Eye of Cthulhu

Eye of CthulhuFirst Form

Statistics

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

Drops

Coins	3

Map Icon

• Internal NPC ID: 4

Eye of CthulhuSecond Form

Statistics

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

Drops

Coins	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%

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. This 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), though can still present a challenge to newer players.

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 7:30pm 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 life and more than 10 defense.
• At least four Town NPCs are acquired.

When spawning automatically, its approach is signaled with the status message: "You feel an evil presence watching you..." After 81 seconds since this message's appearance, the Eye of Cthulhu will appear and begin attacking the player.

If the Eye of Cthulhu is not defeated by Dawn (4:30am), or if all players die or run away while fighting it, 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. After spawning a round of those, it rams at the player 3 times in succession, before repeating the cycle.

When the Eye of Cthulhu falls below half health (65% in expert mode), it transforms into its second form (which sheds its pupil 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.

In Expert mode, the boss spawns more Servants than normal, as well as 4-5 Servants upon transforming. The second form has an additional powerful, rapid dash attack, which also increases its defense significantly. These become more rapid as the Eye of Cthulhu's life is lowered, and it can dash nearly continuously when close to death.

Likewise, if morning comes before it is killed, it will fly off the screen and despawn.

Notes

• When using a Recall Potion while the natural spawning Eye of Cthulhu has already happened, it will not follow you (if you are far away.)
• If all surviving players are underground when the time comes for the Eye to spawn (81 seconds after the warning message), the Eye will not spawn.
• In single-player, if the player logs out after the message appears, the Eye of Cthulhu will not spawn.
• Attempting to use a second Suspicious Looking Eye while the Eye of Cthulhu is already spawned will not work, and the item will not be used.
• However, using a Suspicious Looking Eye after the message for a natural spawn appears (but before the boss spawns) will actually spawn the boss normally, without canceling the natural spawn, so the player will be fighting two Eyes of Cthulhu at once.

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 Ore or Crimtane Ore. Armor and many tools at this tier also require Shadow Scales or Tissue Samples respectively, which the Eye doesn't drop. (The player will have to fight the Eater of Worlds or Brain of Cthulhu for those.) However, the ore can be used to make a few weapons and tools immediately: Sword, bow, axe, yo-yo, and a fishing rod, any of which may be useful for a while.
• 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 3 gold up front, plus ore which can be sold (as bars) for twice (Demonite) or three times (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 sundown can prevent it from spawning randomly.
• The boss looks at the player it will follow, which can be helpful information in multiplayer.
• Using Shurikens can be effective, as they pierce through both the Servants and the boss and drop back again, making it possible to hit the Eye of Cthulhu twice each.
• When it is spinning, it is most vulnerable because it cannot attack, except for in Expert mode.
• Because there are no location-based requirements for summoning, slaying multiple Eye of Cthulhu in an area can be an effective setup for harder boss fights as the hearts can be picked up mid-fight as needed.
• Aglets can be useful as they provide a small speed boost for dodging the Servants of Cthulhu and Eye of Cthulhu’s second form.
• Despite the fact that the Flare Gun does 3 damage on contact with an enemy, this weapon can be very effective against the Eye of Cthulhu. A Flare inflicts the debuff On Fire! on contact with an enemy. On a Zombie this effect does 1 damage at the time, but on the Eye of Cthulhu this damage is 17 lasting 5 (66%) to 10 (33%) seconds dealing in total around 238 - 425 damage per flare.

Trivia

• Cthulhu is an entity from the works of writer H.P. Lovecraft, first appearing in his short story, The Call of Cthulhu. Cthulhu is described as a slumbering cousin to the old ones who will destroy all living things should he ever awaken.
• In the  Desktop version and  Console version, the final boss of the game, Moon Lord, is somewhat like a brother to Cthulhu, according to Cenx.
• The Merchant NPC will mention sensing something evil watching them once you meet the requirements to battle the Eye of Cthulhu.
• It is not required to defeat the Eye of Cthulhu as it has no unique drops required for game progression. It will however continue spawning until beaten at least once.
• It is possible to outclass the Eye of Cthulhu with late-game weapons or Heart Arrows, causing it to never transform into its second form. However, its remains will be unaffected once killed.
• The trophy dropped by the Eye of Cthulhu seems to be a tooth, which is only physically seen in its second form.
• The Eye of Cthulhu seems to have Central Heterochromia.

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.  

See also

• Servant of Cthulhu
• 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.

 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 wrong music.

• Mobile 1.2.0061:
  • 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.