The Minishark was once the best gun in Terraria,
occupying the role of "that minigun" within the newly-released game. Firing at a sustained fire rate of 450 - 514
rounds per minute, it is by far the fastest gun in pre-Hardmode, and one of the coolest
as well. Partly due to this, the Minishark has become
one of the most well-known guns in the game, even earning its own achievement and Steam
trading card. It's a very popular and liked weapon as well,
with most Terraria players having used it in their first playthrough. Unlike some other weapons though, the advancement
and development of the game hasn't really been that kind to the Minishark. Aside from an ammo conservation buff in 1.0.6,
the Minishark has remained unchanged for over eleven years. Meanwhile, the Musket, its prerequisite and
main competitor, has recieved steady and continuous buffs over its entire lifetime, meaning that
today, the Minishark's supremacy over pre-Hardmode isn't so certain. I'm actually making this video because I placed
the Minishark as a "mediocre" weapon in my mediocre weapons video. Some of you objected, stating that it is actually
better than average. But is it really? Well, that's what this video is about, so,
let's look into that. Everyone should be aware that the Minishark's
main flaw is its low per-hit damage, leaving it very weak to the flat damage decreases
of defense. So, logically, let's plot the theoretical
damage-per-second of the Minishark, Musket, and The Undertaker over defense to take a
further look. Using this, we can determine the obvious - the
Minishark's initial damage vastly surpasses that of the Musket, but falls sharply once
defense is applied. The Minishark falls below the Musket in damage
at 8 defense, while it takes 9 defense to fall below that of The Undertaker. These values are, of course, increased by
5 if you use armor penetration, such as the Shark Tooth Necklace; 10 if you use both Necklaces. This grants a significant boost to the Minishark,
but requires 1 or 2 accessory slots - slots that are rather scarce in Pre-Hardmode, especially
if you aren't playing Master Mode. So, what does this mean? For enemies with less than eight or nine defense,
the Minishark is theoretically better. Most regular enemies in the game have close
or more to this amount of defense though - just as an example, underground Skeletons have
anywhere from 6 - 12 defense, Hornets have anywhere from 4 - 20 defense with most variants
being in the double digits, all Antlion variants have 6 defense or more, and Eater of Souls/Crimeras
have 6 - 9 defense depending on size. While not every pre-Hardmode enemy has enough
defense to make the Minishark worse, it is mostly enough to largely reduce its lead over
the Musket and Undertaker. As for bosses, all pre-Hardmode bosses, with
the exception of the Eater of Worlds and Wall of Flesh's eye, have 8 defense or more, so
it's not exactly excelling in that department either. And even for these two exceptions, if you're
using a Minishark (or even Musket) for these two bossfights, you're doing it wrong. For Eater of Worlds, a piercing weapon such
as a Bow with Jester's Arrows, Spiky Balls, or Molotov Cocktail would fare better than
a non-piercing bullet like 99% of the time, and for Wall of Flesh, the Phoenix Blaster,
Molten Fury, and Hellwing Bows are a much better options. Why are you using a pre-boss weapon on Wall
of Flesh, even? Back on topic though. What we've determined here is that the Minishark
doesn't excel damage wise, and that it's equal or worse in most situations. On top of having mediocre damage though, it
also has a slew of other disadvantages. It consumes much more ammunition than the
Musket or Undertaker. Its bullets travel around 18% slower than
that of the Musket's by default [though the Undertaker is slower], meaning hitting far
enemies is more difficult. It's much more inaccurate in terms of spread. It's much more expensive to reforge, costing
11 gold 66 silver instead of 2 gold 50 silver to reforge at base price - literally 4.7 times
more expensive. Even if you do get the Minishark's two best
reforges, Demonic or Deadly, they'll both be less potent than the Unreal reforge available
on the Musket or The Undertaker, widening the gap even more. So, it doesn't excel damage wise, and has
some other baggage with it. Huh. Due to stuff like this, I've never bothered
farming the 35 gold + reforge cost of the Minishark in any of my recent playthroughs. I mean, you basically have to get the Musket
to get the Minishark anyway, so why go the extra mile for something that isn't going
to be significantly better? But, I don't think the Minishark is bad. Unlike actual bad weapons, it will get the
job done. It's precisely the type of weapon I would
put in this video. It's mediocre. That's what it is, at least to me. Feel free to determine by yourself though. I am but a random child on the internet talking
about a sandbox game. It isn't my job to dictate to you on how you
should play this game. If you disagree with me, cool! If you just like the gun's functionality and
design, cool as well - have whatever fun you want! But, if you've made it this far, at least
you've heard my two cents. Hello! If you're part of the 80% of my audience who
hasn't subscribed, I ask you to subscribe. Here's a similar hot take of mine about drills. Either way though, thank you for watching,
and good day and good bye.
