In-depth Hardmode weapon tier list

With chlorophyte, I think pretty much everything that shoots more bullets than the Megashark will out-dps it. Since it's not unreasonable to assume that late game the default ammo type will be chlorophyte (unless they are a new player or just want to make their lives miserable) I think once chlorophyte becomes accessible is when the megashark definitely starts falling off.

As a bit of a side note, would a chain gun with crystal ammo potentially pump out more dps than a chlorophyte-loaded one in a crowd control scenario or a boss with a large hitbox?
 
As a bit of a side note, would a chain gun with crystal ammo potentially pump out more dps than a chlorophyte-loaded one in a crowd control scenario or a boss with a large hitbox?
Yeah, I'm testing it out right now in Expert. In the former situation, the Chain Gun is so stupidly fast that its single-target DPS doesn't matter. Everything gets shredded in seconds anyways, so I'd be inclined to pick chlorophyte for its consistency against small, flying things, which most invasion-type events have at least a few of. Interestingly, exploding bullets are pretty much as good as crystal bullets against crowds, and they actually have a bit of synergy with the chain gun's inaccuracy.

In the latter situation, crystal is the clear winner. Crystal does almost twice as much DPS as chlorophyte against big targets like Everscream. It's not even close. If something is big and slow, or if it's big and chases you, it's prey for crystal bullets. (Of course, the Xenopopper can do pretty much the same thing, and consumes ammo at around half the rate.) It's actually possible that crystal bullets might be better than luminite.
 
I've also lost my patience with the Venus Magnum a little bit. It's doubtful if I can even match the Megashark's fire rate on manual. I preferred using the Megashark 100% of the time, despite the marginal disadvantage in (ideal) DPS. With this in mind, what would be the first gun actually worth swapping the Megashark out for? Candy Corn? Xenopopper?
Sniper rifle is pretty good for bossing despite its horrendous fire rate.
On a separate note, the terra blade projectile’s fire rate is actually dependent on the sword itself’s swing rate, with the maximum being 14 frames(sword being 7 frame)
Any more than that will cause the beam to be shot at 3 swing per beam rather than 2.
 
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Sniper rifle is pretty good for bossing despite its horrendous fire rate.
On a separate note, the terra blade projectile’s fire rate is actually dependent on the sword itself’s swing rate, with the maximum being 14 frames(sword being 7 frame)
Any more than that will cause the beam to be shot at 3 swing per beam rather than 2.
I see you're also subscribed to CrabBar! I found his recent Influx Waver vs. Terra Blade video very informative. Though I don't think the degenerate effects of having >72% melee speed would be noticed by most people, and I don't think most people spec into melee speed anyways. Great video, though. I'll see if I can incorporate any of CrabBar's useful findings into it.

You know, I think I had Sniper Rifle listed as C when I first published this thread, but it's definitely better than that. It feels like it's not doing much damage because it's slow, but each shot is worth like 5 shots from any other gun. It's really a shame how bad it is at disrupting enemies, though. For that reason I'd probably keep the Megashark in my back pocket for normal situations, and use the Sniper Rifle just for bossing.
 
Very interesting find about the Terra Blade. I've once attempted to let it shoot a beam with every swing. To maximise the beams efficiency. But that didn't worked out. As even the slowest example shoot a beam every 2 swings.

But I didn't notice that it's frequency is slower to 3 swings at some point. That'll be neat to work with.
 
I think chain gun should be higher because it destroys everything and u can just dupe the materials to make ammo also pearlwood sword needs to be S+ it can kill dungeon guardian in 0.000001 ticks
 
I think chain gun should be higher because it destroys everything and u can just dupe the materials to make ammo also pearlwood sword needs to be S+ it can kill dungeon guardian in 0.000001 ticks
The Chain Gun's theoretical DPS is pretty good, but it gets cucked really hard by enemy defenses because its base damage is not that high. Razorpine doesn't experience this problem, which is why it is S and the Chain Gun is A at best.

Though I've heard that the Chain Gun is excellent on mobile because it doesn't have any spread. I suspect it will still lose to the Razorpine in a DPS race, when used on a high-defense target like Santa-NK1.
 
I see you're also subscribed to CrabBar! I found his recent Influx Waver vs. Terra Blade video very informative. Though I don't think the degenerate effects of having >72% melee speed would be noticed by most people, and I don't think most people spec into melee speed anyways. Great video, though. I'll see if I can incorporate any of CrabBar's useful findings into it.
That video came into my recommended list the other day, and it is very informative.

If on mobile, the chain gun DOESN'T spread on 1.3, luminite bullets will be amazing.
 
That video came into my recommended list the other day, and it is very informative.

If on mobile, the chain gun DOESN'T spread on 1.3, luminite bullets will be amazing.
You'd already have access to the Vortex Beater and S.D.M.G. at that point, so I don't think it would matter in the long run.
 
This is a lovely guide, especially someone who has only recently began to play Terraria. Many thanks! Surprised you made The Horseman's Blade only C+ though.
 
Surprised you made The Horseman's Blade only C+ though.
I think that has to do that it's one of the few close combat melee (or true melee) weapons that are available at this late stage of the game. The risk you're putting to use this weapon for it's 'delayed' and uncontrollable increase in DPS makes it a difficult or situational weapon to use. Where other close combat weapons rewards you for direct big DPS numbers.

It is of course effective when using the statue trick with it, but it still leaves it situational for the location
 
I think that has to do that it's one of the few close combat melee (or true melee) weapons that are available at this late stage of the game. The risk you're putting to use this weapon for it's 'delayed' and uncontrollable increase in DPS makes it a difficult or situational weapon to use. Where other close combat weapons rewards you for direct big DPS numbers.

It is of course effective when using the statue trick with it, but it still leaves it situational for the location
One thing that hasn't been addressed in a while is how in 1.2 the Horseman's blade served as a useful counter to enemies with destructible projectiles some distance away as destroying them spawned a homing Pumpkin head in 1.3 when they removed its ability to spawn pumpkin head projectiles from slain critters it killed that small practical niche are really made it only useful with statue farms which was probably the biggest disappointment. Yeah C+ is probably already fairly Generous given where it falls in gameplay progression
 
The wiki says it still works with statue-spawned enemies, so you could still make it work with a slime statue. Besides, it says banner bonuses apply to the pumpkins, so you could put a blue slime banner to increase efectiveness.

It's still a very gimmicky weapon, but 1.3 didn't kill that niche.
 
The wiki says it still works with statue-spawned enemies, so you could still make it work with a slime statue. Besides, it says banner bonuses apply to the pumpkins, so you could put a blue slime banner to increase effectiveness.

It's still a very gimmicky weapon, but 1.3 didn't kill that niche.
Yeah but that is using the weapon to "cheese" foes in an arena setting I had been referring to its use outside of such a situation using it to destroy enemy spores or spell projectiles. Think Fire Imps and Fungi bulbs where in 1.2 it could be used to kill them by destroying their projectiles even if they were outside the Reach of your Death Sickle.
 
Gave the slap hand a much higher safety rating and a slightly higher overall rating, since most enemies can’t hurt you when they can’t Touch you, a thing that will never happen if you’re swinging the slap hand at them.
 
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Don’t use that on those guys. It’s common sense.
Those guys are rare underground anyways(underground is where you should use this weap)
Just like how you wouldn’t use a homing weapon on golem, or a sky fracture on destroyer.
 
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Don’t use that on those guys. It’s common sense.
Those guys are rare underground anyways(underground is where you should use this weap)
why would you use a weapon which has it's whole gimmick being knockback in a confined area where you don't benefit from it that much?
 
A disruptive, high-knockback weapon is a safe weapon to use only against enemies vulnerable to knockback, and even then it's entirely dependent on skill. Not to mention that it only covers a limited angle in front of and above you, making it awkward to use (like all broadswords).

Safety was intended more as a metric to describe a weapon's range and its ability to abuse natural cover granted by terrain.
 
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Your guide is amazing, great help for judging weapon options.Id like to contribute a bit.
  • On the topic of crystal storm and cursed flames, crystal storm has better dps against most early HM enemies. To be more precise, Until armor 30, it has better dps. So against twins, plantera, golem, many HM mobs and all PH bosses, crystal has better single dps. Even better if aided by golden shower
  • Also, clockwork and laser have nearly same dps... with basic bullets, give it ichor or crystal, and clock pretty much doubles the laser rifle in dps. I mean, bs 25 armor, onyx ichor is 266, clock ich 212, and laser 90, icho clock also beats tita ichor by 30 or so, although it loses in standard ammo competition
  • Why do you have written that magic harp is the best magic wep vs plantera???? It loses to more than half of the magic hardmode weapons available before plantera
  • Same for vampire knives dps vs piranha gun. Even at 20 blocks range, the knives deal twice as much dps vs everything (same base dmg). Actually, considering the piranha's reliability to hit 100% of the fight, i guess their practical dps in some boss fights is not that different, but to rate knives as half the piranha seems a bit big to me
Btw, I just uploaded a dps database in one guide post, it might interest you, or not. Attached files are dps screenshots of the relevant weapons
 

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