Need help with expert moon lord

AdenSword

Terrarian
Well, I never thought I would be posting one of these threads but, here I am.

Ever since 1.3 came out I've been doing an expert playthrough, I didn't have all that much trouble with the bosses, sometimes I had to try 3-4 times, but I got it soon enough.

But the moon lord, I'm starting to wonder if he is even possible on expert solo using ranged. I watched Yrimir kill him on expert solo so I know it's possible but he used mele (OP right now) and this character has been a ranged character from the start and I don't wana have to switch to mele just to beat the final boss. But I've been trying and trying and trying to kill him, I must have fought him at least 15 times now and the farthest I got to was one time I actually managed to start attacking his core but I died shortly after.

Here is an image to show you what I'm using http://images.akamai.steamuserconte...045/5D24EA5FACD82BF10E4052D7414E51085C467DBA/ (I need to stock up on more super healing potions). The image also gives you a small glimpse of what my arena is like, the rest of it is exactly the same 3 layers of panels, an occasional line of pearlstone to block the moon lord's laser, and heart lanterns, campfires, and sunflowers all around. Also from the image you can see all of the buffing potions I've been using. Looked on the wiki and there are none others that would help.

As for the fight itself I use the (unreal) vortex beater all the time, I shoot the hands mostly but if the head is open and I have a good angle I will shoot at the head. I'm using venom bullets but would it be better to use Chlorophyte? I can't seem to deceide which is better, venom does 4 more damage per bullet and applies the venom debuff but Chlorophyte bullets seek and I am guaranteed to hit with every singe one, I'm using venom because it's easier to get.

I have also been using the unicorn mount to stay out from under him. My main issue is just that he does too much damage. I have all warding accessorys but still, even his little laser things he shoots from his hands do a lot! And if you get hit by his eyeballs or his massive laser from his head then your as good as dead. I teleport back to the nurse whenever I'm low on health but he teleports too and sometimes he kills me before I can heal from her.

I've been doing everything I can to kill him and yet I just can't. I can't think of anything else I can do to fight him better other than learn to dodge his attacks better but that takes fighting him a lot of times and you can only fight him 2-3 times every time before you need to do the stupid pillars again. So, please, if there is anything you have to say that could help me, by all means, tell me. I will try it. (And if it works I will give you 100,000,000,000,000,000$!(you wish))
 
If your setup is just like the one in your screenshot, I'd ask some stuff, such as:

1. How long is your arena ?
2. How well can you dodge the spinning laser from the eyes?
3. Are you willing to farm for some "hard-to-drop" stuff?

If you don't care about what you're gonna use to defeat the Moon Lord, I'd suggest you to try getting the Rod of Discord, in my opinion, one of the most useful items of the game (during the entire hardmode playthrough). The Rod of Discord helps vastly to dodge the big lasers from the eyes.

My method of killing him involves having an immense skybridge (around 4000-5000 ft), then I proceed to summon him and keep running with my unicorn to the left and to the right on the skybridge, and when I reach it's limits, I simply reverse the direction.

You can also still cheese him through a lot of methods (posted on this forum or found in the internet/YouTube).
 
1. How long is your arena ?
Rather long, several thousand panels.
2. How well can you dodge the spinning laser from the eyes?
The true eyes of Cthulhu never really do the spinning laser to me so I haven't had much practice. Actually I think I only ever saw them to it once.
3. Are you willing to farm for some "hard-to-drop" stuff?
I said I'm willing to try anything, Yes I am willing to farm for rare stuff.
I'd suggest you to try getting the Rod of Discord, in my opinion, one of the most useful items of the game (during the entire hardmode playthrough). The Rod of Discord helps vastly to dodge the big lasers from the eyes.
That sounds like a good idea, I'll try to farm for that and see how it goes.
My method of killing him involves having an immense skybridge (around 4000-5000 ft), then I proceed to summon him and keep running with my unicorn to the left and to the right on the skybridge, and when I reach it's limits, I simply reverse the direction.
That's prettymuch what I do, except I try to keep closeish so that I can hit him with most of the bullets.
You can also still cheese him through a lot of methods (posted on this forum or found in the internet/YouTube).
No, I refuse.
 
Oh, I also thought about something from your setup, some of your accessories seemed redundant or not useful enough to be there for this fight, in my opinion, such as:

Ankh Shield
Lightning Boots
Even your wing (maybe) on the first slot

There is another strategy that involves flying around with the UFO Mount, usually flying diagonally (with a speed of 58 mph) , where you can take out your wings and place a more useful accessory in that slot. Also, running with your unicorn decreases the importance of having wings an a accessory, since you will probably run with the unicorn almost the whole fight.

Since the Moon Lord fight will be probably mounted, I also don't see uses for Lightning Boots. Most strategies and maybe even ours involves mounts.

It can also be observed that besides the Moon Bite debuff, there isn't another significant debuff from Moon Lord, so Ankh Shield falls in utility too.
 
Do your best to get the eyes at at a similar time. Try Vortex Beater w/ Chloro bullets, use the sniper scope (10% dmg and crit, zoom with guns) to out range his attacks. With a long walkway and sufficient wings/flight mount, you can just berserk in 1 direction and fire away. Rod of Discord is so worth farming for like others have said due to the ability to blink past the large eye laser instantly. Fishron wings are useful because of the ascent speed boost too. I agree with dropping the lightning boots (for sniper scope) since you won't be on the ground all that much anyway.

I did my first solo kill as ranger, it's definitely possible, but it takes a fair amount of practice. 4 tries before I even got him to second phase. Last thing, Use the Phantasm on his second stage, probably venom arrows. Just fly up and go bananas with it, it's superb for single target damage.
 
Another tip is to play with a friend. Just call someone and play with him, one targets one hand and the other targets the other. Playing with 3 is even better.
 
I'd like to also add and suggest some accessories to use, and you can choose based on your preference:

You can go full defense/tank mode to improve your sustain and survivability:

1. Remove Ankh Shield and replace with Flesh Knuckles. For more defense.
2. Remove Lightning Boots and replace with Paladin's Shield or Frozen Turtle Shell. For more defense/damage reduction.
3. Maybe you can also remove the wings and replace with Celestial Shell. For more defense, HP regeneration and even bonus damage!

The order doesn't matter much or which accessories are going to really be removed, but I think these 4 accessories may help a lot on survivability. You may even stack Celestial Stone with Celestial Shell (need confirmation if hp regeneration stacks), but even though these items help melee characters more, they are great for any class overall.

I also thought about Cross Necklace/Star Veil (their invincibility time isn't stackable, so you should only use one of them), but I don't remember getting damaged constantly for the duration of the right.

You can also go full damage and try to down this boss as fast as you can, so you don't get outlasted by him:

1. Celestial Shell and/or Celestial Stone.
2. Sniper Scope (for more damage and critical hit chance), as Rio mentioned above.
3. Destroyer Emblem (for more damage and critical hit chance).

I think you really should get Celestial Shell, no joke, more damage, more critical chance, more defense and more HP regen, and even more bonuses at night in just one accessory.

Besides what I said, you can also use Endurance Potion, Ironskin Potion, Lifeforce Potion, etc.
 
I would recommend using the Phantasm with Holy Arrows over the Vortex Beater, as that thing is a boss killing machine. Also, reforge all accessories to Warding if you haven't already.

Other than that, there's nothing else that hasn't been said already.
 
I would say farm the Martians and get a UFO mount (or trade it I guess) then you can get rid of wings, boots, any movement items you have since it renders them useless and replace them with defense / dps. You also do not require an arena then because the UFO mount has infinite flight and is as fast as the moon lord when going left and right and faster than him if going diagonal.

Be sure to also craft potions like Endurance, Lifeforce, Wrath, Archery (if you're planning on using a bow), Rage, etc.

Another option is to move a Nurse in a separate house that has nothing but a bed, workbench (so its suitable) and a platform room so you can jump out easily, set your spawn there and when you start to get low on health Mirror back, heal, and get back and fight him.

Best of luck!
 
Oh, I also thought about something from your setup, some of your accessories seemed redundant or not useful enough to be there for this fight, in my opinion, such as:
Wow, I can't believe I didn't think of that, I don't even use my wings, or boots at all, and being on the unicorn already makes you immune to knockback right? So I'll replace those with more useful accessorys, that should help a lot.
Another tip is to play with a friend. Just call someone and play with him, one targets one hand and the other targets the other. Playing with 3 is even better.
I'm trying to beat it solo, and I want to beat it solo.

Alright, I'll get back to you guys in a few hours, maybe I'll finally get him, thanks for all the help!
 
I use a lot more potions than this, granted I mage, but as well as what you have there, I'm using Inferno for extra damage when it's near me, Thorns, heartreach, food for the well fed buff, summoning for the minion boost, and you could use an archery potion too?
If you have a UFO mount that can be useful instead of wings too.
 
- Get a Cosmic Car Key.
- The sky is your arena.
- Use the Vortex Beater and chlorophyte bullets.
- Cross Necklace. Everybody and his dog should own one.
- Fly around the moon lord, making large circles around him while just spraying away in his general direction.
- If you see his main eye open, fly around it to dodge the beam... or use a Rod of Discord!
- Swap the wings for something useful, the Cosmic Car is your wings.

Another tip is to play with a friend. Just call someone and play with him, one targets one hand and the other targets the other. Playing with 3 is even better.
Keep in mind that in expert mode every additional player will make the boss harder to beat. So each player will have to be sure they can hold their own. :)
 
I found that the best way to beat him is to use the Cosmic Car Keys (UFO mount) and just fly around in the sky. To avoid his giant eye laser, you'll need a Rod of Discord. My main weapon for the fight was the phantasm with venom arrows. Endurance potion is vital, other potions don't really matter. But rage and/or wrath potions help out a bit. May as well throw in some regen and ironskin as well.
Pretty much just do what this guy does. (skip ahead to 21:40)
(Only video I could find of someone using this tactic).
 
- Get a Cosmic Car Key.
- The sky is your arena.
- Use the Vortex Beater and chlorophyte bullets.
- Cross Necklace. Everybody and his dog should own one.
- Fly around the moon lord, making large circles around him while just spraying away in his general direction.
- If you see his main eye open, fly around it to dodge the beam... or use a Rod of Discord!
- Swap the wings for something useful, the Cosmic Car is your wings.


Keep in mind that in expert mode every additional player will make the boss harder to beat. So each player will have to be sure they can hold their own. :)
Yep, so there needs to be a good friend. I once tried doing destroyer on expert with a newbie friend... Lost some NPCs and 20 gold.
 
I DID IT!

Swapping my wings with a star veil and my boots with a celestial shell helped a lot! Also I didn't realize how much DPS Phantasm did, you can't test it on a dummy very well so I thought it sucked.
What also helped a lot was turning on autopause to make it easier to heal at the nurse (did it at least 10 times during the battle)

Thanks for all your help guys! (Now I just need to kill him again to get enough luminite to finish off my armor set)
 
since you're ranger with shroomite gear (low defense), I would forget about using an emblem and I would stack more defense, maybe a warding paladin's shield even in single player you get 6 def+ warding = 10 defense or warding flesh knucles?

EDIT: oh well, you already defeat him
 
I think you should get better wings, such as fishron, or the martian car key. Keep the ankh shield. Take away stardust dragon until the end of the fight. He could mess you up by sending out the eyes too soon. Replace the band of regen with the shiny stone, and use holy arrows, and venom bullets. Also, you should get warding on most of your accessories.
 
I think you should get better wings, such as fishron, or the martian car key. Keep the ankh shield. Take away stardust dragon until the end of the fight. He could mess you up by sending out the eyes too soon. Replace the band of regen with the shiny stone, and use holy arrows, and venom bullets. Also, you should get warding on most of your accessories.
I use the unicorn so I didn't even need the wings, I can't get a martian invasion at all. I actually find it easier to dodge the eyes than the hands. WHEN am I going to be standing still in this fight to use the shiny stone? WHEN? I ended up just using venom arrows. And I said that I already had warding on all my accessories.
 
I think you should get better wings, such as fishron, or the martian car key. Keep the ankh shield. Take away stardust dragon until the end of the fight. He could mess you up by sending out the eyes too soon. Replace the band of regen with the shiny stone, and use holy arrows, and venom bullets. Also, you should get warding on most of your accessories.
I'm pretty sure the Shiny Stone is useless because you'll have to be sitting still for it to heal you.
 
Back
Top Bottom