As usual, this will be divided into three pages, and I am as usual starting at, well, the start; Pre-Hardmode.



So, first things first, I shall address the lady in the black dress. I was originally planning on using Tomato again as the run representative but a Discord or two voted against it. Sadly, Tomato lost the vote so not only do you have her, but she also gets more drawings across every page because they voted for that, too.

Some of the additional drawings were by me, meanwhile some others were other peoples' suggestions in the comments of said Discord servers. Sorta wish I'd just used Tomato since he'd have been so much easier to draw, but the damage is done now.



Secondly, I will be discussing most of the 'optional' content such as the Draedon's Remote and Post-Providence buffed bosses. I didn't address the buffed Aureus, though, for some reason.

Anyways, with that aside, onto the rules.

I will try to keep this brief since most of the rules are the same as before.

Weaponless Rule
The main gimmick of the run. I cannot use weapons to attack enemies. Other sources of damage like buffs, accessories, accessory-summoned minions, armour set bonus minions, town NPCs and traps are permitted.

Minions summoned using weapons are also banned for damage, but holding summon weapons to get the damage buff is allowed.



Luxor's Rule
The most controversial rule from the previous Weaponless run, though possibly due to bad explanation. Luxor's gift can summon a minion which is counted as an accessory minion for the context for the run and as such is allowed.

I start by using a summon weapon and summoning a minion, which triggers Luxor's to summon a minion, too
Then I de-summon the minion summoned using the weapon, leaving only the Luxor's minion, and thus an accessory minion, active.



Accessory Rule
As with other runs, additional accessory slots are permitted if you so choose. Typically it follows a simple pattern:
+1 Accessory Slot Pre-Hardmode
+1 More Accessory Slot in Hardmode (+2 Total)
+1 More Accessory Slot Post-Moon Lord (+3 Total)

This does stack with things like the Heart and Onion, but bear in mind most of my damage is coming from accessory-summoned minions so even with all these extra slots don't assume things become easy.



Revengeance Rule
An extra little bit of challenge I'm adding to the run to minimise the amount of ground being re-tread on this page compared to the original is that I am playing Revengeance mode with a small twist.

I cannot use either Adrenaline or Rage, meaning Revengeance just serves to make things strictly harder.



Anyways, with the rules listed, onto the run!

Summary:
So, first things first I need to get my hands on Luxor's Gift as soon as possible, seeing as it will be my main form of self-defence for quite some time. Of course, this means digging through the underground desert with only things like buckets of lava to defend myself, so as you can guess it's pretty rough to do.

Once I have Luxor's Gift I use the Squirrel Squire Staff for its base damage, which is a little less than the Slime Staff used for the original weaponless run, but it will do for now.

My next goal was the Abyssal Amulet, so I bee-lined to the Sulphurous Sea. My first fish netted me the Alluring Bait, the 2nd a much-appreciated Reaver Shark, by my 84th fish the Aquatic Scourge spawned and by my 120th fish the Abyssal Amulet was mine... though unfortunately I had to take the long way home thanks to the Scourge.

Armour-wise I had to make-do with Wulfrum since Cnidrions no longer grant Victide materials, but they do at least still provide the Amidias' Spark.

Finally, I got the Sandstorm in a Bottle, and finally the Frost Blossom Staff to buff the Luxor minion's damage.



Difficulty Increase:
★★★★★★
⏲ N/A



Aftermath:
-My first target, as ever, is the Desert Scourge. This is especially the case here since it also now gatekeeps Victide Armour

Summary:
Desert Scourge is typically an extremely fast fight with things like the Abyssal Amulet, but this time around it took a little longer.

The Desert Nuisances weren't actually nuisances at all, as both of them died almost instantly to Crush Depth and Luxor's, though the Scourge itself actually put up a fight.

The issue mainly came from the Scourge's mobility compared to Luxor's, as the Scourge lunges were generally faster than the Luxor minion and thus hitting it was unreliable, but when it did hit it dealt serious damage very quickly.

Overall, a little tougher than I expected, but a welcome change compared to the usual.



Difficulty Increase:
★★
⏲ 0:45



Aftermath:
-Victide Armour can now be obtained, mainly granting me the additional urchin minion
-The Shield of the Ocean is also very useful, since it grants additional defence and mobility
-The Sunken Sea is now officially open, granting access to the Voltaic Jelly so my attacks grant additional debuffs and deal slightly more base damage
-Finally, Amidias can now be rescued. The Magic Conch can be bought from him in order to buff Luxor's damage once again

Summary:
So, at this point I'd normally fight King Slime, but the Eye decided to naturally spawn while I was at my base sorting through my chest... so guess it's Eye time.

Phase 1 was fine and presented no problems, as the Luxor's minion dealt with the Servants fairly well and any that got past it likely got killed by the urchin spikes or the Crush Depth that followed.

Phase 2, however, presented some problems. The Luxor's minion, this early-on, already begins to show its weaknesses as the Eye's constant chain dashes are far too fast for it to keep up with, reducing about half the fight to chip damage and, above all else, Crush Depth damage.



Difficulty Increase:
★★★
⏲ 2:45



Aftermath:
-The Shield of Cthulhu is always appreciated, granting me an early dash accessory
-The Deathstare Rod actually acts as another damage buff that I entirely forgot about. A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one

Summary:
King Slime wasn't that much of an issue at all, being a fairly low-mobility boss while my Luxor's minion was receiving a nice damage buff.

At the end of the fight, however, Luxor's kept getting distracted. Even using manual target didn't help much as it would still just attack the nearest enemy, which was usually a random slime the King spawned.

Eventually, I just shield bashed it with the Shield of Cthulhu to deal the last hundred or so damage, almost dying in the process due to a poorly-timed dash right at the end of the fight.



Difficulty Increase:
★★
⏲ 1:11



Aftermath:
-As usual, both the Slimy Saddle and Slime Hook are appreciated
-I can now get the Bundle of Balloons thanks to Calamity giving the Shiny Red Balloon a recipe, significantly buffing my mobility

Summary:
Crabulon has the same weakness as King Slime, being a low-mobility boss that fortunately makes it a good target for Luxor's.

The only issue was my own fault, as I started the fight without first waiting for my health to regenerate... leaving me with only 100 health at the beginning of the fight.

Fortunately, I still survived as my mobility is amazing for this point in the game, so this fight wasn't an issue.



Difficulty Increase:
★
⏲ 0:58



Aftermath:
-The Fungal Clump is a great accessory as it provides a minion that latches to enemies, thus attacking consistently, and can heal the player.
--The only issue is that it was removed from the Amalgam's recipe, so I can no longer upgrade it like I used to which is quite a hefty blow against it.

Summary:
Now the Brain of Cthulhu is somewhat comparable to the Eye of Cthulhu, being that Phase 1 was super easy and Phase 2 was a bit of an issue due to the boss' mobility.

Phase 1 went by even faster than I was expecting, as the Fungal Clump, Luxor's and Crush Depth made shockingly quick work of the Creepers even with their stat buffs from Revengeance.

Phase 2, however, was not as fast. The Brain's constant teleporting meant that it once again started becoming chip damage, not helped by the Brain's resistance to Crush Depth due to its own defence. Fortunately, the number of minions I had made it more bearable than it was for the Eye.



Difficulty Increase:
★★
⏲ 1:52



Aftermath:
-Normally you'd get the Deathbringer Pickaxe from this fight, however because I got a Pre-1.4 Reaver Shark accidentally I don't get anything from beating the Brain that is directly helpful in this run

Summary:
The Perforators were an alright fight, being the first fight in Pre-Hardmode I typically associate with an increased difficulty.

The Hive itself isn't an issue, as the Sandstorm in a Balloon from the Bundle of Balloons gave me more than enough mobility to dodge it. The medium worm also wasn't an issue as it could be stun-locked to death by focusing your minions on its head. However, the other two worms were more of a problem.

Both the small and large worms are already highly mobile, which proves to be the biggest weakness of my minions, but the large worm especially caused problems. It coiled around me a few times, which sadly led to a lot of unwanted damage, and for some reason both my Fungal Clump and Luxor minions seemed to just leave halfway through fighting it, forcing me to re-summon the Clump and just hoping the Luxor's returned.

Overall, worse than I expected, but still bearable.



Difficulty Increase:
★★★
⏲ 2:30



Aftermath:
-Aerialite is now obtainable, and thus I decided to get the Harpy Ring for later, and the Aerospec Armour for an armour upgrade.

Summary:
So the Queen Bee fight started off swimmingly this time around, as the Luxor's minion decided to charge into a larva while I was both still making the arena and while I was currently in a large pool of honey.

Aside from that rough start, though, the fight was much of what I expected from a Queen Bee fight, with a faster first half and a longer second half, the Clump dealing with any bees spawned, and the Luxor's being my best damage vs Queen Bee herself due to its comparatively high damage compared to my other minions.



Difficulty Increase:
★★★
⏲ 2:45



Aftermath:
-I don't actually get any useful items from this fight since the Bee Armour doesn't have a set bonus minion and the Hornet Staff has less damage and thus isn't as useful for summoning Luxor's minion

Summary:
Skeletron was a tough fight, though this was expected. The hands actually proved to be a little bit of an issue this time, since now I noticed that Crush Depth cannot damage them due to their defence and thus a whole accessory slot was being taken up by a 'dud accessory' basically.

Once that was dealt with Phase 2 fighting just the skull was alright. Keeping the head as still as possible worked best since it allowed things like Luxor's to stay close to the target and not have its unreliable targeting make it go flying off elsewhere or something.

The hand regeneration was the same as Phase 1, and the rest of the fight the same as Phase 2, with the only real threat to myself being a small instance of being telefragged due to what I assume was a bug causing Skeletron to not teleport to its purple ball of particles but instead about 20 blocks above it... which happened to be where I was headed.



Difficulty Increase:
★★★
⏲ 3:16



Aftermath:
-I can now explore the dungeon, granting 2 additional items for the challenge
--The Cobalt Shield is the most obvious one, since knockback immunity is always appreciated, though I sadly lack the accessory slots to equip it at the moment.
--The Staff of Necro- Necrostereo- Necrosteocytes I assumed would be the final damage upgrade Pre-Hardmode but... it wasn't. The Deathstare Rod actually has 2 more damage than it, making it the best weapon to summon Luxor's minion in all of Pre-Hardmode

Summary:
Probably the longest and generally toughest fight in Pre-Hardmode in this challenge, Slime God actually put up a fairly good fight even compared to all the previous bosses.

The fight is mostly normal when compared to other Slime God fights in these challenge runs, with two distinct differences. First of all Luxor's has a shocking habit of just forgetting what it was doing and just floating near to enemies and not attacking, or other times ignoring the manual-targeted enemy in favour of attacking the small slimes.

Unfortunately, this odd behaviour caused me to lose the first fight as one of the large slimes, occupied and buffed by the core, lunged into me and stun-locked me to death with a series of short-ranged hops. Worse yet, said slime was sitting on very low health and could've been defeated by Luxor's, yet it was too busy flying after the small slimes and thus I lost the first fight.

The second attempt went better, though, as I just operated under the assumption that my minions were unreliable and thus I shouldn't take risks. This did lengthen the fight, but I did ultimately come out victorious.



Difficulty Increase:
★★★★
⏲ 5:10



Aftermath:
-Slime God normally provides both the Jelly-Charged Battery and the Statigel Armour, but this time around there were some complications
--The Battery was something I did craft, but due to lack of accessory slots I couldn't equip it
--The Statigel Armour's minion was generally less reliable than the Valkyrie provided by Aerospec, so I didn't upgrade my armour

Summary:
A bonus thing I wanted to attempt during the run for whatever reason where I would have to fight all of the Pre-Hardmode bosses, as well as some mini-bosses, before continuing over into Hardmode. I would've done it Post-WoF, but the Crush Depth buff dissuaded me.

As expected, many of the earlier fights, especially the mini-bosses, didn't put up too much of a fight due to my gear primarily being Post-Perforators by this point, though by Perforators themselves fights began taking more than 2 minutes each since that was roughly on-par with what my gear was during the original fights.

By the end I was left on less than 70 health after Slime God, which in itself took 4 total attempts that typically died on either Slime God itself or one instance against an accidentally-enraged Queen Bee, but it was actually possible.



Difficulty Increase:
★★★★
⏲ 0:05 (Cnidrion)
⏲ 0:07 (Desert Scourge)
⏲ 0:27 (Giant Clam)
⏲ 0:32 (King Slime)
⏲ 1:52 (Eye of Cthulhu)
⏲ 1:16 (Brain of Cthulhu)
⏲ 0:18 (Dark Mage)
⏲ 2:05 (Perforators)
⏲ 4:33 (Queen Bee)
⏲ 3:18 (Skeletron)
⏲ 5:06 (Slime God)



Aftermath:
-Next up is Wall of Flesh, and thus the true end of Pre-Hardmode

Summary:
Wall of Flesh in Expert is typically an issue due to its speed but here, instead, it's its tankiness. My low damage compared to WoF's high health and damage, as well as the fight structure being far more limiting, makes it probably the toughest fight thus far, so I had to incorporate a few extra strategies in order to win.

Firstly, I created a thin tunnel of blocks, preventing either of the eyes from shooting me, though forcing me in close confinement to the mouth and thus forcing me to primarily focus it down. I also used Tesla Potions to keep Hungries at bay, which worked exceptionally well.

After a long but comparatively tame fight compared to the other attempts, Wall of Flesh was downed, and the 2nd part of the run was on the horizon...



Difficulty Increase:
★★★★
⏲ 2:19



Aftermath:
-The world now enters Hardmode, bringing me to the 2nd part of the challenge
-I gain access to 2 new accessory slots now; one from the Heart and one from the rules
-Drop-wise I am after the Summoner Emblem specifically, as well as any other type of Emblem for later as well

And that was the first of 3 parts of the new, updated Weaponless Run

Sorry about this taking so long, as the run was actually finished before the Viral Sprout guide was even finished, so I should've really had this out ages ago.

Also sorry about every page having the funny drawn lady on them. Wish I didn't have to, but I guess this is what I get for leaving the vote open and public in multiple servers without regard to the types of people in some of those Discords...
welp, guess it's something to remember for next time



Well, that aside, hope you still enjoyed and hopefully I'll get the 2nd part out soon enough, so see you then :)