Whips

Whips are close-range Summon weapons that swing in an arcing motion and produce a unique sound. Like all summoning weapons, whips receive damage bonuses from minion damage and cannot normally deal critical hits.

When an enemy has been hit with a whip, any minions the player has summoned will target that enemy, much like when right-clicking an enemy with a summoning weapon.

Whips can have the same modifiers as swords, including Legendary. However, speed bonuses gained from modifiers shorten the range of whips. as of 1.4.1 this is no longer the case, whips' range do not decrease only the speed changes. Therefore, a slower speed increases the range, meaning that the best modifier for range is Sluggish. A Bulky whip will have slightly less range than a Sluggish one (about 1 block width), but will deal 5% more damage. Because range has a more significant effect on a whip's performance than damage or attack speed, a speed-decreasing modifier is usually preferred. A Legendary modifier still boasts the highest DPS and attack speed, but harshly penalizes range, and many whips are able to boost their own attack speed anyway. Godly is another viable alternative, as it boosts damage and critical strike chance without shortening range.

Speed modifiers from armor, accessories, and buffs affect attack speed, but not the range of whips; only the modifiers on whips affect their range. Whips are unaffected by their own size modifiers; any Massive or Tiny whip will be the same size as one without a prefix.

Most whips have damage bonuses that apply to any attacking minions, in addition to their regular damage statistic. These last 4 seconds after striking the enemy, and do not affect enemies that are immune to all debuffs.

Tips

 * Because the primary hit of a whip operates similarly to a piercing melee weapon, they are effective against enemies that pass through blocks, such as worms, cursed skulls, and casters with destructible projectiles.
 * However, all Whips will deal less damage to each successive enemy hit close together in a single swing, all the way down to 1 damage.
 * This does not stop whips with debuff effects such as Snapthorn from applying their respective debuff. However, Firecracker's Explosive Burst effect will only be applied to the first enemy hit, even if the whip causes a different enemy to be targeted instead.
 * Whips are affected by melee attack speed bonuses. This means that melee-oriented armor sets and equipment, such as Shadow armor and Feral Claws, can greatly increase their effectiveness.
 * Whips do not gain benefits from other melee bonuses, such as melee damage increases or flasks.
 * The summon tag damage gives significant bonuses to minions. For instance, the pre-Hardmode whips can more than triple the DPS of the Slime Staff against the Eye of Cthulhu, and Kaleidoscope increases the damage of the Xeno Staff, an already-powerful summon, by more than 50%.
 * The Feral Claws and its variants give autoswing to all whips and Flasks buffs are also applied to them, despite them not dealing melee damage.
 * Whips have excellent synergy with the Valhalla Knight armor, which has a +60% summon damage bonus, high defense and regeneration, and several sentry slots, but few bonuses to other types of weapons.
 * Whips are exceptionally useful for clearing foliage due to their range and broad area of effect. Combined with the ability to break plants behind solid walls, a whip can erase an entire thorn bush in a single swing, quickly bring down vines, and can safely trigger rolling cacti to roll away.
 * Speed modifiers from armor, accessories, and buffs do not affect the range of whips; only the modifiers on whips affect the range of said whip.

Trivia

 * Whips were added as a homage to summoners with whips from the Final Fantasy series, notably Rydia from Final Fantasy 4.
 * In real life, are generally used on animals, for training and performance purposes. This is potentially why the Zoologist sells the Leather Whip.
 * Despite their similarities with Melee weapons, whips are still classified as Summon weapons.