Is it possible to beat Frost moon on master mode with only pre-lunar gear?

[ScourgeOfCorruptor]

Pumpkin moon is almost certainly beatable (I've gotten up to almost the end of wave 14, and with some more optimisation I could push that to wave 15), but Frost moon just seems too difficult. The highest wave I can get to is wave 14, and just barely, with a fully optimised mage loadout.

How have you guys been able to do?

 

[Aurora3500]

I'm sure it is possible and people have done it, but I am not one of those people. Even on Normal or Expert Mode, I generally need Lunar & Moon Lord Tier weapons to get far enough in the Frost Moon. For some reason I generally struggle with the Moon events overall.

I tried doing Frost Moon in Master Mode with using Fishron & Empress of Light weapons in combination with Shroomite Armor and I was only able to get up to wave 7. I didn't retry it, but ultimately it felt out of my league to try the Master Mode Frost Moon without Lunar equipment.

 

[J Bame]

Final wave is very possible. My current record is 2:39 AM:

Spoiler

Some general tips:
* Bring Heartreach Potions. You are going to die without them.
* Use Mounts for mobility, not Wings or anything else. Not only do you free up a lot of slots this way, they are unaffected by the Chilled from the Ice Queen, which would be extremely annoying otherwise. The Santank and Scutlix Mounts are best as they give incredible grounded mobility (the minibosses are designed in a way that you don't need to fly) and they have a solid passive attack.
* Bring Warmth Potions; literally a hard counter to the Ice Queens. Don't forget Heartreach.
* Don't get too stuck up on reaching the final wave. There is no reason to; it's not a money fest like Pumpkin Moon and you'll get most if not all the weapons in your first or second try if you do it right. So in normal attempts bring defensive stuff like Frozen Shield because you'll need it.
* Xeno Staff is broken. Use it even if you are not a summoner, just three of them from the Summoner Potion and Bewitching table will be putting in a lot of work. The more you invest into them (with OOA set pieces, a Papyrus Scarab, or an Avenger Emblem) the better.
* Heartreach.
* Santank is the biggest threat. Dude spams hard-hitting bullets like crazy and limits your movement with missiles and presents, and drops mines that can literally one-shot you and blend in extremely well with Hearts and Coins. If there is an Ice Queen and a Santank alive, the latter is the bigger threat.
* Don't underestimate Elf Copters. Each of them is a mini-Santank, kill them quickly.
* The Tsunami with Holy Arrows is the strongest weapon available by a disgusting margin. Even before I started tryharding the event I could manage to reach the Final wave semi-consistently with it while every other weapon I had tried before got to Wave 18 at most. This is definitely your best choice and it may actually be better than Fragment weapons that aren't Phantasm or the Stardust Dragon.
* Lastly, bring Heartreach potions.

 

[Toxophilite [East]]

Yep, pretty much everything Jota Bame said, but if that still ain't enough, use kill-engines, traps & lava. The Holiday Events are all post-Plantera, so you should have access to the Jungle Temple.