How To Summon And Defeat The Empress Of Light

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  • Upgrade: The best combat builds

Re-Logic’s beautiful 2D sandbox game remains popular years after its release. It contains over 17 bosses, some of which are vital for players to reach the endgame. However, some bosses fall outside of the “main story” but are still valuable to defeat just for fun and get some prestigious items in the process.


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The Empress of Light is one of the most striking and aesthetically pleasing side bosses in Hardmode terrariums. Beautiful but incredibly deadly, she can prove to be a formidable opponent for any unprepared player. Luckily, this guide will detail how to spawn the Empress of Light, the best weapons and armor to take down her, and a list of any rewards she can potentially drop.

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How to summon

The Empress of Light can be summoned by killing a Prismatic Lacewing Butterfly. These rare creatures only spawn on Hallow’s surface at night between 7:30pm and 12am. Luckily, the life-form analyzer can spot them, making it easy to breed Prismatic Lacewings.

Players should aim to start the fight and kill the Prismatic Lacewing at 19:30 to ensure they have maximum time to defeat her. When summoned during the day, she becomes “enraged” and her attacks kill any player instantly.

If players want to avoid accidentally killing a Prismatic Lacewing and spawning the Empress of Light before they are properly prepared, they should ensure they have the Guide To Critter Companionship tool, which will prevent players from damaging Critters. This handy item can be purchased from the zoologist NPC for five gold pieces.

Upgrade: The best combat builds

The optimal weapons when preparing to fight the Empress of Light depend on the class the player has chosen. This is a rough guide to the best weapons and armor for this post-Plantera battle and is by no means exhaustive. It entirely depends on the player’s preferences.​​​​​​​

RELATED: Every Class in Terraria (And Their Best Endgame Builds)

It goes without saying that having wings equipped is essential for this fight, allowing the player to safely dodge the Empress of Light’s fast attacks. Fishron wings or Betsy’s wings are two of the best wings currently available. Steampunk Wings are also a good alternative.

  • magic – Blizzard staff is a good choice as it has consistently high DPS. That razor blade is a good alternative with a similar mana cost/DPS ratio but a shorter range. The best magic armor in the game is the holy headgear, valhalla knight breastplate, and Dark Artist’s Leggings. Specter armor is also a suitable choice.
  • melee – terrablade is the finest sword available, delivering strong, reliable projectiles. vampire knife are a good secondary melee weapon to replenish missing health. bug armor is the best set for maximum offense or defense depending on the chest piece the player is equipping.
  • Ranged – xenopopper is the best weapon with significant damage and accuracy. It should be paired crystal balls. Hallowed Armor is the best choice as the Holy Protection bonus allows players to negate damage every 30 seconds.
  • Summoner – Despite being the weakest class in terrariums, Summoners are powerful against the Empress of Light. Her minions can target her and deal constant damage, allowing the player to freely dodge her bullet-hail style attacks. There are many viable summoner weapons out there, but these Bloody Staff is maybe the best. The minions have perfect tracking, which allows them to deal consistently high damage. Your DPS can also be increased with whips, which is powerful when combined with the Berserker Gauntlet accessory. Creepy armor is the best armor for a Summoner build.

The real fight

Although the Empress of Light has one of the most incredible boss designs terrariums, she is also one of the deadliest. Once spawned, the words “Empress of Light has Awaken” will appear and she will levitate in a stationary position before performing her attacks. She is unassailable in this phase.

She has five main attacks.

  • Prismatic Bolts – Summons a cloud of multicolored lightning bolts that attack the player but are easily dodged.
  • dash attack – Charges horizontally towards the player.
  • sun dance – Hover slightly above and left of the player and emit six beams of light that rotate clockwise.
  • Eternal Rainbow – Unleashes a ring of 13 stars that spiral in and out in a clockwise direction, leaving a harmful trail of light.
  • Ethereal Lance – Summons swords that shoot in the direction the player went.

It attacks during its first phase in the order listed below. These attacks will repeat indefinitely until their second phase begins.

  1. Prismatic Bolts
  2. dash attack
  3. sun dance
  4. dash attack
  5. Eternal Rainbow
  6. Prismatic Bolts
  7. dash attack
  8. Ethereal Lance
  9. dash attack
  10. Eternal Rainbow

When below half of her maximum health, the Empress will disappear for a second and reappear next to the player before beginning her second phase. Their attacks will have shorter intervals, meaning players’ reaction times will be tested.

  1. Ethereal Lance
  2. Prismatic Bolts
  3. dash attack
  4. Eternal Rainbow
  5. Prismatic Bolts
  6. sun dance
  7. Ethereal Lance
  8. dash attack
  9. Prismatic Bolts

Their attacks are all fairly wide and most of them are player focused. It’s advisable to build a long, wide sky arena of asphalt platforms so players can escape from their attacks. Teleporters are also helpful when players are feeling overwhelmed by their barrage. The ocean biome is also a good place to spawn them since it’s a wide, open space.

Reward

The table below shows all possible and guaranteed drops, some of which are incredibly rare, when defeating the Empress of Light. This includes their drop chances and a brief description of the item.

The Terra Prism item is a guaranteed drop, but only if the Empress of Light was in an Enraged state and all damage dealt to her was during the day.

Product Name item description drop chance
Greater Healing Potion Restores 150 health. Drops in stacks of 5-15. 100%
terra prism Spawns a copy of itself that quickly attacks nearby enemies 90 summoning damage. 100%
Prismatic Dye Dye. 25%
nightglow Magical Weapon – fires four rainbow crystals that follow and pierce nearby enemies. Offers 50 magic damage. 25%
starlight Melee Weapon – fires short-range beams of light when the attack button is held down. Offers 80 damage. 25%
kaleidoscope Whip – Offers 180 damage and causes minions to focus on the last enemy hit. 25%
Evening time Ranged Weapon – Automatically fires five rainbow-colored Twilight Lance projectiles, one of which deals double base damage. The lances can dismember up to four enemies. Offers 50 damage. 25%
Mask of the Empress of Light vanity items. 14.3%
Empress of Light Trophy Furniture. 10%
Empress wings Wings – light up in a cycling rainbow pattern. Climb faster with the up button. One of the best Pre-Moon Lord wings. 7%
Rainbow cursor Vanity Accessory – Changes the player’s cursor to constantly change color. 5%
Stellar Melody Magic Weapon – fires pairs of star-shaped projectiles in a wavy pattern at the cursor. They aim at enemies, pass through blocks and explode on impact. Offers 85 damage. 2%

terrariums can be played on PC, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, iOS and Android devices.

MORE: Terraria: How to Summon and Defeat the Moon Lord

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