Moon Lord

  

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

Moon Lord

Map Icon

 Classic

 Expert

 Master

Statistics

Type	Boss
Environment	Lunar Events
AI Type	Moon Lord AI
Damage	(Varies per attack)
Max Life	145000217500277311 (total)
Defense	(Varies per part)
KB Resist	100%
Immune to

Inflicts debuff

Inflicts debuff

Inflicts debuff

Debuff	Moon Bite
Debuff tooltip	You are unable to absorb healing effects
Duration	14 seconds16 seconds

Drops

Coins	1 PC2 PC50 GC

• Item (Quantity)Rate
• Portal Gun
  100%
• Luminite (70–90)
  100%
• One of the following 9 weapons will always drop
• Meowmere
  11.1%
• Terrarian
  11.1%
• Star Wrath
  11.1%
• S.D.M.G.
  11.1%
• Last Prism
  11.1%
• Lunar Flare
  11.1%
• Rainbow Crystal Staff
  11.1%
• Lunar Portal Staff
  11.1%
• Celebration Mk2
  11.1% (Desktop, Console and Mobile versions)
• Celebration
  11.1%
• Meowmere Minecart
  10%
• Super Healing Potion (5–15)
  100% (Desktop, Console and Mobile versions)
• Greater Healing Potion (5–15)
  100%
• Moon Lord Mask
  14.29%
• Moon Lord Trophy
  10%
• Treasure Bag(Moon Lord)
  100%
• Gravity Globe
  100%
• Suspicious Looking Tentacle
  100%
• Celestial Starboard
  100%
• Moon Lord Mask
  14.29%
• One of the following 9 weapons will always drop
• Meowmere
  11.1%
• Terrarian
  11.1%
• Star Wrath
  11.1%
• S.D.M.G.
  11.1%
• Last Prism
  11.1%
• Lunar Flare
  11.1%
• Rainbow Crystal Staff
  11.1%
• Lunar Portal Staff
  11.1%
• Celebration Mk2
  11.1% (Desktop, Console and Mobile versions)
• Celebration
  11.1%
• Portal Gun(when no Portal Gun in inventory)
  100%
• Luminite (90–110)
  100%
• Meowmere Minecart
  10%
• Piece of Moon Squid
  25%
• Moon Lord Relic
  100%

Sounds

Killed
Spawn
Idle

• Internal Buff ID: 145

 "Impending doom approaches..." 

Moon Lord is a Hardmode, post-Lunatic Cultist boss. He is the final boss of the  Desktop,  Console, and  Mobile versions of Terraria.

Moon Lord can be spawned by destroying the four Celestial Pillars or by using a Celestial Sigil in any world where Golem has been defeated. In both cases, he will then spawn one minute after the status message "Impending doom approaches..." appears. After this message appears, the screen will go dim and all objects and walls will oscillate back and forth. It will then go back to normal. This will happen 5 times; each time the screen will go darker and all objects and walls will oscillate more violently until the 5th time, when Moon Lord will spawn.

See below for the Moon Bite debuff inflicted by Moon Lord.

While Moon Lord is alive, his exclusive music Moon Lord will play. When Otherworldly music (Desktop, Console and Mobile versions) is enabled, the track Lunar Boss (Otherworldly) will play instead.

Behavior

Moon Lord has two hands and a head that must be killed before his core becomes available for attack. He positions his two hands on either side of the player some distance away.

Each hand, as well as his head, contains a vulnerable eye-like target that is each periodically closed off and opened via an eyelid. These may only be damaged during their "open" states. The core, which is the only part required to be destroyed in order to defeat the boss, only becomes vulnerable when all eye sockets are destroyed.

Moon Lord can teleport to players if all of them get too far out of range.

Attacks

• Moon Lord's hands move away from the core and their eyes spawn six Phantasmal Spheres. After a couple seconds, they explode, dealing heavy damage. If the player is far enough away, they simultaneously charge at the player before exploding, though they cannot travel at an angle higher than approximately 30 degrees in any direction.
• The hand eyes also spawn multiple Phantasmal Eyes, which move in all directions for a short while before homing in on the player. Like the Phantasmal Spheres, they cannot travel at an upward angle, so they can be evaded by swerving upwards. If they cannot get a direct lock and a player is in range then they will attempt to match the target's trajectory to stay in their path. They explode upon contact with a block or player.
• The hand eyes also occasionally fire two Phantasmal Bolts in quick succession, aiming at the player, which pass through blocks, requiring swerves to avoid. Another viable option is to quickly drop down before the bolts fire, saving the player from getting hit.
• When attached to Moon Lord's head, the head eye opens every 20–21 seconds for a few seconds, and then fires a Phantasmal Deathray: a large laser that sweeps 60 degrees upward over the player. This is by far Moon Lord's most damaging attack. Afterward, the head eye blinks a couple times, and fires two Phantasmal Bolts (similarly to those of the hands), and then closes. (Desktop, Console and Mobile versions) As of 1.4, the Head eye will also fire two Phantasmal Bolts before performing the Deathray attack, and the Deathray can pass through solid blocks that block it from the player.
• After the Deathray attack, the mouth attempts to attach a Tentacle to the player. The Tentacle can reach through solid blocks. Once attached, it spawns multiple Moon Leech Clots, which are enemies that travel from the player to Moon Lord's mouth. Any Moon Leech Clot that reaches the mouth without being killed returns 1000 health to one of Moon Lord's parts (one that has not yet been defeated).
  • The Tentacle also inflicts the Moon Bite debuff, preventing any lifesteal effects from the Vampire Knives and the Spectre armor for 14 / 16 seconds.
  • Once the Head eye is defeated, the Tentacle attack becomes more common, with only about a 2 second break between attacks.
• When a hand or head target is defeated, it becomes a thorny crevice that deals damage on contact.
• Additionally, when a head or hand target is defeated, a True Eye of Cthulhu spawns, which cycles through the following attacks:
  • The eye fires two Phantasmal Bolts at the player, similar to those from the hand eyes.
  • The eye spawns six Phantasmal Spheres in a hexagonal formation around itself, which after a few seconds will charge directly at the player, dealing a significant amount of damage to the player. This is by far the dominant source of damage in the second phase and should be avoided by swerving/dashing.
  • The eye spawns Phantasmal Eyes, which behave similarly to when before the eyes were defeated.
  • The eye charges and fires a lesser Phantasmal Deathray, smaller and dealing significantly less damage. Unlike the primary laser, these attacks cannot go through blocks.
  • Finally, the eye performs another Phantasmal Sphere attack.
  • The True Eyes of Cthulhu are invincible and will only despawn if either all players die or Moon Lord is defeated. The eyes remain stationary for most of their attacks.
  • Moon Lord will teleport to the nearest player if the player he is targeting dies or moves more than 150 tiles away.

Parts

Moon Lord

 Classic

 Expert

 Master

Statistics

Type	Boss Part
Environment	Lunar Events
AI Type	Moon Lord Head AI
Damage	0 (contact) 150300450 (Phantasmal Deathray) 60120180 (Phantasmal Bolt)
Max Life	45000/67500/86062
Defense	50
KB Resist	100%
Immune to

Sounds

Hurt
Killed

• Internal NPC ID: 396

Moon Lord's Hand

 Classic

 Expert

 Master

Statistics

Type	Boss Part
Environment	Lunar Events
AI Type	Moon Lord Hand AI
Damage	0 (contact) 80 (contact) (open eye socket) 100200300 (Phantasmal Sphere) 60120180 (Phantasmal Eye) 60120180 (Phantasmal Bolt)
Max Life	25000/37500/47812
Defense	40
KB Resist	100%
Immune to

Sounds

Hurt
Killed

• Internal NPC ID: 397

Moon Lord's Core

 Classic

 Expert

 Master

Statistics

Type	Boss Part
Environment	Lunar Events
AI Type	Moon Lord Core AI
Damage	0
Max Life	50000/75000/95625
Defense	70
KB Resist	100%
Immune to

Drops

Coins	1 PC2 PC50 GC

Sounds

Hurt
Killed

• Internal NPC ID: 398

Aftermath

After defeating Moon Lord on the  Desktop version,  Console version, and  Mobile version, the Credits will appear while the song Journey's End plays. Besides his other loot, Moon Lord always drops Luminite, allowing the crafting of end-game materials.

Additionally:

• The Traveling Merchant begins selling the Not a Kid, nor a Squid, a painting.
• The Princess(Desktop, Console and Mobile versions) begins selling Music Box (Journey's End).
• The Dye Trader begins rewarding the player with Skiphs' Blood in exchange for Strange Plants.

Notes

• Moon Lord can be summoned with a Celestial Sigil before defeating the Lunatic Cultist in any world where Golem has been defeated.
• If the player leaves the world after the message "Impending doom approaches...", Moon Lord will not spawn.
  • This could be useful for players who are not ready or willing to fight Moon Lord yet and/or if they do not have enough Lunar Fragments to use.
• Every NPC takes reduced damage from Moon Lord, especially the Nurse. They only take 20–35 / 40–60 damage for other NPCs and 10–30 / 25–45 for the Nurse, and for all of them 100–130 / 125–180 for the Phantasmal Deathray attack. However, this changes in later stages of the fight, as the True Eyes of Cthulhu deal around 45–85 / 60–105 damage.
• While Moon Lord is on screen, the sky will turn dark and the world will appear hazy and shadowy with blur effects. In multiplayer, this only happens if the player is within 130 tiles of Moon Lord.
• In Expert Mode, the Treasure Bag will not drop a Portal Gun if the player opening it already has a Portal Gun in their inventory. However, he will always drop it in Classic Mode.
• If Moon Lord uses the Phantasmal Deathray, it will still be used even if his head is defeated until finished.
• The Celebration is replaced by the Celebration Mk2 on the  Desktop version,  Console version, and  Mobile version.
• If all players die during Moon Lord's death animation, he will despawn and drop nothing.
• Moon Lord appears behind all blocks and walls, similar to a background object.

Achievements

Champion of Terraria • “Defeat the Moon Lord.”

Defeat the Moon Lord for the first time. (Desktop, Console and Mobile versions)

Category: Slayer

Slayer of Worlds • “Defeat every boss in Terraria.”

Defeat every boss in the game. (Desktop, Console and Mobile versions)

Category: Challenger

Tips

For more elaborate strategies on defeating Moon Lord, including weapon and arena recommendations, see Guide:Moon Lord strategies.

• Dodging Moon Lord's attacks is crucial. In particular, the Phantasmal Deathray should be avoided at all costs.
  • Useful items that increase the player's mobility include Gravitation Potions, fast wings like the Fishron or Empress Wings, the Rod of Discord, items allowing to dash (e.g. the Tabi), the Soaring Insignia, and numerous mount-summoning items like the Gelatinous Pillion, Shrimpy Truffle, Cosmic Car Key, or Witch's Broom. The player might also consider constructing a skybridge made out of Asphalt Blocks or Minecart Tracks (with the Mechanical Cart).
  • Hiding under a row of blocks while using a weapon that can attack through blocks, such as the Solar Eruption, can nullify Moon Lord's Phantasmal Deathray. Two rows of blocks can be quite effective. The player should make sure that the barrier has horizontal running room, in order to make space to dodge the Phantasmal Spheres.
  • Using homing weapons or ammo like Chlorophyte Bullets allow the player to focus on dodging.
• Teleporting away from Moon Lord to get healing from the Nurse might result in her death, because Moon Lord will immediately teleport to the player.
  • In multiplayer, Moon Lord will attack the nearest player. Players can take turns teleporting home to get healing from the Nurse.
• In Journey Mode(Desktop, Console and Mobile versions), fighting Moon Lord in a low difficulty, then changing the difficulty during the exploding animation will still give the player the rewards of the new difficulty.
• Moon Lord is vulnerable to almost all debuffs, most notably Ichor and Betsy's Curse, which can dramatically speed up the fight. However, since Moon Lord's eyes remove all debuffs when they close, the player will have to reapply them accordingly.
• It is advisable to kill the eye on the head first. It is the only eye capable of firing the Phantasmal Deathray and remains closed for significantly longer than the eyes in the hands. If the player waits to kill the head last, they may have to deal with two True Eyes of Cthulhu for a longer amount of time.
• While the frequently-applied Moon Bite debuff disables the healing effects of Vampire Knives and the Spectre Hood, it does not disable health regeneration boosts, hence the effects of Nebula armor and the Life Drain are not affected.
• Some of Moon Lord's attacks can be avoided using the 200 NPC limit.
• Moon Lord's attacks bypass typical invincibility frames, requiring special setups to bypass his attacks.
• Moon Leech Clots will always reach Moon Lord's mouth in the same amount of time. They travel toward it at a variable rate, remaining completely stationary (or at least apparently so) if Moon Lord is in his default position behind the player. As a result of this, though it may seem counterintuitive, it is actually beneficial to be closer to the mouth to destroy Moon Leech Clots, as they will not move away as quickly.
• Moon Lord's eye sockets still deal contact damage during his death animation. It is wise to move away from the boss after he is defeated.

Trivia

• Despite a mid-development comment by Cenx that this would not be the case, Moon Lord resembles common depictions of Cthulhu, a creature first imagined by H. P. Lovecraft in his story The Call of Cthulhu. Fans commonly speculated prior to the release of 1.3 that Cthulhu would be the final Terraria boss (which in turn arose partly due to an early concept design floated by the development team).
• Terraria's final boss was originally going to be the Moon itself descending on the world, but Cenx later stated that this idea had been scrapped.
• Due to the colors of the boss and the names of a few of his projectiles, this boss may have been inspired by the Vortex Pillar.
• Despite being the final boss, Moon Lord has the fewest debuff immunities, being immune only to Confused.
•  – According to the Terraria lore pages, though it was initially theorized (and joked by staff) that Moon Lord was Cthulhu's brother, it appears that he is Cthulhu itself, or at least is what it implies. This entity was detrimental to existence, and was finally banished by the Dryads, an ancient race of who the Dryad NPC is the only survivor, ripped out his organs and banished it to the moon. It further appears that the Celestial Events and his eventual battle are his final attempt at total conquest, as stated directly.
  • In the same post where the developers, namely Arkhayla, joked that Moon Lord was Cthulhu's brother, they also said his name was Steve. However, this has been confirmed to not be true.
• NPCs are unable to attack Moon Lord.
• According to Cenx, spriting Moon Lord took over a month.
• Moon Lord is the only boss with a unique death animation sequence.
• Redigit has stated that, if 10,000 signatures and 15 dollars are gathered, he would make the lower half of Moon Lord a boss. However, the validity of this statement is questionable as both criteria have since been met.
  • In the 1.4.0.1(Desktop, Console and Mobile versions) update, the legs of Moon Lord have been introduced as the Moon Lord Legs item, obtainable from Chests in drunk worlds.
• Moon Lord seems to share some mechanics of two bosses in pre-Hardmode including Skeletron, having multiple parts that each are destroyable, and the Brain of Cthulhu, requiring the player to defeat separate parts before truly damaging the boss.
• Moon Lord is one of 7 bosses with exclusive music, the others being the Queen Bee, Deerclops, Queen Slime, Empress of Light, Plantera, and Duke Fishron.
• (Desktop, Console and Mobile versions) He is the only boss that drops three Expert-exclusive items in his Treasure Bag.
• (Desktop, Console and Mobile versions) Moon Lord drops the most coins of any boss, and overall any enemy, in the game.
  • In Expert Mode and Master Mode, his coin drops are higher than the total coin drops of all the Hardmode bosses in the game.
• While fighting Moon Lord, an eye, presumably the True Eye of Cthulhu, appears on RGB-enabled keyboards.
• According to Redigit, Moon Lord is the father of the Guide. It is unknown whether this is to be considered official lore.
• If a body part of Moon Lord is spawned in separately, e.g. using mods or hacks, the music track Boss 1 plays instead of Moon Lord track. Autopause needs to be enabled for this.
• While Moon Lord is spawning, music volume is decreased.
• While the Phantasmal Spheres Moon Lord shoots can pierce all NPCs, the Phantasmal Bolts get destroyed upon contact with an NPC, potentially being a viable option for players trying to avoid the bolts.

• The Bestiary entry for the Moon Lord: "The mastermind behind all terrors which befall the world, freed from his lunar prison. Practically a god, his power knows no limits."

History

 Desktop version

• Desktop 1.4.0.1:
  • Slightly increased the amount of time his forehead eye remains open.
  • Moon Lord's Phantasmal Death Ray will now penetrate blocks that are between him and the player.
  • Enemies should no longer spawn during Moon Lord's fight, unless they spawn outside of his radius in multiplayer.
  • Moon Lord will no longer drop Celebration. He will instead drop Celebration Mk2. Celebration is now sold from the Party Girl after Golem is defeated.
  • Moon Lord will now drop Super Healing Potions instead of Greater Healing Potions.
  • Moon Lord will now drop his loot even if you die during his death animation.
  • Moon Lord will now drop Meowmere Minecart.
  • Moon Lord will now drop Celestial Starboard as an Expert Mode-exclusive accessory.
  • Added two Master Mode drops, Piece of Moon Squid and Moon Lord Relic.
  • Moon Lord now can drop Coins in Expert Mode.

• Desktop 1.3.0.6: Attacks now follow their own immunity cooldown.

• Desktop 1.3.0.5: Can now be summoned with the Celestial Sigil.

• Desktop 1.3.0.4:
  • Moon Lord will now teleport to the player once they are far enough away.
  • Body parts now properly show display names.
  • Cultists now cannot respawn while Moon Lord is alive or spawning.

• Desktop 1.3.0.3:
  • Moon Lord's leeching effect has been massively buffed.
  • Added the Moon Bite debuff, which prevents any healing from weapons.

• Desktop 1.3.0.2: The death message now properly displays "Moon Lord has been defeated!", instead of "Moon Lord Core has been defeated!".

• Desktop 1.3.0.1: Introduced.

 Console version

• Console 1.0.933.1: Introduced with changes up to Desktop 1.3.0.6. ()

• Console 1.0.750.0: Introduced with changes up to Desktop 1.3.0.6. ()

 Nintendo Switch version

• Switch 1.0.711.6: Introduced with changes up to Desktop 1.3.0.6.

 Mobile version

• Mobile 1.4.0.5.0: Made changes from Desktop 1.4.0.1.

• Mobile 1.3.0.7: Introduced with changes up to Desktop 1.3.0.6.