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Terraria offers a variety of playstyles. You can choose to be a gunslinging hero, making your way through the world with your trusty guns, or go for a melee approach. You can even become a mage, wielding the power of magic and summoned allies.

Related: Terraria: Best Summoner Weapons

In this guide, we are going to go over every summon weapon in Terraria, as well as what they do and how to get them. There are a lot of summon weapons available, so we are going to look at the weapons for pre-hardmode and hardmode separately. First, let's take a look at the basics of these magical weapons.

What Is A Summon Weapon?

player standing next to abigails ghost

A summon weapon summons a minion or sentry to fight with you. While fighting, the summoned ally cannot take damage or be killed, making them very useful for difficult battles. Minions are mobile and will follow you around, while sentries remain stationary, meaning you will need to resummon more if you change locations. Let's take a look at these two types of allies below.

Minions

When summoning a minion, they will follow you until you die or cancel the summon weapon's buff. This means that you can switch weapons with a minion summoned, and they will not disappear.

You will only be able to have one minion at a time by default, but certain boosts allow you to raise the minion cap, allowing you to have more. Additionally, certain weapons can have modifiers allowing you to summon more.

Sentries

player on platform above frost hydra sentry
via Rjackiley/Steam

Sentries will remain in the world for two minutes before disappearing; this will apply even after you die. Similar to minions, you will only be able to summon one sentry at a time, but this cap can be raised by using Tavernkeep armor and Old One's Army accessories.

Pre-Hardmode Summon Weapons

baby finch buff on player

Below, you can find every summon weapon that can be obtained in pre-hardmode. This is the default state of the game before you defeat the Wall of Flesh boss.

Summon Weapon

Type

Summoned Entity

How To Obtain

Damage Dealt

Abigail's Flower

Minion

Abigail (Ghost)

Found near tombstones

6

Finch Staff

Minion

Finch

Found in Living Wood chests

7

Flinx Staff

Minion

Flinx

Crafted at the workbench with the following:

  • 6 Flinx Fur
  • 10 Gold or Platinum Bars

8

Slime Staff

Minion

Baby Slime

Dropped by slimes

8

Vampire Frog Staff

Minion

Vampire Frog

Dropped by Zombie Merman and Wandering Eye Fish

11

Hornet Staff

Minion

Hornet

Crafted at an anvil with the following:

  • 14 Beeswax

12

  • Hornets inflict Poison debuff on target

Imp Staff

Minion

Imp

Crafted at an anvil with the following:

  • 17 Hellstone Bars

17

  • Imps inflict On Fire! debuff on target

Houndius Shootius

Sentry

Houndius Shootius

Dropped by Deerclops

24

Lighting Aura Rod

Sentry

Lighting Aura

Purchased From Tavernkeep

4

Flameburst Rod

Sentry

Flameburst Tower

Purchased From Tavernkeep

14

Explosive Trap Rod

Sentry

Explosive Trap

Purchased From Tavernkeep

24

Ballista Rod

Sentry

Ballista

Purchased From Tavernkeep

27

Hardmode Summon Weapons

player fishing while stardust dragon flies above
via RobiDobi33/Reddit

Below, you can find every weapon that will become available once you unlock hardmode.

Summon Weapon

Type

Summoned Entity

How To Obtain

Damage Dealt

Spider Staff

Minion

Spider

Crafted at an anvil with the following:

  • 16 Spider Fang

26

  • Spider inflicts Venom debuff on target

Sanguine Staff

Minion

Sanguine Bat

Dropped by Dreadnautilus

35

Pirate Staff

Minion

Pirate

Dropped by Pirates and Flying Dutchman

40

Blade Staff

Minion

Enchanted Dagger

Dropped by Queen Slime

6

  • Enchanted Daggers ignore 25 defense

Optic Staff

Minion

Twins (eyeballs)

Crafted at a mythril or orichalcum anvil with the following:

  • 1 Black Lens
  • 2 Lens
  • 12 Hallowed Bar
  • 20 Soul of Sight

30

Pigmy Staff

Minion

Pigmy

Dropped by Plantera

34

  • Pygmies inflict either Poison or Venom debuff to targets

Desert Tiger Staff

Minion

Desert Tiger

Found in Desert Chest

41

Deadly Sphere Staff

Minion

Deadly Sphere

Dropped by Deadly Sphere

50

Raven Staff

Minion

Raven

Dropped by Pumpking

55

Xeno Staff

Minion

UFO

Dropped by Martian Saucer

36

Tempest Staff

Minion

Sharknado

Dropped by Duke Fishron

50

Stardust Dragon Staff

Minion

Stardust Dragon

Crafted at an Ancient Manipulator with the following:

  • 18 Stardust Fragment

40

Stardust Cell Staff

Minion

Stardust Cell

Crafted at an Ancient Manipulator with the following:

  • 18 Stardust Fragment

60

Terraprisma

Minion

Terraprisma

Dropped by Empress of Light if all the damage is dealt during the day

90

Queen Spider Staff

Sentry

Queen Spider

Crafted at an anvil with the following:

  • 24 Spider Fang

26

  • Spiders inflict Acid Venom debuff

Staff of the Frost Hydra

Sentry

Frost Hydra

Found in Ice Chest

100

Lunar Portal Staff

Sentry

Lunar Portal

Dropped by Moon Lord

50

Rainbow Crystal Staff

Sentry

Rainbow Crystal

Dropped by Moon Lord

130

Lighting Aura Staff

Sentry

Lightning Aura

Purchased From Tavernkeep

34

Flameburst Staff

Sentry

Flameburst Tower

Purchased From Tavernkeep

88

Explosive Trap Staff

Sentry

Explosive Trap

Purchased From Tavernkeep

126

Ballista Staff

Sentry

Ballista

Purchased From Tavernkeep

140

Whips

player using a whip

Whips cannot summon any entity; instead, they are used to guide summoned entities. For example, if you attack an enemy with a leather whip, your summoned allies will attack that target. This is helpful if there are multiple enemies around you.

Tavernkeep Weapons

player participating in old ones army event

Lastly, let's go over weapons purchased from the Tavernkeep. Above, you may have noticed multiple sentry-summon weapons that can be purchased from this NPC. Rather than using gold, you will use Defender Medals to purchase these weapons.

Defender Medals can be obtained by completing waves in the Old One's Army event. This is an event that causes waves of enemies to spawn around a crystal; you will need to defeat these waves before the crystal is destroyed. If you are successful, you will be rewarded with Defender Medals.

To trigger this event, you will need to place an Eternia Crytal Stand in the world, and then place an Eternia Crystal on the stand. Both of these items can be purchased from the Tavernkeep, who will appear in the world after you defeat either the Eater of Worlds or the Brain of Cthuluhu.

That's all there is to know about summon weapons in Terraria. Get out there and start collecting these weapons!

Next: Terraria: How To Summon And Defeat The Empress Of Light