Silver Broadsword

This is roughly where a broadsword starts earning its swing speed. The reach lets you hit slimes and zombies before they touch you, which is the whole case for the broadsword line over shortswords early on. Worlds that rolled the other ore get tungsten instead and lose nothing by it.

Not long. A Blade of Grass or an Enchanted Sword ends its career, and both are reachable in the same stretch of the game. Build one if silver is what the first cave gave you and you want something with reach for the Eye of Cthulhu, then stop thinking about it.

• In the game's first year this sword was a required ingredient for the Blade of Grass, so the weapon that replaces it used to be made out of it.