Daedalus Stormbow
This bow is an hardmode whose special power is to make arrows fall from the sky. Each shot with this bow makes 3 arrows fall from the sky (but 1 less when you use some arrows such as Holy Arrows, Unholy Arrows, Jester’s Arrows or Hellfire Arrows) while consuming only 1 arrow in the inventory. The arrows fall in an area around the cursor. Please note you can’t pick up arrows fallen from the sky.
The closer the cursor is to the bottom of the screen, the more accurate are the arrows falling from the sky. Inversely, the arrows are not accurate if the cursor is near the top of the screen. This lack of accuracy is not a drawback because you can use it to make arrows fall in a wide area to hit multiple enemies, for example during an event.
This bow is especially good in open areas because there are no obstacles to prevent the arrows from touching the enemies. It’s much more limited in closer areas, for example in Caverns. It makes this bow a good bow against bosses such as The Twins or The Destroyer for example.
This bow combines well with Holy Arrows because each arrow will summon 2 stars. That’s what makes it so powerful against bosses. Another nice combination is with the Chlorophyte Arrows because the arrows that doesn’t touch any enemy will bounce on the ground. Also, you can shoot anywhere on the screen from a safe area with this bow. It makes it powerful even in end-game.
The base damage of this bow is 38 and it has a very small knockback and 4% critical chance.
This bow is probably the best you can get pre-Plantera.
How to get this bow
This bow has a 25% chance to be dropped on Hallowed Mimics. These are enemies spawning in the Hallow Underground looking like chests. They are quite rare so there is another way to find them instead of just wander in the Hallow Underground.
You can craft a Key of Light and place it in any slot of a chest to transform it into a Hallowed Mimic. The Key of Light can be crafted using 15 Souls of Light at a Work Bench. This technique is the best because it allows you to fight the Hallowed Mimic anywhere you want.
As the Hallowed Mimic is a powerful enemy, it’s better to prepare an arena before fighting him. That’s why the best way to farm them is to build an arena somewhere, farm Souls of Light, and summon Hallowed Mimics in your arena using Keys of Light.
After have killed some Hallowed Mimics, you should have gotten the Daedalus Stormbow. Eventually you should have gotten some other useful items such as the Illuminant Hook or the Flying Knife.
Eventide
Thanks to the recent update introducing the Empress of Light, there is a new powerful bow in the game: the Eventide.
This bow fires 5 arrows at the same time. It has a special behavior because it won’t do the same things if you use Wooden Arrows or any other type of arrows. With Wooden Arrows, it transforms them into rainbow-colored Twilight Lance projectiles with one of them dealing double damage. With other arrows, it transforms one of them into a Twilight Lance dealing double damage.
The arrows or lances are aimed at the cursor, and the lances can pierce up to 4 enemies. If the cursor is near from the player, the projectiles fired will spread as if you were shooting with a shotgun. If the cursor is far away from the player, the projectiles will be more accurate. This behavior is similar to the one of the Daedalus Bow.
The lances fired with this bow travel at a quicker rate than regular arrows. This bow deals 4 base damage. It has a weak knockback and a 4% chance to crit.
How to get it
You can drop this bow on the Empress of Light with a 25% chance.
The Empress of Light is a hardmode post-Plantera boss fought in the Hallow. This boss is particularly difficult compared to others harmdode bosses. And as it’s not required to defeat her for the game progression, it can be better to fight after with post-Golem equipment.
To summon the Empress of Light, you have to kill a Prismatic Lacewing. It’s a rare critter spawning in the Hallow. If you have difficulties find it, you can equip a Lifeform Analyzer or any of its upgrades. Although this critter only spawns in the Hallow and will disappear quickly when leaving this biome, you can catch it using a Bug Net, then release it and kill it anywhere, allowing you to fight the Empress of Light anywhere you want.
The Empress of Light becomes enraged if you fight her while the day. When she’s enraged, any of her attacks will one shot you. So if you just want to get the Eventide, it’s better to fight her at night. (fighting her during the day is only useful if you want to get the Terraprisma).
Tsunami
Duke Fishron is an optional hardmode boss. But it can be worth fighting if you want some powerful drops such as the Tsunami.
The Tsunami is a bow shooting fire grouped arrows at the same time, while consuming only one arrow in your inventory. The arrows are totally parallel and don’t spread with the distance (it’s not the same for the Chlorophyte Shotbow for example).
This bow is especially powerful on big enemies such as bosses because if the 5 arrows hit the same enemy, it’s easy to do something like 300 damage depending on the arrows you use. Also, if you want the 5 arrows to hit the same target, don’t use piercing arrows because they will grant an invincibility frame to your target, preventing all your arrows from dealing damage.
The Tsunami combines well with Holy Arrows because it can make a big amount of star projectiles falling on enemy, doing even more damage than the damage of the 5 arrows. It also combines well with Ichor Arrows because the first arrow will inflict the Ichor debuff, decreasing defense and the other arrows will hit your enemy whose defense is reduced, dealing more damage.
It has a base damage of 53. It has a very weak knockback and a 4% critical chance. This bow has a fast use time, allowing you to have a really high DPS (Damage Per Second).
How to get it
You can from this bow from Duke Fishron with a 20% chance.
Duke Fishron is a boss you can fight as soon as you enter hardmode. But he can be extremely difficult to defeat in early-hardmode, especially if you’re playing Expert or Master mode, so usually he’s fought after Golem has been defeated.
You can summon it by fishing in the Ocean using a Truffle Worm as a bait. The Truffle Worm is a rare critter found in the Underground Glowing Mushroom biome during hardmode. He can be detected using the Lifeform Analyzer or any of its upgrades. If you have a hard time finding Truffle Worms and catching them, you can build a Truffle Worm and Glowing Mushrooms farm.
If you want to avoid additional difficulties while fighting this boss, stay close to the Ocean. Indeed, if you’re at least at 400 tiles from the Ocean, Duke Fishron will become enraged, gaining speed, chasing you and dealing double damage.
Phantasm
The Phantasm is the last bow you can get in the game, so we were obliged to add it to this list.
It shoots 4 arrows at the same time and each arrow hitting an enemy will cause 3 magical arrows to fire and home in the enemy who was hit. This bow can auto-fire, meaning you can press the “Attack” button and the bow will fire until you unleash the button. If you constantly shoot with the Phantasm, its fire rate will increase, but switching to another weapon or using another item will reset this bonus.
Like the Tsunami, it’s better not to use piercing arrows with this bow if you want to hit a single target because it will give enemies an invincibility frame, preventing them from being hit by all the arrows. It also combines well with the same arrows as these well combining with the Tsunami, like Holy Arrows or Ichor Arrows.
The Phantasm deals a 50 base damage. It has a very weak knockback and a 4% critical chance. It also has a 66% chance to not consume any ammunition on use. This bonus stacks with other bonues reducing ammo consumption.
How to get it
You can get the Phantasm in end-game, after defeating the Lunatic Cultist. To fight him, just go at the Dungeon after having defeating the Golem and kill the Cultists.
Once the Lunatic Cultist is defeated, Lunar Events will begin and it will make some pillars spawn in your world. One of them is the Vortex Pillar. After you have killed a lot of Vortex enemies, the pillar will become vulnerable, and defeating it will give you some Vortex Fragments.
You need 18 Vortex Fragments to craft the Phantasm. You can craft it at an Ancient Manipulator.
Pulse Bow
Maybe you wasn’t expecting this bow, but it’s also a very powerful one. It fires a kind of high velocity laser bouncing everywhere, unaffected by gravity and piercing enemies. It makes this bow very powerful in confined spaces.
You can use special arrows with this bow, but they will be converted to a blue laser and their special effects will be canceled, it will only keep the base damage.
This bow deals 85 base damage. It has a very weak knockback and a 11% critical chance as opposed to the 4% we find for the other bows.
How to get it
You can get the Pulse Bow after defeating Plantera. You just have to wait for the Travelling Merchant to come to your world and with some luck you can buy him this bow for 45 Gold Coins.
(bonus) The best bow for pre-hardmode
Do you want to defeat the Wall of Flesh using the ranged class? If yes, you can use the Molten Fury.
It’s a bow transforming Wooden Arrows into arrows inflicting the On Fire! debuff to enemies on hit. This debuff ignites enemies, making them loose 1 health point at a rather fast frequency. These transformed arrows are the same as Flaming Arrows.
It deals a 31 base damage and has a very weak knockback. It has a 4% critical chance, like the other bows.
How to get it
After defeating The Eater of Worlds or The Brain of Cthulhu, you unlock a pickaxe to mine Hellstone and Obsidian, unlocking you Hellstone Bars. Using 15 Hellstone Bars at an anvil, you can craft the Molten Fury.
For more guides or tutorials, be sure to see our other articles as THE BEST STARTER HOUSE IN TERRARIA or TERRARIA’S BEST PRE-HARDMODE ACCESSORIES FOR EACH CLASS (NON MASTER MODE).
