Ranger Class Expert Mode Progression

Want to play Ranger class but don't know how?
You have come to the right place!

Intro

Welcome!
In this guide I'll teach you what is in my opinion a nice way to progress through the game using the ranged class in Terraria.
This is my favorite class to play with, so I'll do my best explaining the progression!

First some recommendations:

At the start of the game I prefer using bows and later on I like to go with the guns, but feel free to use guns instead! (The best modifier for Bows and Guns is Unreal)

Corruption is easier in my opinion for the first time you play an expert world, so this guide will explain everything assuming you are in corruption world.

Defense is the best modifier that you can have so always try to get + defense in your items (+4 would be the ideal)

Always check what the Traveling Merchant is selling and if he is selling an Ammo Box, buy it!

You can fight Duke Fishron at any moment after the Wall Of Flesh and you can get the Tsunami Bow and the Fishron Wings (both items are insanely good) but it's super hard to kill this boss even after you took down Plantera. So if you want to go and try it feel free to o it, but in this guide I assume this is probably your first experience in Expert difficulty, so I put Fishron after Plantera.

NOTE: I won't explain how to fight the bosses or how to farm certain items because if you are playing on Expert mode I assume you have beaten the game in normal mode at least one time. So in this guide you are just going to find the item progression.

Index

• 1. Pre Bosses
  
• 2. Pre Skeletron
  
• 3. Pre Hardmode
  
• 4. Early Hardmode
  
• 5. Mech Bosses
  
• 6. Plantera and Golem
  
• 7. Preparation for Moon Lord
  
• 8. Moon Lord and End Game

1. Pre Bosses

Getting started

Ok, so first you will need wood and stone.
Getting wood is important because you can immediately craft your first armor (Wooden Armor ) and your first ranged weapon, a Wooden Bow!
This equipment may seem super weak, but using a bow is actually a very strong weapon in the early game, because you can shoot enemies from distance and don't get killed (note that everything will kill you super easily in Expert Mode). Also, the Wooden Armor has a Set Bonus (+1 defense). This is super useful cause in Expert mode you are going to need all the defense you can have!
Finally, combine the stone with wood to craft Arrows (make at least 500)

The materials you'll need are:

• ~130 wood
  
• ~40 stone

So at the very beginning your equipment should look like this:

Armor:


Main Weapon:


Items:
At this point in the game just equip everything you find in the surface chest while you explore or any item (sometimes they will have modifiers that boots your stats! And if the modifier adds defense, that's even better)

Pre First Boss

After your first day or two of exploration you should star focussing on getting an upgrade in your armor and weapon. I like to go for the Gold Bow and the Gold Armor or the equivalents Platinium Bow and Platinium Armor.
Also, you need to get a Hook because this will improve your mobility a lot!
So go mining and get 82 Gold Bars or 82 Platinum Bars and 15 gems of any type

A nice upgrade before fighting your first boss is to modify your ammunition.
You can craft Flaming Arrows combining you normal Arrows with torches or even better you can make some Frostburn Arrows using Ice Torches (Ice Torches are crafted by combining standard torches with Ice Blocks)

Armor:


Main Weapon:


Items:

*Fill all the items with all the stuff that you find exploring.

2. Pre Skeletron

______________________________________________

King Slime

Now that you are equipped you can slay the King Slime. This boss is optional, and it won't drop anything very useful. But you can try to get the Slimy Saddle
This mount can be used in the Eater of Worlds battle and in the Eye of Cthulhu battle later on.

After taking down the King Slime head on to the dessert to farm the Fossil armor.
To get this armor you need 60 Sturdy Fossil

This Armor will give you a bonus of 20% chance to not consume ammo and a 13% increased ranged critical strike in total.

______________________________________

EoW

Farm some Fallen Stars to make some Jester´s Arrows that you will need to take down the Eater of Worlds Boss.
This Boss is pretty easy, just buff up and avoid the head that deals more damage.
Using the Demonite Ore you can craft the Demonite Bars and make yourself a Demon Bow
This Bow It is an upgrade over the Gold Bow and the Platinum Bow, being stronger and faster.
Also you will get a really nice item from this boss: The Worm Scarf that reduces damage taken by 17%!

Finally, if you still haven't got a pair of boots to boost your mobility, try to get them at this point because they will be crucial to defeat the Eye of Cthulhu.

Equipment Pre EoC:

Armor:


Main Weapon:


Equipment:


*Fill all the items with all the stuff that you find exploring.

________________________________________________

EoC

Using a long platform above the ground take down the EoC using the Frostburn Arrows and your new Bow.
The EoC will give you the Shield of Cthulhu which is an awesome item that will carry you through almost all the game!

And finally you can try getting your first pair of wings, the Fledgling Wings (Search for them in the Sky Islands)
More Info about the WINGS progression here: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2362777994

Your Equipment should look like this by now:

Equipment:


<- or any biome equivalent


________________________ ________________________

Queen Bee

The last boss you are going to take down before Skeletron is the Queen Bee.
This battle is not going to be easy so try getting as many buffs as you can!
The good thing is that once you take her down you can get a huge upgrade in your bow combining 2 drops The Bee's Knees and the Hive Pack

Originally posted by Terraria Wiki:

The Bee's Knees is a bow which has a 33% (1/3) chance of being dropped by Queen Bee. When fired using Wooden Arrows, the bow instead emits a special projectile resembling a line of bees. On impact with an enemy or solid block, the projectile will break apart, spawning 3 to 6 bees which quickly break formation and begin to home in on nearby enemies.

combined with...

Originally posted by Terraria Wiki:

When equipped, half of all friendly bees created by the caster will appear as larger, more damaging versions. As opposed to a normal bee's potential 1 bonus damage, these more damaging bees can deal up to 1-4 extra damage, and fly noticeably faster. Stronger bees also deal 0.5 knockback (with a 1.1× multiplier), can pierce 3 enemies (instead of normal bees' 2), and last 11 seconds instead of 10.

You have a huge damage upgrade!

3. Pre Hard Mode

________________________________________________________

Skeletron

Skeletron is a moderate difficulty fight, just try to take down both hands at the same time and avoid the head spin!

The Equipment in this battle should look like this:
Armor:


Main Weapon:


Equipment:






Defeating Skeletron won't give you anything special, but accessing the dungeon will give you some nice stuff. What you want from the dungeon are Bones to craft the Necro Armor (this armor will increase your defense, and you ranged damage) To craft the full set you need 150 Bones and 135 Cobweb
From the dungeon you should also grab a Shadow Key that will be used to open the Shadow Chests in the underworld.
Finally, serch for the Cobalt Shield and using obsidian craft a Obsidian Skull Combine this items to make an Obsidian Shield


____________________

WoF

The last Pre hard mode boss you are going to face is the Wall of Flesh (WoF)
To take it down I recommend using the Hellwing Bow. This Bow converts normal Wooden Arrows into flaming bat projectiles that travel in a semi-straight line and can pierce infinitely. Use your Shadow Key to open the shadow chests in the Underworld to find the Bow.
You are also going to need the Stinger Necklace wich is crafted using a Shark Tooth Necklace (dropped by the Blood Zombies and Dripplers found during a Blood Moon) and a Honey Comb (dropped by the Queen Bee boss fight). The Stinger Necklace is a Very nice damage boost cause it gives the player 5 flat armor penetration as well as releasing 1-4 bees when the wearer takes damage and granting the Honey buff for 5 seconds!
Finally, I recommend upgrading your boots if you haven't done it yet. Try to get the Lightning Boots . The crafting tree is kind of long so check the Wiki: https://terraria.fandom.com/wiki/Lightning_Boots

So to fight the WoF your gear should be the following:
Armor:


Main Weapon:


Equipment:

4. Early Hardmode

Once you have defeated the WoF you enter Hard Mode and one of the hardest parts of the game begins.
You will get a Demon Heart from the WoF fight. Use it to get your 6th inventory slot. You will also get an emblem... there's a 25% chance of getting the Ranger Emblem If you haven't got it, it might be worth farming the WoF fight to get one, but that's up to you. If you haven't got it and don't want to farm it, just equip any other item you like.

The first thing you have to do in hard mode is to get good wings, weapon upgrade and armor upgrade.
To get the wings just visit the Witch Doctor NPC during the night while he lives in the jungle, and he will sell you Leaf Wings for 75 Gold coins.
Then you should buy a Shotgun from the Arms Dealer wich costs 25 Gold Coins.
Then progress through the Hard Mode ores till you have tier 3 ores:

TIER 1: /

TIER 2: /

TIER 3: /

(Dont forget to craft the Mythril/Orichalcum Anvil and the Adamantite / Titanium Forge)

You will need 46 TIER 3 Ore to make your next armor (the Frost Armor ) and also 3 Frost Cores dropped by the Ice Golems. These Golems spawn during Blizzards (storms) in the Snow Biome. They don't spawn too frequently, but you should be able to get all the cores during 1 storm (use a Water Candle from the dungeon to increase spawns)
You should also get an Ice Feather wich is a 33% drop from the Golem. This Feather can be combined with 20 Souls of Flight to make the Frozen Wings (a nice upgrade to your wings) but this is optional.

BONUS: An easy way to kill the golem is to trap him in a hole and open a little gap, so he can't shoot you:


Finally, the last thing you are gonna need is a weapon upgrade.
I suggest you to go for the Onix Blaster. To craft this weapon you are going to need:

x1 Shotgun
x2 Dark Shard
x10 Soul of Night

To get the Dark Shards (10% drop chance) you need to kill Dark Mummies in a Corrupted Desert. If you don't have a Corrupted desert just grab some Ebonstone and place it under the Sand in your desert and wait till it gets corrupted.

And finally to get the Souls Of Night (20% drop chance) go to the Underground Corruption and Kill every enemy you see till you get all the Souls.

BONUS: Farm some Souls Of Light in the Underground Hallow to craft Keys Of Light (15 Souls for each Key) this Keys can be placed in an empty chest and they will spawn a Hallowed Mimic. This Mini Boss has a 33% chance to give you the Daedalus Stormbow
This weapon is one of the best Weapons in the game and can be used to easily take down some bosses! So IMO is worth the farm.

After all the farming, your equipment will be like this:

Armor:


Main Weapon:


Seccondary Weapon:


Equipment:
/




/

5. Mech Bosses

_______________________________________

The Destroyer

Well now that you are strong enough you can go for the First Mech Boss, the Destroyer.
If you farmed the Daedalus Stormbow this fight is gonna be super easy. Using Holly Arrows crafted with normal Arrows, Unicorn Horns and Pixie Dust (both farmed in the Hallow surface)
The other option is using the Onix Blaster with Cursed Bullets combine Normal Bullets with Cursed Flames (dropped by the enemies in the Corruption)

This Boss will give you Hallowed Bars and Souls Of Might We are going to use this Souls to make a new weapon: The Megashark.

To make this Minigun you will need:

• x1 Minishark (buy it from the Arms Dealer NPC)
  
  
• x1 Illegal Gun Parts (buy them from the Arms Dealer NPC at Night)
  
  
• x5 Shark Fins (dropped by the Sharks at the ocean)
  
  
• x20 Souls of Might

________________________________

The Twins

Using the same equipment you can take down The Twins. The Megashark will do nice damage and the battle shouldn't be that hard.

________________________________________________

Skeletron Prime

Then go for Skeletron Prime. All the three weapons that you have at this point work fine against him, so you decide which one to use!
If you struggle to take him down, explore the underground jungle to max your health using Life Fruits.

If you haven't farmed for the Ranger Emblem, now you can use the Emblem that you got from the WoF and combine it with one Soul From Each Mech Boss to make the Avenger Emblem to boost your damage 12%!

Using the Hallowed Bars from the Mech Bosses craft the Hallowed Armor (make sure to craft the right Head Piece for Ranged class) This armor is defensive oriented cause when you hit an enemy the armor will grant the Holy Protection buff, which allows the player to dodge the next attack dealt by an enemy. It has a cooldown of 30 seconds. Personally I love using this armor but if you want there's a more offensive option:
First of all craft the Pickaxe Axe using Hallowed Bars and one of each Soul dropped by the Mech Bosses. This Pickaxe will allow you to mine Clorophyte and make Clorophyte Bars With 54 Bars you can make the Clorophyte armor This Armor will boost your DPS.

The Clorophyte will also allow you to make the best bullets for your guns (IMO), the Clorophyte Bullets home in on enemies making aiming super easy. To craft them combine regular bullets with Clorophyte Bars.

So... After the Mech Bosses your gear should look like this:

Armor:
Defensive:
Offensive:

Main Weapon:
/

Seccondary Weapon:


Equipment:


<- If you want to farm for it, upgrade to the Frostspark Boots or Terraspark Boots (optional)
<- If you want to farm for it, upgrade to the Ahnk Shield (optional)

6. Plantera and Golem

______________________________________________

Plantera

Now you should be ready to take down Plantera. This boss shouldn't be that difficult. Use your Megashark with some Clorophyte Bullets.
If you are struggling to take her down, maybe you can try upgrading your wings! You can find Moths (a rare enemy) in the Underground Jungle, which have a 50% chance of dropping Butterfly Dust Combine the Dust with 20 Souls of Flight to craft the Butterfly Wings

Theres nothing intresting for us in the Plantera drops, but defeating her will make the Truffle NPC sell the Autohammer for 1 Platinum Coin.
You need this crafting station to make your next armor set: the Shroomite Armor
This armor will give you a huge upgrade in DPS: "standing still causes a player to enter "stealth mode": Over the course of roughly 1.5 seconds, the player will gradually turn almost fully transparent, which also diminishes the chance that enemies will target the player. Additionally, during this time, weapon damage, critical strike chance, and knockback will each be boosted gradually up to a maximum of +60% damage, +10% critical chance, and +50% knockback at full stealth. These boosts increase both weapon and ammo damage. The buff begins fading quickly if the wearer starts moving"
Shroomite armor has three headpiece options, each providing an extra ×1.15 damage boost that affects a different ranged weapon type:

• Shroomite Headgear for Arrows
  
• Shroomite Mask for Bullets
  
• Shroomite Helmet for Rockets

I reccomend making the Headger and the Mask since we are not gonna foccus on rockets.

To craft the full set combine Clorophyte Bars (x66) with Gloowing Mooshrooms (x990)

The next thing you can do is go to the dungeon and farm for the Master Ninja Gear
You have to kill Bone Lee´s (the ninja skeletons) to get bith the Tabi and the Balck Belt
Combine this 2 with the Tiger Climbing Gear (crafted with Climbng Claws and Shoe Spikes ) to craft the Master Ninja Gear. This item will give you a chance to dodge attacks and improved dash. So you can replace the Shield of Cthulhu.

While you are at the Dungeon, kill Skeleton Snipers to get the Rifle Scope
You will need it later to craft another Ranger item.

Also you can try to get the Tactical Shotgun and/or the Sniper Rifle
These weapons perform very well. But don't worry if you don't get them, they are not 100% essential.

________________________________________

Duke Fishron

Now that you are well-equipped, you can defeat Duke Fishron. This is a hard boss, so don't get frustrated.
I recommend using the Shroomite armor to kill him faster, but if you are not that good at dodging, and you are taking too much damage you can use the Hallowed Armor.
Use Clorophyte Bullets with your weapon of choice (Minishark, Tactical Shotgun or Sniper Rifle) so you don't have to aim that much and can focus on dodging. And for the final phase (when he is about to die, and he teleports) use the Daedalus Stormbow with Holly Arrows.
And equip defensive items:

Armor:
Offenssive


Deffensive


Main Weapon:
/ /

Seccondary Weapon:


Equipment:







What we want from Duke Fishron is his wings and his bow
The Fishron Wings are the best wings you can get till you defeat the Final Boss and the Tsunami Bow is insanely good. You can use it to defeat Golem super easily.

______________________________________

Golem

Take down Golem using the following equipment:

Armor:


Main Weapon:


Equipment:





/

and try to get the Eye of The Golem combine it with your Avenger Emblem to make the Destroyer Emblem
Finally combine the Destroyer Emblem with the Rifle Scope to craft the Sniper Scope
And you will be ready to prepare for the final stage of the game!

7. Preparation for Moon Lord

Congrats! You've reached the last part of the game!
Here you are going to take down 2 more bosses and get all the necessary stuff to defeat the final boss, the Moon Lord.

______________________ ______________________

Lunatic Cultist

This Boss is kind of easy if you don't attack the illusions. Try to just hit the real one, so you won't spawn the dragon, and you'll be Fine.
For the Equipment, use the same that you used with the Golem.

You won't get any drop apart from the Ancient Manipulator. We will use this crafting station later.

Now take down the Vortex Pillar first to get the Vortex Fragments and use them to craft the Vortex Beater
This gun is insanely good combined with Clorophyte Bullets.

Now use your New gun to defeat the Stardust Pillar and with the Stardust Fragments craft the Stardust Dragon Staff
This is a Summoner weapon, but it will help you to boost your DPS.

____________________

Empress of Light

Now that you have a super solid amount of DPS, go to the Hallow and take down the Empress of Light to get the Soaring Insignia
Like Duke Fishron, this is not going to be an easy fight, but you should manage to defeat her in after some attempts.

To defeat her I recommend using:

Armor:
Offenssive


Deffensive (If ou are struggling with her attacks too much)


Main Weapon:


seccondary Weapon:


Equipment:







Once you have defeated her you can take down the remaining Pillars in any order, but remember that after taking down the last Pillar you just have 1 minute before the Moon Lord Arrives... So get ready beforehand!

8. Moon Lord and End Game

______________________________________

Moon Lord

For the Moon Lord, craft some Super Healing Potions using one of each Pillar Fragments. Also, don't forget to stack up on Clorophyte Bullets and have every Buff potion you can get.

My recommended gear for the Final Boss is the following:

Armor:


Main Weapon:


Secondary Weapon:


Equipment:
<- essential to dodge the Death Ray
<- essential to dodge attacks
<- inffinite flight will let you fight all over the sky




Congrats!!! You have beaten the game in Expert Difficulty!

Now you can try farming the Moon Lord items (End Game gear)
Using the Luminate that he will drop craft some Luminate Bars and combine them with the Vortx Fragments to craft the strongest Ranged Armor in the Game: the Vortex Armor (you probably have to take down the Pillars and the Moon Lord at least one more time)
You will also get the Celestial Starboard from the Moon Lord wich is the best "wings" you can have. And you can try getting the S.D.M.G. wich is the best Machinegun in the game. And the Celebration Mk2 wich is the best Rocket Launcher in the game.

Outro

That's all I have for you!
Hope you find this guide useful. If you do, consider giving it a good rate or adding it to Favs!
Leave a comment if you want I'll try to answer them all :)

If you want, check out my Expert Mage Guide:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2848138449



Have a nice day!

jLg.

[belisarius]

but why warding instead of lucky

[JeanYuurei]

for all of you that asked for the Mage guide: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2848138449

[JeanYuurei]

I'm on it... It's taking longer than expected. No PC currently so I'm trying to write it on my mobile

[Fire]

mage class plss :)

[JeanYuurei]

It's gonna take some time... but I think I can do it, I'm not too busy this month.

[FunkyMonky]

i know this shit is old but you should make one of these for mage

[space.brigade]

this is really helpful!! i did a few things differently in my run though - i used the frost armour over the clorophyte armour for the frostbite debuff -i farmed for the magic quiver to use with the tsunami and daedalus as well as using the endless quiver in early hardmode -i used cursed bullets/arrows most of the time -for the moon lord fight i swapped out the shroomite chestpeice for the valhalla knight chestpeice.

[JeanYuurei]

Fixed. thanks for pointing it out :)

[Greaver]

ok you writed "event" instead of "even" , it confused me

[JeanYuurei]

What I wanted to say is that you unlock the Duke fight when you enter hardmode (after killing WoF) but killing him is hard... even if you killed Plantera and have the proper gear is hard to kill him xD