Guide:Dreadnautilus strategies

Type	Enemy
Environment	Blood Moon
AI Type	Dreadnautilus AI
Damage	55/110/165 (melee); 60100150 (Blood Shot)
Max Life	7000/14000/21000
Defense	24
KB Resist	100%
Banner	Dreadnautilus Banner
Immune to
Coins	25
Hurt
Killed
Charge up
Dash
Fire projectiles
Reflect projectiles
Blood Squid summoned

This is a Guide page.
This means the page will walk you through a specific task, strategy, or enemy/boss fight.

Status: Revised (This Guide got revised and is up to date!)

Spawning Conditions[]

Dreadnautilus is spawned by fishing in a Blood Moon while in Hardmode.

The Fight[]

Dreadnautilus has 3 different attacks, all of which are very chaotic:

1. Dreadnautilus faces away from the player and slowly moves backward for 1.5 seconds, then dashes directly towards the player. When it is close enough to the player, it will spin around them. This is the dash attack. It lasts 3 seconds, and Dreadnautilus will stop spinning after 3 seconds.

Dreadnautilus can reflect projectiles during the charging phase on all difficulties. For the complete list, see list of reflected projectiles.

2. Dreadnautilus faces towards the player and then moves backward to charge up for 1.5 seconds, then fires three rapid sprays of red projectiles at the player and recoils after each burst.

It will not reflect projectiles during the charging phase.

3. Dreadnautilus briefly glows crimson and summons up to three "Blood Tears". After 1.5 seconds, a Blood Squid will emerge from each tear, and the tears will despawn after another 1.5 seconds.

General Strategies[]

Terrain Preparation[]

If you have Wings, make 2 to 3 layers of platforms over the ocean. They should be close enough that you can fly to the one above you with some flight time to spare. If you don't have wings, space the platforms so you can jump between them easily. Another option is a long line of Asphalt Blocks.

General Tips[]

This content is transcluded from Guide:Practical tips § Combat.

For nocturnal bosses, starting the battle just after the sun sets (7:30 PM) will provide the maximum amount of time to defeat the boss. In Hardmode, the Moon Charm and/or Moon Stone and their upgrades are also useful at night.
Boss battles can be won or lost before the battle ever starts. Choose your equipment and have it ready; find and/or make potions and placed buffs; use the highest-tier food you have available; set up an arena appropriate to the boss; learn the strategies for the boss you're facing.
Prepare your Boss-fighting arena with adequate lighting, Campfires and Heart Lanterns for health regeneration, and Stars in Bottles for mana regeneration if you use magic. Bast Statues will provide a significant defensive boost. Garden Gnomes and (if underground) proper torch placement will reduce damage taken and increase damage dealt due to the luck. Note Torch God's Favor helps with this. Honey pools can also be used for extra health regeneration.
Sunflowers provide the Happy! buff to players within a 50-tile radius, which grants a +10% movement speed bonus and 17% reduction in enemy spawn rate.
Always carry around a stack of the highest-tier healing potion available, as relying only on natural Health Regeneration is not a good idea. Depending on the game stage, this can include items such as Mushrooms or Honeyfins. On the PC, Console, Mobile, and tModLoader versions, Restoration Potions are healing potions with a shorter cooldown.
- Likewise carry mana potions, if you use Magic.
- The Strange Brew is also an option, but its weak healing effect will trigger the Potion Sickness cooldown as well as Mana Sickness. On the Old-gen console version, Windows Phone version, Old Chinese version, Nintendo 3DS version, and tModLoader 1.3-Legacy version, Restoration Potions can save a slot, but will likewise trigger both cooldowns.
It is suggested to build houses for the Dryad and the Nurse NPCs in your arena. The former casts the Dryad's Blessing buff, which increases your defense and provides you with a thorns-like effect, while the latter can heal and remove debuffs instantly, at the cost of some coins.
Bosses are displayed on the Minimap: Follow the boss's icon to track it when you're struggling to find it. You can identify the boss icons by checking their respective wiki pages.
Once you have freed the Mechanic in the Dungeon, you can use Wire to enhance your arena with Traps and helpful Heart and Star Statues. The former helps to damage the enemies, though be careful to set them up correctly in order not to hurt yourself during the battle. The latter will spawn heart and star pickups, respectively. Connect these devices to timers.
It may be useful to summon and kill the Eye of Cthulhu or King Slime before summoning any harder boss in order to spawn an extra one-use pool of Hearts. Note that this will prevent any Heart Statues from spawning new Hearts.
Remember to use the Sharpening Station, Ammo Box, Crystal Ball, Bewitching Table, and Slice of Cake before you go to explore or battle bosses/invasions. These will give boosts that are useful to take, with the first four being class-specific. They give Sharpened, Ammo Box, Clairvoyance, Bewitched, and Sugar Rush, respectively.

Summoning Tips[]

The Sonar Potion will detect if Dreadnautilus is about to be hooked, and can give you a moment of warning to back away and activate your potions.

If you are using the Chum Caster dropped by Zombie Merman and Wandering Eye Fish, it will greatly improve your chances of summoning Dreadnautilus.

Gearing Up[]

Armor[]

Due to Dreadnautilus's high damage, the best options at this stage of the game are tanky setups, but you can use others if you like.

Adamantite Armor Is the best option for damage buffs, but lacks a set bonus.

Titanium Armor is the best option for defense, but the set bonus is barely useful in battle.

Hallowed Armor requires you to defeat a Mechanical boss, but is otherwise the best choice overall.

Spider Armor is the best option for minion focused Summoners, but lacks in defense.

Squire Armor is the best option for tanky Summoners that don't care about having many minions and like using melee weapons.

Tavernkeep Armor is only worth it if you have high mobility and are a hybrid class.

Forbidden Armor is good for Summoner and Mage hybrids, and the set bonus is useful in battle.

Weapons[]

Melee[]

The Shadowflame Knife is a good option with high range and damage, which is good because of Dreadnautilus's chaotic attacks.

Another option is the Chain Guillotines, with it's even higher damage but limited range.

An option for true melee players is the Excalibur or Night's Edge, though both (with the possible exception of the later) have very limited range and are sometimes not effective.

Ranged[]

All Repeaters are good for this boss, and making them out of Adamantite or Titanium is most effective.

The Hallowed Repeater is the best option overall, but it requires you to defeat a Mechanical boss.

The Daedalus Stormbow is good and has screen-wide range, but with Dreadnautilus's eractic movement, it might be hard to hit most of your shots.

The Megashark is a good gun, and combined with Ichor Bullets, can lower Dreadnautilus's defense by a lot. Note that for bows, you can also use Ichor Arrows.

An easy option is the Dart Pistol or Dart Rifle, and combined with Ichor Darts or Cursed Darts, can be a really good option.

Magic[]

A good option is the Crystal Storm, which is easy to get and deals high damage. The same can be said for Cursed Flames and Golden Shower.

If you don't have the Wizard yet, another good option is the Crystal Serpent, which uses more mana but deals higher damage.

Summoner[]

For Whips, use the Firecracker or Durendal. If you have not had the former drop from the Wall of Flesh or have not defeated a Mechanical boss, use the Spinal Tap.

The best option pre-Mechanical bosses is the Blade Staff.

If you have not defeated Queen Slime yet, you can use the Abigail's Flower, due to the buffs it gets in Hardmode. or you can cover your arena with walls and use the Spider Staff.

The best option post-Mechanical bosses is the Optic Staff.

Accessories/Buffs[]

Using the Sharpening Station and Flask of Ichor buffs will decrease Dreadnautilus's defense to 0 (while using melee weapons), making the fight much easier.

Ironskin Potions are very useful for the fight, decreasing damage taken by 4.

Wings are very useful for this fight, increasing mobility be a lot.

Hermes Boots or the upgrades to it are very useful for this fight.

Magiluminescence

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