Blade Staff



The Blade Staff is an aerial melee Hardmode summon weapon. When summoned, an Enchanted Dagger appears suspended above the player's head, attacking enemies within range by flying toward and through them repeatedly at a fast pace. Its attacks ignore 25 enemy defense, making it more effective than its damage stat would normally indicate (including the ignored enemy defense, the Blade Staff's effective base damage is around 18). It has a 1/35 (2.86%) chance of being dropped by Enchanted Swords.

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

Tips

 * Along with the Sanguine Staff, the Blade Staff's summons are far less clunky than most flying summons, as the daggers are capable of flying through terrain to chase enemies, and always track their target perfectly without colliding into blocks. This makes them especially effective for a dodge-focused playstyle, as the minions will deal consistent damage at a safe distance.
 * The daggers will return to the user's side immediately after combat. This removes a common issue of most minion weapons, as the daggers will consistently stay with the user instead of lagging behind or getting caught behind blocks.
 * Thanks to its ability to ignore a portion of enemy defense, the Blade Staff is a great weapon for summoners in early-to-mid Hardmode, as it is available as soon as Hardmode is initiated. However, considering the Blade Staff's low drop rate, the Spider Staff may be a better option to obtain first.
 * Due to the Blade Staff's traits, it is most effective in the hands of a summon-focused character, especially when used in large numbers. Conversely, it is ineffective as a side minion for non-summoners, as its damage will be incredibly low without specialization (compared to the Spider Staff, it does roughly around 1/3rd of the Spider Staff's DPS).
 * The Blade Staff's defense-cutting ability makes it very effective against the Mechanical bosses, as the most defensive boss (The Destroyer) has only 30 defense. This also causes the daggers to lose very little DPS while Skeletron Prime's head is spinning, which typically reduces damage from other weapons since the head's defense raises to 48.
 * On the other hand, the daggers fare poorly against certain bosses, as some of them feature very high defense levels and will lower the dagger's damage to 1 damage per hit even with access to other defense-lowering buffs. Some examples include the Flying Dutchman and Santa-NK1, which feature 100 and 56 defense, respectively.
 * While the Blade Staff continues to be useful for summoners through mid-hardmode due to its consistent damage on most enemies, its effectiveness starts to fall off once the player has access to stronger summoner weapons, which have weaker tracking but higher base damage. The Pirate Staff deals better damage against grounded enemies, the Pygmy Staff has slow projectiles but access to the Poisoned and Venom debuffs, while the Raven Staff and Sanguine Staff can become direct replacements for a flying minion.
 * Because of its rapid attack rate, it is an effective summon for killing a Dungeon Guardian. Note that despite its defense-ignoring abilities, the knife will still do 1 damage per hit (as the Dungeon Guardian has 9999 defense, while the knives ignore only 25 defense).

Trivia

 * Despite being a Hardmode drop, the Blade Staff has the lowest base damage out of all summon weapons.
 * Along with the Stardust Dragon Staff, Desert Tiger Staff and Raven Staff, the Blade Staff is one of 4 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.