Weapons

Weapons are essential items used for combat against enemies, bosses, critters, and even other players during PvP games. Some weapons can be crafted at a Work Bench or a Pre-Hardmode/Hardmode Anvil, while others can only be found in Chests, as enemy drops, or purchased from NPCs. Terraria has a wide variety of weapons and weapon classes, each suited to particular play styles or specific tasks.

Most tools can also be used as weapons, despite it not being their primary purpose. In the broader sense, traps, self-defending NPCs, and even lava can be used as a weapon.

Swords
Swords are melee weapons which can be divided into 2 basic categories: shortswords and broadswords. Shortswords have very limited range, and they attack with a horizontal stabbing motion instead of an arc. As of the 1.4 update, they now act more similarly to spears, being able to stab in more directions. Broadswords are swung overhead, which makes it easier to defeat flying and jumping enemies.

Yoyos
are flail-like melee weapons that follow the player's cursor when thrown.

Spears
Spears are melee weapons that have a longer range than most swords, but attack with a stabbing motion. Spears also can hit targets more than once, making them especially useful for dealing with large enemies.

Boomerangs
Boomerangs are melee weapons that return to the player after being thrown. Together with yoyos, they provide the earliest distance attacks that benefit from melee bonuses.

Flails
Flails are melee weapons that consist of an object linked to the player by a chain, which can either be thrown or fired. Thrown flails can be suspended around the player indefinitely, whereas launched flails immediately return to the player.

Other
These are Hardmode melee weapons that possess unique means of attack. Some also launch projectiles.

Bows
Bows are ranged weapons that fire arrows as ammunition. Although several bows deal no knockback, most arrows do.

Repeaters
Repeaters are ranged weapons that fire arrows as ammunition, similar to bows. All repeaters are Hardmode-exclusive.

Guns
Guns are a type of ranged weapon that use bullets as ammo.

Launchers
Launchers are Hardmode-exclusive ranged weapons that fire rockets and similar explosive ammunition.

Others
Note: The Confetti Gun, Slime Gun, and Water Gun are novelty weapons, causing no damage or knockback. The Confetti Gun is a consumable, and can only be used once. The Slime Gun and Water Gun cause purely aesthetic debuffs and cannot be placed on a Weapon Rack.

Wands
Wands are magic weapons that are mainly used to deal damage in a variety of ways, but wands like the Ice Rod aren’t used for damage

Minion-summoning weapons
These weapons summon minions to attack enemies

Sentry-summoning weapons
These weapons summon Sentries to attack enemies, though sentries don’t move like Minions