BOSSES

Q: What are bosses?
A: Bosses are massive enemies that must be summoned in order to be killed. They typically have several thousand health, and unique drops. There are currently four bosses in Terraria: Skeletron, the Eye of Cthulu, the Eater of Worlds, and the King Slime.

Q: How do I summon the Eye of Cthulu?
A: At night, Demon Eyes appear across the world. Slay them, and they might drop a Lens. Once you have ten Lens, bring them to a Demon Altar to forge a Suspicious Eye. Finally, wait until nightfall (once the zombies appear) and consume the eye to wake the Eye of Cthulu.

Additionally, the Eye of Cthulu can spawn himself randomly if you have at least ten hearts and have yet to defeat him once. Once he goes down in your world, he'll stop appearing randomly.

Q: What restrictions are there on the Eye of Cthulu?
A: The Eye of Cthulu can ONLY be manually summoned at night. Summoning the Eye of Cthulu during the day WILL result in INSTANT DEATH, and you will lose your Suspicious Eye. The Eye of Cthulu can be summoned an infinite amount of times, and if you're fast enough to kill him you can battle him multiple times in one night, provided you have enough Suspicious Eyes.

The battle itself is timed, and if day breaks before the Eye of Cthulu is defeated, he will flee and you'll have to try again the next night. If you die during the battle, and you manually summoned him, the Eye will wait for you until daybreak, so you can return to finish him off if you're fast enough.

Q: What should I know about the Eye of Cthulu?
A: The Eye of Cthulu has 3000 HP, and is considered the easiest boss in the game. It's recommended that you bring a good bow and Flaming Arrows, or another powerful ranged weapon, as the Eye flies around eratically.

During the first phase of battle, the Eye follows a simple pattern. He will rush towards you three times, then float above you and call forth his Servants of Cthulu. Servants are smaller, weaker Demon Eyes that occasionally drop health/mana pickups and money. After calling forth five or six Servants, the Eye rushes into you three times again, and repeats the pattern.

When his health goes below 1500, the Eye transforms, and stops summoning Servants. He simply rushes you over and over at this point, and his attacks do much more damage. Keep hitting him until he's dead, and he'll drop Demonite Ores and a shower of money.

Q: I was fighting Skeletron/Eater of Worlds/whatever and the Eye of Cthulu showed up!
A: Since the Eye of Cthulu can summon himself randomly, it's entirely possible to find yourself fighting two bosses at once, even two Eyes. Be careful!

Q: How do I summon the Eater of Worlds?
A: The Eater of Worlds, like the Eye of Cthulu, requires a special item. Defeat Eater of Souls in the Corruption to collect Rotten Chunks, and make Vile Powder from the Vile Mushrooms in corrupted areas. Bring 20 Vile Powders and 15 Rotten Chunks to a Demonic Altar, and craft a Worm Bait.

Additionally, the Eater of Worlds may be awakened by breaking three Shadow Orbs in one world. Be careful.

Q: What restrictions are there on the Eater of Worlds?
A: The Eater of Worlds can ONLY be summoned on Corrupted areas. Summoning the Eater of Worlds when not directly inside Corrupted areas WILL result in INSTANT DEATH. Once summoned, however, you can lure him anywhere and battle him outside of the Corruption. The Eater of Worlds can be summoned an infinite amount of times, assuming you have Worm Bait.

Unlike the Eye of Cthulu, the Eater of Worlds can be summoned at any time during the day. The battle will the Eater of Worlds will continue until he's dead, and he'll track you down at your spawn point, so be ready to fight to the death.

Q: What should I know about the Eater of Worlds?
A: The Eater of Worlds is a burrowing enemy like the Giant Worms or Bone Serpents, made up of tens of Eater of Souls (EoS). Each EoS has 210 HP, whereas the head has 80 and the tail has 300, and whenever one dies, the Eater splits into two smaller Eaters. A fast, multi-hitting weapon such as the Muramasa, Blue Moon or Jester's Arrows is practically required to finish this fight alive.

The Eater has no battle patterns; he simply attacks like a standard burrowing enemy. The only thing to note about this fight is that the goal is not to deal a set amount of damage, but to kill each and every EoS. Every individual EoS drops money and Shadow Scales upon death, and the last kill produces a "Eater of Worlds was defeated!" message and the typical spray of money.

Q: How do I summon Skeletron?
A: Skeletron can be summoned simply by talking to the Old Man outside the Dungeon at night.

Q: What restrictions are there on Skeletron?
A: Skeletron is unique amongst bosses in that he can only be battled once per world. Additionally, he will flee at daybreak like the Eye of Cthulu. Most importantly, if you die at any point during the fight, he will flee, and you'll have to try again the next night. Potions are crucial for this reason.

Q: What should I know about Skeletron?
A: Skeletron has a whopping 5000 HP. He has his head and two arms, each with 800 HP, and attacks by swinging his arms and then using a head spin attack. A ranged weapon makes this fight much easier, and piercing weapons can make it easier to hit the head through the hands.

The head spin is the most important thing to avoid. When used, his head will spin rapidly, and float towards you. If you get hit by it, you'll be knocked around, and it's EXTREMELY easy to be instantly killed when you get trapped inside the head and hit over and over and over before you can heal. If you've having trouble with the head spin, try digging a long, flat battle platform near the Temple and running along the ground to avoid it. Hermes Boots, Necro Armor and Anklet of Wings all make this much more bearable.

The goal of the fight is to kill the Head; the hands are just there to be annoying. Once the head dies, Skeletron is permanantly killed, the Dungeon becomes open for exploring without hassle, and you get money as usual.

Q: How do I summon the King Slime?
A: The King Slime cannot be summoned. He appears whenever he feels like it, day or night, surface or underground.

Q: What should I know about the King Slime?
A: The King Slime is a mini-boss that appears randomly. He seems to target an individual player on the server, and will despawn if that player leaves or dies. There is no known way of forcing the King Slime to appear.

Despite his fancy name, the King is simply a very large Blue Slime. He battles the same way as any other Slime in the game, and the only things setting him apart from his smaller brethren are his size and the fact that he spawns other Slimes as he takes damage. As such, he's fairly easy to defeat, even for a lowbie.

When defeated, the King will drop a piece of Ninja Gear. He has an equal 33.33% chance of dropping the Ninja Hood, Shirt, or Pants. Ninja Gear is a set of Vanity items with no special effect on stats, but it certainly looks cool, which is good enough.

Q: I was battling a boss and suddenly a Falling Star hit him and he exploded!
A: The proper response in this situation is "SUCK IT, BOSS." That said, this may or may not be an unintentional glitch, and the developers may remove this feature in the future.