Terraria Reforge Priorities Guide — Best Modifiers per Weapon & Accessory

How Reforging Works

Reforging is a service provided by the Goblin Tinkerer NPC (unlocks after defeating the Goblin Army). Talk to the Tinkerer and select Reforge — it costs gold based on the item's value and randomly assigns a modifier from the prefix pool for that item type. Reforges are random: you may need 10-100 attempts to roll the best modifier on a top-tier item.

Modifiers are split into prefixes (positive, like 'Legendary') and rarely null (no modifier). The chance of rolling the best modifier on any single reforge is roughly 1-in-83 for weapons (because there are 83 possible weapon modifiers, including null) and 1-in-X for accessories depending on the accessory pool. Reforging the same item dozens of times until you hit the best modifier is normal and expected.

Reforge cost is 1/3 of the item's sell price (so an item worth 60 gold costs 20 gold per reforge). Top-tier weapons like the Terra Blade cost 80-100 gold per attempt; the Terrarian or S.D.M.G. cost 200+ gold per attempt. Budget accordingly — a fully reforged endgame loadout costs 5-30 platinum coins.

Best Weapon Modifiers by Class

Legendary vs Unreal vs Mythical — What's the Difference

Verdict: Legendary, Unreal, and Mythical are the universal-best modifiers within their weapon class — each adds maximum damage + crit + speed without downsides. Godly is the best where Legendary/Unreal/Mythical aren't available (yoyos, whips, spears). Ruthless gives +18% damage but reduces knockback; useful for weapons where knockback doesn't matter (most bosses are unstaggered by KB anyway). Demonic is a cheaper alternative if your reforge budget is tight.

Best Accessory Modifiers

Reforging Cost and Budget Strategy

Each reforge costs 1/3 of the item's sell price. The Goblin Tinkerer's UI shows the exact cost before confirming. Top-tier endgame weapons (Terrarian, S.D.M.G., Last Prism, Phantasm) cost 100-300 gold per attempt. Reforging an item to its best modifier from a fresh roll typically takes 50-150 attempts due to the random modifier pool, so budget 5-50 platinum per top-tier weapon for full optimization.

Money sources for reforging: Coin Gun (Pirate Invasion drop) crystal bullets convert coins into ammo and back; Lucky Coin accessory (Pirate Invasion) drops bonus coins on enemy hit; Discount Card (Pirate Invasion) reduces NPC purchase prices including reforge cost by 20% when equipped. Stack Lucky Coin and Discount Card together for maximum reforge efficiency.

Priority order for reforging: 1) Your main weapon (highest single DPS impact), 2) All accessories (Menacing for damage builds), 3) Backup weapons, 4) Niche utility weapons. Don't waste gold reforging weapons you never use. A typical endgame loadout (one main weapon + six Menacing accessories) costs 30-60 platinum to fully optimize.

Reforge Order for a Fresh Endgame Character

Special Cases — When Best Modifier Differs

Summoner weapons (minion-summon staves) have a unique edge case: minion damage scales with weapon damage at summon time, but minions deal flat damage afterward — they don't benefit from the Mythical modifier's mana cost reduction or knockback in any meaningful way. For summon staves, Ruthless (+18% damage, -10% knockback) is actually mathematically the highest-DPS modifier even though Mythical is what most guides recommend. The trade-off: minions have less natural knockback, which can affect some boss fights.

Whips (Snapthorn, Spinal Tap, Firecracker, Kaleidoscope) deal direct damage AND apply tags. Both effects scale with weapon damage. Godly modifier (+15% damage, +5% crit, +5% knockback) is the best because Whips cannot roll Legendary. Reforge all your whips identically — the stack depends on consistent modifier scaling across all whip tags.

Tools (pickaxes, axes, hammers) can be reforged for mining/chopping speed, but it's rarely worth the gold cost since the Pickaxe Axe and Drax outperform any reforged earlier tool. The Picksaw (post-Golem Pickaxe Axe alternative) is the standard endgame mining tool. Reforge tools to Light (+15% speed) only if you do extensive mining.

Reforge Cost Optimization Tips

• Equip Discount Card (Pirate Invasion drop) and Lucky Coin (also Pirate) when reforging — Discount Card reduces NPC prices by 20% across the board.
• Reforge components BEFORE combining at the Goblin Tinkerer — combine inherits the most-recently-modified component's modifier. Pre-reforge Cobalt Shield and Obsidian Skull before combining into Obsidian Shield.
• Use the Coin Gun (Pirate drop) to convert excess platinum into Crystal Bullets temporarily — provides a 'savings account' effect for large reforging sessions.
• Set a reforge budget per item (e.g., 1 platinum max per attempt batch) and walk away when you hit the cap. Spending 10 platinum on a single weapon roll is acceptable; spending 50 platinum on the same weapon is gold-wasting tilt behavior.
• Use the Goblin Tinkerer's reforge happiness modifier — placing him in his preferred biome (Snow, near Mechanic) reduces all his prices by up to 10% via NPC happiness.
• Reforge during Money Trough sessions — the Money Trough (Blood Moon drop) is a portable Piggy Bank so you can store excess coins safely without bank trips.
• Don't forget that knockback-immune bosses (Wall of Flesh, Plantera, Moon Lord) don't care about your weapon's knockback stat — Ruthless modifier is mathematically optimal for those fights specifically.
• Reforge in pairs: roll 5 times, take a break, roll 5 more. Tilt-rolling 30 times in a row leads to bad decisions like rolling away a Mythical to gamble for slightly better, only to get a useless modifier.