just solo'd Eye of Cthulhu for the first time, after getting killed by it many many times before. then, while waiting for the dryad to show up, i went off in search of a dark orb to smash so i could try for another meteor, since my first one landed on a chasm and yielded very little ore. turns out it's my third one so eater of worlds or whatever that giant worm is called shows up while i'm at the bottom of this chasm, so i decide to stay down here where there are no other monsters and, sure enough, my Ball 'O Hurt and half a stack of Healing Potions were enough to finish him off. I'm actually surprised I beat him on my first enouncter, but that Ball 'O Hurt thing is pretty badass.
got some sweet armor now and a better pick, and the dryad is here. yay.
oddly enough, the thing that made all the difference in the EoC fight (which I had been struggling with) was all the Spikey Balls I got from my first goblin invasion. those things wreck his little eye minions. especially if you're battling on a wooden platform like i was; those things fall right past it so they can hurt him and his stupid friends when they're below you.
now to decide what weapon to make next, now that i actually have some new decent ore