Weapons are a very strategic and important choice for the player in Dark Souls and Dark Souls Remastered. The player is encouraged to discover and learn the playstyle of weapon that suits their style of play and preference, with subtle parameters affecting the weapon's performance in combat. A player will be able to dedicate themselves to mastering one weapon, and expect to perform well regardless of the choice. The game hopes to create a bond between the player and their chosen weapon
Some Weapon Notes:
- Weapon damage formula is: (base damage)*(n/10+1) where n is the number of upgrades.
- See Weapon Scaling to understand what the Parameter Bonus letters mean
- See Damage Types to understand the different ways that damage numbers are calculated and resolved.
- You can also create Boss Soul Weapons which are crafted from the souls that are dropped by certain bosses.
- For definitions of terms and images used in the weapons tables and pages, refer to the Table Key and Weapon Heading Key, at the bottom of the page.
What is the best weapon in Dark Souls?
There is no "best" weapon in Dark Souls. Players can craft Character Builds around specific weapons that have specific movesets, deal good damage, or are easily obtained at the level range the player wants to play in. Some players choose weapons for their cosmetic appearance, but in most cases it is advisable to refer to the scaling and Upgrades of weapons to determine if the output is beneficial to the character in pve, pvp or both. The following categories of weapons have details on their base damage, and all individual pages feature infusion charts, with some extending to full moveset videos.
Weapon Categories in Dark Souls
Dark Souls Weapons List
Daggers
Straight Swords
Greatswords
Ultra Greatswords
Curved Swords
Katanas
Curved Greatswords
Piercing Swords
Axes
Great Axes
Hammers
Great Hammers
Fist & Claw
Spears
Halberds
Whips
Bows
Greatbows
Crossbows
Flames
Catalysts
Talismans
Table Key
Weapon Heading Key
Weapon Type: The weapon type/category.
Attack Type: Determines the type of damage dealt and holds some sway over it's primary moveset (usually one-handed light and heavy attack), some weapons may have a single or multiple types.
Critical: The damage boost you recieve for ripostes and backstabs, 100 is the base and anything higher is a bonus percentage. (Example, 110 is a 10% boost)
Bleed: The amount of bleed damage the weapon does. Upon fully inflicting, bleeding will take a percentage off your enemies [[#|HP]]. (Example, 300 bleed will take 30%)
Poison: The amount of poison or toxic damage the weapon does. Upon fully inflicting it will cause slow poison or toxic damage to the enemy over time.
Weight: The weight of the weapon.
Durability: The lifespan of the weapon will slowly degrade during use, and if not repaired will drastically lose combat effectivness at 30% durability, and close to useless at 0%.
Crystal: Durability if it can advance down the Crystal path will have 1/10th of its normal durability in exchange for higher attack power. Crystal upgrades cannot be repaired or downgraded, but further reinforcement will also repair the weapon (up to +5).
Upgrade cost: The soul cost to upgrade and if it only uses a single type of titanite, what it is. Visit the Upgrades page for more information.
Buffable: If the weapon is buffable or not. All Regular, Raw and Crystal upgraded weapons are confirmed to be buffable.
Acquired from: Where the item is obtained, either via corpse, a drop with a rough rate of the item, or bought from a merchant with how many souls it costs.
Hints and Tips: Various tidbits, noteworthy information, about the weapon.
Youtube relevant videos: Videos about how you get it, or using it in action.
Required in Build: What build this weapon is required for (Note: this may be changed soon however so don't get carried away on adding stuff.)
Upgrades and Parameter Bonus (Weapons)
The table below shows the calculation for the Base Damage and Parameter Scaling.













Regular Upgrades Formula.
Crystal Upgrades Formula
Lightning Upgrades Formula
Raw Upgrades Formula
Magic Upgrades Formula
Enchanted Upgrades Formula
Divine Upgrades Formula
Occult Upgrades Formula
Fire Upgrades Formula
Chaos Upgrades Formula
Special (Twinkling) Weapon Upgrades Formula
Boss (Demon) Weapon Upgrades Formula
Dragon (Dragon Scale) Weapon Upgrades Formula
Upgrades and Parameter Bonus (Bows)
The table below shows the calculation for the Base Damage and Parameter Scaling.












Regular Upgrades Formula.
For example goes here:
Crystal Upgrades Formula
Lightning Upgrades Formula
Raw Upgrades Formula
Magic Upgrades Formula
Enchanted Upgrades Formula
Divine Upgrades Formula
Occult Upgrades Formula
Fire Upgrades Formula
Chaos Upgrades Formula
Special (Twinkling) Weapon Upgrades Formula
Boss (Demon) Weapon Upgrades Formula
Upgrades and Parameter Bonus (Crossbows)
The table below shows the calculation for the Base Damage and Parameter Scaling.






Regular Upgrades Formula.
For example goes here:
Crystal Upgrades Formula
Lightning Upgrades Formula
Magic Upgrades Formula
Divine Upgrades Formula
Fire Upgrades Formula
- Anonymous
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dont even tell me talismans arent the best weapon for killing ceaseless
- Anonymous
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i want to do a build with a weapon i have never used before. so everybody please leave your favorite weapon in the comments and i will sift through them for abuild, thanks! [T]/
Daggers: Nyah, can't reach!
Straight Swords: Yeah, fight me casuls!
Greatswords: Crash: YOU DIED
Ultra Greatswords: Clonk, Crash: Victory Achieved
Curved Swords: Fight me POISE BOI
Curved Greatswords: I love swapping these...
Thrusting Swords: Poke poke, SWING
Katanas: I AM THE TRUE DEX WINNER!
Axes: CHOP CHOP
Greataxes: Chop, Crash!
Hammers: *Mace Fan* Yayyy I got a mace for christmas! Yay! *Other hammer users* Bonk
Great Hammers: ITS BONC TIME!!
Spears: Poke poke, broke your poise!
Bows: *Sniping from somewhere*
Crossbows: Ahh, reloading!! Wait, this is Dark Souls...
Staffs/Catalysts: My superior intellect outranges you!
Talismans: Dear god, please heal me.
Pyromancers: FIRE STORM!
Whips: *silence*
Greatbows: Crash, beeendd... PEW!
Halberds: Slash slash, poke, squish!
Fists: I AM MANY PUNCH MAN!!!
All sterotypes of Dark Souls players, in a nutshell.
- Anonymous
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hello, SL1 noob here. what weapons are normally used for SL1 runs in DSR? i was thinking possibly a lightning or chaos claymore since i think you can 2 hand it at 10 str but i'm not sure.
- Anonymous
HOHOHO ITS'A ME SANTA CLAUSE!!!!!!!!!
AND I WANTED TO REMIND YOU TO USE THE MACE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
THE MACE IS THE BEST WEAPON IN AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALL OF GAMING HISTORY AND IF YOU USE ANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNYYYYYYYY OTHER WEAPON YOU ARE A NAUGHTY CASUL AND WON'T GET ANY PRESENTS TO CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
HOHOHO MARRY CHRISTMAS
FROM SANTA CLAUSREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
- Anonymous
I want a "jack of all trades" kind of weapon that isn't great at one thing. but isn't countered from another thing...
Does anyone have any suggestions?
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They need 2 add a catalyst that casts everything!!! It should also do nine quadrillion damage with S scaling in everything, that swing at the speed of light and have an attack range of nine quadrillion lightyears!!!
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what does "special" mean in their description? does it mean they can only be farmed? does it mean they cant be infused?
- Anonymous
My favourite weapon is Yhorm's Great Machete from ds3, any similar recommendations for ds1?
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best wepon is the zeiwihander cus of its ability to do such high dmg with the hornet ring but only for pvp
best wepon u would like to use is the claymore it is a great sword and can easily be used by any starting players not only does it take less time to hit an npc but it does high dmg when upgrraded to max
- Anonymous
Actually, if you beat six NGs including Artorias of the Abyss without using any other weapon than the Straight Sword Hilt, leveling up or getting hit even once and then cut off manus tail, you get the blade of dark soul, which isn't mentioned in the wiki.
It is a Straight Sword about the length of the Broadsword, but its actual hitbox is far shorter than its model. Its stats at +5 are: 5 physical damage, 1 Critical, 1 Stability, 1 durability, 99.0 weight and no scaling. Damage type is Slash. It isn't enchantable.
If you think, you are gud enough, try gitting it!!!
- Anonymous
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There is a great to everything=great bow, great whip, Great hammer, great fist, great catalyst, great flame, great halberd, great talisman, great spear. great axe, great piercing sword, great crossbow, great greatsword, great lord greatsword, great curved sword, GREATEST!
- Anonymous
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If u cut the tail of manus it will give u blade of dark soul and why its not in this wiki
- Anonymous
Are there any weapons that scale with faith, and dex besides the dragon slayer spear, doing a dex faith build, and i don't want to put much in str
- Anonymous
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"There is no best weapon in dark souls"
Black Knight Halberd. Ymfah's words echo: "imagine trusting fextralife lmao"
- Anonymous
Where is greatcrossbows. I want an avelyn that shoots dragonslayer arrows
- Anonymous
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I deadass thought the way to get the moonlight greatsword was through the moonlight butterflies soul or something, not a very inconspicuous tail on a dragon the size of a 2 story building
- Anonymous
Give me something fun to try. Something to stick out from all the dark bead mages and great club users.
- Anonymous
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I had no idea Priscilla had a tail. On my 12th playthrough and finnally got it. Also just got the moonlight sword nvr really cared before until I found out I had it in my bloodborne gameplay.
- Anonymous
Making faith build, any weapons that scale with faith without use of infusions
- Anonymous
How many weapons is too many? I’ve got a dex/int build on the go just got to Anor Londo for the first time with: magic scimitar+5, Fire Uchigatana +5, raw mace +5, lightning spear +3, great scythe +7, scythe +3, spear +10 to convert to butterfly horn, pyro flame +10, magic longbow +5, spider shield +5, sorcerer catalyst with 32 int. Toying with the idea of ascending a long sword or Baldur sword with lightning too... It really planning on putting much more into str - at 16 for the time being.
- Anonymous
For strength build, demon greataxe gave S scaling in strength at +15
- Anonymous
Why does my Black Knight Halberd+5 do consistently more damage than my Murakumo+15 even though the charakter menu says 515 DMG for the Halberd and 568 DMG for the Murakumo?
- Anonymous
Am trying to make a penetrator cosplay (Demon's Souls) but i don't know what weapon to choose does anybody have any suggestions
- Anonymous
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Weapons, just realized what they were after beating game 10 times
- Anonymous
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Im just wondering what is the strangest weapon for max sl i understand the painting guardian sword is really good for this but i just need some help for others
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
Yeah, DkS1(R) can be alittle misleading when it comes to weapons but a general rule of thumb is; If it has decent Scaling and can be brought to +15 it will out damage nearly any weapon (in it's class) that can't be Buffed/Reinforced past +5. Most of all past NG+ when Caster/Melee builds run together. With just a few exceptions that Scale from 3 or more Stats. Like Greatsword of Artorias (Regular) that Scales effrctively with 4 stats and a Divine Modifier. This rule doesn't apply to Armor however as Black Iron Set +5 has the 2nd highest Physical resist and 1st Fire resist. Giants Set has the highest Physical resist at Max. Not Havels. Just a heads up, Drake Sword is useful for the first 4th-3rd of the game no matter your build. Easy to get, flat 200 damage.
- Anonymous
As a Souls Veteran I can confirm it is a good idea to use weapons. Very underappreciated mechanic.
- Anonymous
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If you downgrade a weapon does the level matchmaking drop as well?
- Anonymous
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DO weapons have special moves in remastered like in dark souls 3 ?if so how do i use them
- Anonymous
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Why Does everyone keep saying you need to play through the game multiple times in order to get specific achievements? Can't you just turn off auto save as well as cloud upload and load your last save manually, then repeat this step as many times necessary for those multiple choice achievements?
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
Hey you guys, I just strated to play the series (yes I have all three parts, but started with the Rematered of the 1 one^^). I fall in love with it. But I need a little help to decide what to do. I skilled STR: 50; Condition: 70; Life: 26; Will: 25 -> the Rest is unskilled so far. Well. I´m wearing the Gioant Armor +5 and using the dragon bow for distance and the dragon greatsword +4 (525dmg, don´t quote me) for meele. Well, since this weapons don´t level up with the attributes level, which weapons do you guys recommend for the highest physical damage (slow attacks, fast attacks)? Thanks a lot.
- Anonymous
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How do I level up for a thief build and what weapons are good for this?
- Anonymous
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Zweihander & Claymore >>>>>>>>>> the rest
- Anonymous
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id say the best ultra greatsword is the dragon greatsword also i think it is the best weapon enyone know which one actuly is better?
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
dark soul 1 truly has the best weapon in the series id say. plus you can have a lot of variety when doing pvp.
- Anonymous
Don't know how/if I can edit, but a link to the "Spears" section is missing in the "Weapon Categories" section.
- Anonymous
why doesn't the creators of this website put in mag adjust as one of the stats for catalysts?
- Anonymous
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I am totally new to Dark Souls, DS3 is the first I have ever played but for some reason, I got Astora's Straight Sword from somewhere else, I don't remember where but it was shortly after I got my first Broadsword on the wall before the second main boss on the wall.
- Anonymous
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Not enough good options to make variable builds
4
+13
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