Blade Staff

The Blade Staff is an aerial melee Hardmode summon weapon that is dropped from Enchanted Swords. When summoned, a miniature Flying Knife spawns above your head and follows you around. When an enemy is nearby, it flies to the enemy and swipes back and forth, similar to the Stardust Dragon. It has relatively low damage, but ignores 25 enemy defense to make up for it.

Its best modifier is Demonic, Deadly, Mystic, or Hurtful. Unlike most summon weapons, the Blade Staff has no knockback, and so cannot get the Ruthless modifier. Due to its low base damage, all damage-improving modifiers improve its damage by the same amount.

Trivia

 * Despite being a Hardmode drop, the Blade Staff has the lowest base damage out of all summoning weapons.
 * Including the ignored enemy defense, the Blade Staff still only does ~18 damage, making it the weakest Hardmode summoning weapon.
 * Along with the Stardust Dragon Staff and Raven Staff, the Blade Staff is one of 3 summon weapons whose buff description is not "(Minion) will fight for you," instead being "Death by a thousand cuts."
 * "Death by a thousand cuts" was a torture and execution method used in Imperial China.
 * Although the weapon has no knockback, it can gain knockback from accessories such as the Papyrus Scarab and the effects of Well Fed and its upgrades. This can drastically increase its effectiveness against stronger enemies, as large amount of daggers can lock an enemy in place.