Arkhalis



The Arkhalis is a rare melee weapon that appears to be a sword, but does not present an actual blade when used. Instead of an overhead broadsword swing or a shortsword stab, the Arkhalis autoswings and appears as a series of blurred slashes aimed in the direction of the cursor. Anything within this area takes constant damage at a rate far exceeding the weapon's stated use time. This damaging area has a rather wide spread, even attacking behind the player for a very short distance.

On, it is part of Arkhalis' set, and is only obtainable through Hardmode Treasure Bags in Expert Mode. It ignores up to 20 enemy defense. It has a weaker variant known as the Terragrim, which replaces it as a potential drop from Enchanted Sword Shrines.

On, it is obtainable from the unique background object found in an Enchanted Sword Shrine or very rarely in the Caverns layer. This background object has a chance to contain a "true" breakable sword item rather than a discolored "false" sword. When this item is broken, it has a chance to drop the Arkhalis rather than an Enchanted Sword. This means that on average, the chance of an Enchanted Sword Shrine dropping an Arkhalis is. The sword that the item gives is determined at the time the background object is broken, so there is no way to determine which sword the player will be given.

The Arkhalis's unique means of attack is unaffected by any size and speed modifiers.

Tips

 * The Arkhalis emits a large amount of white light-emitting particles for a short distance, making it useful for peeking through cave walls.
 * Though its base damage is low, its high attack speed and multiple attacks per hit make it effective well into Hardmode.
 * Because of its high attack speed and its ability to hit everything around the player, it can hit any projectile that can be destroyed before it reaches the player, making it fairly useful against the Goblin Sorcerer and Goblin Summoner's Chaos Balls and any other enemy with destructible projectiles.
 * Knockback should be balanced on this weapon, to keep enemies inside the damage zone. Consider using a Ruthless modifier for pre-Hardmode enemies, and Godly or Demonic for Hardmode enemies.
 * Utilizing the fast speed of the Arkhalis combined with its small knockback, you can easily stun-lock enemies like the Unicorn.
 * As it has a wide angle, it can be useful against worm enemies.
 * The best world size for finding the Arkhalis is medium, due to there being 1 sword shrine in small worlds, 3 in medium worlds, and 4 in large worlds. Despite there being more sword shrines in large worlds, it is easier to find them in medium worlds due to there being less space in between each shrine.
 * Since the presence of the Arkhalis is determined when the background object is destroyed, it is possible to force its appearance by "save scumming": Having found an Enchanted Sword Shrine with an enchanted sword in stone, switch autosave off, and then keep breaking the background object and force-quitting Terraria (NOT pressing save and exit in the pause menu, but closing the Terraria application itself) until you get an Arkhalis instead of an Enchanted Sword. While this method may be considered cheating by many, it can be useful for some players.
 * It has been replaced by the Terragrim due to it being moved to Arkhayla's developer set.
 * Due to this weapon's short range and extremely rapid attack speed, it synergizes very well with Titanium armor, spawning many shards and dealing a large amount of extra damage. The shards can also provide an extra source of knockback.

Trivia

 * The weapon is named for Arkhayla, a former Quality Director at Re-Logic. Its tooltip, "I didn't get this off of a Schmoo", refers to the means of obtaining a Crissaegrim in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Crissaegrim is Arkhayla's favorite sword, and her namesake weapon's appearance and function are modeled after it.