Cultists

The Cultists are Hardmode, post-Golem enemies that spawn along with a Mysterious Tablet at the entrance to the Dungeon after the Golem has been defeated. Four Cultists will appear there: two Cultist Archers and two Lunatic Devotees. Defeating all four of the Cultists causes the Lunatic Cultist boss to spawn instantly at their location, destroying the Mysterious Tablet in the process. Defeating the Lunatic Cultist then initiates the Lunar Events.

Until one of the Cultists is attacked, they are passive and deal no contact damage, and players can walk through them freely without activating them. Attacking any of the four will awaken the Archers, who will begin to fire Wooden Arrows using bows and will deal contact damage. Lunatic Devotees are always passive and never deal contact damage.

All four Cultists respawn and reset their location and initial passive state after one in-game day, if the Lunatic Cultist was not summoned, if the player runs away or dies during the fight, when all four Celestial Pillars are destroyed, or when the world is closed and restarted. Restarting the world can be the fastest option to reset them to their original state.

Trivia

 * A White Cultist Archer character appears in the game files, but never actually spawns. The source code also contains statistics for the following characters, although no graphics are included for them, and they similarly never spawn: Blue Cultist Fighter, White Cultist Caster, and White Cultist Fighter. (along with banner graphics) are included for these, but are currently unobtainable. Out of these, only the White Cultist Archer can be spawned, and only with hacks or mods. Aside from appearance, the White Cultist Archer is completely identical to the Blue Cultist Archer.
 * Despite the Archers using what appears to be a Wooden Bow with Wooden Arrows, which will deal base damage when used by a player, their ranged attack will deal 80 damage in normal mode, 160 in Expert, and 240 in Master.
 * If a cultist is teleported away and killed away from the dungeon, their spawn animation will play, but the Lunatic cultist will not spawn.