Lernean Hydra
Lernean Hydras are Hardmode enemies that spawn in the Marble Caves as a pair of heads connected by necks to a central point. The heads themselves do not deal contact damage, but each head shoots out a projectile based on the type of the head. Each head has its own health bar, and when a head is killed, 2 more will spawn if the group of Hydras is not killed fast enough.
Each head uses its own specialize attack to harm the player such as:
The Acidic Hydra spits out 2-3 
poison globs which are shot in a wide-spread and are affected by gravity. The poison globs inflict the Poisoned debuff.
The Fiery Hydra spits out a 
fire glob that causes an 
explosion on ground impact and is heavily affected by gravity. Both the fire globs and explosions inflict the On Fire! debuff.
The Venomous Hydra spits out a 
venom glob that travels at a fast velocity but is not affected by gravity. The venom globs inflict the Acid Venom debuff.
Only one group of Hydras can exist at any time.
Types
| Type | Enemy |
|---|---|
| Damage | 0 (Contact) 55 / 110 / 165 (Fire Glob, Explosion) |
| Max Life | 700 |
| Defense | 10 |
| KB Resist | 100% |
| Inflicts Debuff |  On Fire! |
| Debuff duration | 3 seconds (Fire Glob, Explosion) |
| Debuff tooltip | Slowly losing life |
| Immune to |  |
| Banner |  Flaming Hydra Banner Banner |
- Item (Quantity)Rate
- 2%
- 3.03%
| Type | Enemy |
|---|---|
| Damage | 0 (Contact) 55 / 110 / 165 (Venom Glob) |
| Max Life | 700 |
| Defense | 10 |
| KB Resist | 100% |
| Inflicts Debuff |  Acid Venom |
| Debuff duration | 3 seconds (Venom Glob) |
| Debuff tooltip | Losing life |
| Immune to | |
| Banner |  Venomous Hydra Banner Banner |
- Item (Quantity)Rate
- 33.33%
- 3.03%
Enchantment
There is a 1/15 (6.67%) chance for a Lernean Hydra to become enchanted, increases to 1/5 (1/20%) if the player has the Heresy buff. While enchanted, its maximum health increases by 50%, allows it to drop Olympium Tokens upon death, and gives the enemy one of the following effects.
| Image | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
 |
Asclepius | Fires 3  Orbs of Asclepius that each heal an injured enemy for 40 health. If there are any injured enemies within 37.5 blocks, it will use this ability every 2.7 seconds.
|
 |
Hecate | Fires a  Rune of Hecate towards the player every 5 seconds, which passes through tiles and deals the same amount of damage as the enchanted enemy.
|
 |
Hestia | Sends out a beam to up to 3 nearby enchantable enemies, creating a triplet of  Runes of Hestia around them, which increase their damage by 20% and defense by 15.
|
 |
Nemesis | Spawns a  Sword of Nemesis above the enemy, which swings at the player 3 times before vanishing. Each swing does the same amount of damage as the enchanted enemy.
|
Notes
- No more than 4 Hydras can exist in a group.
- Health is not doubled in Expert Mode, but both damage and debuff duration are.
- Each Hydra fires once every 5 seconds, meaning that a full group fires every 1.25 seconds.
- After killing a head, the new heads will spawn after 4 seconds, plus half a second for each individual head that has been spawned by the group.
- This timer is reset upon the death of any head.
- The maximum health of each new head spawned will have 50 less than the previous head, starting at 600, and ending at 100.
- For example, after killing the first head, one of the pair that spawns will have 600 health, while the other will have 550.
Trivia
- The
Bestiary entry for the Lernean Hydra: "A legendary creature, born of monster and god. Killing a head does nothing but worsen the fight."
History
- 1.4.4.1: Added banners for each head.
- 1.4.3: Introduced.
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