Terraria: Lunatic Cultist

Boss Battle Tips, Video, & Strategies

The Lunatic Cultist in Terraria must be defeated to initiate the Lunar Events, the hardest content in the game

The Lunatic Cultist will spawn after the defeat of these devotees. Winning this boss fight begins the epic Lunar Events and culminates with an encounter with the Moon Lord.

Life: 32000
Drops: Ancient Manipulator, Ancient Cultist Mask (rare), Ancient Cultist Trophy (rare), Greater Healing Potion

Defeating the Lunatic Cultist initiates the Lunar Events and sets you down the path to the Moon Lord. This boss is not especially hard when compared to what comes after, however may pose a challenge to some players depending upon their gear. Setting up an arena and following some simple rules for the fight can greatly aid you in defeating him.

How to Fight the Cultist (and Respawn Info)
Four cultists can be found outside the Dungeon after defeating Golem. Killing them will cause the cultist to spawn. Should you fail the fight, the Cultist should respawn the following morning. I've waited just a couple of screens away and found them there as expected. Some players report having to leave the world to get them to respawn, so if your wait time seems overly long, give that a try.

Recommended Gear
Wings of the best variety you can muster - those from the Pumpkin Moon are great. The Celestial Shell and a Celestial Stone can be stacked to get both benefits. An Avenger Emblem can help any type of build to deal more damage - in lieu of this, I used rocket boots in the video I've shared below. This adds flight time.

Shadow clones from the Lunatic Cultist's ritual

The cultist's shadow clones. Not featured in the video below as I did not fail to hit them before the ritual completed.

Weapon-wise, I am using a Possessed Hatchet, which comes from Solar Eclipse. I've also done this using a Terra Blade (much harder), and a Venus Magnum dropped by Plantera (with Chlorophyte Bullets). Vampire Knives help at close range to heal. I imagine the Piranha gun could be very useful against the Cultist. To use any gun effectively you should be using the Shroomite set. Bows, I haven't tried personally but imagine Holy Arrows could be handy to dish some extra damage with a Tsunami from Duke Fishron.

The minimum armor you should be using is Shroomite, Spectre, Beetle, or Tiki depending on your build. This is not because of the Lunatic Cultist, but more about the Lunar Events that come afterward.

Note the top cultist is darker - this is the real Lunatic Cultist. Hitting him will disrupt the ritual and prevent you either encountering the dragon or facing the illusions attacking you.

Preparing an Arena
The Cultist's location in the Dungeon entrance is not very good for a fight like this. You should have wings, so you're able to keep up with him, but some platforms that extend upward can be a big help so as to keep him on screen or in range if you're melee. You can, of course, also place a campfire and heart lantern to assist with health regeneration.

As far as potions go, this is end-game content so do bring the best buff potions, ignoring those that inflict debuffs as the cultist is immune to all of them.

Boss Fight Video

Strategy

What's Happening in the Boss Fight
After slaying the cultists, the Lunatic will teleport out after a moment and initiate a very mobile fight with you. He has a few normal attacks that can be dangerous. You'll need to work on your movement in order to dodge some of these, while also taking care when he begins the ritual spell. Here are his main attacks in the order of difficulty:

The cultist's lightning attack is perhaps the most damaging if you're not mobile. It will strike up to 5 times, firing on your current position, so keep moving in a direction to dodge it as the bolts do not fire very quickly.

Ice Shot - His main attack. A spreading wave of ice balls. These projectiles can be destroyed by your own attacks, so it's not very threatening at all. He does, however, seem to use it fairly often and it may catch you off guard.. Additional waves will be fired as he grows more damaged.
Fireballs - A blast of 3 fireballs that arc in different directions. These are not too hard to dodge if you're already on the move.
Blizzard Ball - He fires a ball of frost that shoots shards in a predictable pattern. Watch the direction the shards are going and expect them to rotate clockwise.
Lightning - Five lightning strikes that fire toward your position from a node he places. Dodging these is important because it's one of his best and most powerful attacks. Expect them to strike and keep moving in one direction to outrun/outfly it when he begins this one.

The dragon is summoned from hitting the wrong cultist. It has 4k life and will harass you, so this is one of the most important things to get right in the boss fight.

Disrupting the Ritual
This is by far the most dangerous part of the fight. The Cultist will hover in midair and summon two illusions of himself. Either allowing him to complete the ritual or hitting the wrong one will cause a dangerous effect. Hitting the wrong cultist will cause them to summon a dragon - very much like a hard-hitting wyvern - that must be killed, else it deal big damage. Allowing them to complete the spell will result in the Cultist's clones casting shadowflames at you.

As stated, mobility is key but so is health management. Use a potion as soon as it will fully benefit you so that you can get over potion sickness to possibly pop another. The Frost Hydra from the Ice Chest seems to help as he will tend to pick the correct Cultist when the ritual is performed.

The Ancient Manipulator will let you craft things from solar, nebula, vortex, and stardust fragments dropped by lunar pillars.

The Ancient Manipulator is dropped 100% of the time by the Lunatic Cultist. He has only a trophy and mask drop otherwise. The manipulator will let you craft weapons from fragments, and later allow for production of end-game armor made of Luminite.

After the Lunatic Cultist - The Lunar Events
You'll receive an Ancient Manipulator, which you will use to craft Luminite-tier armor, but can make weapons immediately following destruction of each of the four pillars that will spread across your world. There is no time limit and you can destroy these in any order you please so that you can get a weapon appropriate for your build. Each requires you to kill 100 enemies before the pillar can be destroyed and the Solar, Vortex Fragments etc. can be looted. The final pillar's destruction will summon the Moon Lord, the final boss of Terraria 1.3. Having an Arena built ahead of time is advisable.

To make future fights easier by building a weapon before taking on other Pillars, Ranged would go after Vortex, Melee Solar, Summoner Stardust, and Magic-users may try Nebula first. All classes benefit from Nebula, particularly with a Bewitching Table and Summon Potion to allow them to make a 3-length Stardust Dragon or 3 Cells for future battles.

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Joanne says...

I have a son that plays terraria and he would like to know if he can beat the lunatic cultists on his iPad. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Admin:

Terraria 1.3 is not yet available on mobile, but will be one day. It is the next planned update and should include all or most of this content. They are supposed to be redesigning the mobile experience, so it's something worth being excited about :)

You can follow the news on updates here: http://terraria.org/news