Animation of the Ice Rod. Note that it creates solid blocks, and has ability to strike through them.
The Ice Rod is a Hardmodemagic weapon that auto-fires blocks of ice. It has the unique ability to place a solid, temporary Ice Block at the location of the cursor, which lasts for 15 seconds before shattering. These Ice Blocks are translucent, slippery, and cast a dim, flickering light. The Ice Rod is purchased from the Wizard for 50 / 1.
The location of the cursor must be unoccupied in order to form an Ice Block. If the tile is occupied either by blocks or background objects, the fired Ice Block acts as an ordinary projectile, flying in a straight line and unaffected by gravity, and shatters when it hits an enemy or other foreground objects. If the cursor is on an existing Ice Block from a previous casting, it will cause the next projectile to pass through the existing Ice Block.
Regular blocks can be placed adjacent to the created Ice Blocks, which can prove useful in building floating structures (especially at higher elevations such as in Space), as it is not necessary to build a temporary connection from the ground or a Floating Island to the building site.
The temporary Ice Block summoned by the Ice Rod is unrelated to the Ice Block inventory item found naturally in Snow biomes. Summoned Ice Blocks cannot be collected or placed, and break automatically about 15 seconds after summoning.
Wall-mounted light fixtures like Torches will switch to a placed Ice Block over a background wall until it breaks.
The Ice Rod can be used with wings to repeatedly reset flight time in midair, by casting a Ice Block beneath the player's feet as they start falling. The flight timer will be reset as soon as they land on the Ice Block.
Since the Ice Blocks created can be grappled to with a hook or similar device, the Ice Rod can be used to reach areas high above the surface, such as Floating Islands, more easily. While "stairs" are also possible, caution should be taken not to fall off.
The Ice Rod's ability to fire through its own Ice Blocks creates unique shielding possibilities during combat – while the player can fire through their shield of Ice Blocks, enemies and their attacks are impeded by the blocks.
This gives it surprising utility in PvP combat, where attacks generally do much greater damage and tend to travel too fast to dodge.
Upon shattering, summoned Ice Blocks release illuminated sparks that travel down through blocks, making the Ice Rod useful for discovering ores and caves.
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