Frost Moon



The Frost Moon is a post-Plantera, Christmas-themed event summoned with the Naughty Present at any time at night, ending at dawn (4:30AM). It can be summoned at any time of the year and does not require the actual Christmas season. During the event, unique and highly difficult enemies spawn at high rates and attack the player. It is similar to the Pumpkin Moon event, but is more difficult and includes slightly more content. Visually, the moon turns into a snowman head, though remaining in its current phase.

The entire event consists of 15 waves, plus 5 "bonus waves". Waves progress as the player reaches certain kill scores (though kill scores are not displayed to the player before wave 20). After a wave's required score is met, the next wave begins, and the kill score is reset to 0. Status messages will indicate when the wave has advanced, and which wave has been achieved. See the table below for the points awarded for each enemy and the score required for each wave.

The Frost Moon event always ends at 4:30 AM. The goal of the event is to progress through all 20 waves before the event ends, although the achievement for the event is awarded at wave 15.

The Naughty Present, which summons the Frost Moon, requires materials only available in Hardmode worlds where the player has already defeated Plantera (although it can still be summoned in pre-Hardmode worlds). As such, it is intended to present a challenge even to players with the best possible equipment. In the final waves, multiple boss-level enemies are fought at once.

Frost Moon enemies drop powerful weapons, as well as pet and vanity items. Most drop with extreme rarity, and even players who manage to complete the event will find they need to do so several times before obtaining them. Drop chances for items dropped by bosses increase as waves are completed. See the section below for a more detailed description of the rates at which loot and trophies drop.

Reaching the 15th wave before 4:30 AM will display the message “The spirit of Christmas spreads cheer...” at dawn (4:30 AM). For the entire day and night, all special effects of the Christmas season will occur. At 4:30 AM of the next day, the message “The spirit of Christmas fades...” will appear and all Christmas events will no longer occur until the Christmas season begins again or the player reaches the 15th wave of the Frost Moon again.

Waves

 * Total points required to reach wave 15: 3410, wave 20: 10160
 * Present Mimics may spawn at any wave, instead of wave-appropriate enemies, if there are currently less than four Present Mimics around.
 * The maximum number of bosses at once depends on the wave. While this number is reached (or possibly exceeded, for example if the player manages to somehow reach wave 9 without killing two Everscreams from wave 6), no more of this type of boss will spawn.

Loot

 * All of the boss-type enemies (Ice Queen, Santa-NK1 and Everscream) have increased chances to drop loot in later waves. This chance starts at a 10% chance in wave 4, and grows at a nonlinear increasing rate up to 16.67%  by wave 15, continuing to 25%  by wave 20.
 * The above chance does affect trophies as of version ; in all other versions, trophies are not also affected by the above chance.
 * The exact formula for the drop chance is $Frost_Moon-math-1$, where W is the current wave number (plus 7 if in or ), and E is 0 in Classic or 2 in Expert/Master.  does affect this chance.
 * In all versions, trophies have their own, seperate chance to drop (which, on, also applies alongside the general drop chance, as explained above). Starting at wave 15 (or, on , at in Expert Mode), there is a chance each Ice Queen, Santa-NK1 and Everscream killed will drop its respective trophy. This chance increases at wave 17, and again at wave 19; on  in Expert Mode, these increases instead happen at wave 10 and at wave 12, respectively. On , Luck does not affect this chance. The trophy drop rates for each version in each wave are shown in the table below.

Tips

 * Because spawn rates for areas where Frost Moon enemies cannot spawn are also increased, a Frost Moon can be used to farm for other items, e.g., Pirate Maps at the Ocean, while completely avoiding the Frost Moon enemies.
 * The Frost Moon enemies are susceptible to the Ichor debuff, which makes a Flask of Ichor, Ichor Arrows or Bullets, or the Golden Shower very effective.
 * Players should kill the enemies as soon as they spawn to ensure that more enemies can spawn continuously in order to increase the chances of reaching later waves.
 * The Frost Moon can be a great way to obtain a large amount of coins quickly.
 * A good potion to use is the Warmth Potion as it decreases damage significantly from enemies in the event.
 * Try to make a trap area, this does not mean an AFK Farm but a location fixed with traps. Use this farm with a lever to keep the traps on and keep them on while you fight the mini bosses. This could help with the mobs while you fight mini bosses.

Trivia

 * The Frost Moon was the hardest event in the game until update, after which it was beaten by the Lunar Events.
 * This is one of the few post-1.2 features available on the 3DS version.