just beat plantera and the golem, best things I can get right now? have the hatchet

Recently I've started to play with two of my buddies. One of them is a ranger guy, the second one is a mage. I am the melee character. We're post-plantera at the moment. But, durning all the bossfights I just feel useless. I have to fly to the boss risking my health, and the damage is just plain worthless compared to the DPS they can do. I just feel worthless and not needed at bossfights. Are there any ways I can improve my build/playstyle?

EDIT: My build:

-Full Hallowed set with Mask

-Main weapon: Superior Cutlass

Accessories: Lightning Boots, Obsidian Shield, Armored Jetpack, Rash Fire Gauntlet, Rash Cloud in a Bottle

So im doing a master mode playthrough with the melee class. I just managed to defeat the mechs with a scuffed combo of yoyo and an ice sickle. What is a good strat and setup for melee when fighting plantera? I cant imagine yoyos working super well (and yoyos are boring lol)

Analysis of Post-Plantera Melee Weapons

Out of personal interest and as a result of seeing, in various places, ambiguity concerning the “best” weapons in the game, I decided to do a little bit of DPS testing with all available weapons of the post-Plantera game. This is the log of melee weapons.

Note that this does not include post-Moonlord weapons, as these are effectively "post-game" and constitute a significant power spike over the weapons discussed here.

For the sake of controlling extrinsic factors that might influence the weapons’ DPS:

• All weapons were tested under conditions of adjacent, 5, 10, 15, and 20 tiles of range from a single target dummy surrounded by wood platforms.

• The mouse cursor was placed on the central “button” of the target dummy’s chest.

• Each weapon was used continuously for 60 seconds with a DPS Meter active in the inventory.

• No buffs were active.

• No affixes (modifiers) were present on any weapon.

• The test character bore only cosmetic equipment.

• No enemies nearby were in a position allowing them to be struck by rebound/spread/etc.

Test Results

Each weapon entry below includes the weapon’s tooltip stats, raw DPS listed by the meter at adjacency, 5, 10, 15, and 20 blocks’ distance, and a brief qualitative analysis.

DMG = Damage C% = Critical Hit Chance US = Use Speed (1/60s) DPS listed as (Adj)/5/10/15/20

Terra Blade

DMG 95/C% 4/US 15

DPS: 376/238/233/241/235

Not strictly a post-Plantera weapon as the Broken Hero Swords required are available from any Solar Eclipse, but the damage/quality of the weapon is roughly comparable to a Plantera-quality melee weapon. The projectile does blade damage and pierces, but does not pass solid blocks and is quite slow-moving. If you already possess the components then this can be a reasonable tool, but it is quickly outstripped by other weapons.

Seedler

DMG 50/C% 4/US 22

DPS: 794/420/412/433/240

Plantera-dropped sword. Low tooltip damage belies the wonderful power of the seed projectile it lobs, which explodes into a spray of fragments capable of multi-hitting the primary target. Damage consistency falls off significantly after 18-19 blocks as the seeds have a finite travel range and will often explode before being close enough to the target to hit consistently. Surprisingly poor crowd-killing weapon as the seed fragments do not pierce.

Flower Pow

DMG 65/C% 4/US 39

DPS: 195/inconclusive (sub-100/inconsistent)

Plantera-dropped flail. Very low speed and piercing property make this a poor weapon for consistent DPS. While active, the head fires flower petals at nearby enemies for 60-90DPS (as ranged damage, oddly). Head is influenced severely by gravity, making it difficult to aim at best. Flairon

DMG 66/C% 4/US 20

DPS: 413/550/407/376/236

Duke Fishron-dropped flail. As with most flails (rebounding on first contact), attack speed scales up with proximity to the target. When fired at a distance of >4 blocks the flail chain spawns floating bubbles that move in the direction of the attack or home in on nearby enemies. Without the homing effect, DPS at exactly 4 blocks peaks around 700 because ~90% of the spawned bubbles hit and many are spawned due to the high attack speed at this distance, however at longer ranges the live DPS should be at least 550-625 due to the quantity of bubbles produced by 60-70% chain extension. Pierces if adjacent, chain does some damage and bubbles still spawn.

The Horseman’s Blade

DMG 75/C% 4/US 25

DPS: 176/none (just the tip can hit at 4.8 blocks and is identical to adjacency, no direct projectile).

Pumpking-dropped sword. Does terrible DPS on a target dummy because of slow speed/lack of natural projectile. When striking a live enemy, summons pumpkins from offscreen that track enemies and explode for slightly above blade damage. Striking many enemies or many parts of an enemy simultaneously results in a swarm of pumpkins and very high damage-per-swing, but the short range of the sword strongly limits its usefulness.

Christmas Tree Sword

DMG 86/C% 4/US 22

DPS: 432/same (sword still hits)/217/220/214

Everscream-dropped sword. No autoswing, so this is a massive pain in the ass to use, but the damage is respectable. The range of the sword itself makes it quite effective within five blocks. Every swing fires a glass Christmas tree bulb that deals blade damage that travels ~20 blocks before experiencing severe gravity and approaching a vertical fall over roughly 10 blocks.

North Pole

DMG 73/C% 4/US 24

DPS: 157/380/283/366/273

Ice Queen-dropped spear. No autoswing (please donate to my carpal tunnel surgery fund). Fires a piercing, icy projectile at the end of the outbound swing; the projectile drops a continuous trail of damaging snowflakes and all parts of the projectile appear to do something like 5/7 blade damage. Stacking the projectile/snowflakes above a target results in loads of multi-hit and very high DPS, but can be very difficult to accomplish. Great for groups; easily achieves ~2k DPS on three targets with the aforementioned close-stacking.

Psycho Knife

DMG 70 (280*)/C% 4(34*)/US 19

• Marked values are in stealth, see assessment.

DPS: 217/none (range)

Psycho-dropped knife. When standing still with this weapon active, the player enters a “stealth” buff over 1.5s, increasing damage by 300%, critical hit chance by 30%, and knockback by 100%. This buff is lost upon a successful attack or suffering damage. Decent if you want to one-shot a single enemy periodically, but otherwise an unremarkable weapon with very limited range.

Butcher’s Chainsaw

DMG 120/C% 4/US 24

DPS: 717/none (range)

Butcher-dropped chainsaw, also functions as an actual chainsaw tool. Upon striking an enemy, a conical shower of sparks emits from the side opposite the hit, dealing roughly 50% blade damage as magic damage. Extremely high DPS, scales very well with affixes, and superb for crowd-killing due to the sparks. Limited by very short range.

The Eye of Cthulhu

DMG 115/C% 4/US 24

DPS: 731/same at all ranges

Mothron-dropped yoyo with infinite flight time. Like all yoyos, has extremely high DPS but is limited by slow movement and pinpoint area-of-effect. Benefits hugely from the yoyo bag accessory. Generally no different than preceding yoyos, though it lacks any native status effects.

Vampire Knives

DMG 29/C% 4/US 16

DPS: 607/402/373/253/233

Crimson biome chest-looted multi-throwing knives. Throws 4-8 knives in a 45 degree cone, provides 7.5% lifesteal. Strong self-sustain item for melee players, but the low damage-per-hit some form of armor piercing on many enemies by the time this weapon is acquired, and its single-target damage is mediocre at range save on very large/multipart enemies.

Scourge of the Corruptor

DMG 64/C% 4/US 20

DPS: 193/same (infinite range, no gravity)

Corruption biome chest-looted javelin. Throws a single javelin for weapon damage that spawns 2-4 small, rebounding projectiles on enemy/block impact. The smaller projectiles persist for five rebounds and home in on nearby enemies, dealing ~50% weapon damage. Very strong live combat weapon, but poor target dummy DPS due to secondary projectiles not interacting with dummies in any way.

Keybrand

DMG 70/C% 17/US 19

DPS: 227/none (range)

Armored Bones-dropped sword. Significantly higher critical hit chance than most weapons, but otherwise unremarkable. Unsure if more or less weeaboo than the katana.

Paladin’s Hammer

DMG 90/C% 4/US 14

DPS: 335/same (up to 19 blocks)

Paladin-dropped boomerang. Strong base damage, great use speed, piercing, high projectile velocity, and extreme knockback. Very efficient way to deal with linearly-arranged groups of enemies, good for multi-segmented or large enemies. Single-target damage is limited by the high projectile velocity, which makes hitting more than twice per throw difficult. Range is also exceptionally short for a thrown weapon.

Golem Fist

DMG 76/C% 4/US 24

DPS: 157/473/355/263/208

Golem-dropped flail. Decent base damage, like most flails attack speed scales up with proximity to enemy. Pierces enemy if adjacent, but chain does not deal damage. No special effects, but has extremely strong knockback.

Possessed Hatchet

DMG 80/C% 4/US 13

DPS: 346/same (up to 25 blocks)

Golem-dropped boomerang. Throws multiple projectiles if first does not return quickly, homes in on nearby enemies. Consistent DPS, relatively short range, but very reliable because of the homing effect and has respectable base damage.

Influx Waver

DMG 110/C% 4/US 19

DPS: 399 (625*)/360 (all other ranges)

• Marked value is 3-4 blocks; the Influx Waver projectile spawns slightly beyond the tip of the sword, making this the optimal DPS range as both the blade and projectile hit with use time. Martian Saucer-dropped sword. Essentially the Terra Blade with significantly better damage potential, this sword’s projectile does not pierce. Upon striking an enemy, the projectile will vanish and reappear to strike up to two other nearby enemies per swing; if no other enemies are present the projectile strikes the primary target until three strikes or death can be achieved.

Daybreak

DMG 150/C% 4/US 15

DPS: 583/same

Solar Fragment-crafted javelin. Very high base damage and good range, but affected by gravity. Applies a 25 damage-per-second DoT that stacks up to eight times for 200 DPS. Does not pierce, but the DoT can be applied to multiple enemies simultaneously.

Solar Eruption

DMG 105/C% 4/US 19

DPS: 1596/1367/1293/1058/913

Solar Fragment-crafted “flail.” Good base damage, pierces, and penetrates solid blocks, but the tip has no hitbox. Each segment of the flail from the handle to just before the tip appears to be a separate hitbox and causes damage; the first few hits also cause a small explosion. Hits or explosions apply a 25 DPS DoT to struck enemies, though this DoT does not stack. Scales extremely well with proximity to targets due to more segments being able to hit.

Conclusions and Tier-list

The post-Plantera segment of Terraria is what many would probably agree is “endgame.” In preparation for the Lunar sequence and the final battle with the Moon Lord himself, a good deal of consideration must be given to the various available weapons for a melee player. As this testing has demonstrated, there are quite a few melee weapons that are, essentially, objectively superior to others even when all weapons considered are intended to be of roughly comparable quality, and if one is interested in the notion of optimizing one’s own gameplay to account for this fact, then data such as this can be quite useful.

I have personally used all of the tested weapons in live play throughout the post-Plantera segment of the game on both Normal and Expert worlds. Coupling the data from this testing with my subjective experience, I have produced a sort of tier-list of my personal ratings for the weapons. Hopefully this will be helpful; if not, well, I enjoyed composing it. The list is composed in descending order; the tier names are irrelevant and may or may not reflect some of my taste in media.

Keep in mind that this tier-list is in no way definitive or, in fact, even remotely separate from my personal preferences. Just because I don't like Mark Wahlberg (or the Terra Blade) does not mean that you will not. :)

Cloud Atlas-tier (Use these)!

Solar Eruption, Possessed Hatchet, Scourge of the Corruptor

Zhuangzi-tier (These are pretty good too)!

Influx Waver, Paladin’s Hammer, The Eye of Cthulhu

Black Mirror-tier (These are not terrible).

Flairon, Horseman’s Blade, Seedler, Daybreak

I Don’t Like Shit I Don’t Go Outside-tier (Ehhhhh).

Vampire Knives, Butcher’s Chainsaw, North Pole

Dan-tier (Mostly vendor trash).

Flower Pow, Golem Fist, Christmas Tree Sword

Mark Wahlberg-tier (Why is there an achievement for the Terra Blade anymore)?

Psycho Knife, Keybrand, Terra Blade

EDIT: cleanliness, because I copy-pasted from word and the submission pane is so tiny.

I was using titanium and was about to switch to a turtle set, but I have read in some places (including a Happy Days video) that the best option is a hybrid set: chlorophyte mask, turtle scale mail, and hallowed greaves. Thoughts?

Edit: I’m on switch! Should have mentioned that

Update: I wound up going turtle mail and greaves with titanium helmet, my godly yelets with the yo-yo bag honestly chewed up Plantera no problem.