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So, you want to play as the mage class. What do you do? Well, there are four locations you can travel to to start gearing up. There's the underground caves, desert, tundra, or jungle. Each with its own pros and cons. Welcome to
Comprehensive mage class guide in Terraria covering biomes, weapons, armor, gem staves, and strategies for optimal mage gameplay.
Key Takeaways
- The mage class benefits greatly from understanding biome-specific advantages for gearing up.
- Gem staves and robes offer unique abilities that can be combined strategically for different combat scenarios.
- Amethyst robe with diamond staff is the strongest general-purpose combo, but other setups excel situationally.
- Crafting and equipping gem robes increases rare enemy spawn chances, aiding in completing mage sets.
- Early game mage weapons like the wand of frosting and daybloom staff provide solid starting points.
What the video covers
- Introduction to mage class starting locations: underground caves, desert, tundra, and jungle with pros and cons for each biome.
- Early game mage weapons include the wand of sparking and daybloom staff, with tips on upgrading to the wand of frosting.
- Detailed explanation of updated gem staves and robes, their unique abilities, and how to mix and match for different effects.
- Testing of gem, robe, and staff combinations against King Slime to determine strongest setups, highlighting amethyst robe with diamond staff.
- Crafting gem robes requires gems and a loom, with advice on farming gems and the importance of equipping robes to increase rare enemy spawn rates.
- Discussion of situational effectiveness of different gem staves such as amber for enclosed spaces and amethyst for homing projectiles.
- Recommendations for mage gear progression including accessories like the band of star regeneration and strategies for boss fights.
- Tips on farming and crafting key mage items, including the wizard hat from the rare Tim enemy and mining strategies.
- Advice on mana regeneration and survivability enhancements for mage players.
- Overall encouragement and strategies to optimize mage gameplay, emphasizing versatility and damage potential.
Chapters
- 00:00Introduction and Starting Locations for Mage Class
- 03:36Gem Staves and Robes: Abilities and Combinations
- 07:14Testing Gem, Robe, and Staff Combos Against King Slime
- 10:43Advanced Mage Gear and Boss Fight Strategies
- 14:22Crafting Gem Robes and Farming Gems
- 17:59Mana Regeneration and Accessory Recommendations
- 21:59Tips for Rare Enemy Farming and Completing Mage Set
- 25:49Summary and Final Mage Gameplay Tips
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
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the ultimate guide for the mage class. I am perhaps the biggest fan of mage and Terraria YouTube. And my goal with this video is to teach you many of the different strategies you can use as a mage, giving you tips on weapons, armor,
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and accessories, and convince you that mage is in fact the best class. We'll start with those four biomes you can start in. Let's weigh the pros and cons.
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But first, make sure your world is a medium or large one. I'll explain why later. Before you go anywhere, you can start by searching the surface to see if you find a wand of sparking in a wooden chest. These can be really hit or miss,
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so don't worry too much if you can't find one. It's a decent starting weapon if you really want to only use mage weapons, but generally it's a fine weapon to skip if you can't find it in one of the first chests you come across.
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If you do find one, though, you will want to go to the tundra at some point, mine some ice to craft ice torches, and turn it into a wand of frosting. The damage increase looks small, but the debuff it inflicts is
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also much stronger than the wand of sparking's, making the difference much more noticeable and worthwhile. While doing your quick search with the wand of sparking, you can also collect daybloom and gel. With three daybloom, five gel, and 12 wood, you can make the newly
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introduced daybloom staff. This weapon shoots four short-range non-piercing projectiles. This weapon is arguably better than the wand of sparking purely because the four projectiles do a good job of keeping enemies off of you.
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However, I find the wand of sparking and frosting's pierce and debuff make it a better weapon regarding damage. It'll just have a harder time keeping the enemies off of you. Those two are your best bets for an early game mage weapon
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and will suit you well as you move underground. The regular caves are going to be your best bet as a newer player.
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They are the safest and contain lots of good starting equipment. As a mage, you're going to be looking for gems and ores. The first thing I should mention is that they literally just updated the gem staves you'll be farming for down
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here. And after testing them, these are my findings. Although new medicine tricks are likely to be discovered over time, and many people have various different opinions on them. Now, prepare yourself. There's a lot to get into with these things. The first thing to know is
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that each gem type has its own unique ability, both staves and robes, and you can mix and match robes and staff combos for various effects. The amethyst gem ability grants homing.
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Topaz grants a small explosion, though the explosion itself does not deal super high damage. Sapphire splits the projectile into two spinning ones, each of those dealing 60% of the weapon's base damage. And since both of them are pretty close together, they will likely
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hit the same target. So you can usually understand this gem type as dealing about 120% of the staff's base damage.
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But of course, if only one of the two projectiles hit the target, then you're just losing out on damage. Ruby shoots two projectiles for the cost of one, effectively doubling your attack speed.
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Emerald increases the speed of your projectile and causes those projectiles to stick to blocks where they can linger for some time. Amber causes the projectile to bounce, and diamond makes the projectile hitbox larger. Emerald and diamond will allow your staff to
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pierce once and amber will allow it to pierce twice. So, if that's what all the gems do, then what works best? Well, it depends a bit on the situation. In general, amber will work best underground or in enclosed bases because
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it deals much more damage when it has the chance to bounce back. Emerald can be similar with the lingering projectiles having the potential to stack extra damage, but it's not nearly as important to be underground with emerald than it is with amber. Amethyst
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will be one of the most useful for running and gunning because its homing effect and guaranteed damage is always going to be quite powerful. Topaz will excel against crowds or worms with its explosions, but since it doesn't go
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through walls, it's not nearly as helpful as it would seem. One thing to also note is that for all the staffs and robes, the staff gains a flat four damage boost when you're wearing robes of the same kind. But those are
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all just generalities that I mentioned. So, let's get into a few specifics. I tested every single gem, robe, and staff combination against King Slime for some more of these slightly more specific recommendations. Remember, there are so many different use cases for these
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weapons that you can find different combos that might be more effective for certain things, but I use King Slime as a benchmark because it offered me an opportunity to test the gems against a single target as well as against crowds
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to hopefully get a more well-rounded view. The absolute strongest combination that I found was the amethyst robe with a diamond staff. Overall, the diamond staff with just about any of the robes tends to deal the most damage. After
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all, the diamond staff has the highest base damage to start with. The emerald and topaz robes combined with the diamond staff also have the potential of being as strong as the amethyst one. But with the homing, amethyst tends to be the
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most consistent. But of course, the issue with the diamond staff is that it requires platinum. And since you can't shimmer gold into platinum, you might be forced to fish or extract platinum.
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And since not everybody wants to do that, here's some other fantastic setups. In general, the amber staff with any robe has high damage potential, but it requires that you strongly play to its bouncing ability, making it mostly effective in enclosed spaces. Apart from
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that, the emerald staff with either amethyst or emerald robes tends to be pretty strong, and a lot of people claim the amethyst and emerald staff combo is the strongest, although that's not what I found in my testing, but it could be
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dependent on the situation. The best thing about the combination is that because the emerald staff sticks to blocks, unlike other staves, if the homing happens to hit a block before the target, this one will actually come back and is just about guaranteed damage. A
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few honorable mentions include the sapphire robe with amber staff, which can do quite well against crowds underground. The sapphire robe also worked well with the emerald staff and the amethyst robe with amber staff.
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Those are some of my findings. And of course, once again, there are a lot of variables that can account for varying performances with these. Hopefully, these recommendations and pointers at least give you a solid starting point to build out what works best for you. Let's
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get into a little bit of the nitty-gritty. We talked about all these gem robes, but how do you craft them?
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They require gems, of course, but you also need to make a robe using a loom.
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Looms can be found in treasure rooms or crafted using a sawmill that itself can be crafted at a workbench using wood, iron, or lead bars and chains. While collecting gems, I'd collect any that you see. Drinking a spelunker potion or
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two while searching for gems can be a massive boost, especially while riding a minecart track. Gem caves in particular are something to keep an eye out for. If you're deciding between a robe and a gem staff, I would recommend making the robe
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first because once you have one equipped, the very rare Tim enemy has a five times greater chance of spawning while that robe is equipped. You'll want to be sure to kill a Tim for his wizard hat to complete your mage set. One final
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thing to note is that the gem rarity is not affected by depth, which on the br
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the desert, which is one of the other biomes that you could go to first as a mage. This is a more niche choice that most mage players won't make and as of the update isn't nearly as worthwhile as
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it once was. Newer players will likely struggle, but there are a few things that are actually worth getting down here. First thing to know is that there is only one gem type that you can actually find in the desert. amber. And
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with it being one of the highest tier gems, it's nice finding it abundantly and easily down here. The amber gem power, as we talked about earlier, makes your gem stap projectile bounce, which can be very helpful in caves and has a
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great damage potential against bosses, but won't wow you nearly as much in open spaces. If you're struggling to collect amber, you can also seek out an extrainator in the desert and throw the plentiful desert fossils into it for
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more amber. On top of those benefits, in the lower section of the desert in or near the lavalier, you'll find a fairly strong singlet target mage weapon, the Thunder Zapper. Ever since the update, this weapon will struggle to compete
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against the diamond and amber staff in particular, but can still find a leg up over many of the gem robe and staff combos as a singlet target weapon, particularly if you use the mystic Groes or magic hat for their higher damage
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boost. The issue is that the enemies down here can be quite difficult to deal with early game. So long as worms don't spawn, though, you can make safe tunnels for yourself to explore in. There are also cactus boulders everywhere that
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you'll need to be careful of. So, be sure to bring at least one ranged weapon to set off the boulders from a distance.
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If you're trying to find a thunder zapper, but find yourself dying frequently to the enemies down here, you might just be better off searching the savor caves where you can likely find gems to make better weapons. Anyways, I
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would recommend eventually coming back to the desert to find a thunder zapper before hard mode, but it's not the end of the world if you don't. One other downside is that you won't find a double jump in the underground desert, but you
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can find a few other very helpful items such as bass statues to increase your defense, the conch, ancient chisel, and perhaps even dig toys. Then there's the tundra. A bit more of a niche choice if you ask me for a mage, but there are
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some uh benefits to coming here. Unlike the desert, there is a very good double jump down here, as well as fast boots.
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Unlike regular caves, though, the gems grow on the sides of the blocks down here. You can find quite a few gems in the tundra, but I find them to be more scarce. The tundra as a whole can also
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be really hit or miss in my experience where sometimes I find myself mining and mining and mining and only ever finding really small caves to explore and other times there are very large open areas.
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It's not a bad choice for gem collection, but I'd argue it's not the best. Gems aside though, there is a mage weapon you can find in the ice chest, the Glacier Fang. You can spam click this weapon for short, very low damage
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projectiles, or hold it and shoot for actual, you know, good damage. I haven't found a reason to not charge it all the way, so you should just hold and shoot the thing. It's a fine weapon against single targets and will excel most
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against crowds. But despite the very fast projectile, I find myself actually struggling to aim this thing simply because of how long it takes to fire.
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But that's probably just me. It definitely excels against the crowds most where it can rival many of the strong gem staff builds. Finally, there's a jungle. This biome, I'd say, is the most dangerous of the four.
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Hornets can be dealt with similarly to desert enemies by digging tunnels, but man-eaters tend to be more common than the desert's worms and are a little more difficult to deal with. Your reward for braving the jungle is the most defensive
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prehard moon mage armor set. You'll need to collect jungle spores, stingers from spike slimes or hornets, and a few vines from maneaters underground. If you happen to find any ancient cobalt armor, this armor accounts as being identical to jungle armor in the game, and so it
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can fill the slot of any jungle armor piece you may be missing. You can also find a mage accessory down here, the Nature's Gift. Collecting a few of these wouldn't be a bad idea, though, you won't be able to do much with them until
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after defeating the Goblin Army. While in the jungle, you can also find all of the same helpful starting accessories, as well as a few more. There's also a newly added weapon, the Mystic Bloom, crafted with a Nature's Gift, two
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moononglow, three vines, and seven rich mahogany. It's a fairly strong weapon with a short-range homing ability, but even with that, its firing pattern can be a little awkward. It's best used as a running away weapon if you ask me. The
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damage is fairly good, comparable to some of the higher tier gem staff combos, but it's a little harder to use if you ask me. It will also definitely benefit more from using jungle armor or mystic robes over any of the gem robes.
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Those are your four options as mage. And if you'd like to try your luck a little, you can break two shadow orbs or crimson hearts for a crimson rod in crimson worlds or vile thorn in corrupt worlds.
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You will also want to collect the band of star power from corrupt worlds or the panic necklace from crimson ones if they drop. Getting two of them would be ideal. Just know that if you have 200 health, the goblin army could invade
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after breaking the orbs of hearts, and they aren't the easiest to handle as a newer player if you haven't geared up that much. You could also mine straight down until you reach the underworld and farm demons for one of the best mage
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weapons in Brard mode, the demon scythe. I would not recommend this early game as you're literally only farming a single weapon that has less than a 3% drop chance from a somewhat uncommon enemy.
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I'd recommend waiting till you have better gear before you do this. Finally, if you find a gravitation potion, you're going to want to search for sky islands and grab a celestial magnet, which won't appear in chests on small worlds. I have
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made a medium world that didn't have one before, but that's pretty rare. This magnet can be incredibly helpful for mages, though you likely will get the most use out of one after upgrading it postg. There's all the information for
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getting started, and now you're probably itching to fight a boss. So, at the end of the day, what should you use? But before we continue, if you haven't already, be sure to hit that big juicy subscribe button down below. I'd
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recommend waiting to fight King Slime in the eye. And so you either have a robe or staff of emerald, amber, ruby, or diamond tier. And to be clear, I'm only saying you need a robe or a staff of one
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of those four gem types. You might as well make the highest defensive leggings you can craft out of whatever ores you still have lying around. I've also mentioned the mystic robes a few times.
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These are sold by the Charlie merchant and offer a more directed damage boost, but after the gem staves were updated, they aren't nearly as strong unless you're not using gem staves at all. The magic hat is also sold by the traveling
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merchant and offers a stronger damage boost than the wizard hat. But I almost never see this guy sell the hat before hard mode. Before we get to fighting bosses, there is one more thing you might want to understand, and that is
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how mana works. What you already know is that once you run out of it, you can't attack anymore. Or at least that's how it used to be. You can hold the attack button and continue shooting at 40% of
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your attack speed. I see no reason, literally none, to do this unless you only need like one or two more shots to finish a boss or enemy. So, how do you stop running out or regenerate mana faster? The most obvious option people
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lean towards is drinking mana potions. You likely found some of these while exploring, and more can be purchased from the merchants. By default, the hotkey for using these on the fly will be set to J. What you might not have
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noticed is that drinking mana potions reduce your magic damage. Now, brace yourself. This is where things get a little more complicated. For every second of mana sickness you have, your damage is reduced by 5%. And drinking any mana potion inflicts 5 seconds of
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mana sickness. Meaning the moment you drink a mana potion, your damage is reduced by 25% and every second it ticks down, that reduction decreases by 5%. If you're not careful or have weak mana potions, you could end up stacking mana
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sickness to a maximum of 10 seconds. Now, all that said, these mana potions are not nearly as useful as you might think at first glance. They used to help jump start your mana regeneration, but nowadays there is no delay in your mana
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regeneration rate, and you probably can't tell, but you also regenerate mana while actively using your weapons. But simply, these don't really have much of a use anymore, except as probably a slightly better alternative to shooting with zero mana at 40% of your attack
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speed. So, if you're not drinking potions, how can you get your mana back faster? First off, standing still doubles your mana regeneration rates, including all mana regeneration bonuses.
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One of the easiest bonuses you can make is a star in a bottle, crafted with a star and a bottle. This will give you five mana per second when nearby. Then there's the arcane crystal you can get by shimmering a mana star. This will
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permanently give you a slight increase in mana regeneration. The exact amount I can't actually find though, as it would seem it's too early to find an exact number. If you're struggling to find the uh shimmer, go to the jungle side of
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your world. And on a medium or small world, start mining straight down near the ocean. You'll likely find it. If you're on a large world, try mining straight down halfway between the jungle and the ocean. That often works, but if
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it doesn't, you may need to do some exploring to find the shimmer on a large world, as it can be harder to find on large worlds. Finally, assuming you've defeated the goblin army and found the goblin tinkerer, you can combine a band
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of star power with a band of regeneration for the mana regeneration band, which also increases your mana regeneration by 30, while also giving you the health regeneration bonus. If you're on a crimson world, you can craft the panic necklace into a band of star
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power by combining it with a mana crystal at the tinker's workshop in an ectomy created by placing at least seven tombstones nearby. Once you defeat a skeleton, you can combine the mana regeneration band with the cobalt shield or the restoration shield, which I would
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call a must-have for mage players. Equipping the mana regeneration band and the restoration shield at the same time, gives you a very strong bonus in the mana regeneration department. And they literally just updated how mana works, where this used to give you basically
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infinite mana, but now is much more, I guess, reasonable. And also remember, standing still doubles the effectiveness of these two accessories. After Plantera, there's also the Mystic Sash, which combines the mana regeneration band with the black belt. This is much
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further in progression and I don't think is the craziest accessory in the world, but assuming you've been using the mana regeneration band and restoration shield this whole time, there's no reason not to upgrade your mana regeneration band into the mystic sash. Apart from
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equipment, there is the mana regeneration potion. I couldn't find its exact buff amount, but while testing it, it would seem one of these potions is about equivalent to a mana regeneration band or any of its upgrades. So, if you
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want to free up an accessory slot, you can drink one of these. Or if you want just even faster mana regeneration, then you can also drink it. It's a relatively cheap potion to craft as well. If you're using it, however, make sure you remove
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all mana potions from your inventory or make sure the mana flower or one of its upgrades are not equipped. [music] There's no reason to use mana potions with a mana regeneration potion active.
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As for that manlower that I mentioned, I wouldn't recommend getting that anymore. there isn't that much of a point to it because drinking mana potions isn't that necessary anymore and just doing it manually will probably serve you best
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for any point in the game. There are also magic power potions that are a little more expensive but increase damage significantly. It doesn't help with regeneration, but keep it in mind for any point in the game if you're
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looking for more damage. That said, we haven't even taken into account mana stars. When fighting many of the bosses, they will summon weak minions of some sort. These are often your best friend as a mage player because they have a
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high chance of dropping mana stars on death. a slightly higher than 50% chance, removing your need to worry about mana regeneration. That said, it can be very hard to rely on these with most bosses. To assist with this even
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more, be sure to collect any star statues you find, but you won't be able to use them until after Skeletron. The Celestial Magnet will help you pick up Mana stars from far away, so they are easier to collect. Also, a cool thing to
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know is that once you pick up a mana star, you get a 50% damage bonus for 2 seconds. Not much, but cool. As for the celestial magnets, there are a couple more accessories to mention really quickly. Once you make the mana
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regeneration band, you can upgrade it to the magic cuffs using a shackle. This removes the mana regeneration buff and replaces it with you gaining mana when you take a hit. I don't find this nearly as helpful, but on lower difficulties,
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you might find it useful. You can then upgrade the magic cuffs into celestial cuffs, which can make a bit more sense with their ability to draw in mana stars, but just remember you are losing your mana regeneration increase. I'd say
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these cuffs are the most helpful and will serve you best against crowds, events, or bosses with lots of minions.
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Now, King Slime is a more unique boss for mage because his minions tend to be a bit bulkier, especially on higher difficulties. Placing blue slime banners around the arena will remove this problem. But if you forget or don't have
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any, then as a mage, I would suggest you run in a straight line and rely on mana regeneration and crowd control gem staves. You might not be able to rely on the slimes as much for mana stars than
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with other bosses, but you're more likely to benefit from them if you're using the piercing effect of the emerald, amber, or diamond gem staves.
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You can combine the homing and the amethyst gem power with any of these to great effect. The thunder zapper does a fine job, but will struggle taking out the slime since it only hits one target.
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The glacier fang is pretty strong here, and the minimalist out there can also use the one sparking a frosting and still hold their own. As for the Aythulu, you will have a much easier time killing its minions in every
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difficulty, making it pretty easy to keep your mana high during the first phase of the battle. But second phase is a different story. During second phase, the eye doesn't summon any more minions.
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But when it was spinning, transitioning into second phase, it spawns many more servants. During second phase, you should attempt to keep these servants alive, and so you need more mana, viewing them as floating loot boxes trying to kill you. With the recent
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changes made to mana regeneration, this isn't nearly as necessary, but could increase your effectiveness in battle slightly. One thing to note is that in classic mode, the eye will spawn fewer servants, and so you will have fewer eyes to farm for stars. And really
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quick, if you're interested in one of these super high quality and really cool Terraria desk mats, you can buy one using my link in the description below.
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Now, let's take a quick break from the bosses to take a look at the Goblin Tinkerer. We've already discussed almost every mage accessory up to this point, but you might have noticed some of the accessories have the Arcane Reforge,
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which grants you an extra 20 mana. You might be considering reforging some accessories to be arcane, but I'd say it's generally not going to be worth it.
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Focusing on defense, damage, or critical strike will most often be more beneficial, especially if you're building a strong mana regeneration build. That's not to say building out arcane accessories doesn't have its perks, as doing so will let you use your
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weapons for much longer before needing to regen your mana. And it's possible that a fully arcane build could maybe do more damage than a menacing or lucky build. But I'm hardressed to believe it, even if I haven't fully tested it yet.
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Now, let's move to the evil boss of your world. If you have the corruption, you have a few solid options with the gem staves and one really good option if you get lucky. To beat this boss easily, you're going to want a vile thorn from a
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shadow orb. This weapon pierces infinitely and goes through walls, making a fantastic choice against this burrowing worm. But assuming you don't have crazy good luck, your best option is to stick with the piercing gem powers. The topaz power can work well,
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but you should probably stick to using topaz robes with a higher base damage staff. I found that the ruby, amber, and diamond gem staves paired with topaz robes was particularly effective.
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Emerald worked reasonably well as some of the missed shots will stick to the caves and so continue to do damage, but there is no guarantee they won't fade away first. Do keep in mind that the explosions from Topaz don't go through
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blocks, which is why the bilethorn is so great here. I also generally recommend keeping the fight underground, preferably with the slammy saddle dropped by King Slide. Before the battle, I'd recommend throwing at least one dynamite on the ceiling across the
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cave [music] and place platforms over the holes. It doesn't need to be that large. The reason to keep this fight underground is that without the vile thorn, mage doesn't have great options for defending itself from the vile spits. Even the updated staves are not
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that great at handling these. Vile spit is an attack the world only uses in expert or master mode, though. So, if you're in classic, then you might as well just take the arena onto the surface with platforms and fight the
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worm up there. On higher difficulties, keeping the battle underground will greatly reduce the amount of vital spit you'll have to deal with. And slaming saddle will allow you to bounce off of the worm to reduce contact damage. Also,
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the ember staff will be much more effective down here if that's the one you're using. If your world is a crimson one, then you might find yourself using two different strategies for the fight.
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Unlike in the corruption, the crimson hearts don't drop you the best weapon you can use against the boss, but that's not to say it won't be helpful. The weapon is the crimson rod that deals continuous damage to [music] enemies
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below it. If you have a crimson cloud, it'll deal at least some free damage during the battle. During the first phase, I'd recommend using topaz robes regardless of the gem stave you're using. The reason is that the explosion
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helps keep the creepers at bay. So even if it's not dealing the most damage, it'll at least keep you safer. That said, it does have fantastic pairings with the diamond, emerald, ruby, and amber staves. These will handle the
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creepers quite well. Once all the creepers are dead and you enter into second phase, ideally you'd switch to the thunder zapper or amethyst rogues with whatever gem stave you're using.
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The thunder zapper, despite saying it has weak knockback, I find does a fantastic job at keeping the brain at bay. If you don't know, high knockback weapons tend to keep the brain off of you during this phase better than low
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knockback weapons. But of course, knock back doesn't matter if you can't hit the target, which is where the amethyst robes come into play. On higher difficulties, you might find it difficult to discern which brain is the real one, as you near the end of the
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battle. The brain will get close to you and poses its greatest threat when you're not actively hitting it. So using amethyst robes removes your need to figure out which brain is the real one, as the homing will find the real one for
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you. If you have the Crimson Cloud, you can also try to fight the brain slightly to the right or the left of it, so two of the clones are always under the cloud. This will likely give you a
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little bit extra damage against the brain, but more importantly will either identify the real one or leave you with only two clones to guess at. This can let you focus more on high single target damage rather than relying on homing.
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Second phase is also the point where mana's regen can cause you some problems if not handled well. For this battle, I'd strongly recommend bringing a few mana potions to maintain constant damage against the brain, as that's much more
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important than optimizing your damage. Once you take down the evil boss of your world, there are a few other bosses that you can fight. Queen bees, deerclops, or skeleton. Of course, you could fight these in a different order, but I'd
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recommend waiting until this phase of progression to do so. The only reason you'd fight queen bee is for the begun.
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This mage weapon is just kind of fine, but not remarkable in either damage or versatility, especially since the gem staves were updated. I can see it being a useful weapon for the Brainy Cthulhu perhaps, but even if you equip the
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[music] Back to your damage, I don't see this weapon being helpful for you at any point. It just doesn't have much oomph to it. As for weaponry, I recommend the Amethyst robes for homing since the boss moves quite quickly. Deer Clops, on the
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other hand, can prove slightly more useful if you manage to get the weather pane. That said, the weather pane is just an okay support weapon. So, if you don't go to the tundra in the first place for your equipment, then it's a
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pretty safe boss and weapon to skip. When fighting deerclops, things change quite a bit because piercing hardly matters anymore. Sapphire just isn't that strong. Emerald speed is useless.
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Amethyst homing isn't that helpful. So, the diamond staff with the diamond or ruby robes I found to be most useful, but they were thoroughly put to shame by the thunder zapper, followed closely by the mystic bloom. If you have meteor
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armor, you can also use a space gun while regenerating your mana, but more on that in a moment. If you get the weather pain from the boss, what's most important to know is that it's a support weapon, not a primary weapon. Use it
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once and let the tornado do its thing while attacking with a separate weapon. The tornado is slow moving, so it won't be very effective [music] against bosses like Queen Bee, but works adequately against Skeletron. If you fight Deer
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Claus before the evil boss, then the Weather Pain may be even more useful. This is very much an unnecessary weapon, but in the right situation, it can increase your damage slightly and function as a short-term minion. Apart from those two optional bosses, there's
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Skeletron. But before you fight him or even the other two, you might want to consider making meteor armor. And meteor will fall on your world, probably sometime soon after you beat the evil boss in your world. But you must beat
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the evil boss first. Meteor armor is the second highest defensive armor that doesn't grant any extra mana and builds on damage rather than critical strike, arguably making it stats worse than jungle armor. However, its set bonus is what sets it apart a little bit. The
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great significance of this is that it allows you to continue dishing out magic damage while waiting for your mana to regenerate. Ever since the update, this isn't nearly as helpful, but could still find a use. This build excels for those
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who otherwise have limited mana regeneration or who want to build out a more damage or mobility focused character. Something cool about the space gun, but that likely won't make a difference while you're playing is that the farther it travels, the more enemies
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it pierces and more damage it deals. Every 15 and a half tiles it travels, its damage increases by one or two. The laser size also increases for some reason, but the hit box doesn't. [music] The damage increase stops after 78
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tiles, though, meaning it can deal a maximum increased damage of 5 to 10, [music] which is a 25 to 50% damage increase, but realistically, you're not going to be attacking very much from that distance. The space gun isn't the
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strongest weapon either, but you'd be fine just sticking to the space gun against Skeletron if you really wanted to. Using amethyst robes as your gem stage for homing is quite helpful for this boss, and using one of the piercing
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staves is also quite helpful. The Thunder Zapper is quite strong, primarily after the hands have been taken out, but they can also be useful for targeting the hands if you want to be careful about when you break them.
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The Mystic Bloom has high damage potential, but only when it properly targets the hands during first phase.
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For skeleton, deer cost because the non-geem staff options are often more powerful. Using meteor or jungle armor would make a lot more sense, so you build out your damage or critical strike and defense some more. If you happen to
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luck into a gray zaponator sold by the traveling merchant after defeating any pre-arma boss in your world, if it's being sold, immediately dump your life savings into it because one, it's just fun and hectic, and two, it's a very
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strong weapon that consumes zero mana while meteor armor is equipped. Other weapons like the thunder zapper still have their place at this phase, but the great zaponator is fun and has a very rare chance of dealing enough damage to
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one-shot most bosses in Briar mode, but that's something that you should never really uh count on as it is incredibly rare. When you defeat skullron, hopefully you'll get the book of skulls.
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If you don't, then exploring the dungeon is where you may find the most use for your begun. It's a decent crowdcontrol weapon and can attack around tunnels, but ever since the update, the book of skulls goes through walls, making it
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much better at doing this. It only has a 10% chance of dropping in classic mode and a 33% chance in expert orb master, though, so it's not something to rely on. That said, you'd be fine without the begun anyways. The amber and emerald gem
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powers will be quite helpful in the dungeon, and the amethyst and topaz powers can be helpful as well. Bound in the dungeon, you're going to want to free the mechanic and start purchasing wiring for all future boss battles
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except against the wall. Probably mage can benefit greatly by wiring star statues that you've been collecting to a quarter second timer. This will give a bunch of extra mana stars, even against bosses that don't have minions, [music] and will prove to be a big help if
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you're struggling with your mana management. The dungeon is Mage's best friend weapon-wise with three weapons for you to find. The Aquactor, magic missile, and water bolt. You'll want the aquaceptor and magic missile at the very least, while the water bolt I view as
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only really being helpful if you find it before any of the lock golden chests.
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The water bolt looks like this and can be found on random bookshelves. A little icon will also appear when hovering over it. The projectiles are slow moving but also bounce off of up to five blocks, pierce up to nine enemies, and lasts for
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up to 30 seconds, allowing you to blindly fire in closed rooms and creates a protective barrier with it. It excels against large crowds in closed spaces.
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The magic missile is a beloved weapon for one obvious reason. It's insane homing, which I guess isn't nearly as unique now that the amethyst gem power exists. But you can do one of two things with it. Either spam it and let the
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homing do its thing, or hold left click and guide it to a specific target no other weapon could reach. An often overlooked superpower of this weapon is that it explodes, and so it can still hit targets behind thin walls and also
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deal damage to all enemies near the target, making it truly exceptional against crowded hordes. [music] Yosceptor is one of the most underrated magic weapons in the game. Though that might be starting to change. And if not, then maybe this video will change it for
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good. Though not the most flashy weapon, it does fantastic single target damage while also excelling against crowds. And unlike the water bolt, it does this without requiring you to be in confined spaces. Its main limitation can be that
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it shoots at an arch, which can make it harder to aim, but at times it is beneficial over straight shooting weapons. It also has a really weird quirk where it will deal the highest damage with the sluggish reforge rather
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than the mythical one, which by the way, generally speaking, mythical is the best reforge you can have on any mage weapon.
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Between the magic missile and aquactor, you'll find the magic missile will be most useful against hard to hit targets or whenever you just don't want to think about it. Otherwise, the Aquaceptor is better against single targets and crowds
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alike. The only time the magic missile might do more damage is when six or more enemies happen to be standing in the same general area. Before heading to the underworld, you might want to consider fighting the old one's army. There are
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some meta mage strategies you can use from that event after defeating your first mech, but the vast majority of people are not going to find much use out of it. We'll discuss some of those strategies when we get to it. From
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there, you will likely make your way to the underworld. And if you found the Aquacapter metric missile, you should have a shadow key as well. If not, you're going to want to grab one real quick. There are two mage weapons in the
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underworld. The flame lash and the flower of fire. But honestly, the flower of fire is the only one you really need to go for. The flame lash is in a weird spot where it's arguably worse than the magic missile. For one, it deals less
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base damage and consumes much more mana, but compensates by also having one pierce, which in theory doubles its damage output when compared to the magic missile. The issue is with its explosion. It covers a 6x6 tile square around the center where the projectile
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ended, while the magic missile covers an 8x8 square. This might not sound like much, but actually does make a difference against groups of [music] enemies. On top of that, its pierce can sometimes come back to bite you, exploding against an enemy farther
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[music] down the line than your initial targets. Ultimately, the flame lash might just be a better option, but I think there's a solid case to be made that the magic missile is better. Aside from that, one weapon that is very
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underrated is the flower of fire. In the preh hard mode underworld, there aren't a whole lot of use cases for it, but once you enter hard mode, it'll become your best friend for a little while.
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Shadow chest looted, there is one more weapon you might want to farm for here, the demon sight. [music] A wonderful weapon that can be quite difficult to aim. It primarily excels as a running away weapon, leaving devastating demon
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sides to harm whatever is pursuing you. And if you allow an enemy with heavy knockback [music] resistance to follow you closely, it can deal higher damage than any other mage weapon. Fighting the wall, the aquaceptor and demon scythe
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are probably going to be your best two weapons. If you use a hell bridge strategy, make a flat bridge across hell for the battle. The demon scythe will serve you well. [music] If you use water walking and feather fall potions
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instead, I think the aqua scepter is going to be your best choice for as long as the wall is within range. Preferably, you'll attack the lower eye near lava pools where the Aquacapter's evaporation effect, I guess we'll call it, can deal
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extra damage. If you [music] struggle staying close enough to utilize Aquaceptor, then you will probably be best off running away and spamming the demon site. But in meteor armor build, you can also bring the gray zapinator while you're running away and see if you
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get lucky. [music] In master mode in particular, you might get a little use out of the flower of fire at the very end of the battle. It's very high single target damage can finish off the last bit of the wall's health pretty easily
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if you're in a panic, but usually you'll just be better off using the Aquaceptor or Demon Scythe rather than trying to switch to a different weapon while in a panic. If you can't find the Demon Scythe or don't feel like farming for it
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anymore, then simply stick with the Aquactor strategy and run away when you're low on health, spamming either the space gun or zapinator if you have it. I don't find too many of the gem staves to be super effective against the
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wall with the projectiles. usually having a hard time piercing through the hungry to actually hit the wall itself.
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But I found the topaz robes with the diamond staff work reasonably well as the high damage and explosion clump the hungry together and push them behind the wall, making it an open target. Amethyst robes are fine, but it most often only
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targeted the hungry. Emerald can work as the fast projectile can sneak through the hungry barrier, but I generally recommend not using gem stage for this battle. Once the wall falls, you're going to want to make the flower of fire
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one of your main weapons. Its super high single target damage deals with most hard mode enemies quite well, struggling mostly against flying enemies because of its short reach and worms since it doesn't pierce. The aquaceptor will be helpful with dealing with enemies from a
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greater distance or in the sky. And the demon scythe is mostly helpful to make a projectile shield. If cornered in a tunnel and one enemy is after you, the flower of fire is your best bet. If it's two enemies or more, then the demon
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scythe will serve you better, but only if the projectile has time to fire before the enemy hits you. If the wall happens to drop the laser rifle, then it's a solid weapon that can replace the aqua scepter. [music] At this point,
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these weapons will serve you well as you search for your first hard mode weapon.
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And mage may very well have the most viable options at this stage in progression than any other class. So, this might take a second. First off, you will want to get titanium or adamantite ore, preferably admantite. And titanium
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can be shimmered into admentite [music] if you want to take advantage of that. Forbidden armor is another option, although it's a mixed summoner mage armor with a really cool set bonus.
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nobody ever remembers to actually use. Plus, it can be annoying as I'll get out to farm for. You'll also want to find the wizard underground. He [music] tends to be very easy to find, and you'll want the crystal ball at the very least from
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him, as it gives you a 5% extra damage bonus, 2% critical strike, 20 more mana, and minus 2% mana usage. The ice rod that you can also buy from him is a nice utility weapon, but I almost always just
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use it for building. There's some other meta strategies that it has, but it's not really a [music] weapon. You can also shimmer the emblem the wall dropped until you get the sorcerer one if it's not the one that you got already. And if
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you're an expert in master mode, fill your new inventory slot with that emblem. If you're in classic, then you'll have to decide whether you want more mobility or damage. Now, what are your weapon options as a mage in early
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hard mode? The sky fracture, meteor staff, crystal serpent, crystal vioard, poison staff, frost staff, flower frost, crystal storm, ice rod, orange, killing deck, magic dagger, medusa head, spirit of flame, shadow flame, hex, bloodthorn, nimis rod, lightning strike, and on
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crushing worlds a cleaner staff and crystal flames. and on Crimson Worlds, the light drain and golden shower. Where the mage on corrupt world shines [music] in preh hard mode, the mage on crimson world shines in premex. The first and
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likely easiest weapon for you to craft is going to be one of the three to the main hiccup being having a bookcase to actually craft one of these weapons. If you don't have one and don't have any books to craft one, the dungeon and
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underworld often have them sitting around. The golden shower is by far the best of the three to makes the other two feel kind of irrelevant. That said, the cursed flames is an upgrade to the flower of fire and will serve you well
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against single targets. The crystal storm seems nice, but has very short range, making it hard to use a lot of the time. The same can go for the shadow flame hex doll dropped by the goblin warlock from the goblin army in hard
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mode. Although a decent weapon that inflicts a strong debuff is short range and weak knockback, make it hard to use in a lot of situations. The lightning strike is one of the coolest looking weapons added into the game and is a lot
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of fun to use. It's a bit expensive to craft, requiring 24 adamant sight bars, 20 souls a night, and a thunder zapper, but at least it's a pretty simple recipe. This is a line of sight weapon that attacks wherever your cursor is.
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The moment you click, you can move your cursor around for about a second to change where the lightning will target.
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And if your cursor goes over an enemy, the lightning will home onto that target. It inflicts the powerful hellfire debuff as well as the zap debuff, but that's purely cosmetic. As far as I can tell, it pierces infinitely, but because the lightning
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follows the random path, it's hard to actually use that piercing to your advantage. There's also a very small explosion where the lightning hits, giving it a very minor area of effect, which unfortunately doesn't do much against destroyer. Something fun about
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it is that if you hit water with lightning, it electrifies the water and deals damage to everything inside the [music] water. This also doesn't work very well against destroyer at the very least, but it could be a fun way to
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clear oceans. Just remember that once I turn off god mode here, the zapped water will also hurt you. The Medusa head is a 4% drop from a very annoying enemy to farm in the marble biome and just isn't
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very strong and can be finicky, particularly underground due to its strange attack behavior. The Crystal Serpent is a decent weapon fished for in the hollow, but might be annoying to get if you haven't already been fishing. And its damage output and versatility are
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nothing remarkable. The poison stab dropped by the Black Recluses is a half decent mage weapon that functions sort of as a shotgun, but also struggles from having short range and a mediocre debuff. I'd recommend farming for it at
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some point, but just to make the upgrade in the future. The great thing about it is that despite a 2.5% drop rate, it often doesn't take long to farm for. It can be kind of effective against destroyer, but there's far better
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options. The ice rod is good for utility, but as a weapon, it often ends up being more in your way than anything else. Then there's a 1 in6 chance of the magic dagger being dropped by a rare mimic. The magic dagger is a fine
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weapon, although in one for five, they debuffed its damage by five and increased its pierce by one. It's a solid weapon for dealing with enemies, but that reduced base damage can make it less helpful against bosses. [music] The
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Bloodthorn is a fantastic weapon, but requires blocks to be used effectively, making it unhelpful against [music] the twins or prime without specific arena considerations. The thing that really sets it back, though, is that in order to get it, you need a blood moon, and
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then you have to fish for a very dangerous and kind of rare hemoglobin shark, who only has a 1 in8 chance of actually dropping the thing. Because of this and how hard it can be to use, I have never once used it myself on tier
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or seen anyone else use it. Now, on to the weapons that are a bit more enticing. Of course, I mentioned the tomes already. They are your best go-to weapons. After that, you might want to consider farming for a sky fracture or
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meteor staff, both of which [music] are easier to get. The meteor staff being the easiest only requires meteor bars, pixie dust, and souls of light. The main thing to know about it is that it's primarily going to be a boss weapon
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because it's just not going to work hardly ever underground. The Sky Fracture can be frustrating to farm for if you don't luck into a hollow desert in hard mode, and the weapon itself isn't exactly the best thing in the
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world, but can be a relatively simple and solid weapon to craft. If you don't have a hollow desert, but a corrupt one, then you have an even better option, but also a more dangerous and grindy one. If you go underground and farm desert
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spirits, an enemy that never seems to stop spawning, [music] and get the desert spirit lamp, you're part of the way there. After that, you need to wish upon your lucky stars that you get a sandstorm and kill two desert elementals
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for forbidden fragments. Both of these tasks can be quite dangerous without the right knowhow. Not to mention, sandstorms can be very unreliable and take a long time to happen. And even when they do, sometimes they only happen for a couple of seconds. The weapon you
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get at the end of the day is a very good one and can be worth the effort, but is often an annoying and very RNG reliant weapon to get. There are two solid weapons in the Tundra. the frost staff
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with a 2% drop chance from icy mermen and ice elementals and the flower of frost with about a one in three chance of being dropped by ice mimics. Main issue with them is that there isn't a whole lot else that you'd be doing in
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the tundra and farming enemies down there can be uh difficult or take a while. If you have a hollowed or corrupt underground tundra, then it'd be smart to farm for souls of night or light while down here to double up your
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farming efforts. If you don't have a hollowed or corrupted tundra, then you're probably better off farming other things. That said, the frost staff and flower of frost are very good options if it's ever raining. Farming nimbuses on the surface for a nimbus rod is a very
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good way to use your time. It has a 6.67 drop chance from nimbuses, which aren't the most common enemy, but it's not the rarest weapon either. It's a support weapon that can dramatically increase your damage when you play it well. If
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you get a blood moon rather than start fishing for the blood thorn, you should probably go to the wizard and buy the killing deck, a weapon he only sells during blood moons. It's a solid weapon that deals damage when you hit the
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target and when the card returns to you. It has a three-part attack pattern that over time you can learn to play with well. It's suitable against the twins and prime, but won't wow you. The crystal vile shard drops from hollowed
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mimics and is basically an upgraded version of the Vilethorn. It's solid against groups and can be very effective against destroyer, but requires you to stay close to the boss, making it hard to use. You'll probably get the most use
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out of this thing while underground to safely farm enemies. On crut worlds, you can farm the clinger style from corrupt biomimics [music] which is free damage, but not nearly as good as the nivas rod. Helpful to boost damage if you need it, but not
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necessary. The life drain from crimson biomimics, on the other hand, is very worthwhile for one particular reason. It shreds destroyer like nobody's business.
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As for accessories, there are two new ones you can make. The arcane flower, which I really don't think there's much of a point in making. It lets you drink mana potions without hitting the hotkey, which I don't think is very helpful. It
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also makes it so enemies are less likely to target you which isn't very helpful in single player and it only gives you a 5% damage and critical strike bonus.
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There is also the mana cloak which combines the mana flower and starcloak. This accessory can be very helpful and ever since the update is a way to get a sort of mana star without taking a hit.
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Every 5 seconds the mana cloak has a chance to shoot a star at one of your targets. The star that it shoots will then turn into a weaker version of a mana star, which restores 50 mana while also giving you the mana surge bonus
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that gives you that 50% damage boost for two seconds. On top of that, it has a starc cloak effect when you take damage, launching several more stars that also deal damage to your targets. These mana stars that it drops will disappear after
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5 seconds apparently, which I wasn't really able to confirm and doesn't seem to be happening here, but they do travel towards you, making them pretty easy to pick up. So, onto the bosses. First, [music] destroyer. You're going to want
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to summon the boss while up on a platform a little ways so the boss doesn't spawn underground. Once it spawns, you're going to want to rush over to where the coil is. If you have the life drain, you can tread destroyer
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perhaps faster than any other weapon or class in the game at this point in progression. Although it doesn't always obliterate the destroyer. What's important to note is that the weapon attacks where your cursor is. So, make sure you're clicking near the center of
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the coil to maximize damage. Without the life train, using the meteor staff or crystal bioshard against the coil is your next best option. The meteor staff is the safest one, while the vile shard has slightly higher damage potential
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from my testing, but the difference is pretty small often times. The main thing is that the probes that get spawned are more likely to block the meteor staff's damage, while the vile shard's damage is limited only by how much damage you're
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willing to risk. Once the coil is done, the life drain is still the best option so long as you're able to stay within range. Even against the probes, it excels. The meteor staff and crystal bioshard are also good after the coil is
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gone. Though the meter staff will be the safest option, while the bioshard once again will probably do more damage, but at greater risk. These same weapons are also good against the probes. But the frozen staff, sky fracture, and golden
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shower can also deal with the probes pretty well while also giving you a little more flexibility in your movement. If you defeated the twins before the destroyer, then using the rainbow rod will be your best bet with handling the probes. And [music] magical
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harp can deal great damage against the boss, but won't be better than the life drain. If you defeated any mech before destroyer, then you could also farm the old one's army. And by killing ogres, you could get the tome of infinite
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wisdom. And with its right click attack, it does great damage against destroyer as well. With one mech down, you could also farm for the medals needed to purchase apprentice armor if you hadn't done it before the mechs. Once one mech
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is slain, the apprentice armor is now sold. It's a mixed summoner and mage armor, but has some really strong buffs, primarily to magic critical strike. So, if you want to use summons as well, it could be a great option for you.
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Speaking of the twins, they are the mech that will actually draw materials you need to make mage weapons, and so maybe you'll want to fight them first. They are a difficult boss until you figure out how they work. [clears throat] To
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maximize your damage, place the Nimbus Cloud and jump straight up and down while Spaz is shooting fireballs at just the right distance for the boss to stick underneath the cloud. Good weapons to use against the twins include the golden
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shower, cursed flames, killing deck, spirit flame, frost staff, flower of frost, sky fracture, meteor staff, and or zapinator. The best options are the golden shower, and spirit flame. The flower frost can do really good damage, but it's going to be hard to aim. While
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the meteor staff and cursed flames can be harder to aim, but if you're going with the up and down strategy, like I recommended with the Nimbus Cloud, then the meteor staff will actually not have much of a hard time. It just might have
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a harder time targeting one specific guy. The killing deck, frost staff, and sky fractor are all pretty good at hitting the twins, but are not nearly as strong. If you've already defeated a mech, the tomb of infinite wisdom's left
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click attack does great damage with high accuracy. And you can also farm the unholy trident from red devils, which also does high damage with high accuracy. Finally, there's prime. For this boss in particular, I'd say the restoration shield is almost necessary.
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Knockback immunity against this boss can save you a lot of headache. Weapon-wise, you're going to be pretty well off using the same equipment against prime as you do [music] against the twins. Bone shower, curse flames, killing deck, spirit flame, sky fracture, meteor
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staff, life drain, frost staff, flower of frost. These are all solid weapons, keeping in mind the already mentioned limitations. You can also maximize your damage against Skeleum Prime with the Nimbus Cloud if you do circles around [music] him, but it does require quite a
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bit more mobility. Entering into the postmech base, there really isn't much for you to do leading up to Plenta. I recommend mining enough chlorophyll armor and the venom staff crafted with chlorophy staff. If you do craft chlorophy armor, then knowing where the
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shimmer is will help save you some time, or else you'll need to mine more chlorophy later for the final armor upgrade. Other than that, be sure to make the rainbow rod from Souls of Sight dropped by the twins. Rainbow Rod is
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your best friend while farming in the hard mode jungle. [music] If you really want to maximize your damage, you can also defeat the wall a second time and craft the Avengers emblem and then upgrade it into the celestial emblem if
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you have a celestial magnet handy. This is only really beneficial if you're not already using a celestial magnet or want to swap the cuffs for the emblem or else plan on using the regular sorcerer emblem in tandem with the celestial
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emblem for a whopping 30% damage increase. If you still want to stack extra damage, but don't want to sacrifice a magnet and don't have a spare, then you can also craft the Avengers emblem for a total 27% damage
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increase. Once you find a bulb and make a suitable arena, the fight is pretty straightforward. During first phase, you'll want to do a circle around the boss using the rainbow rod or venom stab. And if you have the golden shower,
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shoot it occasionally at the boss to inflict the debuff, which lowers the boss's defense. Give the golden shower for all future bosses for the same reason. If you don't have it, well, that's tough. I find the venom staff
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does better damage against Plantera, but does require you to stick a little bit closer to the boss, which isn't much of an issue in first phase. In second phase, I'd still recommend using the venom staff though over the rainbow rod,
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mostly because the rainbow rod will target the tentacles. There are ways around this by clicking on and holding the projectile on Plentar's body, but that completely ignores the tentacles, putting you in more danger. The venom staff, even if it requires closer range,
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will give you the benefit of piercing and firing a spread to deal with the tentacles while continually hitting the main body. Vera can drop the nettle burst, a leaf blower, or wasp gun. Three whole mage weapons, all of which are
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fine, but are about on tier with what you already have and will be outclassed pretty quickly. So, there's no need to farm for any of them. And even if you do get them, you might be better off using
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what you already have. Once the plant dies, the options open up once again. I'd recommend you start in the hard mode dungeon and farm for the shadow beam staff and inferno [music] fork. The spectre staff is good as well. Each of
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these have nearly a 10% chance of dropping from their respective enemies. It's mostly finding them that can be difficult. Necromancers for the shadow beam staff tend to be the easiest to find. Then diabolis dropping the inferno fork. And then ragged casters for the
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spectra staff, which I frankly don't see much of a point in when you have the rainbow rod as the spectre staff doesn't pierce at all. Necromancers spawn behind brick walls, diabololis behind tiled walls, and ragged casters behind slab
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walls. There is an off chance your dungeon doesn't have a slab or tile [music] wall. If so, you'll be fine without it. Down here, you'll also want to kill dungeon spirits, which have a chance of spawning when you kill any
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enemy in the harmbo dungeon. They drop ectoplasm which combined with chloropy crafts mage's most awesome armor, spectre armor. You'll want to make the hood and mask and keep one in your vanity slot to get the most benefit from
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this armor. While the mask is gone, damaging orbs will be spawned on enemy hits using mage weapons. When the hood is on, healing orbs will well heal you on enemy hits with mage weapons. The hood does reduce damage by 40% though
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and leaves you with no extra mana, so it's not recommended to simply man the healing armor, especially against Moon Lord, which we'll get to. but keep it in your vanity so whenever you are low on health you can switch to it until you
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have regained enough health at which point switch back to the mask. There's also two support weapons you can grab in the hard mode dungeon. The magnosphere and rainbow gun. Magnosphere is a 67% drop chance from hell blue or rusty
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bones which are common enemies making it not that bad to farm for. Rainbow gun on the other hand requires you open the hollow chest which requires you get the hollowed key and that is incredibly rare. The rainbow gun is a fantastic
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support weapon, but not worth going out of your way for most of the time. Apart from the armor, you may also want to farm for enough ectoplasm to summon the frost or pumpkin [music] moons. You can make do without them, but the frost moon
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in particular has some stellar mage weapons. Against either of these events, you'll want to use the inferno fork against large mini boss enemies like morningwoods, scents, and evercream stamp or everything else. Although the inferno fork works well against them as
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well, it can just be harder to aim. Although I can't forget to mention the resonance scepter, which is a fantastic weapon and probably the best one you could use against the bosses here in particular. However, I hardly even count
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it as a weapon in the game because it's a 10% drop chance from the princess NPC.
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The princess only can spawn if you have every other NPC in the game other than Santa Claus currently moved in and alive and then only has a 10% chance of dropping the resonance scepter after killing her. Generally, I don't think
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this is really worthwhile farming for, but if you happen to get the princess NPC because you care about actually getting all the NPCs, then this will be a very good weapon for you. Magnusphere and Nibbus Rod will be a big help here
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clearing the early phases of the moon events and the rainbow gun will help dramatically. Luckily for you, one of the best weapons that you're looking for is the Razer Pine, which draws from Evercreams, which spawn pretty commonly and have a 6 to 30% chance of dropping
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the Razor Pine with the percentage increasing the higher the wave number. Sometimes you can be real unlucky with these, though. That said, there is another weapon to farm for that's even better in most cases, the blizzard staff. With a 15 to 31% chance of
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dropping from a stronger enemy, the Ice Queen, it can be tough to kill, but if you luck into it, you'll have one of the mage weapons with the highest damage potential. Razor Pine does great damage with a mid-range attack and is very easy
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to use in all situations at all skill levels. The Blizzard staff, meanwhile, dominates the DPS game, but requires open spaces and good aim. A little practice with this thing and you'll do great. The pumpkin moon is much less
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exciting, only offering the bat scepter with a 6 to 12.5% chance of dropping from a pumpkin. It's a good weapon, but the pumpkins have a lot more potential loot to drop than ice queens, often making them frustrating to farm for a
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specific item. You'd be better off getting the razor pine. It's sad because the bastor is good. It's just not worth the effort when there's better or equivalent options that are easier to get. There is another event you can
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farm, the Eclipse for a toxic flask with about a 5% chance of dropping from Dr.
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Manflies. It's not easy to get, but not super hard either. The issue is that its damage is nothing crazy, and its utility is nearly the same as the Inferno forks, just with less range and a larger explosion. When you have all this gear,
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it's time to take down Golem. Spectre armor is advised. Other than that, there's a lot of weapons you can use here. The Inferno fork works really well when you can hit the core of Golem in particular. Hitting the fists as they
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are trying to punch you can lessen his damage potential though. The tossic flask might prove itself more effective before the fists have been broken, but it's not significant. The shadow beam staff will deal consistent damage, but isn't the most damaging. The blizzard
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staff tears through Golem, but you'll need to stay very low in your arena and overall just put yourself in a more dangerous position. The Razor Pine is the best of all worlds if you're able to get it. But once you defeat Golem,
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you'll hopefully drop either the heat ray or staff of Earth. Neither of these are as good as the Blizzard staff when used optimally. But if you struggle with aiming or didn't bother farming for the blizzard staff, then these two weapons
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have quite a few uses. The Martians are an option after Golem is dead, and Martian saucers have a 16.7% chance of dropping the laser machine gun. But the event itself is annoying to spawn and perhaps even more annoying to fight for
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newer players. The laser machine gun itself is fun, but I've yet to find it particularly useful or better than other weapons available at the stage. The Martian blaster also has a.13% chance of dropping from regular Martian enemies.
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And although a fun weapon, it's not worth going out of your way for. I struggle to remember the last time I saw this thing drop. Overall, you'll be fine skipping Martians if all you're looking for are mage weapons. Although, as of
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the 1457 update, they added the Ark Surge, another mage drop from the Martians, but it's only a 2% chance drop from the saucers. That said, it is absolutely one of the best mage weapons in the endame, even competing with
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pillar weapons. There's also the option of fighting the third tier olden's army and farming it for Bets's mage weapon, Betsy's wrath, and the medals to purchase the dark artist robes, which is actually a pretty solid armor set if you
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want to play around with some sentries and summons. The thing to know is that in higher difficulties, it can be extraordinarily difficult to beat the old one's army as a mage. I'd recommend using the blizzard staff to kill Betsy
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when she spawns. And otherwise, set up as many support weapons as possible while mainly using the shadow beam staff, inferno fork, boulder staff, or bubble gun with a few homing weapons to deal with the flying enemies. What is
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your reward? Well, if Bets's Wrath drops, then you'll have what is essentially a massive upgrade to the golden shower. Only now it's a little harder to aim. I personally don't find this weapon worthwhile, but many shout its praises. The Dark Artist robes are a
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fascinating armor set that provides the same defense and damage buffs while also providing 8% more critical strike for mage damage, 12% more movement speed, which is honestly negligible, and 2% more reduced mana cost, but while not providing 60 extra mana. It doesn't have
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the damaging orbs or healing, but does provide significant buffs to minions and allows for five total sententuries to be used when the war table is active. It's a solid option, though it will primarily excel against events unless you have the
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frost hydra staff, in which case it'll probably also do well against bosses. The set bonus buffs the flame burst sentry and it's fine, but I think it misses too often to be very helpful.
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It's a very niche choice, but could be a fun one to try out. Where your next target should be is Duke Fishron, who drops two fantastic mage weapons, the Razer Blade Typhoon and Bubble Gun.
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Against Duke Fishron, I find the Blizzard Staff to be the strongest when used effectively, but the Razer Pine and Staff of Earth are also two fantastic weapons against this boss if you didn't get the Blizzard Staff. The heat ray can
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also do very good damage, but I find it's best reserved for the third phase of the battle as the sharks and bubbles are likely to block a projectile and make it less effective. But say you didn't want to farm the moon events and
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don't feel like farming Golem, the Shadowbeam staff and inferno fork are also suitable weapons against Duke Fishron. Even the rainbow rod can serve you quite well if you're fighting this boss earlier in progression or are really trying to rush things. Any and
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all support weapons should absolutely be used. The mage weapon you're most likely searching for from Duke Fishron is the Razer Blade Typhoon, one of the most beloved mage weapons in the game.
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However, the bubble gun does crazy damage just with the limitation of its short range. At this phase of the game, you might have a hard time using the bubble gun effectively against the remaining bosses. But if you decide to
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fight Duke Fishron before a golem, Plantera, or even the mechs, then the bubble gun will tear through most of those bosses like Wet Paper. That said, it can be quite difficult to beat Duke Fishron at any of those points of
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progression unless you know what you're doing. So, I don't recommend it, even if it's a good option, at least not for newer players. Instead of Duke Fishron, you could instead fight Empress of Lights, although most of the time people
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will fight Duke first. And if you beat one, you don't really need to fight the other anymore, at least not for weapons.
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Empress drops the Night Glow, which is very similar to the Razer Blade Typhoon in its functionality and effectiveness.
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Its disadvantage is that it has shorter range, but its advantage is that it will attack in all directions at the same time, making it better for crowd control in the sense that it will attack everything, although its knockback is a
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little weaker, so it won't keep enemies from charging you nearly as well. The stellar tune is the other mage weapon that Empress can drop, but with a lower chance of it happening, being only a 5% drop chance, which I famously farm 51
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[music] Empress Lights for at one point. It's a fun weapon, but that's about all that it has [music] going for it. It's a solid choice against Duke and the cultist, but not particularly special.
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And with it not being nearly as good at crowd control, it is left with very few uses. [music] You'd be fine ignoring this weapon, but it can be a good middle ground when fighting cultist. Against the Empress of
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Lang, I would recommend using the Razer Blade Typhoon if you have it. The bubble gun would do a lot of damage, but it's really hard to get close to Empress most of the time to actually use it well. If
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you're fighting Empress before Duke Fishron, then you really have limited your options quite a lot. The Blizzther staff, Spectre staff, shadow beam staff, and razor pine are all solid weapons for this battle. And maybe you can even throw in the venom staff for a little
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bit of the venom [music] debuff. Against the cultist, the razor blade typhoon and night will serve you quite well.
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Although the cultist takes 25% reduced damage from homing weapons, but the list actually is a lot more confusing and random than you might think because a lot of summons are included in this list and so is the stellar tune. a lot of
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sentries. The Medusa head is spores from the spores sack and spectre mass set bonus. It's really weird. For the most part, you don't need to think about what specific weapons the cultist has damage reduction to and just fight it with
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whatever weapons you have on hand. The main reason I mention it is because the customary razor blade typhoon and night glow that people will often use do have their damage reduced against this boss.
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And so when you get close to it, I would suggest spraying it with bubbles from the bubble gun as it will deal a lot more damage. And because a spectrum mass set bonus is included in the list, the
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dark artist mage set may find a leg up in this battle. For the cultist, I'd also recommend you stay away from using any support weapons as they have a tendency of hitting the wrong clone during this phase. So they can end up
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causing more harm than good. If you don't have the razor blade or nightlow, the razor pine, blizzard staff, shadow beam staff, spectre staff, and heat ray are all good options. However, it would also be wise to bring the inferno fork
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or staff of earth in the event you do hit the wrong clone. Those two weapons are excellent at killing the dragon fast with the staff of earth in particular excelling at this when fighting the pillars. The night glow and boulder
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staff are probably my favorite weapons to use. Although the art surge is definitely going to be the best weapon for the pillars. Support weapons can help lighten the load when placed on one side to help give you a little less to
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worry about. But the night glows on the directional projectiles make it my number one choice with the razor blade typhoon being a close second. I have found a lot of success against these events with the boulder staff, blazer
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staff, and razor pine as well. And if you're really limiting your farming options, then the inferno fork and shadow beam staff will slowly do the job. As a mage, I would recommend placing a few Nimbus clouds over the
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pillar right after or sometime before the pillar shield drops. Doing so with the spectrum mask equipped will just about guarantee the pillar is defeated, even if you die right as the shield falls. If you're still around to attack
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the pillar, the fastest methods for taking it down are the bubble gun and blizzard staff. The pillar you'll want to target first is the nebula pillar, as it's the one that will let you make mage weapons. It is generally considered to
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be one of the easier pillars with brain sucklers being very easy to kill. But if they do touch you, then just know the screen will go quite dark. And if you're not using a homing weapon, you'll want to attack upwards to kill it. The
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predictor enemy can be annoying as I have found when they shoot the projectiles to be pretty random feeling, but if you stay off the ground, they won't be a threat most of the time. Same goes for evolution beasts, although they
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fire a homing nebulous sphere that can be quite difficult to see with the purple background and has caused me to die many times through this pillar without ever seeing it. To avoid it naturally, I'd recommend staying in the
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air and flying left and right at slightly different elevations. As the Nebulio sphere is pretty slow moving, the Nebulio floater is a pesky enemy with lots of health that also teleports.
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With homing weapons, they aren't a big deal and their attacks are easy enough to avoid. They just take a while to kill. From there, the only weapon you really need is the Nebula Blaze. The Nebula Arcanum is kind of a weird weapon
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that primarily excels as a support weapon against crowds. It's by far it's best whenever you run into an area with no enemies to shoot it until there's a whole bunch of the orbs flying around and then switch to another weapon. Once
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the orbs are gone and you're in the clear, you fire more orbs. The way it works is that it hits three enemies or the same enemy up to three times before exploding into small shards that also deal damage. While active, the orb will
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create smaller orbs surrounding it that also deal damage, but don't count towards orbs three hits and pass through blocks with it being most effective when shot directly into pillars where it competes with the blizzard staff and bubble gun in fastest pillar killing
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time. From there, you defeat the other three pillars and move on to Moonlord. Beating this boss, I think, has more to do with your accessories than the weapons, just because dodging becomes quite important. But your best weapon is
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going to be the Nebula Blaze here. It's unlikely you'll benefit from any of the support weapons except at the very beginning where if you place them directly above you when Moon spawns, you can get some extra damage in on the top
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eye. Apart from that, you just got to dodge and blast away with the Nebula Blaze. The Blizzard staff is also strong, but very hard to aim or hit Moon Lord with. The bubble gun is strong, but requires to stay too close for comfort.
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[music] The Stellar tune is fine with mid-range. Maybe you throw in a few shots with Betsy's Wrath or the Golden Shower to lower Moon Lord's defense, but I'm not sure how useful it really is.
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So, all you really need to use is the Nebula Blades. But with that and some practice, you'll defeat Moon Lord and complete the game. You can now make the endgame Nebula Armor, which is arguably worse than Spectre Armor on the highest
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difficulties. And there are two weapons Moon drops called the Last Prism, which is good, but most fun when you build out a high mana build, and the Lunar Flare, which I swear never drops and is a fine weapon, but it's the endgame, so there's
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not exactly a whole lot of uses for it. And that's [music] the ultimate guide to the mage class. I have another video where I go into more depth about the pitfalls that people often fall [music] into when playing mage in this video
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here if you'd like to learn a little bit more. [music] [music]
Topics:Terrariamage classmage guidegem stavesmage weaponsmage armormage accessoriesTerraria biomesmage strategiesTerraria gameplay
