The 14 Best Weapons in Dark Souls: Remastered

#14 The Halberd

Let’s start off with a really simple one that you can get early on in the game. The Halberd carried me through much of the early game in my first play-through of Dark Souls. It’s a simple, quality tool that has good range for a melee weapon as well as decent damage.

My favorite thing about this is the move set. When two handing this weapon, most of your swings will be directly in front of you. This is great as most areas in Dark Souls are claustrophobic, and you are much less likely to hit the wall when swinging for an enemy.

You can acquire this weapon very early on in the game. It is found in the Undead Parish, very close to the Undead Church. Because this weapon is so easy to get early on, it’s generally a great weapon to grab regardless of what build you are going for.

#13 Shotel

Shotel is a fancy-looking curved sword with one of the lowest stat requirements out of any other weapon on this list. It requires only 14 dexterity and 9 strength, making it a good weapon for most builds. It does a good amount of damage, and has a pretty solid swing rate, giving it a good DPS rate overall.

The weapon can be obtained most easily by going to Sen’s Fortress. Once you ring both the bell towers, the gate in the area Undead Parish will open up. This will reveal Sen’s Fortress. Go inside and make your way up the fortress until you find a rolling ball traveling down a path and over a ledge. Head upwards to the top where the ball drops down from and then look to the right. There is a ledge you can drop down to where you can find Shotel sitting on the ground.

#12 Abyss Greatsword

The Abyss Greatsword is a unique greatsword that features a special property. The higher your character’s humanity is, the more damage it will do! This is capped off at 10, however. Even so, this is a really nice feature to have, and it makes an already good weapon even better. This sword is a bit lower on the list mainly due to the fact it requires 18 levels of intelligence and faith in addition to its expected requirements for strength and dexterity, which makes it a bit more annoying to use.

Getting a hold of this weapon is fairly straight forward, albeit grindy. You will first need to obtain either a straight sword, a regular greatsword, or a dagger. Once you have one of these three weapons, you will need to upgrade them to their max levels. Then, you will need to find and kill the boss Artorias the Abysswalker. Once you’ve killed him, take his soul and your weapon of choice to the blacksmith in Andor Londo to forge the Abyss Greatsword.

#11 Silver Knight Straight Sword

The Silver Knight Straight Sword is a weapon that primarily scales with your dexterity but also incorporates strength. Its stat requirements are not really that high, requiring only 16 strength and 22 dexterity, meaning it should be usable by most builds. The weapon will deal high amounts of physical damage, making it a good tool for all types of encounters.

The only way to obtain this sword is by going to the location Anor Londo and then killing the Silver Knights that spawn there. Each one has a small chance of dropping this weapon. You will most likely need to grind/farm them if you want to get this weapon. But trust me, it is well worth the effort.

#10 Quelaag’s Furysword

Quelaag’s Furysword is a really strong (and bizarre-looking) curved sword that does lots of fire damage per hit. Interestingly, this weapon has a unique property that makes it special. It will do increased damage depending on the number of humanity your character has. It is capped out at 10, however, and does not increase indefinitely.

To acquire this weapon, first, you will need to defeat Chaos Witch Quelaag. She can be found in what looks like a giant insect mound. It is in a poison swamp near Blighttown. Once you defeat her, you will acquire an item called Quelaag’s Soul. The next thing you will need is a regular Curved Greatsword. Upgrade this thing to +10 and then imbue it with the soul you obtained by talking to the Anor Londo blacksmith.

#9 Balder Side Sword

Balder Side Swords are a weapon that’s really popular among the Dark Souls community, and not without good reason. They are fast and deal consistently great damage. This is mainly because they have an A scaling for the dexterity stat. So if you are doing a dexterity build, this is a weapon that I strongly urge you to try out if you are able to obtain one.

Speaking of which, you can obtain this weapon by farming the Balder Knights. These are an enemy type that you can find in the Undead Parish, one of the first dungeons in the game. Because of this, they are relatively easy to obtain early on in the game, despite their low drop rate. Just make sure you have a lot of patience when you are clearing out the Balder Knights!

#8 Great Club

The Great Club is a really funny-looking weapon. It is essentially the regular club that the Deprived class starts off with, but it has increased in size dramatically. It has also increased in damage dramatically as well, allowing you to dish out lots and lots of pain to enemies. This is a colossal weapon that only requires a measly 28 strength to weld, which is pretty low for this weapon class. It makes a great addition to any strength playthrough, and I recommend you grab it if it fits your build.

The weapon can only be obtained in the poison swamp near Blighttown. It is located close by to Quelaag’s Domain. This structure looks like a giant insect mound, and it is heavily guarded by big enemies that can throw rocks at you.

#7 Black Knight Greatsword

Next, we have the Black Knight Greatsword. This is a relatively slow-moving weapon that really packs a punch. It only does physical damage, making it versatile against many different enemy types.

To get a hold of this weapon, you will have to kill a Black Knight. Each time you kill one of them, they have a small chance of dropping this weapon. These enemies are fairly rare, and most of them will not re-spawn. Because of this, it may take some time before you are able to get a Black Knight Greatsword.

#6 Lifehunt Scythe

The Lifehunt Scythe is a very special variation of the scythe. It does lots of damage as you’d expect, but it also does a very high amount of bleed damage. Once the bleed meter is filled, it will deal much higher damage than most of the other bleed weapons that you find in the game. This is arguably the best bleed weapon in the entire game!

To acquire the Lifehunt Scythe, you will need to first get either a halberd, whip, or scythe. Once you have one of these weapons, upgrade it to max level. Then you will need to find the boss Crossbreed Priscilla. Kill her, and she will drop her soul. Once you have the Soul of Priscilla and one of the max-upgraded weapons mentioned earlier, you can forge the Lifehunt Scythe by going to Anor Londo and talking to the special blacksmith found there.

#5 Dragon King Greataxe

Next on this list of the Top 14 Best Weapons in Dark Souls, we have the Dragon King Greataxe. This is a really powerful, high-damage weapon that scales primarily with strength. It can do MASSIVE damage, especially if you have very high strength. It requires a minimum of 50 strength, so regardless, you are going to be dealing lots of physical damage with this weapon.

In order to get this weapon, you will need to find the boss Gaping Dragon. He is found in the Depths, which is a dark and maze-like sewer environment. Once you are fighting the boss, don’t kill him right away. Instead, get behind him and attack his tail. Keep damaging it, and eventually, it will fall off, giving you the weapon. You can then finish the fight like normal, killing the Gaping Dragon.

#4 Black Knight Halberd

The Black Knight Halberd is a special halberd that has all the benefits of the regular halberd and then some. It features great range, making it ideal for hitting enemies from a safer distance away. It features a really good move set too, making it fun and effective to use in almost any situation.

In order to obtain this weapon, you need to find and kill a Black Knight. These are rare, special enemy types that are scattered all about the world of Dark Souls. They are larger than the player character, with high health and a lot of damage output. Each time you kill one it has a small chance of dropping its weapon. Since these enemies do not re-spawn, there is no point in farming them. Just kill them whenever you see one and hope you get lucky.

#3 Moonlight Greatsword

The Moonlight Greatsword is one of the most iconic weapons in Dark Souls, having returned for each and every Dark Souls entry and even making a (slightly modified) appearance in Elden Ring as the Dark Moon Greatsword. This weapon does no physical damage, but a good amount of magic damage instead. While the damage isn’t as good compared to other weapons, it makes up for it with a special attack. You can use the Greatsword to fling blasts of magic energy to enemies, dealing ranged damage!

In order to get this weapon, you must first find the boss Seath the Scaleless. Once you find him, during his fight you will need to walk behind him and continually attack his tail. Doing this will eventually cause it to fall off. Once that happens, you will acquire the Moonlight Greatsword. You can then continue the fight like normal and kill him as you would any other boss.

#2 Claymore

The Claymore is a really beloved weapon in Dark Souls. It was so beloved it made a return in FromSoftware’s latest souls-like, Elden Ring. The Claymore has all the great traits of a melee weapon–‘s best trait is that it uses less stamina per swing. This means that you can use it more often before needing to rest. It also can be swung again sooner after you attack with it. Both of these traits make it a very effective DPS weapon that can make short work of most enemies in Dark Souls.

To obtain the Claymore, you will need to travel to a location called the Undead Burg. Once you get there, you will have to look for a bright red dragon that is guarding a long bridge. The Claymore is found on that bridge. Just make sure that when you are getting to it, you watch out for the dragon. It can breathe fire onto the bridge that deals lots of damage and can even knock you over.