Guide:Plantera strategies

Plantera is a moderately hard boss; it can spawn after defeating all three of the mechanical hardmode bosses and destroying a pink flower in the underground jungle.

= Basic Information = Plantera will attempt to chase after the player, always trying to make its main bulb overlap with the player's space. It 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.

Attack types

 * [[File:Poison Seed.png]] Seeds: (phase 1) Frequently spits projectiles similar to the stingers of the Hornets. Easily avoided if the player hides behind blocks.
 * Thorn Ball.png Thorn Balls: Spiky balls similar to the Spike Ball weapon. They linger on the ground for a significant amount of time and deal around 50 damage. These balls fall through platforms, so use of platforms in an arena is recommended. They are however also incredibly bouncy and can easily reach players some height in the air.
 * Plantera's Hook.pngHooks: Plantera uses three vines for its locomotion, apparently larger versions of the Ivy Whip. The ends of these vines deal damage if the player touches them.
 * Plantera's Tentacle.png Biters: (phase 2) Once Plantera begins the second stage it will sprout a large number of small gnawing minions on "leashes". They simply wave themselves around at the end of their leash and get in the way of the player's attacks, making piercing weapons more valuable. They are fairly weak and easily killed.
 * [[File:Spore.png]] Spores:  (stage 2) Frequently spits projectiles similar to the Fungi Spores fired by the Giant Fungi Bulb. Easily destroyed and avoidable, but deals high damage if hit.

The bulb Plantera spawns from cannot be moved or controlled, so it may be best to simply build an ad-hoc arena anywhere you find a bulb, or else build a few arenas near places where you have found bulbs, and lure Planteras towards a pre-made arena by making a run for the arena. It is however possible to affect where the bulb will spawn by removing or creating underground areas of jungle grass.

= Arena Preparation = First, Plantera has plenty of health to chew through, and a good amount of damage, so it would be best to set up a Heart Statue and Star Statue if you use magic. Set them to timers. Add a Heart Lantern and Campfire to boost your health regeneration further, and a Crystal Ball if you use magic. If your arena is fairly large, try to set up more than one healing station like this, so that you can run in a big circle (or oval) and collect hearts on both ends of the loop.

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. Plantera's spike balls do some significant damage and are used frequently during Plantera's first phase, however they can only bounce off solid surfaces, if you don't 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, it is much easier to defeat.

Honey can be used for its regeneration, so make little pools to dip into if you can be bothered.

Currently, Plantera will "go berserk" if the player leaves the Underground Jungle (including to go to the surface), so surface-level arena strategies are generally obsolete. 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 it.

= Equipment Strategies = Fighting Plantera goes faster when you use weapons that can either linger and hit a single target multiple times (as it is quite a big target), or at least pierce, as it has multiple sub-sections in its second form. For accessories, a Wings type helps immensely. Damage can be greatly boosted through combat-accessories such as the Warrior/Ranger/Sorcerer/Avenger Emblems.

For melee weapon users, spears work good as they can attack through blocks and can strike multiple times in one swing. The Chlorophyte Partisan is especially convenient as it shoots a small projectile that hits multiple times, making it a very useful spear for this fight. Other than spears, swords like the Terra Blade or True Night's Edge are fine choices for high ranged damage. The Death Sickle can also be a great weapon. Due to its projectiles it is possible to continually circle around Plantera with wings, dealing constant damage. The projectiles also pass through blocks, which can be very convenient as the dense environment of the Underground Jungle will trap or stop most block-interacting projectiles.For armor, Turtle armor combined "Warding" modifier (+4 Defense) accessories can boost defense to the point where the player takes only single-digit damage.
 * Melee

For ranged weapon users, the Uzi is a popular choice, although the Megashark or Flamethrower perform admirably. Use whatever you have that can put out the most DPS, while still allowing you to spend most of your time dodging without aiming too much. Another option is to use a Chlorophyte Shotbow with Cursed Arrows or Ichor Arrows.
 * Ranged users

For magic weapons, the Nimbus Rod is often useful (even for non-magic ones). It can deal continuous damage which can greatly help the fight, especially in vertical arenas. Combine it with anything else that can deal a fair amount of run-and-gun damage, such as a Crystal Storm, Magical Harp, Poison Staff, or Magic Dagger. For armor, Hallowed Armor and its additional movement bonus might be the best choice. Chlorophyte armor likely works good too. In addition to the aforementioned accessories, something that restores mana like the Magic Cuffs can prove useful.
 * Magic

Any potion you would normally use against a boss is helpful, especially Ironskin Potions, Regeneration Potions, and of course, Greater Healing Potions. For additional buff suggestions, see Notes under Guide:Defending against events.
 * Consumables

= Specific Strategies = Note: Strategies that require spawn points are no longer valid as with the 1.2.3.1 update - Plantera now vanishes after you die, so when battling solo be forewarned.

Weegee31647's Sacrifice
Put 3+ Slime Statue (or other mob-spawning Statues) above your head over lava, connected to a 1 Second Timer. The slimes will constantly be killed, giving you mana and health as you take damage from Plantera.

The Teleportation Trick
Make a long hallway (preferably longer than 150 tiles, but still shorter than 250 due to the bug shown below, because of Plantera's movement speed in the second phase) out of any material you desire, and place a Teleporter on each end, and wire them together. Test it first. Then, summon Plantera.

When it's climbing down toward you on one side, flip the trigger used to activate Teleporter. You will teleport to the other side, and Plantera will have to climb back at you. It is even possible to combine the Teleporters with a Timer to remove the need to activate a trigger.

Note that if the hallway is too long, Plantera will despawn. This was observed with a 250 tile long hallway.

Farming Plantera
Many post-Plantera weapons are powerful enough to make Plantera-farming relatively easy. Popular weapons/armor include:
 * Leaf Blower
 * Razorpine
 * Magnet Sphere
 * Vampire Knives - Nifty due to their ability to regain life. If the character's melee attack is boosted enough (by the means of armor, accessories, and buffs), it is possible to win the fight without having to avoid Plantera's attacks.
 * The Horseman's Blade - Can be combined with Statues to create vast amounts of homing pumpkins to chase Plantera. See Melee damage set under Guide:Defending against events for details.
 * Spectre Armor - Nifty as it likewise provides life when damaging an enemy with a magic weapon.
 * Stynger - packs quite a bit of damage, especialy taken into consideration that plantera is big enough to take all damage from the AoE effect to if you aim at the middle of her.