Whips

 

Desktop/Mobile-Only Content: This information applies only to the Desktop and Mobile versions of Terraria.

This article is about the group of summon weapons. For the hook, see Ivy Whip.

Whips are close-ranged 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.

Most whips have damage bonuses that apply to any attacking minions, in addition to their regular damage statistic. These damage bonuses last 3 seconds after striking an enemy. Sentries receive no benefit from these bonuses.

Whips can have the same modifiers as swords, including Legendary. Their best modifier is Legendary ( or Sluggish for range).

Types

There are currently 9 different whips available in Terraria, 6 of which are Hardmode-exclusive.

Name		Damage	Special	Range (tiles)	Use time	KB	Rarity	HM	Sell	Source
	Leather Whip	14	4 summon tag damage Damage reduced by 50% each hit in a single swing.	11	30	0.5	01*	✗	3	​Zoologist (15)
	Snapthorn	18	6 summon tag damage Hitting enemies increases attack speed with the Jungle's Fury buff. Damage reduced by 40% each hit in a single swing.	15	30	1	03*	✗	1	12 + 3 + 3 ( @  /  )
	Spinal Tap	29	7 summon tag damage Performs better against multiple targets than most whips. Damage reduced by 10% each hit in a single swing.	18	30	2	02*	✗	150	90 + 55 ( @  )
	Firecracker	40	Instead of increasing minion damage, a struck enemy is surrounded by fiery energy which explodes the next time a minion attacks it, which deals 2.75× / 3× the minion's usual damage. Damage reduced by 33% each hit in a single swing.	21	30	2	04*	✓	3	​ ​
	Cool Whip	50	Hitting enemies summons a snowflake minion that attacks that enemy and any nearby enemies, doing 10 damage and ignoring 30 defense. Also inflicts Frostburn debuff for 4 seconds. Damage reduced by 30% each hit in a single swing.	23	30	1.5	04*	✓	4	8 + 8 + ( @  /  )
	Durendal	55	9 summon tag damage Hitting enemies increases attack speed with the Durendal's Blessing buff. Damage reduced by 20% each hit in a single swing.	24	30	2	05*	✓	460	12 ( @  /  )
	Dark Harvest	100	Hitting an enemy adds dark energy to it. When minions attack an enemy with dark energy, the dark energy flares and damages nearby enemies (not the original target) for 10 damage per hit. This damage ignores 50 defense. Hitting enemies increases attack speed with the Harvest Time buff. Damage reduced by 10% each hit in a single swing.	28	30	3	08*	✓	10	​
	Morning Star	180	5 summon tag damage +5% summon tag critical strike chance Damage reduced by 5% each hit in a single swing.	28	45	11	08*	✓	6	​ ​ ​
	Kaleidoscope	180	20 summon tag damage +10% summon tag critical strike chance Damage reduced by 10% each hit in a single swing.	33	30	4	08*	✓	5	​ ​

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.
  • However, all Whips will deal less damage to each successive enemy hit close together in a single swing, all the way down to 1 damage. This penalty is heavier on earlier whips, and lighter on later whips.
    • This does not stop whips with debuff effects such as Snapthorn from applying their respective debuff. However, Firecracker's Explosive Burst effect will only be applied to the first enemy hit, even if the whip causes a different enemy to be targeted instead.
• 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.
  • This includes melee speed bonuses from Snapthorn, Durendal and Dark Harvest. If the player is fast enough, they can strike once with a speed-increasing whip, then switch to a higher-damage whip to gain immense damage bonuses. The autoswing effect of Feral Claws () / Titan Glove () makes this much easier, as the player can simply hold the attack button down and use the numbers on the keyboard to switch between whips.
  • Whips will gain benefits from flasks.
  • Whips do not gain benefits from any other melee bonuses.
• 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 against the Eye of Cthulhu, and Kaleidoscope increases the damage of the Xeno Staff, an already-powerful summon, by more than 50%.
  • Summon tag damage can be stacked with the use of multiple different whips which has an even greater effect on minion DPS than using only one.

• 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. For more risk/reward, the Shinobi Infiltrator armor has a +60% damage bonus and a +20% speed bonus (which affects whips more than most melee late game weapons), but less armor and no healing.
• 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, quickly bring down vines, and can safely trigger rolling cacti to roll away.
• Speed modifiers from armor, accessories, and buffs do not affect the range of whips; only the modifiers on whips affect the range of said whip.
• The 1.4.1 update fixed an issue where size modifiers on whips had an inverse effect on speed, meaning big whips were always slow and small whips were always fast. Therefore, on  Desktop version, Sluggish is no longer a viable modifier for them.
• Whips can be an excellent tool for an early game head start, as they have high damage and are easy to get straight away.

Trivia

• Whips were added as a homage to summoners with whips from the Final Fantasy series, notably Rydia from Final Fantasy 4.
• In real life, whips are generally used on animals, for training and performance purposes. This is potentially why the Zoologist sells the Leather Whip.
• Despite their similarities with Melee weapons, whips are still classified as Summon weapons.
• Despite its current name, the Ivy Whip is not a weapon at all. It is a hook, present before whips were added to the game.

History

 Desktop version

• Desktop 1.4.1.2:
  • Buffed Cool Whip, now inflicts Frostburn and increased Snowflake minion's movement speed by 50%.
  • Nerfed Firecracker, explosion damage reduced from 3× minion damage to 2.75× minion damage.

• Desktop 1.4.1:
  • Added Spinal Tap.
  • Whips now benefit from the effects of flasks.
  • Every whip (except for Leather) got a range increase.
    • Speed modifiers no longer have an inverse effect on range.
  • Whip damage penalty is now heavier on early whips and lighter on later whips.

• Desktop 1.4.0.1: Introduced.

 Mobile version

• Mobile 1.4.0.5.0: Introduced.