Dodge

A player dodging an attack from a Skeleton using the Black Belt.

Dodge is a damage-negating effect. It fully nullifies all negative impacts that would usually be applied when the player takes damage, including the damage itself, knockback, and any newly inflicted debuffs. A few items grant a chance (or guarantee) to activate dodging upon taking damage.

Almost all damage sources can be dodged, from enemy attacks and environmental hazards like thorny bushes, traps, or lava, to fall damage. Damage from debuffs, other indirect sources, and damage from other players in PvP cannot be dodged.

Sources

Source		Dodging chance
	Brain of Confusion(Desktop, Console and Mobile versions)(when without the Cerebral Mindtrick debuff)	1/6 (16.67%)
	Black Belt	1/10 (10%)
	Master Ninja Gear
	Holy Protection(Desktop, Console and Mobile versions)	Always when buff is active
	Shadow Dodge(Old-gen console and 3DS versions)

Exceptions

Some damage sources are undodgeable: The dodge effects will not activate and the player will take damage (and other negative impacts) from these attacks as normal.

Enemy attacks

  

Desktop/Console/Mobile-Only Content: This section's information applies only to the Desktop, Console, and Mobile versions of Terraria.

Certain or all attacks of the following enemies are undodgeable.

Enemy		Undodgeable attacks
	Skeleton	All attacks when attempting to open a Tall Gate
	Dungeon Guardian	All attacks
	Empress of Light	Contact damage during daytime Any projectile attack that has at least 9999 damage (i.e. projectiles during her enraged state)

Other

• Attacks from other players in PvP (except damage from "melee hits"; see list of items that do melee hit for details)
• Drowning
• Debuffs which inflict damage over time, such as On Fire!
• Attempting to escape the Wall of Flesh (Horrified)
• Using the Rod of Discord while Chaos State is active

Notes

• Performing a dodge grants 1.33 seconds of invincibility frames of all types. With the Cross Necklace or its upgrades equipped, the length of invincibility frames is increased to 2 seconds.
• The damage-reflecting effects from the Thorns buff, Turtle armor, and Cactus armor still activate normally when an attack is dodged.
• The dodging from the Black Belt/Master Ninja Gear and Brain of Confusion has priority over the dodging from Holy Protection. If those items successfully cause a dodge while the Holy Protection buff is active, then the buff will be retained for the next attack.
• Damage from the Paladin's Shield and Companion Cube buffs can be dodged.

Tips

• The dodge chances from the Brain of Confusion and Black Belt or Master Ninja Gear can be stacked, with the final dodge chance being 1/4 (25%). The Black Belt and Master Ninja Gear themselves do not stack, however.
  • The ability to negate one out of four attacks (on average) is very helpful in situations where defense is not enough to nullify high damage, such as in Master Mode. Fights against bosses who move at high speeds or fire large numbers of projectiles can also be made significantly easier this way.

Trivia

• In PvP, dodging an attack from another player will still trigger the visual effects, even though the damage (and other negative impacts) are taken as normal.

History

 Desktop version

• Desktop 1.4.4:
  • "Instant kill" attacks can no longer be avoided by dodge effects.
  • Regular Skeletons' damage cannot be dodged by dodging effects when they are trying to open a Tall Gate.

• Desktop 1.4.1: Fixed an issue where dodged attacks could still result in debuffs on the player.

• Desktop 1.4.0.1:
  • Brain of Confusion now grants a dodge effect.
  • Removed Shadow Dodge; its effect is now granted by Holy Protection.

• Desktop 1.2: Introduced Shadow Dodge, Black Belt, and Master Ninja Gear.