Best Great Hammer in Elden Ring – Ranking All 14 Great Hammers
Apr. 30, 2024Best Great Hammer in Elden Ring – Ranking All 14 Great Hammers
In thisElden Ring Best Great Hammer and Ranking Guide, we’ll be taking a look at the 14 Great Hammers in Elden Ring, and discussing why you might use them in combat. We’ll take a look at attack power, damage type, length, Weapon Skills, and other factors such as how long it takes you to acquire them, to determine if they are best suited for you. We are doing a guide for all Weapon types in Elden Ring, and these will be updated to reflect those added withShadow of the Erdtreeas well.
Great Hammers in Elden Ring:
Great Hammers are one of the 31 Weapon types in Elden Ring, soon to be 39 whenShadow of the Erdtreereleases on June 21st. Great Hammers have very high Stance Damage, allowing them to Stance Break enemies and bosses rather easily. Most are not too difficult to acquire, and their two-handed moveset actually attacks quite rapidly, faster than you would think. Additionally, Strike Damage is useful against some difficult enemies in the game.
However, Great Hammers attack more slowly than many weapon types, very few have native status effects, and they are modestly heavy, making it harder to use them and medium roll earlier in the game.
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TheDevourer’s Sceptershares the default moveset of most Great Hammers, and deals Physical and Fire Damage. It is one of the heaviest Great Hammers in Elden Ring, weighing 11.5, and requires 24 Strength, 20 Dexterity and 25 Faith in order to wield effectively.
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Attack Rating at level 150 with optimal stat spread for highest Attack Power: 738
Conclusion: The Devourer’s Scepter might be the longest Great Hammer in Elden Ring, and you might be able to acquire it rather early on, but it is certainly not the best Great Hammer. Not only is it very heavy, and has the highest stat requirements of all Great Hammers, but its weapon skill costs a ton of FP and does very poor damage.
Devourer of Worldsdoes 100% Fire Damage in a mediumish AoE and heals you for 15% of your Max HP for each enemy hit, which sounds great right? Well, it does very poor damage, and I mean very poor. And, because it costs 35 FP you can’t use it very often. Even when optimized to get the most out of this Weapon Skill, buffed withFlame, Grant Me Strength,Golden Vow,Fire-Shrouding Cracked Tear,Shard of Alexander,Fire Scorpion CharmandRitual Sword TalismanI could not break 1k damage on any enemy hit. However, it’s not bad if you’re usingMimic Tearas it can keep it alive easily.
The sweet spot for his weapon is at 50 STR and 50 DEX, with minimum points in FTH which happens to be 25 allowing you to cast Flame, Grant Me Strength and Golden Vow. This makes this weapon more of a Quality Weapon than a STR/FTH weapon, like some of the previous Unique Great Hammers. And only FTH boosts the damage of Devourer of Worlds, making things worse.
I highly recommend using a Seal to buff with Flame, Grant Me Strength and Golden Vow, especially since this weapon does both Fire and Physical Damage, and leaning into two-handing the weapon with Jump Attacks and theClaw Talismanfor more damage. You could also use this weapon with a Greatshield that has an Ash of War you like, since Devourer of Worlds is pretty bad, maybe theJellyfish Shieldto further boost Attack Power.
TheCelebrant’s Skullshares the default moveset of most Great Hammers, and deals Physical Damage. It is the lightest Great Hammer in Elden Ring, weighing 8.5, and requires 18 Strength and 12 Dexterity in order to wield effectively.
PROS
CONS
Attack Rating at level 150 with optimal stat spread for highest Attack Power at each Infusion:
Conclusion: The Celebrant’s Skull might not seem like a good weapon. It has lower Attack Rating than many Great Hammers, it’s quite short for a Great Hammer and you cannot find it untilAltus Plateau. However, it is tied for the lightest Great Hammer, it grants 20 Runes per hit, and have extremely low requirements.
Barbaric Roaris not a bad weapon skill, but because this weapon is both short and deals less damage than most Great Hammers, I like to use something likeLion’s Clawto lean into the Stance Damage of the weapon.
Infusion-wise Fire/Lightning comes in first at 777, with Magic in second at 758 and Sacred/Flame Art in a close third at 750 Attack Rating. I like to use Fire to get the highest Attack Rating possible with this weapon and still maintain decent STR scaling.
I like to pair this weapon with aGreatshieldfor Block Counters, which is much easier to do because its so light compared to other Great Hammers. This allows you to Lion’s Claw and Block Counter to Stance Break bosses quickly, and plays somewhat similarly to my Tower Knight Build.
TheBattle Hammershares the default moveset of most Great Hammers, and deals Physical Damage. It has an average weight for a Great Hammer in Elden Ring, weighing 10, and requires 26 Strength and 8 Dexterity in order to wield effectively.
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CONS
Attack Rating at level 150 with optimal stat spread for highest Attack Power at each Infusion:
Conclusion: The Attack Rating of the Battle Hammer is unquestionably solid and it has fantastic Strength Scaling, however it’s probably unlikely you will use this weapon if you are a Great Hammer user. And that’s because it’s not only the shortest Hammer in Elden Ring, but also because the earliest you can get it is in theLeyndell Royal Capitalwhich is quite far into the game, and it can take some time to farm it. You will likely have a better Great Hammer that’s already upgraded by that point.
Braggart’s Roaris not a bad weapon skill and boosts Physical Damage by 10%, adds 10% Damage Negation to all types, and boosts Stamina Recovery by about 20%. It also changes your Charged Heavy Attack into a running powerful attack that is identical to War Cry. You can further boost the Charged Heavy Attack damage in the same ways the Brick Hammer can. However, you might want to swap it if you don’t like it.
Infusion-wise Magic and Fire/Lightning are virtually tied for highest Attack Rating with Sacred/Flame Art coming in second. Heavy is not bad, as I mentioned, and Cold is just behind Heavy as another viable option.
I recommend two-handing this weapon and using a weapon skill likeLion’s Clawif you insist on using this weapon.
TheLarge Clubshares the default moveset of most Great Hammers, and deals Physical Damage. It is the lightest Great Hammer in Elden Ring, weighing 8.5, and requires 22 points in Strength in order to wield effectively.
PROS
CONS
Attack Rating at level 150 with optimal stat spread for highest Attack Power at each Infusion:
Conclusion: The Large Club is good option for those wanting to use a Great Hammer right away since you can acquire it in the first 5 minutes of the game inLimgrave. It’s also the lightest Great Hammer in Elden Ring, making it easier to use early on, and it’s the 3rd longest Great Hammer. The downside is that its Attack Rating is rather low for a Great Hammer.
Barbaric Roaris not a terrible Ash of War, and changes the Charged Heavy Attack of the weapon into a combo that can be used quite effectively while also boosting Phyiscal Damage and STR Scaling. It’s not the greatest Ash of War, since you need goodPoiseand protection, as you typically trade damage, but there are worse out there. I suggest changing this when you can to something likeStormcaller,Stamp (Upward Cut),Stamp (Sweep)orLion’s Claw. Both Stamp (Upward Cut) and Lion’s Claw do 42 Stance Damage when used with Great Hammers, allowing you to Stance Break many Bosses in two hits.
Infusion-wise Fire/Lightning and Magic are virtually tied for highest Attack Rating with Sacred/Flame Art coming in second. Heavy is bit behind that, and Cold is not far behind Heavy. Stamp (Sweep) works well with the Blood Infusion, so consider it if you want to take advantage of Hemorrhage.
You can either two-hand this weapon or use it with aGreatshieldwhen you get one, though you can still Block Counter with this weapon in a pinch.
TheRotten Battle Hammershares the default moveset of most Great Hammers, and deals Physical Damage. It has an average weight for a Great Hammer in Elden Ring, weighing 10, and requires 26 Strength and 8 Dexterity in order to wield effectively.
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CONS
Attack Rating at level 150 with optimal stat spread for highest Attack Power at each Infusion:
Conclusion: The Rotten Battle Hammer is nearly identical to the Battle Hammer in every way except that it does about 5% less damage, and hasScarlet RotBuild Up on hit. However, you can’t find this weapon until even further in Elden Ring in theConsecrated Snowfield, making it practically a NG+ weapon.
I like to use this weapon with either the Poison Mist weapon skill with the Blood Infusion in order to have be able to setScarlet Rot,HemorrhageandPoison(while buffed withPoison Mist). Or you can use something likeStormcallerwith either Poison or Blood Infusion to hit rapidly triggering these status effects. Consider usingLord of Blood’s ExultationandKindred of Rot’s Exultationwith this weapon for increased Attack Power and/or the White Mask or Mushroom Crown.
ThePickaxehas a unique overhead heavy attack similar to the Great Club (which is a Colossal Weapon), and deals Physical Damage. It has an average weight for a Great Hammer in Elden Ring, weighing 10, and requires 22 Strength and 10 Dexterity in order to wield effectively.
PROS
CONS
Attack Rating at level 150 with optimal stat spread for highest Attack Power at each Infusion:
Conclusion: The Pickaxe is an interesting Great Hammer that functions more like a Greataxe than a Great Hammer, and in fact cannot be powerstanced with other Great Hammers, only other Greataxes. It also does Pierce Damage, much like the Rusted Anchor, allowing it to deal Counter-Damage, as well as take advantage of theSpear Talismanto further boost Counter-Damage. You can farm it fromminersinLimgrave Tunnelvery early in the game, and the only real negative is that it’s kind of short for a Great Hammer.
Endureis not a bad weapon skill, and you can certainly use it with this weapon, or you can change it for something else depending on what you like.
Infusion-wise Fire/Lightning comes in first at 794, with Magic at 783 and Sacred/Flame Art in third at 770. Heavy is not bad at 723, and Cold is 690. This puts it in the middle of the pack damage wise.
I like to dual-wield this weapon with the Rusted Anchor using Jump Attacks and L1 chains to destroy enemies, taking advantage of Counter-Damage when enemies are attacking. Use theSpearandClawTalismans, and make sure to have goodPoiseso you aren’t interrupted. Additionally, set your infusion to Heavy to get the most from the Spear Talisman, since it only boosts Physical Damage.
TheBeastclaw Greathammershares the default moveset of most Great Hammers, and deals Physical and Holy Damage. It is one of the lightest Great Hammers in Elden Ring, weighing 9, and requires 20 Strength, 10 Dexterity and 18 Faith in order to wield effectively.
PROS
CONS
Attack Rating at level 150 with optimal stat spread for highest Attack Power: 726
Conclusion: The Beastclaw Greathammer might be my favorite Great Hammer in Elden Ring. Despite lower Attack Rating than many Great Hammers, the fact it does some Holy Damage, and despite the fact that you can’t get it until very far into the game, I just love its weapon skill:Regal Beastclawwhich does 100% Physical Damage and, appreciate that STR, DEX an FTH all increase Regal Beastclaw damage.
Regal Beastclaw does a cone shaped AoE not unlike theBeast ClawIncantation, but it does more damage and it does hit in a wider cone, though not as far as its spell counterpart. The damage Regal Beastclaw deals is somewhat modest, but it’s nearly impossible not to hit the target with it, and because it deals only Physical Damage you can boost its damage withFlame, Grant Me Strengtheffectively.
The sweet spot for this weapon is around 50 STR and 50 DEX, with minimum requirements in FTH. However, since you need 18 FTH in order to use this weapon effectively anyway, you might as well take it up to 25 in order to cast Golden Vow & Flame, Grant Me Strength. I suggest taking FTH up to 50 after STR and DEX, and then continuing with STR & DEX in NG+. And, as I mentioned, all 3 of these stats increase the damage of Regal Beastclaw.
I like to two-hand this weapon, only using a seal for the buffing spells I mentioned, leaning into the Ash of War and usingWarrior Jar ShardorShard of Alexanderto increase its damage further. Consider usingCarian Filigreed Crestto reduce its FP cost from 20 to 15 as well.
TheGreat Maceshares the default moveset of most Great Hammers, and deals Physical Damage. It is one of the heaviest Great Hammers in Elden Ring, weighing 11.5, and requires 28 points in Strength in order to wield effectively.
PROS
CONS
Attack Rating at level 150 with optimal stat spread for highest Attack Power at each Infusion:
Conclusion: The Great Mace slaps hard and is an excellent Great Hammer. It has very high Attack Rating for a Great Hammer, it’s longer than most other Great Hammers, you can find it reasonably quickly if you know where to go, and it has fantastic Heavy Scaling. The only down side is that it’s pretty heavy for a Great Hammer.
Endureis an excellent weapon skill that increases your damage absorption by 45% and increases yourPoisefor 3 seconds, allowing you to tank damage and not be interrupted while you take advantage of Great Hammer Charged Heavy Attacks that can Stance Break most Bosses in two hits. You can however change it to another one if you wish.
Infusion-wise Fire/Lightning and Magic are virtually tied for highest Attack Rating with Sacred/Flame Art coming in second, though Heavy is not very far behind thanks to the weapon’s fantastic Heavy Scaling. Cold is also pretty good at 738 Attack Rating.
Like other Great Hammers, you don’t really need to do anything but two-hand this weapon to get the most out of it, using Endure when you need to Stance Break a tough enemy, and relying on Jump Attacks or R1s as needed. Or you can swap to a more offensive Ash of War and use that instead, but you will still play similarly.
TheEnvoy’s Long Hornshares the default moveset of most Great Hammers, and deals Physical and Holy Damage. It has an average weight for a Great Hammer in Elden Ring, weighing 9.5, and requires 22 Strength, 11 Dexterity and 18 Faith in order to wield effectively.
PROS
CONS
Attack Rating at level 150 with optimal stat spread for highest Attack Power: 774
Conclusion: The Envoy’s Long Horn is a decent Great Hammer. It is one of the longer Great Hammers in Elden Ring, and its weapon skillBubble Showerdeals a metric ton of damage. However, you won’t get it until pretty far into the game, holy damage is resisted by many tough bosses, and it can take a long time to farm.
Bubble Shower deals 100% Holy Damage, allowing you to buff it easily withSacred Scorpion Charm, andHoly-Shrouding Cracked Tear, as well asWarrior Jar ShardorShard of Alexander. Note thatEnvoy Crownwill also buff this damage, so consider using it if you use this weapon. It does 92 Stance Damage if all Bubbles hit, which is a HUGE amount.
Bubble Shower can one shot tough to kill enemies and make short work of Bosses, but it can be difficult to use because of its somewhat long wind-up and short range. This makes using it in succession risky since you’re likely to be hit, because you need to be pretty close to ensure the bubbles strike. You can useCarian Filigreed Crestto reduce its cost from 16 to 12, which makes it easier to use early on.
The sweet spot for this weapon is about about 50 STR, 50 FTH and 50 DEX, which you won’t reach until NG+ making this an excellent Journey 2 weapon. However, STR and FTH do scale better than DEX, with FTH slightly outperforming STR by a very small amount, and FTH does effect Bubble Shower damage, while STR and DEX do not.
I recommend two handing this weapon, and pumping STR and FTH and using it with theClawmark Sealto cast Incantations effectively. There is no need to use a Great Shield with this weapon, but you can if you really insist.
TheCranial Vessel Candlestickshares the default moveset of most Great Hammers, and deals Physical and Fire Damage. It is tied for the heaviest Great Hammer in Elden Ring, weighing 12.5, and requires 26 Strength, 8 Dexterity and 22 Faith in order to wield effectively.
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Conclusion: The Cranial Vessel Candlestick is a phenomenal Great Hammer. It is the second longest Great Hammer in Elden Ring, it has very high Attack Rating for a Great Hammer, and its weapon skillSurge of Faithdeals a ton of damage if you can land it. However, it is tied for the heaviest Great Hammer, and you cannot find it until close to the end of the game.
Surge of Faith deals a LOT of Fire Damage in an AoE around you that has a somewhat small radius, and then rains fireballs down from the sky, and you can continue to rain them with repeated inputs, but the AOE is only produced on the first input and is the vast majority of the damage of this weapon skill. Since Surge of Faith deals 100% Fire Damage you can buff it easily withFire Scorpion Charm, andFire-Shrouding Cracked Tear, as well asWarrior Jar ShardorShard of Alexander.
The sweet spot for this weapon is about 50 STR and 50 FTH, with FTH outperforming STR by a small amount. Dexterity doesn’t scale well with this weapon, so you will likely continue to increase FTH and STR into NG+. Note that FTH increases Surge of Faith damage and that STR and DEX do not.
I recommend two handing this weapon, and pumping STR and FTH and using it with theClawmark Sealto cast Incantations effectively, and this weapon makes a great candidate forFlame, Grant Me Strengthsince it deals both Physical and Fire Damage. You can reach nearly 1600 Attack Rating when fully buffed while two-handing with this weapon.
TheGreathorn Hammershares the default moveset of most Great Hammers, and deals Physical Damage. It has an average weight for a Great Hammer in Elden Ring, weighing 10, and requires 22 Strength and 10 Dexterity in order to wield effectively.
PROS
CONS
Attack Rating at level 150 with optimal stat spread for highest Attack Power at each Infusion:
Conclusion: The Greathorn Hammer is a vastly underrated weapon. Although its damage and length are in the middle of the pack for Great Hammers, it can be farmed pretty early in the game and the 3% Max HP healing per kill can be invaluable early on in the game, and since you usually kill things in 1 or 2 hits with it, it typically performs better than Great Stars in terms of healing while exploring the world of Elden Ring.
Barbaric Roaris not a bad weapon skill, so you can use this or any other Weapon Skill you like. I likeRoyal Knight’s ResolveorDeterminationfor easy kills with Jump Attacks or Charged Heavy Attacks.
Infusion-wise Fire/Lightning comes in first at 789, with Magic at 776 and Sacred/Flame Art just behind at 775. Heavy is not bad at 726, but Cold actually has no Intelligence Scaling with this weapon for some reason, so I don’t recommend selecting that infusion as Quality actually outperforms it in terms of Attack Rating.
I like to play this weapon as a mage build, using the Magic Infusion and cranking Intelligence. You can two-hand this weapon somewhat easily with 15 STR, but 22 STR is not a lot in order to be able to single-hand it either. This allows you to cast spells effectively while still maintaining high melee damage, and you can take advantage ofRitual Sword Talismaneasily since you still gain the HP back when killing enemies with spells. If you useAssassin’s Cerulean Daggerthen you can get FP back when you Stance Break enemies, and then cast spells to get your HP back and repeat.
TheGreat Starsshares the default moveset of most Great Hammers, and deals Physical Damage. It has an average weight for a Great Hammer in Elden Ring, weighing 10, and requires 22 Strength and 12 Dexterity in order to wield effectively.
PROS
CONS
Attack Rating at level 150 with optimal stat spread for highest Attack Power at each Infusion:
Conclusion: The Great Stars is a fan favorite for a reason, and that’s because it’s the only Great Hammer with native Bleed Build Up and it also heals for 1% Max HP per hit with the weapon. Otherwise though, its damage is in the middle of the pack for Great Hammers, as is its length, and you cannot find it untilAltus Plateau, which might take you awhile to get to.
Endureis not a bad weapon skill, but I prefer something that hits more rapidly to take advantage of both the Bleed Build Up and the healing per hit.Stormcalleris a great choice for this, as isPrelate’s Charge.
Infusion-wise Fire/Lightning take the top spot at 779, with Magic at 765 and Sacred/Flame Art at 753. Heavy is at 723 with Occult aways behind at 655, but much higher than Blood/Poison which is 570. This makes Occult a decent alternative to Blood if you want higher Bleed Build Up, but don’t want to sacrifice quite as much Attack Rating.
I like to use this weapon with Occult Scaling and Stormcaller to triggerHemorrhageon hard to kill enemies and bosses, also healing you at the same time. Make sure you have high Poise so you’re not interrupted and use things likeLord of Blood’s ExultationandRotten Winged Sword Insigniato boost Attack Power further. Note that you can also use theDragon Communion Sealto cast Spells if you drop some points into Faith, but it is a rather difficult stat spread needing STR, END, FTH, ARC and some MIND.
TheBrick Hammershares the default moveset of most Great Hammers, and deals Physical Damage. It is tied for the heaviest Great Hammer in Elden Ring, weighing 12.5, and requires 31 points in Strength in order to wield effectively.
PROS
CONS
Attack Rating at level 150 with optimal stat spread for highest Attack Power at each Infusion:
Conclusion: The Brick Hammer hits like an absolute truck. It not only has the second highest Attack Rating of all infuse-able Great Hammers and phenomenal Strength Scaling, you can find it very early on inStormveil Castlemaking it a great choice for would be Great Hammer users. The only negatives are that it’s the second shortest Great Hammer and it’s also the heaviest.
Barbaric Roar, its weapon skill buffs Physical Damage and Strength Scaling, while also changing the Charged Heavy Attack of the weapon to an attack chain for 40 seconds. You can further boost the Charged Heavy Attack damage of this chain by equipping theRoar Medallion,Highland Axe(in your offhand) and by using theSpiked Cracked Tear. This is not a bad Weapon Skill, especially if using the Heavy Infusion, but you could also useStamp (Upward Cut),Stamp (Sweep)orLion’s Claw.
Infusion-wise Fire/Lightning comes in first at a huge 809 Attack Rating, with Magic behind in second at 782 and Sacred/Flame Art in third at 777. Heavy performs very well though at 757, and Cold is just behind at 740 making it an option.
I like to just two-hand this weapon using it’s Jump Attacks, Charged Heavy Attacks and whatever weapon skill that you decide to use.
TheCurved Great Clubshares the default moveset of most Great Hammers, and deals Physical Damage. It has an average weight for a Great Hammer in Elden Ring, weighing 10, and requires 24 Strength and 10 Dexterity in order to wield effectively.
PROS
CONS
Attack Rating at level 150 with optimal stat spread for highest Attack Power at each Infusion:
Conclusion: The Curved Great Club is the pound for pound king of infuse-able Great Hammers. It has the highest Attack Rating of them all, except when set to Heavy or Cold, you can acquire it pretty early on by farming inLiurnia of the Lakesand it’s one of the longer Great Hammers in Elden Ring. And what’s amazing is that it’s not even the heaviest Great Hammer.
Like the Large Club, this weapon also comes withBarbaric Roar, which you can leave on it, or change for something else. I really likeFlaming Strikeon this weapon because it has the highest Flame Art Attack Rating of all Infuse-able Great Hammers, allowing you to make a solid Faith Build with it, and two-hand it for only 16 STR.
Infusion-wise Fire/Lightning is in first place with 819 Attack Rating, with Magic in second at 799 and Sacred/Flame Art coming in third at 792. Heavy and Cold are much further behind, and I recommend using a different Great Hammer if you like these infusions as there are several that have S scaling in Strength.
I like to two-hand this weapon with a Sacred Seal, setting it the Flame Art or Sacred Infusion, meeting the 16 STR to two-hand it, and then cranking Faith sky high in order to be able to cast Incantations with theErdtree Sealand still have fantastic melee damage, with a weapon that also has very good Stance Damage.
If you enjoyed thisGreat Hammers Ranked Guide, be sure to check out our other Weapon Guides, and also our article on how to Prepare forShadow of the Erdtree!
Castielle
Senior Editor at Fextralife. I enjoy gaming, playing and watching sports, cooking yummy food, watching a good movie and hanging out with Fex.
