Harpoon

The Harpoon is a unique ranged weapon that auto-fires an arcing projectile that is connected to the player via a chain, and returns after reaching a maximum distance or impacting. Its physics are similar to launched flails, though it is highly affected by gravity. Harpoons are dropped by most enemies during a Goblin Army, as a 1/200 chance but never drops with a modifier..

The Harpoon has no cooldown period, its auto-fire rate dependent only on the distance to its impact, meaning that an enemy or object in close range will cause a faster auto-fire rate. The projectile also deals damage and knockback to multiple enemies on its return trip, similar to a Flail or Boomerang, making it effective for crowd control.

Tips

 * The Harpoon is useful on all pre-Hardmode Bosses. The Eater of Worlds can be killed rather quickly simply by holding the fire button at the point where it is emerging from the ground. Skeletron takes a reasonable amount of damage per hit, and the Eye of Cthulhu fight is made rather easy.
 * As the Harpoon is one of the few sources of ranged damage that doesn't consume ammo, this weapon makes a decent (albeit weak later in the game) backup weapon for characters specializing in ranged weapons and armor. Eventually, however, it is eclipsed by late game weapons like the Piranha Gun and the Toxikarp.
 * When surrounded by weaker enemies, it may be a good idea to fire OVER the crowd, hitting them all on the return trip, rather than firing straight in front of you and only hitting one enemy at at time.

Trivia

 * The Harpoon used to act like a Flail (with increased range) prior to the 1.0.6 update.

History
작살총 Гарпун