Summon weapons

Summon weapons are a type of weapon that spawns secondary characters that will aid the player during battle by automatically attacking enemies within range. They cannot be damaged or killed, and deal summon damage.

Most summon weapons fall into one of two categories: Minions and Sentries. Minions are mobile characters that follow the player, while sentries remain stationary. Additionally, the set bonuses of the Stardust armor and Forbidden armor will summon an entity to fight for the player in a manner similar to minions.

There are currently 19 summon weapons on the, 11 on the , and 5 on the.



Minions
Minions are mobile summons. They follow the player indefinitely until the player dies, summons a replacement minion, or cancels their buff. There are several different minions available, some of which can walk or fly, and attack using melee or ranged means. A minion costs mana to summon initially, but follows the player indefinitely thereafter at no further cost.

Minions follow players in a manner similar to Pets, flying and passing through blocks as necessary to keep pace with the player's movements, though most cannot move through blocks for the purposes of attacking. Exceptions are the minions summoned by the Tempest Staff, Xeno Staff, and Stardust Dragon Staff, which can attack through blocks.

On the, it is possible to press with a minion summoning item. This will direct the respective minion to target the entity nearest to the cursor. As long as the minions have their target within their line of sight, they will specifically attack it. The targeted enemy will show swirling purple particles which will trail behind a moving enemy, or circle in front of a stationary one (see images).

By default, a player can only have a single minion summoned at once. Various boosts can raise the player's minion capacity ("slots"), allowing multiple simultaneous minions. With minion cap boosts in effect, the same minion can be summoned multiple times, or several different Minions can be summoned. Minion cap boosts do not affect Pets or Light Pets. If the minion cap later drops below the number of minions in use, minions are randomly chosen and dismissed until the number of minions is below the current cap.

Spider minions
Normally, each minion summoned uses one minion slot. After adding in all bonuses from armor, accessories, and buffs, a player can easily determine the number of minions they can summon. However, Spider Minions take up only 0.75 of a minion slot, so this total must then be divided by 0.75 to ascertain the number of Spider Minions a player can summon. For every 4 Spiders summoned, only 3 minion slots are used.

The Twins
The Optic Staff spawns two minions which together take up only 1 slot. It is not possible to directly spawn just one of the twins (say, to go with two Spazmaminis). It is however possible to end up with two Spazmaminis by boosting the summoning cap, summoning to fill it, and then lowering the cap again; when the cap goes down, the twins are dismissed individually and count as half a minion. Even odd numbers of "twins" are possible spiders are mixed into the fleet when doing this. Of course, the actual results are very much subject to random chance.

The Stardust Dragon
The Stardust Dragon Staff is unique in that if summoned more than once, multiple Dragons do not spawn — instead, the first spawned Dragon becomes longer by one segment for each additional summoning. With each additional segment, the dragon gains additional damage, approximately a quarter of the original summon.

Sentries
Sentries are stationary summons. Unlike minions, sentries do not follow the player, and will instead remain rooted in place. sentries will automatically disappear after a fixed amount of time, but can persist even after their owner dies.

By default, a player can only have a single sentry summoned at once. Various boosts can raise the player's Sentry capacity, allowing multiple simultaneous sentries (Note: Sentry accessories do not stack). With sentry cap boosts in effect, the same sentry can be summoned multiple times, or several different sentries can be summoned. On the Console and Mobile versions, the player is limited to only summoning one of each sentry type, with no way to raise the cap.

A waiting sentry goes into a reuse cooldown after attacking, before it can try to attack again. This cooldown is bypassed initially on summoning, which can dramatically increase sentry attack speed at the cost of greater mana expense. Since sentries do not suffer from Mana Sickness, this can be a viable way to deliver high damage at long range when using a sentry that attacks instantly.

Tavernkeep's sentries
Sentries summoned by items from the Tavernkeep are associated with the Old One's Army event. They are purchased with Defender Medals (instead of coins), which are awarded only during the event. At first, they can only be used within the event, where they will remain placed until the end of the event. Each sentry summoned will cost 10 Etherian Mana; at the beginning of the event, the player immediately gets the 10 Etherian Mana for their first sentry, and can collect more as they kill enemies.

Each of the Tavernkeep's sentry summon weapons come in three tiers: Rod, Cane, and Staff; with the Staff being the most expensive and the most powerful. The Tavernkeep's various armor sets each enhance one of his four sentry types; see his article for full details.

After the event is completed once, these can be used outside the event, and will then function as normal sentries, costing ordinary mana to summon (5 points per tier) and lasting the usual two minutes. Etherian Mana cannot be used outside the event, so by default only one sentry can be summoned at a time. However, armor sold by the Tavernkeep, and accessories dropped by event bosses such as Ogres, can raise a player's sentry limit, allowing more than one sentry to remain summoned at once. This limit increase does include non-Tavernkeep sentries such as the Queen Spider.

Armor Summons
Certain armor sets will summon a unique minion when the full set is worn:
 * All armor summons can be obtainable on desktop, while the Stardust Guardian is also obtainable on console. The leaf crystal (see bottom of this section) is obtainable on any system.
 * Each player can only have one armor minion that remains active as long as the armor is worn, and can be directed by double-pressing the key.
 * They do not count against either minion or sentry caps.
 * See also the Leaf Crystal from Chlorophyte armor; This is not controllable like a minion, but does provide ongoing attacks against nearby enemies.

Tips

 * Minions do not differentiate between enemies summoned by Statues and normal enemy spawns. This causes them to sometimes interfere with enemy-based engines, as they will zip off to slaughter any statue-summoned enemies in range (The Stardust Dragon is especially prone to this behavior).
 * Summon weapons are the only weapon type that is not regularly available in the first parts of the game. While the first summon weapon, the Slime Staff is technically the earliest obtainable weapon, it is extremely rare, and is likely to go unseen until far later in the game. It can, however, be farmed by the use of a Slime Statue as soon as the Mechanic shows up.
 * Even if not playing as a Summoner, it is always good to keep a minion around to help pick off minor or weakened enemies. Having a minion taking out some of the passing bats, slimes, zombies, and so on can sharply improve your quality of life while wandering around in the nighttime surface, Caverns, Jungle, and so on.  Doubly so if you're trying to build, gather bait, chop wood, or otherwise do something besides fighting -- indeed, for such projects it may be worth adding a second minion to help fend off interruptions.
 * Note that minions will attack Slimes even during the day, when the Slimes are nominally "neutral". In areas where King Slime can spawn in place of a regular slime (Surface layer, outer thirds of the map), the turnover can lead to repeat visits from the King.
 * All the Tavernkeep's Sentries can be constantly resummoned to automatically refresh their attack. This is, however, less efficient than using a weapon from another class.
 * In an Expert mode world, summoners can usefully wire a Bat Statue to a switch near the base or spawn zone. Spawning a bat and tanking a few hits (to contract the Feral Bite) lets the player summon their minions with an extra 20% damage bonus, but that's best done while safe at home.

Maximizing minions
The maximum possible minion capacity is 11. It requires equipping Stardust Armor, and the Papyrus Scarab, Necromantic Scroll, and Pygmy Necklace accessories. It also requires being under the temporary effects of the Summoning Potion and the Bewitching Table.


 * The maximum possible minion capacity is 9. It requires equipping Tiki armor, and the Papyrus Scarab, Necromantic Scroll, and Pygmy Necklace accessories. It also requires being under the temporary effects of the Summoning Potion.

A minion's nominal damage can be increased by as much as 273% (in Expert mode):


 * + 18% from Ruthless modifier on the minion-summoning staff.
 * A mixed armor set:
 * + 22% from the Stardust Helmet.
 * + 30% from either the Dark Artist's Robes or the Valhalla Knight's Breastplate.
 * + 25% from Red Riding Leggings.
 * Accessories:
 * + 15% from the Papyrus Scarab.
 * + 15% from the Hercules Beetle.
 * + 15% from the Summoner Emblem.
 * + 12% from the Avenger Emblem.
 * + 10% from any of the following accessories: Destroyer Emblem, Necromantic Scroll, Celestial Stone, Celestial Shell, any of the Tavernkeep accessories (Apprentice's Scarf, Huntress's Buckler, Monk's Belt, Squire's Shield), or either the Sun Stone (during the day), or the Moon Stone (at night).
 * + 20% from reforging all five accessories to have Menacing (+4% damage ).
 * Buffs:
 * + 5% from Well Fed (from eating food).
 * + 10% from Wrath (from drinking a Wrath Potion).
 * + 15% from Cute Fishron Mount (riding the Cute Fishron in water and for 6 seconds afterwards).
 * + 45% from a 3-stack of Damage Booster buffs from Nebula armor (a teammate's, or see below).
 * Expert mode only:
 * from a second accessory from the "10%" list above, likewise reforged to Menacing.
 * from the Feral Bite debuff (inflicted by Bats in Expert mode).

Total = 257% (or 239%  applied to the damage shown for a Ruthless minion-summoning staff).

Examples:


 * An ordinary Stardust Cell Staff would summon a Stardust Cell hitting for 60 summon damage. After reforging the staff to have the Ruthless modifier, the staff would summon a Stardust Cell hitting for 60 + 18% = 71 summon damage. After wearing the above gear, eating food, drinking a Wrath Potion, dousing yourself with water while riding the Cute Fishron, getting bitten by a bat (in Expert mode), and picking up a 3-stack of Damage Booster buffs in multiplayer, the staff would summon a Stardust Cell hitting for 265 damage.
 * With a Summoning Potion and Bewitching Table, the above will allow up to six summons. If all of these are put into the Stardust Dragon, the resulting dragon will do an average of 410  damage per hit.

To achieve "maximum minion power" in single-player, the following procedure (referring to the notes above) will suffice (auto-pause will help):
 * 1) In an enclosed area, prepare a water pool next to at least one Bat Statues; better would be to have two or more statues wired to staggered 1-second timers.
 * 2) Arrange the desired summoning weapons on the hotbar.
 * 3) Wear the accessories listed, but start off in Nebula armor, with the mixed set above handy.  For maximum minion count, also keep handy the rest of the Stardust armor set, and a Pygmy Necklace.
 * 4) * For the most minions, choose the Necromantic Scroll from the accessory list. (For Expert mode's "extra" accessory, there is no option to increase minion count while keeping the 10% bonus.)
 * 5) Use the potions as above.  For more minions, add a Summoning Potion and use a Bewitching Table.
 * 6) Start the timer to spawn some bats.
 * 7) In Expert mode, let the bats bite until they inflict Feral Buff.
 * 8) Kill bats until reaching level 3 Damage Booster.
 * 9) * All following steps need to be finished within 8 seconds, before the booster expires.
 * 10) Jump in the pool and trigger the mount.
 * 11) Switch to the mixed armor set as above.
 * 12) Quickly summon the desired minions.  This should result in six minions (or pairs of twins, or 8/ spiders) at the maximum of 257%  damage.
 * 13) * Minion sources: Default, Stardust Helmet, Papryus Scarab, Necromantic Scroll, Summoning Potion, Bewitching Table.
 * 14) To ice the cake with yet more minions at lower damage:
 * 15) *These last summons should not be Stardust Dragon segments, as this likely will reduce the damage bonus for the dragon as a whole, resulting in lower total damage.
 * 16) *Replace the Avenger Emblem with a Pygmy Necklace, and summon another minion at 245%. (For Expert mode, instead replace the "extra" accessory from above: )
 * 17) *Wear the Stardust Leggings, and summon another two minions at 242% damage.
 * 18) **If summoning spiders, an extra can be summoned at this point.
 * 19) *Wear the Stardust Plate, and summon a final two minions at 234% damage.
 * 20) *Note that if the player later loses some of the many extra-slot bonuses in use (removing accessories or armor, letting buffs expire), the minion(s) that vanish will be chosen randomly.

Trivia

 * All minion summoning items and the Tavernkeep's tier three sentry summoning items have the word "Staff" in their names.
 * The Tavernkeep's tier two sentry summon items also all have the word "Cane" in their names. Same goes for the tier one items, which share the word "Rod". This can be used to help tell the difference between the sentry tiers.
 * The Sharknadoes summoned by the Tempest Staff turn translucent when going through blocks, similar to what Duke Fishron and Pigrons do.

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