Dark Souls III Complete Weapon Guide

An in-depth look into the weapons and weapon mechanics of Dark Souls 3. If you can't decide on which weapon to use for your build then I suggest you give this a read.

Introduction

There is one common factor that links almost all of the games developed by From Software; and that is poor conveyance. Now don’t get me wrong, this is intentional (for the most part) especially in regards to the Dark Souls series as it provides additional challenge and fits the world and stuff.

However, this can be frustrating as information about certain mechanics is often...vague - and left up to interpretation. This guide aims to collate and condense this information into a much simpler and usable format.

How Does Damage Work?

Now you'd think that damage would be a pretty simple concept not requiring its own topic, well I've got some bad news for you.

*Note: this is not made by me this is from a video by Limit Breakers a link to which can be found in the links section of the guide and it provides some additional info for those who are interested + the channel produces some great content so I'd recommend checking it out regardless.

**Second note: the reddit post from which this information is sourced from will also be linked.

They made damage needlessly complex.

So before we talk about a weapon's damage we need to understand how damage is reduced. There are two parts to what I'll call damage reduction, there's absorption and defence.

Defence as shown above is quite complicated, it's not a flat reduction or a percentage decrease to damage, just think of it as another way to reduce damage. The important piece of information to take away from defence is that it penalises small amounts of damage very heavily.

Absorption is a percentage reduction to any incoming damage type and it's applied after the incoming damage has been reduced by defence. Absorption can only be obtained through equipment, armour, weapons and rings can all provide absorption.

Now, your defences are governed by your stats but defences also gain a percentage increase by just wearing armour. Say we have a character with 84 physical defence when wearing no armour, with full armour you would have 146 which is roughly a 75% increase. This reduces the damage taken by a huge amount so you should always have a piece of armour in every slot regardless of what it is. Wearing the Maidens set will provide the same percentage increase to your defence(not absorption) as wearing full Havel's so it doesn't matter whether you're going for a light or heavy build - always have at least some armour.

Each piece of armour (head, legs ect.) provides a different amount.

Head: 12%
Chest: 26%
Hands: 7%
Legs: 16%

1.12 * 1.26 * 1.07 * 1.16 ~= 1.75



Note: this graph was plotted using Microsoft Excel, the data from which the graph was plotted was obtained through the use of a program I wrote to calculate the damage dealt by a weapon from 0-600 AR against a player with the defences listed above and export it to a CSV file. The actual method for the damage calculation was obtained from a reddit page listed in the links section and the results of this program were checked against two reliable damage calculators both of which are also linked in the links section.

Note: The percentage of damage that gets through defence is plotted to 2 decimal places.

Using a weapon with 100 AR against a player with 150 defence in that damage type only ~21% of the actual damage goes through when using a 200 AR weapon against the same player ~51% of the damage passes through. This is a 30% increase in the amount of actual damage that you're hitting a player with which is huge especially considering this is without applying the flat percentage reduction of absorption.

This weird quirk in the defence calculations leads to many split damage weapons, dealing unsatisfactory damage against other players due to their seemingly high AR actually being made up of two smaller numbers. Dark Souls 3 defence system penalises small amounts of damage very heavily, thus you should always try and buff a weapon with a damage type it already has - for example a Lothric Knight Greatsword should be buffed with lightning to increase the percentage of lightning damage that makes it passed defences.

You can add elemental buffs to purely physical weapons, this is fine but you will need to add a large amount (>200) in order to get a noticeable difference in damage.

To put it simply, buffing a pair of Sellsword Twinblades with something like DMB is fine as you're adding high amounts of magic damage despite this weapon lacking innate magic damage, but you should never infuse/buff a weapon with an additional damage type such as a Chaos Lothric Knight Greatsword or a Crystal Dragonslayer's Axe.

If you're going for a split damage weapon you're looking for something with two large numbers, never try and go for 3 way split damage.

Each of the defences scale with specific stats meaning that some damage types are penalised more heavily than others when fighting against a typical player.

As a rule of thumb.


Lightning is unfortunately the worst damage type because a player's flat lightning resistance for some reason is tied to their endurance and as every build in the game, be it mage or warrior requires stamina, this means that any weapon doing lighting damage will typically do less than its other elemental counterparts.

Fire is close behind as a player's flat fire defence is tied to their strength and as most "meta" setups are quality (plus the large amount of people who use ultra greatswords and hammers) these players will have increased fire defence making any fire split weapons much weaker than most expect.

Magic and dark damage are typically considered the best secondary damage types because a players flat defence to these damage types is linked to intelligence and faith respectively. Unfortunately not that many people run magic, faith or pyro builds as DS3's mechanics are rather unforgiving to casters and most new players pick safer starting classes such as knight or warrior. This however has the unintended side effect of increasing the viability of magic and dark weapons as "meta" players usually account for "meta" damage types ie physical slash thrust and standard weapons.

This is not to say all split damage weapons are bad as this is not true (onyx and moonlight greatsword are both examples of excellent split damage weapons) I am just trying to convey how DS3 handles damage types and hopefully give you a better idea of how to build your character.

As a rule of thumb try to focus on one part of the split damage don't do anything silly, like infusing a LKGS with chaos either infuse it with lighting to buff the innate lighting damage or make it raw and buff with lightning blade or gold pine resin, you want a few big numbers not lots of small ones.

Also, you may find that you run into a disproportionately large amount of casters or odd builds and if that's the case great, I'm glad for you cause it sounds fun, I am just trying to portray what I and many other players feel is the most common form for another player to take.

Physical damage is misleading in this game as it appears that thrust/strike/slash damage are all subcategories of physical damage. This is wrong, each of these is its own type of damage with physical defence being the stat that resists standard damage (ie straight swords/greatswords/axes ect).

Defences the "physical" damage types will always be the same meaning that their effectiveness is dictated by absorption. Almost all armour has pretty poor strike (great hammers/FUGS ect) resistance so this will usually do the most flat damage to a player. Slash(curved swords/katanas)/Standard(straight swords/greatswords) tend to be about equal and most players will have good absorption for these damage types.

Thrust is unique as whenever a player performs an action considered an attack, their thrust absorption plummets meaning that thrust weapons will do more damage against players performing an attack. This is referred to as a counter attack and is the reason that thrust weapons (spears/thrusting swords) will appear to out trade weapons with more AR.

Poise

Poise is a stat you get from armour.

Weapons with hyperarmour (typically the heavier ones ie greatswords and above) allow you to tank through attacks without flinching, given that you have enough poise.

All weapons do poise damage, meaning that if someone hits you with an attack that does more poise damage than you have hyperarmour, you will be staggered regardless.

The strength of your hyperarmour is dependent on how much poise you have, the weapon you are using and the attack you are performing with said weapon.

In most cases the bigger the weapon (ie greathammers, greataxes, greatswords ect) the more poise damage it does and the greater the posie health multiplier it has on its attacks

Each attack that has hyperarmour has something called a poise health multiplier that effects how much poise damage you can take with your current poise.

To over simplify: the amount of poise damage you can take = poise health multiplier * your poise

WARNING: THIS IS NOT THE ACTUAL CALCULATION PLEASE DO NOT USE THIS TO CALCULATE YOUR EFFECTIVE HYPERARMOUR.

Basically the bigger the poise health multiplier of your attack and the more poise you have, govern how hard your opponent has to hit you to stagger you.

Hyperarmour only starts during a certain point during your attack animation, if someone hits you before that point, you will be staggered regardless. No amount of poise will help if you are hit while not in hyperarmour.

Almost all weapons with hyperarmour will have some startup frames during which they do not have hyperarmour.



This is how you will most likely feel after reading about poise, don't worry this is normal.

If you want more information or feel that my description is lacking/confusing I strongly suggest you watch this video. Even if you feel that I described this part of the game well I still suggest you watch this video as it conveys this information better than I ever could.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jO8CvQd4w00

Straight Swords

Straight swords are a good weapon class, they have great speed and damage for their weight and size. I would recommend that you almost always one hand straight swords as the two-handed move set isn't great.

Straight swords work well with shields and if you want to utilise the weapon art I suggest the black knight shield. Brief note on stance (stance is the typical WA for straight swords) the L2 R2 is actually pretty good at roll catching.

Lothric Knight Sword/Long Sword/Sunlight Straight Sword/Anri's Straight Sword


I've grouped these weapons together because they're very similar in terms of length and damage.

Lothric Knight and Longsword are basically the same, but the general consensus is that the Lothric Knight is superior. Lothric has the superior range, a 110 critical modifier (this means stronger backstabs/ripostes) and only 7 less AR than the Longsword at 40/40. Lothric also has more pokes for the R2s instead of sweeps like the Longsword.

These weapons are suitable for almost any infusion except heavy, meaning these weapons are great for casters looking for a weapon that has instant damage and doesn't require buffing.

The sunlight straight sword has the same range as the long sword but it also requires high faith to utilise effectively. The weapon art provides a small buff to absorption and damage, this should be used before entering combat. The weapon should be used with a faith/quality build for max physical damage or with a pure faith build buffed with DMB (lightning blade is just worse DMB but will work fine in its place).

Anri's straight sword is the best option for a quality hollow build (27/40/35 str/dex/lck and a hollow offhand item), it has a good length, good damage, it’s just a good all-around weapon.


Dark Sword/Ring Knighted Straight Sword/Lothric's Holy Sword


These swords have been grouped together due to their high range and unique weapon arts for this class.

The dark sword is a great option, its high damage and range combine to make an excellent (yet annoying) weapon. This is the best option for a strength based straight sword but works well with quality too. There are issues with it as the R2's aren't great and the weapon art is useless against anything with hyperarmour; you’ll be out damaged despite not flinching by anything like a greatsword or larger.

The Ringed Knight Sword is a strange straight sword, the damage is mediocre and the int/faith scaling is pointless as it provides no AR (going from 8 int to 60 provides a whopping 2 points of fire damage) a 40/40 setup is recommended. The WA is ok – not bad - not great - just ok. It does good damage, just don't try to trade with greatswords or larger, you won't win.


Lothric's Holy Sword has bad AR, don't bother trying to fix it with faith investment because the faith scaling is bad. In pvp the low damage roughly translates to 1-2 hits more to kill someone, this is compared to a typical straight sword at 40/40. The weapon somewhat makes up for this with the WA which can be used to punish whiffed attacks that otherwise you couldn't. Plus, you can activate the stance and bait people inwards before using the L2 R1, which is nice.

To finish, Lothric's has good length and should be used with a 40/40 setup.


Gottard Twinswords/Valorheart


Valorheart and Gottard’s both have unique properties so I'm talking about them here.

Gottard’s is the longest straight sword in the game and coincidentally has what may be the best rolling attack. The rolling L1 does high thrust damage meaning it benefits from counter hits (leo ring is recommended) and if a parry is expected the timing can be altered with a rolling R1 or the weapon art. This weapon should be used with a refined or sharp infusion but can also work well with buffs such as DMB or CMW.

Valorheart is odd. It has small range for a straight sword and has block frames on all of its attacks. These block frames allow you to tank through attacks without flinching which makes it great against smaller weapons. For larger weapons I suggest you switch to something else, as they can easily guard break you. It requires good stamina management to find success with this weapon, even small weapons can guard break if you aren't careful.

Irithyll Straight Sword/Broadsword


These are grouped together because they used to be in the garbage section but some people brought up some relevant points so they deserve to be talked about but I can't be bothered to edit previous sections sooo.

Irithyll Straight Sword has good length but poor damage with ~40 less AR than the Longsword. It supposedly makes up for this with it's frost effect. Frosbite is just ok, it deals a small amount of damage, slightly impedes stamina recovery and decreases absorption temporarily. The frost effect combined with the speed of straight swords can produce effective pressure.

This weapon should only be run with a 40/40 quality build.

The Broadsword is an odd case, it has the highest AR out of all the straight swords but this translates to roughly one less hit to kill on a player. However the range is abysmal and it sacrifices the thrusting R2s for a weird sweep the efficacy of which is questionable.

This weapon can be run heavy, refined or sharp and each infusion should be run with their respective build.

Note: this weapon is a popular choice for Sl1 runs due to its high swing speed, low stat requirements and having the highest damage when infused raw of all straight swords (rest in peace Astora Straight Sword).

Garbage


These unfortunately are not worth using, it's not that they’re all bad or un-useable, it's just that everything they do can be done better by other straight swords.

The Shortsword is shorter and does less damage than the Longsword. Morion Blade is long but the low damage makes it mediocre and the effect can just be replicated with the RTR. The Barbed Straight Sword is a shorter long sword but with a frankly useless bleed effect.

The only weapons left are the Astora Straight Sword which is a worse Morion Blade but with a faith requirement; and the Clerics’ Candlestick which is possibly one of the worst weapons in the game, with low split damage and a light as the weapon art . The Broken Straight Sword shouldn't even be considered.

Greatswords

Greatswords swing slightly slower than straight swords but make up for this by having great damage and hyper armour on their two handed moveset.

*Typically you should always 2 hand a greatsword due to the hyper armour and 1.5 times multiplier to strength for increased damage. Greatswords should only be 1 handed if the additional speed is necessary ie quickstep spam.

Claymore/Hollowslayer/Black Knight Sword


These weapons are grouped together as they are fairly similar to each other when compared to the other greatswords.

The claymore is a great weapon (great geddit), it has high damage, and good range. Its R2s are strong pokes, meaning you can benefit from counter hits and space more effectively against weapons such as curved greatswords. Stance is just an ok WA the momentum for the L2 R2 is less than straight swords making it worse for roll catching.This is the best greatsword for dex and strength builds, having the best balance of range and damage for these stat investments. It can also work well with elemental infusions due to great scaling and relatively low stat requirements.

Hollowslayer is possibly the best quality greatsword, it has the same range as the claymore and slightly more damage at 40/40. The best part of this weapon is its hyperarmour and recovery; the hyperarmour starts much quicker than other greatswords and it has 0 recovery frames on its R1s so yeah it's great. Only use this with a 40/40 quality build.

Black Knight Sword has the range of Hollowslayer, the R1s of the Claymore and higher damage than both of them. Its only problem is that its R2s are slow and have unsatisfactory range. They do deal more poise damage than a typical greatsword R2 but this does not excuse the lack of range. The WA is perseverance which is ok, it works well against larger weapons but only if they swing twice.

To wrap up, perseverance is a solid WA and works well against larger weapons.This weapon should only be used with a 40/40 quality build.

Moonlight Greatsword/Onyx Blade/Firelink Greatsword/Twin Princes


The reason these weapons are grouped together is because they all have split damage and unique WAs.

The Moonlight Greatsword is a solid weapon for sorcerers and provides a good alternative to spells when facing more aggressive opponents. When building for this weapon you should just meet the physical requirements and invest in intelligence as the physical damage and scaling is abysmal.

The R2s when fully charged fire a projectile, but it has a small hitbox which makes it difficult to land on players. The WA projectile is okay on its own but the damage is disappointing, the ideal way to use the WA is to hit with the sword and the projectile resulting in a much higher damage output.

To summarise, the scaling softcaps at 40 int but if you're running a mage you'll need 60. The R2s on their own aren't great - once again the lack of a thrusting attack hurts the weapon but it's still a viable option for magic builds.

The Onyx Blade is the longest greatsword in the game, making it more effective for spacing opponents.The weapon should never be used without using the WA (this adds ~150 fire damage). The damage without the buff is not great so always keep the buff up. The R1s of this weapon combo into the WA allowing for more damage and a free chance to buff.This weapon should be used on a pyro build so 40/40 int/faith, don't bother with physical investment as once again it's not worth it, focus on the dark damage.

Firelink greatsword despite appearances is a quality weapon and should be used with 40/40 str/dex. The damage unbuffed isn't good, the non scaling fire damage hurts the weapon's viability. In addition to this, the weapon is deceptively short making it more difficult to use than weapons like the claymore, it also has the same R2s as bastard sword which are mediocre. However, the weapon's saving grace is its WA; the actual attack is not great as it's slow and the fire trail does low damage but it buffs the weapon with ~80 fire damage making it hit much harder.

Twin Princes is another odd weapon, it can be run with 40/40 str/dex or with minimum physical requirements and 40/40 int/fath or a weird mix of the two ~ 27/40 str/dex 20/20 int/faith - it depends.The weapon itself has poor damage and will probably require an extra hit or two to kill a typical player compared to a regular greatsword. Many argue that the mixups afforded by the two weapon arts in combination with their range makes up for this. Personally the fact that the weapon is very time consuming to obtain combined with the sub par damage makes it difficult to recommend but strictly speaking there's no glaring fault, so you can decide whether it's right for you.

Wolf Knight's Greatsword/Gael's Greatsword


These both have good damage and a flip based WA so they're going here.

Wolf Knight's is a long high damage greatsword...that's about it. The R2s are what keep this weapon from being too good, the one handed is a slow poke which is as good as it gets, the two handed R2s are slow sweeps so only good for timing mixups. Stick to staggered R1s and use with a quality build.

Gael's is the second longest greatsword and best of all its got the claymore moveset along with a good WA. The best part of the weapon is the WA and the fact the R1s combo into it, allowing you to get a high amount of damage off of a relatively quick attacks. The initial attack from the WA has the same hyperarmour as an R1 but the followup R1/R2 has much more, allowing you to tank through some heavier weapons if need be. Finally, it deals strike damage on its R1s, meaning it hits harder against the majority of players as they have low strike absorption. This weapon should only be used on a quality build.

Greatsword of Judgement


Greatsword of Judgement is just ok. It's a quality/intelligence weapon that can buff itself for ~80 magic damage through the use of its WA. It has poor length and lacks the thrusting R2s of the claymore but it does have the faster rolling attack of the Onyx Blade/Flamberge.The WA has two moves, the first being a poke that buffs the weapon (not great for combat) and the L2 R2 is a slow sweep that fires a slow projectile which is just ok.

This weapon should ideally be run with 40/40/40 str/dex/int but 27 strength is fine.

Garbage


Once again most of these weapons aren't bad they're just worse options compared to the previously discussed weapons.

Bastard sword is a short Claymore with worse R2s- that's it, even the damage is the same.

Executioners sword is the Claymore but with worse damage, a worse moveset, and a special effect that regains a whopping 6 fp. The only thing keeping this weapon from being utterly useless is the fact that it deals strike damage which is most players lowest physical absorption.

Storm Ruler is short, low damage, has bad R2s and to top it all off a bad WA. The only use for this is to keep it offhand and charge the WA then keep it offhand to irritate your opponent, that's it.

Wolnir's greatsword might seem like a good option for faith builds but it's not , it's out damaged by both a lightning infused Claymore and a refined Claymore buffed with LB/DMB when wielded with the stats required to use Wolnir's (ideally you'll have 27/40/40 str/dex/faith). In addition to all this the Claymore has a better moveset and a useable WA.

Drakeblood is a joke, it has three-way split damage meaning it hits for about the same damage as a straightsword. To finish this all off it's short meaning you'll be completely outranged and outdamaged by almost everything. The only way to use this weapon is to infuse it raw and buff with DMB/LB with ~60 faith and at that point the damage becomes okay... but you're better off with any other greatsword.

There's No Room For Another Greatsword So It Gets Its Own Section

Flamberge


Flamberge is the claymore with a worse R2 and a better WA. The damage is basically the same, the length is the same and it weighs slightly less. As previously stated it lacks the thrusting R2 of the Claymore instead having a sweeping slash that has poor tracking. It does however have access to the overhead slam rolling attack that the Onyx Greatsword has which is superior to the slower poke of the Claymore's rolling attack.

Unfortunately this weapon deals exclusively slash damage which means it doesn't get any benefit from the Leo Ring. Now as stated before this weapon has a better WA than the Claymore despite visually being identical this is down to the motion value for the Flamberge's WA being substantially higher than the Claymore's or any other weapon with stance for that matter. This allows you to tank through heavier weapons and trade effectively (this works especially well for smaller weapons too as you're definitely going to win trades against other greatswords/straight swords although be careful of unique WAs with slightly different interactions as there are exceptions).

Personally I'd stick with the Claymore but the Flamberge isn't a bad weapon by any means and if your are interested in running it I'd suggest you follow the same build advice as the Claymore cause in that respect they're identical.

Ultra Greatswords

Ultra Greatswords are larger heavier greatswords, they have more hyperarmour and damage at the cost of slower swing speed. The two handed attacks are uparriable (aside from running and rolling attacks) so once again it is recommended that you two hand them almost all the time.

Also like many other hyperarmour weapons you will need some poise so that you are not knocked out of your attack.

*Disclaimer: I don't like very heavy/slow weapons so don't use them that often which is why this section and subsequent sections regarding similar weapons will be lacking compared to others. Also despite my efforts to remain objective in this guide bias will most likely creep in noticebly so take these recommendations about anything slower than greatswords with a grain of salt.


Cathedral Knight Greatsword/Zweihander/Greatsword


These are grouped together because they benefit most from a heavy infusion.

Cathedral Knight Greatsword is a long piece of metal that you try to convince people to run into, all ultra greatswords are like this. It has a poke with the two handed R2 which is nice and the second two handed R1 hits behind you for backstab protection. This weapon can also combo its R1s into R2s which hits much harder than the typical R1 R1.

This should be run with 66 str and a heavy infusion.

Zweihander is basically the same as the previous weapon but its R1s are horizontal and its R2s are overhead swings, oh and it has like 14 less AR than cathedrals which in practice means absolutely nothing (Zwei should be used with 66 str + heavy infusion).

Cathedral Knight Greatsword and Zweihander have the same WA stomp (which is bad perseverance) but Cathedrals turns you into a beyblade while Zweihander hits upwards, neither is very good. Final note Cathedrals R1's hit slightly further than Zweis and Cathedrals does strike damage which is better than Zweihanders standard damage.

Greatsword contrary to its name is an ultra greatsword and is also a pain to search for online. This is tied for the longest ultra greatsword with FUGS which is nice. Unfortunately it doesn't have pokes for the R2s but hey nobody's perfect.

Once again stomp as the WA which is not great but get used to it cause there's not going to be much variation.


Astora Greatsword/Lothric Knight Greatsword


These are grouped together because they are the more dex orientated ultra greatswords, also you might want to wear the Leo Ring for these weapons as they can get some really high damage counter hits.

Disclaimer: I use the Astora Greatsword occasionally but I will try to keep this bit balanced and fair.

Astora Greatsword is the best ultra greatsword and that is 100% fact, it's basically perfect and has no flaws all these other weapons should be ignored as they are inferior. Ok in all seriousness despite technically being one of the weakest ultra greatsword by damage Astora's is still a great weapon.

First of all its two handed R2s are long pokes that deal thrust damage effectively making it like a slower high damage rapier. It's other interesting feature is its rolling attack as it is quite fast for an UGS as well as having more poise health on its rolling attack than any other UGS even those with higher poise health on their regualr R1s.

To wrap up, use with a sharp infusion with dex or for casters infuse with dark/magic ect as it scales well elementally.


The Lothric Knight Greatsword has the same moveset as Astora's but with a poke for the rolling R1. This weapon requires buffing with gold pine resin/bundles or lightning blade in order to deal good damage due to its split damage. Without a buff this weapon is very underwhelming with one it becomes very formidable.

The LKGS should be used refined with a quality build, sharp with dex or blessed with high faith (weirdly blessed gets better damage than lightning).

Profaned Greatsword/Black Knight Greatsword


These are grouped together because they are uninfusable and possess unique properties.

Profaned greatsword is the same as the LKGS except its R2s have fire damage applied to them out of nowhere and it has a good WA. The actual WA attack is meh but it buffs the weapon with ~80 fire damage for very little FP so you might as well. It's just a stupidly hard hitting ultra greatsword with thrusting attacks on its rolling R1 and two handed R2, you can't go wrong. This weapon should be used on a quality build ie 40/40 str/dex also use the Leo Ring for stupid high damage counters.

The Black Knight Greatsword has the same gimmick as all the other black knight weapons, they all do more damage against demons and the R2s do more poise damage than their repsective weapon class should normally do. The rollling attack is a quick thrust poke that is great for finishing passive opponents on low health (watch out for parries) and the R1S are the vertical smashes that hit behind you on the second hit.

This weapon should only be used with a quality build.

The One Everybody(myself included) Complained About On Launch


Ringed Knight Paired Greatswords is effectively gottards but with a f*** tonne more damage and a worse rolling L1. The AR appears to be incredibly poor at first but the L1s more than make up for this cause, you know, they hit twice.

They have the same poise health as great hammers allowing you to tank through almost anything (bar heavier ultra greats or people with similar weapons but more poise)

Run with a quality build for max damage but 66 str works too.

The weird one


This is a really weird weapon, Farron Greatsword cannot be two handed per se like a normal weapon. Instead two handing allows you to parry and use the weapon's signature L1 attacks which turn you into a break dancing lunatic. I really can't attest to how good this weapon is or not, on one hand the L1s are a good speed and they have generous hit boxes, but on the other they leave you open to be hit with thrusting weapons or to being backstabbed. Furthermore, despite the weapon being roughly as slow as an utra greatsword but with less damage you do not have the hyper armour to tank through two handed ultras and even some greatswords if the wielder stacks enough poise.This leaves the weapon as a mixed bag and I can't really recommend or decry this weapon's usage but if you are going to use this weapon I would suggest that you don't use it against anything bigger than a greatsword and be careful with the L1s as they can be easily punished if whiffed.


Garbage


To be honest most of the ultra greatswords are very similar to one another so much so that comparing them becomes very difficult so the only weapons down here are those that have a better version somewhere or aren't practical.

Once again these weapons aren't unuseable or even bad relative to other ultras - there are just better choices out there.

Lorian's Greatsword is pointless. It is basically the exact same as the profaned greatsword but with split fire damage and a pointless WA. They have the same moveset, they can both be buffed with their WAs, and as far as I know they have the same range. Profaned just hits harder regardless of how you invest points (40/40 str/dex or with base physical stats with 40/40 int/faith) it just hits harder. If you're looking for an ultra greatsword that will work well with a pyromancer, a chaos Astora's hits harder and has a better moveset( the rolling R1 mainly).


FUGS is just too heavy to justify using, it weighs 25.5 units meaning it outweighs most of the great hammers. In addition to this the weapon is weaker than the Greatsword while being shorter than it and about the same damage as a BKGS so pick one of those and use that instead.
Oh and final note, it also costs the most stamina to swing than any other ultra greatsword.

Curved Swords

You see those meta worshipping tryhards from Carthus they've got curved swords, curved swooords.

Ok jokes aside, curved swords are very similar in function to straight swords, they're fast medium damage weapons that excel at roll catching and punishing whiffed attacks. Unlike straight swords, most people two hand curved swords as the moveset is generally considered more useful than when one handed. When two handed, the running attack is especially good for pressuring and roll catching so that's nice.

Weirdly enough there are two types of curved swords, those that have a kick for their kick and those who have a stupid twirly swipe thing. You can probably guess which I prefer.

Before I get into talking about these weapons, I have to mention that the effective ranges for weapons that I have put in the links section state some weird things for curved swords such as the Painting Guardians Sword which it claims has the same range as a Carthus. I found this to be highly unlikely and after some testing of my own (which I'll admit may be incorrect but I didn't stop testing until I obtained reliable results so hopefully they're not) I found that some readings were incorrect so I'm going by my measurements for this class of weapons not theirs.

Note: I'm not saying their data is incorrect or unreliable and this is the only weapon class I disagree with so don't write off the list entirely just because some guy (AKA me) on the internet says otherwise. Taking measurements in DS is tricky due to a number of reasons (mainly the camera + weird unique interactions with weapons) and there's a definite margin for error meaning that it's less of a science than I'd like it to be but its the best we've got. In my testing I found that the Rotten Ghru Curved Sword and Storm Curved Sword was longer than they stated and the Painting Guardian Sword was shorter.


Carthus Curved Sword/Follower Sabre


These weapons are almost identical so guess what they're grouped together.

Carthus used to be considered the best weapon in the game and after all the nerfs it got (3 by the way, 2 of them didn't do s*** and the 3rd one said it "Shortened the attack window" so presumably less active frames of dealing damage - but who knows). However, after all that, it's still a damn good weapon. The damage and range are great for a curved sword and the bleed effect is finally useful as curved swords are designed to apply heavy pressure to your opponent regardless of whether they’re rolling or behind a shield. On the downside the WA is pretty bad and the R2s are almost completely useless. It’s just a solid weapon, run with a refined or sharp infusion coupled with their respective build.


Follower Sabre is the exact same as the Carthus but with a tiny bit more damage and no bleed. Now you might think this makes the Carthus objectively better, but Follower's has one thing Carthus doesn't - a useable WA. Prying Wedge is a pretty damn good WA with high speed, small amount of hyperamour and excellent damage but don't try and trade with stuff like greatswords cause you won't win. Run it the same way as Carthus.


Pontiff Knight Curved Sword/Scimitar


These are grouped together because they're both very long curved swords with stupid twirls instead of kicks.

Pontiff's is the longest curved sword in the game, that's almost all the information you need. The damage is just ok and it can't be buffed but it has a useable WA that has good damage in addition to deceptively long reach. The R2s still suck though and the int requirement is obnoxious for knights/warriors. Only use this with a quality build.


The Scimitar is Pontiff's but with slightly less reach, more damage, a bad WA but the ability to be buffed and infused so it's more versatile as well as not having an obnoxious int requirement. The Scimitar should only be used with a sharp infusion and high dex.


Sellsword Twinblades/Demon's Scar


These weapons are grouped together because they've got "interesting" combos.


This is another one of those "I've hit you once now you lose half your health" kind of weapons because for some unknown reason the L2 R2 of this weapon combos out of the R1s and the L1s so that's N I C E. That aside the weapon has ok range and the running L1s are pretty good for roll catching. Now the other excellent part of this weapon is actually tied to its requirements. It can reach high (relatively high AR for twin weapons especially) AR very quickly (10/40 str/dex gives 362 AR) meaning you have a vast amount of "free" points to invest and it just so happens that a guaranteed high damage combo combined with a buff that already provides a silly amount of damage can lead to some pretty ridiculous results.

By ridiculous I mean this weapon (at previously stated stats) combined with CMW/DMB (DMB is technically better but you have to neglect your kids to farm proofs so ehh) can deal ~1000 damage instigated by a curved sword R1 seems B A L A N C E D.

Always run this weapon sharp with 40 dex if you're going for the buff route (also starting class should be mercenary for best results) or 60> dex for just pure damage either works well.


Demon's Scar is a long curved sword that is entirely fire damage, weird. Now let's get the worst part of the weapon out the way, the damage is dogs*** absolutely abysmal. At 40/40 int/faith with base dex it has 347 fire AR which on a typical player hits about as hard as a raw Falchion, oof. The true strength of this weapon is its ability to cast pyromancies as many of them combo out of R1s. This means you can R1 someone and follow up with a black flame which more than makes up for the low AR.

To run this I suggest 40/40 int/faith, great swamp ring + Witch's Ring + Sages Ring +2 and enough attunement for at the very least 2 spells.


Carthus Shotel/Warden Twinblades


These are both good options for curved swords, personally I'm not a fan but they do have specialised uses.

The Carthus Shotel is just the Cathus Curved Sword but with less range.


The damage is almost identical, the bleed is slightly less and the WA is exactly the same. The only difference is that the Carthus Shotel pierces through shields so if you struggle with shields and don't mind the loss in range go ahead.

Run this weapon exactly the same as the Carthus Curved Sword.


Warden Twinblades are almost identical to the Sellsword Twinblades but with less damage, more weight and higher stamina consumption. They do however have niche and that is as bleed weapon due to the weapons high innate bleed and its multi-hitting attacks. This combined with Carthus Rogue and the WA combo can potentially proc bleed very quickly.

Personally I'd go for DMB + Sellsword Twinblades as Warden's live and die by the bleed but neither is a bad choice.

Garbage


This is the quickfire round because there's a lot to get through so no disclaimer like usual.

Storm Curved Sword is really long but the damage is horrendous + the WA is mediocre.

Painting Guardians Sword does no damage and has no range, WA is ok though would be better if this thing wasn't so tiny.

Rotten Ghru Curved Sword is just ehh the damage is pretty good when sharp (bad when anything else) but it just ends up being a worse Carthus even with the poison.

Crescent Moon Sword is a joke just use a crystal Infused Carthus/Follower Sabre they're better in every capacity.

Shotel is a weaker smaller Carthus Shotel, yes it can parry in the off hand but if you want something to parry the caestus is lighter and faster.

Falchion only hits very hard on a dex build but the range is so poor it might as well be negative, just use a Carthus/Follower Sabre.

Dancer's Enchanted Blades has the same range as the other double curved swords but with truly horrendous split damage on both swords meaning they hit like wet paper - just use Sellsword Twinblades, they do everything better. Have to give some respect though because unlike 90% of the weapons in the game these actually have a unique moveset.

Curved Greatswords

Curved Greatswords are a strange beast , they basically fill the gap between greatswords and ultra greatswords. They have higher damage and more hyperarmour than greatswords but at the cost of slower swing speed. Also there are only 5 of them so that makes my job much easier.

I don't know that much about how to use curved greatswords as I've never devoted much time to them but what I can tell you is that they should always be two handed and the running attacks like their smaller cousins are a great roll catching option.

Since there are only 5 of these and they're all very similar to one another i'm going to talk about them one at a time.


Murakumo


Murakumo is most likely the best option for a dexterity based curved greatsword as when run with 16/66 str/dex it has the highest AR of all curved greatswords (note this only applies to curved greatswords run with this build the highest damage curved greatsword overall is obtained through a str build) and the second greatest range. The WA like most curved greatswords is spin slash which is not great as it has no true combos and the range is pretty poor.

A solid weapon that should be run with high dex and a sharp infusion.

Exile Greatsword


Now Exiles is the highest damage curved greatsword period, at 66 strength with a heavy infusion it hits harder than FUGS that's how strong it is. Now the range is pretty poor and like all the other curved greatswords its R2s are borderline useless. However the sheer damage of the weapon combined with its comparable requirements make it a strong option for a str based curved greatsword.

As previously stated this weapon should be run with 66 strength and a heavy infusion or it can be infused refined for quality builds just don't expect to hit as hard.


Harald Curved Greatsword


Harald's is the longest weapon of its class but only by a small margin and like Exiles the damage is ridiculous. The only other differentiating factor between this and the other curved greatswords is its WA ,its a strange chopping attack aimed at the players feet, not disimilar from yhorms L2 R2. It has mediocre range and the finishing leap is easy to punish due to its high recovery but the damage is nice and the first hit can combo out of a regular R1.

Possibly the best aspect of this weapon is that it can work on all build setups; refined, sharp and heavy are all great options depending on your build as they give comparable or better damage than most of the other curved greatswords with the same infusion.

Old Wolf Curved Sword


Old Wolf's is the lowest damage curved greatsword and it is also one of the shortest. Given this combination of attributes you might think this weapon is worthless and for I while I was going to dump this in the garbage too. However the weapon has a redeeming factor, the R1s combo into the L2 R2 meaning you can get some truly ridiculous damage out of just one R1 despite the lacklustre AR.

This factor alone makes the weapon worth talking about and whether you want to use it or not comes down to two things 1. Do you prefer you weapon to stand on its own without the need of a WA to get good damage out of it? 2. Are you running a quality build?


Garbage


Carthus Curved Greatsword is just outclassed in every single aspect.

If you're running a quality build use the Harald Curved Greatsword.

If you're running a dex build use the Murakumo.

If you're running a strength build use the Exile Greatsword/Harald Curved Greatsword.

The only time you should think of using it is if you're running a quality hollow build and only interested in bleed in which case infuse it hollow and buff with rouge. Personally though I'd just go for the hollow Murakumo, it has the same range but with much higher damage.

Katanas

I'm early so I'm going to make a joke, running attacks.

Katanas like curved and straight swords are fast medium damage weapons that excel at punishing whiffed attacks and roll catching. The running attack is fast, deals thrust damage and has low recovery making it an excellent option for dealing with heavier weapons and pressuring opponents.


Uchigatana/Washing Pole


These two weapons are very similar, they are both fully physical medium damage katanas with the same WA.

Uchigatana is the most simple katana in the game its got a good balance of damage and range. It also has the typical katana WA Hold, the L2 R1 is a low swipe which is a great roll catch and the L2 R2 is a parry which is ehh I personally prefer the small shield/caestus parry timing but it's serviceable.

This weapon should be run with a quality or dex build and should always be infused with sharp to get the maximum damage

The Washing Pole is the definition of a meta weapon it has the speed of a katana with the range of a greatsword. This weapon is basically a glorified spear as its running attacks are excellent long range pokes that excel at pressuring opponents. In addition to this the L2 R1 becomes even more dangerous given the Washing Pole's extreme range it can become a dangerously good roll catch.

The only negative to this weapon is the fact that R1s do not combo together like normal weapons do however due to this weapons supreme range and speed this is often seen as a fair trade. Finally this weapon should be run with a quality or dex build with refined and sharp infusions respectively.

Frayed Blade/Onikiri and Ubadachi


These two weapons are grouped together because they have unique characteristics for their respective class.

The Frayed Blade is an interesting weapon it has high range and the typical katana moveset but with incredibly low durability although in a dueling situation this normally won't be an issue. The only odd aspect of the weapon is the damage, it's split between dark and physical with about 400 physical damage and 76 dark when used with a quality or dex build. In practice this means the Frayed Blade deals about the same damage as uchigatana despite what the misleading AR would have you believe.

To finish the WA is a variation hold with the L2 R1 providing a strong ranged hit (note the blade is augmented with more dark damage during the animation meaning connecting the blade and projectile deals very high damage) and the L2 R2 can be used to catch rolls or build up bleed quickly.

This weapon should be run with a quality or dex build.

Onkiri and Ubadachi (which I'll refer to as OaU from here on out for brevitys sake) are a set of two katanas, the long one (Onikiri) is the same length as Chaos/Frayed Blade and the damage is roughly the same as Uchigatana. The regular L1s are relatively fast and hit pretty hard as well as being useful for roll catching.

The running and rolling L1s are not amazing they're not that fast but the damage is ok but if your want to use a running or rolling attacks just use the R1s. The WA Onislayer is a leaping slash that has a large amount of hyper armour, the knee of the leap stuns your opponent before the slash allowing you to interrupt attacks without hyperarmour and the slash can be followed up with an L1 for additional damage.

This weapon should be infused with sharp or refined depending on whether you are using a dex or quality build.


Ehhhh


Chaos Blade is a difficult weapon to consider on the one hand it is potentially the highest damage katana in the game with good length and the typical katana moveset. However on the other hand the weapon damages you for every hit confirm on an enemy which means that even if your hit clips their model but doesn't deal damage you still receive recoil.

The self damage is 1% of your total health which on an embered player with 40 vigor translates to ~15 damage a hit meaning that in 10 hits you will take ~150 damage which is pretty hefty. In addition to this shields also heavily hurt Chaos Blade as each hit on the shield applies the self damage this fact coupled with katanas low stamina damage makes shields very irritating to deal with. In addition to this the weapon is unbuffable meaning despite its initial damage exceeding that of the other katanas many of them can reach similar damage coupled with bundles or resins.

So all in all I cannot say whether this weapon is bad or objectively inferior relative to the other katanas discussed previously as I can't say whether the positives outweigh the negatives, that is for you to decide.

*Final note Chaos blade does slightly more bleed buildup than the other katanas just thought I should mention


Garbage


Usually I say that in the "garbage" sections the weapons aren't all necessarily bad they're just inferior well for no other weapon class is this more true than for katanas, these lot are pretty terrible.

Darkdrift has low damage and frankly a useless WA, no one who knows what this weapons gimmick is is ever going to try and block it making it pointless against anyone with even a degree of competence.

Oh and did I mention not only does it do less damage than Uchigatana it also has less range, such an a m a z i n g weapon.

The only slightly redeeming factors of this weapon is the fact that it has low stamina consumption, innate shield pierce (although it's only 10% on R1s) and that people who are not used to fighting it misjudging the range due to its transparent blade.

Bloodlust is awful, simply awful. First of all it's tied for the shortest katana in the game with the Black Blade meaning hitting people can be a pain. Second of all the damage is abysmal, just terrible with 66 dex and 16 str it has 365 AR which is a joke. The final nail in the coffin is the WA for ~100 health the weapon is given 30% more AR and 200% more bleed. Now this might sound amazing despite the poor range well it's not because the buff lasts for a staggering 45 seconds which is pretty awful for 100 health.

Finally the weapon I'm most likely to get moaned at about, the Black Blade. Now this weapon has really good damage for a katana and some unique moves to boot. However it's just too damn short, I'm sorry fellas and it really breaks my heart to say this but size matters.

Thrusting Swords

Thrusting swords are another one of the controversial weapon classes often deemed overpowered due to their high attack speed, thrust damage and the ability to effectively turtle with the use of a shield.

Thrusting swords should typically be one handed and despite the hate you will get they should be coupled with a medium or great shield for maximum effectiveness. The fast R1 pokes can often interrupt heavier weapons attacks before their hyper armour starts and benefit from counter hits so a Leo Ring is also recommended.

Estoc/Ricards Rapier/Crow Quills/Irithyll Rapier


There aren't many thrusting swords (thankfully) so I'll discuss them all here.

Estoc is the bestoc this is known throughout all kingdoms of the earth. Put simply the Estoc is the best thrusting sword in the game period. It is tied for the most range out of all the thrusting swords with Crystal Sage's Rapier and it has one of the highest damage outputs to boot.

To be brutally honest most of the other thrusting swords discussed here when you get down to it simply inferior to the Estoc, it's just another example of that classic From Software balancing.

Oh there is one thing about it that's not great, the WA is pretty mediocre and no one in their right mind is ever going to try blocking it unless they don't know what it is.

Run with a quality or dex build with refined/sharp infusion respectively.

Ricards Rapier is Estoc but shorter and with less damage, that's it. Well that's unfair Ricards does have one thing that Estoc doesn't have, a usable WA. Ricard's Lunge and Press is possibly the best WA name in the whole game purely for innuendos sake. Anyway childish humour aside the WA has ok speed but can deal some heavy damage for a rapier and it means there's something other than Estoc to talk about.

This should really only be run with a dex build as refined damage is pretty poor even for a thrusting sword.

Irithyll Rapier is ok as it has good damage and decent range but still suffers due to a pointless WA as well as not being the Estoc. Much like its straight sword counterpart the frost buildup feels vestigial but unlike the Irithyll Straight Sword this has a bad WA so that's nice.

Personally not a fan but this is the best option damage wise for a quality based thrusting sword and it is suggested that is all you use it on.

Crow Quills is a paired weapon consisting of a rapier and a set of claws (although they're technically just knives) meaning you miss out on the thrusting sword 2 handed rolling attack which is unfortunate as this attack has incredibly low recovery almost allowing you to attack and roll in the same frame.

Crow Quills make up for this by having high damage and a staggering 120 critical modifier. The WA is a mixed bag, the initial leap has no i-frames but has a tiny amount of hyperarmour while the followup R2 is pretty fast and has decent range. The actual projectiles are underwhelming and you'll probably end up hitting for ~25 per dagger which is not great.

The running L1 does have hyperarmour but it's easy to dodge and punish, the regular L1s do good damage but suffer from the claw having low range and the rolling L1 has ok range but slower startup than the rolling R1s.

Always infuse sharp and run with a high dex build.


Garbage


There's simply no reason to use these they're better alternatives (cough cough Estoc).

Crystal Sage's Rapier is a weapon that no one has ever used as a weapon, this weapons only use is farming for Proof of Concords kept that's it. This weapon has never and will never be used anywhere other than the anor londo bonfire and only ever in the offhand. The range is amazing but the damage is a joke, at 60/60 dex/int it has 411 AR but it's split damage meaning there are toothpicks that inflict more grievous injuries.

Rapier is simply inferior to the estoc, it has the lowest range of all the rapiers and also one of the weakest. Now it's true that the critical modifier is very high (130 for reference) but if you want to riposte someone just have a dagger equipped, they're pretty light you can probably afford the weight or if you're a show off you can swap from your inventory.

Axes

Axes are basically straight swords but they swing slightly slower and hit harder. They don't have hyperarmour on their basic movset so feel free to 1 hand if you want a faster moveset or 2 hand for more damage and range.


Butcher Knife/Man Serpent Hatchet


These two weapons are grouped together because they're incredibly similar but both have their uses.

Butcher Knife is the only axe with a unique moveset and by that I mean that the R2s are different It's also tied for the longest axe in the game. The two handed R2s aren't great as they're range is tiny but they may have use in roll catching people who roll into you. This weapon actually has a unique property in that it restores health upon hits unfortunately it restores a whopping 2HP per hit which might as well not exist.

The WA is Sharpen and boost the AR by 5% but also increases the healing to ~20HP per hit which is still just ok, this feature was clearly designed with PVE in mind so not much use in PVP.

Only run this weapon with 66 strength.

Man Serpent Hatchet is the same length as the Butcher Knife but with the typical axe moveset and Warcry as the WA. It also pierces shields so this combined with the high stamina damage of axes makes it a great option against turtles.

This weapon should be run sharp if you have a quality/dex build or heavy if you're running a strength build.

Dragonslayer's Axe/Millwood Battle Axe

These two axes are grouped together because they have the potential to do incredibly high damage through buffs.

Before we start one thing out the way.

Dragonslayer Greataxe = a large axe used for slaying dragons
Dragonslayer's Axe = a small axe used by a dragonslayer

Hope that cleared things up, oh and I'm not going to talk about how this is the infamous overpowered twinking weapon that 65% of all low level invaders use cause I'm pretty sure everyone knows that now.

There are two different paths to take for this weapon buffed or non-buffed.

The only way this weapon should be used without a buff is through a high faith build with a blessed or lightning infusion. The lightning infusion hits slightly harder than the blessed against a typical player but you get passive health regeneration from blessed but both infusions make the weapon hit decently hard.

Now running this weapon with a buff takes it from fairly mediocre damage to frankly silly damage, faith builds can infuse raw then proceed to buff with LB to get near ultra greatsword levels of damage out of an axe which is pretty ridiculous.

Quality/dex builds should infuse sharp (strength builds should infuse heavy) and always always always buff with Gold Pine Resin/Bundle as this increases the damage output dramatically.

Unfortunately you can't use the WA if your weapon is already buffed (blessed/lightning infused can though) because it cancels the weapon buff and even the Gold Pine Bundle greatly boosts the damage.

Use this weapon as a typical axe and never use unbuffed cause it hits like a tissue without a buff.

Millwood Battle Axe is the strongest pure physical axe in the game and with correct investment hits about as hard as a heavy Claymore. This is without using the WA which when two handed can boost the AR to ~600 which is once again pretty silly for an axe.

Aside from the damage the length is good and the moveset is exactly the same as all the other axes aside from the fact the WA makes you run up to the opponent then buff in their face.

Use with a heavy infusion and a strength build for max damage or refined and a quality build for slightly less.


Thrall Axe


This axe is tiny and doesn't do much damage so you might wonder why this isn't garbage well I'll tell you, Q U I C K S T E P.

Quickstep is the irritating WA that most of the daggers have, basically it's rolling but you can attack out of it sooner so that alone makes the weapon worth using.

Only use with refined/heavy infusions with their respective builds.

Ehhhhhhh


Winged Knight Twinaxes are just ok.

The L1s are pretty slow but do good damage if they connect due to like all twin weapons the L1s combo. The WA is slow but has a large amount of hyperarmour so you might be able to trick someone into walking into who knows.

Personally I'm not a fan as the range is on the smaller side and as I said the L1s are slow but if you want to use them they're not unuseable.

Run with quality/heavy infusion with their respective build.

Garbage

Once again these aren't unuseable some of them aren't even bad they're just worse than other options.

Hand/Battle/Brigand Axe are all the same ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ weapon and all of them are just worse versions of the Man Serpent Hatchet. They all have less range and for all physical infusions they either do less or ~5 more damage so unless you can't meet the requirements for the Man Serpent Hatchet these are pretty pointless.

Note if you really can't use MSH just use battle/brigand axe, the hand axe is even worse.

Eleonora is a quality based axe that is worse in every aspect than the MSH, it has higher requirements, less range, less damage, higher weight and a frankly useless WA.

Greataxes

Greataxes are ultra greatswords but slower and with more damage, you might think they have more hyperarmour but no exactly the same in that regard. Like most large heavy weapons most(there are exceptions) of these should be two handed exclusively due to the large increase in damage and the fact that aside from running and rolling attacks the two handed movest is unparryable.

Black Knight Greataxe/Yhorm's Great Machete


These are both fully physical non infuseable greataxes so they're grouped together.

The Black Knight Greataxe is the best option for a quality based greataxe it has good range and damage with a great moveset. The R2s are actually useful for once and can be used to mixup timings quite well if your opponent is rolling into you (like other black knight weapons these attacks also do more poise damage).

The WA is Warcry which boosts its already high damage to a ridiculous point giving a ~10% increase in AR which is nothing to scoff at. Using the WA also makes the 1 handed moveset better as it allows the R1s to combo into the WA altered R2s which hit pretty damn hard.

All in all a solid greataxe that should only be run on a 40/40 quality build.

Yhorm's Great Machete is the epitome of high damage weapons as it out damages all great hammers and great axes at 66 strength. It's also the longest great axe by a fair margin and produces an incredibly large shockwave that makes spacing this weapon almost impossible.

Yhorm's can also increase its AR to frankly stupid levels with its WA Warcry sending it over 770 AR. Now you might think that this would mean that Yhorm's would single handedly invalidate every single great axe in the game but unfortunately it has one fatal flaw.

The R1s when 2 handed do not combo meaning many stick to the 1 handed as two 1 handed hits still hit harder than one 2 handed hit. This however also reveals another hidden asset of this weapon and that is the fact that wielded in the offhand this weapon becomes an absolute nightmare.

Yhorm's may be the best offhand weapon (note I'm saying weapon not offhand item, weapon specifically used to hit people with) as previously stated you basically can't space it because of the shockwave meaning opponents will have to get very close to try and pressure you. This allows you to use it in conjunction with a spear/straight sword or really any decently fast weapon to punish them with a hearty dose of R1 spam.

Note: many other weapons in this guide work well in the offhand but it's not their main strength so it wasn't covered however Yhorm's is at its best when offhanded with another weapon so it's discussed here. I'll include some more combinations for offhand weapons in the "Additional info" section.

I would suggest a Dark Sword(or broadsword if your build can't handle the weight, yeah I know I said it sucked but there's no other option for str builds) or a Partizan in the main hand.

Guess what this should only be used on high strength builds who would have guessed.

Dragonslayer Greataxe


Dragonslayer Greataxe actually hits incredibly hard despite having split damage with incredible range to boot. The moveset is pretty basic and the WA is really slow but the sheer damage and length of the thing make it worth using.

This weapon works well with high strength builds and quality builds due to its strangely present dex scaling. It also works on a strength/faith hybrid build but it will require 40-50 in both stats.

Ehhhhhh


Demon's Greataxe isn't brilliant, the damage is just ok and the range is pretty bad and it has a horrifically slow WA. However it is the only choice for a pyromancer based greataxe so I guess it has its uses.

This should only be used by a pyromancer wanting a great axe who has the stats to invest in strength it does work well on high strength builds but as discussed above there are much better options.


Garbage


The Greataxe is just tiny the actual hitbox of the weapon is pathetic you end up with a monumental amount of AR that you're completely unable to use.

Earth Seeker is the Dragonslayer Greataxe but with less range they hit for almost the same damage on a typical player so at the end of the day DGA is just better. Oh the WA may be slightly better, but it still sucks.

Great Machete has all the flaws of Yhorm's but with none of the benefits, worse damage, worse range and a worse WA. The only reason I could possibly see in using this weapon is that it's technically the best option for a dex based greataxe I don't know why you would want that but you could.

Hammers

Hammers are like axes but with less range and speed they compensate for this by having higher damage (well they used to but Millwood Battleaxe ruined everything) as well as having hyperarmour on their 2 handed attacks.

This class of weapon should be exclusively 2 handed as the 1 handed moveset is slow, has low range and no hyperarmour to be brutally honest if you're looking for weapon to 1 hand that's similar to a hammer just use a straight sword or an axe.

Final note here you'll want round about 11 poise to tank through straight/curved swords don't try and trade with bigger weapons unless you've got perseverance

Warpick/Mace


These are best options for a physical hammer so their being grouped together.

Warpick is the atomic bomb of the hammer class as it almost completely invalidates the class entirely by existing. It has the highest damage and range out of all the weapons in its class as well as being lighter than most of its competition. In addition to this it pierces shields and deals thrust damage meaning it benefits from counter hits allowing it to trade hits better than any other hammer.

For some unknown reason From Software also gave this weapon lower stamina consumption than most of the hammers because obviously this weapon isn't better enough.

The only detriments are that the R2s are almost worthless (though this is true for most hammers) and that the WA provides an increase in stamina regeneration rather than Perseverance which would allow it to tank through larger weapons but hey nothings perfect.

Note always use this weapon with the Leo Ring for higher damage counter hits.

This weapon should be infused heavy and used on a high strength build for max damage.

The Mace is the hammer you use when you don't want to use the Warpick. Ok that's a bit harsh the Mace does have its place despite being shorter and doing less damage (less damage on a strength build that is) due to its WA.

Perseverance allows the mace to tank through heavier weapons with ease which hammers otherwise struggle with. In addition to this the Mace does strike damage meaning that it hits harder than the Warpick when not trading with another weapon as strike absorption is the lowest physical resistance for almost all players.

This weapon should be infused heavy and used on a high strength build.

Before we move on you can use both of these weapons on a quality build with refined but they lose ~20-30 AR.

Heysel Pick


This is another odd case it's a hammer much like the Warpick due to its innate shield pierce and thrust damage but it is designed for a high intelligence build as it has scaling magic damage. This split damage combined with the innate magic damage means it's very effective against shields.

The true strength of this weapon lies in its ability to cast sorceries allowing it like many other catalyst-weapon hybrids to combo spells. The high hitstun of the hammer allows you to combo into a soul greatsword which hits much much harder than 2 R1s. Alternatively you can R1 twice then throw out a soul greatsword to catch them if they immediately roll backwards for even more damage.

There are a variety of spells that work well with this so enough attunement for 3 spells at minimum is recommended to be able to mix up timings and punish slower weapons effectively.

The only downsides are this weapons high stamina consumption

Also this weapon can buff both its innate magic damage and the damage of sorceries cast through the use of its WA Steady Chant so I strongly recommend you keep this buff up while in combat.

To be used effectively 60 intelligence and 27 strength is recommended.


Ehhhhhh


Drang Hammers are just ok and the only reason these things aren't straight up garbage is the WA. The fact that these weapons have an actual useable combo that does decent damage slightly elevates this from awfulness. Apart from the R1(or L1 but this is harder to hit)->L2->R2 the weapon has the slow moveset of 1 handed hammers with none of the hyperarmour.


Garbage


You know this is the second to last disclaimer I'm going to write for this guide and frankly it feels amazing. You know the drill by now these weapons aren't all garbage there are just better options out there.

Blacksmiths Hammer is horrendous don't use it, it is the weakest out of all the hammers, the same range/WA as the mace and higher stat requirements. There is no reason to ever use this weapon avoid it like the plague.

Reinforced Club has pathetic range and underwhelming damage making it a worse choice than almost every other hammer. It does have Warcry as the WA which can boost its AR to the same level as a heavy Warpick which has much greater range, does thrust damage and it doesn't require a buff to actually deal damage.

The Club is the Reinforced Club but with a tiny bit more range and even lower AR. This ends up being a worse version of the Reinforced Club which is already not a good weapon.

The Morning Star is the Mace but worse in terms of damage, the length and WA are the same. This weapon does have bleed but hammers really aren't the best tools for proccing bleed and mace just hits much harder.

Great Hammers

Great hammers are the pinnacle of the slow hard hitting weapons they have the most poise health, do the most damage (typically) and swing the slowest.

Guess what, don't one hand them that's a really bad thing to do.

Spiked Mace/Pickaxe


These weapons are grouped together due to their lower AR but unique properties.

Spiked mace is one of the weaker great hammers and oddly enough has bleed buildup as well but the saving grace of this weapon is its WA. Spin Bash can combo out of an R1 (see combo list in the links section) which can deal an enormous amount of damage while requiring you to hit a single R1. This alone makes the weapon better than many of the great hammers despite the lacklustre AR.

Run with a heavy infusion and a strength build.

The Pickaxe is a very deceptive weapon that many brush off instantly as a joke due to its poor range and low AR. However the Pickaxe possesses one trait that no other great hammer has, thrust damage. This means it benefits from counter hits thus making it one of if not the strongest weapon for trading blows as the high AR (high relative to all the weapons in the game that is not high for great hammer standards) coupled with the reduction of the opponents thrust absorption deals immense damage. The WA Perserverance makes the weapon even more deadly as it allows you to tank through anything and regardless of your opponents weapon they will never win a trade against a Pickaxe.

It is recommended that this weapon be run exclusively with the Leo ring and a heavy infusion with a strength build.

Great Mace/Great Club


These weapons are grouped together because they both have great in their names, that's it and yes if you're curious I am running out of ideas.

Great Mace has good range and solid damage coupled with an ok WA. The R1s are the typical great hammer R1 and unfortunately it has the overhead swings for R2s so you'll have to play it like a typical great hammer. The WA is only really useful for trading with weapons with higher poise health values than your ie Smough's, Ledo's and Morne's or in some cases weapons that are fast enough to interrupt you before your hyperarmour starts. Be warned though Perserverance only works against people who are swinging twice before rolling away if they swing once they can roll away before you hit them.

Strangely this weapon is the best choice for a dex build wanting a great hammer though I'm not recommending you do that. This weapon should be run with a heavy infusion and a str build however it also serves as a "Morne's Great Hammer but not terrible" for faith builds when infused with lightning.

Great Club is a medium damage/range great hammer which seems pretty basic at first but it has a secret weapon that no other great hammer possesses, a usable R2. The R2 is an excellent roll catch as it has good horizontal range and it can be delayed by charging to mix up timings.

R2s aside it's a typical great hammer and possesses Warcry as its WA meaning it can bolster its already impressive AR even further at the cost of making the R2s slightly worse but hey you can't have it all.

Use with high strength and a heavy infusion.

Ehhhhhhh


Gargoyle Flame Hammer is in an odd spot, on the surface it seems like a good choice for a pyro build (high int/faith typically both being in the 30-40 range) however weirdly enough it basically get's the same AR (but slightly lower actual damage on a typical player) when used on a 66 strength setup. The WA is a weird sort of fire surge that can actually stagger which deals ok damage but can also be aimed slightly. Personally I think the WA is just ok not great but probably better than perserverance. It also has pretty good range rivalling that of Vordt's and Dragon Tooth which is nice.

If your using a strength build and don't plan on making use of the WA just use any other great hammer listed above.

If you're running a pyro-like build I would personally use a dark infused Great Club or Great Mace but if you can't meet the str requirements for them then use this.

Ledo's Greathammer is a weapon that is difficult to compare the other great hammer, in a situation where weight is meaningless Ledo's is a solid choice however weight isn't meaningless and this is the heaviest weapon in the game. It weighs 28 units which is ridiculous weighing more than some sets of armour.

However unlike Smough's this actually hits much harder than the competition ~40 AR not including the 7.5% buff from the WA on top of that. The WA can also be used for an AOE, after applying the buff a charged R2 sends the pieces of rock flying.

If you feel that you need the damage then run on a high strength build.

Garbage


I'm sick of saying this but I'll say it again just because a weapon is listed as garbage doesn't mean it's bad it's just inferior ok you probably get it by now but I guarantee if I don't do this then they'll be someone saying "uhh how can you consider [BROKEN STRAIGHT SWORD] bad SMH I literally have never lost against people at pontiff's using this weapon you and this guide are gae" and nobody wants that.

Great Wooden Hammer is a joke it has the speed and moveset of a great hammer but the damage is that of a low end greatsword.

Smough's Hammer makes no damn sense it weighs an astounding 24 units which is exactly double the weight of the Great Club but with less range wow so amazing. Now you might think "yeah it weighs more but it definitely hits harder" and you're right it does hit harder 27 AR more wow that's I N C R E D I B L E. It also has slightly higher poise health but unless you're tanking through other great hammers/axes (or FUGS) this isn't really important.

Large Club is just Great Club but worse in every single way bar weight but to be honest if you're build can't spare the weight to use the Great Club you should probably pick a different weapon class entirely.

Vordt's Great Hammer is probably the best option for a low SL great hammer unfortunately it just can't compete with the other great hammers further into the game. Despite high range and a pretty high frost buildup the AR is very poor and can't even break 600. This compounded with the fact the weapon cannot be buffed means it's outperformed by the Great Mace and Great Club.

Old King's Hammer is the Gargoyle Flame Hammer but with much much less range. Despite having slightly more damage (regardless of how you build it on pure strength it hits for about 30 more damage and on a pyro build it hits for like 10 more) the extremely short reach, high weight in combination with useless WA make it simply a worse choice.

Quakestone Hammer is just too weak, it barely breaks 600 AR but unlike the Spiked Mace it doesn't have a fancy combo that does ridiculous damage instead it has a weird AOE WA which is just meh.

Dragon Tooth may have been wielded by our lord and saviour Havel but it's just inferior to the Great Club it has a whopping two more AR than the Great Club and a much worse R2. Overall despite having slightly more range than the Great Club its worse moveset, negligible AR difference and worse WA combined with its high weight make it impossible to recommend.

Morne's Great Hammer is in an unfortunate spot requiring an odd build to maximise its potential meaning you'll need high faith an strength in order to use it making it reminiscent of Wolnir's Holy Sword.

They both basically have the same WA and require an odd quality/strength faith hybrid build to use properly and they're both brought down by the same item, the lightning gem. Just as Wolnir's was brought down by a lightning Claymore Morne's is brought down by a lightning Great Mace. The Great Mace is longer has a better WA (but not by much perseverance on a great hammer is just meh) and best of all against a meta setup they both deal the same damage (this is calculated using a build with 20% for all absorptions).

Oh it also weighs a ridiculous amount.

Spears

Spears are the weaker faster versions of halberds, there's not that much more to them just keep poking whatever's on the receiving end till it stops moving.

Now whether you two hand spears or not is up to you but if your going to one hand them then I suggest you utilise a medium/great shield in conjunction much like a rapier.

Like rapiers a Leo Ring is strongly recommended.

Final note if your going the shield route I wouldn't recommend using the pokes from behind the shield as this will most likely leave you guard broken or dangerously low on stamina use a shield as more of an aggressive tool to get in their face and pressure them.


Partizan/Winged Spear


These weapons are almost identical so I'm discussing them together

These two weapons are the same length, roughly do the same damage and work for the same infusions. The only difference is that Partizan has a swing for its R2s while Winged Spear has pokes, that's it.

Personally I prefer Partizan but hey that's me, you do you.

These weapons work with refined, sharp and heavy infusions so they should be used with their respective builds.

Gargoyle Flame Spear/Four-Pronged Plow/Saint's Bident


These are all L O N G so we're talking about them here.

Gargoyle Flame Spear has a long name and funnily enough it's also the longest spear so that's nice. That's really all there is to this weapon all its attacks (bar rolling R1) are pokes of various speeds and ranges.

The WA is basically just charge but it you finish it your chances of being backstabbed dramatically increase yay. The WA should only be used as a wakeup or in specific cases when your opponent is not in hyperarmour (if charge or any other charge like WA is used against hyper armour you'll sort of glide past them dealing low damage and not stunning them so don't do it).

The damage on this weapon isn't great but to get the most out of it you should have 27/40/30 str/dex/(int or faith). Note this can be run with 40/40 str/dex and as a result you lose ~20 AR.

Four-Pronged Plow is the worst weapon in the game for a very good reason, its got 5 prongs. Despite the bad name and joke appearance this weapon is actually really good, the damage and range are both great meaning it can be a very difficult weapon to get in on.

The WA is possibly the worst WA in the game though as it causes you to fall over when you finish it meaning you are completely defenceless so that sucks.

Like many spears this weapon works for refined sharp and heavy so use it with pretty much whatever.

Saint's Bident was initially another joke weapon but received buffs in later patches which made it pretty damn good. However this is one of those weapons that is designed to be used with a buff (use DMB or LB) as the weapon deals lacklustre damage on its own but requires faith to be used.

Just keep the weapon buffed at all times and play it like a typical pokey spear (no sweeps here).

Run with 50-60 faith and about 30-40 str or dex then infuse with heavy or sharp respectively for max damage.


Dragonslayer Swordspear


This weapon is very unique even when considered against other weapon classes so it gets its own section to itself.

How do I even talk about this weapon it's the b****** offspring of a halberd and a spear but somehow it comes out ok. When one handed the weapon is effectively a spear its got pokes for the R1s and sweeping attacks for the R2s which offers great coverage. The two handed moveset has the R1s of a glaive and bizzarley hyperarmour (WARNING hyper armour is not as strong as halberd hyper armour do not try and swing through greatswords or above). The rest of the moves are the typical spear moveset.

The WA as an attack is awful, unless your opponent is coming off general anaesthetic you're not going to hit them with it but this is not the point. The WA buffs the weapon with a substantial amount of lighting damage making the previously small amount of lighting damage hit a lot harder.

To be brutally honest there is only one fault to the weapon and that's the weight, it weighs an astounding 14.5 units which is horrendous.

This weapon is basically a quality weapon and should be used with roughly 27/40 str dex and base faith because the faith scaling is not worth the investment.


Ehhhhhhh


These are weird weapons they're not good enough for me to recommend but they're not bad enough to put with the garbage so they're going here.

Rotten Ghru Spear is a long spear with ok damage but don't worry guys its got poison hooray. That is all there is if you want a spear that poisons people infuse this with refined/sharp/heavy and buff with rotten pine resin.

Dragonslayer Spear is a sad case it use to be pretty decent but classic From Software they nerfed the damage, WHY? It wasn't overpowered it wasn't dominating it was just good but they f***** it anyway. It's still ok due to its high range but the damage is dissapointing.

If you want to use this run with a quality 40/40 build.


Garbage


Same shtick here as with all the other weapons most of them aren't horrific they just kill stuff less efficiently than the other spears.

Soldering Iron is an irredeemable piece of garbage, yeah I know what I said above but this weapon is irredeemable. First of all split damage is bad, but none scaling low split damage is even worse especially when the physical damage (the only damage that scales) is also horrendous. To top this all off this weapon is unbuffable so it is completely beyond saving, any other spear is a better weapon regardless of build.

The spear is just a worse Partizan/Winged Spear, it's shorter and does less or the roughly the same damage depending on build so not worth using.

Yorshka's Spear is just weird, it's a faith based spear that has strike damage on its R2s. If you're running any kind of faith build good news there's immediately a better weapon for you, it's called the Saint's Bident. Saint's Bident is longer, does more damage on a typical 60 faith build and it can be buffed or infused. Or you can use literally any other spear infused with blessed anything but this.

Follower Javelin is a tiny Winged Spear that you can throw wow great. Just use a winged spear with throwing knives you get the same effect.

Tailbone Spear is bad its low damage isn't helped by the fact it can't be buffed/infused. The WA is meh unless you're on a bridge in which case it's basically force without a faith requirement so it has some use. The range is decent but the damage is poor, put it like this at 40/40 Lothric's Holy Sword does more damage.

I can't believe I'm going to say this but Arstor's Spear is a worse Rotten Ghru Spear, they're about the same length but Arstor's is weaker, can't be infused or buffed and to top it all off it has the same poison buildup despite the fact that Rotten Ghru can be buffed with rotten pine resin.

Drang Twinspears at first glance seem pretty good, you're telling me that I can have Gottard's but with spears sign me up. However Drang Twinspears ain't no Gottards and the first problem is the damage which is just so damn low making the R1s hit really weak. Logically you'd think ok well what about the L1s then they probably hit hard, WRONG.

The problem with the L1s is that the other spear is too short and often doesn't connect resulting in low damage on almost all of this weapons moves. The rolling L1 is probably this weapons best move (and it's stolen from Gottard's) a quick thrust using both spears but once again the second spear rarely connects meaning even this hits for next to no damage.

Spears Continued

Now if you haven't written a steam guide before you might not know this but each section of a steam guide has a character limit meaning you can't write indefinitely. Unfortunately the character limit is pretty small and there are a lot of spears so many that I forgot to include one.

The One I Forgot About


Golden Ritual Spear is an incredibly short spear that does physical/magic split damage and can be used to cast sorceries.

Ok not too crazy so far but then we reach the kicker the spellbuff and AR don't scale with intelligence they scale with faith. Now there are a lot of different ways to build this weapon and even more ways to use it meaning if I wanted to I could probably make an entire section just for this particular weapon.

However I don't want that and most people reading this probably couldn't give less of a s*** about the golden ritual spear so for the few who are interested here's a video going over the weapon and how to use it much better than this guide could ever hope to.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttN-VG4Z79c

Pikes

Pikes are the longer, slower higher stamina consumption versions of spears also some of them hit harder. Now unlike spears which you can 1 or 2 hand pikes should always be 2 handed as the increase in speed from 1 handed is very significant.

That's it really just use them like slightly slower spears and always 2 hand them oh and always use with the Leo Ring.

Lothric Knight Long Spear/Lothric War Banner


These weapons are grouped together because they both have Lothric in the name.

Lothric Knight Long Spear (I'm going to call it LKLS for the sake of brevity) is one of the longest and hardest hitting pikes in the game. The moveset is pretty standard it's almost all pokes and most of them cost a very high amount of stamina meaning it requires careful management to be effective.

The running attack is good for roll catching but only if they roll backwards and if you miss it has high stamina consumption and cooldown. It also provides some poise when equipped but this is mostly useless for the LKLS as the only move it has with hyperarmour is its WA.

On the subject of the WA it's charge, charge is really only good for wakeups and when your close to an opponent not in hyperamour frames.

Run with a sharp/refined infusion and a dex/quality build respectively.

Lothric War Banner is the exact same thing as the LKLS but it has a buff as a WA. The buff gives 15% more AR on everything which is actually pretty good and can work as a main or off hand weapon because of it.

What further separates this from the Lothric Knight Long Spear is the odd moveset, the 2 handed R1s and running attacks are not the pike variety they are instead the same as a spears. This means the swing speed is substantially faster than the LKLS and the running attacks are less costly to whiff.

Run with a sharp/refined infusion and a dex/quality build respectively.

Ringed Knight Spear/Greatlance


These two have unique moveset compared to the other pikes.

Ringed Knight Spear is pretty weak for a pike so it roughly hits as hard as a lower end spear which is unfortunate. The saving grace of this weapon is the fact that A: it has a long range sweep for its R2s which is really good and B: the WA imbues the weapon with more fire damage making it do actual pike damage.

The WA itself is just ok but the fact that it can buff itself and it has access to the R2 sweeps much like the Partizan easily makes this weapon worth using. In addition to this the Ringed Knight Spear shares the same quality as the Lothric War Banner being that its 2 handed R1s and running attacks are the same as spear R1s and running attacks.

This weapon should only be run on a quality build as any other setup gets very mediocre damage out of it.

Greatlance is unique among pikes as it has hyperarmour on all its moves and hits about as hard as a claymore when build correctly. Unfortunately the price it pays for this hyper armour and damage is an even slower moveset making it difficult to land hits at times.

It also costs an obscene amount of stamina to perform any attack so high endurance with Chloranthy Ring is essential.

Where this weapon shines is in the fact that the R1 combos into the WA (charge go figure) meaning you can easily get ~900 damage off of an R1 which is great. The only problem is landing an uninterrupted R1 with a weapon this slow but it's not impossible.

Like all pikes the running attack is great for punishing those who roll backwards but the stamina cost is massive so be careful. However the R2s are extremely slow, take up lots of stamina and have mediocre tracking so use at your own risk.

The weapon works best when run with a strength build and heavy infusion but a refined infusion with a quality build can work as well.

Garbage


The pike is simply inferior to the LKLS in terms of both damage and range, it does have slightly lower requirements and if you really can't spare the points then just use the Lothric War Banner it's lighter and has lower requirements.

Halberds

Halberds are probably the most controversial weapon class in the game not because of their range, not because of their damage not even their combos. The reason for this heinous controversy is the actual name of the class halberds.

You can look through all of the weapons and very few of them come under the descriptor halberd infact a more accurate label would be polearms but I digress.

Note: This was the first "halberd" name related rant but it's not going to be the last.

In all seriousness halberds are a solid weapon class they have an excellent balance of high damage, good range and hyperarmour (there are 2 halberds that don't really have hyperarmour). When 2 handed halberds (bar 2) gain hyperarmour, additional range and higher damage so 2 hand them ok.

Glaive/Black Knight Glaive/Lucerne/Splitleaf Greatsword


These weapons are grouped together because they all have combos relating to their WAs.

The glaive is not a glaive at all, it is in fact a Bardiche.

The glaive has the typical halberd moveset overhead slams for the R1s a sweep for the 1 handed R2s and a beyblade spin for the 2 handed R2s. Personally not a big fan of the beyblade spin as it mainly gives your enemy a great chance to waltz up and stab you in the back.

It has good range and the damage is decent combined with the fact R1 L2 R1 combos it just makes for a solid weapon.

Run this weapon with a refined/heavy infusion with their respective builds.

Black Knight Glaive is the same thing as the normal glaive but with a tiny bit less range and with a tiny bit more damage. It also has the same WA with the same combo the main difference is its R2s.

Oh by the way I checked a glaive isn't a halberd.

The one handed R2s are slow and not really worth using but the 2 handed have some decent tracking so if they don't roll straight backwards you can usually catch them. The R2s also do more poise damage than usual so that's nice.

Only run this weapon quality.

The Lucerne is not a halberd it is a type of polearm but not a halberd.

Now at first glance this weapon seems like garbage as it is one of the smallest halberds and has just ok AR. However there are two hidden strengths No 1: all of its attacks are thrust (there's a spike on the bit you smack them with so it checks out) thus making it incredibly good at trading No 2: This is the also has the R1 L2 R1 combo.

You can technically run this whatever but refined and sharp get the best damage, heavy is ok but you're better off with another halberd running 66 str.

I know I said Four-Pronged Plow was possibly the worst weapon in the game but now that I'm here Splitleaf Greatsword is probably even worse. This is one of the two weapons for which glaive is the correct descriptor but no they called it a greatsword who f****** knows.

In all seriousness Splitleaf is incredible it is without a doubt the hardest hitting halberd period. It also has a litany of combos which exemplify its high damage (note only one combo is listed in the combo list found in links so I'll link a separate video for combos for this weapon) to a frankly stupid level.

It's also one of the longer halberds which just adds insult to injury.

This weapon should really be used with high strength and a heavy infusion but it can technically be run sharp/refined but the AR suffers by about 50 points.

Red Hilted Halberd/Immolation Tinder/Crucifix of the Mad King


These all have unique properties be it moveset or hidden attributes.

Red Hilted Halberd is strange among the halberds as none of its moves bar the R2s have hyperarmour. It makes up for this fact by having a unique moveset (regular halberd has the same moveset too but no one should use it) that gains more range when one handed (like how curved/straight swords work).

The 1 handed moveset is incredibly good, the R1s have long range and deal thrust damage so are great for counter hits and the R2s are wide sweeps that excel at roll catching. The 2 handed moveset is inferior as it has smaller range and the R2s turn into the beyblade spin which as stated before is backstab bait.

The WA is perserverance which can work well when fighting larger weapons or when fighting against an opponent who is applying heavy pressure. It's recommended that you use this weapon with a WA shield (ie black knight shield) and a Leo Ring.

This weapon should really be run sharp with high dex but you can use it refined on quality build too though you lose ~20AR.

Immolation Tinder is a weird weapon it's the longest of the halberds an actually used to hit the hardest (until splitleaf ruined everything). It casts sorceries with R2 which is actually really great for melee spells (farron flashsword ect) as the spells come out of the end of the staff (ie realy long so good range). The ability to change your timing for attacks and the ability to change your range makes this weapon effective against a variety of weapons.

It has the best type of split damage ie two really big numbers meaning the damage (when done correctly) is really good. The only problem with this weapon is the stat investment, it requires a large amount of stats to get the most out of it and to be honest should really be run on a SL 130-140 build but if your willing to sacrifice some health and stamina you can use it.

Ideally you'd want 27/35/60 str/dex/int with 30/30 vig/end (starting class warrior) but this doesn't allow for any spell and you'll probably want a prisoners chain for the extra health and stamina.

Crucifix of the Mad King is not a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ halberd it's literally a cross spear with a corpse stuck on it.

This is another weird one it has higher poise health than the other halberds meaning you can tank through the other halberds. Even better its got the Greatclub R2 meaning it excels at roll catching which is great. The only problem is the damage is mediocre but don't worry papa Miyasaki has got you covered, unlike most unique weapons it can be buffed.

Dark Blade is the perfect buff for this weapon as it adds to the innate dark damage making this weapon hit really hard.

Run with 27 str and 60 faith and always buff with DB.

Gundyr's Halberd


Gundyr's isn't the longest halberd, it isn't the hardest hitting and it doesn't have a ridiculous combo.

Maybe its problem is that it's not a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ halberd it's a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ bardiche.

Jokes aside its got good range and hits hard but its real strength is its WA. Champion's Charge is like normal charge but not garbage. Unlike the regular charge you have much more control over the horizontal movement meaning you change how you approach an opponent to dodge attacks or avoid parrys. It also ends with an unparryable swipe that knocks your opponent to the ground which leads to the weapons next strength.

Champion's Charge can also act as an effective wakeup for knocked down opponents because if you time it perfectly time it (we're talking frame perfect here not easily replicable) you can hit them before they can roll away which is probably not meant to happen but hey it's a nice bonus.

Ideally run on a strength build but quality works too.

Garbage


I've said it many times and I'm gonna say it again just cause these weapons are listed as garbage doesn't mean you can't use them or that they're all bad they're just inferior to other options.

The Halberd is just the Red Hilted Halberd but worse, it's the same length, same moveset but it has worse AR and an inferior WA in Charge which doesn't benefit this weapon at all.

Crescent Axe is just horrible it has the least range of all the halberds and lower damage than all of them regardless of infusion. Supposedly you're supposed to use the WA to boost the damage but even with the increase it hits about the same as the Glaive which is longer to boot.

Winged Knight Halberd is not a bad weapon by any means it is however outclassed in every way by the Splitleaf. Splitleaf is the same length, lighter and does more damage with a better WA unfortunately it just outclasses it.

Reapers

Reapers are the weird middle ground between spears and halberds swinging faster than halberds but hitting harder than spears. They also have the same mechanic as halberds meaning that if you do not hit your opponent with the actual blade of the weapon you deal less damage.

You're going to want to 2 hand Reapers almost exclusively as you'll gain extra damage and range but that's no to say the 1 handed moveset is useless. The 1 handed R2 is good at roll catching as it provides a large fast horizontal sweep and the 1 handed rolling attack comes out very quickly but doesn't deal much damage making it good for finishing off opponents(given they don't have parry tool out).

Also reapers have natural shield pierce on all of their attacks but only if you hit with the blade.

Great Corvian Scythe/Friede's Great Scythe


Great Corvian Scythe possibly has the worst name in the game tied with 90% of the halberds and the Four-Pronged Plow. Every other scythe is called [insert additional name] Great Scythe while this is called the Great Corvian Scythe, even the Corvian Greatknife follows the naming pattern but not this weapon.

Name aside this is possibly the best reaper in the game (and no I don't know why they're called reapers and not scythes) as it's the longest and hits the hardest that's pretty much it. It also has the highest bleed build up but at the cost of building bleed up on yourself as well whenever you get a hit confirm so be warned.

The WA is hot garbage, Neck Swipe is a slow, telegraphed, low damage attack that is difficult to actually land thanks to its awkward hitbox.

Run this weapon with a refined/sharp/hollow infusion with a quality, dex or quality-hollow build respectively.

Note if for some reason you want to go for a high bleed build don't infuse bleed instead infuse hollow and buff with Carthus Rogue.

Friede's Great Scythe is an odd weapon for a starter it doesn't obey the sweet spot rule I talked about before where hitting with any portion that is not the blade does less damage. Instead hitting with the shaft of the weapon does the normal damage while hitting with the blade does additional damage which is a nice touch.

When you activate the WA a smaller scythe is produced in your off hand entering a similar stance to the Aquamarine Dagger and only allowing you to walk slowly. Pressing R2 while in this stance fires a small cone of frost from the offhand scythe which deals really disappointing damage and only causes moderate frostbite buildup personally I'm not a fan.

Pressing R1 while the WA is active causes your character to leap into the air and perform two slashes while having a large amount of hyperarmour, the L2 R1s combo twice like normal R1s which can deal substantial damage to an opponent. You can also delay the follow up L2 R1 by a substantial amount which can mixup timings quite well if need be.

This weapon does have one misleading factor its AR, without using the WA the weapon only deals the physical portion of the AR which is ~400 depending on build while the second scythe produced while in the WA stance uses the magic AR.

This weapon should be run with a high dex/int build and ideally this would look like 60/40 dex/int with base faith and strength but this will involve sacrificing some endurance so most run 40/40 dex/int which only loses ~24 AR.

Note if you want to tank through ultra greatswords you'll need about 25.6 poise.


Garbage


This is the last time I ever have to write a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ disclaimer and to be honest it's a pretty good feeling. THESE WEAPONS AREN'T NECESSARILY BAD THEY'RE JUST NOT AS GOOD AS OTHER WEAPONS OR THEY DO ACTUALLY SUCK BUT IT DOESN'T MEAN YOU CAN'T USE THEM.

The Great Scythe is the Great Corvian Scythe but with less range and damage, the only time you should ever use this weapon is if you really can't deal with the self bleed or maybe you're fighting a high bleed weapon but in either of these cases you should probably pick a different weapon class entirely.

The Pontiff Knight Great Scythe is the Great Corvian Scythe but with less range and damage (are ya seeing a pattern here) yes it has a WA that can build up frostbite but if you really want a frostbite build just use any buffable weapon with Frozen Weapon it's much more effective.

Whips

Whips are bad, don't use them.

They're not fast.
They're not powerful.
They don't have hyperarmour.
Charging the R2s doesn't increase damage (I DON'T KNOW WHY THIS IS???).
They also all have no strength scaling not that important just thought I'd mention it.

If for some weird reason you want to use them I suggest you only one-hand them as the two handed moveset is slower and doesn't deal any extra damage.

Now if after all this you're still interested in using a whip I suggest you utllise the fact the rolling R1s are fast and unparryable and the WA is actually not a bad attack which acts as a good roll catch as well as some much needed damage. In addition a WA shield such as the Black Knight Shield is a whips best friend as you can pressure with the shield, use the one handed moveset and have access to the WA whenever you want.

Witch's Locks


This is the best whip and it can only be used by pyromancers, go figure. The damage is somehow the best out of all the whips despite having split damage so this weapon breaks all the conventions. The WA also adds ~100 fire damage during the animation meaning it actually deals respectable damage.


Whip


This is like the Witch's Locks right but stay with me here.

I T D O E S L E S S D A M A G E.

Seriously though it's just Witch's Locks but for dex builds.

Side note WHY THE HELL IS THE BEST INFUSION FOR A WHIP SHARP I'VE NEVER CUT MYSELF WITH A ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ WHIP, maybe it's cause when you actually whip with the whip it can cut you ehh I guess.


The Garbage That Dwells Beneath The Garbage

Notched Whip is the normal whip but worse.

Spotted Whip is like the Notched Whip but worse.

I Forgot A Single Whip So Now It Gets Its Own Section

I forgot a whip in the whips section so now I'm talking about a whip.

Rose Of Ariandel


I have no idea what this weapon is.

It's called a whip despite having the moveset of a hammer but unlike hammers it doesn't have hyperarmour and it can't be parried.

Its WA is also baffling it's a "buff" that requires you to sacrifice 300-500 health in order to increase the power of miracles for ~2 minutes by 25%. For reference Ring of the Sun's First Born increases miracle strength by 20% so at least the buff is substantial. However I can't say that ~400 health for 25% stronger miracles is worth it especially when the actual animation for the WA is horrendously long. Weirdly enough though the weapon does gain hyperarmour when in this animation so theoretically you could tank through something while buffing but this is a horrible idea.

The range is good (for a hammer not a whip) but the low swing speed combined with the lack of hyperarmour makes this weapon difficult to recommend. It does have the highest spellbuff of all the casting tools at 40 faith but without Unfaltering Prayer it is difficult to cast many miracles successfully due to the lack of hyperarmour combined with the low cast speed of miracles.

Now like some of the other catalyst/weapon hybrids it does have combo potential unfortunately as far as I'm aware this combo potential is only R1-> Force which isn't great but if your opponent rolls incorrectly you could punish the knockdown with another harder hitting miracle but only if they panic.

Personally I don't recommend it however there are some (well there's one person) who believe it has potential.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dakT3r1nGS4

This guy puts out some solid analysis of lesser used weaponry and just because I don't agree with him on everything (flamberge and this mainly) doesn't mean he doesn't have a point. It's likely that I'm not giving this weapon a fair chance so if you are interested I would suggest checking this video out.

Fist Weapons

Yeah I know that technically this section should be fist and claw weapons but hey let's give one of the worst class of weapons some spotlight , just so we can all see how bad they are.

WARNING: I am going to discuss these weapons efficacy as weapons, I'm not going to talk about how they can be used as offhand parrying tool because they actually do that really well. This goes for all weapons in this guide, if they have some other function other than to attack people I'm not going to talk about it cause that's not what this guide is about.

Aside from my opinions fist weapons have low range and hit weaker than straight swords so require good spacing in order to use properly. I suggest if you're going to use these as weapons that you two hand them at all times as to have access to the L1 attacks. Specifically the running L1s are pretty damn good at roll catching especially if they roll straight backwards.


Caestus/Demon's Fist


Caestus is just your fists but they hit harder, that's basically it. The R1s are just punches but come out pretty fast especially compared to the L1s. The WA is perseverance which is nice but only works if they swing they're weapon twice when attacking you.

Caestus works best with a sharp infusion (I've given up on the logic of Dark Souls at this point) with high dex but refined and heavy infusions can yield good results too.

Demon's Fist is Caestus but with fire effects when you hit someone.

The faith scaling is bad don't bother.

The int scaling is bad don't bother.

If you are looking at this weapon thinking it might work for a pyro it doesn't just use a chaos Caestus.

That's it, I believe technically Demon's Fists hits slightly harder than Caestus but it also has an abysmal WA so it evens out between them which one sucks the least.

The Trash That Even Trash Throws Away


Dark Hand is a joke it can't be upgraded, the damage is pathetic even for fist weapons and once again it has no range.

It can't be buffed.

It can't be infused.

The WA is in competition for the worst WA in the whole game as the only way you'll land it is if your opponents pet is controlling their character.

Even as a defensive tool this weapon is completely useless as its absorption's are mediocre and its stability is laughable.

The only time you should even consider using this weapon is in low SL invasions but even then this weapon is a gimmick and not a good one at that.

Claws

Claws are fist weapons but better, not by much though.

They're only better because they have more range, that's it apart from that they do roughly the same damage and attack at the same speed. Also the rolling attacks go a ridiculous distance as they perform a sort of roll themselves but the damage is pretty poor.


Claw/Manikin Claws/Crow Talons


These weapons are extremely similar meaning it's almost impossible to say x is better than y in all cases so I'll talk about all of them here.

Claw is just meh they have ok damage but the range is the worst of all the claw weapons. The only redeeming part of this weapon is the WA which is just Onislayer but with a different name and like Onislayer the L1s combo out of it.

And before you say "hey man don't you mean claws right cause they'res two of them what a dumb ass" well you'd think so but no classic From Software logic the set of claws are called Claw, perfect.

Manikin Claws are the longest but also the weakest claws (weakest by like 12 AR so who cares) and weirdest of all Quickstep as the WA. Quickstep is pretty decent especially against larger weapons making this weapon basically a glorified dagger with a good running attack.

Crow Talons are the highest damage claws in whole game whoop dee freakin doo. The real power of this weapon lies in the WA, the WA causes the use to jump forward and perform a series of slashes which deals a hefty chunk of damage but this can be accentuated through the use of buffs.

Carthus Rouge with in addition to the innate bleed can bleed opponents incredibly quickly and coupled with the weapons decent damage can be pretty devastating. Other buffs such as DMB/LB/CMW (all acronyms or Dark Souls specific terms will be described in the glossary) all work well but require heavy investment in either faith or intelligence as well as the offensive stats to get good damage out of it so you'll probably have to sacrifice some vigor or endurance but the sheer damage output is hard to ignore.

Daggers

Daggers are straight swords but with less damage/range and more speed. To be brutally honest daggers aren't really used as weapons per se as most just use them as weapons to riposte with due to their high critical modifiers instead of actually fighting with them.

Now if you do want to actually fight with a dagger it's suggested that you two hand them due to the increase in range and forwards momentum. You should maintain aggression as you can't out range the majority of weapon classes so get in their face and apply a lot of pressure.

Oh if you are planning just to use them for riposting infuse with fire as critical attacks bypass defences meaning the higher the AR the higher the damage regardless of what numbers make up the AR.

Corvian Greatknife/Bandit's Knife/Aquamarine Dagger/Murky Hand Scythe/Harpe/Rotten Ghru Dagger/Mail Breaker


These are both more combat focused daggers so their being grouped together.

Quick note Corvian Greatknife and Bandit's Knife shouldn't be used for critical attacks instead use a fire infused dagger it will do much more damage for ripostes/backstabs.

Corvian Greatknife is the longest dagger and one of the hardest hitting too. When 2 handed the R1s have some good forward momentum (good for daggers that is) but the R2s are slow and aren't really noteworthy. The WA is unfortunately Blind Spot which is a horrendously slow attack that is supposed to go through shields but even if you find an opponent stupid enough to stand there and block this it will do really underwhelming damage even for daggers.

This weapon should be run with a refined infusion on a quality build.

Bandit's Knife from a first glance looks like the Corvian Greatknife but worse in terms of both damage and length. However it does possess one feature that the Corvian Greatknife lacks, a good WA. Quickstep can be very useful against heavier weapons as you can attack then instantly quickstep to avoid damage.

It does have innate bleed and if you're really set in your ways you could run a quality hollow build with Carthus Rouge and this weapon hollow infused but it works best with a high dex build and sharp infusion.

Aquamarine Dagger was initially going in the garbage with its mediocre damage, 100 critical which is pathetic for a dagger and its WA that used to cost as much stamina as a greatsword.

However From Software eventually got round to decreasing the stamina consumption so I was forced to re-evaluate. What you're left with now is a medium length and damage dagger that while requiring an awkward stat investment you can find success with. The real strength of the weapon lies in its WA while holding L2 the R1s have increased range and damage performing more like a weak straight sword than a dagger. The L2 R2 is a long distance poke with an active hitbox to the right of your character model for a good portion of the animation. This means after landing 2 R1s be they WA enhanced or not you can punish players who roll backwards or into you using the L2 R2 which for this class of weapon is incredible.

The running L2 has long range and good momentum but isn't the fastest attack and can be costly if whiffed. Also this weapon shouldn't really be used for ripostes due to its low critical instead I would recommend a crystal infused dagger.

This weapon should be run with 40/40 dex/int to get the most damage out of it, with only 40 int it hits pretty weak and it softcaps at 40 for both stats so it isn't really fit for mages more so intelligence dexterity hybrid builds for weapons such as Friede's Great Scythe.

Murky Hand Scythe is another odd weapon being a dagger meant for pyromancers. It has ok range and damage but is stuck with a 100 critical modifier which is less than stellar for a dagger.

Before I get into the weapon yes I know the image looks like ♥♥♥♥, the only images I could find had black backgrounds so I'm sorry. This is also one of the two daggers that combo their R1s, the hitstun also allows for staggered R1s meaning you can pressure and roll catch more effectively.

This weapon can be used in three different ways, the first involves a typical pyromancer build with 40/40 int/faith and giving this weapon a dark infusion for max damage just be aware this is if you want a combat dagger if you want something to riposte with then use a chaos infused dagger.

The second way to use this weapon is with a faith build (60 faith is recommended) infused heavy and buff it using dark blade which increases the damage output substantially. Now a lightning dagger on this build will do more on critical attacks but switching will remove your buff so it's probably not worth it.

Finally you can also run refined/sharp with their respective builds though sharp hits the hardest.

Harpe is the same as Murky Hand Scythe but all physical damage instead of dark, always run this with a sharp infusion and high dex/quality setup.

Rotten Ghru Dagger is the same as Bandit's Knife but microscopically longer, deals a tiny bit less damage and builds up poison instead of bleed. Run it the same way as Bandit's Knife.

Mail Breaker is mostly unimpressive in terms of damage and range but it's WA combos into itself allowing you to deal substantial damage quickly. The WA itself has decent range moving the player forwards in a long thrust allowing it to pressure fleeing/rolling opponents.

Run with a sharp infusion and high dexterity.

Dagger


This is the best dagger for critical attacks period.

Its high innate damage combined with a staggering base 130 critical modifier makes it incredibly powerful. Though it's not recommended that you use this as a weapon just as a riposting tool as it has very poor range.

As stated above it should typically be infused with fire but if you have high investment in int, faith or both then you should infuse crystal/lightning/chaos respectively.

Garbage


Once again again again these aren't all horrendous or unuseable they're just inferior/outclassed I've got no problem with anyone using them but the things they are either done better by something else or they don't do the thing they're supposed to do very well.

Tailbone Shortsword has good range but poor damage and critical modifier. To be honest this is an invasion weapon for knocking people off of bridges/ledges ect and it does that pretty well but for duels it's outclassed by the Corvian Greatknife.

The Handmaid's Dagger is truly abysmal and in contention for one of the worst weapons in the game It has low damage, mediocre range, a 110 critical modifier and a useless WA. To top it all off it cannot be buffed or infused meaning it is utterly useless as well requiring actual time and effort to acquire being a rare drop from the Handmaidens.

I feel bad evening mentioning the Parrying Dagger because it's not meant to be used as a weapon its only function is to parry but this list is for ranking weapons and their efficacy as weapons or lack their of in this weapons case. It has mediocre range, horrendous damage and only a 110 critical modifier so can't fill either of the niches.

Brigand Twindaggers have no range and are completely shut down by shields and perseverance as all daggers bounce off of these things when one handed and you're effectively one handing two daggers. The damage can be ok if you manage to actually land the L1s and it does have quickstep but if you want a combat dagger just use the Corvian Greatknife or Bandit's Knife they do what this weapon does but better.

Finally Scholar's Candlestick is an abysmal weapon it is incredibly important for sorcery builds as the extra damage it provides to spells is crucial for any serious mage but unfortunately as a weapon it's awful. Low damage and having a useless WA prevent in addition to an awkward faith requirement keep this weapon from having any combat usage.

Torches

Torches have no PVP use whatsoever don't use them, but you came here anyway. What do you expect me to say about them, no really what do you think I'm going to surprise you by saying how great they are, no they're terrible.

To be fair though they can be very useful in PVE against pus of man or other enemies which react badly to fire.

Follower Torch


Technically speaking this shouldn't be called a torch because it is in fact a hammer. It has the hammer moveset, it has the hyperarmour of a hammer for all intensive purposes it's a hammer. Do you want to know what seperates this piece of garbage from a hammer?

The R1s don't combo meaning if you hit somebody once they can just roll away. This coupled with the fact this weapon has garbage damage regardless of how you build it means it is forever relegated to being useless.

Its WA a flame breath similar to the pyromancy fire whip but with hyperarnour and much less damage.

Oh and for some reason this weapon softcaps its scaling for strength at 34 and no I don't know why either obviously from just had to limit the damage for "balance" purposes.

I don't know why you would try and use this but if you want to 34 strength and then 30-35 in both int and faith gets the most damage out of it. I suggest coupling with a pyro flame but at that point you might as well use Demon's Scar.

An Actual Trash Fire


This is probably the worst weapon in the game, it has incredibly low AR no range it's slow, it has no hyperarmour and to top it all off non scaling split damage. The fire damage scales with nothing meaning the only way to boost it is with the fire clutch ring (which is never a good idea as the reduced physical absorption is almost never worth it) but even then it's terrible.

Oh it also has no WA and lacks the ability to backstab or riposte further cementing this weapon as an unsaveable wreck.

If for some arcane reason you wish to use this then you'll need 66 strength and two hand it all the time.

Additional Information

This is just a collection of information that wasn't explicitly relevant to a section or that couldn't fit into a section.

Some katanas actually work when infused heavy, Uchigatana, and Washing Pole both work surprisingly well when infused heavy but should always be 2 handed to get the full damage.

A combo I forgot to mention was that the Partizan can combo its R2s into its WA which gives its WA a reason to exist - yay.

All great hammers (bar the Pickaxe) can combo their R1s into their jump attack for extra damage.

I missed this in my halberd section but apparently the Lucerne's R2s pierce shields which is nice to know.

Many of the weapons that work well for PVP aren't the optimal choice for PVE and vice versa. For example Vordt's Great Hammer is a subpar choice for PVP but is really effective against a multitude of enemies due to its high frostbite buildup. Basically just because a weapon is listed as "Garbage" in this guide for PVP it doesn't mean it can't do really well PVE.

Dark/Chaos infusions work really well on a variety of weapons (dark should be used for PVP because the majority of players don't level faith) so many in fact that listing each time a weapon does well with X infusion becomes time consuming and takes up limited writing space for steam guides so I'll do a quick list here.

Longsword/Lothric Knight Sword
Literally any infuseable curved sword.
Exile Curved Greatsword/Murakumo
Claymore
Astora Greatsword
Uchigatana
Man Serpent Hatchet/Battle Axe
Great Corvian Scythe
Four-Pronged Plow/Saint Bident
Lothric War Banner
Great Mace
Mace
Dagger
Red Hilted Halberd/Glaive

Just a quick note you might find that the total AR of these weapons is inferior to other dark infused weapons in their class. The total AR is not important when looking at split damage, what you're looking for is whether the split damage goes over a certain threshold.

As a rule of thumb when infusing any weapon larger than a dagger check to make sure the damage type you're adding is ~>300 this is roughly where the break point for high damage returns is.

WARNING THIS RULE OF THUMB DOES NOT APPLY TO SIMPLE/BLESSED INFUSIONS.

Final note on infusions - for some reason dark infused weapons are bugged in some way, meaning that they cannot take advantage of the hornet ring in critical attacks (ripostes, backstabs ect) so if you want a secondary riposte weapon, infuse chaos. Also, critical attacks bypass a player's defence, meaning that the fire damage will not be penalised by defences.

Previously I mentioned that there were in fact two variants of curved sword those with a kick and those with a stupid twirl. Well, after some more research it turns out there's another separating factor aside from the R2s and it's that the curved swords with the twirl have higher motion values on their attacks (If you don't know what a motion value is check the glossary).

On the running, rolling and critical attacks - the twirly curved swords have higher values than their kicking counterparts, meaning they can potentially hit harder on these attacks for the same AR. Note: this also applies to the Demon's Scar which has a 110 critical modifier stacked on top of its boosted crit damage.

Quick note on combos: if the opponent you're fighting has noticeable lag then it is advised to not try any true combos except for R1 -> R1 (L1 -> L1 is fine too) as lag effects hitstun weirdly, meaning many true combos can be escaped if high latency/lag is present. If your opponent is really far away from you geographically, the literal dial up internet or a combination of the two, then sometimes even R1->R1 won't work in these situations any form of skill goes straight out the window and it typically devolves into spamming attacks until one of you drops dead.

The Astora Greatsword has even more odd properties when you look closer at it, it has the highest motion values out of all weapons for running and rolling attacks for no apparent reason although this probably contributes heavily to why the rolling R1s do such high amounts of damage.

What's even crazier is that typically rolling attacks have lower motion values than R1s as they are typically faster and game balance would dictate that a faster attack should be weaker than a slower one. But this is not the case with Astora's as it has a higher motion value for its rolling attacks than its R1s once again for no apparent reason

As promised here are some good weapon combinations main hand on the right off hand on the left.

Thrusting Sword + pretty much anything
Greataxe + Spear/Straightsword
Spear + Ultra Greatsword
RHH + literally any weapon
Greatlance + anything
Straightsword + everything bar ultra greatswords/halberds that aren't RHH/Greatlance/Curved

WARNING: Some of these don't work in reverse for example a main hand thrusting sword does not combo into an offhand greataxe.

Glossary

Quality Build: Any build that has equal amounts of strength and dexterity at SL 120 this is usually 40/40 in both

Strength Build: This entails a build that exclusively levels strength as its offensive stat, strength is usually levelled to 66 as most strength weapons are 2 two handed thus you get the max damage as 2 handed multiplies you strength by 1.5, 66*1.5=99 which is the max strength you can have.

Dex Build: This is a build that usually has upwards of 60 dexterity typically around 65 with only a small amount of strength (I would recommend 16-18 strength as this covers almost all dex weapons).

Faith/Int Build: Now this differs from player to player but most of the time this means you have 60 of your respective casting stat and you pour the rest of your stats into vigor, endurance and attunement.

Typical Player: A typical player has 40/40/40/40 in Vigor/Endurance/Strength/Dexterity.

Motion Values: These are the multipliers for a weapons attacks that determine how strong they are.
As an example all weapons (bar the Red Hitled and regular halberd) have 100 as their motion value for their R1s meaning that these attacks deal 100% of the weapons AR in an attack while the R2s for a hypothetical weapon might be 120 meaning the R2s deal 120% of the weapons AR in an attack.

DMB/LB/CMW/DB: These are all acronyms of weapon buffs they stand for Darkmoon Blade/Lightning Blade/Crystal Magic Weapon/Dark Blade respectively.

WA: This stands for Weapon Art.

SL: This stands for Soul Level.

AR: This stands for attack rating which is the damage number that the game displays for a weapon.

AOE: This stands for area of effect basically any attack that has a large omni directional hitbox is classified as AOE.

LKGS/BKGA/MSH/FUGS ect: These are all acronyms I've used for especially verbose weapon names because the steam character limit is not kind. They stand for Lothric Knight Greatsword/Black Knight Greataxe/Man Serpent Hatchet/Fume Ultra Greatsword I may have missed a couple of acronyms so shout at me in the comments and I'll add them as soon as possible.

Links

This section is just a bunch of useful links if you want more information or you want to verify any information presented in this guide.

Unfortunately these will mostly be reddit posts, I'm not a reddit fan but I couldn't find this information anywhere else.

All images of weapons were sourced from https://darksouls.fandom.com/

The Limit Breakers video I "borrowed" the graphic for the damage calculations from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qv3m3f8IGgw

A video covering all of the Splitleaf Greatsword combos
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KUWRwTq7LE

Build Planners + AR calculators
https://mugenmonkey.com/darksouls3
https://soulsplanner.com/darksouls3
https://soulsplanner.com/darksouls3/weaponatk (this link can also calculate the spell buff of a catalyst talisman ect very useful for casters.

Actual damage calculator + weapon motion values (this calculator works best for single damage type weapons)
https://www.reddit.com/r/darksouls3/comments/6o07mk/damage_calculator_motion_values_weaponsspells/

PVP damage calculator (this works best if you want to know how much a weapon would hit for on an actual player)
https://www.reddit.com/r/darksouls3/comments/4ma0s0/pvp_simple_damage_calculator_understanding/

How defence/absorption work
https://www.reddit.com/r/darksouls3/comments/4f8yy8/how_defense_and_absorption_really_work/


Spell damage calculator
https://soulsplanner.com/darksouls3/spellatk

Bow/Crossbow AR calculator
https://soulsplanner.com/darksouls3/rangedweaponatk

Item AR calculator
https://soulsplanner.com/darksouls3/itematk


Weapon attack ranges
https://www.reddit.com/r/darksouls3/comments/67dckl/weapons_attack_ranges_updated_with_dlc2/

Weapon stamina usage
https://soulsplanner.com/darksouls3/weaponstm

Poise calculator
https://www.reddit.com/r/darksouls3/comments/5962gm/refined_poise_calculator_108/

Poise breakpoints
https://www.reddit.com/r/darksouls3/comments/59raaf/a_long_list_of_poise_breakpoints_for_hyperarmor/

Weapon poise damage
https://www.reddit.com/r/darksouls3/comments/58yu34/poise_damage_spreadsheet/

How I Learned To Stop Worrying (about character limits) And Break Steam Guides

Steam's character limit is insultingly short you can barely begin to say a weapon sucks without this miserable text editor stamping it's heels and refusing to type.

Well worry no more for I have discovered the eternal secret to bypass the deadly scourge of character limits. Now you might think "hey this really isn't the place to include a rant about steam character limit" well I really couldn't think of anywhere else to put this so it's going here.

Step 1: Attempt to write in a steam guide section
Step 2: Hit the character limit
Step 3: Hit up that Phat MS paint
Step 4: Save the image
Step 5: Name the file the text you want to add
Step 6: Upload the image to your steam guide
Step 7: Add the image to the section you hit the character limit where you want the text to be.
Step 8: Delete the "gubbins" surrounding the image name and file extension
Step 9: Congratulations you've beaten the system


I'm probably not the first to discover it but hey if you didn't know before you know now.

Let's see rant over and I got to use a grossly out of date reaction gif, looks like this sections done.

Hall Of Shame

Unfortunately mistakes were made when creating this guide (quite a few to be honest) and I don't really have an excuse for any of them so from me to you the reader I apologise.

However these mistakes haven't really been recorded in any fashion and I don't want to seem disingenuous so I am going to try and list every mistake that I have made in this guide. I'll also include any information that was added because of someone who commented.

Harpe's ability to combo two R1s together has been mentioned numerously and to my chagrin I was too lazy to change it but that has now been rectified.

Thanks to users, The Grim Sleeper

The swinging speed of the R1s of the light curved swords being faster than the heavier curved swords was also not originally included.

Thanks to The Grim Sleeper

The R1 of the Cathedral Knight Greatsword combos into its R2, this information was not originally included

Thanks to The Grim Sleeper

The unique hyperarmour and higher stamina damage kicks of the Follower Torch were both not mentioned.

Thanks to The Grim Sleeper

I failed to include the fact that the Ringed Knight Spear/Lothric War Banner both have the R1 speed and running attack of spears not pikes making them much faster.

Thanks to Cryptid Tracker.

I originally complained about the Crucifix of the Mad King being classed as a halberd despite its item description calling it a cross spear. User БАТЯ pointed out that the actual model of the weapon is nothing like a cross spear and is in fact a variety of poleaxe/polearm.

I made no mention of the utility of two weapons at SL1 this was suggested by user Wormling59mep.

After some convincing I moved the Greatsword of Judgement and Flamberge out of garbage as I was too harsh when covering them.

The users who suggested these changes were bezceller and i_Go_SpLaT respectively

A decent amount of weapons recommended for a dark infusion were inferior to other choices.

Thanks to Cryptid Tracker

The spread sheet I used for this guide that contained the motion values for weapons had incorrect information.

Thanks to Cryptid Tracker for both pointing this out and providing a correct updated version.

Conclusion

This guide took a horrendous amount of time to create and now looking back at it, it’s not great. The wording is odd and some of the sections are borderline overdrawn with unnecessary details.

If I have missed something important like a definition from the glossary or neglected a piece of information or if I've made a mistake, I'd appreciate if you tell me. You should probably phrase it like: "hey ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ you forgot/missed/got this wrong now go fix it you hack fraud".

I feel that perhaps I was a little harsh on some weapons; the rotten Ghru gear, Wolnir’s and the Morion Blade to be specific, they really don’t deserve to be rated so low but I hit the character limit long before the images were added (images have to be embedded in a similar fashion to html thus take up a lot of characters) so that bridge has been long crossed (this is code for I’m too lazy to change them).

At the end of the day if you want to use a weapon just because it looks cool I can’t blame you personally, I really like the Irithyll Straight Sword from a visual perspective but I wouldn’t use it seriously because there are better options.

Many of you might question what drove me to create such a massive guide for a game now containing information that would have been much more useful 1-2 years ago instead of well 1-2 years ago.

You’re probably right, this guide would have been much more useful 1-2 years ago but if I may I’d like to use an analogy.

Imagine you're a child on Christmas Eve desperately trying to go to sleep because in the morning Father Christmas will have delivered you a shiny new teddy bear. Now picture yourself waking up to find naught but socks and a book on the many wonders Eels instead of your beloved teddy bear.

Time has passed, it’s 20 years later in the middle of August and you’re asleep in your apartment when you hear odd noises emanate from the kitchen. You awake and move into the kitchen wielding a slipper for defence hearing the muffled footsteps of an intruder. Switching the lights on you gaze in shock at the figure before you : a portly gentlemen staggering around wreathed in a faded red tracksuit with dirty white fabric lining his wrists and ankles.

Without a doubt Santa Claus, he’s not how you envisioned him, he smells vaguely of petrol and his red outfit is stained deeply with something you desperately hope is ketchup. Deep down you know it’s him.

A grin forms on his face as he approaches and produces a small teddy bear from a ragged Nike backpack. You’re not sure what’s happening but he urges you to take it in a slurred European accent. Hesitantly you take the bear and examine it, the ears are worn, an eye is missing and on its belly is a note with some extreme political manifesto poorly scribbled across it.
Frozen in confusion you watch the strange man open your window, wink and throw himself out. As you overcome the shock you peer out to see nary a trace of the strange man and decide to resign to sleep with the bear clutched tightly in your hands.

This guide is the teddy bear, it’s incredibly late, you weren’t expecting it, it’s made you angry over something and you're pretty suspect about the guy who gave it to you. You may have grown out of it or maybe somehow you still want it but either way it’s here now. If you've really got nothing out of it there will (hopefully) be someone out there who will, so perhaps you should give the bear to a goodwill. Who knows?

I guess in this situation I’m the strange homeless man impersonating Santa Claus with oddly specific knowledge of missing gifts but the analogy sort of breaks down there.

The point I’m trying to make is this guide was made with somewhat good intentions so I hope that someone finds it useful. if you didn’t like it and think that [INSERT WEAPON I TALKED ♥♥♥♥ ABOUT] is the best thing ever created and that I’m a lobotomised chimp for disliking it, you can still shout racial epithets at me in the comments - that works too.

Either way, thank you for taking the time to read through paragraph upon paragraph of needlessly long information about fictional weapons in a video game.

[Astrophage]

@Vifts That's fair, I probably should have made that clear from the title or introduction. My reasoning was that almost all weapons can be effective in PvE. Outside of joke weapons only a few are poor choices, I would dissuade using a specific weapon in situations where its damage type is heavily resisted by an enemy/boss (i.e. a magic or dark weapon against Aldrich) but this doesn't make the weapon a poor choice for the whole game.

Some weapons are definitely superior to others for PvE but at some point it just comes down to player preference.

TLDR: almost anything will work well, if you're looking for a more concrete answer the majority of weapons that are good for PvP are effective for PvE as well (a combination of good damage and frame data are universally valuable regardless of opponent).

[Vifts]

Seems very skewed towards damage done to another player or movesets that are viable in PvP with no real consideration for PvE

[genericwhitemale]

tldr

[Dame Puffball]

a guide from a pre-murky hand scythe world, what a throwback.

[The Grim Sleeper]

@WolfintheWheat While Flamberge's WAR2 motion value is much higher than other greatswords, it's still far too slow and far too short to be anything other than a very situational whiff punish or an attack that must be used on a hard read, which makes it pointless.
Bleed in Dark Souls III is garbage. With a greatsword, you cannot pressure someone with bleed, as its buildup decays too fast, and by the time it procs, you will have killed your opponent twice over.
Ghost hits with frostbite deal no damage. Frostbite is pointless.
Crescent Moon Sword's weapon art doesn't deal much damage for its low speed and audible startup. It's also a pretty terrible weapon. It is a slow curved sword with a shorter length and a worse weapon art than the Follower Sabre. I'd never use a weapon that, even when two-handed, has a slower attack speed and worse moveset than a straight sword with less damage and less utility, even as a finisher.

[WolfintheWheat]

Flamberge has one of the most busted weapon arts, it is crazy fast. From Fextralife: "The Flamberge has a motion value of 185 on the Weapon Skill R2, while other stance greatswords have a motion value of 134 on the weapon skill R2." Also that little extra bit of Bleed really does add up if you're fighting someone competent and it becomes a war of attrition.

Also, did you know that Vordt's Great Hammer procs Frost on enemy players within the weapon's hitbox even if the hit doesn't actually land? It's a solid weapon especially for low SL's - And so long as you aren't trying to fight another Great-Club with it, the thing's a really solid weapon despite its lower damage.

Finally, the Crescent Moon Sword's weapon art damage scales predominantly with Dex, so with minimal Int or low Int you can use it as a finisher or pull it out to put pressure on someone trying to heal. Slower but much better damage than any of the throwables. You didn't even mention its ranged WA.

[polygon enthusiast.]

Did I miss the lothric knight long spear or did you miss it ?

[KrisFerein]

Awesome guide!

[Astrophage]

It doesn't do anything better than the red-hilted halberd, there is 0 reason to use it

[The Grim Sleeper]

Heysel Pick's main game is comboing an R1 into Old Moonlight or Soul Greatsword for high damage. It has hyper armor which aids in its ability to out-trade smaller weapons with its strong combo. Backsteps are not used at all over rolls, except when reverse backstepping in order to close distance without having Homing Soulmass orbs fire at your opponent.

I'd argue that Shortsword is better than CC, ignoring its ability to cast HSM, the strongest sorcery in meta PVP. Shortsword with an offhand catalyst is significantly better. There is no reason to run CC on any build over any other comparable catalyst, let alone any other decent straight sword.