As an avid Dark Souls 3 player with over 500 hours logged, I‘ve tried my fair share of faith builds and weapons. In this comprehensive guide, I‘ll be counting down my picks for the 10 best faith weapons in DS3, along with detailed stats, locations, and tips for using each one effectively.
What Makes a Good Faith Weapon?
But first, what exactly constitutes a "good" faith weapon in Dark Souls 3? There are a few key factors I considered when making this list:
- Scales Well with Faith: The higher the faith scaling, the more bonus lightning/magic/fire damage the weapon will gain from leveling up faith. This is crucial.
- Auxiliary Effects: Fire, lightning, magic, and dark damage all complement faith builds. Bleed and frost can also work nicely.
- Unique Skills: Many faith weapons have special weapon arts that give them unique flair and additional damage types.
- Balanced Stats: While some pure faith weapons exist, I favored versatile options that don‘t completely neglect strength/dexterity.
With these criteria in mind, let‘s kick things off with number 10!
10. Dragonhead Shield
While definitely an unconventional choice, the Dragonhead Shield offers some surprisingly effective faith-based offensive options in addition to its sturdy guard.
Stats
- Physical Attack: 116
- Magic Attack: 60
- Fire Attack: 350 (!)
- Lightning Attack: 0
- Critical Attack: 100
- Guard Absorption: 70/65/90/35 (-/-/-/-)
Special Skill: Dragon Breath – spews fire that can hit multiple enemies at once.
The Dragonhead Shield is found in The Ringed City DLC, in the swamp area with the Ringed Knight. It requires 16 strength and 12 dexterity to wield one-handed.
While its physical attack and guard absorption are just decent, the Dragon Breath skill more than makes up for it in PvE. Capable of demolishing groups of enemies, it gives you an edge against large mobs and distances you from the fray. The hefty fire bonus and high critical damage mean this shield can hold its own for attacking too.
9. Yorshka‘s Chime
Despite being designed as a catalyst rather than melee weapon, Yorshka‘s Chime deserves a spot on this list for one reason: its S-tier, S-scaling with faith when fully upgraded.
Stats
- Physical Attack: 54
- Magic Attack: 20
- Fire Attack: 0
- Lightning Attack: 0
- Holy Attack: 100
- Critical Attack: 100
Special Skill: Gentle Prayer – gradually restores HP for a brief period.
You can obtain Yorshka‘s Chime from Company Captain Yorshka‘s corpse in Anor Londo. With its phenomenal spell buff and low weight, this chime is the ultimate faith catalyst for PvE and PvP alike. It provides near-unmatched damage for all your offensive miracles and only requires 14 faith to use initially.
8. Dragonslayer Swordspear
Once wielded by the legendary Nameless King, the Dragonslayer Swordspear perfectly balances the mobility and range of a spear with formidable lightning damage.
Stats
- Physical Attack: 128
- Lightning Attack: 100
- Critical Attack: 100
Special Skill: Fallings Bolt – calls down mighty lightning spears from the sky.
With 16/22/18 stat requirements, you‘ll need to invest a bit to wield this weapon effectively. However, it scales nicely with dexterity and faith while the Falling Bolt skill absolutely wrecks distant enemies. Against large slow targets or while fighting mounted, the Swordspear is incredibly strong. You can obtain it by transposing the Soul of the Nameless King.
7. Rose of Ariandel
Don‘t let its unassuming size fool you – the Rose of Ariandel hits far above its weight class, capable of decimating enemies with its faith-based frost damage.
Stats
- Physical Attack: 85
- Magic Attack: 0
- Fire Attack: 0
- Lightning Attack: 0
- Frost Attack: 110 (!)
- Critical Attack: 100
Special Skill: Rose Burst – emits a short-range frost explosion around the player.
Weighing just 1 unit and requiring only 10 strength and 18 faith, the Rose of Ariandel is easy to equip early on. It unleashes a devastating frosty flurry of blows that accumulates ice on foes rapidly. Combined with its burst skill for high frost buildup in groups, this holy whip wrecks shop. You can pick it up early too, found at the Cleansing Chapel bonfire in Cathedral of the Deep.
6. Crucifix of the Mad King
This grotesque halberd may look unwieldy, but in the right hands, the Crucifix of the Mad King brings savage pain in PvP and PvE alike courtesy of its dark buff.
Stats
- Physical Attack: 124
- Dark Attack: 100
- Critical Attack: 110
Special Skill: Mad King‘s Folly – random chance to trigger an AoE explosion, HP regen aura, or raining dark orbs.
Obtained by transposing the soul of the covenant leader Shira, this sinister crucifix halberd has modest dex/strength requirements but gets S-rank scaling with faith. Its charged strong attack – Lifedrain Patch – is particularly nasty, creating a small area that steals HP from foes and heals the wielder. Mad King‘s Folly can decimate groups or finish bosses.
5. Sunlight Straight Sword
It may be an unassuming longsword at first glance, but the Sunlight Straight Sword hides great power – especially for early-game faith builds.
Stats
- Physical Attack: 100
- Magic Attack: 0
- Fire Attack: 0
- Lightning Attack: 0
- Holy Attack: 140 (!)
- Critical Attack: 100
Special Skill: Oath of Sunlight – boosts strength, dexterity, and faith by 15% for 60 seconds.
With one of the lowest attribute requirements in the game at 11/12/-/-, anyone can equip this holy longsword. It scales very well all the way to +10 too. The excellent faith scaling and high magic adjustment make it a top-notch choice for buffing with spells or lightning/darkmoon blades. It‘s found early as well, making it a popular starting faith weapon.
4. Lothric‘s Holy Sword
Forged from the soul of the younger Prince Lothric, Lothric‘s Holy Sword hits like a freight train with its potent lightning damage and skill.
Stats
- Physical Attack: 104
- Lightning Attack: 142 (!)
- Critical Attack: 100
Special Skill: Sacred Light – fires a sweeping beam of lightning that functions like an ultra greatsword.
While its physical damage and dex scaling are only moderate, the faith scaling bumps up sharply to B at +4 and again to A at +5, meaning huge bonuses to lightning damage. Combined with the Sacred Light beam, Lothric‘s Holy Sword crushes enemies weak to lightning – especially large bosses. Obtained by transposing Lorian‘s soul, it needs 16/12/18 faith attributes to wield.
3. Morion Blade
At first glance, this unassuming dagger doesn‘t seem too special for a faith weapon. However, its skill and passive effects take it over the top, making the Morion Blade absolutely deadly in the right situations.
Stats
- Physical Attack: 140
- Magic Attack: 0
- Fire Attack: 0
- Lightning Attack: 0
- Critical Attack: 130 (!)
Special Skill: Morion Blade – boosts attack power by 30% when HP is critical (<20%).
Found on a corpse in the Untended Graves, the Morion Blade only needs 14 dexterity to wield. It shares the passive effect of the Red Tearstone Ring, stacking for even greater damage output at low health. This transforms glass cannon builds into absolutely monstrous killing machines in PvP and boss fights. Landing a single critical attack with it active can instantly flatten enemies.
2. Onyx Blade
Raising this ominous greatsword ignites its charred, black blade with dark fire – boosting its already impressive damage to ferocious levels.
Stats
- Physical Attack: 80
- Fire Attack: 115
- Dark Attack: 100
- Critical Attack: 100
Special Skill: Elfriede‘s Blackflame – wreaths the blade in black flame, adding fire/dark damage. Lasts 60 seconds.
By meeting its admittedly steep attribute requirements of 14/12/15/15, you can unleash this weapon‘s true potential. It scales nicely with both intelligence and faith, hits with a versatile moveset, and the buffed form just wrecks foes. Particularly devastating against enemies weak to fire or dark damage. Found by transposing the soul of Sister Friede.
1. Dragonslayer‘s Axe
And for my #1 pick of best faith weapons in Dark Souls 3…the Dragonslayer‘s Axe edges out the win. Found in Lothric Castle and transposed from Dragonslayer Armour‘s soul, this war axe simply brings the pain.
Stats
- Physical Attack: 200
- Lightning Attack: 74
- Critical Attack: 100
Special Skill: Falling Bolt – calls down mighty lightning spears from the sky.
Let‘s recap why this humble axe dominates:
- Hits like an absolute truck with S-rank strength scaling
- Also scales very well with faith
- Crazy powerful lightning damage and skills
- Greataxe moveset lets it smash foes
No nonsense. No fancy tricks. Just a big axe thats crushes enemies with raw lightning power!
Honorable Mentions
While they didn‘t quite crack the top 10, here are two more excellent faith weapons worth mentioning:
Blade of the Darkmoon: Found in Anor Londo, this side sword offers versatile base damage plus solid D/D faith/intelligence scaling and dark damage on its heavy attack.
Wolnir‘s Holy Sword: Transposed from High Lord Wolnir‘s soul, this colossal sword requires huge strength investment but gives you excellent strength/faith scaling and holy damage in return.
And that wraps up my picks for the top 10 best Dark Souls 3 faith weapons plus a couple extra worthwhile ones! I hope this guide gave you some fresh ideas on unique holy weapons to try on your next paladin or cleric build. Let me know your favorites in the comments!
