Hydra

**Hydras** are minibosses that kill their prey with a deadly venom and regenerate any of their heads if they get severed.

## Appearance

Hydras are large, multi-headed snake-like reptiles with spikes running down their backs, a noticeable lack of limbs, long necks, and moderately large, flattened heads with massive, toothy jaws and retractable fangs on their upper jaw. They will initially spawn with 3 heads, but they can have anywhere from 2 to as many as 9 heads. They come in 3 colors: green, teal, and red.

## Spawning

Hydras can be located in Hydra Lairs, small, roofless mounds of dirt with a few chests which spawn randomly in Swamp biomes.

## Drops

Upon death, hydras drop:

* 0-5 hydra fangs.
* 0-4 pieces of rotten flesh.
* 1 hydra heart (10% chance).
* 1 hydra skull (2.5% chance).

## Behavior

Hydras are hostile, and will attack everything that comes nearby, including players and dragons. When attacking, hydras will spew out jets of venom from their maws, dealing 0.5 hearts (1 HP) of damage and inflicting Poison for 4 seconds; if their quarry is closer to them, they will rapidly strike at their intended target, dealing 1.5 hearts (3 HP) of damage and inflicting Poison IV for 4 seconds. If a hydra takes enough damage, one of its heads will be destroyed, and 2 more heads will grow in its place after 6 seconds pass, emitting a loud, deep hiss upon growing back; it is able to grow up to a maximum of 9 heads, with each extra head giving it a boost in attack speed. When a hydra is lit on fire, it will be unable to regenerate any of its severed heads, and it will continue to lose heads until the fire extinguishes. If lit on fire for long enough, the hydra will eventually end up with only a single head, allowing it to finally die; however, if the fire extinguishes before it kills the hydra, it will grow a second head.

### Combat

It is suggested that one bring many buckets of milk and potions of regeneration, wear decent armor, and carry a Fire Dragonsteel Sword, a Flamed Dragon Bone Sword or any other sword enchanted with Fire Aspect when fighting a hydra; depending on combat preferences, a bow enchanted with Flame may also make the fight go a bit more smoothly. The best way to take on a hydra is to lure it out of its lair during clear weather and keep it on dry land, and sprint away from its jaw strikes, run back to land a hit on it or light it on fire, and repeat until it dies; alternatively, one can simply keep their distance and pelt the hydra with flaming arrows until it dies. It is wise to consistently use fire when fighting a hydra, as failure to do so will allow it to regrow its heads, to the point where the jets of venom it spews become constant cover fire. Another way to fight a hydra is to chain it on a stone wall and shoot it with a flame enchanted bow from a healthy distance, a hydra can go no where nor break the chain. A third, although more late-game option, is to fight it with a tamed fire dragon. The dragon's breath will deal damage and keep the hydra on fire for as long as it needs to be. Then once its heads are gone, you can kill it with a bow or melee attack.

## History

* 1.9.0:
	+ Introduced.
* 1.9.1:
	+ Textures have been updated.

## Trivia

* Hydras were initially planned to be released in version 2.0.0, along with lightning dragons; however, since the Dread Queen was left unfinished due to burnout from massive amounts of coding work as well as harassment from other people, they were added in her place.
* There is a bug where hydras always spawn with 100 hearts (200 HP).