Terraria Melee Loadout Build Guide
The Melee Class is one of the few character builds available in the Terraria 1.4.2 Journey's End patch. The Melee equipment loadouts rely on being close to the enemy in order to dish out high amounts of damage. If you're playing Terraria on normal mode you'll notice that monsters become very strong later in the game and in case you're on expert their stats are boosted even more. To win fights versus monsters that are so strong, you've got to pick the best and strongest melee builds for your character. In this Terraria 1.4.2 Melee Class Setup guide we'll show you the top melee loadouts for all stages of the game (from early game, pre-hardmode all the way to endgame). In case you find this melee equipment cheat sheet helpful, don't hesitate to bookmark it!
Table of contents
- Best Pre-Boss Melee Equipment
- Best Pre-Hardmode Melee Equipment
- Best Mechs Melee Equipment
- Best Plantera Melee Equipment
- Best Golem Melee Equipment
- Best Duke Fishron Melee Equipment
- Best Celestial Events Melee Equipment
- Best Endgame Melee Equipment
- Conclusion
Pre-Boss
Armor
Gold or Platinum Armor sets are both a great choice when you're gearing up and preparing for killing some of the easier bosses. The Gold armor set provides 16 Defense while the Platinum Armor set is a bit stronger, boosting Defense up to 20. Both of these can be mined with a Copper pickaxe so obtaining them should not pose a problem.
Gold Armor - crafted by 90 Gold Bars at a Iron/Lead Anvil.
Platinum Armor - crafted by 90 Gold Bars at Iron/Lead Anvil.
Weapons
Gold and Platinum Swords are the best melee range weapons in the pre-boss category. Though, since Yoyos and Boomerangs are also melee weapons they are a much preferred choice with Amazon being the favorite early game Yoyo. Most players do not know this, but buffs to melee speed actually make the Yoyo range bigger.
Amazon can be crafted from: 8 Rich Mahogany, 2 Stingers, 1 Vine and 3 Jungle Spores at an Iron/Lead Anvil.
Enchanted Boomerang can be acquired from any Golden Chests you might find in the world.
Pre-Hardmode
Armor
Molten Armor is the clear winner here, with a whopping 25 Defense bonus and a 17% melee damage boost. You'll have to reach Hell though, since it requires Hellstone Bars to be crafted.
Molten Armor can be crafted from 45 Hellstone Bars at an Iron or Lead Anvil.
Weapons
Night's Edge dominates in the Sword category, whilst Dark Lance is a good alternative if you like to cheese monsters through blocks or enjoy the higher pushback it offers. As far as Yoyos and Boomerangs go, Cascade and Flamarang are the clear picks as they deal high damage and burn enemies as well.
Night's Edge can be crafted from Blood Butcherer, Muramasa, Blade of Grass and Fiery Greatsword at a Demon Altar or Light's Bane, Muramasa, Blade of Grass and Fiery Greatsword at a Crimson Altar.
Dark Lance can be found in Shadow Chests which spawn in the Underworld.
Cascade can only be dropped, it has a 0.25% (1/400) chance of being dropped by any enemy in or near The Underworld after Skeletron has been defeated.
Flamarang can be crafted from 10 Hellstone Bars and 1 Enchanted Boomerang at an Iron or Lead Anvil.
Accessories
Feral Claws boost the melee speed by 12% and can be found in Jungle Shrines with Ivy Chests and Jungle Crates.
Counterweight fires a second projectile after hitting an enemy with a Yoyo, incredibly useful and can be bought from the Travelling & Skeleton Merchants for 5 Gold.
String increases the Yoyo range and can be crafted from 30 Cobwebs at a Loom.
Pre-Mechanical Bosses
Armor
Titanium set (with Titanium Mask) grants a whopping 49 Defense bonus and 8% melee damage, speed and critical chance boost to your character. The alternative, Adamantite set gives 50 Defense and 14% melee damage + 7% critical strike chance.
Both sets can be crafted at a Mythril or Orichalcum Anvil, Titanium armor will cost 59 Titanium Bars while Adamantite is a bit cheaper as it takes 54 Adamantite Bars.
Weapons
Adamantite and Titanium sword are easily accessible at this point, but the main goal should be acquiring the Fetid Baghnakhs, Amarok and Ice Sickle. Fetid Baghnakhs excels as the fastest attack speed Sword and Amarok is a strong Yoyo with the frostburn debuff.
Fetid Baghnakhs can be gotten from Crimson Mimics and it has a 20% chance to drop.
The Amarok on the other hand is a bit trickier to acquire, it has a 1 in 300 (0.33%) chance to drop from any enemy defeated in a Snow Biome. It can also drop in a Corrupt/Crimsoned or Hallowed Snow Biome.
Ice Sickle fires a projectile with no mana or ammo cost and it has a 0.56% chance of being dropped by Armored Viking, Ice Elemental, Icy Merman, and Ice Tortoise in the Hardmode Snow Biome.
Accessories
The Warrior Emblem increases all melee damage by 15% and it has a high drop chance from Wall of Flesh. Power Glove increases melee knockback and 12% melee speed, it can be crafted from a Titan Glove and Feral Claws at the Tinkerer's Workshop. Lastly, the Yoyo Bag is a must-have as it allows the user to attack with two Yoyos at once. Craftable from one Yoyo glove, White String and a Counterweight.
Pre-Plantera
Armor
The Turtle Armor is a popular Pre-Plantera set for melee characters because it reflects the damage enemies do to you pre-mitigation. It is somewhat hard to acquire because you need a lot of Chlorophyte to craft it. Though, if you have a Cholophyte farm it shouldn't be too hard, and you should definitely make one if you haven't by now.
The Turtle Armor is crafted from 54 Chlorophyte Bars and 3 Turtle Shells at a Mythril/Orichalcum Anvil.
Weapons
Terra Blade is the third highest damage sword in the game and it also autoswings. Chlorophyte Partisan is excellent as it's an easy to get, powerful weapon for those with a Chlorophyte ore farm. Death Sickle is an awesome melee weapon because it can fire projectiles which hit through walls. As far as Yoyos go, you'll want to get Yelets as it is a powerful Hardmode Yoyo.
To craft the Terra Blade you'll need to use True Night's Edge and True Excalibur at a Mythril/Orichalcum Anvil.
Chlorophyte Partisan is crafted from 12 Chlorophyte Bars at a Mythril/Orichalcum Anvil.
The Death Sickle can drop from Reapers which appear during a Solar Eclipse.
Lastly, the Yelets can be dropped after any Mechanical Boss has been killed, it has a 0.5% chance to drop from any enemy killed in the Jungle and Underground Jungle, including in the Jungle Temple.
Accessories
Warrior & Avenger Emblems are high damage boost accessories for your melee damage. The Fire Gauntlet is very useful as it increases melee knockback and inflicts fire damage on attack. Along with that, it also gives 10% increased melee damage and speed. The Yoyo bag is still kept as it's the most useful accessory you can have for Yoyo builds.
Pre-Golem
Armor
The Turtle Armor is still the best choice even for Golem.
Weapons
The Terra Blade is still a solid choice for pure melee encounters. The 2nd weapon slot got replaced by Vampire Knives as they're an incredible melee damage dealing weapon that lifesteals. The sustain from Vampire Knives is great for clearing a group of monsters and staying alive.
Eye of Cthulhu is the best post-Plantera Yoyo with a range of 23 tiles which makes it the second strongest Yoyo in the game. Lastly, Paladin's Hammer is a strong boomerang with extremely high knockback and velocity.
The Vampire Knives are always found inside the Dungeon's Crimson Chest in Crimson worlds which requires a Crimson key.
To get the Eye of Cthulhu you'll need to farm Mothron during a Solar Eclipse as it can only drop from it with a 25% chance.
Paladin's Hammer has a 6.6% chance to be dropped from Paladins in post-Plantera Dungeon areas.
Accessories
Same accessory loadout as before, as those are the best for a melee build at this point.
Pre-Duke Fishron
Armor
A direct upgrade to the Turtle Set, the Beetle Armor has 61 Defense and Beetles which increase your Melee damage and speed. To upgrade the Turtle Set into Beetle Armor (with Scale mail) you'll need 18 Beetle Husk at a Mythril/Orichalcum Anvil.
Weapons
Swap the Terra Blade while for Influx Weaver while keeping all the other weapons as they're still great at this point in the game. Influx Weaver fires projectiles in a straight line towards the cursor and these projectiles essentially boomerang back onto the enemy twice.
To get the Influx Weaver has a 11.11% chance to be dropped by a Martian Saucer during the Martian Madness event.
Accessories
Same set of accessories as before, but with the addition of the Destroyer Emblem which gives 10% increased damage, 8% increased critical strike chance. The Destroyer Emblem can be crafted from an Avenger Emblem and Eye of the Golem at the Tinkerer's Workshop.
Pre-Celestial Events
Armor
Beetle Armor with the Scale Mail is still best in slot.
Weapons
Swap Paladin's Hammer for Flairon. The Flairon is incredible as it features high range and attack speed while doing a good chunk of damage and knocking back any enemies that might get near. Everything else stays the same.
Accessories
Same accessories as before will be fine for the Celestial Events.
Endgame
Armor
The Solar Flare armor set is just awesome, it provides you with 78 Defense along with many melee boosts. It also features a unique effect, it generates solar shields overtime which you can use to dash and deal high damage to enemies you pass through.
- +17% melee critical hit chance
- +22% melee damage
- +15% melee speed
- +15% movement speed
Crafting the Solar Flare armor can be a daunting process as you need 45 Solar Fragments and 36 Luminite Bars at an Ancient Manipulator crafting station.
Weapons
As you might notice, all the previous weapons have been replaced by new and much stronger counterparts. The Meowmere has the highest base damage out of all weapons in Terraria latest patch. The Star Wrath on the other hand, is an incredible ranged weapon that shoots projectiles which deal double the Sword's damage.
The Terrarian is the best Yoyo in the game, it can be in the air infinitely and it fires short-lived projectiles at a rapid rate. The projectiles will home in on nearby enemies and bounce off of walls.
Last spot is occupied by the Solar Eruption, a melee weapon that fires a spear projection that bounces back to the caster. Therefore, it deals double damage to anyone found in its path. Along with that, it also applies the Daybroken debuff.
The Meowmere, Star Wrath and Terrarian have a 11.11% chance to be dropped by the Moon Lord.
As far as Solar Eruption goes, you'll need 18 Solar Fragments at an Ancient Manipulator to craft one.
Accessories
The only addition to the best end-game melee accessory set is the Mechanical Glove. It boosts knockback by 70% and increases melee damage and speed by 12%.
To craft the Mechanical Glove you'll need a Power Glove and Avenger Emblem at a Tinkerer's Workshop.
Conclusion
The Terraria Melee class build is a very popular one among the playerbase because it is perfect for beginners due to its high defensive capabilities. On top of that, it's also quite strong and there's a lot of tricks you can do utilizing Spears and Yoyos-- box yourself in, make a single tile hole and kill enemies safely being one of them. In case you decided the Melee class loadout is just not for you, make sure to check out our other Terraria loadout guides!