Guide:Wall of Flesh strategies

Wall of Flesh (or WoF) is a huge... well, wall of flesh. It has two eyes, which shoots lasers at you, and one mouth. It also has many small creatures near it called The Hungry. They are connected to the WoF with long tendrils, which break once that Hungry takes enough damage, causing it to fly toward you. Once beating the Wall of Flesh, you will receive an ominous message and your world will enter Hardmode.

Summoning The Wall of Flesh
To summon the WoF, go to the underworld, kill a voodoo demon carrying a voodoo doll and collect it. Drop it into lava in hell to spawn the WoF.

Note that this will not work if the Guide is not currently alive, or if you still have the Horrified debuff from a previous fight for some reason.

Preparations
Before you start, make sure the guide is alive and the horrified debuff (if you tried defeating it beforehand) is gone, otherwise Wall Of Flesh will not be summoned when you throw the voodoo doll into the lava.

Arena
There are multiple approaches you can take for fighting this boss.

What worked best for me so far is gathering all the leftover dirt or stone i got from mining and build a giant bridge. That way you don't have to worry about the land, and you will have a general idea of calibration. Plus you will be able to get away from the beast and shoot it from as far as you like. This also renders potions like obsidian skin or gravity not needed.

Alternately, you'll need a lot of potions, and your melee ability will be very limited.

Potions

 * Ironskin Potions will give the much needed defense boost. Each point of defense is more valuable than the last.


 * Regeneration Potion is another useful survivability boost.

Without a lava platform, the following are recommended:


 * Gravity potion. Yes, walking is something you got used to, but it is easiest to hold left or right and press up and down sometimes while concentrating on fighting than planning how not to be smashed into wall.


 * Featherfall potion is good addition to gravity potion.


 * Obsidian Skin Potion is good thing too, but only if there is exposed lava left.


 * Water Walking Potion may be advisable if you have trouble getting out of liquids, as you will be able to walk on lava. This potion is recommended in combination with the obsidian skin potion. This will prevent lava damage as well as giving you ability to disregard the danger of the lava pits.


 * Shine Potion and Night Owl Potion can help a lot more than you'd think, since Hell is pretty dark.


 * Several Healing Potions. The fight lasts a few minutes, so bring at least five to be safe.

Equipment
Since the Horrified debuff prevents you from running away from the boss, DO NOT use your mirror, even if you are about to die, as you will just die instantly. Its better to spend the last seconds landing on a spot where your items wont burn up in the lava.

Defense
I had defeated the boss with 51 defence without any healing items. To reach it, equip Molten armor, Shackle, Cobalt Shield, Obsidian Skull. The fourth one must be Rocket boots or Cloud in a bottle If you DONT have gravity potion. If possible, making accessoires Reforged to +4 defence is perfect idea too. If you want, you can combine the Cobalt Shield with the Obsidian Skull at a Tinkerer's Workshop to save room, possibly for a stat increasing or efficiency increasing accessory such as a Feral Claws or a Lucky Horseshoe.

Melee weapon
A primary concern about melee in this fight is that you are constantly moving away from the boss. As it is impossible to back up while swinging a sword, weapons like Night's Edge are forced to stay dangerously close to the boss and catch it on the backswing if they wish to damage it directly.

Non-sword melee weapons, on the other hand, are at their best here. Spears like the Dark Lance and flails like Sunfury are devastating to this boss's large body and numerous small creatures. The player can keep a comfortable distance away, keep pace with its movements, and push out steady multihit attacks for massive damage. Getting either the Dark Lance or the Sunfury is recommended if the player intends to focus on melee.

A melee weapon especially helps when fighting the numerous Hungries, as one swing can hit many at once. Balanced characters may wish to start with a melee weapon to clear out the little creatures before switching to range or magic to fight the boss. The Wall of Flesh has a low defense, so the player isn't limited to necessarily using the strongest weapon that they have available.

The speed and auto-attack of the Muramasa and the spread damage of the Starfury make them viable options for thinning out the Hungries. Their low damage output and frontal swing makes them suboptimal for damaging the wall directly. Starting the fight by wiping out a large number of the Hungries with one of these two weapons is an option.

Night's Edge, despite being the strongest weapon available to the player at this point, is not as powerful in this fight as it is in others. It's viable for fighting the Hungries, and thus is a good way to start the fight, but probably shouldn't be relied on for completing the entire battle.

Ranged weapon
The ranged approach is safer and slower for this fight.

Ranged fighters start off the fight both overwhelmed and at a considerable disadvantage; the numerous Hungries are both dangerous and protect the Wall's vital areas. Piercing or explosive weapons are a must; high end arrows and Meteor Shot are necessities for a successful opening. Balanced characters may wish to use a large melee weapon early on to clear a hole in the Wall's defenses. You will want to bring around 1,500 to 2,000 ammunition of your choice.

The Molten Fury (with either Hellfire Arrows or Jester's Arrows), and the Phoenix Blaster are both recommended and your only real options. Once the Hungries have been thinned out, breaking out the Star Cannon can speed up the fight immensely.

Use of the Flamarang and Thorn Chakrum after the Hungries have been mostly dealt with is a safe, reliable, and inexpensive way to whittle him down. If several players are available for the fight, equipping each with a Flamarang is an easy way to take this boss down with minimal risk of death.

Magic
Magic weapons are good as a ranged option for a melee character. Depending on your options, they can be quite potent.

If you have a Demon Scythe, then you should definitely use it for this fight. It combines the multihit clearout capacity of flails and spears with the safety of range, and is probably the single most potent weapon you can use for this fight. Rapidly dump out your mana bar as the fight starts and the Hungries will suddenly be much less of a problem.

Flamelash and Magic Missile perform poorly in this fight. The rate of damage is abysmal when dealing with Hungries or the wall itself. They are good at hitting mobile enemies in a static environment, which is the exact opposite of the situation here.

If you plan on using magic, you should probably have a backup plan for while your mana recharges. Melee weapons or a Flamarang are both viable choices. Also, use of the Jungle Armor is not recommended as a high defense rating is a must for this fight.

Other precautions
Sometimes, a player will find that these preparations are not enough. If you are one of those few, this section will hopefully change that.

If you have a hard time getting away while still dealing damage, try to flatten out the Underworld before you summon WoF. Use of Dynamite and/or Sticky Bombs will ease this issue.

If you have trouble getting some damage in, try a different weapon set. Maybe the one set wasn't your best choice; maybe the next one will be it.

If you find yourself dying a lot, get as far away from WoF as possible. When WoF is off-screen, start shooting your ranged weapon at its general direction. This will kill, or at least damage the Hungry protecting the eyes and mouth, as well as getting some hits on the eyes and mouth itself.

Is everything just not working out for you - and you only? Try tackling this beast with friends. It will definitely help, considering that the WoF has three seperate damage points sharing the same health. This will be more efficient if you just want the Pwnhammer, as you can trade with the player who gets it, or just grab it by yourself. If you feel like going lone wolf, try using all the buffs at the same time. The default key for quickbuff is b. Using quickbuff will save you time nitpicking which potion to use. Using quickheal (default h) will heal you with the healing potion closest to the top-left of your inventory (not including the hot-bar).

Can't figure out how to put some damage into the beast? Maybe continued use of explosives will do the trick. Grenades work particularly well if you're on a wooden platform, since they do not destroy tiles. If your platform is made of Hellstone or Hellstone Bricks, (which it's probably not, since there just isn't enough time to mine for that much ore) use of Bombs or Dynamite will work just fine. Hellstone will not be destroyed by Dynamite, making it a perfect choice for those who want to make quick work of WoF. Unlike the Grenade, the Bomb and Dynamite will not explode upon contact with WoF. Timing is of the essence when using those two explosives.

The battle.
Let's take a look at the boss first. It has 2 eyes. They shoot lasers at you, so it is good idea to be as far away of them as possible. There is also a mouth, which will deal heavy damage to you if you get caught inside. Then, there are many small creatures in front of it called Hungry, that look like they are like on ropes. If you kill them, they disconnect with one third health.

Next, all three parts - 2 eyes and 1 mouth - share WoF health. The WoF itself is invulnerable, so only shoot its eyes and mouth.

If you get behind the Wall, it will pull you in front of it. You will be a little bit disoriented and possibly hardly damaged, so try to be in front of it. Actually, it is more important than shooting it.

Now let's fight.

If you want to get rid of the annoyances, start spraying and praying towards the general direction of the WoF. This should deal considerable damage to the numerous Hungry, as well as to the eyes on the WoF (assuming that you were lucky enough to hit it). If you are using a melee weapon, keep moving towards the opposite direction while healing as necessary. Try to keep within striking distance, since that is your biggest priority and main source of damage.

If you feel up to it and want it to end quickly, aim for the eyes and mouth instead. The shots will at times hit The Hungry, so it's a sort of win-win. Melee users will find this difficult, since getting close while the Hungry are intact will result in a quick death. It is recommended that melee users focus on the Hungry rather than the WoF itself at first.

When creatures are no more an obstacle, damage the eyes and mouth. Generally, spamming Phoenix Blaster or the Minishark, or whatever ranged weapon you chose is enough to finish it off before it move a quarter of the map. Note, that it summons some small worms, so if you dont have a cobalt shield and/or not flying, they can be a severe pain. Try to kill them, before they kill you. In fact, if you find your health to be too low, concentrate on the worms. They typically drop a heart, so you can fill up your heart gauge fairly quickly this way.

Well, this is all. The WoF is actually easy.

After defeating, don't forget to take Pwnhammer, as it is main point of killing the WoF. Don't worry, the loot will be enclosed in a box, so lava is not a trouble.

sergiusalceanu's guide: I beat WoF with less defense and stuff... Here's how I did it. I had the molten armor. I recommend the molten armor VERY MUCH! Obsidian skull is useful to deal with hellstone, and add some defense. Cobalt shield is useful too. A grapple hook is a must. Also, bring some movement accessories (Cloud in a bottle, Shiny red balloon, Rocket boots). Now for weapons... For melee, I don't know what to tell you, choose your favourite sword. For ranged I used the Minishark and the Demon Scythe. I recommend the Demon Scythe A LOT. It's very useful, and when you're out of mana, switch to the Minishark. Potions: I used the swiftness potion. Use it too. At the beginning WoF may be slow, but when his health drains he's actually as fast as you! Ironskin potion is very useful too. Bring regeneration and healing potions too. Water walking potion is better than obsidian skin potion, so bring that. Also, if you want to, use the gravitation potion (I did not use it). VERY IMPORTANT: Beat him only when you think the current world is very, very easy. The new world you'll face... Is MUCH harder.

Platform Method
One method that can let you bring more defensive items for your accessories is to make a long flat platform. Then when you summon him you can just run down the platform and not have to worry about jumping over lava pits or running into obstacles. One of the most effective ways to kill him is with weapons that penetrate like using a gun with meteor shots or Demon Scythe