Hydra

Hydra
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Type	Boss
Health Points	360 ( x 180)
Attack Strength	Fire breath: 4.5 - 9 ( - ) Includes fire damage Bomb: 3.5 - 9 ( - ) Bite: 5.5 - 10 ( - x 5)
Drops	Hydra Chop (5-35) Fiery Blood (7-10) Hydra Trophy (1)
ID	twilightforest:hydra

The Hydra can be found in a unique, cracked-open Hydra Lair in a Fire Swamp. The Hydra appears as a massive creature, with two stumpy legs supporting a wide, scaly body. Multiple serpentine necks end in heads that bear a passing resemblance to that of the Ender Dragon. The entire creature is covered in blue-green and dark blue scales.

Combat

The Hydra is extremely dangerous in combat, and full Diamond, Steeleaf or Naga Scale armor is recommended. Perhaps, with such a fiery environment, some sort of protection against fire damage could suffice. The Hydra has three main attacks. All of its attacks come with ample warning individually, but multiple heads will often attack at the same time, so players will have to react quickly.

The Hydra's thick scales offer considerable protection, and many of an adventurer's attacks will deal little damage unless aimed directly into one of the Hydra's unprotected open mouths.

Keep in mind that you must be within range of the Hydra's fire breath in order to deal any damage.

If one of the heads receives enough damage, it will die. Unfortunately, two heads quickly grow back to replace every one lost, to a maximum of seven heads. The Hydra starts with three heads, so plan accordingly. This can prove difficult if the Hydra is left alone for long enough, slowly healing over time.

Fire Breath

The Hydra's signature attack, fire breath will inflict damage and light targets on fire. A head about to breathe fire will raise itself higher, and open its mouth to reveal small flames. Heads breathing fire can't track the target as quickly or accurately, so speed is the best way to avoid being hit by this attack.

The fire breath has a maximum range of around 20 blocks from the center of the Hydra. The Hydra seems to be protected by magic or other powers that nullify attacks from beyond the maximum range of its breath weapon.

Explosive Bombs

Heads about to attack with bombs will raise up and emit smoke from their mouth. The Hydra spits three bombs at a time, which detonate immediately upon contact with another creature, or after a short time on the ground. The bombs are highly kinetic and will bounce if attacked. Reflecting bombs back at the Hydra is a good way to deal damage, especially if you can hit them into an open mouth.

The bombs usually don't damage the surrounding terrain, but if the Hydra sees its target hiding behind a barrier, it can fire a bomb that blasts with the power of a TNT explosion.

Bombs have a range of around 24 blocks from the Hydra.

Bite Attack

If tempted by a sufficiently close target, the Hydra will attack with its powerful jaws. This is a great opportunity to use swords or other close range weapons to attack the Hydra's open mouth directly, but be sure to move before the head follows through with the lunging bite attack. The bite deals massive damage to anything unlucky enough to be hit.

Treasure

Slaying a Hydra is highly rewarding. First off, slaying a Hydra will give the player access to the minerals found within the Hydra Lair. The Hydra drops several dozen Hydra Chops, an overpowered, extremely nourishing and satiating food item that also gives regeneration powers for a short time. Also included are several doses of the Hydra's Fiery Blood, which can be combined with Iron Ingots to make powerful weapons and armor. Finally there is a Hydra Trophy item, which is highly decorative and prestigious.

If the mod Immersive Engineering is installed, the Hydra will also drop a Twilit Twilight Shader Grabbag and a Twilit Shader: Hydra.

Progression

If you are playing according to the Progression system, the air in the Fire Swamp will be thick with flying cinders and ashes. You will be unable to enter the Fire Swamp without catching fire. Defeating the Minoshroom and consuming the Meef Stroganoff will allow you to enter the area safely.

Defeating the Hydra and obtaining some of its Fiery Blood will complete the Swamp phase of the Progression. If the Hydra was the last of the three bosses to defeat, the Highlands shall be unlocked.

History

Version	Details
1.7.0	Added a preliminary Hydra.
1.11.5	Added a boss health bar to the Hydra.
1.11.6	The Hydra can now engage with multiple targets. Slightly retextured the Hydra. The Hydra no longer hurts itself with it's own attacks, and will stop an attack if it will hit itself. Deflected Mortars still deal damage. Mortars and Fire Breath now deal fire damage. Altered the bounding boxes of the head and tail, allowing it to bat around entities and break blocks. The Hydra can now have up to 7 heads. More heads will sprout if enough damage is dealt to one head. Scaled the damage of all attacks to match Diamond and Naga armor. The Fire Breath starts tracking the player during charging, reducing the chance of a guaranteed hit. Mortars deal explosion damage, but not enough to destroy blocks normally. The Hydra will not use the bite attack if there are less than 3 heads active. Hydra now drops Magnetic Blood and Hydra Chops.
1.11.9	Removed some debug messages. The number of heads active is now saved, in the event of changing dimensions. Higher difficulties makes the AI harder, such as more frequent and accurate attacks. Mortars now destroy blocks if the target is behind a wall. Only one head can bite at a time, and counts as 3 separate attacks to reduce the number of other attacks.
1.11.10	Removed WIP tags from Hydra.
1.12.0	The Hydra will heal after 50 seconds now. The Hydra will not attack with Mortars if the target is above it.
1.15.2	Hydra now drops Hydra Trophy as well.
1.20.2	The Hydra will no longer target players in Creative Mode.
2.2.1	Fixed Hydra sounds.
3.3.202	Fixed the Hydra not spinning on the spot. The Hydra could hurt itself with Mortars. This has been rectified. Mortars now respect the doMobGriefing gamerule.
3.5.365	Fixed the Hydra spinning around (like a record).
3.6.342	Due to the Hydra being too big for Sponge's Bounding-Box limit, a message is now printed in the logs.
3.7.424	Slaying the Hydra will no longer unlock the Dark Forest. It will, however, unlock the Highlands if the Ur-Ghast and Snow Queen are slain. If the mod Immersive Engineering is installed, the Hydra will drop an Epic Shader Grabbag.
3.8.654	If the mod Immersive Engineering is installed, the Hydra will now drop a Twilit Twilight Shader Grabbag and a Twilit Shader: Hydra.
3.8.659	General bug fixes such as Performance and Stability.