NPCs & Enemies Lunatic Cultist Rework

Which of the Cultist's New phases is your favorite?


  • Total voters
    144
This kinda sounds like something the calamity mod would do. It is amazing. I applaud this idea.
Honestly this feels more like Fargo’s style to me (probably because I made this suggestion right after seeing the first version of his Mutant fight), but thank you for the compliment nonetheless! :happy:
 
What about normal cultist until 75%, then the pillar cultist (depending of the item i sayed before, but with variants, like vortex emblem (example of name) makes the next battle against the cultist have the vortex form cultist) until 25%, and then the terrarian
 
I think that this seems like to long of a boss fight, but instead, when the cultist are killed, a random version spawns instead of all 6
 
maybe you can just make the cultist have less HP, and then on that terrarian phase, he raises his defense by 30, then gets destroyed by a betsy curse debuff. LOL
 
Terra Cultist.png
Stardust Cultist.png
Vortex Cultist.png
Nebula Cultist.png
Solar Cultist.png
Combined Cultist.png

Here, have a final revision with the final version of the font.
 
I like the idea of the boss being three phases, with the middle phase being randomly chosen from among the four pillar cultists. It would very much add variety to the fight.

I think this concept would be excellent as a standalone mod. Hopefully someone out there can make that a reality.

Other than that, the only major observation I have is that the pillar forms have too many possible attacks, and the Terrarian form should do more than try to one-hit-kill the player after half a minute. As the final phase of the fight, it should feel like an epic fight against the cultist and the height of his power – like fighting the ultimate form of Ganondorf. It should feel like battling a living god. In this form, the cultist should attack extremely fast and incorporate aspects of all the other forms. Possibly it could even fight using its own Terra Blade.

Also, instead of summoning Lunar Event enemies, I think it’d be more interesting if each of the forms had their own unique summons.
 
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This idea is a little more ambitious than what I've suggested before, but I'm sure it won't be too bad. The Lunatic Cultist's attacks are much easier to dodge than other bosses once you've learned them, and as a result, I feel like if a major rework isn't done for this boss, he'll just be killed and immediately forgotten. Plus, bosses with crazy elaborate attacks are usually fun, right?

The Lunatic Cultist now has six distinct phases, denoted by the appearance of his robes (credit to @Bry-ccentric for the awesome sprites, by the way. :happy:). Phases 2-5 are meant to be interchangable and as a result aren't particularly important as to what order they appear in the final version (in fact, it's probably best if the order is randomized every time.)

View attachment 231508
Lunatic Cultist (1st phase, dark blue robes):
Similar to the expert mode fight. The only real difference is that he no longer resists homing attacks. Once he has lost 50% of his HP, he becomes intangible and recovers all of his health before switching to the next phase (if the Phantasm Dragon or Ancient Vision are alive, he remains intangible and doesn't change into the next phase until they are defeated, and cannot summon any more.)

View attachment 231506
Solar Cultist (2nd phase):
He no longer teleports, and uses the following attacks instead of his normal ones:

  • Summons a javelin similar to the Daybreak, before dashing towards the player thrice. The javelin dashes along the same path that the Cultist dashed a few seconds after the Cultist's first dash.
  • The Cultist dashes to a position about 10 blocks above the player before immediately unleashing a rapid storm of projectiles similar to the ones created by the Solar Pillar, the difference being that they can no longer be destroyed.
  • The Cultist creates a summoning circle similar to the one in the first phase. Hitting a fake cultist (or waiting too long) causes him to summon a Crawltipede and creates three hallucinations similar to the Brain of Cthulhu's expert mode ability, the difference being that the hallucinations now periodically fire the destructible homing projectile used by Drakomire Riders (cannot fire this projectile while they are within 15 blocks of the player.)
  • The Cultist stops moving and gathers energy for one second, before releasing a midrange non-damaging pulse that reflects all of the player's projectiles.
  • The Cultist dashes towards the player, stopping about 5 blocks away, before gathering orange dust into a large blade (takes about 0.6 seconds to do so, design could resemble the Tizona as a little nod) and slashing with it.
  • Stabs with a spear that fires a projectile that leaves other projectiles behind it, which fall afterward (similar to the North Pole, but the initial spear projectile isn't affected by gravity and the small projectiles aren't affected by wind.)
Upon losing 75% of his max health, he becomes intangible and heals again, before going into his next phase (he cannot change phases while a crawltipede is alive, and cannot summon any more.)

View attachment 231502
Vortex Cultist (3rd phase):
He regains the ability to teleport, and uses the following attacks instead of his normal ones, attempting to predict where the player is about to be (when applicable):

  • Summons a Phantasm and uses it to fire several arrows into the sky (they resemble a new arrow type with the Vortex Pillar color scheme) which fall down in random patterns for the next 5 seconds.
  • The Cultist warps offscreen and then dashes above the player while firing bullets downwards at a 45 degree angle using an alien version of the SDMG.
  • The Cultist laughs and summons 3 lightning portals above the player identical to the ones summoned by the Vortex Pillar.
  • The Cultist aims with a gun similar to a sniper rifle with a red targeting beam, before firing a very fast and strong bolt of energy which inflicts massive damage.
  • The Cultist creates a summoning circle similar to the one in the first phase. Hitting a fake cultist (or waiting too long) causes him to summon an Alien Larva (which falls to the ground, of course) and creates two clones (cap is four) that teleport towards the player before firing a shotgun blast with a vortex beater, repeating this attack until they die (stats are equal to a storm diver.)
  • The Cultist aims with a bow that looks similar to the Tsunami (but with the vortex aesthetic) and fires five Luminite Arrows which create afterimage lasers 3 times instead of 1.
Upon losing 75% of his max health, he becomes intangible and heals again, before going into his next phase (he cannot change phases while an Alien Larva, Alien Hornet, Alien Queen, or any of his clones are alive, and cannot summon any more.)

View attachment 231503
Nebula Cultist (4th phase):
He keeps his normal teleport, and he uses the following attacks instead of his normal ones.

  • He fires several harmless pink stars (in a similar way to his first forms' Ancient Light attack), which he attacks with hitscan lasers after a while, causing them to send out small shockwaves for 10 blocks.
  • The Cultist charges energy for a few seconds before creating a large pink laser similar to the Phantasmal deathray, sweeping it slowly over 90 degrees.
  • The Cultist creates several pink pillars of energy in random locations 40 blocks below the player which fire upwards after 4 seconds.
  • The Cultist creates a summoning circle similar to the one in the first phase. Hitting a fake cultist (or waiting too long) causes him to summon a Nebula Floater and creates two clones (cap is four) which mimic his movements a few seconds behind, casting Ancient Shadowflames towards the player.
  • The Cultist fires pink shards in 8 directions, which travel for 20 blocks before changing direction towards the player.
  • The Cultist stops in place, and gives himself a nebula Damage Booster (boosts his attack damage by 15% per stack) Health Regen booster (enemies can't regen health, so it just boosts his defense by 10 per stack.) or Mana Regen Booster (boosts his attack speed by 15% per stack). All boosters are capped at three.
  • The Cultist only uses this attack if he has three of each booster. He rapidly fires his boosters towards the player, these boosters have low velocity, homing, and do not disappear until the Cultist next gives himself a booster.
Upon losing 75% of his max health, he becomes intangible and heals again, clearing his boosters, before going into his next phase (he cannot change phases while a Nebula Floater is alive, and cannot summon any more or give himself any boosters, he still makes the homing boosters despawn at the right time, though.)

View attachment 231507
Stardust Cultist (5th phase):
Homing attacks do not target the Cultist in this phase.
His teleport is now instantaneous, and uses the following attacks instead of his normal ones:

  • He fires three rings of 12 Ancient Light projectiles around himself.
  • The Cultist creates a summoning circle similar to the one in the first phase. Hitting a fake cultist (or waiting too long) causes him to summon a Star Cell (or Phantasm Dragon if a Star Cell is alive, or Ancient Vision if both a Star Cell and Phantasm Dragon are alive.) and creates four clones which densely orbit around the cultist, do not attack, and can be killed with about the same durability as an Ancient Vision. (cap is eight clones, if the inner ring has four, then the rest of them create an outer ring that rotates the opposite direction.) (the clones do not inflict contact damage.) The Clones fire a dense cone of 3 ancient light projectiles towards the player on defeat.
  • The Cultist creates several invulnerable Ancient Dooms, and fires hitscan lasers at them to detonate them after a few seconds.
  • The Cultist creates an Ancient Frost, which rapidly fires singular projectiles in random directions at the same rate as the Vortex Beater.
  • The Cultist fires 8 Ancient Flames, which are identical to the first phase.
  • The Cultist creates an Ancient Spark, then teleports to the player's right and creates a second one, then teleports to the player's left and creates a third one, before teleporting below the player and creating a final one.
Upon losing 75% of his max health, he becomes intangible (does not heal) and despawns all clones, before going into his final phase (he cannot change phases while a Star Cell, Phantasm Dragon, or Ancient Vision is alive, and cannot summon any more.)

View attachment 231504
Terrarian Cultist (Final phase):
This phase also starts if you heal from the nurse, which be seen as either an anti-cheese measure or a super-secret way to skip most of the boss fight.

The Cultist stops and begins to draw in green energy which grows in intensity and brightness over the course of 30 seconds. If the player does not kill him over the course of this time limit, he teleports above the player and unleashes a repetition of giant shockwaves which does not stop until the Cultist or the player has been defeated. Defeating this phase results in the end of the boss fight, and the beginning of the Lunar Events!

Possibly could gain some new master mode exclusive drops:


Lunar Fulcrum:
Drops with a 100% chance.
The Lunatic Cultist has only one phase while this is in your inventory.
When equipped as an accessory, it grants one of the following effects depending on which damage type your gear increases most, picks one at random if there is a tie until you either reequip it or break the tie (with one exception):
  • Melee Damage: Striking enemies creates three homing fireballs where the hallucinations would be for them (if the player created hallucinations like the Brain of Cthulhu.) (75 melee damage each, no piercing.) Cooldown of 0.5 seconds.
  • Ranged Damage: Taking damage creates Mini-Vortex Cultist Clones (which resemble Vortex Cultist Clones, but scaled down to the player's size) which dash towards/through the enemy that inflicted the damage before firing a shotgun blast at them. (Dash does 100 ranged damage and pierces, shotgun bullets do 50 ranged damage each with no piercing.)
  • Magic Damage: A trail of four Mini-Nebula Cultist Clones follow you, which mimic your exact movements and fire projectiles identical to the nebula blaze in damage, and accuracy, as well as have a 5% chance of being blue instead of 20%, upon striking an enemy. (cooldown 2 seconds.)
  • Summon Damage: You generate one rotating Mini-Stardust Cultist Clone every second (capped at four) which can block one projectile each. Blocking a projectile destroys the Clone, and fires a homing blue star projectile towards the nearest enemy. (150 summon damage each, do not pierce). (cannot block all projectiles, and hitscan attacks like phantasmal/martian deathrays completely ignore them.)
  • Melee, Ranged, Magic, and Summon damage increased by the same amount: Taking damage causes you to send out a massive shockwave which ignores walls. Has a cooldown of three seconds. (500 damage of a random type.)
Dyeing your Light Pet slot dyes all clones.

Solar Lunatic's Robes/Mask:
Vanity items resembling the robes worn in the Solar Form, drop together with a 10% chance independant of other drops.

Vortex Lunatic's Robes/Mask:
Vanity items resembling the robes worn in the Vortex Form, drop together with a 10% chance independant of other drops.

Nebula Lunatic's Robes/Mask:
Vanity items resembling the robes worn in the Nebula Form, drop together with an 10% chance independant of other drops.

Stardust Lunatic's Robes/Mask:
Vanity items resembling the robes worn in the Solar Form, drop together with a 10% chance independant of other drops.

Terrarian Lunatic's Robes/Mask:
Vanity items resembling the robes worn in the Terrarian Form, drop together with a 10% chance independant of other drops.

Credit to @Sir. Fluff for making these.





This is so damn cool. Too bad Re-Logic won't do this...
 
I like the idea of the boss being three phases, with the middle phase being randomly chosen from among the four pillar cultists. It would very much add variety to the fight.
I can either do that, or I can make the phase decided by the weapon you're holding (it would let me rework the Lunar Fulcrum into something possibly less convoluted?) I don't know which I like more though.
Other than that, the only major observation I have is that the pillar forms have too many possible attacks, and the Terrarian form should do more than try to one-hit-kill the player after half a minute. As the final phase of the fight, it should feel like an epic fight against the cultist and the height of his power – like fighting the ultimate form of Ganondorf. It should feel like battling a living god. In this form, the cultist should attack extremely fast and incorporate aspects of all the other forms. Possibly it could even fight using its own Terra Blade.
I agree with buffing the Terrarian phase, I suppose I just didn't think of it being overwhelmingly powerful before. I don't want to lessen the pillar phases, though.
Also, instead of summoning Lunar Event enemies, I think it’d be more interesting if each of the forms had their own unique summons.
I'm not sure I could think of any Lunar themed enemies that would be unique enough for that. It may not happen but I'll probably try.
 
Sorry for the double post, but the suggestion has been updated!
  • Slightly tweaked the Nebula phase
  • Changed how the phase order works. (only three per fight now)
  • Reworked the Stardust and Terrarian phases.
  • Updated the Support banners.
Please let me know if you find any grammatical or spelling errors. :D
 
I can either do that, or I can make the phase decided by the weapon you're holding (it would let me rework the Lunar Fulcrum into something possibly less convoluted?) I don't know which I like more though.
Definitely at random. Otherwise the fight could become proscribed based on class. It’s better if you don’t know what to expect, so you have to be prepared to deal with any of the four forms.

Of course, an issue is that it becomes difficult to formulate a consistent strategy against him if the strategy is different each time you fight him. You don’t have the chance to practice against a single form that way. Perhaps when he selects a form at random, he always comes back with that form until the next time he’s killed.

I’m also concerned that with the way it is now, the default Lunatic Cultist will be edged out, since he’s now only around for 25% of the fight. And then all the normal strategies against him become irrelevant afterwards. Currently, the health bar portion meted out to each phase is 25%/50%/25%; I would change this to 40%/40%/20%, or 45%/40%/15%.

Also, I think it would make sense if the Lunatic Cultist stayed in his pillar form until his death on normal mode; the Terrarian form could be an Expert-only challenge, like Duke Fishron’s final phase.
I don't want to lessen the pillar phases, though.
I appreciate the richness of the ideas, but there may be too much nuance. If he has too many attacks allotted to each phase, the fight not only becomes incredibly complex, but it also becomes extremely time-consuming to implement. Adding unique attacks and mechanics to each of the random phases already adds a huge amount of complexity to the fight.

Each of the pillar phases has been given five unique attacks. The in-game Lunatic Cultist also has five unique attacks. Three of them – its fireballs, ice shards, and lightning bolts – it cycles through. While below 50% health, it gains a chance of replacing a regular attack with either a volley of Ancient Light, or (on Expert) summoning Ancient Dooms. This already creates a conflict, as there is now no longer room for the Ancient Light or Ancient Dooms in the revised fight.

I see that you have incorporated Ancient Light specifically into the Stardust phase, so that isn’t as much of a concern. However, Ancient Doom is still up in the air. To create rough parity with the first phase, I’d make the template for the Pillar phases the following:

– Attack 1 (cycling)
– Attack 2 (cycling)
– Attack 3 (cycling)
– Attack 4 (below 50% health, has a chance to replace any cycling attack)
– Ancient Doom (below 50% health on Expert Mode, has a chance to replace any cycling attack)
– Summoning circle*
*My preference would be to have the summoning ability function the same across all phases. Currently the summoning abilities all have extremely varied functionality; I think it would be less confusing if the duplicates functioned roughly the way they do in the basic fight, apart from having different attacks.

This is just how I’d do it. Currently, each of the Pillar phases has five unique attacks in addition to the summoning circle; that allows for three cycled attacks and two replacement attacks (one of which is Expert-only). If you just want to use Ancient Doom in the later phases while maintaining parity with the first phase, one of the attacks has to be cut from each of the Pillar phases. (Alternately, Ancient Doom could appear much earlier in the fight, only during the first phase.)

However, if you wish to be more specific about the mechanics of the fight, this means you would have to decide which attacks among those you have written out would be basic cycling attacks or ‘replacement’ attacks – and, if Ancient Doom is replaced, which attack becomes Expert-exclusive. (I also recommend listing the summoning circle ability last under each of the phases, as currently they’re spread quite randomly among the other attacks.)

I'm not sure I could think of any Lunar themed enemies that would be unique enough for that. It may not happen but I'll probably try.
Some of them could be reskins of the Phantasm Dragon and the Ancient Vision, but with Lunar aesthetics and unique stats / attacks / debuffs. Others could be stronger versions of existing Lunar enemies. The only reason I suggest this is that some of the summons seem much less powerful – such as the Vortex cultist summoning a single larva – while shifting large amounts of power onto the decoys. And since I’d prefer that the summoning circle be mostly consistent between the phases, I think the power should be more consistently consolidated onto the summons. (Perhaps one of the phases could mix this up, for a change, and have most of the power come from the remaining decoys.)

For example, the Nebula Cultist’s version of the Phantasm Dragon could resemble a hybrid with the Evolution Beast, and inflict Blackout upon hitting a player. The Ancient Vision analogue could be a hybrid of the Ancient Vision and Nebula Floater.

Crawltipede is powerful enough to be summoned as-is, although I think that Phantasm Dragon variants based on each of the Celestial Pillars would all look spectacular.
 
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I dont know if you guys knows but each pillar have an advantage on its class
(Example: nebula have advantage on magic)
So the middle phase being decided by the weapon you're holding or the set you're using would make the battle more challenging for yourself, its like a test to see if you're good on this class
 
Definitely at random. Otherwise the fight could become proscribed based on class. It’s better if you don’t know what to expect, so you have to be prepared to deal with any of the four forms.

Of course, an issue is that it becomes difficult to formulate a consistent strategy against him if the strategy is different each time you fight him. You don’t have the chance to practice against a single form that way. Perhaps when he selects a form at random, he always comes back with that form until the next time he’s killed.

I’m also concerned that with the way it is now, the default Lunatic Cultist will be edged out, since he’s now only around for 25% of the fight. And then all the normal strategies against him become irrelevant afterwards. Currently, the health bar portion meted out to each phase is 25%/50%/25%; I would change this to 40%/40%/20%, or 45%/40%/15%.

Also, I think it would make sense if the Lunatic Cultist stayed in his pillar form until his death on normal mode; the Terrarian form could be an Expert-only challenge, like Duke Fishron’s final phase.
I actually was still planning for this to be master exclusive, but now that you mention it it actually probably works better as normal exclusive. The Cultist isn't exactly a super complex boss in normal mode as is, anyway.

Perhaps I should make it so that the chosen phase only changes if he's defeated. It would be annoying to encounter a new phase and then just suddenly be unable to practice it because you really messed up, after all. RNG always leaves out one thing.

I actually did want the Pillar phase to be the highlight/focus, so how does 40%/45%/15% sound? It wouldn't leave out too much of the vanilla fight. It would also be a nicer ratio when I make the Terrarian phase expert exclusive, being 40%/60% instead of 45%/55%.
I appreciate the richness of the ideas, but there may be too much nuance. If he has too many attacks allotted to each phase, the fight not only becomes incredibly complex, but it also becomes extremely time-consuming to implement. Adding unique attacks and mechanics to each of the random phases already adds a huge amount of complexity to the fight.

Each of the pillar phases has been given five unique attacks. The in-game Lunatic Cultist also has five unique attacks. Three of them – its fireballs, ice shards, and lightning bolts – it cycles through. While below 50% health, it gains a chance of replacing a regular attack with either a volley of Ancient Light, or (on Expert) summoning Ancient Dooms. This already creates a conflict, as there is now no longer room for the Ancient Light or Ancient Dooms in the revised fight.

I see that you have incorporated Ancient Light specifically into the Stardust phase, so that isn’t as much of a concern. However, Ancient Doom is still up in the air. To create rough parity with the first phase, I’d make the template for the Pillar phases the following:

– Attack 1 (cycling)
– Attack 2 (cycling)
– Attack 3 (cycling)
– Attack 4 (below 50% health, has a chance to replace any cycling attack)
– Ancient Doom (below 50% health on Expert Mode, has a chance to replace any cycling attack)
– Summoning circle*
*My preference would be to have the summoning ability function the same across all phases. Currently the summoning abilities all have extremely varied functionality; I think it would be less confusing if the duplicates functioned roughly the way they do in the basic fight, apart from having different attacks.

This is just how I’d do it. Currently, each of the Pillar phases has five unique attacks in addition to the summoning circle; that allows for three cycled attacks and two replacement attacks (one of which is Expert-only). If you just want to use Ancient Doom in the later phases while maintaining parity with the first phase, one of the attacks has to be cut from each of the Pillar phases. (Alternately, Ancient Doom could appear much earlier in the fight, only during the first phase.)

However, if you wish to be more specific about the mechanics of the fight, this means you would have to decide which attacks among those you have written out would be basic cycling attacks or ‘replacement’ attacks – and, if Ancient Doom is replaced, which attack becomes Expert-exclusive. (I also recommend listing the summoning circle ability last under each of the phases, as currently they’re spread quite randomly among the other attacks.)
The new attacks which only show up below half health not being able to show up anymore is actually an oversight left over from when the cultist just healed himself repeatedly and had 6 phases instead of just changing between 3 phases at different thresholds of health like he does now. I'll be sure to specify a new threshold for when they show up. Ancient Doom's equivalent being absent is something similar as the fight was originally intended to be Master exclusive so normal mode simply wasn't a factor. Now that I'm making it a "general rework" I'll probably change that.

I'm unsure if I want to make the equivalents for Ancient Light and Ancient Doom have a chance to replace an attack or just add themselves into the rotation below 50% health, any idea which would be better? I wanted to make the stardust phase's "spray portal" his Ancient Light equivalent and the energy wall attack that follows immediately after his Ancient Doom equivalent, so it might be a bit awkward if it's chance based.

The Summoning Circles I would really rather not change. The clones for the Stardust phase are the most significantly Summoner themed part of it due to how they act as protectors, and the Solar phase doesn't even teleport anymore so I'm unsure how his clones would even work if they were based off the vanilla one.
Some of them could be reskins of the Phantasm Dragon and the Ancient Vision, but with Lunar aesthetics and unique stats / attacks / debuffs. Others could be stronger versions of existing Lunar enemies. The only reason I suggest this is that some of the summons seem much less powerful – such as the Vortex cultist summoning a single larva – while shifting large amounts of power onto the decoys. And since I’d prefer that the summoning circle be mostly consistent between the phases, I think the power should be more consistently consolidated onto the summons. (Perhaps one of the phases could mix this up, for a change, and have most of the power come from the remaining decoys.)

For example, the Nebula Cultist’s version of the Phantasm Dragon could resemble a hybrid with the Evolution Beast, and inflict Blackout upon hitting a player. The Ancient Vision analogue could be a hybrid of the Ancient Vision and Nebula Floater.

Crawltipede is powerful enough to be summoned as-is, although I think that Phantasm Dragon variants based on each of the Celestial Pillars would all look spectacular.
I see. I'll probably do it, but I don't want to just slap debuffs onto them though, so I'm going to create new abilities for them. It will definitely happen a lot later than the changes to everything else, though, as I don't want to do it lazily.


This is amazing! Do you mind if I use this idea for my Terraria story?
I don't mind at all. :)

If you use the attack patterns (not sure what you would need them for but just to be safe) or sprites, be sure to credit me or @Bry respectively though.


I dont know if you guys knows but each pillar have an advantage on its class
(Example: nebula have advantage on magic)
So the middle phase being decided by the weapon you're holding or the set you're using would make the battle more challenging for yourself, its like a test to see if you're good on this class
I would have done that, but I didn't plan the attack patterns around the class's weaknesses so I don't think it would really work too well. You could easily just swap something in and out to get the "easiest" phase if that were the case as well, though now that I think of it I'm rather curious what the verdict on how difficult the phases are related to each other would be.
 
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I actually did want the Pillar phase to be the highlight/focus, so how does 40%/45%/15% sound? It wouldn't leave out too much of the vanilla fight. It would also be a nicer ratio when I make the Terrarian phase expert exclusive, being 40%/60% instead of 45%/55%.
That's a great division, I think.
 
Alright, I have updated the post again. The phases have had their length changed and any oversights left over from the first version are (hopefully) gone.
 
Do you think you're finally finished?
There’s exactly one thing left to do, and that’s to give them more creative minions. The spriter who originally made the sprites also decided to start making better versions of some of them, so that will be an update as well.
 
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