Vilethorn

The Vilethorn is a unique magic weapon that fires a spear-like projectile that hangs in the air for about one second, travels through blocks, pierces multiple enemies, and covers a distance of about 15 tiles. It scores a rapid succession of up to seven hits, and deals multiple hits even on small enemies, as the entire length of the projectile continues to do damage as it briefly hangs in the air. It is currently the only weapon available to players that consistently travels through blocks. The Vilethorn is one of a few possible drops from a destroyed Shadow Orb.

The Vilethorn produces miniscule knockback for each of its seven rapid hits (for up to 56 total damage), which tends to have the effect of nearly freezing enemies in place for the duration of each swing. Enemies that are immune to knockback, like the Man Eater and Bosses, do not have their movement or attack ability affected. These strengths can offset its low per-hit damage.

Hardmode enemies, unfortunately, tend to have defenses and knockback resistance that render the Vilethorn nearly useless against them.



Tips

 * Since its projectile travels through blocks, the Vilethorn can be used to fend off enemies while remaining shielded behind Blocks.
 * An easy solution to Blood Moons and the Goblin Army, as it allows you to strike enemies approaching your home structure while you remain safely indoors (after having sealed off your Doors with blocks). The Goblin Army's Goblin Sorcerers may still teleport inside, but they have fairly low defenses, and the Vilethorn dispatches them rather quickly.
 * The Vilethorn is effective against worm-type enemies. Because these enemies have multiple segments, with each segment taking damage, the Vilethorn's "field" can strike every segment. This has the advantage of killing many lesser worm enemies in a single strike. Even the Bone Serpent falls fairly easily to this weapon, and it is also effective against the Eater of Worlds.

Trivia

 * Prior to Patch 1.1, the Vilethorn was the most mana-efficient weapon in the game, aside from the combination of Space Gun and Meteor armor, dealing ~4.6 damage per mana point. It has since been surpassed by the Rainbow Rod which deals 5.3 damage per mana point.