Banners (enemy)

Enemy banners are functional furniture items that can be placed on the underside of blocks. They are dropped by most enemies and a few critters.

On the, when placed, enemy banners provide a buff to any players standing within a centered on the banner. The buff grants players +50%/ damage inflicted with all damage to the corresponding enemy and −25%/ damage taken from melee attacks by the enemy.

Multiple banners of the same type will not grant stacked buffs. Multiple different banner types in the vicinity will however all take effect, and consolidate into a single buff icon.

There are a total of enemy banners:  pre-Hardmode,  Hardmode, and  unobtainable. Out of these, belong to event enemies ( pre-Hardmode and  Hardmode) and  to -exclusive enemy variants ( pre-Hardmode and  Hardmode).
 * On the, an enemy banner automatically appears in the player's inventory upon every 50th kill of that enemy in a particular world. If the player's inventory is full, the banner will be dropped to the ground at the player's location instead. Additionally, a status message saying "" appears, with n being the respective multiple of 50.
 * On the, any enemy banner has a chance of dropping from its corresponding enemy.
 * Banners dropped by enemies from the Old One's Army are purely decorative and do not grant a buff. The number of kills required to get a banner from this event depends on the enemy's frequency: common enemies need a higher number of kills.

Note: Unlike other enemy banners, banners dropped by Old One's Army enemies do not provide buffs.

Effect on damage and defense calculation
Since banners affect base damage rather than the calculation after defense is taken into account, 10 final damage does not just become 15 or 20 damage but can vary greatly.

This also applies to other player and weapon damage modifiers but not player damage reduction ones.

The real effect of banners grows the bigger the values are as well as how close Base Damage and Damage Reduction are. The lower and further apart, the closer the effect is to the original values.

As an example for Expert Mode, Weapon Damage 50 and Enemy Defense 80 (40 Damage Reduction):


 * damage dealt instead of  damage.

For Normal Mode, same values:


 * damage dealt instead of  damage.

Example for damage dealt to the player, Expert Mode, 100 Damage, Player Defense 80 (60 Damage Reduction):


 * damage ( damage) instead of   damage.

In normal Mode, Enemy Base Damage is usually halved, Player Defense 80 (40 Damage Reduction):


 * damage ( damage) instead of   Damage.

High Damage Example, fictional since no melee attack hits as hard as a Pirate Captain's Cannon Ball:

400 Damage, Titanium Armor 49 Defense (36.75 Damage Reduction). Original Damage 363.25.


 * ( of the original damage) instead of simply   of the damage.

Upping the Player Defense by 24 to 73 (54.75 Damage Reduction). 345.25 Original Damage.


 * ( of the original damage).

The effect in Expert can easily grow to the point where one can kill a Wyvern in one or two multi-hits with a banner when one had to previously dance with it (10+ hits) and the very same weapon.

Trivia

 * Each banner may be placed in a right- or left-facing orientation, but this is decided by which tile column in the world the banner is placed. Placing it one block to the left or right will flip the orientation.
 * The left half of the Nymph Banner is of the Lost Girl "NPC", while the right half is the Nymph monster.
 * The Bride, Corrupt Mimic, Crimson Mimic, Hallowed Mimic, Vicious Bunny, Vicious Goldfish, and Vicious Penguin do not have banners.
 * Diggers share the same Banner and kill count with their pre-Hardmode counterparts, the Giant Worms. The same applies to Moss Hornets and Wandering Eyes, which share banners with their pre-Hardmode counterparts: Hornets and Demon Eyes.
 * The Tortured Soul does not have a banner.
 * Similarly, the Maggot Zombie does not have its own banner; however, the Zombie Banner does offer a buff against it.
 * For enemies with projectile attacks such as Hornets, the damage reduction only applies to their melee attacks; players still take full damage from the projectiles.
 * The Hoplite and Medusa Banners are the only banners that do not show a picture of the monster on it. Instead, each resemble dark green banners with golden Greek patterns, with the Hoplite and Medusa Banners having a picture of a helm and snake on them respectively.
 * The Bunny, Bird, Goldfish, and Penguin are the only four critters that have banners of themselves. The four banners still give a buff on attack and defense against the aforementioned critters, even though they cannot actually harm the player.