Best Spears in Elden Ring – Ranking All 16 Spears
Apr. 25, 2024Best Spears in Elden Ring – Ranking All 16 Spears
In thisElden Ring Best Spear and Ranking Guide, we’ll be taking a look at the 16 Spears 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.
Spears in Elden Ring:
Spears are one of the 31 Weapon types in Elden Ring, soon to be 39 whenShadow of the Erdtreereleases on June 21st. Spears have a lot of properties that are beneficial, depending on your playstyle. It is one of the longest weapons in Elden Ring, which means you can attack enemies from a distance. It can do counter-damage as it deals Pierce damage. You can also hold block while attacking enemies if you pair it with a Shield, so you can play defensively with this weapon. Lastly, if you decide to dual wield spears, the attack animation seems to be faster than the regular R1 attack of a one-handed spear.
As mentioned above, spears deal almost exclusively Pierce damage. If the enemies are resistant to that type of damage, you’ll have to look for other options to deal damage to them. It also has a smaller hitbox compared to other weapons, as the attack animations are usually thrusting in one direction. Spears could also give you a difficult time with concave-shaped enemies, as the game’s locking mechanic will lock on the enemy’s chest, not the part which is closer to you.
PROS
CONS
TheCelebrant’s Rib-Rakeshares the default attack of most Spears, and deals Physical Damage. It has a light weight for a Spear in Elden Ring, weighing 5, and requires some points in Strength and some Dexterity in order to wield.
PROS
CONS
Attack Rating:
Conclusion: The Celebrant’s Rib-Rake is the worst Spear in Elden Ring. Not only does it have the lowest Attack Rating, but it can take you hours to farm in Windmill Village, which is a decent ways into the game. The only positive of this weapon is that it provides you with 10 Runes when you damage an enemy with it, however it has a cooldown that shares the same timer with any other Celebrant’s Rib-Rake, so dual wielding them doesn’t even help you gain more Runes.
Fire/Lightning are essentially tied with Magic, with Flame Art/Sacred following just behind and Keen pulling up a distant third. Keen outperforms Heavy with this weapon by about 35 points, so you definitely want to use Keen over Heavy if you don’t like any of the other infusions.
I recommend avoiding this weapon entirely, but if you do wish to use it, pair it with another DEX scaling Spear and dual wield it for fast L1 attacks that help to mask its low damage. Use similar Talismans and gear to other Dual Wield setups.
TheIron Spearshares the default attack of most Spears, and deals Physical Damage. It has an light weight for a Spear in Elden Ring, weighing 4.5, and requires some points in Strength and some Dexterity in order to wield.
PROS
CONS
Attack Rating:
Conclusion: The Iron Spear is the shortest Spear in Elden Ring, it has very low Attack Rating, and you cannot find it until Nakron, Eternal City, meaning you would likely have a better Spear than it by the time you got one anyway.
Magic and Sacred/Flame Art are tied for max attack rating, with Fire/Lightning coming in second and Heavy a distant third. Heavy barely outperforms Keen, so it’s not super important which you choose.
If you insist on playing this weapon, dual wielded with another Spear to further boost attack damage, with Talismans like Winged Sword Insignia and Millicent’s Prosthesis, or use it with a Greatshield and using a Block Counter style Build that plays a bit defensively.Impaling Thrustis a great Ash of War to choose for this, and if you useAssassin’s Cerulean Daggeryou can refund its cost and then some with each use.
TheTorchpoleshares the default attack of most Spears, and deals Physical and Fire Damage. It has an average weight for a Spear in Elden Ring, weighing 6, and requires some points in Strength and some Dexterity in order to wield.
PROS
CONS
Attack Rating: 536
Conclusion: The Torchpole has abysmal damage, but it does have a couple of things going for it. It can be acquired early on in Stormveil Castle by farming enemies there that wield it, and it is the the Third Longest Spear, and it generates light in dark places that allows you to see more easily.
It’s weapon skillCharge Forthis not unique, and performs ok as far as weapon skills go, as you can often get it off without problems. However, it does have a long wind up and it doesn’t perform that well against Bosses.
The sweetspot for this weapon is right about 50 Strength and 50 Dexterity, with a sharp drop off from this point onward. When combined with the fact that the Fire Damage of the weapon does no scale whatsoever, you will likely not be able to use this weapon beyond your first playthrough easily, as you won’t get hardly any more damage out of it.
Because this weapon has such poor damage, I highly recommend dual wielding with another Spear of about the same length, like the Pike or or Cross-Niganata. Make sure to equip the Spear Talisman when setup this way, and also things like Millicent’s Prosthesis or Rotten Winged Sword Insignia to further boost your damage. Having a Cold Infused second Spear may also help, as it could allow you to reapply Frostbite on Bosses, ripping off 10% of their max HP more than once.
Or, if you don’t want to play that way, using a Greatshield with it and Block Countering. Because the Torchpole is so long, and because you can boost Block Counter damage with Curved Sword Talisman and follow up Criticals withDagger Talisman, Block Countering with this weapon deals much higher damage than regular attacks.
Additionally, adding someFaithin order to use Flame, Grant Me Strength and Golden Vow can go a long way towards boosting your damage, so I highly recommend doing so if you really want to use this Weapon.
TheSpearshares the default attack of most Spears, and deals Physical Damage. It has an light weight for a Spear in Elden Ring, weighing 4.5, and requires some points in Strength and some Dexterity in order to wield.
PROS
CONS
Attack Rating:
Conclusion: The best thing about the Spear is that it can be acquired rather early in Stormveil Castle from farming enemies, but otherwise it is the second shortest Spear and it barely outperforms the Iron Spear and Short Spear for Attack Rating.
Fire/Lighting take the top spot, with Sacred/Flame Art and Magic essentially tied for second. Keen outperforms Heavy by about 20 Attack Rating, so consider going the Keen route if you don’t like any of the other infusions.
I like to pair this weapon with another Spear and dual wield for increased damage per hit due to L1 attacks. Again, use Talismans like Winged Sword Insignia and Millicent’s Prosthesis, as well asSpear Talismanand high Poise so you can trade damage and don’t have to stop thrusting.
TheRotten Crystal Spearshares the default attack of most Spears, and deals Physical and Magic Damage. It has an average weight for a Spear in Elden Ring, weighing 5.5, and requires some points in Strength, Dexterity and Intelligence in order to wield.
PROS
CONS
Attack Rating: 548
Conclusion: The four major differences between the Rotten Crystal Spear and the Crystal Spear are 1) that it does Scarlet Rot Build Up on hit, 2) it does about 5% less damage per hit, 3) it has a different weapon skill in Charge Forth, and 4) you won’t find it until damn near the very end of the game in the Haligtree area, making them more of an NG+ weapon.
The stat requirements and length of these weapons is the same, as is the manner in which they scale, so you should definitely focus on Dexterity of you’re using this weapon, keeping minimum requirements in STR and INT. However, I’d play these weapons differently.
While I’m partial to Sword and Spear with the Crystal version of this weapon, I like dual wielding this weapon, ideally with two Rotten Crystal Spears if possible. This is because Charge Forth frankly is not as good as Impaling Thrust so you simply won’t use it as much, and because it is much easier to set Scarlet Rot when you can hit with two sources at a time. Much like other dual wield spear setups, Winged Sword Insignia and Millicent’s Prosthesis are good for boosting attack Power, and in this caseMushroom HelmandKindred of Rot’s Exultationare good for Boss fights.
TheCleanrot Spearshares an R2 attack with Short Spear that thrusts twice rapidly, and deals Physical and Holy Damage. It has an average weight for a Spear in Elden Ring, weighing 5.5, and requires some points in Strength, Dexterity and Faith in order to wield.
PROS
CONS
Conclusion: The Cleanrot Spear has decent damage, it has an excellent R2 attack that helps trigger Talismans like Winged Sword Insignia and Millicent’s Prosthesis, it boosts the Immunity stat which helps you better resist Poison and Scarlet Rot, and it can be acquired fairly early from farming Cleanrot Knights in Caelid. However, it does some Holy Damage, and many Bosses resist this damage type, particularly end game Bosses.
Its weapon skill:Sacred Phalanxdoes decent damage, but has a rather long wind up, making it tricky to use without getting hit. Additionally, the actual spears that come out of the ground deal 100% Holy Damage, which makes things interesting. This allows you to boost it easily withSacred Scorpion CharmandHoly-Shrouding Cracked Tear(as well asWarrior Jar ShardorShard of Alexander), but again Holy Damage is resisted by many difficult Bosses, making this problematic in key areas of the game.
The sweet spot for this weapon is at 50 STR and 50 DEX with minimum points into FTH. Faith scales poorly with this weapon so I recommend only taking it up to 25 to pick up Golden Vow and some other buffs. The weapon doesn’t scale well otherwise, which makes it less viable with each playthrough past NG+.
Since the R2 of this weapon hits twice, which is good for triggering Winged Sword Insignia etc, and you’ll have decent STR, I recommend one-handing this weapon with a Greatshield for Block Counters, allowing you to use the R2 when you can and also use Sacred Phalanx when needed. Make sure you slot Assassin’s Cerulean Dagger to help offset some of your FP cost for Golden Vow and other buffs, as well as your Weapon Skill.
TheShort Spearshares an R2 attack with Cleanrot Spear that thrusts twice rapidly, and deals Physical Damage. It is the lighest Spear in Elden Ring, weighing 4, and requires some points in Strength and some Dexterity in order to wield.
PROS
CONS
Attack Rating:
Conclusion: While the Short Spear does have extremely low Attack Rating and it’s the second shortest Spear, it is also the lightest, can be acquired from the Twin Maiden Husks in Roundtable Hold and it has an R2 that attacks twice, making it good for status effect builds, particularly since the nerfing of dual wield status effect build up.
The Magic infusion leads the pack in damage here, with Sacred/Flame Art and Fire/Lightning not too far behind. It has slightly more damage with Keen than Heavy, making the choice between these two rather moot.
I personally like to play this weapon with theBlood InfusionandSeppuku, mimicking a similar build as my Crimson Duelist leaning into the R2 attacks that hit twice, and Block Counters that deal much more damage than regular attacks. UseWhite Mask,Lord of Blood’s Exultation,Millicent’s ProsthesisandWinged Sword Insigniafor best results.
ThePartisanhas a slashing R2, shared with the Spiked Spear and Death Ritual Spear, and deals Physical Damage. It has an average weight for a Spear in Elden Ring, weighing 6.5, and requires some points in Strength and some Dexterity in order to wield.
PROS
CONS
Attack Rating:
Conclusion: The Partisan is one of the better performing infusable Spears with the highest base damage of all Spears, and it can be acquired pretty quickly from the Knight in Fort Gael located in Weeping Peninsula. It is, however, outperformed by theSpiked Spearin nearly every way, so if you like this weapon consider using the Spiked Spear instead.
Sacred/Flame Art are virtually tied with Magic for the top infusion, with Fire/Lightning pulling up a close second and Heavy being a distant 3rd. The weapon has higher Attack Rating with Heavy than Keen, by about 17 points at this level, which makes it a slightly better STR weapon than DEX.
I recommend using this weapon with a Greatshield and Block Countering due to the better STR scaling, but you could dual wield it as well if you want since the STR damage is not that much more than DEX.
TheCrystal Spearshares the default attack of most Spears, and deals Physical and Magic Damage. It has an average weight for a Spear in Elden Ring, weighing 5.5, and requires some points in Strength, Dexterity and Intelligence in order to wield.
PROS
CONS
Attack Rating: 581
Conclusion: Of all the weapons I’ve covered in Elden Ring, this might be the first weapon that I cannot find anything good OR bad about. The Crystal Spear has average length, average damage, it can be found somewhat early, but not really early in the game. In short, the Crystal Spear is a solid Spear that won’t let you down, nor will it blow your mind.
Impaling Thrustthough is a solid weapon skill, and arguably underrated by most players out there. The damage of it is not insane, but it has great reach with the Spear weapon type, and it has excellent Stance Damage, making it incredibly easy to stagger enemies and get Critical Strikes. And since this weapon skill only costs 9 FP, if you have theAssassin’s Cerulean Daggerequipped you can use it nearly infinitely. Think of it as a more cost efficient Transient Moonlight, but with less overall Stance Damage.
The sweet spot for this weapon is at minimum STR and INT and 50 DEX, but it scales well up to 80 Dexterity, which should be your first goal. Once there you can pump STR, which has decent scaling up to 50 despite its D rating, but from that point onward you won’t get much out of this weapon. INT does not scale well at all, so this weapon does not make a good candidate for a “Spellspear”.
Either pair this Spear with another DEX scaling Spear for a dual wield style of play, or use something like the Carian Knight’s Shield and Sword and Spear it. Of the two styles, I prefer Sword and Spear simply because Impaling Thrust is exceptional and you won’t need the extra weapon if you’re using it often, which you should be if you’re using the Crystal Spear. Charged R2, Impaling Thrust, R2 is a nasty combo against tougher enemies.
If you Sword and Spear, useScholar’s ShieldandGreatshield Talismanto further improve your Guard Boost ofCarian Knight’s Shield, and make sure to slotWarrior Jar Shard/Shard of Alexander, and Assassin’s Cerulean Dagger for better Impaling Thrust performance.
ThePikehas a unique upwards-thrusting R2, and deals Physical Damage. It has a heavy weight for a Spear in Elden Ring, weighing 7.5, and requires some points in Strength and some Dexterity in order to wield.
PROS
CONS
Attack Rating:
Conclusion: The Pike’s claim to fame is that it is longer than all other Spears, and I don’t mean by a little bit, it’s very long. This makes it a great weapon to hit enemies without taking damage since you don’t need to get close. It’s attack rating is in the middle of the pack and it’s a bit heavy for a Spear, but you can find it very early on in Stormveil Castle. It’s unique R2 attack is also very situational.
Sacred/Flame Art and Magic are essentially tied for the first spot, with Fire/Lightning coming in a close second and Heavy a distant third. Heavy out performs Keen by 35 Attack Rating at this level, so it’s primarily going to be a STR weapon.
I like to play this weapon with a Greatshield for Block Counters because of its natural inclination for STR and because it has such long reach. Using something like Repeating Thrust on this weapon also works very well since you can begin its wind up from such long range. I like to set the Blood affinity and lean into this Ash of War, using Block Counters as necessary. Much like a Dual Wield setup, Talismans like Winged Sword Insignia and Millicent’s Prosthesis help here, as does Lord of Blood’s Exultation if you go the Blood route.
TheInquisitor’s Girandoleshares the default attack of most Spears, and deals Physical and Fire Damage. It has a heavy weight for a Spear in Elden Ring, weighing 7.5, and requires some points in Strength, Dexterity and Faith in order to wield.
PROS
CONS
Attack Rating: 632
Conclusion: The Inquisitor’s Girandole is a pretty great Spear. It is one of 3 Spears to have native Bleed Build Up on hit, you can get it somewhat early on in the game if you get grabbed at the bottom of Raya Lucaria Academy, and it deals pretty good damage for a Spear. The downside is that it’s rather short for a Spear, and even though you can acquire it somewhat early on, you might have difficulty doing so since the Boss you must defeat is not an easy fight for a low level character.
It’s weapon skill Charge Forth is ok, and is definitely situational, but you may have trouble using it against Bosses that have high Stance.
The sweet spot for this weapon is 50 Faith, 50 Strength and 50 Dexterity, though you likely won’t get there in one playthrough, making this an ideal weapon for New Game Plus. Even though Faith is B scaling with this weapon, it only moderately outperforms Strength and Dexterity, so where you will put points when is really up to how you want to play this weapon. The Inquisitor’s Girandole does scale well up to 80 Faith though, so make sure you do this after these are all up to 50.
There are really two ways you can play this weapon effectively, and that’s either Block Countering with some Incantations, not unlike my Lightning Lancer Build, or by dual wielding it with something like the Spiked Spear to get increased damage on attack, and to give yourself the best possible chance to trigger Hemmorhage on enemies and Bosses.
If you’re Block Countering, use a Greatshield for the best possible Guard Boost and Hardness, and split your stats between Faith and Strength, with minimum DEX. Use the Clawmark Seal for buffs and any offensive Incantations you like (ideally fire based). Use the Curved Sword Talisman, Spear Talisman, Fire Scorpion Charm and something like the Ritual Sword Talisman to maximize your overall damage.
If you’re going dual wield you can put the Inquisitor’s Girandole in your left hand if you want to use a different Ash of War on Spiked Spear since it’s infusable, but Charge Forth is not terrible. Split your stats evenly between STR and DEX with 25 points in Faith for Golden Vow and Flame, Grant Me Strength so that you can use these for more challenging enemies. Use Millicent’s Prostesis and Winged Sword Insignia, as well as Spear Talisman for increased damage since these weapons attack quickly with L1. Consider adding White Mask and Lord of Blood’s Exultation for Boss fights for increased Attack Power as well.
TheSpiked Spearhas a slashing R2, shared with the Partisan and Death Ritual Spear, and deals Physical Damage. It has an average weight for a Spear in Elden Ring, weighing 6, and requires some points in Strength and some Dexterity in order to wield.
PROS
CONS
Attack Rating:
Conclusion: The Spiked Spear is more or less the same as the Partisan, as it’s similar length, has similar Attack Rating and weight, and both can be acquired quite early in the game. However, the Spiked Spear has native Bleed Build Up on it, making it the better choice between the two, as long as you don’t care about appearance.
Sacred/Flame Art and Magic are essentially tied for highest Attack Rating with Fire/Lightning coming in second and Keen way back in third place. Keen barely outperforms Heavy by 10 Attack Rating, so it’s not super important which you choose.
I like to pair this Spear with another Bleed Build up Spear, like a second Spiked Spear or Cross-Naginata for increased attack damage with L1 attacks, utilizing the Bleeding in Boss fights as it doesn’t normally trigger out on the landscape or when facing basic enemies. Use Winged Sword Insignia and Millicent’s Prosthesis to boost attack power, protection, andPoiseso you can trade damage, ideally while using the Spear Talisman. Only slot the Lord of Blood’s Exultation during boss fights, since you won’t need it any other time.
TheDeath Ritual Spearhas a slashing R2, shared with the Partisan and Spiked Spear, and deals Physical and Magic Damage. It has an average weight for a Spear in Elden Ring, weighing 6.5, and requires some points in Strength, Dexterity and Intelligence in order to wield.
PROS
CONS
Attack Rating: 632
Conclusion: The Death Ritual Spear is easily one of the best Spears in Elden Ring. It has high Attack Rating, it has the highest Critical Rating of all Spears making it great for Block Counters, and it has a slashing R2 that allowing you to deal a different damage type rather than Thrusting should the need arise. This R2 is also great for hitting enemies that are more mobile or harder to hit with Thrust attacks. The downside is that you cannot find it until near the end of the game in Mountaintops of the Giants.
Spearcall Ritualis one of the best weapon skills in the game dealing 100% Magic Damage in a large AoE that hits enemies over and over, and often hits larger targets even more times due to the nature of the AoE. You can absolutely melt Bosses and tough to kill enemies if you can get the drop on them, often before they can even get an attack off.
The sweet spot for this weapon is at 50 DEX with minimum points in STR and INT, however it scales ok up to 80 DEX quite well and 50 STR and 50 INT are not bad. This makes this an excellent weapon for NG+ and beyond. However, Spearcall Ritual gains A LOT of damage from INT, and I mean a lot, so you must choose between more melee damage with DEX and more Spearcall Ritual damage with INT early on.
You can really play this Spear two ways. You can either lean into INT and make some sort of Spellspear Build like I did with my Silent Spearcaller, or you can go the DEX route and Sword and Board it utilizing Block Counters and taking advantage of the 110 Critical Rating of the weapon. Either way, make sure you use Warrior Jar Shard/Shard of Alexander and Magic Scorpion Charm to further boost your Spearcall Ritual Damage.
TheBolt of Gransaxshares the default attack of most Spears, and deals Physical and Lightning Damage. It is the heaviest Spear in Elden Ring, weighing 8.5, and requires some points in Strength and a lot of Dexterity in order to wield.
PROS
CONS
Attack Rating: 689
Conclusion: Bolt of Gransax is considered one of the legendary armaments for a reason. It not only has the highest Attack Rating of all unique Spears, it’s the second longest Spear and deals increased damage to Dragons and Ancient Dragons, which is much needed since these enemy types usually resist Lightning. However, it is the heaviest Spear, and you cannot find it until the Leyndell Royal Capital area, and you can miss it if you progress the game too far before picking it up.
Ancient Lightning Spearis one of the deadliest weapon skill in Elden Ring, firing a lightning spear over extremely long distances that deals 100% Lightning Damage. This makes it easy to boost withLightning Scorpion CharmandLightning-Shrouded Cracked Tear, besides the usual Warrior Jar Shard/Shard of Alexander. And because it’s chargeable, which increases its damage, you can also add Godfrey Icon to further boost the damage when you charge it allowing for some insane numbers.
The sweetspot for this weapon is about 50 DEX with minimum points in STR, but the weapon scales very well up to 80 DEX and 50 STR. Keep in mind that only DEX increases the Lightning Damage of this weapon, as well as the Lightning Damage of Ancient Lightning Spear. However, it’s not by a terribly large amount, so make sure you have enough STR to use the Greatshield you want (if you want).
Because Ancient Lightning Spear is so deadly and you need 20 STR anyway for the requirements for this weapon, I highly advise using it in some sort of Block Counter Build that tosses Ancient Lightning Spears as necessary to pick off ranged enemies, or tough to kill enemies at range. If you use Assassin’s Cerulean Dagger then you can refund 15 FP every time you Critical after a Block Counter, helping to fund the cost of your Ancient Lightning Spears.
TheClayman’s Harpoonshares the default attack of most Spears, and deals Physical and Magic Damage. It has an average weight for a Spear in Elden Ring, weighing 5.5, and requires some points in Strength, Dexterity and Intelligence in order to wield.
PROS
CONS
Attack Rating:
Conclusion: The Clayman’s Harpoon is a phenomenal Spear, and one of few weapons that can be infused while also dealing another damage type other than Physical. It has exceptional Attack Rating, falling just behind the Cross-Naginata and you can acquire it rather early by farming the Claymen in Siofra River.
Sacred/Flame Art have the highest Attack Rating, following by Magic at a close second and Fire/Lightning a distance 3rd. Heavy out performs Keen by about 20 Attack Rating, making the weapon lean a bit more to the Strength side of things.
The Clayman’s Harpoon is extremely versatile and there are really so many different ways you can play it, but I actually recommend to leave the weapon on its Standard infusion because this way you can boost its damage with STR and INT, and you can still buff it with Scholar’s Armament. When buffed with 50 STR and 50 INT you will hit close to 800 Attack Rating, and you can further increase this withMagic-Shrouding Cracked TearandMagic Scorpion Charm. Throw in something like Repeated Thrust and Rotten Winged Sword Insignia and you can reach well over 1200 Attack Rating, which is a LOT.
TheCross-Naginatahas a unique moveset compared to other spears with a combination of pokes and slashes, and deals Physical Damage. It has a heavy weight for a Spear in Elden Ring, weighing 8, and requires some points in Strength and some Dexterity in order to wield.
PROS
CONS
Attack Rating:
Conclusion: The Cross-Naginata is arguably the best all around Spear in Elden Ring. It has the highest Attack Rating, barely edging out Bolt of Gransax, it’s one of the longer Spears, it has native Bleed Build Up on hit, and it can be acquired relatively early in the game in Gael Tunnel. The only negative is that it’s rather heavy for a Spear.
Fire/Lightning take the top spot when it comes to Attack Rating, with Magic coming in second and Flame/Art coming in a close 3rd. Keen outperforms Heavy by 31 points, making this a DEX weapon vs STR, with Cold even outperforming Heavy.
I like to play this weapon as a hybrid build because even splitting your stats between Faith and Dexterity you still have decent Attack Rating, and then you can buff your weapon withBloodflame BladeorLightning Armamentwhile also boosting your damage withGolden VowandFlame, Grant Me Strength. When combined with an Ash of War likeRepeating Thrustyou can boost your Attack Power over 1200 with Talismans like Winged Sword Insignia and Millicent’s Prosthesis, making this a very deadly weapon.
If you enjoyed thisSpears 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.
