Palladium Repeater

This is the first repeater you can build once the world turns, and what it really buys you is a ranged weapon that keeps firing while you are busy dodging, instead of one that needs a fresh input for every shot.

The bars it wants are the same bars your armor and your next pickaxe want, and the pickaxe is what unlocks the ore above. Make the tools first, then the armor, then this if there is anything left over. Skipping the repeater entirely and building the next tier is a perfectly reasonable plan.

Once you have one, stop thinking about the frame and start thinking about ammo. Swapping to a better arrow changes what this thing does far more than the next ore tier will.