Scourge of the Corruptor

The Scourge of the Corruptor is a weapon always found inside the Dungeon's Corruption Chest, which in turn must be unlocked with a Corruption Key. When used, it fires a fast projectile dealing full damage, which will then split into 2-4 small Eaters of Souls on impact against a solid block or an enemy. The eaters have homing capabilites, an apparently unlimited flight time, can bounce off walls up to 5 times before disappearing, and deal approximately half of the weapon's damage each. Using the Scourge costs neither mana nor ammunition, and both the main projectile and Eaters are unaffected by gravity and non-solid blocks. The latter have almost no knockback, but in great numbers can keep enemies "locked" in place.

While the player could consider it a ranged weapon at first sight due to its function, it is treated in-game as a melee weapon, just like Boomerangs since version 1.1 (many swords introduced in 1.2 also have ranged capabilities). Therefore, this weapon benefits from armor sets and accesories giving bonuses to melee, such as Turtle armor and the Fire Gauntlet, and not from sets giving ranged bonuses such as Shroomite armor. This also makes it valuable as a fall-back ranged weapon for melee-oriented characters.

As a result of its characteristics, this weapon is a lot stronger than it would seem from its stats alone: even if the player has bad aim, this weapon can quickly create a swarm of homing projectiles at no cost, allowing them to concentrate on dodging enemy attacks. However, the eaters' homing capabilities do not include pathing around obstacles, so the Scourge is best used in relatively open areas. Still, they can be used to great effect in caves and the Dungeon to attack around corners, by shooting at the intermediate wall from a safe place and letting the Eaters do the dirty work.

The Scourge of the Corruptor is one of the best boss-fighting weapons that a new hardmode player can acquire. Its power allows it to hold up against all the mechanical bosses easily, exceeding automatic weapons and mana-consuming spells alike. It can be used to swarm bosses with dozens of the tiny eaters, which annihilate anything they touch.