Deerclops

The Deerclops is a pre-Hardmode boss. It is encountered in the Snow biome naturally at midnight during a Blizzard, or by summoning it using a Deer Thing.

Summoning
The Deerclops can be summoned using a Deer Thing at any time of day as long as the player is in the Snow biome. It will also spawn naturally at exactly midnight during a Blizzard, given that at least one player has either 9 defense or 200 health.

There are no prerequisite bosses that are required to be defeated in order to summon this boss, however, the Deerclops' strength may warrant waiting until after defeating Skeletron to fight it.



Behavior

 * The Deerclops has four attacks (five in Expert and Master):
 * If it is close to the player, the Deerclops will smash the ground, summoning a wave of ice spikes that quickly travels torwards them. Every third consecutive wave does not go as far, but spreads in both directions.
 * If it is not close enough to its target to use its ice spikes attack, the Deerclops will 'scoop' and then throw numerous chunks of ice debris into the air that fall back down. These ice chunks can pass through blocks.
 * Deerclops occasionally stand in place and roar, inflicting the Slow debuff on all players for 12 / /  seconds.
 * If the player is above the Deerclops for too long, it will summon five shadow hands around the player.
 * In Expert Mode, shadow hands will be periodically summoned that either move forwards slowly, move forwards quickly and curve, or spin in place. Shadow hands are summoned more frequently as the Deerclops' life gets lower.
 * The Deerclops can pass through solid blocks, but will quickly rise to the top of said blocks unless the player is below it.
 * If the player is more than 30 tiles away from it, the Deerclops will turn a dark shade purple and become immune to damage.
 * If all players are dead or there are none nearby, the Deerclops will wander around instead of immediately despawning. When a player gets close to the boss, the fight will resume as normal. The boss will despawn after a few minutes have passed or upon re-entering the world.
 * Like with all other bosses, Pylons cannot be used while the Deerclops is alive – even when the player is not battling it.

Tips

 * Building a platform of non-solid blocks about twice the height of the player up in the air, along with staircases made of solid blocks on either side to allow the Deerclops to get on can elevate it high enough above the ground to prevent the boss from using its ice debris attack entirely, making the fight much easier.
 * Due to being able to inflict Slow from an almost unlimited range, accessories like the Anklet of the Wind or Magiluminescence alongside Swiftness Potions can help make the fight much more manageable.
 * Avoid lingering directly above the Deerclops, as the shadow hands it summons in this situation are very dangerous.
 * The player can run between the Deerclops' legs without taking damage. This is useful for avoiding the first two ice spike attacks, but the player should not stick around for the third.

Trivia

 * The Deerclops is part of the Don't Starve Together crossover. Many of the items of this crossover are dropped by the Deerclops.
 * It is the only non-event boss in Terraria ( other than the Wall of Flesh) to not despawn after killing the player.
 * The Deerclops fight is one of two boss fights that consist of a single destructible entity, the other being the Empress of Light.
 * All other boss fights have either multiple bosses, multiple segments, or boss minions that play a part in their boss fights.
 * However, there is a NPC named "DeerclopsLeg" in the files which does not actually appear during the fight.
 * The Deerclops is the first non-event crossover boss, as well as the first pre-Hardmode crossover boss.
 * It is one of six bosses with exclusive boss music. The others include Queen Slime, Plantera, Empress of Light, Duke Fishron, and Moon Lord.
 * The Deerclops is themed around the Snow biome, leaving the Desert and Space as the only major biomes with no associated boss.