
For more risk/reward, the Shinobi Infiltrator armor has a +60% damage bonus and a +20% speed bonus (which affects whips more than most melee late game weapons), but less armor and no healing. Whips have excellent synergy with the Valhalla Knight armor, which has a +60% summon damage bonus, high defense and regeneration, and several sentry slots, but few bonuses to other types of weapons.Whips are not affected by melee damage because they have a summon damage tag.Summon tag damage can be stacked with the use of multiple different whips which has an even greater effect on minion DPS than using only one.For instance, the pre-Hardmode whips can more than triple the DPS of the Slime Staff against the Eye of Cthulhu, and Kaleidoscope increases the damage of the Xeno Staff, an already-powerful summon, by more than 50%.



Whips are affected by melee attack speed bonuses.However, Firecracker's Explosive Burst effect will only be applied to the first enemy hit, even if the whip causes a different enemy to be targeted instead. This does not stop whips with debuff effects such as Snapthorn from applying their respective debuff.This penalty is heavier on earlier whips, and lighter on later whips. However, all Whips will deal less damage to each successive enemy hit close together in a single swing, all the way down to 1 damage.Because the primary hit of a whip operates similarly to a piercing melee weapon, they are effective against enemies that pass through blocks, such as worms, cursed skulls, and casters with destructible projectiles.
