Moon Lord

  

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

Moon LordHardmode exclusive

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%
• Two of the following 9 weapons will always drop
• Meowmere
  22.2%
• Terrarian
  22.2%
• Star Wrath
  22.2%
• S.D.M.G.
  22.2%
• Celebration Mk2
  22.2%
• Last Prism
  22.2%
• Lunar Flare
  22.2%
• Rainbow Crystal Staff
  22.2%
• Lunar Portal Staff
  22.2%
• Meowmere Minecart
  10%
• Super 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%
• Two of the following 9 weapons will always drop
• Meowmere
  22.2%
• Terrarian
  22.2%
• Star Wrath
  22.2%
• S.D.M.G.
  22.2%
• Celebration Mk2
  22.2%
• Last Prism
  22.2%
• Lunar Flare
  22.2%
• Rainbow Crystal Staff
  22.2%
• Lunar Portal Staff
  22.2%
• 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

Hurt
Killed
Spawn
Phantasmal Sphere
Phantasmal Eye
Phantasmal Bolt
Phantasmal Deathray
Idle

• Internal Buff ID: 145

 “Impending doom approaches...” 

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

While the 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.

Summoning

The 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. The status message "Impending doom approaches..." indicates the Moon Lord's spawning countdown. During the countdown, the screen will go dim and all objects, tiles, and walls will oscillate back and forth, and then go back to normal, and the sound volume will gradually decrease, eventually becoming completely silent. If the Moon Lord is spawned by destroying the Celestial Pillars, it takes 60 seconds for him to spawn, and the screen effect will appear 5 times; each time the screen will go darker and all objects and walls will oscillate more violently. If using a Celestial Sigil to summon the Moon Lord, it takes 12 seconds for him to spawn, and the screen effect will only appear once.

Behavior

The Moon Lord has eyes contained in both of his hands and his forehead that must be killed before the core in his chest can be attacked. All three eyes are periodically closed off and opened via an eyelid, and may only be damaged during their "open" states. The core, which is the only part required to be destroyed in order to defeat the Moon Lord, only becomes vulnerable when all of the eye targets are destroyed.

The Moon Lord will attempt to position himself directly in front of the player, just below his head, while positioning his two hands on either side of the player some distance away. The Moon Lord will teleport to the nearest player in a large flash of white light upon being summoned, upon despawning, if the player he is targeting dies, or if the targeted player moves more than 150 tiles away.

Attacks

The Moon Lord in battle firing his Phantasmal Deathray.

• One of the Moon Lord's hands moves away from the core while its eye gradually spawns six Phantasmal Spheres. After a couple of seconds, the hand eye shuts as the Phantasmal Spheres 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° in any direction.
• The hand eyes may spin while spawning 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 high-speed Phantasmal Bolts in quick succession, aiming at the player, which passes 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 the Moon Lord's head, the head eye opens every 20–21 seconds, fires two Phantasmal Bolts (similarly to those of the hands), and then charges for a few seconds before firing a Phantasmal Deathray: a large laser that sweeps 60° upward over the player. The sweep direction depends on the location of the target: if the target is to the left of the Moon Lord, it sweeps clockwise, otherwise, it sweeps counter-clockwise. This is by far the Moon Lord's most damaging attack, and it can pass through solid blocks that block it from the player. Afterward, the head eye blinks a couple of times, fires two Phantasmal Bolts again, and then closes.
  • In Get fixed boi worlds, after each Phantasmal Deathray attack, the head eye erupts 30 Moon Boulders. These boulders share similar behaviors to Bouncy Boulders, which ricochet off solid blocks and can exist for a relatively long time. However, they are much faster than Bouncy Boulders.
• After the Deathray attack, his mouth opens and attempts to attach a tentacle to the player, which can reach through solid blocks. Once attached, it spawns multiple Moon Leech Clots, which are enemies that take 1.5 seconds to travel from the player to the Moon Lord's mouth. Any Moon Leech Clot that reaches the mouth without being killed returns 1000 health to one of his 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 eye 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 from it. They are invincible and will only despawn if either all players die or the Moon Lord is defeated. While approaching the player from above, they will cycle 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. This is by far the dominant source of damage in the second phase and should be avoided by swerving or dashing.
  • The eye's pupil spins while spawning multiple Phantasmal Eyes, which behave similarly to when before the eyes were defeated.
  • The eye charges and fires a lesser Phantasmal Deathray, which is smaller and deals significantly less damage. Unlike the Moon Lord's deathray, their Deathrays cannot pass through blocks.
  • Finally, the eye performs another Phantasmal Sphere attack, before repeating the cycle.
  • When performing most of their attacks, the eyes will remain stationary.

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) 140280420 (Moon Boulder in Get fixed boi worlds)
Max Life	45000/67500/86062
Defense	50
KB Resist	100%
Immune to

Projectiles created

Projectiles created

Projectiles created

• Phantasmal Deathray
  
• Moon Leech
  
• Phantasmal Bolt
  
• Moon Boulder

  (Get fixed boi only)
  

Sounds

Hurt
Killed

• Internal NPC ID: 396
• Internal Projectile ID: 455, 456, 462, 1021

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) 80160240 (Phantasmal Sphere) 60120180 (Phantasmal Eye) 60120180 (Phantasmal Bolt)
Max Life	25000/37500/47812
Defense	40
KB Resist	100%
Immune to

Projectiles created

Projectiles created

Projectiles created

• Phantasmal Eye
  
• Phantasmal Sphere
  
• Phantasmal Bolt
  

Sounds

Hurt
Killed

• Internal NPC ID: 397
• Internal Projectile ID: 452, 454, 462

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 the Moon Lord, the credits will appear while the song Journey's End plays. Besides his other loot, the Moon Lord always drops Luminite, allowing the player to craft endgame armor sets, tools, furniture, and accessories.

Additionally:

• The Princess begins selling Music Box (Journey's End).
• The Steampunker begins selling Yellow Solution, White Solution, and Brown Solution used for the Clentaminator.
• The Dye Trader begins rewarding the player with Skiphs' Blood in exchange for Strange Plants.
• The Traveling Merchant now has the chance to sell the Not a Kid, nor a Squid and Moonman & Company paintings.
• The Rod of Harmony, Terraformer, and Bottomless Shimmer Bucket become available via Shimmer transmutation.
• The world icon gains a special border in the world selection menu.

Notes

• All damage inflicted by the Moon Lord's attacks will bypass other invincibility frames.
• If the player leaves the world after the message "Impending doom approaches..." is displayed, the Moon Lord will not spawn.
  • This could be useful for players who are not ready or willing to fight the Moon Lord yet and/or if they do not have enough Lunar Fragments to use.
• Every NPC takes reduced damage from the 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 the Moon Lord is on-screen, the sky will turn completely dark and the world will appear hazy and shadowy with blur effects. In multiplayer, this only happens to players who are within 130 tiles of the Moon Lord's location. This effect can be replicated with the Void Monolith.
• 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.
• The 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.

• Keeping a distance while dodging the Moon Lord's attacks is crucial. In particular, his Phantasmal Deathray should be avoided at all costs.
  • Useful items that increase the player's mobility include Gravitation Potions, fast wings like the Fishron, Betsy's, or Empress Wings, the Rod of Discord, items allowing to dash (e.g. the Tabi or its upgrade, the Master Ninja Gear), 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 a minecart boosted by the Minecart Upgrade Kit).
    • Items that provide high horizontal speed (Minecart Upgrade Kit-boosted minecarts, Soaring Insignia with hoverable wings, Hexxed Branch, etc.) allow the player to outrange the Phantasmal Deathray from the True Eyes of Cthulhu.
  • Using homing weapons or ammo like Chlorophyte Bullets allow the player to focus on dodging.
  • It is possible to avoid the deathray by staying close to the Moon Lord's head, and moving up and around the central eye as it fires the ray. The ray does not sweep as quickly when near its origin point, due to the nature of rotational movement, so being as close to its origin as possible makes it easier to maneuver around.
• Teleporting away from the Moon Lord to get healing from the Nurse might result in her death, due to the Moon Lord immediately teleporting to the player.
  • In multiplayer, the Moon Lord will attack the nearest player. Players can take turns teleporting home to get healing from the Nurse.
• The Moon Lord is vulnerable to almost all debuffs, most notably Ichor and Betsy's Curse, which can dramatically speed up the fight. However, since the 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 the Nebula armor and the Life Drain are not affected.
• Some of the Moon Lord's attacks can be avoided using the 200 NPC spawn limit, and the True Eyes of Cthulhu can be prevented from spawning completely if the limit is reached.
• Due to the Moon Lord's attacks bypassing invincibility frames, special setups are recommended to bypass his attacks.
• Moon Leech Clots will always reach the 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 the 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.
• The 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.
• While the Phantasmal Spheres the 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.
• For those farming the Moon Lord for the Meowmere and Star Wrath in order to craft the Zenith: For each kill, there is a 58.33% chance of obtaining neither, a 38.88% chance of obtaining one, and a 2.77% chance of obtaining both.

Trivia

• Despite a mid-development comment by Cenx that this would not be the case, the Moon Lord resembles common depictions of Cthulhu, a creature first imagined by H. P. Lovecraft in his 1928 short 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, the Moon Lord is one of many bosses with the fewest debuff immunities, being immune only to Confused and Shimmering.
•  – According to the Terraria lore pages, though it was initially theorized (and joked by staff) that the 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 whom 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 the 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 the Moon Lord.
• According to Cenx, spriting the Moon Lord took over a month.
• The 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 the 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 update, the legs of the Moon Lord have been introduced as the Moon Lord Legs item, obtainable from Chests in drunk worlds.
• The Moon Lord seems to share some mechanics with two pre-Hardmode bosses, 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.
• The Moon Lord is one of seven bosses with exclusive boss music, the others being the Queen Bee, Deerclops, Queen Slime, Plantera, Empress of Light, and Duke Fishron.
• The Moon Lord is the only boss who drops three Expert-exclusive items in his Treasure Bag.
• The 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.
• (Desktop version) While fighting the Moon Lord or during the period before it spawns, an eye, presumably the True Eye of Cthulhu in one of the Moon Lord's hands, appears on RGB-enabled keyboards.
• In the past Redigit said the Moon Lord is the father of the Guide. This statement was most likely a joke and is not considered official lore.
• If a body part of the Moon Lord is spawned in separately, e.g. using mods or hacks, the music track Boss 1 plays instead of the Moon Lord track. Autopause needs to be enabled for this to work.
• The Moon Lord's Bestiary entry is the last entry listed and is the only entry that does not have biome/event filters or a background, instead having an empty black background.

• 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."

Gallery

• 

  Moon Lord's Head in his death animation.

• 

  Moon Lord's Shoulder in his death animation.

• 

  Moon Lord's Spine in his death animation.

• 

  Moon Lord's Torso in his death animation.

History

 Desktop version

• Desktop 1.4.4:
  • Phantasmal Sphere damage reduced by 20%.
  • Phantasmal Sphere hitbox size reduced slightly.
  • Will now always drop 2 non-identical weapons.
  • Decreased the delay when summoning the boss with the Celestial Sigil from 60 seconds to 12 seconds.
  • Worlds in the World Menu where Moon Lord have been defeated now have a special border around their icon.

• Desktop 1.4.0.1:
  • Slightly increased the amount of time his forehead eye remains open.
  • Moon Lord's Phantasmal Deathray 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 the player died 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.