Terraria: How To Summon And Defeat Plantera (2024)

Terraria, Re-Logic's 2D pixel-art sandbox game, is one of the best of the genre, even years after its release. Players can let their imaginations run wild or tackle the myriad of bosses in the game. There are 17 bosses for players to battle against, each with unique mechanics and eccentric character designs. Plantera is an early-Hardmode boss and is necessary for players to defeat to progress through to the game's later stages.

RELATED: Best Sandbox Games Of All Time

Defeating Plantera is no easy feat; she is essentially considered a skill-check to ensure players are prepared for the most challenging parts of Terraria. The cramped spaces of the Jungle, coupled with constantly spawning Hardmode Jungle mobs, make Plantera a tough fight. Luckily, this guide provides players with the optimal combat setups and strategies to make the fight against this botanical boss a walk in the park.

How To Summon

After all three mechanical bosses have been slain, Plantera's Bulbs will randomly begin to spawn in the Underground Jungle biome, as indicated by the status message "The jungle grows restless." Small purple squares indicate these Bulbs on the minimap and typically take several in-game days to spawn.

Players must explore the Jungle biome's deepest depths to find one. Destroying one of these purple bulbs will cause Plantera to spawn slightly off-screen immediately, and players should be able to see her boss icon on their minimap. Destroying these bulbs is the only way to spawn Plantera, though players can build their Underground Jungle biome by planting Jungle Seeds in mud to farm Plantera Bulbs reliably.

Gearing Up: The Best Combat Builds

Terraria features different weapons, armor, and accessories, giving players the freedom to personalize their characters and combat builds. As such, the optimal weapons and armor when preparing to fight Plantera depend entirely on the combat class the player has decided to explore. Below is a rough guide on the best combat builds for this Hardmode fight and is by no means exhaustive.

Wings are a must-have for this fight, allowing for more mobility and dodging Plantera's attacks; the best wings players can obtain in early Hardmode are Flame Wings, which can be crafted using Souls of Flight and one Fire Feather.

RELATED:

Hallowed armor is the overall best gear available to equip for all classes, with the respective helmet to suit their build. It gives the Holy Protection buff, allowing them to dodge the next attack. Chlorophyte armor is another potential option due to its higher offensive and defensive bonuses, spawning a turret above the player's health.

• Magic - Magic allows players to keep their distance from Plantera while dealing damage. The Crystal Serpent and Sky Fracture are solid weapons against Plantera, along with Golden Shower, as they can inflict the Ichor Debuff, increasing the damage output even more.
• Melee - Death Sickle is the best melee weapon. The Yelets yoyo can also significantly damage Plantera, forcing her into her second phase reasonably quickly, especially when paired with a Yoyo Bag.
• Ranged - The Uzi or Megashark are the best ranged weapons available; they work best with Crystal Bullets or Ichor Bullets for great damage output.
• Summoner - Summoners are as the weakest class in Terraria. However, with Forbidden Treads and Squire's Great Helm, they can summon as many minions as possible using the Spider armor. For weapons, summoners should consider the Sanguine Staff or Blade Staff to maximize their minions.

The Actual Fight

Players should prepare a large open arena in the Underground Jungle, complete with platforms for the player to drop between and maneuver around easily. They should also place plenty of Campfires for some crucial passive health regeneration. If players envision themselves struggling with this boss, they should have the Nurse NPC on standby to heal them back up.

Plantera has two phases that players need to consider. Once she spawns, Plantera initially moves incredibly slowly using her vines, also known as Plantera's Hooks, to grapple onto blocks. Her Hooks are invincible and cannot be damaged.

First Phase

Plantera creeps after the player, dealing damage upon contact if the player stands too close. Her attacks are more ranged-focused as she keeps a fair distance from the player, as she fires out purple Seeds, green Poison Seeds and Thorn Balls when she is below 80% health. As her health is whittled down, her attacks become more frequent.

Players must be especially wary of her Thorn Ball attack. These erratically bounce once they come into contact with a surface and can deal lethal damage to an unsuspecting player.

RELATED: Terraria: How To Get All Town Slimes

Second Phase

Once Plantera has been reduced to half her maximum health, she will transform into her second phase, which can deal massive damage if players aren't careful. Her pink petals will fall away to reveal her thorny gaping maw.

She will move more aggressively, quickly latching onto background tiles in a bid to reach the player, with her contact damage greatly increased. Players should remove all the background tiles to reduce Plantera's movement speed, giving her fewer walls to grapple. Players with wings equipped should easily be able to kite around Plantera in a circle, attacking her as they go.

Upon transformation, Plantera also sprouts eight additional mouths that reach towards the player. Players should destroy these first, as they can block the players' attacks.

Rewards

The table below details all the possible and guaranteed drops awarded from defeating Plantera, some of which are quite rare. This includes a brief description of the item and its drop chance.

A status message saying "Screams are echoing from the Dungeon" will appear once Plantera has been defeated. More enemies will begin spawning in the Dungeon, hoarding powerful new weapons and accessories. Biome Keys will also become available, allowing players to unlock Biome Chests within the Dungeon.

Once Plantera is defeated, players can also move onto the Jungle Temple with the Temple Key, granting them access to Golem, the next boss.

Terraria is available to play on PC, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, PS4, iOS and Android devices.

MORE: Terraria: How To Summon And Defeat The Empress Of Light