Hornet Staff

The hornet parks itself above whatever it has decided to attack and drops stingers straight down at it. Those shots are slow to line up and stop dead on the first thing they touch, so anything moving erratically will dodge maybe half of what the minion throws. Put it against a big slow target that holds still and it becomes a completely different weapon, landing almost everything.

Every hit also applies poison, so it layers on damage over time that the other early minions do not bring. That counts for more in a long boss fight than it does while clearing trash.

The Hive Pack is the biggest single upgrade available to it. More shots per second is worth more than raw damage on a projectile that misses this often. Pair the hornet with a minion that actually tracks, or with a whip so you have a way to force targets, and it stops feeling unreliable.

If you are already farming Queen Bee for this, take the Beenades too. Shimmer breaks them back down into extra Bee Wax.