Guide:Queen Bee strategies

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"The matriarch of jungle hives..."

The Queen Bee is a pre-Hardmode boss. It does not need to be killed to progress the game, but it has some useful drops and the Witch Doctor NPC will spawn when it is killed.

Queen Bee

Map Icon

 Classic

 Expert

 Master

Statistics

Type	Boss
Environment	Bee HiveJungleUnderground Jungle
AI Type	Queen Bee AI
Damage	30/54/81 (melee) 224466 (stinger)
Max Life	3400/4760/6069
Defense	88-28 (depending on health)[1]
KB Resist	100%
Immune to

Inflicts debuff

Debuff	Poisoned
Debuff tooltip	Slowly losing life
Chance	33.33%100%
Duration	10 seconds2-20 seconds2.5-25 seconds (stinger) 2-8 seconds (melee)2.5-10 seconds (melee)

Drops

Coins	51250

• Item (Quantity)Rate
• Only one of the following 3 items can drop at a time
• Bee Gun
  33%
• Bee Keeper
  33%
• The Bee's Knees
  33%
• Only one of the following 4 items can drop at a time
• Hive Wand
  33%
• Bee Hat
  11%
• Bee Shirt
  11%
• Bee Pants
  11%
• Honey Comb
  33%
• Nectar
  6.7%
• Honeyed Goggles
  5%
• Beenade (10-30)
  75%
• Bee Wax (16-26)
  100%
• Bottled Honey (5-15)
  100%
• Queen Bee Mask
  14.29%
• Queen Bee Trophy
  10%
• Treasure Bag(Queen Bee)
  100%
• Hive Pack
  100%
• Queen Bee Mask
  14.29%
• One of the following three items will be dropped
• Bee Gun
  33%
• Bee Keeper
  33%
• The Bee's Knees
  33%
• Honey Comb
  33%
• Nectar
  11%
• Honeyed Goggles
  11%
• Hive Wand
  100%
• One of the following three items will be dropped
• Bee Hat
  33%
• Bee Shirt
  33%
• Bee Pants
  33%
• Beenade (10–29)
  100%
• Bee Wax (17–29)
  100%
• Gold Coin (10)
  100%
• Sparkling Honey
  25%
• Queen Bee Relic
  100%

Sounds

Hurt
Killed
Stinger
Charge

• Internal NPC ID: 222
• Internal Buff ID: 20

Spawning Conditions

Queen Bee can be spawned by fulfilling any of these conditions:

• Break a Larva. These can be found in Bee Hives, which are located in the Underground Jungle;
• Use Abeemination.

It must be inside the jungle at the moment of spawning. It can be lured into a safer environment.

The fight

Queen Bee is capable of causing Poison if you get touched by it or by its stingers. While losing 2 health per second doesn't look like much, it can be significant over time. It's also important to not get poisoned because it halts Health regeneration, thus be always ready to heal with your Potions.

The Queen Bee has 4 distinct attack patterns:

1. It will fly left or right to you and charge three times;
2. It will hover above you and spawn tiny Bee minions;
3. It will behave like a normal hornet and fly around, shooting poisoning stingers at you.
4. It will gain defense and speed in expert mode

When it charges you, use platforms and/or a double jump or better to dodge upwards. You can stand perfectly still upon landing which gives you a short moment to regenerate health faster. If you can Dash, you can stand in its path and charge it just before it reaches you.

When it summons its bees, use a weapon that can pierce targets and aim for its backside to stop the bees the moment they spawn. If any bees manage to escape then use a Sword with a large swing to clear them out. The Queen is at its most vulnerable in this state, so use powerful weapons to deal significant amounts of damage.

If it's using the stinger-shooting phase, keep moving back and forth. If you do get hit by a stinger, the Poisoned debuff will last longer than when you touch with Queen Bee, so make sure to dodge it. Use a melee weapon, and try to track her movements by aiming where it's going to move.

If you're low on health and stayed in the Hive, remember to make use of the honey below you, which increases health regeneration, which will always stack with other regeneration buffs like Regeneration potions.

Expert Mode

As the Queen Bee's health goes down, she will become a lot more aggressive, shooting more stingers and having much faster charges. Her defense will also increase, making weapons with low base damage values like the Minishark much weaker. She will also inflict Poison on contact, and its duration from the stingers will double.

Dodging the charges is much harder when the Queen is at low health, since she'll move too fast to be able to move out of the way. However, the Shield of Cthulhu makes this part of the fight a lot easier: Successfully dashing into an enemy gives the player brief invincibility frames, so if timed right, the charge attacks can be completely neutralized.

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 and their upgrades 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. 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 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, though it is somewhat impractical due to the low health restoration.
• 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.

Terrain Preparation

Even if you summon the Queen Bee by breaking a Larva, you do not need to stay in the hive to fight it - you can get out of the hive and fight it in the wide-open areas of the Underground Jungle if you'd prefer. However, most Hives offer an easy arena: a decent amount of space is already carved out, and the pool of Honey at the bottom provides a health-regenerating buff which stacks with other buffs.

As with most bosses, Wooden Platforms are vital. Having them every 5 blocks is an optimal height but if your jump height is boosted in some way, you can increase the number of spaces between platforms which can save you materials.

Solid blocks can help to destroy the stingers.

Gearing Up

It's recommended to have at least 300 Health before you try to beat Queen Bee.

Armor

• A full set of at least Gold Armor should be acquired, but better armor is always an option. Other armor sets with set bonuses can be effective as well.
• If one is offensively minded they can use armors that boost the damage of their weapons, such as Necro armor for rangers and Jungle armor for mages.
• Crimson armor is excellent due to the high defense values and increased damage. Shadow armor is good too and suits a melee playstyle.
• The Wizard set, with magic-boosting or defense-boosting leg armor, provides the most damage for magic users.
• The Obsidian armor is the best summoner armor set at this point in the game
• Molten armor is the best pre-hardmode armor you can obtain if the Eater of Worlds or the Brain of Cthulhu have already been defeated.

Weapons

For Melee users:

• For swords, a solid choice would be the Blade of Grass; However, Queen Bee is immune to the Poisoned debuff.
  • The Fiery Greatsword and Night's Edge are better, but they are harder to acquire.
  • The Terragrim / Arkhalis performs excellently if acquired.
• Thorn Chakram or Flamarang are good at killing Queen Bee, due to their long range.
• Flails are good choices for when the Queen is firing Bees at you, as they will pierce through the bees and hit the Queen too. A Blue Moon or The Meatball are good, and the Sunfury is excellent.
• For Yoyos, the Amazon and the Code 1 are a good option. The Valor is slightly better than these, but it requires beating Skeletron and finding one in the dungeon. The Cascade is better than the Valor and is possible to obtain before defeating Queen Bee, but it is pretty difficult.

For Ranged users:

• Bow users should use a Demon BowTendon Bow or Molten Fury if they've got it.
  • Bring along arrows that can pierce, such as Jester's Arrows or Unholy Arrows.
• Blood rain bow is an effective choice but requires a big arena to be used properly. It works best with Unholy arrows or Hellfire arrows if obtained. Keep another weapon to get rid of the bees.
• A Musket or The Undertaker are decent and the Minishark can also be used. The Boomstick is also a very powerful choice.  Desktop and  Mobile users that have already beaten Skeletron can get the Quad-Barrel Shotgun. However, it is very inaccurate, so staying close to the boss is mandatory if using this.
  • Note that Minishark is much less effective in Expert mode, especially in the latter stages of the battle.
• Silver Bullets are the preferred bullets to use with the guns mentioned above. Meteor Shots work better with the former two, since they don't have problems with the invincibility frames caused by piercing attacks.
• A Blowpipe with Poison Darts is a cheap secondary weapon to apply Poison for a little extra damage, while still providing a fair amount of damage from the darts themselves.
• Oddly, Heart Arrows perform their initial stopping ability, then permanently slow the queen, making them a great way to kill her on, assuming the Valentine Event is happening.

For Magic users:

• Crimson worlds will benefit from having the Crimson Rod, as you can fire it once and then switch to another weapon, increasing damage output.
• The Space Gun is an excellent weapon, especially when combined with Meteor armor. Its piercing effect will help with taking out the bees.
• The Ruby Staff or Diamond Staff are both decent choices due to their low mana cost and decent piercing damage.
• The Water Bolt is a fantastic weapon if you're fighting inside of the Hive, due to how many times it can ricochet off walls. Additionally, it can be helpful for taking out bees due to how many times it can pierce.
• The Vilethorn is perfect for dealing with the bees she shoots at you.
  • This weapon should not be used on Expert mode, as her massive defense will significantly reduce damage taken.
• Magic Missile or Flamelash can be used to quickly and repeatedly strike her with great accuracy.
• The Demon Scythe is a very strong option, while more difficult to obtain. If the Queen Bee uses its charge attack, it can potentially take several hits from a single scythe projectile. It also helps kill the summoned Bees. However, The Underworld must be visited.
• The Book of Skulls is a decent option due to its homing and piercing capabilities.

For Summoners:

    Summoners can't make use of any of its tools to kill Queen Bee, as it lacks gear of doing so. Meanwhile, you can use the already mentioned tips for now, until you receive your first decent Summon gear (Queen Bee drops all the items you need to start to mess with this class).

• Summoners should use the Flinx Staff/Slime Staff or, preferably, the Vampire Frog Staff, together with one of the early Whips.
•     The earliest minion Summoning weapons are the Slime Staff and the Finch Staff. The slime staff is extremely rare, while both of these weapons are very weak.
• The sentries sold by the Tavernkeep are available if the Old One's Army event has been beaten at least once. These sentries can be used to kill the bees that she releases or repeatedly summoned to do damage.
• Using the Snapthorn is greatly advised, as it is good for dealing with the bees that the Queen Bee spawns, as well as applying damage and the poisoned debuff on the Queen Bee herself.
• You could try to farm The Underworld for Hellstone to get the Imp Staff, which is also the only good choice on expert mode, as the Slime Staff does not have enough base damage. Unfortunately on the  Desktop version and  Mobile version the pickaxe you get to mine early Hellstone (Reaver Shark) has been severely nerfed so the only way to get Hellstone now is to get the Deathbringer/Nightmare Pickaxe which you get the resources for from the Brain of Cthulhu/Eater of Worlds. However, this is not too bad as in most playthroughs, those bosses are fought before Queen Bee.

For Throwing users:

• Grenades deal high amounts of damage, but you should be mindful of taking damage yourself. Combining this with gel will make Sticky Grenades which will be helpful for defeating the boss.
• Molotov Cocktail are good choices which deal On Fire! to the Queen.
• Poisoned Knives can poison the Queen, increasing your DPS.
• Bone Javelins stick to the queen and deal 3 damage every second. The more you throw into her, the higher the sticking damage becomes.
  • Bone Throwing Knives are useful as they will pierce through her bees.
• Spiky Balls are useful against the Queen Bee since she will take damage while dashing through the platforms.

Accessories

• Anything that increases your vertical mobility is a godsend. The Cloud in a Bottle is good, but better choices would be the Blizzard in a Bottle or the Sandstorm in a Bottle. Having a Shiny Red Balloon will also greatly help as it will increase your jump height, it will be better if The Shiny Red Balloon is combined with any of the Cloud in a Bottle type accessory. The Bundle of Balloons would be a great addition. You can also use the Rocket Boots for flight, and the Spectre Boots for flight and speed.
• The Shark Tooth Necklace is a very good increase to DPS, especially on Expert Mode.
• Hopefully, you have managed to find a Bezoar. While equipped, it removes the Poisoned debuff; if you are short on accessory slots, you can equip it for a moment whenever you get poisoned.
• If you are going for a melee approach, the Magma Stone is a slight increase to your DPS.
• Anything that reduces damage is very helpful, including Expert Mode-exclusive Worm Scarf, and defensive reforges on accessories.
• As mentioned above, the Shield of Cthulhu can negate damage taken from the charges while also being a very useful to dodge her stingers.

Potions

• Lifeforce Potions are extremely effective for survivability, assuming you have already found a Shadow Key and have visited The Underworld.
• Ironskin Potions, Endurance Potions and Regeneration Potions will help tremendously with survivability.
• A food item that provides Well Fed, Plenty Satisfied, or Exquisitely Stuffed is very useful.
• Swiftness Potions will aid in your dodging.
• The Honey buff will reduce poison damage, and allows healing while poisoned. If you don't have a Bezoar this is your key to survival.
• Flipper Potion lets you swim swiftly through the honey, using it for its buff.
• Ammo Reservation Potions and Archery Potions are good for rangers.
• Magic Power Potions and Mana Regeneration Potions are must have for mages.
• If you already have a minion, a Summoning Potion lets you bring an extra to the fight.
• Rage Potions or Wrath Potions are useful for almost all classes.
• Water Walking Potions, like the boots, let you walk on Honey.
• Honeyfins heal more than the average Healing Potion and can prove valuable.