Guide:The Destroyer strategies

Note: This page is written off of what worked best for the small group on our server. If someone could reformat later that would be great.

The Destroyer is one of the bosses unlocked when the game enters Hardmode. It is extremely strong, dealing very high damage to the player even when the player has high-tier armor.

Terrain Preparation
The Destroyer is best fought on an arena consisting of tall walls with multiple layers of Wood Platforms. This will allow players to move around the arena freely, and to keep a good watch on where the boss is.

Armor
Mythril Armor or higher is highly recommended for this fight, as The Destroyer hits very hard. The three of us in our group had full Adamantite armor.

Weapons
If a you have enough defense then you can go in swinging with a melee weapon, but be prepared to take some damage from the Probes that spawn from it's body. Melee does, however, have it's benefits. Each swing can hit multiple segments at once, and since it's health is shared through all of it's segments this can lead to massive damage. ''Our group's melee man had a Breaker Blade the first time around, seemed to work well enough. Though he died a lot.''

If you've collected a Clockwork Assault Rifle from the Wall of Flesh then it would be a good idea to use this against The Destroyer. If you can, use Meteor Shot since it pierces through and hits multiple segments on each shot. Crystal Bullets are also a very good choice, since each of the shards that break off also deal damage (Like 10-20 per shard) to the boss, and the shards pierce. If the assault rifle is not available, then an Adamantite Repeater loaded with Unholy Arrows or Hellfire Arrows Should do fine. We had two people with the assault rifles, loaded with crystal shots.

Magic users are going to have extremely low defense, and are going to have the hardest time with this fight. If you have a Demon Scythe then it is highly advised to spam it like crazy, with the help of a Mana Regeneration Potion. A Laser Rifle would also be a good choice because of it's high rate of fire, but wouldn't deal nearly as much damage as the Demon Scythe.

Potions and Buffs
Ironskin is extremely valuable in this fight, as you're going to need all the defense you can get. Regeneration Potions are also a very good idea from this fight, since you're pretty well guaranteed to get hit during the fight. If you're a magic user than the Mana Regeneration potion is a must-have. You should be packing a few Greater Healing Potions in case things go wrong.

The Fight
The Destroyer is almost exactly the same as the fight with the Eater of Worlds, in that it digs around and launches up at you every chance it gets. Just sidestep the body and keep wailing away at it. Occasionally it will launch a few volleys of Death Lasers(as depicted on our many, many tombstones) at everyone fighting him. These hit for about 15-20's on players with 40-50 defense. The Destroyer also spawns Probes throughout the fight. It spawns them very often at first, and then the spawn rate slows down a good bit as you kill them off. Probes drop a 20HP Heart when killed at a 100% drop rate, so for the most part health isn't an issue with this fight, combined with the regeneration potion, and any health potions you have.

After a few minutes of bashing away at it's health, the machine will fall, but be warned that the loot spawns at the head when killed. Since Souls are not affected by gravity, this can make them very difficult to find after the fight has ended.

Survival
The Destroyer is very difficult to fight on your own, but not impossible. Like most other bosses, if everyone is killed The Destroyer leaves. The Destroyer will also leave if you cannot kill it before sunrise.

dart193's guide
Gather adamantite armor, then reforge cobalt, obsidian shields, shackle, obsidian skull and any fifth accessoire to +4 defense - Warding prefix. Three actually will be enough. Then have 2-3 ironskin potions and if you want some healing potions. The area must medium and enclosed so mobs like werewolfs will not disturb you. When it appears, stand IN IT'S BODY. With so much defence you will receiveonly 1 damage per hit, while lasers will anyway do more. You then damages it, The swords do the best, but a chainsaw is really good when Destroyer intersects with himself. If you are lucky, you will deal 1500 damage per second with a chainsaw drilling an intersection with 3 parts of the body, while it moves fast. If you have lost more than 100 health points, kill the probes, they always give you a heart.

It is possible to win the battle without using a single potion faster than in a half of the night.