Nettle Burst

The Nettle Burst is an unusual magic weapon that fires a rust-red snaking vine-like area of effect that lingers for several seconds, travelling through blocks and infinitely piercing enemies. Functionally, it is a Hardmode upgrade to the Vilethorn. Nettle Burst drops from the jungle boss Plantera.

Compared to the Vilethorn, the Nettle Burst deals a little over twice damage, affects an area twice as long, lingers for a slightly longer period of time, and has a slightly faster use time. Due to the way defense and damage reduction works, however, this doubling in damage results in significantly more damage against hardmode enemies that would reduce Vilethorn damage to 1. In addition, the Nettle Burst's minor increase in duration allows the weapon to hit up to 9 times, instead of the Vilethorn's 7 times, further increasing the potency of the weapon. Even without equipment/armor bonuses, a solid attack can deal upwards of 200 damage total against hardmode enemies.

The most useful trait of the Nettle Burst is its ability to pass through solid blocks and pierce unlimited enemies. This allows players to simply wall themselves off from any threat that cannot pass through walls and still deal damage, or hitting worm type enemies while they are inside walls. Its infinite piercing property is also useful against enemies with multiple parts or minions, such as the Destroyer.

Carefully timing uses of the nettle burst allow players to maintain a constant zone damage effect by waiting until mana has fully recharged before being able to use the weapon again.

Like the Vilethorn, the Nettle Burst produces minuscule knockback on each quick hit. This tends to have the effect of nearly freezing enemies in place for the duration of each swing. Enemies that are immune to knockback do not have impeded movement.

The best modifier for the Nettle Burst is Mythical.