Hydra

Hydra
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
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 highly recommended. Perhaps, with such a fiery environment, some sort of protection against fire damage will 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, making a ranged weapon highly effective when in combat with the Hydra. Any attempt to attack the Hydra from afar will lead to failure, as an adventure must be within range of the Hydra's fire breath in order to deal any ranged damage.

If one of the heads receives enough damage, it will die. Consequently, two heads will quickly grow back to replace every head lost, to a maximum of seven heads, and letting out a frightening roar as the heads reform. The Hydra starts with three heads, so plan accordingly. This can prove difficult if the Hydra is left alone, as it will slowly heal if no damage is taken for extended period of 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. This attack has a range of around 20 blocks from the center of the Hydra, but can be easily negated by using any form of Fire Resistance.

Mortars

Heads about to attack with mortars will raise up and emit smoke from their mouth. The Hydra spits three mortars at a time, which on contact, will detonate immediately, or after a short time on the ground. The mortars are highly kinetic and will be redirected if attacked, similar to a Ghast's Fireball. Reflecting mortars back at the Hydra is a good way to deal damage, especially if you can hit them into an open mouth, but this will deal little damage anywhere else due to the Hydra's high defenses.

Bite Attack

If tempted by a sufficiently close target, the Hydra will attack with its mighty jaws, indicated by a head curving inwards towards its body with water particles emited from the mouth. This is a great opportunity to use swords or other close range weapons to attack the Hydra's open mouth directly, as there is a bit of time to attack it as the mouth opens up. Adventurers are warned to move before the head follows through with this devastating attack, made clear by a growl from the mouth, as it can easily take down any unlucky adventurer in its way. It's been found that even with Protection IV Fiery Armor, this bite can still take a massive chunk of health. Shields also seem ineffective at blocking this attack, resulting in 112 durability loss and a disabled Shield for some time.

Treasure

Slaying a Hydra is highly rewarding. Any slain 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. Upon death, the advancement Hydra Slayer will be given.

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 will fully complete the Swamp Phase of 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.