Deerclops

The Deerclops is a boss monster that is only active during Winter, unless edited in World Customization. It has big health and does big damage and can destroy Structures and trees, making it very dangerous if it enters the player's camp. The Deerclops is aggressive towards anything it encounters and can kill most creatures easily. Its monstrous appearance drains Sanity quickly when the character gets too close.

Deerclops takes four blasts from the Ice Staff to be frozen, and four Sleep Darts to put to sleep. When killed, it will drop 8 pieces of Meat and a Deerclops Eyeball, which does not spoil, and restores a high amount of Health and Hunger but drains Sanity. Its big eyeball can also be used to craft the Eyebrella and Houndius Shootius.

Behavior
The Deerclops spawns during Winter near the player. Its approach is signaled by a deep moaning sound, which the character will eventually comment on, similar to the way that Hounds are signaled. Unlike Hounds, the Deerclops will not follow the player wherever they go, the player can move away and, with skill, leave the Deerclops behind to despawn when Winter ends.

The Deerclops has an attack in which it will either swipe or pound the floor at its current target. Both animations have the same effect (the animation seen depends on which direction Deerclops is facing), damaging all mobs and structures within a radius of about 2.5 berry bushes. She usually does not immediately target the player upon arrival, having an "aggro distance" toward any mob it gets close to. The Deerclops first tries to target the closest structure to the player at time of being spawned; if no structure is close enough to the player, then the player is targeted instead (although this tends to be rare). The Deerclops will not target walls unless the object or mob that the Deerclops is aiming to destroy is behind a wall. Often, walls and other structures or mobs nearby may suffer collateral damage despite what the Deerclops may target, so walls do not stand up well to a Deerclops.

The Deerclops aims to destroy all structures until she is happy about herself to then leave. Note that the only structures counted are the ones targeted by the Deerclops directly - collateral damage is not counted, meaning many more structures may be destroyed before the Deerclops is finished. Naturally, if the Deerclops is aggroed by the player or other mobs, it will hang around to take care of them first, before continuing to destroy structures or leave.

It is possible to stay out of the way as she passes by. However, Deerclops can easily ravage the structures in the player's camp, with Pig Houses and Rabbit Hutches being especially costly. If the Deerclops is defeated close enough to structures, she will damage or destroy them due to it collapsing on top of them.

Once killed, the Deerclops takes 3–6 days to respawn. She will despawn around about the time when summer comes (the exact time depends on how fast the snow melts, as the Deerclops has thresholds, unless it has been configured to "Lots" in the world menu). If she is onscreen when she is supposed to be gone, she will simply despawn.

If the player happens to be in the Caves during Winter and they come out, it is possible for the Deerclops to be waiting for them at the entrance.

Tips

 * One may find it useful to bring a Warmth Potion or the Hand Warmer to the battle as the  Chilled and Frozen debuffs can easily kill the player if inflicted.
 * Building a platform of non-solid blocks about 6 blocks (twice the height of the player) up in the air, along with staircases made of solid blocks on either side to allow the Deerclops to get on, can elevate it high enough above the ground to prevent the boss from using its debris attack entirely, making the fight much easier.
 * Due to being able to inflict Slow from an almost unlimited range, accessories like the Anklet of the Wind or Magiluminescence alongside Swiftness Potions can help make the fight much more manageable.
 * Avoid lingering directly above the Deerclops, as the shadow hands it summons in this situation are very dangerous.
 * The player can run between the Deerclops' legs without taking damage. This is useful for avoiding the first two ice spike attacks, but the player should not stick around for the third.
 * Player should place their spawn point away from where Deerclops can wander, as Deerclops can stay around the spawn area.
 * This is especially recommended for Mediumcore players, as they can be left defenseless near Deerclops if they die in the middle of the fight.
 * Using the Shield of Cthulhu and a Blue Horseshoe Balloon or any of its variants, the player can simply jump over and dash when the Deerclops closes in on the player as the ice spikes summoned closer to Deerclops isn't that high. You may even opt to use platforms and a grappling hook's momentum if you don't want to risk being locked in place by hitting the Deerclops with your Shield's dash.
 * The ice spike attack is capable of interrupting a player's extending grappling hook, causing them to drop to the ground. Avoid moving over large gaps to prevent unnecessary damage.
 * The ice spikes deal less damage closer to the deerclops then they do further away. If the player has high enough defense, they can just pull a Wulfgang and brute force the deer clops down. A well fed buff and ironskin potion are great for this. Having a defense of 32 will result in taking next to no damage from the deerclops attacks at short range. A Campfire and regeneration potion should be able out-heal the deerclops dps easily on normal difficulty.

Trivia

 * The Deerclops is part of the Don't Starve Together crossover. Many of the items of this crossover are dropped by the Deerclops.
 * The Deerclops' purple invulnerable form in Terraria looks similar to its form in .
 * It is the only non-event boss in Terraria to not despawn after killing the player.
 * The Deerclops fight is one of two boss fights that consist of a single destructible entity, the other being the Empress of Light.
 * All other boss fights have either multiple bosses, multiple segments, or boss minions that play a part in their boss fights.
 * Between the versions 1.4.3 and 1.4.3.6, there was an NPC named  in the files which did not actually appear during the fight. It was invincible and had its own AI. It was removed in the 1.4.4 update.
 * The Deerclops is the first non-event crossover boss, as well as the first pre-Hardmode crossover boss.
 * It is one of six bosses with exclusive boss music. The others include Queen Slime, Plantera, Empress of Light, Duke Fishron, and Moon Lord.