I just got into Hard Mode and I have a Skeletron Prime summoning item. I was wondering how to kill him so I can progress. I will welcome any ideas.
Terraria – Best Strategies to Defeat Skeletron Prime
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You need to start breaking Demon or Crimson Altars with the Pwnhammer. This will spawn three new tiers of ores that you need to mine. The ore you get is determined at random when you smash an altar. The ores are: Cobalt/Palladium, Mithril/Orichalcum, and Adamantite/Titanium. Each altar smashed will spawn some of the next ore in the list, starting at the few new tier. The first spawns Cobalt (or Palladium), the second Mithril or Orichalcum, the third Adamantite or Titanium, then fourth circles back around (Cobalt or Palladium). After each ore is spawned once successive altar smashes will produce less and less of that ore. And each alter smashed will spawn a block of Corruption, Crimson or Hallow somewhere in the world which will contribute to the spread of those biomes. I have heard it suggested that the new ores are more likely to spawn in the underground jungle, but I cannot verify this from my own experience.
Now, I personally like to aim for Excalibur and the Megashark first. That's because you need souls of Might - dropped by Destroyer - to make them. I find him the easiest Hardmode boss to tackle. Because of that, I don't build a lot of hardmode gear (except armor). I only need the swords (I go back and build other stuff later of course). But before I worry about swords or armor, I go for the drills.
It looks something like this:
Mine enough cobalt for a drill then mirror out and make it.
Return to mine for Mithril. Mine enough for the Anvil and a Drill, then mirror out and make those. I will mine cobalt during this trip down, and if I have enough spare I will make a sword (since you can hold it down and swing it, a property the Mithril and Adamantite swords do not share), then armor pieces.
Return and mine for Adamantite and Mithril primarily. Make Adamantite Forge, then drill (though this is not strictly speaking necessary, but it is an upgrade), then make Adamantite armor. Then make Adamantite sword. I will use Mithril armor as a stop gap until I get a full adamantite set.
During this process, you want to farm crystals when you can (if you plan on using guns at all; crystal ammo is amazing) and get as many souls of light/night as possible (can drop from any enemy killed in the underground Hallow/Corruption). Those souls are the gateway item for summoning the new bosses.
Once I can summon the Destroyer, I get a weapon to kill it with. Typically that's a Phasesaber. I make Excalibur (which really speeds up farming him) then I make the Megashark (which I use for the Twins and Skeletron Prime).
My way is not the "best" way, but I find the Destroyer easiest and I rather like those two weapons.Bow lovers can easily substitute repeaters for this process, and you can kill the Destroyer for a Megashark or just try to farm the twins (for the Hallowed Repeater) first. Magic lovers want to forge Crystal Storm.
There are a lot of options. My general advice is not to stop and build a full set of armor/gear at each new metal tier. Build as little as you need to progress to the mining of the next tier. If you are dying a lot, then alter tactics (and if need be, do stop and make some better armor).
Once you kill all of the Mechanical Bosses, the Hard Mode Jungle awaits!
According to the official Terraria wiki, you should avoid getting too close to the dungeon from underground, if you haven't defeated Skeletron yet.
Deep caves and Chasms near the Dungeon should be avoided until Skeletron is defeated, as having a significant portion of the Dungeon on-screen below zero depth is considered being inside it, and Guardians can therefore still spawn.
This means that you do not need to actually be inside the dungeon for the Dungeon Guardian to spawn. The reason for this, is because the Dungeon is not a closed space; in my world for instance, the dungeon was generated with a patch of dirt separating two patches of wall, so I could've entered the dungeon without actually digging through its wall.
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Best Answer
Before Skeletron Prime
Skeletron Prime isn't the easiest of all the three mechanical versions of bosses. Saying if he is the hardest or if The Twins is the hardest is subjective, but it's common sense that a proper arena make the battle against Destroyer easier than the others.
Break a few altars, at least 6, so that a minimum amount of ores are spread across your world. After that, try getting a third-grade ore armor. With a grappling hook, a small cave arena with proper healing items, and you're good to go.
After killing him, you can make a proper Weapon with Hallowed Bars if you couldn't get a good one.
A wing is highly recommended for the other 3 bosses. To make a wing, there are many basic recipes, but the common material is the Soul of Flight, a 100% drop from wyvern, that can spawn high on the sky and floating islands.
Arena
The arena can be built with a few platforms, 5 is enough, on the air, so that the bomb goes trough all platforms to the ground and doesn't hit you. Statues with timers, Heart Lantern and campfire for passive health generation. If you are not playing alone, the players that is not aggroing the boss can take quick jumps on a honey pool.
Gear
The armor that you used to defeat Destroyer is good enough. If you want a Hallowed set by farming Destroyer, would be good as well. As melee, don't even dare using swords without projectiles. The best weapon I can think of is the Bananarang, having at least 5 of them, since the number of it you have equipped is the amount of boomerangs that can be had active on the screen(you will probably get 2 or 3 the first time you get, so kill a few more clowns to get to 5).
As ranged, a Hallowed Repeater or a Megashark (using the Souls from Destroyer) is good enough.
As magic, the best spell against him would be Magnet Sphere, but this would be hard to get since Dungeon in Hard Mode is almost end game content. Meteor Staff would be the second in place for this battle, since he is flying, it would shouldn't be a problem to hit him. Since the nerf on the mana potions I highly recommend magic handcuffs and star statue.
The Battle
For the battle, there's not much you can do to avoid damage from the laser arm, just make sure to have good speed, your wings, healing and buff potions, and go for it. Focus on the the arms that actually shoot, and keep your distance to avoid contact damage, it's the biggest source of damage of the boss.