God...dammit.
The Destroyer spawned while I was trying to farm Ice Golems (I have enough cores for a full set of Frost Armor, which I'm thinking of switching to for the ability to deal DoT). I decided to try and go for it, climbing up to the nearest sky island and raining fire down with Jester, Hellfire, and Holy Arrows. The worm itself couldn't reach me, but its probes could go through blocks and attacked. Every once in a while, I'd mirror back to my base so the nurse could heal me.
Now, I've had zero luck with Mimics. They rarely spawn, and when I do find them they're inevitably surrounded by swarms of other enemies that kill me first. I've died twice in a row to Medusas, in fact; one stoned me mid-air while I fell into a cavern, causing me to die on impact with the ground, while the second caught me off-guard in the middle of a large melee and I died before the debuff could wear off. So things like the Philosopher's Stone and the Stormbow just haven't had any opportunity to be found. My equipment remains exactly as it was before.
I *almost* won against the Destroyer. It was damn close. Nearly 3am, its HP was down in the low reds and I was firing Hellfire Arrows non-stop as it trapped me within my base. I was dealing something like 879 DPS, according to the DPS counter. And I died. As the Destroyer fled and despawned, it sort of spasmed and killed like five NPCs all at once. Insult to injury, I guess.
So I wound up wasting something like nine hundred arrows and half a stack of Greater Healing potions for absolutely fuck-all. My base is only half-populated. And now a pirate invasion is approaching. Fantastic.