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The mastermind behind all terrors which befall the world, freed from his lunar prison. Practically a god, his power knows no limits.
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~ The Moon Lord's beastiary description.
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Impending doom approaches...
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~ The flavor text before fighting the Moon Lord.
Cthulhu, known in-game as the Moon Lord, is the overarching antagonist and final boss of the sandbox videogame Terraria, introduced in the 1.3 update.
It is a massive eldritch horror that seeks to destroy the world. Though banished long ago, pieces of its body continue to bring misery to the world at night and the Lunatic Cultist and his coven are making plans to bring about the return of their master.
Prior to the events of Terraria, the world was attacked by Cthulhu and nearly destroyed, but it was stopped by an ancient race of Dryads connected to the planet. Though they were unable to kill Cthulhu and mostly died out, they crippled the deity and banished it to the far side of the Moon, where it became the Moon Lord seen in the game and plotted its revenge. They also ripped out one of its eyes, part of its skeleton, and chunks of its brain implied to become the Eye of Cthulhu, Skeletron, and the Brain of Cthulhu, respectively. After many years, a doomsday Lunatic Cult led by a fanatical zealot began seeking to methodically revive Cthulhu and bring about the end of the world. In order to accomplish this, they kidnap a Mechanic, place her in a Dungeon, and force her to build replacement parts for the deity. She mostly completes her work, implied to have created Skeletron Prime, The Destroyer, and The Twins, only needing to complete the mechanical brain. An Old Man is also possessed by Skeletron during this time and becomes a steward to the Dungeon.
In the actual game, the player will encounter the cult in the Dungeon that used to house the old man possessed by Skeletron, in a small group appearing to be worshiping the Moon Lord. If you attack the cultists and kill the Lunatic Cultist who appears after, you unlock the Celestial Events, where four pillars (Nebula, Solar, Stardust, and Vortex) are summoned into your world, summoning celestial monsters near their location. You are then tasked to destroy each of these pillars, but as you do, something appears to not be right, as flavor text afterward says your minds goes numb, your body gripped with pain, and hearing "otherworldly voices" lingering. (Each of these flavor text comes in after the first, second, and third destroyed pillar respectfully.)
After destroying the last pillar, the screen will vibrate and the music will fade out. After this event, the player has one minute to get ready for a fight, because after this period, the Moon Lord will appear, and the fight with it will begin. The Moon Lord has various deadly attacks, such as:
Summoning Phantasmal Spheres, which explode after a couple of seconds.
Spawning Phantasmal Eyes, who home in on the player.
Shooting Phantasmal Bolts
Firing a Phantasmal Deathray, a massive laser.
Reaching a tentacle at the player (if attached, it spawns Moon Leech Clots, who can regenerate health back to the Moon Lord if not killed).
The player must destroy each of the hands and the head to open the core, the Moon Lord's weakspot. When one of the body parts are destroyed, said body part grows harming thorns and spawns a True Eye of Cthulhu, which does each of the first four attacks. If the player dies to the Moon Lord, the Moon Lord despawns, and the player must refight both the Lunatic Cultist and the Pillars. However, if they beat the Moon Lord, it shakes violently and explodes, leaving only a skeleton behind, vanquishing the threat to Terraria forever. After this, the player can both reap the rewards of the powerful items it gives when defeated and complete the game.
Appearance
The Moon Lord has a quite similar appearance to its counterpart in Lovecraftian lore, barring some differences. The Moon Lord has brown skin with various blue parts complementing it. Its head has an exposed brain, five blue eyes, a set of razor-sharp teeth, and blue tentacles. Its body has a muscular chest, a core on the chest (which is its weakpoint), and two arms that have small spikes on the arm and an eye on each palm. However, the Moon Lord lacks a lower half, ending in an exposed part of its spine.
Gallery
Images
The Moon Lord
"Champion of Terraria", the Achievement you get for beating the Moon Lord for the first time.
The Moon Lord's map icon.
The Moon Lord's Treasure Bag in the game's Expert Mode.
Videos
Moon Lord
Trivia
Concept art of the Cthulhu boss fight.
Despite a mid-development comment against it, the Moon Lord shares numerous similarities to common depictions of Cthulhu. Fans did speculate before the release of Version 1.3 that the final boss would be Cthulhu himself. (in part of early concept design)
This was most likely believed due to how frequently Cthulhu is mentioned in Terraria, as the two bosses Eye of Cthulhu and Brain of Cthulhu, both have Cthulhu in their names, there is also a yo-yo called The Eye of Cthulhu in Terraria, and the Moon Lord summoning beings called True Eye of Cthulhu.
While initially explained to be Cthulhu's brother, it was later confirmed in a lore post on the official forum that the Moon Lord was, indeed, Cthulhu himself.
Terraria's final boss was originally going to be the Moon simply falling onto the world, but this was scrapped.
This is most like due to the fact that it would be too similar to the final boss of The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask.
Although it is the final boss, the Moon Lord has less monetary drops than the Wall of Flesh in the game's Normal Mode, and it does not have any in the Expert Mode.
Despite its status, it also has the least amount of debuff immunities, it only being unaffected by Confusion.
The Moon Lord could also be based off Hastur, Cthulu's half brother. Both are visually similar to Cthulu, and both have a trademark sign of their arrival. (The Celestial Sigil for the Moon Lord, and the Yellow Sign for Hastur.)
This was debunked by the aforementioned lore post on the official forum.
A post by Arkhayla revealed that the Moon Lord is Chtulhu's brother, and is also named Steve.
This was deconfirmed by Arkhayla later stating that the entire post was a joke.
The item Moon Lord's Legs says "This might be Steve's".
NPC's are not able to attack the Moon Lord.
The "mechanical brain'" meant to be used to bring the Moon Lord back is likely a reference to the now-defunct popular Terraria mod Tremor, which added a Brain of Cthulhu equivalent to The Destroyer.
This could also refer to the fact that out of the three mechanical bosses counterparts in the game, being The Twins to the Eye of Cthulhu, The Destroyer to the Eater of Worlds, and Skeletron Prime to Skeletron, the Brain of Cthulu has none.
Villains