The Ultimate Twilight Forest Progression Guide (No Waffle, Step-by-Step)

Welcome to the ultimate Twilight Forest guide. If you find this useful, feel free to subscribe — I’ve covered a huge number of mods already, and Twilight Forest is one of the most fun progression mods out there.

Prefer a video Explanation? Click here -

How to Enter the Twilight Forest

Getting to the Twilight Forest is simple:

Dig a 2×2 hole.
Fill it with water.
Surround the pool with any type of flower. (I use daisies.)
Throw a diamond into the water.

If it worked, lightning will strike the pool and the portal will activate. Jump in — and don’t worry, a return portal will generate automatically on the other side, so you don’t need another diamond.

Early Game: Your First Goals

Once you arrive, your first major objective is to craft a Magic Map, which helps you see boss icons and navigate the zone’s progression system. Twilight Forest progression is gated, so bosses must be done in a specific order — the map ensures you don’t get lost.

While exploring the surface, you’ll notice:

Deer
Cicadas (they make a nice ambient light source if you bring them home)
Giant trees
Small ore hills containing huge ore caches

Be careful — these have mob spawners inside.

These make the early exploration phase feel rewarding even before you start the boss chain.

How to Craft the Magic Map

You’ll need:

Glowstone dust
Torchberries (found in caves)
Raven feather (ravens spawn around obsidian pillars)

Combine torchberries + raven feather + glowstone dust → Magic Map Focus
Surround that with paper → Blank Magic Map

Use it like a normal map — it reveals the area as you walk.

Boss 1: The Naga

Map Icon: Serpent head

Location: Large stone courtyard maze

Tips

Netherite or enchanted Diamond gear is more than enough.
You can break into the courtyard; the fight doesn’t require a “proper” entrance.
Aim for the Naga’s head for quicker damage.
A shield is helpful to block lunges.

As the Naga takes damage, its tail segments break off, making the fight easier. When killed, loot will appear:

Naga Scales → craft scale armor
Naga Trophy

Scale armor pieces provide Protection III or Fire Protection III. You might need to defeat a second Naga to get enough scales.

Boss 2: The Twilight Lich

Map Icon: Crowned figure

Location: Lich Tower

The tower is packed with cobwebs, skeleton druids, death tomes, and lots of rooms with small loot. Head to the top for the boss.

Lich Fight Mechanics

Phase 1 – Shield Phase

The Lich is invulnerable.
He fires ghast-like projectiles at you.
Reflect them back with your weapon to break his shields.
Tip: Stand in a corner and casually swipe to reflect most projectiles automatically.

Phase 2 – Zombie Phase

The Lich summons zombies.
He becomes vulnerable to melee.

Phase 3 – Berserk Phase

Same as phase 2, but more aggressive.

Loot

Lich Trophy
One of four Scepters:

Scepter of Life Draining
Scepter of Twilight
Zombie Scepter
Scepter of Fortification

Each can be recharged using special resources (golden apples, fermented spider eyes, ender pearls, or potions/rotten flesh depending on type).

Boss 3: The Minoshroom

Map Icon: Gray square in the swamp

Location: Labyrinth under the swamp hills

Navigating the Labyrinth

The labyrinth is two or more layers deep. Bring:

Night Vision
Good melee weapon
Optional: Explorer’s Compass mod (search “Minotaur Labyrinth”)
Optional: Hostile Neural Networks mod to farm Maze Map Focus via predictions

TIP:

A Maze Map Focus (2.5% drop from minotaurs) lets you craft a Maze Map or Maze/Ore Map, making navigation MUCH easier.

Other Notable Drops

Charm of Keeping I–III

Keep main-hand items → keep hotbar → keep full inventory when you die.

Maze Breaker Pickaxe (from chests)

Costs only 1 durability in labyrinth walls
Comes with Efficiency IV, Unbreaking III, Fortune II

Finding the Boss

Descend through the layers until you find a fenced pit. Inside is the Minoshroom.

You can cheese the fight with a bow through the fences, or break in and melee. He only has 120 HP.

Loot

Minotaur Axe (bonus damage when charging/sprinting)
Meef Stroganoff — you MUST eat this to unlock the next progression step.

Boss 4: The Hydra

Map Icon: Giant red hydra head

Location: Center of the fire swamp crater

This is the first big difficulty spike.

Key Mechanics

The Hydra has three attacks:

Fire Breath

Run in a circle to dodge; it has travel time.

Bite/Lunge

The heads drop low → RUN BACK
This attack can one-shot even endgame armor.

Explosive Fireballs (like supercharged ghast shots)

Can be reflected like ghast fireballs.

Strategy

Stay within 20 blocks. Ranged attacks beyond that won’t work.
Melee the body whenever it isn’t biting.
Watch the heads:

Mouth glowing with fire → fire breath
Lowering head, pausing → bite
Smoky mouth → explosive projectiles

If you have friends:

One can “tank” by running circles, the other can safely attack.

Loot

Fiery Blood → Fiery Boots, Sword, Pickaxe (auto-smelts)
Hydra Chops
Hydra Trophy

Boss 5: Knight Phantoms (Dark Forest Stronghold)

To enter the dark forest stronghold, find the stone “T-shaped” entrances near the forest edge.

Place ANY boss trophy (Naga is best to sacrifice) on the pedestal to disable the force field.

Inside is another maze-like structure.

The Fight

You face six phantom knights. Only one is the real one at any time — the one with a physical body. The rest are illusions.

Kill the real one, then the next will materialize.

Loot

Knight Phantom Trophy
Knightmetal weapons and armor
Various “Phantom” gear pieces

Once completed, you can head to the center of the dark forest for the next boss.

Boss 6: The Ur-Ghast

Map Icon: Large pink ghast icon

Location: Tower in the center of the Dark Forest

This is a huge, complex tower with vanishing/reappearing Carmonite blocks. You can climb through the structure or pillar up to the open top.

At the summit is the Ur-Ghast spawner, surrounded by waves of mini-ghasts.

Strategy

Treat it like a supercharged ghast.
Strong ranged weapons work best.
You can deflect its fireballs if needed.
Mob control helps a lot — mini-ghasts can overwhelm.

Loot

Ur-Ghast Trophy
Carmonite
Fiery Tears

Carmonite lets you craft reappearing/vanishing blocks like the ones used in the tower.

Boss 7: The Alpha Yeti

After defeating the Ur-Ghast, travel deeper into the snowy biome. Look for the large ice caves. Each has an Alpha Yeti inside.

Yeti Mechanics

Yeti minions can grab and throw you (fall damage is the danger).
Alpha Yeti:

Throws large ice snowballs → freezes ground
Jumps repeatedly → causes icicles to fall from ceiling
Can pick you up if you stand too close

Strategy

Run in circles during its snowball attack.
Avoid standing beneath icicles.
After jumping tantrum, the Yeti becomes “stunned” and cries — this is your DPS window.

Loot

Alpha Yeti Trophy
Yeti Fur → Yeti armor (chills attackers)
Ice Bombs

Once defeated, your next destination is the Snow Queen deeper in the ice biomes.

Boss 8: The Snow Queen

Once you’ve defeated the Alpha Yeti, the next step is to head deeper into the icy biomes. You’ll see the normal Twilight Forest terrain, and right in the middle sits a frozen biome filled with penguins and a tall, spiralling Aurora Tower. That’s your target.

Getting Into the Correct Tower

Climb up to the tower, but don’t assume the first doorway you see is the correct route upwards. Multiple entrances lead to different internal towers, and not all of them take you to the Snow Queen.

Night Vision is extremely helpful here.

Inside, you’ll encounter:

Stable Ice Cores – these hurt if you stand near them too long.
Snow Guardians – floating ice mobs that attack as you climb.
Dead-end rooms / fake exits – the tower layout is intentionally confusing.

Your only real job is to keep going up, up, up. Some floors include parkour, side doors, and loops, but don’t be fooled—the main boss tower continues much higher than the first structure suggests.

Finding the Snow Queen’s Chamber

Eventually, the staircase runs out—but the real ascent continues through solid ice. The final section is made of iced-over rooms, and you’ll need to dig upward through the ice layers until you reach a large chamber filled with ice platforms and an open central area.

This is where the Snow Queen floats on her signature ice cloud.

Snow Queen Boss Fight

The Snow Queen fights from atop her moving ice cloud. This cloud blocks damage from below, so you must take opportunities to attack her from the side or above.

Phase 1 (Full Health → 125 HP)

She drifts around on her ice cloud.
Summons Ice Crystals—annoying distractors that also help her regenerate.
Damage the crystals when they get in the way.
Your main openings are when she drifts lower—jump up and hit her before she rises again.

This phase isn’t too dangerous; it’s more about timing your jumps and thinning out the crystals.

Phase 2 (Below 125 HP)

Once she drops to 125 HP, she changes behaviour:

Extends her arms and fires projectiles directly from her hands.
Flies to the top of the chamber and slams downward, smashing through layers of ice.
This slam can crush you if you’re underneath her.

You can tell when she’s about to drop—she pauses at the ceiling briefly. Move aside, let her land, then jump up and attack her head while she’s low. Her ice cloud still blocks bottom hits, so getting above it is key.

Repeat this pattern—dodge the slam, jump in, hit the head—and she will go down quickly.

Rewards

Once defeated, the Snow Queen drops:

❄️ Snow Queen Trophy
🎯 Tri-Bow
❄️ A pile of Snowballs

This completes the icy progression path—and unlocks access to the Highlands and beyond.