Guide:Empress of Light strategies

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The Empress of Light is a Hardmode post-Plantera boss fought in the Hallow.

Empress of LightFirst FormHardmode exclusive

Map Icon

 Classic

 Expert

 Master

Statistics

Type	Boss
Environment	The Hallow
AI Type	Empress of Light AI
Damage	90130195 (melee) ~140200300 (dash) ~110140210 (Prismatic Bolt) ~120160240 (Sun Dance) ~110140200 (Everlasting Rainbow) ~120140200 (Ethereal Lance)
Max Life	70000/98000/124950
Defense	50
KB Resist	100%
Immune to

Drops

Coins	256250

• Item (Quantity)Rate
• One of the following 4 items will always be dropped 
• Nightglow
  25%
• Starlight
  25%
• Kaleidoscope
  25%
• Eventide
  25%
• Empress Wings
  6.67%
• Prismatic Dye
  25%
• Stellar Tune
  2%
• Rainbow Cursor
  5%
• Terraprisma

  (if 100% of damage is dealt at daytime)
  100%
• Greater Healing Potion (5–15)
  100%
• Empress of Light Mask
  14.29%
• Empress of Light Trophy
  10%
• Treasure Bag(Empress of Light)
  100%
• One of the following 4 items will always be dropped
• Nightglow
  25%
• Starlight
  25%
• Kaleidoscope
  25%
• Eventide
  25%
• Soaring Insignia
  100%
• Empress of Light Mask
  14.29%
• Empress Wings
  10%
• Stellar Tune
  5%
• Rainbow Cursor
  5%
• Prismatic Dye
  25%
• Gold Coin (25)
  100%
• Jewel of Light
  25%
• Empress of Light Relic
  100%

Sounds

Hurt
Killed
Summoned
Prismatic Bolts
Sun Dance
Everlasting Rainbow
Ethereal Lance
Dash

• Internal NPC ID: 636

Spawn Conditions

The Empress of Light can be spawned by killing the special critterPrismatic Lacewing, which is a rare critter that spawns in the surface Hallow during the night once Plantera has been defeated in the world. As it is a rare creature, it can be detected by the Lifeform Analyzer. The Prismatic Lacewing will only spawn naturally between 7:30 PM and 12:00 AM, and only one can have spawned in the world at any given time.

Like most critters, the Prismatic Lacewing can be caught with any bug net, which can then be released, and killed, by the player manually. This can be used to spawn the boss at a more desired place and time. However, the critter will almost instantly despawn if released outside of the Hallow, so it must be killed quickly in order to summon the boss. If you want to catch multiple Lacewings in one night, it is recommended to farm for them during a Blood Moon.

The Fight

Time of Day

The Empress of Light, if summoned by a natural spawning Lacewing, will be fought at night. She will enrage if still alive or if summoned during the daytime, causing her attacks to do tens of thousands of damage, instantly killing players who are hit by her attacks. This enraged state is indicated by her attacks turning from rainbow to bright yellow.

She will always drop the Terraprisma if all damage dealt to her was during the day.

Attacks

• Prismatic Bolts – Summons a cloud of prismatic bolts that home in on the player after a short time. These bolts do not have perfect tracking, and will miss if the player makes a sharp turn as they approach. If enraged, extra bolts are created, and they will spread out more before homing onto the player.
• Dash Attack – Positions herself to the left or right of the player before charging horizontally in the player’s direction.
• Sun Dance – Hovers above and slightly to the left of the player and emits 6 rays of light (8 if enraged) that slowly rotate clockwise. 3 sets of rays are created per sun dance, each positioned slightly more clockwise from the last.
• Everlasting Rainbow – Releases a ring of 13 stars that spiral out clockwise, then spiral back in the same direction. These stars leave behind a trail of light that will damage the player.
• Ethereal Lance – Summons a swarm of swords that launch in the direction the player was headed when they were summoned, telegraphed by colored beams. These swords are summoned behind where the player was moving, or all around the player if they were stationary. The swords do no damage until launched. If enraged, extra swords are summoned, and they will launch faster.

Attack Pattern

The Empress has set attack patterns for both of her phases.

First phase

When spawned, the Empress will hover in place for a few seconds before executing the following attacks in order:

1. Prismatic Bolts
2. Dash Attack
3. Sun Dance
4. Dash Attack
5. Everlasting Rainbow
6. Prismatic Bolts
7. Dash Attack
8. Ethereal Lance
9. Dash Attack
10. Everlasting Rainbow

This sequence of attacks will repeat indefinitely until the second phase starts.

Second phase

When the Empress is below half of her max health, she will disappear for a second, then reappear above the next estimated location of the player before executing a new set of attacks, with slightly shorter attack intervals than before:

1. Ethereal Lance Ver. 2: Summons four evenly spaced waves of swords that travel across the screen, telegraphed by colored beams. The first wave travels from the left side of the screen to the right, the second from right to left, the third wave from top-left to bottom-right, and the fourth wave from top-right to bottom-left.
   • If enraged, there will instead be six waves of swords that target specific points around the player instead of traveling from one side of the screen to the other. The first wave travels from the left side of the screen to the right of the player, the second wave from the right side to the left of the player, the third wave from top side to the bottom-right of the player, the fourth wave from top side to bottom-left of the player, the fifth wave from the bottom side to top-right of the player, and the sixth wave from the bottom side to top left of the player.
2. Prismatic Bolts
3. Dash Attack
   • If enraged, she will cast Ethereal Lance after the dash before resuming her normal pattern (targets where the player is rather than where they will be, or do nothing if the player is stationary)
4. Everlasting Rainbow
5. Prismatic Bolts
6. Sun Dance
7. Ethereal Lance
8. Dash Attack
9. Prismatic Bolts (Cast in a circle around the Empress instead of a cloud directly above her)

This sequence of attacks will repeat indefinitely until she is defeated.

General Strategies

General Tips

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

• Starting the battle just after the sun sets (7:30 PM) will provide the maximum amount of time to defeat nocturnal bosses. In Hardmode, the Moon Charm and/or Moon Stone are also useful at night.
• 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. 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 at least one stack of the highest-tier healing potion available (Lesser, Normal, Greater, or Super Healing Potions). Relying only on natural Health Regeneration is not a good idea.
  • The same goes for Lesser, Normal, Greater, or Super Mana Potions, if you use Magic. The Strange Brew could also be used.
• 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 help 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.

Terrain Preparation

The Empress of Light's moves (mainly Everlasting Rainbow, Prismatic Bolts and Sun Dance) can easily trap you. Therefore, a wide arena is strongly suggested for the fight against her if you don't possess an infinite-flying mount. The arena should span as far as your hallowed biome can be (this doesn't matter on Expert or Master as she will always use her enraged set, so you can span your arena even to space), and you should make it longer if your hallowed biome isn't large enough. 3-5 rows of platforms separated 15-25 tiles from each other will do.

• Teleporters can help avoid getting overwhelmed by her attacks, but be wary of her long dash and her prismatic bolts, which home aggressively and have a fairly large range.
• Fighting her in the Ocean provides a large open space to move around which can help a lot.
• A reliable strategy to defeat the Empress during the day is to lay down Minecart Tracks in a large loop. This has a distinct advantage over using Asphalt Blocks, because enemies cannot spawn on Minecart Tracks. Booster Tracks can also be used to quickly accelerate to full speed upon summoning the Empress. This is especially helpful on Expert or Master mode since the Mechanical Cart is available.
• Another option if you are playing on Master Mode when Minecart Tracks aren't available at the moment is to use The Black Spot Mount as it has the highest horizontal & diagonal acceleration out of all other Mounts in the game.

Gearing up

Armor

• Hallowed armor provides very solid stats and its Holy Protection set bonus makes it a solid choice for all classes. This armor is especially useful when fighting during the day, as Holy Protection can consistently allow the player to survive a hit from the Empress.
• Beetle armor for a melee character will be better for maximum offense or defense, depending on the chest piece used.
• The Hallowed Headgear, Valhalla Knight's Breastplate and Dark Artist's Leggings make for the best magic armor in the game due to Valhalla's regeneration and the solid DPS found in the other two armor pieces. The Spooky Breastplate may be preferable instead to use two extra minions at the cost of regeneration. If raw DPS is instead desired, Spectre armor is preferrable.
• Spooky armor is the best armor for Summoners.
• For a daytime fight, Hallowed armor is eons above all other options since you gain the ability to negate a hit every half-minute.

Weapons

All classes can fare well against the Empress of Light, though you should prioritize using weapons that can keep the most amount of distance between you and the boss. As such, Melee is the only class that could struggle in this regard.

For Melee users:

• The Seedler and Terra Blade are the best swords available, having strong reliable projectiles. The Influx Waver is not a viable choice, due to the Empress moving too fast to be hit multiple times by its projectiles.
• The Flying Dragon does slightly more damage than the Influx Waver but its faster and wider projectiles make hitting her much easier, making for a quicker kill.
• The Flairon is also viable thanks to its good damage and homing capabilities.
• The Eye of Cthulhu can deal good damage, although its reach is lacking.
• As with other bosses, Vampire Knives are excellent for replenishing lost health during the fight, and are a very useful secondary weapon, especially if dodging the Empress' attacks is proving challenging.

For Ranged users:

• The Tsunami is a very strong option with great accuracy and power when using Ichor Arrows or Venom Arrows. The Aerial Bane can be seen as a weaker alternative.
• The Xenopopper is the second strongest gun available, with very high damage and good accuracy. Crystal Bullets are the strongest available for use.
  • The Chain Gun with crystal or Chlorophyte Bullets can be seen as weaker, but easier to use.
• The Piranha Gun is another good option, providing consistent and strong DPS with homing capabilities. The Snowman Cannon is a more expensive choice for homing weapon, but has higher DPS.
• The Electrosphere Launcher is great to use against the Empress of Light while she's using her Sun Dance.

For Magic users:

• Betsy's Wrath is a great secondary weapon due to its powerful defense-lowering Debuff.
• The Blizzard Staff is a very good choice due to its consistent and high DPS. The Razorpine is an alternative with roughly the same mana cost/DPS ratio but shorter range. The Laser Machinegun is a weaker version of both but can still be viable.
• The Razorblade Typhoon may be utilized due to its homing capabilities and long range, however its very lacking DPS makes it a weaker choice as a main weapon.

For Summoners:

Summoning Weapons are great against the Empress of Light due to the fact that they'll target the boss and deal consistent damage, allowing the player to freely dodge without worrying about attacking as well.

• The Xeno Staff is one of the best summoning weapon that you can use against the Empress of Light due to its high DPS and good tracking. Keep in mind however that the Empress's tendency to stay above the player can cause the UFO minions to become out of range of her, causing them to wander aimlessly. This can be mitigated with player movement however.
• The Sanguine Staff is another excellent option. The slightly weaker damage of the minions is made up by their perfect tracking, allowing you to hit the boss consistently provided you are within range. The DPS can be boosted with whips, and the Sanguine staff is arguably the superior option for a daytime fight due to the increased focus on dodging attacks. The perfect accuracy and tracking will allow one to focus on dodging alone rather than trying to get minions within targeting range.
• The Raven Staff may be used as a 'weaker alternative', losing the perfect accuracy for some more raw damage. It's more consistent in the 1st phase, and suffers greatly due to its slow tracking in the 2nd phase.
• For whips, the Morning Star and Durendal are your best bet for boosting your minions' damage. The Firecracker, or with minions with a lower base damage, the Dark Harvest, may be utilized for you to be able to damage the Empress of Light yourself. The Kaleidoscope is the best option for a daytime fight, provided you've beaten her in the night once before. Note that due to their short range, they are too risky to be used effectively in the daytime fight. However, with practice, you can utilize the whip from time to time to boost dps.

Accessories

• Wings are a necessity. The Fishron Wings or Betsy's Wings are the best wings available for the fight. However, Steampunk wings and their equivalents can also be effective.
• The Berserker's Glove is the best accessory for whips, giving them autoswing, speed and boosting defense.
• The Yoyo Bag is a must when using a yoyo for the fight.
• The Master Ninja Gear is an incredibly useful mobility item due to its dash alongside its dodge chance.
• The Brain of Confusion and the Worm Scarf are great items for survivability.
  • During day time, the Brain of Confusion and Master Ninja Gear can allow a player to dodge an attack that would normally instantly kill them. However, these dodges are inconsistent, unlike Hallowed Armor's set bonus, so they are not fully reliable.
• As a ranger, equipping both the Recon Scope and the Sniper Scope will maximize DPS. Due to their multiplicative increases, the Magic Quiverand its upgrades should be used when using a bow as your main weapon.
• The Celestial Shell is a very good choice for all classes due to its large boosts to both offensive and defensive stats.
• The Celestial Emblem is a strong magic damage accessory that can be used with Star Statues for mana regeneration.
• The Papyrus Scarab and the Necromantic Scroll are good offensive summoner combat accessories, giving a total of 2 extra minion slots with better damage.
• TheAmphibian Boots give a very noticeable ascent speed boost and some utility on the ground with its extra running speed. They can be used together with a Frog Leg or one of its tinkers for even higher ascent speed.
• The Charm of Myths can be used for free by keeping it on a vanity slot and only swapping to it when a Healing Potion is used.
• The Frozen Shield is the best knockback immunity shield due to its high defense and Ice Barrier effect.
• The Cross Necklace can be useful for avoiding rapid hits.
  • This can also be useful during the day, as its effect applies to the invincibility gained by dodging, raising the invincibility duration from 2/3 of a second to a full 2 seconds.
• In Expert Mode, if you have already beaten her before, the Soaring Insignia can be useful in the daytime fight to not worry about running out of flight time, and will boost your mobility significantly at the same time.

Potions

• The Flask of Ichor, Ale, Archery Potion, Mana Regeneration Potion, Magic Power Potion, and Summoning Potion are very helpful for their respective classes. Mana Regeneration in particular is a must for magic users.
• Lifeforce Potion, Ironskin Potion, Regeneration Potion and Endurance Potion will assist in survivability.
• Wrath Potion and Rage Potion provide extra damage through damage and critical strikes respectively.
  • Any item that provides an Exquisitely Stuffed buff, such as Seafood Dinner or Spaghetti, should be used as well, especially in Expert Mode.

Others

• The ability to teleport from the Hook of Dissonance and the Rod of Discord can be useful to dodge hits.
• The Black Spot mount is very useful to dodge her attacks, almost life-saving when fighting her during the day.
• In master mode worlds, the Hexxed Branch mount is useful to move quickly, as it very quickly reaches its max speed even while in the air. Because it cannot fly or double jump, using it without wings is not a good idea.
• The Slimy Saddle and Gelatinous Pillion mounts allow the player to quickly descend during the fight, making them the best mounts to use alongside Wings.
• The Shrimpy Truffle mount can be useful if playing on expert or above when it is raining.

Strategies

Minecart Strategy

Build a minecart rail around the whole world. After summoning the Empress of Light, ride the minecart around. The only dodging you'll do is when she starts using Prismatic Bolts, as the other attacks can't reach you.

Skybridge Strategy

A skybridge can make this fight a lot easier. It is advised to build this out of asphalt, though a pre-built skybridge of platforms can work so long as you have sufficient mobility. During her First phase, there are only 2 threatening attacks - her dash and her Sword flurry (ethereal lance). When the empress initiates a charge, it is advised that you go downwards, as often the charge crosses the player's position if the same height is kept. Her Ethereal lance also requires movement, though moving in a wide circle down and to the right makes this attack a breeze. Be sure to constantly be moving in one direction and ideally go high if you need to cross your old path, as you might accidentally catch on a lingering star (Everlasting Rainbow).

During her Second Phase, the empress will momentarily vanish, and then will reappear and immediately initiate a 'focused' Ethereal Lance (in Normal Mode, the corner lances, and in Expert/Master, the position-focused lances). During her vanish/reappearance it's advised to find a clear space, as in either mode you'll be wanting to go upwards taking a wide right to avoid this - particularly in Expert and Master, not being in a suitable to position to swerve up-right is the most common form of hit taken. She will then cast her orbs (still from her hand), which since you'll probably be out of wing flight, you'd have to dodge by dropping down as soon as her lances end and making a sharp turn left or right. After this, she will dash, and then cast all of her phase one attacks directly one after another, and the most suitable path seems to be to take a circle around her lances to dodge around her and try to dash over the last few, dodging away from her - then, the best option is to keep running away and to be prepared to jump over her attacks - this will dodge most hits. After this, she will dash again, cast orbs in a circle around her (dodged by taking a wide circle with a sharp turn) and the repeat her pattern.