The Perforators

Type	Boss – Burrowing Enemy
Environment	The Crimson
AI Type	Worm AI
Damage	30 / 60 / 72 / 80 (Head); 18 / 36 / 42 / 46 (Body); 10 / 20 / 26 / 30 (Tail)
Max Life	1,000 / 2,000 / 2,400
Defense	0 (Head); 8 (Body); 18 (Tail)
KB Resist	100%
Inflicts debuff	Burning Blood 100% chance
Debuff duration	3 seconds (Head); 1.5 seconds (Body); 1 second (Tail)
Debuff tooltip	Your blood is on fire
Vulnerable to:
Resistant to:
Coins	5

Type	Boss
Environment	The Crimson
AI Type	The Perforator Hive AI
Damage	30 / 54 / 63 / 72 (Contact); 36 / 56 / 68 / 76 (Blood Geyser); 36 / 56 / 68 / 76 (Ichor Shot)
Max Life	4,500 / 7,200 / 8,640
Defense	0
KB Resist	100%
Inflicts debuff	Burning Blood 100% chance
Debuff duration	3 seconds (Blood Geyser, Contact)
Debuff tooltip	Your blood is on fire
Inflicts debuff	Ichor (debuff) 100% chance
Debuff duration	3 seconds (Ichor Shot); 4 seconds (Ichor Blob)
Debuff tooltip	Defense reduced by 20
Vulnerable to:
Resistant to:

Type	Boss
Environment	The Crimson
Max Life	9,550 / 17,900 / 21,840 / 22,200 (total)
KB Resist	100%
Immune to

"An abomination of comingled flesh ... infested primarily by blood-slurping worms."

The Perforators (Japanese: 穿孔者 Senkō-sha) are a group of Pre-Hardmode bosses fought in The Crimson. They consist of 3 worms with varying appearances, sizes, and behaviors, and a crimson, fleshy hive.

They are the Crimson counterpart to The Hive Mind.

Spawn[]

The Perforators does not spawn on its own, and requires the player to summon it using a Bloody Worm Food or by dropping a Tissue Sample onto a patch of Grimesand which generates on Floating Islands after breaking a Crimson Heart.

Bosses[]

The PerforatorMedium

Statistics

Type	Boss – Burrowing Enemy
Environment	The Crimson
AI Type	Worm AI
Damage	35 / 70 / 84 / 92 (Head) 21 / 42 / 50 / 54 (Body) 14 / 28 / 34 / 38 (Tail)
Max Life	1,800 / 4,200 / 5,400 / 5,760 (total)
Defense	0 (Head) 10 (Body) 22 (Tail)
KB Resist	100%
Inflicts debuff	Burning Blood 100% chance
Debuff duration	4 seconds (Head) 2 seconds (Body) 1 second (Tail)
Debuff tooltip	Your blood is on fire
Vulnerable to:
Resistant to:

Drops

Coins	5

Item (Quantity)Rate
Blood Sample (3-7)
100%
Vertebrae (2-4)
100%
Crimtane Bar (2-3)
100%

Sounds

Hurt

Killed

Digging

Map Icon

The PerforatorLarge

Statistics

Type	Boss – Burrowing Enemy
Environment	The Crimson
AI Type	Worm AI
Damage	45 / 90 / 108 / 118 (Head) 24 / 48 / 54 / 60 (Body) 18 / 36 / 42 / 46 (Tail)
Max Life	2,250 / 4,500 / 5,400
Defense	0 (Head) 12 (Body) 25 (Tail)
KB Resist	100%
Inflicts debuff	Burning Blood 100% chance
Debuff duration	5 seconds (Head) 3 seconds (Body) 1.5 seconds (Tail)
Debuff tooltip	Your blood is on fire
Vulnerable to:
Resistant to:

Drops

Coins	5

Item (Quantity)Rate
Blood Sample (4-8)
100%
Vertebrae (3-5)
100%
Crimtane Bar (2-4)
100%

Sounds

Hurt

Killed

Digging

Map Icon

Behavior[]

The Perforator Hive will hover above the player and shoot falling projectiles, accelerating towards the player to attempt to actively stay above them at all times. As it loses health, it will spawn Perforator worms with different sizes, stats, and appearances. All three worms can exist at a time.

The Perforators all behave like typical worms, burrowing through blocks and charging at the player. However, if their heads are too far away from the player (18.75 / 15 / 12.5 / 10 tiles), they gain the ability to fly in order to return to the fight or reach an elevated platform more easily. Each worm has a trait that differentiates one from another, from increased speed to the ability to lunge itself above the player.

The Perforator Hive enrages outside the Crimson biome and on the Surface, increasing their maximum movement speed.

The Perforator Hive[]

Fires an even and parallel spread of 10 / 12 / 14 / 16 Blood Geysers or Ichor Shots every 1.25-15 seconds, which inflict the Burning Blood and Ichor debuffs respectively. The type of projectile chosen is random.
- These projectiles arc slightly upward, which then spread out and fall down to cover a large area. They can only pass through tiles within the first two seconds of being fired.
- The fire rate is lower for every worm alive. Each worm equally reduces the fire rate by the same factor.
When below 70% health, every 10 / 7.5 seconds it positions itself above the player. After 5 seconds of positioning, it drops a spread of 3 / 6 Ichor Blobs downwards, which splatter on surfaces and become stationary hazards for up to 15 seconds.
- The Perforator Hive cannot perform this attack if one of the worms is currently alive.

The Small Perforator[]

Spawns when the Perforator Hive reaches 70% health.
This small worm is much faster than the other two.
This worm has 6 / 8 / 9 / 10 segments in total.

The Medium Perforator[]

Spawns when the Perforator Hive reaches 40% health.
Similar to the Eater of Worlds, each segment has an individual health pool and it can split up into smaller worms when a body segment is killed.
Each segment has an HP of 160 / 224 / 252, and there are 12 / 16 / 18 / 20 segments in total.

The Large Perforator[]

Spawns when the Perforator Hive reaches 10% health.
Similarly to the Desert Scourge, upon reaching 50% / 75% / 100% health, The Large Perforator will occasionally burrow underground then rapidly lunge at the player before burrowing again from a height 37.5 tiles above the player.
- This attack occurs every 4.5 / 3.5 seconds. After performing the attack, this timer resets on the apex of its lunge.
- If the attack takes longer than 10 seconds, it will automatically reset to its default behavior.
This worm has 16 / 22 / 25 / 28 segments in total.

In Expert Mode[]

All Perforators can be enraged similarly to the hive, increasing their acceleration and speed. The enrage is linearly more effective the lower their health, up to doubled base movement.
All Perforators gain 2, 4, or 6 segments from smallest to largest and a size increase of 10%.
The Perforator Hive becomes invulnerable to damage while the Large Perforator is alive.
The Perforator Hive shoots 12 projectiles per volley instead of 10, and 6 Ichor Blobs instead of 3.

In Revengeance Mode[]

All Perforators gain 1, 2, or 3 segments from smallest to largest and a size increase of 5%.
The Perforator Hive shoots 14 projectiles per volley instead of 12.
The Perforator Hive attempts to ram the player.
- If there is only one Perforator alive, it will not ram the player but instead gain slightly increased acceleration and maximum speed.
- It there are multiple Perforators alive, it will accelerate faster but lower its maximum speed.

In Death Mode[]

All of the Perforators gain 1, 2, or 3 segments from smallest to largest and a size increase of 10%.
All of the Perforators' enragements are more effective.
The Perforator Hive shoots 16 projectiles per volley instead of 14.
The Perforator Hive accelerates faster but has a lower maximum speed.

During the Boss Rush[]

The Perforator Hive does not enrage outside of their biomes.
The Perforators and their hive gain significantly higher acceleration.

Aftermath[]

Upon defeating the Perforators, the status message "The sky is glittering with cyan light" displays, indicating that Aerialite Ore generated in the world.
Sky Crates will contain Aerialite Bars.
The Dryad will begin selling the Rotten Brain in Expert Mode.
Aero Slimes will begin spawning Underground.

Resistances[]

All Perforator segments take reduced damage from non-minion piercing projectiles in Expert Mode. Projectile damage is divided by the number of times it pierces. Infinite piercing deals 50% damage.
All segments reduce damage from grenade-type projectiles by 80%. A list of affected projectiles is below.

Resisted grenades
[link]Click/tap here to reveal this content. (there may be a slight delay)[/link]
This table requires JavaScript to be enabled and site tooltips to be turned on to be displayed. You can also view the data on another page.

Notes[]

In normal mode, if the Perforator Hive is killed before the last Perforator (or any Perforator for that matter) it will not drop any loot.

Tips[]

For elaborate strategies on defeating the Perforators, including Weapon and Arena recommendations, see Guide:The Perforators strategies.

Building a few layers of platforms within The Crimson underground will make avoiding the Perforators much easier.
- The Perforators have extremely high speed when tunneling horizontally, and can tunnel through platforms if they reach them. Keeping platforms around 15 blocks above the ground and each other can help prevent this.
- Be careful: If platforms are too high the player might end up on The Crimson surface, enraging the boss and making the Hive and worms invincible
When a Perforator worm is spawned, the player should target it until it's dead while avoiding damaging the Hive, this will make sure the player isn't overwhelmed by multiple worms at once.
- The worms will drop hearts on death, the player should remember where they killed the worms so they can use these hearts later unless they are hurt enough to warrant their immediate use.
The Perforator Hive will consistently float above the player, so weapons with projectiles are recommended as getting close is extremely difficult without high jump speed and vertical movement accessories.
- If using the above strategy of having a roof to destroy projectiles, a weapon that can hit through blocks or that can set up "traps" to lure the Hive into will be more effective.
The player can fight The Perforators at the start of the game, though it is not recommended to fight these bosses until the Brain of Cthulhu is defeated, as the multi-boss fight and high damage can easily overwhelm an unprepared player.
During Hardmode, The Perforators can be fought to get an effective amount of Ichor. This is a highly effective way to get Ichor in a Corruption world, as The Perforators can be fought on a Crimson island.

Trivia[]

The Perforators' theme is Love Sosa, which was composed by Chicago rapper Chief Keef.
- If the Calamity Music add-on mod is disabled, Boss 2 will play instead.
Perforation is the process of making holes in something.
The Perforators could be considered the Crimson's version of the Eater of Worlds, while The Hive Mind could be considered the Corruption's version of the Brain of Cthulhu.
If the player deals sufficiently high damage in a short time, the Perforator Hive can be killed before its invincibility activates. This causes the worms to move away off-screen and despawn.
The Perforators can be fought before any boss is defeated, as Perforator Cysts can spawn in The Crimson at any point of the game.
In older versions of the mod, the Perforator Hive did not exist, and instead the three Perforator worms would spawn and attack at once.
Previously, when any worm was killed, several smaller worms known as Perforator Mini would spawn.
If the Boss Checklist Mod is installed, their unique despawn message will be "The parasitic hive began searching for a new host."