Target Dummy

Everything hits harder here than it ever will in a real fight, because the dummy has no defense at all. Use it to compare two weapons against each other, never to predict what you will do to a boss. The gap widens the more small hits a weapon lands, so a fast weak weapon looks far better on the dummy than it is against anything armored.

A long list of things do not treat the dummy as an enemy. Homing projectiles fly past it. Most minions ignore it unless they happen to walk through it. On-hit effects that spawn extra projectiles, such as the Horseman's Blade pumpkins or the Phantasm's bonus arrows, never trigger. Weapons that pick targets invisibly, the Magnet Sphere and Medusa Head among them, do nothing whatsoever. Any build leaning on those is being badly undersold by whatever total you are reading.

• It can vanish on you. The tile stays put, but the thing you were hitting is an entity that can despawn, and then your attacks pass straight through.
• It is not anchored. Teleporters and hoiks move it, and it drops if you mine out the floor.
• Damage over time registers properly, so it is a good way to check how long a debuff actually runs and how fast it ticks.
• Lava will not destroy it, but it does take damage from lava, which can confuse a reading.