Summoner Pre-Hardmode Progression Walkthrough

This guide is a complete pre-hardmode progression walkthrough for the summoner class. This guide will include both the meta way to play summoner and it's progression, as well as my personal experience and preference with the class.

Part 1: Pre-Boss

Starting a new world is the same as any other class, you need to chop down some trees with your axe and create basic housing for your NPCs. Once you obtain some basic armor - such as wooden or copper, you should obtain some of these items.

Heart Crystal - Improves your HP

Mana Crystal - Improves your MP

Any Potions and Potion Ingredients

Basic Accessories -

Cloud in a bottle - Double Jump

Hermes Boots - Faster Running

Fledgling Wings - Basic Flight, found on Floating Islands.
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Slime Staff -

Damage 8 (Summon)
Knockback 2 (Very weak)
Mana 10
Use time 28 (Average)
Velocity 10

This is an absurdly rare item to obtain, having the drop rate of 1/10000 (0.01%) from any slime, excluding the Pinky slime, with a 1/100 (1%,) and the Sand Slime, with a 1/8000 (0.0125%.) I don't recommend going out of your way to obtain this item, simply because of the rarity of it, and because it will be fazed out by better weapons soon after you would have it drop.
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Abigail's Flower -

Damage 6 (Summon)
Knockback 2 (Very weak)
Mana 10
Use time 36 (Very slow)
Velocity 10

Abigail's Flower is a weapon that is spawned from leaving a tombstone on the surface layer of your world for an extended period of time. For me, this usually takes 5-10 minutes. This is a solid item to carry you until you find better weapons.
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Finch Staff -

Damage 7 (Summon)
Knockback 4 (Weak)
Mana 10
Use time 36 (Very slow)
Velocity 10

The Finch Staff is a weapon that spawns in living chests, found in living trees. The trees are found on the surface, and usually burrow a couple hundred blocks into the ground, before expanding into a cave or mine. It's unfortunate that the finch staff is found in living chests, though, because the staff is usually replaced by useless items that build leaves and wood. If you find this in a chest, consider yourself lucky.
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Flinx Staff -

Damage 8 (Summon)
Knockback 2 (Very weak)
Mana 5
Use time 36 (Very slow)
Velocity 10

Although hard to craft early, the Flinx Staff is the best pre-boss staff that you can obtain. It is crafted with 10 Gold or Platinum bars, and 6 Flinx Fur. To obtain Flinx Fur, you must travel to the cavern layer of the Ice biome, and kill enemies called Flinx. This should be an easy task after you have obtained one of the previous weapons.
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Snapthorn -

Damage 18 (Summon)
Knockback 1.5 (Extremely weak)
Use time 30 (Average)
Velocity 8 (effective)
Tooltip 6 summon tag damage

This is a whip type weapon and one of the hardest summoner items to obtain pre-boss. The crafting materials are found in the most treacherous biome in the game, the Jungle. In normal mode, you can usually face tank the enemies after acquiring some ironskin potions, or filling up your health bar with heart crystals. In expert and master mode, though, I highly recommend being equipped for the journey. The Snapthorn is crafted with: 15 Stingers, 3 Vines, and 12 Jungle Spores.

Stingers - Dropped by common enemies called "Hornet" and "Spiked Jungle Slime."

Vines - Dropped by "Man Eater" This enemy is unassuming, usually slow, but once you're not paying attention, it will hit you fast and hard, poisoning you in the process. Pair this with the fact they are usually inside of blocks, and it makes it hard to kill these enemies efficiently. My tip is to wait for one to spawn in an open area, and have your summons target them by right clicking on the enemy while holding the summon item.

Jungle Spores - Found on the Underground and Cavern layer of the Jungle, they are represented by glowing plants on the mud. It's hard to miss them once you see them.
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Flinx Fur Coat -

Defense 1
Increases Minion damage by 5%
Increases Minion slots by 1

The Flinx Fur Coat is crafting from 10 Silk, 8 Flinx Fur, and 8 Gold or Platinum bars, at a loom.

The loom is made from a sawmill, and silk is made from crafting cobweb at a loom.
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Feral Claws -

12% Increased Melee Speed, and enables auto-swing.

This should only be obtained if you're planning on using whips during your playthrough. It is found from Ivy Chests found in Jungle Shrines, in the Underground layer of the Jungle, and Living Mahogany Tree, also found in the Underground Layer
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Shark Tooth Necklace

Increases Armor Penetration by 5

Obtained from "Blood Zombie" and "Drippler" that spawn from the Blood Moon event.
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Finishing Thoughts: I personally find this part of the game very uneventful, and the weapons and items uninteresting, but not very long, thankfully. I should also mention that you can obtain the "Ancient Shadow" set to coincide with the Flinx Fur Coat, but it is redundant to do so unless you are having trouble with a certain boss.

Part 1.5: Post-Boss

This section is dedicated to making the progression between pre-boss and pre-hardmode more clear. This part of the guide will include all progression until Eater of Worlds, and Brain of Cthulhu. Although there is not much progression during this stage, I felt it necessary to commit to a more in-depth guide.
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You should have defeated King Slime, Eye of Cthulhu, and (Optionally) The Torch God Event, Which unlocks biome torches to be automatically placed when placing basic torches.

1. The biome torches increase your luck stat.

2. The Eye of Cthulhu drops the Shield of Cthulhu item in expert mode, which gives you a dash to increase maneuverability.
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If your world is Corruption:
Eater of Worlds Strategies[terraria.fandom.com]

If your world is Crimson:
Brain of Cthulhu Strategies[terraria.fandom.com]
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Vampire Frog Staff -

Damage 11 (Summon)
Knockback 5 (Average)
Mana 10
Use time 36 (Very slow)
Velocity 10

This staff is technically obtainable from the get-go, but I find it easier to get during this stage of the game. it is gathered from the Blood Moon event, if you fish during the event, you have a chance to spawn enemies called "Zombie Merman" or "Wandering Eye Fish." Both have a 1/8 (12.5%) chance to drop this staff. It is highly recommended to get this staff before the fight with the Wall of Flesh, and to pair it with the Shark Tooth Necklace accessory because it does well against the "Hungry" enemies that it spawns.
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A Few Things -

The Tavernkeep NPC will spawn after defeating the Eater of Worlds or the Brain of Cthulhu bosses, this NPC is basically a summoner's savior, because they will sell nearly half of the games summoner staffs and armor sets.

You should have fought the Goblin Invasion event by this point, which means the Goblin Tinkerer NPC will spawn in the Underground tied up. If you free him, he will be able to "reforge" your items and accessories, as well as sell you a crafting table called the "Tinkerer's Workbench" that allows you to merge accessories together, and hover boots, that allow you to fly better than the Fledgling Wings.
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Final Thoughts: This part of the game is especially challenging. The progression for the class is slow, and the bosses outgrow your old items quickly. If you haven't, make sure to reforge those accessories to Warding!

Part 2: Pre-Hardmode

During this section, you should have defeated every boss including and up to Skeletron, which means that you should have fought Queen Bee, which is a major stepping stone in the summoner class progression. After you have defeated Queen Bee, an NPC called the Witch Doctor will spawn when an open house is available. He will sell multiple summoning accessories when housed in the Jungle throughout the game, so it is a good idea to complete a house in the Jungle if you haven't already. The other boss that is important to this guide is the Eater of Worlds, or the Brain of Cthulhu. Which both drop their respective ores and crafting materials: Shadow Scale and Tissue Sample. By crafting these together, you can create a biome themed pickaxe that can mine an ore in the Underworld called Hellstone. The weapon listed in this guide requiring the ore will go into more detail.

In case you have not fight Queen Bee, here is a simple guide on how to fight her: --Queen Bee Strategies--[terraria.fandom.com]
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Imp Staff -

Damage 17 (Summon)
Knockback 2 (Very weak)
Mana 10
Use time 36 (Very slow)
Velocity 10

This item is crafted by using 17 Hellstone bars. This summon will do high damage and will inflict the On Fire! debuff onto enemies, but shoots projectiles and has poor aim. I personally dislike the weapon, but it's the best pre-hardmode summon available, alongside the Vampire Frog Staff.

Hellstone Bar - Crafted using Obsidian and Hellstone Ore, at a Hellforge to find Hellstone ore, go to the lowest point of your world, and chug an Obsidian Skin potion, or obtaining a Lava Charm from chests that spawn right above the Underworld.
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Spinal Tap -

Damage 27 (Summon)
Knockback 2 (Very weak)
Use time 30 (Average)
Velocity 10

Crafted using 90 Bones and 55 Cobwebs. The bones can be easily obtained by killing Skeletron a few times, or killing skeletons in the dungeon.
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Bee Armor Set

Defense 13 (set)
+23% minion damage
+2 minion slots
Set Bonus: Increases minion damage by 10%

This is the more summon oriented armor set. It gives your minions plenty of damage boost. The complete set is crafted with 30 Bee Wax, Which drops from Queen Bee
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Obsidian Armor Set

+15 defense
+31% minion damage
+1 minion slot
+15% whip speed
+30% whip range

This is the whip oriented armor set, you gain more whip speed and range, but at the cost of minion slots. Despite having a low amount of minions with this set, they will be doing more damage per minion, with it's 31% damage multiplier. I prefer this armor set to the Bee Armor, but you won't have as much variability and adaptability going for your play style.
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Accessories -

Worm Scarf - 17% damage reduction - EXPERT
Brain of Confusion - 1/6 chance to completely negate all damage - EXPERT
Lightning Boots - Movement speed increase + Faster running + Flight
Terraspark Boots - All Lightning Boots stats + Better ice mobility + Temp Lava Immunity + Fire Block Immunity + Reduced Lava Damage + Water/Honey Walking
Obsidian Shield - No Knockback + Fire Block Immunity
Fledgling Wings - Flight
Pygmy Necklace - 1 Minion Slot (Bought from Witch Doctor at night)
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Final Thoughts - This part of the game is a cake walk. All of the damage reducing and negating accessories make it almost laughably easy to kill the Wall of Flesh. If you are having trouble with the wall, I recommend going back to your goblin merchant and changing all of your accessory prefixes to Warding.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the summoner pre-hardmode experience is varied and exciting, although a little unbalanced at times. I have dedicated plenty of playthroughs to the summoner class myself, and I would recommend giving it a try if you haven't.

I hope this guide helped out or informed you! If you did enjoy it, consider giving it a like or award!

- Dom

(If I happened to miss something, or made a mistake, please inform me with a comment. I will get to fixing it ASAP.)