Eye of Cthulhu

Eye of CthulhuFirst Form

Statistics

Type	Boss
Environment	Surface + NightSpace + Night
AI Type	Eye of Cthulhu AI
Damage	15 / 30
Max Life	2800 / 3640
Defense	12
KB Resist	100%
Immune to

Drops

Coins	30000*3

Sounds

Hurt
Killed

Map Icon

• Internal NPC ID: 4

Eye of CthulhuSecond Form

Statistics

Type	Boss
Damage	23 / 36 (40 when at 1/25 health)
Max Life	1400/2800 / 2365/3640
Defense	0
KB Resist	100%
Immune to

Drops

Coins	30000*3

• Item (Quantity)Rate
• Only in Corrupt worlds
• Demonite Ore (30-87)
  100%
• Unholy Arrow (20-49)
  100%
• Corrupt Seeds (1-3)
  100%
• Only in Crimson worlds
• Crimtane Ore (30-87)
  100%
• Crimson Seeds    (1-3)
  100%
• Lesser Healing Potion (5-15)
  100%
• Eye of Cthulhu Mask
  14.29%
• Eye of Cthulhu Trophy
  10%
• Binoculars
  2.5% / 3.3%
• Treasure Bag  (Eye of Cthulhu)

  • Shield of Cthulhu  

  100%

Sounds

Map Icon

Have you seen Chith...Shith.. Chat... The big eye?

— The Merchant

 "You feel an evil presence watching you..." 

Not to be confused with The Eye of Cthulhu, a Hardmode yoyo, or True Eye of Cthulhu, a minion of the Moon Lord.

The Eye of Cthulhu is a pre-Hardmode boss. It is one of the first bosses a player encounters, as it spawns automatically when a relatively early level of game advancement is achieved. It can also be summoned manually with the Suspicious Looking Eye (see Spawn below). It can be considered the second easiest boss in the game, the first being King Slime.

While the Eye of Cthulhu is alive, music Boss 1 will play.

Spawn

The Eye of Cthulhu can be summoned manually using a Suspicious Looking Eye at night (beginning at 7:30 PM in-game time).

It also has a 1/3 chance of spawning automatically each night, if the following conditions apply:

• The Eye of Cthulhu has not yet been defeated in the current world.
• At least one player in the world has at least 200 maximum health and more than 10 defense.
• At least three Town NPCs have been acquired.

If spawning this way, its arrival is announced by the status message "You feel an evil presence watching you..."

If the Eye of Cthulhu is not defeated by dawn (4:30 AM), or if all players die or if the Eye of Cthulhu goes too far off-screen, it despawns.

Behavior

The Eye of Cthulhu has two phases, and is able to fly through blocks in both of them. During the first, it attempts to float directly above the player, while spawning 3-4 Servants of Cthulhu, which drop Hearts and Stars on death. A Servant is spawned with the typical hit sound . Afterward, it charges at the player 3 times in succession, before repeating the cycle.

When the Eye of Cthulhu falls below 50% / 65% health (1,400 / 2,366), it transforms into its second form (shedding its iris into a mouth), which rams the player more aggressively 3 times, then hangs in the air for a period. It no longer spawns Servants, and has no defense, but now has increased attack. It lets out a roar every time it charges.

In Expert mode  , the boss spawns more Servants than normal, as well as 4-5 Servants upon transforming. In the second phase, it will gain an additional powerful rapid chain dash attack. These dashes become faster as the Eye of Cthulhu's life decreases, and it can dash nearly continuously when close to death.

Likewise, if it is not killed before dawn, it will fly off the screen and despawn.

Notes

• When spawning naturally, the Eye of Cthulhu spawns exactly 81 seconds after the status message has appeared.
  • Being in a layer lower than the surface at that moment, or, in singleplayer, exiting the world during that timespan, will prevent the Eye of Cthulhu from spawning naturally.
• Only one boss can be summoned at a time. Nothing will happen if the summon item is used while the eye is still present or the time is unsuitable. However, if one uses the item after the natural spawn message appears but before that eye spawns, the second eye will still spawn.

Achievement

Eye on You • "Defeat the Eye of Cthulhu, an ocular menace who only appears at night."

Defeat the Eye of Cthulhu for the first time.   

Tips

For more elaborate strategies on defeating Eye of Cthulhu, including weapon and arena recommendations, see Guide:Eye of Cthulhu strategies.

• The Eye of Cthulhu drops either Demonite or Crimtane Ore. While the corresponding set of armor and a number of tools additionally require Shadow Scales or Tissue Samples respectively – which the Eye does not drop –, sword, bow, axe, yoyo, and fishing pole can be crafted with only the bars.
• Due to the ease of crafting its summoning item and relatively low difficulty, farming the Eye of Cthulhu is one of the more effective ways of making money prior to Hardmode. It drops 30000*3  (normal) / 75000*7  50  (Expert) up front, plus ores which can be sold as bars for twice (Demonite) or thrice (Crimtane) that amount.
• The Eye of Cthulhu will only spawn randomly if a player has 10 or more defense. Taking defense-boosting equipment off before dusk can prevent it from spawning randomly.
• The boss looks at the player it will follow, which can be helpful information in multiplayer.
• The Eye is most vulnerable during its transformation, because it does neither move nor attack. However, there is only a brief window of opportunity for this.
• Because there are no location-based requirements for summoning, defeating multiple Eye of Cthulhu in an area can be an effective setup for harder boss fights as the dropped Hearts can be picked up mid-fight as needed.
• Killing it on a Corruption world is slightly more profitable than doing so in another with Crimson, as it will drop additional Unholy Arrows.
• In singleplayer, the player can repeatedly pause the game using Autopause in order to properly aim at the Eye of Cthulhu during its dash attacks.

Trivia

• The Eye of Cthulhu, among several other bosses, is based on Cthulhu, a creature first imagined by H. P. Lovecraft in his short story The Call of Cthulhu.
• The existence of the True Eye of Cthulhu  , an entity spawned by the Moon Lord (who bears resemblance to Cthulhu), implies that the Eye of Cthulhu is not Cthulhu's actual, true eye.
• The Merchant NPC will mention sensing an evil presence watching him once the requirements to battle the Eye of Cthulhu are met.
• Although irrelevant to game progression, the Eye of Cthulhu will keep spawning naturally until defeated at least once.
• It is possible to defeat the Eye of Cthulhu without it ever transforming into its second form, e.g. with late-game weapons or Heart Arrows. However, its remains will be unaffected once killed.
• The Eye of Cthulhu Trophy seems to consist of a tooth, which is only physically seen in its second form.
• The Eye of Cthulhu seems to have central heterochromia iridum, an eye condition where there are two colors in the same iris.
• It is one of the first bosses of Terraria's first release.

See also

• The Twins
• True Eye of Cthulhu
• The Eye of Cthulhu

History

 Desktop version

• Desktop 1.3.5: Sprite updated.

• Desktop 1.3.0.4: Fixed bug dealing way too much damage in normal mode.

• Desktop 1.2.3: Can now drop Crimson Seeds on Crimson worlds, and has a chance to drop an Eye of Cthulhu Mask

• Desktop 1.2: Can now drop Crimtane Ore instead of Demonite Ore if the player is in a world with Crimson. Also now has a chance to drop a Trophy and/or a pair of Binoculars.

• Desktop 1.0.6: Health reduced from 3000 down to 2800.

• Desktop-Release: Introduced.

 Console version

• Console 1.06: Added Eye of Cthulhu Mask.

• Console-Release: Introduced.

 Switch version

• Switch 1.0.711.6: Introduced

 Mobile version

• Mobile 1.2.12715:
  • Fixed a bug where the Eye of Cthulhu would not spawn Servants of Cthulhu.
  • Fixed a bug where the Eye of Cthulhu would play the music track Boss 4 instead of Boss 1.

• Mobile 1.2.10061:
  • Nerfed Eye of Cthulhu, does less damage in its second phase.
  • Increased Heart drop chance of Servants of Cthulhu.

• Mobile-Release: Introduced.

 3DS version

• 3DS-Release: Introduced.