Terraria: The Ultimate Guide to Summoning (+Yoyos) [Rewrite WIP]

A guide on how to grow your army of minions to become the greatest summoner in Terraria!

Introduction to Summoning

The art of summoning is a fine and helpful art that requires a staff of some sort to summon a minion. Minion are like little helpers that help you murder your enemies in a chaotic cesspool of madness (LOL), and some can be pretty cool! There are also powerful stationary minions that can kill enemies without having to go anywhere. Summoning a minion requires a little bit of mana too. With the right stuff, you can grow your army of minions and make them stronger! Here are some items that can improve your army of minions so they can see what victory tastes like:

Armor- Bee Armor, Spider Armor, Tiki armor, Spooky Armor, and Stardust Armor
Accesories- Pygmy Necklace, Necromantic Scroll, Papyrus Scarab, Hercules Beetle, and a Summoner Emblem
Regular Minions- Slime Staff, Hornet Staff, Imp Staff, Spider Staff, Optic Staff, Deadly Sphere Staff, Tempest Staff, Xeno Staff, Stardust Cell Staff, and Stardust Dragon Staff,
Stationary Minions- Crimson Rod, Nimbus Rod, Queen Spider Staff, Staff of the Frost Hydra, Rainbow Crystal Staff, and Lunar Portal Staff
Potions- Summoning potion, Magic Power Potion
Misc.- Stardust Guardian, and a Bewitching Table

Yoyos

In the eyes of a yoyo-summoner, this class of melee weapons serves as a more direct and efficient approach to warding off the many enemies that lurk within every crevice of the world of Terraria! Yoyos are essentially controlled projectiles that are thrown by the player and travel towards the mouse. Yoyos usually can only spin for a predetermined amount of time with a few powerful exceptions. They are also bound by a string, and if the string happens to overlap any solid block, the yoyo's damage is reduced by 25%. Better to face your foes head on, a wise man once said! Yoyos truly are one of Terraria's most class of weapons, and their abilities to reach enemies from afar and travel in any direction makes them one of the funnest tools to use in the game!

Wooden Yoyo
Biome: n/a
Crafting/looting: 10 wood and 20 cobwebs at a work bench
Damage: 9
Knockback: very weak
Duration: 4 sec.

Rally
Biome: Caverns
Crafting/looting: looted from cavern enemies (salamander, crawdad, giant shelly)
Damage: 14
Knockback: weak
Duration: 5 sec

Malaise
Biome: Corruption
Crafting/looting: 12 demonite bars at an iron or lead anvil
Damage: 16
Knockback: Weak
Duration: 7 sec.

Artery
Biome: Crimson
Crafting/looting: 12 crimtane bars at an iron or lead anvil
Damage: 17
Knockback: Weak
Duration: 6 sec.

Amazon
Biome: Jungle
Crafting/looting: 1 vine, 2 stingers, 3 jungle spores, and 8 rich mahogany wood at an iron or lead anvil
Damage: 20
Knockback: Weak
Duration: 8 sec.

Code 1
Biome: n/a
Crafting/looting- bought from travelling merchant after the Eye of Cthulhu has been defeated
Damage- 21
Knockback- weak
Duration- 9 sec.

Valor
Biome- Dungeon
Crafting/looting- looted from one of the dungeon's locked gold chests
Knockback- Weak
Duration- 11 sec.

Cascade
Biome- Underworld
Crafting/looting- looted from Underworld enemies after Skeletron has been defeated (hellbat, demon, lava slime)
Knockback- average
Duration- 16 sec.

Format C
Biome- n/a
Crafting/looting- bought from skeleton merchant in Hardmode
Damage- 29
Knockback- weak
Duration- 8 sec.

Gradient
Biome- n/a
Crafting/looting- bought from skeleton merchant in Hardmode
Damage- 34
Knockback- weak
Duration- 10 sec.

Chik
Biome- Underground Hallow
Crafting/looting- 1 wooden yoyo, 15 crystal shards, and 10 souls of light at an orichalcum or mythril anvil
Damage- 40
Knockback- weak
Duration- 16 sec.

Hel-Fire
Biome- Caverns/Underworld
Crafting/looting- looted from cavern/underworld enemies in Hardmode (red devil, giant bat, lava bat)
Damage- 41
Knockback- Average
Duration- 12 sec.

Amarok
Biome- Tundra
Crafting/looting- looted from tundra enemies in Hardmode (ice elemental, ice golem, ice tortoise)
Damage- 43
Knockback- very weak
Duration- 15 sec.

Code 2
Biome- n/a
Crafting/looting- bought from travelling merchant after one mechanical boss has been defeated
Damage- 47
Knockback- weak
Duration- infinity

Yelets
Biome- Jungle/Martian Invasion
Crafting/looting- looted from jungle enemies after one mechanical boss has been defeated (giant tortoise, moss hornet, giant flying fox)
Damage- 60
Knockback- weak
Duration- 14 sec.

Red's Throw
Biome- n/a
Crafting/looting- looted from expert mode treasure bags in Hardmode along with Red's clothes
Damage- 70
Knockback- average
Duration- Infinite

Valkyrie Yoyo
Biome: n/a
Crafting/Looting: looted from expert mode treasure bags in Hardmode along with Lazure's clothes
Damage: 70
Knockback: Average
Duration: ∞

Kraken
Biome: Dungeon
Crafting/Looting: looted from dungeon enemies after Plantera has been defeated (rusty armored bones, hell armored bones, blue armored bones)
Damage: 90
Knockback: Average
Duration: ∞

The Eye of Cthulhu
Biome: Solar Eclipse
Crafting/Looting: looted from Mothron during a solar eclipse after Plantera has been defeated
Damage: 115
Knockback: Weak
Duration: ∞

Terrarian
Biome: n/a
Crafting/Looting: looted from the Moon Lord
Damage: 190
Knockback: Strong
Duration: ∞

Yoyos+

Ah, the world of yoyo accesories.Similar to summoning accesories, these items increase the power and efficiency of your yoyo arsenal. From strings to the incredible yoyo bag, these accesories are top-notch for any yoyo-summoner!

String
Don't you just love string? String in Terraria increase your yoyos length up to 5 blocks farther! White string can be crafted at a loom by using 30 cobwebs. Additionally, strings can be tinted with dyes by hand. Applicable dyes are listed below:
Red Orange Yellow Lime Green Teal Cyan Sky Blue Blue Purple Violet Pink Rainbow Brown Black

Counterweights

Crafting/Looting Pt. 1: The Pre-Hardmode Summoner

Don't you wish you had a buddy to slay monsters with you as you explore these new lands? If you do, I will show you how to be a summoner in Pre-Hardmode up to the Wall of Flesh (WoF)!

Slime Staff
This is the first summoning weapon your meant to have is the Slime Staff, but with it's extremely rare drop rate from slimes, you won't be getting it anytime soon naturally, but by making a slime farm with a slime statue, it can be pretty easy to get ( but you'll have to wait a while). It summons a baby slime that does 8 summon damage at an average rate and does continuous damage to enemies, making it a decent early Pre-Hardmode minion.

Bee Loadout
After you defeat Queen Bee in the treacherous depths of the underground jungle, you might say to yourself: "I want to summon bees just like Queen Bee"! Luckily you can! By using 44 bee wax, dropped from Queen Bee, at a lead or iron anvil, you can make bee armor and a hornet staff! Wearing full bee armor gives you +3 minion capacity and +23% minion damage, so you can have a group of bees to fight by your side! The Hornet Staff summons a hornet that does 9 summon damage at a fast rate, and can fly.

Summoning Potion and Bewitching Table
Summoning potions and bewitching tables are very nifty things for summoners becuase it grants +1 minion capacity! A bewitching table can be looted from the dungeon or bought from a witch doctor if a wizard is present. A summoning potion is made out of 1 bottled water, 1 variegated lardfish, and 1 moonglow at a placed bottle or alchemy table. Variegated lardfish can be fished from the underground jungle.

Imp Staff
The imp staff is meant to be the last summoning weapon you can have in Pre-Hardmode and is made from 17 hellstone bars at a lead or iron anvil. It summons a flying Imp that does a whopping 21 summon damage at a slow rate and can fly.

Crafting/Looting Pt. 2: The Hardmode Summoner

As the Wall of Flesh (WoF) struggles to keep you at bay, he grows angrier, stronger, and faster. When his life ends, the ancient spirits of light and dark are released in a chaotic order. It grows monsters stronger and makes new ones, but most of all, it has new opportunities for rangers, warriors, and summoners. This chapter of Crafting/Looting will talk about the marvelous new summoner gear that comes with the new ravenous monsters of Hardmode:

Summoner Emblem
After you defeat the WoF, you come to claim your loot from the fleshy beast of Hell and you see something shiny-- the summoner emblem! The summoner emblem is one of the four emblems that are a guarenteed drop from the WoF and grants +15% summon damage to it's wearer. By combining it with 5 pieces of each mechanical boss' soul at a tinkerer's workshop, you can create the avenger emblem, which can be used to make a mechanical glove, destroyer emblem or celestial emblem.

Spider Loadout
You look around the underground and look for new things, and then you stumble upon a spider nest. As you enter the spider nest, you see... black wall creepers? These are black recluses. There dark color can sometimes make it hard to see them in the dark. They can be very dangerous, but drop a very important material for early Hardmode summoners-- spider fangs. Spider fangs can be used to craft spider armor (36 fangs for a full set), a spider staff (16 fangs), and/or a queen spider staff (24 fangs). Spider armor gives the wearer 20 defense, +30% minion damage, and +3 minon capacity (+4 if all your minions are from the spider staff). The spider staff does 26 summon damage at a slow rate. The queen spider staff shoots spider eggs that hatches baby spiders that give the venom debuff. Both the eggs and the babies do 21 summon damage at an average rate. As a stationary minion, queen spiders can be summoned in one place alongside regular and other stationary minions.

Forbidden Loadout
As a lone explorer, you search the desert for traces of new life after the well has been defeated. Luckily, there is a plethora if biodiversity just crawling around at the seams of this treacherous place! Every once in a while, the desert will have a sandstorm, summoning new enemies like sand sharks, angry tumblers (not the feminist kind), and most importantly sand elementals. These elementals are especially important, as they drop forbidden fragments once defeated. By combining three fragments and a total of 46 titanium or adamantite bars, you will be able to create forbidden armor. Forbidden armor grants 15% extra minion and magic damage, 80 extra mana, and 2 more available minions. When worn as a set, the armor summons an additional forbidden sign minion, which will send a mini sand tornado where the player's cursor is by double tapping the up/down button (depending on the player's current settings).

Pirate Staff
After you defeat the pirate invasion, you find a pirate staff, but don't know what it does. Don't worry, I'll show you! A pirate staff has a 1% chance of dropping from pirates and the Flying Dutchman (a flying pirate ship). The pirate staff summons a pirate that swings his cutlass that does 40 summon damage at a slow rate.

Optic Staff
Remember how powerful the Twins were? Don't you wish you could have the Twins as minions? Well now you can, with the optic staff! The optic staff summons twins that each do 30 summon damage at a slow rate.

Deadly Sphere Staff
While battleing nailheads, crazy butchers, and posessed little girls in the solar eclipse, you find a small metallic sphere-- a deadly sphere! Deadly spheres have a 2.5% chance of dropping a deadly sphere staff. The deadly sphere staff summons a deadly sphere that does 50 summon damage at a slow rate.

Tiki Loadout
After obtaining the pygmy staff from Plantera (25% chance), you go to the witch doctor to buy some things from him and then realize that now that you have the pygmy staff, the witch doctor is honored to sell you the best pre-Lunar Event summoner gear to you! Now he sells you tiki armor (1 platinum 50 gold), a pygmy necklace (40 gold), and a hercules beetle (40 gold). Tiki armor gives the wearer +30% minion damage and +4 minion capacity. A pygmy necklace gives the wearer +1 minion capacity. A hercules beetle gives the wearer +15% minion damage and more minion damage. The pygmy staff summons a pygmy that throws spears that do 34 damage at an average rate.

Staff of the Frost Hydra
Of the four types of biome chests, the staff of the frost hydra is the summoner one. The staff of the frost hydra shoots ice balls at enemies that do 100 summon damage at a slow rate. As a stationary minion, frost hydras can be summoned in one place alongside regular and other stationary minions.

Tempest Staff
Legend tells of a staff that can create sharknados just like Duke Fishron-- the tempest staff. It is dropped from Duke Fishron himself (20% chance). The tempest staff summons a mini sharknado that shoots mini sharkrons that do 50 damage at a slow rate.

Crafting/Looting Pt. 3: the Lunar Summoner

When the time comes, you will officially reach endgame. This will be a time of great discovery, depression and growth as you find your way through the two deadly moons, 4 celestial towers, and one heck of a boss fight, and I'm here to take you step by step into the hands of Cthulhu himself!

Spooky Loadout
When the Pumpkin Moon comes, you'll encounter Mourning Woods and Splinterlings on your way to defeating the Pumpking. These two enemies drop a key ingredient in endgame summoning-- spooky wood! Sure it can be used to make structures and furniture, but it's armor is what it's known for. To make Spooky armor, you need 750 spooky wood to make it at a work bench. A full set of spooky armor grants the wearer +3 minion capacity and +58% minion damage. Mourning Wood also drops necromantic scrolls. If worn, these give the wearer +1 minion capacity and +10% minion damage. Necromantic scrolls can also be combined with a hercules beetle to create a papyrus scarab. The raven staff is also part of this loadout and is dropped by the Pumpking (1.79-14.29% chance). The raven staff summons a raven that does 37 summon damage at an average rate.

Xeno Staff
After a long, long battle with the Martians, you've stopped evil once more from conquering the land. Hmm, it seems that while defeating the mercilous Martian saucers, one ship had dropped a piece of Martian tech-- the xeno staff! The xeno staff summons a little UFO to shoot lasers at your enemies. The lasers each do 36 summon damage at a slow rate.

Stardust Loadout
This is it. you are the champion of Terraria. The Moon Lord is down (for now), and all celestial towers are destroyed. Now there's only one thing left to do-- make some stardust armor! To make a full set of stardust armor, you need 36 luminite bars (luminite ore is dropped from the Moon Lord) and 45 stardust fragments (dropped from the stardust tower) at an ancient manipulator. Stardust armor gives the wearer +5 minion capacity and 66% minion damage and a free stardust guardian minion that can be moved all over the screen. Before you defeat the Moon Lord you can craft the stardust cell and stardust dragon staff out of stardust fragments after you destroy the stardust tower. The stardust cell staff summons a stardust cell that shoots smaller stardust cells at enemies that do 60 summon damage at a very slow rate. The stardust dragon staff summons a stardust dragon that does 40 summon damage at a very slow rate. You can summon the stardust dragon multiple times to make it bigger, multiplying it's damage greatly.

Lunar Portal Staff and Rainbow Crystal Staff
The lunar portal staff and rainbow crystal staff are both powerful stationary minions dropped from the Moon Lord. They are the best stationary minions in Terraria! The lunar portal staff summons a lunar portal that shoots lightning that does 50 summon damage at an average rate. The rainbow crystal staff shoots light that does 150 summon damage at an average rate. As stationary minions, lunar portals and rainbow crystals can be summoned in one place alongside regular and other stationary minions. Both minions take a while to hit fast moving targets, though.

"You and what army?"

"You and What Army" is an achievement that is unlocked by having a total of at least 9 minions at one time. The earliest you can unlock it (without cheats) is after you defeat the Pumpkin Moon, and you'll need some money too. Here's the loadout for getting the achievement:

Armor- Tiki Armor
Accesories- Pygmy Necklace, Necromantic Scroll, and a Papyrus Scarab
Minions- Any
Stationary Minions- Any
Potions- Summoning Potion
Misc.- Bewitching Table

The Ultimate Yoyo-Summoner Loadout

To be the ultimate summoner, you must have these things:
Armor- Stardust Armor
Accesories- Menacing Pygmy Necklace, Menacing Necromantic Scroll, Menacing Papyrus Scarab, Menacing Hercules Beetle, Menacing Summoner Emblem, Menacing Yoyo bag
Minions- Ruthless Stardust Dragon Staff
Stationary Minions- Lunar Portal Staff
Yoyo- Godly Terrarian
Potions- Summoning Potion, and Magic Power Potion
Misc.- Stardust Guardian, and a Bewitching Table

Fun Facts

- The four types of pygmies summoned by the pygmy staff represent the four teenage mutant ninja turtles

- The names of the three types of pirates summoned by the pirate staff are named "One Eyed Pirate", "Pirate Captain", and "Soulscourge Pirate"

- The pirates summoned by the pirate staff is a reference to Re-Logic's other game, Pixel Piracy

- Most of the yoyos in Terraria are based on real yoyos created by One Drop Yoyos and have the One Drop logo on them

- The best modifier for all summon weapons is ruthless

- Even though UFOs summoned by the xeno staff have lower damage than sharknados summoned by the tempest staff, the UFOs still shoot twice as fast with 100% accuracy

- The best modifier for all yoyos is godly

- The stardust dragon summoned by the stardust dragon staff can reach 1,700 summon damage (by multiplying the base damage by the amount of parts the stardust dragon has)

- Once summoned, the minion's attack damage will not change even if the summoner removes minion damage enhancing equipment

- For every three times it attacks, the deadly sphere summoned by the deadly sphere staff transforms into another visual form

- The deadly spheres summoned by the deadly sphere staff is a refrence to the film "Phantasm"

- In real life, Redigit is a yoyo enthusiast and makes personal use of One Drop Yoyos

- If a UFO summoned by a xeno staff stumbles too close to the top of the current world, it retreats back to Mars

Community Picked Loadouts

- Terrarian + yoyo bag + counterweight

-Queen spider staff + staff of the frost hydra

-Tiki armor + slime staff

[The Mudkip Mandalorian]

Whips exist now

[aeckar]

Okay, thanks for the feedback; I'll update it soon!

[PoliteHoppip]

Guide not up-to-date. Desert now has a Summoner and Mage equivalent to the Frozen Armor.

[Firecraft77 (Weaboo)]

but i have defeated the eye of cuthulu

[Firecraft77 (Weaboo)]

im doing a expert pure summoner run and i cant defeat queen bee and i have the imp staff with molten armor

[Sundeiru]

@Umbreon - Check the station requirements for the optic staff. I'm pretty sure you need to be near an evil alter to make it.

[nappy]

i cannot make the optic staff even though i got all the stuff.

[tbow]

Really cool and helpful.

[Lucky]

Can you guys please stop commenting ''nice ass'' on my profilerino :(

[Aeronis]

looking to buy some staffs