Attack speed

Attack speed in Terraria refers to the rate at which a weapon can attack. Despite many modifiers and effects showing changes to attack or melee speed, attack speed is not an in-game statistic and is instead determined by its reciprocal, known as use time. This is the amount time it takes to swing (attack with) or use an item. If use time increases, attack speed decreases, and vice versa. For example, a weapon with a use time of 30 will have a lower attack speed (slower rate of fire) than a weapon with a use time of 10. As such, any attack speed modifiers will in actuality act as a variable within the use time equation. However, as shown below, for many melee weapons a change in attack speed (and therefore use time) will have effects other than a change in use time. 
While almost all weapons can receive attack speed modifiers, such as Quick or Legendary, accessories will only ever provide bonuses to melee speed. 
== Effects on special types of melee weapons ==
Melee speed bonuses affect different types of melee weapons in different ways. For most endgame weapons, it does not increase DPS, as most of them fall into one of the following categories:
=== Projectile melee weapons ===
Melee speed only affects the actual swinging animation and not the rate at which a weapon fires projectiles, with few exceptions such as the Terra Blade. In other cases, however, the speed at which the projectile fires is the same regardless of having +10% melee speed or +200% melee speed. Melee speed does, however, affect the speed at which the projectile travels. The Terragrim, Arkhalis, and Starlight's main attacks are considered projectiles, and do not benefit from melee attack speed boosts.
=== Yoyos ===
Melee speed bonuses increase the length of a Yoyo's string, but not its attack rate. This can be very helpful in the early game, when yoyos are very short and hard to hit bosses with, and against bosses where you need to keep a distance (such as Empress of Light). The exact multiplier for yoyo string length is (1+3*(melee speed))/4, where melee speed is 1.0 without buffs. Thus, if the player can reach 2x melee speed through buffs, the yoyo string will be 75% longer.
=== Flails ===
Similar to yoyos, Flails do not attack more often with melee speed boosts, but they reach further and shoot out faster, making them much better at hitting flying targets.
=== Whips ===
Despite doing summoning damage, Whips are heavily affected by melee speed, making them one of the few endgame weapons whose DPS is directly affected by melee speed.
=== Spears ===
Spears gain additional reach from melee speed but not additional DPS. Instead, they move faster during each swing to make up for the increased travel distance.
=== Boomerangs ===
Boomerangs gain additional range from melee speed.
== Boost gear ==
=== Accessories ===
Item	Attack speed bonus
=== Armor ===
Item	Attack speed bonus
 	15%
 	20%
 	up to 30%
== Notes ==
* The maximum increased attack speed (for melee) is +158.1% using Monk's Bushy Brow Bald Cap (20%), Shinobi Infiltrator's Torso (20%), Solar Flare Leggings (15%), Exquisitely Stuffed (buff) (10%), Tipsy (buff) (10%), and the five accessories Feral Claws (12%), Power Glove (12%), Mechanical Glove (12%), Celestial Shell (15.1% at night) and Berserker's Glove (12%), each reforged to Violent (20%). In Expert Mode Violent Fire Gauntlet can be worn for an extra 16%, with +174.1% total; In Master Mode an additional Violent accessory (note, as of 1.4, the sun and moon stones' effects no longer stack) can be worn for an extra 4%, with +178.1% total. When combined with the fastest melee weapon, the Fetid Baghnakhs, a player may execute a full melee attack in roughly 0.033 seconds, or thirty times per second (note:as of 1.4, it can only receive up to +25% speed bonus).
* Mining speed of various tools is however not affected by the bonuses above, it is only boosted by specialized mining bonuses (such as the Mining Potion and Mining armor) and speed bonuses granted by the tool's own modifier, the best of which is Light. The exception is the Celestial Stone (and related accessories), whose bonus to mining speed is stated in the tooltip.
* Enemies' invincibility frames should be taken into consideration when dealing with attack speed. Generally speaking, no invincibility time is applied when referring to projectiles that do not pierce, but those that do pierce or explode are not in this case. Normally it is 1/6 seconds (10 ticks) while there are some exceptions ranging from 5 ticks to 20 ticks.
== Footnotes ==