Shadowbeam Staff

Type	Weapon
Damage	80 (Magic)
Knockback	3.25 (Weak)
Mana	7
Critical chance	4%
Use time	15 (Very fast)
Velocity	606 (effective)
Tooltip	Creates a shadow beam that bounces off walls
Rarity
Sell	6 GC
Research	1 required
Use

This is the main page whose information applies to the Desktop, Console, and Mobile versions of Terraria.
For the differences of this information on Old-gen console and 3DS, see Legacy:Shadowbeam Staff.

The Shadowbeam Staff in action.

The Shadowbeam Staff is a Hardmode, post-Plantera wand that has a 1/20 (5%) / 39/400 (9.75%) chance of being dropped by Necromancers in the Hardmode Dungeon. When used, it fires a purple beam that travels almost instantly to its maximum distance (112.5 tiles), bouncing off blocks on impact. The beam can pierce infinite enemies, but for each enemy hit, its damage is reduced by 10%. Each enemy can only be hit once.

Its best modifier is Mythical.

Notes

The Shadowbeam Staff's beam does not instantly reach full length. It actually takes just under three ticks^[1] (0.05 seconds) to fully extend.^[2]
The Shadowbeam Staff's beam applies 10 ticks^[1] of global immunity frames upon hitting an enemy. Due to its extreme velocity, it cannot hit a target more than once.

Achievements

Robbing the Grave • “Obtain a rare treasure from a difficult monster in the dungeon.”

Obtain a rare item from an enemy in the post-Plantera Dungeon. (Desktop, Console and Mobile versions)

Category:

Explorer

Tips

The Shadowbeam Staff is very effective in the Dungeon or other enclosed underground areas, where the beam can ricochet multiple times and pin down targets. Its ability to quickly light up an entire room can also help in navigating these areas.
Due to its infinite piercing, it is useful against worm enemies like The Destroyer, but only the first few hits for each shot will do significant damage.
When fired against a sloped block, the beam will hug the slope and follow it up, instead of ricocheting off. This can be used to create safe areas (e.g. for events), where the player can attack enemies without taking damage from them.

Trivia

The Shadowbeam Staff's beam is the fastest projectile in Terraria, as it has an effective velocity of 606. This would be equivalent to 3,099 mph.

History

Desktop version

Desktop 1.4.4: Damage increased from 60 to 80.

Desktop 1.4.1:
- Damage increased from 53 to 60.
- Use time decreased from 16 to 15.
- Damage reduction for each target hit reduced from 20% to 10%.

Desktop 1.4.0.1: Sprite updated.

Desktop 1.3.0.1:
- Changed use sound from "Item 8" to "Item 72".
- Drop chance increased from 2.5% to 5%.

Desktop 1.2.0.3:
- Damage decreased from 55 to 53.
- Beams now have diminishing returns.

Desktop 1.2: Introduced.

Console version

Console 1.02: Introduced.

Nintendo Switch version

Switch 1.0.711.6: Introduced.

Mobile version

Mobile 1.2.6508: Introduced.

Nintendo

version

3DS-Release: Introduced.

References

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 A tick is a time unit countable by the software. Most of Terraria's updating logic happens every tick. A tick has the length of 1/60th of a second, hence there are 60 ticks in a second and 3600 ticks in a minute.
↑ The beam has 100 extraUpdates, so it updates 101 times per tick. It has a lifespan of 300 updates. This means the beam more precisely exists for 2.97 ticks (0.0495 seconds).

[tick_desc-1] 1.0 ^1.1 A tick is a time unit countable by the software. Most of Terraria's updating logic happens every tick. A tick has the length of 1/60th of a second, hence there are 60 ticks in a second and 3600 ticks in a minute.

[2] The beam has 100 extraUpdates, so it updates 101 times per tick. It has a lifespan of 300 updates. This means the beam more precisely exists for 2.97 ticks (0.0495 seconds).

[1]

[2]