NUMEROUS early Hardmode weapons tested against the Destroyer (2024)

Inspired by two previous posts, I fought the destroyer hundreds of times and recorded my results. There are a few I didn't try due to availability, and a few I may have just not thought of. Doing this I learned that a lot of info on the wiki from pre-1.4.1.2 is outdated.

Done in Journey mode, Godmode off, no enemy spawns and difficulty at 2.0x (expert). No life hearts. Color of weapon name indicates safety.

Buffs for all classes:
Accessories for all classes: Shield of Cthulhu, Fairy Wings, Amphibian Boots
Buffs for all classes: Stoneskin, Regeneration, Wrath, Endurance, Heartreach, Hunter, Plenty Satisfied
Armor: Adamantite, Spider and Obsidian
Arena: Two long rows of platforms, one about 10 blocks off the ground and the other about 40 blocks above that. Flew back and forth, dodging head. Built a similar arena with dirt blocks for some of the Obsidian Armor whip combos, since it blocks lasers and the whips attack through it (though summons can get trapped on one side).

Melee
Accessories: Power Glove, Warrior Emblem, Obsidian Shield
Buffs: Tipsy, Sharpened
1. Drippler Crippler. 30-115 seconds. This weapon had wild variability depending on whether it hit the opening cluster (30 seconds) or never lined up straight (115 seconds).
2. Fetid Baghnakhs. 64 seconds. Very dangerous but rewarding.
3. Ghastly Glaive. 86 seconds. By far the best spear. The piercing 'ghost' hits both the destroyer and probes no matter which you're attacking.
4. Dao of Pow. 123 seconds. Probably the best, safest option for a melee user taking on the Destroyer as their first boss.
5. Sleepy Octopod. 123 seconds. Surprisingly great here. Destroys probes with ease, but getting close to the Destroyer is dangerous.
6. Shadowflame Knife. 125 seconds. Frequently recommended, and it makes sense here. Very safe compared to the other options.
7. Ice sickle. 155 seconds
8. Sergeant United Shield. 159 seconds. Good for its homing ability on both probes and main body.
9. Chain Guillotines. 237 seconds. The lack of pierce hurts it here, but great against probes.
10. Bananarangs. 238 seconds.
11. Obsidian Swordfish. 287 seconds. Its short range and high damage makes it better against probes, which is spear's biggest problem.
12. Amarok. 288 seconds. The only yoyo I tested.
13. Flying Knife. 331 seconds.
14. Frostbrand (using beam). 480 seconds. Very safe, very slow. The sword itself destroys probes.
15. Breaker Blade. 480 seconds. The only sword that I could safely hit both destroyer and probes with.

Not found: Sergeant United Shield, Bananarangs, Beam Sword
Forgot about: Mushroom Spear
Died too many times (>4 times): Excalibur, Brand of the Inferno, Bladetongue, Gungnir, Jousting Lance, Hallowed Jousting Lance (though the lance is very fun to use)

The wiki lists Swords and Spears as the first two options against the Destroyer. I'd love to see someone beat the Destroyer with Excalibur or Gungnir; I'm sure someone's done it but it just doesn't make sense in my head. A video might help me learn how.

Ranged
Accessories: Magic Quiver, Putrid Scent, Ranger Emblem. I just left in the magic quiver for the guns and darts.
Buffs: Archer potion

1. Phantom Phoenix. Unholy arrows: 33-58 seconds. Holy Arrows: 48 seconds. Another very variable weapon depending on if you line up the Phoenix shot or not, which is what's carrying it here. Definitely outperforms the Daedalus.
2. Daedalus Stormbow. Unholy arrows: 60 seconds. Holy arrows: 60 seconds. The classic way to destroy the destroyer quickly.
3. Dart weapons (Dart rifle, cursed: 63 seconds. Dart rifle, crystal: 76 seconds. Dart pistol, ichor: 176 seconds). Shoutout to the crystal darts for releasing essentially every probe at once. I had to use a different arena for the crystal darts so I had a vertical wall to 'bounce' shots off of to reliably hit more probes. Dart rifle with cursed darts is cheaper to get ammo for than Holy arrows for the Daedalus and doesn't require a workbench.
4. Coin Gun, gold coins (about 3.7 platinum used). 77 seconds.
5. Flamethrower. 98 seconds.
6. Adamantite repeater: Unholy arrows: 104 seconds.
7. Shadowflame Bow. 151 seconds. Hard to hit and kill probes with.
8. Onyx Blaster (meteor shot, 171 seconds. explosive bullets, 288 seconds. Crystal bullets called off for being too slow). Meteor shot was recently buffed and was clearly the best bullet out of the three types I tried. The Onyx blast was great against probes.
9. Toxikarp. 270 seconds. Hard to aim.
10. Ice bow. 287 seconds.
11. Shotgun. Meteor shot, 328 seconds.
12. Clockwork assault rifle. Meteor shot, 403 seconds. Crystal bullets, too slow to finish.

Not found: Marrow, Uzi, Gatligator, Toxikarp

I also tried the Hellwing bow, which is recommended on the wiki, and found it terrible.

Magic

Accessories: Mana Cloak, Celestial Cuffs, Sorceror Emblem
Buffs: Mana Regeneration, Mana Power, Clairvoyance

0. Tome of Infinite Wisdom. 13 seconds. And I forgot to give it the damage buffs, so this is missing +30% damage from potions.
1. Crystal Vile Shard. 58 seconds. Wow, this must have gotten a huge buff. Outperforms (or essentially ties) the Fetid Baghnakhs and the Daedalus Stormbow. Great against both destroyer and probes. Who cares about healing if the destroyer dies so fast?
2. Nimbus rod (+3 sanguine bats). 60 seconds. Bats were there to kill probes, probably a bit unfair.
3. Magic harp. 62 seconds.
4. Unholy trident. 72 seconds.
5. Life drain. 77 Seconds. Excellent for killing probes.
6. Rainbow Rod. 85 seconds. Fantastically safe. It's homing, long range, kills many probes at once.
7. Meteor Staff. 103 seconds. Somehow I expected more.
8. Cursed Flame. 107 seconds. Also recently buffed.
9. Spirit Flame. 150 seconds. Really hard to aim without getting close.
10. Magic Dagger. 156 seconds.
11. Laser Rifle. 189 seconds.
12. Crystal storm. 200 seconds. Surprisingly outperforms Golden Shower. Somewhat short range.
13. Shadowflame Hex doll. 204 seconds.
14. Flower of Frost. 206 seconds.
15. Golden Shower. 223 seconds.
16. Crystal Serpent. 232 seconds
17. Sky Fracture. 235 seconds
18. Poison Staff. 240 seconds. Bad at hitting probes, requires dangerous proximity to destroyer.
19. Frost Staff. 278 seconds
20. Ice Rod. 442 seconds. Exceptionally safe; you can fly up to where Destroyer doesn't hit you, make an ice cave and probes won't hit you either. Very weak DPS but might work well with Nimbus rod.

Not found: Medusa Head
Died too many times: Blood Thorn.

Summons
Accessories: Power Glove, Summoner Emblem, Pygmy Necklace
Buffs: Summoning potion, Summoning Table (5 minions for Obsidian armor, 7 for Spider Armor)

Pirate Staff with Durendal and Obsidian armor: 82 seconds, so rare and so not impressive that I didn't try more. Better than Spider if you find it.

All of the whips were slightly variable based on whether I could hit multiple segments of the Destroyer at once.

Optic staff: Outperformed the Sanguine Staff in every single setup, showing that its buffs have helped it significantly for this matchup.

Cool Whip: Never much better than Firecracker, and releases a lot of probes. Not horrible though, and can replace Firecracker if you don't feel like farming Wall of Flesh.

Blade Staff: Shoutout to Blade Staff+Cool Whip basically releasing every probe from the destroyer at once. The Blade Staff was never a great option. It releases tons of probes and is better suited for single target damage.

Obsidian Armor: outperformed Spider armor everywhere except possibly Sanguine Staff with Spinal Tap, where whip damage is the lowest. With good summons and whips it sustains itself with probe hearts, but otherwise gets overwhelmed.

Sanguine Staff: this plus Firecracker outperformed Daedalus Stormbow and tied with Crystal Vile Shard!

Conclusion:

Ranged was the safest, with the Daedalus Stormbow and Dart Rifle being easy to reliably get. The Crystal Vile Shard is just as easy to get but slightly riskier to use.
Melee is very unsafe in general. The Dao of Pow is probably the best craftable weapon with the Shadowflame Knife being the safest farmable weapon.
Magic Weapons are generally pretty similar: Shoot the destroyer from far away. The magic power potion really helps out here.
Summoning is exciting and fun, with the most variety and some of the best risk/reward ratios, especially with Obsidian Armor.

The tiers of items are generally Ice Weapons < Craftable Pre-mech items < Craftable post-mech items < Biome Mimic items < Old One's Army weapons, with some notable exceptions such as the Dao of Pow.

I did most of the math for times in my head, so I'm sure there are errors. If anything seems really off, let me know and I can try again!