Perhaps balance it around the progression of being BEFORE you obtain Hellfire Arrows and as a slight upgrade to regular grenade throwing, which sorta work as Pre-hardmode AoE weapons already, just an idea i'm putting here.

I've messed around with the Trash launcher (first one), and I think it could use some adjustments because it feels overtuned relative to how easy it is to obtain. I'm playing a Master diffculty world and the ~80 damage plus how far it shoots, AND how much knockback it does makes it an upgrade that outshines regular grenades and ranged weapons by a huge margin.

Feedback: I really like the idea and enjoy it as a Pre-hardmode launcher, I just think it shouldn't shoot as far while also having significantly more knockback than a regular grenade. Maybe reduce the damage too because as it stands, the launcher adds 20 damage effectively increasing grenade damage by 30%. I find myself one-shotting a lot of enemies when weapons of a similar tier wouldn't even come close to doing so.