Rate the Weapon: Day Sixteen - Dart Gun

[Ami]

Inspired by another topic, it occurs to me that many of us think weapons are bad or unusable, simply because we know what we like. But, do we know what we DON'T like? What's a worthy investment of your time and resources? In the case of polls which have multiple items bunched together, such as the ore swords, pick only the best one. If you love silver sword, but think iron sword is a waste of the bars, vote as if this were a poll for silver sword. I'll be logging these in a spreadsheet and making a compilation of which items users think are good, bad, OP, or a waste of space.
If they're bad, what would make them better? Lower cost? Autoswing? Projectiles? Different attack animation?
If they're OP, what would make them balanced?

Day Sixteen: Dart Pistol, Dart Rifle

Farmed from mimics, these guys shoot darts which have unique firing patterns. Crystals darts ricochet several times, ichor darts split in mid-air, and cursed darts rain death from above. The corruption mimic's version attacks slower, but with higher damage per shot, making it the better choice almost every time. Unfortunately, the better Ichor darts are not available in tandem with the corruption-only dart rifle.

Since I rarely farm corruption/crimson mimics, the only time I'll see one of these is if one happens to appear while I'm hunting Soul of Nights.


Early Hardmode items
Day 12 - Daedalus Stormbow - 4.69 (23 votes) - this guy probably needs a nerf. People intentionally go out of their way to not use it, as it makes progression too easy.
Day 11 - Nimbus Rod - 4.45 - (20 votes)
Day 13 - Fetid Baghnakhs - 3.5 - (18 votes)
Day 14 - Chain Guillotine - 2.85 - (14 votes)
Day 15 - Bladetongue - 2.81 - (16 votes)

Pre-Hardmode items
Day 7 - Pistols - 4.16 - (36 votes)
Day 4 - Yoyos - 4.15 - (13 votes)
Day 8 - Covered in BEES! - 3.72 - (22 votes)
Day 2 - Ore Bows - 3.53 - (26 votes)
Day 5 - Boomerangs - 3.36 - (19 votes)
Day 3 - Grenades - 3.37 - (24 votes)
Day 10 - Gem Staves - 2.80 - (26 votes)
Day 1 - Ore Swords - 2.54 - (24 votes)
Day 9 - Throwing knife/shuriken family - 2.52 (17 votes)
Day 6 - Flails - 2.04 - (24 votes) - RIP Old, bad yoyos

 

[Juno Brier]

Kinda overshadowed by good ol' guns and bows, I think.
I don't really see myself going out of my way to grab a dart gun on a regular playthrough when I can just make an Adamantitanium repeater, slaughter the Destroyer with it, and make a Megashark to deal with the other two mechs and Plantera on the path to even better Ranged stuff.

Then again, that's what can make a playthrough more interesting: Going out of your way to grab something you normally wouldn't use. And dart guns do seem pretty fun.

 

[sthegreat]

The rifle is a decent weapon, but there's no real reason to use it. I only used it a little because the damn stormbow wasn't dropping.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

Its a good early game weapon if you can get it, due to its decent damage output and ammo (darts are super cheap and plentiful, especially if you have a bunch of spare stingers), but late game it falls off as you don't have a shroomite helmet for darts.
So 3. It does make progression a little easier, but there are decent alternatives that are just as easy if not easier to get with a wider selection of ammunition, so its not imperative. There's also the fact that the stormbow, which can also be acquired from mimics (of the hallowed sort) is superior against mech bosses.

I do like the dart pistol, despite its lower damage. It has a good rate of fire and decent DPS.

 

[Mille Marteaux]

Ichor darts are very fun. I'm a fan of fire-and-forget scatter-shot items. Dart Pistol can fill in for Tactical Shotgun until dungeon tier, and even then it's a very nice item for applying Ichor and then going back to your main damage weapon. Unlike the Golden Shower, it fires over a wide area with no gravity, so it's easy to just fire one off in a hurry and get the debuff off.

Dart Rifle is very strong as well. Crystal Darts are nothing to sneeze at, and carpet bombing an area with Cursed Darts is strangely satisfying.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

yeah, cursed darts are hilarious to use. You just make a strip of death.
The clinger staff is one of my favorite magic weapons for this reason, as you just summon walls of flame that most mobs can't pass.

 

[Ami]

LOVE ichor darts. It's just too bad that they're fired from a weapon whose damage is significantly worse than megashark. If they could be paired with a rifle, I might consider using it for the reasons you stated (comparing it to a shotgun).

Crystal darts + Rifle are actually pretty good in theory, but require a little legwork to get. First, farming corrupted mimics, then making crystal darts, when for the same aggravation, you could farm stormbow off hallowed mimics, then use a megashark with crystal bullets.

 

[Ezel]

I've been using it some time ago, but now I have worlds with Corruption. Still I love the Dart Rifle, even if it's similar to the Dart Pistol. Paired with cursed darts, it makes walls of death. With them I could shred pirates to bits and get rid of some bosses.

 

[Khaelis]

3 - Sometimes

It honestly just depends on the day, really. I find the Dart Rifle pretty decent, but there's just other stuff that's... better?

 

[Xakk]

These are the weapons that made me realize that Hardmode's original weapons have been completely left in the dust. The raw power newer weapons spit out, and the encompassing attack patterns, just overshadow older weapons at this point. Killed the Destroyer last playthrough with ichor darts and Nimbus Rod without much effort at all. Thing is that these weapons take a little skill to be properly effective, placing the fires from cursed darts, the spread from ichor darts, or putting crystal darts where they won't get trapped or bounce off into the ether. But when repeaters, pistols, and dart guns are used with the same finesse, the dart guns win out.

Talking about a ranged weapon is really a discussion of it's ammo, and darts shine. Every dart (except seeds which are irrelevant here, as dart guns do not spawn them) is crafted on the spot from it's materials, no station or purchase needed. This gives you infinite ammo in the field, and the rate at which they churn out borders on overpowered. Every one has a special effect, and those are where darts, again, shine.

Even just using normal darts any hit does at least ten more damage via poison. Ichor darts turn a single shot weapon into a shotgun, and of course inflict ichor, while cursed darts are a great static defense weapon (as a single shot the fire is an effective side effect. but in the quantities you can throw darts it's a force to consider), and crystal darts are the homing weapon of choice before wasps. Let me elaborate on crystal darts, as they are the most straightforward but least obvious. These darts richochet off surfaces a half dozen or so times, but not randomly. Each richochet guides the dart towards an enemy, and the darts ricochet off of enemies, so in a group of six or less bad guys everyone gets hit, some more than once. You do not have to aim these things. Makes taking down goblin summoners a snap, there's nowhere they can fly to that is an escape.

The only drawback for these weapons is that there are no darts at Plantera level or farther. I don't see these weapons maintaining relevance past the Hardmode dungeon really, not without an ammo or weapon upgrade. Voted 4.

 

[Juno Brier]

These are the weapons that made me realize that Hardmode's original weapons have been completely left in the dust. The raw power newer weapons spit out, and the encompassing attack patterns, just overshadow older weapons at this point.

That's basically how it's always been when a major update rolls around, with new endgame gear overshadowing the old stuff.

 

[Xylia]

Dart Guns are kinda "meh".

They're OK, if I'm actually going for a Gun playthrough because really the only decent gun at that point in progression is the Megashark. Clockwork Rifle is "ok" and the Phoenix Blaster requires too much clicking.

It does OK damage, has a spread, though to be honest... I'd only use Ichor Darts. Thankfully those ain't too hard to get, assuming you got Crimson for your world.

That's basically how it's always been when a major update rolls around, with new endgame gear overshadowing the old stuff.

That's because the majority of 1.1's weapons were introduced on a whole different philosophy and at the time they wanted to make Mechs the "endgame" so they didn't want to give you very powerful weapons. Then 1.2 came out and a whole tier of content was added after that and they realized that having the mechs being ridiculously hard made it difficult for players to get past them and onto Plantera/Golem/Dungeon. So they added new weapons in to help people jump the hurdle.

And now, 1.3... well we got even more "overpowered" stuff. But really to be honest, I think it's just the Stormbow that's out of place. The rest of the Mimic Stuff is OK. Even the Bladetongue ain't that bad, considering you need to actually strike a mob to get the projectile.

IMO, swap the Pulse Bow and the Stormbow.

 

[sthegreat]

Dart Guns are kinda "meh".

They're OK, if I'm actually going for a Gun playthrough because really the only decent gun at that point in progression is the Megashark. Clockwork Rifle is "ok" and the Phoenix Blaster requires too much clicking.

It does OK damage, has a spread, though to be honest... I'd only use Ichor Darts. Thankfully those ain't too hard to get, assuming you got Crimson for your world.



That's because the majority of 1.1's weapons were introduced on a whole different philosophy and at the time they wanted to make Mechs the "endgame" so they didn't want to give you very powerful weapons. Then 1.2 came out and a whole tier of content was added after that and they realized that having the mechs being ridiculously hard made it difficult for players to get past them and onto Plantera/Golem/Dungeon. So they added new weapons in to help people jump the hurdle.

And now, 1.3... well we got even more "overpowered" stuff. But really to be honest, I think it's just the Stormbow that's out of place. The rest of the Mimic Stuff is OK. Even the Bladetongue ain't that bad, considering you need to actually strike a mob to get the projectile.

IMO, swap the Pulse Bow and the Stormbow.

Wow, thats literally the perfect solution.