Unpopular opinion: The Destroyer is the Hardest Mechanical Boss

[Golemgold12]

Well... without all the cheese strategies. And not being melee class.
Nearly every time I try to start a expert mode playthrough up, I always do the Destroyer as it seems to cause me the most trouble. Usually because of the probes along with the load of lasers it shoots. When you try to take out the probes, you distract yourself from the Destroyer, allowing you to get killed by its head attack.
The Twins is easier for me because Wings, and the fact that the fight becomes a joke once the red eye is down.
Skeletron Prime is easier because he has a smaller health pool, and a lack of movement like the Twins and The Destroyer.
Maybe I’m missing something about how to beat it, as I don’t see why every single person says that it is a pushover.

 

[tenthousandhoops]

Problem with The Destroyer is that a cheese strategy is any decent crowd-control weapon, like Drippler Crippler, Cursed Darts or Life Drain. It's especially bad if you catch the big lug coiled up; you can do a third of its health, potentially more.
I find it easier when you look at the minimap, it helps with spotting The Destroyer offscreen. Staying high on platforms works too since it can't even catch you. If lasers are a problem, step away and deal with chasing probes instead.

 

[J Bame]

Destroyer is the most polarizing boss fight in the entire game. Use something that can infinitely pierce and it's just a matter of lining up your shots right (not even that, with some weapons like Life Drain or Cursed Darts). Use anything else and you got yourself a giant tank that spams lasers and probes everywhere.

 

[Toxophilite [East]]

I don't disagree... I think, in a theoretical Terraria World, where... let's say, the entire surface was covered in water or Actuated Blocks, that fight would be much more interesting. From what I can tell, many of the worm Bosses have the ability to increase in speed, based on momentum. If that momentum wasn't constantly being interrupted, because the Bosses were forced to the surface, what would that fight look like (Eater of Worlds for example)?

I think, perhaps the easiest way to answer this might be fighting the Destroyer in a Plantera-like arena filled with water, the player kitted-out with Flipper Potions, Gills Potion, Fishron Wings etc. If the Boss is still easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy, we've got our answer.

 

[Mille Marteaux]

Difficulty is highly subjective, but I know when playing with friends and house rules to not instantly yeet it, The Destroyer gives us the most trouble. I'd say rather than a matter of difficulty, it's a matter of respect - The Destroyer is among the least respected bosses in the game due to how comparitively easily you can just outright delete it compared to when you encounter other bosses for the first time.

As a boss encounter, It has a lot of things going in its favor - it constantly exists on the map as a damaging hitbox, it can quickly flood the screen with projectiles, it does extremely high damage if you don't keep up with its head... Its high health lends towards needing sweeping area attacks to take it out in time before it overwhelms you or just outright tanks you and leaves.

The Destroyer is definitely challenging. It just also happens to be "solved" by most of the community and when using those solutions, it has a much lower execution barrier than The Twins or even Skeletron Prime do.

 

[YeetYeetGW2]

Honestly, I agree. Maybe because I'm a console player and frequently do Co-Op which drastically increases his health, but his swarming probes and huge body damage can kill you in seconds without a good arena or guard. But as others have said, he does take damage much faster, so with aforementioned "Cheese" he dies fairly easily.

Nonetheless, I still think he's the hardest because you can't just run away on a minecart as easily to avoid him and his attacks; I took down The Twins and Skeletron Prime on expert night with a Daedalus Stormbow + Holy arrows (1.3.5) in the same night, while destroyer took fairly longer with the same strategy.

 

[someone that is bunny]

Twins is easy af

 

[someone that is bunny]

Honestly, I agree. Maybe because I'm a console player and frequently do Co-Op which drastically increases his health, but his swarming probes and huge body damage can kill you in seconds without a good arena or guard. But as others have said, he does take damage much faster, so with aforementioned "Cheese" he dies fairly easily.

Nonetheless, I still think he's the hardest because you can't just run away on a minecart as easily to avoid him and his attacks; I took down The Twins and Skeletron Prime on expert night with a Daedalus Stormbow + Holy arrows (1.3.5) in the same night, while destroyer took fairly longer with the same strategy.

How did you kill twins with Daedalus. And i thought you said you were melee

 

[BuffIing]

Even when not using piercing damage I can just fly into the sky and laugh hysterically while using the Ice Rod to block his lasers and make platforms which means I never have to come down for any reason. No other mech lets you do that. Plus, the probes are not tanky at all.

 

[FIuff]

Even when not using piercing damage I can just fly into the sky and laugh hysterically while using the Ice Rod to block his lasers and make platforms which means I never have to come down for any reason. No other mech lets you do that. Plus, the probes are not tanky at all.

and the probes give you free hearts as well

 

[whoneedsnamestbh]

Honestly, I refuse to cheese bosses including the destroyer, meaning I won’t sit in a box out of his reach or use weapons that are way too strong for the fight (although I still use pierce, obviously) and when you do so, he’s sort of difficult.

You can kill him in relatively short time using pierce if you line up your shots, but you still gotta pace yourself to not create an absolutely massive swarm of Probes. Three probes aren’t a problem, fifteen are. And if you don’t just hide in a box, his laser spam can be pretty overwhelming, although the hearts dropped by probes can hold up your HP somewhat. He’s not harder than say Plantera, but he’s probably the hardest mech if you don’t cheese him.

What Destroyer really needs is some cheeseproofing. Make him able to target the player through tiles and make the lasers pierce tiles, although segments that are themselves in blocks wouldn’t fire. Give him some resistance to piercing projectiles except minions, the same way Cultist has resistance to homing attacks. And make him more agile the higher up the player is. Then counterbalance by reducing his health, damage and fire rate down so people don’t feel like they have to cheese, and he’d be a decent boss.

 

[Simple]

I do see why you think the destroyer is hard. While it can be cheesed by the Daedalus Stormbow and the Star Cloak/Veil and other things that can cheese the destroyer (I kind of forgot,) it makes up for it for its ability to ram you with its head, dealing massive amounts of damage, trap you inside its body and the ground and slowly close in, surround you with probes, and more. I also see why Prime and the Twins are easier. The cheese strategies for them focus more on dodging their attacks than dealing more damage to them, although I do admit that Skeletron prime's cheese strategy might focus on both. In fact, an average Terraria player focuses more on dealing damage to the destroyer than dodging its attacks compared to the other mechs. This is most likely because of the Destroyer's absolutely humongous hitbox range (just like funny purple worm boss) which in turn can lead to the fight being easily cheesed and abused. Seriously, every cheese method I know of the Destroyer has to do something with abusing its hitboxes. I believe the destroyer is harder to some players mostly because of the nerf of the Daedalus Stormbow, because pre-1.4 everyone would do the Stormbow technique (including me.) Also, while minimaps can help, they are utterly useless unless you are moving fast, you could just see the destroyer pop out on the minimap, but it would already be too late because of the destroyer's insane "rising up from the ground" speed.

From my experiences, only one time in all my unfinished expert playthroughs have I not had a hard time defeating the destroyer, and in that specific playthrough I used the railroad Daedalus Stormbow trick. I literally had to cheese the destroyer, and any other method would be fatal.

In conclusion, yeah... ultimately I do agree with you. While it may seem like the easiest boss at first, its not truly that way to anyone unless they are a lazy person who likes to cheese the whole game.

 

[BuffIing]

I do see why you think the destroyer is hard. While it can be cheesed by the Daedalus Stormbow and the Star Cloak/Veil and other things that can cheese the destroyer (I kind of forgot,) it makes up for it for its ability to ram you with its head, dealing massive amounts of damage, trap you inside its body and the ground and slowly close in, surround you with probes, and more. I also see why Prime and the Twins are easier. The cheese strategies for them focus more on dodging their attacks than dealing more damage to them, although I do admit that Skeletron prime's cheese strategy might focus on both. In fact, an average Terraria player focuses more on dealing damage to the destroyer than dodging its attacks compared to the other mechs. This is most likely because of the Destroyer's absolutely humongous hitbox range (just like funny purple worm boss) which in turn can lead to the fight being easily cheesed and abused. Seriously, every cheese method I know of the Destroyer has to do something with abusing its hitboxes. I believe the destroyer is harder to some players mostly because of the nerf of the Daedalus Stormbow, because pre-1.4 everyone would do the Stormbow technique (including me.) Also, while minimaps can help, they are utterly useless unless you are moving fast, you could just see the destroyer pop out on the minimap, but it would already be too late because of the destroyer's insane "rising up from the ground" speed.

From my experiences, only one time in all my unfinished expert playthroughs have I not had a hard time defeating the destroyer, and in that specific playthrough I used the railroad Daedalus Stormbow trick. I literally had to cheese the destroyer, and any other method would be fatal.

In conclusion, yeah... ultimately I do agree with you. While it may seem like the easiest boss at first, its not truly that way to anyone unless they are a lazy person who likes to cheese the whole game.

You don’t even need to try to really cheese the destroyer. There are just so many weapons that counter it to ridiculous proportions that literally anything that pierces or comes from the sky can make it trivial.

 

[YeetYeetGW2]

How did you kill twins with Daedalus. And i thought you said you were melee

Minecart, they cannot hit you. As well as Megashark when they were out of range. I switch classes on regular playthroughs, this time I was ranger, my usual.

 

[someone that is bunny]

Minecart, they cannot hit you. As well as Megashark when they were out of range. I switch classes on regular playthroughs, this time I was ranger, my usual.

you said that you cant get away on a minecart though

 

[YeetYeetGW2]

you said that you cant get away on a minecart though

From the Destroyer you can't, burrow speed gets really fast if you try to outrun him. Twins suffer when you use a minecart, retinazer shoots all of his projectiles at an angle not relative to your speed, A.K.A not accounting for fallout. They won't land a single shot. Destroyer's probes can adjust their location to hit you much better, so much so that you actually have to pay attention when using a cheese strategy.

 

[Ganransu]

Well... without all the cheese strategies. And not being melee class.
Nearly every time I try to start a expert mode playthrough up, I always do the Destroyer as it seems to cause me the most trouble. Usually because of the probes along with the load of lasers it shoots. When you try to take out the probes, you distract yourself from the Destroyer, allowing you to get killed by its head attack.
The Twins is easier for me because Wings, and the fact that the fight becomes a joke once the red eye is down.
Skeletron Prime is easier because he has a smaller health pool, and a lack of movement like the Twins and The Destroyer.
Maybe I’m missing something about how to beat it, as I don’t see why every single person says that it is a pushover.

Gonna be honest, I somewhat agree that he can be tough without the right preparations. Given you have a decent strategy in mind, he can be easy, bit the same goes for most Terraria bosses. It's a bit of trial and error to see what does and doesn't work on a terraria boss

 

[Falloutguy645]

I agree only on the 3DS version. With the necessity of auto-aim and how pinched in your screen is, he’s no joke.

 

[ChimeraWarden]

Well... without all the cheese strategies. And not being melee class.
Nearly every time I try to start a expert mode playthrough up, I always do the Destroyer as it seems to cause me the most trouble. Usually because of the probes along with the load of lasers it shoots. When you try to take out the probes, you distract yourself from the Destroyer, allowing you to get killed by its head attack.
The Twins is easier for me because Wings, and the fact that the fight becomes a joke once the red eye is down.
Skeletron Prime is easier because he has a smaller health pool, and a lack of movement like the Twins and The Destroyer.
Maybe I’m missing something about how to beat it, as I don’t see why every single person says that it is a pushover.

I for one agree with this because with all the FREEING LASERS

 

[whoneedsnamestbh]

I for one agree with this because with all the FREEING LASERS

Destroyer’s laser spam will deal damage, but if you move horizontally kind of fast you can avoid most of the hits and then the heart drops from Probes can keep your health up against the hits you do take.