Weapons

Weapons are offensive tools that are mainly used to inflict damage. In Terraria, weapons have a variety of qualities. Tools can also inflict damage, but weapons are generally more effective. Weapons can be crafted out of many materials, but some can only be found or bought. All weapons do one of three damage types: Melee, Ranged, or Magic.

Swords
 * -|Melee Weapons=

Shortswords are a low-tier genre of weapon most commonly seen at the beginning of the game. This is so because they are far outclassed by broadswords in nearly every way possible, namely range and power.

Broadswords are one of the most common weapons. They usually have a fast or medium strike speed, as well as a medium attack range and knock back.All broadswords 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 notable broadswords are: Terra Blade, True Night's Edge, True Excalibur, Frostbrand, Death Sickle, and Tizona (console & ios exclusive).

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:Mushroom Spear, Chlorophyte Partisan, Gungnir, Adamantite Glaive, Mythril Halberd, Cobalt Naginata, Dark Lance and Tonbogiri (console & ios exclusive).

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. Melee damage varients are returning weapons such as Flamarangs and Light Discs will return to the player after being thrown, usually in an arc-shaped motion.

Some notable thrown weapons are: Possessed Hatchet, Light Disc, Flamarang, Bananarang, Thorn Chakram, Paladin's Hammer

Flails

Flails are medium to long ranged weapons that will deal damage to all enemies hit (similar to spears) making them good for groups of enemies. Due to the slow speed Flails are not very good against fast enemies or when enemies are attacking from many different directions.

Some notable flails are: Dao of Pow, Flower Pow

Chain Weapons

Chain Weapons all have five things in common: they all deal melee damage, they all shoot a projectile outward toward where the player clicks, they are not affected by gravity (with the exception of the Harpoon) and they all return to the character upon hitting a target or solid surface, on top of all having continual fire without need of clicking multiple times. These latter two being said, players can easily get high DPS by simply holding the attack button down while remaining close to a target.

Some notable chain weapons are: Chain Knife, KO Cannon, Golem Fist

Guns
 * -|Ranged Weapons=

Guns are weapons that 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). Guns that use Rockets as ammo are the Rocket Launcher, the Snowman Cannon, the Grenade Launcher and the Proximity Mine Launcher

Some notable guns are: Megashark, Star Cannon, Space Gun, Rocket Launcher, Coin Gun

Bows

Bows are 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, less effective at close range, and the dependency on ammo.
 * Hardmode ores will build Repeaters instead of bows. Repeaters have the capability of auto-fire and generally shoot faster than bows.

Some notable bows are: Ice Bow, Vulcan Repeater (console & ios exclusive), Stake Launcher

Thrown

Like the Melee weapons above, these weapons are thrown at enemies to inflict damage; however, they are consumed upon use, not returning to the player, with some chance of being able to be picked up again. They deal small amounts of damage and typically have a fast or very fast attack speed.

Some notable thrown weapons are: Shuriken, Throwing Knife, Poisoned Knife ,Spiky Ball, Holy Water,Unholy Water, Bone


 * -|Magic Weapons=

Magic Weapons like the Aqua Scepter include a collection of very versatile weapons that all consume mana upon use. It is recommended that each player have at least one Magic Weapon due to some having very high efficiency and damage rates in combination with other weapons. There are staff weapons and spells alone, but they both function in the same way.

Some notable Magic Weapons are: Rainbow Gun, Rainbow rod, Staff of the Frost Hydra, Shadowbeam Staff, Magical Harp