Attack speed
Attack speed in Terraria refers to the rate at which a weapon can attack. Despite many modifiers and effects showing changes to attack or melee speed, attack speed is not an in-game statistic and is instead determined by its reciprocal, known as use time. This is the amount time it takes to swing (attack with) or use an item. If use time increases, attack speed decreases, and vice versa. For example, a weapon with a use time of 30 will have a lower attack speed (slower rate of fire) than a weapon with a use time of 10. As such, any attack speed modifiers will in actuality act as a variable within the use time equation. However, as shown below, for many melee weapons a change in attack speed (and therefore use time) will have effects other than a change in use time.
While almost all weapons can recieve attack speed modifiers, such as Quick or Legendary, accessories will only ever provide bonuses to melee speed.
Effects on special types of melee weapons
Melee speed bonuses affect different types of melee weapons in different ways. For most endgame weapons, it does not increase DPS, as most of them fall into one of the following categories:
Projectile melee weapons
Melee speed only affects the actual swinging animation and not the rate at which a weapon fires projectiles. For example, a Terra Blade will fire projectiles at the same rate regardless of whether it has a +10% attack speed bonus or a +150% attack speed bonus. Melee speed does, however, affect the speed at which the projectile travels. The Terragrim, Arkhalis, and Starlight's main attacks are considered projectiles, and do not benefit from melee attack speed boosts.
Yoyos
Melee speed bonuses increase the length of a Yoyo's string, but not its attack rate. This can be very helpful in the early game, when yoyos are very short and hard to hit bosses with, and against bosses where you need to keep a distance (such as Empress of Light). The exact multiplier for yoyo string length is (1+3*(melee speed))/4
, where melee speed is 1.0
without buffs. Thus, if the player can reach 2x melee speed through buffs, the yoyo string will be 75% longer.
Flails
Similar to yoyos, Flails do not attack more often with melee speed boosts, but they reach further and shoot out faster, making them much better at hitting flying targets.
Whips
Despite doing summoning damage, Whips are heavily affected by melee speed, making them one of the few endgame weapons whose DPS is directly affected by melee speed.
Spears
Spears gain additional reach from melee speed but not additional DPS. Instead, they move faster during each swing to make up for the increased travel distance.
Boomerangs
Boomerangs gain additional range from melee speed.
Boost gear
Accessories
Item | Attack speed bonus |
---|---|
Fire Gauntlet | 12% |
Feral Claws | 12% |
Berserker's Glove(Desktop, Console and Mobile versions) | 12% |
Power Glove | 12% |
Mechanical Glove | 12% |
Celestial Stone | 10% |
Sun Stone | 10% |
Moon Stone | 10% |
Moon Charm | 5.1% |
Moon Shell | 5.1% |
Celestial Shell(Desktop, Console and Mobile versions) | 15.1% |
Armor
Item | Attack speed bonus |
---|---|
Molten Greaves | 7% |
Hallowed Mask | 10% |
Frost Leggings | 10% |
Palladium Mask | 12% |
Orichalcum Mask | 11% |
Titanium Mask | 9% |
Beetle Scale Mail | 6% |
Beetle Leggings | 6% |
Gi(Desktop, Console, Old-gen console and Mobile versions) | 10% |
Solar Flare Leggings(Desktop, Console and Mobile versions) | 15% |
Monk's Bushy Brow Bald Cap(Desktop, Console and Mobile versions) | 20% |
Shinobi Infiltrator's Torso(Desktop, Console and Mobile versions) | 20% |
Ancient Hallowed Mask(Desktop, Console and Mobile versions) | 10% |
Crystal Assassin Pants(Desktop, Console and Mobile versions) | 10% |
Cobalt armor(with Helmet) | 15% |
Adamantite armor(with Helmet) | 20% |
Beetle armor(with Scale Mail) | up to 30% |
Notes
- The maximum increased attack speed (for melee) is +158.1% using Monk's Bushy Brow Bald Cap (20%), Shinobi Infiltrator's Torso (20%), Solar Flare Leggings (15%), Exquisitely Stuffed (buff) (10%), Tipsy (buff) (10%), and the five accessories Feral Claws (12%), Power Glove (12%), Mechanical Glove (12%), Celestial Shell (15.1% at night) and Berserker's Glove (12%), each reforged to Violent (20%). In Expert Mode Violent Fire Gauntlet can be worn for an extra 16%, with +174.1% total; In Master Mode an additional Violent accessory (As of 1.4.0.1(Desktop, Console and Mobile versions), Sun and Moon Stone and their upgrades' effects no longer stack) can be worn for an extra 4%, with +178.1% total.
- !!Error: Invalid EICONS input! When combined with the fastest melee weapon, the Fetid Baghnakhs, a player may execute a full melee attack in roughly 0.033 seconds, or thirty times per second.
- Mining speed of various tools is however not affected by the bonuses above, it is only boosted by specialized mining bonuses (such as the Mining Potion and Mining armor) and speed bonuses granted by the tool's own modifier, the best of which is Light. The exception is the Celestial Stone (and related accessories), whose bonus to mining speed is stated in the tooltip.
- Enemies' invincibility frames should be taken into consideration when dealing with attack speed. Generally speaking, no invincibility time is applied when referring to projectiles that do not pierce, but those that do pierce or explode are not in this case. Normally it is 1/6 seconds (10 ticks[1]) while there are some exceptions ranging from 5 ticks to 20 ticks.