Guide:Ravager strategies

The Ravager is a Hardmode boss that can be fought at any time, however it is recommended to fight it after Golem. Ravager is summoned with a Death Whistle at any time.

This guide will mention items exclusive to Expert and Revengeance Mode with no special formatting and will follow the intended progression.

Terrain Preparation
It is recommended to fight Ravager in a flat area with plenty of room. Having a long, flat arena with multiple layers of platforms 20-30 tiles apart will help dodge Ravager's stomps and provide a large area to dodge its other attacks. The platforms will also especially help in Phase 2, where flight time is greatly reduced.

Armor

 * Hydrothermic armor is a great all-around choice for each class.
 * Plague Reaper armor is an effective choice for rangers because of its offensive stats and powerful trade-off ability.
 * Brimflame armor has great offensive stats for mages and has an incredible trade-off ability.
 * Alternatively, Spectre armor is good for offense and lifesteal as a mage.
 * Plaguebringer armor is an effective option for summoners due to its many summoner boosts.
 * Alternatively, Spooky armor can be used for higher raw damage at the cost of several bonuses.
 * Umbraphile armor is also a good option for rogue users.

Accessories

 * The Evasion Scarf is a crucial accessory for this fight as it enables the player to avoid taking hits by dashing, while also gaining a buff.
 * The Deific Amulet is an all-around powerful accessory for all classes due to its armor-penetration and reduced healing cooldown.
 * Asgard's Valor is a great defensive accessory for this point in the game, in addition to providing a dash.
 * The Artemis Emblem is a useful accessory for ranged weapons.
 * The Sigil of Calamitas is a great offensive accessory for the mage class.
 * The Star-Tainted Generator is a good summon accessory due to the increased damage it gives.
 * The Abyssal Mirror is a great rogue accessory that benefits the stealth mechanic and grants a chance to dodge attacks.

Melee

 * The Aegis Blade is a very powerful true melee weapon at this point in the game, but due to its extremely short range it is a very risky choice. In addition, the player should keep in mind that as this is a legendary item, so it can be difficult to obtain.
 * The Terra Lance is a good option for melee users because it has good range and infinite piercing allowing the player to focus on dodging.
 * The Fallen Paladin's Hammer is a powerful option because of its high damage and explosion on enemy hits.
 * The Soul Harvester's projectiles linger in place meaning they can deal high damage to Ravager.
 * The Briny Baron's right-click can decimate Ravager, while its primary attack can quickly despatch Ravager's pillars. But be aware that this weapon is a legendary item, meaning that it could take a while to obtain it.

Ranged

 * The Malevolence is an extremely good bow for this fight, even though Ravager is immune to the debuff it gives.
 * The Continental Greatbow has the ability to inflict Ichor and Cursed Inferno, both of which Ravager is vulnerable to.
 * The Hive can deal great damage to Ravager when paired with high-damaging rockets.
 * The Gauss Rifle, especially when aiming at Ravager's head, can decimate the first phase.

Mage

 * The Plague Staff is extremely powerful for this fight, having piercing and inflicting the Plague debuff.
 * The Everglade Spray is useful for inflicting debuffs on Ravager.
 * Vesuvius is an extremely effective weapon for mages due to its high damage, area of effect and two different firing modes. The right-click should be utilized to target a specific limb, while the left-click can be used for damaging several limbs at a time. However, it is a legendary item which may take a considerable amount of time to get.

Summoner

 * The Resurrection Butterfly is an effective weapon summoners should utilize due to its high damage.
 * The Hive Pod summons a powerful sentry that provides high damage.
 * The Borealis Bomber is an active summoner weapon which will help boost damage.

Rogue

 * Plaguenades are a good option for rogue users because of their ability to make large swarms which damage all of Ravager's parts at once, especially when paired with the Plague Hive.
 * The Duke's Decapitator is a powerful weapon against Ravager because of the fact that Ravager does not move much allowing it to deal high damage.
 * The System Bane is good against Ravager due to the fact that Ravager stays close enough to the ground for the aura to hit it.

Classless

 * Players may wish to use the Golden Gun or Marked Magnum to inflict Ichor and Marked, respectively.
 * Yanmei's Knife is useful due to its significant stat boost and powerful debuff.

Miscellaneous

 * In addition, although they are mage weapons, the player could also use the Golden Shower and Everglade Spray to inflict debuffs. These weapons can be more useful than the ones above due to their piercing abilities.

Armor

 * Tarragon armor is the preferred choice for all classes.
 * Prismatic armor is a viable alternative for mages if they have defeated Storm Weaver beforehand.
 * Lunar armors are also effective, lower-tier alternatives.
 * Solar Flare armor for Melee
 * Vortex armor for Ranged
 * Nebula armor for Mage
 * Stardust armor for Summoner
 * Empyrean armor for Rogue

Accessories

 * Tarragon Wings (with Angel Treads) or Seraph Tracers are the preferred wings.
 * Lunar Wings are also a viable lower-tier option, granting various boosts to players wearing their respective Lunar armor class.
 * Asgard's Valor, Statis' Ninja Belt, or the Elysian Aegis all provide a dash and allow the player to make sharp turns.
 * Asgard's Valor and the Elysian Aegis additionally give knockback immunity and many defensive boosts.
 * Statis' Ninja Belt additionally provides the chance of a ninja dodge along with increased jump acceleration.
 * The Absorber is important for survivability by increasing damage reduction as well as giving increased jump acceleration.
 * The Community is a great all-around accessory that boosts offensive and defensive stats as well as boosting flight time.
 * The Heart of the Elements provides many all-around boosts including damage, damage reduction, life regen, and jump acceleration.
 * Melee players should use the Fire Gauntlet and Celestial Shell for their strong melee boosts as well as increased damage reduction.
 * True melee players could also use Yharim's Insignia or Samurai Badge. Do note that Samurai Badge is a rare accessory dropped by Providence.
 * Ranged players should use the Dynamo Stem Cells or Artemis Emblem, which both help in boosting damage output.
 * The Artemis Emblem additionally gives some life regen and ammo conservation.
 * Magic players should use the Sigil of Calamitas for its strong magic boosts.
 * Summoners can boost their minion count and damage with the Star-Tainted Generator, Statis' Curse and the Profaned Soul Artifact.
 * Rogue users will find the Dark God's Sheath, Moonstone Crown, and Vampiric Talisman useful to boost their damage output.

Weapons
Weapons that are either dropped by Providence, the Profaned Goddess or made from Uelibloom Bars are typically the best choices for this fight.

Melee

 * The Omega Biome Blade is an excellent option with homing and high single target damage.
 * The Solar Flare or Verdant are capable of dealing immense damage against Ravager at the cost of short range. This can be somewhat mitigated with the use of theYoyo Bag.
 * The Lifehunt Scythe is a good option that leaves projectiles which, when placed on top of Ravager's limbs, can deal immense damage. In addition, it also provides lifesteal.
 * The True Tyrant's Ultisword is a great choice for melee as it can home, but the scythes can also remain stationary on top of Ravager, dealing huge damage.

Ranged

 * The Blissful Bombardier can deal solid damage and homes as well.
 * The Nettlevine Greatbow with Luminite Arrows is a solid pick with piercing and high damage output. Elysian Arrows are also an extremely effective option due to the meteors that they spawn.
 * The Onyx Chain Blaster is an excellent option that deals high damage when landing the onyx blasts.

Mage

 * Although its DPS is lower, the Nuclear Fury is a homing option allowing the player to focus on dodging.
 * The Purge Guzzler is a good choice with its spread effect allowing it to deal damage to all of Ravager's limbs all at once.
 * The Plasma Rifle's primary fire provides a powerful area of effect that can easily deal with Ravager's limbs.
 * The Ultra Liquidator is an excellent secondary weapon for applying Ichor for long periods of time.
 * The Genisis can deal great damage to Ravager and its limbs due to its piercing capability and high rate of fire.

Summoner

 * The Energy Staff is a good sentry because of its high damage and homing.
 * The Cosmilamp is a viable option if the player is willing to fight Signus first.
 * The Dragonblood Disgorger is a solid choice for summoners due to its damage and lifesteal capabilities.

Rogue

 * The Shattered Sun is a weapon that rogue users should utilize due to its good damage and homing allowing the player to focus on dodging.
 * The Elemental Disk can deal high damage due to the extra disks it spawns.
 * The Molten Amputator provides good damage at the cost of range.

Classless

 * A Lunic Eye and a Golden Gun can make the fight easier to bear due to their powerful debuffs. Although at this stage in progression, items such as the Golden Shower or Everglade Spray are more useful for inflicting debuffs due to their piercing.

Miscellaneous

 * The Well Fed buff provides a useful all around stat boost.

Phase One
Ravager has a similar AI to Golem: it attempts to jump above the player, stomp down, and deal heavy contact damage along with inflicting Armor Crunch. Dashes are crucial in order to avoid this attack. It is a slow-moving enemy and has a large hitbox, but makes up for it with its great amount of health and its high damaging attacks. Each of its body parts has separate health bars and they all move separately from each other with no distinct pattern. It has two claws on either side that shoot out in a similar fashion to Golem Fists. These can be avoided by speedily flying upwards or by attacking them to knock them back. The head shoots a homing nuke which can home in on the player but explodes after a short amount of time.

Phase Two
Ravager will inflict the Weak Petrification debuff, effectively grounding the player. It will also stop performing all its previous attacks. Ravager's head will detach from its body and start hovering around the player, occasionally firing a burst of bolts that inflict On Fire!. Ravager will aggressively launch itself into the air and attempt to align with the player before stomping down. It should be noted that it will not deal contact damage until it stomps down. The best way to dodge this attack is to run away in a straight line.

Expert Mode
Ravager occasionally summons two large rock pillars that fly up into the air in an attempt to slam into the player, inflicting Armor Crunch if they connect. These can be avoided by dashing away from Ravager and keeping some distance from him. The rock pillars also cannot travel through platforms, allowing them to be dodged by hiding under one. It also summons two flame pillars that spawn on either side of the player and fire bouncing blue flames in the air. If you keep moving throughout the fight these should be a little easier to handle.

Revengeance and Death Mode
A few aspects of the fight are quicker: Ravager itself will jump more often, the drill missiles will track the player more accurately and faster while the Flame Pillars shoot projectiles in faster. In Death Mode, all projectiles are roughly twice as fast.

General Tips

 * Cursed Inferno and Ichor are both debuffs that can affect Ravager, allowing the player to deal more damage.
 * The Rod of Discord (or Normality Relocator for the post-Providence fight) can allow the player to instantly teleport away from attacks.