The Empress of Light is a Hardmode, post-Plantera boss fought in The Hallow. While she can be fought as soon as Plantera is defeated, she is significantly more difficult than most Hardmode bosses and will typically require post-Golem gear. The Empress of Light fight is optional and is not required for progression.
While the Empress of Light is alive, her exclusive music Empress of Light will play. When Otherworldly music is enabled, the track Boss 2 (Otherworldly) will play instead.
Summoning
The Empress of Light is summoned by killing a Prismatic Lacewing, a rare critter that spawns in the surface Hallow at night between 7:30 PM - 12:00 AM once Plantera has been defeated in the current world. The Prismatic Lacewing is one of the few entities that can be detected by the Lifeform Analyzer.
The Prismatic Lacewing can be killed at any time in any biome to summon the boss, however outside of the Hallow biome, the Prismatic Lacewing will disappear almost immediately, requiring the player to use persistent or quick weapons to kill it.
Although the Prismatic Lacewing only spawns naturally in worlds where Plantera has been defeated, it is possible to bring one to a Pre-Hardmode world and kill it to summon the boss.
Like most critters, the Prismatic Lacewing can be caught with any bug net, and can then be released and killed by the player.
Behavior
If fought during the day, the Empress enters an "enraged" state, indicated by the color of attacks turning a bright yellow. While enraged, all of her attacks instantly kill the player regardless of equipment. See below for exceptions.
If night falls (7:30PM) when fought during the day and she is not defeated, she will vanish and drop nothing.
If fought in Expert or Master Mode, she will always use her enraged attack pattern, but without the massive damage increase.
Attacks
Prismatic Bolts - Summons a cloud of prismatic bolts that home in on the player after a short delay. These bolts do not have perfect tracking, and will miss if the player makes a sharp turn as they approach.
Prismatic Bolts 2 - Fires prismatic bolts in a clockwise spiral, which behave identically to those used in the first variant of the attack. This version is harder to dodge, and when she is enraged she summons more bolts.
Dash Attack - Positions herself to the left or right of the player before charging horizontally in the player’s direction. This attack is additionally preceded by a sound effect and several images of the Empress spinnin
