In Terraria, the Melee Class has always been the favorite child of the developers, and that shows quite heavily in the 1.4.5 Bigger and Boulder update. This buffs and reworks tons of weapons in the Melee Class, despite most of them being fairly good already.
This changes up the progression of the Melee Class quite a bit, with several options being made way more viable and desirable. You can still use all the same options as before, but now you can actually use Phase Sabers without dying a little on the inside.
I’ll be going through the 5 stages of Terraria, from pre-boss to the Moon Lord, and giving recommendations on weapons, armor, and accessories.
Pre-Boss
Before you take on any bosses, your options aren’t as limited as you’d think, as you can explore most of the world and craft a variety of swords, as well as a few more niche weapons. Here are the weapons I would recommend you get before fighting any big bads:
| Weapon Name | Weapon Type | How to Acquire | Usage |
| Blade of Grass | Sword + Projectile | Crafted at an anvil with 12 Stingers, 15 Jungle Spores, and 3 Vines, all found in the Jungle. | Great all-around sword that has incredible range, debuffs your enemies, and keeps anything at bay. |
| Storm Spear | Spear + Projectile | Find in chests in the underground Desert, or get it in an Oasis Crate. | Very good option to get enemies off of you, and rather good at piercing through crowds. |
| Trimarang | Boomerang | Crafted by combining an Enchanted Boomerang, made of a Wooden Boomerang and a Fallen Star, an Ice Boomerang found in the Snow Biome, and a Mushroom Boomerang dropped by Spore Bats. | Great long range option that allows you to throw three boomerangs at once, which makes the lengthy recipe worth going for. |
| Blood Butcherer/Light’s Bane | Sword | 10 Crimtane/Demonite bars at an anvil, respectively. | Both deal great damage and have good range, but are difficult to get pre-boss, and can be saved until after Eye of Cthulu. |
As for armor and accessories, there isn’t much you can do at this stage. I’d say get Platinum or Gold armor, alongside Feral Claws from the Jungle if you can manage to find them. For the rest of your accessories, focus on movement and defense.
Pre-Hardmode
For the rest of this guide, I will be sorting each weapon recommendation by which boss it’s best for. This is assuming you’re doing every boss in the game, so if you’re skipping any, feel free to skip to the weapon recommendation for the next boss you’re tackling.
| Weapon Name | Weapon Type | How to Acquire | Usage |
| Blade of Grass | Sword + Projectile | Crafted at an anvil with 12 Stingers, 15 Jungle Spores, and 3 Vines, all found in the Jungle. | Very good option for the King Slime and Eye of Cthulu, can take out both the boss and its minions effectively. |
| Blood Butcherer/Light’s Bane | Sword | 10 Crimtane/Demonite bars at an anvil, respectively. | Easiest to obtain after killing the Eye of Cthulu, and both are great options for their respective Evil boss. |
| Volcano | Sword | Crafted with 20 Hellstone Bars at an anvil. | True Melee option that deals massive damage and has a huge hitbox. Great for tackling enemies in hell, and great for parts of Queen Bee and Skeletron. |
| Cascade | Yo-yo | Dropped by enemies in Hell. | A Yo-yo that can help solve the range issue that Volcano can have when Queen Bee and Skeletron tend to fly away from you. |
| Phaseblade | Sword/Thrown Weapon | Crafted with 15 Meteorite Bars and 15 gems at an anvil. | A great option for crowd control that is especially helpful during events, and is practically free damage, as you can swap to any weapon after throwing it. |
| Night’s Edge | Sword | Crafted by combining the Blade of Grass, Blood Butcherer/Light’s Bane, and the Muramasa from the Dungeon at a Demon/Crimson altar. | The best pre-hardmode weapon, and it is not close. This weapon can solo Deerclops and The Wall of Flesh with ease, and is still a decent option in Early Hardmode. |
Unlike before, there are a few good options for armor now. You can go for Crimson armor to get some regen, or Shadow armor if you’d prefer not getting hit. After you beat the Evil boss, though, you really should go to Hell and mine Hellstone to make Molten Armor, the best pre-hardmode Melee Class set.
As far as accessories go, you’re mostly still running the Feral Claws and nothing else. You can get the Magma Stone from enemies in Hell, but nearly every enemy in the game is immune to On Fire, so you might as well not bother and try running a Worm Scarf or Brain of Confusion instead.
Early Hardmode
After killing the Wall of Flesh, you have tons of options for what to do next, and this segment of the game covers everything from the Mechs until you beat Plantera. As the game opens up quite a bit, you get way more freedom for what Melee Weapon to run with, so I’ll be giving tons of options.
| Weapon Name | Weapon Type | How to Acquire | Usage |
| Night’s Edge | Sword | Crafted by combining the Blade of Grass, Blood Butcherer/Light’s Bane, and the Muramasa from the Dungeon at a Demon/Crimson altar. | While somewhat underpowered compared to its prevalence in prehardmode, the Night’s Edge is still very capable, and is a more versatile option than any of the Hardmode Ore swords. |
| Flint | Mallet | Crafted with 24 Titanium/Adamantite bars at a Hardmode Forge. | An extremely good weapon for crowd control with its massive shockwave and big hits of damage, especially good if you can use it effectively against the Destroyer. |
| Anchor | Thrown Weapon | Randomly dropped from Pearlwood Crates. | Really effective ranged option that can hit through blocks. The glow-up of the century. |
| Phasesaber | Sword/Thrown Weapon | Crafted with a Phaseblade and 25 Crystal Shards at a Hardmode Anvil | Everything I said about the Phaseblade, but it does more damage, and it is a no-brainer to use alongside other weapons. |
| Shadowflame Knife | Thrown Weapon | Dropped by Goblin Warlocks during a Goblin Invasion in Hardmode. | Very good ranged option that got buffed for no good reason in 1.4.5. Now it is essentially your best bet for the Twins. |
| Excalibur | Sword | Crafted with 12 Hallowed Bars at a Hardmode Anvil. | A very good True Melee option to get after you’ve beaten a single mech, and it is especially effective on the Destroyer. |
| True Excalibur | Sword | Crafted with 24 Chlorophyte Bars and the Excalibur at a Hardmode Anvil. | The Excalibur, but better, and acquired damn near immediately afterwards. |
| True Night’s Edge | Sword + Projectile | Crafted with the Night’s Edge and 20 each of Souls of Fright, Might, and Sight at a Hardmode Anvil. | Arguably not all that worth the effort, but a very good ranged option if you want to put in the time. |
Now you actually have quite a good number of options for armor and accessories. Namely, Titanium armor is great for playing at close range, as the shards it generates can deal huge damage, especially if you’re willing to tank damage with high defense.
For some more niche options, you can go for the Crystal Assassin or Monk set if you’re into multi-classing. Once you beat a mechanical boss, you should go for the Hallowed Armor for some great buffs and a chance to dodge attacks at random, which is overpowered.
Once you get a sizeable amount of Chlorophyte, go for Turtle armor, if you want to farm for all that. As for accessories, getting the Warrior emblem from the Wall and combining it with the Mech souls, plus a Titan Glove and Feral Claws, gives you the Mechanical Glove, an incredible accessory.
You can also use that Power Glove with Flesh Knuckles dropped by Crimson Mimics to get the Berserkers glove, giving you massive damage if combined with the Mechanical glove. Aside from those, opt for defense above all else, as the Melee class is usually damage tanking a ton.
Mid Hardmode
After beating Plantera, you have a few options for weapons, a bunch of events to tackle, and things to grind for. I’ll be covering just about everything you should get to prepare to take on Golem, the festive Moons, Martians, and eventually the Lunatic Cultist.
| Weapon Name | Weapon Type | How to Acquire | Usage |
| Terra Blade | Sword + Projectile | At a Hardmode Anvil, combine the True Night’s Edge and True Excalibur with a Broken Hero Sword dropped by Mothron during a post-Plantera Solar Eclipse. | The primary weapon you will use for the rest of the game. It does huge damage, has a wide range, and anything else you use will pretty much just be to supplement the Terra Blade. |
| Keybrand | Sword + Thrown Weapon | Dropped by Blue, Hell, and Rusty Armored Bones in the post-Plantera Dungeon. | The final upgrade to the Phasesaber, and it’s a half-hearted Kingdom Hearts reference, but still great for crowd control. |
| Starlight | Shortsword | Dropped by the Empress of Light. | The only good Shortsword. Swings rapidly in all directions and deals massive damage if you can get in close. |
| Flairon | Flail/Thrown Weapon | Dropped by Duke Fishron. | A really great flail, both for its range and the massive damage output that the initial swing can do when you get really close. |
After acquiring the Turtle Armor, you really don’t have anywhere to upgrade, unless you want Beetle armor after Golem, which is more of a side-grade. You can also go for the Valhalla Knight or Shinobi Infiltrator armor if you’re one of the seven people who like doing the Old One’s Army.
As for accessories, the main one everyone – not just the Melee Class – wants is the Celestial shell, despite requiring a Moon Stone from Vampires, Sun Stone from Golem, Moon Charm from Werewolves, and Neptune’s Shell from Creatures from the Deep. That said, it buffs just about everything, so it’s worth gunning for.
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Late Hardmode
When you’ve gotten Bigger and Boulder, and you’re ready for the Journey’s End, you can mop up the last few post-Golem things, take on the Lunatic Cultist, and craft weapons from Melee’s Solar Pillar to take on the Moon Lord. Here are my recommendations for doing all of that.
| Weapon Name | Weapon Type | How to Acquire | Usage |
| Terra Blade | Sword + Projectile | At a Hardmode Anvil, combine the True Night’s Edge and True Excalibur with a Broken Hero Sword dropped by Mothron during a post-Plantera Solar Eclipse. | Still one of the best weapons in the game, and a great option for the Martians and Moon Lord, and especially for the pillars. |
| Influx Waver | Sword + Projectile | Dropped by the Martian Saucer during the Martian Madness event. | The sword for those who don’t want to grind for the Terra Blade. It has a far less cool projectile, but does similar damage, and only takes doing the worst event in the game. |
| Keybrand | Sword + Thrown Weapon | Dropped by Blue, Hell, and Rusty Armored Bones in the post-Plantera Dungeon. | Still a great crowd control option, and still worth throwing out sometimes. |
| Flying Dragon | Sword + Projectile | Dropped by Betsy during the Post-Golem Old One’s Army. | A very cool sword that fires tons of piercing projectiles that go through blocks, that you probably never get, because the Old One’s Army sucks. |
| Solar Eruption | Other | Crafted at an Ancient Manipulator with 18 Solar Fragments. | A very long, piercing stabbing weapon that takes care of hordes like it’s nothing, and is essential for dealing with the pillars. |
| Daybreak | Thrown Weapon | Crafted at an Ancient Manipulator with 18 Solar Fragments. | A javelin that explodes after a couple of seconds, dealing some of the highest DPS of any weapon at this stage of the game. Great for taking out the Moon Lord. |
At this point, as long as you’re running with either Beetle or Turtle armor, have the Mechanical and/or Berserker’s glove, and the Celestial Shell, plus a good pair of wings, you’re pretty set. Getting the Soaring Insignia for Moon Lord is also nice, if you’re willing to sacrifice an accessory slot for it.
Once you defeat the Moon Lord, you can craft up some Solar Armor with Luminite and Solar Fragments, then grab just about every major Melee weapon in the game and craft them all together to make the Zenith. Don’t forget to dunk that into some Shimmer afterwards!
