My Moder experience… OUCH

So I did a lot of prep work for Moder, watched videos, read people's tips on reddit. I decided that I was going to use the ranged approach. Build a trench, flatten areas etc, build crafting tables so enemies can't spawn around me, took over 200 obsidian arrows etc.
After doing this I felt ready to go. My experience of bonemass was that he was very easy, almost too easy. All bosses up to this point was. I think this is why I underestimated how difficult Moder would be.

So he spawned, everything was going fine. No enemies were spawning around me (the crafting tables are doing their job) I have flat areas I can run around in, raised areas I can hide behind to snipe him etc. I got him down to below a quarter and then realised I'd run out of health/stamina meads. In the panic, he managed to kill me. This made me extremely angry but I refused to accept defeat.

So I respawn, cook some food, grab some armour, craft more arrows and go running through my portal straight to him. But in this time he's managed to build some health back up, but more worryingly, he'd also destroyed all of my crafting tables that I'd placed near his spawn (I even fortified them).
This time it wasn't just him I had to worry about, it was the drakes too, also the wolves AND a stone golem. Needless to say I died pretty quickly. So I'd now lost two sets of armour, two sets of weapons and he's also destroying the Fort I'd built around my portal.

So I returned quickly, but yes you guessed it. I died again. I was furious at this point, thought I'd lost everything and that I'd really struggle to beat him and retrieve my lost goods.

But then I remembered a post on here, someone said you should use the bonemass ability as it increases melee damage. So I jogged across the meadows to swap my powers over, at this point I'm down to leather armour and bronze weapons. The rest of my stuff is on the side of the mountain, guarded by moder, his wolf friends, those pesky drakes and an obnoxious stone golem.

So I calm myself down, craft some of the best foods for hp. Raid my stocks for whatever useful things I can find. Grab some meads and head back into the portal to meet Moder and his friends, this time, for the final time.

My hp is now extremely high, but my weapons are poor. So I sprint to my first corpse, dodging Moder, avoiding the drakes and smashing wolves with my mace left right and centre. As I leave my portal behind I notice he destroys it. So I know I've got a long walk to come back here next time if I die again. I HAVE to make it count this time.

I make it to my body/belongings which is now next to the meadow biome (had fell down the side of the mountain after I'd died) , I quickly grab my highest tier armour, my best weapons and as I'm doing this I realise Moder has followed me, leaving behind his friends.

So I have a brainwave, what if I fight him on the meadow, on the flat ground? Now I have the bonemass power I've already decided I'm going to use melee attacks now anyway.

So I grab my silver sword and shield, run around the meadows dodging his flying attacks. I wait for him to land. I then load up bonemass, run for Moder and then pummel him with my sword, blocking his attacks which aren't very frequent.

Everytime he flys up I just avoid his attacks, I don't even bother with my bow, I just allow my stamina to build as I jog away from his flurry of ice attacks.

This goes on for around 5 minutes, but everytime he lands I manage to deal MUCH more damage. Then before I know it, boom, he drops down dead and drops his loot. After 4 or 5 death runs I am overcome with relief that I finally did it. I run back to the mountain tops to retrieve what I've dropped, make a new Fort, drop a portal and make it back home.

My bee hives are overflowing with honey, my tree saplings now towering over my homestead, my farm overgrown with tasty goods, my pigs have multiplied, how long was I gone?….

Morale of the story for anyone struggling, lead him from the mountain if you can. Even the odds a little to give yourself a chance. It was SO much easier on flat ground. I wouldn't even bother with the ranged approach because the damage dealt is so little.

Damn this game puts you through it, emotionally drained after that battle.