Harpoon

Type	Weapon
Damage	25Ranged
Knockback	6 (Average)
Critical chance	4%
Use time	30 Average
Velocity	11
Rarity
Sell	5400*54

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).

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 its average damage output by the same amount.

Tips[edit | edit source]

The Harpoon is useful for all pre-Hardmode boss fights. The Eater of Worlds can be killed rather quickly simply by holding the fire button at the point where it is emerging from the ground. Skeletron takes a reasonable amount of damage per hit, and the Eye of Cthulhu fight is made rather easy.
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 late-game weapons like the Piranha Gun and the Toxikarp.
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.