Best Calamity Summoner Build – Terraria Calamity Guide (2024)

Summoner used to be the worst class in Calamity, but as time passed and updates rolled out, it steadily became one of the fan favorites, together with melee, of course. To help you get started, we’ve prepared a comprehensive guide on the best summoner build in Terraria Calamity. Let’s get started, shall we?

Pre Eye of Cthulhu Terraria Calamity Summoner Build

Your goal during this time should be to farm Wulfrums and craft Wulfrum Armor. It’s the best armor for a Summoner you can get this early on. Also, you’ll want to get Hermes Boots, which are by far the best mobility accessory. For modifiers, I suggest 2 Menacing / 3 Warding for a perfect balance between offense and defense. For the best weapons and other accessories, check the lists below.

Weapons

• Snapthorn: You can craft it right away, and it should be your first and most used whip.
• Stormjaw Staff: Dropped by Stormlions with a 20% chance. Stormlions are great summons, which makes this staff really worth using.
• Sun Spirit Staff: Craftable from Stormlion drops and sandstone. Solid summons.
• Wulfrum Controler: Provides heals, and the droids aren’t half bad. Also, you’ll need Wulfrum metal for the armor, so farming them a bit more for the controller is worth it.

Accessories

• Feral Claws: A must for any summoner, as it gives you autoswing on Whips. Gives a solid attack speed increase, too.
• Rover Drive: Buffs the Wulfrum Controller and is dropped by Wulfrum Rovers with a 10% chance. However, its most important traits are the shield and defense it provides.
• Spirit Glyph: Also a mandatory item. It gives you random buffs whenever your minions hit an enemy. You can craft it out of Diamonds and Obsidian.
• Wulfrum Battery: Buffs summons and enhances drops from Wulfrum enemies.
• Hermes Boots (any variant): Increases sprint speed, which is super useful throughout the game. You can find it in chests in the Underground and Cavern layers.
• Cloud in a Bottle: Increases your jump distance and adds an extra jump. Extremely good mobility accessory.

Pre Slime God Terraria Calamity Summoner Build

You can continue with the Wulfrum armor, but farming the Desert Scourge for materials and getting the Victide Armor is optimal. Its all-around stats are simply too much better. Also, post-Eater of Worlds, you can even go for the Obsidian Armor. You can also continue using the old weapons/accessories, but you can also try upgrading to the following:

Weapons

• Rusty Beacon Prototype: Craftable out of silver bars and sulphuric scales, which drop from enemies during the Acid Rain event. You can also find it in rusty chests.
• Frost Blossom Staff: Craftable fairly early on and one of the best weapons for pre-Crabulon.
• Brittle Star Staff: Dropped by the Desert Scourge. Its RMB is really strong up close.
• Deathstare Rod: Dropped by the Eye of Cthulhu. It got nerfed in one of the last patches, but it’s still one of the strongest single summons at this point. It can also attack off-screen enemies, which can trigger The Hive Mind spawn, for example.
• Cinder Blossom Staff: Craftable from Underworld materials. It is one of the best weapons for dealing with a horde of enemies because of its explosions.
• Belladonna Spirit Staff: You can craft it out of stuff you find in the jungle. The summons inflict poison on enemies, which is really good when fighting enemies in bulk.

Accessories

• Fungal Clump: Dropped by Crabulon. Summons a Fungal Clup that damages enemies and spawns healing orbs for you.
• Voltaic Jelly: Dropped by Ghost Bells after you defeat the Desert Scourge. Grants an extra minion slot and a chance for minions to apply electrified.
• Cloud in a Balloon: Upgraded Cloud in a Bottle. You can craft it using the Tinkerer’s Workshop.
• Shield of Cthulhu: Excellent damage boost and mobility tool if you know how to use it well.
• Shark Tooth Necklace: Increases armor pen. Low chance of getting it as a drop from Blood Zombies and Dripplers.
• Frostspark Boots: Flight + super fast running. Craftable from Lightning Boots and Ice Skates.

Slime God & Wall of Flesh Terraria Calamity Summoner Build

These are the last stages of pre-hardmode in Terraria Calamity. Upgrading to Bee armor for that extra minion slot would be cool, but it’s not mandatory. Here are the extra accessories and weapons you should try to get before you fight these two bosses:

Weapons

• Herring Staff: You can get it from Ancient Treasure Chests in the Abyss. The fish it summons are solid, but not OP.
• Spinal Tap: Craftable after you defeat the Skeletron. It increases minion damage by 7, which is really big.
• Staff of Necrosteocytes: Dropped by Dark Casters. The skeletons it summons leave bone cells behind which deal damage.
• Crimslime Staff: Dropped by the Slime God. Use it for fighting non-boss enemies or for farming Slime God.
• Corroslime Staff: Similar to Crimslime.
• Slime Puppet Staff: Summons slimes that fly to enemies and detonate on impact. It doesn’t use up minion slots, so you can spawn them in preparation for the fight, and they’ll all then hurl toward the boss once it spawns. It’s also what you should use instead of a whip.

Accessories

• Pygmy Necklace: Another minion slot from this one. Get it from the Witch Doctor for 20 gold.
• Jelly-Charged Battery: Upgraded Voltaic Jelly/Wulfrum Battery.

Hardmode – Pre Leviathan & Anahita Terraria Calamity Summoner Build

Summoner build progression during hardmode is fairly straightforward, in my opinion. First, you’ll want to swap out the Obsidian Armor for Spider Armor, which you can craft from the resources you get for farming Black Recluses.

Also, you’ll get another accessory slot for consuming the Demon Heart that you can get from Wall of Flesh’s Treasure Bag. That’ll allow us to now go with 2 Menacing/4 Warding. You can, of course, switch this up however you want, but from my experience, extra survivability is more important than damage on Summoners. Anyway, here are the weapon and accessory upgrades you should target:

Weapons

• Black Hawk Remote: Dropped by the Wall of Flesh and possibly the best weapon for early hardmode. As soon as you get it, buy the Crystal Ball of the Wizard and 3996 musket balls from the Arms Dealer. Craft the Endless Musket Pouch and let the Black Hawks rund down your enemies with lead.
• Queen Spider Staff: Extremely easy to get early on from Black Recluses. Also, its useful for clearing places without even entering them, as you can spawn sentries through walls.
• Vengeful Sun Staff: Upgraded Sun Spirit Staff. Craftable after the mechanical bosses.
• Durendal: You can craft it after the mechanical bosses, and it’s one of the best vanilla Hardmode weapons. You can use it together with the Obsidian Armor and two more whips (Snapthorn and Dark Harvest, for example) to get massive bonuses. If you don’t like to min-max this much, just skip it.
• Caustic Staff: Pretty easy to craft, and the summoned dragons apply multiple debuffs on hit.
• Dormant Brimseeker: Dropped by Brimstone Elemental. Summons can pass through tiles, and if used when all minion slots are exhausted, it will spawn an empowered Dormant Brimseeker. Arguably the best Summoner weapon before you get Entropy’s Vigil.
• Entropy’s Vigil: Dropped by the Calamitas Clone. All three summons have their value and give you superb protection and DPS. It’s the best hardmode staff until you beat the Golem.

Accessories

• Nuclear Fuel Rod: An alternative to the Jelly-Charged Battery. This one gives you immunity to Irradiated and allows your summons to inflict it onto enemies.
• Ornate Shield: Immunity frames it provides during the dash are invaluable, as bosses are hitting much harder now. You can make it right after you defeat Cryogen.
• Eye of the Storm: Drop from Cloud Elementals. Allows you to have it summoned to defend you and attack nearby enemies.
• Angel Threads: Upgraded combo of Terraspark Boots and the Harpy Ring. You can craft them after you defeat the mechanical bosses.
• Hallowed Rune: Upgraded Spirit Glyph. You’ll have to defeat the mechanical bosses to craft it.
• Papyrus Scarab: Craftable after Plantera and needed for Statis’ Blessing.
• Harpy Wings: Another mobility option besides Angel Threads. Wear them together for feather-firing attacks (damage boost).
• Statis’ Blessing: Upgraded combo of Summoner Emblem + Pygmy Necklace + Papyrus Scarab. The +2 minions is huge on a single slot.
• Asgard’s Valor: Immunity to almost all debuffs is just too huge. A must on almost any class, not only summoner.

Pre Plaguebringer Goliath Terraria Calamity Summoner Build

After you unlock the Pumpkin Moon event, you’ll be able to farm it for Spooky Wood and craft the Spooky Armor, which gets you +4 minion slots and a massive 58% minion damage. Here are weapon and accessory upgrades you can try to get now:

Weapons

• Dark Harvest: A DPS whip you can use with the Durendal and another whip. Drop from the Pumpking with a very low chance.
• Dreadmine Staff: An extremely high-damage sentry staff. However, you’ll need to excavate a huge area to allow for enough spawns. You can make it post Leviathan, out of Depth Cells and Voidstone.
• Hive Pod: Another sentry staff, though this one is dropped by Hives after defeating Astrum Aureus. Hivelings that spawn go through walls, which can be extremely useful in some situations.
• Wither Blossoms Staff: The minions this one spawn consume 1/2 slot each, which is pretty OP. Their projectiles fly through walls and apply the Plague debuff. This is one of the best items you can use during this stage of Calamity. It’s craftable from the Tundra Flame Blossoms staff and Plague Cell Canisters you’ll find in the jungle after defeating the Golem.
• Borealis Bomber: Whip alternative that spawns kamikaze drones that don’t take up minion slots and home in on targets, dealing damage on impact. Dropped by Astrum Aureus with a 33% chance.
• Xeno Staff: Drop from the Martian Saucer during the Martian Madness event. The attacks from the summons never miss, and when in open spaces, they can travel very far away from you to DPS the enemies.

Accessories

• Spooky Wings: Increased summon damage is always nice.
• Starbuster Core: Dropped by Stellar Culex after you deal with Astrum Aureus. You can use it in place of another summon accessory for its explosion damage effect.
• Star-Tainted Generator: Combination of the Jelly-Charged Battery, Nuclear Fuel Rod, and the Starbuster Core. This is an accessory that’ll be useful until you reach the Devourer of Gods, so get it ASAP.

Post Plaguebringer Goliath Terraria Calamity Summoner Build

After you’ve defeated the Plaguebringer Goliath, you’ll get access to crafting the best armor until post-Moon Lord, and that is the Plaguebringer Armor. It gives you a permanent unique minion, +3 minion slots, +45% summon damage, and a whole lot of DoT with the passive summons. Now, let’s look at weapon and accessory upgrades:

Weapons

• Kaleidoscope: Dropped by the Empress of Light with a 25% chance. It is one of the strongest whips in the game, and it has the ability to grant minions crit chance. It has a synergy with Blade Staff because of its high summon tag damage. However, Dark Harvest and Firecracker are more useful on certain enemies.
• Terraprisma: Potentially the best summon weapon in the game. It can attack through walls if you press your back against them. It has insane attack speed and attack animation, making it excellent against fast enemies. It also has 90 base damage, which is massive. You can get it by defeating the Empress of Light during the day.
• Eye of Magnus: Post-Lunatic Cultist classless weapon that you can use instead of a whip. It gives you 10% lifesteal and possibly more DPS since it scales with all your bonus damage.
• Spikecrag Staff: Has maybe the highest boss DPS potential in Calamity, especially on the Get fixed boi seed, where its damage is multiplied immensely after defeating Providence. Get the Valhalla Knight Armor and sentry accessories to make the most of it.
• Stardust Dragon Staff: Post-Lunatic Cultist staff that summons one of the coolest minions in the game. It passes through enemies, dealing damage, and instead of summoning more minions, you increase its size. More minion slots are the best way to increase its damage, so max that out with accessories.

Accessories

• Steampunk Wings: You can buy them off Steampunker after defeating the Goliath. Since you won’t be using the Spooky Armor anymore, Spooky Wings become redundant. These will give you more speed, crit, damage, and defense.
• Statis’ Curse: Craftable after you deal with the Lunar event and the Lunatic Cultist. It is a direct upgrade over the Statis’ Blessing, giving you 3 minion slots, 12% summon damage, and Shadowlflame buff application to your summons’ attacks.
• Heart of the Elements: Craftable post-Lunar event and one of the best utility accessories you can have as a summoner. It gives you five free summons, of which one will drop healing orbs permanently. Others will provide you with DPS and protection. However, it’s best you take it off against bosses as it’ll actually decrease your DPS because of the inv. frames your summons give to the enemies.

Post Moon Lord Terraria Calamity Summoner Build

Once you’ve dealt with the Moon Lord, you’ll be able to craft the last vanilla summoner set, the Stardust Armor. It gives 5 minion slots, a sentry slot, +66% summon damage, and +30% whip range. Its defense is mediocre, though, so I advise going 2 Menacing / 5 Warding from now on. Here is a list of good weapons and accessories you can use from now on:

Weapons

• Tactical Plague Engine: Wipe the dust off that Endless Musket Pouch, as you’ll need it for this thing. Summons have insanely high base damage and attack speed, though they’ll need an open area to be effective. Also, every second shot will be a homing missile that inflicts the Plague debuff for 3 seconds and deals extra damage. It’s a beast of a weapon, really.
• Elemental Axe: A direct upgrade over Terraprisma that also inflicts the Elemental Mix debuff.
• Sanctified Spark: A sentry capable of DPS-ing single enemies (bosses) extremely quickly. Dropped by Impious Immolators with a 6.6% chance.
• Flowers of Mortality: Great summons that cost 0.6 slots each. They spin around you and fire homing missiles, which explode on impact. Use it with the Plague Engine for a rain of bullets and massive DPS.
• Lunar Portal Staff: Dropped by the Moon Lord with a 22% chance. It’s a vanilla sentry that can have insane DPS against segmented bosses like the Astrum Deus. Place it high above the ground for maximum effect.

Accessories

• Celestial Tracers: Crafted from Angel Threads and any wings (except for Jetpac, Elysian, and Drew’s), with the functionality of both, giving you an extra free accessory slot.
• The Absorber: Both offense and defense in one, though enemies will have to get close to get damaged. It compensates for the lack of survivability the Stardust Armor has with its great HP regen and damage reduction.
• The Community: You can obtain this during Hardmode from the Leviathan and Anahita. However, during that time, you would still have 6 slots and no slot-saving from Celestial Tracers. So, I advise you to use it only from now on. Plus, it gives you more scaling now than it did before.

Post Providence Terraria Calamity Summoner Build

Providence is the second break point after Moon Lord and is the moment from which you’ll get more accessory upgrades and access to the Tarragon Armor. It only adds 3 minion slots, but the survivability is much better. If you feel like you don’t need it, keep the Stardust on. Here are the new weapons and accessories you can get:

Weapons

• Dragonblood Disgorger: You need only 6 minion slots, which the Tarragon Armor + Statis’s Curse will easily provide. You can use the rest for sentries. A great overall utility summon weapon, plus it gives you a bit of lifesteal.
• King of Constellations, Tenryu: Only 4 slots required to spawn two dragons who dash from enemy to enemy, dealing massive damage. You can craft it after defeating Signus.
• Stellar Torus Staff: Summons fire lasers that infinitely pierce enemies, which is crazy good against segmented bosses. They float around you, so positioning yourself nicely throughout the fight will boost their DPS.
• Aqua’s Scepter: A storm cloud sentry craftable after defeating the Storm Weaver. You can go back to the Valhalla Knight Armor for this one, as spam placing them over an area can yield insane DPS.
• Void Concentration Staff: Drop from the Ceaseless Void with a 33% chance. Only needs 3 slots, so using the Statis’s Curse + Aqua’s Scepter + Valhalla Knight is extremely viable. The damage the aura deals is massive, and the RMB black hole is strong, too.
• Guidelight of Oblivion: It used to be really broken, but they nerfed it quite a lot. Still, it’s a solid choice for a sentry.

Accessories

• Elysian Aegis: A replacement for the Asgard’s Valor. Bunch of immunities, high-damage dash, and immunity frames.
• Profaned Soul Artifact: 3 more free minions that provide heals, shields, and damage. A total upgrade over the Heart of the Elements, and definitely worth using even against bosses.

Post Polterghast Terraria Calamity Summoner Build

This is it. You’re close to the Devourer of Gods. Defeating the Polterghast has given us access to the Bloodflare Armor, which is just a better version of Tarragon with additional three mines that circle around us and deal 3750 (!) base damage on hit. Everything else is more or less the same, though you can switch out your weapons and accessories for these:

Weapons

• Calamari’s Lament: High damage summons with homing projectiles and long range. Dropped by Colossal Squids after you’ve defeated the Polterghast.
• Sirius: Very high base damage. Plus, you only need six minion slots to summon it, leaving room for more sentries.
• Cadaverous Carrion: A better alternative to the Guidelight of Oblivion for your sentries and the one you can stick with for the rest of the game. It’s a drop from the Old Duke.

Accessories

• Phantomic Artifact: Final upgrade of the Spirit Glyph, which gives HP regen, damage reduction, and bonus summon damage. However, I don’t think you will lack any of that at this point.

Post Devourer of Gods Terraria Calamity Summoner Build

Now, all that is left are the Yharon, the Exo Mechs, and the final boss, Supreme Calamitas. Also, there is the Boss Rush event and the Primordial Wyrm, which come after Calamitas. Since you’ll be switching armor a few times, I’ll detail them below, together with the newly available weapons and accessories.

Armor

• Silva Armor: Craftable right after you defeat the Devourer of Gods. It gives 5 minion capacity, 65% increased summon damage, and a special Ancient Leaf Prism summon that follows you around. Also, gives you an 8-second damage immunity when you drop to 0 HP.
• Auric Tesla Armor: You can craft this one after defeating Yharon. A plethora of effects combined from the God Slayer, Silva, and Tarragon armors. Naturally, minion slots and summon damage bonuses go with it. I advise you to get this before facing Calamitas and the Exo Mechs.
• Demonshade Armor: Craftable after defeating Calamitas and the Exo Mechs. It’s the best summoner armor in the whole Calamity mod by a mile. I recommend you get it for the endgame Boss Rush event and the Primordial Wyrm secret boss.

Weapons

• Mirror of Calandra: One of the most recent weapons added to Calamity, and it’s absolutely broken for summoners. It summons five different PoE weapons that all attack independently. Only uses up 5 minion slots. It’s craftable right after you defeat the Devourer of Gods.
• Staff of the Mechworm: This is one of the strongest single summons in the game. It’s a mini Devourer that is segmented, and you can increase its length, resulting in more damage procs and more DPS. It has a tendency to leave you and attack enemies off-screen, though. You can craft it after defeating the Devourer.
• Metastasis: Direct upgrade over the Mechworm, which summons the Sepulcher. It has amazing DPS, but you’ll need to use it along with other summons that will focus down the Brimstones it spawns.
• Yharon Kindle Staff: 33% chance to drop from Yharon. Each dragon requires 5 minion slots, and you can use the Auric Soul Artifact to get one more minion slot per summoned dragon. I wouldn’t use the accessory, though, as it’s not a game-changer.
• Endogenesis: One of the best summon weapons in Calamity, without question. Use it in the laser mode for the best DPS and versatility. Craftable together with the Temporal Umbrella right after defeating Calamitas.
• Temporal Umbrella: An alternative to the Mirror of Calandra, but you can probably squeeze them in both with enough minion slots.
• Cinders of Lament: A whip replacement you can get after defeating Calamitas. It spawns a summon that flies towards you after 0.67 seconds, damaging enemies and you. So, you can’t stay in place ever when using it. The damage is pretty solid, and it’s the best kiting weapon in Calamity.
• Universe Splitter: Highest base damage weapon in the whole Calamity mod. What more do you need? It summons an energy field that fires lasers in random directions. It can deal massive amounts of damage against segmented enemies if it fires at the right angle. Its only downside is its cooldown.

Accessories

• Elysian Tracers: You can make these right after the Devourer of Gods is dead. Upgraded Celestial Tracers, basically.
• Seraph Tracers: Craftable after you’ve killed Yharon. These are the best boots in the game and a direct upgrade over the Elysians.
• Nucleogenesis: Upgraded Stasis’s Curse, with 4 minion slots now. It gives the most slots out of all accessories, and it’s not like you need any more utility.
• Dark Sun Ring: +2 Minion slots are the most important trait of this accessory. It also provides a bunch of other stats, but you won’t be wearing it because of those.
• Rampart of Deities: Extreme defensive buff, making you virtually unkillable because of all the extra immunity frames.
• Asgardian Aegis: Upgraded Elysian Aegis with even more immunities and a better dash.
• Angelic Alliance: One of the best accessories in the game if you choose to go for a regular summon instead of Endogenesis. Spawns angels, depending on how many minions you have already, give 2 more minion slots and extra summon damage.
• Nebulous Core: Lets you survive an attack that would’ve killed you, which you’ll need once you go from Tesla to the Demonshade armor.
• Profaned Soul Crystal: The ultimate summoner accessory. Requires 10 minion slots, which shouldn’t be a problem, considering you will have well over 25 now. Increases damage, whip attack speed, and summons three guardians, which are all uniquely OP.

And that is it. You should now know which items are best and how to build your summoner in Terraria Calamity from minute one all the way to defeating the Primordial Wyrm and challenging the Boss Rush event. For more helpful walkthroughs and guides, be sure to bookmark the home page and the Terraria section on Twinfinite.