Weapons are offensive tools that can be used to inflict damage to monsters. In Terraria, weapons have a variety of qualities. Tools can also inflict damage, but weapons are generally more effective. Weapons can be crafted with many materials, but some can only be found or bought.

Swords

Swords are one of the most common weapons. They usually have a fast or medium strike speed, as well as a medium attack range. All swords are craftable, with the exception of the Muramasa, which is found only in Dungeon Chests, the Breaker Blade, which is only dropped by the Wall of Flesh, and the Starfury, which is commonly found on Floating Islands.

Some of other notable swords are:

• Excalibur
• Night's Edge
• Phasesabers
• Adamantite Sword

Spears

Weapons made for stabbing, are generally slower and slightly less powerful than swords, but have a longer reach. You can find Spears in chests or craft them with post-hardmode ores. Spears have the powerful ability to inflict multiple damage to all enemies they hit in a single swing (meaning after hitting an enemy, the spear does not stop, so it is useful for fighting a pack of enemies). They can also be aimed in the direction of the mouse when clicked.

Some notable spears are:

• Gungnir
• Adamantite Glaive
• Mythril Halberd
• Cobalt Naginata
• Dark Lance

Thrown Weapons

These weapons are thrown at enemies to inflict damage. They deal moderate amounts of damage and typically have a fast or very fast attack speed. There are 2 types of thrown weapons: returning and non-returning. Returning weapons such as Flamarangs and Light Disks will return to the player after being thrown, usually in an arc-shaped motion. Non-returning weapons like the Shuriken and Throwing Knife travel in a straight line, and will not return to the player — they must be retrieved manually.

Some notable thrown weapons are:

• Light Disk
• Thorn Chakram
• Flamarang

Flails

Flails are long-ranged weapons which are useful for fighting large groups of enemies or boss monsters like the Eater of Worlds. This category includes the Ball O' Hurt, Blue Moon, Harpoon, Sunfury, and the Dao of Pow.

Explosives

Explosives are thrown weapons and detonate with a delayed fuse. They can destroy tiles and inflict great damage to enemies and the player. Explosives include Bombs, Dynamite, Grenades,  Sticky Bombs and Explosives (item)  They can be obtained from chests, pots, or purchased from the Demolitionist.

Guns

Guns are weapons that use consume ammunition such as Musket Balls, Meteor Shot, Silver Bullets, Cursed Bullet and Crystal Bullet,  or in the case of the Star Cannon, Fallen Stars. These weapons can be obtained by breaking Shadow Orbs, crafting them, finding them in Chests, or purchasing them from the Arms Dealer (requires a Gun first).

Spells

Spells are mana-consuming weapons that usually end up doing fair amounts of damage over long range. This category of weapons includes the Starfury, Water Bolt, Magic Missile, etc. These can be obtained through Shadow Orbs, Chests, or in the case of the Water Bolt, which you can also get from breaking Books in the Dungeon.

Bows

Bows are craftable weapons which fire either Wooden Arrows, Flaming Arrows, Unholy Arrows, Hellfire Arrows, Jester's Arrows, Holy Arrows or Cursed Arrows. They typically do more damage than swords made of the same material, but come at the expense of being slower and less effective at close range, but nevertheless is a formidable weapon.

• A sub-category of the Bow is the Crossbow, which has a faster speed and is capable of auto-fire.

See Also

• Weapons List