Clinger

Type	Enemy
Environment	Underground Corruption
AI Type	Plant AI
Damage	70/140/210 (contact); 4468102 (Cursed Flame)
Max Life	320/640/960
Defense	30
KB Resist	80%/82%/84%
Banner	Clinger Banner(Desktop, Console and Mobile versions)
Immune to
Debuff	Cursed Inferno
Debuff tooltip	Losing life
Chance	68.75% (Cursed Flame)
Duration	2–3 seconds (Desktop, Console and Mobile versions); 3–8 seconds (Old-gen console and 3DS versions)4–6 seconds5–7.5 seconds
Coins	6 SC15 SC
Hurt
Killed
Cursed Flame

The Clinger is a Hardmode enemy found in the Underground Corruption biome. Clingers spawn anchored to a block, with their head attached to an extendable "stem" that does not damage the player. They attack by launching orbs of Cursed Flames at the player, which can inflict the Cursed Inferno debuff.

Notes

Clingers cycle between two behavior states:^[1]
- A "normal" state, where they can extend up to 10.9 tiles away from their anchor block. This state lasts for 5 seconds.
- An "extended" state, where their maximum reach is increased to 14.2 tiles. It lasts for 2.5 seconds.
If given line of sight to the player, Clingers will fire projectiles once every 2 seconds.^[1]
- Hitting Clingers will reset their attack cooldown back to 2 seconds, making it easy to prevent them from attacking by repeatedly hitting them.
- If the Clinger does not have a line of sight to the player when its attack cooldown ends, then the cooldown will be reset to 0.33 seconds.
Similar to other enemies that can pass through blocks, Clingers are immune to lava.

Tips

Clingers are one of the three enemies that drop the valuable Cursed Flames, with the others being the World Feeder and the Vile Ghoul. Though they are more common than World Feeders underground, they do not appear on the surface. A player who intends to use Cursed Arrows, Cursed Bullets or Cursed Darts should make an effort to kill them whenever possible.
(Old-gen console and 3DS versions) Mining the block that a Clinger is anchored to kills it instantly; killing Clingers this way, however, prevents them from dropping any coins or items.

Trivia

(Old-gen console and 3DS versions) Despite being able to shoot Cursed Flames, they are not immune to the Cursed Inferno debuff.
They might be Corrupted versions of Man Eaters or Angry Trappers, judging from their AI and appearance.
The Clinger is the only enemy that both drops and utilizes cursed flames.

The Bestiary entry for the Clinger: "In the depths of the darkest corruption lies cursed-fire belching, betentacled nightmares stretching from the very walls themselves."

History

Desktop version

Desktop 1.4.4: Monster Meat drop rate reduced from 1/1000 to 1/1500. In Don't Starve seeds, changed from 1/200 to 1/500.

Desktop 1.4.3: Now drops the Monster Meat.

Desktop 1.4.1.2: Now immune to Cursed Inferno.

Desktop 1.4.0.1:
- Orbs of Cursed Flames launched by Clingers can no longer be destroyed by weapons or projectiles.
- Reduced the duration of Cursed Inferno inflicted by the orbs of Cursed Flames. The debuff can now last for 3 / 6 / 7.5 seconds (chance of 6/16 (37.5%)), 2 / 4 / 5 seconds (5/16 (31.25%)), or not be inflicted at all (5/16 (31.25%)). Previous durations were 8 / 16 seconds (chance of 8/48 (16.67%)), 5 / 10 seconds (10/48 (20.83%)), 3 / 6 seconds (15/48 (31.25%)), or not being inflicted at all (15/48 (31.25%)).
- Now drops the Meat Grinder.

Desktop 1.3.5: Sprite updated.

Desktop 1.3.3: Anchored block can no longer be destroyed.

Desktop 1.3.0.1: Can now drop its own respective banner.

Desktop 1.1: Introduced.

Console version

Console-Release: Introduced.

Mobile version

Mobile-Release: Introduced.

Nintendo

version

3DS-Release: Introduced.

References

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 Information taken from the Desktop 1.4.4.9 source code, method AI() in Terraria.NPC.cs. The relevant part is the aiStyle == 13 code block.

[aistyle13-1] 1.0 ^1.1 Information taken from the Desktop 1.4.4.9 source code, method AI() in Terraria.NPC.cs. The relevant part is the aiStyle == 13 code block.

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