Moon Lord



The Moon Lord is a Hardmode, post-Lunatic Cultist boss. It is the final boss of the versions of Terraria.

The Moon Lord can be spawned by destroying the four Celestial Pillars or by using a Celestial Sigil in any world where Golem has been defeated. In both cases, it will then spawn one minute after the message "" appears.

See below for the Moon Bite debuff inflicted by Moon Lord.

Behavior
The Moon Lord has two hands and a head that must be killed before its core becomes available for attack. It positions its two hands on either side of the player some distance away.

Each hand, as well as its head, contains a vulnerable eye-like target that is each periodically closed off and opened via an eyelid. These may only be damaged during their "open" states. The core, which is the only part required to be destroyed in order to defeat the boss, only becomes vulnerable when all eye sockets are destroyed.

Moon Lord can teleport to players if all of them get too far out of range.

Attacks

 * The Moon Lord's hands move away from the core and their eyes spawn six . After a couple seconds, they explode, dealing heavy damage. If the player is far enough away, they simultaneously charge at the player before exploding, though they cannot travel at an angle higher than approximately 30 degrees in any direction.
 * The hand eyes also spawn multiple, which move in all directions for a short while before homing in on the player. Like the Phantasmal Spheres, they cannot travel at an upward angle, so they can be evaded by swerving upwards. If they cannot get a direct lock and a player is in range then they will attempt to match the target's trajectory to stay in their path. They explode upon contact with a block or player.
 * The hand eyes also occasionally fire two in quick succession, aiming at the player, which pass through blocks, requiring swerves to avoid. Another viable option is to quickly drop down before the bolts fire, saving the player from getting hit.
 * When attached to the Moon Lord's head, the head eye opens every 20–21 seconds for a few seconds, and then fires a : a large laser that sweeps upward over the player. This is by far Moon Lord's most damaging attack. Afterward, the head eye blinks a couple times, and fires two (similarly to those of the hands), and then closes.  As of 1.4, the Head eye will also fire two  before performing the Deathray attack, and the Deathray can pass through solid blocks that block it from the player.
 * After the Deathray attack, the mouth attempts to attach a Tentacle to the player. The Tentacle can reach through solid blocks. Once attached, it spawns multiple, which are enemies that travel from the player to Moon Lord's mouth. Any Moon Leech Clot that reaches the mouth without being killed returns 1000 health to one of Moon Lord's parts (one that has not yet been defeated).
 * The Tentacle also inflicts the Moon Bite debuff, preventing any life-steal effects from weapons/armor like Vampire Knives or Spectre Armor for 14 seconds (16 seconds in Expert Mode).
 * Once the Head eye is defeated, the Tentacle attack becomes more common, with only about a 2 second break between attacks.
 * When a hand or head target is defeated, it becomes a thorny crevice that deals damage on contact.
 * Additionally, when a head or hand target is defeated, a spawns, which cycles through the following attacks:
 * The eye fires two at the player, similar to those from the hand eyes.
 * The eye spawns six in a hexagonal formation around itself, which after a few seconds will charge directly at the player, dealing a significant amount of damage to the player. This is by far the dominant source of damage in the second phase and should be avoided by swerving/dashing.
 * The eye spawns, which behave similarly to when before the eyes were defeated.
 * The eye charges and fires a lesser, smaller and dealing significantly less damage. Similarly to the normal Phantasmal Deathray, it can pass through solid blocks on the , but not on the.
 * Finally, the eye performs another attack.
 * The True Eyes of Cthulhu are invincible and will only despawn if either all players die or Moon Lord is defeated. The eyes remain stationary for most of their attacks.
 * The Moon Lord will teleport to the nearest player if the player it is targeting dies or moves too far away.

Aftermath
After defeating the Moon Lord, the Credits will appear while the song Journey's End plays. Besides its other loot, the Moon Lord always drops Luminite, allowing the crafting of end-game materials.

Additionally:
 * The Traveling Merchant begins selling the Not a Kid, nor a Squid, a painting.
 * The Princess begins selling Music Box (Journey's End).

Tips

 * Making a suitable box with the Nurse and a U-shape filled with Honey is one of the best methods to kill Moon Lord. Fight with piercing weapons, such as Solar Eruption.
 * In Journey Mode, fighting the Moon Lord in a low difficulty, then changing the difficulty during the exploding animation will still give the player the rewards of the new difficulty.
 * With the Gravitation Potion, you can move fast enough vertically to avoid most of its attacks, but it might be difficult to aim without homing weapons.
 * You can also use it to dodge the Phantasmal Deathray.
 * Hiding under a row of blocks while using a weapon that can attack through blocks, such as the Solar Eruption, can nullify the Moon Lord's Phantasmal Deathray. Two rows of blocks can be quite effective. The player should make sure that the barrier has horizontal running room, in order to make space to dodge the Phantasmal Spheres.
 * As of the Phantasmal Deathray penetrates blocks, making this strategy ineffective.
 * The Moon Lord is vulnerable to and Betsy's Curse, which can dramatically speed up the fight. However, since Eyes remove all debuffs when they close, the player will have to reapply debuffs accordingly.
 * The Moon Bite debuff, which prevents life-steal abilities, is reliant on a tentacle making contact with the player. It is possible to move outside of its maximum range, avoiding the debuff and allowing effects to once again heal the player. However, hitting the boss becomes harder when doing this.
 * It is advisable to kill the eye on the head first. It is the only eye capable of firing the Phantasmal Deathray and remains closed for significantly longer than the eyes in the hands. If the player waits to kill the head last, they may have to deal with two True Eyes of Cthulhu for a longer amount of time.
 * Since the hands will start dealing melee damage after they are defeated, running away on an asphalt skybridge will become an issue if the player is not properly prepared to dodge the hands.
 * The frequently-applied Moon Bite debuff disables the healing effects of Vampire Knives and the Spectre Hood, making it not recommended to use them. If the player chooses to do so regardless, they can keep an eye on the debuff's timer and switch to healing quickly when it runs out.
 * Moon Bite does not disable health regeneration boosts, so the effects of Nebula armor and the Life Drain are not affected.
 * Using the Gelatinous Pillion is effective in avoiding the Tentacle, as the mount dramatically increases vertical movement speed, making lifesteal effective if you manage to outrun the Tentacle.
 * You can use a Minecart Track skybridge going across your world to help avoid attacks. Moon Lord will still try teleporting to you, but its attacks cannot catch up. The Mechanical Cart is the fastest way to move along the tracks.
 * Owning a Rod of Discord can be greatly helpful, as it can be used to easily evade Phantasmal Death Rays. Be cautious, however, using the rod with Chaos State can kill or greatly damage the player.
 * The Cosmic Car Key, Witch's Broom, or The Black Spot mounts can provide a huge advantage, as they make avoiding its attacks easier than on the ground and also travel slightly faster than the Moon Lord.
 * It is a good idea to use Chlorophyte Bullets or other homing weapons, as it allows the player to focus on dodging without needing to aim.
 * The Cute Fishron is capable of outrunning the Moon Lord with its speed bonus (the player must be under half health, have recently touched a liquid, or it must be raining ). Keep in mind that going too far from the Moon Lord will cause it to instantly teleport to the player's location.
 * The Cute Fishron's speed bonus can be activated consistently if the player makes an arena completely filled with water or bubble blocks containing water.
 * The Phantasmal Deathray can be dodged more easily when using a set of wings with high ascent speed such as Fishron Wings or Empress Wings, as well as an item that enables dashing such as the Tabi.
 * This can be further amplified with the Soaring Insignia, which gives infinite flight time.
 * The Moon Lord's attacks bypass typical invincibility frames, requiring special setups to bypass its attacks.
 * Moon Leech Clots will always reach the Moon Lord's mouth in the same amount of time. They travel toward it at a variable rate, remaining completely stationary (or at least apparently so) if the Moon Lord is in its default position behind the player. As a result of this, though it may seem counterintuitive, it is actually beneficial to be closer to the mouth to destroy Moon Leech Clots, as they will not move away as quickly

Trivia

 * Despite a mid-development comment by Cenx that this would not be the case, Moon Lord resembles common depictions of, a creature first imagined by in his story, . Fans commonly speculated prior to the release of 1.3 that Cthulhu would be the final Terraria boss (which in turn arose partly due to an early concept design floated by the development team).
 * Terraria's final boss was originally going to be the Moon itself descending on the world, but Cenx later stated that this idea had been scrapped.
 * Due to the colors of the boss and the names of a few of its projectiles, this boss may have been inspired by the Vortex Pillar.
 * Despite being the final boss, Moon Lord has the lowest amount of debuff immunities, being immune only to Confused.
 * NPCs are unable to attack the Moon Lord.
 * According to Cenx, spriting the Moon Lord took over a month.
 * The Moon Lord is the only boss with a unique death animation sequence.
 * Redigit has stated that, if 10,000 signatures and 15 dollars are gathered, he would make the lower half of the Moon Lord a boss. However, the validity of this statement is questionable as both criteria have since been met.
 * In the update, the Moon Lord Legs item is obtainable by making a new world with the seed "05162020" and finding it in chests as random chest loot. Surprisingly, the said item is not a boss.
 * The Moon Lord seems to share some mechanics of two bosses in pre-Hardmode including Skeletron, having multiple parts that each are destroyable, and the Brain of Cthulhu, requiring you to defeat separate parts before truly damaging the boss.
 * When one of Moon Lord's hands are "defeated", an enemy called True Eye of Cthulhu spawns. It's name may imply that the Eye of Cthulhu is not an actual Cthulhu organ, despite of it being confirmed to be.
 * The Moon Lord is one of 6 bosses with exclusive music, the others being the Queen Bee, Queen Slime, Empress of Light, Plantera, and Duke Fishron.
 * It is the only boss that drops 3 Expert-mode exclusive items in its Treasure Bag.
 * The Moon Lord drops the most coins of any boss, and overall any enemy, in the game.
 * In Expert Mode and Master Mode, its coin drops are higher than the total coin drops of all the Hardmode bosses in the game.
 * While fighting the Moon Lord, an eye appears on RGB-enabled keyboards.
 * According to a post by Redigit on the Terraria Discord Server, the Moon Lord is the father of the Guide NPC, it is unknown whether this is to be considered official lore.
 * If you use mods or hacks to summon in one body part of the Moon Lord, Boss 1 plays instead of the official Moon Lord track. You need autopause for this to work.
 * While the Moon Lord is spawning, music volume is decreased.
 * Interestingly enough, the Phantasmal Spheres the Moon Lord shoots can pierce all NPC's, however the Phantasmal Bolts it shoots get destroyed upon contact with an NPC, potentially being a viable option for players trying to avoid the bolts.
 * Interestingly enough, the Phantasmal Spheres the Moon Lord shoots can pierce all NPC's, however the Phantasmal Bolts it shoots get destroyed upon contact with an NPC, potentially being a viable option for players trying to avoid the bolts.