The Destroyer

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The Destroyer is a Hardmode mechanical boss which is essentially a more difficult version of the Eater of Worlds. Like the Eater of Worlds, it is a very large worm. The Destroyer's segments share a singular health pool of the entire boss and will not break no matter how much damage was taken.

The Destroyer can be summoned manually using a Mechanical Worm at night. It can also spawn naturally upon dusk with a chance of 10% once a Demon or Crimson Altar has been smashed, as long as it has not yet been defeated in the current world. If spawning this way, its arrival is announced by the status message: "" ( alternatively "You feel a quaking from deep underground..."). It must always be killed before dawn; otherwise, it will quickly despawn.

Each of The Destroyer's segments contains a red-lit, which is an independent flying enemy that is launched if too much damage was inflicted to a single segment. Probes will only have a laser attack, both while within The Destroyer and when detached, and is only vulnerable when not on the boss. If the red light is missing from a segment, it means the Probe was already launched from that segment. Probes do not return to the boss.

The Destroyer's body and its Probes are immune to all debuffs (except for ).

While The Destroyer is alive, music Boss 3 will play.

Tips

 * Unlike most Bosses, The Destroyer does not despawn if players get too far away and will simply follow them to their position.
 * This means that one can use any means of teleportation (Magic Mirrors, Teleporters, etc.) to easily avoid it during the fight. as it doesn't teleport either.
 * The Destroyer can move without blocks when off-screen
 * AOE weapons are much better when against the boss as they can damage multiple segments at once.
 * Avoid debuff-based weapons, as The Destroyer is immune to all debuffs (except Stunned from ).
 * In the case of the Heart Arrows, one can freeze Destroyer only if they hit it's head segment.
 * Some highly effective weapons are the Daedalus Stormbow with Holy Arrows, the Nimbus Rod, the Flamethrower, the Onyx Blaster with Explosive Bullets), and the Cannon (though note that the Cannon fires very slowly). All of them are not very hard to acquire with the exception of Nimbus Rod.
 * The head of The Destroyer has 0 defense. Although it might be very difficult to damage simply the head segment itself and cause massive damage to the player, it can speed up the fight tremendously.
 * Probes serve as a steady source of Hearts (20% drop rate in Expert), and are very annoying if they interfere with the fight. They must be taken out as soon as possible.
 * Using the Minimap to see where the Destroyer will surface can greatly help with dodging.
 * Farming the Destroyer is a quick method for making money, as its drops can be used to craft multiple Light Discs, which sell for each.

Trivia

 * Although there is no mechanical version of the Brain of Cthulhu, The Destroyer's Probes act similar to the Creepers spawned by the Brain.
 * The ability to launch something when a segment takes too much damage is also a reference to EOW's ability to split when a segment takes too much damage.
 * The Destroyer has many small metal devices jutting out of it that can either resemble -like legs or wheels, which might explain its ability to move freely within blocks despite being a rather clunky machine.
 * The Destroyer has the most total health of any boss except the . It still has the largest single health bar, as the Moon Lord's total health is the combination of all its body parts, and Moon Lord's parts all have lower health than The Destroyer individually.
 * The Destroyer has 10 times as much health as the Wall of Flesh.
 * Despite the status message saying "" or "You feel a quaking from deep underground...", it doesn't spawn when the player is underground. However, it does spawn FROM underground.
 * Some teasers for the release included The Destroyer having blue-lit segments instead of red.
 * According to official game lore, The Destroyer was one of the three mechanical recreations of Cthulhu's missing Organs.
 * On the (and previously, the ), Lepus, which can be spawned during Easter, also has a chance to drop 3 Souls of Might (1%) and is easy to farm. Note that these are of no use during pre-Hardmode, as crafting any item from them requires a Hardmode Anvil.
 * Destroyer and Moon Lord are the only two bosses that don't despawn when the player gets too far away.

History
Der Zerstörer Le Destructeur 毁灭者