Highlights
- Spears are a powerful weapon type in Dark Souls 3, offering versatility and long reach, making them effective in combat.
- The Ringed Knight Spear, Lothric War Banner, and Drang Twinspears are standout spears with unique movesets and abilities.
- Each spear in the game has its own strengths and weaknesses, so players should experiment and find a spear that suits their play style.
Spacing is a huge component in the combat of Dark Souls 3. Being able to hit enemies when they can't reach the Ashen One with their attacks is a great advantage, and can be achieved in a few different ways. One such manner is to use melee weapons of a long and deadly nature constructed from wood, metal, bone, and sometimes even rock. Spears as a weapon type offer a plethora of benefits that give primarily Dexterity builds a versatile arsenal in which to skewer man, beast, and god alike.
Either wielded one-handed and paired with a shield or other offhand tools, as well as possibly on their own for maximum piercing power, spears can be some of the strongest weapons in the game. However, there are a few that specialize in their niche well enough to stand out among their peers. Knowing the difference between them and their boring, weak cousins is as simple as lancing foes and comparing how easily they are impaled.
Updated on September 9, 2023 by Ritwik Mitra: There are many people who argue that spears in Dark Souls 3 are nowhere near as fun to use as they were in the previous Dark Souls games. Regardless of how true this may be, there's no denying that these spears make PvP pretty fun as invaders have absolutely no idea how to deal with the unique and versatile movesets of this weapon type, especially if players mix and match their attacks to great effect. There is a wealth of fun spears to use in this game that can pierce enemies to kingdom come, making them a blast to use in every way.
13 Ringed Knight Spear
The Ringed City DLC is one of the best add-ons for Dark Souls 3 that fans absolutely adore. While the previous DLC had more of a mixed reception, fans loved the tough nature of this particular expansion and how it forced players to adapt to the many tough foes that they had to encounter in this title.
The Ringed Knights are especially tough in this game and will give most players a run for their money. Players who explore the Ringed City enough will find a spear belonging to these knights with a varied moveset that hits like a truck. The weapon art is also quite entertaining to use, allowing players to coat this spear in flames to enhance its damage even more!
12 Lothric War Banner
The Lothric War Banner has one of the best weapon arts that players can use when playing with a squad to help them. It buffs the attack of any ally in the area of effect, making it easier to dish out a ton of damage in no time at all. The fact that this weapon has a very long reach makes it pretty effective in battle too, even if some people argue that it's a bit too slow to wield sometimes.
Players can choose to wield this banner in their left hand to make it a great backup, especially for magic builds who don't want enemies to get too close to them. The versatility of this spear makes it a great choice for any player who's struggling to find a weapon of this type that fits right in with their play style.
11 Drang Twinspears
There are many dual weapons that players can find in the game, all of which are pretty powerful in their own right. Suffice it to say, any player who wishes to completely obliterate their foes with a good, stylish weapon will find the Drang Twinspears to be right up their alley. It's a versatile weapon with an L1 attack that can decimate most foes with ease.
In PvP, this weapon can be easily parryable if players don't mix and match their moveset. This makes it important to use the full extent of this weapon's moves in battle, rolling around and being unpredictable as players try to rip enemies apart with this incredibly fun weapon!
10 Yorshka's Spear
Found not far from its namesake in Irithill of the Boreal Valley, Yorshka's Spear is unique for a few reasons. Firstly, its attacks can deal thrust and strike damage. For thrusting maneuvers, one will need to use light attacks, and for assaults that deal strike damage, players will need to use heavy attacks that will swing the Spear to slam foes with the crossguard.
This can be useful when facing a foe with high damage reduction to thrusting moves, though, this Spear's weapon skill can grant an additional trait that is unseen on almost every other weapon. The Pacify skill allows wielders of Yorshka's Spear to drain FP from opponents with each successful hit, making it particularly useful against spellcasters.
9 Spear
As the weapon given to the Herald starting class, the common Spear is a great weapon that is available to players from the start of the game. It can carry many Ashen Ones through the many perils of the early and mid-game comfortably if upgraded and infused accordingly.
It is all-around average, being the base implementation of what spears best represent. However, it defines its weapon class graciously; being quick, light, versatile, and capable of excellent damage per second as well as pairing marvelously with many shields or even spellcasting tools.
8 Partizan
While looking very similar to the regular Spear, the Partizan can perform similarly, though with some bonus features that make it a better choice than more basic options. Like Yorshka's Spear, it possesses wide swings for heavy attacks, though these deal standard damage instead of strike damage.
Its weapon skill, Spin Sweep, is an odd one to see on a Spear as it is usually reserved for curved swords or curved greatswords, however, can be used effectively with the Partizan thanks to this polearm's long reach (even when compared to other Spears). The wide slashes followed by an overhead slam can be a great way to break a blocking enemy's guard.
7 Saint Bident
This Spear looks very cool and can be an excellent choice for anyone needing a bit more extra reach, as the Saint Bident is longer than even some weapons from the Spears' sister weapon class, the Pikes, which usually outclass Spears in spacing potential.
Scaling with 3 stats; Strength, Dexterity, and Faith, can allow quality builds to make particularly great use of this polearm. The weapon skill is the common Charge found on many of its brethren, which is not remarkable but still useable in many situations.
6 Arstor's Spear
With a sinister reputation and disgusting composition, Arstor's Spear is a weapon entwined with rotting meat that can poison foes from a moderately safe range while providing a couple of other viable tactics. While its poison build-up is handy, this Spear will also recover the wielder 30 flat HP per enemy slain, which stacks with other health-leeching effects.
On top of this, Arstor's Spear has the excellent weapon skill Shield Splitter, which can penetrate an adversary's guard with ease to deliver a devastating blow. It should also be mentioned that the poison build-up also gets around defenses, making the wielder a huge threat for shield-huggers.
5 Golden Ritual Spear
Out of all the melee weapons capable of also acting as a catalyst, the Golden Ritual Spear is arguably the best, for it grants great boons to both those wishing to use it in melee offensives as well as those seeking to slay enemies with spells from further away.
This shorter-than-average spear makes up for its lack of reach with excellent damage potential that deals physical and magic damage as well as possessing decent scaling with physical stats and excellent scaling with Faith. Additionally, its weapon skill, Steady Chant, boosts the power of sorceries for a short time to maximize the damage of each spell shot at adversaries.
4 Gargoyle Flame Spear
A heavy torch reinforcing a deadly cone of stone like this is a formidable sight. Especially when one knows of its great potential to slay adversaries for a wealth of reasons. Its high fire damage gets tremendous boosts when used by higher-level players because it scales well with Faith and Intelligence.
However, it also does moderate physical damage that scales with Strength and Dexterity, making the Gargoyle Flame Spear one of the few weapons to scale with every major stat; a great choice for a quality build. Furthermore, its skill, Kindled Charge, is a variant of the regular Spear charge that includes a burst of flames to sunder all before it.
3 Follower Javelin
Found in the chilly Ashes of Ariandel DLC, this short and broad spear is unique, and handy, due to a few cool traits. Firstly, it scales primarily with Strength, which is rare for the usual Dexterity-bound polearms. This makes the Follower Javelin a great weapon for quality and Strength builds that want to have a different kind of playthrough.
The skill of this spear makes up for its short reach as it allows the wielder to throw a phantom javelin that does physical thrust damage upon targets from a surprising distance. This is a novel way to pierce foes from multiple ranges without switching weapons, which makes this niche armament a fun one to try out.
2 Dragonslayer Swordspear
Transposed from the Soul of the Nameless King, this godly weapon is appropriately powerful as well as unique. Much like its name implies, the Dragonslayer Swordspear functions as both a Spear capable of thrusting attacks and a large sword with sweeping, horizontal slashes. This great versatility enables it to be an excellent weapon in any environment.
It does deal lightning damage, however, not quite as much as one would expect. Its main form of damage is physically oriented and backed by scaling with Strength, Dexterity, as well as a bit of Faith for a small lighting boost. The aspect that makes this mighty cross spear stand out the most is its unique weapon skill, Falling Bolt, which allows one to slam the area in front of themselves with a violent crash of lighting for devastating damage to those in melee range.
1 Dragonslayer Spear
Be sure to collect this treasure from the base of a metal gate at Archdragon Peak if one needs the best spear in the game. With great damage, long reach, and a suitable skill, the Dragonslayer Spear once wielded by the legendary knight Ornstein lives up to its mythic reputation.
Capable of unleashing impressive lighting and thurst damage, players can impale and shock foes from further away than most melee weapons allow. With its Lightning Charge skill, players can rush forward to stab at adversaries viciously while wreathed in electric tendrils for a finishing move that can take foes down in the blink of an eye.