Deerclops Terraria Guide

Deerclops is the latest in a long line of Terraria bosses. Being added in 1.4.3 about a year ago now, it is still the newest boss and part of Terraria’s crossover with Don’t Starve Together. In addition, it is fought exclusively in the Snow biome, which is a first for a Terraria boss.

This boss is supposed to be fought right after defeating Skeletron but can be fought at any time in the game, regardless of the bosses you’ve defeated. Deerclops can be tricky for new players, requiring good spacing and knowledge of how the boss works. This Deerclops Terraria guide can teach tips and tricks on taking it down and getting the fun items it provides.

Bottom Line Up Front

Deerclops lacks the vertical movement that every other boss in the game possesses, meaning it is pretty quickly stumped by a platform suspended around 10-20 blocks in the air. This won’t fully protect you but will allow you to damage it with long-range weapons while not getting hit by much yourself.

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Key Info

• Deerclops is an optional fight typically placed between Skeletron and Wall of Flesh.
• It can be summoned either naturally during a blizzard or using the craftable Deer Thing.
• It will get enraged if you ever go more than 30 blocks away from it at any time, making it invulnerable.
• It will constantly summon Icicle Spikes from the ground during the fight.
• It can summon hands to attack you or chuck debris at you.
• If you stay above it for an extended time, it will summon more hands to attack you.
• Sometimes Deerclops will roar, afflicting you with the slow debuff.
• The chilled and frozen debuffs that the icicles can afflict you with can be negated entirely with a Hand Warmer.
• Deerclops has almost no methods of gaining verticality, so staying above will usually help you not get hit.
• Dying to Deerclops won’t cause it to despawn immediately, meaning you may still have a chance to defeat it if you die.
• Killing it will grant you various items that are mostly just for fun, but others are pretty useful.

The Stats of Deerclops

Deerclops isn’t the beefiest or highest damaging boss in the world but is more of an all-rounder. It can dish out some severe hits while also being no slouch in the health and defense category.

• Max Life: 7000 (11900 in Expert, 15172 in Master)
• Defense: 10
• Contact and Hand Damage: 20 (40 in Expert, 60 in Master)
• Ice Spike Damage: 26 (52 in Expert, 78 in Master)
• Debris Damage: 36 (72 in Expert, 108 in Master)
• Immune to Confusion
• Inflicts Slow Debuff

When to Fight Deerclops

Deerclops is an absolute tank of a boss, but it’s also completely optional. While you could choose to take it on as soon as you start the game, you should probably wait until you’ve delved into the dungeon and taken on Skeletron. Preferably not in that order.

The boss can do a ton of damage and soak up even more hits. Therefore, going in with everything you can get from the dungeon instead of trying it immediately after you get Tissue Samples or Shadow Scales would be wise. Thus, the rest of this guide is written assuming you’ve explored most of the dungeon.

The Best Armor for Deerclops

Most people will want to opt for Crimson armor for this fight. You could go down to Hell for Molten armor, but that takes a while and only provides melee buffs. Crimson armor provides decent buffs for every class and some extra health regeneration and is way easier to get.

If you want more class-specific armor, I’ve got your back with a few recommendations each class can use to take on this boss. Just note that if none seem worth the effort, you should wear Crimson armor.

Melee

• Molten Armor should be your option if you are playing melee. Melee users will struggle more in this fight since they have to keep their distance, and it would be best if you had the defense to back up that play style.
• Shadow Armor will also be a decent suggestion if you have corruption in your world, as the buff to movement speed and critical strike chance are both quite lovely.

Ranger

• Necro Armor can be accessed now that you’ve delved into the dungeon. You should grab it if you’re a ranger and want some great buffs for your bows and guns. The bone and cobwebs requirement is a bit of a grind but is easily manageable.
• Shadow Armor is also suggested for ranger since you typically want to get away from the boss as fast as possible if you ever get a bit too close for comfort.

Mage

• Meteor Armor is the absolute best choice if you’ve had a meteorite strike your world by this point. If you haven’t, you could opt for the other armor listed, but note that it is far weaker and provides no space gun synergy.
• Jungle Armor is easily obtained by getting a collection of Jungle Spores, Stingers, and Vines from the jungle and can be obtained at any time in the game. The drawback to this is it has super low defense, but you should be playing a distance game as mage regardless.

Summoner

• Obsidian Armor is likely going to be your best shot for summoner. While it’s far removed from its glory days, the armor still provides some decent defense on top of good summon buffs and even better whip buffs.

• Bee Armor will be the better alternative if you aren’t keen on using whips that much and have already taken on Queen Bee. It provides an extra minion slot compared to obsidian, with no whip buffs and less minion damage.

The Best Weapons for Deerclops

In terms of weaponry, we’re most often just going to consider what you just obtained from the dungeon, but the answer for the best weapon will depend solely on your class and playstyle, so pick what you want and go for it.

Melee

• The Night’s Edge would be ideal, but it also requires Hellstone on top of the other three swords required. Some alternatives if you want to use a sword are the Muramasa for up-close damage and the Blade of Grass for an excellent projectile.
• The Valor from the dungeon is an excellent yo-yo for range during this fight, where keeping your distance is vital. The brand new Hive-five from the Queen Bee would be even better but is slightly more tricky to obtain.
• The Thorn Chakram from the Jungle is an excellent option for extra range as a melee player and can be obtained from the beginning of the game. This boomerang does poison damage and is helpful for all of pre-hardmode.
• The Blue Moon is your best mace option if you don’t want to go down to Hell, and you’ve just got it from the dungeon anyways, so you might as well put it to use. I’d recommend just throwing it at Deerclops instead of trying to get in close.

Ranger

• The Tendon/Demon Bow will still be your best bow option for this fight, but if you would like more consistent damage and have fought the Queen Bee, then you should opt for The Bee’s Knees and some wooden arrows instead.
• The Minishark is a safe bet for a gun that can get you through the entirety of pre-hardmode, but if you’d like to trade some accuracy for damage, put the Arms Dealer in a graveyard biome and go for the quad-barrel shotgun instead. Then, you could also opt for the shiny new handgun from the dungeon.
• Beenades can shred through the healthbar of any pre-hardmode boss, but just be aware that if you want to use these, you will have to fight Queen Bee every time you need a restock.
• Meteor Shot and Unholy Arrows will be your best bet for this fight. Meteor shot is the best bullet we can get, but silver bullets work fine if you don’t have the meteorite. Unholy Arrows do significant damage, but you could also opt for Hellfire arrows if you’re willing to go to Hell to get them.

Mage

• The Aqua Scepter and Magic Missile fire long-range projectiles, and both come from the dungeon. I think it’s entirely down to personal preference which one you’d prefer as your primary damage dealer in this fight, but I’d go for the Aqua Scepter.
• The Space Gun pairs incredibly well with the Meteor armor, giving you 0 mana cost. This is a great damage dealer until you can get something better in hardmode, so I’d highly recommend any mage to go for this.
• The Water Bolt comes from a book in the dungeon and works exceptionally well if you put a thin roof over your platform so the projectiles can bounce around and do tons of damage to Deerclops.
• The Crimson Rod is one you might have accidentally gotten just from summoning the Brain of Cthulu. Since the boss mostly hovers around the same area, it helps bring in some extra damage.

Summoner

• The Vampire Frog Staff from enemies fished up in a blood moon does significant single-target damage, making it helpful for this boss. However, they will also tend to fly back up to you when too far away, so make sure your arena isn’t that high up.
• The Lightning Aura Rod is a sentry I can recommend, and this is the first time I’ve written a Terraria guide and gotten to say that. Most bosses in this game tend to move around a ton, but Deerclops is the exception. You can plop this down where it will be and get in significant damage.
• The Spinal Tap requires getting bones and cobwebs but is well worth it. It does twice as much damage as the Snapthorn, and hitting the boss with this will make your summons start doing more damage. An absolute necessity.

The Best Accessories for Deerclops

We don’t need much in the way of preparation for Deerclops at all; what you need is some basic movement, but not much more. It would be best if you considered choosing some of these accessories from this list, as they all help with the fight in various ways.

For that reason, I am mostly going to focus on accessories that do damage because as long as you have the Spectre boots, there isn’t much in the way of attacks that this fight can throw at you that are going to be too gnarly to dodge.

• Spectre Boots are practically the only movement accessory you need. They give you the speed to run away from projectiles and the aerial boost to go down quickly and hit it, then return to your platform. Of course, you can grab other movement accessories, but none are necessary.
• A Band of Regeneration gives you one extra HP every second, which might not sound like much, but for a fight where you usually end up taking massive chunks of damage all at once, then have a chance to heal, it helps quite a lot.
• A Cobalt or Obsidian Shield that you just got from the dungeon helps out a lot in this fight, preventing you from taking knockback and making sure you don’t keep getting bounced around by the sometimes constant waves of ice spikes and projectiles.
• The Hand Warmer may be slightly inconvenient to get since it’s only available in pre-hardmode in the real-life month of December. However, if you don’t mind being on the naughty list, then go ahead and change your system clock to December and open your presents ahead of time for immunity to cold debuffs.
• The Panic Necklace or Sweetheart Necklace helps you get away from attacks and more or less nullify that debuff as an alternative to The Hand Warmer, do note it isn’t a perfect solution; you only get the movement speed buff for a few seconds after taking damage, rather than ultimately being rid of the debuff altogether.
• A Shark Tooth Necklace or Stinger Necklace is an easy recommendation for any boss. It pierces through 5 points of defense and will make you do more damage all the time.
• (Expert/Master Only) The Worm Scarf and Brain of Confusion both assist with taking less damage during the fight. The Worm Scarf reduces the damage you take, and the Brain of Confusion occasionally grants you a dodge that nullifies the damage.

Class Specific Accessories

Most classes have at least a few accessories that can significantly increase their efficacy in battle. Note that ranger is not one of them, as it only receives its class-specific accessories in Hardmode. However, these accessories are suitable for the other classes, and you should go for them if you want to deal more damage.

• String of any color made from cobwebs is excellent if you’re an average Yo-Yo enjoyer. This extends your range quite a bit, so you can just keep on yo-ing.
• Feral Claws increase your melee speed, which applies not only to swords but also to whips—heavily recommended for both summoner and melee. These are quickly found by searching through chests in the jungle.
• Magic Cuffs are easy to get at this point, and you should have them on for some extra maximum mana, plus mana restoration whenever you take damage. This is obtained by crafting together a band of regeneration, a band of starpower, and a shackle.
• A Mana Flower decreases your mana cost and automatically drinks mana potions for you, a must-have for any summoner at any point in the game. I just have to wonder why you don’t get extra mana for firing the space gun since it already has 0 mana cost with the meteor armor. You can make this fantastic accessory by crafting together a Nature’s Gift from the jungle with a Mana Potion.
• The Pygmy Necklace is easily bought from the Witch Doctor at night after beating the Queen Bee and is an absolute must-have for summoners, giving you an extra summon slot which makes the damage you do so much better. This, combined with the feral claws, frogs, and spinal tap, are a recipe for significant damage.

The Best Buffs for Deerclops

Deerclops is a fight about keeping your distance but not too much space. Staying in the sweet spot, staying elevated, and not getting hit by the debuff-inducing icicles is the name of the game, and there are quite a few buffs that can help you live through hits or negate its debuffs entirely.

Remember that while some potions are great for this fight and are worth going after specifically, other options may not help as much but are still helpful. So you should raid your potions chest before any boss and grab whatever you think could help.

• Warmth is a potion that feels explicitly designed for this fight and this fight alone, despite the fact it was added to the game nine years ago. This potion will give you an easy out if Deerclops ever hits you, and it is highly recommended.
• Food provides decent buffs to every single stat. Of course, food isn’t the easiest thing to come by, but you can farm a bunch of corruption enemies for burgers or mobs in the Granite biome for spaghetti.
• Ironskin and Endurance increase defense and damage reduction, and both help you die less from those times when you’re just forced into taking hits.
• Swiftness can help you run away from the boss more efficiently, especially if you have five different shadow hands trying to chase you down.
• Rage and Wrath both increase your damage output by giving you a higher crit rate and just upping your damage dealt, but both require fishing in the corruption or crimson. However, if you want to go through with the effort to get these, they’ll prove very worth it.
• Hunter may seem unconventional, but it is helpful to tell where all the projectiles and attacks on-screen are more easily. The gray and blue attacks can sometimes blend in with the white and blue backgrounds of the snow biome.
• Night Owl is good to have on you if you plan on doing this fight at night. Especially since the only way to fight this boss without the craftable summons is to fight it at midnight.

Class Specific Buffs

Every class has either potions or dedicated buff stations they can utilize to make the fight against Deerclops far easier. It would be best if you tried to get your hands on these since they will significantly increase your damage output and make the fight much smoother.

• Ale or Sake will decrease your defense in exchange for some significant offense buffs if you play melee. I only recommend this if you want to use a boomerang or yo-yo and keep your distance the whole fight; while the damage increase is significant, the defense decrease is something you should consider.
• A Sharpening Station can increase armor penetration and make your melee weapons do more damage by ignoring their defense.
• Archery does precisely what you’d think it does, buffing your bows. So if you use arrow-drawn weapons and want them to be faster and more powerful, absolutely grab this.
• Ammo Box and Ammo Reduction Potion decrease the ammunition consumed when firing a ranged weapon, which is essential for the Minishark. However, you gotta wonder how you fire more bullets than you actually have. Do the bullets split into smaller bullets but still do the same damage?
• Magic Power and Mana Regeneration help your magic output by making you do more damage and regenerate MP quickly. Any magic user should be used to downing both of these before any fight.
• Summoning Potion and Bewitching Table both give you an extra summon each. These will be the only summoner-specific buffs for the entire game, so you’d better use them well.

The Best Arena for Deerclops

As mentioned before, the main weakness of Deerclops is its inability to gain any verticality quickly. As a result, it cannot jump, fly, or teleport, and it will only climb on your platform if you make stairs for it.

Deerclops does counter this strategy by sending out five shadow hands when you stay above it for too long, so all you need to do is stay above it and periodically go back down to its level whenever you need to refresh that timer and get rid of the hands. Melee and summoner players can utilize this vertical weaving to get extra damage whenever they dip down to the ground.

The best arena for Deerclops is just a platform about 15-25 blocks off the ground. Ensure the platform isn’t too high up, as getting too far away from the boss causes it to become enraged, which also makes it entirely invincible. Just make sure not to stay above it for too long, as that makes it send a ton of shadow hands your way.

You should consider having campfires, heart lanterns, and sunflowers in your arena. The campfires and heart lanterns provide extra health regeneration for any time you get hit and need to recover. In addition, the sunflowers offer extra movement speed, further decreasing the issue of the debuff that Deerclops can cause. It would be best if you also considered getting a bast statue from the underground desert, but these can be difficult to find and provide a small buff to defense.

You may want to consider having a second platform on your arena since having another layer to escape can help dodge the projectiles and hands it may throw at you. You should also bring a hook into this fight to change elevation more efficiently at a moment’s notice. Finally, you should also place a small house with a bed on your arena so you can respawn as quickly as possible since Deerclops will not immediately despawn when you die.

Rewards for Beating Deerclops

What you should mainly expect from this fight are the sillier and goofier rewards that you may or may not want for any upcoming bosses but are still fun and nice to have, regardless of their use cases. It does drop quite a large variety of things, though, so one of them will probably interest you.

• 5-15 Healing Potions (100% Chance)
• Eye Bone (A portable chest pet, 33% Chance)
• Eyebrella (Vanity item, 33% Chance)
• Radio Thing (Visual filter, 33% Chance)
• Pew-matic Horn (Gun, 25% Chance)
• Weather Pain (Magic weapon, 25% Chance)
• Houndius Shootius (Sentry, 25% Chance)
• Lucy the Axe (Melee Weapon, 25% Chance
• Deerclops Mask (14.29% Chance)
• Deerclops Trophy (10% Chance)
• Bone Helm (Accessory, Expert/Master only, 100% Chance)
• Deerclops Eyeball (Pet, Master only, 25% Chance)
• Deerclops Relic (Master only, 100% Chance)

How to Summon Deerclops

Deerclops is most easily summoned using a Deer Thing in the Snow biome, crafted with 3 Flinx fur, 5 Crimtane or Demonite ore, and a lens at a demon or crimson altar. You can use this item at any time of day, above ground or underground. Once you use it, Deerclops will spawn randomly somewhere in the snow biome, and you must track it down and lure it to your arena.

The more contrived method is meant more as a reference to Don’t Starve than an actual way to summon it. You can find Deerclops in the Snow biome at midnight during a blizzard if you have at least nine defense or 200 health. I don’t think you should genuinely try to summon it this way, as the actual summoning item is not difficult to craft in the slightest.

Questions and Answers

Conclusion

Deerclops is an enjoyable boss in Terraria, and I certainly enjoy it far more than the other crossover event, the Old One’s Army. Deerclops is an unintrusive boss who adds many fun items to mess around. Still, I wish it did a better job smoothing out the progression between Skeletron and Wall of Flesh, as I still find myself never using the items it drops for the upcoming fight.

What Deerclops does provide is a fun and fair fight. It is probably the earliest example (in terms of progression) of a boss testing you specifically on your spacing. Of course, you can get by with every other boss by just running away and getting hits in when it calms down, but Deerclops requires express knowledge of your position relative to it, and I like that.

Craft Your Adventure in Terraria’s Pixelated Realm | GOG

Embark on a boundless adventure in the pixelated sandbox world of Terraria, where you can dig, build, and explore to your heart's content. With endless possibilities for creativity and discovery, join millions of players in crafting your own epic journey.

Check Price Buy at Amazon

We earn a commission if you make a purchase, at no additional cost to you.

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Monica is a writer, artist, YouTuber, modder, musician, and general doer of all things related to video games. She’s a trans woman with a bit of experience and love for every game genre. From her first experience with Cave Story to loving Celeste and going through the life-changing Outer Wilds, indie games have become the core thing she’s grown to love and care about when it comes to video games. They’re all about finding new games to fall in love with, new genres to dive into thoroughly, and new experiences to attach to forever.

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