The Duke Fishron, is one of Terraria‘s most challenging Hardmode bosses. While he can be summoned early on in Hardmode, it is crucial to note that he poses a serious threat to unprepared players. This boss fight is completely optional and does not affect your game progression. However, on defeating this boss, you will achieve powerful pieces of weapons.
In this guide, we will take a look into the Fishron’s attack patterns and how you can deal with it. We will also explore the recommended gear, weapons, and accessories you may need. Once you know when to dodge, when to strike, what gear you need, and you will achieve victory against this enemy.
Suggested Builds
To help you deal with the boss more easily, we have gathered some information on some of the good loadouts you can use. With the right builds, you can maximize damage and minimize risk.
Mobility Items
The Mobilities Items are useful pieces of gear that can help you evade the Duke Fishron’s attacks. Some of the suggested items for you can be:
- Any kind of Wings: These are items that allow you to fly temporarily. For wings, choose the best type of wings that you have for the most mobility.
- Shield of Cthulhu: This is a shield accessory obtained from the Treasure Bag dropped by the Eye of Cthulhu. The item allows you to perform a dash, which adds a lot more to your mobility.
- Amphibian Boots: These boots increase the player’s ascent speed by 48%, enhance your movement speed and increase allowed falling distance by 15 blocks. Moreover, these effects also apply with Wings equipped, so that’s some extra stats.
- Any kind of balloon or upgrade: Cloud in a Balloon is a good option for this as it boosts jump height by 33%, and jump speed by 30%.
General Accessories
For accessories, you can use anything you see to be useful and effective against this boss fight. With so many to choose from, here are some suggestions you can consider:
- The Worm Scarf is a piece of accessory that reduces incoming damage by 17%.
- The Brain of Confusion is a good item to consider. While wearing, nearby enemies have a 60% chance of receiving the Confused debuff for 1.5 seconds.
- The Cross Necklace: doubles the duration of the invincibility a player is given on receiving damage.
- The Charm of Myths regenerates health and decreases the duration of the Potion Sickness debuff when consuming potions by 25%.
Melee weapon
Some of the good melee weapons you can choose from are Chain Guillotines, Bananarang, Shadowflame Knife, Ice Sickle, Amarok (Recommended using with Yoyo Bag), Drippler Crippler.
Here are some good Damage Accessories for your melee build: The Yoyo Bag, Warrior Emblem, Putrid Scent and Berserker’s Glove.
Ranged Weapon
Some of the good ranged weapons you can choose from are Uzi, Dart Pistol, Onyx Blaster, Daedalus Stormbow, Clockwork Assault Rifle (easy to get), Repeaters (easy to get)
These Ranged Weapons also come with bullets. Wondering which ones are the best for your ranged weapons? Here are some suggestions:
- Crystal Bullet. These bullets shatter on contact with enemies, dealing extra damage with 2 or 3 shattered shards.
- Ichor Dart is capable of splitting into 2–5 smaller darts shortly after traveling towards your enemies.
- Ichor Arrows. This type of arrows have higher velocity, meaning there is less need for the magic quiver accessories. When you shoot these arrows at your enemies, they will inflict a poison effect, dealing damage over time.
Damage Accessories you can take with you when using a ranged build can be the Range Emblem, Magic Quiver, or the Putrid Scent for extra damage.
Mage Weapons
Some of the good mage weapons you can choose from are the Crystal Serpent, Spirit Flame, Sky Fracture, Cursed Flames and Meteor Staff.
Accessories
For your damage accessories, some good ones you can use are the Sorcerer Emblem, Putrid Scent, Magnet Flower, Mana Cloak or Celestial Cuffs.
Summoner Weapons
Summoner weapons have multiple loadouts for you to choose from, here are some suggestions:
Loadout #1
You can use the Sanguine Staff, Firecracker along with Spider Armor and Snapthorn. For your Accessories, you can choose the Pygmy Necklace, Summoner’s Emblem, Berserker’s Glove or any of the Old One’s Army accessories.
Loadout #2
You can use the Blade staff with Cool Whip, Spinal Tap, and Snapthorn to maximize your damage. Some Accessories you can choose from are the Pygmy Necklace, Summoner’s Emblem, Berserker’s Glove or any of the Old One’s Army accessories.
Loadout #3
If you decide to use the Spider Staff instead, consider bringing with you Firecracker, Snapthorn and the Obsidian Armor. Some Accessories you can choose from are the Summoner’s Emblem and Berserker’s Glove.
Loadout #4
This is a mixed loadout with items from the mage category and some from the summoner category. This includes the usage of the Forbidden Armor, Spirit Flame, Sanguine Staff and Magnet Flower.
How to Defeat Pre-Mech Duke Fishron
Pre-Mech Duke Fishron has multiple attack patterns for 3 different stages. Here’s what you should do against them:
First Stage
Immediately after the stage starts, you will want to move around the arena slowly. At this stage, the boss performs one simple charge attack towards you. To avoid the boss, keep jumping on and off to dodge the boss’ attacks and maintain a distance.
When hitting the player in Expert Mode or Master Mode, Duke Fishron has a 33% chance to give you a Bleeding Effect. You do not want this to happen unless you bring the Adhesive Bandage to help you remove the effects. These can be found by defeating Werewolves and Angler Fish.
After a while, the boss will change its attacks. In addition to its charge attacks, it will start shooting bubbles and spawning tornadoes and sharks to make it more difficult for you. Duke Fishron will start summoning liquid blobs that fall down on impact with blocks.
They then spawn Sharknadoes and several Sharkrons (small shark monsters that will charge at you). These Sharkrons have limited flight range, are destroyed on impact with blocks and can be eliminated by you. To deal with this, simply maintain a distance and slowly attack all the monsters to create some space for you to continue doing damage to the boss.
The Duke Fishron also performs another special attack. The boss blows roughly 10-20 bubbles from his mouth that follow the player at moderate speed, exploding and dealing damage on contact. The bubbles can be destroyed by any attack or projectile.
The bubble attacks can be difficult to dodge since the boss release them at big numbers. Your best option is to maintain a distance with the boss and break the bubbles to avoid damage.
Second Stage
You will see more tornado attacks in the Second Stage when the boss’ health reaches 50%. His skin becomes a darker green and his eyes will start glowing. His damage and speed increase significantly, but his defense is reduced to 40.
For the tornado attack, the boss will shoot a homing projectile at you, on contact it will spawn a tornado. Keep it in mind that if you stand on one of the platforms when the tornado spawns, you will take 300 damage. Your best option is to always keep yourself in the air for as long as possible.
Third Stage
In the last stage, the boss fight gets more difficult. After reaching 15% health, the boss will transform again. This is when the background will be covered with pure darkness. As a result, Duke Fishron will become invisible, but his eyes still glow. Use this to your advantage and locate where the boss is.
While the boss is invisible, he will charge 3 times at you. Here is the pattern for 3 attacks, he will charge once, then teleport behind you. In order to deal with this, always predict behind your back. Pay attention to each time he teleports and jump to dodge in between each attack intervals.
On winning against the boss, the background will turn to normal and you will be given some rewards. These are Treasure Bags, Greater Healing Potions, Lesser Healing Potions and other resources.
With all that information we have provided when it comes to this boss fight, you should be ready to achieve those amazing loot. We hope this guide has helped you maintain that steady progress without worrying something might stop you!
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