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Guide:Bard
EDIT

This is a Guide page.

This means the page will walk you through a specific task, strategy, or enemy/boss fight.
This is a general progression and mechanic guide on the Bard Class introduced in the Thorium
Mod. This guide will go in depth into the inner workings of the class, how to be an effective bard,
and when it is best to play as one.
A bard (left) performs for his audience.

Contents
 1Class Background
 2Knowing Your Role
 3Progression
o 3.1Early Game
o 3.2Eye of Cthulhu
o 3.3Eater of Worlds / Brain of Cthulhu
o 3.4Pre-Skeletron
o 3.5Post-Skeletron
o 3.6Post-Wall of Flesh
o 3.7Post-Mechanical Bosses
o 3.8Post-Plantera
o 3.9Post-Golem
o 3.10Post-Moon Lord
 4Mechanics
o 4.1Empowerments
o 4.2Inspiration
o 4.3Symphonic Damage
o 4.4Big Instruments
 5Tips, Tricks, and Strategies
o 5.1Empowerment Focus
o 5.2Item Specialties
 6Final Comments

Class Background
WIP

Knowing Your Role

As a bard, your gameplay isn't remarkably different from classes like the ranger or mage. The
primary mechanic that draws attention away from damaging enemies and bosses are the
bards Empowerments. Empowerments are powerful buffs that get applied to the bard and his
nearby allies when an instrument is used. Much of the power behind a bard comes from these
boosts, allowing for better damage, defense, movement, and resource spending. As a bard you'll
want to carry multiple instruments at once to allow a broader array of empowerment options. If
you or your team is on the move, player percussion instruments to improve your mobility. If you're
safely damaging enemies, use a brass instrument to increase you or your teams damage
potential. If you or your team is stuck in long winded battles and boss fights, use string and wind
instruments to improve your survivability and resource management.

Good job you little musician!

Progression
The following is a very simple progression guide for new bards. Many items lie behind boss and
enemy kills, town NPCs, events, and crafting requirements, so your ability to get certain items is
made easier or harder by RNG. The list is broken into sections of the game, where prominent or
important sets of items become available to a bard.

Early Game
At the start of the game, you have access to a variety of items from safer biomes like
the Surface and Cavern. This guide assumes you haven't defeated a single boss or invasion yet.

Wind String Brass Percuss

Wooden Whistle
Ukulele Drum Mallet
Icy Piccolo Gold Bugle Horn
Grand Piano Tambourine
Harmonica Platinum Bugle Horn
Dynasty Guzheng Antlion Maraca
Flute Alphorn
Skyware Lute Seashell Castanets
Magma Rackett

Eye of Cthulhu
After defeating the Eye of Cthulhu, you have access to a few items. This guide assumes you
have defeated every previous boss(The Grand Thunder Bird,King Slime) and completed a Blood
Moon.

Wind String Brass Percussion

Ukulele
Grand Piano Didgeridoo
n/a Sinister Honk
Dynasty Guzheng Vicious Mockery
Skyware Lute

Eater of Worlds / Brain of Cthulhu

After defeating the boss of the world's evil, you have access to a few items. This guide assumes
you have defeated every previous boss(Eye of Cthulhu and the mentioned before bosses) and
have not encountered the Goblin Army yet.

Wind String Brass Percussion

Ebonwood Tambourine
Meteorite Oboe Sitar n/a Shadewood Tambourine
Jar O' Mayo
Pre-Skeletron
Before fighting Skeletron, a number of items are available to the player. This guide assumes you
have defeated every previous boss(The Queen Jellyfish,Viscount,Queen Bee) the Goblin Army,
the first tier of Old One's Army and have entered the Jungle or the Aquatic Depths.

Wind String Brass Percuss

Riveting Tadpole
Steel Drum
Forest Ocarina Scuba Curva
Yew Wood Lute Aquamarine Wineglass
Panflute Conch Shell
Blooming Bell
Honey Recorder
Post-Skeletron
After defeating Skeletron, a sizable amount of new bard items will be made available to the
player. This guide assumes you have defeated every previous boss(Skeletron), event, and have
explored the world thoroughly.

Wind String Brass Percussion

 Calaveras Bone Trumpet Bongos
Song of Ice & Fire
Nocturne Hot Horn Bronze Tuning Fork

Post-Wall of Flesh
After defeating the Wall of Flesh, Hardmode begins and bards gain access to many new
weapons and items. This guide assumes you have defeated every boss up until the mechanical
bosses.

Wind String Brass Percussion

Mythril Melodica Acoustic Guitar

Orichalcum Slide Whistle Scholar's Harp Dragon's Wail Vinyl Record
Bagpipe Lullaby Trombone Frostwind Cymbals
Geode Saxophone Riff Weaver Serpent's Cry Hell's Bell
Chrono Ocarina Violin 24-Carat Tuba Wind Chimes
Concertina Eskimo Banjo Shadowflame Warhorn Xylophone
Kazoo Sunflare Guitar

Post-Mechanical Bosses
After defeating the three mechanical bosses, more items are made available through
the Souls, Life-Powered Energy Cells, Hallowed Bars, Strange Plating and the Solar Eclipse.

Wind String Brass Percussion

Prime's Roar Portable Wintergatan

Midnig
Steam Flute n/a Cadaver's Cornet The Green Tambourine
Hallow
Zunpet Turtle Drums
Post-Plantera
After defeating Plantera, the Jungle Temple, Frost Moon, Pumpkin Moon and their items become
available.

Wind String Brass Percussion

Fishbone
Pungi
The Maw Buisine
Bassoon Haunting Bass Drum
Strawberry Heart Ghastly French Horn
Clarinet Jingle Bells
Siren's Lyre Organ
Vuvuzela
Call of Cthulhu
Post-Golem
After defeating the Golem, the Martian Madness event, third tier of the Old One's Army, Celestial
Towers, and their items become available.

Wind String Brass Percussion

Terrari
n/a Shooting Star Blast-Guitar Betsy's Bellow The Triangle Turntab
Sound
Post-Moon Lord
After defeating the Moon Lord, you will have access to The Primordials fight and its items. This
guide assumes you have done everything else in vanilla and the mod.
 Wind String Brass Percussion

Sonic
Holophonor Edge of Imagination Sousaphone The Set
Black

Mechanics
The Bard class has various unique mechanics that are relevant to their success. A simplified
version of this list can be found on the main Bard page, but this guide will go slightly more in-
depth in this section.
Empowerments
Empowerments are temporary stat boosts that the bard constantly provides to himself and nearby
allies when using their instrument weapons. As one of the defining features of the class, many
bard items are associated with the application or power of empowerments. Empowerments are
grouped into 5 categories and are given by specific instrument types with the general rule being:
Brass Instruments -> Damage Empowerments
String Instruments -> Defensive Empowerments
Percussion Instruments -> Movement Empowerments
Wind Instruments -> Resource Empowerments
Electronic is unique in that it provides no stat boosting empowerments themselves, but instead
prolongs the active duration of any empowerments currently active on players.
A comprehensive list of each empowerment can be found on the Empowerments page.
Inspiration
Main article: Inspiration
Instead of using Mana, the Bard weapons draw from a unique resource called inspiration, which
is increased using Inspiration Fragments, Inspiration Shards, and Inspiration Crystals. Inspiration
regenerates automatically. Although many of the Bard items are specific to inspiration, the fact
that it's separate from Mana makes it a tempting choice for another class' backup. Inspiration
regenerates far more quickly when allowed to run its course, encouraging a sort of "reload" period
for the resource.
Symphonic Damage
The Bard's musical weapons hit with a specific damage type called symphonic damage.
Accessories and armor can be used to augment symphonic damage output, and generic
'damage' buffs, such as the one from the Scuba Curva, still increase Bard's damage.
Big Instruments
Big instruments are a subset of Bard weapons that utilize a timing mechanic. When held out, a
timer will appear underneath the player (or underneath the cursor if the Move Instrument Timer to
Mouse configuration setting is set to true); the instruments' effects vary depending on whether
their attacks are used within a specific window of time or not. As the player successfully times
their attacks, the big instrument will gain power, provided empowerment level, along with other
effects, whereas missing the timing will greatly decrease these bonuses.
Each instrument category, except for Electronic, has its own unique timer, with differing patterns:

Instrument
Timer Instruction Instruments
Category

Alphorn
Hold the attack button while the marker is over
Brass
the highlighted area.
Organ

Percussion Attack while the marker is over the highlighted Steel Drum
 Xylophone
area.
The Set

Grand Piano
Attack in three-round bursts as the marker
String
passes over each of the highlighted area. Scholar's
Harp

Song of Ice &

Alternate between the left- and right-click Fire
Wind buttons while the marker is over the left and
right sides respectively. Bagpipe

While a big instrument is held out for the first time, a mouse icon will appear in order to provide a
guide on each timer's function.

Tips, Tricks, and Strategies

Empowerment Focus

An example of class focused empowerments.

While most empowerment effects are helpful for all classes, some benefit from specific boosts
more than others. When playing in multiplayer, be sure to check what classes your teammates
are focusing. For instance, if you have a friend that's predominately focusing tank or melee
builds, keeping string instruments on you would help them greatly as the defensive
empowerments they provide would be invaluable to them. Likewise, if you have a healer or mage
in your group, they would benefit from wind instruments and their resource conserving boosts. It's
important to be mindful of your allies and the empowerments they might benefit the most from.
Item Specialties
A variety of items had a specialty purpose in mind when they were added to the game. On the off
chance some are lost to players, this list aims to inform the player on why you may want to use a
handful of items in particular, given some of their questionable attributes.
Drum Mallet: The Drum Mallet is an early game swung weapon that acts much like a melee
sword. It's speciality lies in its right click ability, which places a bouncy drum on the ground for
players to use. Use it to reach higher areas while exploring around, without the need to place
blocks or ropes. It can also be used to prevent fall damage.
Steam Flute: The Steam Flute is a post-Mech wind instrument with reasonable damage output
and a special right click ability. When used, it generates a cloud of smoke that grants players that
touch it reduced aggro range. Use it on allies with worse defensive stats to try and shake bosses
and swarming enemies off of them.
Fishbone: The Fishbone is a post-Plantera string instrument that deals additional damage to
enemies under the effect of Crowd Control effects. Use it with it's right click ability to rapidly
apply Oozed to enemies or with allies that also apply crowd control effects onto enemies for
maximum potential.
Terrarium Autoharp: The Terrarium Autoharp is unique in it's ability to apply empowerments
from multiple different instrument types. It pairs nicely with the Ornate armor and Auto
Tuner where despite only granting tier 1 of it's empowerments, they may increase in level,
granting a large boost in empowerment effectiveness.
Music Note Statue: The Music Note Statue functions similarly to the Heart Statue and Star
Statue, offering a wired way to recover Inspiration. It should be noted that it spawns Inspiration
Note (cyan) which doesn't recover as much inspiration as the common dropped form.
Final Comments
All in all, the Bard is a lot closer to the feel of the original 4 classes, compared to the Healer. With
the exception of the empowerment mechanic and inspiration, bards can comfortably focus on
dealing damage to enemies without having to worry about anything out of the ordinary. It's also
important to remember that just because the bard provides bonuses to allies in a multiplayer
setting, they function quite well when alone. So please feel encouraged to give the class a try
even in single player! Good luck to all you bards out there, play a symphony and lead your team
to victory!

Or just use a sonar cannon at least for me it deals 40K damage somehow.
v · d · e

Guides

Pre-Hardmode Bosses  The Grand Thunder Bird •   The Queen Jellyfish •   The Buried Champion 
Hardmode Bosses  Borean Strider •   The Primordials
Classes  Class setups •   Healer •   Bard
Crafting  Crafting Quick Reference •   Terrarium Defender
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