So I just started hardmode and the Goblin army caught me completely by surprise. Summoners showed up that I have never faced before. My spawn is in the center of the map where my NPC's were. I am now constantly respawning now in the middle of the army and they kill me most every time. My items are not far but I can't move fast enough before the apparitions, summoners and wizards kill me.
I'm pretty sure the answer is "You're screwed" and I have to exit the game losing all my good loot (that is one the ground) that I just got from defeating the Wall of Flesh.
Is there something I can do to get out of this that won't risk my items? I took my hellavator and the army went away but when I died, since I could not survive the fall, the army returned.
My current play is I am hoping to walk enough away from my items that I can then attempt a dash, once I respawn, in the other direction to get most of my items and then quickly exit.
I am playing on medium core so just keep killing them is not a good option since copper short sword sucks on a good day.
Best Answer
While this might not be practical or possible in all situations I was able to get through this in about an hour after dying a lot.
Since I was located inside my base my stored items were in close vicinity. Enemies would follow me and in a general sense be drawn to my location of death as well. I would move my character, 20-30 squares when I was lucky, away from my base to give me a little lead time ahead of some of the goblins. This proved useless against the wizards but after a few tries I gained enough time to get to a chest in the opposite direction.
However I only had time to remove one ... sometimes two at a time. I selected a flail and a yoyo on a separate occasion. Trick at this point was to move as little as possible with the exception of jump dodging. I would get in a hit or two before I died.
Now when I would re-spawn I would instantly be equipped with a weapon which usually occupied the same slot. Sometime I would pick us spike balls so that death would accomplish nothing. Many deaths were for not and I could not get any hits in either due to knockback or appearing in front of projectiles.
After a long period of working like this the army was defeated and the summoner eventually de-spawned and did not need to be killed. (Would only have been a matter of time before she perished before my infinite lives though)
In the end I lost nothing but some time in my actual life.