TheQueenoftheStorm
Steampunker
Introduction
I play melee a LOT. Ever since 1.4 came out, it's been my main class, and I like to consider myself a decent player in this class. This short little "guide" of sorts is here to show the weapons and equipment I recommend for each stage of progression, as well as how to use each weapon. The stages of progression are: early-game (pre-boss), pre-skeletron, pre-wall, pre-mech, pre-plant, pre-moon lord. In addition, the bottom of the guide will have a general idea of how I progress through the game boss-wise.
QUICK NOTE: ALL RECOMMENDATIONS WILL BE ON THE ASSUMPTION THAT YOU ARE PLAYING IN EITHER EXPERT OR MASTER MODE
Early-Game
Even though I don't think sticking to a class is a very good idea until at least post-brain/eater, there is still a large selection of weapons and armor usable for the class at this stage of this game.
Armor:
Pre-Skeletron
By now, you should have a decent grasp on the overall style of pre-hardmode. Flails are your most important tool in most scenarios due to their overall power and decent versatility with both long and short ranged attacks. The Code 1 proves that Yo-Yos are an effective tool as well, as the code 1's long range and decent damage makes it an excellent tool for single target enemies. Boomerangs, as well as standard swords, will probably take a backseat for now as they wait for their hardmode upgrades, and spears were never useful and won't be (with the exception a certain spear we'll get to later) for basically the whole game.
Armor:
Pre-Wall of Flesh
After Skeletron is killed, the dungeon is finally open, and Wall almost instantly gets more plausible. Wall is probably the hardest boss for melee in expert/master mode due to the recommended distance you should stay away from the Wall, but that doesn't mean it isn't plausible. This is also one of the few times spears get any use, with spears being an alternative weapon to use against the hungry.
Armor:
Pre-Mechanical Bosses
Hardmode has started. Everything has tons more health than it did before, and you're gearing up for your first hardmode fights. I do recommend fighting Queen Slime, because the hook of dissonance is better than every hook in the game, save for the lunar hook, which it's about on par with.
Armor:
Quick note: now that hardmode has started, plenty more accessories are open. Because of this, I won't reiterate anything I said about any previous accessories.
Pre-Plantera
You might not get much, but what you DO get is very good.
Armor:
Pre-Moon Lord
Golem is easy as all hell, so we'll skip Pre-Golem. You can really just fight him with the stuff you used to fight Plantera, and I normally find myself killing Golem right after Plantera. By this point, you should have "pillar rushed" (killing the pillars ASAP to get the gear early) as well as killed Duke and empress.
Armor:
Boss Progression
Below is a list of the bosses I typically fight in chronological order (including the pillars but not including standard invasions). Use this as a way to see how I personally progress and to possibly adopt my strategies into your playthroughs!
I hope this guide proved to be useful to whomever reads this! I hope to eventually make this into a YouTube video, and if I do I'll post the link below! I plan on making videos like this post more often as time goes, so make sure to subscribe to my YT CrusaderAether if you want to see that! But with that, I hope this helped, and I hope you, the wonderful person who just sat through a novel's worth of guide, has an amazing day!
I play melee a LOT. Ever since 1.4 came out, it's been my main class, and I like to consider myself a decent player in this class. This short little "guide" of sorts is here to show the weapons and equipment I recommend for each stage of progression, as well as how to use each weapon. The stages of progression are: early-game (pre-boss), pre-skeletron, pre-wall, pre-mech, pre-plant, pre-moon lord. In addition, the bottom of the guide will have a general idea of how I progress through the game boss-wise.
QUICK NOTE: ALL RECOMMENDATIONS WILL BE ON THE ASSUMPTION THAT YOU ARE PLAYING IN EITHER EXPERT OR MASTER MODE
Early-Game
Even though I don't think sticking to a class is a very good idea until at least post-brain/eater, there is still a large selection of weapons and armor usable for the class at this stage of this game.
Armor:
- Iron or Above: General Protection, can't get better
- Jungle Armor: Extra mana not helpful, but high base defense for where you are in the game
- Ancient Shadow Armor: If in a corruption world, this armor is just as good as standard shadow armor, and can make the upcoming boss fights a whole lot easier
- Flaming Mace/Ball of Hurt (if in corruption): Maces make prehardmode a JOKE with their high base damage, medium range, and easy crowd control capabilities
- Enchanted Boomerang/Ice Boomerang/Shroomerang: General Ranged Melee Damage, good against single target/small groups, but don't fair well against invasions
- Ice Blade/Enchanted Sword/Starfury: Decent swords with semi-ranged properties. Make good close ranged weapons, especially with autoswing, but should only be used as a last resort when fighting from range
- Wooden Yo-yo/Rally: YoYos aren't very effective as of right now, but it's a good idea to keep one with you at all times so that you get used to holding one with you for later fights (looking at you, WoF)
- Feral Claws
- Any boots: IF you get lucky enough to have a goblin army invade before you fight a boss, spectre boots or higher are HIGHLY recommended. Otherwise, hermes boots are almost a necessity if you plan on killing the eye of Cthulhu (which is highly recommended as the shield is AMAZING)
- Counterweight/String: If in Master Mode, use both. In expert, just use the counterweight. It makes your Yo-yo much more effective and can cement it as a decent part of your arsenal (still probably won't have much use until after Eye, however)
- Any double jump accessory: Should be self-explanatory, as the extra vertical mobility and the ability to negate fall damage is AMAZING
Pre-Skeletron
By now, you should have a decent grasp on the overall style of pre-hardmode. Flails are your most important tool in most scenarios due to their overall power and decent versatility with both long and short ranged attacks. The Code 1 proves that Yo-Yos are an effective tool as well, as the code 1's long range and decent damage makes it an excellent tool for single target enemies. Boomerangs, as well as standard swords, will probably take a backseat for now as they wait for their hardmode upgrades, and spears were never useful and won't be (with the exception a certain spear we'll get to later) for basically the whole game.
Armor:
- Crimtane/Shadow: These two armor sets are stupid easy to make, as you'll be killing brain/eater for the pickaxe anyway. They aren't as good as molten, but prove effective with their overall decent stats
- Molten: Hands DOWN the best melee pre-hardmode set (why wouldn't it be?). It boasts tons of extra melee damage for the point of the game you're in, and defense almost as high as Stardust armor (sorry summoners)
- Ball of Hurt/The Meatball
- The Code 1: Your new boss killer for a while. Yo-Yos are amazing at killing most bosses with their decent range and respectable damage, and this Yo-Yo is proof of that. Seeing as you don't get another Yo-Yo until post-Skeletron, this is the best Yo-Yo at your disposal right now. However, if the traveling merchant doesn't sell it after a good long time of waiting, I'd recommend not using Yo-Yos and instead relying on boomerangs with your flail
- The Flamarang/Thorn Chakram: Both of these options are great backups in my opinion, as they can do the same job the Yo-Yos can, but slightly worse due to the speed. They make great backups, but overall won't be very needed if you have the Code 1 (or the amazon, which I keep forgetting to mention)
- The Fiery Greatsword/Starfury: Swords, for the most part, aren't needed. They're base damage can be good. but you'll overall never need them as your other weapons will do more damage and have better versatility (for now)
- Shield of Cthulhu: In expert and master mode, not taking damage is one of the core components. Hence why I believe you should NEVER unequip the shield of Cthulhu until you get the Tabi/Master Ninja Gear, as the dash is a massive upgrade
- Brain of Confusion: In my opinion, EASILY the better accessory. Sure, 17% damage reduction is nothing to scoff at, but I think that the Brain of Confusion slightly beats it out because the 1/6 dodge chance is amazing
- Worm Scarf: 17% damage reduction is quite a lot when you think about it. With defense being such a bad stat (might make a new forum post/video on that eventually), damage reduction becomes the true king of taking less damage, and this is no exception. Perfect accessory to hold onto until you get better accessories in hardmode, and I think that this and the brain are both easy high-tier accessories since 1.4 came out
- Counterweight/String: Now that your Yo-Yo is a useful ranged damage dealer, I'd say switch the priority for your Yo-Yo accessories. Prioritize the string for better range over the counterweight for short ranged attacks (don't trash your counterweight though, you'll need it later)
- SPECTRE BOOTS OR HIGHER: I put this in all caps because too many times have I walked into this stage of the game without rocket boots or hermes boots (hell, sometimes even both), and it is NOT fun. Take the extra time to farm goblin scouts for the Goblin Battle Standard (as well as get to 200 health, which you'll probably just get naturally)
- High-level double jump accessories: This is the point of the game where the double jump of a cloud in a bottle isn't going to be very effective, so unless it's something like the bundle of balloons or a horseshoe balloon, I wouldn't bother personally (blizzard/sandstorm in a bottle still have uses though)
- Shark Tooth Necklace: 5 armor penetration, though it isn't much, gives you a slight extra edge while fighting bosses or invasions. Not a must-have, but greatly appreciated
- Obsidian Skull: You should be getting this anyway if you don't have confidence in your abilities against knockback, and what better time to make it then when you're getting obsidian for hellstone anyway?
Pre-Wall of Flesh
After Skeletron is killed, the dungeon is finally open, and Wall almost instantly gets more plausible. Wall is probably the hardest boss for melee in expert/master mode due to the recommended distance you should stay away from the Wall, but that doesn't mean it isn't plausible. This is also one of the few times spears get any use, with spears being an alternative weapon to use against the hungry.
Armor:
- Molten Armor: Explained Above. No other armor is better, and you shouldn't be using any other armor except MAYBE crimtane if you're good enough, but I don't do that in expert/master mode
- Sunfury: You can get the blue moon if you want, but your main reason for exploring the dungeon is to get the muramasa and a shadow key to get this beauty. Boasting a 70 base damage, you can fairly easily hit 100 base damage on this thing. Sadly, it's not very good against wall due to the wall's high speed and massive contact damage, but is still an amazing weapon to have for both before and after wall is killed
- The Cascade/Valor: Yo-Yos are still your main boss killer, and this is especially true for the Wall of Flesh. I'd recommend farming for Cascade, but if you don't get it, the Valor is fine
- Flamarang/Thorn Chakram: Still just a backup weapon, but it's fine because they're about to get a WHOLE lot better
- Night's Edge/The Bee Keeper: Swords still don't see much use, but I'd recommend grabbing both of these weapons, as the night's edge will become a powerful weapon later on, and the bee keeper's bees can be useful for crowd control
- All of the before accessories: There isn't really anything new, so basically anything from pre-Skeletron will work wonders here
- Obsidian Shield: No knockback, 2 defense, and immunity to fire blocks. It's a nice spare accessory, but I don't 100% recommend using it over lots of other accessories
Pre-Mechanical Bosses
Hardmode has started. Everything has tons more health than it did before, and you're gearing up for your first hardmode fights. I do recommend fighting Queen Slime, because the hook of dissonance is better than every hook in the game, save for the lunar hook, which it's about on par with.
Armor:
- Titanium: Even though 1.4 nerfed it's set bonus (used to be buffed, but then they balanced it further), titanium armor is still an amazing suit of armor that I cannot recommend enough for most melee players
- Adamantite: Not as good as titanium, but deserves to be up here for it's good bonuses and overall good stats for where you get it (plus style points: I love the melee helmet)
- Frost/Crystal Assassin Armor: Both of these sets provide bonuses to help multi-classers, which includes melee. Use them if you want to try a second class alongside melee
- Sunfury/Drippler Crippler/Dao of Pow: Sadly, this will be the last time flails are truly powerful. Their base damage is amazing and is throughout the whole game, but their slow speed makes them ineffective later into Hardmode. However, they are still AMAZING for crowd control and can decimate most hordes until the solar eruption (yes, even the sunfury is effective for that long, just not as effective as the others). I'd recommend the drippler crippler, as it's easier to get then the Dao of Pow and the ranged effect is much better than the confusion on the dao of pow and the on fire debuff the sunfury gives (I love all three though and can't recommend them enough for early hardmode)
- The bananarang/Sergeant United Shield: I don't use boomerangs much in early-hardmode, but I easily get why people do. Both of these options are essentially on par with Yo-Yos for overall single target damage (maybe not the SU shield, but definitely the bananarang)
- Amarok/Hel-Fire: Yo-Yos take another backseat to the more effective ranged melee weapons you get in early-hardmode, but they shouldn't be overlooked. They're still effective alternate weapons if you don't want to fight another goblin army for what is, in my opinion, the most powerful early hardmode weapon
- THE SHADOWFLAME KNIFE: Not sure how many people agree, but I find this to be by far the most powerful early hardmode for it's fast ranged attacks and high damage. I wouldn't use it against destroyer (which is sadly the boss you'll want to kill first), but it's a blessing against the twins and prime because it lets you keep a decent distance while still dealing effective damage
- The flying knife: though not as effective as the shadowflame knife or even most other weapons here in most aspects, it's one of your main destroyer weapons (next to flails)
- The Cutlass: To be honest, swords are useless early-hardmode. I'd say don't worry about swords and instead just craft an excalibur when you get the chance to after killing a mech or two and stashing it away for later
Quick note: now that hardmode has started, plenty more accessories are open. Because of this, I won't reiterate anything I said about any previous accessories.
- Shield of Cthulhu
- Brain of Confusion
- Worm Scarf
- Yo-Yo bag: Even though Yo-Yos take a bit of a backseat to the shadowflame knife, grabbing this ASAP will be useful for later on (or if you get the red's throw early on)
- Beserker Glove: Don't even bother with the power glove at this point. If you want to use the power glove, just make the beserker glove. If you're in a corruption world you can still make a crimson by putting the dryad in a graveyard and buying crimson seeds from her
- Dev wings: You see, you COULD go for some early game wings like leaf wings (which did get nerfed), or you can farm the stupid easy Queen Slime until you get dev wings, which are some of the best wings in the game. Either way, GET WINGS
- Boots
- Ankh Shield: You don't get most debuffs. I don't ever grab this accessory, but I still recommend it because I see why others get it
Pre-Plantera
You might not get much, but what you DO get is very good.
Armor:
- Titanium Armor
- Hallowed Armor: Yes, the overall base stats are worse then titanium, but the set bonus is AMAZING. I personally recommend wearing this armor for the rest of the game, as the set bonus makes dodging attacks easy and streamlined
- Turtle Armor: Only recommending it because Beetle armor is an upgrade to it. Turtle armor itself isn't a very good set unless you're trying to draw aggro from friends
- Chlorophyte Armor: The armor is fine, the set bonus is fine. Overall the armor is average, but I guess I can recommend it if you have spare chlorophyte
- Dev Yo-Yos/Yelets: The absolute sheer amount of raw single target damage on these wooden pieces of
is amazing, and because of that they make great alternatives. Yeah the other is just that much better (use Red's Throw as a main weapon if you get that though because it's basically the eye of Cthulhu but slightly worse) - Death Sickle: Your main weapon for the upcoming boss fight. Boasting high damage, a fast swing speed, and projectiles that pierce and hover for a second or so before disappearing. This weapon SHREDS Plantera, as well as most enemies you'll encounter during this part of the game (the projectiles go through walls, too)
- The Terra Blade: You know, it hurts not being able to recommend the true swords. Sure, they're powerful, and True Excalibur is my favorite sword in the game, but the Terra Blade is THAT much better. Only slightly worse than the Death Sickle in my opinion because the projectiles don't pierce as much, and they don't go through walls. Use as a main weapon when just perusing around the world, and switch to the death sickle for Plantera attempts
- Drippler Crippler/Dao of Pow
- Shadowflame Knife
- Light Disc: After a stupid long amount of time, the boomerangs finally get their chance in the spotlight. I can recommend, just like the death sickle and terra blade, using this as a main weapon for this stage of the game, and I have before. Just don't use it in multiplayer or you might get noise complaints
- Beserker Glove
- Mechanical Gauntlet: No, not the fire gauntlet. The exrta 2% melee damage and speed is much better than the fire damage offered
- Yo-Yo bag
- Ankh Shield
- Dev Wings
- Shield of Cthulhu
- Brain of Confusion
- Worm Scarf
- Warrior Emblem: Forgot to put this in pre-mechs, but trust me, you'll want the extra melee damage (could probably replace with mech gauntlet or beserker glove though)
- Charm of Myths: Another one I forgot to put in pre-mechs (I'd fix it but backspacing on the forums is weird). The philosopher's stone is one of the best general base accessories in the game, and combining it with the band of regeneration gives it just a little more use
Pre-Moon Lord
Golem is easy as all hell, so we'll skip Pre-Golem. You can really just fight him with the stuff you used to fight Plantera, and I normally find myself killing Golem right after Plantera. By this point, you should have "pillar rushed" (killing the pillars ASAP to get the gear early) as well as killed Duke and empress.
Armor:
- Hallowed ()
- Beetle
- Terra Blade
- Death Sickle
- The Eye of Cthulhu: I don't use it much, but the Eye of Cthulhu is definitely worth getting for general single target use
- Solar Eruption: AMAZING at multi-target/crowd control. Use against OOA
- Daybreak: Your ML weapon (either that or the hatchet). MASSIVE DPS due to the daybroken debuff, and you don't even need tons of extra melee damage to achieve that
- Vampire Knives: Controversial opinion: these aren't that good. I don't use them ever, but I feel as though someone reading this could get some use out of the life steal (never use during ML though, he blocks most life steal)
- Scourge of the Corrupter: A melee weapon fit for those of you who want to not die during the pillars. Decent multi-target homing makes this a decent weapon to use against the solar pillar
- The North Pole: Spears finally break out of the shadows of obscurity and become a good weapon. Combined with the autoswing the gloves give, and you've got yourself a crowd controlling nuke
- Possessed Hatchet: A good homing single target weapon. Use if you don't like aiming a daybreak (DONT USE WITH HALLOWED ARMOR)
- Mechanical Gauntlet
- Beserker Glove
- Frozen Shield: Helps your teammates out AND gives you massive damage reduction below 50% hp
- Brain of Confusion
- Worm Scarf
- Master Ninja Gear: A good replacement for both the brain and shield of Cthulhu
- Ankh Shield
- Soaring Insignia: Now that you can't block Moon Lord's laser, this is the new best way to annihilate Moon Lord with your ability to fly over lasers easily
- Jet pack/Hoverboard (ONLY WITH INSIGNIA): The infinite flight makes the hover and boost parts of these two items fairly useful for dodging Moon Lord's attacks
- Dev Wings/Late-game wings
- Warrior Emblem
- Yo-Yo bag
- Celestial Shell: A large flat increase to stats, with added bonuses in night and submerged is HUGE
- Betsy's Wings: Like the hoverboard, but doesn't need the insignia to be good
Boss Progression
Below is a list of the bosses I typically fight in chronological order (including the pillars but not including standard invasions). Use this as a way to see how I personally progress and to possibly adopt my strategies into your playthroughs!
- Eye of Cthulhu
- World Evil Boss (Brain/Eater)
- Skeletron
- Queen Bee
- Wall of Flesh
- Queen Slime
- The Destroyer
- The Twins
- Skeletron Prime
- Plantera
- Golem
- Celestial Pillars
- Duke Fishron
- Empress of Light
- Daypress (if with friends or if I want Terraprisma)
- Moon Lord
I hope this guide proved to be useful to whomever reads this! I hope to eventually make this into a YouTube video, and if I do I'll post the link below! I plan on making videos like this post more often as time goes, so make sure to subscribe to my YT CrusaderAether if you want to see that! But with that, I hope this helped, and I hope you, the wonderful person who just sat through a novel's worth of guide, has an amazing day!