Mechanical bosses

Mechanical Boss is a term which refers to any of the three Hardmode bosses that can be summoned by "Mechanical" items which, besides being craftable, drop in hardmode until the respective boss is defeated. These items are listed below. Besides being summoned, there is a 10% chance that one will be spawned each night after the first Demon/Crimson Altar is destroyed. They will continue to spawn randomly until each individual one is defeated at least once, the only condition being destruction of a single Altar.

Once any Mechanical Boss has been defeated for the first time:
 * The Steampunker will arrive if there is a house available
 * The Truffle will begin selling the Mushroom Spear and Hammush
 * Solar Eclipses can occur
 * Red Devils and Lava Bats will spawn in the Underworld

After all three Mechanical bosses have been slain at least once each, the message "The jungle grows restless" will appear, and Plantera's Bulb will begin to grow in the Underground Jungle.

Tips

 * If you aren't confident in your ability to defeat the bosses, but you want to use the hardmode metals, you can refrain from destroying any Altars until you are ready and instead get the ores/bars from fishing up crates. Crates may yield hardmode metals once hardmode is reached.
 * In the same line of thought, you may want to refrain from opening crates until hardmode, as the hardmode ores are more valuable.