Gray Zapinator



The Gray Zapinator is a pre-Hardmode-only magic weapon sold by the Traveling Merchant for 17. Unlike the Zapinator, the Gray Zapinator is single shot. Meteor armor's set bonus will reduce the mana cost of the Gray Zapinator (and Orange Zapinator) to 0, although the stated mana cost won't change.

Its projectiles also behave erratically. Upon striking an enemy, the laser beam can do any of the following:
 * Pierce the enemy
 * Change speed, either accelerating dramatically or coming to a near-complete stop
 * Teleport to a new location (sometimes teleporting onto the enemy it just struck multiple times in a row, chaining damage)
 * Change orientation
 * Create another beam
 * Deal massive knockback (enough to launch enemies offscreen)
 * Deal 5-10x damage
 * Gain the ability to pass through blocks

These can occur in seemingly any combination, creating the potential for enormous bursts of damage. Beams that are slow only do damage near the front and have a long delay before it can damage the same enemy again.

Trivia

 * The Zapinator's name and sprite resemble the, an electronic light gun accessory for the (NES).
 * The erratic behavior of the projectiles along with the tooltip, 'It might be broken', are most likely references to the fact that NES Zappers were inconsistent when used in their respective light gun games on the NES.
 * Despite its low rarity, it can be a very effective weapon throughout pre-Hardmode, given the luck required to benefit from the projectiles' behavior.
 * The tooltip "It might be broken" may also be a reference to how unbalanced it is, as you can obtain it extremely early and it potentialy does massive amounts of damage.
 * The Zapinator was first introduced on the Desktop release to instantly kill enemies for testing purposes. However it was removed with the 1.0.1 version. Later on, the item was added to the 3DS version. The Zapinator was re-introduced to the Desktop version as Gray Zapinator and Orange Zapinator along with the 1.4.0.1 version.