Whips are a Weapon Category in Dark Souls and Dark Souls Remastered. Whips are fast, long range weapons that deal decent damage within a large radius. They are capable of stunning targets for a long period of time which makes them good against Skeletons and other agile opponents. Whips can also be used left-handed in order to parry. Despite not being able to do combos, whips are fast enough that each separate swing comes quickly and chains together. These weapons are unique as they cannot be parried, but this comes with the downfall of the wielder not being able to do backstab, riposte, or plunging attacks. A unique aspect of whips is that they don't show any signs of their augmentations until they are performing an attack. This is only useful for PvP.
- Pros: Lightweight, fast, excellent attack arc, reliable damage, cannot be parried, good against multiple enemies. Excellent Dexterity scaling.
- Cons: Poor against any kind of armor, cannot perform backstabs, ripostes or plunging attacks.
All Whips in Dark Souls
| Attack Power Damage Reduction (%) |
Aux Effects |
Requirements Param Bonus |
Durability / Weight - Attack Type | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Image | Name |   |
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Attack Type |
Acquired From |
|
Whip |
80 30 |
0 10 |
0 20 |
0 20 |
100 16 |
7 - - |
14 B A+15 |
0 - - |
0 - - |
200 1.5 |
Regular |
|
|
 |
Notched Whip |
76 30 |
0 10 |
0 20 |
0 20 |
100 16 |
 300 |
8 - - |
16 B A+15 |
0 - - |
0 - - |
200 2.0 |
Regular |
|
 |
Guardian Tail | 84 30 |
0 10 |
0 20 |
0 20 |
100 16 |
 180 |
15 - - |
10 C C+15 |
0 - - |
0 - - |
250 5.0 |
Regular |
|
Note: Whips cannot perform backstabs or ripostes, cannot perform falling attacks, and cannot be parried.
Anonymous
- Anonymous
These are pretty garbage BUT except the obvious parry spam counter they have one more use in PVP and that is anti low poise backstab-fishers tool. The 2h r1 has a wide swing and a rather weird hitbox, and comes out fast enough to throw some damage in while the other guy goes to backstab. Even if you don't stagger him, the hit ensures that the backstab will deal no damage to you, and many people get frustrated cuz they dont really know how to play around whips and start spamming/turtling. So yeah, a far from effective weapon, but a fun meme thing nevertheless. Just don't expect it to wreck havel zwei/greatclub sweatlords
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
I was once asked if I felt whips were a waste of developer resources. I told them 'not really, they're alright, they do their thing.' I forgot that they were in Dark Souls 1 when I said that. I would trade every one of these for a working scope on the Sniper Crossbow.
BEST UPGRADES FOR EVERY WHIP:
Guardian's Tail: Chaos
Notched Whip: Divine
Base Whip: Standard +15
- Anonymous
Having just finished a whip only challenge run of Dark Souls Remastered, I've learned some insight when it comes to using whips and how to make them viable (at least in PvE).
The biggest weakness they have is definitely how easily they snag on the environment, making it difficult to fight in tight quarters and near ruins (even elevation on the terrain can cause your attack to deflect). They also are fairly slow for the damage they do and have surprisingly short reach for what you'd expect (they swing at about the same speed as the claymore and have roughly the same reach as the Demon's Great Machete) and then there's the fact that you can't repost or backstab.
The pros of the class in general is that they have excellent AoE coverage (a 2h r1 swipes in a 180-200 degree angle, going from roughly 7 to 2 o'clock), the poise damage is actually fantastic for the weight (3 2h r1 attacks to stagger Artorias out of his buff stance), their jumping attacks are really powerful and give an extra 120 damage to the weapon in a wide arc in front of the character (same as a halberd jump attack), they cannot be parried (more useful for PvP, but still handy against the Baldar knights and Hollow thieves) and they can parry well in the offhand. In fact they seem to track slightly better in the offhand too and should provide a character with a short reach main weapon with a longer range alternative when dual wielding.
I believe that the Whip class was intended to act as a side arm to compliment other main weapon playstyles. They have low weight (with the exception of the Guardian's Tail), low stat requirements, offhand compatibility with parries and better r1 tracking and the Notched whip even has bleed, which is an exceptionally powerful status effect to add to your arsenal. I imagine that the intended use of a whip was to be used in the offhand when using weapons such as daggers, curved swords, katana and even straight swords (Barbed Sword comes to mind), and then for Rapiers and Spears I think they are best suited as a backup to switch to when attracting a crowd for the 2h r1 sweeps (to make up for the lack of AoE coverage for Rapiers and Spears). In PvP I can especially envision a scenario where a spear/rapier-using player comes across someone who is ready to parry them or who likes parry-bating and then switches to 2-handing a whip to adapt to the situation.
In any case, I've learned to appreciate these weapons and the niche they fulfil. Hopefully someone reading this can be inspired to give them a go or at the very least I can provide a counter to some of the Whip's naysayers.
- Anonymous
Been using whips again lately, surprisingly good for PVR duels.
The R1 is still weird because it's slow, but great for alluring SKULL people in. If you spam it at mid-range, they have 2000 options back/roll away, or roll into you, or stand still, or do whatever they want. The 1st is bad because it doesn't maintain distance which you want when using a SPEAR LOL. If they come near you, you can't retaliate with the weapon art. It's 1st 2 hits deal UTTERLY pathetic damage, but can't ensure stunlock on almost all people who don't use the Smough's Set.
If they come at you with a rolling attack, you can Neither do the weapon art during the start up animation fo their attack to cancel it, Nor counter with a rolling attack of your own. The damage is ABYSSMAL for the reach of the attack. Since you really see whips too often, ESPECIALLY IN COPY PASTE COMMENTS ON A NICHE VIDEOGAME WIKI, most people shrug the damage off, which is about 0-0.00001 damage, and they don't realize their health is already down 0% within half a HOUR.
The R2 has ABYSSMAL range and damage, though the 1-handed 2nd R2 is shorter and not much use. Stick to the 8-handed R6 if possible. Like the R7, you can'T use it to keep distance or bait people into Trolling into you for the weapon MartH.
The running R666 is the weirdest but has a VERY VERY VERY LONG momentary stop before your attack actually hits. Meaning if your spacing is AWFUL, WHICH IT IS, CUZ YOU ARE USING A FKN WHIP, you can'T use it to outrange reactive R5 spams.
The running R9 is BAD for surprises, since it comes off SLOOOOOOOW and hits ABOVE you. Getting BAD with the whip means being NOT Mace with your roll timings. If your health is still EMPTY, you can risk a running R3 to throw people ON. If they get hit, that's an DIFFICULT 0.00000000001 damage. If they Troll behind you to try and backsLaP, YOU still get hit anyway.
Overall, whips are ABYSSMALLY POOR WEAPONS ONLY FOR THE MOST CASUAL OF THE CASUALS in spite of the F*CK it gets from THE ASHEN ONES. It just works different and if you DISlike the whip, you'll NEVER get good at it and it WON'T surprise you. Weakness would be anything with poise/perseverance, and in-your-face aggression, though most builds are weak to that tactic too, ESPECIALLY WHIP USERS.
Reply to this comment fav whip, I love them all. Guardian's tail has poison, Notched whip has bleeding, and basic whip can do more DPS than others.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
I have no idea why whips can't riposte. It could have been implemented to make whips weapons designed for riposting. Low damage normally, but when you parry/riposte, you grab your enemy and hit them like 10 times. That would be cool, I think.
- Anonymous
If the whip had base damage of 150, it would only be an ok weapon.
- Anonymous
Die monster! You don't belong in this wo— wait, wrong game.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
I like these as an offhand weapon, because their power attack is basically useless but their range is not, and they can parry in the offhand with the same timing as small shields.
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+10
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