Cultists

The Cultists are Hardmode, post-Golem enemies that spawn along with a Mysterious Tablet at the entrance to the Dungeon after Golem has been defeated. Four Cultists will appear there: two Cultist Archers and two Lunatic Devotees. Defeating all four of the Cultists causes the Lunatic Cultist boss to spawn instantly at their location, destroying the Mysterious Tablet in the process. Defeating the Lunatic Cultist then initiates the Lunar Events.

Until one of the Cultists is attacked, they are passive and deal no contact damage, and players can walk through them freely without activating them. Attacking any of the four will awaken the Archers, who will begin to fire Wooden Arrows using bows and will deal contact damage. Lunatic Devotees are always passive and never deal contact damage.

All four Cultists respawn and reset their location and initial passive state after one in-game day, if the Lunatic Cultist was not summoned, if the player runs away or dies during the fight, when all four Celestial Towers are destroyed, or when the world is closed and restarted. Restarting the world can be the fastest option to reset them to their original state.

Cultist Notes

 * Cultists only spawn under the following circumstances:
 * The world is in Hardmode, and Skeletron and Golem have been defeated.
 * No bosses are alive and no events are happening.
 * No Mysterious Tablet is existent.
 * The player is not within an area of 79×41 tiles around the Dungeon point (the spawn point of the Old Man, i.e. the left of the two blocks on which he stands during the night).
 * The tile exactly 7 tiles above the Dungeon point (which is approximately where the center of the Mysterious Tablet will be) is neither a solid nor a deactivated block, this includes platforms and shelves.
 * Passive Cultists can be activated inadvertently in the following ways:
 * Although minions will not attempt to attack passive Cultists, minions that deal contact damage may incidentally damage Cultists. However, Sharknadoes might target passive Cultists with a ranged attack if coming too close.
 * The Mechanical Cart's lasers will sometimes target passive Cultists. If the Mechanical Cart is used as a way to reach the Dungeon quickly, it should be considered placing the end of the track further away from the Dungeon's entrance.
 * If one of the Cultists is killed in one hit (e.g. with the Sniper Rifle while wearing Shroomite armor), the other Cultists will remain passive and the music will not change. The Lunatic Cultist will still spawn when all Cultists are killed, however.
 * Attacking any of the Cultists will cause the Devotees' animation to speed up and the music will change to the Golem theme. This is a relatively easy way to get the Music Box for the boss music, since it does not actually require fighting a boss.
 * The Cultist Archers will not despawn, so they may follow the player large distances if there is a clear path.
 * As they do not move on their own and are insensitive to knockback, the only way to move a Devotee is by destroying the blocks under their feet, teleporting them or using a hoik.
 * If the Lunatic Devotees are killed and Cultist Archers are lured away and killed far away, the Lunatic Cultist will not spawn. The Cultists will not respawn, either. This can be fixed by reloading the world.
 * Minions cannot be manually targeted to attack the Cultists by the player.
 * The Cultists can not be harmed using lava or drowned using water.

Trivia

 * A White Cultist Archer character appears in the game files, but never actually spawns. The source code also contains statistics for the following characters, although no graphics are included for them, and they similarly never spawn: Blue Cultist Fighter, White Cultist Caster, and White Cultist Fighter. (along with banner graphics) are included for these, but are currently unobtainable. Out of these, only the White Cultist Archer can be spawned, and only with hacks or mods. Aside from appearance, the White Cultist Archer is completely identical to the Blue Cultist Archer.
 * Despite the Archers using what appears to be a Wooden Bow with Wooden Arrows, which will deal base damage when used by a player, their ranged attack will deal 80 damage in normal mode and 160 in Expert.