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Events are a common occurrence in Terraria, be they impromptu pitched boss battles, or a simple change in the weather. Other events can see your town raided by monsters, with you and your citizens forced to take up arms and give sleep a miss for the night. The Blood Moon is one of these events.
During a Blood Moon, the world will take on a red hue, all rivers and lakes will run red, and monsters will become more aggressive and spawn much more frequently. To make matters worse, they’ll make a beeline for your town, and can easily destroy it if you aren’t prepared. In this guide, I’ll give you tips to make sure that doesn’t happen, so you can survive the Blood Moon in Terraria.
What causes a Blood Moon in Terraria?
If you want to survive a Blood Moon in Terraria, you need to know what causes one so you can prepare. There are three criteria that must be met for a Blood Moon to happen, but only one is of any real importance. These are:
- Any player in the world must have at least 120 health. This is easy to achieve, as it only requires finding one Life Crystal.
- The Moon must not be a New Moon.
- The Eye of Cthulhu must not be on the way.
If all of these criteria are met, there is a chance of 11.11% per night of a Blood Moon occurring. The only one of the criteria that you have proper control over is the search for a Life Crystal. You can’t do much about Moon Phases, nor can you impact whether or not an Eye of Cthulhu comes once you’ve met the criteria. That said, it will never spawn “organically” once you’ve killed it once, and can only be fought again by using a Suspicious Looking Eye.
These criteria only govern the natural spawning of a Blood Moon. If you don’t want to leave it to chance, you can force a Blood Moon to spawn by using a Bloody Tear at night, provided there aren’t other events taking place.
What does a Blood Moon do?
A Blood Moon has a bunch of effects on your world, with the most noticeable one being the massive increase in enemy spawns and a few new enemies to face. Enemies will also spawn near your town, even if you have lots of NPCs or items suppressing enemy spawns. All types of Zombies can open doors during a Blood Moon, so you’ll need to consider that when you’re preparing your defenses. Blood Moons also affect fishing, but I’ll cover that in more detail later.
New enemies of a Blood Moon
In addition to a large increase in enemy spawns, you’ll have new creatures to fight, too. Critters that are normally harmless will now pose a threat. Bunnies, Goldfish, and Penguins will all turn into their Vicious counterparts, and will join the ranks of the other enemies in an attack on your town. You can get a few new items from these guys, so it kind of balances out.
There are two main new enemy types that appear during a Blood Moon. The first is a mutated zombie, called the Blood Zombie. This crimson beast is a direct upgrade to its normal counterparts in every way; it’s stronger, faster, and tankier, and makes up the meat of an enemy assault force. The second enemy is a variation on Demon Eyes, called the Drippler. It is a flying enemy, one that’s pretty quick and deals a fair bit of damage. Both enemies have a 1% chance of dropping a Bloody Tear, which can be used to summon future Blood Moons.
Blood Moon bosses
There are two strong enemies that act as the “bosses” of a Blood Moon. These are the Bride and Groom. Both are zombies, and function exactly as any other zombie does, but they deal much more damage and have a far greater health pool. Killing them on their own isn’t particularly difficult, but you’ll need to deal with the rest of the horde as well. I’ve got a few tips to make your job easier, as I’ll cover later. In any case, killing them will get you a few new items, a 20% chance of getting a Bloody Tear, and the Till Death… achievement.
Fishing during a Blood Moon
Although all bodies of water are now roiling bloodbaths, fishing is still possible. In addition to catching fish as normal, you have a chance to hook two very strong enemies, and possibly a Surly Slime. This slime counts as a town slime, which is a kind of town pet. If you find all of them, you’ll get an achievement.
The other two unique catches are tough enemies. The first is a Wandering Eye Fish. It deals quite a bit of damage per hit, has a large HP pool of 300, and has complete resistance to knockback. For killing one, you can get a few rare items, Chum Buckets, and a Bloody Tear.
The second enemy is a Zombie Merman. It’s even tougher than the Wandering Eye Fish, dealing more damage, having an HP pool of 400, and also being immune to knockback. You’ll get the same items at the same drop rates from either enemy. If you want to know when you are about to hook a Blood Moon enemy, you can get a warning by drinking a Sonar Potion.
Avoiding a Blood Moon
Blood Moons are pretty difficult events in the early game. If you get one unprepared, you’re going to be in for a really tough time. So much so, you may be tempted to skip it entirely, if you have the chance. This is technically possible, though overriding a Blood Moon completely can only be done late-game.
If you don’t think you can handle a Blood Moon, you can wait it out with some minor preparations. Enemies can open doors, so if you want to keep your citizens safe, you’re going to need to barricade their homes. This is easy to do, only requiring a crude wall of any material to be placed right in front of their doors.
This will stop the NPC from going outside, and stop enemies from waltzing in. You can also barricade doors by placing furniture on the inside, if you’re in a pinch. To keep yourself safe, you can hold out in a safe place underground, as enemies won’t be able to break down walls to reach you.
The Blood Moon can be skipped entirely in the late game, if you don’t fancy dealing with hordes of enemies all night. You can summon either of two moon events, the Frost Moon and the Pumpkin Moon, to override the Blood Moon. This can be done with the Naughty Present or Pumpkin Moon Medallion items, respectively. Note that these are very late-game items, so you won’t be able to do this in a relatively new world.
Defending your town during a Blood Moon
If you want to adequately defend your base without going into full lockdown and hiding away, you should construct a few traps. This will help you thin out the horde, or completely cover one side of your base while you focus on the other. You can also try to recruit specific NPCs to your town to help with defense, such as the Dryad.
Moats and pits
One of the easier methods of giving your base a little extra protection is to dig some pits on the outskirts. You can either leave them empty, trapping enemies inside to be disposed of later, or fill the pits with lava. You’ll only need a sliver to kill anything unfortunate enough to find itself inside, but you won’t destroy any drops. For ease of access, you can build a platform bridge across the pit, or use actuated blocks to create a kind of drawbridge.
Traps
Ranged traps can help deal a good chunk of damage and thin the herd during a Blood Moon. These kinds of traps are quite customizable; you can make landmines with explosives and a pressure plate, rain blocks on enemies, or use a timer to trigger a Dart Trap to fire continuously once activated. You can find materials for most of these basic traps easily underground, and the little extra fire support can help you survive the Blood Moon.
