Rate the Weapon: Day Nine - Pre-Hardmode Throwing Weapons

How often do you use ninja-style throwing weapons in your playthroughs?

  • 1 - Never

    Votes: 11 33.3%
  • 2 - Rarely - The resources are too limited, or the time it's useful is too short.

    Votes: 10 30.3%
  • 3 - Sometimes - If I have the resources to spare

    Votes: 3 9.1%
  • 4 - Often - It makes progression easier, but skippable

    Votes: 5 15.2%
  • 5 - Most Games - It's great to have, but not worth ten hours to get.

    Votes: 3 9.1%
  • 6 - Always - I will build a farm for this if I have to. I'm not progressing without it.

    Votes: 1 3.0%

  • Total voters
    33

Ami

Terrarian
Inspired by another topic, it occurs to me that many of us think weapons are bad or unusable, simply because we know what we like. But, do we know what we DON'T like? What's a worthy investment of your time and resources? In the case of polls which have multiple items bunched together, such as the ore swords, pick only the best one. If you love silver sword, but think iron sword is a waste of the bars, vote as if this were a poll for silver sword. I'll be logging these in a spreadsheet and making a compilation of which items users think are good, bad, OP, or a waste of space.
If they're bad, what would make them better? Lower cost? Autoswing? Projectiles? Different attack animation?
If they're OP, what would make them balanced?

Day Nine: Shuriken, Throwing Knife, Poisoned Knife, Snowball, Spiky Ball, Bone, Bone Glove, Bone Javelin, Javelin, Bone Throwing Knife
(NO grenade or molotov on this list)

While I'll use the shurikens or throwing knives I find in my initial surface exploration, I never buy any more, and my progress is not hindered by a lack of these items. I do love the bone javelin, but as it requires a reavershark, or beating EoW/BoC to acquire, its usefulness is rather limited in duration.

Day 1 - Ore Swords - 2.41 - (17 votes) - Everyone agrees these are not very good, but have no idea how to improve them.
Day 2 - Ore Bows - 3.41 - (24 votes)
Day 3 - Grenades - 3.28 - (21 votes) - Much avid support and apathy
Day 4 - Normal Yoyos - 3.7 - (10 votes)
Day 5 - Normal Boomerangs - 3.47 - (17 votes) - Well balanced votes
Day 6 - Normal Flails - 2.04 - (23 votes) - Lowest score
Day 7 - Pistols - 4.12 - (33 votes) - Most popular poll AND the highest score.
Day 8 - Covered in BEES! - 3.84 - (19 votes)
 
Before getting better weapons, Shurikens and Throwing Knives can play a surviving tool role, Snowballs can do awesome job when used as ammo(probably out uf topic) and Spiky Balls are great tool for defeating Brain of Cthulhu. I have no idea about fossil items(never used yet) but because of their debuff Bone Javelins seem to do good job. And yes, sometimes I pay for Shrukens, they're good tool for Eater of Worlds(Grenades are better tho, but expensive...)

So, my vote is, 4, they're useful, but you can skip them.
 
No, why would I? Nearly every weapon type is better, and the throwing specific buff armor is way too hard to acquire. The only one that's really worth it are the spike balls for dealing with skeletron, but those need an event.
Its like summoner, but worse as summoner becomes a late game powerhouse.

Throwing weapons need a rework.
 
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Similar to my reasoning with the Grenades from before, I very rarely use Throwing Weapons because I dislike having to manage a limited supply of throwing weapons. It is the reason I take more comfort in using weapons like the Boomerang which don't cost ammo and Gem Staffs (While they cost Mana, your Mana regenerates and is easy to manage in Pre-Hardmode during non-boss battles.)

In the very early game, I usually just rely on my sword to get me through and use a Bow during emergencies. But for some reason, I can never bring myself to use throwing weapons.
 
There's a reason these weapons have their own sub class now - in the right hands they can rack up damage. It takes some skill though - throwing weapons borrow ranged weapons' failing with ammunition, but not the double damage sourcing, so what you see is what you get. They balance that out with the frenzied pace at which most are thrown, and a hidden advantage, of a very clean arc, something that could go around corners with the right aim. The gravity effect on most throwing weapons also plays a role against bosses, as, thrown from underneath, they will often pierce going both ways. To compensate for the rapidly diminishing ammunition, most throwing weapons are common as hell, being found in pots and chests from one ocean to the other. For a normal mode weapon they do all right, and I would be interested to see what a hardmode throwing weapon would be like, other than the Magic Dagger, known as one of the most damaging weapons in existance at one time.

That all said if you're not a combat maverick, or just new to the game, throwing weapons are just a slightly sub par ranged weapon for you, a stepping stone on the way to guns perhaps, or even before boomerangs.
 
I actually wouldn't mind it if throwing weapons were the best class of weapon of the game, but needed a high skill cap to use. That would be interesting.
 
Depends on the weapon. I use Shurikens only for a day or two during the game (until I get a bow or a good sword). I skip most of these.

However I like to use grenades during invasions. I even used them a few times in early-Hardmode invasions such as pirates (if they attacked way to early). I also like to play with Beenades and Bone Javelins, as they're effective against the WoF.
 
I've made bone spears before, and I've thrown the occasional javelin early-game, but to be honest.... the Fossils being so difficult to mine makes it difficult to justify using bone spears. By the time I can finally mine the stuff, I have better equipment already. And even then, to make the armor and spears, you need a LOT of fossils to get the Sturdy Fossils used to make them.

Shurikens and Throwing Knives are just plain too weak, never bothered throwing the daggerfish (I rarely catch them anyways), etc.

I'm going to assume Grenades are not on this list, because we covered them before, so... just refer to that for my opinions on those.
 
Oddly enough, one of the weapons on this list I'm most likely to use is... snowballs. They're not strong, obviously, but they have decent knockback and high RoF, and they're (almost literally) dirt cheap. They'll easily carry you through to the point where you can make or find proper weapons. It's not like digging snow is my first priority in a new game or anything, but if I think of it, I'll make some.
 
I don't ever really use any of these. I find that the spear or ore bows outclass the shuriken, throwing knife and snowball in terms of usefulness. Snowball cannon makes snowballs decent, I guess, but then it's dealing ranged damage and not throwing damage. I don't tend to play thrower for this exact reason. Most of the weapons are outclassed by equivalent weapons for other classes. As such, gets a 1 from me.
 
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