parts. In the first part Plantera will chase the player around the jungle, using its hooks to move around. In addition, Plantera will fire thorns at the player, as well as spitting out the occasional bouncy spiky ball.

Once Plantera is brought down to half health it will change form, the pink bud falling away to reveal a thorn-filled mouth. In this second form it retains its previous attacks, but will begin to move around quicker and more erratically, as well as sprouting a number of tentacle mouths which stretch outward on thin strands, similar to the Wall of Flesh's "Hungry" minions, though the tentacles do not detach when damaged, instead simply being destroyed. Plantera's second form will also release floating pink spores that will slowly drift after the player, similar to the spores released by the Giant Fungi Bulb enemy.

If Plantera is taken out of the Jungle or to the surface (essentially, anywhere without backwalls native to the Jungle biome), the AI will change dramatically. Once "enraged", Plantera gains significally increased damage and movement speed, and tends to sit directly on top of the player, causing constant damage. It does, however, still have to "grapple" walls with its vines, so having a tall enough arena would still allow a player to combat it on the surface.

When Plantera is defeated for the first time it will always drop a Grenade Launcher with Rocket I's for ammo, as well as the Temple Key. The Pygmy Staff also has a chance to drop. From the second time onward the drops become randomized.

Tips
More than one Plantera's Bulb can be in the jungle at once, here are three screenshots showing three plantera bulbs: File:PlanteraBulb1.pngFile:PlanteraBulb2.pngFile:PlanteraBulb3.png
 * The pink plant used to summon Plantera is called Plantera's Bulb on the map tooltip. It will show as a 2x2 square of pink on your map and WILL show in places you have previously explored on your map so farming Plantera is a bit easier. [[Media:Planteras_Bulb.png|Bulb on Map]]
 * The pink plant glows pink, making it easier to find.
 * It is worth the time to excavate land to make the boss much easier to dodge. Just note that the floor of your land probably will be covered with spiky balls that the boss spawns.
 * A good idea is to have a Gravitation potion during the first phase, as on enclosed arenas the spiky balls can be the worst source of damage. If you use the potion, you can just stand on the ceiling, dodging all spiky balls.
 * Plantera can be brought to the surface. The fight may be easier if an arena is built on the surface and Plantera is fought there.
 * Plantera's Bulb can spawn in player made jungle biomes. This could prove as a good way to fight Plantera in a more controlled environment, away from jungle mobs, hazards, etc.


 * Plantera can be summoned indefinitely, as destroying its bulb will cause a new one to spawn eventually. (Not instantly, as tested on a world with 95% of underground jungle replaced by mushroom)
 * If Plantera is currently summoned and you break another bulb, a second Plantera will not be summoned, and the bulb is destroyed.
 * If the player strays too far away from Plantera, Plantera will despawn.
 * If Plantera has no surfaces to latch onto, the body of Plantera will slowly float off, going up into the space portion of the map, or until it hits a space where it can latch onto again. This can cause the loot from the boss to be unreachable in some cases.
 * Strategy: A Megashark with Crystal and/or Ichor Bullets will quickly obliterate this Boss. One must still take caution, though, as Plantera's tentacles and hooks will hit you for surprisingly high damage. Having Chlorophyte or Hallowed armor with the Helmet for ranged damage, as well as ranged-enhancing accessories, is strongly recommended if you intend on using this method.
 * Strategy If the pink bulb is near the surface of the jungle, you can quickly go to the surface after it spawns. With ranged weapons and high mobility items, the fight would be much easier than being underground. If you're ranged, get chlorophyte armor or shroomite armor if you have 1 platinum coin and the truffle to buy an autohammer.
 * Strategy As an added note to the above suggestion for bringing Plantera to the surface, if you build yourself a few platforms about 36 blocks up from the highest piece of ground from where you would like to fight Plantera, he will stay latched to the ground below and you can run back and forth along your platforms raining down damage (obviously best for magic and range users, though I'm sure spamming light disks etc would work just as well) his first phase will be the most painful for you as he has a ranged attack for that phase. Second phase with this method is an absolute joke as his ranged attack is gone and you can easily just stand still above him raining  death (quite literally with a Nimbus Rod) Setting up a heart statue or two on 6 timers will make this method almost impossible to die from (unless you just stand there eating his ranged attacks to the face) Plantera_Platforms.png

Trivia

 * The name "Plantera" is a parody of the American thrash metal band Pantera. The name originated from Pantera as this is Redigit's girlfriend's favorite band.
 * Plantera also drops "The Axe", which looks similar to the Washburn and Dean electric guitars often used by the late Pantera guitarist Dimebag Darrell.
 * Plantera's boss music also consists of heavy usage of electric guitar, the basis of metal music.
 * Plantera's design may have been inspired by (or simply bear a strong similarity to) Biollante, one of Godzilla's toughest nemeses. Another plant-monster who possessed a beautiful, budding flower in her first form and then shed it's flower petals to become a terrifying beast in her second form.
 * Bears small resemblance to Audrey II from Little Shop of Horrors.
 * Plantera is one of the three Hardmode bosses not made out of metal, the others being Golem and Pumking.