For players who prefer magic weapons, Terraria has implemented a separate corresponding category, which includes staves. Some of them cast combat spells, while others activate auxiliary effects. Optic Staff and Pygmy Staff, by contrast, are separate subcategory and are among the summoning weapons.
In this article, you can find detailed, helpful information about these two staves and find out their advantages and disadvantages in comparison with each other.
Optic staff in Terraria
The Optic Staff is one of the unique Hardmode summon weapons, materializing a miniature version of The Twins in their second form.
Using the identical versions of attacks as The Twins, they attack all opponents in a radius close to the player. The summoned pair of minions, named Spazmamini and Retinamini, deal damage with a ramming attack and ranged laser attack. However, in addition to size, these minions have essential differences from the boss on which they are made. Unlike the Twins boss, the minions are not connected by a tendril. Furthermore, Spazmamini does not spew Cursed Flames as Spazmatism does.
Like other minions, familiars summoned with the Optic Staff will be invulnerable and immune to enemy attacks. They will disappear only if the minions are called to replace them, the player leaves the world, the character dies, or the corresponding buff disappears. Their presence is not limited in time.
The maximum damage dealt with minions summoned by the standard version of the Optic Staff is 30. Attacks also inflict minor knockback. A single use of a weapon will require ten mana from the player.
Minions summoned with this Staff are very useful against dense groups of opponents and bosses that consist of segments due to piercing attacks. In addition, in battles with bosses, the player’s hand will be played by the fact that each of the eyes attacks individually.
Since the Optic Staff is categorized as a summoning weapon, modifiers of the appropriate category can be applied to it. Among the Magic and summoning modifiers, Ruthless is the best choice. It is worth noting that the improvement of this weapon will not affect the weapon itself but the creatures they summon.
For crafting, the player will need a workplace, namely Mythril Anvil or Orichalcum Anvil. Crafting the Optic Staff itself as ingredients will require 1 Black Lens, 2 Lens, 12 Hallowed Bars, and 20 Souls of Sight.
Pygmy Staff in Terraria
The Pygmy Staff is a Hardmode, post-Plantera summon weapon. With the help of this Staff, the player can call pygmies to his side. These minions attack at long range with spears. Their presence and player support are not limited in time. They will disappear only if the minions are called to replace them, the player leaves the world, the character dies, or the corresponding buff disappears.
You can get the Pygmy Staff by killing Plantera. It drops from the boss with a 25% chance (50% chance in Expert mode).
The spear attack mechanics of these minions are non-standard. Its peculiarity is that in one attack, they throw two spears at once, the first of which will be of the piercing type. Besides, there is a 2/3 chance that a spear thrown by a pygmy will be poisoned. In the event of a hit with such a throw, the enemy has immediately imposed a poisoning debuff, which will last from 10 to 21 seconds. Also, there is a 1/3 chance that the enemy will receive Venom debuff for the same duration. The first prevents health regeneration and causes the afflicted NPC or player to lose two health per second. The second is an enhanced version of the first, but it will deal 30 damage per second in its case. An important feature is that It is one of only four weapons in the game that can inflict Venom without any buffs or bonuses, the others being the Spider Staff, the Venom Staff, and the Queen Spider Staff. The problem with pygmies is that their attacks are likely to be inaccurate, so there is always the possibility that they will miss on the next throw.
Since Pygmy Staff belongs to the category of summoning weapons, modifiers of the corresponding type can be applied to it. Among the Magic and summoning modifiers, Ruthless will be the best. In this case, the improvement of this weapon will also affect not the weapon itself but the creatures they summon.
When using Pygmy Staff, minions with the appearance of one of 4 possible models will spawn. At the same time, there will be no functional difference among them.
With a standard staff type without modifiers, minions will deal up to 34 damage per attack. There is also a slight knockback and a short stun of the enemy when hit with a spear. Pygmy Staff requires ten mana per use.
Pygmy Staff vs Optic Staff in Terraria
Having figured out the main characteristics, features, advantages and disadvantages of the two given summoning staves, now we can compare them with each other.
First of all, you should pay attention to the minions themselves and the type of their attack. With identical requirements for the call, in the case of the Optic staff, the player receives two minions at once, which are regarded as one. At the same time, Pygmy staff only allows you to summon one familiar at a time. The first one wins in several ways at once: simultaneous attack of two creatures at once, constant piercing damage, two attack models of minions, suitable for different situations and types of opponents. Minions summoned by Optic staff are also more mobile due to flight. Pygmies are terrestrial creatures, so it will be difficult for them to reach and hit the enemy with a spear in some cases. Also, do not forget about the built-in inaccuracy of pygmy attacks, affecting their effectiveness in battles and overall DPS. Even though Pygmy Staff wins by 4 in terms of damage, the overall DPS will still be on the side of the Optic staff.
Optic staff are also at a clear advantage in terms of getting them. Firstly, this weapon is crafted, and its receipt is not tied to the percentage probability. In addition, if the player goes through the bosses in the standard order (the battle with The Twins takes place before the fight with Plantera), this Staff will be able to be obtained earlier than the Pygmy staff. The ingredients for creating the Optic staff themselves are not hard to get.
The only advantages of Pygmy Staff over Optic staff include the probability of triggering the Poisoned and Venom effect when hitting the enemy with the corresponding spear, as well as small stuns on successful attacks.
Based on the preceding, we can unequivocally say that Optic staff outperforms Pygmy Staff in almost all criteria and is preferable if the player cannot decide which of these two staffs to build the game from.