Best Weapons Dark Souls 3 (Early & Late Game)

Is that ol’ Nameless King still giving you trouble?

Well then, slugger, what you need is a little something special to beef up your Chosen Undead and we’ve got the best weapons in Dark Souls 3 right here to gift you that protein.

These weapons are not just for PvP veterans either. For that, you will likely prefer an odd and elegant weapon like the Pontiff Knight Curved Sword. However, for those of you who are struggling with PvE, keep on reading to unlock your missing arsenal.

Let’s get started! 👇

Top 10 Best Weapons Dark Souls 3:

If you are finding that Dark Souls 3 has been progressively becoming a little too challenging, chances are, you are not wielding the right weapons. With an astounding number of weapons to collect in the Kingdom of Lothric, we have whittled our shortlist down to just 10 of the best weapons that are worthy of your collection.

Greatswords, Greataxes, Swordspears and Twin Blades. It’s all here. Just don’t come looking for no bows as we’re all about getting up close and personal. If you do want bows, however, you would be best to go on over to Snowfield and collect one of their Millwood Greatbows.

The best weapons in Dark Souls 3 are:

Gael’s Greatsword – Best Overall
Lothric Knight Greatsword – Best For Most Builds
Farron Greatsword – Best For Dex Builds
Sellsword Twinblades – Best For Early Game
Dragonslayer Swordspear – Best For Pairing
Black Knight Greataxe – Best Axe Weapon
Dark Sword – Best Straight Sword
The Dragonslayer Spear – Best Spear Weapon
Claymore – Most Popular Greatsword
Black Knight Sword – Best Weapon For Demons

Scroll down to find out more about each of our recommended bleed weapons! 👇

Gael’s Greatsword

Best Dark Souls 3 Weapon Overall

Type: Physical » Skill: Blade of Peril

Unlock Location: Soul Transposition from the Soul of Slave Knight Gael for 20,000 souls.

The Gael’s Greatsword, despite being an ugly hunk of shattered steel, is surprisingly the most powerful weapon in the game. It’s not much to look at, but if you have earned this twisted trophy, you have already mastered The Ringed City and conquered one of its most devilish bosses, the Slave Knight Gael.

With the Gael’s Greatsword now in hand, it’s time for your victory lap. Cut down and cripple any creature that has given you trouble in the past, and enjoy the speed and damage of each swing. Its unique skill pulls off a stylish slashing combo too.

Regardless of whether you like the Gael’s Greatsword or not, this weapon is a true collector’s item that simply states that you have bested one of the most difficult video games on the planet. Congratulations.

Lothric Knight Greatsword

Best Ds3 Weapon For Most Builds

Type: Physical » Skill: Stomp

Unlock Location: Dropped by Lothric Knights

If the Claymore is touted as the Ol’ Reliable, the Lothric Knight Greatsword is New Reliable. Use your trusty Claymore to crack the necks of some Lothric Knights to claim your upgrade.

The Lothric Knight Greatsword beautifully pairs with any Dark Souls 3 build. There is S-tier scaling with lightning damage and its skill means that you get to hit your enemies for massive damage with heavy armour. Few enemies can defend themselves against the Lothric Knight Greatsword and you should definitely add this gift to your Christmas list.

Easily, the Lothric Knight Greatsword is the perfect companion for most builds in Dark Souls 3. Just don’t forget about its 24 Strength requirement.

Farron Greatsword

Best Dark Souls 3 Dexterity Sword

Type: Physical » Skill: Parry

Unlock Location: Created with Soul of the Blood of the Wolf

The Farron Greatsword generously comes with a free dagger. When two-handing it, you’ll use that little dagger as an anchor while you swing the greatsword around like a top.

Watching this slick spinning and slicing is reason enough to kill the Abyss Watchers. But it’s true that you’ll need some skills to excel with it when equipped. The Farron Greatsword is a perfect match for Dexterity builds– one of the very few– and its skill is Parry.

If that’s not your bag then you will hit a wall eventually. But until then, you are able to enjoy spinning around on the ground, cutting off ankles and severing achilles tendons.

Sellsword Twinblades

Best Early Game Weapon Dark Souls 3

Type: Physical » Skill: Spin Slash

Unlock Location: Found behind the Black Knight in the swamp area in the Road of Sacrifices, and the Mercenary’s initial weapon.

You wouldn’t think that a starting weapon would be good enough to use throughout the game, and they usually aren’t. However, the Mercenary’s Sellsword Twinblades are an exception to this rule being both the best early-game weapon you can find in Dark Souls 3.

A fan favourite of DS3 speedrunners, the Sellsword Twinblades deal high damage quickly and their value balloons with buffs like the Dark or Sharp gems. Dexterity builds live by them, and their unparryable skill and deadly combo mean that invaders die by them.

But with all that said, their range reaches about as far as your pinky finger, so you will miss often if you’re not close enough to kiss those flea-bitten foes.

Dragonslayer Swordspear

Best For Pairing With Longswords

Type: Physical » Skill: Falling Bolt

Unlock Location: Soul Transposition of the Soul of the Nameless King.

The Dragonslayer Swordspear will only become available to you once you have slayed the Nameless King. But, that is a battle that is well worth the wait. Save for the Dark Souls 3 DLC bosses, this feathery freak and his bird-brained buddy make up the hardest fight of the game.

Fire and lightning rain down, and his attacks can’t be parried. But should you surpass all that, you’ll have the power to smite your enemies with brilliant lightning, and to rain down high-powered heavy attacks.

The Dragonslayer Swordspear is very satisfying to use. There’s a long reach and it pairs well with a longsword due to its slower swings.

Black Knight Greataxe

Best Axe In Dark Souls 3

Type: Physical » Skill: War cry

Unlock Location: Dropped by the Black Knights in Smouldering Lake, the Untended Graves, and near Champion Gundyr.

Want a unique great axe with special moves, high critical damage, and an unreasonable stamina cost? An axe that does bonus damage to demons? Well, spend some time breaking down those Black Knights into dust and maybe you’ll find one.

The Black Knight Greataxe is a stylish chunk of metal whose great, big swings chop off heads like a dream come true. And its skill, Warcry, only makes that easier with its kind boost to your attack. There’s good manoeuvrability and it doesn’t take up the whole screen either.

This solid, reliable axe’s biggest downside is only that it has a greedy requirement of 36 Strength. But, we know you’re going to be spending thousands of hours playing Dark Souls 3 so you will get there pretty quickly!

Dark Sword

Best Straight Sword In Dark Souls 3

Type: Physical » Skill: Stomp

Unlock Location: Dropped by Darkwraiths

Darkwraiths are lowly creatures, pledged to an unholy covenant, and their Dark Sword drop rate is equally low and unholy. But with it in hand, you can swing around the game’s best straight sword. With quick attacks, good range, a skill that mitigates damage, and generous scaling, the Dark Sword packs a heavy slap every time you connect with your opponents.

Upon the first release of Dark Souls 3, the Dark Sword was a menace among the PvP community and was heavily touted as being overpowered. However, an update in late 2016 nerfed the Dark Sword; leaving it perilous to a beating during PvP action.

Now, it’s simply a shooting pain in your side and a dimming of the lights but still worthy of some PvE action. But, there is one sad note. Infusing the Dark Sword with a dark gem will not get you a Dark Dark sword anymore, but only a Reinforced Dark sword.

Stay away from those infusions!

Dragonslayer Spear

Best Spear In Dark Souls 3

Type: Physical/Lightning » Skill: Lightning Charge

Unlock Location: Near the Dragon-Kin Mausoleum in Archdragon Peak.

If you would rather not smell your enemy’s breath during close-quarters fights, a spear will keep the air– and your soft organs– healthy and happy. Of which, the Dragonslayer Spear is the best spear you can find in Dark Souls 3. Not to be confused with the Dragonslayer Sword, the Dragonslayer Spear becomes available at roughly the same time.

Now, you need not kill the Nameless King for it, just grab the spear from the other side of the fence. You know, the great dragon slayer Ornstein once wielded this mighty lance and imbued it with lightning magic. So, instead of having the skill Charge, it has Lightning Charge to dually impale and singe your foes.

And with high dexterity, these skewerings are such a cinch!

Claymore

Most Popular Greatsword In Dark Souls 3

Type: Physical » Skill: Stance

Unlock Location: The plateau of the fire-breathing Dragon in High Wall of Lothric, and dropped by Irithyllian Slaves.

This old favourite has made an appearance in all the Dark Souls games, so the Claymore is truly Ol’ Reliable. Solid, strong, easily acquired, and without major stat requirements. It’s a pleasurable weapon to have in your back pocket.

Similarly, its skill, Stance, is versatile and valuable; allowing for a guard-breaking slash or a powerful upward stab. Apart from that, it’s a pretty standard greatsword, but when you see it kill, you can’t help but think “What a sword, that Claymore!”.

As the most popular greatsword in Dark Souls 3, adding the Claymore to your collection won’t exactly give you any clout amongst the DS3 community, but it certainly won’t hurt either.

Black Knight Sword

Best Weapon For Demons

Type: Physical » Skill: Perseverance

Unlock Location: On a corpse at Smouldering Lake.

Lastly, You’ll find the Black Knight Sword before you meet a raggedy boss named the Old Demon King. More than any other time, this is the sword’s time to shine.

It deals 20% more damage to this bag of bones (and any other demons too), making it easy to put the old fellow to rest.

But aside from its demon-slaying dexterity, the sword also features excellent skill. Perseverance adds a short, but stout, boost to your damage absorption, thickening your armour by just under half for just under five seconds. It’s a defensive boost so strong that weaker weapons will bounce harmlessly off your hide.

So if you’re into demon hunting with some pizzazz, go for the Black Knight Sword

The Final Word

So there you have it, our curated list of the best Dark Souls 3 weapons that will make the game relatively easy to complete. Well, that also depends on how good you are at slashing a sword but we’re sure you will get there in the end.

While some DS3 weapons were completely over powered at the very start of the game back in 2016, recent patches and balancing have resulted in a much more balanced playing field. Of course, there are still some weapons that are better than others, however, any weapon on this list will feel supercharged when paired with the right scaling attributes.

Just remember, the power of the weapon ultimately is found in the hands of the beholder. So, be sure to practice your fighting and scale your weapons with the right attributes. After all, nobody likes a jack of all trades and Dark Souls 3 definitely doesn’t like weapons that are trying to be a little bit of each attribute!

Did we miss any good weapons in Dark Souls 3?

Drop us a comment below with any of your other favourite weapons in DS3 and we’ll be sure to check them out. In the meantime, take a look through some of our souls like game roundups and tutorials:

Content Disclaimer: This roundup article of the best weapons in Dark Souls 3 for both early and late-game players has been independently written. GamePro has not been commissioned by FromSoftware, nor have we received any royalties for this article. This includes financial reimbursement, free advertising or gifts.

Should you click on any link to Amazon and make a purchase, we may receive a small commission. But that’s just how we keep this website alive! Feel free to hit us up in the comments with any questions you have about our reviews or the Dark Souls series and we’ll be sure to get back to you as soon as possible.

Frequently Asked Questions

Questions about Bleed builds and weapons in Elden Ring? No sweat! Here are the most commonly asked questions we receive about bleep weapons and builds from the Lands Between.

How many weapons are in Dark Souls 3?

Dark Souls 3 is like a treasure trove of weapons with a total of 187 unique weapons in the base game alone. There are swords, axes, spears, hammers and even bows. All of these can be paired and scaled to create builds such as magic builds, dexterity builds or strength builds. Plus, when you have exhausted your time with the weapons in the base game, there is the DLC expansions to explore which add even more weapons to collect.

How does weapon scaling work in Dark Souls 3?

Weapon scaling in Dark Souls 3 is all about how much your weapon’s damage improves based on your attributes like Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, and Faith. There are assigned letter grades to make weapons that have been scaled easy to identify. The scaling ranges from “E” (weakest) to “S” (strongest). So, here’s the deal, if a weapon scales well with a specific attribute, all you have to do is level up that attribute, and boom, your weapon’s damage gets a nice boost.

For example, let’s say you got a weapon with “B” scaling in Strength. Pump up your Strength stat, and watch that weapon unleash some serious pain. But hey, not all weapons scale with every attribute, so be sure to choose weapons that match the type of build you are trying to create.

How to 2 hand weapons in Dark Souls 3?

To 2 hand weapons in Dark Souls 3, once a weapon has been equipped to your left hand, you can press [Y] for Xbox, [△] for PlayStation and [F] for PC to two hand this weapon. Please note that the weapon in your left hand will be the weapon that will be two-handed. So, if you want to two-hand your right handed weapon, you will need to switch this over to your left hand.

And remember, some of the beefier weapons require both hands to wield properly.

How to equip weapons in Dark Souls 3?

The equip your weapons in Dark Souls 3, open your inventory by pressing the designated button on your keyboard or controller. For PC, the inventory is opened by pressing the letter [E]. Then, scroll to the section that says “Equipment” and pick an empty slot. Once you have an empty slot selected, select the weapon that you want to equip and then back out of the inventory menu.

Now, the weapon will be equipped and ready to unleash some havoc. Oh, and here’s a neat trick, you actually have separate slots for each hand, so you can dual-wield or wield different weapons at the same time.

How to upgrade weapons in Dark Souls 3?

To upgrade your weapons in Dark Souls 3, first, you will need to pay a visit to the talented blacksmith named Andre. You can find him chilling in the Firelink Shrine. Just strike up a conversation and choose the option that says “Reinforce Weapon” to get started. Now, hold on tight because you’ll need two important things for upgrading: souls and titanite shards. Souls are like the currency you get for defeating enemies, and titanite shards can be discovered as loot or purchased from special merchants. Once you’ve gathered those goodies, select the weapon you want to upgrade, and start that conversation with Andre!

Pro Tip: Keep a close eye out for rare titanite that allows for even more upgrades and infusions as you progress in the later stages of the game.