The world of Dark Souls is full of horrors, and, understandably, you’ll want to keep as many of them at arm’s reach as possible.
Luckily for you, DS3 has tons of options when it comes to big pokey weapons!
Ranging from spears to pikes, lances and more, today we’re going to take a look at the best sharp sticks available!
15. Soldering Iron
The soldering iron takes our bottom slot, and honestly could drop off this list easily.
It’s a masterclass in wasted potential, but I had to include it because of how unique it is.
Similar to the jailors that wield it, hitting another player with the soldering iron reduces their estus healing dramatically and inflates their equip load – 2 extremely unique and cool effects!
Sadly, the pitiful damage, scaling and inability to be buffed/infused makes this weapon near-useless.
Some players off-hand it whilst invading, but never use this as a main weapon.
How to get: Dropped by Irithyll jailors.
14. Yorshka’s Spear
This part-hammer part-spear hybrid is another interesting entry, and not quite as bad as the soldering iron.
While its base damage is pretty low, it has decent C/C/C strength/dex/faith scaling, so it can be used on quality faith builds relatively effectively!
Its unique skill ‘pacify’ applies a buff that deletes enemy FP on hit – and not an insignificant amount, either!
But the upsides end there, really.
The skill doesn’t give you the FP you drain, which would be nice, and ashen estus is both quick to drink and not disabled in duels, making the effect pretty negligible.
How to get: In a chest in the dark room in the Irithyll.
13. Gargoyle Flame Spear
The flame spear is actually a pretty good weapon – just pushed down the list due to being outclassed by later entries.
It’s great for hybrids, sporting D/D/D/D scaling across all stats at +5, with okay base physical damage – and a nice chunk of fire damage alongside it!
Its weapon skill – ‘kindled charge’ – has you charging headlong into your foes, transitioning into a heavily damaging strong attack.
It stuns humanoid targets and locks them into your attack, however in PvP it’s so easy to parry.
How to get: Dropped by gargoyles wielding it in the profaned capital and grand archives.
12. Tailbone Spear
It may not look like much, but this weapon has a surprising number of fans!
It’s a deceptively long spear possessing good base damage and a C scaling in dex, but it’s the weapon skill that keeps people interested.
Its skill, ‘unleash dragon’, conjures a very long-range and long-lasting cone of force, which does a chunk of damage and sends enemies flying.
This enables all sorts of environmental kills and is especially fun for invasions!
How to get: Drops very rarely from the wretches in Irithyll dungeon.
11. Golden Ritual Spear
The ritual spear is a truly bizarre weapon brimming with possibilities – though a bit hard to execute.
It’s a spear/catalyst hybrid – casting sorceries instead of having a heavy attack, but the sorceries scale with faith.
It hits a nice amount of spellbuff too!
But the weird part is, the weapon itself has no intelligence scaling – so investing in the stats required to cast said spells can feel a bit wasteful.
Still, it has some fun fringe uses on hybrids, hitting A scaling with faith and dealing innate magic damage!
How to get: Dropped by a mimic just above Pontiff Sulyvahn’s boss arena.
10. Pike
The pike may come across as a bit bland, but…
Well it is a bit bland really.
It has good base damage, nice scaling, can be buffed and infused, and has great range. It can also be acquired really early in the game and has low stat requirements!
It’s unoffensive but not particularly outstanding. A great baseline for pokey sticks and really solid for an early-game spear user!
How to get: Dropped by hollows in the crucifixion woods.
9. Lothric Knight Long Spear
On the subject of bland weapons, the Lothric spear is another plain Jane, but this time with a bit of spice!
It can be acquired even earlier than the pike, and has a nice passive of granting the wielder +15 poise!
This won’t have you tanking attacks like a brick wall, but will let you trade nicely into some heavier weapons, or allow you to not be stun-locked where you would before!
How to get: Dropped by Lothric knights wielding it (early-game), or sold by Greirat after his trip to the Irithyll (later-game).
8. Greatlance
The once laughed-at greatlance now sits comfortably near the middle of our top spears list!
When DS3 first launched, the greatlance was a truly awful weapon.
However, since then, it has received numerous buffs, improving its slow moveset and lack of poise.
Now, it’s a pretty great option. It has good combos with its charge skill and can be swung surprisingly fast when 2-handed!
The range is awesome too, and the hitbox of its heavy attacks can really catch some people out!
How to get: Found in Lothric castle, just up the stairs and to the left of the dragon barracks bonfire.
7. Arstor’s Spear
I hardly even knew this weapon existed, but after using it I have so much respect.
It has really solid base damage, B-scaling in dex at +5, a great weapon skill, innate poison damage, and a passive effect that grants you hp whenever an enemy dies!
This isn’t ‘when you kill an enemy’ either, it’s simply when it dies. From any cause.
This thing single-handedly carried my no-healing challenge run, and I found myself keeping it on my back even when moving on to a new weapon!
It’s seriously awesome, and a fantastic longer-range option. I can’t recommend it more.
How to get: Transposition from the rotted greatwood boss soul.
6. Dragonslayer Spear
The spear of Ornstein, half of the most infamous boss fight of all time.
The dragonslayer spear sports great damage split between physical and lightning and will be most effective on a pure dex build thanks to its B-scaling.
Its unique skill ‘lightning charge’ causes you to thrust a bolt of lightning towards you foes after a short charge, which deals a fantastic bit of damage and stun-locks – shredding through most foes!
However it does have the same weakness as the gargoyle flame spear – it’s weapon skill is very easy to parry, and can often do more harm than good in PvP.
How to get: Just up the stairs from the dragon-kin mausoleum bonfire, at the gate.
5. Drang Twinspears
The twinspears were one of the first weapons I really fell in love with.
They have such an aggressive, combo-heavy moveset that is great for PvP and invasions.
On top of this, the damage is fantastic, the scaling is good, they can be buffed and infused, and a lot of the attacks are multi-hit!
They’ll quickly delete your foes HP, and can pursuit a fleeing enemy with ease. Truly fearsome to face off against.
How to get: Dropped by the drang knight wielding them after the Pontiff Sulyvahn boss arena.
4. Winged Spear
A favourite of all spear fans, returning from the original Dark Souls!
The winged spear is simple as it gets – it pokes in a straight line to deal damage. No fancy moveset, no special passives.
Boring? A bit. Effective? Extremely.
It hits S scaling in basically anything it’s infused with and should be a go-to for any spear user.
How to get: Sold by Patches after recruiting him from Firelink’s tower.
3. Ringed Knight Spear
This weapon would have been number 1 – until I tested it.
Sadly, it has the same defect as some of the earlier entries – the weapon skill is upsettingly easy to parry.
Don’t let that turn you off though! This spear is still fantastic.
It has scaling for every stat, but its E/E in intelligence/faith makes it more favourable for a dex/strength build.
It’s weapon skill doubles as a buff that adds a flat 90 AR to the weapon for even more damage – and the attacks from the skill are all awesome, flashy, and super high damaging.
Just be careful using them against another player…
How to get: In the ringed city DLC, down the steps from Shira. Found on a corpse behind the ringed knight.
2. Dragonslayer Swordspear
The dragonslayer swordspear is a truly fantastic option for miracle/dex hybrids.
It has a really fluid moveset with very fast attacks that prove difficult to predict and dodge.
But it doesn’t stop there – it’s the weapon skill that tops it off.
The skill – ‘falling bolt’, is a long-range lightning stake that strikes right on top of your lock-on target, dealing huge damage and applying a buff to the weapon similar to lightning blade- adding tons more damage.
This is, in my opinion, one of the best weapons in the game, period. I absolutely love it.
How to get: Transposition with the soul of the nameless king.
1. Lothric War Banner
So here it is – the #1 spear!
And it’s not even a spear…
But what it lacks in ‘spear-ness’ it makes up for everywhere else!
It has surprisingly good damage, can be buffed an infused, and possesses a top-tier weapon skill;
The skill – ‘Lothric war banner’ (inventive name) buffs all damage for yourself and nearby allies by 15% – for 2 minutes!
It’s great to see such a powerful support-styled weapon. The Lothric war banner excels at everything it sets out to do, and for that, it takes our top slot.
How to get: In a secret area of the ringed city DLC – instead of taking the long drop behind the Harald knight after the chapel, drop to the right instead!
A game animator by trade, Tom’s insight into the game development world gives him a strong appreciation for the art form that is video games. Kicking off at the age of 3 with Spyro: Year of the Dragon on the PS1, Tom’s tastes in games has hardened over the 19 years he’s spent playing them. He now lives for the challenge that titles such as Monster Hunter, Dark Souls, Dead Cells, and many more offer him. Enjoying nothing more than a session of number-crunching game data and another platinum trophy on his PlayStation account, Tom is dedicated to leaving no stone unturned in even the most brutal of gaming content.
