A VARIETY of pre-Skeletron weapons tested out against Queen Bee

mathbrush

Terrarian
This is another entry in 'weapons tested out against bosses'. My play style isn't that great, so I'd love to have people do their own analysis on this boss. Others have done it before, but with some very different results.

I'm not marking danger for weapons in this guide because Queen Bee is dangerous for all weapons fairly equally; she's easy to hit in the 'stand still' part, even with a sword, and hard to hit when shooting the stingers.

Safety mostly came down to 'how well can this weapon stop her in the crazy dash phase at the end'.

I believe Queen Bee is most useful to fight before Skeletron, as her weapons work well against Skeletron and the Dungeon enemies. Thus, I only tested pre-hardmode weapons obtainable before skeletron. This includes Hellstone items, which, while very powerful, are not as high a tier as Shadow Chest items IMO.

All weapons have the best possible modifier. All accessories are menacing.

Accessories: Shield of Cthulhu, Amphibian Boots, Pink Horseshoe Balloon, Sharktooth Necklace, Feral Claws or Magnet Flower

I used the shield's dash when Queen Bee was charging, and the shield contributed significant damage, often killing Queen Bee.

Buffs: Ammo Reservation, Endurance, Regeneration, Stoneskin, Mana Regeneration, Magic Power, Summoning, Plenty Satisfied, Archer, Hunter, Wrath

I didn't use Thorns, but it's great in this fight, a good way for Queen Bee to kill herself in the end. I didn't use Bast Statues, Heart Lanterns, or Campfires, but I normally would have, so those could replace some of these buffs.

Minion: Flinx staff (2 flinx's total)

To get a variety of times, I used multiple different sets of equipment with each weapon.

Melee: Shadow Armor, Crimson Armor, Molten Armor
Ranger: Fossil armor with multiple types of ammo
Mage: Jungle Armor, Meteor Armor, Wizard Hat+Diamond Robe+Meteor Leggings
Summoner: Flinx Fur Coat+Shadow Helmet+Molten Greaves, Obsidian Armor

Each weapon was tested three times. One weapon is above another if it beat it in 2 or more of the trials.

Arena was a roughly Plantera-size open box with 5 rows of platforms. For Starfury, Blood Rain Bow and Sandgun I dug out a tall, skinny arena with no platforms.

Melee Weapons
* indicates fights where Queen Bee stood still, releasing larva, more often than usual
Time measured in seconds
Shadow armorCrimson ArmorMolten Armor
Terragrim9335*34*
Fiery Greatsword475339
Flamarang455552
Blade of Grass866354
Starfury549257
Cascade627859
Thorn Chakram678172
Swordfish66*10672
Phasebladedead9465
Purple Clubberfishdead8379
Amazon11810180
Meatball90dead80
Enchanted Sword (beam)130120127
Storm Spear150125118
Platinum Shortsworddeaddead169

Comments:
I did melee first, starting with Blade of Grass, so I was less experienced at first.

Flails do great damage but I was risky by lining myself up for shots while she was shooting stingers.
Boomerangs were all used 'aggressively', standing very close during the larva stage and shooting over and over.
Broadswords were actually pretty great in this fight, dealing with bees, hitting multiple times when using Shield Dash during charges.

Ranged
*Indicates a fight where I zoned out.

Musket balls/Frostburn arrowsTungsten bullets/Unholy arrowsMeteor Shot/Jester's arrows/Custom
Star Cannon21
Molten Fury504331
Sand Gun42
Minisharkdead7158
Musket615763
Revolver777163
Boomstick1038069
Tendon Bow879371
Blood Rain Bow74 (using unholy)
Demon Bow888379
The Undertaker90100*80
Paintball Gun87
Snowball Cannon105
Red Ryder105122107
Bone javelins120
Harpoon122
Blowpipe122 (poison)

Tried but died: Sticky grenades, frost daggerfish, Molotov cocktails

Comments:
Unholy arrows have high damage but I couldn't aim them as well as Jester's.

Conventional wisdom says that Minigun can't handle the final stage. With the damage buff potions and sharktooth necklace, it had the best time among 'non-sequence breaking/non-crazy to use' weapons, although I did die once.

I tried using Minishark for half the fight then musket for the second half, but it ended up doing worse than either one by itself.

Magic

It was really hard to tell which armor was best here. The Wizard hat was heavily nerfed in 1.4.1 (I think?) while Jungle Armor and Meteor Armor were heavily buffed. Jungle armor has the most defense. I had always used Wizard Hat+Robe before, and never Jungle Armor, but maybe I'll switch now.

Wizard hat+diamond robe+meteor legMeteor armorJungle Armor
Demon Scythe455035
Grey Zapinator573848
Diamond Staff726878
Space Gun687879
Crimson Rod1008578
Thunder Zapper90102129
Vilethorn135dead102
Wand of sparking208156dead

Comments:
This is the second boss fight I've seen where Crimson Rod can easily take out the boss by itself. Given my nimbus rod results for destroyer, I wonder if a 'fire and forget' magic weapon run would be possible (Magnet Sphere, Rainbow Gun, Nimbus Rod, Clinger Staff, etc.)

Summoning

Flinx Coat+Shadow+MoltenFinchSlimeFlinxVampire FrogImp
Leather Whipdeadterrible136105110
Snapthorndeadterrible866569

Obsidian ArmorFinchSlimeFlinxVampire FrogImp
Leather Whipdeadterrible687152
Snapthorn92terrible554538
Comments:
I really don't know what happened with Imps and the Flinx Fur Coat.
The Slime Staff minions just bounced around several platforms below the queen. Terrible AI.
I tried doing 3 Flinx + Aggressive sentry summoning+whips, but it didn't do well. It seems possible to kill her with just Ballista or just Explosive Trap summoning, but it's not easy or super fast! My best time with explosive trap+snapthorn+3 flinx+obsidian was 61 seconds, worse than just whipping.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Back
Top Bottom