In-depth Hardmode weapon tier list

Hallowed Repeater deserves S tier in my opinion. In my tests it outperformed the Megashark, Dart Guns, and Onyx Blaster, all of which are somewhere in S tier, and wasn't far behind Phantom Phoenix, Uzi with Crystal Bullets, and Daedalus Stormbow, which are also in S tier. In AngryNimbus's Plantera tests, it performed similarly well.

It's also very versatile, as you can use different kinds of arrows for different situations, unlike with bullets.
 
Hallowed Repeater deserves S tier in my opinion. In my tests it outperformed the Megashark, Dart Guns, and Onyx Blaster, all of which are somewhere in S tier, and wasn't far behind Phantom Phoenix, Uzi with Crystal Bullets, and Daedalus Stormbow, which are also in S tier. In AngryNimbus's Plantera tests, it performed similarly well.

It's also very versatile, as you can use different kinds of arrows for different situations, unlike with bullets.
Hot take, but I really don't think most of the weapons you named deserve to be ranked where they are right now. ESPECIALLY the Uzi, there is no world there the Uzi is justifiably at the same tier as Terra Blade, Blade Staff, Sanguine Staff and Razorblade Typhoon.

Oh yeah, and the gap between Starlight and Solar Eruption should be significantly smaller. besides attacking through walls, Solar Eruption has very little uses on practice in the hands of a good player. Close range DPS? Terra Blade w/ whips outclasses it. "Closer mid-range" DPS? Starlight will deal more damage while being a lot more reliable and consistent, as Solar Eruption's DPS takes a huge nose dive as you distance yourself from your target. Starlight should be like B+ or somewhere in the A tier, Solar Eruption should be lower than A+.

I've also made other strong arguments for cases like rising Fetid somewhere in the A tier and Dark Harvest to S tier all the way back to the beginning of April, but it seem like these days Baconfry isn't as active let alone motivated to update the thread. Maybe it would be best if someone else took over in some way or another.
 
ESPECIALLY the Uzi, there is no world there the Uzi is justifiably at the same tier
It's literally Megashark but you get it earlier, but yeah - it's pretty :red: considering you can just get one of many Twins-killing weapons anyway (cobalt repeater comes to mind) and go straight to Hallowed Repeater anyway
God tier if you get it early, not worth grinding.
Close range DPS? Terra Blade w/ whips outclasses it.
but now you are using a multiclass setup, which means you have to compare it to other multiclass setups like Phantasm + Stardust Dragon or some other bonkers DPS build.
Terraria's nature is that multiclass will always be stronger than single class by a very large amount, simply because of the number of absolutely busted weapons (Daedalus Stormbow/Rainbow Rod/Star Cloak with explosive bullets/whatever else you can come up with to break the game) and how Summoner has so much more armor-scaling than other classes
Only possible exception is whipstacking a Firecracker or stacking 10 whips on one target or some other similar ridiculous build, which is pretty much monoclass

You need to compare Solar Eruption to Twins Staff, where it's pretty much only good because it specifically fills a niche neatly that the pure class as a whole lacks completely. Nobody would rank Twins Staff more than F in a multiclass run because you have so many options (vastly superior ones, to boot) to deal with Destroyer, but Summoner only has Bloodmoon RNG or Twins Staff to deal with Destroyer.
Starlight will deal more damage while being a lot more reliable and consistent, as Solar Eruption's DPS takes a huge nose dive as you distance yourself from your target.
Solar Eruption can also be acquired with an absurdly high level of reliability. You will get Solar Eruption every run if you craft it.
That being said, Psycho Knife is in fact an option...
 
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Speaking of buffs, please buff dev yoyo to S if rarity is not an issue. This is the strongest melee in all tests pre-Plant, and obtainable from any HM treasure bag.
36 seconds on master Plant + Chlorophyte Armor, even Sanguine + FC + Durendal scores 39,3 sec, Chlorophyte shotbow + holy – 39,7 sec

(Below is mostly personal preference, in fact, Hallowed repeater outperforms Megashark in Plantera fight, OOA T2)
I can't see the reason of giving S tier to the Hallowed repeater over Megashark.
Megashark has chlorophyte bullets, this combo has its usefulness even post-Plantera (not for long, but still). Hallowed repeater is superceeded by Chlorophyte Shotbow & Phantom Phoenix pre-Plantera already. The lifespan of Megashark is better.
 
Hallowed Repeater deserves S tier in my opinion. In my tests it outperformed the Megashark, Dart Guns, and Onyx Blaster, all of which are somewhere in S tier, and wasn't far behind Phantom Phoenix, Uzi with Crystal Bullets, and Daedalus Stormbow, which are also in S tier. In AngryNimbus's Plantera tests, it performed similarly well.

It's also very versatile, as you can use different kinds of arrows for different situations, unlike with bullets
Agreed, Hallowed Repeater is underated ,very versatile ,accuraed. i think its perform better than mega shark many critical moments pre hm( not ahuge margin but easier to craft). Yes mega shark has better life span but because there are not many good guns arround.
 
How does celebrationmk10's pre-mech Resonance Sceptre affect its viability? I'm asking this because this is technically pre-Mech if availability is no concern - fire up a Celebration world, kill WoF and force the Princess to leave till you get one. With a demon conch, you can streamline the process by killing the Princess over multiple worlds rather than waiting for her to respawn. The same question also applies to pre-hardmode Dev items like the Yoyos and Arkhalis - you can farm king slime or something and get one very quickly.

pre-hardmode jetpack is very funky, funny how they patched Princess dropping Sceptre in pre-hardmode but not Steampunker selling Jetpack pre-hardmode. It'd be a pretty easy check too, just make it so that she only sells the Jetpack when her spawn conditions are met.
 
How does celebrationmk10's pre-mech Resonance Sceptre affect its viability? I'm asking this because this is technically pre-Mech if availability is no concern - fire up a Celebration world, kill WoF and force the Princess to leave till you get one. With a demon conch, you can streamline the process by killing the Princess over multiple worlds rather than waiting for her to respawn. The same question also applies to pre-hardmode Dev items like the Yoyos and Arkhalis - you can farm king slime or something and get one very quickly.

pre-hardmode jetpack is very funky, funny how they patched Princess dropping Sceptre in pre-hardmode but not Steampunker selling Jetpack pre-hardmode. It'd be a pretty easy check too, just make it so that she only sells the Jetpack when her spawn conditions are met.
Resonance Scepter, if unchanged, would become an absolute powerhouse if it was available Pre-Mech, being nearly unmatched for Destroyer and Plantera. With the Pre-Mech magic weapons available, you need to heavily lead your shots against the Twins since most of them have generally low velocity; This is not a concern for Resonance Scepter, as its instant appearance at your cursor makes aiming it a breeze. Resonance Scepter's relatively high damage output (for this stage) would also make it a fantastic choice for Prime and Queen Slime as well.

Pre-Mech Resonance Scepter would NOT be okay.
 
How does celebrationmk10's pre-mech Resonance Sceptre affect its viability? I'm asking this because this is technically pre-Mech if availability is no concern - fire up a Celebration world, kill WoF and force the Princess to leave till you get one. With a demon conch, you can streamline the process by killing the Princess over multiple worlds rather than waiting for her to respawn. The same question also applies to pre-hardmode Dev items like the Yoyos and Arkhalis - you can farm king slime or something and get one very quickly.

pre-hardmode jetpack is very funky, funny how they patched Princess dropping Sceptre in pre-hardmode but not Steampunker selling Jetpack pre-hardmode. It'd be a pretty easy check too, just make it so that she only sells the Jetpack when her spawn conditions are met.

I don't think availability should take easter egg seeds into account.
 
Pretty accurate ranking overall. Very solid, no need to change anything but i suggest some micro adjustment:
Overared weapons:
1. Uzi: A no doubt S+ if obtain early hardmode but in fact early hardmode jungle has no valuable loots for premech progression and extremely dangerous .Angry trapper is not that common enemies though. Not worth grindding, still deserved an S-.
2.Spirit Flame: Share the same prolem with Uzi: Rarity. This time even worse, one of the hardest item to craft in the game without complex crafting tree, 2 rare ingredient. Performance is not that good, yes it has homming ability but medium range, cant control where projectile hit ( SOmetime make u fight Rez and Spaz phase 2 at the same time). Crowd control is mediorce, bad in underground. A is the best case scenario.
3.Queen Spider Staff: Being the best sentry in practical does not means its deserve a S. OK performance free extra DPS for hybrid set but minions are way better than sentries. A- is fine.
4.Death Sickle: Short range. In theory Death Sickle is a good crowd control weapon but knockback mess up a lot, DPS is quite low too. Not the best but top choice for plantera.Some of the best Yoyo is only A+, there is no way DS is higher than that
5.Desert Tiger Staff: Good minion but not good enough to deserve S+. Unreliable for Flying boss. Crowd control is not that impressive. Still a solid option after plantera if u manage to get it. A+ is fine
6.Xeno Staff: Not exactly overated at all but Sometime stupid AI for mobile boss make it S-, otherwise very well arround and ez to get.
7.Nightglow+Stellar Tune: Nightglow has Same mechanic as Spirit Flame. Even Razorblade Typhoon has better DPS even again boss. Outclass by many Bossing weapon like Razorpine and Blizzard staff. Crowd control is ok. So A is fine.
8.Spectre staff+Bat Scepter: They re indeed not bad weapons, dirrect upgrade version of rainbowrod. But being S tier +post plantera weapons require more than that. They have ok DPS for bossing, but at this state of the game u have Blizzard staff and razorpine: far more superrior bossing DPS and have better crowd control potential,not that hard to aim and still not even S tier. The only advantage is holming effect yet overated
Underrated weapons:
1.Firecreacker: Some insane synergies make it S+. Good for entire hardmode despite WOF drop: bossing ,exploring.... Luckily only receive a small nerf.
2. Crystal Serpent: Very ez to get with prepartion. Low mana cost for spamming. Very reliable weapon for bossing. Yeah many flaw weakness but mage load with trash weapons at this state so a weapon with no opportunity cost is appealing, provide immidate transition when enter hardmode ( like spider staff). A is ok rank.
3.Daedalus Stormbow: Infamous combo with holy arrows still not outdated . In fact its still broken. Others arrow like ichor and unholy is not that bad actually.
One of the best weapon at this state. Underperform in underground does not hold it back. Not that flexible like Dart weapons but Raw power keep it up. Deserved S+
4.Hallowed Repeater: U can see many speedruners use this. Not only extremely easy to craft, but its performance speak for itself. So versatile with many type of arrows. Simple to use and efficient, raw power very similar to mega shark. Deserve S-.
5.Tome of Infinite Wisdom: Show some repect for this bros. Yes infamous Destroyer slayer. Doing ok for ground invasion and some ground boss and bad at everything else. Yeah who the :red: farming OOA tier 2 for this, thats the same problem for S rank Phantom Pheonix, no one care farming for it. But u should give some credit for a weapon really good at something. B+ is ok, A- is need a debate
6.Raven Staff: DPS on par with Xeno Staff, come earlier from an event for summoner. Out perform Tiger in flying boss battle. A dirrect upgrade for sanguine. So A+ to S- is debatable.
7.Flairon: This is probably the best pre-Lunar melee weapon for most purposes and only rank A+. atleast S- or S.
8. Bubble Gun: Best weapon for duke. Very low mana cost and insane DPS in close range. Yeah Razorblade typhoon shadowed every mage weapons in the same tier but Bubble Gun is a nice drop when u tend to farm Duke several times. There is no harm carrying this in invenory for speciffic match up. Good weapon overall, A- is fine.
9. Aerial Bane: Same as bubble gun, very good at specific match up. So A is fine.
10. Stardust Cell Staff: not a bad minion yeah and with the help of whips it even better, this time very solid choice that could even compete with dragon. Yeah dragon still dragon. But Cell is defenitely not a bad choice for summoner. So S- is my rank
11.Nebula Arcanum: DPS so absurbly high that better than last prism for many boss fights, Mastermode EOL die under 10 second with proper gear, Duke Shreded into peices wihout entering phase 3. Dominating invasions and events. The only weakness is Moonlord battle, which required specific arena and strategy, Blaze is common choice as "safer". S to S+rank no doubt.
12.Phantasm: Best bow in the game, S+ is fair enough.
13.Celebration Mk2: Ridiculous damge, not that hard to aim. Great at everything, reward for insane damge if u manage to land all the rocket. S+
 
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13.Celebration Mk2: Ridiculous damge, not that hard to aim. Great at everything, reward for insane damge if u manage to land all the rocket. S+
Yes! Red rockets do 45-50K single target damage against foes with large hitboxes
But it is not about all rockets, only red ones can do that.
Watch animations below, its JMMFTW, EoL has 250k HP, Ice Queens 110K

12.Phantasm: Best bow in the game, S+ is fair enough.
– With Ichored Flying knife glitch and chlorophyte strategy (shoot upwards chloro arrows + stealth for 15 sec before ML spawns the top eye cn be oneshotted)
Deals 8K dps even to the ML core


5.Desert Tiger Staff: Good minion but not good enough to deserve S+. Unreliable for Flying boss. Crowd control is not that impressive. Still a solid option after plantera if u manage to get it. A+ is fine
– I do agree, but you may recast that thing against dense crowds
If your arena doesn't have platforms, tiger will safely latch onto flying targets.
(S+ is a bit too much, I'd say S-. A+ is rough a bit)


7.Flairon: This is probably the best pre-Lunar melee weapon for most purposes and only rank A+. atleast S- or S.
No.
– Seedler has more velocity, easier to use, about the same DPS on practice. And it is earlier.
– Scourge of the corruptor wrecks Flairon in any space with blocks included and is earlier too
– The EoC has better bossing performance, especially against EoL. And again, earlier
– Sky Dragons Fury has both greater CC, greater bossing performance (Beetle scale mail)
– Optimised Terra Blade with beams only (1 enemy!) is also a bit stronger
– Lunatic cultist is better wrecked by Terra / Influx in true melee with scale mail. (Fight takes about 10 seconds)
Flairon is high B at this point.
– Bubbles are too slow for the Empress


4.Hallowed Repeater: U can see many speedruners use this. Not only extremely easy to craft, but its performance speak for itself. So versatile with many type of arrows. Simple to use and efficient, raw power very similar to mega shark. Deserve S-.

– Exactly. Slightly better than the Megashark in Plantera fight, and acts as the baby Stake Launcher with Jester Arrows.


My suggestions:
ELECTROSPHERE LAUNCHER S+ (sorry)
Sky Dragons Fury S-
Celebration Mk2 S+ (It can be stronger than the Zenith vs single large hitboxes)
Nail Gun A
Stynger A (they are the same, Stynger is weaker a bit)
Influx Waver A (It is actually good with the scale mail and can be boosted by Dark Harvest)
 

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Influx Waver A (It is actually good with the scale mail and can be boosted by Dark Harvest)
Why use it over Terra Blade though? Terra Blade is better at close-range with whips, and it is easier & less of a hassle to obtain. As for the projectiles, is it even worse? Influx Waver's projectile is infamously incompetent at hitting EoL, to the point Terra Blade kills her faster at far-range.
 
Why use it over Terra Blade though? Terra Blade is better at close-range with whips, and it is easier & less of a hassle to obtain. As for the projectiles, is it even worse? Influx Waver's projectile is infamously incompetent at hitting EoL, to the point Terra Blade kills her faster at far-range.
Maybe TB's blade is better than IW's blade, but you gotta remember that against stationary targets, Influx's projectiles can hit three times, which gives a big advantage over Terra Blade. Apparently with Beetle Scail Mail Influx is the same if not better than Terra at close range. However overall I do think Terra Blade is better since against moving bosses IW's secondary beams don't hit and TB can pierce.
 
Influx has an edge over Terra when hitting larger and slower (than EoL and charging Fishron) enemies with the projectile only
With scale mail in true melee it is very close to Terra.

And don't forget, Terra is an S+ tier weapon. The sword, which is only slightly weaker and a little bit later deserves A tier, not B or C
 
7.Flairon: This is probably the best pre-Lunar melee weapon for most purposes and only rank A+. atleast S- or S.
No.
– Seedler has more velocity, easier to use, about the same DPS on practice. And it is earlier.
– Scourge of the corruptor wrecks Flairon in any space with blocks included and is earlier too
– The EoC has better bossing performance, especially against EoL. And again, earlier
– Sky Dragons Fury has both greater CC, greater bossing performance (Beetle scale mail)
– Optimised Terra Blade with beams only (1 enemy!) is also a bit stronger
– Lunatic cultist is better wrecked by Terra / Influx in true melee with scale mail. (Fight takes about 10 seconds)
Flairon is high B at this point.
– Bubbles are too slow for the Empress.
Agreed,Perhaps Flairon is a melee weapon made me alittle bit bias ,class that surrounded by bunch of LOl weapons. Seeder is S, SOC is S and Terra is S+! too so compare Flairon to them is a bit unfair, but after seeing overated Death sickle find a way to S i see Flairon could make into S. Actually the Flairon is an ok choice for EOL, not the best but better than many weapon, honestly u can use this til ML ,no real srtuggle. A toA+ is fair, Drop down to B is a bit unfair. Still a solid weapon.
Sky Dragons Fury S-
Forgot this dude, very impressive performance. Being an OOA drop made people somehow forget it. And this remind me to Flying dragon, should be higher than A. The only sadge fact is that OOA event require better equipment than the loots themself so people usually sleep on them.

Launcher is kinda hard to rank. Some function the same, very similar. Others are not friendly use, like Electrosphere. They're focus mainly on crowd control so bossing usually underwhelming. I usually rank all launcher same as each others , varried arround A rank, higher or lower, snowman cannon is a stand out as the most reliable launcher. Agreed with the case of Electrosphere, perhaps the best launcher (excluding Mk2 of course), the downside only hard to use properly, but very rewarding like Aerial Bane. Snowman cannon is easier to use and Electrosphere is more DPS potential (You can use both together to increase performance). Electrosphere is underated but not that OP to be S+.
 
Influx has an edge over Terra when hitting larger and slower (than EoL and charging Fishron) enemies with the projectile only
With scale mail in true melee it is very close to Terra.

And don't forget, Terra is an S+ tier weapon. The sword, which is only slightly weaker and a little bit later deserves A tier, not B or C
How does influx waiver compare to other martian madness weapons? That's more important than how it compares to terra blade.
Specificlly xenopopper and laser machinegun since those are the A tier martian madness weapons.
 
Launcher is kinda hard to rank. Some function the same, very similar. Others are not friendly use, like Electrosphere. They're focus mainly on crowd control so bossing usually underwhelming. I usually rank all launcher same as each others , varried arround A rank, higher or lower, snowman cannon is a stand out as the most reliable launcher. Agreed with the case of Electrosphere, perhaps the best launcher (excluding Mk2 of course), the downside only hard to use properly, but very rewarding like Aerial Bane. Snowman cannon is easier to use and Electrosphere is more DPS potential (You can use both together to increase performance). Electrosphere is underated but not that OP to be S+.
Oh hell nah. Electrosphere Launcher is tippity-top tier in both Single-target DPS and Crowd Control. It has a usetime of 12, which means 5 rockets per second! Against Single Targets its DPS is actually insane, matching Phantasm's in my personal tests. Crowd Control is pretty obvious too, being able to leave extremely long-lasting damage zones all over your screen just by firing at single targets. It absolutely deserves its S+.

As for being hard to use, simply spam-click the enemy and you'll get away with thousands of DPS, while leaving damage zones all over your screen for enemies to run into. At this point it's a Single-target weapon that automatically does the CC for you, similar to Aerial Bane.
 
How does influx waiver compare to other martian madness weapons? That's more important than how it compares to terra blade.
Specificlly xenopopper and laser machinegun since those are the A tier martian madness weapons.
Electrosphere: better than Influx in any case

Xenopopper:
Influx + Scale mail is better vs both Moon events, in OOA thy are tied (HV bullets) excluding Betsy.
Here Xenopopper + chloro is arguably better. EoL is clearly for Xenopopper.
Fishron is a tie if you ask me. Influx is faster (18 vs 24 sec, crystal bullet) but Influx needs to be
in true melee.
Same for Lunatic. Lunar events are for Xenopopper (excl. Solar)

I think Xenopopper is safer overall and moon scores difference is not that significant,
you will be able to reach later waves anyways.


LMG:
Worse than Influx for moon events, slightly better vs Betsy and no risk.
Fishron is a tie, absolutely the same evaluation as with Xenopopper
EoL is for LMG
Lunatic = Influx + Scale mail, Harvest
Lunar events = tie

Overall they are very close

CBC:
Equal to Influx in the Frost Moon, but better in the Pumpkin moon.
Better than Influx during OOA including Betsy
Duke: as previous two
Lunatic is better with Influx
Lunar events are easier with the CBC, excluding solar.

CBC advantages outweigh Influx

Xeno Staff (with Kalei/Harvest)

Worse than influx in the PM and FM (not a joke, FM Wave 19 Xeno vs 20 Influx; PM is for Desert Tiger + recast + FC), equal in OOA,
but Xeno absolutely dominates Betsy
Fishron is for Xeno, no time difference and Xeno is safer a lot
EoL is also for Xeno, outdamaging Influx by a lot
Tie on a cultist approximately
Lunar events are for Xeno.

Xeno staff wins easily.

LMG and Influx should be A
Xenopopper higher
CBC and Elauncher even higher

EDIT:
"Launcher is kinda hard to rank. Some function the same, very similar. Others are not friendly use, like Electrosphere. They're focus mainly on crowd control so bossing usually underwhelming. I usually rank all launcher same as each others , varried arround A rank, higher or lower, snowman cannon is a stand out as the most reliable launcher. Agreed with the case of Electrosphere, perhaps the best launcher (excluding Mk2 of course), the downside only hard to use properly, but very rewarding like Aerial Bane. Snowman cannon is easier to use and Electrosphere is more DPS potential (You can use both together to increase performance). Electrosphere is underated but not that OP to be S+."

For Launcher ranking:

Ranger 2.gif


Ranger.gif


Electrosphere:

View attachment Elauncher nuke 1.gif

Snowman with the same loadout

View attachment Snowman nuke 1.gif


"12.Phantasm: Best bow in the game, S+ is fair enough."
True. Example (Ichored Flying knife, 3 segment dragon):
View attachment Flying Chlorotasm Dragon ML 37 sec (1).gif

For Melee ranking

Melee.gif


Edit 2: Aerial Bane should be at least in S tier.
 
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Can we just address the elephant in the room and accept that Baconfry probably lost interest in this thread, and that a new thread should be made?
 
Can we just address the elephant in the room and accept that Baconfry probably lost interest in this thread, and that a new thread should be made?
I don’t agree that Baconfry is obligated to continue updating this, or that anyone else is obligated to make one to replace it. That being said, I have something in the works.
 
Also what happened to the Zenith being ranked F? That kinda made me laugh when I saw that lol, when it said made you look lol and all the stats are S
 
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