Terraria’s two penultimate melee weapons - which one is better? 

you and sockrteez are fueling my terraria intake while i take my annual 9 month break

I used to use solar eruption against moon lord back when nurse strat was viable, and I can't get myself to shake the habit. Plus, I like fighting massive groups of enemies, so solar eruption is really nice for that. To each their own of course!

Solar Eruption also has the niche of being a nice weapon to use when fighting things while encased in a box.

I used the Daybreak during my recent Legendary Mode melee playthrough and it carried Moon Lord for me. The Solar Eruption was effective against the invasions, but keeping a safe distance during the fight is very important, and the Solar Eruption is sometimes just very risky to use if you don't have a huge tank build

Daybreak is my favourite weapon in the game, glad to see you like it as well

ever since 1.4, I sorta just completely forgot about solar eruption. It may honestly have to do with the fact that the terra blade is insanely strong at AoE, and I mostly do everything before the pillars+ML. SE is still absolutely great in horde events like the Martian Madness, the Pillars, and especially the Old One's Army events.

Honestly the Daybreak feels so much better to use, I really don't like the erratic hard to aim trajectory of the solar eruption's flail, and changing directions rapidly is really awkward, that's something you don't want when you're getting swarmed by enemies left and right, Daybreak on the other hand is so much more responsive and precise, even if it doesn't pierce, landing just one or two hits on an enemy is often enough for the debuff to take care of them and let you focus on something else, which is really easy cuz switching directions is much faster, and I'm saying all of this as someone who never goes for ranger because I can't aim FOR SHIT, the projectiles of the Daybreak are large and fast enough that even being bad at aiming it's really easy to connect shots.

They cover each other perfectly, solar eruption for crowd control, and Daybreak for single-target, and when used together, it’s perfect for bosses!

Stacking daybreak on one target gives you ridiculous DPS from a ridiculous range. it's what carried me to my first moon lord kill, allowed me to dodge every single on of his attacks by just being a kilometer away and sniping at his heart.

Cool video, awesome editing as usual, it's really exciting to me to see someone like you get to weapon review content especially considering I probably tryhard that part of the game the most However I just got back from doing a copious amount of schoolwork and I have an unstoppable urge to nitpick on good terraria content, so here you go 0:26- The poke at Nebula Blaze and razorblade typhoon misses the mark by quite a lot; Nebula blaze is a highly efficient single-target weapon that just so happens to have a bit of a splash, razorblade typhoon is a very multiple target focused weapon that just so happens to work fine on single targets, while they do share homing this is not an apt comparision at all as they simply do not share the same niche. Also, stardust dragon does have its pros over terraprisma, with the first summon having a big dollop of dps and the stardust dragon overall having a larger enemy detection range (which is a bit useful on moon lord) 1:29- I would highly advise against using dps meter for these calculations; while it provides a fine ballpark most of the times, it also has a plethora of weird issues that may make its numbers inaccurate. Relying on a mixture of calculations and in-game testing is ideal. On this note, dummies are also not the best way to find out dps, as it could also have some weird jank (for example, blood thorn weirdly being better on dummies and phantasm's phantasm arrows straight up not spawning) or just be unhelpful due to not being applicable to ingame situations and having a small hurtbox. Also minor nitpick: While the setup is certainly damage oriented and well and good, using a mount and stuffing more defensive accessories would be best. 2:24- Would also be interesting to note that daybreak is amongst the best weapons to use in extreme dps loadouts utilizing spooky armor and stardust dragon, so daybreak isn't just limited to tanking 4:17- Another minor nitpick: Having to stack 7 hits for the explosion as well as to get any decent dps makes it a horrendous option for multitargets across the board, I think the daybreak is borderline unusable on pillars compared to so many options fact 4:47- Probably hot take but: While solar eruption feels great and is unique, for a pillar weapon, it's area coverage seems to be just decent but all the other factors such as getting rapidly reduced dps with increased range and pretty much only having an actually good dps value on the first target pull it down from being a good weapon at all to me. It is a relic of the 1.3 era when daybreak had 550 base dps and melee weapons in general were quite bad. Now that all is up to speed, its mediocrity becomes evident Also what font do you use lol

If you dont get enough fragments for both craft the solar eruption to beat the pillars then go to the aether dissasemble it and craft the daybreak for moon lord.

"which one should you craft?" shimmer: lol

I love your videos so much, thank you so much for all the effort you put in every single one !!!

I use Solar Eruption religiously as my melee weapon post-pillar. Although Day Break is good, I am biased towards Solar Eruption piercing and dps.

I think as part of these tests, you should compare how fast you can beat moon lord/pillars and not just base it off of raw damage numbers. I wanted to suggest this because the Daybreak is hard to hit with and might fall off on damage because of that.

Wow you mentioned the use for each weapon instead of killing EOC and king slime in seconds. Thank you👏

Okay here’s what you gotta know: Solar eruption for classic mode, and maybe expert mode, if you’re daring. Daybreak for Expert, Master, and Legendary. Bosses hit way too hard at that point to be that close to them.

I personally really like the daybreak, nice to see a video that actually compares the two instead of just saying "eruption better" Perfect at conveying that they are 2 very different weapons with 2 very very different styles of play. One is useful at what the other does worse.

Honestly Terra Blade helped more for clearing pillars since despite doing less damage it had faster attack speed, meanwhile if I wanted to attack enemies on both sides of me with the solar eruption I would have to wait 2 - 3 seconds for the current swing animation to play out

Thankyou so much, this video helped me a lot, i started terraria only a week ago

Hear me out, I think it would be cool as hell if the animation for the daybreak made it so that every time it exploded, a beam of solar energy would shoot back to the player so it looks like you're calling back the spear in the form of energy to throw it again

Finally you did the vedio THANK YOU

If you get the solar eruption first you can then craft the other pillar fragments to make solar fragments for they daybreak, I find this is the most convenient. Or you could just use possessed hatchet for everything and just get the daybreak for extra damage on ML

In conclusion: The Daybreak buff made it more effective against single targets, while Solar Eruption is better for attacking hordes of enemies.

I use the solar eruption to hit the top eye after the laser and to destroy the core in the second phase; the daybreak (or more accurately the terra blade) is what I use to hit the hands in the first phase. I prefer terrablade to daybreak as it is more accurate with the large projectiles and doesn't arc when fired. Btw, solar eruption is just better for tanks setups because you can afford to be that close when you can take around 10 hits from ML before being in real danger, making it not so bad to get so close to his eyes and core. Oh yeah forgot to mention, daybroken is massively nerfed against moonlord because it wipes the debuff when he blinks.

Awesome VIDEO!!!!

I got the Daybreak on my first Terraria run, and I loved it. It’s one of the many reasons that melee is my favorite class.

I personally always liked the daybreak. It's fun and satisfying to use, and it always was even before the explosion was added. So I always used the daybreak before

You could do a video on "how the worm scarf gets worse on higher difficulties", because it's damage reduction is calculated after defense is applied, so the higher your defense the less of an impact the WS has. If I remember correctly the worm scarf provides around 11% DR in master mode because of the better defense scaling in that difficulty, making it noticeably worse than the brain of confusion, that in general negates 16.7% of damage taken thanks to the dodge because a 1 in 6. Plus you get a buff when ever you do dodge. Making the BoC objectively better than the WS as long as you have defense. In practice you probably wouldn't notice much difference on the performance of the WS, but the difference between -17% and -11% from a 300 damage hit isn't small. You might think it saves you 17% (51 dmg) from the hit but it only saves 11% (33 dmg).

I like using the solar eruption rather than the daybreak because the daybreak takes aim, which isn't the easiest on console, while the eruption has that wide sweep, making it easy to hit stuff. If I was to use keyboard and mouse, I'd probably like daybreak more though.

Solar Eruption is good for the first phase of the moon lord fight, if you can afford to get really close up because the eyes do no damage that matters. Once it hits 2nd form, Daybreak is the champ

as a melee main I loved the solar eruption, but recently I've been using the daybreak more because the flail effect makes it hard to hit small, far targets (especially moon lord eyes). I never realised how much this hindered the weapon from its full potential until i tested it properly. don't get me wrong - I still love it and I still think it's a great weapon, I just opt for the daybreak more now.

Are you going to compare the weapons whit each other or are you also gonna compare the pre pillars weapons?

aah. So that's why he says: "Good day and goodbye" in his outros. Cool Daybreak reference

I find it hilarious that the major factor that makes the best melee weapon is the fact it's a ranged weapon.

Bit of some useless information just to intrigue people. A handful of sprites used in novelty items and ambience are actually “Gore.” When pots are broken, confetti is thrown or leaves get blown out of trees and onto the ground, those are among the hundreds, near thousands of sprites - these special effects are internally treated as gore which allows them to persist longer, be affected by wind and gravity, and fade after some time. It’s not just pots and leaves though, it’s a whole bunch of other shit you wouldn’t expect. I suggest y’all take a look at them on your own time. It all begins to makes sense once you give it a little thought.

WHAT TEXTURE PACK ARE YOU USING FOR THAT COOL GUI?

The sprite for the solar eruption at the end looks alien even though it should be rather familiar

I like the daybreak because it looks really cool and the stacking debuff kills daytime skeletron and skeletron prime really fast

bro making the youtube title like he goin through a series of unfortunate events

A few more points for comparison: the daybreak has fairly difficult range as well due to arcing after a while (average melee speed won't let it fly too far from you even, and the melee armor at this stage potentially offering variable increases to melee speed only hurts its consistency more) and the daybreak suffers insanely if the target has any means of invulnerability, since in this case the lodged spears just explode and don't damage it at all. I've noted it struggled a fair bit to keep up on empress when she used her dash and became momentarily invulnerable, and especially lunatic since he's invulnerable every time he relocates. In ML's case, it wouldbe relevant since the eyes periodically close and become invulnerable, but with the heart I would expect it to perform maximally.

Have you tried combining the desert tiger staff and the firecracker. The firecracker explosion deals 2.75 x the damage of ur minion and since the DTS does around 500 damage ur firecracker will deal around 1500 dmg per crack of the whip. Plus the damage of the DTS is really good in itself

Personally as someone who is bad at dodging in terraria I love a good DOT debuff weapon because it let's me keep some damage going as I run and hide to regen health

I kinda prefer the terra blade. It was doing far more dps than either of the to during my moonlord fight. I haven’t used it after the nerf but is was a small one so I doubt it changed.

What do you use to make your 3d models in your thumbnails?

I personally never liked the day break because i had to aim. With the eruption i just just hold my mouse in the general directiong and focus on not dying

These analytical videos are god tier🔥

Well I'm here because of the algorithm and now I want the other videos.

I just use the solar eruption because it looks cool and gives me the feels of using an endgame weapon instead of a buffed javalein, that's really it.

Finally! Someone who has done the work to show the absolute superiority of the Daybreak!

Great video, and it holds up because as you said you want to defeat the moonlord and many weapons in this stage can deal with invasions (eg: terrablade, flying dragon) Can't wait for the other videos

0:24 New Terra Blade would like to have a word.

everyone: using daybreak or solar eruption for ML me: MEGASHARK GO BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

This year I finally finished Terraria for the first time without abusing mods or Journey mode after like 10 or slightly longer after I had first bought it! So the next thing I wanted to do was a semi-true expert run. I got stuck on Moon Lord (EoL and Duke too), so I had to look up how to beat him and found the nice cheese strat of equipping the Cross Necklace or Star Veil and any armor that grants regen. By defeating one of ML's hand eyes, you can use the eye socket's low damage to become invincible with the longer iFrames, and the Solar Eruption is perfect for this strat as you have to stay close to him at all time and Daybreak is useful when you have to hit the other hand eye. I say semi-true expert run as I was in Journey mode just so I can dupe stuff and control time/weather (never used Godmode though, that is just un-fun). I would've done a Journey mode run afterwards anyway, so why not do it now? Heck I put my self the challenge of researching everything 100% so I'm now doing just that.

I beat moonlord yesterday and I actually found eruption pretty good, because of how many times it hits. Then again, I haven't made daybreak yet so there is that.

one thing that was overlooked is that you can make a box with your nurse on the box so that you force the moon lord to stay near you while the solar eruption will pierce through the walls of the box which will deal a lot more damage than the daybreak because you are using the solar eruption at a target that is near you.

I choose solar eruption because I'm stuck living in 1.3

I LOVE THE DRAEDON MOTIFF

Daybreak is my personal favourite, but because of moon lords small hitboxes I always prefer solar eruption

I use both against MoonLord, infact its almost impossible to not get both of them in your first ML boss fight, since you can stillhave enough in one Solar pillar, it gives more in higher difficulty or you could just Craft them with 3 of the fragments of each pillar. The Solar Eruption would always be the best for the first Phase for me, i like being up close and risking it, of course im being mindful of he’s attacks I switch to the Daybreak if i want to play safe or if its the 2nd Phase of Moonlord, once 2nd phase starts its basically over and its easy to kill him from that point Just run to any direction, get a good aim and stop moving up and down that much, keep yourself steady while you run away and throw as many as you can, build up the Solar debuff on he’s heart, he’ll die faster than any class pre-moonlord with just ease, and finish him off with a Solar Eruption for the final Blow. Would also like to add, the Daybreak was a very underrated weapon back then, it was already good the way it was before the buffs, but everyone just sleep on it, i like the buffs tho and they are very deserving as well, but the Daybreak was never bad in the first place Is my point.

0:24 I wouldn't say the stardust dragon is worse than terraprisma definitively; I'd say it actually performs better against moon lord than terraprisma does, which is kinda the point.

I would say the daybreak is better for Expert and master, But solar eruption is good for Classic, also its very good for pillars

As a melee player i like keeping both of them in my hotbar since they both do their job well in different situations

I played another round once 1.4.4 came out and said “Y’know, I should really try out the daybreak for once” and it did WORK against both the moon lord and in my attempts against daytime EoL

It's worth noting the solar eruption doesn't actually qualify as a flail-type weapon.

In zenith world. The solar eruption is needed as pillars are underground while daybreak for moonlord.

This guy is the Terraria version of "Solar Sans"

I used a combo of the two for moon lord, in the first phase I could burst down the eyes and the hands fast, with little aiming required, when his core opens the day break was used for its range, and I just ran as fast as possible while launching spears

average daybreak fan average solar eruption enjoyer

I've long felt that the Daybreak is superior in the hands of a skilled player, while the Solar Eruption is superior in the hands of a novice.

Before update of Terrablade Solar Eruption was my choice for Moon-Lord. Mostly because I can't aim and because dodging is not that much of a problem for me. And also because when I play melee a want to be, you know, melee) Solar Eruption gives you feeling of being melee and rewards you for staying close to enemy)

I'm gonna say this again because people are apparently still debating this. They have different uses Solar Eruption: AOE damage with crowd control Daybreak: Single target DPS with excellent range One is not better than the other.

But it's hard to kill the healing thing from the moonlord's tongue with daybreak so he gets all his health back anyways while with the solar eruption you are almost guaranteed to hit the tongue each swings

What I took away from this video is that I haven't played a single run of melee in like 7 years

The Daybreak is one of my favorite weapons in the game- 1. It has a badass name 2. It is super fun to use 3. It is great for moon lord fight and basically any non-worm enemy. Solar Eruption for pillars, Daybreak for moonlord

Imho the Daybreak is relevant even post moon lord for non-melee classes because a lot of the DPS is from the Daybroken effect

I think part of Daybreaks' rap is also because, despite being a spear, you can't use it in melee, you can ONLY throw it away. It's melee, but also, 100% definitely NOT melee. So it's a weird one. Yes, OFC, the extreme range on Eruption is ALSO not melee, but at least you're still holding the thing, yeah? Terraria has always had a loose definition of melee, but Daybreak really just shoves it in your face that you are really just playing tankier Ranged sometimes.

Random idea, what if when an enemy died, any daybreak spears still in them would fall and potentially hit more enemies instead of despawning

I used daybreak for moonlord in calamity bc when I tried Solar eruption i couldnt hit him while using my strategy (running constantly with cosmic car keys)

I crafted the solar eruption but then just ended up using the possessed hatchet for the moon lord, not having to focus on aiming or getting close was just worth a small dps loss. Curious, has anyone else tried this and found it viable?

Thing is that Daybreak is just an easier weapon to use against the moon lord, as the major strategy is to keep to moon lords sides in the first phase, and in the second phase you just want to travel horizontally at like 55 mph to dodge all eye attacks and chip at the core. The solar eruption is more inconsistent and has less range, making it not as reliable for taking down the moon lord. Additionally, it works best with tank builds because it’s shorter range means that you’ll take more hits than you would with daybreak. Against events though, I would still use terrablade. Terra blade has better range, a much better hit box, and takes no brainpower to use. At this point in the game you probably have an infinite flight mount, so going through walls doesn’t matter as much unless you’re against the solar pillar, which melee is the best at dealing with, especially the terrablade as it’s projectiles aren’t reflectable and they destroy the enemy projectiles.

What about erruption physics video? Like one on daybreak

u really love that daybreak huh

im someone with a very aggressive approach to bosses, so even if I'm mage, my main class, I'm always next to the boss or enemy. i take the solar eruption over daybreak every time since it match's my aggressive style.

1:27 WHAT ARE THOOOSSSEEEE

me: plays melee to not focus too much on targeting so of course I use solar eruption. sure, it does more dmg, but a bit of dmg is more as 0 dmg

i ended up ignoring this choice entirely and used the terra blade lmao

Is there no other flail like the solar eruption in base game? Can the solar eruption even be considered a flail?

The other weakness imo about the solar eruption to me is, well...for a "flail" it's extremely inaccurate and spreads way too broadly to get consistent DPS, especially for high speed targets. (Ik this doesn't really count) but also in modded terraria, if you haven't obtained zenith by the time moon lord is dead for post ML content like calamity or other mods....the solar eruption might not be able to hit a blasted thing unless the mobs do a drive by in it's blade or sit still long enough

Rare Daybreak win, I like it. I feel like everyone chooses eruption

But you can use a box method to cheese moon lord with the solar eruption

can you give me the link for the UI pack?

It's terraria time, yaayyy

Mages: look what they need to mimic a fraction of our power.

You forgot to mention that the moon lords eyes close for a second pretty often just to wash away all debunks, which can be pretty annoying with the daybreak.

it was so funny to beat moon lord in 1.4.4 for the first time and seeing terra blade does more reliable damage than both of them

Fighting moon lord with solar weapons is kinda poetical, killing a god that stole its power from the sun with the power of sun

personally even before the decay explosion was added i still believe the daybreak was the better option. it was just simply more consistent against moon lord, while eruption always needed a bunch of blocks for defensive support and was still dubious at best, i mean is it really a viable option if you have to go back to the nurse every 15 seconds?

remeber 1.3 solar eruption was literally the worst nightmare of moon lord

I use strategies for both of these weapons. Solar Eruption for Lunar Pillar enemies, while Daybreak for fighting against the final boss, Moon Lord. They are equally extremely overpowered in my opinion.