Weapons & Equip Whistles: a new type of summon weapons

[whoneedsnamestbh]

Summoners are perfectly strong after 1.4.1, but they have one issue that could still be looked at: weapon scarcity. The issue though is it’s hard to come up with unique whips and minions. That’s where a third category could come in.

WHISTLES​

Whistles, like whips, were chosen because they are traditionally used to control animals. Like whips, they would deal damage by hand and provide tags that buff minions.

They would usually have more (but still limited) range than whips, more base DPS, and more knockback, but as an exchange their tags are lower, they wouldn’t work with flasks, and they usually wouldn’t have as good crowd control.

When used, whistles shoot a small wave, similar to those that Ice Queen or the Flying Dragon sword shoots. After reaching its max range, the waves would fade away similar to Influx beams.

Spoiler: List of whistles

Rusty Whistle
11 damage
1 tag damage
18 block range
40 use time
Found in surface Wood Chests
Shoots a small white wave projectile about 2 blocks wide.
The Rusty Whistle would be a beginner item, incredibly weak statwise but can be used until you get literally anything else. A tier below Leather Whip and the same tier as Finch Staff.

Wind Whistle
16 damage
3 tag damage
22 block range
30 use time
Found in Sandstone Chests
Shoots a light blue wave about 2.5 blocks wide.
A preboss whistle, found earlygame in the Underground Desert. It would still be a basic weapon, but would act as more options for prehardmode

Eaterhead
17 damage
2 tag damage
Can apply tags to multiple enemies at once
27 block range
37 use time
Pierces infinitely
Drops from Shadow Orb
Shoots a mucus green wave about 2.5 blocks wide.
Would be weaker than the Wind Whistle in single situations, but much stronger against crowds. The ability to tag multiple enemies would allow the tag to actually help againdt the Eater.

Honeysuckle
24 damage
Tagged enemies spawn a bee when hit by minions (bee deals 5 base damage)
27 block range
25 use time
Drops from Queen Bee
Shoots a honey-yellow wave about 2 blocks wide.
A Queen Bee drop that’s, of course, focused on bees. A tier above Snapthorn. The tagged enemies create giant swarms of low damage bees, which wouldn’t deal much damage but would stunlock groups of enemies.

Sizzle
23 damage
5 tag damage
30 block range
60 use time
Fires an inaccurate triple burst of waves like a slower Clockwork Rifle
Pierces once
Found in Shadow Chests
Shoots three lava-colored waves about two blocks wide.
A medium-high damage, slightly piercing weapon made to counter the Wall of Flesh. A tier around the same as Spinal Tap. Like the Hellwing Bow, it would be very inaccurate and mostly hard-tuned for the Wall.

Arctic Wind
32 damage
The tagged enemy “freezes” its surroundings, making them take 10% of the damage the tagged enemy takes from minions
40 block range
18 use time
Pierces once
Has autofire
Drops from Ice Mimics
Shoots a sparkly ice-blue wave about 2.5 blocks wide
This weapon would be hard tuned for Queen Slime. The disruptive fire rate and Dark Harvest-esque tag, as well as the range, would give Summoner a much needed counter to Queen Slime.

Shadowflame Warwhistle
65 damage
Tagged enemies explode, taking 2.75x damage from the next hit
32 block range
40 use time
6 knockback
Drops from Goblin Summoners
Shoots a purple wave about 3.5 blocks wide with a shadowflame apparition head in the middle.
Firecracker equivalent for whistles, because Firecracker has too big of a niche to not have a whistle equivalent. Same tag multiplier, but slightly less effective than Firecracker’s due to its use time.

Buzzsaw
36 damage
7 tag damage
No range limit, projectiles last 3 seconds
27 use time
Bounces infinitely
Pierces 8 times
Has autofire
12 Iron Bars + 40 Wire + 20 Soul of Fright
The wave is completely replaced with a 2-block buzzsaw.
Souls of Fright should really have something better going for them, and I think a whistle would be fair. A spammy pierce-bounce, like a non-homing Razorblade Typhoon, would be really good for hitting around corners and would be a much needed linear pierce option. Wouldn’t be as good as other whistles for single target though.

Tortuba
145 damage
18 tag crit chance
36 block range
50 use time
12 Chlorophyte + Turtle Shell
Appearance: A bright wooden tuba with green vines and a chip on the horn. Shoots a beige wave with spikes about 4.5 blocks wide.
Okay, a tuba isn’t a whistle, but I had to seize the opportunity for the pun. Slow and hard hitting, like a giant tortoise, and the exclusively crit chance tag is supposed to further reflect this.

Forsaken Whistle
110 damage
13 tag damage
35 block range
20 use time
Pierces thrice
Has autofire
Drops from Golem
Shoots a yellow wave about 4 blocks wide. The tag on enemies has a unique appearance that looks like a Lihzahrd sun instead of a regular circle.
A whip with a decent damage-based tag, because the difference in tier between Durendal and Kaleidoscope with that role is way too big.

Dragonsbreath
168 damage
20 tag damage
Creates a flaming dragon that charges at the tagged enemy twice a second and deals 50 damage
45 block range
24 use time
Pierces thrice
Has autofire
Drops from Betsy
Appearance: a red whistle with the same color as Betsy with orange-yellow glow outlining the corners of the whistle. Shoots a red and yellow wave about 4.5 blocks wide with a dragon face in the middle. The flaming dragon summoned would look like a mini Etherian Wyvern composed entitely of fire.
A weapon with enough range to be good against the Moon Lord, which the Kaleidoscope usually is not. The dragon is just there to make the weapon cooler.

Farewell
135 damage
Tagged enemies release small homing bird shaped projectiles with the colors of the waves, dealing 30 damage, ignoring defense, and homing in on the tagged target
60 block range
7 use time
Pierces infinitely
Has autofire
Replaces Rainbow Crystal in Moon Lord drop pool
Appearance: A whistle with a bright green and purple gradient. Rapidly fires high velocity waves about 2 blocks wide that cycle between a pastel turquoise, a sky blue, a bright purple and a pink color.
A spammy post-Moon Lord whistle that floods the battlefield with rainbow waves and birds. Would basically be 30 tag damage with a bit of crowd control.

Spoiler: Accessories

Can of Wind
Equipable
Gives all whistles some homing
Found in Sky Chests as a secondary item (50%) or commonly in Sky Crates
A basic accessory that increases the accuracy of whistles slightly. A secondary item so it doesn’t clutter the loot pool and isn’t too hard to find.

Shrillifier
Equipable
Increases the fire rate and range of whistles by 12%
Drops from Cave Bats (1%) or sold by Skeleton Merchant between 12 pm and 12 am ingame time

Airhorn
Equipable
Combines the benefits of the Shrillifier and the Can of Wind
Crafted from both at Tinkerer’s Workshop
Feral Claws equivalent for whistles. Gives basic but helpful advantages to whistles.

Stink Horn
Equipable
Combines the damage and aggro reduction of Putrid Scent (but not the crit) and Airhorn
Crafted from both at a Tinkerer’s Workshop
The equivalent of Berserker Glove for whistles. Gives a minor offensive boost instead of a minor defensive boost.

OTHER CHANGES​

Spoiler: New whips

I also came up with two whips for a bit of symmetry.

Bloody Tendril
20 damage
5 tag damage
Minions hitting the tagged enemy causes all enemies whipped in the past second to also take 5 damage
13 block range
45% damage falloff
30 use time
Drops from Crimson Hearts
Appearance: A red, fleshy whip that drops blood particles when swung.
Just added as a Crimson equivalent to the Eaterhead. Like Eaterhead, it has a crowd focused tag, although it’s more of an upgrade than a sidegrade to Leather Whip. Between Snapthorn and Leather Whip in progression. The scattered damage would be good versus first phase Brain.

Centauri
195 damage
28 tag damage
12 tag crit
40 block range
No damage falloff
10 use time
Replaces Lunar Portal in Moon Lord drop pool
Appearance: Has three whips that are visually a dark space-color whip with a bright, glowing star on the end, with the brightness and color cycling between a dim red and a bright yellow. Upon hitting an enemy, the stars unleash a (purely visual) flash of light.
A post-ML whip based on the Centauri star system. This whip has a use time of 10, but the whip cycle still takes half a second, and as a result you basically swing three whips at once similar to Light Disc. Strongest whip in the game.

Spoiler: Vanilla changes

Some changes to vanilla items that are relevant to the changes here.

Bee Armor
-Set bonus changed from 10% minion damage to 25% whistle speed, 50% whistle velocity and max range
-Removed extra minion from helmet
Turns Bee Armor into the whistle equivalent of Obsidian, buffing whistles at the cost of buffing minions. Would give both the armor and whistles ground to stand on to compete with Obsidian.

Obsidian Armor
-Removed 15% minion damage from set bonus
-Reduced whip speed bonus from 35% to 25%
Another heavy nerf to Obsidian to bring its strength down further, because it’s still a bit nuts. Would be basically equivalent to the new Bee Armor.

Rainbow Crystal Staff
-Damage reduced to 20
-Now crafted post-mech, recipe is 10 Hallowed Bars, 15 Soul of Light, 10 Soul of Might, 30 Crystal Shards
Moved earlier in the game because it was replaced by Farewell. Hopefully, by moving this earlier in the game where enemies don’t move as fast, this sentry would actually see some use. Uses Soul of Might so it wouldn’t completely smash the first Destroyer encounter and because Soul of Light already has 4 recipes.

Lunar Portal Staff
-Damage reduced to 31 and fire rate reduced slightly
-Moved to Martian enemy drop pool, item sprite changed, and renamed to “space wormhole staff”
Moved earlier in the game because it was replaced by Centauri. A Lunar Portal at Martian tier would really help with how overwhelming tier 3 of old one’s army is, and would certainly be more valuable than it is now as a Moon Lord drop.

Credit to @Scratch Lunin for the sprites in the post, amazing work. @Peanut sus and @CantWontDo also worked hard on great sprites for some of the items, be sure to check out their work in the comments as well. Any item without a sprite has a description instead.

 

[qwerty3.14]

I think scream horn should use putrid scent instead and get the aggro reduction. Why?

One of the advantages of whistels is supposed to be thier range, berzerk gloves are supposed to get enemies closer to you so you whip them, the horn should keep enemies away to play off the whistle's advantages.
Also if someone's screaming out of a horn I don't want to be near them.

 

[Peanut sauce]

Good suggestion, I will provide some more sprites in the future, for now have this:

.(Edit) Heres some more:

 

[Mr. Spruce Tree]

Overall great idea. Some suggestions for this thread:

A Whistle variant for the Cool Whip. This would neat because it could be sandstorm themed, something like the projectile looks like sand to represent the sand storm.

Shrillifier should be sold by the Skeleton Merchant during the Full Moon, Waning Gibbous, Third Quarter, and Waning Cresent. I feel like the Skeleton Merchant doesn't have much to offer. On the other moon phases, the Skeleton Merchant could sell a whip accessory.

Instead of making Bee Armor into a armor for whistles, there should be a new armor that can be obtained practically the same time that Obsidian Armor can. "Aero Armor" could be crafted with 28 feathers (7 for leggings and cap, 14 for tunic), 60 silk (20 for all pieces), and to make it somewhat post evil boss, 20 shadow scales/tissue samples (5 for leggings and cap, 10 for tunic).

I'm not sure if "Martian drop pool" means the Martian Saucer drop pool, or the same drop pool as the Laser Drill, Charged Blaster Canon, and Anti-Gravity Hook. If it doesn't mean the latter, I would change it to be.

 

[whoneedsnamestbh]

Instead of making Bee Armor into a armor for whistles, there should be a new armor that can be obtained practically the same time that Obsidian Armor can. "Aero Armor" could be crafted with 28 feathers (7 for leggings and cap, 14 for tunic), 60 silk (20 for all pieces), and to make it somewhat post evil boss, 20 shadow scales/tissue samples (5 for leggings and cap, 10 for tunic).

The issue is that A) Summoner having three armor sets in late prehardmode would be a bit excessive, and B) bee armor just doesn’t compete with obsidian and would be hard to buffed to compete. I like the idea though, a harpy-themed sky armor would be pretty cool.

Shrillifier should be sold by the Skeleton Merchant during the Full Moon, Waning Gibbous, Third Quarter, and Waning Cresent. I feel like the Skeleton Merchant doesn't have much to offer. On the other moon phases, the Skeleton Merchant could sell a whip accessory.

Yeah, I’ll change that. When I gave it to regular merchant I felt like I was forgetting something, and Skeleton Merchant was what I was thinking about.

I'm not sure if "Martian drop pool" means the Martian Saucer drop pool, or the same drop pool as the Laser Drill, Charged Blaster Canon, and Anti-Gravity Hook. If it doesn't mean the latter, I would change it to be.

I meant the latter, I’ll specify in the post.

 

[whoneedsnamestbh]

I think scream horn should use putrid scent instead and get the aggro reduction. Why?

One of the advantages of whistels is supposed to be thier range, berzerk gloves are supposed to get enemies closer to you so you whip them, the horn should keep enemies away to play off the whistle's advantages.
Also if someone's screaming out of a horn I don't want to be near them.

I changed it, and renamed it as well because I don’t think screams fit as well in the corruption. Brought over the 5% damage, but not the 5% crit because summons can’t crit and I didn’t want it to overshadow berserker glove.

 

[Peanut sauce]

I feel as if flinx fur should get more love, including a flinx fur cap that increases whistle speed by 4% and damage by 2%, also including boots that give 3% more whip speed. (Defense values) Cap:2 Coat(new value)2 Boots:1 . The set bonus would be: 10% increased movement speed in the snow biome.

 

[kÆmna_usuh00]

While its a good idea, i think whistles could use something more that sets them farther apart from just another weapon type, something that allows them to synergize alongside the main three summoner weapons (those being the summons themselves, whips and sentries), rather than an alternative weapon to the whips, both of which are used to directly attack foes from your current iteration of the whistles.

I think it would be fitting, that musical instruments like these could be used to inspire your minions, to get your minion's attention much like how the pikmin series' whistle mechanic catches the attention of stray pikmin that are distracted with bullying the wrong enemy or just laying around doing nothing.

A whistle would then be an indirect source of damage and a useful tool for corraling and commanding your minions, as when it is used a glowing circle indicating the radius of which your minion's attention may be aquired expands from your cursor, to which then they recieve a buff from the whistle, the minions themselves glowing a sheen indicating that they had recieved it, and an exclamation mark on their head to indicate that they have your attention, which makes your minons follow your cursor until they lose their attention if they aren't whistled and directed by you after a certain amount of time had passed. Though the buff only lasts as briefly as the tags the whips apply if you only click once for a short whistle on a minion, it can last considerably longer if you hold your lmb (that and the circle's influece expands as well). Whistles also possess a right click function, and doing it on an enemy target to focuses the summons on your hold's attacks on it, subsequently relinquishing them from your command upon releasing the rmb (and therefore removing their exclamation mark that indicates their attention), also "tagging" the target yet not in the same way whips do (as no debuff is applied onto the enemy itself, just a marker that also lasts longer) as holding right click will emerge yet another sphere of influence from your cursor, or in this case area of command as it tags all targets that are in it, as well as prolonging the duration of the buff the whistle provides onto minions within the circle. Only a limited amount of tags and targeting may be permitted depending of the tier of the whistle. Using rmb while no minion has your attention is useless, though minions that get in the circle would recieve the buff and also target the tags left by you.

Sentries can both recieve buffs from and obey to the whistle as well, giving you more control yet less damage the whips do if you remain commanding and herding minions around. However, you can always just switch to the whip once done with applying buffs, can't you? Minions will prioritize the whip's tag first and foremost, but will also somewhat divide their attention to whistle tags as well.

All in all, i propose that whistles would more be used for longer ranged, general minion command and utility and whips dealing direct and precise damage.

But of course, summoner is already powerful enough as it is now. Whistles possesing the rudimentary properties i had described would... Upset the rather sketchy balancing the game has (ex. Slime staff and its ridiculous drop rates: not worth the effort, melee prehardmode sword woes), and maybe could be more optimized, but this is just some food for thought and i came up with this half asleep lmao. There's a high chance there may be some things I hadn't considered and it'd be rude of me to impose upon your idea, after all. Have a good day!

 

[Peanut sauce]

While its a good idea, i think whistles could use something more that sets them farther apart from just another weapon type, something that allows them to synergize alongside the main three summoner weapons (those being the summons themselves, whips and sentries), rather than an alternative weapon to the whips, both of which are used to directly attack foes from your current iteration of the whistles.

I think it would be fitting, that musical instruments like these could be used to inspire your minions, to get your minion's attention much like how the pikmin series' whistle mechanic catches the attention of stray pikmin that are distracted with bullying the wrong enemy or just laying around doing nothing.

A whistle would then be an indirect source of damage and a useful tool for corraling and commanding your minions, as when it is used a glowing circle indicating the radius of which your minion's attention may be aquired expands from your cursor, to which then they recieve a buff from the whistle, the minions themselves glowing a sheen indicating that they had recieved it, and an exclamation mark on their head to indicate that they have your attention, which makes your minons follow your cursor until they lose their attention if they aren't whistled and directed by you after a certain amount of time had passed. Though the buff only lasts as briefly as the tags the whips apply if you only click once for a short whistle on a minion, it can last considerably longer if you hold your lmb (that and the circle's influece expands as well). Whistles also possess a right click function, and doing it on an enemy target to focuses the summons on your hold's attacks on it, subsequently relinquishing them from your command upon releasing the rmb (and therefore removing their exclamation mark that indicates their attention), also "tagging" the target yet not in the same way whips do (as no debuff is applied onto the enemy itself, just a marker that also lasts longer) as holding right click will emerge yet another sphere of influence from your cursor, or in this case area of command as it tags all targets that are in it, as well as prolonging the duration of the buff the whistle provides onto minions within the circle. Only a limited amount of tags and targeting may be permitted depending of the tier of the whistle. Using rmb while no minion has your attention is useless, though minions that get in the circle would recieve the buff and also target the tags left by you.

Sentries can both recieve buffs from and obey to the whistle as well, giving you more control yet less damage the whips do if you remain commanding and herding minions around. However, you can always just switch to the whip once done with applying buffs, can't you? Minions will prioritize the whip's tag first and foremost, but will also somewhat divide their attention to whistle tags as well.

All in all, i propose that whistles would more be used for longer ranged, general minion command and utility and whips dealing direct and precise damage.

But of course, summoner is already powerful enough as it is now. Whistles possesing the rudimentary properties i had described would... Upset the rather sketchy balancing the game has (ex. Slime staff and its ridiculous drop rates: not worth the effort, melee prehardmode sword woes), and maybe could be more optimized, but this is just some food for thought and i came up with this half asleep lmao. There's a high chance there may be some things I hadn't considered and it'd be rude of me to impose upon your idea, after all. Have a good day!

I like the idea of whistles being used for targeting, but I also like the idea of another way to get some early game summon weapons to deal with enemy's and getting the flinx armor and other stuff, overall I like what you suggested, but whistles would work better as minion control and damage.

 

[kÆmna_usuh00]

Hm... Then maybe a middle ground of sorts would work? The right click function would be kept, but altered as to account for the lmb staying as the whistle's regular attack. It would buff and corral minions but won't tag enemies, and it would be the regular lmb attack that does the tagging and damage. Perhaps both buttons can be held down at the same time, but doing so will lessen the dps of the whistle itself?

 

[The Owler]

Hm... Then maybe a middle ground of sorts would work? The right click function would be kept, but altered as to account for the lmb staying as the whistle's regular attack. It would buff and corral minions but won't tag enemies, and it would be the regular lmb attack that does the tagging and damage. Perhaps both buttons can be held down at the same time, but doing so will lessen the dps of the whistle itself?

Honestly though, I feel both buttons shouldn't work together when pressed at once. Maybe you could get into a rhythm of pressing the left button, then the right button, then the left one, then the right one, left, right, left, right...

And since a whistle is sort of like an instrument, maybe it could play different notes depending on what minions you have, or where you attack? You could conjure up a song of organized minion attacks to slaughter your foes with shrill music. Maybe it'd be fun.


Edit: I'll also attempt to make some sprites for these whistles, since I do like this idea. Not sure about the projectiles just yet, though.

Edit 2: I've just finished four of the sprites! The Rusty Whistle, the Wind Whistle (which I propose you rename to the Storm Whistle), the Shrillifier, and the Can of Wind.

(I had some help with the Rusty Whistle on Discord, by the way.)

 

[whoneedsnamestbh]

Thanks for the sprites guys. I’ll put them in at some point, when I have time.

 

[The Owler]

Here's the Airhorn, and 2 variants of the Stinkhorn.

 

[CantWontDo]

I might make a sprite for Centauri tommorrow (I know the whips aren't the focus of the thread, but i feel inspired.)

 

[The Owler]

Arctic Wind, and two variants of the Sizzle.

 

[CantWontDo]

Could you provide a template whistle @Scratch Lunin,
I want the stuff i make to have the same style

 

[Planthair01🌳]

While I appreciate the idea behind the Bloody Tendril, a good portion of Summoners jump directly to the Snapthorn from no whip, and the Snapthorn has even higher DPS than the Bloody Tendril. As such, adding the Bloody Tendril, a whip from Crimson Hearts (which, if they are similar to Shadow Orbs, could be pre-boss) would not be a good balance for a similar-tiered whistle.

 

[whoneedsnamestbh]

While I appreciate the idea behind the Bloody Tendril, a good portion of Summoners jump directly to the Snapthorn from no whip, and the Snapthorn has even higher DPS than the Bloody Tendril. As such, adding the Bloody Tendril, a whip from Crimson Hearts (which, if they are similar to Shadow Orbs, could be pre-boss) would not be a good balance for a similar-tiered whistle.

My reasoning was that a) neither the Snapthorn or Leather Whip are very good at crowds, and b) it’s quite a bit harder to survive in the underground jungle than the underground crimson. I was thinking that people would opt to go for this as a whip if they wanted it, meaning they wouldn’t skip straight to Snapthorn, and establishing a middle ground between Leather Whip and Snapthorn. I’ll buff it if more people want me to though, but I don’t want to make a whip that’s even stronger than Snapthorn already.

 

[The Owler]

Could you provide a template whistle @Scratch Lunin,
I want the stuff i make to have the same style

Sure, here it is.

 

[Planthair01🌳]

My reasoning was that a) neither the Snapthorn or Leather Whip are very good at crowds, and b) it’s quite a bit harder to survive in the underground jungle than the underground crimson. I was thinking that people would opt to go for this as a whip if they wanted it, meaning they wouldn’t skip straight to Snapthorn, and establishing a middle ground between Leather Whip and Snapthorn. I’ll buff it if more people want me to though, but I don’t want to make a whip that’s even stronger than Snapthorn already.

While the Bloody Tendril is great for crowd control, the Snapthorn can be used for combos and poisons enemies. If the Bloody Tendril wants to stand up to it, it needs a buff/debuff of its own. Besides, part of the point of having two evil biome items is that they have to be equal in every way. Is Bloody Tendril/Snapthorn equal to Eaterhead/Snapthorn?