Imp Staff

   

Desktop/Console/Old-gen console/Mobile-Only Content: This information applies only to the Desktop, Console, Old-gen console, and Mobile versions of Terraria.

Imp Staff

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Statistics

Type	Weapon
Damage	17 / 21 (Summon)
Knockback	2 (Very weak)
Mana	10
Use time	36 (Very slow)
Velocity	10
Tooltip	Summons an imp to fight for you
Rarity	03*
Sell	54 / 1
Research	1 required

Grants Buff

Buff	Imp
Buff tooltip	The imp will fight for you

Projectile created

• Flying Imp
  

Sounds

Use

• Internal Item ID: 2365
• Internal Buff ID: 126
• Internal Projectile ID: 375

A Flying Imp attacking a Skeleton. Note its attack's piercing ability.

The Imp Staff is a pre-Hardmode summon weapon. It spawns a miniature Flying Imp minion that follows the player around and fires fireballs at enemies. The Imp's fireballs always inflict the On Fire! debuff for 3–6 seconds, and travel in a straight line, piercing up to 4 enemies. Like other minions, the summoned Imp is invincible and follows the player for an unlimited amount of time, unless the player dies, summons a replacement minion, cancels the buff, or leaves the world.

Its best modifier is Mythical. Rounding reveals that both the Mythical and Ruthless modifiers provide the same increase to damage, increasing it from 17 to 20.

Its best modifier is Ruthless. The Mythical modifier provides the widest array of stat bonuses, but these primarily affect the initial summon rather than the resulting minion. Additionally, minions cannot deal critical hits. The only lasting advantage a Mythical Imp Staff has over a Ruthless one is knockback.

Crafting

Recipes

Result	Ingredients	Crafting station
Imp Staff	Hellstone Bar17	Iron Anvil or Lead Anvil

Notes

• The Imp attacks with an average rate of fire of once every 1.25 seconds. The delay between attacks can range between 0.75 and 1.5 seconds.
• While the Imp can fly through water, its fireball projectiles cannot travel through water. They stop at the water's surface and will not appear at all when the Imp is submerged in water. Regardless, the Imp will still attempt to fire at underwater enemies.

Tips

• Despite receiving a fire rate buff in  Desktop version,  Console version, and  Mobile version, it has a significantly slower fire rate than the Hornet Staff. This means that its damage output is only slightly better against a single target.
  • Due to their very slow attack speed, they receive very little benefit from whip tag damage or armor penetration compared to the much faster Vampire Frog Staff or even the Flinx Staff.
• Multiple imps will consistently interfere with each other due to how piercing damage works.
• It is possible to obtain this weapon at the very start of the game without having to defeat a boss, giving early summoners a huge advantage. This can be done by fishing a Reaver Shark at the Ocean, which requires nothing more than a Reinforced Fishing Pole and Enchanted Nightcrawlers as bait. With the Reaver Shark, the player can immediately venture to the Underworld and obtain Hellstone in order to craft the Imp Staff.
  • As of 1.4.0.1, the Reaver Shark's pickaxe power has been significantly reduced, rendering it unable to mine Hellstone.
• When an Imp is summoned using the Imp Staff with an enemy in its line of sight, it will usually fire immediately. This means that continuous summoning will generally give the Imp a more consistent fire rate, though this is weaker than using a Ballista Rod, which has higher base damage.

History

 Desktop version

• Desktop 1.4.4.9: Sell value decreased from 1 to 54.

• Desktop 1.4.1.2: Enemy immune frames caused by Imp attacks have been reduced from 10 to 6.

• Desktop 1.4.0.1:
  • Fire rate increased dramatically.
  • Damage decreased from 21 to 17.

• Desktop 1.3.1: Sprite updated.

• Desktop 1.2.4.1:
  • Added requirement of 10 mana.
  • Fixed a bug where the minion buff did not disappear upon leaving a world.

• Desktop 1.2.4: Introduced.

 Nintendo Switch version

• Switch 1.0.711.6: Introduced, requires 10 mana.

 Console version

• Console 1.0.1372.5: Sprite updated to match Desktop 1.3.1.

• Console 1.08: Introduced, requires 10 mana.

 Mobile version

• Mobile 1.2.11212: Introduced, requires 10 mana.