Terraria update 1.4 has added a ton of new features, including many bug fixes and graphical updates. Aside from the game itself looking prettier, two new beautiful bosses have been added for players to summon.
Queen Slime and Empress of Light can both be challenging, but they are well worth summoning. The new bosses drop several items that have been added with the latest update. They also have unique in-game music which is a rare feature for Terraria’s bosses. Queen Slime’s crystal assassin armor set grants a lot more mobility to players that get all three pieces. Empress of Light’s new weapons have unique and colorful mechanics that can tear through any opponent.
While both of these bosses are completely optional, they are well worth fighting and farming for the new gear. Here is how they can be summoned, what you can earn from them, and some tips on how to beat them.
Queen Slime
Queen Slime is the hardmode counterpart to King Slime. She is an optional boss summoned by using a Gelatin Crystal in the Hallow. These crystals are uncommon but can be found underground beneath the Hallow. They are similar to the Plantera’s Bulb item used to summon Plantera. These crystals can be easily spotted as they glow and change colors between blue and bright pink. Aside from the treasure bag and relic, the Queen will always drop a Sparkle Slime Balloon and one of the Crystal Assasin gear pieces. Something unique about this boss is that multiple Queen Slimes can be summoned at a time to fight as many or as few as you like.
Tips for defeating Queen Slime boss
Any early hardmode gear will be just fine for this battle so long as you have a decent pair of wings to move around with. Queen Slime’s movement and behavior share some similarities with King Slime though the Queen is faster. Queen Slime’s attacks can do quite a bit of damage, and her movements can be unpredictable. While she is faster and stronger than King Slime, she is still fairly easy to beat as long as you stay mobile. The most problematic part of this boss fight is that she can summon minion slimes and gains the ability to fly in the later stage of the fight.
She typically alternates between a wide-ranged attack and a bouncing attack. She briefly charges for her ranged attack before firing a bunch of purple slimeballs in a wide arc. The slimeballs are easily dodged as there is usually a fair amount of space between them, but the balls can bounce a few times off hard objects. If you aren’t careful, it is straightforward to dodge the slimeballs only to be hit by a ricochet.
Her melee attack is pretty limited. She will perform a quick jump towards the player and either bash them or drop them down onto them from above. Both of these attacks are pretty easy to dodge as they have a short-range, just stay in the air, and they won’t be a problem. Her melee becomes a lot more dangerous in phase 2 when Queen Slime grows wings.
After her health has been reduced by half, Queen Slime will grow wings and begin moving a lot faster. She will take to the air and follow the player around relentlessly. She will continuously try to ram into the player, all while shooting slimeballs in every direction. If you are on the ground, she will try to fly over you and drop down from above to do damage.
The biggest difficulty when fighting this slime is the minion slimes she will spawn during the fight. Queen Slime’s minions can fire slimeballs at you and will chase you until you destroy them. These mini-slimes can do a fair amount of damage. You need to take care of them immediately, or they will start to overwhelm you with sheer numbers. Queen Slime summons the minions when she has been damaged, so you will have to deal with them throughout the fight.
Empress of Light
The Empress of Light is a late-game boss only available in hardmode in the Hallow biome. She is summoned by killing a Prismatic Lacewing at night after defeating Plantera. Prismatic Lacewings are rare creatures that can only be found in the Hallow at night after Plantera is defeated. When the Empress has been defeated, she will drop a treasure bag, a relic, and a rare weapon. There is also a small chance for several rare miscellaneous drops, including a set of wings, dye, and a jewel of light. If you defeat the Empress by dealing 100% damage during the daytime, she will always drop the unique Terraprisma summoning weapon.
Tips for defeating Empress of Light
This boss fight is essentially a bullet-hell battle requiring good mobility and timing to survive. All of her attacks are quick and are difficult to dodge. The Master Ninja Gear and the Rod of Discord are the best items to equip for this fight as they both have abilities that make it a little easier to dodge the Empress’ attacks. Post-golem gear and a good set of wings is a must for taking on the Empress of Light. You need to stay in the air and keep moving quickly to avoid some of her attacks. Projectile weapons like the Terra Blade and Zenith tend to do very well against this boss.
If you fight her during the day, all of her attacks will do massive amounts of damage capable of instant kills without the best possible gear equipped. If you really want the Terraprisma weapon, you should try farming Prismatic Lacewings and fight her a couple of times at night first to get used to her. Once she is down to half of her health, her attacks will be a bit faster with shorter intervals between attacks. She moves somewhat erratically throughout the fight. She will stay in the air and hover around the area randomly but will generally stick close to the player and will home in on you if you stray too far.
The Empress of Light’s attacks are pretty predictable, and she tends to broadcast them, giving you a small window to move out of the way. She typically alternates between five different attacks, three multidirectional bullet attacks, a dash attack, and a wide-ranged star melee attack. She mainly uses the ranged attacks when in combat. Two of her ranged attacks are very similar. For one, she launches a series of relatively slow-moving star-shaped missiles. The missiles follow you around the screen but will eventually stop homing on you and fly off. In a variation of the missile attack, she fires several of them that radiate out in a circle covering a large area. Luckily this variant of the missile attack doesn’t home in on players making it pretty easy to dodge. Her third and final ranged attack involves conjuring a bunch of swords that very quickly slice across the screen where you are positioned. Luckily, this attack has a brief charging window where thin, brightly colored lines are shown the path of the swords. Use the lines to predict where the attack will land and move out of the way.
The Empress has two melee attacks, a dash attack, and a spike attack. For the dash attack, she will swiftly move horizontally in your direction while emitting a lot of different colors. Before she uses the dash attack, she will float around in a quick circle leaving multicolored after images behind. The spike attack can be her most dangerous if you stay on the ground for too long. She will emit several large bright spikes that radiate from her body and cover a large area. If you are on the ground when she does this, you can get trapped between the spikes and end up taking a lot of damage.
The Empress of Light can seem like a glass cannon depending on when you decide to fight her. She is an optional boss that can be summoned at any time so you can take her on when you feel ready. While her attacks can be devastating, especially in the daytime, she doesn’t have a good defense. Stay mobile in the air and hit her hard between attacks to take her down quickly.
