The Destroyer

 is a Hard Mode version of the Eater Of Worlds that was added in the 1.1 update. It has a total of 60,000 health and is made of metal, just like Skeletron Prime's head and hands. The Destroyer sends out small flying enemies called Probes that shoot lasers as it loses health.

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The Destroyer, unlike the Eater of Worlds, does not break apart when individual pieces lose all of their HP. Instead, it dies as one entity and its loot falls from its head.

The Destroyer sometimes spawns at night, with the message "You feel vibrations coming from deep below." appearing the previous dusk.

Tips

 * You can kill the destroyer in under 3 minutes by equipping Spectre Armor, Star Cloak, Mana Flower and then use Crystal Storm against it while standing inside it. The Demon Scythe works as well. Remember to bring some mana potions.
 * Base level, recommended equipment for this fight is Adamantite Armor. At least 2 potions of each kind that increase your stats or help you fight (Ironskin Potion, Thorns Potion, Gravitation Potion, Hunter Potion, Swiftness Potion, Shine Potion, Night Owl Potion ), a Flamethrower with ~500 Gel loaded, Philosophers Stone and 10 Greater Healing Potions. For advanced players an arena is not required.
 * It is advised to use weapons that can pierce through multiple targets, such as Unholy Arrows, Jester Arrows, a Flamethrower, the Demon Scythe, or just a broadsword or spear. Holy Arrows are also effective, as the stars summoned can pass through targets as well, and joined with the Star Cloak, spamming probes down should be easy. The Flamethrower is effective because it rapidly inflicts high damage and passes through at least 3 segments per shot. The Magical Harp is extremely efficient against this boss. Using this weapon, it is even possible to kill it three times in a single night. A Shadowbeam Staff can be used to kill the Destroyer even faster, provided that the Destroyer is straight (running on a skybridge makes the Destoryer straight) and you fire the beam directly through the Destroyer. A Rainbow Gun can also be used to inflict even more DPS on the Destroyer.
 * If the player doesn't have access to end-game weapons yet, the best choice would be the Cursed Flames, as they can easily fill up the screen and damage the boss repeatedly while also making short work of the probes.
 * The boss is immune to debuffs, but the probes aren't, so cursed attacks or the Dao of Pow will be very effective on them.
 * Much like its lesser form, The Destroyer is not very effective when faced with players on platforms. Making platforms with 15 spaces in between each will ensure the boss itself doesn't reach the player, however its lasers can still shoot you, and be sure to give yourself plenty of running space, about 80 blocks wide.
 * Probes are useful for healing (100% chance of dropping a heart). If you have good defense and ration these hearts, it is possible to win without using any potions.
 * An easy to acquire but deadly weapon to use against The Destroyer is the Phasesaber, by standing in an enclosed are where no other enemies can damage you. Using a Cross Necklace as an accessory will also help a huge amount when using Melee.

Ranged 'Death From Above' Methods

 * 1) You'll need: an Adamantite Repeater and/or a Clockwork Assault Rifle, a large number of Hellfire Arrows and/or Crystal/Exploding Bullets, and a few Gravitation Potions.
 * 2) *Start the battle and fly over The Destroyer, firing away with your ranged weapon of choice.
 * 3) *A long sky bridge built away from your house with a hole to shoot through would also aid with this method.
 * 4) Make a giant ceiling just out of its reach, grapple onto it and shoot it with a powerful weapon such as the Star Cannon or the Hallowed Repeater.
 * 5) *Instead of grappling, you can drink a Gravitation Potion for ease of maneuverability.
 * 6) *Laser shooting probes will still be able to reach you with this method; have a plan to deal with them.
 * 7) *Alternatively, use a Rope line for ease of maneuverability. Allow for possible slips by making 'safety' lines further down.

Explosives Method
Each individual block of Explosives inflicts about 500-800 damage. About 2-3 groups of explosives should be enough to kill the boss. With good timing, the explosives will kill it in seconds.
 * 1) Rig up a wire system with Explosives in several groups and a lever.
 * 2) Place the clusters of explosives about 15 blocks apart.
 * 3) Activate the trap when The Destroyer is crossing them.

Arena Methods

 * 1) Build a room or arena out of dungeon bricks, buy as many explosives as possible and throw Grenades, Dynamite or Bombs.
 * 2) *An arena that has several small rooms can prevent The Destroyer from firing lasers at you, effectively reducing taken damage, however you must still avoid the rest of The Destroyer's body as well.
 * 3) You could also create a room up in the sky containing your Nurse. As the Destroyer tends to kill all of your NPCs if your battle is close to your house (it can't reach very high up), it will be very effective and much safer to fly to the Nurse with a Gravitation Potion to fully heal.
 * 4) *Note that a Wyvern could spawn and kill the Nurse.
 * 5) *Bring some cash (at least 1-2 Gold), something to get up there, and your best ranged weapon with Cursed Bullets/Arrows (fill up all of your ammo slots plus a bit more).
 * 6) *Some emergency healing pots and other defense/attack pots might also be useful.
 * 7) Make a large room (preferably in the Dungeon so that you can get plenty of hearts from killing the enemies) and use any weapon that can bounce off the walls multiple times (Water Bolt, Crystal Storm or Cursed Flames
 * 8) *You should have Mythril Armor or better, all accessories reforged to Warding, and a Mana Flower complemented by quite a few Greater Mana Potions.
 * 9) *He should take between 6 and 10 minutes to kill; summon him right on 7:30pm to give yourself enough time.
 * 10) Make a large room out of any material and make 3 platform bridges in the room for manueverability. Use the Golden Shower on him and have a Mana Flower with some mana potions. You won't even need to use healing items if you kill the probes when needed.

Tanking Methods
The below strategies require that you have a high armor rating (50+) in order to be successful in slaying The Destroyer.
 * 1) Reforge your accessories for more defense (at least Armored is recommended). Coupled with an Ironskin Potion, you can easily reach 70-75+ defense (with an Adamantite Armor set).
 * 2) *Simply battle him on the ground, melee him and retreat when your health falls to dangerous levels (it'll take a good while though).
 * 3) *It is possible to outheal him with a Philosopher's Stone and enough defense, since you'll mostly be receiving damage from the body.
 * 4) For this method you will need approximately 50-60 armor and the Crystal Storm spell. Create a tower and just stand inside it for the entire battle.
 * 5) *The Destroyer will pass through you and you can use the Crystal Storm weapon to deal immense amounts of damage to him really quickly.
 * 6) *You will likely be heavily harmed, but the probes will die quite quickly and can be relied upon for healing.
 * 7) *Recommended accessories for this method are: Mana Flower; Star Cloak; Obsidian Shield (or Cobalt Shield); Philosopher's Stone (in case you need to heal with potions too often).
 * 8) For this method, you need around 70-80 armor, from Hallowed armor and 5 accessories, all reforged to Warding.
 * 9) *The upside to this costly reforging process is that you will take little damage.
 * 10) *Get 99 Wooden Platforms and place them, starting at the ground, going straight up.
 * 11) *Place dungeon blocks right next to the platforms, ending 1-3 blocks above the final platform.
 * 12) *You will need a Flamethrower with around 2000 Gel.
 * 13) *When you summon him, just jump upwards and continuously fire the Flamethrower.
 * 14) *You will need Ironskin Potion, Regeneration Potion, Featherfall Potion, and Thorns Potion.
 * 15) *It will take 5-10 minutes to beat him; summon him right on 7:30pm to have enough time to kill him.

Flail Method
This is a fast way to inflict damage while minimizing the damage you take. You probably won't need a lot of potions, but bring a few healing potions to be safe. If there are a lot of probes, you can just kill them with your flail, collect the hearts and continue until the Destroyer is dead.
 * 1) You will need a flail (ideally, the Dao of Pow or better).
 * 2) Find or create a flat surface about 15-20 blocks long and summon the boss.
 * 3) Manipulate the boss so that it approaches you parallel to the ground (preferably with Cobalt Shield or hooked to the ground so that you don't move).
 * 4) Wait inside the Destroyer with your flail out as it passes through you.

Spell Methods
For players near the end-game, tanking with the Turtle Armor and using the Golden Shower method is a very fast method of getting money. If one has enough Mechanical Worms to continually summon the Destroyer all night, it is possible to gain upwards of in a single night, if all gained Souls of Might are also sold.
 * 1) Build a platform too high for the Destroyer to reach.
 * 2) *When the boss is summoned, stand at the top and use the Nimbus Rod.
 * 3) *The clouds summoned by this weapon will deal heavy damage, which can be supplemented with another weapon or just re-cast as needed.
 * 4) For this method, Hallowed Armor (melee), a Magical Harp (or any other weapon with high piercing or rapid-fire abilities, such as a Demon Scythe or Crystal Storm), and a Cobalt/Obsidian Shield are needed.
 * 5) *Every time the Destroyer passes by, stand inside of it and use the Magical Harp at the lowest pitch possible (holding the cursor close to the player).
 * 6) *As every part of the boss will take damage equally and the Harp's projectiles will pierce unlimited numbers of enemies, this method will drain the Destroyer's health extremely ra
 * 7) *pidly.
 * 8) For this method, you will need the Golden Shower spell, and preferably a decently flat piece of ground to fight on with no ceiling. Palladium Armor or higher is advised as it may help greatly in the fight.
 * 9) *Once the Destroyer has been summoned, simply stand in place and start attacking him with the Golden Shower; aim along his body to inflict as much damage as possible.
 * 10) *If your health/mana gets too low, then aim for the probes to heal up and recharge your mana.
 * 11) *It's worth dodging the lasers to have a better chance of surviving, it isn't usually too much of a worry; the fight itself is quick, because of the ichor debuff that inflicts -20 defense.
 * 12) *You can probably just switch to another weapon when the debuff is inflicted if you wish, but the Golden Shower's piercing ability far outclasses most weapons when it comes to the Destroyer and other large segmented enemies.

Paladin's Hammer Method
One of the (likely) easiest way to defeat The Destroyer requires you to have the Paladin 's Hammer and accessories reforged to Warding (+4 defense), as well as having the Obsidian Shield/Ankh Shield. Using an Ironskin Potion also helps greatly. The fight should last less than a minute using this method. Cross necklace/Star Cloak aren't required, but may help those with less health/defense.
 * The actual fight shouldn't last very long if you have good aim, just wait until he attacks you (above ground, preferably) and throw the hammer directly along his body.
 * If done correctly this should do nearly 1000 damage every single attack. If you start taking too much damage, kill the probes, they each drop a heart.

Death Sickle Method
One of the easier, and maybe easiest way to defeat the Destroyer is to make use of the Death Sickle weapon that are dropped by Reapers during a Solar Eclipse. Using any accessories would work although it would help you avoid damage if you have Cross Necklace equipped. Any prefixes will work for the accessories although Menacing is reccomended for a faster battle. Similar to the accessories, any prefixes that add damage to Death Scythe are reccomended.
 * The fight would most probably be down in a min or even lower and you should be able to end the battle without needing to use a health potion.
 * When the Destroyer appears from the ground to attack you, all you have to do is to avoid his body and then hold down your mouse to repeatedly swing your Death Sickle. Each of the projectiles that come off Death Sickle should hit around 500-1000 damage, making this a fast battle.
 * The Probes that fly towards you should also be killed if they are in the way of the Sickle's projectile so if you ever get hit you could pick up the hearts dropped by them to recover some health.

Coil Method
A method that takes advantage of the Destroyer's unusual spawning tendencies, the coil method is one of the fastest ways to kill the Destroyer in late-game play, when farming for souls and money.
 * This strategy takes advantage of the fact that the Destroyer spawns in a single "coil", with half or three-quarters of its body overlapping within a 5-10 block space.
 * To begin with, create a thin layer of 10-20 blocks (optional) for the boss to spawn on, positioned a good bit off the ground. The Destroyer tends to spawn on whatever "structure" is closest to the player, but still off-screen, and this will ensure the coil is created aboveground.
 * Next, position yourself well above the ground. Use any type of Wings to carry yourself up to a platform ,and summon the boss using a Mechanical Worm. It is recommended for the ground to be well out of your view.
 * Finally, fly down to the ground where you created the block layer. If done correctly, you should see the coil of Destroyer parts aboveground. Fire at this with a penetrating weapon (Rainbow Gun (recommended), Golden Shower, or Magical Harp), and massive damage should ensue.
 * A Mythical Rainbow Gun, paired with Spectral Armor and best Menacing accessories, should be able to kill him outright within 5-10 seconds. Other weapons and combinations should still reduce his health significantly, making the fight easier and quicker than almost any other method.