Part 40: Monster Mash

#38 - Monster Mash



Terraria Soundtrack vol. 2 - Lihzahrd

Hello everyone. Welcome back to Rivershire. Sam's just getting in some sniping practice while on the way to the next boss.



The sniper rifle is an amazing weapon that deals shitloads of damage, but it's not exactly something we can use in boss fights very well.



Our inventory is much emptier this time, and I remembered to bring some building blocks, so we can seal off the boss chamber from most of the regular enemies who want to show up and attack us.



This is going to require more work, as we will have to fill in this pit to stop things from spawning down there.



But that can wait for later. Right now?



One of the game's most underwhelming bosses has just awoken to fight us.



Terraria Soundtrack vol. 2 - Golem

Golem Boss Fight

Meet the god of the Lihzahrd Tribe, the Golem.



Unlike Plantera or the mechanical bosses, Golem is not a boss I've really ever taken seriously. We could have easily killed it last time we were in here, we just didn't have any spare room in our inventory for its drops.

Golem is a very large boss, and its main body can't pass through blocks. So you could conceivably build a very effective cage for it and cheese it that way.



Unlike the previous bosses, it really doesn't move much either. So our rainbow gun and rainstorm spell are both doing a number on it here.



As far as weak points go, both fists are vulnerable and have 7000 HP each. We can stop its punching attack by taking those out. The lower the health its fists get, the more it punches.



Its head is the primary weak point for this first half. 16000 HP isn't a lot, and we can chew through that pretty quickly. Once its head drops below half health, it starts shooting a laser attack that can travel through solid blocks.

Also worth pointing out is that as its head's health decreases, it will jump around more often.



Golem isn't exactly a threatening boss. Even with all that it jumps around, it still pauses on the ground to try and smash you with its fists, giving you plenty of time to fly above it.



Even when it hit us with contact damage, it only dealt 31 points.



Once the head runs out of HP, it detaches from the body and the fight enters the second phase. Golem's body has 9000 HP and it attacks by jumping. The head is more dangerous in this form, as it is wholly invulnerable and likes to spam ranged attacks at you.



But, eventually the boss will fall because it's the easiest hard mode boss by a country mile.



When Golem dies, it drops one of eight weapons and items, in addition to the usual trophy, mask, and greater healing potions.



Stynger - (45 ranged damage. It's an auto fire rocket launcher, kinda. It rapid fires special ammo called Stynger Bolts, and these bolts will explode into shrapnel when they hit an enemy. It's a pretty fun weapon to use, as you might imagine.)
Stynger Bolt - (17 ranged damage. Only drops if the Stynger itself drops.)
Possessed Hatchet - (80 melee damage. A "boomerang" weapon that homes in on enemies when thrown. It's basically the upgrade to our Light Discs.)
Moon Sun Stone - (Accessory that gives you a bunch of stat boosts during daytime. The bonuses aren't game breakingly spectacular, but they do make you a little bit better at everything. So no reason not to use it if you get it!)


Eye of the Golem - (Accessory that grants a flat +10% critical strike chance. Can be combined with an Avenger Emblem to get +10% damage and +8% crit. Can also be combined with a rifle scope from the HM dungeon to get +10% ranged damage and +10% crit.)
Picksaw - (210% pickaxe power. It's basically the third best digging tool in the game, and the first one we found that is capable of digging up jungle temple blocks. We have to kill Golem a couple times to get this.)
Heat Ray - (55 magic damage. It basically shoots a concentrated laser beam straight out that doesn't lose power despite how many enemies it hits. As you might imagine, it does extremely mean things to the Destroyer.)
Staff of Earth - (73* magic damage. Summons a boulder to damage enemies. The boulder's actual damage depends on how fast it's moving at the time it deals damage, making it best used by dropping rocks on top of your enemy.)
Golem Fist - (76 melee damage. You know Golem's fist attack? Yeah, we can use that. Fun to use, if kind of impractical.)
Golem Trophy - (10% chance. I like collecting the boss trophies. Building a room to show them off is fun.)
Beetle Husk - (100% chance. Drops 4-8. It's an upgrade to the turtle armor melee set, and you need 34 to craft the set. Has two different chest pieces, depending on if you want to tank or deal melee damage. The DPS chest piece has a stacking damage buff for each hit you successfully land on an enemy. The tanking chest piece reduces damage taken by not taking damage. You can also make some okay wings with these.)
Golem Mask - (14.29%. )



This drops on, I'm pretty sure, our third Golem kill. But here's the Picksaw.



It swings super fast and doesn't even take ages to tunnel through Lihzahrd Brick.



Moving on, let's have a little fun. No video for this one. Why?



A quote from A Christmas Story comes to mind.

Let's move on to the main feature of this update. You see, once we've killed at least one mechanical boss, the game will very rarely spawn an event called a Solar Eclipse at the start of a day. Each given day has a 5% chance to be a Solar Eclipse. The event gets stronger with each boss you've killed, until it reaches maximum fun after Plantera dies.

So that's great and all, but I can hear you asking what the event is about. I'll let the inimitable Charles Dance explain it for me...

Benedict: Gentlemen. Since you are about to die anyway, I may as well tell you the entire plot. Think of villains Jack. You want Dracula? Dra-cool-la? Hang on...
[takes out the ticket]
Benedict: I'll fetch him. Dracula? Huh. I can get King Kong! We'll have a nightmare with Freddy Krueger, have a surprise party for Adolf Hitler, Hannibal Lecter can do the catering, and then we'll have christening for Rosemary's Baby! All I have to do is snap my fingers and they'll be here. They're lining up to get here, and do you know why Jack? Should I tell you why? Hmm? Because here, in this world, the bad guys can win!

Last Action Hero wasn't a very good movie, but it was endlessly quotable. Anyway, that's the whole setup for a Solar Eclipse. We get to spend the next 14 and a half minutes killing every horror movie villain.

In case we want to trigger an eclipse on our own, like I'm about to do, we can use all those solar tablet fragments we found in the jungle temple. Combining 8 of gives us a whole tablet, which will let us trigger an eclipse.





So let's have some fun.

Terraria 1.2 OST - Solar Eclipse

Solar Eclipse Event video

While that's not bad music, I have a few recommendations for themed music to use instead. I'll link to them as we progress through the event.

Let's start with the classic and fitting update title, Monster Mash. Available in Bobby Pickett or Vincent Price flavors.



Our first guest is Jeff Goldblum as Dr. ManFly. He has 500 HP and likes to throw toxic flasks as a ranged attack. These flasks deal 100 damage, so you probably shouldn't get hit by those. He can also drop his weapon.

Toxic Flask - (2.5% chance. 46 magic damage. It's a magic grenade that affects a pretty massive area. Strongly recommended for its excellent crowd control capabilities, though at 30 mana per flask, it is pretty expensive to cast)



Next up we have one of the classic Universal horror movie monsters. This is the The Creature from the Deep. He only has 400 HP and doesn't deal very much contact damage (60 before defense). He also drops...

Neptune's Shell - (2% chance. Accessory that turns you into a merman when you enter water, basically acting as a Gravity Suit. You can combine this with a moon charm that werewolves drop during full moons to get both effects.)



Mothron is the Mightiest Monster in all Creation, and the big miniboss for the eclipse. It attacks by charging at you, and depending on the type of charge, it deals different amounts of damage. Slow charges deal 40 contact damage, while fast charges deal 100. Also touching its body when it's not charging deals 80.

Tales from the Crypt - The Crypt Jam





In addition to charging at you, it also lays eggs on occasion. If you don't destroy these eggs, they hatch into baby Mothrons that have 700 health and deal 50 contact damage.

Mothron also has three drops...

Broken Hero Sword - (25% chance. A crafting material used to make two very powerful endgame weapons.)
The Eye of Cthulhu - (25% chance. 115 melee damage. The second best yoyo in the game.)
Mothron Wings - (5% chance. Same vertical height as our frozen wings, but with no speed bonus for going horizontally. They look awesome, so I like to use them as cosmetic wings.)

It's important to note, that Mothron will start spawning in eclipses as long as all three mechanical bosses are dead, but will only drop The Eye of Cthulhu and its wings once Plantera is dead. Also, the Broken Hero Sword and The Eye of Cthulhu are mutually exclusive drops. It's 25% for either item to drop from any given Mothron kill.



Fritz is the little fellow running next to Mothron's egg here. He's basically Igor. He doesn't have any drops worth mentioning, and only has 270 life. Though he does deal 70 contact damage.

Now that the event is kicking into gear, more monsters are spawning and faster. The screen is about to get super crowded.



This is the Deadly Sphere. It has 350 life, but also deals 100 contact damage, and these little bastards like to swarm you. They also have 80 defense, which means they're extremely hardy enemies.

Deadly Sphere Staff - (2.5% chance. 50 summon damage. This is the second best minion summoning item in the game. It's well worth farming eclipses for one of these even if you don't play a summoner character.)



Ahhh... fresh meat! This is the Butcher enemy. He's basically Leatherface and has an amazingly high 700 HP. His chainsaw deals 94 damage, so avoid melee range if you can.

Butcher's Chainsaw - (2.5% chance. 150% axe power, 120 melee damage. Has a chance to inflict the On Fire! debuff. I've never seen it drop, but the short range leaves me questioning its use as a weapon.)



This barely perceptible blur of dark gray and purple is a Reaper. While he could be from any number of movies, I personally like to think it's referencing Bengt Ekerot's version of Death.

Death Sickle - (2.5% chance. 57 melee damage. Remember the Ice Sickle I briefly mentioned? This its bigger, meaner brother. It can penetrate through solid blocks, can autoswing, and has more range.)



Here's the wiki's gif of the death sickle.

Michael Jackson - Thriller



While flying up to get away from a couple Deadly Spheres and Mothron, we find ourselves being menaced by Bela Lugosi. Vampires come in two forms that they freely switch between. They first appear as a small bat, but quickly turn into their humanoid form. They have 750 life, and deal 60 damage as a bat, and 80 as a vampire. The bat form also has 32 defense to the humanoid's 24.

Broken Bat Wing - (2.5% chance. Used to craft a wing. Vampires start spawning in the first version of the solar eclipse, so it's fully possible you haven't made wings yet by that point. The wings themselves off 72 blocks of height and no horizontal movement bonuses.)
Moon Stone - (2.86% chance. It's the nighttime equivalent to Golem's sun stone. Both accessories can be combined into a Celestial Stone, to give you the stat bonuses all the time. Furthermore, the Celestial Stone can be combined with the Moon Shell to make a mega accessory that gives you Gravity Suit abilities in water, stat bonuses all the time, and at night you turn into a werewolf that has even higher stat bonuses.)

If you're into looking like a furry, you can also stick the Celestial Shell, Moon Shell, or Moon Charm in a cosmetic slot to look like a werewolf all the time.



My little pit has trapped a couple monsters, including two new ones. First off, we have Boris Karloff, reprising his role as Frankenstein's monster. It has 350 health and deals 60 contact damage, and is basically a souped up zombie with a neat name. It doesn't have any drops (on the PC version.)

Also lurking in the pit is Michael Myers. Or it's possibly Jason Vorhees. The lead artist for Terraria claims it's a reference to Halloween, while the sprite looks really close to Jason, so who knows. For what it's worth, the monster itself is named Psycho, further muddying the waters.

Either way, this guy is hiding pretty well. You have to look closely to see him, and you're not very likely to see him in the chaos of the eclipse.

Psycho Knife - (2.5% chance. 70 melee damage. Holding this weapon lets you turn stealthy like the monster holding it. While stealthed, monsters won't detect you, and you move very slowly. If you attack with the knife while stealthed, you deal +300% increased damage, have +30% chance to crit, and deal +100% more knockback.)

Jill Tracy - Evil Night Together





Ah good, I see Linda Blair has arrived. This enemy is called The Possessed, and she has 600 life and deals 68 contact damage. She doesn't have any drops, though she can climb on backwalls like spiders.



Doug Bradley, aka Nailhead has arrived. He's one of the toughest enemies in the eclipse, having 4000 health, and dealing 100 contact damage. Also each time he takes damage from you, he shoots out nails from his head in retaliation.

Nail Gun - (4% chance. 85 ranged damage. Shoots super fast nails that explode after sticking in something for roughly 2 seconds. Counts as a launcher for Shroomite armor purposes.)
Nails - (100% chance with nailgun. Drops 100-200 of them at once.)



Swamp Thing shows up too. He doesn't have any drops on the PC version, and has 450 life and deals 70 contact damage. He also moves really fast, so you need to be on your toes around him.

Rob Zombie - House of 1000 Corpses



Like I said, things get out of control during an eclipse.







This thing is stupidly good. It'll be in our inventory until we can get the best one in the game... from the final boss. So we'll be holding onto it for a while yet.





Dodging two vampires and a Mothron is tricky. Lots of flying involved.

Rob Zombie - The Devil's Rejects



Sadly this is the only Broken Hero Sword that drops during the eclipse. But we can at least supercharge one of our old swords, so that's good.



We'll also make ourselves a Celestial Stone at some point in the future.



The monsters seem to really like our hellevator shaft.



If you need money, you could find worse places to grind it. Here you're fighting a bunch of really fun themed enemies and most of them have chances to drop really powerful weapons.



There's something fun about shooting a vampire with sniper rounds.



Finally, most of the way through the day, we meet the final enemy of the eclipse. Eyezor here doesn't reference a classic horror movie, and is just a zombie with a gigantic eye. An eye that shoots lasers at you. He has 1000 health, deals 50 contact damage, and the laser deals 60. He also doesn't have any drops.




So that's basically the solar eclipse in a nutshell.



Here, Mothron dropped both its wings and another Eye of Cthulhu.



As the eclipse ends, the world gets brighter as night falls.



Though any remaining eclipse monsters will still stick around if they can't scroll themselves off screen.



So as this update ends, let's do some cleaning up.



Let's also pull a very old friend out of storage.





Using a broken hero sword, we can transform the best sword in normal mode into one of the strongest swords in the game.

Well that's it for now guys. As of this update, we're officially at the endgame. There's still some stuff to show off, but if we wanted to, we could trigger the finale right now. It would be dumb and suicidal, but we could.

There's also several songs I could have used in this update but couldn't find a place for.

The Brave Little Toaster - It's a B-Movie -- This was very nearly the update title.
Rocky Horror Picture Show - Science Fiction Double Feature
Freddy's Greatest Hits - Obsession
Freddy's Greatest Hits - Do the Freddy
The 7th Guest - Skeletons in my Closet

I also want to give special thanks to...
JamieTheD for linking me to most of the music used in today's update, including the title song.
My friend Eva for reminding me of Thriller
FutureFriend for linking me to Freddy's Greatest Hits

NEXT TIME: