PC Record your successful Master Mode boss strategies

mathbrush

Terrarian
There are a lot of tips out there on Master mode but it's hard to know which specific combinations worked.

I've never beaten it (Moon Lord was too hard for me) and I'm doing a new run, and I thought it might be useful for people to record how they defeated each boss to help people further down the line. This isn't about the best way, just whatever worked. I'd definitely be interested in seeing your ideas for the hardmode bosses!

Here's mine for this run (I'll edit in more as I get further):

King Slime:
I made a general flat arena (preparing for Old One's Army) and put four rows spaced 5 blocks apart, about 15 blocks off the ground and a hundred or two blocks long. When King Slime spawned, he just stayed on the ground and I shot him with a ruby staff, switching to a tin bow when I was out of ammo. Armor was just random ore stuff I had.

Eye of Cthulhu:
Same arena. I used the Ruby Staff for the first half and Bone Javelins for the second, since the DPS still hurt him while he was raging. I had full Ninja Armor from summoning King Slime a few times.

Brain of Cthulhu:
This was hard. I died 4 or 5 times, so I had enough time to not only craft Crimson Armor but also craft tons of Butcher Blades until I got one with a good prefix. I also found a Bast statue, a heart lantern, and a gnome, and got a shelf from the dungeon to make stoneskin and regeneration. The Goblin Army spawned while I did this so I tinkered a few accessories. I ended up using the Butcher's Blade against the creepers and the Bone Javelin against the second stage. I would love to hear better strategies. Fought in a crimson underground with rows of platforms.

Queen Bee:
Took three tries. Easiest was Space Gun with Space Armor, standing in a Lightning Aura Sentry from Old One's army to kill bees and jumping up and down on platforms.

Skeletron:
Surprisingly easy. I used a featherfall potion and walked over to a snow biome and just jumped in circles around him (Lightning Boots and Wings), shooting with the space gun, sometimes switching to Bee Gun to kill stray zombies (also had hornet staff and Ballista sentry). Took almost the whole night but didn't need to use more than 1-2 health potions, with no other buffs (except Exquisitely Stuffed).

Wall of Flesh:
I had just completed four playthroughs on Normal/Expert difficulty with each class, so I used the easiest strategy from their: a Mythical Demon Scythe on a long bridge with Magic Power potion, Mana Regeneration potion, Stoneskin and Regeneration. The wall died off screen, but it took about 2/5 of the length of a medium world.

This is where I'm at so far. The first mech boss is always the hardest for me in any playthrough, so I' d love to hear how you do it!

Edit:

Queen Slime:
I had a hard time with this, because I was trying mage, and even with Adamantite Armor one hit takes off like 1/3 of my life. I died maybe 5 or 6 times. Finally used gravitation potion during second half and even then I had to warp to bed near nurse to heal once. Used a Godly Crystal Serpent for first half then Mythical Spirit Flame with magic power potion, mana regeneration potion, well-fed, rage potion, sorceror emblem, celestial cuffs.

Skeletron Prime:
I found this much easier than Queen Slime, although I resorted to nurse cheesing twice. I used Golden Shower and Crystal Serpent at first, but the Spirit Flame worked better in the long run. Took two tries. Used Cobalt Shield to avoid getting juggled by the head. Ran back and forth on a couple of long platforms, going in diagonals when head spinned.

Twins:
Completely cheesed, first with teleporters, but those didn't work, so I'd start running away from Spazmatism then teleporting to base to let him catch up. Then I hid in a castle for Retinazer's second phase and spammed a Ballista.

Old One's Army tier 2:
I saved up for a tier 2 ballista, placed most of them clustered in the middle of each half. I used Unholy Trident against ground troops and Rainbow Rod against flyers. Scrounged up medals from first 6 rounds to get Apprentice's Trousers which helped me win. Used Optic Staff.

The Destroyer:
This one was super easy. I just used the right-click of the Tome of Infinite Wisdom, with mana regeneration potion. Over quick.

Plantera:
Used the digging molecart to dig out an arena. Ended up circling Plantera using Venom staff, then backing down a tunnel for the second stage using Venom staff and Rainbow Rod. Wore Hallowed Headgear with Apprentice Robe and Trousers.

Golem:
Used hoverboard to fly back and forth above his head. Used Spectre Mask to attack then Spectre hood to heal. Used rainbow gun, frost hydra and desert tiger staff to do damage while I used toxic flask until hands were gone, then spectre staff. Died first time because I didn't use mana regeneration, then came back with potions and killed him 4 times before the potions ran out.

Duke Fishron:
Took two tries. Used Spectre Mask/Hood for fighting and healing, used Spectre Staff, Raven Staff, and Witch's Broom. Used Rod of Discord, mostly for practice because it dropped this playthrough and I plan on using it against the Moonlord.

Betsy:
This one was really rough. I used the Toy Tank from the Frost Moon with a Necromantic Scroll and a Papyrus Scarab (with Xeno Staff). I saved up ahead of time for a Ballista Staff, and slowly started saving up for full Dark Artist Armor (I accidentally wasted my defender medals, so I took some at this point from another world).

I used Frost Hydra staff and Charged Blaster Cannon, but against Betsy herself I danced around in the Toy Tank and used Razorpine. I nurse-healed once. Dark Artist armor was much, much much better than Spectre Armor w/mask in this fight.

Empress of Light:
At this point I've completely given in to using Nurse Cheese (twice in this case). I used the Blizzard Staff with the Xeno Staff, Dark Artist armor, necromantic scroll + papyrus scarab.

Lunatic Cultist:
Used Nightglow with Dark Artist pants and robe, Hallowed headgear.

Moon Lord:
So hard! And this is what I've been working towards. Used Brain of Confusion and Worm Scarf with Necromantic Scroll and Papyrus Scarab, Hallowed Headgear with Dark Artist Set, Lifeforce potion, Endurance potion, Stoneskin, Regeneration, Mana Regeneration, Magic Power, Exquisitely Stuffed, Wrath Potion, Rage potion, Stardust Dragon, Super Healing potions, swapping out philosopher's stone with autopause between drinks, even teleporting twice to nurse, won on 5th try with less than 50 health. Used Rod of Discord to dodge Phantasmal Ray.
 
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There are a lot of tips out there on Master mode but it's hard to know which specific combinations worked.

I've never beaten it (Moon Lord was too hard for me) and I'm doing a new run, and I thought it might be useful for people to record how they defeated each boss to help people further down the line. This isn't about the best way, just whatever worked. I'd definitely be interested in seeing your ideas for the hardmode bosses!

Here's mine for this run (I'll edit in more as I get further):

King Slime:
I made a general flat arena (preparing for Old One's Army) and put four rows spaced 5 blocks apart, about 15 blocks off the ground and a hundred or two blocks long. When King Slime spawned, he just stayed on the ground and I shot him with a ruby staff, switching to a tin bow when I was out of ammo. Armor was just random ore stuff I had.

Eye of Cthulhu:
Same arena. I used the Ruby Staff for the first half and Bone Javelins for the second, since the DPS still hurt him while he was raging. I had full Ninja Armor from summoning King Slime a few times.

Brain of Cthulhu:
This was hard. I died 4 or 5 times, so I had enough time to not only craft Crimson Armor but also craft tons of Butcher Blades until I got one with a good prefix. I also found a Bast statue, a heart lantern, and a gnome, and got a shelf from the dungeon to make stoneskin and regeneration. The Goblin Army spawned while I did this so I tinkered a few accessories. I ended up using the Butcher's Blade against the creepers and the Bone Javelin against the second stage. I would love to hear better strategies. Fought in a crimson underground with rows of platforms.

Queen Bee:
Took three tries. Easiest was Space Gun with Space Armor, standing in a Lightning Aura Sentry from Old One's army to kill bees and jumping up and down on platforms.

Skeletron:
Surprisingly easy. I used a featherfall potion and walked over to a snow biome and just jumped in circles around him (Lightning Boots and Wings), shooting with the space gun, sometimes switching to Bee Gun to kill stray zombies (also had hornet staff and Ballista sentry). Took almost the whole night but didn't need to use more than 1-2 health potions, with no other buffs (except Exquisitely Stuffed).

Wall of Flesh:
I had just completed four playthroughs on Normal/Expert difficulty with each class, so I used the easiest strategy from their: a Mythical Demon Scythe on a long bridge with Magic Power potion, Mana Regeneration potion, Stoneskin and Regeneration. The wall died off screen, but it took about 2/5 of the length of a medium world.

This is where I'm at so far. The first mech boss is always the hardest for me in any playthrough, so I' d love to hear how you do it!
Defeat the destroyer first(to get megashark), use a dedalous stormbow or a meteor staff (The dedalous stormbow has been nerfed but still works well). I recommend you to read the guides in the wiki if you are stuck
 
the moment u kill destroyer craft super star shooter (really op) and it'll melt bosses up to golem might wanna stay with titanium/hallowed/clorophyte armor that is/ until shroomite, kill eol, get eventide, kill duke/ get tsunami, kill vortex pillars for fragments for phanstasm/vortex beater (hm ranger run for master mode)
 
Duke Fishron as the first boss in hardmode without having to be a perfect reflex player:
Equip yourself with the best you can, in the fight when you are close to dying, teleport to your spawn point with the mirror, recall potion or potion of return on the ocean's border with the nurse available (you have the whole ocean to fight it), recover yours hit points with her and go back to fight carefully fast so the nurse doesn't die.
If you win you can have one of this boss' weapons in almost the beginning of hardmode, most of these weapons have the potential to get you close to the Moon Lord easily skipping almost all the other weapons in the way.
 
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Duke Fishron as the first boss in hardmode without having to be a perfect reflex player:
Equip yourself with the best you can, in the fight when you are close to dying, teleport to your spawn point with the mirror, recall potion or potion of return on the ocean's border with the nurse available (you have the whole ocean to fight it), recover yours hit points with her and go back to fight carefully so the nurse doesn't die.
If you win you can have one of this boss' weapons in almost the beginning of hardmode, most of these weapons have the potential to get you close to the Moon Lord easily skipping almost all the other weapons in the way.
Well, at this point just use two teleporters and cheese, much easy
 
Well, at this point just use two teleporters and cheese, much easy
Teleporters are after a mechanical boss, the way I said it is also a way for the player to learn to beat this boss and get to a point where he won't even need the nurse in this boss at the beginning of hardmode which is very impressive in this game
 
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Well, I finally was able to beat For the Worthy Master Mode, which feels great because just a couple years ago I thought I'd never be able to beat the Moon Lord on Classic. This run took me about 60-70 hours and was mostly Ranger. I thought I'd record any changes for For the Worthy. I suspect many will find it either uninteresting or unhelpful, but some might like it!

King Slime: Used musket with Gold armor. A high row of platforms, a jump in a bottle and a hook helped with manueverability, and a Flinx Staff for the slimes.

Eye of Cthulhu: Used musket again. The really nice thing is that Magiluminescence+Hermes boots lets you outrun the charge a lot easier.

Eater of Worlds: I died a ton to this boss. Had to find the tinker, brew potions, and use Necro Armor with both Unholy and Jester's arrows to get it to go down. Fought it above-ground since it spits poison underground as well in FTW. Used Slime Mount to bounce away sometimes but it occasionally despawned when doing so. Really tough. It might have been getting Vampire Frogs that finally did it.

Goblin Army: Weather Pain is phenomenal here, and minions too, of course. Made a dirt house with little slits to fire musket through.

Deerclops: Bow and fire arrows, but Vampire Frog really destroys this boss, since its grounded, slow and has a big hitbox. I made a platform a bit above his head and ran in one direction, then jumped backwards when he did the ice throw. The extra hands are a little tough here, but this boss didn't receive many changes in FTW besides more health, so this was an easier fight.

OOA tier 1: Jester arrows are OP. Weather pain was great here.

Skeletron: Had to fish Fledgling Wings from a Sky Crate to win this one. Used Molten Fury, but high mobility with magiluminescence/wings/rocket boots/shield of cthulhu really helped.

Queen Bee: Died a ton here. I think I had to get a hellwing bow for this fight; really nasty. Fossil armor helped. I attempted this battle even earlier.

Wall of Flesh: Fought almost 20 times. In the ends, I used an unreal Hellwing Bow for the first 90% and finished it off with a ruthless Star Cannon (and ammo reserv potion). Even then I got dragged by the tongue.

Queen Slime: Very easy with a skybridge spanning the world and a goat skull. Used cursed darts and dart rifle for most of the fight with some Onyx Blaster during the flying part.

Destroyer: Harder than I thought it would be. Nimbus rod kept releasing probes too fast. Used crystal darts to hit probes, hid in a box in the sky with open top.

OOA tier 2: I had saved up for a tier 2 sentry so starting was easier. Dart Rifle was great (both ammo types). Saved up for Huntress Armor. Had some trouble at first, and tried wearing Spider Greaves, but it wasn't worth it.

Pirate Invasion: Relied mostly on Queen Spider staff and spiders while hiding in a box with holes to shoot darts out of.

Twins: Used same skybridge as Queen Slime with Megashark and crystal bullets. Used Amphibian Boots for first half of spazmatism then switched to goat skull for second. Cheesed Retinazer with a house.

Skeletron Prime: Fought over the ocean, thinking it would limit destruction, but finished the fight with all my beach houses gone and the ocean about 20 blocks too low (fortunately had a bottomless water bucket from doing 40+ quests). Used Megashark and Cursed Darts (maybe Daedalus Stormbow too? Can't remember).

Plantera: Used Phantom Phoenix with Chlorophyte arrows. Had tried Chlorophyte armor with Yelets unsucessfully. Had a long tunnel with a teleporter at the end to reverse (for second half). Took many tries.

At that point, I found a spectre staff in the dungeon and switched to mage with spectre armor.

Solar Eclipse: Didn't really need much from here, but spectre staff helped me with getting moon stone and neptune shell. Mothron wasn't too bad with staff.

Pumpkin Moon: Spectre staff was great, especially healing with spectre armor. It was tough to get far, but I was mainly shooting for a good summon (which I didn't get), 2 necromantic scrolls (which I did) and a witch's broom (also got). I then fought it 10 more times, but more on that later. Used terra blade with chlorophyte armor a couple of times, too.

Golem: I had a hard time! He was tiny but jumped like a maniac. Also, the temple was massive. I built a house right underneath the throne room and put my respawn there. For the first time ever, I actuated a huge chunk of the temple so I had more than a screen's worth of arena for Golem. Used Spectre Staff, and tried the heat ray and boulder staff he dropped while farming him.

Martian Madness: I used the boulder staff a ton. Something dropped a Charged Blaster Cannon early on, which really changed the game. It was so fun blasting stuff away. Farmed for Xeno Staff.

OOA tier 3, first part: This was incredibly hard. I have found before on Master Mode that you can't really beat Tier3 without using Tavernkeep's armor from Tier 2 (at least, it makes it a lot easier). Unfortunately, my best crowd control weapons (blaster cannon and boulder staff) didn't match my armor (ranger). So I tried what I had (Candycorn rifle, Phantom Phoenix, Stynger, etc.). I had saved up for a tier 3 explosive trap and used a sentry accessory, a papyrus scarab and necromantic scroll to boost summon damage. But ranger still wasn't cutting it, so I tried Spooky Armor with xeno staff and dark harvest (for most enemies) and morning star (for ogre). This got to Betsy, but lost against her.

Duke Fishron: Actually not bad. I died the first time, but the second time I used Spooky Armor with xeno staff and morning star. Low defense doesn't matter since you're dead if he hits you anyway. Dropped Tsunami, my main weapon for a while.

Pumpkin Moon again: At this point, I used Tsunami to farm Pumpkin moon using Chlorophyte arrows so they were guaranteed to hit something. After 10 times (including a trip to another world to grab some stored hallowed bars after farming the destroyer one too many times), finally got stake launcher, the only ranged weapon (besides Eventide) that can handle OOA.

OOA tier 3, Betsy: The Stake Launcher was incredible against the ground troops, really impressive (this is literally the highest difficulty and they melted away, even Drakin). I was using a molten quiver and a magic quiver with an avenger's emblem and the summoning accessories. I still couldn't beat Betsy, but farmed up to wave 6 to get Red Riding armor. Then it was all over; I put all but 6 traps (3 on each end) near the middle, since that's what really does damage to Betsy. I used Tsunami with Chlorophyte on her (with 5 UFOs from summoning potion, scrolls and bewitching table). I died, but the traps finished her off.

Frost Moon: Usually really important for me, but FTW made me drop a lot of things I usually love (rockets, north pole, flamethrowers) and other things I had were already better (Charged blaster cannon, for instance.) Used Stake Launcher and chlorophyte/venom tsunami. The toy tank was, as always, very fun.

Lunatic Cultist: This is where I failed. I had tried Empress of Light multiple times but just couldn't win (even before Duke Fishron). So I used pillar weapons on her, getting through the Cultist first. The cultist was surprisingly tough, and I used Venom tsunami.

Empress of Light: I tried so many things, including buying and tediously placing a couple thousand bubbles with water in a grid to make fishron mount powerful. But it turns out I've trained myself to use the slower witch's broom, so fishron mount failed. I ended up bringing in crimson seeds to use both wrath and rage potions, used stardust cells and phantasm. Really wish I didn't have to cheese, but this is just too hard to me (FTW doubles attack speed in both stages).

Moon Lord: Surprisingly easy. Nothing is boosted here but health, not even contact damage. Used Shrimpy Truffle (and my grid), alternated between the really good potions/philosopher stone and warping to nurse. Used phantasm for top eye and very distant vortex beater for rest. Used stardust cells since they add on extra damage every time you hit (up to a cap on speed) and don't get lost like dragon.

Overall Bosses: The hardest bosses to adapt to, for me, were Wall of Flesh (faster, harder to hit, much healthier), Eater of Worlds (bigger, healthier, spitting more poison), and Empress of Light (so fast in attacking). Plantera was hard but is always hard.

Overall non-bosses: It's really polarizing. The contact damage is insanely high, but everything else is the same. So I lost to, for instance, empress of light by having running into a werewolf and instantly losing 300+ health. Green slimes could take off 1/5 of my endgame health and frequently did. Wyverns killed me so many times (I had over 400 soul of flight and a wyvern banner at the end).

The lava pools were cool, actually, especially once I got terrasark boots. The bombs from trees helped with mining from time to time. And red potion was useful for a couple of boss fights (although I don't think I ever won the first time with one). The fast mining and big ore veins were very helpful. Every demon being a voodoo demon was bad (deaths) and great (easy to fight WoF).

I used potions a ton, and made herb farms for the first time and tons of fishing quests.
 
Use Featherfall Potion for every boss, except Twins. Use Grav instead.

Also, see General Mobility Guide

The only arenas you ever need are horizontal planterbox platform for Queen Slime, Skeletron and Wall of Flesh.

Once you start using Featherfall Potion's features you will never want an arena ever again.
 
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King Slime - Flat arena, 4 blocks off the ground, a line of platforms. I typically end up fighting the king slime during the slime rain and slimes in general can't pass downwards through the platforms so safe on the bottom level. Only 4 blocks off the ground so that slimes that spawn under the platforms will always jump up by their 3rd jump. Makes the fight alot safer.

Eye of Cthulhu - My cross-world air-minecart rail just adjust the speed to stay out of reach and fire away.

Skeletron - Minecart rail loop above the dungeon. Just set up the right speed and fire away, he can't touch you, and even if you don't manage to beat by daytime, his dungeon guardian form can't even keep up so it's basically a guaranteed win assuming you got the patience.
Alternate strat - attempt to flaregun it to death with no prep.... jk

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Queen Bee - Row of platforms at honey-level in the hive, so I can quickly dip in honey and come back up during the fight. Campfire & heart lantern in the hive too. Then just time jumps over it's dash attacks and dodge most the needleshooting by tapping left-right so it leads it's shots all wrong.

Eater of Worlds - literally just grapple to the floor and use a flail lmao you'll probably kill it before it kills you. Depends how strong your flail is tho.

Wall of flesh - completely flatten one end of hell, make a floating minecart rail about halfway between the flattened floor and cielings. Measure out the exact high the eyes will be, set dart traps and/or set boulder traps attached to minecart pressure plates. Toss guide doll in the lava and just minecart away and let the boulders do the work. (Old version screenshots, but still works for me even in master mode

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Eoc: Minishark + Golden Armor. Mobility is very important not to mention 2 rows of platforms.

Boc: Jester Arrows Phase 1 Minishark Phase 2

Twins: Gravitation potion removes any and all challenge for the twins fight. Defeat the twins first.
 
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