Calamity, Birbs Only (Pre-Hardmode)

I've done a fair amount of Calamity challenges, many of which are based around using silly or unusual weapons/families of weapons. This time I planned to use weapons linked by... species?

Birds only means you get access to 3 summoner weapons throughout the game, each at a major hurdle in progression; Pre-Hardmode, Hardmode, and Post-Moon Lord.

Will this challenge be as bad as Fun Mode, or perhaps a little closer to the good ol' Weaponless and Bricks Only runs? Well there's only one way to find out (without playing it through yourself)...

[The Rundown]

There is one main, overarching rule of the run, as well as some smaller ones I decided to implement for the sake of this challenge.


1. Birds Summons Only
The name of the run. The player's only summoner weapons will be the Finch Staff, Raven Staff, and Corvid Harbinger Staff; unlocked as the player progresses. Whips are also permitted, as well as summoner armour sets that summon minions (or else you'll be going through Post-Moon Lord with Spooky Armour), but there are some weapons that aren't...

2. No 'Minion' Accessories
Accessories that summon additional, non-bird minions are prohibited. That ultimately bans the following items:
-Luxor's Gift
-Fungal Clump
-Heart of the Elements (and all components)
-Profaned Soul Artifact & Crystal
-Angelic Alliance
Some of these don't attack, some have other buffs and some do have wings, but they are not birds and thus are not allowed.

3. No Teleportation
Birds, believe it or not, do not teleport. If they want to get somewhere, they fly. Thus, all teleportation items are banned for fights. Teleporters, Rod of Discord, Spectral Veil, Normality Relocator, etc. are not allowed.
(While this isn't super-critical for the run I wanted an extra layer of difficulty.)



But with that aside, onto Pre-Hardmode.

Pre-Boss

Goings-On:
Before I get to fight any bosses on this run, or anything for that matter, I need birbs. Armed with nothing (aside from my silly 'Bumblebirb girl' vanity set and Critter Shampoo) I had no way to defend myself from anything at this point in the run and so had to run from everything.

Thankfully, only a couple of minutes in, I found three giant living trees connected to each other and, inside the second, was a Finch Staff. One birb might not be that strong but it is still at least something. In fact, as I explored this new world with my feathery little friend, I found 8 or 9 living trees in total... though only 1 Finch Staff.

Now I had to begin gathering my accessories. I encountered a pyramid to the right of my spawn which got me a Sandstorm in a Bottle. Sure, I might not be able to fly yet, but I can at least jump good.

Next, I headed to the underground jungle. This would normally be a very, very silly idea but I came down here with two items in mind; the Snapthorn and Ivy Whip. the Snapthorn would give me and my 'finch' more damage, while the latter was a decent early-game grappling hook. After a lot of careful movement and boxing myself in claustrophobic little dens for hours I had what I needed to craft my new gear and left.

My next plan was to head far left of the world to the Sulphur Sea. On the way I encountered a new shrine and found the Trinket of Chi was had been changed to act differently again. I equipped it for now and continued to the sea where I spent about an hour farming for the new Abyssal Amulet. The Amulet now grants Riptide which deals set damage as opposed to being based on defence (or at least it's less noticeable if it does), which actually makes it a lot better. Also while I was there I saved the Angler and he immediately got eaten by a second Trasher and dropped the Golden Fishing Rod which would have been super cool an hour ago.

Next, with my beefed-up defences, I hunted for Wulfrum machines to get the scrap and Energy Cores I needed for the Wulfrum Armour. Along the way I also got the Wulfrum Battery so my finches were now... energised? I mean it fits with the Bumblebirb theme so I won't question it.

With a little more hunting I had the Frog Leg, Flurry Boots and Blizzard in a Bottle, as well as a few other accessories like the Anklet of the Wind and Ice Skates. I had one more thing to do before I was ready for a boss.

My last step was defeating the Goblin Army. Even with only 2 birbs and a the Snapthorn it wasn't too hard to defeat by now, which granted us access to the Goblin Tinkerer. With his help I could make the Frostspark Boots and the Sandstorm in a Balloon.

Now it was time to face some bosses.

Desert Scourge

Difficulty: o
Time: 0:24


The Fight:
Scourge is very weak to the Abyssal Amulet so I might actually be a little overprepared for this fight honestly.

Riptide, alongside the Poisoned debuff from the Snapthorn, shredded Scourge's health bar with several hundred damage per second.

There... isn't too much else to talk about for him honestly.


Post-Boss:
The first thing I crafted was a set of summoner Victide Armour. This provides us with additional help from a snail but it's an armour set bonus so it's allowed to stay. I also crafted the Shield of the Ocean after making the armour.

Scourge also got me all the materials for the Fish Finder. Not a necessity but it's nice and helps prevent inventory clutter later.

The last thing I needed to do was go down to the Sunken Sea and hunt for the Voltaic Jelly. After a run-in with a big clam I managed to get it; granting a third birb and granting them all proper electric powers via the ability to inflict the Electrified debuff.

King Slime

Difficulty: o
Time: 0:38


The Fight:
The big goopy boss that sometimes starts challenge runs was next on the agenda. King Slime is again another boss that isn't usually all too scary, which ends up being the case here as well.

Riptide and Electrified stack up damage very fast against King Slime, even with his immunity to Poisoned. Three birbs, the whip, summoner tag damage bonuses and two powerful debuffs proved too much and the overgrown ooze was taken down nearly as quickly as Scourge was.


Post-Boss:
The main two drops I need from King Slime are the Slimy Saddle and Solidifier; which did not take very long to get. King Slime's other drops aren't too useful for anything outside of money, however I did need some.

After farming both the Slime and Scourge for a while, I decided to reforge all my accessories to Warding. I figured the miniscule gains from Menacing wouldn't be worth it, so I beefed up my defences instead for the upcoming bosses.

Eye of Cthulhu

Difficulty: o
Time: 0:43


The Fight:
A surprisingly similar story to King Slime, the Eye of Cthulhu is now very happy with me stacking debuffs on it. Riptide, Poisoned and Electrified stacked up a lot of damage while my Snapthorn dealt with its servants. The birbs, while not great on smaller targets due to their trouble with accuracy, aren't that bad on bosses it turns out.

There was a little trouble with the Eye's chain dash attacks near the end of the fight, but even the occasional hits with the Snapthorn dealt decent initial damage and inflicted two debuffs. The birbs also did decently well at hitting it during the short breaks between the charges.

Also, funnily enough, the Eye ended up nearly being hit by a falling star during the phase transition; missing by only 2 or 3 blocks and taking out one of the servants in the process.


Post-Boss:
The Eye doesn't drop many super-useful items in the run, though the Shield of Cthulhu is always incredibly helpful thanks to its dash.

Brain of Cthulhu

Difficulty: o
Time: 0:54


The Fight:
I decided to make a Crimson world for three reasons. The first was because I was worried that Riptide might trivialise the Eater of Worlds fight as the Abyssal Amulet used to do with Crush Depth. The second was so that I could get Ichor in Hardmode for flasks. The third was so that I could get a little bit of payback on the Brain for the grief it caused back during the Fun Mode run...

As it turns out, reason one persists into the Brain fight, too. Riptide shreds through the Creepers very, very well and with my birbs charging wildly into their fray and my Snapthorn's ability to hit multiple targets at once this phase was over incredibly fast.

The Brain itself was a little bit tougher than the Creeper phase on account of not being so woefully weak to debuffs like its minions moments prior. However, it still stood little chance against the raw damage I could put out even with pre-boss weapons.


Post-Boss:
The main bonus I get from defeating the Brain is access to the pickaxe upgrade. The Brain of Confusion's dodge isn't super useful right now since I'm fairly tanky and the crit boost does not matter at all for summoner.

However, while I was there I noticed a Hive had spawned near my arena, so decided to take a swing at it... literally...

Perforators

Difficulty: oo
Time: 3:23


The Fight:
The first fight that required strategy and a noticeable step-up from the previous bosses.

Hive Mind is generally quite tanky given its decent health and the three minions it spawns throughout the fight. While my debuffs still deal decent damage it isn't quite at the boss-shredding level it was at mere moments ago.

The first worm was not a problem, and everything until the second worm spawning was smooth sailing. However, when the second worm spawned and I tried to use the Snapthorn to target it, my birbs would frequently start trying to swarm the hive while the worm burrowed. This was a problem because, if they did this too often, I'd have to deal with two worms at the same time and be in some danger, so I had to start manually summoning the birbs on top of the worm and just hoping I could beat it fast enough.

Thankfully, I had the second worm defeated only a few seconds before the third, largest worm spawned. My birbs decided to behave again and attacked the worm instead of the hive this time, though it wasn't as critical in this phase since the hive doesn't have anything else to throw at us beyond the third worm.

After the worm went down the hive itself only endured for a few more seconds before it, too, was defeated.


Post-Boss:
The first significant difficulty jump, but still manageable. I don't really benefit much from defeating the Perforators outside of access to Aerospec Armour, which I generally tried to avoid since I knew it wouldn't be long before I ended up crafting stronger armour anyways.

Before then, however, I realised I had to backtrack because I'd forgotten someone...

Crabulon

Difficulty: o
Time: 0:55


The Fight:
Since my items hadn't been upgraded since the Eye of Cthulhu I was still technically on-tier for this boss fight, so thankfully there was no harm done in fighting it later than intended.

Crabulon is, again, another boss that proves to be incredibly weak to my stacking debuffs and large enough that my birbs can easily swarm it and hit it for consistent damage.

Within a little under a minute the funny mushroom crab was defeated.


Post-Boss:
I cannot use any of Crabulon's drops since the accessory is banned and the weapons are... also banned. I did get the rare Thank You painting drop though which was neat.

I also decided, after this, to use my Crabulon arena to fight Torch God. I figured luck's damage boost might be useful later since I have to go large stretches of the game without weapon upgrades so figured I'd need all the damage I could get. Torch God took me down to 1 HP by the end but I pulled through (barely).

I also completed the tier 1 Acid Rain and Old One's Army for completion's sake, a Blood Moon for the Shark Tooth Necklace, Money Trough and Blood Orbs, and finally maxed out my health with a little more exploration while looking for bee hives in the jungle.

Queen Bee

Difficulty: oo
Time: 2:07


The Fight:
I consider Perforators to essentially be a 'cut-off' point between early and late Pre-Hardmode, which again rings true for the Queen Bee. A noticeable difficulty increase and a fight time over double anything else not named Perforators so far, Queen Bee proved to be a little more challenging than most bosses before this point.

The birbs had a lot of trouble here due to Queen Bee's scaling defence; eventually being reduced to only 1 damage a hit each. Thankfully, the changes to the Abyssal Amulet saved us as Riptide does not seem to be affected by defence and thus could hit Queen Bee for decent damage even when the birbs could not.

I did get a little reckless near the end of the fight and took a hefty amount of damage, but ultimately the fight was won without too many difficulties.


Post-Boss:
Queen Bee is essentially 'the' summoner boss in vanilla, so you can expect some upgrades here. Bee Armour was the first major buff which allowed me to strengthen my birb army further, though we do have to say goodbye to the snail in exchange for the 4th birb.

The Witch Doctor moves in as well, who sells the Pygmy Necklace. I didn't end up using this, however, as a lot of accessories were fighting for my 5 accessory slots and the Voltaic Jelly was essentially just a better Necklace.

Deerclops

Difficulty: oo
Time: 4:57


The Fight:
I decided to fight Deerclops while en-route to the Dungeon and only made a very basic arena for it, which in turn was probably a mistake because all it did was add artificial difficulty to the fight that didn't need to be there.

Deerclops is, simply, a tank. It has lots of health and unlike Scourge and the Brain does not have a bunch of segments to coat in debuffs. What this culminated in was a nearly 5-minute long boss fight full of slowing, stun and invulnerability mechanics.

Deerclops' attacks, even with Fledgling Wings, aren't generally too bad to dodge if you understand Deerclops' telegraphs. However the RNG in the snowball and shadow hand attacks can lead to cheap hits; especially if you try and skip out on making a good arena for the fight.

Honestly, though, there isn't much to say. I flew over its head to dodge most of its attacks; alternating sides between attacks to not land on the ice spikes or get pummeled with snowballs, while slowly chipping away at its health until it was defeated.


Post-Boss:
I get basically nothing from this fight since, like Crabulon, nearly all its drops are weapons. The accessories are also not very useful either due to being vanity or having an effect generally less useful than what I have equipped already.

Skeletron

Difficulty: oo
Time: 2:48


The Fight:
Skeletron is a battle I was not too worried about in all honesty. The hands have low enough health that I assumed the debuffs would deal with them, which they did, leaving only the skull.

The skull can be kept fairly still with good circling in this phase, allowing the birbs to hand consistent hits against it as well as Snapthorn hits with tight enough circling. Better yet, as Riptide actually affects Skeletron unlike pre-rework Crush Depth, I could also use debuffs against it to boost my damage further.

Later in the fight Skeletron took a page out of the Eye of Cthulhu's book by nearly being hit by a staggering 6 falling stars, though got hit by a seventh near the tail-end of the fight.

Overall, not too challenging.


Post-Boss:
Skeletron's defeat grants access to the dungeon and thus three critical pieces of gear. First is the Spinal Tap whip; the first weapon upgrade I've had since before I even fought Scourge. The second is the Cobalt Shield which I can immediately upgrade into the Obsidian Shield for defence and knockback immunity. Finally, I gain access to the Bewitching Table to increase my birb count to 5.

Most of the other dungeon loot is weapons, as are some of Skeletron's drops, so most of the other items I got weren't helpful. He also didn't drop his hook and I didn't want to farm for it, so I skipped it for now since hook optimisation isn't super critical at this point in the game.

Slime God

Difficulty: ooo
Time: 5:05


The Fight:
Introducing what is easily the hardest Pre-Hardmode fight in birbs only; the Slime God. Unlike King Slime before it Slime God won't just melt the second I start attacking it and can, in fact, deal pretty solid damage back.

The main issue with this fight is range. The birbs aren't the best at dealing with far-away targets, especially if they jump around a lot like the big slimes do, and the Spinal Tap's range is fairly low for a fight where getting in close is very dangerous.

First couple of attempts ended in me being sent to the respawn timer covered in slime with little progress to show for it, since I was still being a little reckless, so my third attempt was about playing defensive.

The main goal for that attempt was defence; keeping away from the big slimes and only landing hits when it was safe, such as after they'd tried to land on me or if I moved back past them on a different level of my arena.

Chipping them down this way was slower, but a lot safer. I managed to focus down one of the big slimes first which made dealing with the second significantly easier, leading to a decently well-fought victory.


Post-Boss:
The main things I got from this were Statigel Armour and the pickaxe because I didn't want to mine more Hellstone. The Armour was nice as it granted further defensive and mobility buffs and was the best summoner set in Pre-Hardmode.

I also crafted the Jelly-Charged Battery for additional support for the birbs.

Only 1 more boss remains for now...

Wall of Flesh

Difficulty: ooo
Time: 3:15


The Fight:
The second hardest fight and the first one I had to use potions for, the Wall of Flesh was always going to be a tough fight with my gear given my minions are still pre-boss.

The first problem I encountered was that my normal knockback wasn't good enough to keep the Hungry at bay, so I had to bring Titan Potions with me alongside the more commonly-used potions. My damage against them also wasn't great, but I had few options to fix that and so I had to just make-do with what I had.

I ended up trying to focus on one of the Wall's eyes near the bottom of the world since those have less defence than the mouth and some of the Hungry had a harder time reaching me. I did have to be careful of the lasers since my arena wasn't quite built in a way that'd let me cheese the lasers as in some other playthroughs, but my defence was good enough to stand up to the barrage if I failed to dodge well enough.

Ultimately, after a few minutes the Wall was defeated.


Post-Boss:
With the Wall defeated we get access to a lot of items, mainly through the world being converted to Hardmode. We also get the heart for another accessory slot, which is very useful for helping compensate for my poor damage.

We did get an emblem, though it wasn't the summoner emblem, so I will have to deal with that later.

But with that, we now have to move onto a much more challenging portion of the game...

[Final Notes]

And that was the first part of birbs only, next up will be the Hardmode content followed by the Post-Moon Lord content in the third part.


Now I feel like some people may be asking why I'd do another challenge run right after the... experience... that was fun mode and in-short there were 2 reasons.

Firstly, Small; a Twitter artist I follow, got a dedicated item in the game based on his harpy character Coco which in-turn inspired me to draw a new Bumblebirb girl which, then, in-turn also got me to start this run.
Secondly, I wanted a challenge run that was a little more straightforward than Fun Mode had been since I like people being able to participate and play these challenges themselves and Fun Mode is the complete opposite of that and I suggest people play literally any other challenge than Fun Mode... such as a silly challenge like birbs only


Next part will be out soon as the run itself already concluded since it only took a few days of casual play, so I've got more time to refine my notes and generally de-clutter stuff for the main write-up


Anyways, see you next time 'v'

[Okami Tomato]

Hi

[Yharon]

hi.

[lewt CHOMPER]

bug net > birbs...

[Okami Tomato]

Birbs > Dragons, Cosmic Worms, Witches and Mechs

[Boko Party]

birb op

[Birbo]

Ah yes a challenge that suits me

[blue bird hippo]

Yharon the jungle birb of rebirth

[lewt CHOMPER]

hmmm... wonder if the Golden EAGLE is allowed?....

[Okami Tomato]

I don't know if there have been any on this page specifically, but I've had to remove the odd 'Bob' or skeleton from other pages because they've either been spammed or are large and just awkwardly buried the actual comments.

Even so, there haven't been all that many as of recent

[bradley_kirkham]

I'm surprised that there aren't any copypastas in the comment section of this guide.