Lunatic Cultist

The Lunatic Cultist is a Hardmode, post-Golem boss summoned by killing the Cultists that spawn at the Dungeon's entrance after Golem is defeated. It is somewhat considered to be the penultimate boss of Terraria, seconded only by Moon Lord. Defeating the Lunatic Cultist initiates the Lunar Events.

After all four Celestial Pillars have been destroyed, the Cultists respawn at the Dungeon entrance, allowing the player to fight the Lunatic Cultist and initiate the Lunar Events again.

Unlike most bosses, the Lunatic Cultist does not drop any weapons; however, it does drop the Ancient Manipulator, a placeable item that is used to craft many endgame items.

Behavior
The Lunatic Cultist makes its first brief appearance at the Mysterious Tablet as soon as the Cultists are defeated. It is not vulnerable to attack at this time. It then warps to a new location in midair and summons one of three attacks:


 * A burst of three homing that explode on impact
 * An ice ball that fires in six directions four times over as it flies in one direction before slowly fading away
 * An that fires bolts of lightning at the character

As the Lunatic Cultist becomes damaged, it adds two spreads of five destructible projectiles as part of its attack cycle.

In Expert Mode, it may also spawn numerous that fire four purple projectiles in a cross pattern.

The Lunatic Cultist cycles through its various attacks, performing four to five of them before proceeding to spawn phantom duplicates of itself called Ancient Cultists, along with a larger version of the Mysterious Tablet via a "ritual". Unless the one true Lunatic Cultist is interrupted by an attack from a player during this ritual, the duplicates fly in formation and add their homing attacks.

Attacking a duplicate or taking too long hitting the real cultist results in the summoning of the Wyvern-like. If there is already a Phantasm Dragon inbound, attacking a duplicate triggers an, which resembles a miniature Moon Lord head. Duplicates can be eliminated by hitting the true Lunatic Cultist during the ritual, but if not, large quantities of duplicates can amass.

Tips

 * Avoid defeating the Lunatic Cultist if you are not yet ready for the Lunar Events. Beating the Lunatic Cultist causes the Lunar Events to begin immediately, and there is no way to de-summon them thereafter (aside from defeating them).
 * The real Lunatic Cultist can be distinguished from its fakes in a number of ways:
 * The real Cultist is the only one with a health meter.
 * The real Cultist has narrow slit-like eyes, while the clones' eyes are holes.
 * The real Lunatic Cultist has a line on its hood while the fakes do not.
 * Most minions and homing weapons will only attack the real Cultist.
 * This is not true as of version 1.4.0.1. Homing bullets act like regular bullets and minions will not target the cultist or its decoys, although minions that deal contact damage may accidentally damage them. Interestingly, Flaming Jack projectiles from The Horseman's Blade will still target the real Cultist.
 * The real Cultist does not emit light, while the decoys do; however, this may only be apparent if fought at night.
 * Using a Hunter Potion will only highlight the real Cultist.
 * In normal mode, the decoy Cultists are named "Ancient Cultist" instead of "Lunatic Cultist". In Expert mode, however, the decoys will also be named "Lunatic Cultist".
 * Using Autopause grants as much time as needed for identifying the real Cultist.
 * Attacking a decoy Cultist is not a bad idea if the player uses the Vampire Knives. The resulting Phantasm Dragon is very long and may be easily targeted to restore some life.
 * Many of the Lunatic Cultist's attacks can be blocked by hiding behind solid blocks. A weapon that attacks through blocks or a yoyo can be used to continue dealing damage.
 * There is little reason to farm the Lunatic Cultist itself, as its only non-vanity drops are healing potions and the Ancient Manipulator, which you only need one of and does not sell for any money. However, defeating it is the only way to access the Lunar Events and the various fragments.

Trivia

 * The Lunatic Cultist's attacks appear to be based on the four pillars from the Lunar Events.
 * It is a common belief that the Cultists' design was inspired by Crowno's set. However, according to Crowno, the Lunatic Cultist was designed first.
 * The boss appearance resembles a, which was an outfit worn by plague doctors in the 17th century intended to protect them from airborne diseases.
 * It is the smallest boss, the only human one, and the only one without an awakening message.
 * The Lunatic Cultist's mask, trophy, and achievement refer to him as "Ancient Cultist" rather than "Lunatic Cultist", as they are still using an early development name. Several other enemy drops from 1.3 also retained their early development names until later patches.
 * In addition to this, an unimplemented achievement refers to him as the "Insane Cultist".
 * The Lunatic Cultist has an Expert Mode Treasure Bag in Terraria&#39;s game files, but it is currently unobtainable as it does not actually drop it.
 * This is the only boss to use music specifically titled after another boss, Golem, and the only boss whose music starts before the boss itself spawns.
 * The term "lunatic" is nowadays usually used as an informal synonym for "insane", "mentally ill", etc. The word itself, however, originated from the fact that diseases were historically thought to have been caused by the moon, tying in with the moon-themed events following this boss.
 * The Lunatic Cultist, Brain of Cthulhu, Moon Lord, King Slime, Queen Slime, Empress of Light, and, in Expert mode, Duke Fishron are the only bosses that can teleport.
 * The head icon displayed on the map is also shown for the Ancient Cultists.
 * When the Lunatic Cultist first spawns, glowing particles start flowing to it from the Mysterious Tablet and it makes a noise that sounds like a heavily edited voice clip. It is randomly chosen from the following:
 * After this, it makes a and tilts up its mask and shakes, to appear as if it is laughing at the player.
 * All of the voice clips vaguely sound like a distorted "I am the moon, you know.", hinting at the Lunar Events initiated after defeat. Some are definitely more obvious than others, but all of them have that sound if you listen closely.


 * Oddly, when the Lunatic Cultist is killed, the status message "" appears before "", hinting that the summoning ritual might have finished before the Lunatic Cultist died.
 * When the Lunatic Cultist despawns after a player has teleported away from it, it plays its dying animation.