It's harder to compare good weapons against each other than comparing good weapons against bad weapons. Out of boredom mainly and with 1.4.5 slowly approaching after the 1.4.4 "meta" has settled for a while now, I want to try ranking what I believe are the best of the best, which weapons do the most at making life as easy as possible for the players fortunate enough to obtain them. If you're looking to make your life easier, take a look at these weapons...
What are the specific criteria (besides general effectiveness)?
-How much does the weapon makes the game easier for casual/struggling players through its strengths and use cases?
-How practical is it to obtain and use the weapon effectively for the average player?
-How much of the weapon's strengths are abusable by advanced players to be incredibly strong from mastery & speed up progression to beat the game faster?
Additional notes:
-Weapons are judged based on which point in the game they are obtainable. A pre-mech weapon for example will be praised for being viable for a longtime until post-plantera, but likewise, Post-ML weapons are "useless" and not taken into consideration here.
-Some weapons will be grouped together as one placement if they are counterparts that are close enough to each other. Even the slightly worse counterpart in the case of this list is still top 15 or lower top 10.
-"Remix" weapons are not ranked. If they were, then Remix Aqua Scepter would've been #2 or #1.
-This is assuming Expert/Master difficulty, but I also take GetFixedBoi/Legendary Mode into account to a lesser extent.
-I had some discussions and got some opinions from other players, but this ranking is 90% my own opinions and research/experience still.
-This thread and ranking isn't made to be updated, not that I don't want to hear opinions from others. Just keep in mind that I do not plan on updating and making changes to this ranking.
#10 - The Undertaker (+ Musket) 
This pick right off the bat may seem odd, since these weapons aren't really special or even unusual by themselves. However after numerous 1.4.4 playthroughs, I've come to the conclusion that the early game weapon with the absolute best ratio of "Strong enough to solve regular mobbing" + availability, is The Undertaker. If you're a veteran player at least, there is no "strong" pre-boss weapon that is more consistently faster to obtain than The Undertaker. All you need is a couple of bombs and maybe a bit of luck, and you can easily rush to the bottom of the Crimson biome to loot the Undertaker at the beginning of the game. It is always the first item to drop from Crimson Hearts. It is just strong enough to consistently kill Crimson enemies before they reach/corner you, is especially reliable to kill bats & demon eyes from afar thanks to its good velocity & range and it has more than sufficient DPS to kill Eye of Cthulhu without spending a lot of time. Additionally, it enables the Arms Dealer to spawn, whose crush on the Nurse is so big that he will sell you pylons in almost any biome, even the snow biome (which he dislikes), enabling players to set up Pylons fast and early if they have the money for it. All of what I said also applies to the Musket, though I find the Musket a tiny bit worse because of its slower attack speed giving slightly less opportunities to finish off enemies and interrupt/knockback enemies. However it also means it consumes less ammo as a result, so it may be based on preference. They both deal basically the same DPS. Despite everything I said however, I can't really rank these guns higher than this in good conscience because a lot of the advantages I described are more geared towards veteran players rather than new or casual players. Especially since compared to some of the early game weapons higher in this list (hint hint), these guns get replaced by stronger options by mid-pre-hardmode.
#9 - The Bee's Knees
Homing weapons are somewhat of a rarity in Pre-Hardmode, and yet this weapon also has above average DPS at the same time especially if you land the direct "arrow" projectile consistently. The average mid-pre-hardmode weapon will output worse or on par results while requiring a lot more effort to use, and it also just so happens that Skeletron is the perfect boss to use The Bee's Knees on thanks to having to target multiple floating moving hands. On one of my first playthroughs of Terraria I used this weapon on Skeletron and very easily beat him rather fast without having to put much thought into aiming & my mind was free on focusing on survival. Even when it comes to optimizing for the highest DPS, this weapon still stacks against the competition very well, in fact you basically have to create unrealistic setups & scenarios to make Bee's Knees seem like lower DPS in comparison. You don't even need to grind special arrows to get Bee's Knees going, all it needs is Wooden Arrows and it immediately is ready to go. Also, another advantage to Bee's Knees is that if you're fighting Legendary mode Skeletron, you can easily have the bees interrupt & kill the dark mages. Lastly (correct me if I'm wrong), the only shortcoming of this weapon is that the bees will actually interrupt other piercing weapons from hitting, for example minions like Vampire Frog and Imp Staff. But this hardly hinders Bee's Knees viability because its performance is already inherently amazing in the first place, and you also have the option & synergy to use Hornet Staff (which shoots non-piercing projectiles) since you'll most likely be using Hive Pack.
#8 - Xeno Staff 
Xeno Staff is a similar case as Bee's Knees but even more potent overall. It doesn't have just "good AI", but practically perfect AI that flawlessly instantly hits enemies and hits them with extremely consistency. In fact, it's one of the extremely few minions that can actually hit Duke Fishron's 3rd phase reliably (Not even Sanguine Staff can). And yet, its raw DPS is comparable to Tempest Staff, a minion that is supposed to have very high raw power at the cost of having slow projectiles that miss enemies often, wasting tons of damage. Xeno Staff is extremely fast, consistent AND powerful at the same time, to the point it makes most other "strong & reliable" weapons seem bad in comparison. In fact, it's actually so good that it enables "Pure"/Whip Summoner to compete with Hybrid builds because Xeno Staff's synergy with Kaleidoscope in particular enables it to kill Master mode Empress of Light in literally under 40 seconds. And that's not a speedkill or a fluke, that's its actual realistic performance with just a bit of optimization. However, what holds Xeno Staff back from ranking even higher is the infamous "Post-Golem syndrome", its place in progression means that it doesn't get that much time to shine especially if players are not interested in other optional content like Duke Fishron and OOA Tier 3. That said, it's actually significantly useful against the Lunar Events as well since it instantly teleports to enemies that may otherwise rush at you or shoot projectiles. Most notably, it can easily hit and kill Nebula Floaters which are some of the most threatening and annoying enemies in the Lunar Events.
#7 - Blade Staff 
One of the best mobbing/crowd control weapons in the game, especially in smaller/tighter areas. It attacks so fast and aggressively that it can lock enemies in places, mostly preventing them from moving. It's just as good at cleaning up weak fodder enemies because of again its very fast speed enabling it to switch between targets in no time. And thanks to its especially potent synergy with tag damage from whips, it's also pretty good against bosses at the same time (except Destroyer). Xeno Staff is stronger than it for its tier overall, but what Blade Staff has over Xeno Staff is longevity. Once you obtain Durendal it's good enough to kill Plantera (Above average if using multiple whips), and Blade Staff by itself is one of the best weapons in the post-Plantera dungeon because it's perfectly suited for interrupting teleporting mages & immobilizing tough enemies like Bone Lee before they get to you. Then it with Morning Star is a good option to either fight the Solar Eclipse for Deadly Sphere Staff or fight the Pumpkin Moon for Raven Staff. Sanguine Staff is better against mech bosses and Duke Fishron, but Blade Staff is better for everything else. It doesn't suit Hybrid Summoner builds too well, but it doesn't need that for the sum of its solid damage output, consistent AI, superb mobbing and longevity to put it above almost all other minions in the game, which is most helpful for newer or struggling players.
#6 - Flinx Staff 
This is another weapon where you truly have to have played the game a ton to see the subtle supremacy of it. It's an early game grounded minion with 8 base damage, what's top 10 about it? I'll say it right away: It's one of the most contributory & effective weapons that also has among the highest longevity of all weapons in the game, while not being hard or significantly tedious to obtain. It slightly bounces off enemies it hits, meaning it will mostly consistently hit them even if they are flying. And since it consistently hits enemies, it's good at slowing down & interrupting enemies, which is crucial during early game mobbing in particular when you have limited movement and have less options in general. It's rather good at jumping, so it doesn't have a hard time reaching flying enemies like bats and demon eyes most of the time. You can also re-summon it on top of enemies even if they are on the other side of a wall, this applies to all minions in general but again Flinx is the fastest and cleanest at this job thanks to its "stickiness" on enemies. Even if you aren't concerned with crowd control, adding even just one Flinx minion to your setup is the best way to add a lot of extra of DPS to your character. It's much stronger than Finch Staff and Abigail while being much easier to obtain than Vampire Frog. You'd think that Flinx Staff becomes "outdated" once you get Imp Staff and such... Wrong! Flinx Staff is actually just straight up better than Imp Staff and (for the most parts) Hornet Staff. Though to be fair it has to do with Imp Staff simply having subpar DPS and Hornet Staff missing a lot.
Fact of the matter is, Flinx Staff is good for the entirety of pre-hardmode, including being viable against Wall of Flesh when used right. Simply put, obtaining Flinx Staff is a huge advantage to any build because it adds so much DPS and crowd control at the same time. It only has one significant flaw: 8 base damage is not high, so its damage will see a drastic reduction against high defense enemies. This can be solved by using Shark Tooth Necklace and/or using whips like Snapthorn, as well as using a Melee weapon (The Sharpening Station actually just gives you 12 armor penetration for every weapon as long as you're holding a Melee weapon). And the good thing is that none of these are really out of the way, grinding Blood Moon & exploring the Underground Jungle are both activities you most likely want to do on your playthroughs. Even obtaining the Flinx Staff itself involves exploring the Underground Ice biome, which is arguably the best biome to explore early in the game when it comes to the Difficulty-Reward ratio.
#5 - Dart Rifle (+ Dart Pistol) 
Hardmode Darts are really good. In fact, they turn Blowgun into one of the best weapons for starting early Hardmode. So when you bring in dart weapons with actual Hardmode stats, you get one of the strongest AND most versatile weapons in the game at the same time. The most potent interaction is Dart Rifle + Cursed Darts. The cursed darts rains down many cursed flame projectiles that pierces multiple targets and inflicts them with Cursed Inferno, covering a HUGE area to the point you hardly need to aim, you can have awful aim and still make good enough use of it. It can kill groups of mobs easily in open areas, but what about bosses? The single target DPS is not very good, however it just so happens that Twins are two targets, Skeletron Prime is 5 different targets and Destroyer is a worm boss with numerous segments to hit. Twins can be tricky to hit consistently, but Cursed Darts can hit both of them simultaneously for overall high DPS with little risk (careful about triggering both phase 2s at once). Against Skeletron Prime you aren't going to get the fastest killtime but you can play the safe way and take out the arms in a timely manner without needing good aiming. And then there is Destroyer where it will straight up melt to the rain of piercing projectiles, and many of the probes will also get destroyed in the literal crossfire.
If you want single target DPS and are confident of your aiming, you can also switch to Ichor Darts to achieve decent single target DPS (way above average if using Dart Pistol). It ranges from good to amazing against Mech bosses and it's good for mobbing in open ended areas like Pirate invasion and a Plantera arena. And then there are Crystal Darts which automatically bounce & ricochet towards enemies, easily killing them in tight areas without even really needing to aim. It's practically three weapons in one and good in virtually every situation. However, there's a "drawback" that is the reason it's not top 3: Dart Rifle is worse with Ichor Darts and is outmatched by other strong Ranged weapons in single target DPS, while Dart Pistol is worse with Cursed Darts to the point the damage output against mech bosses is not all that significant. That said, Dart Rifle itself I still consider around top 5 mainly due to its interactions with Cursed Darts and Crystal Darts, and it doesn't consume darts nearly as fast as Dart Pistol does.
#4 - Daedalus Stormbow 
It doesn't matter that Holy arrows got gutted. It doesn't matter that Archery Potion & Quivers got nerfed. It doesn't matter that Daedalus itself got a base damage nerf. Daedalus still remains one of the highest DPS weapons in the game in its tier and it still shreds bosses when used properly. Holy Arrows are out of style, instead Daedalus adapted into using mainly Ichor Arrows for the straightforward consistent high single target DPS (and Unholy Arrows against Destroyer). If you can aim well, this is the fastest Mech boss killer on average and also the unmatched fastest Pre-mech Duke Fishron killer. This is backed up by its high range that can hit enemies anywhere in the screen, an aspect which other good weapons like Drippler Crippler and Spirit Flame are lacking in comparison. You can also use Daedalus against Plantera effectively with Chlorophyte arrows, but at that point Chlorophyte Shotbow and Flamethrower are better options.
#3 - Terra Blade 
Throughout this ranking I have praised a number of weapon for having especially high potency while being versatile and/or easy to use at the same time, and Terra Blade is the epitome of all of this, literally the "Perfect" weapon that is great at literally everything no matter the situation. It rapidly shoots huge, piercing, high damage and high knockback projectiles while at the same time swinging a "sword aura" around the user that can either protect them from other enemies or be used offensively for extremely high close-range DPS. One of the strongest, safest and most versatile weapons in the game that also requires little thoughts to use effectively. It's also viable up to Moon Lord, in fact it's easily one of the best weapons for Lunar Events mobbing despite being obtainable pre-golem. And thanks to Beetle Scale Mail, it does not lose any of its shine near the endgame, it only keeps getting better if anything. And it's not even really difficult to obtain, you just need to craft several swords with mostly "common" material and then grind the Post-Plantera Solar Eclipse a bit (you also get Moon Stone from there). The only "flaw" with Terra Blade is that it's hungry for maximized Melee speed boosts from armor & accessories, so you can't really run a Hybrid Summoner build without making some sacrifices, but it doesn't matter because Terra Blade is inherently one of the best weapons in the game just by itself already. And it's not like a moderately weaker Terra Blade with an army of minions is a remotely bad setup either, especially since it applies Ichor Flask & grants Sharpening Station's 12 armor penetration to minions. Life is pretty easy when you obtain this weapon, whether you're a new player or have thousands of hours.
#2 - Starfury 
This weapon practically removes gameplay from the game. It can be obtained early in Pre-Hardmode with some luck, and what does it do? Shoot high damage piercing star projectiles anywhere in the screen that goes through blocks. That kind of of reach for a Pre-hardmode weapon, especially one that can be obtained before defeating any boss, is absurd. It enables you to safely dispatch of any enemy from distance, even if they are on the other side of a wall or inside a different cave section. The star projectile itself also does something even more useful: Illuminate basically any part of the screen while underground, revealing chests, life crystals and so on. You don't need Spelunker potions which are otherwise extremely valuable and somewhat difficult to get early in the game. Even during a Goblin invasion you can chill inside your house or otherwise barricade yourself and just kill the enemies one by one without needing to move your legs let alone risk dying. If you get this item early you just win the early game. Ignoring the star that cheeses the game, the blade itself is also potent and makes for a generally very strong weapon combined with the star. It has 25 base damage with 20 usetime. Compare this to Enchanted Sword which has 23 damage with 21 usetime, or Falcon Blade with the same stats but lower range, or Blood Butcherer which has 22 base damage with 25 usetime, or Bat Bat which has 36 base damage but a horrible 45 usetime, or the Ice Blade which as 17 base damage with 20 usetime, I could go on. This is the best weapon in Pre-Hardmode and it's very much worth it to rush for it, it will solve all of your pre-boss problems. It's also viable up to Wall of Flesh since the star can hit from afar and hit WoF two times consistently.
#1 - Vampire Knives 
With its healing equivalent to a Greater Healing Potion every 5 seconds, there is simply no weapon in the game that compares to Vampire Knives in term of massively reducing the difficulty of combat. If someone tells you that the Vampire Knives "don't heal enough" or something like that, they are wrong. In fact, Re-Logic pretty much designed the Moon Lord around countering the Vampire Knives both directly and indirectly, that speaks volume on how overpowered the Vampire Knives are when Re-Logic presumably felt worried that it would trivialize the final boss of their game. In all fairness, there are legitimate arguments to suggest that Vampire Knives are "only" top 10 instead of outright the best weapon in the game, mainly its availability combined with the fact a lot of the lategame stuff is optional with some of it also needing DPS instead of survivability (Betsy at the end of OOA + Daytime EoL). But if looked at strictly from a combat performance perspective, objectively nothing else in the game compares to Vampire Knives just letting you practically facetank events and bosses (especially if wearing defensive accessories like Cross Necklace and Worm Scarf), making the game incredibly easy in those moments. I was playing GetFixedBoi and fighting the Martian Invasion on the "true surface" which by itself is a miserable experience, but because I had Vampire Knives as a sidearm, I just used kept using them and stayed alive & didn't die once throughout the whole event despite getting continuously hit and overwhelmed by the enemy & projectile spam while at low gravity with legendary mode scaling. Vampire Knives have mediocre DPS but you can't deal damage when you're dead in the first place.
