Guide:Plantera strategies

Plantera is a boss that can be spawned after defeating all three of the Mechanical Hardmode bosses.

Spawn Condition
Plantera can only be spawned by breaking a, by a Pickaxe, Drill, or various other means.

She must then be killed within the Underground Jungle, otherwise she will enrage.

The Fight
Plantera will attempt to chase after the player, always trying to make her main bulb overlap the player's space. She moves fairly slowly when compared to a player with speed-boosting equipment. This means a player in a large enough arena can easily keep a distance, assuming they just keep moving. As such, a good arena can make the fight much easier. The second stage begins when Plantera reaches 50% remaining health. The pink petals fall off to reveal a ferocious green maw and Plantera's speed is greatly increased.

Currently, Plantera will enrage and gain more defense, attack more frequently and deal massive amounts of contact and ranged damage if the player leaves the Underground Jungle (including to go to the surface), so surface-level arena strategies are impractical. One exception is taking advantage of Plantera's need to "grapple" to move by building a large enough space that Plantera cannot grapple up after you, and then firing down upon her. However, Plantera can grapple onto background walls, and since they extend down to the underworld, you would have to clear them out first.

The player will want to focus on dodging attacks while shooting constantly at Plantera. Once Plantera reaches her second form, the player should be very wary and try to avoid Plantera's lunges.

Ranged characters should try to kill tentacles as soon as they appear. Due to the generally low defense of Ranger sets, getting caught by tentacles often will kill the player very quickly.

Terrain Preparation
The actual shape of your arena depends on how you want to fight. For a player who wants to have plenty of evasive space, excavating around a screen's worth of space inside the Underground Jungle and filling it with rows of Platforms can work well. For more aggressive players, a smaller space excavated right next to a bulb can work too. Others will just use a stack of bombs to excavate a large area for flying and grappling. Mobility is generally key during her battle, but enough of a damage output can kill her fast enough to make evasion less important. Plantera's spike balls do significant damage and are used frequently during Plantera's first phase, however, they can only bounce off solid surfaces. If you do not mind taking the extra time, consider digging a hole at least 2 times deeper than you would use for the fight and stick to the top half of your arena, without the added threat of Plantera's spike balls, she is much easier to defeat. Make sure the arena is not too big, as taking out too many Mud blocks might turn the Underground Jungle into just regular caverns, enraging Plantera and making the fight much more difficult.

Honey can be used for its regeneration, so you can make little pools for the regeneration benefit.

Bring a Hammer to remove the jungle walls so that in Plantera's second phase, the hooks can only grapple on to the blocks so she cannot reach you with her hooks, and thus you will not take damage from them.

Gearing up
It is recommended to increase your maximum life to 500 before trying to tackle Plantera and later challenges after her defeat. are very common if many days have passed after defeating one of the Mechanical bosses.

Armor

 * At minimum, players should use the with the helmet to suit your class.
 * is a step up from Hallowed armor, providing very strong upgrades and good defense. Its set bonus adds extra damage.
 * is still a very good choice because of the set bonus and acceptable stat bonuses.
 * The best set for melee users consists of the or, , and.
 * is an incredibly powerful armor set, with the combination of high regeneration, good stats and minion and sentry bonuses.
 * and are weaker alternatives for Rangers and Mages respectively.
 * is still the only choice for minion-based summoners.

Weapons

 * For Melee users:
 * The is the best choice for melee, being able to tear through both Plantera and her Biters fairly easily.
 * The is very useful, as it can rip through her first phase very quickly, especially with a Yoyo Bag.
 * The is a good choice for high damage as well.
 * and the are good choices as well.
 * With enough attack speed upgrades and the Cross Necklace, the can easily kill her in a matter of seconds.
 * The is a great choice, as the bubbles spawned can easily home in on Plantera, negating the need to aim and reducing your job to just dodging.


 * For Ranged users:
 * The or  are the best guns available. When used with, they can deal massive damage.
 * A, with or  can be used to great effect.
 * You can excavate a tall arena and use a paired with Holy Arrows, which will be great against Plantera.
 * The is useful for killing Plantera's Tentacles in her second phase.
 * will freeze Plantera, making the fight incredibly simple.
 * The paired with  or  can be deadly against Plantera.


 * For Magic users:
 * The and  are solid weapons against Plantera.
 * Using the every so often can prove to be very helpful as it inflicts the, increasing your damage output even more.
 * The is always useful (even for non-magic users). It can deal continuous damage which can greatly help the fight, especially in vertical arenas.
 * The and  are very effective for the second phase, as they deal with the Tentacles while also damaging Plantera. The  can also be effective.
 * The can easily deal with Plantera's Biters in the second phase while also healing the player in the process.


 * For Summoners:
 * The and  summon the most reliable minions.
 * The can prove to be incredibly powerful when used with a Tavernkeep's armor set.

Potions

 * ,, , and s will help you survive much longer.
 * Anything that gives the Well Fed buff is welcomed help.
 * and s give very welcomed damage upgrades.
 * s and are very effective for Melee users.
 * Likewise with s, for Rangers who choose to use arrows.
 * and are a must have for Magic users.
 * s are very useful for summoners.

Accessories

 * will allow you to dodge Plantera's attacks.
 * The utility of the 's dash is essential throughout all of Expert Mode.
 * Damage can be greatly boosted through combat accessories such as any or the.
 * Melee users who choose to use swords can use the to greatly increase their damage and attack speed. It can also be combined with the  for an even larger increase. Note that the latter should not be used by itself due to its slightly lower stats.
 * The will significantly increase a Yoyo's  and range.
 * The can be used for increased regen and the reduction of the Potion Sickness debuff time from one minute to 45 seconds. In order for the Philosopher's Stone effect to be applied, it only has to be equipped the instant a Healing Potion is drunk.
 * The Expert-exclusive or the  can reduce all damage taken.
 * The is very useful for preventing knockback in the second phase. The Obsidian Shield is an alternative, only losing the situational immunity to the Poisoned debuff.
 * The / can be used to extend the invulnerability period after being attacked. This can prove to be useful during the second phase due to the large amount of Biters.

The Teleportation Trick
Make a long hallway, and place a Teleporter on each end.

When she is climbing down toward you on one side, flip the Mechanism used to activate the Teleporter. You will teleport to the other side, and Plantera will need to climb back at you.

Boomerang-type weapons can fly indefinitely when using a teleportation trick. Before the boomerang returns, the player can teleport to the other end of the hall, and the boomerang will change directions and pierce enemies along the way.

Note that if the hallway is too long, Plantera will despawn. This was observed in a hallway as small as 200 tiles. If you use the mobile edition, you should make the hallway around 125-150 tiles long, as Plantera will despawn within a shorter range of the player.