In-depth Hardmode weapon tier list

Baconfry · Jun 22, 2019

This guide covers the overall viability and usage details of every weapon that becomes available after the Wall of Flesh is killed for the first time.

Each weapon has different aspects that contribute to viability. I will be using the following criteria:

DPS - damage per second dealt to a single target.
Crowd control - ability to continue to perform well against multiple targets.
Accuracy - likelihood that your attacks will connect when used at the intended range, even when moving. I give swords a 5/5 for this, but take it with a grain of salt since their intended range is point-blank.
Disruption - ability to slow down enemies as they approach or prevent them from approaching entirely, using means other than raw damage. Improved to a 5/5 on most speedy melee weapons with a Titan Glove.
Safety - ability to damage enemies without putting yourself at risk. Often synonymous with range. Controllability, homing, and wall-piercing also contribute to this.
Availability - ability to obtain the weapon without excessive grinding or luck. This isn't factored into rank.

As for rankings:

S rank: Immediately powerful and remains useful for a long time. Can be used to great effect in nearly any situation, and/or has a useful role in which it vastly outperforms everything else.
A rank: Useful in the majority of situations. Efficient and likely a popular choice on people's hotbars, but generally not considered "overpowered".
B rank: Perhaps not the first thing most people would think of using, but can be quite useful if you apply it to the right situations and remain aware of its weaknesses.
C rank: This weapon likely has at least one role it can perform well, but its bad matchups outnumber its good ones. In order to use it effectively, you really have to know what you're doing.
D rank: Slightly better than nothing, but its inefficiency should be immediately obvious to anyone who tries it. There's almost certainly something else that you should be using instead.
F rank: Fails to do anything well. No one could possibly mistake it for a remotely good weapon. Does close to nothing most of the time, and using it is basically like crippling yourself.

I've also included the best prefixes*, along with a rough indicator of reforge cost. (I've used parentheses to mark weapons that are used as crafting ingredients and as such are not worth reforging.)
*Godly and Demonic are also listed as best prefixes for weapons whose performance is unaffected by their speed, even if they support Mythical/Unreal.

Of course, these will be rated relative to other options you have in your current stage of progression, and their matchup against upcoming events were also considered. Naturally these are based on my personal opinion and experiences, but if you feel like any of these placements are unfair, please reply and I will likely revise them.

Musket Ball/Endless Musket Pouch

+costs nothing to use
-no distinguishing traits

You might find yourself using the Endless Musket Pouch for practical reasons; it's an infinite ammo source, so it's the best ammunition to use for exploration. Switch to something else when you're fighting for your life.

Silver Bullet

-no distinguishing traits

If you're using Silver Bullets at this point, it's probably because you've obtained a handful from smashing pots and you didn't want them to go to waste. They're really no different from the Musket Pouch.

Meteor Shot

+pierces or ricochets once
-lowers DPS when used with most guns
-mostly nonrenewable

Thanks to piercing mechanics, it has worse DPS than the Musket Pouch when used with shotguns and rapid-fire guns. In other words, practically all hardmode guns. Meteorite Bars are also nonrenewable for all intents and purposes, so you'll really struggle to find a reason to use this stuff.

Exploding Bullet

+high knockback
+damages multiple enemies
+no farming required
+good velocity
-inflicts some recoil damage if not careful

The best crowd control bullet, and pretty much the only one you'll use for the entire game. Doesn't require an upgraded Anvil to craft, can be made in bulk, and drastically increases the viability of several early hardmode guns.

Party Bullet

+decent knockback
+no farming required
+good velocity
-no distinguishing traits
-messy

The best generic bullet you can make in early Hardmode without farming materials, though that isn’t much of a selling point considering how easy it is to farm for better ammo such as Crystal Bullets.

Golden Bullet

+increased profit when used on bosses/minibosses
+no farming required
+good velocity
-no distinguishing traits

The best way to use them is for repeated Eye of Cthulhu and Queen Bee kills. They're not for use against things that actually threaten you, except maybe for dealing the final blow to Pirate Captains.

(mythril or orichalcum anvil)

Crystal Bullet

+highest potential DPS
+large number of hits

The best bossing bullet if you don't think accuracy is going to be an issue. They are more likely to deal extra damage when fired against targets that are moving towards you. Crystal Bullets have a great synergy with Ichor and easily shred enemies with low defenses.

Cursed Bullet

+high damage
-no distinguishing traits

The generic "raw damage" bullet. Crystal Bullets still outclass them since they have a much better secondary effect.

Ichor Bullet

+high damage
+inflicts a powerful debuff
+good velocity

A straight upgrade to the Cursed Bullet. The Ichor debuff greatly enhances DPS, but you'll deal more damage by using Crystal Bullets and inflicting Ichor some other way.

(one mechanical boss)

High Velocity Bullet

+incredibly high velocity
+no farming required
-no other distinguishing traits

The high velocity of these bullets solves a problem that never really existed in the first place, since all bullets have naturally high velocity.

(all mechanical bosses)

Chlorophyte Bullet

+perfectly accurate
+uses a highly contested resource

Arguably the best bullet in the game. There are so many guns that depend on Chlorophyte Bullets in order to be viable, and every gun is greatly improved when using them. Highly recommended for boss fights, or any situation really.

(plantera)

Venom Bullet

+high damage
+no farming required
-no distinguishing traits

The best bullet you can get without farming, and a straight upgrade to Cursed Bullets, but you'd only use them if you were on a Corruption world. Ichor Bullets are still better.

Nano Bullet

+decent knockback
+messes with common enemies
+no farming required
-no distinguishing traits when used on immune enemies

Confusion doesn't work on most truly threatening enemies. You're better off trying to dispose of them directly.

(final boss)

Luminite Bullet

+near infinite piercing
+highest base damage by far
-uses a highly contested resource
-comes too late to be of any use

At this point, you're just running victory laps. While Luminite Bullets are as powerful as you’d expect, you might still prefer Chlorophyte Bullets for aerial boss fights.

Wooden Arrow/Endless Quiver

+costs nothing to use
-no distinguishing traits

An infinite ammo source that you'll likely use while exploring. Their low velocity compared with other ammo types is more noticeable with arrows than with bullets, but a Magic Quiver will fix that. Because of the increased defenses of hardmode enemies, this should not be used with The Bee’s Knees in most situations.

Bone Arrow

-no distinguishing traits
-difficult to resupply

A total ripoff at 15 copper each. Flaming Arrows have better stats and are easier to obtain.

Flaming Arrow

+easy to craft
-no distinguishing traits

They're alright. Feel free to use the freebies you get from chests, but if you're going to craft some cheap ammunition, craft Frostburn Arrows instead.

Frostburn Arrow

+easy to craft
-no distinguishing traits

The best ammunition you can get for basically zero effort, and can be crafted on the go. As with most DoT debuffs, Frostburn is mostly inconsequential.

Jester's Arrow

+pierces infinitely
-uses a somewhat contested resource
-anti synergy with multi-shot bows

The best linear piercing arrow, and works well against the Destroyer if you're using a standard repeater.

Unholy Arrow

+pierces four times
+no farming required
-anti synergy with multi-shot bows

You can get a nice supply of them for free if you farm the Eye of Cthulhu, and they perform as well as Jester's Arrows for most purposes.

Hellfire Arrow

+damages multiple enemies
+high knockback
+no farming required
-anti synergy with multi-shot bows

Really good for repelling groups of enemies thanks to their high knockback. Weapons like the Marrow and Pulse Bow also inherit their knockback value.

(mythril or orichalcum anvil)

Holy Arrow

+incredibly high DPS
+secondary projectiles damage multiple enemies
+synergy with multi-shot bows

Arguably the best arrow in the game. Works better against targets that don't move too much horizontally. If there's any good reason to spread the Hallow, it's this.

Cursed Arrow

+tied for highest base damage
-no distinguishing traits

Great for feeding weapons like the Shadowflame Bow, which are affected only by the arrow's base damage. Otherwise, pretty generic.

Ichor Arrow

+high velocity
+inflicts a powerful debuff

Considerably above average for bossing because they travel quickly and inflict Ichor. Also useful as a secondary if your primary is a gun with Crystal Bullets.

(all mechanical bosses)

Chlorophyte Arrow

+pierces or ricochets once
-uses a highly contested resource
-anti synergy with multi-shot bows

Not a worthwhile way to spend your Chlorophyte Bars. Chlorophyte Arrows and Meteor Shot are poor choices for mostly the same reasons. It's kinda funny and tragic that the Chlorophyte Shotbow was introduced in the same tier, considering how poorly they work together.

(plantera)

Venom Arrow

+tied for highest base damage
+high velocity
+no farming required
-no other distinguishing traits

Might be the best arrow to use with the Phantasm against the final boss. Great velocity, high base damage, decent knockback. Also, the best fodder for the Pulse Bow.

(final boss)

Luminite Arrow

+pierces four times
+highest potential DPS
-uses a highly contested resource
-comes too late to be of any use

The only piercing arrow that doesn't have an anti synergy with the likes of Tsunami and Phantasm. Secondary effect is a bit more situational than Holy Arrows, but it'll still put out more damage on average.

"Technically hardmode"

Classy Cane and Pearlwood Sword: F

Yeah, no one really expects anything from these two weapons. It's kind of unfortunate that they ended up being restricted to Hardmode to begin with, but even if they were available in pre-hardmode, they would probably suck considering that wooden swords are good only for the first few minutes of the game and get instantly outclassed by the Cactus Sword.

I guess you can kill AFKers in PvP with the Classy Cane if you’re all about that disrespect.

DPS: 1/5. At least slightly competent when using a Flask of Ichor, but pretty much unusable without it.
Crowd control: 1/5. With garbage range and knockback, pulling out a weapon like this is probably going to be the last thing on your mind if you're facing a crowd.
Accuracy: 5/5. If you get up close and attack enemies with a crappy earlygame sword, you'll be taking damage constantly, but at least your enemy will be, too.
Disruption: 1/5. Against Hardmode enemies, their knockback is laughably weak. Requires some kind of knockback boost to repel enemies. Assuming you can get a Power Glove or Titan Potion, however, they might be better than the Breaker Blade thanks to their speed.
Safety: 1/5. Kind of like the Fetid Baghnakhs, but instead of challenging enemies to DPS races and winning, these two will basically always lose.
Availability: 5/5 (Pearlwood Sword). Crafted from 7 Pearlwood at a Work Bench. 2/5 (Classy Cane). 12.5% chance to drop from Tax Collector.

Best prefix: Legendary ¢

Pearlwood Bow: F+

Uses standard arrows.
While it's true that no one in their right mind would craft this weapon with the intention to use it, the Pearlwood Bow can potentially be better than some of the weapons on this list, a testament to how bad those weapons really are. Loaded with Ichor Arrows, it is at least able to deal damage to Hardmode enemies and eventually kill them, and can even kill the Twins in normal mode, with Orichalcum Armor and a lot of buff potions. I don't think any broadsword can make that claim.

This is the only weapon I gave an F+ to. It is undeniably bad, but since there is one scenario in which it delivers an almost passable performance (use Ichor Arrows while wearing Orichalcum Armor), it at least deserves to be rated higher than things like the Anchor, which will be terrible no matter what you do. So if you see something with an F ranking later down the list, that means that I consider it worse than the Pearlwood Bow.

DPS: 1/5. Well, it's a weapon with earlygame stats, and it relies on the Ichor debuff to deal any damage at all. Without Ichor Arrows it's pretty much zero.
Crowd control: 1/5. Not an option most of the time, because Ichor Arrows are usually the only way for it to deal damage. You can use Orichalcum Armor to circumvent this.
Accuracy: 4/5. All bows benefit from the availability of the Archery Potion, which boosts arrow velocity. Ichor Arrows also have an inherently high velocity stat.
Disruption: 1/5. It isn't particularly fast, and has no inherent knockback. I suppose Hellfire Arrows are an option for knockback, though you'd be cutting your damage output to almost zero by not using Ichor.
Safety: 4/5. For what it's worth, it can at least strike things from a distance, while weapons like the Breaker Blade cannot.
Availability: 5/5. Crafted from 10 Pearlwood at a Work Bench. Note that due to its reliance on Ichor Arrows, it requires a Crimson world to be usable.

Best prefix: Deadly/Demonic ¢

Dropped by Wall of Flesh

Breaker Blade: F

This was meant to be a sword that compensates for its other faults with its enormous size. Its size, unfortunately, does not make up for how slow and weak this weapon is. In crowd-control situations, it is likely to catch multiple enemies within its reach, but is gimped entirely by its ability to only hit a few of them with each swing. If you are determined to use it, consider pairing it with a Shield of Cthulhu to offset its inability to push back resistant enemies. The list of enemies the Breaker Blade can deal with is incredibly short and mostly overlaps with the Pearlwood Sword, so I doubt I'm being unfair by putting it in F rank; a weapon with such terrible range and disruptive abilities is going to be awful whether it can deal two-digit damage values or not.

DPS: 1/5. Its slow speed really hurts, and damage per hit is mediocre.
Crowd control: 2/5. Completely fails against any invasion-type event, or any situation in which more than one enemy is shooting at you, though this can mostly be attributed to a lack of disruptive power and range.
Accuracy: 5/5. The Breaker Blade is very large and wide, and easy to hit enemies with.
Disruption: 1/5. While it has good knockback, it is far too slow to keep enemies away from you unless they have practically no knockback resistance at all.
Safety: 1/5. The relatively long reach doesn't compensate for its slowness. It is also difficult to use while retreating.
Availability: 2/5. 16.67% chance to drop from the Wall of Flesh. 4/5 in Expert Mode, where it has a 33% chance to drop.

Best prefix: Legendary $

Clockwork Assault Rifle: A

Uses standard bullets.
While its damage output with the Endless Musket Pouch is unimpressive, it becomes quite fearsome when loaded with higher-grade ammunition. And because it is ammo-efficient, the opportunity cost of using such ammunition is very low. Since it has autofire, it performs quite similarly to the Megashark, and like the Megashark, it is great in any single-target situation, serving you well until you can craft an Onyx Blaster. It can even be used against the Twins and Skeletron Prime, but that's pushing it a bit.

DPS: 3/5. The nice thing about it is that it greatly extends the mileage of your expensive ammo, so there's no reason not to use Cursed/Crystal/Ichor Bullets, which significantly improve its DPS. Meteor Shot lowers its single-target DPS, so consider it only when you need to pierce three or more targets.
Crowd control: 1/5. You can use Meteor Shot/Exploding Bullets if you want, but you probably have better crowd control options. For instance, the Blowgun with Crystal Darts, or a repeater with Unholy Arrows. But it's still very good against the Destroyer if you use Exploding Bullets.
Accuracy: 4/5. It shoots with good velocity and almost no bullet spread, making it very accurate if your aim is true. Its velocity is even higher when loaded with Exploding, Ichor, or Party Bullets.
Disruption: 3/5. The weapon itself has no listed knockback, but every bullet has a knockback value. Even with the Musket Pouch, it is able to slow enemies down, and with Exploding Bullets, even knock them away. Party Bullets offer the best knockback if you're not comfortable using Exploding Bullets.
Safety: 4/5. Excellent range means that lack of knockback is usually not a problem, and it's easy to avoid hurting yourself with Exploding Bullets.
Availability: 2/5. 16.67% chance to drop from the Wall of Flesh. 4/5 in Expert Mode, where it has a 33% chance to drop.

Best prefix: Demonic $

Laser Rifle: A-

With incredible velocity and piercing abilities, the Laser Rifle does a lot of work against clusters of grounded enemies, though it works better if you’re on the ground as well. It is at least as valuable for stunlocking enemies as it is for dealing actual damage. The pirate invasion is probably where the Laser Rifle shines the most.

DPS: 3/5. This is usually a weapon you want to use against multiple targets.
Crowd control: 5/5. Great piercing abilities, making it valuable against invasions.
Accuracy: 4/5. The laser's velocity is so high that you don't need to lead your shots at all.
Disruption: 4/5. It shoots fast enough to slow enemies' approach to a crawl.
Safety: 4/5. 5/5 is reserved for weapons that do not even require line of sight.
Availability: 2/5. 16.67% chance to drop from the Wall of Flesh. 4/5 in Expert Mode, where it has a 33% chance to drop.

Best prefix: Mythical $

Crafted through mining

Ore Swords and Phasesabers: C-

At this point you should be trying to outgrow your sword habit, but as long as you avoid getting overwhelmed, they get the job done. I'd avoid crafting the Palladium and Titanium versions, because the bars are much better spent crafting the respective armor sets. The Cutlass outclasses all of them thanks to its superior speed.

DPS: 3/5. Decent, but there are weapons with better range that are equally good or better.
Crowd control: 3/5. Unlike the Breaker Blade, these are fast enough to at least consistently damage and repel two or three enemies.
Accuracy: 5/5. Delivers consistent hits as long as you're hitting three enemies or fewer.
Disruption: 3/5. Some enemies can be held off, some cannot. Phasesabers are particularly bad at this. Unless you're using a Power Glove, do not attempt to use any sword against the pirates, except maybe the Crimson-exclusive ones.
Safety: 1/5. Generally, going in with a sword is not your safest option in any scenario.
Availability: 5/5. Crafted from between 10-13 bars (ore swords) or a Phaseblade and 50 Crystal Shards (Phasesabers) at a Hardmode Anvil.

Best prefix: Legendary $ (Phasesaber: ¢)

Ore Spears: B-

They work very well against grounded crowds of any size, but you should find safer options for dealing with such situations. Absolutely better than the corresponding swords, though.

DPS: 4/5. They may have been designed to deal lower damage than swords, but hitting multiple times more than compensates for this.
Crowd control: 5/5. There is no limit to the number of enemies they can hold off from one side.
Accuracy: 3/5. To some extent, you need to stay grounded. If you are flying while using a spear, you will probably miss, because they are quite narrow.
Disruption: 4/5. These spears tend to be speedy with decent knockback.
Safety: 2/5. While they have good lockdown and crowd control, somewhat low range and vulnerability to flying enemies hurt their viability.
Availability: 5/5. Crafted from between 10-13 bars at a Hardmode Anvil.

Best prefix: Godly/Demonic $

Ore Repeaters: A+

Uses standard arrows.
Ammo versatility is the best reason to use repeaters, along with the fact that they are always available if you fail to obtain anything better. They're especially good at killing the Destroyer when loaded with Jester's Arrows.

DPS: 4/5. Still decent with the Endless Quiver, but improved with Holy Arrows or whatever topping you can afford.
Crowd control: 1/5. 3/5 with Holy/Hellfire Arrows. 5/5 with Jester's/Unholy Arrows.
Accuracy: 3/5. You have to lead your shots, but they fire pretty quickly, making it easy to adjust your aim.
Disruption: 3/5. They have poor knockback most of the time. 5/5 with Hellfire Arrows.
Safety: 4/5. Most ranged weapons are quite good at this.
Availability: 5/5. Crafted from between 10-13 bars at a Hardmode Anvil.

Best prefix: Unreal $

Dropped by monsters

Amarok and Hel-Fire: S

Reliable, common, and simple to use, these pull their weight for a long time. Yoyos are especially good when caving, and you'll be spending a lot of early hardmode underground. Hel-Fire provides light at all times, but the Amarok provides it only through the Frostburn it inflicts on enemies, which probably isn't significant enough a difference to warrant using one over the other.

In combat, the main difference between the two is that Hel-Fire has higher base knockback, while Amarok inflicts a slightly more potent debuff.

DPS: 4/5. You can improve this slightly with the Yoyo Glove, or Flask of Ichor if applicable.
Crowd control: 3/5. Perhaps not the most efficient weapons against the Destroyer, but will dispatch small clusters of enemies easily.
Accuracy: 5/5. Perfectly controllable, with the precision that many melee weapons lack.
Disruption: 4/5. They deal damage incredibly fast and knock enemies away reasonably well, though their strength lies in cornering enemies and eliminating them from a distance.
Safety: 5/5. Attacking clusters of enemies from above is a safe option you wouldn't have with a sword or spear. The controllability also allows for easy cheesing around corners and walls.
Availability: 3/5. 0.33% chance to drop from enemies killed in the Snow Biome (Amarok). 0.25% chance to drop from enemies killed below the depth where lava can appear (Hel-Fire).

Best prefix: Godly/Demonic $$

KO Cannon: B

A comical but surprisingly effective weapon, at least compared with broadswords. You can use the KO Cannon in the same situations you'd usually pull out a sword. It's much more effective at repelling fighter enemies, but if you're facing flying enemies, it won’t outperform broadswords by much.

DPS: 3/5. When used up close, its DPS is actually pretty impressive, though you cannot expect to be in such close range all the time.
Crowd control: 2/5. Though it does not pierce, its huge knockback makes it better at dealing with crowds than you might expect.
Accuracy: 4/5. Fires and retracts very quickly, so it's not hard to nail enemies with.
Disruption: 5/5. Anything not KB-immune is unlikely to ever touch a KO Cannon user. Of course, it can't target enemies that fly thanks to its poor range.
Safety: 2/5. For all its strengths in close quarters, it can't really deal with anything that shoots or flies out of reach.
Availability: 2/5. 0.1% chance to drop from any enemy killed during a Blood Moon.

Best prefix: Godly/Demonic $

Bananarang: B+

This weapon's rarity is really a downer; it would be S+ if getting a stack of at least 4 of them was remotely practical. On average, expect to use a stack of 2-3 if you get any at all. It's roughly at its full potential with a stack of 4, so count yourself lucky if you get a stack that large.

DPS: 4/5. The extent to which range limits your DPS depends on stack size.
Crowd control: 2/5. Roughly the same knockback capabilities as the KO Cannon, but with better range.
Accuracy: 3/5. As with all boomerangs, there's a pretty big vulnerability gap if you miss, but lockdown isn't hard if your aim is good, or if your stack size is large enough for it not to matter.
Disruption: 5/5. Huge knockback and great speed, as long as you have a good-sized stack.
Safety: 4/5. Great range makes it equal to most guns in this respect.
Availability: 1/5. 3.33% chance to drop from a Clown, in a stack of 1-4. Clowns are already pretty rare, so getting a full stack of 10 is unrealistic.

Best prefix: none

Nimbus Rod: S+

If you don’t have the patience to search for a Daedalus Stormbow, the Nimbus Rod will carry you through the battle with the Destroyer with almost equal ease. Using it comes with no opportunity cost; whether you’re exploring underground or dealing with an event aboveground, you can almost certainly find a way to make the Nimbus Rod useful. You don't even have to be a mage to want this on your hotbar at all times. It deals damage for free, and if you're smart with placing the clouds, the damage it deals is actually very significant.

DPS: 4/5. This is a flat addition to the DPS of whatever weapon you're using while the clouds are out. In practice it only reaches this level of DPS if you can lure enemies into standing under the clouds.
Crowd control: 5/5. The rain pierces all targets.
Accuracy: 2/5. If you place it in the middle of nowhere, it won't do much. If you place it in a spot where enemies congregate (directly beneath you or against a wall), it can often melt them in seconds.
Disruption: 0/5. While it cannot hold back or interrupt enemies, it also doesn't prevent you from switching to a weapon that can.
Safety: 5/5. You don't have to be nearby for the Nimbus Rod to work its magic. Also, the rain will penetrate one block if it's directly beneath the cloud.
Availability: 2/5. 6.67% chance to drop from Angry Nimbuses, which spawn on the surface when it's raining.

Best prefix: Demonic $$

Poison Staff: C-

Slow, weak, and grossly inefficient. Might see use in the Destroyer fight and against the pirate invasion, but its pitiful knockback and damage against single targets makes it unsuited for general use. This weapon is roughly the magical equivalent of a shotgun with Meteor Shot, which is the worst possible ammo for a shotgun.

DPS: 1/5. Each spray of fangs only hits an individual enemy once, hardly justifying its large mana cost. However, the damage per hit is at least good enough to put it ahead of whatever you were using in pre-hardmode.
Crowd control: 5/5. With its large spread, it can catch a few flying enemies like Parrots. Crowd control is the main reason to use the Poison Staff, since its DPS is too low to use elsewhere.
Accuracy: 3/5. At least one fang will be shot towards the cursor, though it has a wide spread and low velocity making it inaccurate against smaller enemies.
Disruption: 1/5. Slow speed, average knockback, and inability to hit consistently means the Poison Staff is not likely to stop enemies from reaching you.
Safety: 4/5. For all its faults, it is still a line-of-sight weapon.
Availability: 3/5. 2.5% chance to drop from Black Recluses.

(Best prefix: Mythical $$)

Marrow and Ice Bow: C+

Very precise bows that work like guns (specifically, the Phoenix Blaster) thanks to their extremely high arrow velocity, though the tradeoff is the inability to pierce and use special ammunition. Not having autofire is also rather painful, forcing you to find the weapon's rhythm in order to maximize fire rate. Both are quite rare, and if you have one, there's a good chance that you weren't specifically looking for it.

DPS: 3/5. Decent enough to consider bossing with, but it's usually better suited for dealing with random enemies. An Endless Quiver will usually suffice.
Crowd control: 1/5. Unlike other bows, they don't have the option to gain crowd control with Jester/Unholy Arrows.
Accuracy: 4/5. High velocity makes them easy enough to aim with, as long as you're standing still. Trying to run and gun really messes with their accuracy.
Disruption: 3/5. Actually pretty good knockback, compared with other bows. Amusingly, they inherit Hellfire Arrows' knockback value, but you're probably better off using a repeater with them, so I can't really say I recommend that combination.
Safety: 4/5. Thanks to the arrows' extremely high travel speed, they can be treated like line-of-sight weapons.
Availability: 1/5 (Marrow), 2/5 (Ice Bow). 0.5% chance to drop from Skeleton Archers and 28.5% chance to drop from Ice Mimics, respectively.

Best prefix: Unreal ¢ (Ice Bow: $$)

Beam Sword: C

A decent sword combined with a bad projectile to get a sword that's a bit better than other swords, though not by much. If you were searching for a proper long-ranged DPS weapon, then keep searching.

DPS: 3/5 (blade), 1/5 (beam). The sword itself is quite good, and the beam gives a bit of extra bite, but does piddly damage on its own.
Crowd control: 2/5. The beam doesn't pierce, so its crowd control is about the same as that of any sword.
Accuracy: 5/5 for the blade, and 2/5 for the beam, which has poor velocity.
Disruption: 3/5. Thanks to the beam, it delivers slightly more knockback per second than other swords.
Safety: 4/5. Sure, you can eliminate enemies from a distance with the Beam Sword. Just keep in mind that the beam's DPS is on the same level as the Anchor.
Availability: 1/5. 0.67% chance to drop from Armored Skeletons.

Best prefix: Legendary $$$$

Magic Dagger: A-

With high speed and good damage, it hurts enemies quite a bit. Also hurts your index finger quite a bit, which is a strange drawback to be sure. The projectile arc takes a while to get used to, and your accuracy might suffer as a result. It's better suited for surface combat than for fighting on uneven terrain, where its effective range drops even lower.

DPS: 4/5. Might be the best pre-mech magic weapon for reliable single target damage.
Crowd control: 3/5. It only pierces once, but can easily muscle through crowds just by overwhelming them with projectiles.
Accuracy: 3/5. It's only accurate at close range. With its high gravity and low range, using it beyond mid-range is tricky.
Disruption: 5/5. Even highly KB-resistant enemies can be held at a standstill.
Safety: 3/5. Thanks to gravity, it has limited range.
Availability: 2/5. 14.29% chance to drop from Wooden, Golden, and Shadow Mimics.

Best prefix: Mythical $$

Medusa Head: C-

Strictly to be used against worm-type enemies and invasion events. It has no business being used in any other situation since it just allows enemies to charge/take potshots at you. The fight against the Destroyer is the best performance you'll ever see from the Medusa Head, and it's probably worth using just for that battle alone.

DPS: 2/5. It completely shreds worms, but is rather disappointing when used against anything else.
Crowd control: 5/5. This weapon is meant to be used against crowds. Using it is pointless if there's no crowd.
Accuracy: 5/5. It isn't obvious, but it is a homing weapon, and will hit every target within range without fail.
Disruption: 0/5. Because you spend most of your time charging it up just to deal a single hit, this weapon does not interfere with enemies' approach in the slightest.
Safety: 3/5. Range is okay, but of course you are helpless while charging it up. Takes practice to use safely.
Availability: 1/5. 1% chance to drop from Medusas, which are already quite uncommon and annoying to deal with. 4/5 with Medusa Statue.

Best prefix: Mythical/Godly/Demonic ¢

Uzi: S-

Uses standard bullets.
A rare weapon that retains viability for a long time, and is often worth using even if you get it a bit late. It is expensive to use ammo other than the Endless Musket Pouch, but you probably won't mind because the Uzi and Endless Musket Pouch have such great synergy. You can consider it a pre-mech Megashark, mostly.

DPS: 5/5. Comparable to the Megashark, and impressive even when using the Endless Musket Pouch.
Crowd control: 1/5. 2/5 with Crystal Bullets, 5/5 with Exploding Bullets.
Accuracy: 4/5. There is a little bit of spread, but not significant enough to be a problem. With the Musket Pouch, it is actually very accurate thanks to the high velocity perk.
Disruption: 5/5. Very speedy, and has significant knockback even without using special ammo.
Safety: 4/5. Has line-of-sight range.
Availability: 1/5. 1% chance to drop from Angry Trappers.

Best prefix: Unreal ¢

Frost Staff: B+

An unremarkable weapon. It can at least replace a Diamond Staff, if you were using one. Fairly comparable to the Crystal Serpent, though it's not as good for general use unless your enemies are all lined up. It also uses up mana extremely quickly, so drink a Mana Regeneration potion if you're serious about using it.

DPS: 4/5. Reasonably strong and fast, but more of a burst weapon due to its high mana consumption.
Crowd control: 3/5. It pierces once, which is okay, but the Laser Rifle really outperforms it. It’s in a weird position because it doesn’t pierce enough to handle crowds that well, but still feels wasteful to use on a single target.
Accuracy: 3/5. It's no slouch when it comes to speed and projectile velocity, and its frost stream travels faster than the Crystal Serpent's explosive charge.
Disruption: 3/5. Pretty good knockback, offsetting its average speed. It can actually juggle certain enemies.
Safety: 4/5, being a line-of-sight weapon.
Availability: 3/5. 2% chance to drop from Ice Elementals, Icy Mermen, and Ice Golems.

Best prefix: Mythical $$$$

Ice Sickle: S

The quintessential melee weapon. While it has limited use against fast-moving bosses, it shreds crowds of enemies at close range and vastly outperforms swords when it comes to beating them back, easily setting up an impenetrable barrier of lingering ice blades. This weapon easily proves that wall penetration isn't the feature that makes the Death Sickle as good as it is.

DPS: 5/5. Has enormous DPS if you can trap enemies at the end of the projectile path. The sickle itself also has a hitbox, which can come in handy at times.
Crowd control: 5/5. Each shot is good for five piercing hits, which is more than most crowds can handle.
Accuracy: 3/5. Creates lingering projectiles with a pretty large hitbox, though they lose velocity rather quickly.
Disruption: 5/5. Each projectile deals a barrage of hits, easily juggling most enemies.
Safety: 2/5. It still requires being in melee range, though its range is better than point blank.
Availability: 1/5. 0.56% chance to drop from Armored Vikings, Icy Mermen, Ice Elementals, and Ice Tortoises.

Best prefix: Legendary $$

Flower of Frost: D+

Applies mediocre damage to a single target with poor accuracy unless you're nearly at point-blank range, and guzzles mana while doing so. A Mana Flower or supply of Mana Regeneration potions is all but required if you want to use it at all, but the Flower of Frost really doesn't offer anything that would tempt you to do so.

DPS: 3/5. With all the mana potions you'll be chugging, damage won't be great, even in the unlikely scenario that all your shots connect.
Crowd control: 1/5. Doesn't pierce at all. 17 mana for a non-piercing hit? Ew, no thanks.
Accuracy: 2/5. It isn't terribly accurate at a distance. It bounces enough times to probably connect with something if you fire it low to the ground, but then you're better off using something with line-of-sight.
Disruption: 2/5. It can hold one enemy at a standstill, though of course that comes at the cost of nearly all your mana.
Safety: 3/5. You can just lob them into an area, though you won't be dealing much damage that way.
Availability: 2/5. 28.5% chance to drop from Ice Mimics.

Best prefix: Mythical ¢

Frostbrand: C

Looks pretty cool, but this is still primarily a sword, and is intended to be used as such. There are better swords, and better projectiles.

DPS: 3/5 (sword), 1/5 (beam). Try to use the sword and the beam together. The beam itself does almost nothing.
Crowd control: 3/5. Unlike the Beam Sword's projectile, the Frostbrand's pierces once.
Accuracy: 2/5. The Frostbrand's projectile is still really slow, making it impossible to properly lead your shots. Just use the sword, please.
Disruption: 2/5. Using the sword and projectile together, you may be able to hold an enemy back sometimes, though all of its stats (especially speed) are worse than the Beam Sword's.
Safety: 1/5 (sword), 4/5 (beam). It's a choice between risky, good DPS or safe, bad DPS. Usually you want safe, good DPS, which can be provided by some other weapon.
Availability: 2/5. 28.5% chance to drop from Ice Mimics.

Best prefix: Legendary $$

Bought from NPCs

Gradient and Format C: A

These weapons are by no means bad, but they are outclassed by the Amarok and other yoyos while being no easier to obtain. Usage details remain about the same.

Stats: see Amarok.
Availability: 3/5. Sold by the Skeleton Merchant for 20 gold in Hardmode. One or the other will always be available, depending on moon phase.

Best prefix: Godly/Demonic $$

Ice Rod: C+

Among the most improved weapons with the 1.3 update, but still fairly niche. You have to be a mage to get more mileage out of it (or someone who likes building in really high places). Also, please don’t be that person who uses the Ice Rod during a crowded boss battle in multiplayer.

DPS: 2/5. DPS wasn't meant to be its strength, but it can at least compete with the Crystal Storm.
Crowd control: 1/5. It can delay them from reaching you a bit, but this is not a weapon you can dispatch crowds with.
Accuracy: 3/5. Velocity is kind of mediocre. It does much better if you can trap enemies with it.
Disruption: 5/5. While it cannot repel enemies with knockback alone, that doesn't matter if you can just block enemies off entirely with a wall of ice. This will probably only work underground.
Safety: 5/5, simply because you can block enemies from reaching you at all while still pelting them with ice blocks.
Availability: 5/5. Sold by Wizard for 50 gold.

Best prefix: Mythical $$$$

Shotgun: D+

Uses standard bullets.
This weapon's main role is getting turned into an Onyx Blaster. With the Endless Musket Pouch, it is a pathetic weapon. However, it is surprisingly decent when paired with Exploding Bullets, and those are arguably the only worthwhile ammunition for the Shotgun. While it may be unintuitive to pair a close-range weapon with Exploding Bullets, the widened hitboxes make it much better at spraying surface crowds from a distance. Probably still not worth using, but you should buy one if the Onyx Blaster appeals to you.

DPS: 1/5. Its single-target damage is unimpressive, even if you land every bullet on the same enemy.
Crowd control: 1/5 with most bullets, and 4/5 with Exploding Bullets.
Accuracy: 2/5. Yikes. Exploding Bullets can deal some damage on missed shots, but only against grounded enemies.
Disruption: 2/5. It is incredibly slow, and no amount of knockback can make up for that.
Safety: 4/5. You can spray enemies from a distance with it, and if you're lucky, every other shot might actually deal damage.
Availability: 5/5. Sold by the Arms Dealer for 25 gold in Hardmode.

(Best prefix: Unreal $$)

Gatligator: B

Uses standard bullets.
The best pre-mech gun for crowd control when paired with Exploding Bullets. Unfortunately, its awful accuracy makes it difficult to use as an actual ranged weapon, so you'll probably be shooting things point-blank instead to take full advantage of its high fire rate. A decent gun overall, but outclassed by the Onyx Blaster in almost every aspect, including ammo efficiency. If only it were a bit easier to obtain...

DPS: 4/5. Its DPS is heavily limited by range, so don't expect it to perform that well from a long distance.
Crowd control: 1/5. 4/5 when using Exploding Bullets from above, which might be the best way to use the Gatligator.
Accuracy: 2/5. "Highly inaccurate". The tooltip isn't lying. Point-blank range is required to hit consistently unless you’re fighting large targets like the Twins.
Disruption: 4/5. It's fast and can stunlock enemies when operated at point-blank range. 5/5 with Exploding Bullets, but don’t use those at point-blank range.
Safety: 4/5. Now I'm not saying that's it's especially effective at dealing damage from a distance, but despite its poor accuracy, a gun is a gun.
Availability: 1/5. 0.5% chance to be sold by the Traveling Merchant for 35 gold in Hardmode.

Best prefix: Unreal $$$

Slap Hand: D

It is very good at what it does, but what it does is not something you want to be doing most of the time. You must decide whether you want to be on the surface or underground during a Blood Moon, and most of the time, the surface is a more dangerous, but more lucrative choice. Consider the Slap Hand a potential consolation prize if you wimp out and head underground.

DPS: 2/5. Not as bad as you might think, thanks to the high critical hit rate. However, it can only chain repeated hits on KB-immune enemies, against which you have no reason to use the Slap Hand.
Crowd control: 3/5. It can actually juggle crowds of fighter enemies very easily, but if anything is shooting at you, you'll be in trouble.
Accuracy: 5/5. It's a sword, technically. Ironically you need to be immune to knockback yourself to use this effectively, "effectively" being a generous term.
Disruption: 5/5. Sends enemies flying, which is great if they're fighter enemies, and not so great if they're shooters.
Safety: 1/5. Its reach isn't very good, even by broadsword standards.
Availability: 2/5. Sold by the Skeleton Merchant for 25 gold during a Blood Moon in Hardmode.

Best prefix: Legendary $$

Crafted from monster drops

Onyx Blaster: S+

Uses standard bullets.
The enormous damage that the Onyx Blaster deals in a single shot easily compensates for its lack of speed. Because its explosive charge deals double the listed damage, it can even muscle through heavily armored opponents. Vastly outperforming almost every weapon in this tier in most situations, the Onyx Blaster remains useful well into mid-hardmode, only starting to fall off somewhere around when you'd be fighting Plantera.

DPS: 5/5. Easily good enough to challenge mechanical bosses with, especially with Crystal Bullets. Most random enemies die with one well-centered shot.
Crowd control: 4/5. It doesn't have linear piercing, but when aimed at a cluster of enemies, it's likely to hit everything in it. Unlike other guns, it doesn't need Exploding Bullets to damage crowds, so against something like the Destroyer you should consider Crystal Bullets instead.
Accuracy: 4/5. The blast radius of the Onyx Blaster's explosive charge is actually very large. It also has a surprisingly narrow bullet spread and great velocity, making it very likely that at least some of its bullets will connect.
Disruption: 2/5. Good knockback, but its slow speed is not an insignificant drawback. If you want to supplement its knockback with Exploding Bullets, the Onyx Blaster can certainly pull it off.
Safety: 4/5. Note that its explosive charge will explode after traveling a certain distance regardless of whether it hits anything or not, though that distance is long enough not to cause any problems.
Availability: 4/5. Crafted from Shotgun, Soul of Night x10, Dark Shard x2 at a Hardmode Anvil.

Best prefix: Unreal $$

Sky Fracture: A

Magic equivalent of the Clockwork Assault Rifle, but with higher base damage that allows it to stay relevant for longer. Frighteningly long, in fact. As a mage, you could realistically see yourself using this against Plantera, because magic doesn't get anything better than this for a long time.

The Sky Fracture is a great bossing weapon, but not much of a crowd control weapon. So stay on the lookout for piercing weapons like the Magic Dagger to patch up this weakness.

DPS: 4/5. This is your best DPS magic weapon and it will remain so for a long time. Thanks to its elevated crit rate, it scales pretty well.
Crowd control: 1/5. Some wiki editor said that the Sky Fracture is an effective weapon against the Destroyer. After some testing, my conclusion is that the Destroyer is the last thing you want to use this weapon against.
Accuracy: 3/5. Reasonably high velocity with a little bit of projectile spread, but less accurate than its ranged equivalent, the Clockwork Assault Rifle.
Disruption: 3/5. It has a high critical hit rate that very slightly bolsters its mediocre base knockback.
Safety: 4/5. Like most magic weapons, it hits at a decent range.
Availability: 4/5. Crafted from Magic Missile, Soul of Light x16, Light Shard x2 at a Hardmode Anvil.

Best prefix: Mythical $$

Dao of Pow: C+

As a true flail, this is a difficult weapon to master, but it is at least simple enough to smash groups of enemies with. It also messes with common fighter-type enemies, and while it's a bad habit to rely on the confusion debuff, the Dao of Pow is more reliable at confusing enemies than you might expect. While it may not be outstanding when first obtained, it remains usable fairly late into the game.

DPS: 3/5. High damage, but slow, and hitting an enemy consistently with it is pretty difficult, especially if it's further away.
Crowd control: 5/5. Infinite piercing means that crowd control is this weapon's greatest strength.
Accuracy: 2/5. Nowhere near as easy to control as a yoyo, the Dao of Pow suffers from a steep learning curve that makes it difficult to deal consistent damage.
Disruption: 5/5. The main role of flails is dealing with lines of fighter enemies, few of which are immune to confusion. Good knockback, too.
Safety: 3/5. Range isn't too bad, and it has an edge over swords and spears in that it can attack from above.
Availability: 3/5. Crafted from Dark Shard, Light Shard, Soul of Light x7, Soul of Night x7 at a Hardmode Anvil. This may require you to create/infect a Desert biome to collect both shards.

Best prefix: Godly/Demonic $

Chik: S-

It works exactly the same as Amarok and Hel-Fire. For reasons other than combat performance, you might prefer the other two over Chik; it does not provide light, and must be crafted at an upgraded Anvil. It is still a respectable choice, considering that 10 Souls of Light and a Mythril/Orichalcum Anvil may be quicker to gather than something that drops at a 0.33% rate or less.

Stats: See Amarok.
Availability: 5/5. Crafted from Wooden Yoyo, Crystal Shard x15, Soul of Light x10 at a Hardmode Anvil.

Best prefix: Godly/Demonic $$

Crystal Storm: C

A magical machine gun that finds its greatest use in cramped corridors. It's decent enough in early hardmode, but thanks to its low damage value, it loses effectiveness extremely quickly once enemies start gaining more defense and its DPS dwindles to almost nothing.

DPS: 2/5. It struggles against enemies with high defense, though thanks to its insanely fast speed it is much more effective against those with lower defenses.
Crowd control: 1/5. The sheer volume of projectiles can hold back maybe 2 enemies at once, but don't be tempted to use it against the Destroyer.
Accuracy: 3/5. Its decent initial velocity peters out quickly at mid-range. This is more of a quantity-over-quality weapon.
Disruption: 5/5. The constant stream of crystals can easily stunlock and repel an enemy or two. Remember to press J every so often.
Safety: 5/5 underground, 3/5 aboveground. Its range is not great, but it shines underground where you can flood small corridors with it.
Availability: 5/5. Crafted from Spell Tome, Crystal Shard x20, Soul of Light x15 at a Bookshelf.

Best prefix: Godly/Demonic $$$$

Golden Shower: S+

While it can be used as a primary weapon when first crafted, it retains its usefulness as a quick defense debuffer throughout the entire game, remaining viable even after its own DPS starts to fall off. Sure, you can use a Flask of Ichor or Ichor Arrows/Bullets, but the Golden Shower applies Ichor without consuming any resources. Pretty much outclasses the Laser Rifle, Frost Staff, and maybe even the Magical Harp.

DPS: 4/5. Its damage is naturally enhanced by the Ichor debuff, so its DPS is much better than its stats would suggest. You can also spray it once just to apply the Ichor buff and switch to some other weapon.
Crowd control: 5/5. It pierces completely through any crowd you might realistically face. It also performs well against the Destroyer even though it's immune to the Ichor debuff.
Accuracy: 4/5. Its velocity is really high, which makes little sense for something that shoots streams of liquid. Sometimes Terraria can be weird, but no complaints here.
Disruption: 4/5. Delivers a constant string of hits, mostly immobilizing targets in place.
Safety: 4/5. Essentially a line-of-sight weapon at most ranges.
Availability: 5/5. Crafted from Spell Tome, Ichor x20, Soul of Night x15 at a Bookshelf.

Best prefix: Mythical $$$$

Cursed Flames: B

The textbook example of an average magic weapon. It isn't especially good at either single-target damage or crowd control, and the random bouncing projectiles are hard to rely on. Ideally it should be used for carpeting mobs of enemies below you.

DPS: 3/5. Cursed Inferno contributes relatively little to DPS, but the damage dealt by the projectiles themselves is decent.
Crowd control: 4/5. Great (but not infinite) piercing capabilities, and even some flying enemies can get caught in the crossfire. Not quite good enough to use against the Destroyer, though.
Accuracy: 2/5. 4/5 (grounded). It is sometimes hard to hit with thanks to gravity and its low-ish velocity. However, its effectiveness when you're flying is roughly the same, and it puts so many projectiles in the air that you'll be better off than with a lot of direct projectile weapons.
Disruption: 3/5. Fast enough to hold grounded enemies in place, but you can still expect to be forced to kite your enemies a lot of the time.
Safety: 5/5. You can flood an area with fireballs from a good distance above, though your DPS will suffer a bit.
Availability: 5/5. Crafted from Spell Tome, Cursed Flame x20, Soul of Night x15 at a Bookshelf.

Best prefix: Mythical $$$$

Meteor Staff: B

Powerful, but burns through mana extremely quickly, so Mana Regeneration potions are practically mandatory when using it. Bossing is probably the Meteor Staff's intended use, since it's virtually useless underground unless you find or mine out a large open area. It's pretty good against the Destroyer, though the Life Drain is better since it spawnkills Probes at the same time. Performance-wise, it is quite similar to the Daedalus Stormbow with Hellfire Arrows.

DPS: 4/5. It's very good for bossing, as long as you can support its insanely high mana cost. Otherwise it will only be useful for short bursts of damage.
Crowd control: 4/5. It's not a linear piercing weapon, but it wrecks everything within its blast radius. It's against crowds that you see the Meteor Staff start to reach impressive DPS values.
Accuracy: 2/5. Much larger hitbox and higher velocity than the Blizzard Staff and Daedalus Stormbow, and also explodes against the ground for some AoE damage. Unfortunately, while it is better than a lot of other "projectile rain" weapons, these types of weapons will always be somewhat inaccurate, especially against faster enemies.
Disruption: 4/5. It's fairly fast and disruptive, but the strategy is still to destroy enemies before they reach you, not to try to prevent them from reaching you altogether.
Safety: 5/5. Can be used from any distance, even on enemies below your screen. You can also dig yourself a bunker and cheese your enemies that way.
Availability: 5/5. Crafted from Meteorite Bar x20, Pixie Dust x10, Soul of Light x10 at a Hardmode Anvil.

Best prefix: Mythical $

Spirit Flame: B+

Arguably the best magic weapon to use against the Twins and Skeletron Prime thanks to its homing abilities and high damage value relative to its modest mana consumption. While it is extremely efficient at eliminating flying enemies, it requires a bit of open space to work, so avoid using it underground in tight corridors. While trying to get your hands on one, you're less likely to be limited by the rarity of the materials and more likely to be limited by how tough the Hardmode Underground Desert is to survive in, sandstorm or not.

DPS: 4/5. Its homing properties make its DPS reasonably consistent, assuming all the flames hit the same target.
Crowd control: 2/5. Good crowd control if you can kite enemies into overlapping each other, but the blast radius isn't large enough to hit more than two Destroyer segments.
Accuracy: 5/5. The first *good* homing weapon in hardmode. Even if it’s among the less reliable homing weapons, it’s an extremely valuable property to have.
Disruption: 1/5. Not only is the weapon slow, you have no control over where the flames appear and which enemy they will target, so get ready to kite your enemies around.
Safety: 3/5. You do have to be somewhat close to your enemies for this weapon to work. Consider using this on enemies that pursue you.
Availability: 3/5. Crafted from Desert Spirit Lamp, Forbidden Fragment x2, Soul of Night x12 at a Hardmode Anvil.

Best prefix: Mythical ¢

Spider Staff: A+

Summoners jump significantly in viability at the start of Hardmode thanks to this weapon alone. The spiders latch onto enemies and deal consistent damage even to flying targets. The weapon also carries an inherent perk that causes spiders to only count for 3/4 of a minion slot, which is just icing on the cake, and also a bit redundant because single-target DPS is already maximized with two or three spiders. Because they deal piercing damage, it is more tempting to pair them with a gun, bow, or other non-piercing primary weapon that the spiders won't interfere with.

DPS: 4/5. Lack of raw damage is made up for by its consistency.
Crowd control: 2/5. Spiders tend to target just one enemy at a time, though if you're a dedicated summoner this probably won't bother you much.
Accuracy: 5/5. Unless their target is both speedy and knockback-immune (Spazmatism's 2nd phase), they stop missing entirely when they successfully land, dealing constant, uninterrupted damage.
Disruption: 5/5. Latching onto enemies typically slows them down to a crawl, leaving them unable to do anything. You need two spiders to maximize disruption.
Safety: 5/5, as with all summoning weapons. Having one spider on hand to summon on top of an enemy is very handy.
Availability: 5/5. Crafted from Spider Fang x16 at an Iron/Lead Anvil.

Best prefix: Ruthless ¢

Queen Spider Staff: A

There's no reason not to carry this weapon around everywhere. It contributes weak but non-piercing damage that won't interfere with your primary weapon. A tangible upgrade over the Tavernkeep's sentry rods, and thanks to its unique homing attack, it is worth keeping around after sentry armors become available.

DPS: 2/5. Keep in mind that this is in addition to your primary DPS. It inflicts Venom, which helps a little bit.
Crowd control: 2/5. It tends to spawn a miniature carpet of spiders that can contribute to crowd thinning, but it's not a piercing weapon.
Accuracy: 4/5. Even if it misses, the spiders spawned from the eggs are still likely to hit grounded enemies. The only sentry with a homing projectile. Obviously it does very little to flying enemies that you cannot lure towards the ground.
Disruption: 1/5. There's a little bit of knockback, but not enough to do much more than slow enemies down slightly.
Safety: 5/5. Really shines while caving, since you can just cheese enemies anywhere on the screen.
Availability: 5/5. Crafted from Spider Fang x24 at an Iron/Lead Anvil.

Best prefix: Ruthless $$

Obtained through Fishing

Crystal Serpent: A-

Among the better magic weapons available at this point, it deals respectable damage with decent speed. The splash damage is a lot like a Crystal Bullet's, which means that enemies will take more damage if they're charging at you. Its low mana cost is probably one of the biggest things going for it.

DPS: 4/5. Each shot takes a decent chunk out of whatever it hits, with a chance to deal multiple hits in one shot.
Crowd control: 2/5. Though it does not pierce, splash damage contributes a bit to crowd control.
Accuracy: 3/5. The splash damage allows you to deal damage even if you miss sometimes. A lot of magic weapons have higher velocity, though.
Disruption: 2/5. It's pretty fast, but its knockback is low enough for most enemies to ignore.
Safety: 4/5. Unlike a lot of direct projectile weapons, this doesn't suffer much from being in tight spaces.
Availability: 2/5. 0.5% chance to be caught when fishing in the Hallowed Biome in Hardmode.

Best prefix: Mythical $$

Toxikarp: B-

I have a soft spot for this weapon because it looks dumb, has a silly name, and blows bubbles. While its projectile behaviour is pretty weird, it still deals respectable damage at mid-range, and works better against flying enemies than against grounded ones. Against grounded enemies, the Toxikarp's upside-down projectile arc severely limits its usefulness.

DPS: 4/5. Decent speed and damage even against armored opponents.
Crowd control: 1/5. Hits only one enemy at a time, so it's easy to get overwhelmed.
Accuracy: 3/5. The bubbles are pretty big, but because they float upwards, they are useless against grounded enemies beyond mid-range.
Disruption: 3/5. It can just about hold one enemy in place, but isn't fast enough to repel multiple.
Safety: 3/5. In practice, the floating behavior of the bubbles causes its range to not be as good as you'd hope.
Availability: 2/5. 0.5% chance to be caught when fishing in the Corruption Biome in Hardmode. Be sure to defend yourself from World Feeders when fishing.

Best prefix: Unreal $$

Bladetongue: B+

A highly effective primary weapon with a marvelous secondary effect, and among the best non-beam swords in the game. This isn't something you can use to apply ichor to enemies from a distance, though. It's kind of like the Butcher's Chainsaw's younger brother, and it's much more useful thanks to the ichor debuff and its earlier availability.

DPS: 4/5, enhanced somewhat by the ichor debuff.
Crowd control: 5/5. Chews through groups of enemies, semi-accurately. It's a good thing that most crowd control situations involve hordes of grounded fighters.
Accuracy: 5/5 (blade), 3/5 (stream). The stream doesn't always bounce they way you'd want.
Disruption: 3/5. It isn't consistent with interrupting enemies on the far end of an ichor stream, though its knockback is decent.
Safety: 1/5. You still have to be in melee range to activate the secondary ichor streams. You can swing while walking backwards, which is nice.
Availability: 2/5. 0.5% chance to be caught when fishing in the Crimson Biome in Hardmode.

Best prefix: Legendary $$

Obsidian Swordfish: C

By the time you've played for the eternity it takes to earn a Hotline Fishing Rod, it's likely that the Obsidian Swordfish's usefulness will have long expired.

DPS: 4/5. It is a very fast spear with high base damage and a boosted critical strike chance.
Crowd control: 4/5. Somewhat behind most spears due to its poor range, but it pierces all targets. You'd better hope it's more of a small, dense crowd of fighter enemies.
Accuracy: 3/5. Its range is low enough to actually be somewhat of a problem when trying to hit enemies.
Disruption: 5/5. Strong knockback and very fast speed. It's good at repelling enemies, though whether it can do so safely is a different matter.
Safety: 1/5. With half the range of most ore spears, this is tricky to use against most enemies, and nearly impossible to use against anything knockback-immune.
Availability: 1/5. 14.29% chance to be caught when fishing in lava in Hardmode. The Hotline Fishing Rod itself has a 1.33% chance to be obtained from an Angler quest in Hardmode, starting with the 25th quest turned in.

Best prefix: Godly/Demonic ¢

Anchor: F

Arguably outclassed by the Flamarang and Thorn Chakram, this is unquestionably the worst flail in the game. It might have been meant as an upgrade to the Harpoon, but it is actually debatable whether it is better than a Harpoon. I can confidently say that it has no potential whatsoever, and should be sold for pocket change at your earliest convenience.

DPS: 1/5. It doesn't have the rapid-fire capabilities of the KO Cannon. Even point blank, it's just too slow to deal any significant damage.
Crowd control: 1/5. You're meant to fire it over a group of enemies and drag it into them from behind. In practice, it is way too slow and weak for this to be a worthwhile strategy.
Accuracy: 4/5. The Anchor is large and travels very quickly on its initial throw, making it reasonably accurate. This is only fair considering how harshly it penalizes you for missing.
Disruption: 1/5. At best you can hit an enemy maybe two times per second, which is not impressive at all.
Safety: 3/5. Its range is decent enough. Just remember that there's a lot of pressure for you to hit your target; you don't want to wait for the anchor to return to you after a long arc.
Availability: 5/5. 4% chance to drop from Wooden Crates in Hardmode. Since you've probably stocked up on a bunch of crates to open in Hardmode, you'll get an Anchor pretty easily, for what it's worth.

Best prefix: Godly/Demonic ¢

Goblin Invasion

Shadowflame Bow: A+

Its damage and piercing abilities make this bow very worthwhile and safe to use against bosses and invasions alike. It's also very economical since it works just as well with the Endless Quiver.

DPS: 4/5. Each shot packs a decent punch, and it fires quickly. Shadowflame also contributes to DPS.
Crowd control: 5/5. Pierces three enemies, more or less in a straight line.
Accuracy: 3/5. While its arrow velocity is low, it is still reasonably easy to hit things consistently if you're good at leading your shots.
Disruption: 4/5. Inherits the knockback value of the arrows you feed it. Even the Endless Quiver has enough knockback to stop enemies from reaching you.
Safety: 4/5. Gravity's effect on the arrows is negligible, making it essentially line-of-sight.
Availability: 2/5. 16.7% chance to drop from Goblin Summoners. 3/5 in Expert Mode where this is doubled, but Goblin Battle Standards are still difficult to farm.

Best prefix: Unreal $

Shadowflame Knife: A

Should mainly be used as a single-target bossing weapon, though it’s capable of dealing some collateral damage if your screen is filled with enemies. The best thing about it is that it's a spammable projectile with no mana cost, and works extremely well against the Destroyer despite not technically being a piercing weapon.

DPS: 4/5. It needs multiple targets to reach its full potential DPS, though even its single-target damage is good enough to boss with.
Crowd control: 2/5. There is no way for it to consistently damage a dense crowd. Occasionally a knife will bounce from one enemy to the next, but don't count on it.
Accuracy: 4/5. It's affected by gravity, but thanks to its high velocity it travels quite a distance before this comes into play.
Disruption: 4/5. It has pretty good knockback and speed.
Safety: 4/5. Very good range for a weapon that deals melee damage.
Availability: 2/5. 16.7% chance to drop from Goblin Summoners. 3/5 in Expert Mode where this is doubled, but Goblin Battle Standards are still difficult to farm.

Best prefix: Godly/Demonic $

Shadowflame Hex Doll: A-

A rare example of a close-range magical weapon, and its advantages easily make up for its lack of range. Great against multiple targets, even if they're somewhat scattered. It is mostly worthless against flying bosses, though.

DPS: 4/5. It depends on your distance from the target; try to catch them in the middle of the tentacles rather than the tip.
Crowd control: 5/5. Definitely something to consider using on the Destroyer, and any sort of invasion event.
Accuracy: 3/5. Huge area of effect at close range, but don't rely on hitting things at the tip.
Disruption: 5/5. It has weak knockback, but is pretty fast and can usually repel even large groups of fighter enemies.
Safety: 2/5. For a magic weapon, it has relatively low range.
Availability: 2/5. 16.7% chance to drop from Goblin Summoners. 3/5 in Expert Mode where this is doubled, but Goblin Battle Standards are still difficult to farm.

Best prefix: Mythical $

Pirate Invasion

Cutlass: B-

Swords are overrated. But if you insist on using one, a Cutlass is a reasonable choice, and you couldn’t ask for more from a sword. It can easily overwhelm most of the randoms you encounter underground, but remember that swords are not an appropriate answer to all situations, especially bosses and invasion events.

DPS: 4/5. A cut above most ore swords.
Crowd control: 3/5. Unless you stack melee knockback, a sword's ability to repel enemies diminishes greatly when there are more of them, but it handles small groups of fighters just fine.
Accuracy: 5/5. The Cutlass is reasonably large. You should still probably ignore this statistic for swords since I gave a 5/5 to all of them.
Disruption: 4/5. Holds off up to three enemies decently well with its good knockback and high speed.
Safety: 1/5. It's still a sword, with bad range and the inability to approach from above.
Availability: 4/5. 0.5% chance to be dropped by Pirates, boosted to 2% from Pirate Captains and 10% from the Flying Dutchman. You can expect to earn a Cutlass from the pirates around half the time.

Best prefix: Legendary $

Pirate Staff: B+

Surprisingly not that good for such a rare weapon, with no anti-air capabilities at all. The poop mechanic is kind of cute, though. They're much better when used underground, because they are very efficient at eliminating enemies that cannot move due to being in confined spaces.

DPS: 4/5. It has more raw damage than spiders, but pirates don't cling to enemies like spiders do.
Crowd control: 5/5. They plow through every enemy in their path and damage everything, which is good.
Accuracy: 2/5. They have an annoying habit of running back and forth through enemies, so the damage stream isn't constant.
Disruption: 4/5. In a small group, pirates can match the Spider Staff's ability to stun-lock an enemy when used on flat ground. They can also knock some enemies back and carry them away.
Safety: 5/5. When it comes down to it, you can still wall yourself off and let the pirates do the work from complete safety, but don't expect them to do much without being resummoned.
Availability: 1/5. 0.05% chance to drop from Pirates, boosted to 0.2% from Pirate Captains and 1% from the Flying Dutchman.

Best prefix: Ruthless ¢

Coin Gun: A

Being forced to constantly convert coins into ammo makes it a bit annoying to use, but it is very strong nonetheless. To consistently use the intended ammo type (probably silver), you need to either enable autopause or fill your inventory with coin stacks in advance. Note that it will consume coins from your main inventory before spending the money in your coin slots. Due to its rarity, many people don't have any experience with this weapon.

DPS: 2/5 (copper). 5/5 (silver). Anything higher than that is not reasonable.
Crowd control: 1/5. With its sheer speed, it can probably handle around two enemies clustered together, but no more.
Accuracy: 4/5. It is very accurate, and the coins travel quickly.
Disruption: 4/5. While it's very fast, the Coin Gun's knockback is very poor. You can stunlock one enemy, but not multiple.
Safety: 4/5. Great velocity and range.
Availability: 1/5, bordering on zero. 0.0125% chance to drop from Pirates, boosted to 0.05% from Pirate Captains and 0.25% from the Flying Dutchman.

Best prefix: Agile $$$

Dropped by special Mimics

Daedalus Stormbow: S-

Uses standard arrows.
Most people know how terrifyingly effective this weapon is against bosses when paired with Holy Arrows. It is a bit difficult and expensive to use effectively in other situations, and most certainly wouldn't be S tier if Holy Arrows didn't exist. But as long as you can diligently farm Pixie Dust and Unicorn Horns, the Daedalus Stormbow is so powerful that it's actually considered game-breaking. Even a player with considerably below-average skill can defeat the Destroyer with this weapon using little to no effort.

DPS: 5/5. To compensate for its poor accuracy, it rains down an absurd number of projectiles; the DPS against mechanical bosses is practically unmatched.
Crowd control: 4/5. This assumes use of Holy Arrows, which cut through crowds quickly despite their awkward vertical trajectory. Hellfire Arrows work too.
Accuracy: 1/5. It is very hard to consistently hit enemies with this, unless they are incredibly large and mostly stationary. With Holy Arrows, it is still inaccurate, but basically nothing is going to dodge the solid curtain of arrows and stars.
Disruption: 1/5. Mostly due to its lack of precision and travel delay, using the Daedalus Stormbow to interrupt enemies as they approach you is extremely difficult. You can boost its knockback with Hellfire Arrows, but that won't solve the main problem.
Safety: 5/5. You can cheese things with it, but like the Meteor Staff it does require open space to work.
Availability: 2/5. 25% chance to drop from Hallowed Mimics, which can be summoned with a Key of Light.

Best prefix: Unreal $$$

Flying Knife: A

Very similar to a Yoyo, but in exchange for gaining indefinite range, the Flying Knife is psychedelic and difficult to control. However, it’s pretty good at smacking around groups of enemies, and surprisingly, it pulls its weight in the HM Dungeon. You also have the option to ignore its controllability gimmick and use it like a poor man’s Paladin’s Hammer, or you could press it against the ground to stabilize its hitbox and greatly increase its DPS against a single grounded target. Either way, just make sure to use a mouse rather than a trackpad. High skillcap, but very rewarding.

DPS: 3/5. The Flying Knife doesn't hit quite as frequently as a yoyo, but still deals decent damage per second.
Crowd control: 5/5. It easily pierces rows of enemies, and is among the best melee weapons to use against the Destroyer.
Accuracy: 4/5. Not quite as good as yoyos, but with concentration it's possible to damage a single enemy consistently. Unfortunately, this can easily distract you from dodging attacks.
Disruption: 2/5. It has decent knockback, but won't be knocking enemies away from you half the time, so its knockback stat is basically useless. You usually still have to kite and dodge.
Safety: 5/5. Its fullscreen range gives it a small niche over yoyos. You can also kill Medusas without facing them. It can't attack enemies offscreen, though, which you might notice when you're facing Spazmatism's second stage.
Availability: 2/5. 25% chance to drop from Hallowed Mimics, which can be summoned with a Key of Light.

Best prefix: Demonic/Godly $$$

Crystal Vile Shard: C-

It will never be your first choice for DPS, and obviously does extremely poorly against bosses (other than the Destroyer, against which it is only slightly below average). However, it is pretty good against random enemies underground, safely picking them off from behind barriers. It is a lot like a poor man's magical version of the Flamethrower. No one would ever call it a good weapon, but it's far from unusable, and definitely better than the Poison Staff.

DPS: 1/5. Barely on the edge of what I'd consider viable for hardmode. It hits extremely fast, which almost makes up for its pitiful damage per hit. Mana cost could afford to be lower.
Crowd control: 5/5. Like the Flamethrower, it cuts through crowds really well, piercing any number of enemies.
Accuracy: 3/5. Its hitbox is relatively wide, but not as easy to aim as a Flamethrower.
Disruption: 4/5. Very effective at stunlocking and immobilizing enemies with constant hits. Obviously, you shouldn't use it against things that can't be stunlocked.
Safety: 5/5. It's best used to eliminate enemies that can't reach you. If you try to use it aboveground (which you shouldn't), its mediocre range will become more of an issue.
Availability: 2/5. 25% chance to drop from Hallowed Mimics, which can be summoned with a Key of Light.

Best prefix: Mythical $$$

Dart Pistol: S+

With Crystal Darts, the Dart Pistol works a lot like a miniature version of the Razorblade Typhoon. Strikes multiple enemies with deadly accuracy, especially when used underground. It is also very convenient that Crystal Darts can be crafted by hand, and Crystal Shards are incredibly easy to gather.

DPS: 4/5. In an enclosed space, a Crystal Dart can hit a single enemy multiple times in rapid succession.
Crowd control: 5/5. Even better than linear piercing; Crystal Darts reliably bounce from one enemy to the next.
Accuracy: 5/5. Crystal Darts are functionally homing projectiles. This effect becomes more reliable when you use them underground.
Disruption: 4/5. Can slow down enemies considerably with a steady barrage of hits.
Safety: 5/5. Performs trick shots with no effort, because the darts always choose the best angle to ricochet.
Availability: 2/5. 20% chance to drop from Crimson Mimics, which can be summoned with a Key of Night. 1 Crystal Shard yields 100 Crystal Darts (crafted by hand).

Best prefix: Unreal $$

With Ichor Darts, the Dart Pistol isn't quite as reliable at dealing single-target damage since it's almost impossible to predict how far a dart will travel before splitting. However, it is still great for tagging enemies with the Ichor debuff, especially when paired with a primary weapon that deals multiple small hits in rapid succession.

DPS: 4/5. Its DPS is naturally enhanced by Ichor, which compliments the Dart Pistol's rapid firing speed. It has the potential to one-shot enemies if spaced correctly.
Crowd control: 3/5. Curiously, Ichor Darts pierce enemies until they split, making them effective for crowd control only at point-blank range.
Accuracy: 3/5. In order to maximize DPS, you must catch enemies at a somewhat precise range. Not too close, and not too far. Since one dart always follows the original path, it's unlikely to miss entirely, but some spacing is needed for it to perform at its best.
Disruption: 4/5. Can slow down enemies considerably with a steady barrage of hits.
Safety: 4/5. Decent for strafing enemies from a distance, but unlike Crystal Darts, they aren't quite as effective when used underground.
Availability: 2/5. 20% chance to drop from Crimson Mimics, which can be summoned with a Key of Night. 1 Ichor yields 100 Ichor Darts (crafted by hand).

Best prefix: Unreal $$

Fetid Baghnakhs: A-

The swordiest sword in the game, and people tend to disagree about its placement given how absurdly powerful yet situational it is. Its ability to kill enemies in close range is unmatched; you can facetank Plantera and kill it before it kills you. Unlike many pre-mech weapons, its DPS will never fall off. That said, you do need to be a bit confident in your defenses if you're planning to use them, and you should also probably equip an Obsidian Shield for knockback immunity. Many weaknesses that apply to most swords, such as limited crowd control and lack of knockback, don't apply to the Fetid Baghnakhs because it's so mind-blowingly fast.

DPS: 5/5. This weapon's DPS matches that of many endgame weapons. With the Fetid Baghnakhs, you're meant to challenge enemies to DPS races and win.
Crowd control: 5/5. It can shred through groups of enemies simply by overwhelming them with a bajillion hits.
Accuracy: 5/5. You're probably going to get hit while doing so, but it really has no problems engaging an enemy at close range. It's hard to rate this weapon's accuracy because it's usually either dominating your enemies or doing absolutely nothing.
Disruption: 5/5. Nothing can approach you from the direction you're swinging in, but enemies might still shoot at you.
Safety: 1/5. For all its strengths, it is only worthwhile if you can make a safe approach, which can be difficult.
Availability: 2/5. 20% chance to drop from Crimson Mimics, which can be summoned with a Key of Night.

Best prefix: Legendary $$$

Life Drain: B+

The life restoration offered by this weapon doesn't even come close to actual lifesteal. Use it instead for dealing with groups. It is extremely effective for eliminating swarms of flying enemies thanks to its enormous hitbox, and like the Inferno Fork, it even penetrates into walls a little bit. Unfortunately, it consumes mana relatively quickly, so it is an inefficient choice against single targets.

DPS: 2/5. It's kind of bad at dealing single-target damage. However, the damage dealt by the Life Drain debuff is not insignificant, and it can erode the health of enemies with high defenses.
Crowd control: 5/5. Eliminates crowds of enemies with ease, and deals great damage to both the Destroyer and its Probes.
Accuracy: 5/5. Its hitbox is incredibly wide, and it strikes instantly. Flying or not, nothing can dodge the Life Drain.
Disruption: 4/5. Interrupts enemies and consistently slows their movement while preventing them from firing.
Safety: 4/5. It may not be obvious, but this weapon still requires line-of-sight.
Availability: 2/5. 20% chance to drop from Crimson Mimics, which can be summoned with a Key of Night.

Best prefix: Mythical $$$

Dart Rifle: S

You can consider it a slower, more damaging version of the Dart Pistol. Usually that's not a good thing, since it's harder to aim at and stunlock enemies with a slower weapon, but Crystal Darts are so powerful and reliable that those faults are mostly irrelevant.

DPS: 4/5. Crystal Darts can rebound and hit the same enemy, which lets them compete with Cursed Darts a little bit.
Crowd control: 5/5. It can even strike down scattered crowds of flying enemies, such as Probes.
Accuracy: 5/5. Even when fired randomly, Crystal Darts can still easily catch enemies on the rebound.
Disruption: 3/5. Compared to the Dart Pistol, it is somewhat slow.
Safety: 5/5. Works from any distance, in any terrain.
Availability: 2/5. 20% chance to drop from Corrupt Mimics, which can be summoned with a Key of Night. 1 Crystal Shard yields 100 Crystal Darts (crafted by hand).

Best prefix: Unreal $$

Use Cursed Darts the same way you would use the North Pole; fire them directly upwards to create a curtain of falling flames that works excellently against the Destroyer. Usually you'll want to fire on enemies from a vertical angle to maximize the odds that the secondary fireballs will strike your targets. Against the Destroyer, a Dart Rifle with Cursed Darts is second only to the Daedalus Stormbow.

DPS: 5/5. Even when used against enemies directly, Cursed Darts deal multiple hits very reliably. This is especially the case when you have the height advantage.
Crowd control: 4/5. It's a bit odd that you have to fire above a crowd in order to hit everything in it, making it slightly less reliable for damaging dense crowds.
Accuracy: 4/5. Cursed Darts can deal very consistent damage against grounded enemies that try to approach, but you should still try to aim at your enemies to maximize damage.
Disruption: 5/5. By carpeting the floor with flames, it can completely stop fighter enemies from approaching. You can also set up a curtain of falling fireballs to repel flying enemies.
Safety: 4/5. Like the North Pole, it benefits greatly from having a bit of open space to work with, which isn't usually the case underground.
Availability: 2/5. 20% chance to drop from Corrupt Mimics, which can be summoned with a Key of Night. 1 Cursed Flame yields 100 Cursed Darts (crafted by hand).

Best prefix: Unreal $$

Chain Guillotines: A

laughs in French
A very straightforward, solid weapon that provides melee users with much-needed range and can be used in almost any situation. Roughly equivalent to a stack of 4 Bananarangs, or maybe a non-homing Possessed Hatchet. It gains a little bit of piercing when used at Fetid Baghnakhs range, making it decent against the Destroyer and invasion events. For some reason, it costs almost nothing to reforge, so take advantage of that small oversight while it lasts.

DPS: 4/5. More or less constant, and doesn't depend on distance to your target.
Crowd control: 2/5. It isn't completely useless when facing multiple enemies, but destroying crowds with the Chain Guillotines requires you to move into close range.
Accuracy: 3/5. The blades travel reasonably fast.
Disruption: 4/5. With its great attack speed, it can hold off enemies and sometimes repel them, despite only having weak knockback.
Safety: 4/5. Requires line of sight, but range is long enough to not be a problem.
Availability: 2/5. 20% chance to drop from Corrupt Mimics, which can be summoned with a Key of Night.

Best prefix: Godly/Demonic ¢

Clinger Staff: B-

Somewhat like an inferior Nimbus Rod, in that it needs to be refreshed more often, can't hit flying enemies, and has a smaller area of effect. It can play a useful role against the Old One's Army, however. Consider it a portable, temporary barrier against grounded units. It's not really a fire-and-forget weapon because in the situations where it works well, you have to refresh it more often; in the Destroyer fight, the firewall lasts for less than a second, so you'll have to use it as a primary weapon if you want to use it at all. But since it costs such an enormous amount of mana when used this way, I would not recommend such an approach.

DPS: 2/5, mainly because you have to place it down and wait for enemies to ram into it themselves.
Crowd control: 4/5. It can certainly do work against multiple grounded enemies, though the more enemies there are, the faster it will break.
Accuracy: 2/5. It relies on enemies bumping against it to do damage. If you don't lure your enemies, it might end up doing nothing.
Disruption: 5/5. If we're talking about a weapon's ability to prevent enemies from approaching you, the Clinger Staff is as close to absolute disruption as it gets.
Safety: 4/5. You still need line of sight to place the flames down.
Availability: 2/5. 20% chance to drop from Corrupt Mimics, which can be summoned with a Key of Night.

Best prefix: Mythical/Godly/Demonic $$$

Baconfry · Jun 22, 2019

Crafted or obtained from Mechanical Boss drops

Excalibur: D

At this point, a plain old sword really doesn't cut it. It's not good for bossing or any other situations, really. Try to attach a Broken Hero Sword to it as quickly as possible.

DPS: 3/5. It hits once per swing; surely you can find something better.
Crowd control: 2/5. Lack of range and speed makes it not that effective at hurting crowds.
Accuracy: 5/5. Larger than the Fetid Baghnakhs, at least.
Disruption: 3/5. Knockback is only average, but at least it's able to attack while moonwalking to maintain damage on an advancing enemy.
Safety: 1/5. It's a sword.
Availability: 5/5. Crafted from Hallowed Bar x12.

(Best prefix: Legendary $$)

Gungnir: C

I suppose it holds its weight against the Destroyer if for some reason you didn't take it down first, but it's a bit late for an ordinary spear to be of much use. Also, unlike Excalibur, it doesn't have a further upgrade path, so if you're crafting it, that's probably a sign that you have way more Hallowed Bars than you need.

DPS: 4/5. As a spear, it does this fairly well.
Crowd control: 5/5. Gungnir will realistically see use in any solar eclipse you encounter before you challenge Plantera.
Accuracy: 4/5. I guess it's pretty large, though I didn't get great results when using it while flying.
Disruption: 4/5. Fast and powerful enough to repel an enemy, assuming you can land your thrusts.
Safety: 2/5. Its range is decent for a spear, but starting to pale in comparison with other options you have available to you.
Availability: 5/5. Crafted from Hallowed Bar x12.

Best prefix: Godly/Demonic $$

Hallowed Repeater: B+

Uses standard arrows.
Well, it's a little better than the Titanium/Adamantite Repeaters, and much easier to gather the materials for, so if you're a ranger, go ahead and craft one if you haven't crafted a repeater yet. It relies a lot on Holy Arrows and Hellfire Arrows to set itself apart from other ranged weapons. Even after the Chlorophyte Shotbow becomes available, the Hallowed Repeater will still be better for situations that call for Jester/Unholy Arrows.

DPS: 4/5. I'd estimate that it's 4/5 for most ammo types, and maybe 5/5 with Holy Arrows.
Crowd control: 1/5. 3/5 with Holy/Hellfire Arrows. 5/5 with Jester/Unholy/Chlorophyte Arrows.
Accuracy: 3/5. Arrows are more difficult to master than bullets because they are slower and affected by gravity.
Disruption: 3/5 with most ammo, 5/5 with Hellfire Arrows.
Safety: 4/5. Good for attacking at a long range, though its velocity may be a bit lacking at times.
Availability: 5/5. Crafted from Hallowed Bar x12.

Best prefix: Unreal $$

Red's Throw and Valkyrie Yoyo: A

While rare and exclusive to Expert mode, these are definite upgrades over the Yelets, which is already a solid yoyo. Use them if you get the chance, but don't be too upset if you don't get one.

DPS: 4/5. 5/5 with Yoyo Glove.
Crowd control: 3/5. Reasonable, and doesn't require you to be in harm's way.
Accuracy: 5/5. Yoyos are controllable. That's good.
Disruption: 4/5. They actually have very strong knockback. That's also good.
Safety: 5/5. It helps that they have a good matchup against most of the Underground Jungle.
Availability: 1/5. 1.33% chance to obtain either yoyo from any hardmode Treasure Bag, alongside Red's or Lazure's set.

Best prefix: Godly/Demonic $$

Megashark: A+

Uses standard bullets.
The O.G. from version 1.1, and still as powerful as ever. The Megashark is speedy enough to hold enemies in place and accurate enough to do so consistently from a distance, but its real potential comes from the various types of ammo that you can feed into it. Exploding Bullets turn it into an excellent crowd control machine that shoves hordes of enemies backwards while eroding them to dust. Crystal Bullets turn it into one of the best single-target DPS weapons, which many people (including me) recommend using against the Twins and Skeletron Prime. Though it is only a very slight upgrade to the Uzi, so it you're lucky enough to own one, you can afford to skip the Megashark.

DPS: 4/5. Crystal Bullets (5/5) are recommended for bossing.
Crowd control: 1/5. 5/5 with Exploding Bullets.
Accuracy: 4/5. A little better with High Velocity Bullets, and a perfect 5/5 with Chlorophyte Bullets.
Disruption: 4/5. It has slightly less knockback than the Uzi, but can still easily stunlock an enemy. With Exploding Bullets (5/5), it can even blow them backwards.
Safety: 4/5. 5/5 with Chlorophyte Bullets.
Availability: 5/5. Crafted from Minishark, Illegal Gun Parts, Soul of Might x20, Shark Fin x5.

Best prefix: Unreal $$$

Light Disc: A-

Useful both on the surface and underground. If you're a melee character who never got Bananarangs or Chain Guillotines, you'll appreciate having access to a fast, disruptive ranged attack. If not, they're still the best way to make money from the Destroyer.

DPS: 3/5. You can consider bossing with it, though it's better to use on ordinary enemies.
Crowd control: 2/5. It can't pierce, but it does a pretty good job juggling enemies away from you.
Accuracy: 4/5. Light Discs are very large projectiles that travel quickly, and adjusting your aim is easy.
Disruption: 5/5. Good knockback, and highly spammable.
Safety: 4/5. Unlike a lot of boomerangs, these work just as well at long range, and even ricochet off walls (though not reliably).
Availability: 5/5. Crafted from Hallowed Bar x20, Soul of Light x15, Soul of Might x25 for a full stack of 5.

Best prefix: none

Magical Harp: C

A spray-and-pray weapon that you cannot afford to be aggressive while using. It needs to be in a tight space to function well; otherwise, you'll be forced to fly close to your enemies, and that can potentially be a dance with death. The Magical Harp is arguably a side-grade to the Demon Scythe and Magic Dagger, and its late arrival doesn't do it any favors. Having low velocity and zero knockback pretty much kills its usefulness.

This is probably still the best magic weapon for the Plantera fight (particularly the second stage). I also often see people doing magic-only playthroughs and struggling with Plantera. Not a coincidence.

DPS: 2/5. Its lack of damage is a huge weakness that makes it a questionable choice for bossing and ordinary encounters.
Crowd control: 5/5. It is definitely more tempting to use against invasions, though its lack of knockback will probably deter you from using it most of the time.
Accuracy: 2/5. Bouncing projectile spam is something that usually doesn't work, especially if those projectiles have poor velocity, as is the case here.
Disruption: 0/5. With no knockback, this weapon does literally nothing to stop enemies from approaching.
Safety: 5/5. The projectiles will linger in the area for a while, but their velocity is so low that you're more likely to use the Harp while beating a retreat.
Availability: 5/5. Crafted from Harp, Crystal Shard x20, Soul of Sight x15, Soul of Night x8.

Best prefix: Demonic $$

Rainbow Rod: D

It can be a somewhat decent close-range single target weapon or a way to safely eliminate enemies that cannot reach you, but it will never be both of those things at the same time. Even if you're running a magic build, you'll find that yoyos perform the same role significantly better, with much less frustration. Trying to guide the projectile towards enemies is a waste of precious time, and severely limits your DPS. The utility of such a weapon doesn't really extend to the latter half of Hardmode. For early Hardmode, you might prefer a Flamelash.

DPS: 3/5. To get good DPS out of the Rainbow Rod, you must ignore its controllability and use it as a direct weapon. Guiding it towards enemies is not a good way to take advantage of its decent fire rate.
Crowd control: 1/5. It's hard enough for it to handle a single target, let alone two or more.
Accuracy: 5/5. At the cost of nearly all of its potential DPS, it can be directed towards enemies from around corners. If you fire its projectiles without trying to control them, you'll find its accuracy more like a 3/5.
Disruption: 3/5. With its fast fire rate, it can slow down or potentially knock away one enemy if you need it to. However, this requires line of sight.
Safety: 5/5. Here we have around the same level of efficiency as the Beam Sword's lone projectile, but controllable. Must count for something.
Availability: 5/5. Crafted from Pixie Dust x10, Crystal Shard x10, Unicorn Horn x2, Soul of Light x8, Soul of Sight x15.

Best prefix: Mythical $$

Optic Staff: B+

While it's still a good summoning weapon, the fact that all its attacks pierce means that having two minions count as one is not as great as you'd think. Suffers from diminishing returns the higher your minion count becomes. It's also infuriating to see Retinazer shooting at crowds from suboptimal angles. Still, this is an effective weapon for crowd control thanks to the sheer number of hitboxes it puts on the screen.

DPS: 3/5. It's limited more by the piercing damage cap than any weaknesses in the weapon's attack pattern.
Crowd control: 5/5. Dealing piercing damage has its upsides and downsides, but when you're facing crowds, it's an attribute you'll be glad to have.
Accuracy: 3/5. Retinazer will never lead its shots, and against moving targets, misses more often than it hits. Spazmatism is much better at tracking enemy movement.
Disruption: 2/5. Disruptive and fast, but easily distracted. Shouldn't be relied on for keeping enemies away.
Safety: 5/5. Can be resummoned on any part of your screen.
Availability: 3/5. Crafted from Black Lens, Lens x2, Hallowed Bar x12, Soul of Sight x20.

Best prefix: Ruthless $

Flamethrower: B-

Useful mainly for crowd control, it creates a great deal of fire and chaos, but against single bosses it's probably a waste of time. It used to be well-known as a Destroyer-killing weapon, but with all the equally effective weapons introduced in 1.2 and later updates, the Flamethrower struggles to remain relevant, especially since people generally consider the Destroyer an easier boss than Skeletron Prime.

DPS: 2/5. Really not good enough for bossing, and without damage boosts from gear/accessories it has almost no damage output at all.
Crowd control: 5/5. While it usually has no place in a boss fight, it's very tempting to use against Plantera's second stage, and in most situations where there are scattered flying enemies all over the screen.
Accuracy: 5/5. The flames have a huge hitbox and appear nearly instantly. Aiming takes almost no effort at all.
Disruption: 4/5. Slows enemies significantly as they approach, but cannot hold them back indefinitely.
Safety: 4/5. Technically its range is limited, but its reach is long enough to not matter.
Availability: 5/5. Crafted from Illegal Gun Parts, Iron/Lead Bar x20, Soul of Fright x20.

Best prefix: Unreal $$$$

Dropped by monsters (req: 1 mechanical boss defeated)

Yelets: A-

This is around the time the Amarok/Hel-Fire starts falling off, so the Yelets is a welcome upgrade that is just as easy to obtain. There isn't much else to say, since past a certain point all yoyos work the same way.

DPS: 4/5. 5/5 with the Yoyo Glove, and decent for bossing.
Crowd control: 3/5. Spears are better, but yoyos will do the job against crowds if you want to eliminate enemies without any risk to yourself.
Accuracy: 5/5. Very precise even if you're using a trackpad.
Disruption: 4/5. Yoyos have a very fast attack speed, suitable for interrupting enemies.
Safety: 5/5. It is very safe to use against random monsters during exploration. But against bosses such as Plantera, there are alternatives with better range.
Availability: 4/5. 0.5% chance to drop from any enemy in the Jungle, after a mechanical boss has been defeated.

Best prefix: Godly/Demonic $$

Unholy Trident: C+

A completely unremarkable magic weapon, mostly held back by its narrow projectile size, high mana cost, and the fact that you've seen so many better choices that were available earlier. Many people have a bad impression of this item because it has a poor matchup against flying enemies, and the Underworld is full of them. And maybe because the Unholy Tridents seem so much more powerful in the hands of the Red Devils than in the player's. Still, if you're running mana regeneration of some kind, the Unholy Trident can be much better than it's given credit for.

DPS: 4/5. Speed and damage per hit is very respectable, but that requires you to land your shots, which is extremely difficult unless you're on flat terrain.
Crowd control: 4/5. Against invasions, it's decent, but you'll often find that your enemies won't line up so neatly anymore.
Accuracy: 2/5. Narrow, slow, and not all that fast-moving. If either you or your targets are flying or jumping around, the Unholy Trident is much harder to aim with.
Disruption: 3/5. Like the Frost Staff, it has the potential to knock enemies backwards, but isn't exceptionally fast.
Safety: 4/5. With decent velocity and excellent range, it can be used to snipe enemies as long as they don't snipe you back.
Availability: 2/5. 3.33% chance to drop from Red Devils, which spawn after a mechanical boss has been defeated.

Best prefix: Mythical $$$$

Bought from NPCs (req: 1 mechanical boss defeated)

Mushroom Spear: B-

It certainly looks fancy, but it's just a slower, more powerful Gungnir trying its best to convince you that it's something more. In practice, its usage is similar to any other spear, but just a bit more effective against frail enemies. The mushrooms don't deal a lot of damage; if you want to safely defeat enemies from behind barriers, use an Explosive Trap Cane or something. The mushrooms alone are about as efficient at killing enemies as the Crystal Vile Shard.

Paired with a Flask of Ichor, it’s a different story. With an extra 10 damage tacked onto every individual hit, the Mushroom Spear becomes an extremely competent (albeit still short-ranged) weapon that can even be used against Plantera.

DPS: 4/5. It deals pretty good damage per hit, but keep in mind that most of the DPS comes from the spear itself.
Crowd control: 5/5. It can deal with small crowds, usually hitting each enemy twice.
Accuracy: 2/5. It is very slow, so it can't adjust to a new angle as quickly as other spears.
Disruption: 2/5. The mushrooms themselves don't deal knockback, and the spear is too slow to really hold enemies at bay.
Safety: 2/5. It gets a few points for its limited wall penetration, though that comes at the cost of most of its damage.
Availability: 5/5. Sold by Truffle for 70 gold, after a mechanical boss has been defeated.

Best prefix: Godly/Demonic $$$$$$

Code 2: B+

Statistically inferior to Yelets, but works the same. Probably not worth buying considering how common Yelets is, and how you're going to have to spend time in the Jungle anyways. Having infinite throwing time is kind of neat, at least, and a slight advantage it has over Yelets.

Stats: See Yelets.
Availability: 1/5. 1.5% chance to be sold by Traveling Merchant for 25 gold, after a mechanical boss has been defeated.

Best prefix: Godly/Demonic $$

Ballista Cane: S

Ballista sentries are incredibly powerful against the Old One's Army and other grounded opponents, but usually too slow and inaccurate to be very useful against flying enemies. Running Squire armor removes a lot of the slowness, though, and you probably wanted Squire armor anyways for its high defense. Even without sentry armor, resummoning a ballista will clear out enemies in an area very quickly.

DPS: 2/5. This is improved to 5/5 if you have a sentry loadout, especially if it's Squire Armor, which provides Ballista Panic. It's also 5/5 when used with resummoning.
Crowd control: 5/5. As long as you remember to manually remove flying enemies, it handles grounded personnel better than any other sentry.
Accuracy: 2/5. It really needs to be on level ground to ensure that it does not miss. Projectile velocity is still good enough for mid-range flying enemies.
Disruption: 1/5. It doesn't really need to disrupt enemies because most of them die in one or two shots, which two ballistas can easily provide.
Safety: 5/5. It fires once every time it is resummoned, which is just ridiculous. Explosive Traps are a bit more consistent when used this way, at least against grounded enemies.
Availability: 5/5. Sold by Tavernkeep for 25 Defender Medals, after a mechanical boss has been defeated.

Best prefix: Ruthless $$

Flameburst Cane: C

Fires faster than the Ballista, but is less likely to damage multiple enemies, has limited targeting, and deals less damage per hit, which more than nullifies any advantage it could possibly have. Ultimately, you need a sentry-focused loadout for this weapon to be even close to decent. The Explosive Trap is worse when left alone, but summoning Explosive Traps under enemies is so much more fun than trying to get any use out of the Flameburst Cane.

DPS: 2/5. Apprentice armor doesn't actually improve it by much.
Crowd control: 2/5. The explosions are really not that large. You'll be lucky if a shot hits more than one enemy.
Accuracy: 2/5. Well, for some reason it can't shoot upwards. At least the ballistas can try.
Disruption: 1/5. Unlike the ballista, it needs more than two shots to kill enemies, making its inability to disrupt enemies a more prominent weakness.
Safety: 5/5. Worse for resummoning than the Explosive Trap and Ballista due to lower damage per hit.
Availability: 5/5. Sold by Tavernkeep for 25 Defender Medals, after a mechanical boss has been defeated.

Best prefix: Ruthless $$

Explosive Trap Cane: C+

Aside from combat, explosive trap sentries are useful during exploration for the lighting they provide. Unfortunately, with such a small area of effect, they rely heavily on enemies approaching you, making them easily the worst sentry to use outside the Old One's Army... if you're planning on using them as sentries. However, they are very good for primary damage (through click-spamming) if you're running a minion-centered summoning build.

DPS: 2/5. 4/5 if you take an active role and summon them below an enemy's feet.
Crowd control: 2/5 due to low range, but 5/5 when used actively.
Accuracy: 1/5. Unless an enemy is on top of it, an Explosive Trap does literally nothing. 5/5 when you place the trap yourself.
Disruption: 0/5. Considering that it literally creates explosions, it really has no excuse for having zero knockback, but here we are.
Safety: 5/5. Arguably the best sentry for wall cheesing.
Availability: 5/5. Sold by Tavernkeep for 25 Defender Medals, after a mechanical boss has been defeated.

Best prefix: Demonic $$

Lightning Aura Cane: B

Sacrifices knockback for significantly better DPS. This makes it a decent sentry for invasion events other than the Old One's Army; a lone lightning aura is better than a lone ballista. With a sentry-focused build, this offers tremendous area denial, but even without such a build, it is a significant upgrade over the Queen Spider. It is also the best sentry for defending the Eternia Crystal itself. I'd recommend it if you're fighting in an area where you're familiar with the terrain, so you can set up the sentries in areas where you know enemies will gather and get stuck.

DPS: 3/5. It does require you to lure enemies into its area of effect. Cutting through armored opponents is a bonus.
Crowd control: 5/5. The Old One's Army is one of many invasion-type events where it shines.
Accuracy: 3/5. It relies on enemies entering its area of effect, but its area of effect is pretty wide.
Disruption: 0/5. Zero knockback, which forces you to rely on smart placement.
Safety: 5/5. Rather than resummoning, it's more suitable for eliminating enemies below you offscreen while you're flying.
Availability: 5/5. Sold by Tavernkeep for 25 Defender Medals, after a mechanical boss has been defeated.

Best prefix: Demonic $$

Dropped by Ogre

Sleepy Octopod: D+

Think of it as a worse version of the Fetid Baghnakhs that covers both sides. Its range is undeniably awful, but at least it works when you're surrounded, which few broadswords can claim.

DPS: 3/5. As long as you stay within range, the damage on every third hit is pretty decent.
Crowd control: 4/5. It's alright. If you stack melee knockback, you can hold off enemies from both sides, which is neat.
Accuracy: 5/5. When you're in range, it deals damage fairly consistently, though it takes great skill to avoid taking too much damage yourself. At least it hits behind you, I guess.
Disruption: 3/5. For what it's worth, it deals a good number of hits per second with strong knockback, but you may still have to lead your enemies backwards a bit.
Safety: 1/5. This is what kills its usefulness. It only works when you're close enough to an enemy to smell its breath. It also cannot hit anything that flies out of reach.
Availability: 3/5. 10% chance to drop from Ogre.

Best prefix: Godly/Demonic ¢

Brand of the Inferno: D-

This is basically a Mythril Sword with a "special ability" that, for the most part, exists just to tempt you into doing something extremely stupid. This isn't a matter of having a high skill cap; activating Striking Moment is about as easy as hitting Duke Fishron with a Copper Shortsword without getting hurt. I think more half of my deaths during testing were because of the Brand of the Inferno.

DPS: 2/5. About the same as a Mythril Sword. If you want to use a sword at this point, use Excalibur or a Cutlass.
Crowd control: 2/5. This isn't even an especially long sword.
Accuracy: 5/5. To be clear, this is the accuracy of the sword itself. The accuracy of the Striking Moment parry is a solid 0/5.
Disruption: 2/5. Okay, unlike a Mythril Sword, it has "strong" knockback rather than "average". It doesn't make a difference.
Safety: 1/5. Even if you activate and spend your Striking Moment, you're still standing next to an enemy, in melee range, while holding a below-average sword. This isn't a good situation to be in.
Availability: 3/5. 10% chance to drop from Ogre.

Best prefix: Legendary ¢

Phantom Phoenix: B+

Uses standard arrows.
Budget option for crowd control if you want to conserve your piercing ammo and don't have a Shadowflame Bow. This is a very awkward weapon in that it tries to offer both single-target DPS and crowd control at the same time. It probably won't be the best at either of them, but it's still a competent bow, only held back by its somewhat low damage value. As a double-shot bow, it has a decent synergy with Ichor and Holy Arrows, though not nearly on the same level as the Chlorophyte Shotbow. It also does reasonably well with Hellfire Arrows despite being limited by piercing mechanics. Keep in mind that the phoenix dissipates on contact with water.

DPS: 4/5. It does have the option to use special ammo such as Holy Arrows and Ichor Arrows, and is fairly competent when using them. It turns Endless Quiver shots into flaming arrows, but the On Fire! debuff isn't as valuable as the fact that you're shooting an infinitely piercing projectile for free.
Crowd control: 4/5. The phoenix projectile pierces indefinitely, deals greatly increased damage, and explodes upon hitting a surface, but it only fires once every four shots. For more reliable crowd control, use Holy or Hellfire Arrows.
Accuracy: 3/5. It is somewhat awkward in that it alternates between arcing and straight-line projectiles, which interferes with accuracy beyond mid-range. It also needs to connect both shots in order to not suck, and that is harder when its arrows spread out a bit.
Disruption: 3/5. It's fast, but unlike the Megashark it's not fast enough to stunlock.
Safety: 4/5. Pretty decent for damaging things at a safe distance.
Availability: 3/5. 10% chance to drop from Ogre.

Best prefix: Unreal ¢

Tome of Infinite Wisdom: D+

More like Tome of Infinite Mana Sickness, am I right? At the cost of a whopping 20 mana, the triple-shot attack activated with a left click deals laughable damage and is never worth using compared to the Sky Fracture. The right click tornado has some utility for high-knockback crowd control, but you'll probably avoid using it for the same reason you'd avoid using the Slap Hand: weapons with high knockback and low damage are rarely desirable. Not to mention that this weapon's mana efficiency is among the worst, if not the worst of any magic weapon in the game.

DPS: 1/5. Costs way too much mana considering how low its single-target damage is.
Crowd control: 5/5. It does a fair bit of work blasting away crowds with its secondary attack.
Accuracy: 4/5. The tornadoes have an enormous hitbox, though they only hit grounded enemies consistently. The triple shot has high velocity, but I really don't think you'll be using it in any case.
Disruption: 4/5. The knockback on its secondary is pretty impressive for a magic weapon.
Safety: 4/5. Both attack modes have nice range and velocity.
Availability: 3/5. 10% chance to drop from Ogre.

Best prefix: Mythical ¢

Ghastly Glaive: D

It's like a worse version of The Horseman's Blade, and The Horseman's Blade is not an especially great or reliable weapon to begin with. I guess it works better when you use the statue-spawning trick that The Horseman's Blade is famous for, but on its own merit, it's miles behind the standard spears.

DPS: 3/5. This DPS is unlikely to be applied entirely to the target you're attacking. Also, unlike other spears, it can never hit the same target twice.
Crowd control: 4/5. The ghosts that it spawns have great crowd control potential, but you have no control over them. Relying on them is a bad idea.
Accuracy: 3/5. The hitbox is only at the tip, making spacing tricker than with the standard spears.
Disruption: 2/5. It's really not that fast. While Gungnir is speedy enough to juggle enemies and carry them backward, the Ghastly Glaive has no such ability.
Safety: 1/5. Its range is pretty bad, even for a spear.
Availability: 3/5. 10% chance to drop from Ogre.

Best prefix: Godly/Demonic ¢

Crafted from Chlorophyte Bars

Chlorophyte Claymore: D+

It's better than Excalibur, but the additional energy orb is mostly like an afterthought, and doesn't change its usage much. It's kind of a noob trap with its relatively high damage value.

DPS: 3/5. It's okay, just a bit on the slow side. The DPS of the orb alone is terrible.
Crowd control: 4/5. While it does pierce, the energy orb fires too infrequently and with too heavy an arc for the Chlorophyte Claymore to be a serious option for crowd control.
Accuracy: 2/5. The projectile's high gravity is annoying. It is also hard to adjust your aim when the projectile is fired once per second, at best.
Disruption: 2/5. Since the orb is too slow to interrupt enemies consistently, you're left with the same stunlocking abilities as any other sword.
Safety: 3/5. Since it has a projectile, it's slightly better than generic swords, but still among the worst projectile swords.
Availability: 5/5. Crafted from Chlorophyte Bar x12.

Best prefix: Legendary $$

Chlorophyte Saber: C-

Because it has poor knockback and reach, it isn't a straightforward weapon to use. The Chlorophyte Saber will often let you down if you try to engage enemies with it directly. It's pretty good for picking off enemies that can't reach you, but the Chlorophyte Partisan does it better with its superior range. It does surprisingly well against Plantera because its blade destroys the drifting spores it spawns during its second stage, so if you don't mind trading off DPS, then go for it. Just keep in mind that the Death Sickle and even the Ice Sickle would do the same thing much more effectively.

DPS: 3/5. 4/5 if you can catch enemies with the blade, but that's difficult because its low knockback will force you to retreat a lot of the time.
Crowd control: 4/5. The spore cloud travels far enough to at least pierce a handful of enemies.
Accuracy: 3/5. Its spores are slow, relatively small, and don't travel very far. Enemies can also just walk out of the area of effect because they have no knockback.
Disruption: 1/5. The spores don't have any knockback, so all of the knockback comes from the blade, and that isn't much unless you're running a Titan Glove. Not being able to moonwalk is also a big disadvantage.
Safety: 4/5. A decent cheesing weapon, but the spore cloud doesn't travel that far, so you have to use its wall penetration creatively.
Availability: 5/5. Crafted from Chlorophyte Bar x12.

Best prefix: Legendary $$

Chlorophyte Partisan: B+

While it requires a bit of experience and proper spacing, this is easily the best Chlorophyte melee weapon, packing superior range, damage, attack speed, and crowd control. It can be used in all situations where you might use a Death Sickle. Don't try to use it at point-blank range; its sweetspot is around half the distance to the edge of your screen, and it becomes unreliable when used on anything closer. Some people compare it to the Mushroom Spear, but the Mushroom Spear's attack range is vastly inferior and it fails to deal significant damage when used for wall piercing. One difference in the Mushroom Spear’s favor, however, is that the Mushroom Spear’s secondary attack is affected by the Flask of Ichor while the Chlorophyte Partisan’s is not.

DPS: 4/5. If you can maintain the proper distance, the Chlorophyte Partisan easily provides enough DPS to kill bosses with.
Crowd control: 5/5. It offers the same crowd-destroying abilities as most spears, but with enormous range.
Accuracy: 3/5. Some finesse is needed to catch enemies at the sweetspot, where the spores are released.
Disruption: 4/5. Unlike the Chlorophyte Saber, it shoots spores quickly enough to hold enemies in place, though there is some adjustment of spacing required.
Safety: 5/5. It has great range and wall cheesing abilities, though ironically it actually requires you to keep your distance in order to work.
Availability: 5/5. Crafted from Chlorophyte Bar x12.

Best prefix: Ruthless* $
*spores cannot deal critical hits, and spores are the reason this weapon is viable

Chlorophyte Shotbow: S

Uses standard arrows.
It offers benefits similar to the Daedalus Stormbow, but is more suitable for general use since it is much easier to aim. Loaded with Holy Arrows, it's possibly the best bossing weapon that you can obtain before beating Plantera, period.

DPS: 4/5. 5/5 with Holy Arrows, the recommended ammunition. It gives you a small taste of what's to come if you're hoping for a Tsunami, and still deals reasonable damage with the Endless Quiver.
Crowd control: 1/5 with most ammunition. 3/5 with Holy Arrows. Unlike the Hallowed Repeater, this weapon becomes very inefficient if you use piercing arrows like Hellfire, Jester, Unholy, and Chlorophyte. It's by no means incapable of dealing with crowds, but the Hallowed Repeater fulfills that role better.
Accuracy: 4/5. Good accuracy with a very minor spread, and better velocity than magic weapons.
Disruption: 3/5. Relatively low knockback, and I don't recommend supplementing it with Hellfire Arrows because of piercing mechanics.
Safety: 4/5. A line of sight ranged weapon.
Availability: 5/5. Crafted from Chlorophyte Bar x12.

Best prefix: Unreal $$

Venom Staff: C+

A tangible improvement over the Poison Staff, but considering how terrible the Poison Staff is, that isn't saying much. The Venom Staff has much better velocity than the Harp, and unlike the Harp it actually has knockback, so you might prefer it for crowd control situations. But it's definitely not going to replace the Sky Fracture for single-target damage. When using the Venom Staff, the key is to aim where you actually want to aim, and stop caring about the projectiles that collide with the floor. Of course, the problem is that even the Unholy Trident outperforms it against a single target.

DPS: 2/5. The improvement in speed is noticeable, but this was never intended to be a single-target weapon.
Crowd control: 5/5. While you can still consider the fangs a single projectile, this has the advantage of being a very large one that is easy to hit crowds with.
Accuracy: 4/5. Usually hits large enemies, though some small enemies can slip into the gaps between the projectiles.
Disruption: 1/5. Unfortunately, this is one of the Poison Staff's weaknesses that wasn't patched by much.
Safety: 4/5. Good range, and at least one fang is guaranteed to follow line-of-sight to your cursor.
Availability: 3/5. Crafted from Poison Staff, Chlorophyte Bar x14.

Best prefix: Mythical $$$

Solar Eclipse (req: all mechanical bosses defeated)

Death Sickle: S

Very, very good in nearly any situation. It doesn't have any truly bad matchups, and it's only in extreme situations like the Pumpkin Moon where you'll be tempted to switch to something that pierces indefinitely. It falters a bit when used on the surface, but it still deserves S rank because it has such a great matchup against Plantera and the HM Dungeon. You may have to wait until after Plantera before you can obtain one with a manually-summoned eclipse, or you could just hoik through the temple door and collect Solar Tablets that way.

DPS: 4/5. One of the best Plantera killing weapons, though after Plantera you can find better alternatives for DPS.
Crowd control: 5/5. It effortlessly cuts through all but the densest crowds.
Accuracy: 4/5. It creates large, long-lasting projectiles, which cover a huge area and easily hit enemies within close- to mid-range.
Disruption: 5/5. Not even solid barriers can stop it from delivering its chain of hits, and it's better at juggling enemies into its sweetspot than the Chlorophyte Partisan. If anything, its knockback is sometimes too strong for its own good.
Safety: 5/5. The middling range is more than compensated for by its wall-piercing abilities. This advantage dwindles to a 3/5 when you use it on the surface.
Availability: 2/5. 2.5% chance to drop from Reapers, which spawn in a Solar Eclipse after all mechanical bosses have been defeated.

Best prefix: Legendary $$

True Night's Edge: B-

If you only got one Broken Hero Sword, it might be wiser to spend it on the True Excalibur, which is faster and fires more often. The True Night's edge does have a better matchup against small flying enemies thanks to the projectile's size. Usually you'd want to use it like a regular sword, but at this it is at least fairly competent.

DPS: 4/5. There are two rhythms you can use. One maximizes the swinging speed of the blade, the other maximizes the fire rate of the beam.
Crowd control: 3/5. The sword is decent for crowd control, but the beam contributes very little because it does not pierce.
Accuracy: 3/5. The projectile is quite large and travels reasonably quickly.
Disruption: 2/5. Locking down something like a Paladin isn't possible with the projectile alone, and you can't moonwalk while using it.
Safety: 4/5. Scores points for having a nice projectile that fires at a reasonable speed, but its performance is lackluster with the projectile alone.
Availability: 3/5. Crafted from Night's Edge and Broken Hero Sword. Broken Hero Sword has a 25% chance to drop from Mothron, which spawns in a Solar Eclipse after all mechanical bosses have been defeated.

(Best prefix: Legendary $$$$)

True Excalibur: B

You would only use this if you had a pre-Plantera eclipse that only yielded one Broken Hero Sword, but True Excalibur is a decent melee projectile in its own right. Firing a projectile for every swing is a significant advantage it has over the True Night's Edge, especially within melee range.

DPS: 4/5. According to the math, it has superior DPS to the True Night's Edge, though it requires you to hit consistently with narrower projectiles.
Crowd control: 3/5. The blade itself is great for crowd control. The beam, not so much.
Accuracy: 3/5. It is a bit narrower than the True Night's Edge, but that isn't a significant disadvantage.
Disruption: 3/5. It can stunlock from a distance, but if you're trying to use it against a Paladin, one miss and you might be toast. It's speedier than the True Night's Edge, but will still never be your top choice for enemy interruption.
Safety: 4/5. Very safe and easy to hit with, for a melee weapon.
Availability: 3/5. Crafted from Excalibur and Broken Hero Sword. Broken Hero Sword has a 25% chance to drop from Mothron, which spawns in a Solar Eclipse after all mechanical bosses have been defeated.

(Best prefix: Legendary $$$$)

Terra Blade: S-

It's not the strongest sword in the game, and it may be trickier to use than the Death Sickle, but you can't ignore the Terra Blade's sheer speed, power, and range. Even if it is a bit overrated, it definitely deserves a high ranking. Use the blade itself if you can; its close-range hitbox is the main advantage it has over stuff like the Unholy Trident.

DPS: 4/5. The Terra Beam shoots seriously fast, to the point where you don't even need to be in melee range to dish out the hurt. 5/5 if you're also hitting with the sword.
Crowd control: 5/5. With very strong piercing combined with good DPS, it can shred the Old One's Army from offscreen.
Accuracy: 3/5. Probably the Terra Blade's main weakness, when compared to other endgame melee weapons. Fast-moving enemies and fliers can dodge Terra Beams easily.
Disruption: 5/5. Usually carries enemies away just with the beam alone. It's not great for disrupting flying enemies, though.
Safety: 4/5. The projectile's speed and range make it useful whether you're retreating or trying to hold your ground.
Availability: 3/5. Crafted from True Excalibur and True Night's Edge.

Best prefix: Legendary $$$$$$$$

Dropped by Plantera

Flower Pow: C

It's got reasonable power and crowd control, but the main problem is that flails are annoying and difficult to use. Even if you're really good at using flails, you'll find that even at its full potential, the Flower Pow is outclassed.

DPS: 3/5. Requires you to adjust each throw to keep the head inside enemies as much as possible.
Crowd control: 5/5. It pierces infinitely, which certainly counts for something.
Accuracy: 3/5. I guess part of its damage is homing. You still need experience with flails to use it to its full potential.
Disruption: 4/5. It's got decent knockback and shoots petals that contribute to the number of hits per second.
Safety: 3/5. To reach competitive DPS, it requires staying in melee range. Long-range cherry tapping is still possible, but not very efficient.
Availability: 2/5. 14.29% chance to drop from Plantera.

Best prefix: Godly/Demonic $$$

Seedler: A+

While its base damage is relatively low, this weapon actually has very good DPS that isn't situational like the Flower Pow. Each seed hits like a highly spammable shotgun blast with homing properties that make it good even against scattered enemies, and it can often kill frail enemies in one shot.

DPS: 4/5. It's a reasonable bossing weapon that inflicts death by a thousand cuts. Ichor and the Shark Tooth Necklace improve it significantly.
Crowd control: 3/5. Like the Shadowflame Knife, it is meant to be used against scattered crowds rather than densely packed ones, but at this the Seedler is far superior. It is probably better to try to land the seed on a single target, though.
Accuracy: 5/5. It is very difficult to intentionally miss with this weapon; every seed is likely to hit everything within its line of sight.
Disruption: 4/5. Its knockback is good enough to hold an enemy back, and it has no problem kiting if you need to.
Safety: 5/5. It can be used to peg enemies from a great distance or from behind barriers, without giving up much of its DPS.
Availability: 2/5. 14.29% chance to drop from Plantera.

Best prefix: Legendary $$$$

Leaf Blower: B+

Finally, a decent single-target magic weapon not named Sky Fracture. The Leaf Blower is pretty much the magical equivalent of the Megashark, but without the option to gain crowd control or homing. Its accuracy and velocity are also not as good as the Megashark's. Honestly it's pretty similar to the Sky Fracture, maybe a little more reliable for stunlocking enemies thanks to its attack speed.

DPS: 4/5. Decent damage per hit, and delivers a lot of hits very quickly.
Crowd control: 1/5. This is strictly to be used against single targets.
Accuracy: 3/5. It shoots in a fairly straight line, with middling velocity.
Disruption: 5/5. Despite its weak knockback, it shoots so fast that it can prevent any single enemy from approaching, even if it's Bone Lee.
Safety: 4/5. It is line-of-sight, and the leaves travel very far before expiring.
Availability: 2/5. 14.29% chance to drop from Plantera.

Best prefix: Godly/Demonic/Masterful* $$$
*25% mana cost reduction may be worthwhile for general use

Nettle Burst: D

With its low base damage largely nullified by enemy defense, you can regularly expect to encounter enemies that the Nettle Burst can't touch. It performs slightly better against the early Pumpkin Moon waves thanks to the low defense of most enemies. Usually it's best used for selectively eliminating frail, dangerous enemies, but the Wasp Gun is better at that.

DPS: 1/5. Marginally better than the Wasp Gun, but at this point some enemies are starting to hit 50 defense. This is a painfully slow weapon to kill things with.
Crowd control: 5/5. The more enemies you can cluster together with this weapon, the better.
Accuracy: 4/5. It has a fairly large area of effect and is spammable.
Disruption: 4/5. The Vilethorn series at least excels at trapping enemies in a perpetual chain of hits.
Safety: 4/5. At this point, it's better to ditch wall-piercing weapons in favor of those with better range. The Nettle Burst's range is decent, but not good enough to hit something offscreen.
Availability: 2/5. 14.29% chance to drop from Plantera.

Best prefix: Mythical $$

Wasp Gun: C

The Wasp Gun is designed to counter a specific type of enemy: slow or immobile shooters that are interrupted upon taking damage. While it is without question a horribly inefficient weapon for killing things with, it is extremely good at stopping Paladins, Skeleton Commandos, Tesla Turrets, and other fiends from bothering you as you try to get the situation under control. Its ability to selectively eliminate casters and ranged attackers in the HM Dungeon is actually quite valuable, since most dangerous situations down there involve a Paladin and other shooters attacking at the same time. You can just start spamming it if the Lifeform Analyzer tells you there's something dangerous nearby. It's definitely more like a smoke bomb than an actual weapon, though.

DPS: 1/5. Don't use it on things you're trying to kill, use it on things you want to deal with later, or are trying to escape from.
Crowd control: 5/5. By spraying it around indiscriminately, you can hit basically everything on your screen.
Accuracy: 5/5. Faster enemies can sometimes escape the Wasp Gun, but most will be tracked down and worn away with a constant stream of damage.
Disruption: 0/5. While it has no knockback, I feel bad rating it this low. It is insanely good at disrupting the targets it's designed to disrupt, but it does nothing to stop enemies that chase you.
Safety: 5/5. With strong tracking and ricochet abilities, it can function at any distance, so consider it if you need to cheese a group of enemies that can't reach you (and if you have literally nothing else to dispose of them with).
Availability: 2/5. 14.29% chance to drop from Plantera.

Best prefix: Demonic $$$$

Grenade Launcher: B+

Could afford to see more use. While it's not exactly an all-purpose weapon, the Grenade Launcher shouldn't be considered bad at all, with high damage and passable speed. Its projectiles last a long time, making them likely to deal damage even if you miss. You need the height advantage, and you must also pay attention in order to avoid blowing yourself up. It's ideal for performing bank shots, and you'll get many such opportunities in the Dungeon. I don't recommend using Rocket III; the increased blast radius hurts the user a lot more than it hurts enemies. Use Rocket I, which is cheaper and safer.

DPS: 3/5. It has good base damage, but shoots at a somewhat average rate.
Crowd control: 5/5. You should be salivating if you encounter a dense group of enemies and you have a loaded Grenade Launcher.
Accuracy: 2/5. 4/5 (grounded). The projectiles bounce, which gives you a bit of leeway, although they still have low velocity and are affected by gravity. It's pretty forgiving as long as you have the height advantage.
Disruption: 2/5. It doesn't shoot fast enough to knock enemies away, really.
Safety: 3/5. As long as you're somewhat aware of your surroundings, it's not hard to avoid being blown up. Use flight to your advantage.
Availability: 5/5. 100% chance to drop from Plantera the first time it is defeated in normal mode. 2/5 in Expert Mode where this doesn't apply.

Best prefix: Unreal $

Venus Magnum: B-

Uses standard bullets.
Anyone in the market for a single-target ranged Magic Dagger? Yeah, I didn't think so. If you're using the Endless Musket Pouch, then the Venus Magnum could theoretically outdamage the Megashark if you click fast enough. (And considering that this gun has no innate ammo conservation, the Musket Pouch is something to consider.) But the DPS difference is very slight, and the Megashark's autofire makes it so much more consistent for stunlocking, especially with Exploding Bullets. Most people would probably stick with the Megashark, and who can blame them?

DPS: 4/5. If you've got a good trigger finger, you might be able to surpass the Megashark in DPS, but you're going to have to work for it.
Crowd control: 2/5 even with the Endless Musket Pouch, thanks to its high knockback. 5/5 with Exploding Bullets.
Accuracy: 4/5. 5/5 with Chlorophyte Bullets. With the Endless Musket Pouch it's more accurate than most guns thanks to the high velocity.
Disruption: 5/5 with its relatively high base knockback. Exploding Bullets are overkill.
Safety: 4/5. If you're using Exploding Bullets, it's slightly less safe, but the Venus Magnum is still among the better guns to pair them with.
Availability: 2/5. 14.29% chance to drop from Plantera.

Best prefix: Unreal $$

Pygmy Staff: C+

Pygmies are inaccurate and don't move as freely as twins or even spiders, but at least their non-piercing damage won't interfere with your primary weapon. You might as well fill the rest of your capacity with pygmies once you have three or so twins out and don't need further crowd control. They deal marvelous DPS against slow-moving enemies such as Plantera (rematch) and Golem, but against speedy targets like Martian Saucer and Duke Fishron, their accuracy is very close to zero. You should familiarize yourself with the situations in which you should and shouldn't use them.

DPS: 4/5. It improves linearly with the number of pygmies you've stacked; with a competent summoner loadout, its DPS is very good.
Crowd control: 1/5. While it cannot pierce, that can be considered a silver lining; it may not be accurate most of the time, but it will never interfere with your attacks.
Accuracy: 1/5. Oh boy. Their aim against fast-moving enemies is barely above stormtrooper level. They also don't have enough common sense to reposition themselves for a better shot.
Disruption: 2/5. Since they also tend to fire all at the same time, pygmies usually cannot provide a constant stream of hits, meaning that completely stunlocking an enemy is all but impossible.
Safety: 5/5. You can wander away for a bit with the pygmies still firing on an enemy, but it's probably better to resummon with a minion that flies.
Availability: 3/5. 25% chance to drop from Plantera, independent from its regular drop table.

Best prefix: Ruthless $

Bought from NPCs (req: Plantera defeated)

Proximity Mine Launcher: C+

Its slow use time compared to the Grenade Launcher is a large drawback, but it's far from crippling; it has higher base damage to compensate, and the incredibly long lifetime of the proximity mines means that each shot is likely to connect with something. Usually an enemy, as long as you're careful. This is a very nice weapon to use when there aren't enemies on the screen yet, such as between Old One's Army waves.

DPS: 3/5. Slightly worse than the Grenade Launcher. You can use it against enemies directly, but that isn't playing to this weapon's strengths.
Crowd control: 5/5. It does work against crowds that don't even exist yet.
Accuracy: 2/5. 4/5 (grounded). While it's better suited for laying traps for enemies in advance, it's surprisingly viable to just fire it against grounded enemies.
Disruption: 1/5. Rockets carry good knockback, but each shot is meant to hit something in the near future. Use something with better use time if you're being threatened in the present.
Safety: 3/5. When using the Proximity Mine Launcher, you need to adopt a "the floor is lava" approach, using flight, grappling, and platforms to avoid the ground. A stray explosion can hurt you a lot if you're careless, so just try to keep track of where you've been shooting.
Availability: 5/5. Sold by Cyborg for 35 gold.

Best prefix: Unreal $$$

Pulse Bow: A-

You might consider this a direct upgrade to the Shadowflame Bow. It has a great matchup against the post-Plantera dungeon, but its single-target DPS, while decent, isn't outstanding compared to other ranged weapons. It doesn't mind too much if you feed it with the Endless Quiver.

DPS: 4/5. Feeding it high-damage arrows still makes a difference, but the Endless Quiver is still reasonable.
Crowd control: 5/5. Very strong piercing makes it excellent at dealing with crowds.
Accuracy: 4/5. Accurate and fast, covering a wide area with high-velocity bouncing bolts.
Disruption: 3/5. It has reasonably good knockback when used with Venom Arrows, probably the best ammunition for the Pulse Bow. Even better with Hellfire Arrows. Otherwise, probably not.
Safety: 5/5. In addition to line of sight, it has the ability to perform some trick shots on enemies that can't reach you.
Availability: 1/5. 0.66% chance to be sold by Traveling Merchant for 45 gold after Plantera has been defeated.

Best prefix: Unreal $$$$

Special dungeon chests

Vampire Knives: S+

One of the biggest advantages of choosing a Crimson world. The lifesteal is especially effective because melee is the tankiest of the four classes, and because Crimson worlds have the Flask of Ichor to pair it with. Try not to become overly reliant on it, or you might form bad habits that will bite you once you're fighting the final boss.

It has deceptively low combat stats for an S+ weapon. Consider it more of a defensive/regenerative tool, and try to use it only in the face of genuine danger, where it can often carry you through an otherwise unsurvivable situation.

DPS: 2/5. To compensate for its incredible utility, the DPS is considerably below average for a melee weapon.
Crowd control: 2/5. At least more enemies mean more targets to steal health from, but past a certain point you'd better start trying to dispose of them instead.
Accuracy: 4/5. You need to use it at somewhat close range to maximize DPS, but at mid-range it is still likely to hit everything.
Disruption: 3/5. While its knockback was never all that great, it can hold off a few enemies with its good speed.
Safety: 3/5. Taking its life-stealing abilities into account, you might wonder if it's more unsafe NOT to be using it. It has limited range, but that's usually not a problem.
Availability: 1/5. Found in Crimson Chest, which is unlocked after Plantera has been defeated with a key that has a 0.04% chance to drop from any enemy killed in the Crimson biome.

Best prefix: Godly/Demonic $$$$$$$$

Scourge of the Corruptor: S

People always compare it to the Vampire Knives, which I find unfair. It has an entirely different role, and it performs that role very well: completely flooding an area with projectiles and murdering everything on and off the screen. No other weapon at this point is nearly as effective against the dungeon as the Scourge of the Corruptor. When using it above ground (such as against Betsy) it is often better to deliberately shoot the SotC against the ground than to launch it into the sky and risk a miss.

DPS: 4/5. Its raw damage is already pretty good, and the reliability of the homing effect really adds to this.
Crowd control: 3/5. The SotC has more-or-less constant DPS no matter how many enemies are present. It can handle crowds, but doesn't excel at it.
Accuracy: 5/5. Few weapons are as effective at filling the screen with homing projectiles as the Scourge of the Corruptor.
Disruption: 4/5. It's better for interrupting shooters than enemies that charge at you, though it can still slow them down considerably.
Safety: 5/5. Easily hits enemies offscreen and around corners, regardless of topography.
Availability: 1/5. Found in Corruption Chest, which is unlocked after Plantera has been defeated with a key that has a 0.04% chance to drop from any enemy killed in the Corruption biome.

Best prefix: Godly/Demonic $$$$$$$$

Rainbow Gun: A+

Fired a lifeform disintegration rainbow before it was cool. This weapon adds DPS to your setup for free, so there's no reason not to have it in your hotbar. Even non-mages can benefit from using this, though unlike the Magnet Sphere it does interfere with other sources of piercing damage, and is more aim-dependent.

DPS: 4/5. About the same DPS as the Leaf Blower, applied to every target.
Crowd control: 5/5. Eats crowds for breakfast.
Accuracy: 4/5. The area of effect is massive, and it's not hard to aim it at an angle that will catch most enemies.
Disruption: 5/5. No grounded enemies can escape the constant damage stream and huge area of effect, if you've angled the rainbow right.
Safety: 4/5. A point in its favor is that it can cover an area before it becomes occupied.
Availability: 1/5. Found in Hallowed Chest, which is unlocked after Plantera has been defeated with a key that has a 0.04% chance to drop from any enemy killed in the Hallowed biome.

Best prefix: Mythical/Godly/Demonic $$$

Piranha Gun: B+

The trickiest part is landing the first shot, but its job becomes significantly easier once the piranha gets to work. Generally it's a very safe weapon, as once the piranha is locked on, you're free to retreat and maintain a safe distance (though you can't stray too far, or the piranha will return). It is important to know when to withdraw, in order to apply damage and lockdown to a higher priority target such as a Ragged Caster.

DPS: 3/5. Despite its middling damage value, the stream of damage it deals is fast, steady, and uninterruptible.
Crowd control: 3/5. While its job is to steadily eat through crowds, it usually only damages one enemy at a time. However, because hitting that enemy slows it down, it may give fighter enemies behind it time to walk into the piranha's active hitbox.
Accuracy: 3/5. It's perfectly accurate after it touches an enemy once, but getting off that first shot is not that easy because the piranha doesn't travel all that fast.
Disruption: 5/5. Its single-target disruptive abilities are unmatched.
Safety: 5/5. It only requires line-of-sight for an instant. You can also take advantage of weaker, less mobile enemies to start the chain.
Availability: 1/5. Found in Jungle Chest, which is unlocked after Plantera has been defeated with a key that has a 0.04% chance to drop from any enemy killed in the Jungle biome.

Best prefix: Unreal/Godly/Demonic $$

Staff of the Frost Hydra: D+

A terrible sentry if you only have the capacity to summon one. It improves significantly if sentry armors are available, but it will still be outclassed by the Ballista Cane/Staff, meaning that the Staff of the Frost Hydra usually never gets a chance to be useful. Also, due to its immense sell value, it is possibly not worth reforging. Note that it doesn't cost any Etherian Mana to summon during the Old One's Army and runs on your usual sentry limit, so it can provide some extra power if you're running the recommended Ballista build, though even in that role the Queen Spider Staff is not too far behind.

DPS: 3/5. For a sentry, it's fine. Scales reasonably well with increased capacity.
Crowd control: 1/5. The projectile it fires doesn't pierce.
Accuracy: 2/5. Like all other summoning weapons, it can't lead its shots, so it's good only against grounded and/or slow-moving enemies.
Disruption: 1/5. It fires somewhat slowly, and doesn't interfere with enemy movement much.
Safety: 5/5. However, it is not an optimal sentry for wall cheesing, because it doesn't fire immediately upon being summoned. Use explosive traps for that.
Availability: 1/5. Found in Frozen Chest, which is unlocked after Plantera has been defeated with a key that has a 0.04% chance to drop from any enemy killed in the Snow biome.

Best prefix: Ruthless $$$$$$$$

Dropped by Dungeon monsters (req: Plantera defeated)

Magnet Sphere: S

It would be at least A rank even without the ability to switch weapons, but the ability to fire it and swap to something else is what bumps it to S. Often compared to the Rainbow Gun, the Magnet Sphere needs to be refreshed more often, but it matters less which direction you fire it in. Like the Rainbow Gun, it loses a lot of usefulness in high-speed aerial boss fights, like Betsy and Duke Fishron, but it's worth its weight in gold in any other situation. Also, it is probably the most efficient weapon for extracting health from enemies with the Spectre Hood.

DPS: 3/5. Comparable to an independently-firing Megashark, albeit one with perfect aim.
Crowd control: 2/5. Despite only hitting one enemy at a time, it shoots fast enough to beat back two or three, and doesn't mind if they're flying.
Accuracy: 5/5. The lasers never miss.
Disruption: 5/5. Easily stunlocks any enemy, flying or grounded, with little effort.
Safety: 5/5. Excels when used underground in any topography, and it's pretty safe to use elsewhere because it practically immobilizes its targets.
Availability: 3/5. 0.33% chance to drop from Armored Bones of any type.

Best prefix: Mythical/Godly/Demonic $$$$

Kraken: A-

If you haven't obtained The Eye of Cthulhu yet, the Kraken still does an excellent job, and it has a great matchup against the Dungeon to boot. It's nice how yoyos retain their utility for the entire game.

DPS: 4/5. It is a significant improvement over the Yelets, more than compensating for your enemies' increased defense.
Crowd control: 3/5. As with all yoyos, it is somewhat important to choose which target to prioritize within a crowd.
Accuracy: 5/5. There's always a use for a controllable melee weapon.
Disruption: 4/5. Notably, the Kraken can be thrown for an infinite duration, so you won't ever be forced to retract it prematurely.
Safety: 5/5. Do remain aware of Diabolists and Ragged Casters, who can easily force you out of a hiding spot.
Availability: 4/5. 0.25% chance to drop from any enemy in the HM dungeon.

Best prefix: Godly/Demonic $$$$

Keybrand: D

It's certainly usable, but in all likelihood, you didn't get this far by using weapons with such short range. It's awfully late for a generic sword to be of much use, even if it has decent stats.

DPS: 3/5. It actually has pretty good DPS, but compared to everything else in its tier, it's not that great.
Crowd control: 2/5. It handles two or three fighter enemies pretty well, but the same can be said of almost every HM Dungeon weapon.
Accuracy: 5/5. It's not going to miss enemies within swinging distance, at least.
Disruption: 3/5. Since it has autoswing and enables moonwalking, it can consistently interrupt a Paladin, but you'd better pray that more enemies don't show up.
Safety: 1/5. This is what really kills its viability. For this reason, I don't think simple stat buffs are going to convince people to give the Keybrand a chance.
Availability: 4/5. 0.5% chance to drop from Armored Bones of any type.

Best prefix: Legendary $

Shadowbeam Staff: C

Because it fires a bouncing projectile that pierces enemies, it is often compared to the Water Bolt, one of the most popular pre-Hardmode weapons with similar properties. However, the Shadowbeam Staff doesn't come close to matching the Water Bolt's utility. Unlike the Shadowbeam, a single Water Bolt projectile can hit a single enemy multiple times and deal enough knockback to knock it away. The Water Bolt can also easily cover both sides even when not fighting in tight spaces, and its hitboxes linger for a long time; the Shadowbeam Staff cannot make any of these claims.

The Spectre Hood and Shadowbeam Staff formed what was considered an overpowered combination in 1.2.0.1, after which the Shadowbeam Staff was nerfed to deal diminishing damage when piercing multiple enemies. But it wasn't until 1.2.3 when the developers realized that the Spectre Hood was the real offender and took appropriate measures to tone it down. Unfortunately, the nerf to the Shadowbeam Staff was never reversed, and it remains mediocre to this day. It works best in situations where you're not at risk of being surrounded, which is not a recipe for a top-tier weapon. Also, by now you've likely formed the habit of flying over enemies and attacking them from above, a strategy that the Shadowbeam Staff doesn't execute well. I can't help but wonder if a certain Youtuber convinced the developers that this weapon was more powerful than it actually was.

DPS: 3/5. It's not good enough for bossing, but good enough to cut through regular enemies even if you're wearing a Spectre Hood.
Crowd control: 3/5. The diminishing damage really damages the viability of what would otherwise be a great crowd control weapon.
Accuracy: 3/5. It's very accurate within its line of sight, but after the first ricochet you can't really rely on it anymore. It's also extremely narrow, which isn't good.
Disruption: 4/5. It's fast, but not insanely fast, and has extremely minor knockback.
Safety: 5/5. Once the situation is in control, you can usually find a way to eliminate your enemies safely. The Kraken does this, too, but with better damage and no need for 300 IQ trick shots.
Availability: 1/5. 5% chance to drop from Necromancers.

Best prefix: Mythical $$$

Inferno Fork: A+

With its enormous area of effect and consistent damage stream, this is as reliable as a magic weapon without homing abilities can get. Unlike line-of-sight piercing weapons, it doesn't require much positioning to use properly. Despite its low velocity and lack of homing, it is a surprisingly effective weapon against Duke Fishron, a large target that charges at you predictably.

DPS: 4/5. The Inferno Fork shreds enemies with a consistent and rapid stream of damage.
Crowd control: 5/5. It sometimes knocks enemies out of its own area of effect, but usually they're left with nowhere to run.
Accuracy: 3/5. 4/5 (grounded). It travels somewhat slowly and is unsuited for aerial combat, but is much more likely to hit enemies on the ground.
Disruption: 5/5. You can usually repel huge groups of fighters just by firing it at your feet. It easily hits fast enough and with enough knockback to keep enemies stunned.
Safety: 4/5. Homing weapons may do a better job of eliminating offscreen enemies, but the Inferno Fork's slight wall penetration makes it better than most line-of-sight weapons.
Availability: 1/5. 5% chance to drop from Diabolists.

Best prefix: Mythical $$$

Spectre Staff: C-

It's very odd that its projectiles don't go through walls. Even if they did, its low DPS would prevent its usefulness from rising by much. This can be considered an inferior version of the Bat Scepter or Tactical Shotgun with Chlorophyte Bullets, and is arguably outclassed even by the Spirit Flame. Low risk, low reward.

DPS: 3/5. While it has the highest raw damage value of the three HM dungeon caster weapons, it can't compete with the other two thanks to its mediocre speed and the fact that it deals damage only once per shot.
Crowd control: 1/5. Yeah, good luck with that, buddy. You can't even shift targets with this weapon, so if a Vampire or Deadly Sphere spawns, you'd better stop trying to use it.
Accuracy: 5/5. It's homing, I'll give it that. Each shot is likely to hit something, though not necessarily the target you were trying to fire at.
Disruption: 2/5. Not only does it have poor knockback and speed, you can't even choose which enemy to interrupt most of the time.
Safety: 5/5. Alright, it's better than line of sight weapons, and you can try using it against Duke Fishron if you've got literally nothing else.
Availability: 1/5. 5% chance to drop from Ragged Casters.

Best prefix: Mythical $$$

Rocket Launcher: D+

It's alright for demolition purposes, but unquestionably the worst rocket weapon for actual combat. Of the three rocket weapons that carry the risk of self-harm, the Rocket Launcher is the one you're most likely to damage yourself with. Requires constant awareness of your surroundings. Rockets are more dangerous than Exploding Bullets for the same reason that weapons that trade away speed for raw damage are favored in PvP: you only need to mess up once to take a fat hit that you might not be able to recover from.

DPS: 3/5. In exchange for the ability to hit flying enemies a bit better, it has relatively low DPS for a rocket weapon.
Crowd control: 5/5. Like the Grenade Launcher, it works pretty well for blowing crowds of enemies into bits.
Accuracy: 3/5. Velocity is not good enough to be effective at long range.
Disruption: 3/5. It has decent speed and knockback, but if the situation changes, you cannot afford to readjust your aim without thinking.
Safety: 1/5. Because it explodes against solid blocks, this is actually very risky to use, and unlike the Grenade Launcher, you can't abuse the height advantage to perform trick shots. Obviously I'm not going to give a good safety rating to a weapon that you can easily blow yourself up with.
Availability: 2/5. 5.56% chance to drop from Skeleton Commandos.

Best prefix: Unreal $

Tactical Shotgun: B+

Uses standard bullets.
The question you're probably asking is, "Is this better than the Megashark?" The answer to that question is really not that simple, and depends on what you want from your gun. If you're planning on challenging bosses, then yes, when loaded with Chlorophyte Bullets, the Tactical Shotgun will offer slightly better DPS than the Megashark (when using the same bullets). But in situations in which you're not using Chlorophyte Bullets, the Tactical Shotgun's lack of speed and accuracy makes it mostly inferior to faster automatic guns (though it is technically automatic). People often say that the Tactical Shotgun has a great synergy with Chlorophyte Bullets, but what they really mean is that this gun shouldn't be used with any other type of bullet—though to be fair, that combination is quite good.

DPS: 4/5. Assuming all its bullets hit their mark, it deals some pretty significant damage.
Crowd control: 2/5. You might hit multiple enemies with one shot sometimes. Or you could spray them from above with Exploding Bullets (5/5).
Accuracy: 2/5. Requires point-blank range to be effective at all. 5/5 with Chlorophyte Bullets, obviously.
Disruption: 2/5. While it's decent at repelling a single target, it doesn't deal damage fast enough to interrupt chargers like Bone Lee.
Safety: 5/5 with Chlorophyte Bullets. 4/5 otherwise, though from that range all you can hope to do to your enemies is tickle them.
Availability: 2/5. 7.64% chance to drop from Tactical Skeletons.

Best prefix: Unreal $$$$$$

Sniper Rifle: B

Uses standard bullets.
A fun and unique weapon to be sure, but like the Spectre Staff, it suffers from a lack of crowd control in a stage of the game where crowd control is becoming more important. Consider using it against Nebula Floaters and Diabolists, who can't teleport around if they are dispatched in one hit. Since each shot counts, Chlorophyte Bullets are your ideal choice for bossing. It can potentially be more effective than rapid-fire guns against enemies with high defenses. Also worth noting is that the Sniper Rifle is the only Hardmode gun that can use Meteor Shot effectively.

DPS: 4/5 on average. Its efficiency against normal enemies depends heavily on whether you get the OHKO with a critical hit or not.
Crowd control: 1/5. Meteor Shot can raise this to a 3/5. Exploding Bullets are also an option, if you like to live dangerously.
Accuracy: 3/5. It is very precise, but relies a lot on the player's own skill to be accurate. I'd recommend Chlorophyte Bullets to bypass this.
Disruption: 2/5. It has huge knockback, but usually disrupts enemies by killing them in one shot. I don't think that counts.
Safety: 5/5 with Chlorophyte Bullets. 4/5 otherwise. If you're using Exploding Bullets, just be careful.
Availability: 2/5. 7.64% chance to drop from Skeleton Snipers.

Best prefix: Unreal/Ruthless* $
*ideal if you've already maximized your critical chance

Paladin's Hammer: A+

With tremendous base damage, good speed, and high knockback, this weapon is useful in almost all situations. It is still a bit reliant on positioning, but once your feet are firmly on the ground, the Paladin's Hammer's performance is nearly unmatched. The big problem is of course how difficult it is to get. Not only are Paladins rare, they're incredibly dangerous. A good percentage of deaths in the HM Dungeon will likely involve a Paladin, and you can't collect any prizes if you're dead.

DPS: 4/5. Unlike a lot of piercing weapons, it's powerful enough that using it on a single target doesn't feel like much of a waste.
Crowd control: 5/5. It has infinite piercing and decent range, and really shines during invasion events.
Accuracy: 5/5. It travels incredibly fast, and its projectile is huge. Accuracy isn't a problem.
Disruption: 5/5. It has no problems disabling a Paladin, or Bone Lee, or even both at once. Easily blasts crowds of enemies backwards.
Safety: 3/5. Its range is somewhat short for a boomerang, but with such high velocity, you can start locking down enemies almost immediately once you enter line of sight.
Availability: 1/5. 6.67% chance to drop from Paladins.

Best prefix: Godly/Demonic $$$$

Solar Eclipse (req: Plantera defeated)

The Eye of Cthulhu: S

A ridiculous weapon. The Kraken was already good enough. The damage that The Eye of Cthulhu deals is so obscenely high that lockdown and crowd control become somewhat irrelevant, not that this yoyo is bad at either of those things.

DPS: 5/5, with or without the Yoyo Glove.
Crowd control: 3/5. In practice, you will be tearing through crowds before they even have a chance to form.
Accuracy: 5/5. While yoyos aren’t exactly low-skillcap weapons, with practice it’s easy enough to target any single enemy with a barrage of hits.
Disruption: 4/5. With high attack speed and controllability, it can easily neutralize and dispose of a threat before another one spawns.
Safety: 5/5. The reach is very slightly lower than the Kraken's, not that you'd notice.
Availability: 4/5. 25% chance to drop from Mothron after Plantera has been defeated.

Best prefix: Godly/Demonic $$$$$

Butcher's Chainsaw: C+

A chainsaw is a weapon that you likely didn't get much practice using up until now. It's pretty similar in usage to the Bladetongue, though by now you've seen a lot of alternatives with better range. You could say that this weapon is "high risk, high reward", but I prefer to think of it like "high risk, same reward as you'd get from using The Eye of Cthulhu". It's a bit more reliable for killing Vampires, Dungeon Spirits, and Deadly Spheres, and is generally the ultimate answer to enemies that chase you. Hilariously, the sparks activate the Spectre Hood's healing effect, so you could try that out if you enjoy gimmicks.

DPS: 5/5. No surprises there.
Crowd control: 4/5. The sparks cover a wide area and damage a crowd even if you're only attacking the front, which makes up for its lack of immediate attack range somewhat.
Accuracy: 4/5. It lacks a hitbox on the user's body, so you have to space yourself from enemies a little bit.
Disruption: 5/5. It attacks fast and has strong knockback, so anything that tries to charge you down will be sorry.
Safety: 1/5. No surprises there, either. Its viability is severely limited by its range, so it's too risky to use most of the time.
Availability: 3/5. 2.5% chance to drop from Butchers, which spawn in a Solar Eclipse after Plantera has been defeated.

Best prefix: Godly/Demonic $$

Psycho Knife: F

Probably tied with the Brand of the Inferno for the worst secondary effect of any weapon. It's rubbish if you try to take advantage of its gimmick, and thanks to its weak knockback, it's rubbish if you try to use it like an ordinary weapon, too. Standing still in a hostile situation: not good. Deliberately lowering your own movement speed while enemies are chasing you: not good. If it worked like a Hardmode Arkhalis and also allowed you to continue dealing boosted damage while stealthed, it still wouldn't even be that great; about on par with the Butcher's Chainsaw, maybe.

DPS: 3/5. I feel like it was supposed to be good at dealing DPS, but it isn't.
Crowd control: 2/5. Technically it can hit multiple enemies, but why would you want to do that with a terrible weapon like this?
Accuracy: 5/5. Well, within its limited range it really can't miss. You might lose your stealth to a stray laser or bullet, though.
Disruption: 1/5. With weak knockback and mediocre speed, it really can't repel even some of the weaker fighter enemies.
Safety: 1/5. If you're trying to use stealth, make that a 0/5.
Availability: 2/5. 2.5% chance to drop from Psychos, which spawn in a Solar Eclipse after Plantera has been defeated.

Best prefix: Legendary $$

Deadly Sphere Staff: A

Deadly Spheres are functionally similar to the Optic Staff’s Spazmatism minions. Thanks to their high movement and attack speed, they are usually superior to Ravens for dedicated summoners, but (like ravens) have an annoying habit of getting stuck against corners, forcing you to buff cancel and resummon sometimes when using them underground. Unlike ravens, they deal piercing damage, so if your primary weapon is a piercing weapon, deadly spheres may not be as useful.

DPS: 3/5. Improves with capacity, though once you have three or more, you may wish to switch to pygmies. This weapon can replace the Optic Staff for all purposes.
Crowd control: 5/5. They have a very long charge distance, easily catching multiple enemies in their path.
Accuracy: 4/5. Actually pretty good. They chase enemies very quickly, even if they're flying around.
Disruption: 3/5. Their lockdown is decent when there are two or three attacking the same target, but this may be abruptly broken if they get snagged against a corner. Be sure to buff cancel if this happens.
Safety: 5/5. Since they fly, they're better for resummoning than pygmies.
Availability: 2/5. 2.5% chance to drop from Deadly Spheres, which spawn in a Solar Eclipse after Plantera has been defeated.

Best prefix: Ruthless $$

Toxic Flask: B-

Its high mana cost is its main problem, along with the fact that the Inferno Fork outclasses it in almost every way. Those who aren't dedicated mages will find little use for this weapon. But mages can use this as a more realistic alternative to the infamously rare Inferno Fork.

DPS: 4/5. Enormous DPS potential, but with a steep mana cost that needs to be supported by mana potions.
Crowd control: 5/5. Affects an incredibly wide area. While each cloud will only hit enemies once, this hardly matters because it creates so many clouds.
Accuracy: 2/5. 4/5 (grounded). No grounded enemy can escape its mammoth-sized gas clouds. It does poorly against flying enemies, but that's not the Toxic Flask's intended use.
Disruption: 5/5. Completely immobilizes enemies in its area of effect.
Safety: 4/5. It requires you to fly over enemies and fire at them from above, but by now this is the safest strategy, and should be second nature to you.
Availability: 3/5. 2.5% chance to drop from Dr. Man Flies, which spawn in a Solar Eclipse after Plantera has been defeated.

Best prefix: Mythical $

Nail Gun: A+

A powerful weapon when measured by its raw DPS, and one that's very true to the ranger playstyle because its lack of immediate knockback forces you to kite your enemies around while firing on them from a distance. It's best used against big, threatening targets that were immune to knockback in the first place, such as bosses; this is especially true because its ammo is rather expensive.

DPS: 5/5. Very high (delayed) damage per hit and a rapid fire rate makes this very good against bosses like Duke Fishron.
Crowd control: 2/5. Each blast does carry the potential to affect multiple enemies, but since the nails don't knock enemies back or interfere with their movement in any way, it's pretty unlikely that this will happen, and not worth worrying about.
Accuracy: 3/5. Reasonably high velocity, and shoots accurately.
Disruption: 1/5. Lack of immediate interruption was the tradeoff for the Nail Gun's incredible DPS. The explosions are disruptive, but not within the time frame I'd consider relevant.
Safety: 4/5. The explosions don't hurt you, so fire as freely as you wish. Maybe not too freely, though, since every shot costs you 1 silver.
Availability: 2/5. 4% chance to drop from Nailheads, which spawn in a Solar Eclipse after Plantera has been defeated.

Best prefix: Demonic $$$$

Dropped by Golem

Golem Fist: C

The Golem Fist doesn't offer competitive DPS against bosses unless you move in close, and considering the next bosses are the likes of Everscream and Duke Fishron, you really cannot afford to play like that. It works well enough against common enemies, but against flying enemies, its own knockback becomes a nuisance.

DPS: 2/5. Can potentially move up to 3/5, depending on distance to your target.
Crowd control: 2/5. It only hits one enemy at a time, but at least you're unlikely to get overwhelmed by ground-based enemies thanks to its knockback.
Accuracy: 4/5. Good velocity, and retracts quickly so it doesn't penalize misses.
Disruption: 5/5. Easily sends most things flying. Not only does it repel enemies, you might end up having to chase them as you smack them across the screen.
Safety: 3/5. It's kind of like a straight line, but with considerably less range than ranged weapons.
Availability: 3/5. 12.5% chance to drop from Golem.

Best prefix: Godly/Demonic $$

Possessed Hatchet: A+

An accurate, low-risk option that allows you to focus on movement. Probably the best melee weapon for dealing with flying enemies until you have access to Flairon, and its DPS is just good enough to be worth considering against fast bosses that you're having trouble hitting consistently.

DPS: 4/5. While not incredibly high, the DPS of this weapon is very stable.
Crowd control: 2/5. Because it's a homing weapon, it doesn't do badly against invasions, but it can usually only strike multiple enemies on the return trip.
Accuracy: 5/5. It's homing, not much else to say here.
Disruption: 5/5. With its accuracy and constant rate of fire, it is very good at interrupting enemies no matter how quickly they move.
Safety: 5/5. It has a strong homing effect that allows you to keep your distance while dealing the same amount of damage.
Availability: 3/5. 12.5% chance to drop from Golem.

Best prefix: Godly/Demonic $$$$

Stynger: A

A budget Jack 'O Lantern Launcher, mostly, but among the more powerful weapons dropped by Golem. It would be more tempting to use if Stynger Bolts were cheaper. Its good matchup against the Pumpkin Moon and Frost Moon is a bonus, but you might prefer a Nail Gun for the minibosses themselves.

DPS: 4/5 on most enemies, but you should be attacking from above to maximize the damage dealt by the shrapnel.
Crowd control: 5/5. It carpets the ground with explosions, so the more enemies on the ground, the better.
Accuracy: 4/5. Against grounded enemies (the intended targets), the area of effect is mostly inescapable. It's kind of usable on flying enemies, too, but not great.
Disruption: 4/5. Most enemies have trouble getting through the constant explosions.
Safety: 4/5. It only shines when your enemies are clustered below you, but at least its accuracy doesn’t suffer too much at a distance with its decent velocity.
Availability: 3/5. 12.5% chance to drop from Golem.

Best prefix: Unreal $$$

Heat Ray: B

By now, line-of-sight piercing is becoming a bit situational. The Heat Ray will still do work in a lot of situations, but you won’t encounter those situations as much unless you fight in a flat area.

DPS: 3/5. Like its predecessor the Laser Rifle, it shouldn't be pulled out in a single-target situation.
Crowd control: 5/5. The Heat Ray is often compared to the Shadowbeam Staff, but since the latter gets penalized for being used against crowds, there’s no contest when it comes to crowd control.
Accuracy: 3/5. Unfortunately the beam is quite narrow and hard to hit with if you’re moving around to dodge things. It’s fast, but not fast enough to be accurate even when using autofire.
Disruption: 4/5. Decent speed to offset its weak knockback.
Safety: 4/5. It has unlimited line of sight range.
Availability: 3/5. 12.5% chance to drop from Golem.

Best prefix: Mythical $$$

Staff of Earth: C-

It’s generally agreed that this is the worst Golem drop, but its matchup against the Pumpkin Moon is not too bad. About on par with the Venom Staff. Use it like you would use the Candy Corn Rifle, but keep your expectations low.

DPS: 3/5. Damage per hit is pretty good, but it just doesn’t shoot fast enough.
Crowd control: 5/5. At least it does this well. Pretty good against invasions.
Accuracy: 2/5. Having a projectile affected by gravity is very annoying. Due to piercing mechanics, it is also one of the few weapons that has an anti-synergy with itself.
Disruption: 1/5. Way too slow to delay enemies from reaching you, even by a little bit.
Safety: 4/5. Like a lot of weapons at this point, it's best used to strafe enemies by flying over them. You do need to lure enemies into staying within its area of effect.
Availability: 3/5. 12.5% chance to drop from Golem.

Best prefix: Mythical $$$$

Pumpkin Moon

Stake Launcher: B+

A reasonable alternative to the Pulse Bow that is very satisfying to use. You do have to be grounded to take advantage of the best firing angle, meaning that this is a very logical choice against the Old One's Army, but not against swarms of annoying flying things. Its performance improves dramatically on flat terrain, and although it has autofire, you’ll find that your accuracy may improve if you ignore it and shoot once per click.

DPS: 4/5. Good damage per hit, offsetting its mediocre speed.
Crowd control: 5/5. Near-unlimited piercing and infinite range. This is the Stake Launcher’s intended strength.
Accuracy: 3/5. Very high velocity and shoots in a straight line, but still rather narrow. With its somewhat slow speed, it feels less accurate than it actually is.
Disruption: 3/5. A bit slower than most ranged weapons, but its knockback is very impressive.
Safety: 4/5. Still better suited for lining up shots on the ground than strafing enemies from above.
Availability: 3/5. 2% to 20% chance to drop from Mourning Wood, scaling with wave progression.

Best prefix: Unreal $$$$$$

The Horseman's Blade: C+

I think it's fair to say that using The Horseman's Blade to rapidly kill statue-spawned enemies and create an unstoppable army of flaming pumpkin heads was not the weapon's intended use. If we disregard that gimmick and examine The Horseman's Blade's own merits as a weapon, it turns out that it's more situational than you might hope. The main issue is that it requires being in melee range to work, which of course means putting yourself at risk. This problem is made worse by its unimpressive speed compared to the Terra Blade or even the Keybrand. You can fix some of its weaknesses by equipping a Mechanical Glove, but it generally won't be your best option for dealing with truly dangerous situations.

DPS: 5/5. Thanks to its special ability, each hit counts as two. If you can keep hitting something reliably, its damage output is enormous.
Crowd control: 3/5. The pumpkin projectiles offer little in the way of crowd control, but this weapon becomes much more effective if you have a crowd to use it on.
Accuracy: 5/5. Either it hits twice or does nothing at all, with nothing in between. It has the benefit of hitting a larger area than the Butcher's Chainsaw, another high risk/high reward weapon, and its pumpkin heads don't miss.
Disruption: 5/5. It carries immense knockback, and can launch most enemies like tennis balls. I'd recommend using a Mechanical Glove to supplement its average speed.
Safety: 1/5. While it is potentially quite rewarding, The Horseman's Blade still requires you to use a sword the way swords are traditionally used. It is very difficult to use it without taking a lot of damage, especially if your enemies are knockback-immune.
Availability: 2/5. 1.79% to 14.29% chance to drop from Pumpking, scaling with wave progression.

Best prefix: Legendary $$$$

Candy Corn Rifle: A+

Barring Meowmere, this can be considered the best of the weapons that utilize gravity-affected, bouncing projectiles to strafe a wide area. It has a tremendous area of effect no matter where it's used. Best of all, its ammo is dirt cheap, though you will probably need several stacks if you're planning on using it a lot.

DPS: 4/5. It can be improved a bit if you fire directly downward at a large target such as an Everscream; the solid curtain of bouncing, piercing projectiles deals damage slightly faster than if you just fire it normally.
Crowd control: 5/5. No crowd stands a chance, and unlike a lot of piercing weapons, it doesn't require them all to be standing in a line.
Accuracy: 4/5. Bouncing was never very reliable to begin with, but that starts to matter less when the entire screen is full of corn.
Disruption: 4/5. It may not be as reliable as homing weapons for locking down a target, but the advantage of the Candy Corn Rifle is that it can't be meat shielded.
Safety: 5/5. It requires the height advantage to work well, which you may not always have when underground. By now you’re probably spending more time on the surface, so no points lost there.
Availability: 2/5. 1.79% to 14.29% chance to drop from Pumpking, scaling with wave progression.

Best prefix: Unreal $$$$$$

Jack 'O Lantern Launcher: A-

The explosive jack 'o lanterns deal damage twice when they hit an enemy directly, making it much stronger than it may first appear. It is used exactly the same way as the Candy Corn Rifle: fly over your enemies and strafe them from above. This may be considered a direct upgrade to both the Grenade Launcher and Stynger.

DPS: 4/5. Each projectile deals damage twice, so in terms of DPS, the Jack 'O Lantern Launcher is like a Sniper Rifle with an improved fire rate.
Crowd control: 4/5. Because it lacks exceptional knockback and attack speed, it doesn't force enemies into clusters like an automatic gun with Exploding Bullets would, but still deals with crowds very well, even those that include flying enemies.
Accuracy: 4/5. The large projectile size compared to the Candy Corn Rifle makes it easier to hit with, and the jack 'o lanterns usually end up hitting something before they explode in midair.
Disruption: 2/5. It's slower than the Candy Corn Rifle, so I wouldn't use it for trying to keep enemies away.
Safety: 5/5. While it does require the height advantage, its bouncing properties can be used creatively to deal with enemies underground.
Availability: 2/5. 1.79% to 14.29% chance to drop from Pumpking, scaling with wave progression.

Best prefix: Unreal $$$$$$

Bat Scepter: A

This is a long-range weapon highly specialized for killing flying enemies. With its consistent damage, it’s a good choice for Spectre Hood users who can use it as they flee, especially with its minuscule mana cost. It has a strong homing effect, so you can simply fire it diagonally into the sky to minimize the chance that your bats will collide with blocks and disappear.

DPS: 4/5. Not just high, but very consistent thanks to the homing effect.
Crowd control: 1/5. It loses effectiveness against crowds because it doesn’t pierce.
Accuracy: 5/5. When used aboveground, it doesn't miss. Underground, some bats might collide with blocks, but whatever.
Disruption: 4/5. With such an enormous quantity of projectiles in a constant stream, the weapon’s weak knockback isn't too big a problem if you're facing one enemy.
Safety: 5/5. It doesn’t function quite as well underground, but usually you can just spray it in your enemies’ general direction regardless of distance or topography.
Availability: 2/5. 1.79% to 14.29% chance to drop from Pumpking, scaling with wave progression.

Best prefix: Godly/Demonic $$$$

Raven Staff: C-

The only advantage they have over spheres is that they deal non-piercing damage, but still pierce. This means they are guaranteed to hurt enemies they touch, no matter how large the flock, but because of their relatively slow movement speed, they aren't very effective against obnoxiously fast enemies like Mothron, Ice Queen, and Duke Fishron. This probably isn't a worthwhile minion if you're not a dedicated summoner, and a niche pick even if you are, assuming you also have a Deadly Sphere Staff.

DPS: 3/5. Increases linearly with flock size, but one raven's DPS is not as good as that of one deadly sphere.
Crowd control: 4/5. They often don't choose the best angles to attack, but at least they're better than pygmies.
Accuracy: 2/5. They can only consistently hit slow-moving enemies. Anything faster can easily outrun them.
Disruption: 2/5. Ravens often pass through enemies and try to chase them from behind. This is a problem it shares with the Pirate Staff.
Safety: 5/5. Sure, I guess you could summon them on top of enemies.
Availability: 2/5. 1.79% to 14.29% chance to drop from Pumpking, scaling with wave progression.

Best prefix: Ruthless $

Dropped by Duke Fishron

Flairon: S

An incredible melee weapon that, while classified as a flail, really doesn't work like a flail at all. To get maximum mileage out of the Flairon, you need to intentionally miss by as narrow a margin as you can afford, or try to catch your enemy at the tip. Many of the upcoming fights are aerial battles, against which the Flairon does excellently, especially if your enemies are the kind that chase you down.

DPS: 5/5. Very stable and very high with the sheer number of homing bubbles it spits out.
Crowd control: 3/5. Since it creates so many projectiles, it's better at crowd control than most non-piercing weapons.
Accuracy: 5/5. Not only does it not penalize you for missing, it rewards you for missing. The longer the flail extends, the more homing projectiles it pumps out.
Disruption: 5/5. It delivers a constant stream of hits, all of which will likely be knocking your target away. Extremely effective for repelling enemies.
Safety: 5/5. Easy to use while kiting. You can just let the homing properties do all the work.
Availability: 3/5. 20% chance to drop from Duke Fishron.

Best prefix: Godly/Demonic $$

Tsunami: S+

Uses standard arrows.
Obscenely powerful for bossing, but works well against anything, really. With Holy Arrows, it has an incredibly good matchup against the Pumpkin Moon and Frost Moon, and might be your best shot at reaching the later waves. Don't use it with arrows that pierce or explode.

DPS: 5/5. With Holy Arrows, you will be dealing more than three times what I would still consider a 5/5 on a weapon of this tier.
Crowd control: 5/5 with Holy Arrows, 2/5 otherwise. Like with Polyphemus in The Binding of Isaac, any overkill damage can be applied to the enemy behind the one you killed.
Accuracy: 4/5. Holy Arrows have somewhat lower velocity, but the line of arrows is so wide that usually hitting things isn't an issue. With Venom Arrows or a Magic Quiver, this problem disappears.
Disruption: 3/5. It doesn't have great knockback, but with Holy Arrows, does that even matter when almost everything dies in one shot?
Safety: 4/5. Deals line of sight damage from any distance, but your target still has to be on the screen.
Availability: 3/5. 20% chance to drop from Duke Fishron.

Best prefix: Unreal $$

Razorblade Typhoon: S+

Possibly the best magic weapon in the game for general use. It rapidly and effortlessly cuts through hordes of enemies of any size, immobilizing them in an unrelenting barrage of hits. Pressing the hotkey corresponding to the Razorblade Typhoon is likely to become second nature to those who use it, because it's just so easy to use. This is what I used to heal myself up while testing the other weapons on this list.

DPS: 4/5. It's okay for bossing, but not the absolute highest single-target DPS you have access to at this point.
Crowd control: 5/5. It can easily damage and juggle every enemy on your screen at once.
Accuracy: 5/5. Prolonged usage of the Razorblade Typhoon may lead to the player entirely forgetting how to aim.
Disruption: 5/5. With its immense size, velocity, and both homing and bouncing properties, constantly hitting and immobilizing enemies with the Razorblade Typhoon takes no effort whatsoever.
Safety: 5/5. Murders everything on and off the screen regardless of topography.
Availability: 3/5. 20% chance to drop from Duke Fishron.

Best prefix: Mythical $$

Bubble Gun: A+

At the cost of attack range, it offers incredible single-target DPS that shreds most enemies before they can even touch you. Its range is actually not that bad, either. Slightly matchup-dependent, but the huge damage it deals is well worth the drawback. It also has an incredibly low mana cost, so you'll almost never have to support it with mana potions or even Celestial Cuffs.

DPS: 5/5. Roughly the DPS equivalent of two Bat Scepters, this weapon is like a magical shotgun that fires at machine-gun speed.
Crowd control: 3/5. Its DPS is high enough that it eliminates most enemies in a fraction of a second, so despite its lack of piercing, it performs pretty well against crowds.
Accuracy: 4/5. It pumps out bubbles quickly and covers a decently wide area.
Disruption: 5/5. Anything not KB-immune will be completely unable to approach.
Safety: 2/5. It's not hard to use against enemies that chase you, but you are a bit more vulnerable to projectiles at close range.
Availability: 3/5. 20% chance to drop from Duke Fishron.

Best prefix: Godly/Demonic/Masterful* $$
*25% mana cost reduction may be worthwhile for general use

Tempest Staff: B

The same damage value as deadly spheres, but far less accurate against moving enemies. You need a good-sized swarm of sharknadoes to compensate for their lack of accuracy, so if you're not using summoner equipment, this weapon is very skippable. A very underrated feature of the sharknado minion is that it has a hitbox even when it isn't firing. This means that your sharknado swarm is a portable barrier against flying enemies, and you can hide behind it to punish things that charge at you.

DPS: 4/5. If it could land all of its shots, its DPS would actually be pretty high.
Crowd control: 1/5. They don't pierce, and while the sharknadoes themselves inflict contact damage, they usually float too high to deal any, unless you lure enemies into them.
Accuracy: 2/5. Can't consistently hit anything that moves. Sharknadoes are more accurate when they move in close, and they will dutifully attempt to do so.
Disruption: 2/5. Their knockback and firing speed aren't all that great. They can prevent enemies from reaching you by straight-up killing them, but not by knocking them away.
Safety: 5/5. They do have a hitbox on contact, and fire once when summoned, making them among the better candidates for resummoning spam.
Availability: 3/5. 20% chance to drop from Duke Fishron.

Best prefix: Ruthless $$

Martian Madness

Influx Waver: S

Often compared with the Terra Blade, but you'll find that the Influx Waver performs better most, if not all of the time. It is indisputably a better weapon for bossing than the Terra Blade, and it doesn't require all your enemies to be lined up.

DPS: 5/5. Against a single target in a crowd, it becomes 3/5, because the follow-up hits will be redirected onto other targets.
Crowd control: 4/5. When used against crowds, it becomes like a different weapon, sacrificing single-target DPS and evenly distributing damage onto everything behind the primary target.
Accuracy: 3/5. Aiming the Influx Waver is about as hard as aiming the Terra Blade, but every shot you land gives you two extra hits for free.
Disruption: 5/5. Not even Duke Fishron can escape the teleporting blades. Most enemies are overwhelmed by the constant barrage of hits.
Safety: 4/5. You still must remain in line-of-sight.
Availability: 3/5. 11.11% chance to drop from Martian Saucer.

Best prefix: Legendary $$$$

Xenopopper: A

Uses standard bullets.
Direct upgrade to the Tactical Shotgun, but unless you're planning to use Chlorophyte Bullets, it takes some practice to use properly; you need to position your cursor directly over enemies rather than just pointing it in their general direction. The Xenopopper's raw DPS is extremely high with Crystal Bullets if you can master it, even higher than the Chain Gun's (making it the most damaging pre-Lunar gun). However, it is a bit more of a mid-range weapon: it works best if you can catch enemies in the middle of the bullet cloud, making it a bit like a ranged version of the Bubble Gun. It absolutely destroys large targets, and I'd consider it an intermediate between the Chlorophyte Shotbow and Tsunami. But if you want to skip directly to the Vortex Beater, I can't blame you.

DPS: 5/5. Chlorophyte gives you some very consistent DPS, but if you're good with the Xenopopper's aim, Crystal Bullets can deal double that.
Crowd control: 2/5 with Crystal Bullets or Exploding Bullets, 1/5 otherwise.
Accuracy: 3/5. The Xenopopper's aim is actually very precise, but it's hard to use because it's literally unlike any other gun in the game. You can use Chlorophyte Bullets to bypass this.
Disruption: 3/5. Significantly faster than the Tactical Shotgun, but still delivers its shots in bursts rather than consistent streams.
Safety: 4/5. 5/5 with Chlorophyte Bullets. Rather awful at point-blank range without Chlorophyte Bullets. As I said, it’s a mid-range weapon.
Availability: 3/5. 11.11% chance to drop from Martian Saucer.

Best prefix: Unreal $$$$

Electrosphere Launcher: A+

The Electrosphere Launcher's damage and crowd control against grounded enemies is nearly unmatched, but it will never be your first choice when facing flying enemies. It has a slight learning curve because the spheres deploy directly at the cursor's position if they don't collide with anything beforehand.

DPS: 5/5. Easily eats Santa-NK1 and Everscream alive with just one shot. 4/5 if you're cheap and use Rocket I, but at this stage of the game you shouldn't have any reason to.
Crowd control: 5/5. One of the only persistent AoE ranged weapons, it cuts through grounded personnel with ease.
Accuracy: 3/5. The travel time of the projectile when deployed in midair is not insignificant. You're also relying on enemies to run into the electrospheres on their own.
Disruption: 5/5. Like the Inferno Fork, it can be shot at your feet to repel enemies that jump at you. Unlike the Inferno Fork, it can be freely deployed in midair if you wish.
Safety: 4/5. It's a line of sight weapon, and it does collide with blocks.
Availability: 3/5. 11.11% chance to drop from Martian Saucer.

Best prefix: Unreal/Godly/Demonic $$$$

Charged Blaster Cannon: F

Indisputably the worst endgame magical weapon. Terraria is not a game in which sitting around charging your Kamehameha is a good strategy, and that is the only mode of attack that could possibly be worthwhile. The other two attack modes are just crappier versions of the Leaf Blower and Staff of Earth, both of which are available earlier (and aren’t even that good). Not being able to adjust the direction of the Kamehameha is the nail in this weapon's coffin. It's a little better against the Old One's Army, but there are more mana-efficient weapons that accomplish the same thing. You know, the Medusa Head at least rewards you at the end by dealing a tremendous blow to a Wyvern, or the Destroyer or something. This weapon, on the other hand, continues to be a letdown even after you've charged it up for the required three seconds, since you cannot keep the beam consistently positioned on any moving target.

DPS: 5/5 (Kamehameha). 1/5 (anything else). You could use the Mana Flower as a compromise, I suppose, if you enjoy guzzling mana potions while firing at nothing.
Crowd control: 5/5 (Kamehameha). 4/5 (charge shot). 1/5 (lemon).
Accuracy: 1/5. You can't adjust your aim while it's in use. Literally no other projectile weapon does this. If the goal was to make the Charged Blaster Cannon a unique snowflake, then I guess this counts as a success.
Disruption: 0/5. As with the Medusa Head, you're basically helpless while charging, and with this weapon you definitely don't want to fire prematurely. While firing the beam, you're also completely unable to hit enemies at any angle other than the one you've locked yourself into.
Safety: 3/5. Having line-of-sight doesn't make up for the fact that it doesn't have an active hitbox most of the time.
Availability: 3/5. 11.11% chance to drop from Martian Saucer.

Best prefix: Mythical $$$$

Laser Machinegun: A-

The windup time isn't too big a drawback. With that in mind, don't feel obligated to hold down the attack button if you don't see any enemies on your screen. Compared to the Bubble Gun, it's less risky to use, but costs more mana and isn't as reliable against enemies that get all up in your face. It is also rather poor if your playstyle revolves around dealing high burst damage and allowing your mana to regenerate between bursts, making it more suitable for use with the Mana Flower.

DPS: 5/5. Comparable to the Bubble Gun and Razorpine, and very effective against single targets.
Crowd control: 2/5. The Laser Machinegun is one of those weapons that can somewhat compensate for their lack of piercing with insane attack speed.
Accuracy: 4/5. High velocity and a tight spread. Even at long range, it deals consistent damage.
Disruption: 3/5. It's a 5/5 when firing at full speed, but if you're caught off guard, it's not suitable for dealing with rushers.
Safety: 4/5. The range is what gives it an edge over the Bubble Gun, and maybe even the Razorpine, which is affected by gravity.
Availability: 3/5. 11.11% chance to drop from Martian Saucer.

Best prefix: Mythical $$$$

Xeno Staff: S

The most reliable minion. It doesn't get stuck, it delivers a constant stream of damage, it doesn't interfere with piercing weapons, and it doesn't miss. Kind of like having a horde of Magnet Spheres. No matter what you’re fighting, the UFOs will almost certainly land the first hit. A useful weapon for any class, especially when bossing.

DPS: 4/5. A swarm of UFOs can deal incredible concentrated single-target damage. While damage per hit is low, they make up for it with their attack speed and the fact that they will lock onto a new target immediately after they finish something off.
Crowd control: 2/5. They may be slightly worse than deadly spheres for crowd control, but against scattered enemies they will probably do more damage per second than ravens.
Accuracy: 5/5. UFOs are incredibly precise. Their attacks are undodgeable, and they don't waste time idling when enemies are in range.
Disruption: 5/5. Rapidly stunlocks and interrupts enemies with no problem, especially in a group.
Safety: 5/5. I don't even think you need to resummon these guys. They usually take care of bad situations before they pop up.
Availability: 3/5. 11.11% chance to drop from Martian Saucer.

Best prefix: Ruthless $$$$

Frost Moon

Christmas Tree Sword: D

If you aren't planning to break the game in half, the Christmas Tree Sword is actually better than The Horseman's Blade. Of course, it has no business being available this late, from an event as difficult as the Frost Moon no less. Just treat it like a Terra Blade with no crowd control.

DPS: 3/5. Even with both the sword and projectile at once, it’s not good.
Crowd control: 2/5. All the crowd control comes from the sword itself.
Accuracy: 3/5. 5/5 (blade). It's not too difficult to land the ornaments, since they travel quickly for a nice distance before falling.
Disruption: 3/5. You probably need the sword itself to actually beat your enemies back.
Safety: 4/5. This applies to the projectile, not the sword. At least it's usable beyond melee range.
Availability: 2/5. 5.19% to 7.78% chance to drop from Everscream, scaling with wave progression.

Best prefix: Legendary $$$$

Razorpine: S

The standard against which single-target magic weapons are measured. It's powerful and very simple to use, and probably ties with the Snowman Cannon as the best Frost Moon drop. The Bat Scepter, Bubble Gun, and Laser Machinegun can be considered variants of the Razorpine, but none of them offer the same combination of DPS and consistency. It's often said that magic starts popping off in the endgame, and the people who say that are probably referring either to the Razorpine or Razorblade Typhoon. Looks like someone really likes razors, huh.

DPS: 5/5. Cuts through most enemies like paper, and depletes the health of bosses reasonably quickly.
Crowd control: 2/5. Shreds small crowds fast enough that it looks like it has limited piercing, even though it doesn't.
Accuracy: 4/5. The projectiles are a bit narrow, but it is still easy to hit enemies with as long as they're on-screen.
Disruption: 5/5. It's incredibly fast and can hold one enemy in place indefinitely.
Safety: 4/5. To minimize spread, it might be a good idea to get a bit closer to enemies.
Availability: 2/5. 5.19% to 7.78% chance to drop from Everscream, scaling with wave progression.

Best prefix: Mythical $$

Chain Gun: A-

Uses standard bullets.
The least subtle ranged weapon in the game, it operates on the principle that any problem, no matter how large, can be overcome by drowning it in bullets. And that's kind of true, I suppose. It depends on the kind of bullets you feed it, so in order to make the Chain Gun work, you'd best be prepared to farm a lot of Chlorophyte and Crystal Shards.

DPS: 4/5. Applying Ichor/Betsy's curse improves its DPS dramatically, especially when using Crystal Bullets.
Crowd control: 1/5. 2/5 with Crystal/Chlorophyte Bullets. 5/5 with Exploding Bullets if you're into that.
Accuracy: 3/5. I guess its wide bullet spread is kind of a weakness? Except not really, you can give it homing ammo (5/5) and call it a day.
Disruption: 5/5. With its absurd speed, you don't even need to be at point blank range to keep an enemy under constant fire, especially with Chlorophyte Bullets.
Safety: 4/5. 5/5 with Chlorophyte Bullets.
Availability: 2/5. 5.55% to 12.5% chance to drop from Santa-NK1, scaling with wave progression.

Best prefix: Rapid $$

Elf Melter: C-

Its primary role is garbage disposal: cleaning out hordes of weak enemies. It has exceptionally poor single-target DPS, so although it's decent for holding off swarms, it's unlikely to be your favorite weapon unless you're the kind of person who likes playing with their food.

DPS: 2/5. Probably the worst DPS of any ranged weapon in this tier.
Crowd control: 5/5. Just as good as the Flamethrower for catching large groups of enemies.
Accuracy: 5/5. Very wide, covers a huge area, and basically has a damaging hitbox up 100% of the time.
Disruption: 4/5. The constant stream of fire is decent for interrupting enemies, but most of them can still plow through it.
Safety: 4/5. Very long range makes it essentially equivalent to line-of-sight.
Availability: 2/5. 5.55% to 12.5% chance to drop from Santa-NK1, scaling with wave progression.

Best prefix: Unreal $$$$

Blizzard Staff: B-

Wasteful and inaccurate, the Blizzard Staff only works well against big stationary targets like Celestial Pillars, or the Ice Queen herself while she's spinning. You'd probably prefer a Laser Machinegun most of the time, unless you're planning on walling yourself in — a strategy that will work against the Vortex Pillar, but not much else. Outside of these specific scenarios, I can't think of any situation where the Blizzard Staff would ever be more effective than the multitude of other single-target weapons. Usually, it's just like a Daedalus Stormbow + Holy Arrows except it doesn't pierce and it costs a lot of mana. Its main problem is that the big, slow-moving targets that it has a good matchup against don't appear in the upcoming battles with the Lunatic Cultist and beyond.

DPS: 5/5. If somehow you can get all your shots to hit, it has unrivaled DPS. Usually that means attacking a large target.
Crowd control: 3/5. You probably do want to use it against crowds, considering that most of its shots will miss if you target a lone enemy anyways.
Accuracy: 1/5. The projectiles take some time to fall and have a wide spread, so aiming it is extremely difficult. It copes very poorly with any sort of enemy movement.
Disruption: 4/5. You can immobilize an enemy completely if you catch it in the icicle stream, though not as reliably as with the Razorpine.
Safety: 5/5. If you bunker down, you'll probably be punished for it, so stay on the lookout for enemies that can penetrate walls. Not being able to strike enemies offscreen is somewhat annoying.
Availability: 1/5. 4.4% to 7.52% chance to drop from Ice Queen, scaling with wave progression.

Best prefix: Mythical $$

North Pole: B

A very weird 300 IQ weapon that works by firing over enemies and carpeting them with projectiles. It can do a lot of work in the right situations, but when you compare it to the Flairon, it just isn't as reliable. One could argue that its effectiveness is roughly equal to a Dart Rifle with Cursed Darts, which has the added benefit of creating lingering hitboxes on the ground. Probably among the highest skill caps of any weapon, and I doubt it has exceptionally great potential after the 1.2.3 nerf. At least it's more spammable than the Blizzard Staff.

DPS: 5/5. Your mileage may vary, depending on positioning. It hurts a lot if you lob its projectiles straight upwards, adjusting for wind direction, but it is not very versatile at all.
Crowd control: 4/5. Hitting a large crowd requires adjusting your throw to cover a wider area with less concentrated fire.
Accuracy: 1/5. If the recommended attack mode is to lob stuff over your enemies, it's safe to say that it won't win any points for accuracy. You can still use the spear and projectile, which will usually score at least two hits.
Disruption: 5/5. Once you've set up your snow curtain, you can dodge most enemies just by getting on the other side, though it takes a while to set up.
Safety: 4/5. It's basically identical in usage to the Blizzard Staff, but doesn't penetrate walls.
Availability: 1/5. 4.4% to 7.52% chance to drop from Ice Queen, scaling with wave progression.

Best prefix: Godly/Demonic $

Snowman Cannon: S+

IT SHOOTS HOMING ROCKETS.

DPS: 4/5. Even if you're using Rocket III, you may wish to switch to your best gun with Chlorophyte Bullets when facing a single target. It's still among the better options when facing bosses.
Crowd control: 5/5. The best thing about rocket launchers in general. You can also now use Rocket III for a wider blast radius without fear of self-harm.
Accuracy: 5/5. I've never seen one expire in midair, and I'm pretty sure they last close to forever.
Disruption: 4/5. It's certainly very disruptive, but often the rockets knock enemies toward you rather than away from you. I don't think I can rate it a 5/5 when taking that into account.
Safety: 5/5. It's homing, it has great velocity, and the explosions don't hurt you, which is good because it would otherwise have been C tier.
Availability: 1/5. 4.4% to 7.52% chance to drop from Ice Queen, scaling with wave progression.

Best prefix: Unreal $$$$$$$$

Sold by Tavernkeep (req: Golem defeated)

Ballista Staff: S

Still not great against flying enemies, but the same can be said of all sentries. Like explosive traps, ballistas can be used as primary weapons through resummoning, but only against targets that won’t move around too much before they fire. They are by far the best sentries if you're fighting in a flat open space. The Ballista Staff earns its S rank simply because Valhalla Knight armor is among the most resilient armor sets in existence, and its Ballista Panic buff greatly improves the viability of these sentries. If you’re not planning to use Valhalla Knight armor, your sentry choice becomes a little more difficult, though in all honesty the Ballista Staff can probably still be argued to be the best of the four.

DPS: 3/5. Powerful, but slow and sometimes inaccurate. 5/5 if you're running Valhalla Knight and tanking hits.
Crowd control: 5/5. Pierces all targets, assuming it lined up the shot correctly, which it probably did if you're fighting in a flat area. And while it respects piercing invincibility frames, it does not add any of its own (!), which means that if four ballistas hit at the same time, it actually deals damage four times.
Accuracy: 2/5. Has a hard time hitting anything that flies or jumps around, but at close enough range it's not impossible.
Disruption: 1/5. I know it's slow, but when you're doing like 300 damage per shot, does it really matter?
Safety: 5/5. You can use it for cheesing like the Explosive Trap, too.
Availability: 5/5. Sold by Tavernkeep for 100 Defender Medals after Golem has been defeated.

Best prefix: Ruthless $$$$$$$$

Flameburst Staff: B-

A balanced sentry usable in most situations. Flameburst towers don't require you to pay much attention to what's happening on the ground, and deal consistent DPS most of the time. Unfortunately, like many jacks-of-all-trades, it is a master of none: the Queen Spider offers better scattered crowd control, and the Staff of the Frost Hydra offers better bossing DPS (though with Ballista Panic, the Ballista Staff beats them both by a mile). While it isn't that bad, and is absolutely better than the Explosive Trap and Rainbow Crystal, it offers literally nothing that can't be done better by the Ballista Staff. Use that.

DPS: 3/5. Their firing speed is a noticeable improvement over ballistas, but their DPS is inferior to the Staff of the Frost Hydra.
Crowd control: 3/5. Actually a decent explosion radius, but since they're forced to fire from ground level, they won't destroy clustered groups as well as a manually-controlled explosive weapon would. Or an infinitely-piercing weapon like the Ballista, for that matter.
Accuracy: 2/5. Why Dark Artist armor increases their range is beyond me, because at long distances they're still not accurate against much besides the Old One's Army itself. Their velocity makes them rather poor even with the range increase from Dark Artist armor.
Disruption: 2/5. They fire fast enough to slow down enemies a little bit, if you stack them.
Safety: 5/5. Like many summons, it fires immediately upon being summoned. But usually you'd want to do that with whatever has the highest base damage, another area in which the Flameburst loses to the Ballista.
Availability: 5/5. Sold by Tavernkeep for 100 Defender Medals after Golem has been defeated.

Best prefix: Ruthless $$$$$$$$

Explosive Trap Staff: C

Like all explosive traps, this is best used as a primary weapon for summoners (through resummoning), and can compete with sources of AoE piercing damage from other classes. It contributes almost nothing when left alone, however. Probably not a great choice unless you're doing a "summoner only" playthrough for whatever reason. Red Riding armor improves these sentries a great deal, but not running Valhalla Knight armor is usually too high a price to pay.

DPS: 4/5 (active). 2/5 (passive). Damage is inconsistent compared to the other sentries because the area of effect is rather small.
Crowd control: 5/5 (active). Not as good when left alone because they only attack enemies directly above them.
Accuracy: 1/5. Still does nothing unless an enemy walks over it, and does nothing for a while after that. Requires babysitting to deal any real damage.
Disruption: 0/5. Slow attack speed and no knockback at all.
Safety: 5/5. The best summon weapon for wall cheesing, though that's not as tempting this late in the game.
Availability: 5/5. Sold by Tavernkeep for 100 Defender Medals after Golem has been defeated.

Best prefix: Demonic $$$$$$$$

Lightning Aura Staff: B

Better than before thanks to the high defense of all the enemies you'll encounter, which the lightning aura cuts right through. However, as a stationary AoE sentry, it is a bit more situational than projectile sentries. You might wish to reposition them occasionally, because without knockback it cannot hold enemies within its area of effect. This is also great against the Solar Pillar, because all the enemies stay close to the ground, and the aura deletes Drakomire fireballs.

DPS: 3/5. Unlike other weapons that deal damage rapidly, its DPS is not reduced when fighting enemies with high defense.
Crowd control: 5/5. It does a lot of work against invasion events, and you'll be facing quite a few of those in the near future.
Accuracy: 3/5. Getting stuff into its area of effect is not as difficult as it is for the Nimbus Rod or Explosive Trap.
Disruption: 0/5. They can stop shooters, but don't have any inherent knockback.
Safety: 5/5. The best strategy is to hover in a UFO and summon lightning auras directly below yourself.
Availability: 5/5. Sold by Tavernkeep for 100 Defender Medals after Golem has been defeated.

Best prefix: Demonic $$$$$$$$

Dropped by Betsy

Flying Dragon: B-

While it is a slight upgrade to the Terra Blade, this is also around the time the Terra Blade is starting to fall off. It's easier to hit with and allows you to abuse the cover granted by terrain, but you will probably replace it with the Solar Eruption very quickly. Technically, it is the best light-providing weapon for exploration, so if you wanted a reason to use it, there you go.

DPS: 3/5. About the same as the Terra Blade in terms of raw numbers, but remember that the Terra Blade is falling off at this point. It’s hard not to be disappointed in its single-target performance.
Crowd control: 5/5. It's better at this than the Terra Blade because its projectile is so much larger.
Accuracy: 4/5. Very wide compared to the Terra Beam, and much easier to deal damage with.
Disruption: 3/5. Its knockback is nothing special, but can slow down KB-resistant enemies somewhat.
Safety: 5/5. It has line of sight with infinite wall piercing. Even aboveground, you can find ways to abuse the wall piercing properties because it has so much range.
Availability: 3/5. 25% chance to drop from Betsy.

Best prefix: Legendary $$

Sky Dragon's Fury: B

Pretty good for widespread AoE damage, and its primary spinning attack isn't useless because it counters flying enemies that try to rush you. It works a lot like the Electrosphere Launcher, though it sacrifices single-target DPS for the ability to cover an area more quickly. Probably the most well-executed weapon with a primary and secondary attack; both attack modes have great utility depending on the situation, which notably does not include boss fights.

DPS: 3/5. Still more suited to eliminating crowds than single targets. It falters especially against flying bosses.
Crowd control: 5/5. Unlike the Flying Dragon, it's better suited for attacking from above rather than spending time on the ground lining up shots. It grinds up scattered crowds like no one's business.
Accuracy: 2/5. 5/5 for the primary attack. The spray of electrospheres is pretty random, so you need to fire it against blocks for it to be effective, meaning that it performs poorly against flying enemies.
Disruption: 5/5. You can just create an impenetrable barrier of electrospheres, and left click exists as a failsafe, repelling all nearby enemies in a 360 degree radius.
Safety: 4/5. You should be using the right click attack most of the time, and left click only when surrounded. You can also shoot the electrospheres through thin walls.
Availability: 3/5. 25% chance to drop from Betsy.

Best prefix: Godly/Demonic $$

Aerial Bane: B+

Sure it's called "Aerial Bane", but the high gravity of its projectiles makes it hard to hit flying enemies. It is very rewarding if you can land your shots, but if you're having trouble with that, don't be afraid to ditch it and switch to something with Chlorophyte Bullets. Also, don't underestimate its effectiveness against grounded troops.

DPS: 4/5. 5/5 against flying enemies if you can consistently land your shots, but that's quite difficult.
Crowd control: 4/5. Each shot that you land will greatly injure a crowd, if you can land it.
Accuracy: 3/5. It's fine at midrange. The arrows don't travel that far, unfortunately.
Disruption: 2/5. While it's not the slowest, you'll find that it struggles to hold enemies at bay with its mediocre speed.
Safety: 4/5. In order for this weapon to be effective, you need the height advantage.
Availability: 3/5. 25% chance to drop from Betsy.

Best prefix: Unreal $$

Betsy's Wrath: S

Inflicts an upgraded version of ichor with fewer immunities (among the relevant bosses, only Pumpking, Mourning Wood, and Lunatic Cultist appear to be immune). Betsy's Wrath is pretty much a no-brainer as a support weapon for bossing, and with its large area of effect and high damage, it's a good magic weapon in its own right. Along with Vampire Knives, this is one of the best primary weapons for summoners to use. It pairs well with weapons that deal many hits very quickly (Phantasm, Laser Machinegun, Nebula Arcanum).

DPS: 4/5. It doesn't need to be used constantly to apply Betsy's curse. While it does pretty high damage, you can find alternatives for DPS that cost less mana, and are better suited to take advantage of Betsy's curse.
Crowd control: 5/5. The radius of those explosions is actually pretty good.
Accuracy: 4/5. It has a large splash radius even if it misses, and to apply the coveted debuff, you only need to land one shot anyways.
Disruption: 2/5. Not the fastest weapon, and if you're trying to use it for disruption, you're using it wrong.
Safety: 4/5. It only needs to be applied once every ten seconds to be effective, and has pretty good range for a weapon affected by gravity.
Availability: 3/5. 25% chance to drop from Betsy.

Best prefix: Mythical $$

Crafted from Celestial Fragments

Stardust Cell Staff: A

A good summoning weapon with the incredible misfortune of being forced to compete with the Stardust Dragon. One heavily overlooked mechanic of the Stardust Cell is that it will occasionally shoot an extra projectile at the target its master is attacking directly. Because of this, its effectiveness increases dramatically if you're using a fast and accurate primary weapon. Unfortunately, it still doesn't match the Stardust Dragon's DPS even in that best-case scenario, and doesn't go through walls, either. But since it doesn't deal piercing damage, it's the better minion to use if your primary weapon is a piercing weapon like the Razorblade Typhoon. Melee users will likely prefer the Cell because they have relatively few non-piercing weapons to choose from.

DPS: 4/5. They're fairly consistent. While the dragon will deal a lot more damage while it's attacking, the cells will probably be attacking a larger percentage of the time.
Crowd control: 2/5. The biggest reason to use them is if you have a really good piercing weapon that you don't want the dragon to interfere with. Lack of piercing is actually important to this weapon's role. While their crowd control abilities aren't great on their own, they damage crowds a lot better if you use a piercing primary weapon.
Accuracy: 5/5. Unlike other minion projectiles, the cell projectiles track their targets indefinitely. Enemies can still dodge them by entering solid blocks.
Disruption: 2/5. They attack intermittently and have a habit of changing targets, so the Xeno Staff is actually better for disruption.
Safety: 5/5. Oddly, the cells seem reluctant to attack enemies who are out of reach when re-summoned, so it's better to just leave them be.
Availability: 5/5. Crafted from 18 Stardust Fragments at the Ancient Manipulator.

Best prefix: Ruthless $$$$

Stardust Dragon Staff: S+

The strongest solitary minion whether you're a dedicated summoner or not. It bypasses all barriers and hunts down enemies at every corner of your screen, and performs excellently with no investment other than a Bewitching Table and Summoning Potion. The only drawback is that it interferes heavily with other sources of piercing damage, but that probably won't bother you much, because most of the best single target weapons are non-piercing. Viable non-piercing primary weapons include (but are not limited to) the Influx Waver, Phantasm, Vortex Beater, Bubble Gun, Scourge of the Corruptor, Vampire Knives, Betsy's Wrath, Laser Machinegun, Flairon, Tsunami, Bat Scepter, and Razorpine, so definitely go with the Dragon if you don’t mind locking yourself into choices like those.

The fact that I gave it a 5/5 in all fields suggests that the Stardust Dragon Staff is the best weapon in the game you can obtain before the final boss battle, and it very well might be.

DPS: 5/5. No summoning weapon comes close to dealing as much damage as the Stardust Dragon. Just a few segments and it's already dealing around 200 damage per hit at an incredibly rapid rate.
Crowd control: 5/5. All enemies near the dragon's primary target also get shredded. It kind of reminds me of the Piranha Gun, except the piranha is ten times the size and does ten times as much damage.
Accuracy: 5/5. It moves faster than any enemy; nothing can escape. You may wish to use right-click targeting to ensure that it tracks the target you need to attack.
Disruption: 5/5. Consistently hits the piercing damage cap. Even a dragon with one segment can completely disrupt its target.
Safety: 5/5. Goes through walls and attacks enemies offscreen.
Availability: 5/5. Crafted from 18 Stardust Fragments at the Ancient Manipulator.

Best prefix: Ruthless $$$$

Vortex Beater: S

Uses standard bullets.
The Phantasm has higher DPS potential against the final boss, but is much more difficult to aim with, so use the Vortex Beater with Chlorophyte Bullets for that fight if you want consistency. Against the remaining invasion-based Celestial events, of course, the Vortex Beater blows the Phantasm out of the water, assuming you have Chlorophyte Bullets to spare. It can also be used with an Endless Musket Pouch if you want a budget Snowman Cannon, though its performance with homing bullets is what earns the Vortex Beater its S rank.

DPS: 4/5. Though its wide spread and rocket secondary suggest that the Vortex Beater was meant to be specialized for crowd control, just feed it Chlorophyte Bullets and it becomes a fearsome single-target weapon, about on par with Nebula Blaze.
Crowd control: 5/5. Thanks to the rockets, it's extremely good against crowds. But you should go with the Snowman Cannon if you want to rely on rockets exclusively.
Accuracy: 3/5. The bullets have a pretty wide spread. Obviously the homing Vortex Rocket is a solid 5/5, and you can also feed it homing bullets, so I doubt accuracy will be a problem.
Disruption: 5/5. Its firing speed is really not that far behind the Chain Gun's.
Safety: 5/5. Even if you aren't using Chlorophyte Bullets, you can always count on those homing rockets to take things out from a distance.
Availability: 5/5. Crafted from 18 Vortex Fragments at the Ancient Manipulator.

Best prefix: Unreal $$$$

Phantasm: A+

Uses standard arrows.
While it offers the best single-target ranged DPS when used with Holy Arrows, the problem is that it doesn't have a great matchup against the final boss, who moves around a lot and also forces you to move around a lot. It's far from unusable in that fight, though, because it comes with a built-in aim correction system: your phantasm arrows will always point in the direction of a live target. Pay attention to the direction they shoot and adjust your angle accordingly. Also, because of its somewhat low damage value and large number of hits per second, this is a weapon on which a good modifier matters a great deal. Be sure to feed it high-damage arrows; the DPS when using Venom Arrows is roughly double that of the Endless Quiver. It's a bit trickier to use than the Vortex Beater, but you should definitely consider choosing the Phantasm if you can commit to supporting it with all the resources you can manage.

After Vortex Armor is available, the Phantasm becomes an S tier weapon and easily eclipses the Vortex Beater, but I'm not factoring that into its ranking.

DPS: 5/5, even with the Endless Quiver, though by using better arrows it improves dramatically.
Crowd control: 5/5 with Holy Arrows, 2/5 otherwise. Use the Vortex Beater for the Celestial events.
Accuracy: 4/5. You are using an Archery Potion, right? With Venom Arrows, its velocity should be good enough not to be a problem. With a Magic Quiver, you can have great arrow velocity with whatever ammunition you want.
Disruption: 5/5. The wide range of arrow velocities works in the Phantasm's favor to essentially grant it a constant arrow stream. It also improves in speed as you hold down the fire button.
Safety: 4/5. Great range, but you may struggle to land your shots if you're using it as you retreat.
Availability: 5/5. Crafted from 18 Vortex Fragments at the Ancient Manipulator.

Best prefix: Unreal $$$$

Nebula Blaze: C

It offers single-target DPS that is comparable to the likes of the Razorpine and Laser Machinegun, and has homing properties, which should make it the better option for dealing damage to flying bosses... right? However, it is mostly inferior to the Nebula Arcanum, with lower DPS, no crowd control, and much lower mana efficiency. And homing won’t do much good if the projectiles splatter against the ground as they are inclined to do. It has one possibly major advantage, though: it can be used when kiting, whereas the Nebula Arcanum requires you to more or less stay in the same place. Still, you might be better off using a Razorpine or Laser Machinegun for that, because the Nebula Blaze is one of the least mana-efficient weapons in the entire game. Compared with those two, the homing abilities are not worth the tradeoff. I'd even say that it's worse than the Bat Scepter, decisively so if you have some way of inflicting Ichor or Betsy's Curse.

DPS: 4/5. Very good compared with the magic weapons you've obtained up until now, but not when compared to the other Celestial fragment weapons.
Crowd control: 1/5. Nah. Use it on a single target.
Accuracy: 5/5. Fully homing, and should never miss when used in an open area.
Disruption: 0/5. It has no knockback, and mostly prevents enemies from approaching by just killing them outright.
Safety: 5/5. The only advantage it has over the Arcanum is how easily it can be used in high-speed aerial battles, and there's at least one important one coming up.
Availability: 5/5. Crafted from 18 Nebula Fragments at the Ancient Manipulator.

Best prefix: Demonic $$$$

Nebula Arcanum: S

Technically a homing weapon, but works more like an AoE. This is arguably the closest magic weapon to being a true upgrade to the Water Bolt. Once you've got a good number of galaxies deployed, the Nebula Arcanum kills everything that enters its area of effect almost instantly, and you can maintain control of the area by picking up all the mana stars to refuel. It’s likely the best way to burn up extra mana stars lying on the ground. But because it requires you to remain in the same place to allow the galaxies to build up and slowly home in on enemies, you'd better find an area with decent cover if you're going to take it all the way to the final boss.

DPS: 5/5. If you can support its mana cost, the Nebula Arcanum outcompetes even the Bubble Gun.
Crowd control: 5/5. It doesn't matter how quickly they spawn, the Nebula Arcanum will kill them equally fast. Better than many infinitely-piercing weapons.
Accuracy: 5/5. The galaxies last a long time and home in on enemies, so they will end up hitting their target, eventually.
Disruption: 1/5. It tends to pierce enemies on its first pass before it loops around to chase them, so I wouldn't rely on it to repel pursuers.
Safety: 5/5. It has good range, but it relies heavily on galaxy buildup, forcing you to remain in the same area if you want it to work effectively.
Availability: 5/5. Crafted from 18 Nebula Fragments at the Ancient Manipulator.

Best prefix: Mythical $$$$

Solar Eruption: S+

Destroys all the crowds of enemies you'll encounter in the remainder of the Celestial events, and puts in a great deal of work against the final boss if you choose to hold your ground rather than run away in your UFO. This weapon is on the same level as the equipment that drops from the final boss itself, and after you obtain it, you're likely to forget how to use all your other melee weapons. You may want to stick to Stardust Cell or UFO rather than the dragon as your minion if you're planning to use it for bossing, though.

DPS: 5/5. For some reason it has better DPS than its counterpart the Daybreak, which was supposed to be specialized for single target damage. Hmm.
Crowd control: 5/5. This is arguably the best melee weapon for crowd control, and among the best crowd control weapons in the game.
Accuracy: 4/5. Hits a reasonably wide area, and is quite effective even at the tip.
Disruption: 5/5. Delivers a ruthless chain of explosions, easily stopping enemies from approaching if not simply destroying them in one sweep.
Safety: 5/5 if you're using the terrain as cover, but since the final battles all take place on the surface and in the sky, you probably won't be able to. Range is still pretty good though.
Availability: 5/5. Crafted from 18 Solar Fragments at the Ancient Manipulator.

Best prefix: Godly/Demonic $$$$

Daybreak: B-

This isn't a bad weapon; it just isn't terribly useful when you consider what it's up against. While its DPS against a single target is slightly better than the Nebula Blaze, the Nebula Blaze is much easier to use since it's a homing weapon. And when you compare it to the Solar Eruption, the Daybreak actually has inferior DPS. Yes, I took the Daybroken debuff into account and added 800 to its DPS meter rating, and it's still worse than the Solar Eruption. This weapon has a pretty bad matchup against the final boss since homing is so important for hitting consistently, not to mention that the Daybroken debuff gets periodically removed. It's probably the best melee weapon to use for that fight, but still not as good as either of the Vortex weapons. One nice thing about it is that you can apply eight spears and allow the DoT damage to persist while you switch to a weapon that hits harder, though that probably isn’t worth the micromanagement it takes.

Because it technically applies piercing damage, the Stardust Dragon will interrupt the Daybreak; this is an interaction you're likely to see if you use both.

DPS: 4/5. Half of it comes from the Daybroken debuff.
Crowd control: 1/5. It's a single target weapon, so it's best suited for taking down one enemy at a time.
Accuracy: 3/5. It still requires aiming and isn't too accurate beyond Solar Eruption range. At least your targets are probably very large.
Disruption: 3/5. Its knockback is good enough to repel enemies with its fast speed.
Safety: 4/5. Marginally safer than the Solar Eruption in aerial fights, with its better range.
Availability: 5/5. Crafted from 18 Solar Fragments at the Ancient Manipulator.

Best prefix: Godly/Demonic $$$$

Dropped by Final boss (availability = 0)

Terrarian: S

The Yoyo Bag actually doesn't double the Terrarian's DPS like you might think; it just widens its area of effect and increases the projectile density. This makes it easier to wipe out crowds with, but a Mechanical Glove might be better suited for that accessory slot if you're looking to maximize single-target DPS. Whether you elect to use the Yoyo Bag or not, it's ridiculously strong against crowds and bosses alike. However, in multiplayer, two players should not target the same enemy with the Terrarian; only one will deal damage every six frames.

DPS: 5/5. Probably the best of the three melee weapons for general boss-killing.
Crowd control: 5/5. It deals piercing damage, so you can eliminate crowds just by flying over and dragging the Terrarian through them.
Accuracy: 5/5. Since it creates so many homing projectiles, keeping enemies within its area of effect is very easy.
Disruption: 5/5. Like the Razorblade Typhoon, it easily hits the piercing damage cap.
Safety: 5/5. The best throwing distance of any yoyo. It doesn't require you to stand anywhere near your target.

Best prefix: Godly/Demonic $$$$

Meowmere: A+

You need to stick to the ground to get the maximum benefit from its bouncing projectiles. Consider setting up a projectile curtain like you would with the Candy Corn Rifle or North Pole. Meowmere is like the ground-based counterpart to Star Wrath, but I'm putting it a little higher because it's much easier to use. Overall, an extremely powerful and brainless weapon. Highly recommended for your toddler.

DPS: 4/5. Rebounding projectiles can bring it to a 5/5 depending on the terrain.
Crowd control: 5/5. It doesn't even matter that much where you aim it, it still destroys crowds with ease.
Accuracy: 3/5. More aiming is required than with the Terrarian. I guess a projectile spamming weapon like Meowmere doesn't especially need to be accurate.
Disruption: 3/5. This statistic probably isn't relevant anymore at the stage of the game where anything vulnerable to knockback dies in one or two hits.
Safety: 5/5. With all the projectiles it creates, you'll be killing enemies that aren't even visible on the screen.

Best prefix: Legendary $$$$$$$$

Star Wrath: A

The trickiest of the three melee weapons in this tier to use, but that isn't saying much because they're all pretty straightforward and spammable. While the Meowmere shreds enemies on the ground, the Star Wrath is better suited for fighting in the sky, which might help you as you try to farm out all the other Luminite-tier weapons. The Terrarian is probably better at this, though, because like the Blizzard Staff, the Star Wrath isn't great at hitting things that move around a lot.

DPS: 5/5. Requires some finesse to keep enemies within the stream of stars. The blade isn't really worth using, since it only deals half the damage of the stars.
Crowd control: 4/5. Because it rains projectiles from the sky, it's not as effective as Meowmere for clearing out crowds that accumulate on the ground.
Accuracy: 2/5. The projectiles are somewhat larger than the Blizzard Staff's icicles, but against fast, small enemies I wouldn't rely on it.
Disruption: 3/5. More spammable than the Blizzard Staff because it doesn't require mana. I guess it's pretty close to being a direct upgrade to the North Pole.
Safety: 5/5. If you use the Star Wrath on the ground, be sure to abuse its ability to bypass natural obstacles such as hills.

Best prefix: Legendary $$$$$$$$

S.D.M.G: S

It's actually mostly on par with the Phantasm in single-target situations, so use Chlorophyte or Luminite Bullets if you want it to be more unique. Vortex Armor is what allows it to compete with all the other Luminite-tier weapons. The Phantasm, too, becomes S rank when stealth is taken into account. But even without Vortex Armor, it's worth consideration on summoner builds that need a weapon that won't compete with the Stardust Dragon.

DPS: 4/5, but 5/5 (almost equal to Last Prism) when stealthed.
Crowd control: 1/5. 2/5 with Chlorophyte/Crystal Bullets. 5/5 with Luminite/Exploding Bullets.
Accuracy: 4/5. Unlike the Chain Gun, it fires with near perfect accuracy toward the cursor. It's an advantage that doesn't mean much because you can just use homing bullets on either.
Disruption: 5/5. With a Deadly, Unreal, or any +10% speed modifier, it has the same firing speed as an unmodified Chain Gun.
Safety: 4/5. 5/5 with Chlorophyte Bullets.

Best prefix: Unreal $$$$$$

Celebration: B+

People aren't giving this weapon enough credit. It's very strong for grounded crowd control and deals a great deal of single-target damage if you can land both rockets. The main issue with the Celebration, of course, is that unlike the Phantasm and S.D.M.G, it only has one mode of attack. Passable overall, but probably not as useful as the Snowman Cannon. Definitely better than the Rainbow Crystal Staff, though.

DPS: 4/5. Requires both rockets to land in order to deal good DPS.
Crowd control: 5/5. Maybe not as reliable as the Snowman Cannon, but it's still among the best ranged crowd control weapons.
Accuracy: 2/5. The rockets spread a bit and don't travel that quickly, so its utility against flying enemies is questionable.
Disruption: 3/5. While it shoots relatively slowly, rockets are still pretty disruptive when they land.
Safety: 3/5. Pretty similar to a shotgun with its poor accuracy. You need to stay fairly close to deal consistent damage.

Best prefix: Unreal $$$$

Last Prism: S+

With magic weapons, you're often left with a choice between the Celestial Cuffs/Emblem and the Mana Flower for mana restoration, but the Last Prism definitely prefers the Mana Flower. Sure, Mana Sickness exists, but it barely slows this weapon down. It's great for crowd control even if you don't want to use a Mana Flower. Just like with the Laser Machinegun, if you don't see any enemies, stop firing. The scattered beams are much more mana-efficient to use, and equally effective against everything except bosses.

DPS: 5/5. Even after a few stacks of Mana Sickness, it's still a 5/5. Probably the best single target damage in the game, maybe even surpassing fully-stealthed Phantasm with Holy Arrows.
Crowd control: 5/5. Rips through everything. The scattered-beam stage is probably better for destroying most crowds.
Accuracy: 5/5. The hitbox appears instantly and is incredibly wide. Also, unlike its underachieving little brother the Charged Blaster Cannon, it allows you to adjust its aim, albeit more slowly than normal weapons.
Disruption: 0/5. May as well be 5/5, because everything that isn't immune to knockback can only withstand the beam for a fraction of a second before getting vaporized.
Safety: 4/5. A line-of-sight weapon that relies on killing enemies before they can really threaten you, and it does this job well.

Best prefix: Demonic $$$$

Lunar Flare: A+

There are two situations where you'd want to use the Lunar Flare over the Last Prism: you need to bypass a wall to hit an enemy, or you're using the Spectre Hood. It's probably the more economical choice if you're using the Celestial Magnet to restore mana, since it doesn't require continued use. In fact, it penalizes sustained use just as harshly as the Last Prism, which you might notice if you're using the Mana Flower and Spectre Hood. It is a bit unfortunate that the Lunar Flare will inevitably end up getting compared to the most brokenly overpowered weapon in the game, but viewed on its own merit, it is definitely better than the Star Wrath for PvE situations.

DPS: 5/5. While not as broken as the Last Prism, it still rips through bosses.
Crowd control: 5/5. Much better area of effect than any other weapon that rains projectiles from the sky.
Accuracy: 4/5. Exploding upon hitting blocks makes the Lunar Flare much, much more accurate against grounded enemies than the Blizzard Staff and Star Wrath. 2/5 against faster flying enemies.
Disruption: 5/5. Stunlocking enemies is hilariously easy.
Safety: 5/5. Fires with pinpoint accuracy towards any part of your screen.

Best prefix: Mythical $$$$

Rainbow Crystal Staff: D-

"cELeBrAtioN iS thE woRsT moOn LoRD dRoP"

No matter how you look at it, obtaining the Rainbow Crystal Staff from the final boss is a slap in the face. It is far too laggy and slow to hit anything unless its target is literally standing still, and the ability to move is something that all actual threats have in common. When taking matchups into consideration, it can be argued that this is the worst weapon in the game; no matter how hard you try to make it work, it performs well against almost literally nothing. This sentry was probably intended to be used with the Stardust Guardian, who can lure enemies into one location as the Rainbow Crystal picks them off, but that only works against trash mobs who can just be vaporized with any weapon in this tier, and that strategy also forces you to wear the squishy Stardust set. Most disappointing weapon in the game by far. If this was your first Moon Lord drop, I am so, so sorry.

DPS: 3/5, even in the best-case scenario where it lands all its shots.
Crowd control: 3/5. Probably better to use against crowds. Since it basically hits everything except its actual target, having more targets improves the odds that it will actually deal some damage.
Accuracy: 1/5. If there's any weapon that deserves a 0/5 for accuracy, it's the Rainbow Crystal Staff. It makes even the Tempest Staff look like the American Sniper. At least Pygmies and other stuff can reliably hit stuff on the ground; this weapon fails to accomplish even that.
Disruption: 1/5. Slow as molasses, and almost literally never hits the fast enemies that you would need to disrupt.
Safety: 5/5. While still worthless in any PvE situation, it is the best summoning weapon for PvP.

Best prefix: Ruthless $$$$

Lunar Portal Staff: C+

It's probably the best sentry weapon, but that isn't saying much because you're not going to rely on sentries to get you through the Celestial events. The Lunar Portal Staff doesn't improve summoner viability nearly as much as the Stardust Dragon (or even the Stardust Cell), and is pretty forgettable overall. At least it does improve your overall combat effectiveness, unlike the Rainbow Crystal. It also helps that the most durable summoner armor in the game is sentry-based.

DPS: 3/5. It's okay, I guess. You can run a sentry build to improve its performance, but you really ought to invest in more dragon segments instead.
Crowd control: 5/5. It can hit a lot of enemies if it fires at the right angle.
Accuracy: 3/5. It's indisputably more effective against slower enemies than faster ones, but with its wide coverage, it isn't that bad even at hitting flying things.
Disruption: 4/5. Unlike other sentries, it has enough knockback to repel fighter enemies, though only while the beam is out (which is around half the time).
Safety: 5/5. To maximize its effectiveness, try to remain in roughly the same area where you've summoned it.

Best prefix: Ruthless $$$$

ppowersteef · May 30, 2018

I really like this tier list. Great job on figuring this all out.
So far I don't have much to disagree with. It all sounds pretty fair compared with their usefulness.

I only disagree with the Clinger staff.
While it's an interesting weapon. It can only hold off a limited amount of hits from enemies. So it's use is really limited in a crowd. Where a Numbus Cloud can stay for an whole minute against a wall. It's crowd control and safety is not as great as you describe it. Not to mention the other stats such as the high mana cost.

On a side note: Is there any specific order you have listed the weapons with?

Baconfry · May 30, 2018

The Clinger Staff is ranked a little higher because its wall of cursed flames can just be thrown down without a second thought, just like with the Nimbus Rod. It is definitely worse than the Nimbus Rod, but you don't really have to pay much attention to it, so usually it's just free additional DPS. It also helps that you can use the Clinger Staff and Nimbus Rod at the same time.

sharkman0101 · May 31, 2018

The Anchor should be moved down to F rank honestly. The Anchor lacks any sort of usefulness in the point of the game you obtain it, it has terrible damage, limited uses, slower attack rate than a snail, and lacks any tactical uses to help defend yourself effectively(especially in Expert.) It should be down in the pits with the Crystal Vile Shard. (Which is a shame too, the weapon only gains any usability if you combine it with an Ichor debuff, and it still gets a rather subpar DPS anyways. The Crystal Vile Shard should really get a buff to make it worthy of being in the Mimic drop pools, such as armor penetration and slightly increased damage to up the DPS a bit.)

Other than that, excellent tier list! It clearly shows effort and thought put into it.

Vessyl · May 31, 2018

Wow, I...did not know the bladetongue existed. Might have to get me one, it seems pretty good!

Baconfry · Jun 5, 2018

I've updated post #2, so this thread now covers every single weapon available in the latter half of Hardmode (except the stuff that drops from the final boss). I think there are roughly three times as many post-mech weapons as pre-mech, so as you can imagine, this took me several days to write. Hopefully you find it useful!

The post-mech weapons are roughly listed in the order you'd encounter them in, and the pre-mech weapons were in no particular order, though I did group them together if they were obtained in a similar way.

sharkman0101 · Jun 6, 2018

Nicely done with the 2nd part of the tier list! Can't say I would argue anything wrong with the list rankings, mostly just boasts my own personal experiences with certain weapons which I'm not gonna bring up. (Hey, nothing wrong with personal preferences.)

I would like to see you group the final Post-Moon Lords weapons as its own tier, just to compare them among themselves along with the Pillar-tier gear. That gear is almost as strong as Moon-Lord-tier weapons, if not stronger, so why not include them as well?

Also, just noticed this:

Classy Cane: F
Click to expand...

I'll have you know that this is incorrcet and unreasonable. The Classy Cane is the best weapon in the game, it can kill Moon Lord easily in seconds.

Godley · Jun 6, 2018

KO Cannon can be obtained via statues, so it’s actually quite easy to get if you farm for it.

Baconfry · Jun 7, 2018

sharkman0101 said: ↑

I would like to see you group the final Post-Moon Lords weapons as its own tier, just to compare them among themselves along with the Pillar-tier gear. That gear is almost as strong as Moon-Lord-tier weapons, if not stronger, so why not include them as well?
Click to expand...

Sure, I've updated the post and added the post-Moon Lord weapons.

The Classy Cane is the best weapon in the game, it can kill Moon Lord easily in seconds.
Click to expand...

Shh! We don't want people to find out; it would take the fun out of the game!

FlyKip · Jun 18, 2018

Baconfry said: ↑

Classy Cane, Pearlwood Sword and Pearlwood Bow: F

lol

Click to expand...

Easily one of the most accurate statements ever. Amazing job btw, this is absolutely amazing.

Baconfry · Jun 27, 2018

After a bit of testing, I've concluded that the Anchor deserves F rank way more than the Crystal Vile Shard does. Also, ballistas are much better and flamebursts are much worse than I initially thought. I don't hear people talking about sentries very much, so let me know what you think of these changes.

Kaladin78 · Jun 27, 2018

Nice list, but true nights edge deserves to be a higher tier than true Excalibur.

sharkman0101 · Jun 27, 2018

Kaladin78 said: ↑

Nice list, but true nights edge deserves to be a higher tier than true Excalibur.
Click to expand...

Excaliber is much better in terms of speed and DPS. The large projectile is nice, but it doesn't make it better than the True Excalibur.

Kaladin78 · Jun 28, 2018

True, but if you use true night's edge's blade, it's much better.

Gotcha! · Jun 28, 2018

Very nice work on this! It must have taken you a lot of time. Lots of kudos.

Can't say I disagree with anything you posted. In my opinion it's all spot on.

Mage-of-Rage · Jul 6, 2018

The list looks fine but I personally feel like the Clockwork Assault Rifle warrants an "A" equal to the Laser Rifle or at least a "B+"

Though it doesn't have huge DPS or CC abilities the CAR (which I will now call it) comes at a point where HM bullets are still scarce and hard to find. With the CAR you can easily fire away your Crystal or Cursed Bullets early on relatively guilt free at incoming enemies. Though going straight to the Onyx Blaster is the ideal the CAR will give you a relatively nice foothold in HM before you do so and even after if you REALLY want to unload on that Rune Wizard without spending all your good ammo.

Baconfry · Jul 6, 2018

I’ll admit that the Clockwork Assault Rifle is one of the earlier things I tested, and I used the pirates as my test subject (against which it fares very poorly). I’ll re-evaluate it once I get back from work, but I don’t expect it to be higher than B+, given that it can’t help you when you’re surrounded. Maybe I’ll try loading it with Exploding Bullets. We’ll see.

I’m also considering lowering the ranking of the Bladetongue (low range), Phasesabers (low knockback), Flying Knife (annoying in general) and Rainbow Gun (distracting to use), while raising the ranking of the Possessed Hatchet, Cutlass, and Bananarang (3+).

I’ve also made some stealth tweaks (such as Shadowflame Hex Doll and Magic Dagger essentially swapping places). I’d appreciate if you guys give the list another once-over and suggest adjustments, no matter how small.

Baconfry · Jul 17, 2018

Alright, another major update. I've split the "lockdown" stat into two separate things, accuracy and disruption, and updated every single entry to reflect this. I've also added the best modifiers on each weapon for convenience.

In addition, several rankings have been adjusted.

Clockwork Assault Rifle: raised to B+
Crystal Storm: lowered to C
Shotgun: raised to C
Slap Hand: lowered to D+
Meteor Staff: lowered to B-
Spirit Flame: raised to B+
Bladetongue: lowered to B+
Shadowflame Bow: lowered to A+
Flying Knife: raised to A
Dart Rifle: raised to S
Clinger Staff: lowered to B-
Hallowed Repeater: raised to A+
Chlorophyte Saber: raised to C-
Chlorophyte Shotbow: raised to S
True Night's Edge and True Excalibur: lowered to C/C+
Possessed Hatchet: raised to A-
Tempest Staff: raised to B
Charged Blaster Cannon: lowered to F

idk, I've seen you guys reply more zealously to a tier list thread that you thought was far less accurate, but I really do appreciate replies, even if you're just campaigning for a shift from B to B+ or something. I think this thread could benefit from more visibility.

sharkman0101 · Jul 18, 2018

Note: The Ice Sickle can actually be obtained from ALL hardmode Ice biome enemies(excluding the Pigron, Wolves, and the Ice Golem). That wouldn't bump up the availability though since they have the same chance to drop, but it should still be noted in the tier list regardless.

I can't seem to find anything to argue about in the tier list now, but I'll do so if I find something in the future. Again, you covered a lot of ground in this tier list, awesome job!

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In-depth Hardmode weapon tier list

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