In-depth accessory guide (2024)

Enables horizontal hovering for a few seconds

The best early mobility accessory. Great for extending air time and also pretty useful for overland travel. It can instantly stop your vertical momentum at any time, potentially saving you from nasty fall damage. But you should boost with a grappling hook if you need to rapidly change your horizontal direction, because its acceleration isn't that great.

After you have full access to flight, the Flying Carpet kicks in after your flight time wears off, which is mildly useful as a last line of mobility and can help you get that critical grapple off, but generally you'd want to avoid being forced to do that.

Frog Leg
Increases ascent speed, enables auto-jump, can fall 15 additional blocks of distance before taking fall damage

Great for vertical mobility, and only gets better once you have access to wings. The boost to vertical ascent speed is enormous, but as far as I can tell, it doesn't actually increase flight time like the wiki says it does.

Frostspark Boots (Aglet, Anklet of the Wind, Rocket Boots, Flurry/Hermes/Sailfish Boots, Ice Skates)
+8% movement speed, enables sprinting, adds 1.6 seconds of flight, increases acceleration on all types of ice blocks (excluding Frozen Slime) and prevents Thin Ice from breaking

The ability to sprint makes a great deal of difference in most boss fights, but nowhere is this more apparent than against the Wall of Flesh. Lightning Boots/Frostspark Boots are the best standalone mobility accessory in pre-hardmode, both for grounded and aerial movement. After hardmode starts, it remains useful thanks to its sprint and flight time boost, but definitely becomes more of an optional accessory, especially after you can make a Hoverboard.

To use the sprint to its full effect, it is critical that you form the habit of grapple boosting: that is to say, shooting the grappling hook and releasing it before it fully winds you in, providing nice initial speed in the direction you choose. This allows you to sprint immediately.

Horseshoe Balloon (Cloud in a Bottle/Blizzard in a Bottle/Sandstorm in a bottle/Tsunami in a Bottle/Fart in a Jar, Shiny Red Balloon/Balloon Pufferfish, Lucky Horseshoe)
Enables double jump, increases jump height, negates fall damage

Aside from gaining extra vertical distance with the double jump, it can also be used immediately from the ground to gain instant vertical momentum. You can stack double jumps of different types, but one is all you really need unless you're going for some serious air time. If you have the luxury of choosing which one to use, Sandstorm > Fart > Blizzard > Tsunami > Cloud.

After you have access to wings, the Balloon effect still improves your flight range, so don't be too quick to ditch your Horseshoe Balloon.

Bundle of Balloons (Cloud in a Bottle, Blizzard in a Bottle, Sandstorm in a Bottle, Shiny Red Balloon x3)
Enables three double jumps, increases jump height

Unless you've explored a large number of worlds, or spent an ungodly amount of time fishing for and opening Sky Crates, you don't have this. Assuming that you do, it's a very powerful mobility accessory. Just be careful with fall damage, since the Bundle itself doesn't grant fall damage immunity.

Amber Horseshoe Balloon (Honey Comb, Shiny Red Balloon, Lucky Horseshoe)
Releases bees when damaged, increases jump height, negates fall damage

This is listed separately because it lacks a double jump, and is therefore much less useful than the other Horseshoe Balloon accessories. Don't use this unless you specifically dislike the double jump and want to skip directly to the Rocket Boots.

Shield of Cthulhu
+2 defense, enables short dash (double tap); bounces off and applies melee damage to an enemy upon collision

This accessory alone accounts for the main gameplay differences between normal and Expert mode. All Expert mode players are expected to use this, pretty much all the time. The ability to instantly reverse your horizontal momentum is very useful, and while this is unintuitive, you can dodge enemies by ramming into them. This doesn't work as well if they're immune to knockback.

Sweetheart Necklace (Panic Necklace, Honey Comb)
Releases bees and boosts movement speed by 50% for 5 seconds when damaged

Unfortunately the Panic Necklace doesn't stack with Hermes Boots, which already bring you to the movement speed cap. But at least it's the only tinker involving the Honey Comb that doesn't waste an accessory with a more valuable use. Regrettably that's the best that can be said about the Sweetheart Necklace.

Master Ninja Gear (Climbing Claws, Shoe Spikes, Black Belt, Tabi)
Enables wall jump, wall slide, and wall cling; provides 10% chance to negate damage and gain 0.66 seconds of invincibility; enables dash (double tap)

The usefulness of the dash cannot be understated. Not only does it give a good amount of distance, being able to instantly change the direction of your momentum is critical for dodging enemies like Duke Fishron. The Black Belt also grants 10% damage reduction in the long run, which is nice.

The ability to climb walls is mostly useless even in pre-hardmode once you've obtained your first grappling hook, though I guess it's alright for descending down hellevators if you forgot to line them with rope.

Gravity Globe
Allows user to reverse gravity by pressing UP, but only when grounded

Listed for the sake of completion. I see no good reason for an endgame character to use this. Makes for a fun playthrough if you pass it down to a freshly-created character on a new world, but eventually you'll get annoyed about having one less accessory slot to work with.​

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Obsidian Horseshoe (Obsidian Skull, Lucky Horseshoe)
Negates fall damage, provides immunity to Burning debuff

The horseshoe's effect is obviously the more valuable of the two, and if you want the horseshoe effect, you'll probably appreciate the double jump provided by a Horseshoe Balloon much more than a situational immunity to blocks that only appear in Meteorites and the Underworld, so crafting this is probably a mistake.

Hand Warmer
Provides immunity to Chilled and Frozen debuffs

The problem is that it can only be obtained during the Christmas season, but is fairly handy for some situations in normal gameplay, more so in Expert mode. Notably, while the Warmth Potion drastically improves survivability against the Frost Moon, it doesn't actually prevent you from being frozen, so the Hand Warmer is at least more valuable than the Ankh Shield in this battle.

Pocket Mirror
Provides immunity to Stoned debuff

Instead of having this thing eternally occupying an accessory slot, you should just try to memorize and record the locations of your world's marble biomes. Or avoid them like the plague because they don't offer anything especially tempting in terms of resources or equipment. Or better yet, blow them up with dynamite. If you've killed enough Medusas to obtain a Pocket Mirror, you probably already know how to deal with them.

Obsidian Rose
Reduces base damage of lava from 80 to 50

Believe it or not, there was one point in Terraria's history when the Obsidian Rose was gamebreakingly useful. This was after spikes had their invincibility frames handled separately, but before the Moon Lord gained his own invincibility frames. Equipping the Obsidian Rose would allow players to take reduced damage while standing in lava to abuse the invincibility frames.

I guess you can still cheese Duke Fishron and other bosses this way. But that's not really considered normal gameplay, is it?

Lava Waders (Obsidian Skull, Water Walking Boots, Lava Charm)
Provides immunity to Burning debuff, enables walking on liquid surfaces, provides 7 seconds of lava immunity when submerged

Should be considered a luxury item, really. It has very little use outside the Underworld, and most of that utility comes from water walking. While that effect can be fairly useful during the fight against Duke Fishron, you can just drink a Water Walking Potion for the same results, or better yet, just cover the ocean in asphalt.

One comical use for the Lava Waders is fighting invasion events over a massive lava pool, which will easily toast the weaker enemies as long as you give them some room to spawn.​

Arctic Diving Gear (Diving Helmet, Flipper, Jellyfish Necklace, Ice Skates)
Extends breath meter to 94 seconds, slows drowning damage by 75%, allows player to swim freely and provides light underwater, increases acceleration on all types of ice blocks (excluding Frozen Slime) and prevents Thin Ice from breaking
In Expert mode, prevents water in the Snow biome from inflicting the Chilled debuff

I know it doesn't give you infinite breathing time underwater, but realistically, with this accessory equipped, your risk of drowning is basically zero. Unfortunately, the same can be said if you have glowsticks and a grappling hook of any kind, because drowning situations usually occur in random pools of water, underground, in complete darkness. Cool, but not necessary.​

Supremely underrated. As long as your enemy's defense doesn't completely invalidate your weapon, it increases the damage of every hit by 2, which may not seem like much at first. But with fast, low-damage weapons like the Minishark and Bee Gun, this really makes a difference. Going from 10 damage a hit on average to 12 is equivalent to a 20% damage increase. Plus it's basically the only classless DPS-increasing accessory available before hardmode, so it's definitely worth hanging on to.

Hive Pack
Bee weapons have a roughly 50% chance to spawn larger, faster bees that deal 15% more damage

It is difficult to test whether this is better than the Shark Tooth Necklace when paired with bee weapons, percentage-wise. But one thing is for certain: the weapons dropped by Queen Bee are among the best available in pre-hardmode, and any equipment that improves them is bound to be top tier, even if it's only for a short while.

Bee Cloak (Honey Comb, Star Cloak)
Releases bees and causes stars to fall when damaged

This would have been somewhere between mediocre and decent if it were available before hardmode, but unfortunately, it's not. The Bee Cloak is very similar to the Magma Stone and Thorns Potion in that it technically has an effect, but does close to literally nothing since hardmode enemies have way too much defense to take more than 1 damage from bees.

Putrid Scent
Increases damage and critical strike chance by 5% and makes monsters more likely to target someone else

A 10% generic increase to DPS is quite valuable and makes it a nice filler accessory in singleplayer. In multiplayer, it's great for making sure that your melee friends can properly draw aggro away from you. Or you can just use it to be selfish. That works, too.

Avenger Emblem
Increases damage by 12%

Well-known as a crafting ingredient for class-specific endgame accessories, but is a pretty good accessory in its own right, especially if you're not restricting yourself to one class (in other words, if you're doing a normal playthrough). Summoners can benefit from it for no opportunity cost, by wearing it only while summoning and swapping it out for mobility afterwards.

Destroyer Emblem (Avenger Emblem, Eye of the Golem)
Increases damage by 10% and critical strike chance by 8%

The best generic DPS-increasing accessory. All classes appreciate having this on hand. Summoners to a lesser extent because minions only care about raw damage, so the Avenger Emblem takes priority over the Destroyer Emblem. It still benefits your primary weapon, though.

Spore Sac
When blocks are nearby, gradually spawns damaging spores that slowly chase nearby enemies

The ultimate AFK farming tool. Unlike the Star Cloak and Honey Comb, the Spore Sac's damage output matches that of an actual weapon, and it chases enemies through walls, too. Sadly it does nothing if you're fighting an aerial battle, but underground, it can actually substitute for an attacking weapon.

Celestial Shell (Sun Stone, Moon Stone, Moon Charm, Neptune's Shell)
+4 defense, +1 HP/sec regeneration, +10% damage, +10% melee speed, +2% critical strike chance, +15% mining speed, +50% minion knockback
At night, provides an additional +3 defense, +0.5 HP/sec regeneration, +5.1% melee damage, +5.1% melee speed, +2% melee critical strike chance, slightly increased ascent speed
Grants Merfolk buff when submerged in water or honey, removing breath meter and allowing player to swim freely, but overrides Werewolf buff

The defense and regeneration help with survivability, and it provides significant offensive bonuses as well. Not using it is like shooting yourself in the foot. TFW the developers say that they're not going to make Frostspark + Lava Waders because they don't want one ultimate accessory that outclasses everything else, but then 1.3 comes out and they release something like this.

Oh, and it stacks with the Celestial Stone and Sun Stone/Moon Stone, so you can double or even triple those bonuses if you want, which I’d highly recommend considering that each one provides at least as much of a DPS increase as an Avenger Emblem, on top of their defensive bonuses.
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Situational, but it can be fairly worthwhile if you're exploring a place where Spiked Jungle Slimes, Spiked Ice Slimes, or Gastropods can spawn. It also allows you to ignore Lava Slimes more easily, which can save you a bit of headache in Expert mode. Otherwise, slimes are not known for being the most threatening enemies, typically.

Worm Scarf
Reduces damage taken by 17%

In Expert mode, you'll often be eating upwards of 100 damage per hit. So the Worm Scarf acts as the rough equivalent of a heart pickup for every large hit that you take, which makes a huge difference. It's an endgame-level defensive accessory, but available relatively early in pre-hardmode. This is the main reason why Corruption worlds are recommended for Expert mode runs.

Brain of Confusion
60% chance to confuse nearby enemies for 3-5 seconds after taking damage. Chance increases by 0.4% per point of damage taken

Roughly 70% of enemies in Terraria are immune to confusion, and the ones that are vulnerable are either 1) not very threatening in general or 2) shoot at you from too far a distance for the Brain of Confusion to actually apply its effect. Besides, chasing after enemies as they run away from you is rather tiresome.

Star Veil (Cross Necklace, Star Cloak)
Doubles duration of invincibility frames and causes stars to fall when damaged

Provides a great deal of survivability if you're bad at dodging, which is another way of saying that you'll rely on this accessory less and less as your skill level and mobility improve. Against bullet hell bosses like the Destroyer it might be slightly more useful, but if you have a good strategy you generally won't take damage rapidly enough for the Cross Necklace to make a big difference.

It also affects the invincibility frames you gain from Titanium Armor and the Black Belt.

Charm of Myths (Band of Regeneration, Philosopher's Stone)
+0.5 HP/sec regeneration, reduces Potion Sickness to 45 seconds

Without the Charm of Myths, you're expected to gain 2.5 HP/sec from Greater Healing Potions. With the Charm of Myths, that is increased to 3.33 HP/sec (in addition to the Band of Regeneration effect), which is a decent improvement, almost half of what you'd expect to gain from a Regeneration potion. The kicker is that you can swap to the Charm of Myths, drink a potion, and swap it out again with no penalty. It's not a bad idea to keep this accessory in your vanity slots for faster switching.

It also stacks with the Band of Regeneration, but the passive regeneration you can expect to get from either accessory is still rather small.

Frozen Turtle Shell
Reduces damage taken by 25% when under half health

Significantly boosts survivability when it matters, and helps a lot if you're determined to facetank your enemies for whatever reason. You can keep it in your vanity slots and swap it in when it's needed.

Flesh Knuckles
+7 defense, makes monsters more likely to target you

Melee benefits from its meaty defense bonus more than the other classes since it has trouble damaging enemies from a safe range. Though I guess in Expert mode everything hits too hard anyways, so even 7 defense won't help that much. One of the weaker defensive accessories.

Ankh Shield (Blindfold/Vitamins/Armor Polish/Bezoar/Adhesive Bandage/Trifold Map/Fast Clock/Nazar/Megaphone, Obsidian Skull, Cobalt Shield)
+4 defense, provides immunity to knockback and Chilled, Darkness, Weak, Broken Armor, Poisoned, Bleeding, Confused, Slow, Cursed, Silenced, and Burning debuffs

Grossly overrated and should be valued only for knockback immunity and +4 defense. Most of the debuffs that it grants immunity to are applied through contact damage, which is easily avoidable. And most of the game's genuinely threatening debuffs (Blackout, Stoned, Venom, Distorted, Webbed) aren't included in the list of immunities. Even the lowly On Fire! debuff can be quite harmful if you catch it during the fight against Golem or Betsy, and the Ankh Shield doesn't provide immunity from that, either. Probably the most valuable immunity is Slow, which Necromancers can inflict on you from a distance.

I mean, it's good, but is it really that much better than an Obsidian Shield? Think about it before you spend hours searching for its materials.

Paladin's Shield
+6 defense, provides immunity to knockback, redirects 25% of damage inflicted on nearby teammates to self when above 25% health

If an additional 2 defense is the main advantage that the Ankh Shield has over the Obsidian Shield, then even in singleplayer, why not turn to the Paladin's Shield if you need knockback resistance? See the Ankh Shield section for more on why the Ankh Shield's advantages matter less than you'd think.

The 25% of damage redirected to you in multiplayer is further reduced by your own defense, so providing the Paladin's Shield buff to your teammates comes with little to no danger to yourself.

Shiny Stone
Drastically increases health regeneration (accelerating from 10 HP/sec to 40 HP/sec) when standing still and not doing anything

In Expert mode, you can't get away with standing still in a hostile situation, so this should be treated more as an economical alternative to healing potions. Not something you'd typically wear in battle.​

Welcome to hardmode. Thanks to the increased defenses of all your enemies, you'll need as many offensive bonuses as you can get, so hang onto these and never let go. Do note that the Summoner Emblem only needs to be equipped during the actual summoning.

Mechanical Glove (Feral Claws, Titan Glove, Avenger Emblem)
Increases melee damage and melee speed by 12%, increases melee knockback by 70%

The increased knockback granted by the Titan Glove allows most broadswords to be decent rather than bad. A lot of weapons with poor disruptive abilities, such as Phasesabers and ore swords, depend on the Mechanical Glove or Power Glove to be viable. It can be stacked with the other melee glove accessories like the Fire Gauntlet and Power Glove, but at that point your knockback will be so strong that it'll actually be a bit of a hindrance.

Fire Gauntlet (Mechanical Glove, Magma Stone)
Increases melee damage and melee speed by 10%, increases melee knockback by 80%, melee attacks inflict On Fire! debuff

Compared to the Mechanical Glove, the Fire Gauntlet loses 4% of its DPS boost, and in exchange inflicts a pathetic debuff that deals 4 damage per second. Crafting and using this instead of the Mechanical Glove is a sure sign that you don't know what you're doing. Or maybe you just didn't bother reading the tooltip. Not terrible when viewed in a vacuum but definitely a noob trap.

Of course, if you have an extra pair of Feral Claws, then be my guest. Though I'd only recommend it if you intend to use the Fire Gauntlet and Mechanical Glove together.

Dramatically improves the viability of yoyos, mostly thanks to the additional hitbox provided by the Yoyo Glove. Controlling two yoyos makes their movement a bit more psychedelic than usual, but that usually isn't a problem. Note that it doesn't exactly double the DPS of yoyos; it just enlarges the hitbox and allows them to hit more frequently.

The secondary yoyo isn't as reliable when used in cramped areas like the dungeon since it tends to get stuck on corners.

Magic Quiver
Increases arrow damage by 10%, greatly increases arrow velocity, +20% chance to not consume arrows

Some of the most commonly used arrow types are Holy Arrows and the Endless Quiver, both of which benefit greatly from the improved arrow velocity. While it provides slightly lower offensive bonuses than the Ranger Emblem, it makes arrows much easier to use and aim with. Thanks to the Archery Potion, arrow weapons are uniquely suited for bossing, and this accessory will make aiming much easier.

Sniper Scope (Destroyer Emblem, Rifle Scope)
Increases ranged damage and critical strike chance by 10%, increases view range for guns (right click)

Increasing your view range doesn't really do anything in PvE. Otherwise it's almost exactly the same as the Destroyer Emblem (with an extra +2% crit), so it should be treated as a way for the ranged class to equip two Destroyer Emblems.

Celestial Cuffs (Shackle, Band of Starpower, Band of Regeneration, Celestial Magnet)
Increases pickup range for mana stars and restores an amount of mana when damaged equal to the raw damage of the attack

Upgrading to Celestial Cuffs removes the +20 maximum mana you got from the Magic Cuffs, but the increased star pickup range is well worth it. Easily the best mana restoration accessory for general use (i.e. when not using Mana Regeneration potions), and can support any magic weapon apart from extremely mana-hungry ones like the Meteor Staff.

It has an obvious synergy with the Spectre Hood; one converts health into mana, the other converts mana into health.

Is the Mana Regeneration Band worth using? Probably not. You won't really notice the difference in mana regeneration unless you're standing still, and mages should aim to stand still as little as possible.

Celestial Emblem (Avenger Emblem, Celestial Magnet)
Increases magic damage by 15% and increases pickup range for mana stars

You might be pressing J a bit more often than you would with the Celestial Cuffs, but the strategy is the same: kill weak enemies and feed off the stars that they drop. This is the only endgame tinker involving the Celestial Magnet on Crimson worlds, and even on Corruption worlds it might be better than the Celestial Cuffs if you've already buffed yourself with Mana Regeneration.

Mana Flower (Nature's Gift, Mana Potion)
Reduces mana usage by 8%, and automatically consumes the first mana potion in your inventory when mana runs out

The default hotkey for quick mana is J. If you can remember that and manually hit J when your mana depletes, you can save a valuable accessory slot for something else. Though some weapons drain mana so quickly that manually pressing J will actually distract you from the battle, so I can't fault you for using a Mana Flower in those cases.

Pygmy Necklace
+1 minion capacity

Provides a bigger benefit if you're not a dedicated summoner, actually. Two minions are twice as good as one. Unfortunately it doesn't provide any actual damage increases, so if you want to min-max, wear your best damage-increasing accessories and swap in the Pygmy Necklace only after you've reached the minion cap.

Papyrus Scarab (Hercules Beetle, Necromantic Scroll)
+1 minion capacity, increases summon damage by 15%, increases minion knockback

If you're running Valhalla Knight armor or any of the other DD2 armors, you will be relying on accessories, Summoning Potions, and the Bewitching table for minion capacity buffs. The Papyrus Scarab and Necromantic Scroll are highly recommended if you decide to go down that route.

Even if you're not a dedicated summoner, an extra UFO or sharknado makes a much bigger difference in combat than something like the Ankh Shield, arguably.

DD2 Accessories (Squire's Shield/Apprentice's Scarf/Huntress's Buckler/Monk's Belt)
+1 sentry capacity, increases summon damage by 10%, makes enemies more likely to target someone else

They are quite nice-looking when used as vanity, but increased sentry capacity isn't a great bonus. The best part about the Ballista (and Explosive Trap) is that it can be summoned repeatedly to bypass the firing cooldown, and you can do that even with a capacity of 1. Increasing summon damage by 10% is alright, though. As always, you can swap to it while summoning your minions and take it off when you're done.

The Squire's Shield enables the Brand of the Inferno's secondary ability, but in any threatening situation, trying to use that ability is likely to hurt you a lot more than it helps, no matter how good you think you are at timing it.​

Any wings not listed below

Consult the wiki's chart if you want a stat breakdown, but the Leaf Wings and Frozen Wings are probably the best wings to aim for in early hardmode. Aim to have them by the time you challenge your first mechanical boss.

Leaf Wings
2.67 seconds, +125% horizontal speed

Frozen Wings
2.67 seconds, +150% horizontal speed

Frozen Wings have a slightly higher horizontal speed bonus and don't require you to pay 1 platinum, but Leaf Wings are immediately available upon activating hardmode and require no luck to obtain. Realistically your choices for early hardmode wings are between these two. Other wings are either inferior or not enough of an upgrade to be worth replacing your current wings with.

Note: Mothron Wings, Bat Wings, and Fin Wings offer no horizontal speed bonus at all, which is probably some kind of mistake. For the time being, don't use them.

Jetpack
Press UP to increase ascent speed
1.92 seconds, +117% horizontal speed

Its vertical speed boost can be emulated with a Frog Leg. Pretty easy to forget about its secondary effect to be honest, but it is unique (just not especially useful).

Hoverboard
Hold DOWN while flying to hover
2.83 seconds, +108% horizontal speed
+233% horizontal speed when hovering

Really nice bonus to horizontal agility, allowing for quick dodges. You can cancel your vertical momentum and make 90 degree turns, and it offers much better horizontal speed than any of your grounded options.

A handful of developer wings (Skiphs, Lazure, Yoraiz0r) also grant a hovering ability, but don't actually give you a hovering speed bonus, so while they're better than other early hardmode wings, they're no substitute for the Hoverboard.

Fishron Wings
Increased ascent speed and increased movement speed in water
3 seconds, +167% horizontal speed

Though its water affinity is rather situational, it has great raw stats. Might be worth using over the Hoverboard if you value vertical mobility over horizontal mobility, though generally the upwards acceleration granted by Fishron Wings is less dramatic than the horizontal acceleration provided by the Hoverboard.

Betsy's Wings
Hold DOWN while flying to hover; increased ascent speed
2.5 seconds, +100% horizontal speed
+300% horizontal speed when hovering

Could be considered the best wings in the game, or closely tied. It offers the hovering and ascent speed bonuses equivalent to Luminite-tier wings, but with slightly less flight time, making it better for surface combat than for fully aerial battles.

Solar Wings/Stardust Wings
Increased ascent speed
3 seconds, +200% horizontal speed

I personally don't use these since not being able to hover is way too painful, but if you never got the hang of the hover mechanic, then you'll probably like these wings. They offer the best overall stats of any wings, but are still outsped by those that can hover. Unfortunately it's much more difficult to rapidly change your vertical direction than your horizontal direction, which is again why I don't use them.

Vortex Booster/Nebula Mantle
Hold DOWN while flying to hover
2.67 seconds, +117% horizontal speed
+300% horizontal speed when hovering

While lacking in an ascent speed bonus, these wings provide the best aerial horizontal speed, period. They can also make hairpin turns, providing much-needed agility in a pinch. Curiously, unlike other hovering wings, you maintain your vertical momentum if you take off with hovering enabled.​