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The Lunatic Cultist is one of the final gatekeepers before facing the final boss of Terraria. Players will want to defeat the Lunatic Cultist to initiate the Lunar Events and proceed the story. Killing a Lunatic Cultist will also provide the player with the Ancient Manipulator, a powerful crafting station for Lunar and Luminite-based gear.

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For many players the Lunatic Cultist is a test of DPS and the player’s ability to dodge or mitigate damage. If the player is struggling to defeat this false prophet than they’ll have a really hard time with the final foe. There are some general and specific tips players can use to prepare to bring down the ultimate Cultist.

How To Summon

Terraria Cultists

There is only one way to summon the Lunatic Cultist. The player must locate and defeat:

  • Two Lunatic Devotees
  • Two Cultist Archers

All four enemies are located at the entrance of the Dungeon after the Golem has been slain. Once the fourth Cultist falls the Lunatic Cultist will appear and the battle will begin immediately.

The Lunatic Cultist can be resummoned by completing the Celestial Event. After doing so and and after one day passes the four Cultists will respawn and can be defeated again to resummon the Lunatic Cultist. This can be done to farm the unique Lunar Event spawns multiple times.

Fighting Tactics

Terraria Cultist Clones

The Lunatic Cultist is all about distraction and chaos. Upon spawning he will be invulnerable to attack, the player must wait for him to move away from the spawn point to be able to attack him.

Phase 1

Initially the Lunatic Cultist has three attacks:

  • A ball of rotating ice that will fling six ice shards.
  • Three exploding fireballs that will home in on the player.
  • A Magnet Sphere-like orb that casts lightning.

Phase 2

After dropping to half health the Lunatic Cultists adopts a fourth maneuver. He can summon five Ancient Light projectiles. Its recommended to destroy these as dodging them can be difficult with everything else going on.

If the player is on Expert Mode the Lunatic Cultist can also bring in Ancient Dooms that fire purple projectiles in all four directions. The player should avoid getting struck by these at all cost as they deal some of the greatest damage the Lunatic Cultist is capable of.

In both phases the Lunatic Cultist will begin to use duplicates after attacking four to five times. If these duplicates are destroyed or survive for a period of time a Phantasm Dragon will be summoned forth. If a Phantasm Dragon is already present than an Ancient Vision will appear.

When a Phantasm Dragon appears two of the duplicates the Lunatic Cultist has summoned will start attacking the player. They aren’t nearly as strong as the Lunatic Cultist or as aggressive. But they will make dodging more complicated and every bit of damage adds up.

General Strategies

Terraria Phantasm Dragon

It’s strongly recommended the player fights the Lunatic Cultist at night. The reason behind this is that the duplicates will be easier to identify as they put off a strong glow at night while the real Lunatic does not.

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The key to this battle is to manage summons/duplicates and put the Lunatic Cultist down as quickly as possible. The player can prevent the Phantasm Dragon and the Ancient Vision from appearing by damaging the Lunatic Cultist when its attempting to call them forth.

The clones are a problem as the more the player attacks them the more things will be summoned onto the map. If the player isn’t careful they’ll be swimming in an army of duplicates, Dragons, and Ancient Visions. It’s important to keep the pressure on the real Lunatic Cultist and avoid the imposters.

The longer this fight drags on the more time the Lunatic Cultist has to summon clones which will join the battle and summon Phantasm Dragons and Ancient Visions. The player should not be passive in this fight, every second that goes by is another opportunity for a new enemy to join the fight and make things even more complicated.

Preparing The Battlefield

Terraria Battle Arena General

The shape of the arena should be whatever the player feels comfortable with. Something simple with a few platforms used for standard boss fights will be plenty. The important part is to set the stage with lighting, traps, and statues. Here are some recommendations.

  • Heart Lanterns (Light & Health Regeneration)
  • Stars In Bottles (Light & Mana Regeneration)
  • Garden Gnomes (Damage Reduction & Increase Luck-based Damage)
  • Sunflowers (Happy! Buff & Decrease Enemy Spawn Rate) – these help a lot!

Helpful Boosts

Terraria Boosts

The standard buffs the player should be using on any boss are obviously just as important here:

  • Sharpening Station (Sharpened Buff)
  • Ammo Box (Ammo Box Buff)
  • Crystal Ball (Clairvoyance Buff)
  • Bewitching Table (Bewitched Buff)
  • Slice of Cake (Sugar Rush Buff)

Potions

Terraria Food Market

There are some staple potions player should have in this fight:

  • Regeneration Potion (Health Regeneration)
  • Endurance Potion (Damage Reduction Of 10%)
  • Lifeforce Potion (Increase Max Life By 20%)
  • Ironskin Potion (Increase Defense By 8)
  • Mana Regeneration Potion
  • Swiftness Potion (Greater Speed)

But for this particular fight players should strongly consider having the Hunter Potion. This Potion will allow the player to see who the real Lunatic Cultist is whenever it starts creating duplicates. This is especially important if the player chooses to fight in the day time.

Armor

Terraria Armor

Armor should be tailored to the player’s fighting style and character build. Armor choices are limited as the player should be equipping the best the game has to offer at this point. In reality each character type has a single armor set they should be wearing with only a minor tweak here and there based on playstyle or needs. Lesser armor choices can be used, but it’s not recommended.

  • Beetle Armor – Best for melee characters.
    • Beetle Scale Mail offers better DPS .
    • Beetle Shell is better for players who struggle with dodging.
  • Shroomite Armor – Best for Ranged characters.
  • Spectre Armor – Best for Mage types.
    • Spectre Hood can be used when low on health to buff DPS.
  • Spooky Armor – Best for Summoners while summoning.
    • Tiki Armor is best when all minions have been summoned to buff Defense.

Weapons

Terraria Weapons

Weapon choices will be based on the player’s chosen build and playstyle. Some characters will have a much easier choice in this fight though all classes will possess the ability to beat the Lunatic Cultist. Accuracy, speed, and bursts of damage is key in this fight to avoid hitting clones and quickly take down the fast moving Lunatic Cultist.

Melee

Melee users have the advantage of being able to target the Lunatic Cultist more precisely while still having homing-based weapons. It’s also very easy to get mobbed by summons and clones if the player doesn’t act quickly and keep the pressure on the Lunatic Cultist.

  • Influx Waver (Strongest Melee Weapon At This Point)
  • Flairon (High Damage & Homing Projectiles)
  • Eye Of Cthulhu (High Damage, Great Against The Phantasm Dragon, & Great For Targeting Only The Real Cultist)

Ranged

Ranged users have a lot of AOE weapons with monstrous damage potential. Sure you’ll probably hit a few of the clones, but it won’t matter if the Lunatic Cultist is nothing more than a pile of ashes. Being able to hit him as he’s moving around can be tricky though.

  • Xenopopper with Crystal Bullets (Best Gun At This Point)
  • Snowman Cannon (High Damage & Will Shred Phantasm Dragons)
  • Tsunami with Holy Arrows (Best Bow At This Point)
  • Piranha Gun (Lunatic Cultist Will Have A Tough Time Summoning Anything From Continuous Damage)

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Magic

Magic users have some powerful options to blast the Lunatic Cultist quickly. The options are either being patient with homing weapons or possibly win fast at the risk of facing an army of summons/clones.

  • Razorblade Typhoon (Best Homing Weapon At This Point)
  • Razorpine (High Single Target Damage)
  • Magnet Sphere (Lots Of Damage & Good Backup)

Summoners

Summoners like in many boss fights will have a tougher road than other classes. Still there are some powerful minions if the player has done well so far. All minions run the risk of creating more enemies to face, but allow the player to focus their attention on the real Lunatic Cultist.

  • Terraprisma (Monstrous Rare Weapon If The Player Has Defeated An Enraged Empress Of Light)
  • Xeno Staff (Best Minion For Most Players At This Point)
  • Ballista Staff (Best Sentry At This Point)

Handy Accessories

Terraria Fishron Wings

Accessories are always handy for filling in gaps in the character’s fighting strategy or nudging their stats and abilities to higher levels. Lots of mobility to keep up with the Lunatic Cutlists is helpful as well as anything to nudge damage a bit higher.

  • Fishron Wings (Best Wings For Mobility)
  • Frog Leg (Improves Dodging & Mobility)
  • Master Ninja Gear (Highly Recommended For Dodging)
  • Yoyo Bag (Great For Melee Fighters)
  • Destroyer Emblem (Boost Damage Output)
  • Celestial Cuffs (Mana Regeneration For Magic Users)
  • Cross Necklace (For Dealing With Phantasm Dragons)

Players should also note that all their gear should be customized to have Lucky, Menacing, or Warding. If a piece of gear doesn’t have one of these modifiers it’s highly recommended to put off the fight with Lunatic Cultist to get this done.

Final Thoughts

Terraria Lunatic Cultist Clones

Players should remember that this fight will begin after finishing another fight with four Cultists. This is something that should be accounted for in terms of having enough Potions, Ammo, and consumables to survive both fights.

Making sure to avoid harming the clones and ending the fight quickly are the most important aspects of any strategy. Players that frequently harm the clones will have to contend with more enemies which allows the Lunatic Cultist more time to attack and summon even more clones. It’s also a tremendous waste of bullets. The exception to this rule is if the player needs a Phantasm Dragon for Health leech strategies.

Finally players should remember that this is the second to last boss of the story in this game. It is meant to be hard and players often hit a wall when entering this fight. That’s on purpose, if you can’t bring down the Lunatic Cultist odds are you’re going to struggle against the final boss. Take your time, find better gear, do some farming and crafting, and start this fight on the right footing.

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