Terraria: Brain of Cthulhu Boss Guide

Battle Tips & Gear Recommendations

Life: 1000
Life (Creepers): 100 (x20)
Drops: Crimtane Ore, Tissue Sample, Mask (PC/Console), Trophy, 5% chance at pet.

Brain of Cthulhu is a Crimson-specific boss that one should fight after taking on the Eye of Cthulhu. This boss drops Crimtane Ore just as the Eye will in a Crimson World, but more importantly the Tissue Samples a player needs in order to craft powerful Crimson Armor and the Deathbringer Pickaxe that allows for mining of Hellstone. This guide will teach you all you should need to know about defeating this boss, and how to summon it manually.

Setting Up An Arena & Gear Recommendations
The best you can do while in the Crimson is make sure your character has a nice open area to run about in, which may mean using some Purification Powder to clear some Crimson blocks with a pickaxe. This is bought from the Druid. You need it, or explosives, to get to the Crimson Hearts anyway. I use platforms over any water to ensure I have room to run. Since you've defeated the Eye, you should have access to the Tendon Bow and Blood Butcherer as great weapons for defeating it. A combination of both is not bad at all, especially true if you make some Frostburn or Jester Arrows.

I did this fight in Iron Armor and found it rough, so Silver/Tungsten would be even better. You will be, after all, jumping all the way past Gold/Platinum in terms of defense with the Crimson Armor! It is possible in Iron with at least 240 life or so, as in my testing I lacked a blizzard/cloud in a bottle which would have let me double jump and avoid some attacks. Placing a campfire on level ground will help you regenerate some health, and a simple Ironskin potion can nearly double your defense at this stage of the game. See my guide to Buff Potions for Boss Battles for more information. Doing all of these may be considered over-preparing.

Summoning Brain of Cthulhu
In a first run, Brain of Cthulhu is summoned every three Crimson Hearts you break with a hammer. Each one you break will let your world spawn Meteorites, which provide powerful armor and weapons, but also give some loot directly when broken. Try to break the third near a nice open area so that you have room to maneuver.

If you need to summon the Brain, you can do so by crafting a Bloody Spine and using it within the Crimson at any time of day. The Bloody Spine is produced by taking Vicious Mushrooms (from grass in Crimson) to an alchemy station to transform them into Vicious Powder. You need 6 to make 30. Additionally, you require 15 Vertebrae from killing Crimson enemies. Take these two items to a Crimson Altar to make the spine and you can summon the Brain at will, useful if you want to make every piece of Crimson Armor, weapons, and tools.

Battle with Brain of Cthulhu

In my first playthrough, I found this boss to be harder than Eater of Worlds. Brain of Cthulhu is initially invincible, until the 20 or so Creepers are defeated. These little eyes will swarm at you, and melee is great for knocking them back and hitting many at once. Jester Arrows can also pierce them and cause huge damage to the crowd.

As you kill them, try to avoid picking up the hearts right away, as you can use them when you're damaged. Each of them will drop some tissue samples and crimtane, which is great as even if you lose you will come out of it with some gains.

Once all of the Creepers are dead, Brain of Cthulhu will now be vulnerable to your attacks and only has 1,000 life. It teleports toward you so try to avoid getting yourself in a corner or you will take a hit or two. Double jumping over it is a great tactic. It is especially vulnerable to the On Fire! and Frostburn debuffs, which come from flaming and frostburn arrows. Drink a potion if you get low on life and slash/shoot away while dodging its teleporting attacks and victory will not be far off. The hardest phase is over once the Creepers are down, and you should have plenty of hearts to pick up in order to heal yourself.

After the Fight

Once the brain is down, you can make a full set of Crimson Armor for your efforts and it will last you all the way to the Underworld. You can also make Meteor Gear by mining a Meteorite should it land one night soon. More important is the Deathbringer Pickaxe you can make with the tissue samples, so that you can Mine Hellstone and Obsidian to make better gear for battling the Wall of Flesh and moving on to Hard Mode. It is worth doing this fight a couple of times to ensure you get ample Tissue Samples and Crimtane. After you're done, this boss is worth farming for gold to reforge your gear with the Goblin Tinkerer.

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