Baconfry
Terrarian
- Guide Category
- Weapon/Gear Use
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.
IT IS CURRENTLY UP-TO-DATE as of 1.4.1.2. (the latest PC version)
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 - how easy it is to aim the weapon. Some weapons (like broadswords and stationary AoE weapons) cannot be aimed.
Disruption - ability to protect the player through means other than raw damage (such as knockback or stunlock), assuming that it hits its target.
Safety - ability to damage enemies without putting yourself at risk. Extra points (##) are given to weapons that have limited range, but can damage enemies from behind blocks.
Availability - ability to obtain the weapon without excessive grinding or luck. Not factored into overall rank, as it has no bearing on combat performance.
Overall ranks are assigned using the following scale:
S rank: Immediately powerful and remains useful for a long time. Can be used effectively in any situation, or has one important role in which it is the absolute best.
A rank: Useful in the majority of situations. Efficient and likely a popular choice, but generally not considered overpowered.
B rank: Decent if you know how to use it. Might have prominent weaknesses, but performs well when played to its strengths.
C rank: Not so bad as to be entirely unusable, but bad enough that you would usually be much better off using something else.
D rank: Slightly better than nothing, but its inefficiency should be immediately obvious to anyone who tries it. Has no real place in a serious run.
F rank: Fails to do anything well. No one could possibly mistake it for a remotely good weapon. Using it is basically like crippling yourself.
I've also included the best prefixes, along with a rough indicator of reforge cost. Godly and Demonic are listed as best prefixes for weapons whose performance is unaffected by their speed, even if they support Mythical/Unreal.
Some weapons are used as crafting ingredients and will lose their prefix when made into a new weapon, but they should be reforged anyways if you plan to use them extensively. Most weapons eventually get retired anyways, whether they're a crafting material or not.
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 consider revising them.
"Technically hardmode"
Classy Cane and Pearlwood Sword: F
Pearlwood Bow: D+
Dropped by Wall of Flesh
Breaker Blade: D-
Clockwork Assault Rifle: A
Laser Rifle: B
Firecracker: S
Crafted through mining
Ore Swords: D-
Phasesabers: D-
Ore Spears: D
Ore Repeaters: A-
Dropped by monsters
Amarok and Hel-Fire: A+
KO Cannon: C-
Bananarang: B
Nimbus Rod: A
Poison Staff: B+
Marrow: B-
Ice Bow: B
Beam Sword: C
Magic Dagger: B-
Medusa Head: B
Uzi: S+
Frost Staff: B+
Ice Sickle: A-
Flower of Frost: C+
Frostbrand: C+
Obtained from NPCs
Gradient: A+
Format C: A
Ice Rod: B-
Shotgun: B
Gatligator: A
Sergeant United Shield: S
Orange Zapinator: A-
Slap Hand: D-
Jousting Lance: D+
Crafted from monster drops
Onyx Blaster: A+
Sky Fracture: B+
Dao of Pow: A-
Chik: A
Crystal Storm: A-
Golden Shower: A
Cursed Flames: A+
Meteor Staff: B+
Spirit Flame: S
Spider Staff: A+
Queen Spider Staff: S
Cool Whip: B-
Obtained through Fishing
Crystal Serpent: B+
Toxikarp: A
Bladetongue: B-
Obsidian Swordfish: C
Anchor: C+
Blood Moon Fishing
Blood Thorn: C-
Drippler Crippler: S
Sanguine Staff: S+
Goblin Invasion
Shadowflame Bow: A
Shadowflame Knife: A-
Shadowflame Hex Doll: B+
Pirate Invasion
Cutlass: D+
Pirate Staff: B+
Coin Gun: S
Dropped by special Mimics
Daedalus Stormbow: A+
Flying Knife: C+
Crystal Vile Shard: B+
Dart Pistol: S+
Fetid Baghnakhs: B
Life Drain: A+
Dart Rifle: S+
Chain Guillotines: B+
Clinger Staff: A+
Dropped by Queen Slime
Blade Staff: S+
IT IS CURRENTLY UP-TO-DATE as of 1.4.1.2. (the latest PC version)
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 - how easy it is to aim the weapon. Some weapons (like broadswords and stationary AoE weapons) cannot be aimed.
Disruption - ability to protect the player through means other than raw damage (such as knockback or stunlock), assuming that it hits its target.
Safety - ability to damage enemies without putting yourself at risk. Extra points (##) are given to weapons that have limited range, but can damage enemies from behind blocks.
Availability - ability to obtain the weapon without excessive grinding or luck. Not factored into overall rank, as it has no bearing on combat performance.
Overall ranks are assigned using the following scale:
S rank: Immediately powerful and remains useful for a long time. Can be used effectively in any situation, or has one important role in which it is the absolute best.
A rank: Useful in the majority of situations. Efficient and likely a popular choice, but generally not considered overpowered.
B rank: Decent if you know how to use it. Might have prominent weaknesses, but performs well when played to its strengths.
C rank: Not so bad as to be entirely unusable, but bad enough that you would usually be much better off using something else.
D rank: Slightly better than nothing, but its inefficiency should be immediately obvious to anyone who tries it. Has no real place in a serious run.
F rank: Fails to do anything well. No one could possibly mistake it for a remotely good weapon. Using it is basically like crippling yourself.
I've also included the best prefixes, along with a rough indicator of reforge cost. Godly and Demonic are listed as best prefixes for weapons whose performance is unaffected by their speed, even if they support Mythical/Unreal.
Some weapons are used as crafting ingredients and will lose their prefix when made into a new weapon, but they should be reforged anyways if you plan to use them extensively. Most weapons eventually get retired anyways, whether they're a crafting material or not.
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 consider revising 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 if you want to save the more valuable stuff for important fights. Note that several guns gain the High Velocity piercing effect when using the Endless Musket Pouch, including the Uzi which is available before you normally have access to those bullets.
Silver Bullet / Tungsten 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. Expect them to perform exactly the same as the Musket Pouch. They have 2 more base damage than the Musket Pouch and still enable the high-velocity effect of guns like Uzi and Sniper Rifle, if that matters to you.
Meteor Shot
+pierces or ricochets once
-mostly nonrenewable
A piercing bullet you can use early on, though you are generally encouraged to use arrows rather than bullets in situations that require crowd control. Still, if you're a gunslinger you probably found this extremely useful against the Wall of Flesh, and it'll be pretty useful for quite some time afterwards.
Assuming that the average meteorite yields 300 pieces of ore, a fully-mined meteorite can be converted into 7000 Meteor Shot, which is enough to feed an Unreal Uzi for more than 15 minutes. So use them carefully, but don't be too stingy.
Exploding Bullet
+high knockback
+damages multiple enemies
+no farming required
+good velocity
-inflicts some recoil damage if not careful
The absolute best anti-Destroyer bullet, with some utility outside of that when facing dense crowds too large for Meteor Shot to handle.They don't require an upgraded Anvil to craft, can be made in bulk, and drastically increase the viability of several early hardmode guns. It is one of the few ammo types that you can damage yourself with, but it's pretty easy to avoid self-damage, and with automatic guns the damage tends to be minor anyways.
Squire and Valhalla Knight sets can use this to inflict self-damage with a Minishark and activate Ballista Panic. This is slower than using a Dungeon Spike, but unlike the Spike it doesn't inflict Bleeding and can be done anywhere on the ground. When combined with Brain of Confusion, Black Belt, and Star Veil, this also becomes an extremely effective stalling tactic.
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
+good velocity
-no distinguishing traits
Dealing a fixed 24 DPS to any target stuck by a Cursed Bullet doesn't seem too significant at first, but when there are loads of enemies on the screen all burning at once, that can add up to some significant total damage. Of course, the passive burning damage does nothing to control their movements, so be careful not to get overwhelmed.
Ichor Bullet
+high damage
+inflicts a powerful debuff
+good velocity
Generally superior to the Cursed Bullet if you're packing any sort of competent offense. The Ichor debuff greatly enhances DPS, so it is generally the strongest bullet if you don't have another way to inflict Ichor. However, if you can inflict Ichor some other way, Crystal Bullets will end up dealing more damage.
(one mechanical boss)
High Velocity Bullet
+incredibly high velocity
+pierces twice
+no farming required
The synergy between the Endless Musket Pouch and Uzi/Venus Magnum/Sniper Rifle is good enough that you generally won't find it necessary to craft an actual High Velocity Bullet if you own one of those guns. If you don't own them, you can go ahead and craft these bullets for cheap, which mainly benefits the Megashark (the most accurate automatic gun in this tier). Chain Gun enjoys them, too.
Due to the way High Velocity Bullets update their position, it's possible for a single bullet to damage large targets twice. Ironically, this is less likely to happen when your gun has higher base velocity.
(all mechanical bosses)
Chlorophyte Bullet
+perfectly accurate
+uses a highly contested resource
Arguably the best bullet in the game. There are 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
Basically a straight upgrade to Cursed Bullets. However, they will usually deal less damage than Crystal Bullets, despite their higher base damage.
Nano Bullet
+high damage
+smart bounce
+inflicts situationally useful debuff
+no farming required
The positive effects of smart bounce aren't fully realized during aerial battles, but when fighting underground or near the surface, you'll find these very useful for their accuracy boost. While not quite as reliable as Chlorophyte Bullets, a major point in their favor is that you can just buy them. They also have the same base damage as Venom Bullets.
(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
The last bullet available. It destroys crowds of enemies and provides comparable DPS to Crystal Bullets, but generally won't be the best choice against things that fly and move around a lot.
+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 if you want to save the more valuable stuff for important fights. Note that several guns gain the High Velocity piercing effect when using the Endless Musket Pouch, including the Uzi which is available before you normally have access to those bullets.
Silver Bullet / Tungsten 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. Expect them to perform exactly the same as the Musket Pouch. They have 2 more base damage than the Musket Pouch and still enable the high-velocity effect of guns like Uzi and Sniper Rifle, if that matters to you.
Meteor Shot
+pierces or ricochets once
-mostly nonrenewable
A piercing bullet you can use early on, though you are generally encouraged to use arrows rather than bullets in situations that require crowd control. Still, if you're a gunslinger you probably found this extremely useful against the Wall of Flesh, and it'll be pretty useful for quite some time afterwards.
Assuming that the average meteorite yields 300 pieces of ore, a fully-mined meteorite can be converted into 7000 Meteor Shot, which is enough to feed an Unreal Uzi for more than 15 minutes. So use them carefully, but don't be too stingy.
Exploding Bullet
+high knockback
+damages multiple enemies
+no farming required
+good velocity
-inflicts some recoil damage if not careful
The absolute best anti-Destroyer bullet, with some utility outside of that when facing dense crowds too large for Meteor Shot to handle.They don't require an upgraded Anvil to craft, can be made in bulk, and drastically increase the viability of several early hardmode guns. It is one of the few ammo types that you can damage yourself with, but it's pretty easy to avoid self-damage, and with automatic guns the damage tends to be minor anyways.
Squire and Valhalla Knight sets can use this to inflict self-damage with a Minishark and activate Ballista Panic. This is slower than using a Dungeon Spike, but unlike the Spike it doesn't inflict Bleeding and can be done anywhere on the ground. When combined with Brain of Confusion, Black Belt, and Star Veil, this also becomes an extremely effective stalling tactic.
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
+good velocity
-no distinguishing traits
Dealing a fixed 24 DPS to any target stuck by a Cursed Bullet doesn't seem too significant at first, but when there are loads of enemies on the screen all burning at once, that can add up to some significant total damage. Of course, the passive burning damage does nothing to control their movements, so be careful not to get overwhelmed.
Ichor Bullet
+high damage
+inflicts a powerful debuff
+good velocity
Generally superior to the Cursed Bullet if you're packing any sort of competent offense. The Ichor debuff greatly enhances DPS, so it is generally the strongest bullet if you don't have another way to inflict Ichor. However, if you can inflict Ichor some other way, Crystal Bullets will end up dealing more damage.
(one mechanical boss)
High Velocity Bullet
+incredibly high velocity
+pierces twice
+no farming required
The synergy between the Endless Musket Pouch and Uzi/Venus Magnum/Sniper Rifle is good enough that you generally won't find it necessary to craft an actual High Velocity Bullet if you own one of those guns. If you don't own them, you can go ahead and craft these bullets for cheap, which mainly benefits the Megashark (the most accurate automatic gun in this tier). Chain Gun enjoys them, too.
Due to the way High Velocity Bullets update their position, it's possible for a single bullet to damage large targets twice. Ironically, this is less likely to happen when your gun has higher base velocity.
(all mechanical bosses)
Chlorophyte Bullet
+perfectly accurate
+uses a highly contested resource
Arguably the best bullet in the game. There are 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
Basically a straight upgrade to Cursed Bullets. However, they will usually deal less damage than Crystal Bullets, despite their higher base damage.
Nano Bullet
+high damage
+smart bounce
+inflicts situationally useful debuff
+no farming required
The positive effects of smart bounce aren't fully realized during aerial battles, but when fighting underground or near the surface, you'll find these very useful for their accuracy boost. While not quite as reliable as Chlorophyte Bullets, a major point in their favor is that you can just buy them. They also have the same base damage as Venom Bullets.
(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
The last bullet available. It destroys crowds of enemies and provides comparable DPS to Crystal Bullets, but generally won't be the best choice against things that fly and move around a lot.
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.
At first glance it seems to synergize well with The Bee's Knees, but Hardmode enemies have too much defense for that to be a good idea. However, it does synergize with Hellwing Bow.
Bone Arrow
+pierces once
-anti synergy with multi-shot bows
-difficult to resupply
Decent in pre-Hardmode, but in Hardmode you have access to as many Unholy Arrows as you could possibly want, so I see no good reason to use them at this point.
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
Basically a free upgrade to Wooden/Flaming Arrows, but you should never find yourself in a situation where Frostburn Arrows are your best option since Unholy Arrows are buyable now.
Jester's Arrow
+pierces infinitely (-10% per hit)
-uses a somewhat contested resource
-anti synergy with multi-shot bows
The only arrow that pierces infinitely, and works well against the Destroyer if you're using a standard repeater. However, they will disappear after flying for some distance, so if you shoot them upwards, they're not coming back.
Unholy Arrow
+pierces four times (-5% per hit)
+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. Notably, they suffer from a lower piercing penalty than Jester's Arrows. However, this won't stop Jester's Arrows from outperforming them against the Destroyer.
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. However, they are generally not the preferred method of crowd control since the explosion radius is rather small, and their high knockback combined with the slower attack speed of bows/repeaters means that enemies won't end up bunched together like they do with Exploding Bullets.
(mythril or orichalcum anvil)
Holy Arrow
+high single-target DPS
+synergy with multi-shot bows
Has the highest single-target damage potential for early Hardmode, especially against large enemies that don't move too much horizontally. With multi-shot bows like the Daedalus Stormbow, Phantom Phoenix, and Chlorophyte Shotbow, it forms a potent synergy that remains incredibly strong despite having received multiple nerfs.
Cursed Arrow
+high 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. Cursed Inferno is an excellent debuff when spread across multiple targets, which is something Cursed Arrows aren't good at because they don't pierce.
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. If the debuff is all you care about, Ichor Arrows give you 50 more shots per Ichor than Ichor Darts, but the tradeoff is that Ichor Darts can be crafted by hand (and used with a Blowpipe/Blowgun) while Ichor Arrows require a Hardmode anvil.
(all mechanical bosses)
Chlorophyte Arrow
+ricochets once, smart bounce
-uses a highly contested resource
Less DPS potential than Holy Arrows, though they have the highest effective accuracy of any arrow thanks to their smart bounces. While not as reliable as Chlorophyte Bullets, they are still a relatively safe way to hit distant enemies that you don't want in your line-of-sight, and they are much better than any other arrow for killing scattered enemies over a wide area.
(plantera)
Venom Arrow
+highest base damage
+high velocity
+no farming required
-no other distinguishing traits
Usually the best arrow to use with the Phantasm against the final boss due to its velocity alone, which makes Magic Quiver optional. It also packs high base damage and decent knockback, and provides the best stat boosts for the Pulse Bow and Aerial Bane.
(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. It is more potent than Holy Arrows, but not by that much; if something is moving fast enough to dodge the stars, it'll probably dodge the secondary Luminite Arrows, too.
+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.
At first glance it seems to synergize well with The Bee's Knees, but Hardmode enemies have too much defense for that to be a good idea. However, it does synergize with Hellwing Bow.
Bone Arrow
+pierces once
-anti synergy with multi-shot bows
-difficult to resupply
Decent in pre-Hardmode, but in Hardmode you have access to as many Unholy Arrows as you could possibly want, so I see no good reason to use them at this point.
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
Basically a free upgrade to Wooden/Flaming Arrows, but you should never find yourself in a situation where Frostburn Arrows are your best option since Unholy Arrows are buyable now.
Jester's Arrow
+pierces infinitely (-10% per hit)
-uses a somewhat contested resource
-anti synergy with multi-shot bows
The only arrow that pierces infinitely, and works well against the Destroyer if you're using a standard repeater. However, they will disappear after flying for some distance, so if you shoot them upwards, they're not coming back.
Unholy Arrow
+pierces four times (-5% per hit)
+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. Notably, they suffer from a lower piercing penalty than Jester's Arrows. However, this won't stop Jester's Arrows from outperforming them against the Destroyer.
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. However, they are generally not the preferred method of crowd control since the explosion radius is rather small, and their high knockback combined with the slower attack speed of bows/repeaters means that enemies won't end up bunched together like they do with Exploding Bullets.
(mythril or orichalcum anvil)
Holy Arrow
+high single-target DPS
+synergy with multi-shot bows
Has the highest single-target damage potential for early Hardmode, especially against large enemies that don't move too much horizontally. With multi-shot bows like the Daedalus Stormbow, Phantom Phoenix, and Chlorophyte Shotbow, it forms a potent synergy that remains incredibly strong despite having received multiple nerfs.
Cursed Arrow
+high 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. Cursed Inferno is an excellent debuff when spread across multiple targets, which is something Cursed Arrows aren't good at because they don't pierce.
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. If the debuff is all you care about, Ichor Arrows give you 50 more shots per Ichor than Ichor Darts, but the tradeoff is that Ichor Darts can be crafted by hand (and used with a Blowpipe/Blowgun) while Ichor Arrows require a Hardmode anvil.
(all mechanical bosses)
Chlorophyte Arrow
+ricochets once, smart bounce
-uses a highly contested resource
Less DPS potential than Holy Arrows, though they have the highest effective accuracy of any arrow thanks to their smart bounces. While not as reliable as Chlorophyte Bullets, they are still a relatively safe way to hit distant enemies that you don't want in your line-of-sight, and they are much better than any other arrow for killing scattered enemies over a wide area.
(plantera)
Venom Arrow
+highest base damage
+high velocity
+no farming required
-no other distinguishing traits
Usually the best arrow to use with the Phantasm against the final boss due to its velocity alone, which makes Magic Quiver optional. It also packs high base damage and decent knockback, and provides the best stat boosts for the Pulse Bow and Aerial Bane.
(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. It is more potent than Holy Arrows, but not by that much; if something is moving fast enough to dodge the stars, it'll probably dodge the secondary Luminite Arrows, too.
"Technically hardmode"
Classy Cane and Pearlwood Sword: F
These two weapons weren't meant to be good in the first place, so F rank should come as no surprise. 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 Spear or Wooden Boomerang. I mean, with the Flask of Ichor and Titan Glove, you might be able to beat a lone Hardmode enemy with one of these, but I see no good reason to attempt something like that (unless you were conducting research for a tier list or something).
.............DPS: #
Crowd control: ##
......Accuracy: n/a
.....Disruption: ###
..........Safety: #
....Availability: #####
Crafted from 7 Pearlwood at a Work Bench / 12.5% chance to drop from Tax Collector
Best prefix: Legendary ¢
.............DPS: #
Crowd control: ##
......Accuracy: n/a
.....Disruption: ###
..........Safety: #
....Availability: #####
Crafted from 7 Pearlwood at a Work Bench / 12.5% chance to drop from Tax Collector
Best prefix: Legendary ¢
Pearlwood Bow: D+
Uses standard arrows.
Ichor is an extremely powerful debuff that provides a substantial DPS increase to any weapon with a high rate of fire. In fact, it is so powerful that any weapon that can inflict Ichor from a distance should be considered for use as a support weapon, no matter how laughable its stats may be. So, as absurd as it sounds, the Pearlwood Bow has an actual legitimate niche: it can inflict Ichor on bosses with Ichor Arrows before swapping to a faster weapon that can take advantage of the defense drop. It's not a unique niche, because literally any pre-Hardmode bow other than Blood Rain Bow can do the exact same thing. Nor are Ichor Arrows uniquely suitable for this niche; the Blowpipe (yes, the one with 9 base damage that you find in Wooden Chests) can also inflict the debuff with Ichor Darts, doesn't require a Hardmode anvil for its ammunition, autofires, and is actually strong enough to kill Expert mode bosses on its own without relying on Orichalcum armor. But even though it will almost never be your best option, the Pearlwood Bow can be genuinely useful in a serious run, which automatically makes it better than most pre-mech melee weapons.
To illustrate my point: the well-known 90-minute Expert mode speedrun by Ningishu (viewable here) uses a Silver Bow with Ichor Arrows against all bosses between Destroyer and Lunatic Cultist, and the Silver Bow has the exact same stats as the Pearlwood Bow.
ICHOR ARROW
.............DPS: #
Crowd control: #
......Accuracy: ####
.....Disruption: ##
..........Safety: ####
....Availability: #####
Crafted from 10 Pearlwood at a Work Bench
Best prefix: Rapid ¢
Ichor is an extremely powerful debuff that provides a substantial DPS increase to any weapon with a high rate of fire. In fact, it is so powerful that any weapon that can inflict Ichor from a distance should be considered for use as a support weapon, no matter how laughable its stats may be. So, as absurd as it sounds, the Pearlwood Bow has an actual legitimate niche: it can inflict Ichor on bosses with Ichor Arrows before swapping to a faster weapon that can take advantage of the defense drop. It's not a unique niche, because literally any pre-Hardmode bow other than Blood Rain Bow can do the exact same thing. Nor are Ichor Arrows uniquely suitable for this niche; the Blowpipe (yes, the one with 9 base damage that you find in Wooden Chests) can also inflict the debuff with Ichor Darts, doesn't require a Hardmode anvil for its ammunition, autofires, and is actually strong enough to kill Expert mode bosses on its own without relying on Orichalcum armor. But even though it will almost never be your best option, the Pearlwood Bow can be genuinely useful in a serious run, which automatically makes it better than most pre-mech melee weapons.
To illustrate my point: the well-known 90-minute Expert mode speedrun by Ningishu (viewable here) uses a Silver Bow with Ichor Arrows against all bosses between Destroyer and Lunatic Cultist, and the Silver Bow has the exact same stats as the Pearlwood Bow.
ICHOR ARROW
.............DPS: #
Crowd control: #
......Accuracy: ####
.....Disruption: ##
..........Safety: ####
....Availability: #####
Crafted from 10 Pearlwood at a Work Bench
Best prefix: Rapid ¢
Dropped by Wall of Flesh
Breaker Blade: D-
It deals double damage to enemies with more than 90% of their health remaining. Sounds alright on paper, but in practice, what this means is that the average number of hits it takes to kill an enemy will be reduced by exactly 1. Since the average Hardmode enemy takes five hits or more with the Breaker Blade, reducing that number by 1 doesn't improve this weapon by much. The Breaker Blade has poor speed, poor range (despite its size), and poor disruptive abilities, which translates to very little mobbing potential and zero bossing potential. You should be able to find something better than this within the first ten minutes of Hardmode.
.............DPS: ##
Crowd control: ###
......Accuracy: n/a
.....Disruption: ###
..........Safety: #
....Availability: ###
12.5% chance to drop from the Wall of Flesh (25% in Expert mode)
Best prefix: Legendary $
.............DPS: ##
Crowd control: ###
......Accuracy: n/a
.....Disruption: ###
..........Safety: #
....Availability: ###
12.5% chance to drop from the Wall of Flesh (25% in Expert mode)
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.
Though it has zero listed knockback, every bullet has a knockback value, so the Clockwork Assault Rifle can always at least slow enemies down as they approach. Exploding Bullets or Meteor Shot can be used for crowd control, and Crystal Bullets can be used for bossing (especially paired with a secondary weapon that can inflict the Ichor debuff). While Demonic is usually the best modifier, Rapid and Deadly are also excellent for their speed boost. If you're running armor penetration with Stinger + Shark Tooth, all three modifiers will perform about the same.
CRYSTAL BULLET
.............DPS: ####
Crowd control: ##
......Accuracy: ###
.....Disruption: ###
..........Safety: ####
EXPLODING BULLET
.............DPS: ###
Crowd control: ####
......Accuracy: ####
.....Disruption: ####
..........Safety: ####
....Availability: ###
12.5% chance to drop from the Wall of Flesh (25% in Expert mode)
Best prefix: Demonic/Deadly/Rapid $
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.
Though it has zero listed knockback, every bullet has a knockback value, so the Clockwork Assault Rifle can always at least slow enemies down as they approach. Exploding Bullets or Meteor Shot can be used for crowd control, and Crystal Bullets can be used for bossing (especially paired with a secondary weapon that can inflict the Ichor debuff). While Demonic is usually the best modifier, Rapid and Deadly are also excellent for their speed boost. If you're running armor penetration with Stinger + Shark Tooth, all three modifiers will perform about the same.
CRYSTAL BULLET
.............DPS: ####
Crowd control: ##
......Accuracy: ###
.....Disruption: ###
..........Safety: ####
EXPLODING BULLET
.............DPS: ###
Crowd control: ####
......Accuracy: ####
.....Disruption: ####
..........Safety: ####
....Availability: ###
12.5% chance to drop from the Wall of Flesh (25% in Expert mode)
Best prefix: Demonic/Deadly/Rapid $
Laser Rifle: B
A decent enough starting weapon for a magic user. Its linear piercing abilities are handy against the Pirate Invasion, and it can easily stunlock a single enemy as long as you aren't moving around too much. Compared to the Demon Scythe, it offers more immediate disruption, though its projectile is considerably more narrow. It'll hold the fort for a while until you can get something stronger, like a Spell Tome weapon.
.............DPS: ###
Crowd control: ####
......Accuracy: ####
.....Disruption: ####
..........Safety: ####
....Availability: ###
12.5% chance to drop from the Wall of Flesh (25% in Expert mode)
Best prefix: Mythical $
.............DPS: ###
Crowd control: ####
......Accuracy: ####
.....Disruption: ####
..........Safety: ####
....Availability: ###
12.5% chance to drop from the Wall of Flesh (25% in Expert mode)
Best prefix: Mythical $
Firecracker: S
The Firecracker doesn't add tag damage, but the blazing energy effect easily compensates for that. The explosion nearly triples a minion's damage for a single hit, so this whip's damage per hit is effectively much, much higher than its stats would indicate. Since it scales with your minion weapon's damage, it has much higher damage output than Cool Whip, and while it deals reduced damage to crowds of enemies, it will interrupt all of them, and sometimes that's more important. Like all whips, it is notable for its ability to safely eliminate enemies that can pass through walls, such as Clingers, Giant Fungi Bulbs, and Enchanted Swords. It also provides a decent amount of light, making it an excellent exploration tool even for non-summoners.
This whip is part of the reason why Obsidian armor is still viable at this stage, as the speed increase causes blazing energy to activate much more frequently. It's great with Spider and Sanguine Bat minions, but not so much with the Blade Staff. You'll want to hold onto Firecracker even after beating Plantera, since there is a certain minion that synergizes with it to an extreme degree.
.............DPS: ####
Crowd control: ####
......Accuracy: #####
.....Disruption: ###
..........Safety: ###
....Availability: ###
12.5% chance to drop from the Wall of Flesh (25% in Expert mode)
Best prefix: Legendary $
This whip is part of the reason why Obsidian armor is still viable at this stage, as the speed increase causes blazing energy to activate much more frequently. It's great with Spider and Sanguine Bat minions, but not so much with the Blade Staff. You'll want to hold onto Firecracker even after beating Plantera, since there is a certain minion that synergizes with it to an extreme degree.
.............DPS: ####
Crowd control: ####
......Accuracy: #####
.....Disruption: ###
..........Safety: ###
....Availability: ###
12.5% chance to drop from the Wall of Flesh (25% in Expert mode)
Best prefix: Legendary $
Crafted through mining
Ore Swords: D-
To be fair, most melee weapons aren't much better than these, but crafting Hardmode bars into swords is a pretty good sign that you don't know what you're doing. Their attack range is just too limited, and they don't offer that much DPS, either. They work well only against the most basic enemy AI types. And though you can consider using them against the Destroyer, the problem is that a) they don't even offer the highest potential DPS against the Destroyer and b) attacking the Destroyer with a sword allows it to circle you and pin you to the ground while lasering you from all directions. If you need a basic sword, just stick to Night's Edge.
COBALT SWORD
.............DPS: ###
Crowd control: ###
......Accuracy: n/a
.....Disruption: ####
..........Safety: #
TITANIUM SWORD
.............DPS: ####
Crowd control: ###
......Accuracy: n/a
.....Disruption: ####
..........Safety: #
....Availability: #####
Crafted from 10-13 bars at a Hardmode Anvil
Best prefix: Legendary $
COBALT SWORD
.............DPS: ###
Crowd control: ###
......Accuracy: n/a
.....Disruption: ####
..........Safety: #
TITANIUM SWORD
.............DPS: ####
Crowd control: ###
......Accuracy: n/a
.....Disruption: ####
..........Safety: #
....Availability: #####
Crafted from 10-13 bars at a Hardmode Anvil
Best prefix: Legendary $
Phasesabers: D-
These perform exactly the same as ore swords, and I mean literally the same. They are at least slightly cheaper to reforge and use a different crafting recipe, meaning that they have a lower opportunity cost. However, the value added to your run is so small that you should probably find something better to use your Crystal Shards on.
.............DPS: ###
Crowd control: ###
......Accuracy: n/a
.....Disruption: ####
..........Safety: #
....Availability: #####
Crafted from Phaseblade and 50 Crystal Shards at a Hardmode Anvil
Best prefix: Legendary ¢
.............DPS: ###
Crowd control: ###
......Accuracy: n/a
.....Disruption: ####
..........Safety: #
....Availability: #####
Crafted from Phaseblade and 50 Crystal Shards at a Hardmode Anvil
Best prefix: Legendary ¢
Ore Spears: D
For the most part, they're better than their broadsword counterparts thanks to their infinite piercing ability, but the main issues are still the same: their short reach makes them useless against shooters and knockback-immune enemies. The Obsidian Swordfish offers a roughly similar performance without eating up any of your valuable resources.
COBALT NAGINATA
.............DPS: ###
Crowd control: #####
......Accuracy: ###
.....Disruption: ####
..........Safety: #
TITANIUM TRIDENT
.............DPS: ####
Crowd control: #####
......Accuracy: ###
.....Disruption: ####
..........Safety: #
....Availability: #####
Crafted from 10-13 bars at a Hardmode Anvil
Best prefix: Godly/Demonic $
COBALT NAGINATA
.............DPS: ###
Crowd control: #####
......Accuracy: ###
.....Disruption: ####
..........Safety: #
TITANIUM TRIDENT
.............DPS: ####
Crowd control: #####
......Accuracy: ###
.....Disruption: ####
..........Safety: #
....Availability: #####
Crafted from 10-13 bars at a Hardmode Anvil
Best prefix: Godly/Demonic $
Ore Repeaters: A-
Uses standard arrows.
Very versatile, and can handle most situations as long as you have the right ammunition. For pirates (and the Destroyer), use Unholy/Jester's Arrows. For bosses, use Holy/Ichor Arrows. Their accuracy is improved slightly with Archery Potions, and improved significantly with a Magic Quiver.
HOLY ARROW
.............DPS: ####
Crowd control: ##
......Accuracy: ###
.....Disruption: ####
..........Safety: ####
UNHOLY ARROW / JESTER'S ARROW
.............DPS: ###
Crowd control: #####
......Accuracy: ###
.....Disruption: ####
..........Safety: ####
....Availability: #####
Crafted from between 10-13 bars at a Hardmode Anvil
Best prefix: Unreal $
Very versatile, and can handle most situations as long as you have the right ammunition. For pirates (and the Destroyer), use Unholy/Jester's Arrows. For bosses, use Holy/Ichor Arrows. Their accuracy is improved slightly with Archery Potions, and improved significantly with a Magic Quiver.
HOLY ARROW
.............DPS: ####
Crowd control: ##
......Accuracy: ###
.....Disruption: ####
..........Safety: ####
UNHOLY ARROW / JESTER'S ARROW
.............DPS: ###
Crowd control: #####
......Accuracy: ###
.....Disruption: ####
..........Safety: ####
....Availability: #####
Crafted from between 10-13 bars at a Hardmode Anvil
Best prefix: Unreal $
Dropped by monsters
Amarok and Hel-Fire: A+
Yoyos are decent enough when engaging enemies directly, since they hit rapidly and deal respectable damage. However, in order to bring out their maximum potential, the key is to play dirty. Yoyos can hit enemies around corners and through one-block wide spaces, and are perfect for taking out enemies that can't reach you. They excel at underground combat, and unlike most weapons, their accuracy doesn't suffer when attacking enemies from above. If you have a Yoyo Glove/Yoyo Bag, by all means use it, but yoyos are strong enough to perform excellently even without one.
.............DPS: ####
Crowd control: ###
......Accuracy: ####
.....Disruption: ####
..........Safety: #####
....Availability: ###
0.33% chance to drop from enemies killed in Snow Biome / 0.25% chance to drop from enemies killed in Underworld and lower Cavern layer
Best prefix: Godly/Demonic $$
.............DPS: ####
Crowd control: ###
......Accuracy: ####
.....Disruption: ####
..........Safety: #####
....Availability: ###
0.33% chance to drop from enemies killed in Snow Biome / 0.25% chance to drop from enemies killed in Underworld and lower Cavern layer
Best prefix: Godly/Demonic $$
KO Cannon: C-
It has better range than most melee weapons, but its range still isn't good. Like most mediocre melee weapons, it can deal with fighter enemies just fine, but won't work well against anything else. On the bright side, it deals quite a bit more DPS than broadswords at point-blank range, on top of also being a lot more fun to watch. This performs about the same as the Anchor in most situations, though it's a lot less useful for the average player since the Anchor is really easy to get and the KO Cannon is not.
.............DPS: ###
Crowd control: ##
......Accuracy: ###
.....Disruption: #####
..........Safety: ##
....Availability: ##
0.1% chance to drop from any enemy killed during a Blood Moon
Best prefix: Godly/Demonic $
.............DPS: ###
Crowd control: ##
......Accuracy: ###
.....Disruption: #####
..........Safety: ##
....Availability: ##
0.1% chance to drop from any enemy killed during a Blood Moon
Best prefix: Godly/Demonic $
Bananarang: B
Depending on how lucky you are, this is potentially an excellent boomerang that can damage and stunlock enemies from a decent range, and could even be used for bossing. On the other hand, it could also drop in a stack of 1, making it completely useless. Realistically, this weapon is usable if it drops in a stack of 3 or 4, but any lower than that and you're better off using Chain Guillotines or something. Bananarang would be among the best pre-mech melee weapons if getting a full stack was realistically possible without an insane amount of grinding. But unfortunately there's a good reason why most people don't use this, and it has nothing to do with being weak.
.............DPS: ####
Crowd control: ##
......Accuracy: ###
.....Disruption: #####
..........Safety: ###
....Availability: #
3.33% chance to drop from Clowns, in a stack of 1-4
Best prefix: none
.............DPS: ####
Crowd control: ##
......Accuracy: ###
.....Disruption: #####
..........Safety: ###
....Availability: #
3.33% chance to drop from Clowns, in a stack of 1-4
Best prefix: none
Nimbus Rod: A
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. Usually, this involves luring enemies directly beneath you. This weapon is also highly recommended against the Old One's Army, since it can take a decent chunk out of every enemy that emerges from a portal, and usually lasts for the entire wave.
.............DPS: ####
Crowd control: #####
......Accuracy: n/a
.....Disruption:
..........Safety: #####
....Availability: ##
6.67% chance to drop from Angry Nimbuses, which spawn on the surface during rain
Best prefix: Demonic $$
.............DPS: ####
Crowd control: #####
......Accuracy: n/a
.....Disruption:
..........Safety: #####
....Availability: ##
6.67% chance to drop from Angry Nimbuses, which spawn on the surface during rain
Best prefix: Demonic $$
Poison Staff: B+
If you can get used to its rather wide projectile spread and middling range, this actually does pretty well against big bosses like the Twins. Its damage output against smaller enemies is not as impressive, and it doesn't have enough piercing power to cut through the Destroyer, but there are at least a few key situations where the Poison Staff might serve you well. It's not bad at all considering that it's likely to be one of the first magic weapons you'll obtain in Hardmode.
.............DPS: ####
Crowd control: ####
......Accuracy: ##
.....Disruption: #
..........Safety: ###
....Availability: ###
2.5% chance to drop from Black Recluses
Best prefix: Mythical $$
.............DPS: ####
Crowd control: ####
......Accuracy: ##
.....Disruption: #
..........Safety: ###
....Availability: ###
2.5% chance to drop from Black Recluses
Best prefix: Mythical $$
Marrow: B-
A much less user-friendly version of the Ice Bow, with around the same average DPS. Usually you would prefer a repeater or dart weapon in order to take advantage of their special ammo effects. Marrow is accurate and safe to use, but doesn't have much potential beyond that. Since it requires so much precision to aim properly, you'll find its relatively high knockback to be somewhat annoying. It also has a moderate case of Venus Magnum syndrome: very fast weapons without autofire tend to not be very popular for a reason.
.............DPS: ###
Crowd control: #
......Accuracy: ####
.....Disruption: ###
..........Safety: ####
....Availability: #
0.5% chance to drop from Skeleton Archers
Best prefix: Unreal ¢
.............DPS: ###
Crowd control: #
......Accuracy: ####
.....Disruption: ###
..........Safety: ####
....Availability: #
0.5% chance to drop from Skeleton Archers
Best prefix: Unreal ¢
Ice Bow: B
Kind of plays like a ranged version of Shadowflame Knife. It is much more spammable than Marrow thanks to autofire, and slightly more accurate (but much less versatile) than repeaters. I wouldn't challenge bosses with this, and I wouldn't pull this out against invasions, but for stunlocking and killing random encounters underground, the Ice Bow is pretty great.
.............DPS: ###
Crowd control: #
......Accuracy: ###
.....Disruption: ####
..........Safety: ####
....Availability: ##
28.5% chance to drop from Ice Mimics
Best prefix: Unreal $$
.............DPS: ###
Crowd control: #
......Accuracy: ###
.....Disruption: ####
..........Safety: ####
....Availability: ##
28.5% chance to drop from Ice Mimics
Best prefix: Unreal $$
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. The beam alone deals pitiful damage to one enemy and is too slow to aim properly.
BLADE
.............DPS: ###
Crowd control: ###
......Accuracy: n/a
.....Disruption: ####
..........Safety: #
BEAM
.............DPS: #
Crowd control: #
......Accuracy: ###
.....Disruption: #
..........Safety: ####
....Availability: #
0.67% chance to drop from Armored Skeletons
Best prefix: Legendary $$$$
BLADE
.............DPS: ###
Crowd control: ###
......Accuracy: n/a
.....Disruption: ####
..........Safety: #
BEAM
.............DPS: #
Crowd control: #
......Accuracy: ###
.....Disruption: #
..........Safety: ####
....Availability: #
0.67% chance to drop from Armored Skeletons
Best prefix: Legendary $$$$
Magic Dagger: B-
With extraordinarily high speed and good damage, the pain that this weapon will inflict on your enemies is matched only by the pain it will inflict on your index finger. Its DPS is high enough that it can handle small crowds easily, despite only piercing once. However, it is only effective within mid-range before gravity kicks in, so it doesn't do very well against bosses.
A speed-increasing modifier makes a huge difference, since it essentially allows it to fire as fast as you can click.
.............DPS: ####
Crowd control: ###
......Accuracy: ###
.....Disruption: #####
..........Safety: ###
....Availability: ##
14.29% chance to drop from naturally-spawned Wood, Gold, and Shadow Mimics
Best prefix: Mythical $$
A speed-increasing modifier makes a huge difference, since it essentially allows it to fire as fast as you can click.
.............DPS: ####
Crowd control: ###
......Accuracy: ###
.....Disruption: #####
..........Safety: ###
....Availability: ##
14.29% chance to drop from naturally-spawned Wood, Gold, and Shadow Mimics
Best prefix: Mythical $$
Medusa Head: B
Decent for invasion events since it auto-targets multiple enemies and allows you to focus on dodging. It deals respectable damage to the Destroyer while automatically taking out its Probes. However, its range isn't quite long enough to interrupt things like Crossbowers and Deadeyes before they have a chance to shoot at you. Its lack of knockback also leaves you quite vulnerable to enemies that can chase you in midair.
.............DPS: ###
Crowd control: ####
......Accuracy: #####
.....Disruption:
..........Safety: ###
....Availability: #
1% chance to drop from Medusas; 0.05% chance to drop from statue-spawned Medusas
Best prefix: Mythical $$
.............DPS: ###
Crowd control: ####
......Accuracy: #####
.....Disruption:
..........Safety: ###
....Availability: #
1% chance to drop from Medusas; 0.05% chance to drop from statue-spawned Medusas
Best prefix: Mythical $$
Uzi: S+
Uses standard bullets.
Even though the Uzi is the only thing you can obtain from the Hardmode Jungle before defeating a mech boss, its sheer power could make that grind worthwhile. It is strong enough to give the Megashark some serious competition, and it effectively provides access to High Velocity Bullets even though you're not supposed to have them yet. This allows it to easily cut through crowds of enemies (and big metal worms) without spending any ammo at all. And once you're ready for the mechanical bosses, you can load it up with Crystal Bullets and it'll perform about the same as the Onyx Blaster. The Uzi's rarity is the only thing that holds it back.
ENDLESS MUSKET POUCH
.............DPS: ####
Crowd control: ####
......Accuracy: ###
.....Disruption: #####
..........Safety: ####
CRYSTAL BULLET
.............DPS: #####
Crowd control: ##
......Accuracy: ###
.....Disruption: #####
..........Safety: ####
....Availability: #
1% chance to drop from Angry Trappers
Best prefix: Unreal ¢
Even though the Uzi is the only thing you can obtain from the Hardmode Jungle before defeating a mech boss, its sheer power could make that grind worthwhile. It is strong enough to give the Megashark some serious competition, and it effectively provides access to High Velocity Bullets even though you're not supposed to have them yet. This allows it to easily cut through crowds of enemies (and big metal worms) without spending any ammo at all. And once you're ready for the mechanical bosses, you can load it up with Crystal Bullets and it'll perform about the same as the Onyx Blaster. The Uzi's rarity is the only thing that holds it back.
ENDLESS MUSKET POUCH
.............DPS: ####
Crowd control: ####
......Accuracy: ###
.....Disruption: #####
..........Safety: ####
CRYSTAL BULLET
.............DPS: #####
Crowd control: ##
......Accuracy: ###
.....Disruption: #####
..........Safety: ####
....Availability: #
1% chance to drop from Angry Trappers
Best prefix: Unreal ¢
Frost Staff: B+
With decently high DPS and velocity, this is definitely an upgrade to the Laser Rifle, and its ability to pierce once makes it somewhat usable against the pirates. It has much higher velocity than many magic weapons, and can even juggle certain targets. The Crystal Serpent is the weapon you'd be most likely to compare it to; in comparison, the Frost Staff has better crowd control and a faster fire rate, but lower single-target DPS. Many other weapons offer better crowd control, so the Frost Staff is a sort of middle-ground option with no prominent strengths nor weaknesses.
.............DPS: ####
Crowd control: ###
......Accuracy: ###
.....Disruption: ####
..........Safety: ####
....Availability: ###
2% chance to drop from Ice Elementals, Icy Mermen, and Ice Golems
Best prefix: Mythical $$
.............DPS: ####
Crowd control: ###
......Accuracy: ###
.....Disruption: ####
..........Safety: ####
....Availability: ###
2% chance to drop from Ice Elementals, Icy Mermen, and Ice Golems
Best prefix: Mythical $$
Ice Sickle: A-
The quintessential melee weapon. While it has limited use against fast-moving bosses, it shreds crowds of enemies at close range and vastly outperforms swords when it comes to beating them back, easily setting up an impenetrable barrier of lingering ice blades. It can hold off practically any number of fighter enemies, juggling them backwards while dealing very high DPS. However, it's pretty bad against enemies that don't give chase and instead fire on you from a distance.
.............DPS: #####
Crowd control: #####
......Accuracy: ##
.....Disruption: #####
..........Safety: ##
....Availability: #
0.56% chance to drop from Armored Vikings, Icy Mermen, Ice Elementals, and Ice Tortoises
Best prefix: Legendary $$
.............DPS: #####
Crowd control: #####
......Accuracy: ##
.....Disruption: #####
..........Safety: ##
....Availability: #
0.56% chance to drop from Armored Vikings, Icy Mermen, Ice Elementals, and Ice Tortoises
Best prefix: Legendary $$
Flower of Frost: C+
It fires quickly and is quite economical to use despite its high attacking speed. However, its effective range is rather low due to its poor horizontal velocity. It also can't handle more than two enemies at a time. Usually you'll want to fire it while flying low to the ground on relatively flat terrain; this makes it reasonable for attacking rows of grounded enemies, but in those situations you'll usually prefer something with line-of-sight, like a Laser Rifle. Aboveground, it is outclassed by Cursed Flames, and underground, it is outclassed by Crystal Storm.
.............DPS: ####
Crowd control: #
......Accuracy: ##
.....Disruption: ####
..........Safety: ###
....Availability: ###
28.5% chance to drop from Ice Mimics
Best prefix: Mythical ¢
.............DPS: ####
Crowd control: #
......Accuracy: ##
.....Disruption: ####
..........Safety: ###
....Availability: ###
28.5% chance to drop from Ice Mimics
Best prefix: Mythical ¢
Frostbrand: C+
Unlike the Beam Sword, the Frostbrand can pierce one enemy with its projectile. It also has marginally more reach. It's no substitute for a proper ranged weapon, but it can handle crowds fairly well without leaving you completely vulnerable to shooters.
BLADE
.............DPS: ###
Crowd control: ###
......Accuracy: n/a
.....Disruption: ####
..........Safety: #
BEAM
.............DPS: #
Crowd control: ###
......Accuracy: ###
.....Disruption: #
..........Safety: ####
....Availability: ##
28.5% chance to drop from Ice Mimics
Best prefix: Legendary $$
BLADE
.............DPS: ###
Crowd control: ###
......Accuracy: n/a
.....Disruption: ####
..........Safety: #
BEAM
.............DPS: #
Crowd control: ###
......Accuracy: ###
.....Disruption: #
..........Safety: ####
....Availability: ##
28.5% chance to drop from Ice Mimics
Best prefix: Legendary $$
Obtained from NPCs
Gradient: A+
Statistically stronger version of Amarok, though the difference is very small and not worth fussing about. I recommend using whichever Hardmode yoyo you happen to get first. You'll be searching for a Skeleton Merchant in order to get the Yoyo Glove anyways, so it's reasonable to skip Amarok and buy Gradient along with your Yoyo Glove.
.............DPS: ####
Crowd control: ###
......Accuracy: ####
.....Disruption: ####
..........Safety: #####
....Availability: ###
Sold by the Skeleton Merchant for 20 gold in Hardmode during full moon and waning phases
Best prefix: Godly/Demonic $$
.............DPS: ####
Crowd control: ###
......Accuracy: ####
.....Disruption: ####
..........Safety: #####
....Availability: ###
Sold by the Skeleton Merchant for 20 gold in Hardmode during full moon and waning phases
Best prefix: Godly/Demonic $$
Format C: A
Has the exact same base damage as Chik, and base damage is the only yoyo stat that matters. Since Format C is worse than Amarok, you should only buy it if you don't have a Hardmode yoyo yet. It's not as good as Gradient, but it's a lot better than having no yoyo at all. Availability-wise, it is more useful than Chik because you don't need a Hardmode anvil to get it.
.............DPS: ####
Crowd control: ###
......Accuracy: ####
.....Disruption: ####
..........Safety: #####
....Availability: ###
Sold by the Skeleton Merchant for 20 gold in Hardmode during new moon and waxing phases
Best prefix: Godly/Demonic $$
.............DPS: ####
Crowd control: ###
......Accuracy: ####
.....Disruption: ####
..........Safety: #####
....Availability: ###
Sold by the Skeleton Merchant for 20 gold in Hardmode during new moon and waxing phases
Best prefix: Godly/Demonic $$
Ice Rod: B-
A niche weapon that can perform some neat tricks, but generally isn't as effective as most magic weapons in its tier. While it fires stupidly fast, its range and velocity are a bit too low for it to contribute properly to most boss fights (though it can somewhat cheese Retinazer's second phase if you didn't already have a bunker to cheese it with). You can try blocking enemies off with a wall of ice and pelting them from relative safety, but that will probably only work underground, and you're usually better off using an equally disruptive weapon with better DPS. Also, please don't be that person who uses the Ice Rod during a crowded boss battle in multiplayer.
.............DPS: ###
Crowd control: #
......Accuracy: ###
.....Disruption: #####
..........Safety: ####
....Availability: #####
Sold by Wizard for 50 gold
Best prefix: Mythical $$$$
.............DPS: ###
Crowd control: #
......Accuracy: ###
.....Disruption: #####
..........Safety: ####
....Availability: #####
Sold by Wizard for 50 gold
Best prefix: Mythical $$$$
Shotgun: B
Uses standard bullets.
While it has slightly higher potential DPS than the Clockwork Assault Rifle, the Shotgun is substantially harder to use in most situations. However, it works just fine against bosses with Crystal Bullets, and against crowds with Exploding Bullets. It has a bit of projectile spread, but it's still tight enough to be useful over long distances. In my opinion, the Quad-Barrel Shotgun never outclassed this weapon at any point in its history; the Shotgun has much better effective range, and its spread isn't so wide that you'd ever have to worry about accidentally blowing yourself up with an Exploding Bullet.
There's no denying that the Shotgun is outclassed by most Hardmode ranged weapons, but if you've ever played on a public SSC server that threw you straight into Hardmode armed with only a Copper Shortsword, there's a good chance that you've used this. Nowadays I imagine most people would go for the Jousting Lance since it's more than four times cheaper to purchase, though one point in the Shotgun's favor is that it can actually kill bosses.
EXPLODING BULLET
.............DPS: ###
Crowd control: ####
......Accuracy: ##
.....Disruption: ##
..........Safety: ####
CRYSTAL BULLET
.............DPS: ####
Crowd control: ##
......Accuracy: ##
.....Disruption: #
..........Safety: ####
....Availability: #####
Sold by the Arms Dealer for 25 gold in Hardmode
Best prefix: Unreal $$
While it has slightly higher potential DPS than the Clockwork Assault Rifle, the Shotgun is substantially harder to use in most situations. However, it works just fine against bosses with Crystal Bullets, and against crowds with Exploding Bullets. It has a bit of projectile spread, but it's still tight enough to be useful over long distances. In my opinion, the Quad-Barrel Shotgun never outclassed this weapon at any point in its history; the Shotgun has much better effective range, and its spread isn't so wide that you'd ever have to worry about accidentally blowing yourself up with an Exploding Bullet.
There's no denying that the Shotgun is outclassed by most Hardmode ranged weapons, but if you've ever played on a public SSC server that threw you straight into Hardmode armed with only a Copper Shortsword, there's a good chance that you've used this. Nowadays I imagine most people would go for the Jousting Lance since it's more than four times cheaper to purchase, though one point in the Shotgun's favor is that it can actually kill bosses.
EXPLODING BULLET
.............DPS: ###
Crowd control: ####
......Accuracy: ##
.....Disruption: ##
..........Safety: ####
CRYSTAL BULLET
.............DPS: ####
Crowd control: ##
......Accuracy: ##
.....Disruption: #
..........Safety: ####
....Availability: #####
Sold by the Arms Dealer for 25 gold in Hardmode
Best prefix: Unreal $$
Gatligator: A
Uses standard bullets.
This is the best pre-mech gun for crowd control when paired with Exploding Bullets, and it can clear out large groups of enemies by strafing them from above. Unfortunately, its poor accuracy makes it difficult to use as an actual ranged weapon, so you'll probably be shooting things point-blank instead to take full advantage of its high fire rate. Its accuracy actually isn't too terrible against large targets like the Twins; it performs much better than the Clockwork Assault Rifle at close distances (and about the same at long distances). It sort of works like a demo version of the Megashark, except it's not really a demo version because you paid 35 gold for it.
CRYSTAL BULLET
.............DPS: #####
Crowd control: ##
......Accuracy: ##
.....Disruption: #####
..........Safety: ####
EXPLODING BULLET
.............DPS: ####
Crowd control: ####
......Accuracy: ##
.....Disruption: #####
..........Safety: ####
....Availability: #
Extremely rare chance to be sold by the Traveling Merchant for 35 gold in Hardmode
Best prefix: Unreal $$$
This is the best pre-mech gun for crowd control when paired with Exploding Bullets, and it can clear out large groups of enemies by strafing them from above. Unfortunately, its poor 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. Its accuracy actually isn't too terrible against large targets like the Twins; it performs much better than the Clockwork Assault Rifle at close distances (and about the same at long distances). It sort of works like a demo version of the Megashark, except it's not really a demo version because you paid 35 gold for it.
CRYSTAL BULLET
.............DPS: #####
Crowd control: ##
......Accuracy: ##
.....Disruption: #####
..........Safety: ####
EXPLODING BULLET
.............DPS: ####
Crowd control: ####
......Accuracy: ##
.....Disruption: #####
..........Safety: ####
....Availability: #
Extremely rare chance to be sold by the Traveling Merchant for 35 gold in Hardmode
Best prefix: Unreal $$$
Sergeant United Shield: S
This is the only homing melee weapon you'll get for a very long time, which naturally gives it a number of unique advantages. When imbued, it is the most reliable way to inflict Ichor by far, irrespective of class. It performs at least decently against all mechanical bosses, and extremely well against Queen Slime. And it easily cheeses all underground enemies since it is both bouncing and homing. As a bonus, it can grant Striking Moment, which is completely useless in all practical situations, but dealing 4-digit damage to Green Slimes makes for an excellent party trick.
.............DPS: ###
Crowd control: ####
......Accuracy: #####
.....Disruption:
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....Availability: #
Extremely rare chance to be sold by the Traveling Merchant for 35 Gold in Hardmode
Best prefix: Demonic $$$
.............DPS: ###
Crowd control: ####
......Accuracy: #####
.....Disruption:
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....Availability: #
Extremely rare chance to be sold by the Traveling Merchant for 35 Gold in Hardmode
Best prefix: Demonic $$$
Orange Zapinator: A-
This is the wackiest weapon in the game by far, and it basically wins the fight against the Destroyer by itself. If it were any faster, its tooltip ("It might be broken") would take on an entirely new meaning, but even with its slow speed holding it back, it is surprisingly viable for what is essentially a joke weapon. It has extremely high base damage for a pre-mech weapon, and performs better on average against bosses due to the occasional omega-hit dealing upwards of 1500 damage in a single shot (which can potentially hit multiple times). Apart from shattering the Destroyer, it also does exceptionally well against Queen Slime since it can take advantage of her minions to trigger more effects. Use it like you would use a Sniper Rifle; its projectile behavior might weird you out a bit, but whatever happens, it can only help you.
.............DPS: ####
Crowd control: ##
......Accuracy: ####
.....Disruption: #
..........Safety: ####
....Availability: #
Extremely rare chance to be sold by the Traveling Merchant for 35 Gold in Hardmode
Best prefix: Mythical $$$$
.............DPS: ####
Crowd control: ##
......Accuracy: ####
.....Disruption: #
..........Safety: ####
....Availability: #
Extremely rare chance to be sold by the Traveling Merchant for 35 Gold in Hardmode
Best prefix: Mythical $$$$
Slap Hand: D-
It is very good at what it does, but what it does is not something you want to be doing most of the time. Its ridiculous knockback makes it extremely inefficient at killing things, unless your target is immune to knockback, in which case you'll have defeated the entire purpose of using this weapon. And hitting projectile-based enemies with the Slap Hand is pretty much the opposite of what you should be trying to do as a melee user. What makes this weapon even weirder is the unintuitive method by which it is obtained; typically, you'd be fighting or fishing on the surface during a Blood Moon, not trawling underground for a Skeleton Merchant. So most players won't even get an opportunity to purchase this. They aren't missing much, though. If your goal is just to get nearby enemies to leave you alone, the Bee Keeper does a better job.
.............DPS: ##
Crowd control: ###
......Accuracy: n/a
.....Disruption: ####
..........Safety: #
....Availability: ##
Sold by the Skeleton Merchant for 25 gold during a Blood Moon in Hardmode
Best prefix: Legendary $$
.............DPS: ##
Crowd control: ###
......Accuracy: n/a
.....Disruption: ####
..........Safety: #
....Availability: ##
Sold by the Skeleton Merchant for 25 gold during a Blood Moon in Hardmode
Best prefix: Legendary $$
Jousting Lance: D+
An extremely difficult weapon to master, and its performance in most situations is average at best. It matches up well against contact-based enemies with moderate to high knockback resistance (such as Unicorns and Mimics), but it's a terrible choice against projectile-based enemies. Its absurdly high knockback is often a double-edged sword; for example, you might use it to smack an Illuminant Bat away from you, only for it to bounce off a wall and right back into your face. Surprisingly, its movement speed gimmick doesn't hurt its viability too much since you'll be moving all the time anyways, and the direction you're moving in doesn't matter. Its low range is what really prevents it from being useful most of the time. Still, I think this is a much better starting weapon than the Breaker Blade, and 6 gold is such an amazingly cheap price for a weapon that is arguably better than all the ore spears.
The best way to use this weapon is NOT to hold it out and start charging in a single direction. Rather, it should be used to stab enemies directly, kind of like a shortsword. A Shield of Cthulhu is helpful, but not required since you can boost its damage by jumping up and down.
.............DPS: ####
Crowd control: #####
......Accuracy: ##
.....Disruption: #####
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....Availability: #####
Sold by Zoologist for 6 Gold during Hardmode
Best prefix: Godly/Demonic ¢
The best way to use this weapon is NOT to hold it out and start charging in a single direction. Rather, it should be used to stab enemies directly, kind of like a shortsword. A Shield of Cthulhu is helpful, but not required since you can boost its damage by jumping up and down.
.............DPS: ####
Crowd control: #####
......Accuracy: ##
.....Disruption: #####
..........Safety: #
....Availability: #####
Sold by Zoologist for 6 Gold during Hardmode
Best prefix: Godly/Demonic ¢
Crafted from monster drops
Onyx Blaster: A+
Uses standard bullets.
The enormous damage that the Onyx Blaster deals in a single shot easily compensates for its lack of speed. Against large targets, you can easily deal more than 600 damage in a single shot, and upwards of 1000 per shot against the Destroyer. Most smaller enemies die in one or two shots, and it actually isn't that hard to aim, either. It has a relatively narrow spread for a shotgun, and it deals a huge amount of splash damage within a large radius. Because its explosive blast deals double the listed damage, it can even muscle through heavily armored opponents later on. It's perfectly reasonable to use this against Plantera, Golem, or even Duke Fishron. Note that it actually has an anti-synergy with Exploding Bullets, since the bullets deal piercing damage and may interfere with the explosive blast.
Its slow firing speed can take some getting used to, especially if you used it a lot prior to the nerf, but the Onyx Blaster still does Onyx Blaster things.
CRYSTAL BULLET
.............DPS: #####
Crowd control: ####
......Accuracy: ###
.....Disruption: ##
..........Safety: ####
....Availability: ####
Crafted from Shotgun, Soul of Night x10, Dark Shard x2 at a Hardmode Anvil
Best prefix: Unreal $$
The enormous damage that the Onyx Blaster deals in a single shot easily compensates for its lack of speed. Against large targets, you can easily deal more than 600 damage in a single shot, and upwards of 1000 per shot against the Destroyer. Most smaller enemies die in one or two shots, and it actually isn't that hard to aim, either. It has a relatively narrow spread for a shotgun, and it deals a huge amount of splash damage within a large radius. Because its explosive blast deals double the listed damage, it can even muscle through heavily armored opponents later on. It's perfectly reasonable to use this against Plantera, Golem, or even Duke Fishron. Note that it actually has an anti-synergy with Exploding Bullets, since the bullets deal piercing damage and may interfere with the explosive blast.
Its slow firing speed can take some getting used to, especially if you used it a lot prior to the nerf, but the Onyx Blaster still does Onyx Blaster things.
CRYSTAL BULLET
.............DPS: #####
Crowd control: ####
......Accuracy: ###
.....Disruption: ##
..........Safety: ####
....Availability: ####
Crafted from Shotgun, Soul of Night x10, Dark Shard x2 at a Hardmode Anvil
Best prefix: Unreal $$
Sky Fracture: B+
One of the most overrated weapons in the entire game. For a long time the Sky Fracture was considered the best pre-mech magic weapon available, and if this was true (which it wasn't), that was only because most other magic weapons were worse. It has always been a rather sloppy and inaccurate single-target weapon, and now it has to compete with Spirit Flame, Orange Zapinator, and Crystal Storm, which offer just as much DPS while not being nearly as frustrating to aim. The Sky Fracture can handle some slower enemies, but using it against fast-moving bosses like the Twins will become annoying really fast due to its relatively low velocity which forces you to lead your shots by a large margin. It also has no crowd control abilities to speak of, and its efficiency against normal enemies is questionable; its high knockback (boosted further by its elevated critical rate) tends to juggle enemies around, making it even harder to properly land your shots. Even worse, it tends to fall apart when used at point-blank range. If your aim is good, you might be able to take advantage of its high DPS potential against bosses, which are usually large enough for the Sky Fracture to hit somewhat consistently. But it will rarely be your most efficient option for anything else, and people tend to overestimate its damage output—it's not much better than even the Frost Staff or Magic Dagger.
.............DPS: ####
Crowd control: #
......Accuracy: ##
.....Disruption: ####
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....Availability: ####
Crafted from Magic Missile, Soul of Light x16, Light Shard x2 at a Hardmode Anvil
Best prefix: Mythical $$
.............DPS: ####
Crowd control: #
......Accuracy: ##
.....Disruption: ####
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....Availability: ####
Crafted from Magic Missile, Soul of Light x16, Light Shard x2 at a Hardmode Anvil
Best prefix: Mythical $$
Dao of Pow: A-
Though it is slightly tricky to use, the Dao of Pow smashes the living daylights out of almost everything you'll encounter up until mid-Hardmode. Its base damage is high enough that most enemies die after getting hit twice from the flail head, and it can be rapidly click-spammed to deliver higher DPS to enemies in close- to mid-range. It also reliably inflicts the Confused debuff to everything that isn't immune to it; often this won't be of much help since the debuff tends to only affect enemies that couldn't really threaten you anyways, but it does work on things like Pirate Crossbowers, rendering them useless for a while if it doesn't kill them in one shot. As with all flails, its spinning attack has disappointingly low knockback and attack speed, so focus on throwing the flail head.
.............DPS: ####
Crowd control: #####
......Accuracy: ###
.....Disruption: ####
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....Availability: ###
Crafted from Dark Shard, Light Shard, Soul of Light x7, Soul of Night x7 at a Hardmode Anvil
Best prefix: Godly/Demonic $
.............DPS: ####
Crowd control: #####
......Accuracy: ###
.....Disruption: ####
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....Availability: ###
Crafted from Dark Shard, Light Shard, Soul of Light x7, Soul of Night x7 at a Hardmode Anvil
Best prefix: Godly/Demonic $
Chik: A
Slightly weaker than Amarok, but what really prevents Chik from being useful is that it requires an upgraded Anvil to craft. You'll really want a yoyo when you're hunting for ores underground and fighting off cavern monsters, and Chik won't be around for that, which is a massive shame.
.............DPS: ####
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....Availability: #####
Crafted from Wooden Yoyo, Crystal Shard x15, Soul of Light x10 at a Hardmode Anvil
Best prefix: Godly/Demonic $$
.............DPS: ####
Crowd control: ###
......Accuracy: ####
.....Disruption: ####
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....Availability: #####
Crafted from Wooden Yoyo, Crystal Shard x15, Soul of Light x10 at a Hardmode Anvil
Best prefix: Godly/Demonic $$
Crystal Storm: A-
A magical machine gun that is most useful in cramped corridors, but is also decent against bosses, especially the ones that chase you around. It easily stunlocks regular enemies while dealing around the same DPS as a Megashark, and has just enough range to damage Spazmatism during its flamethrower attack. Its projectiles spread out a bit, but that's not too much of a hindrance for a weapon that attacks so quickly; it is much more likely to hit flying enemies than many weapons with narrow projectiles, like the Laser Rifle. Like all fast-firing weapons, it greatly appreciates the Ichor debuff, especially because it helps to offset Skeletron Prime's increased defense during his spin attack (which is when he is the easiest to hit).
.............DPS: ####
Crowd control: #
......Accuracy: ###
.....Disruption: #####
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....Availability: #####
Crafted from Spell Tome, Crystal Shard x20, Soul of Light x15 at a Bookshelf
Best prefix: Mythical $$$$
.............DPS: ####
Crowd control: #
......Accuracy: ###
.....Disruption: #####
..........Safety: ###
....Availability: #####
Crafted from Spell Tome, Crystal Shard x20, Soul of Light x15 at a Bookshelf
Best prefix: Mythical $$$$
Golden Shower: A
While it can be used as a primary weapon when first crafted, it retains its usefulness as a quick defense debuffer throughout the entire game, remaining viable even after its own DPS starts to fall off. Sure, you could also use a Flask of Ichor or Ichor ammunition, but the Golden Shower applies Ichor without consuming any resources, and therefore grants you permanent access to the debuff. Its ability to inflict Ichor isn't the Golden Shower's only good quality; it pierces completely through and stunlocks any crowd you might realistically face, and despite not being able to inflict Ichor against the boss, it is an above-average weapon against the Destroyer (moreso if you have a Shark Tooth Necklace). It's an excellent support option for mages who want to pair it with rapid-fire weapons like Crystal Storm and Bat Scepter, and it's also appreciated by rangers since it synergizes so well with Crystal Bullets. But if your primary weapon is a slow, hard-hitting weapon like Spirit Flame or Orange Zapinator, don't bother with Ichor.
The best time to use Golden Shower is when bosses start moving around quickly in a way that makes them hard to hit. You won't be able to deal any consistent damage during this time, but you can at least land one hit with the Golden Shower. The brief moments afterwards when bosses pause their movement are opportunities to deal as much damage as possible, and you don't want to waste those precious seconds using the Golden Shower and swapping when you could have applied the debuff earlier.
.............DPS: ###
Crowd control: #####
......Accuracy: ####
.....Disruption: ####
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....Availability: #####
Crafted from Spell Tome, Ichor x20, Soul of Night x15 at a Bookshelf
Best prefix: Mythical $$$$
The best time to use Golden Shower is when bosses start moving around quickly in a way that makes them hard to hit. You won't be able to deal any consistent damage during this time, but you can at least land one hit with the Golden Shower. The brief moments afterwards when bosses pause their movement are opportunities to deal as much damage as possible, and you don't want to waste those precious seconds using the Golden Shower and swapping when you could have applied the debuff earlier.
.............DPS: ###
Crowd control: #####
......Accuracy: ####
.....Disruption: ####
..........Safety: ####
....Availability: #####
Crafted from Spell Tome, Ichor x20, Soul of Night x15 at a Bookshelf
Best prefix: Mythical $$$$
Cursed Flames: A+
A superbly spammable weapon that completely dominates invasion events. You ideally want the fireballs to bounce as low as possible, so its damage will be concentrated on grounded crowds. However, it's sometimes a good idea to let the projectiles bounce a bit higher so they can catch flying enemies in the crossfire. This weapon deals more single-target DPS than the Golden Shower, even taking the latter's Ichor debuff into account. It also has more reach than the Flower of Frost. So bossing is a possibility for Cursed Flames, though it probably isn't your most efficient option.
.............DPS: ####
Crowd control: ####
......Accuracy: ##
.....Disruption: ####
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....Availability: #####
Crafted from Spell Tome, Cursed Flame x20, Soul of Night x15 at a Bookshelf
Best prefix: Mythical $$$$
.............DPS: ####
Crowd control: ####
......Accuracy: ##
.....Disruption: ####
..........Safety: ####
....Availability: #####
Crafted from Spell Tome, Cursed Flame x20, Soul of Night x15 at a Bookshelf
Best prefix: Mythical $$$$
Meteor Staff: B+
The Meteor Staff is basically the magic equivalent of a watered-down Daedalus Stormbow. Since it does literally nothing underground, it is strictly to be used against bosses and pirates. It has a somewhat favorable matchup against Prime and the Twins, performing a bit better than the Sky Fracture during phases when the boss isn't chasing you. And it is very good against the Destroyer, as you might expect. These positive matchups are offset by the fact that the Meteor Staff is useless during most of early Hardmode because it mainly takes place underground. It can technically be used for surface combat, but it won't be efficient unless your targets are very numerous or very large. Its extremely high mana usage is also a significant flaw; Mana Regeneration alone will not be enough, and you'll need a Magnet/Mana Flower in order to use it properly. It can definitely contribute to your run as an effective boss-killer, but it's not at all suited for general use. Also, it really sucks if you're playing on low resolution. If you're playing on a laptop, I'd recommend going fullscreen and zooming out in order to extend the Meteor Staff's range as far as possible, which massively improves its performance.
.............DPS: ####
Crowd control: ####
......Accuracy: ##
.....Disruption: ####
..........Safety: #####
....Availability: #####
Crafted from Meteorite Bar x20, Pixie Dust x10, Soul of Light x10 at a Hardmode Anvil
Best prefix: Mythical $
.............DPS: ####
Crowd control: ####
......Accuracy: ##
.....Disruption: ####
..........Safety: #####
....Availability: #####
Crafted from Meteorite Bar x20, Pixie Dust x10, Soul of Light x10 at a Hardmode Anvil
Best prefix: Mythical $
Spirit Flame: S
Though it is somewhat difficult to obtain, the Spirit Flame is possibly the best magic weapon to use against the flying bosses like the Twins, Skeletron Prime, and Queen Slime thanks to its homing abilities and high damage value relative to its modest mana consumption. It even has a little bit of splash damage against tightly-bunched enemies, though it's not large enough to hit more than two Destroyer segments. While it is extremely efficient at eliminating flying enemies, it doesn't do too well underground, so use it on the surface instead for invasions and boss fights.
.............DPS: #####
Crowd control: ###
......Accuracy: #####
.....Disruption: ##
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....Availability: ##
Crafted from Desert Spirit Lamp, Forbidden Fragment x2, Soul of Night x12 at a Hardmode Anvil
Best prefix: Mythical ¢
.............DPS: #####
Crowd control: ###
......Accuracy: #####
.....Disruption: ##
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....Availability: ##
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 while completely shutting down their movement, and are even usable against some flying targets like Pixies, Ichor Stickers, and Flying Dutchman cannons. However, some speedy, knockback-immune targets like Spazmatism can shake the spiders off. This weapon performs much better in areas covered with background walls, so if you want to fill your arena with walls in order to grant your spider minions maximum mobility, then I guess you could do that. But even if you're not willing to go the extra mile and build a spider-friendly arena, this is the ultimate anti-ground minion weapon for this stage of the game, and it is insanely good relative to how easy it is to get. It can even be used unironically against the post-Plantera dungeon since the entire place is covered in background walls, and it puts up a decent showing against Plantera herself.
You'll get diminishing returns after summoning 3 spiders, so you might want to stick to Obsidian armor since Spider armor's increased capacity won't help that much.
.............DPS: ####
Crowd control: ###
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....Availability: #####
Crafted from Spider Fang x16 at an Iron/Lead Anvil
Best prefix: Ruthless ¢
You'll get diminishing returns after summoning 3 spiders, so you might want to stick to Obsidian armor since Spider armor's increased capacity won't help that much.
.............DPS: ####
Crowd control: ###
......Accuracy: ####
.....Disruption: #####
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....Availability: #####
Crafted from Spider Fang x16 at an Iron/Lead Anvil
Best prefix: Ruthless ¢
Queen Spider Staff: S
While it is nothing special when first obtained, the Queen Spider Staff has monstrous potential and scales extraordinarily well into the lategame. In the beginning of hardmode, it is held back by its low base damage and your lack of sentry capacity bonuses; there's no opportunity cost for using it, but don't expect a solitary Queen Spider to accomplish much outside of cheesing the occasional enemy underground and spreading Venom. After you beat your first mechanical boss and clear the Old One's Army a few times, you'll unlock new armors and new sentries. However, none of the new sentries are nearly as flexible as the Queen Spider, whose accumulated "missed" shots amass together into a highly-damaging sea of spiders that cover any terrain, both on the surface and underground. And in the lategame, after you have access to the best gear from the Tavernkeep, this early Hardmode weapon is still relevant, retaining its role as the least placement-dependent sentry in the entire game (other than the two postgame sentries). It offers more stable DPS than the other sentries, which all suffer from low accuracy or tiny range.
While it is always at least somewhat useful, the Queen Spider's full potential is only realized if you use hybrid sentry-based sets. Non-summoner characters will find it mediocre, and Monk/Squire/Huntress sets will prefer their corresponding sentries to take advantage of their set bonuses. Nevertheless, you might find such hybrid sets surprisingly viable, as some of the best individual armor pieces in the game (Shinobi Infiltrator's Helmet, Valhalla Knight's Breastplate, and Spooky Breastplate) provide benefits that can easily outweigh set bonuses.
.............DPS: ###
Crowd control: ##
......Accuracy: ####
.....Disruption: #
..........Safety: #####
....Availability: #####
Crafted from Spider Fang x24 at an Iron/Lead Anvil
Best prefix: Ruthless $$
While it is always at least somewhat useful, the Queen Spider's full potential is only realized if you use hybrid sentry-based sets. Non-summoner characters will find it mediocre, and Monk/Squire/Huntress sets will prefer their corresponding sentries to take advantage of their set bonuses. Nevertheless, you might find such hybrid sets surprisingly viable, as some of the best individual armor pieces in the game (Shinobi Infiltrator's Helmet, Valhalla Knight's Breastplate, and Spooky Breastplate) provide benefits that can easily outweigh set bonuses.
.............DPS: ###
Crowd control: ##
......Accuracy: ####
.....Disruption: #
..........Safety: #####
....Availability: #####
Crafted from Spider Fang x24 at an Iron/Lead Anvil
Best prefix: Ruthless $$
Cool Whip: B-
Cool Whip completely misses the point of being a whip. Whips are supposed to support your minions, and this is the only whip that does not interact with minions whatsoever. The summoner class derives much of its strength from minion+whip synergies, so Cool Whip is easily the least useful whip in the game. That said, it is still a whip, so it will perform better than many non-whip weapons if you're wearing Obsidian armor. It has slightly better reach than Firecracker, making it a little better for exploring since single-target DPS isn't as important down there. However, it will never be your best option when facing single bosses if you are using any minion weapon other than the Blade Staff, because Firecracker beats it by a wide margin thanks to the massive boost it grants to Spiders and Sanguine Bats. The Blade Staff doesn't appreciate Firecracker much, but it doesn't appreciate Cool Whip's lack of tag damage either; you should use Spinal Tap instead, especially if you are running Spider armor for stronger minions and weaker whips.
Of course, nothing's stopping you from alternating between Spinal Tap and Cool Whip if you're using a Blade Staff build, but that's not much better than alternating between Spinal Tap and Snapthorn. Once you obtain Durendal, you can still use Spinal Tap and Firecracker for their respective tag effects, but you'll have no use for Cool Whip anymore. I've seen many people argue that Cool Whip is good for crowd control and killing the Destroyer. This argument might have some merit if the snowflake dealt substantial damage to enemies, which it does not. The snowflake's DPS averages out to around 150-200 in the best-case scenario. (For reference, a weapon needs to pull at least 1500 DPS against the Destroyer in order to be considered good.) Sure it's better than other whips, but that isn't saying much. It might be your best whip against the Destroyer, but it will almost never be your best weapon against the Destroyer. Though I will admit that it is very good at killing Probes while the Nimbus Rod takes care of the body.
Technically, Cool Whip is the best pre-mech whip for someone who isn't using summons. This sounds like a stupid distinction, but it can be used unironically by non-summoners who drank a Flask of Ichor and just need something to inflict the debuff with. Cool Whip is much safer and more accurate than most melee weapons, hits all targets within reach, and just happens to have barely enough range to hit Spazmatism in its first phase when it's shooting fireballs. A Golden Shower or Blowpipe with Ichor Darts can obviously do the same thing, but the Flask inflicts the debuff for a longer duration on average. If you don't have a Sergeant United Shield or Shadowflame Knife, you can try using Cool Whip to support your other Ichor-dependent weapons, such as guns.
.............DPS: ###
Crowd control: ####
......Accuracy: #####
.....Disruption: ###
..........Safety: ###
....Availability: ####
Crafted from Frost Core, Soul of Light x8, Soul of Night x8 at a Hardmode Anvil
Best prefix: Legendary $$
Of course, nothing's stopping you from alternating between Spinal Tap and Cool Whip if you're using a Blade Staff build, but that's not much better than alternating between Spinal Tap and Snapthorn. Once you obtain Durendal, you can still use Spinal Tap and Firecracker for their respective tag effects, but you'll have no use for Cool Whip anymore. I've seen many people argue that Cool Whip is good for crowd control and killing the Destroyer. This argument might have some merit if the snowflake dealt substantial damage to enemies, which it does not. The snowflake's DPS averages out to around 150-200 in the best-case scenario. (For reference, a weapon needs to pull at least 1500 DPS against the Destroyer in order to be considered good.) Sure it's better than other whips, but that isn't saying much. It might be your best whip against the Destroyer, but it will almost never be your best weapon against the Destroyer. Though I will admit that it is very good at killing Probes while the Nimbus Rod takes care of the body.
Technically, Cool Whip is the best pre-mech whip for someone who isn't using summons. This sounds like a stupid distinction, but it can be used unironically by non-summoners who drank a Flask of Ichor and just need something to inflict the debuff with. Cool Whip is much safer and more accurate than most melee weapons, hits all targets within reach, and just happens to have barely enough range to hit Spazmatism in its first phase when it's shooting fireballs. A Golden Shower or Blowpipe with Ichor Darts can obviously do the same thing, but the Flask inflicts the debuff for a longer duration on average. If you don't have a Sergeant United Shield or Shadowflame Knife, you can try using Cool Whip to support your other Ichor-dependent weapons, such as guns.
.............DPS: ###
Crowd control: ####
......Accuracy: #####
.....Disruption: ###
..........Safety: ###
....Availability: ####
Crafted from Frost Core, Soul of Light x8, Soul of Night x8 at a Hardmode Anvil
Best prefix: Legendary $$
Obtained through Fishing
Crystal Serpent: B+
The Crystal Serpent's performance is average against most enemies, but it performs much, much better against bosses. Due to their large size and tendency to charge at you, bosses like Queen Slime and Spazmatism will take massive amounts of damage from each shot as they ram into all the secondary projectiles. This weapon usually has better bossing DPS than the Sky Fracture, and performs well in all situations that guns with Crystal Bullets perform well in. As a bonus, its mana cost is very low, so it can be freely spammed while exploring underground, and it's rather decent underground since its secondary projectiles bounce off of walls.
.............DPS: ####
Crowd control: ##
......Accuracy: ###
.....Disruption: ###
..........Safety: ####
....Availability: #
0.5% chance to be caught when fishing in the Hallowed Biome in Hardmode
Best prefix: Mythical $$
.............DPS: ####
Crowd control: ##
......Accuracy: ###
.....Disruption: ###
..........Safety: ####
....Availability: #
0.5% chance to be caught when fishing in the Hallowed Biome in Hardmode
Best prefix: Mythical $$
Toxikarp: A
Thanks to the existence of the Endless Quiver and Endless Musket Pouch, its ability to conserve ammo is hardly unique, but the Toxikarp has a number of other things going for it. Its large projectile is very effective against flying enemies, and thanks to its fast fire rate, it deals damage quite rapidly while covering a large area over your entire screen. This can be used against the Twins and Skeletron Prime, and should easily perform better than the Shadowflame Knife and Ice Bow. Note that fishing in the Corruption can be rather dangerous since the biome tends to spawn World Feeders.
.............DPS: ####
Crowd control: #
......Accuracy: ###
.....Disruption: ####
..........Safety: ####
....Availability: #
0.5% chance to be caught when fishing in the Corruption Biome in Hardmode
Best prefix: Unreal $$
.............DPS: ####
Crowd control: #
......Accuracy: ###
.....Disruption: ####
..........Safety: ####
....Availability: #
0.5% chance to be caught when fishing in the Corruption Biome in Hardmode
Best prefix: Unreal $$
Bladetongue: B-
Like all broadswords, this is a difficult weapon to use, but unlike most broadswords, the Bladetongue is powerful enough to possibly justify the increased danger it puts you in. It is the strongest melee weapon against the Destroyer by far, and it's reasonably good for crowd control despite the unreliability of its bouncing ichor streams. But if you're at low health and you're about to die, the Bladetongue is probably not going to save you.
BLADE
.............DPS: ####
Crowd control: ###
......Accuracy: n/a
.....Disruption: ###
..........Safety: #
BEAM
.............DPS: ###
Crowd control: #####
......Accuracy: ##
.....Disruption: ###
..........Safety: #
....Availability: #
0.5% chance to be caught when fishing in the Crimson Biome in Hardmode
Best prefix: Legendary $$
BLADE
.............DPS: ####
Crowd control: ###
......Accuracy: n/a
.....Disruption: ###
..........Safety: #
BEAM
.............DPS: ###
Crowd control: #####
......Accuracy: ##
.....Disruption: ###
..........Safety: #
....Availability: #
0.5% chance to be caught when fishing in the Crimson Biome in Hardmode
Best prefix: Legendary $$
Obsidian Swordfish: C
It's much better than the Breaker Blade, at least. It is very competent at dealing damage, but also very unsafe to use; even compared to other spears, its range is extremely short, which makes it difficult to attack enemies without getting hit in return. Against anything immune to knockback, this is not a viable option. At least it can get you through the exploration phase of early Hardmode if you catch it right after defeating the Wall of Flesh, but it won't contribute much to any important battles after that. I would avoid using this in Expert mode.
.............DPS: ####
Crowd control: #####
......Accuracy: ##
.....Disruption: ####
..........Safety: #
....Availability: ####
14.29% chance to be caught when fishing in lava in Hardmode
Best prefix: Godly/Demonic ¢
.............DPS: ####
Crowd control: #####
......Accuracy: ##
.....Disruption: ####
..........Safety: #
....Availability: ####
14.29% chance to be caught when fishing in lava in Hardmode
Best prefix: Godly/Demonic ¢
Anchor: C+
The Anchor really doesn't want to face off against more than two or three enemies at once, but it packs a decent punch and it's a hell of a lot better than the Breaker Blade as a starting weapon. It also invalidates the KO Cannon's entire existence. A minor annoyance with the Anchor is that its projectile is so large, it often ends up colliding with the ground and returning prematurely, not to mention that it takes a while to return if it misses. On the bright side, it won't stop you from swapping weapons while it's out, so you can use it sort of like a crappy Magnet Sphere.
.............DPS: ####
Crowd control: ##
......Accuracy: ###
.....Disruption: ###
..........Safety: ###
....Availability: ####
4% chance to drop from Pearlwood Crates
Best prefix: Godly/Demonic ¢
.............DPS: ####
Crowd control: ##
......Accuracy: ###
.....Disruption: ###
..........Safety: ###
....Availability: ####
4% chance to drop from Pearlwood Crates
Best prefix: Godly/Demonic ¢
Blood Moon Fishing
Blood Thorn: C-
Given that the Blood Thorn is almost completely useless against flying enemies, you'd at least expect it to compensate by dealing considerable damage to grounded ones. Sadly, that turns out not to be the case, as its damage output is thoroughly mediocre even when its janky, random hitboxes are actually hitting an enemy. It suffers from some weird piercing penalty that sharply reduces its damage against crowds to the point of doing literally 1 damage. In fact, the Crystal Storm and Sky Fracture deal nearly as much DPS to one enemy as the Blood Thorn deals to an infinite number of enemies. The fact that it switches attack styles depending on the position of your cursor and character is also very disorienting. If you fly too far from the ground, the Blood Thorn stops acting like an inferior Life Drain, and instead starts acting like an inferior Shadowflame Hex Doll. This sentence alone should tell you everything you need to know about its overall viability.
Blood Thorn is one of the most visually stunning magic weapons, but after I tested it in combat, my disappointment was immeasurable and my day was ruined.
.............DPS: ###
Crowd control: ###
......Accuracy: ###
.....Disruption: ##
..........Safety: ###
....Availability: #
12.5% chance to drop from Hemogoblin Shark
Best prefix: Mythical $$
Blood Thorn is one of the most visually stunning magic weapons, but after I tested it in combat, my disappointment was immeasurable and my day was ruined.
.............DPS: ###
Crowd control: ###
......Accuracy: ###
.....Disruption: ##
..........Safety: ###
....Availability: #
12.5% chance to drop from Hemogoblin Shark
Best prefix: Mythical $$
Drippler Crippler: S
This flail crushes grounded enemies like nothing else. There are two viable ways to use it: either throw it the full distance to pierce through linear crowds, or click rapidly to fire off as many projectiles as possible, damaging and stunlocking enemies at mid-range. The latter is also your best option for close-ranged DPS. With its massive base damage, it can even be used for bossing, and apart from shredding the Destroyer (obviously), it also deals reasonable damage to Skeletron Prime; I was able to destroy most of the boss's arms without even meaning to. In short, the Drippler Crippler is an incredibly nutty weapon that stays relevant for a very long time. I would go so far to say that the Flower Pow does not directly outclass it, since the Drippler Crippler fires piercing projectiles while the Flower Pow does not.
.............DPS: #####
Crowd control: #####
......Accuracy: ###
.....Disruption: ####
..........Safety: ###
....Availability: #
12.5% chance to drop from Blood Eel
Best prefix: Godly/Demonic $$
.............DPS: #####
Crowd control: #####
......Accuracy: ###
.....Disruption: ####
..........Safety: ###
....Availability: #
12.5% chance to drop from Blood Eel
Best prefix: Godly/Demonic $$
Sanguine Staff: S+
Incredibly reliable minion against any type of enemy, including bosses. It also handles clustered enemies really well. Even if you're not a dedicated summoner, you'll definitely want to use this; just using a Summoning Potion and Bewitching Table will allow this weapon to consistently contribute to your total DPS, to the order of (base damage x # of capacity slots) since they attack around once per second. More often than not, I observed that the minions were more effective at fighting off enemies than I was, and I wasn't even using summoner equipment! Of course, raw DPS isn't their only advantage; because the bats spend all their time traveling back and forth between you and your target, they're pretty good at keeping you safe since they knock enemies away 100% of the time. Not as insane for enemy lockdown as the Blade Staff, but still very good.
While it can fight competently at long range, its DPS reaches its absolute maximum when facetanking. This information might be relevant when you reach wave 15 of the Pumpkin Moon, where you can just fly upwards into the stacked Pumpkings and deal an obscene amount of damage with the bats alone.
The Sanguine Staff and Blade Staff outclass every summoning weapon you'll receive up until the Desert Tiger and Raven become available. While the Sanguine Staff starts off stronger with its Firecracker synergy, you might find Blade Staff more appealing later on since it benefits much more from post-mech summoner equipment and doesn't really care about the low offensive bonuses of Hallowed armor.
.............DPS: ####
Crowd control: ###
......Accuracy: #####
.....Disruption: ###
..........Safety: ####
....Availability: ###
50% chance to drop from Dreadnautilus (100% in Expert mode)
Best prefix: Ruthless $$
While it can fight competently at long range, its DPS reaches its absolute maximum when facetanking. This information might be relevant when you reach wave 15 of the Pumpkin Moon, where you can just fly upwards into the stacked Pumpkings and deal an obscene amount of damage with the bats alone.
The Sanguine Staff and Blade Staff outclass every summoning weapon you'll receive up until the Desert Tiger and Raven become available. While the Sanguine Staff starts off stronger with its Firecracker synergy, you might find Blade Staff more appealing later on since it benefits much more from post-mech summoner equipment and doesn't really care about the low offensive bonuses of Hallowed armor.
.............DPS: ####
Crowd control: ###
......Accuracy: #####
.....Disruption: ###
..........Safety: ####
....Availability: ###
50% chance to drop from Dreadnautilus (100% in Expert mode)
Best prefix: Ruthless $$
Goblin Invasion
Shadowflame Bow: A
This offers roughly the same performance as a repeater with Jester's Arrows, but it does have a couple of small advantages: while it doesn't pierce as many enemies, it is slightly stronger, and it's completely free to use thanks to the Endless Quiver. Like Jester's Arrows, Shadowflame Arrows travel in a much straighter line than Unholy Arrows, giving them much better linear crowd control. A useful weapon overall, though it doesn't really offer anything new to your arsenal.
.............DPS: ####
Crowd control: ####
......Accuracy: ###
.....Disruption: ####
..........Safety: ####
....Availability: ##
16.7% chance to drop from Goblin Summoners (33.3% chance in Expert mode)
Best prefix: Unreal $
.............DPS: ####
Crowd control: ####
......Accuracy: ###
.....Disruption: ####
..........Safety: ####
....Availability: ##
16.7% chance to drop from Goblin Summoners (33.3% chance in Expert mode)
Best prefix: Unreal $
Shadowflame Knife: A-
A highly spammable single-target weapon that deals enough DPS to challenge bosses with, and will probably be among your safest options as a melee user. During invasions, it can create some chaos as knives bounce from one enemy to the next, but the bouncing effect is not reliable enough to be worth paying attention to. Except against the Destroyer, who is too large to avoid the knives and will consistently get hit by all three bounces. Against the Destroyer, it might not deal as much DPS as something like the Bladetongue, but it is much safer to use.
.............DPS: ####
Crowd control: ##
......Accuracy: ###
.....Disruption: ####
..........Safety: ####
....Availability: ##
16.7% chance to drop from Goblin Summoners (33.3% chance in Expert mode)
Best prefix: Godly/Demonic $
.............DPS: ####
Crowd control: ##
......Accuracy: ###
.....Disruption: ####
..........Safety: ####
....Availability: ##
16.7% chance to drop from Goblin Summoners (33.3% chance in Expert mode)
Best prefix: Godly/Demonic $
Shadowflame Hex Doll: B+
This strange magic weapon is often impractical due to its poor range, but it's among the best crowd-control weapons for early Hardmode thanks to its ability to cover a wide, cone-shaped area rather than a narrow line. Like all weapons specialized for crowd control, it rips through the Destroyer, and it's also good at striking down scattered Probes. It becomes somewhat unreliable past the distance where the tentacles start to curve, so it's best to use it at close range; for this reason, the Shadowflame Hex Doll isn't well suited for Expert mode.
.............DPS: ####
Crowd control: #####
......Accuracy: ###
.....Disruption: ####
..........Safety: ##
....Availability: ##
16.7% chance to drop from Goblin Summoners (33.3% chance in Expert mode)
Best prefix: Mythical $
.............DPS: ####
Crowd control: #####
......Accuracy: ###
.....Disruption: ####
..........Safety: ##
....Availability: ##
16.7% chance to drop from Goblin Summoners (33.3% chance in Expert mode)
Best prefix: Mythical $
Pirate Invasion
Cutlass: D+
It has better stats than ore swords, and can be obtained rather easily without requiring you to waste any crafting materials. Sadly, that's the best that can be said about the Cutlass; it kills weak enemies just fine, but isn't really usable beyond that. Anyone who has gotten past the Eye of Cthulhu should already know that broadswords aren't good for dealing with actual threats. Think of this as a sort of participation award from the Pirate Invasion. You probably won't be thrilled to get it unless it's literally your first Hardmode weapon, but at least it looks pretty good on a Weapon Rack.
.............DPS: ####
Crowd control: ###
......Accuracy: n/a
.....Disruption: ####
..........Safety: #
....Availability: ####
0.5% chance to be dropped by Pirates / 2% from Pirate Captains / 10% from Flying Dutchman
Best prefix: Legendary $
.............DPS: ####
Crowd control: ###
......Accuracy: n/a
.....Disruption: ####
..........Safety: #
....Availability: ####
0.5% chance to be dropped by Pirates / 2% from Pirate Captains / 10% from Flying Dutchman
Best prefix: Legendary $
Pirate Staff: B+
In contrast to the Spider Staff, this minion is specialized entirely towards grounded crowd control. The Firecracker is highly recommended for use alongside the Pirate Staff; because Pirates have the highest base damage of any pre-Plantera minion, they will deal maximum explosion damage, and the Firecracker helps the Pirates concentrate on the grounded enemies that they do well against. This doesn't outclass the Spider Staff since spiders are much better for stunlocking single enemies, but it does have better DPS potential and crowd control, making it a superior option against the Destroyer (who is the only boss that this works well against).
.............DPS: ####
Crowd control: #####
......Accuracy: ###
.....Disruption: ##
..........Safety: #####
....Availability: #
0.05% chance to drop from Pirates / 0.2% from Pirate Captains / 1% from Flying Dutchman
Best prefix: Ruthless ¢
.............DPS: ####
Crowd control: #####
......Accuracy: ###
.....Disruption: ##
..........Safety: #####
....Availability: #
0.05% chance to drop from Pirates / 0.2% from Pirate Captains / 1% from Flying Dutchman
Best prefix: Ruthless ¢
Coin Gun: S
No one ever expects to obtain a Coin Gun, and many people don't have any firsthand experience with it, so few people actually know how good it is. As it turns out, the Coin Gun is very, very good. I'm not just talking about with Platinum Coins, either. With Silver Coins, this weapon is about as strong as a Megashark, and a boss will usually drop coins at least equal in value to the ammo you spent killing it. With Gold Coins, it's stronger than many post-Plantera weapons; for the relatively affordable price of around 3-4 platinum, you can easily blast through a boss that would otherwise give you trouble. In other words, instead of wasting gold reforging your Crystal Storm over and over, you could yeet that gold directly towards a boss and actually make progress. Platinum Coins are not affordable outside of Journey mode and will not be discussed here, though I'm sure you can already imagine what it's like.
When using the Coin Gun, you'll want to prepare your coin stacks in advance; bank all your Platinum Coins, and prepare stacks of 100 Gold/Silver Coins each in your coin slots. Because it draws ammo from the coin slots first, you'll need to constantly micromanage your inventory in order to consistently fire the type of coin you want, so keep an eye on the ammo number displayed next to the weapon. Carrying an Encumbering Stone will prevent you from picking up random coins and messing up the order of your ammo.
For most ranged weapons, ammo is cheap enough that I wouldn't pay much attention to ammo conservation bonuses, but an exception can be made for the Coin Gun. If a penny saved is a penny earned, then a 20% ammo conservation bonus would basically earn you 1g 50s per second.
COPPER COIN
.............DPS: ##
Crowd control: #
......Accuracy: ####
.....Disruption: ####
..........Safety: ####
SILVER COIN
.............DPS: ####
Crowd control: #
......Accuracy: ####
.....Disruption: ####
..........Safety: ####
GOLD COIN
.............DPS: #####
Crowd control: #
......Accuracy: ####
.....Disruption: ####
..........Safety: ####
....Availability:
0.0125% chance to drop from Pirates / 0.05% from Pirate Captains / 0.25% from Flying Dutchman
Best prefix: Agile $$$
When using the Coin Gun, you'll want to prepare your coin stacks in advance; bank all your Platinum Coins, and prepare stacks of 100 Gold/Silver Coins each in your coin slots. Because it draws ammo from the coin slots first, you'll need to constantly micromanage your inventory in order to consistently fire the type of coin you want, so keep an eye on the ammo number displayed next to the weapon. Carrying an Encumbering Stone will prevent you from picking up random coins and messing up the order of your ammo.
For most ranged weapons, ammo is cheap enough that I wouldn't pay much attention to ammo conservation bonuses, but an exception can be made for the Coin Gun. If a penny saved is a penny earned, then a 20% ammo conservation bonus would basically earn you 1g 50s per second.
COPPER COIN
.............DPS: ##
Crowd control: #
......Accuracy: ####
.....Disruption: ####
..........Safety: ####
SILVER COIN
.............DPS: ####
Crowd control: #
......Accuracy: ####
.....Disruption: ####
..........Safety: ####
GOLD COIN
.............DPS: #####
Crowd control: #
......Accuracy: ####
.....Disruption: ####
..........Safety: ####
....Availability:
0.0125% chance to drop from Pirates / 0.05% from Pirate Captains / 0.25% from Flying Dutchman
Best prefix: Agile $$$
Dropped by special Mimics
Daedalus Stormbow: A+
Uses standard arrows.
Raining arrows from the sky is not a reliable way to deal with most enemies, but the Daedalus Stormbow still has a very good matchup against large, predictable bosses like the Destroyer, Queen Slime, Mourning Wood, and Pumpking. For single targets, use Holy Arrows. For multiple targets, use Holy Arrows. If you don't want to use Holy Arrows, you might want to try a different bow, because it comes pretty close to being bad when using any other type of arrow. The Stormbow provides a specific answer to several important battles during the transition from early to mid-Hardmode, but is inefficient in most other situations (namely those that involve small targets), so it most likely won't be taking up a hotbar slot. But if you need a good bossing weapon, you'll be hard-pressed to find something better than this.
The Stormbow still works excellently against the Destroyer, but Unholy/Jester's Arrows actually outperform Holy Arrows for that fight. Later in the game you'll gain access to Chlorophyte Arrows, which can somewhat fix the Stormbow's accuracy problems. (However, you'll also gain access to the Chlorophyte Shotbow, which is a far more reliable weapon that does more or less the exact same thing.)
HOLY ARROW
.............DPS: #####
Crowd control: ###
......Accuracy: #
.....Disruption: ###
..........Safety: #####
....Availability: ###
25% chance to drop from Hallowed Mimics, which can be summoned by placing a Key of Light in an empty chest
Best prefix: Unreal $$$
Raining arrows from the sky is not a reliable way to deal with most enemies, but the Daedalus Stormbow still has a very good matchup against large, predictable bosses like the Destroyer, Queen Slime, Mourning Wood, and Pumpking. For single targets, use Holy Arrows. For multiple targets, use Holy Arrows. If you don't want to use Holy Arrows, you might want to try a different bow, because it comes pretty close to being bad when using any other type of arrow. The Stormbow provides a specific answer to several important battles during the transition from early to mid-Hardmode, but is inefficient in most other situations (namely those that involve small targets), so it most likely won't be taking up a hotbar slot. But if you need a good bossing weapon, you'll be hard-pressed to find something better than this.
The Stormbow still works excellently against the Destroyer, but Unholy/Jester's Arrows actually outperform Holy Arrows for that fight. Later in the game you'll gain access to Chlorophyte Arrows, which can somewhat fix the Stormbow's accuracy problems. (However, you'll also gain access to the Chlorophyte Shotbow, which is a far more reliable weapon that does more or less the exact same thing.)
HOLY ARROW
.............DPS: #####
Crowd control: ###
......Accuracy: #
.....Disruption: ###
..........Safety: #####
....Availability: ###
25% chance to drop from Hallowed Mimics, which can be summoned by placing a Key of Light in an empty chest
Best prefix: Unreal $$$
Flying Knife: C+
As far as melee weapons go, the Flying Knife is unique in that it is almost completely worthless for close-ranged combat. It can deal large amounts of damage to crowds of enemies, but does nothing to prevent them from swarming you. Trying to aim this weapon is such a mental struggle that it can easily distract you from dodging attacks, and its tendency to smack enemies towards you rather than away from you doesn't help, either. So for direct combat, this weapon is usually not recommended. But for picking off groups of enemies that are trapped and can't reach you, the Flying Knife is a great weapon with several advantages over yoyos, namely its fullscreen range and lack of a time limit. It also deals substantial damage to the Destroyer while still allowing you to hide behind blocks, though the ensuing swarm of Probes is a problem that it was not designed to handle.
There are a couple of other tricks you can pull off with this weapon. At worst, it can be used like a poor man's Dao of Pow by simply throwing it in a straight line and letting it return to you, piercing all enemies along the way. You can also drag the cursor down where the Flying Knife can't reach, causing it to press itself against the ground and deal far more consistent damage to grounded enemies on top of it. This weapon isn't for everyone, but it can be quite good in the hands of someone who has enough patience to figure out how to use it (and is using a mouse rather than a trackpad).
.............DPS: ###
Crowd control: #####
......Accuracy: ##
.....Disruption: #
..........Safety: #####
....Availability: ###
25% chance to drop from Hallowed Mimics, which can be summoned by placing a Key of Light in an empty chest
Best prefix: Demonic/Godly $$$
There are a couple of other tricks you can pull off with this weapon. At worst, it can be used like a poor man's Dao of Pow by simply throwing it in a straight line and letting it return to you, piercing all enemies along the way. You can also drag the cursor down where the Flying Knife can't reach, causing it to press itself against the ground and deal far more consistent damage to grounded enemies on top of it. This weapon isn't for everyone, but it can be quite good in the hands of someone who has enough patience to figure out how to use it (and is using a mouse rather than a trackpad).
.............DPS: ###
Crowd control: #####
......Accuracy: ##
.....Disruption: #
..........Safety: #####
....Availability: ###
25% chance to drop from Hallowed Mimics, which can be summoned by placing a Key of Light in an empty chest
Best prefix: Demonic/Godly $$$
Crystal Vile Shard: B+
It has a bit of an inferiority complex compared to Life Drain, but the Crystal Vile Shard is still a potent crowd control weapon that earns you a free win against the Pirates and can also heavily damage the Destroyer. Naturally, you'll want to abuse its wall-piercing capabilities to the fullest when fighting underground. On the surface, its short range becomes more of an issue, though it is still far better than the likes of Blood Thorn since it doesn't suffer massive penalties for doing what piercing weapons are supposed to do.
.............DPS: ###
Crowd control: #####
......Accuracy: ####
.....Disruption: #####
..........Safety: #####
....Availability: ###
25% chance to drop from Hallowed Mimics, which can be summoned by placing a Key of Light in an empty chest
Best prefix: Mythical $$$
.............DPS: ###
Crowd control: #####
......Accuracy: ####
.....Disruption: #####
..........Safety: #####
....Availability: ###
25% chance to drop from Hallowed Mimics, which can be summoned by placing a Key of Light in an empty chest
Best prefix: Mythical $$$
Dart Pistol: S+
There isn't a single situation that the Dart Pistol doesn't perform well in. With Crystal Darts, it is a potent weapon for scattered crowd control that can heavily damage multiple enemies without much effort, even when used underground. Each dart doesn't deal exceptional damage per hit, but this is easily made up for by their ability to hit the same enemy multiple times. With Ichor Darts, it is an overwhelmingly powerful bossing weapon that pierces infinitely within close range and splits into a fan of projectiles at mid-range, dealing massive amounts of damage to large targets like the Twins, Mourning Wood, and Plantera if it splits inside them. Also, you can use Ichor Darts to tag enemies with the Ichor debuff and switch to another weapon with better DPS... or that's what I would say, were it not for the fact that a pre-mech ranged weapon with better DPS than the Dart Pistol does not exist. Nearly every other weapon in this section looks like a child's toy compared to this thing. Honestly, you could use this all the way up until the Lunar events if you wanted to.
CRYSTAL DART
.............DPS: ####
Crowd control: #####
......Accuracy: ####
.....Disruption: ####
..........Safety: #####
ICHOR DART
.............DPS: #####
Crowd control: ####
......Accuracy: ###
.....Disruption: ####
..........Safety: ####
....Availability: ###
20% chance to drop from Crimson Mimics, which can be summoned by placing a Key of Night in an empty chest on a Crimson world
Best prefix: Unreal $$$
CRYSTAL DART
.............DPS: ####
Crowd control: #####
......Accuracy: ####
.....Disruption: ####
..........Safety: #####
ICHOR DART
.............DPS: #####
Crowd control: ####
......Accuracy: ###
.....Disruption: ####
..........Safety: ####
....Availability: ###
20% chance to drop from Crimson Mimics, which can be summoned by placing a Key of Night in an empty chest on a Crimson world
Best prefix: Unreal $$$
Fetid Baghnakhs: B
This is the most powerful broadsword for this stage of the game, but not necessarily the most viable. Its range is so short that it's difficult to avoid taking contact damage when using it, so I would recommend using it as a "get off me" option in situations where you're already taking contact damage anyways. It should clear out these situations quickly with its incredibly high DPS, limiting the amount of damage you'll take. While approaching enemies with this weapon is not a good idea, it works great against enemies that approach you. It has a good matchup against enemies that are highly knockback-resistant but not immune (such as Black Recluses, Mimics, and Herplings).
For best results, use with Titanium armor.
.............DPS: #####
Crowd control: #####
......Accuracy: n/a
.....Disruption: #####
..........Safety: #
....Availability: ###
20% chance to drop from Crimson Mimics, which can be summoned by placing a Key of Night in an empty chest on a Crimson world
Best prefix: Legendary $$$
For best results, use with Titanium armor.
.............DPS: #####
Crowd control: #####
......Accuracy: n/a
.....Disruption: #####
..........Safety: #
....Availability: ###
20% chance to drop from Crimson Mimics, which can be summoned by placing a Key of Night in an empty chest on a Crimson world
Best prefix: Legendary $$$
Life Drain: A+
Due to its ability to instantly disrupt large groups of enemies with perfect accuracy, this is one of the best magic weapons for getting nasty situations under control, especially those that involve projectile-based enemies. Unlike many weapons whose performance tends to fall apart as swarms of enemies start to accumulate, Life Drain thrives under the same conditions, completely shutting down both grounded and airborne enemies within a massive radius. Of course, the opposite is also true: against a single target, its performance is unimpressive, and it may not be able to sustain itself off the Celestial Magnet alone. So it usually doesn't do well against bosses—except the Destroyer, against which it is arguably the best magic weapon you could possibly use. Life Drain is also excellent underground since it can penetrate into walls a bit, and instantly deletes most worm enemies from existence. It also increases your passive health regeneration while in use, though it won't save you from the brink of death like Vampire Knives can. Ironically, despite literally being named "Life Drain", this weapon's ability to drain life ends up being a mere footnote compared to all of its other excellent qualities.
.............DPS: ###
Crowd control: #####
......Accuracy: #####
.....Disruption: ####
..........Safety: #####
....Availability: ###
20% chance to drop from Crimson Mimics, which can be summoned by placing a Key of Night in an empty chest on a Crimson world
Best prefix: Mythical $$$
.............DPS: ###
Crowd control: #####
......Accuracy: #####
.....Disruption: ####
..........Safety: #####
....Availability: ###
20% chance to drop from Crimson Mimics, which can be summoned by placing a Key of Night in an empty chest on a Crimson world
Best prefix: Mythical $$$
Dart Rifle: S+
Apart from being slower and less reliable for stunlocking enemies, this weapon is just as nutty as the Dart Pistol and actually outperforms it in a handful of situations, namely against the Destroyer and the Old One's Army. With Crystal Darts, it shreds groups of scattered enemies just as effectively as the Dart Pistol does. With Cursed Darts, it melts the Destroyer (even offscreen), incinerates the Old One's Army, and still deals more damage to bosses than any other ranged weapon you'd likely have at that point. You could use Cursed Darts like you would use the North Pole and shoot them straight upwards to create a literal rain of fire, but that actually doesn't work too well because the flames will expire before they hit the ground. It's usually better to just aim at enemies directly, which guarantees that they'll be hit at least twice. No matter how you choose to use them, Cursed Darts will end up carpeting the entire area in flames and burning grounded enemies to bits.
If you ask me whether I think the Dart Rifle or the Dart Pistol is better, my answer is that I don't care. Both of them are way too powerful.
CRYSTAL DART
.............DPS: ####
Crowd control: #####
......Accuracy: ####
.....Disruption: ###
..........Safety: #####
CURSED DART
.............DPS: #####
Crowd control: #####
......Accuracy: ###
.....Disruption: ####
..........Safety: ####
....Availability: ###
20% chance to drop from Corrupt Mimics, which can be summoned by placing a Key of Night in an empty chest on a Corruption world
Best prefix: Unreal $$$
If you ask me whether I think the Dart Rifle or the Dart Pistol is better, my answer is that I don't care. Both of them are way too powerful.
CRYSTAL DART
.............DPS: ####
Crowd control: #####
......Accuracy: ####
.....Disruption: ###
..........Safety: #####
CURSED DART
.............DPS: #####
Crowd control: #####
......Accuracy: ###
.....Disruption: ####
..........Safety: ####
....Availability: ###
20% chance to drop from Corrupt Mimics, which can be summoned by placing a Key of Night in an empty chest on a Corruption world
Best prefix: Unreal $$$
Chain Guillotines: B+
It suffers from middling range, but its damage output is high enough that it can potentially be better than the Shadowflame Knife if enemies stay within reach of your attacks. Compared to the Anchor, Chain Guillotines have the advantage of not being completely scuffed when attacking an enemy that's above you, meaning that it is actually usable for boss fights.
.............DPS: ####
Crowd control: ##
......Accuracy: ###
.....Disruption: ####
..........Safety: ###
....Availability: ###
20% chance to drop from Corrupt Mimics, which can be summoned by placing a Key of Night in an empty chest on a Corruption world
Best prefix: Godly/Demonic $$$
.............DPS: ####
Crowd control: ##
......Accuracy: ###
.....Disruption: ####
..........Safety: ###
....Availability: ###
20% chance to drop from Corrupt Mimics, which can be summoned by placing a Key of Night in an empty chest on a Corruption world
Best prefix: Godly/Demonic $$$
Clinger Staff: A+
Like the Nimbus Rod, the Clinger Staff is a fire-and-forget weapon that passively damages enemies (and wrecks the Destroyer) without requiring any attention on your part. Unlike the Nimbus Rod, it creates an absolute barrier against any enemy susceptible to knockback, allowing you to completely ignore the majority of enemies from one side and focus on those that are more troublesome, like Pirate Captains and Dr. Man Flies. It also single-handedly filters out all the goblins in the Old One's Army while heavily damaging everything that is resistant to knockback. It usually won't deal high DPS to any single enemy, but that's not what this weapon was meant for. It spreads moderate chip damage (and Cursed Inferno) across multiple enemies while bunching them together, making them easy prey for minions and area-of-effect weapons. And even if its ability to knock things away isn't valuable to you, free damage is still free damage.
Its critical strike chance is calculated based on the magic weapon you're currently holding. Since Clinger Staff will almost never be the magic weapon you're currently holding, its base damage is the only stat that matters. Therefore, Ruthless is technically its best modifier. For the same reasons, it also gains a bit of extra DPS if you happen to use Sky Fracture a lot.
.............DPS: ##
Crowd control: #####
......Accuracy: n/a
.....Disruption: #####
..........Safety: #####
....Availability: ###
20% chance to drop from Corrupt Mimics, which can be summoned by placing a Key of Night in an empty chest on a Corruption world
Best prefix: Ruthless $$$
Its critical strike chance is calculated based on the magic weapon you're currently holding. Since Clinger Staff will almost never be the magic weapon you're currently holding, its base damage is the only stat that matters. Therefore, Ruthless is technically its best modifier. For the same reasons, it also gains a bit of extra DPS if you happen to use Sky Fracture a lot.
.............DPS: ##
Crowd control: #####
......Accuracy: n/a
.....Disruption: #####
..........Safety: #####
....Availability: ###
20% chance to drop from Corrupt Mimics, which can be summoned by placing a Key of Night in an empty chest on a Corruption world
Best prefix: Ruthless $$$
Dropped by Queen Slime
Blade Staff: S+
One of the two pre-mech summoning weapons that can actually be used against flying bosses like the Twins, Skeletron Prime, and Dreadnautilus. Not only is it perfectly accurate, it is the fastest-attacking minion weapon by far, putting most enemies in total lockdown. (Despite having zero base knockback, it gains a tiny bit of knockback if you have the Well Fed buff.) Any source of additional fixed damage will increase its damage output dramatically: the most notable sources of fixed damage are additional defense piercing (Stinger Necklace, Flask of Ichor, Sharpening Station + held melee weapon) and tag damage from whips (Spinal Tap, Durendal). It has slightly lower DPS than the Spider Staff, but with a Shark Tooth Necklace equipped, it becomes about the same. In order to use this weapon properly, you need to understand how it works; because it has very low base damage, effects that add a fixed amount of damage per hit provide a monstrous boost to its damage output. So depending on how well you understand and build around it, it could be either very mediocre or very powerful. The Blade Staff's extremely low base damage also means that it benefits very little from percentage-based damage bonuses. This can be a blessing in disguise since it means you can run full Warding without sacrificing much of your damage, as long as you're still using defense penetration and Durendal + Spinal Tap.
Since it is the absolute best minion weapon for stunlocking enemies, the Blade Staff is arguably the best minion to use on a non-summoner set. Even if it only does 1 damage, it can still hold enemies in place and prevent them from approaching or firing projectiles. Most enemies are rendered completely useless with just two Enchanted Daggers, which you can get easily with just a Bewitching Table.
Due to its low base damage, this weapon doesn't work very well with the Firecracker. Until you get Durendal, you're better off either using Spinal Tap or attacking with weapons from a different class. Later, the Blade Staff can synergize with Dark Harvest for some insane crowd damage, though it's more of a special-effects show than an optimal strategy since the Raven Staff usually does a better job dishing out damage.
.............DPS: ##
Crowd control: ####
......Accuracy: #####
.....Disruption: #####
..........Safety: ####
....Availability: ###
25% chance to drop from Queen Slime (33% in Expert mode)
Best prefix: Demonic/Mystic/Deadly/Hurtful ¢
Since it is the absolute best minion weapon for stunlocking enemies, the Blade Staff is arguably the best minion to use on a non-summoner set. Even if it only does 1 damage, it can still hold enemies in place and prevent them from approaching or firing projectiles. Most enemies are rendered completely useless with just two Enchanted Daggers, which you can get easily with just a Bewitching Table.
Due to its low base damage, this weapon doesn't work very well with the Firecracker. Until you get Durendal, you're better off either using Spinal Tap or attacking with weapons from a different class. Later, the Blade Staff can synergize with Dark Harvest for some insane crowd damage, though it's more of a special-effects show than an optimal strategy since the Raven Staff usually does a better job dishing out damage.
.............DPS: ##
Crowd control: ####
......Accuracy: #####
.....Disruption: #####
..........Safety: ####
....Availability: ###
25% chance to drop from Queen Slime (33% in Expert mode)
Best prefix: Demonic/Mystic/Deadly/Hurtful ¢
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