Pirate Captain

He only exists while a Pirate Invasion is running. Nothing summons him directly and he never wanders in on an ordinary Hardmode night, so the event is the whole gate. The game keeps a single captain alive at any given moment, and killing that one lets another roll in later, which means a long invasion can hand you several. A Lifeform Analyzer picks him out of the crowd, which is worth having when the beach is packed with bodies.

The moment he has a clear line on you he opens up with rapid fire that keeps you honest but rarely kills. The dangerous half comes when he plants his feet. There is a cannon slung under that rifle, he stops to charge it, and the shell detonates on the first block it clips for damage that outclasses anything else in the event. It does not carry far, though. Keep your distance and all he has left is the cheap part of his kit.

Hitting him while the cannon is winding up shaves time off that windup instead of canceling it, down to a floor of about a second, and the timer only resets once the shell actually leaves. So a fast weapon poured into him at the wrong moment makes the cannonball arrive sooner rather than never. If you are standing close enough for the shell to reach, break line of sight or back out of range. Do not try to stagger him out of it.

Captains cough up the rare invasion loot several times more often than the rank and file do, so an event where you chase captains looks nothing like one where you mow down deckhands. Since only one can be out at a time, the efficient pattern is to clear the crowd, let the next captain spawn, and put him down for the same slice of event progress any other kill would give. Something else peels off the body when he dies: a Pirate's Curse that drifts at you through solid terrain, so do not turn your back on the spot.

His damage climbs into territory where one shell ends a run outright, and the charge attack punishes anyone who stands still to trade. Wings or a dash are not optional. Long range weapons are the other half of the answer, since they let you sit outside the cannon's reach and take only the rifle fire.

Almost nothing outside a boss carries as much money as he does, and he sits level with the Paladin near the top of that list. His banner also arrives early, at half the kill count most enemies ask for.