A BUNCH of pre-mech weapons tested against Queen Slime

mathbrush

Terrarian
As another entry in the collaborative series of 'weapons vs bosses and events' (that of course anyone can add to or re-do, since there's so many playstyles), here's Queen Slime.

I wanted to test Queen Slime at the stage where she's actually helpful. Crystal Assassin Armor is better (IMO) than the 1st two tiers of hardmode armor but not necessarily the 3rd, so that affected my choices here. Also, she's most helpful if she can be beaten before the mech bosses.

With that in mind, here are my equipment choices:

Armor: Mythril for everyone except for Summoner, Spider and Obsidian for Summoner. In my mind, people want to defeat Queen Slime before they have 'perfect gear. Spider is the best gear for non-whip summoners, so it's an unfair comparison, but Summoners have the issue of having very few good weapons against Queen Slime. Sure, you can use Sanguine Staff, but if you have that, why would you need the Blade Staff?

Accessories:
Universal: Menacing Fairy Wings, Warding Shield of Cthulhu, Menacing Frog boots

Class-specific (all menacing):
Melee: Power Glove, Warrior Emblem, Pygmy Necklace
Ranged: Putrid Scent, Ranger Emblem, Magic Quiver or Pygmy Necklace (for bows vs not bows)
Magic: Celestial Cuffs, Sorcerer Emblem, Mana Cloak or Pygmy Necklace (done once with each accessory for most weapons)
Summoner: Power Glove, Summoner Emblem, Pygmy Necklace

All weapons were reforged to Unreal, Legendary, and Mythical when possible, and Demonic or Godly when not possible. Minions were Ruthless.

Buffs: Clairvoyance, Sharpened, Bewitching Table, Ammo Box, Ammo reservation potion, magic power, magic regeneration, stoneskin, endurance, regeneration, lifeforce, archer potion, hunter potion, summoning potion, sake (for melee), golden delight (well fed)

Mount: Blessed Apple

Hook: Dual Hook

Minion: Spider Staff, since I think Queen Slime should be a 'stepping stone', not something you approach with perfect gear. Swapping out spiders and sanguine didn't make much difference for Daedalus Stormbow (with spiders, 50 seconds with holy arrows and 43 with cursed; with sanguine, 45 with holy and 45 with cursed). The spiders usually targeted minions, so when they targeted Queen Slime it affected times. Most people had 3-4 spiders depending on if they had Pygmy Necklace or not).

The setup was, for ranged, a long platform about a screen or two wide and high off the ground (to stop bouncing gel). I would keep my distance in Phase 1, then in Phase 2 take to the air, flying diagonally to keep a fixed distance from Queen Slime, often off-screen.

This was bad for the melee tests, so I added another 1000 platforms in length and used the Blessed Apple for phase 2. I continued this for most magic and summoning tests.

Overall thoughts: The minions are absolutely the real menace here. The little bouncy slimecan take off half your health in a few seconds, and if you get juggled by a crystal slime you're dead. While I didn't use them in the main tests, fighting over the ocean or over a lava layer shuts down most of their attacks.

Armor doesn't matter much since every hit is doing 100+ or 200+ damage. Endurance potion was helpful here, as was lifeforce potion. Frequently, even with the best weapons, everything was chaotic.

The results:

(It often took 5-10 seconds just to find queen slime, and due to the randomness of her attacks times are not consistent. That's why each weapon is tested multiple times. For instance, both ichor and cursed flasks are used in the melee weapons. Just because one time is 15 seconds better than the other doesn't mean the flask is better, it could have just been random chance).

Melee

Melee was terrible in this fight. The bouncy slimes can shoot well over half a screen away, Queen Slime herself has several area attacks, everyone has huge contact damage, and if you fly during the second phase Queen Slime is often off screen.

Blue is very safe, Green is mostly safe, yellow is risky, orange is very risky, and red is horribly risky.

Tier 1:
Drippler Crippler (70 seconds with cursed flask, 76seconds with ichor flask). This flail is long enough to reach Queen Slime safely but also shoots a projectile that does even better. Awesome weapon.
Chain Guillotines (77 cursed, 55 ichor. I thought I might have miscounted, and got 91 with ichor on second attempt). These were buffed a lot in 1.4.1 and are good against the mechs, too, except the Destroyer (but it's good for the probes).
Shadowflame Knife: (80 cursed, 75 ichor, 76 no flask). By far the best option for a melee user: bounces onto nearby slimes, huge range, can attack off-screen.
Bananarangs: (73 cursed,81 ichor)


Tier 2:

Sergeant United Shield: (99 cursed, 84 ichor). Very effective and completely removes threat of summoned slimes, but during phase 2 often wanders far off-screen.
Amarok: (86 cursed, 92 ichor) (Yoyo glove was used here, and it helps eliminate the minions. This is a great weapon for the second stage on the blessed apple, since it doesn't lag behind)
Dao of Pow: (89 cursed, 90 ichor)

Tier 3:

Flying Knife: (100 cursed, 115 ichor). Terrible for this fight. It can't attack off-screen and it can't protect you well against minions up close.
Ice Sickle: (117 cursed, 104 ichor)
Frostbrand (beam only): (170 cursed, ichor not tried)

Tier 4:

Fetid Baghnakhs, Titanium Trident, Jousting Lance, Bladetongue, Breaker Blade, Obsidian Swordfish: Died a lot. I know Gungnir has done this with a KO Cannon, so check out this video if you're really excited about close-up melee:

Ranged

Ranged absolutely dominated this boss.

Tier 1:

Daedalus Stormbow: (50 holy, 43 cursed, 48 ichor, 73 unholy). The perfect weapon; it kills all the minions and can hit anywhere on the screen. Cursed arrows had better accuracy for me, and the nerf to holy arrows makes all the hardmode arrows pretty viable.

Tier 2:

Onyx Blaster: (69 crystal, 61 ichor, 73 cursed, 90 meteor, 79 explosive). Great for this fight: the onyx blast hits Queen Slime and the bullets take out the minions. Crystal bullets' nerf definitely hits all the guns.
Shadowflame Bow: (73 cursed). Only arrow damage matters here.
Dart Rifle: (91 crystal, 61 cursed). Crystal bullets were good against minions but pretty bad for main DPS. Flying up and down in phase 2 is better for cursed.
Dart Pistol: (131 crystal, 69 ichor). Again crystal underperforms, but ichor is great.
Uzi: (64 crystal, 73 cursed, 70 ichor) Narrow range means less minions hit. I accidentally didn't upgrade it to unreal at first, and got these numbers with a 'base' uzi: (84 crystal, 72 cursed, 90 ichor, 111 endless). The cursed seems like a fluke (probably a counting error), and overall the 'Unreal' upgrade makes an enormous difference.
Gatligator: (73 crytal, 91 cursed, 79 ichor). The spray is better against minions but randomizes DPS more or less.
Adamantite repeater: (90 holy, 86 ichor, 72 cursed)
Ice Bow: (80 cursed)

Tier 3:
Shotgun: (105 crystal, 99 cursed, 104 ichor)
Marrow: (Cursed 111)
Clockwork Assault Rifle: (113 crystal, 112 cursed, 113 ichor)
Toxikarp: (176) Hard to aim without practice.

Magic:

I like lots of mana accessories (mana cloak+celestial cuffs+mana regeneration) but I know not everyone does, so every weapon was tested with mana cloak and with pygmy necklace.

Tier 1:

Meteor Staff: (with Pygmy necklace 72 seconds, with Mana Cloak 66 seconds). Really didn't expect this one; it's probably the ease of aiming. Vertical movement helps.
Crystal Storm: (71 pygmy, 79 cloak). Really satisfying, and great in second stage with Blessed Apple. The only 'crystal fragments' weapon not nerfed.

Tier 2:

Sky Fracture: (85 pygymy, 74 cloak)
Crystal Serpent: (78 pygmy, 93 cloak)
Spirit Lamp: (94 pygmy, 76 cloak). I had a few issues with targeting in phase 2, as I wasn't sure if the projectiles 'time out' or not, so I kept doubling back to let them catch up and got hurt.
Cursed Flames: (94 Pygmy, 90 cloak). No floor to bounce on hurt this one.
Life Drain: (94 pygmy, 90 cloak). This one was great for minions but can't shoot off-screen.

Tier 3:

Frost Staff: (105 Pygmy, 106 cloak)
Magic Dagger: (105 cloak, 112 pygmy)
Poison Staff: (106 cloak, died and didn't feel like trying again with pygmy). Short range really hurts in this fight, because it puts you in range of the bouncy slimes.
Shadowflame Hex Doll: (119 cloak, 101 pygmy) Not as risky as Poison Staff, but still pretty rough. Great against the summoned slimes, though.
Flower of Frost: (122 cloak, 107 pygmy). Like a weaker Cursed Flames. Would do better if it had something to bounce on.
Golden Shower: (129 cloak, 106 pygmy) Really low DPS compared to the other tome weapons.

Tier 4:

Blood Thorn: (160 cloak, 116 pygmy). Times are all over the place because this weapon was wacky. Instead of on platforms, I fought phase 1 on the ground, where this did great at attacking queen and slimes from a distance. For phase 2, it acted kind of like Crystal Vile Shard if I jumped in the air, sending spikes out of me that lingered, doing damage when Queen Slime rammed into them. Times are inconsistent because weapon is inconsistent.
Crystal Vile Shard: (140 cloak. Didn't use pygmy staff but got a time of 165 when I used the wrong mythril headpiece). Ironic that this was the best pre-mech magic weapon against the Destroyer but the worst here. Bad range and Queen Slime moves out of range very quickly.

Summoning:


Obsidian ArmorSpinal TapFirecrackerCool Whip
Imp Staff
X
98104
Spider StaffX8277
Sanguine Staff703952

Spider ArmorSpinal TapFirecrackerCool Whip
Imp StaffX158168
Spider StaffX134124
Sanguine Staff644256

Spiders were almost entirely useless in Phase 2, with all damage in that phase done with whips. I tried using Firecracker in phase 1 and cool whip in phase 2 with spiders and got a time of 74 seconds, so it does seem to have some effect. Imps also do almost nothing in phase 2 due to slow projectiles.

Similarly, with imps+obsidian, using firecracker for phase 1 and coolwhip for phase 2 is 90 seconds, better than either alone.

Interesting results here. For me personally, I'd rather use Blade staff against the Dreadnautilus than use sanguine staff against Queen Slime, but I can never beat her with Spiders. But the Firecracker+Cool Whip+Spiderstaff+Obsidian Armor combo is very safe and compares to the best magic and melee weapons and the tier 2 of ranged. In Baconfry's Hardmode Weapon Tier List, he says:

Technically, Cool Whip is the best pre-mech whip for someone who isn't using summons.
and in Phase 2 of queen slime with spiders and imps, that's exactly what's happening. Your summons are useless, and Cool Whip becomes the best whip.

Finally, when using Sanguine Staff, you can outperform the Daedalus Stormbow.
 
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To me phase 1 queen slime and phase 2 queen slime are COMPLETELY different fights, I would imagine a lot of weapons good for phase 1 would be poor for phase 2 and vice versa.

Usually in phase 1 I'm keeping queen slime at the edge my screen and using long ranged attacks. In phase 2 I just keep floating (with featherfall pot)/running in 1 direction and queen slime is usually able to keep up and hover above me. In both phases I'm staying far away from all the minions.

For example 1 time I used flying knife phase 1, since queen slime is grounded I can ram flying knife into the ground improving its dps greatly, then when queen slime started flying she was hovering at a distance where I could use chain guiltines for most of the fight.

Meteor staff out performing most magic weapons is interesting... when I did some twins tests, crystal storm, crystal serpent, and sky fracture all got around the same time with meteor staff performing much worse.

Also what minion were you using with that pygmy necklace?
 
You're right, and I at first was going to time the first and second half of the fight separately, but I found it annoying to do that and stopped after a while.

The biggest changes between phases were projectiles affected by gravity (Flower of Frost, Cursed Flames, especially Magic Dagger), which had a hard time in Phase 2. Conversely, some 'straight line weapons' that were bad against the slimes in phase 1 were great in phase 2 because they could target more easily.

I was using Spider Staff, so the Pygmy Necklace contributed nothing during the second half. I could have tried Putrid Scent instead, I suppose. I'd use Sanguine but honestly there's not much reason to kill Queen Slime if you can already kill or cheese Dreadnautilus's and get their minions.

With Meteor Staff, it's probably a skill thing. I'm pretty bad at aiming but Meteor Staff is easy to aim; if you're better at aiming then me I'm sure you'd get better times with Sky Fracture and Crystal Serpent.
 
I was using Spider Staff, so the Pygmy Necklace contributed nothing during the second half. I could have tried Putrid Scent instead, I suppose. I'd use Sanguine but honestly there's not much reason to kill Queen Slime if you can already kill or cheese Dreadnautilus's and get their minions.
Spider staff also has static iFrames, once you have 3 spiders adding a 4th spider doesn't actually increase the dps unless you can get the spiders to spread out.
 
Spider staff also has static iFrames, once you have 3 spiders adding a 4th spider doesn't actually increase the dps unless you can get the spiders to spread out.
That would explain why it rarely did anything. I think in a real playthrough I'd be more likely to use Brain of Confusion or Worm Scarf for the extra slot, especially after learning that from you.
 
One weapon that’s probably completely overlooked for this fight is the Flamelash.

While it may not deal a whole lot of damage to her, its ability to kill slimes should not be overlooked. You can fire at the slimes and take out multiple regardless of their location, as well as fire at the boss and still handle the slimes.

Again, while it might not deal a whole lot of damage to the boss, it’s still a solid choice thanks to its slime-killing capabilities.
 
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I tried out Flamelash just now (as well as orange zapinator).

The orange zapinator was 96 seconds, doing better in the first half where it could activate more abilities by piercing slimes.

The flamelash was 151 seconds, but it was instantly clear what you meant. It was the best weapon I tried so far for killing the 'minion slimes', and since they do so much damage, it made the fight feel easy and safe. During the second half, using the unicorn mount, the fight is already safe (until you turn around), so Flamelash's low damage lagged behind. I'm glad you suggested this weapon, I honestly think that 'flamelash for first half then running away while using crystal storm' might be my go-to method in the future, at least for mages.
 
I tried out Flamelash just now (as well as orange zapinator).

The orange zapinator was 96 seconds, doing better in the first half where it could activate more abilities by piercing slimes.

The flamelash was 151 seconds, but it was instantly clear what you meant. It was the best weapon I tried so far for killing the 'minion slimes', and since they do so much damage, it made the fight feel easy and safe. During the second half, using the unicorn mount, the fight is already safe (until you turn around), so Flamelash's low damage lagged behind. I'm glad you suggested this weapon, I honestly think that 'flamelash for first half then running away while using crystal storm' might be my go-to method in the future, at least for mages.
I myself don’t use a runway or mount for the second half. What I prefer to do is actually stay near her and weave between the Jelly blobs she shoots. Because of that, I’m near the slimes a lot, which means killing them is also important.

For the way I fight her, not much can even come close to Flamelash’s safety and ease of use.


As I look back I see a few things in the video I don’t quite agree with, but most of my commentary in it holds up pretty well. Give it a watch if you’re interested in how I fight her.
 
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Yeah, that looks like a pretty safe strategy. I'm definitely impressed with Flamelash. I can only assume the Rainbow Rod would be even better, if people are going back post-mech to get the mount or the Blade Staff. I'm glad you posted it, it's nice to see what strategies people come up with.
 
Yeah, that looks like a pretty safe strategy. I'm definitely impressed with Flamelash. I can only assume the Rainbow Rod would be even better.
Yeah. Flamelash is often overlooked for this fight since it’s a prehardmode weapon, but it’s actually a pretty fantastic weapon if you prefer to take it slowly and safely as opposed to dealing a ton of damage but potentially getting overwhelmed.

And yeah Rainbow Rod absolutely obliterates her. Unless you allow Duke Fishron’s drops, it’s almost certainly the best Pre-Plantera weapon to use against her, having all of Flamelash’s strengths but also boasting extreme damage output and even more Crowd Control to boot.
 
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