Elden Ring offers players a wide range of weapon types to make use of, each offering their own set of benefits and drawbacks and providing players with tremendous build variety. Weapons can be broadly divided into a number of weapon classes, which have similar properties but differ in stat requirements and utility, and one such weapon class is "Great Spears."

Great Spears in Elden Ring are heavier and often more damaging counterparts to the Spear weapon class, sharing the ability to attack from behind a raised shield and a focus on piercing damage. They are heavier and slower but tend to have higher base damage in exchange, making them a good pick for builds that have reasonably high stamina and can utilize greatshields effectively. They also make excellent dual-wielding candidates, assuming the player is able to handle their weight requirements, allowing for some brutal combos and incredibly potent jumping attacks.

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Serpent-Hunter

Elden Ring Serpent Hunter

The Serpent-Hunter, despite being the latest in a line of gimmick weapons found in From Software's games that are used to defeat a specific boss, is actually a fantastic weapon in its own right and a solid weapon option for any build with a high Strength stat. The weapon has no stat requirements, allowing any player to equip it, and has great strength scaling. It also uses a horizontal swipe attack as its heavy attack, allowing players to deal with groups of enemies and catch faster enemies that could evade a stab. It also has pretty good damage for a Great Spear, though it suffers due to being unable to swap out its weapon skill.

The Weapon Skill "Great-Serpent Hunt" is a thrusting attack with a long wind-up that can be extended into a second stab if the button is pressed again. While its main purpose is staggering Rykard during his boss fight, it actually does a decent amount of damage and a huge amount of poise damage when it connects, so it can be useful as an opener on unaware targets. Its start-up time makes it less useful once the fight has started, however.

This weapon performs well when paired with a Greatshield for performing guard counters and hitting enemies mid-attack for bonus damage (use the spear talisman for even better results), and also makes an excellent offhand spear to pair with other Great Spears in a dual-wield setup for even more damage. The Lance makes a particularly good partner for this. Since the Serpent-Hunter is found in Rykard's Boss Room, it can be tricky to get hold of until around halfway through the game.

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Vyke's War Spear

vyke war spear animation in elden ring

Vyke's War Spear is a great weapon for a Dexterity/Faith build, due to having B scaling in Dexterity and C scaling in Faith when fully upgraded. It deals both physical and fire damage, making it particularly useful against the game's final bosses, who do not resist fire. It also inflicts madness, which is a status effect that can only trigger on other tarnished. This means the status effect will usually only trigger in multiplayer, against NPC invaders, and when fighting Gideon Ofnir the All-Knowing. That said, the status effect causes damage to the target's health and FP bar, and stuns them for a moment, making it very useful when facing the few targets that it can actually build on.

Vyke's War Spear has the weapon skill "Frenzyflame Thrust", a jumping slam that causes an explosion of frenzied flame and causes madness buildup on everything caught in the blast, along with the wielder. Even against the many enemies immune to madness, this still does good AOE fire damage and can be very useful, though it shouldn't be spammed too much due to the self-madness infliction.

Vyke's War Spear can be acquired fairly early in the game by facing off with Festering Fingerprint Vyke in Liurnia. It works well in Strength/Faith Builds, pairing well with fire-focused incantations and a decent shield for blocking and countering. The Spear talisman can be useful for poking enemies mid-attack for lots of damage, and the spear can be dual-wielded with another Great Spear to great effect too. This includes wielding it alongside itself in NG+ for even more damage and madness buildup, though the buildup of status effects by dual-wielded weapons was reduced in patch 1.07.

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Treespear

treespear infused with multiple elements in elden ring

The Treespear is another great weapon for players investing in Faith, and can be acquired early in the game without fighting a single boss, simply by getting past a troll. It has seemingly low strength and faith scaling, and only middling dexterity scaling, but its ratings in dexterity and faith are deceptively low, and it actually benefits greatly from investment in those two stats. The Tree spear cannot be infused but can be buffed with spells and consumables, which allows for some interesting and unconventional strategies when utilized properly. Early on the Weapon Skill "Sacred Order" can be very useful, buffing the weapon with extra holy damage and allowing it to deal extra damage to undead enemies (also preventing skeletons from reviving). This buff actually applies to any weapon that the player swaps to while it is active, allowing players to add this to any buffable weapon and use the Treespear as a reusable item to strengthen a different main weapon.

When using the Treespear itself as the main weapon, players will eventually want to start using spells like Bloodflame Blade, Electrify Armament, and Order's Blade to buff the spear instead. After hitting around 80 Faith these spells will outperform Sacred Order as buffs, with two of them also providing access to alternate elemental damage types (Fire/Bleed and Lightning). Int/Faith Builds can also make good use of Scholar's Armament to give this spear Int Scaling identical to the staff used to cast the buff, which can be tremendously effective.

When it comes to wielding the Tree Spear, it works very well in builds utilizing a shield for block counters and with a huge number of spellcasting builds utilizing Faith. Its heavy attack string is a forward thrust that combos into a diagonal slash, and both parts of it can be turned into two hit attacks with the same pattern by charging the attack.

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Mohgwyn's Sacred Spear

mohg-wielding-his-weapon

Players looking for a Great Spear to use in a Bleed Build will need to make quite the trek, since this weapon can only be obtained by taking down Mohg, Lord of Blood. With great Arcane Scaling and access to fire damage, along with bleed buildup, this weapon makes for a versatile arcane scaling weapon. It has a unique weapon skill that can be chained up to three times in a row, dealing AOE fire damage and bleed buildup over a large area and even through walls. This weapon skill also buffs the great spear with additional fire damage for a time by coating it in bloodflame. This weapon can dish out excellent damage with its weapon skill, but has low base damage compared to some of the other great spear options.

Nonetheless, this weapon can perform very well in builds utilizing bleed and can be paired with a shield for block counters like many of the other great spears to great effect. It is also the longest great spear, offering it even better reach than any other weapon in its class. While defeating Mohg can be quite difficult and is best left until late game, he is especially weak to bleed builds, so arcane builds utilizing bleed shouldn't have too much trouble reaching this weapon.

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Siluria's Tree

crucible Knight siluria in elden ring

Siluria's Tree is a weapon wielded by Crucible Knight Siluria in the Deeproot Depths, an area that can take quite some time to reach in a playthrough. Fortunately, her spear is well worth the trouble for players whose builds focus on strength and faith. With B Scaling in strength and C scaling in Faith when fully upgraded, this spear can put out excellent damage with the right stat investment. It also has a unique weapon skill "Siluria's Woe", which is a chargeable attack that performs a thrust after creating a wind vortex around the weapon. When charged this fires the vortex forward and can blow some enemies away, making this a useful ranged option.

Both the weapon and its skill deal physical and holy damage, making them especially effective against enemies vulnerable to holy damage, such as the Death Bird and Death Rite Bird bosses. However, this holy damage becomes considerably less useful in the second half of the game, where enemies, and especially bosses, resistant to holy damage become far more prevalent. Nonetheless, Siluria's Tree is a fantastic spear for Strength/Faith builds, and worth the trouble of grabbing when using those builds.

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Lance

Elden Ring Split Image Spend Time In Limgrave

The Lance is easily the most versatile of the Great Spear options, as it is the only spear that can be infused, altering its stats and damage type to better suit a player's build. Of the available infusions, a Heavy Infusion will give it A scaling in strength, making it a fantastic choice for strength builds who want a weapon with good reach. With its standard infusion it has excellent base damage and equal scaling in Strength and Dexterity, making it a good pick for quality builds too. Players using a Faith Build can also make great use of the Lance, thanks to the Flame Art and Sacred Infusions providing great damage and C Scaling in Faith. Flame Art performs better in the late game since many bosses in the second half of the game resist holy damage.

Pairing the Lance with a greatshield can allow players to get a lot of mileage out of Block Counters, and connecting with a thrust while the enemy is mid-attack animation will deal bonus damage that is further boosted by the spear talisman, so a strategic defensive playstyle can pay off here. This also pairs well with other Great Spears in a dual-wield setup, with the Serpent-Hunter being a solid choice that requires minimal stat investment to mix into the build. Players using a Standard, Keen, or Heavy infusion will also be able to buff the Lance using spells or consumables for extra power and to take advantage of enemy weaknesses. The Lance also has great reach, making it great for keeping foes at a distance.

The Lance has access to Charge Forth as its default weapon skill, which is a weapon skill otherwise unavailable to the Great Spear weapon class. This allows players to charge forward with the spear, dealing damage to anything in their path and ending the charge with a powerful thrusting attack. This can be excellent for running down weaker enemies and deals great damage, but struggles against targets with heavier armor/more poise. This skill can be extended by holding down the button, and benefits from Godfrey's Icon despite not technically being a charged skill.

The Lance is an easy weapon to obtain since it can be found southwest of the Deathtouched Catacombs in Limgrave, atop a ruin that Godrick's Soldiers have turned into a camp. It requires 20 Strength and 14 Dexterity to Wield, which isn't too difficult to reach early on, so this weapon can be used for most of a playthrough without issue.

Elden Ring is available for PS4, PS5, PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.

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