Talk:Summon weapons

Pumpkin Armor
Would it be a smart idea to include Pumpkin Armor in the Boost gear section? I know it's not strictly a summoner armor, but the page includes the Avenger Emblem, which increases all damage aswell. And the Pumpkin Armor is notable for being the only armor set that boosts minion damage available before queen bee or wall of flesh. Thenimas20501 (talk) 12:03, 1 June 2020 (UTC)

Destroyer Emblem
Shouldn't destroyer emblem be added to the list of items that increase minion damage? Also shouldn't there be a note pointing the fact that menacing and lower prefixes of that kind do affect minion damage?

Accessory attributes?
Does anyone know if accessory attributes like general damage increases or prefixes like Menacing work for Minion damage? I've reforged my three Minion accessories to Menacing and they seem to do more damage but that might as well be coincidental. --DoubleFloat (talk) 16:06, 29 October 2013 (UTC)
 * Yes accessories with any kind of +%dmg as well as +%dmg prefixes works on minions. Also, minions do not deal critical damage (or at least are not affected by anything that grants additional %crit). Lastly, +%dmg from accessory persist on minions even if the accessory is removed. I have not edited the wiki page as I do not know the relevant sections to edit.--Duckne55 (talk) 04:12, 2 February 2014 (UTC)

Minion Only Playthrough?
I'm curious if anyone has had viability with a character focusing heavily on minions. I'm assuming that it would be tougher than other types of character (solo at any rate). Of course, you would have to get through the early game without them, until you either gather Hellstone or kill the Queen Bee. But upon doing either of those, has anyone had success with focusing on Minion stats and playing a more supportive role yourself? To be frank, I can't imagine it working very easily through certain phases of the game, such as the first few Mechanical Boss fights, since you would be relying on Spiders to kill the bosses. I'd imagine that the game would be significantly easier one you got the Optic Staff though. Any thoughts on the matter? I would do it myself, but I'm only a mediocre casual. --User:WaFFleReaper 03:08, 26 May 2014 (UTC)
 * --easy enough, just click the enemies while holding the staff. you now have an offensive spell with instant damage for about 10 mana with a minion teleported to that location as a bonus.

DPS chart
There's no reason for a DPS chart here as opposed to any other equipment page. It didn't even show actual damage points, but rather percents that result from adding other percents together -- ie. a bloated chart enumerating calculated values, with no new information, barely useful at all. We could put something like that on lots of pages but we similarly don't since it's useless. I've removed it before and will continue to. The effort is appreciated but it's just total overkill.  Equazcion ( talk ) 13:15, 26 Jul 2014 (UTC)

Maybe "DPS" is the wrong way to present it, but there definitely should be a way to show them sorted by effectiveness. Even though that's very situational or even opinion-based, if someone comes here looking for "what's best between these items" - the Damage number is pretty useless.

???
does chart include damage from hitting enemy with summon?

Vial of Blood
http://terraria.gamepedia.com/Vial_of_Blood This item says it actually summons a pet that does damage, which makes me think it should be classified as a minion. I've never edited a wiki before, so I'm a bit shy. Here is a link to the Vial of blood wiki page above, and here is a quote from that page: "Unlike other pets, the pet bat will deal a small amount of damage to enemies it happens to touch." Since this page is basically the best guide to summoners out there, I think Vial of blood should be listed on this page and if possible some research done on it to see damage and such. Because if it's a pet, that means it doesn't take up a slot for the amount of minions you can have (9 with maximum gear I believe), so it's another unit fighting for you, or at least bumping into enemies. This is complete theory, so someone prove me wrong. Like I said, I've never edited a wiki before, so I wont edit the main page, but I am suggesting that it be listed with the other items somewhere. I will try to do some research as well. Solrexian_Mage, 12:48 (lunch) Mountain Time Zone (America) July 12 2014

EDIT: I just facepalmed so hard. Its console/Mobile only…

Non summoner items
I think the queen spider and hydra items should be removed from this page. They aren't summons, they are merely semi-permanent damage spots virtually the same as the nimbus rod and rainbow gun.
 * They're here because they inflict summon damage, despite operating differently from most of the summon weapons.  Equazcion ( talk ) 22:23, 27 Oct 2014 (UTC)
 * My bad, I had just read that now and came back here to remove this comment. ;) GhostEcho (talk) 02:56, 28 October 2014 (UTC)

Aggression range
Is there any research as to how large the minions aggro range is? I noticed that they go past my screen to attack mobs.

Would it be useful data to have on the wiki? I imagine a chart similar to the one on the spawning mechanics page would suffice. 93.197.67.212 23:54, 12 May 2015 (UTC)

Page Name
I know this is getting old, but shouldn't the name of this page be 'Summoner (class)' or merely 'Summoner' rather than 'Summon (class)'? The latter has a bit of a justification due to the emblem, and no one says that a character is a 'summon.' I hesitate to change it just due to how many changes it's gone through already!

Also, it seems apparent why Summoners would need their own page, given all of the Summoner-specific nuances there are. That said, might it be nearly time to move in the direction of class pages for Warrior, Ranger, and Sorcerer? Would an attempt to begin those (beginning with relevant armor set lists, weapons doing the appropriate damage type, relevant accessories and potions, etc.) be welcome? Esaelon (talk) 21:38, 14 July 2015 (UTC)
 * The page move was made by a user acting alone and without any prior notice, and as such has been undone. The wiki isn't moving towards the recognition of classes in Terraria. Weapons are still being classified by the type of damage listed in their tooltips, and these pages are meant to compile those weapons, not provide a guide on how to play a self-imposed role. Guide:Class setups and the like still exist for that purpose. Gearzein (talk) 21:43, 14 July 2015 (UTC)

Boost gear
This page recently became a weapon type listing for minion summoners (because I did that), so boost gear was removed for consistency with other pages like Ranged weapons etc. I was actually going to suggest possibly doing the converse: starting boost gear lists on the other weapon type pages.

I've personally found the boost gear listing on this page useful, since there's no other way to really check which gear is available to boost minions, and the fact that minion boosts seem to be more rare than boosts for other weapon types (sees that way to me at least; I haven't done a real count to compare). Though admittedly if we allowed such listings here, we'd probably need to allow them at the other weapon lists. I'm not sure if there would be a huge downside to doing that, but wondering if anyone has reasons go one way or there. Equazcion ( talk ) 22:25, 14 Jul 2015 (UTC)
 * I considered that, but instead removed the current boosts for three reasons:
 * a) Consistency. The other pages are just lists of weapons, so it felt fitting for this one to have the same layout.
 * b) Removal of guide material. The "tips and tricks" section was a huge mess the page could have done without one way or another.
 * c) It was easier.
 * It's a fine idea to put related items on other pages, as long as they're strictly kept to accessories and items that affect the weapon type, not general recommendations or playstyles. To that end I'm gonna go ahead and restore the tables, but I don't think a lot of elaboration on how to use the weapons is necessary. I don't think I actually need to clarify that mainspace is not for guides, but I'm putting it out there in any case. Gearzein (talk) 22:38, 14 July 2015 (UTC)
 * Some of the Tips section is quite relevant to the use of summon weapons generally and, while it may be more fitting in Guides, there are similar 'tips' on many individual weapons and items generally and so I think that the consistency argument fails on that note. As a user of this wiki, I certainly agree with Equazcion that the loss of some of the information is certainly unpleasant, though I readily grant that much of it and the Notes section would likely be better on another page. I do think the name 'Boost Gear' may not be ideal; perhaps [Damage Type] Buff Gear (e.g., Ranged Buff Gear, Summon Buff Gear) with a master 'Damage Buff Gear' page that summarizes the overall reasoning and links to the others would be better, if it isn't to be folded into the Guides? Esaelon (talk) 22:44, 14 July 2015 (UTC)
 * I think "boost gear" is a more general term that adequately covers non-damage boosts, in addition to the minion capacity bonuses that are a unique sort of meta-aspect of a summon item. I may be biased here because I think I may have been the one who came up with "boost gear" originally (at least as it applies to this page). As for a separate page listing all weapon boost gear (or whatever we end up calling it), I don't think that would be necessary if we included them separately at each weapon type listing, and I think we want to avoid more duplicate lists that need to be continually updated independently or likely become stale as time wears on. Equazcion  ( talk ) 22:59, 14 Jul 2015 (UTC)
 * PS. I agree with the tips removal and that they seem more like guide material. Most of it seemed to be advice on dealing with the aspects of playing as a "summoner class" character, which in Terraria is still an esoteric fan invention rather than an actual game aspect. Equazcion  ( talk ) 23:26, 14 Jul 2015 (UTC)
 * "Associated" actually seems less cold and may open the door more for items that don't directly affect summons, but that some people might feel are related anyway for some other reason. Wouldn't we rather keep the list focused on items that raise stats for summon items? Equazcion  ( talk ) 17:25, 15 Jul 2015 (UTC)
 * I tried to go with something neutral, but yeah, it's a little looser than I expected it to sound. I think "boost" sounds a little too informal, but I wouldn't oppose a change or revert. Gearzein (talk) 17:58, 15 July 2015 (UTC)
 * I went totally literal with it :) I'm assuming it'll be replaced at some point by someone else, hopefully someone can come up with something good. Equazcion  ( talk ) 21:18, 15 Jul 2015 (UTC)

Slime Staff Text is Wrong
It says you cannot get the slime staff from pinky, but I just did. No joke.

73.20.102.248 21:33, 13 September 2015 (UTC)
 * It says Pinky has a higher rate of dropping it below. It means that any slime except Pinky and the others has the lower chance of dropping it. –KM100 (talk) 22:38, 13 September 2015 (UTC)

Classes
Wait, whose idea was it to just redirect to summon weapons? There's a lot more to the Summoner class than just the weapons, and I'd love to see things like the history of the summoning class, such as from where it stemmed (bat scepter?), and how the concept of adding entirely new classes might be used in the future, such as with a potential Throwing class. It also occurs to me that the same thing may be ocurring with the other solid, official, been-around-since-the-conception-of-the-game classes, the Warrior/Tank, the Ranger/Gunner/Rocketeer, and the Wizard/Mage/Healer/Support. They need pages of their own, in an organized, uniform format. Additionally, Perhaps a merger of all of them into a father page "Classes"? 73.184.185.236 03:55, 27 February 2016 (UTC)
 * There's nothing more to the summoner class because there is no summoner class. Terraria doesn't have a class system- the entire concept is made up and self-imposed by players. While there are damage types, they can be mixed freely and used in conjunction as the player desires; no inherent bonus is earned from adhering to a certain type or playstyle, and nothing is preventing a player who prefers guns or swords or magic books from also using minions to supplement their damage or coverage area. Bearing this in mind, the weapons are separated out by these damage types, and into more granular subcategories as necessity demands. Most relevant statistics are provided for comparison's sake; differences in playstyle should by and large be obvious by the weapon's operation, and- especially regarding magic weapons- may not even be consistent within damage types.
 * If players choose to use only one type, then the currently provided information should suffice, but any attempt to draw them out as distinct "classes" would not only stray into conjecture on aesthetic preference, but also seek to codify what is a highly subjective topic- your perception of what "classes" exist in this game is only one of many that people have tried to suggest as being recommended by in-game cues. This wiki is meant to cover concrete game concepts, not fan fiction. Gearzein (talk) 21:21, 27 February 2016 (UTC)

Best prefix for DD2 sentries
The ballista and flameburst articles say the best prefix for them is myhtical; while lightning aura and explosive trap claim demonic. However other summons, including fellow sentries frost hydra and queen spider, mention ruthless as the best since the mythical bonuses other than damage and knockback do not apply to minions. So which is it? --SorryThatUsernameIsAlreadyTaken (talk) 20:09, 22 November 2016 (UTC)

Tavernkeep's Sentries
Other sentries cost mana to summon, and have a limited duration. Once the Old One's Army is defeated, and the player can use the Tavernkeep's sentries outside of the event, are there any costs/limits to summoning the sentries? – Ferretwings (talk ) 21:58, 2 March 2017 (UTC)


 * All the Tavernkeep's Sentries are limited outside the event by the sentries count, which was added in the same update. They share this count with two existing sentries, the Spider queen and the Frost hydra. The Sentry count functions exactly like the minions count, save for the name change. Additionally, only the DD2 related gear can effect the sentry count, shown by a +__ Sentry capacity instead of the +__ Minion capacity shown in other summoner armor sets. I'm not sure if the minion damage modifiers have any effect on sentries though. Costs outside the event are in regular mana, with tier 1, 2, and 3 costing 5, 10, and 15 respectively.Lonzo34 (talk) 22:30, 2 March 2017 (UTC)


 * Ugh, sorry for editing your comment, I messed up, on talk pages people only correct their own words if they want to. Just wanted to point out that there are more than two sentries now, not just Queen Spider and Frost Hydra staves, but also Lunar Portal and Rainbow Crystal staves. And I'm more than sure they'll add even more some day. And yes, sentries are affected by summon damage increase. Mislic (talk) 17:02, 19 March 2017 (UTC)

Page timing out or overloading server on saves?
When trying to edit or save a section, I'm getting various HTTP errors as popups. I'm wondering if this may be due to the size of the page, with its multiple tables. Perhaps some of those should be converted to loadable subpages, as was done with, say, the "Fishing" page? --MentalMouse42 (talk) 13:15, 9 November 2017 (UTC)


 * We are experiencing some migration issues. Please report any issues here: Terraria Wiki:Community noticeboard. It could take a couple of days for editing and page loading to return to normal. – Ferretwings (talk ) 13:27, 9 November 2017 (UTC)

Sand Slime droprate for Slime Staff
The 'Pre-Hardmode Minion Summons' part shows the Slime Staff's droprates, but it doesn't show the seperate droprate from Sand Slimes. From the Slime Staff page: "Additionally, Sand Slimes have a drop rate of 1/8000 / 1/5600 (0.013% / 0.018%)." 70.66.36.25 17:53, 11 March 2018 (UTC)

Sentry Capacity and Minion Capacity
I was wondering if sentry capacity was the same as minion capacity. I've tried looking it up on the web but nothing is coming up. I believe it is true because it is the same vise versa (increased minion capacity increases sentry capacity), but I have no idea if increasing sentry capacity will increase minion capacity 104.220.124.183 17:05, 14 March 2020 (UTC)
 * As far as my testing in-game goes, they are completely separate. I wasn't able to replicate either increasing the other, as you described it, either, so I'm a bit confused about what you mean when you say that increased minion capacity increases sentry capacity. 4e696e6a6f795844 (talk) 17:26, 14 March 2020 (UTC)
 * I use console so it might be different for me. When I use the spider queen or frost hydra I can spawn three (I have the forbidden armor) while, if the sentries aren't active, I can spawn three minions. 4e696e6a6f795844 (talk) 17:26, 14 March 2020 (UTC)

I play on console as well. Yet if I use my bewitching table and summon my stardust dragon 1 time then I can only spawn my rainbow crystal once. Yet if I use my bewitching table, and then summon my stardust dragon 2 times I can also spawn 1 rainbow crystal. So the sentry count is not the same as the minion count. Also I want to know if I can increase the sentry count without Tavernkeep armor. (I play on Xbox 1) 14:13, 16 August 2020 (UTC)

Whips
ChippyGaming mentioned in a recent video that whips will be added as a new type of summon weapon in 1.4 and it has not yet been added to this page. Birdboi8 (talk) 19:26, 15 May 2020 (UTC)


 * We're waiting on the official release before adding the new content to existing pages. --Eraloiz (talk) 19:36, 15 May 2020 (UTC)

Increased Speed Modifiers on Summon Weapons
So I'm assuming since it is mentioned as not being useful, "speed" for summon weapons just affects how fast you can resummon as opposed to the attack speed of the resulting minion? If so, this should probably be clarified for consistency's sake since it isn't immediately obvious (and the reasoning for every other listed attribute being bad is explicitly mentioned). -- MatthewTh0 (talk) 02:40, 23 June 2020 (UTC)
 * Yes, I agree. Will add it (someone please correct me if wrong). -- Breathlessblizzard (talk) 12:49, 23 June 2020 (UTC)

Sentry despawning?
Unlike normal minions, it seems sentries despawn on their own after a while, or at least the Tavernkeep's do. The page mentions nothing about it, though. Am I just going insane? If not, does anyone know specifics? -Jatopian28123 (talk) 01:24, 2 July 2020 (UTC)
 * It's now listed in the "Sentries" section. "In normal use, sentries will last for a fixed two minutes before vanishing"BadPiggy1024 (talk) 14:17, 25 November 2020 (UTC)

Mythical and Sentries
I have a bit of a question regarding the Tavernkeep sentries (or rather most sentries) that seems contradictory to what's paraphrased on nearly every sentry page.

"While all Summon weapons can obtain the Mythical modifier, the Ruthless modifier offers the most effective minion boost by solely increasing a minion's hit damage. The reduced mana cost, increased speed, critical strike chance, and knockback provided by Mythical are less useful because Summon weapons use mana only once (on the initial summoning rather than the minion attacks themselves), minions cannot deal critical hits, and their knockback is negligible even with modifiers"

While this may be nearly universally true for normal summons, I have noticed that a common and popular strategy noted on many sentries is to take advantage of the fact that they attack almost instantly upon spawning, and that you can rapidly summon them to greatly increase their rate of fire. So, in these cases, wouldn't Mythical's mana cost reduction and increased summoning speed potentially be as useful for only a loss of 3% damage? Just a thought. Mrqsandas (talk) 00:24, 11 March 2022 (UTC)