The Destroyer

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The Destroyer is a Hardmode mechanical boss which is essentially a more difficult version of the Eater of Worlds. Like the Eater of Worlds, it is a very large worm. Although it appears to be similarly made up of many segments, individual segments cannot die, and The Destroyer will not split apart into multiple entities; its segments share a singular health pool. Like other worms, The Destroyer can take increased damage from attacks that damage multiple segments at once.

The Destroyer can be summoned manually using a Mechanical Worm at night in any biome. It can also spawn naturally upon dusk with a chance of 10% once a Demon or Crimson Altar has been smashed, as long as it has not yet been defeated in the current world. If spawning this way, its arrival is announced by the status message: "" ( alternatively "You feel a quaking from deep underground..."). It must always be killed before dawn; otherwise, it will quickly despawn.

Each of The Destroyer's segments contains a red-lit, which is an independent flying enemy that is launched periodically as the boss takes damage. Probes can be killed individually once detached, and never return to The Destroyer. They fire lasers at the player, both while within The Destroyer and when detached. If the red light is missing from a segment, it means the Probe was already launched from that segment.

The Destroyer's body and its Probes are immune to all debuffs (except for ).

While The Destroyer is alive, music Boss 3 will play.

Tips

 * Unlike most bosses, The Destroyer does not despawn if players get too far away and will simply follow them to their position.
 * This means that one can use any means of teleportation (Magic Mirrors, Teleporters, etc.) to easily avoid it during the fight, as it does not teleport either.
 * Keep in mind that The Destroyer can move freely without blocks when off-screen.
 * Any weapon that can hit enemies multiple times or damage multiple segments at once will have a much higher effectiveness against The Destroyer compared to single-target weapons. Ricocheting weapons can also be very effective in enclosed arenas.
 * Avoid debuff-based weapons, as The Destroyer is immune to all debuffs, except Stunned from . Note that Heart Arrows only freeze The Destroyer if they hit its head segment.
 * Some highly effective weapons are the Daedalus Stormbow with Holy Arrows, the Nimbus Rod, the Flamethrower, the Onyx Blaster with Explosive Bullets), and the Cannon (though note that the Cannon fires very slowly). All of them are not very hard to acquire with the exception of Nimbus Rod.
 * The head of The Destroyer has 0 defense. Although it might be very difficult to damage simply the head segment itself and it causes massive damage to the player ( in ), it can speed up the fight tremendously.
 * Probes should be taken out as soon as possible, since they may greatly interfere with the fight and additionally serve as a steady source of Hearts (20% drop rate in Expert).
 * Using the Minimap to see where the Destroyer will surface can greatly help with dodging.
 * Farming the Destroyer is a quick method for making money, as its drops can be used to craft multiple Light Discs, which sell for each.

Trivia

 * Although there is no mechanical version of the Brain of Cthulhu, The Destroyer's spawning of Probes resembles how the Brain of Cthulhu spawns Creeper minions.
 * The Destroyer has many small metal devices jutting out of it that can either resemble -like legs or wheels, which might explain its ability to move freely within blocks despite being a rather clunky machine.
 * The Destroyer has the most total health of any boss except the . It still has the largest single health bar, as the Moon Lord's total health is the combination of all its body parts, and Moon Lord's parts all have lower health than The Destroyer individually.
 * In normal mode, The Destroyer has 10 times as much health as the Wall of Flesh.
 * Despite the status message saying "" or "You feel a quaking from deep underground...", it does not spawn when the player is underground. However, it seems to appear from underground.
 * Some teasers for the release included The Destroyer having blue-lit segments instead of red.
 * On the (and previously, the ), Lepus, which can be spawned during Easter, also has a chance to drop 3 Souls of Might (1%) and is easy to farm. Note that these are of no use during pre-Hardmode, as crafting any item from them requires a Hardmode Anvil.
 * The Destroyer and the Moon Lord are the only two bosses that do not despawn when the player gets too far away.
 * The world eater that is the destroyer's easy form has the shortest life (single target) with his head being a boss and the destroyer has the longest boss life (being single target).
 * The world eater that is the destroyer's easy form has the shortest life (single target) with his head being a boss and the destroyer has the longest boss life (being single target).

History
Der Zerstörer Le Destructeur 毁灭者