Ranger Overview
Ranger is a class that’s one of the safest options in terms of battling the world of Terraria. You can undoubtedly damage your opponents with weapons that attack from a distance. But that also means you’re not as tanky as a Melee character. So the best defense is a good offense, and what better way to support that idea is to use the best gear!
Pre-Hardmode Ranged Weapons
The start of your journey means that you start with basic items. But that doesn’t mean that you’ll settle for meager damage! These are a few of the best weapons to look out for before facing powerful opponents.
Pre-Hardmode Bows
The basics of all ranged weapons, bows are your best friend in the early game. These items are a good start to your arsenal as they’re relatively easy to craft. These are the best of the best with the materials you can access!
Platinum Bow
The Platinum Bow is the most powerful of its basic ore counterparts. Only available if your world spawns with Platinum ores, consider yourself lucky if that is the case! You will be rewarded if you take the time to mine the resources required. Needing only Platinum bars to craft, this is a worthy investment to make for overall utility.
Tendon Bow
A nice upgrade to your arsenal is the Tendon Bow. Craftable with only eight Crimtane bars, this is a great addition to your armory. With higher base damage than its Demonite counterpart, choosing to wield this when you have a Crimson world is a must.
Molten Fury
The Underworld has its fair share of enemies to beat, so crafting a weapon to match that aggression is needed. Mining Hellstone can grant you the ability to craft the Molten Bow. This item allows you to make your wooden arrows into flaming arrows. Wielding this is sure to give you a fighting chance against any foe.
The Bee’s Knees
The jungle is a dangerous place, and it also has its rewards! Journeying down to defeat the Queen Bee can grant you a .33% chance to drop The Bee’s Knees. This bow allows you to shoot a string of bees onto your enemy. Once the bees make contact, they will pierce once and spread to other nearby enemies. This weapon is a great tool against multiple mobs or a feisty boss!
Hellwing Bow
Last but not least, the Hellwing Bow is the most powerful bow in Pre-Hardmode. This weapon shoots flaming bats with wooden arrows. The neat part about this item is that it can pierce infinitely, which means it can go through every enemy in sight. And as a bonus, this bow is also an autofire weapon. The downside to its strength is that it has a small spread when you shoot it.
Pre-Hardmode Guns
If bows are not to your taste, then a good firearm is the way to go! Guns are an alternative that provides a bit more damage in the early game with the downside of being more difficult to obtain. But once you lay your hands on one, you can decimate any opponent! These are the best that Pre-Hardmode has to offer.
Musket
Obtainable when you destroy a Shadow Orb, there is a chance that the Musket will drop! This gun is the best to start with, as this weapon has one of the higher base damages in Pre-Hardmode! With the option to auto-fire, this item is a breeze to shoot.
Minishark
Do you have 35 gold to spare? Well, what better way to spend it than buying the Minishark! Purchasable through the Arms Dealer, This is a minigun that can shred opponents in moments! With an astonishingly high fire rate, this gun is a must-pick for boss fights. Although it only has low base damage, it makes up for its bullets per minute!
Boomstick
You’re bound to run into some chests as you clear through the jungle. But if you’re lucky, you might come across the Boomstick! This weapon is a typical shotgun that provides great burst damage. Firing this item grants you three to four bullets per one ammo. This gun is perfect for boss fights that have large enemies to hit!
Phoenix Blaster
Once you have reached the Underworld, you may need to mine some Hellstone. But what should you use it for? Well, if you have a Handgun lying around, you can craft the Phoenix Blaster! This weapon is craftable with the Handgun and 10 Hellstone bars. One of the best weapons to face the Wall of Flesh, it’s a smart investment to craft this gun!
Hardmode Ranged Weapons
You’ve now unlocked Hardmode! And that means stronger opponents and stronger weapons! This mode is a challenge for players as most of the items listed need decent farming. But that’s a worthy investment as this will be the key to defeating later bosses. Wielding these weapons is a sign of power and dedication, so gear up and take on the world!
Hardmode Repeaters and Bows
Repeaters are Hardmode weapons that shoot arrows in an auto-fire style, unlike bows. These are usually made through ores you can mine, and it can affect the damage it outputs. Several of these Repeaters are the same with damage differences, but the best have tricks up their sleeve.
Titanium Repeater
The Titanium Repeater is the strongest of all of the Hardmode ore Repeaters. This item has the highest base damage out of its ore counterparts. This weapon is the best Repeater you can get without defeating a mechanical boss. Farming for this item will bring you awesome firepower for your upcoming battles!
Hallowed Repeater
A weapon that is craftable after defeating one of the mechanical bosses, this is one of the better Repeaters in the game. This item is the strongest in terms of stats compared to its counterparts. Wielding this weapon is a sign of progress, as it can carry you through the early parts of Hardmode.
Chlorophyte Shotbow
As an alternative to the previous item, the Chlorophyte Shotbow is a certain pick. This item trades some stats for a unique mechanic. This Repeater will shoot multiple arrows on a cone, costing only one ammunition! This weapon is effective on many enemies or bosses like The Destroyer. Be sure to consider this item when choosing a Repeater!
Repeaters are nice, but an old fashion Bow can do the job too! Compared to its Pre-Hardmode counterparts, each bow has quirks that distinguish it from the others. This guide will show you the best of all the available Bows in Hardmode!
Daedalus Stormbow
One of Terraria’s staple Hardmode Bows, the Daedalus Stormbow is a force to be reckoned with! Obtainable through Hallowed Mimics, this isn’t an item that you can be obtain easily. This item has a unique mechanic that allows you to rain down arrows from the sky. The neat part of this weapon is that it only costs one arrow for every three fired, with a 33% chance of spawning an extra arrow. This Bow is one of the weapons that are effective throughout your Hardmode journey.
Pulse Bow
After defeating Plantera, you have the option to buy the Pulse Bow for 45 Gold
Through the Travelling Merchant. The weapon converts the arrows it shoots into pulse beams while retaining all effects from arrows of your choice. This Bow is one of the better Bows in the game as it can pierce up to six targets. This item’s mechanic is that it can bounce from surfaces, making it effective in tight spaces.
Tsunami
A random drop from Duke Fishron can score you the Tsunami! This item is a great addition as it has one of the better mechanics for a Bow. This weapon auto-fires five grouped arrows for each shot, costing only one arrow in your inventory! Unlike the Chlorophyte Shotbow, this Bow will not spread its arrows and will keep parallel to each other until it hits a target.
Aerial Bane
Challenging the Old One’s Army is difficult, but the drops are worth the effort of fighting! One of the drops you may get when defeating Betsy is the Aerial Bane. This Bow is unique as it shoots six arrows like an aerial missile strike. Once it contacts an enemy, it will split into five additional arrows in a 90-degree spread. Each initial arrow that hits will have this effect, but it won’t repeat the mechanic after the arrow spreads. In addition to this powerful weapon’s stats, it will damage airborne enemies by an additional 50%.
Phantasm
The endgame calls for powerful weapons, and the Phantasm answers this call! The final craftable Bow in the game, this item does not disappoint. Like the Chlorophyte Shotbow, it auto-fires four arrows grouped loosely in varying velocities. This bow is powerful because it has a 66% chance of not consuming any ammunition. In addition, auto-firing this weapon will gradually increase the fire rate. One of the mechanics of this item is that it’ll spawn three magical arrows with every arrow that hits. These magical arrows will home onto the target hit, dealing 30% of the original arrow’s damage.
Hardmode Guns
Now that the arrow-based weapons are discussed let’s put the bullet-spewing guns in the spotlight! An effective alternative to Bows and Repeaters, these weapons don’t shy of dealing damage to their targets. Expect to eradicate your foes with the best that Hardmode can offer!
Onyx Blaster
With the power of Dark Shards and Souls of Night, the Onyx Blaster is the apex of early Hardmode weapons. Capable of carrying you through multiple bosses before being overshadowed by better items, this shotgun’s the real deal! Able to shoot four pellets of ammunition with a single bullet is great, but that isn’t why this weapon’s a beast. The core mechanic of this weapon is that it shoots a black bolt of dark energy. This projectile deals explosive damage upon contact, which means huge damage. The best part of this item is that you can craft it without defeating any mechanical bosses!
Megashark
Do you have your Minishark lying around? Then it’s high time to upgrade! The Megashark is the big brother of its Pre-Hardmode counterpart. With better stats and a great fire rate, it’s sure to shred health bars! With just a few items to craft this weapon, it’s a no-brainer to pick this. It’s also an effective gun to wield for a good chunk of Hardmode!
Uzi
A high-velocity monster, the Uzi is one of the better weapons Hardmode offers! A great item to decimate your foes, this is a great alternative to the Megashark in terms of utility. However, the downside to this weapon is the rarity of its drop. Only obtainable through Angry Trappers with a 1% chance, you may need to farm it for quite a while. But if you manage to obtain one, you won’t be disappointed!
Sniper Rifle
With the highest base damage of all weapons in Terraria, it wouldn’t be a mistake to wield the Sniper Rifle! Obtainable through Skeleton Snipers in the Dungeon, farming this item is required. This weapon may not have auto-fire, but it makes up for its high-velocity and high-damage bullets. This item also can zoom, similar to the Binoculars and Rifle Scope. Adding this to your arsenal to defeat bosses is a must!
Vortex Beater
The apex of craftable guns, the Vortex Beater powers through enemies in a heartbeat! A post- Lunatic Cultist gun, This is one of the best weapons to face the Moon Lord. Craftable with Vortex Fragments from the Vortex Pillar, it’s not an easy task to create this item. It wouldn’t be one of the best if not for its features! Apart from its great base damage, the rifle has a 66.67% chance of not consuming ammunition. Another major ability this gun has is it shoots explosive rockets every half second. Partnered with ammunition of your choice, expect to shred health bars!
S.M.D.G.
The endgame of Terraria guns, The S.M.D.G., is the height of your journey as a ranged character! Dropped by the Moon Lord with an 11.11% chance, you may need to defeat the boss multiple times to achieve this weapon. Managing to obtain this item is no short of being awesome! Considered an upgrade from the Megashark, this gun has a trick up its sleeve. With a 50% chance of not consuming ammunition, raining bullets is easier than ever! Shredding enemies is considerably faster as it has greater damage than its rifle counterparts. Truly one of the best guns to grace the game!
Conclusion
Terraria has a wide variety of weapons for any playstyle you want to pursue. These weapons are the best in what they do and for whatever you want to achieve. Always remember that any item you use depends on how you use it and the tactics you apply when fighting. No matter how strong your weapon is, it will lead to your downfall without proper strategies. But it won’t hurt to want the best of the best for your playthrough!
Now that you know what to look for, jump in and explore the world! These items won’t find themselves!
