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Demon’s Souls is one of the most important titles in gaming history. Yes, I know, Dark Souls was more popular, and Bloodborne was better than both and had a better story too, but guess what? None of those games exist without the initial success of Demon’s Souls, way back in the dark ages of gaming in 2009. Demon’s Souls was not a massive hit; it reviewed well and gave gamers a glimpse into a game genre that, while not fully formed, was showing potential in its initial stages.
The gameplay was dark and difficult, and it was punishing in a way that felt different than what we’d had seen in the past. The difficulty here wasn’t just about spongy enemies with insane health bars, but instead, about genius enemy AI, unrelenting boss fights who acted as their stature would suggest, and devilish twists on in-game puzzles.
It was smart and evil at the same time. It rewarded you for your preparation and punished you for your failure. Most games give you an option to turn down the difficulty when you die a lot. In Demon’s Souls, you get punished for dying, and the more you die, the more difficult the game literally gets, thanks to its World Tendency system.
My trip into the Souls genre began in 2011 with the release of Dark Souls. I had never been enthralled in a world like I was with my first trip through Lordran. The enemies were incredibly smart, requiring precision and patience to take down, and the bosses are still the most memorable fights in any game that I can really remember and when the Demon’s Souls Remake came out, getting to dive into a world that was completely redone in incredible graphics was just an absolute wonder to behold.
Of course, Demon’s Souls is known for being the toughest Souls game out there, and with that toughness comes the need for some serious weapons to defend yourself with. Not everything comes easy in Demon’s Souls in terms of equipment, and that’s especially true when it comes to acquiring boss weapons. With this guide, you’re going to learn how to get each and every boss weapon that Demon’s Souls has to offer.
Bottom Line Up Front
The best weapon in the game is the Northern Regalia. In order to get it, you have to go through two of the toughest bosses in the game, and one of them is only able to be defeated after completing a side quest. Regardless, having this weapon in your arsenal will make you a destructive force to be reckoned with. You will also negate all the unpleasant effects of being stuck in Pure Black World Tendency. For all players seeking new game+, make sure you’ve worked to unlock the Northern Regalia first, as it will make your life much easier.
Demon’ Souls Boss Weapons
While some of the boss weapons you can get in Demon’s Souls are incredibly powerful, others are quite lowly in their damage but might provide other unique effects that make them worth getting. We’re going to go from the lowest damage ones to the hight.
Needle of Eternal Agony
The Needle of Eternal Agony is a thrusting sword weapon that is incredibly fast and uses attacks that are specifically made for countering attacks rather than being the aggressor on offense.
In order to acquire it, you need to go to Blacksmith Ed following the defeat of the Maneater and give him the Mixed Demon Soul along with any of the following weapons
- Parrying Dagger +7
- Secret Dagger+7
- Mail Breaker+7
- Rapier+7
- Estoc+7
Any of these weapons mixed with the Mixed Demon Soul will give you the Needle of Eternal Agony.
The unique trait of this weapon is that each attack you hit with it will grant you 20+ souls with each hit. The damage, however, is a paltry 10 at its base, and that doesn’t really make the souls gain worth it. You also need to be patient while using this weapon, and that mixed with the horribly low damage is just too much hassle with not enough payoff.
Lava Bow
The Lava Bow can be created once you defeat the Armor Spider and you acquire his Hard Demon Soul. Go to Blacksmith Ed and combine the Hard Demon Soul with any of the following items.
- Short Bow+7
- Long Bow+7
- Compound Short Bow+7
- Compound Long Bow+7
Any of those mixed with the Hard Demon Soul will net you the Lava Bow. Things to note are that you won’t be able to get this weapon until you’ve given the Searing Demon Soul to Blacksmith Ed previously. For bow users, the Lava Bow is quite good as it has a base damage of 55 and adds an additional 100 Fire damage to any arrow that it fires. It scales with the Magic stat, so magic users will get a ton of use out of it as well for when their mana bars run dry. The Lava Bow also has the highest durability of any bow in the game, so you’ll be able to get plenty of use out of it before it needs a repair.
Insanity Catalyst
The Insanity Catalyst can be obtained following the defeat of the Old Monk Demon. Once you’ve beaten him, take the Golden Demon Soul to Blacksmith Ed and combine it with any of the following items.
- Wooden Catalyst
- Silver Catalyst
With that done, you’ll have the Insanity Catalyst, which is a powerful staff that reduces your max MP by 50 percent while using it. The tradeoff is the considerable damage it can cause with a whopping magic attack upon its creation. You want to have a heavy helping of stats in magic and expanding your MP bar before you mess with this thing, as it can really limit you despite its big-time power.
Meat Cleaver
Meat Cleaver is a large hammer class weapon that you can get after beating the Adjudicator in Demon’s Souls. Take the Swollen Demon Soul you get from him to Blacksmith Ed and combine it with either of the following
- Club
- Great Club
- War Pick+6
- Pickaxe+6
- Morning Star+6
- Iron Knuckles+6
- Mirdan Hammer+6
Do that, and you’ll have the Meat Cleaver at your disposal. This weapon comes with a base damage of 90 and a magic attack of 90 and has some unique qualities to make up for it being so slow. With each hit you pull off, you gain back 1% of your health. This makes it a great weapon to take out in the last seconds of a fight where your health has just about run out, and you need one last blow to finish the battle. It’s also unique because despite it being a large hammer weapon, it deals slashing damage. It’s also the only weapon in the game that has two damage bonuses of an S rating.
Because of that rating, the weapon scales immensely with both strength and dexterity while also retaining a solid magic attack at the start. This makes it incredibly versatile when it comes to large hammer-style weapons, and with the right build behind it, the Meat Cleaver can get you through a lot of the game; just be careful because it’s one of the slowest bosses weapons too.
Blueblood Sword
This might be my favorite weapon in the game. It’s beautiful looking and has some great damage and bonuses to go along with it. In order to acquire it, you have to beat the game and give Blacksmith Ed the Pureblood Demon Soul. Combine that with the Broken Sword, and you will have yourself the Blueblood Sword.
The Blueblood Sword scales with the Luck stat, which makes it very unique, and there is a damage bonus of 1-4 per point in that stat. At its maximum, it can deal out 490 damage where similar swords of its size don’t even get close to that. It scales pretty well with most stats and can be one of the most powerful weapons in the game with the right build behind it.
Scraping Spear
The Scraping Spear is a very unique weapon because it’s not really meant to be used as a damage-dealing weapon. While the damage is great at 100, you cannot upgrade it from that point. In order to get it, you need to combine the Lead Demon Soul from the Phalanx Demon with either of these two.
- Short Spear+7
- Winged Spear+7
You can get this early on, and the benefits from it are very long-lasting. Each hit from the Scraping Spear reduces your enemy’s equipment durability by 10 with each hit. Using this on enemies will lower the effectiveness of their armor to the point where you can easily dispatch them once it’s low enough. For enemies with massive armor or shields to deal with, this can be a godsend, and combining it with a good weapon in your other slot will allow you to quickly kill some of the better-guarded enemies in the game.
The weapon cannot be upgraded, but its effectiveness of it has little to do with the damage and everything to do with armor durability it can destroy. The damage it will do is piercing damage, so you can at least know that you’ll be able to use it from a decent distance.
Northern Regalia
Many regard this as the best weapon in the game not only for its amazing appearance and damage-dealing ability but also for the way it scales. Unlike most weapons in the game, the Northern Regalia’s scaling is in no way related to the stats you have. At its base, it deals out an insane 135 damage and 135 magic attacks, but the interesting thing is what happens once you satisfy certain circumstances.
Before we get to that, we need to work to get the sword in the first place. In order to acquire the Northern Regalia, both Old King Allant and Old King Doran have to be defeated. Once you do that, You will use the False King Demon Soul to create it after having the following items.
- Soulbrant
- Demonbrant
Both of those items are forgotten from the souls of the aforementioned bosses, so it’s going to be a tough road to get this weapon. Once you do, the unique quality of it is glaring. If at any point your World Tendency goes Pure White or Pure Black, the Northern Regalia will gain base damage of 540, and you will automatically become an absolute force of destruction. There is a reason this is arguably the best weapon in the game.
In New Game Plus, this is an incredible weapon to have at your side and will make even the toughest encounters more manageable.
Large Sword of Searching
The Large Sword of Searching can be obtained through defeating the Old Hero Boss. It’s one of the better weapons in the game because of its sleek design and speediness when it comes to attacking. It’s a curved sword, so you will be able to carve through your enemies like they’re nothing with this weapon at your side. The base damage is outstanding at 170, but the real goodness comes with the Bleeding effect it can cause, which is ranked at 120. That means for any enemy that’s vulnerable, they will constantly bleed while you’re attacking them with the Large Sword of Searching, and it will make most normal enemies go down very quickly.
In order to obtain it, take the Hero Demon Soul to Blacksmith Ed and mix it with either of the following items.
- Claws+8
- Broad Sword+8
- Flamberge+8
- Shotel+8
- Scimitar+8
- Falchion+8
- Kilij+8
- Uchigatana+8
- War Scythe+8
The Large Sword of Searching has a weird name, and that name speaks to its special abilities. When you equip it, it doubles the base item drop rate in the game. Yes, this is ironic considering the Old Hero Boss was blind, but ignore that and scoop up those rewards. If you want, you can trade this weapon to Sparkly the Crow to get the Providential Ring, but this only works if you crafted it from a Scimitar+8. This game is weird sometimes, huh?
While the Large Sword of Searching is great, it doesn’t scale all that well with any stat, and the best you’ll get is a D rating from strength stats here. That makes it good to use when you get it, and then shortly after that, it won’t be nearly as useful, so it’s at that point that you could consider trading it to Sparkly the Crow for that Ring. The Providential Ring will give you the same luck ability that the sword has when it comes to picking up items.
Morion Blade
The Morion Blade comes in with some of the best base stats in the game. It starts at a massive 210 attack power, and although it’s incredibly slow, making contact with this thing will absolutely obliterate anything in its path. In order to get it, you’re going to have to beat the Storm King, which is a fairly tough boss. Once you manage that, take the Storm Demon Soul to Blacksmith Ed and mix it with any of the following items.
- Short Sword +8
- Long Sword+8
- Knight Sword+8
- Bastard Sword+8
- Claymore+8
- Great Sword+8
With the Morion Blade, you’ve got a ton of greatness at your disposal if you’ve got the discipline to use it. That’s a big if because this is a slow weapon, and not everyone is thrilled about being patient. You don’t have to use it always, but for those big boss battles where the boss is a massive target who doesn’t move much, the Morion Blade will annihilate them, taking off massive chunks of health with each power attack you unleash.
The Morion Sword increases any damage you dish out by 60% once your HP is less than 30%. This adds an interesting bit of strategy to using this sword because if you’re in Soul Form, you will already be cut down to 50% of your max hp. If you let that dip a little bit more, you turn this weapon into maybe the most powerful one in the game. If you do this, you better have some great armor to handle the damage from here unless you have a massive health bar at this point.
If you have the Clever Rat’s Ring, this boost goes from 60% to 140%, and that means it will only take one or two hits to kill most of the enemies in the game. You can also combine the Morion Sword with the Ring of Magical Sharpness or the Monk’s Head Collar to get a massive spell boost as well.
If you have managed to pick up the Cling Ring in the first area of the game, you will be able to reduce your chances of dying because that item will raise your HP while in Soul Form. The reason this works is that the Morion Blade only takes into account the max HP of your Human Form, meaning however much you have in Soul Form no longer matters.
It is a weapon that has more things to take into account than most on this list, but the careful setup of it mixed with the massive damage potential it holds will make it one of the more intriguing ones to acquire in Demon’s Souls.
Dozer Axe
The Dozer Axe is a comically big ax that requires you to have a huge amount of strength to wield it. That amount is exactly 30, and unless you have that on your character, this thing is essentially useless. Once you beef your character up a bit and can with the Dozer Axe, properly though, you will have in your possession the boss weapon with the greatest base damage in the game. The Dozer Axe does 340 damage at its base, and that number should jump out at you, considering its 230 damage better than the next best weapon.
It’s a Large Axe, and that means it’s going to be one of the slower weapons in the game. With that lack of speed comes immense power, and it’s an incredibly effective weapon in the hands of the right player.
In order to acquire the Dozer Axe, you need to beat the Vanguard Demon and give the Searing Demon Soul as well as the Gray Demon Soul and either of the following items.
- Battle Axe+6
- Guillotine Axe+6
- Crescent Axe+6
- Great Axe+6
- Halberd+6
Once you do that, you’ll have one powerhouse of a weapon on your hands. In order to wield it, you’ll need that 30 strength to start, and you’ll also have to manage your weight limit because this thing is 22 pounds, so that can put you over the limit pretty easily if you’re wearing heavy armor as well. I wouldn’t take this weapon into fights with small enemies that can move quickly, as the windup for each attack will have you absorbing all kinds of damage until you can effectively get off an attack of your own.
Instead of dealing with that, use this as your backup weapon for when a boss battle happens. Against bosses that can’t move much or ones that have a huge body to attack, this weapon can be devastating. The problem is you will need a good amount of armor because if you miss with the Dozer Axe, the animation is slow to recover, and you will be wide open to take on some big damage.
The Dozer Axe does not scale with anything and cannot be upgraded past its initial state. When you first get this weapon, you will find plenty of use for it, but over time, you will start to see that the weaker and faster weapons are almost always more useful than the incredibly strong ones.
FAQ
Question: What is the best weapon in Demon’s Souls?
Answer: It’s all about preference in these games, but for me, the Northern Regalia is absolutely unstoppable when you use it in the correct World Tendencies, and it’s still pretty great without them.
Question: Which is the hardest boss in Demon’s Souls?
Answer: For me, Old King Allant was an absolute nightmare and pretty much acts as the true final boss of the game despite not being the official one.
Question: Is there a way to change the difficulty in Demon’s Souls?
Answer: There is a way to change the difficulty in Demon’s Souls, but it’s not through a menu. If you change the World Tendency to Pure White, you will have a much easier time with the game as your damage will increase, as will your armor and health. Enemies will also take more damage, and you’ll be able to get better items as well. If you change the world to Pure Black, the opposite happens, and the game gets way harder as special enemies called Black Phantoms to start appearing, enemies get stronger, you get weaker, and the challenge is much greater.
Conclusion
Demon’s Souls is going to be a tough journey; there is no way around that fact. With the proper preparation and patience in the toughest battles of the game, you will eventually persevere. Hopefully, this guide will show you how to get some of the best weapons in the game, as these will make your trek significantly easier in the long run.
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