Game Mechanics Remove/Rework the Lunatic Cultist's Hidden Resistance to Homing

[Asternove]

As you know by now, the Lunatic Cultist is resistant to anything that homes. This is not told in-game anywhere for whatever reason. I assume that the "gimmick" of this fight is to have him be weak but hard to hit by being small, constantly teleporting, and creating clones; resisting homing is to "fix" a workaround to this gimmick.

Tackily shoving on hidden resistances to "dishonorable" ways of playing is not good game design.

All it does is invalidate people who are clever enough to think "this boss is tricky to hit, so let's make it easier. Terraria is a game that encourages this sort of behavior from players; Deerclops' range invincibility and Moon Lord's Moon Bite and teleport are the only other exceptions I can think of, all of which make it clear in-game that your strategy isn't going to work (both of the Moon Lord's anti-cheese suck too imo, but that's irrelevant.) Why make the Lunatic Cultist the exception? It's a slap in the face for people who think they're being smart like the game has thus far encouraged. It also, uh, invalidates most of Summoners' toolkit. Just to add to the mess.

I see two three potential fixes here:

1. Remove it entirely. Simple, maybe not too effective, but better than lying to the player about their performance on the boss. Would fit in with Terraria's general attitude at tactically preparing for the fight in the best way you can. This would make the fight easier, but it could be offset by buffing Cultist's defense and HP (which should be probably done anyway.)
2. Remove it, but make weapons not home in on him; this is a bit more complex, but it (maybe paired with a debuff that says homing won't work or something) would actually give the player a reliable way to notice that homing isn't supposed to work. For Summons, just have them only target if they used whips/summon RClick. While it's still a sort of tacked on fix so the gimmick of the fight stands, it doesn't hide the fact that the game doesn't want you to use these weapons.
3. Suggested by Baconfry: Homing attacks target clones

 

[Fido Dido]

Second one, homing weapons make the fight a lot easier than it probably should be but I don’t think secretly making them deal less damage is fair (although not a huge deal really)
I think it would be better and cooler if they just didn’t home in on him. I like the idea of him having this unique ability

 

[Timey-Whimy]

Homing weapons could slowly become less effective as his HP drains, as if he is getting more desperate

 

[Orchamut]

it doesn't hide the fact that the game doesn't want you to use these weapons.

To be fair it's only a 25% damage nerf and I've never actually noticed a difference personally so I think it's really just a weird attempt to balance him, and not just trying to punish people for using homing weapons.
I guess to see how effective this is you'd have to see if people generally have a 75% accuracy rate against cultist compared to other bosses with non-homing weapons, or something. 25% damage nerf seems pretty harsh but I'd want to know how much it affects the boss in practice.

 

[Mecha_]

Honestly, lunatic cultist feels like a pushover with this damage nerf anyway, so I'm not too concerned about it

 

[Baconfry]

The most organic way to punish the player for using homing weapons is to make homing weapons target the clones.

 

[Mecha_]

The most organic way to punish the player for using homing weapons is to make homing weapons target the clones.

That's evil
You're evil

 

[Fido Dido]

The most organic way to punish the player for using homing weapons is to make homing weapons target the clones.

I don’t think that’s a great idea, that would confuse a lot of people. Imagine you’re a new player and you’re spamming bullets like you do the entire game for every boss then suddenly one of these bullets homes in on the fake cultist before you can even register what’s going on

 

[Baconfry]

Imagine you’re a new player and you’re spamming bullets like you do the entire game for every boss

Are you saying that a new player who is spamming homing bullets the entire game for every boss should be rewarded for doing so?

 

[Fido Dido]

Are you saying that a new player who is spamming homing bullets the entire game for every boss should be rewarded for doing so?

No, I don’t think it should home in on the real one either. I think it should just not home in on the cultist at all, one of the options on the poll

I also don’t want to imply that homing bullet spam is necessarily a good thing, but it isn’t really discouraged at any point in the game (if I’m completely wrong on that then please correct me). So if a new player is doing this, it would probably feel wrong to suddenly be punished for it this late into the game, especially in a way that might make the “puzzle” (which already kinda sucks anyway) seem more random than an actual puzzle

 

[Baconfry]

but it isn’t really discouraged at any point in the game (if I’m completely wrong on that then please correct me).

If you think about it, almost every boss that you face after unlocking Chlorophyte Bullets has mechanics that show you how homing bullets don't give you full control of what you're targeting. Plantera fills the screen with tentacles, Golem has two fists that serve as extra targets, and even Duke Fishron has the cthulhunadoes flinging sharks that will divert bullets away. The player should already know that Chlorophyte Bullets will sometimes home in on the wrong thing. It's just that the Lunatic Cultist is the first one who actually punishes you for hitting the wrong thing. And it is completely fair, he creates the whole summoning circle and becomes intangible, so you definitely have a few seconds to realize that maybe he is doing something that you ought to pay attention to