Harpoon

Harpoon

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Statistics

Type	Weapon
Damage	25 (Ranged)
Knockback	6 (Average)
Critical chance	4%
Use time	30 (Average)
Velocity	11
Rarity	02*
Sell	54
Research	1 required

Projectile created

• Harpoon
  

Sounds

Use

• Internal Item ID: 160
• Internal Projectile ID: 23

 Dropped by

 Classic

 Expert

 Master

Entity	Qty.	Rate
Goblin ArcherGoblin Archer	1	0.5%
Goblin PeonGoblin Peon	1	0.5%
Goblin SorcererGoblin Sorcerer	1	0.5%
Goblin ThiefGoblin Thief	1	0.5%
Goblin WarriorGoblin Warrior	1	0.5%

The Harpoon in action. Note how after hitting a wall or an enemy, it jets back and can pierce enemies on the return trip.

The Harpoon is a unique ranged weapon that auto-fires an arcing projectile that is connected to the player via a chain, and returns after reaching a maximum distance or impacting. Its physics are similar to launched flails, though it is highly affected by gravity. Harpoons are dropped by most enemies during a Goblin Army with a chance of 0.5*1/200 (0.5%).

The Harpoon has no cooldown period; its auto-fire rate dependent only on the distance to its impact, meaning that an enemy or object in close range will cause a faster auto-fire rate. The projectile also deals damage and knockback to multiple enemies on its return trip, similar to a flail or boomerang, making it effective for crowd control.

Its best modifier is Godly or Demonic. Both modifiers increase the average damage output by the same amount.

Tips

• As the Harpoon is one of the few sources of ranged damage that does not consume ammo, this weapon makes a decent (albeit weak later in the game) backup weapon for characters specializing in ranged weapons and armor. Eventually, however, it is eclipsed by Hardmode weapons like the Piranha Gun and the Toxikarp.
• Once launched, the player is unable to switch away from the Harpoon before the projectile returns, making distant shots risky as it will leave the user vulnerable if they miss. It should be optimally used for close to mid-range combat.
• When surrounded by weaker enemies, it may be a good idea to fire over the crowd, hitting them all on the return trip, rather than firing straight in front of the player and only hitting one enemy at at time.
• It can be used against strong Fighter AI enemies like the Nymph or even the Chaos Elemental to deadly effect if the enemy is directly in front of you, as it will autofire extremely quickly and put out massive amounts of DPS, especially for a weapon that can be obtained before any bosses have been defeated.

Trivia

• The Harpoon was originally called the Harpoonitron, as seen in a pre-release video.
• Its Hardmode upgrade can be considered the Anchor

History

 Desktop version

• Desktop 1.2.3.1: Fixed bug where Blue Moon and Harpoon had invisible hit boxes near the player.

• Desktop 1.2.0.2: Projectiles and harpoon should no longer cause out of memory exception.

• Desktop 1.2: Graphic has changed slightly.

• Desktop 1.1.1: Now can be reforged.

• Desktop 1.0.6: Damage increased from 15 to 25. No longer considered a flail.

• Desktop-Release: Introduced.

 Console version

• Console-Release: Introduced.

 Switch version

• Switch 1.0.711.6: Introduced.

 Mobile version

• Mobile-Release: Introduced.

3DS version

• 3DS-Release: Introduced.