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. Therefore, a slower speed increases the range, meaning that the best modifier for range is Sluggish and the best modifier for damage is Ruthless. 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 attack speed, but harshly penalizes range, and many whips are able to boost their own attack speed anyways.)

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. The attack speed of whips apparently shortens the length of whips. That said, the slower the attack speed is, the longer the length whips reach; hence sluggish, the slowest attack speed modifier available, achieves the longest range. Same way, bulky excels in both attack range and damage.

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.
 * 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.
 * 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 vs the Eye of Cthulhu, and Kaleidoscope increases the damage of the Xeno Staff, an already-powerful summon, by more than 50%.
 * The Titan Glove and its variants give autoswing to all whips, 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 and quickly bring down vines.

Trivia

 * These were added as an 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 why the Zoologist sells the Leather Whip.
 * Despite the similarities with Melee weapons, it is still considered as a part of Summon weapons.