Staff of the Frost Hydra

Staff of the Frost Hydra

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Statistics

Type	Weapon
Damage	100 (Summon)
Knockback	7.5 (Very strong)
Mana	20
Use time	30 (Average)
Velocity	14
Tooltip	Summons a sentry Summons a powerful frost hydra to spit ice at your enemies
Rarity	08*
Sell	20
Research	1 required

Projectile created

• Frost Hydra
  

Sounds

Use

• Internal Item ID: 1572
• Internal Projectile ID: 308

Not to be confused with Frost Staff.

The Frost Hydra in action. Note the slight delay before the first attack.

The Staff of the Frost Hydra is a Hardmode post-Plantera sentry summon weapon. It summons a stationary Frost Hydra for two minutes at the cost of 20 mana. Once summoned, the Frost Hydra acts as a stationary turret, which fires magic ice balls whenever enemies are within its roughly 60-tile range. It will automatically angle its head up and down, and turn left and right, to target enemies in any direction. The Staff of the Frost Hydra is always found in the Frozen Chest within the Dungeon, which must be unlocked with its corresponding Frozen Key.

The Frost Hydra can be summoned anywhere on the visible screen, even if blocks completely separate the player from the point clicked. It cannot, however, be summoned in the air, and will instead appear on the closest block or platform below the summoning point. The Hydra inflicts Summon damage, but as a sentry, it is stationary and temporary. It does not count toward the caster's minion limit, and any previous sentry will vanish when a new one is summoned.

Its best modifier is Ruthless. The Mythical modifier provides the widest array of stat bonuses, but these primarily affect the initial summon rather than the resulting minion. Additionally, minions cannot deal critical hits. The only lasting advantage a Mythical Staff of the Frost Hydra has over a Ruthless one is knockback.

Notes

• The Frost Hydra lasts for 120 seconds (2 minutes)
• Once cast, the player can switch to another weapon and the Hydra will remain and still do damage.
• The Frost Hydra provides a large burst of light on its initial appearance. Its projectile also produces moderate light.
• When first summoned, the Frost Hydra will move any overlapping enemies out of the way with knockback, but will not do damage until a few moments have passed.
• The Hydra can be summoned within solid blocks, which can be used to find ores and caves.
• It will not shoot at players in PvP, but if summoned on top of a player, or if a player runs into one, it will deal full damage and disappear.
• Its projectiles do not pierce.
• The Frost Hydra inflicts summon damage, so only Minion bonuses apply to it, rather than magic weapon bonuses; though magic bonuses will affect the Staff's initial summoning (eg. decreased Mana use).
• The Frost Hydra creature measures approximately 4 tiles wide by 3 high and is semi-transparent.
• The Frost Hydra remains even if the player dies.
• The Staff of the Frost Hydra can be used without impacting the player's normal minion total.

Tips

• The high damage, versatile remote placement capability, and lighting effect makes this Staff a valuable auxiliary weapon.
• The remote capabilities of the Frost Hydra make it useful for battles and invasions, since it can be placed and left alone to slay enemies while the player does other things, such as making purchases, hiding, or fighting enemies in a different location.
• The Frost Hydra will fall when blocks below it are removed, making it useful for guarding the player while digging vertical tunnels.
• The Frost Hydra can be extremely strong in PvP because it is possible to summon on a player over a wall to kill them easily.
• The Frost Hydra can also be useful in exploring caves as it can be summoned inside blocks and emits light.
• The Frost Hydra can attack enemies even after the player has died.

Trivia

• Despite being named a hydra, it seems to only have one head.
• The Frost Hydra is potentially a reference to the Diablo 3 Frost Hydra spell, which behaves rather similarly in several ways.
• The Frost Hydra may also be a visual reference to Perfect Chaos from Sonic Adventure.

History

 PC version

• Desktop 1.3.4: Now considered a Sentry minion.

• Desktop 1.3.0.1: Can now be summoned on platforms.

• Desktop 1.2.4.1: Now requires 20 mana.

• Desktop 1.2.3: Fixed precision of the Hydra Staff in reverse gravity.

• Desktop 1.2: Introduced.

 Console version

• Console 1.02: Introduced.

 Nintendo Switch version

• Switch 1.0.711.6: Introduced.

 Mobile version

• Mobile 1.2.6508: Introduced.

Nintendo 3DS version

• 3DS-Release: Introduced.