Attack
Guard
Scaling
Requires
PassiveBlack Knife is a Dagger in Elden Ring. The Black Knife scales primarily with Faith and Dexterity and is a good Weapon for dealing additional Holy Damage and for its Unique Skill, Blade of Death, that allows the user to fire an additional projectile.
Dagger once belonging to one of the assassins who murdered Godwyn the Golden on the Night of the Black Knives.
A ritual performed on the oddly misshapen blade imbued it with the power of the stolen Rune of Death.
Where to Find Black Knife in Elden Ring
The Black Knife weapon can be found at the following location:
- This is a drop from defeating the Black Knife Assassin at the entrance of Sainted Hero's Grave, in Altus Plateau. This boss is directly west of the Rampartside Path site. [Map Link]
Elden Ring Black Knife Notes & Tips
- Black Knife can be upgraded by using Somber Smithing Stones.
- This weapon can't be infused with Ashes of War, nor can it be enchanted with Magic or boosted by Consumables.
- This weapon has a unique R2 moveset shared with the Blade of Calling and the Erdsteel Dagger, that performs quick double slashes.
- Weapon Skill: Blade of Death - This projectile will reduce the Target's Maximum HP for a period of time while also reducing their Current HP. For further notes and tips, go to the skill's page.
- While this weapon is primarily designed with Dex Faith builds in mind, the Blade of Death projectile's damage is only affected by Faith scaling, meaning that a Strength Faith build utilizing Maliketh's Black Blade or the Black Blade incantation can still benefit from this weapon solely for the weapon skill alone.
- This weapon may have drawn inspiration from an African hybrid knife/axe known as the mambele.
- Sell Value:
100. - NOTE: As of Patch 1.08, the speed and distance of some attacks has been increased and the recovery time has been reduced.
- NOTE: As of Patch 1.09, the scaling values of this weapon were changed. Please refer to the Upgrades Table of this weapon below.
- Other notes and player tips go here
Moveset & Videos in Elden Ring for Black Knife
Black Knife PVP Poise Damage Values in Elden Ring
Patch 1.10 adjusted PVP Poise Damage of all Weapons including some Spells and Incantations. Please take note that these adjustments are exclusive to PVP.
One-Handed Attacks
- 1H R1 (1/2/3/4/5/6 Attacks): 40.5/63/63/63/63/126
- 1H R2 (1/2 Attacks): 72+72/72+72
- 1H Charged R2 (1/2 Attacks): 180+360/135+135+270
- 1H R1 Jumping: 60.75
- 1H R2 Jumping: 360
Two-Handed Attacks
- 2H R1 (1/2/3/4/5/6 Attacks): 52.65/81.9/81.9/81.9/81.9/163.8
- 2H R2 (1/2 Attacks): 79.2+79.2/79.2+79.2
- 2H Charged R2 (1/2 Attacks): 198+396/148.5+148.5+297
- 2H R1 Jumping: 78.975
- 2H R2 Jumping: 396
Black Knife Upgrades in Elden Ring
Please see the Upgrades page to understand the weapon bolstering process.
Requires regular reinforcement with Somber Smithing Stones.
This upgrade can be enchanted with Magic or boosted with Consumables.
| Attack Power | Stat Scaling | Passive Effects | Damage Reduction (%) | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Black Knife | Phy | Mag | Fir | Lit | Hol | Sta | Str | Dex | Int | Fai | Arc | Any | Phy | Mag | Fir | Lit | Hol | Bst | Rst |
| Standard | 66 | - | - | - | 65 | 28 | E(10) | D(55) | - | D(35) | - | - | 26 | 15 | 15 | 15 | 42 | 15 | 10 |
| Standard +1 | 75 | - | - | - | 74 | 30 | E | D | - | D | - | - | 26 | 15 | 15 | 15 | 42 | 15.15 | 10 |
| Standard +2 | 85 | - | - | - | 83 | 33 | E | C | - | D | - | - | 26 | 15 | 15 | 15 | 42 | 15.3 | 10 |
| Standard +3 | 94 | - | - | - | 93 | 36 | E | C | - | D | - | - | 26 | 15 | 15 | 15 | 42 | 15.45 | 10 |
| Standard +4 | 104 | - | - | - | 102 | 39 | E | C | - | D | - | - | 26 | 15 | 15 | 15 | 42 | 15.6 | 10 |
| Standard +5 | 113 | - | - | - | 112 | 42 | E | C | - | D | - | - | 26 | 15 | 15 | 15 | 42 | 15.75 | 10 |
| Standard +6 | 123 | - | - | - | 121 | 44 | E | C | - | D | - | - | 26 | 15 | 15 | 15 | 42 | 15.9 | 10 |
| Standard +7 | 132 | - | - | - | 130 | 47 | E | C | - | D | - | - | 26 | 15 | 15 | 15 | 42 | 16.05 | 10 |
| Standard +8 | 142 | - | - | - | 140 | 50 | E | B | - | D | - | - | 26 | 15 | 15 | 15 | 42 | 16.2 | 10 |
| Standard +9 | 152 | - | - | - | 149 | 53 | E | B | - | C | - | - | 26 | 15 | 15 | 15 | 42 | 16.35 | 10 |
| Standard +10 | 161 | - | - | - | 159 | 56 | E(18) | B(99) | - | C(63) | - | - | 26 | 15 | 15 | 15 | 42 | 16.5 | 10 |
AnonymousOnly 110 Crit? my brother in christ this is the knife used to backstab Godwyn
- Anonymous
It sucks that this knife is so mid. For Being part of the rune of death i expected it to be one of the best weapons in the game. Such a shame this weapon is so underwhelming
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
why does this say that it can't be enchanted by magic or consumables AND that it CAN be enchanted by magic or consumables at the same time?
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
Imma die on this hill by saying this dagger absolutely SLAPS in PVE. Just run this with some Blackflame incants and you'll steamroll through most of NG+ into NG+6
- Anonymous
I think that it should have a higher crit rate (all daggers in general should have a crit of 130 at least since hitting bigger enemies is nearly impossible later in the game with their reach)
- Anonymous
"I love not being able to hit enemies because of smaller reach"
-Dagger enjoyers
- Anonymous
To be honest the special on this weapon packs a surprising punch even against bosses. NG+6 playthrough I'm wiping the floor with everyone with this dagger
- Anonymous
If you don't have dark damage, at least make it do fire damage. It's nonsensical that a divine being gets stabbed by a holy weapon. Fire is associated with blasphemy in Elden Ring anyway
- Anonymous
Best weapon in the game. Get it and walk through bosses after +7 youre a god.
- Anonymous
Yet another terrible AoW/Skill on yet another terrible weapon. Just for fun I tried using this on Malenia with Tiche summoned. Was pretty much worthless. The only thing it was good at was getting aggro, not sure if that was because the aggro system in this game is such a mess or because Tiche is so good at missing.
- Anonymous
What would be some good talismans for a build revolving around this weapon?
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
Perfect for stabbing eagle-riding knights and princes and turning them evil.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
In PvP roll to the left and they can never hit you with it.
- Anonymous
If you want to get this thing low level and suck (like me), you can kite the assassin into the tomb, lower the elevator, and she'll get stuck on the other side of the hole. Use range til she teleports back outside, backstab, and repeat
- Anonymous
It would have been so awesome if we got the same attacks as Black Knife RIngleader Alecto, his moves look so good. Though his current moves are not bad, but could be more unique. It is after all a God Slaying weapon
- Anonymous
Wonder if the weapon art stacks with the black knife T summons.
- Anonymous
I still find it weird that this isn’t one of the legendary armaments, seeing as it dealt the killing blow to one of the major demigods
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
People really acting like they didn't gank Godwyn when he was sleeping, he would have eviscerated them if it was a proper fight.
- Anonymous
Not sure if its just me i had a duel with someone using this I was hit once and my hp did not stop decreasing until 0 is there an exploit I didnt know? I swear to god I dodge everything but one but still ate my hp to 0.
- Anonymous
the ash of war is perfect for starting off fights as it reduces health, great auxiliary weapon imo
- Anonymous
This also seems to provide about 25% more runes when you sneak-attack kill an enemy while you're at full health.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
Easy weapon to kill Lesser Ulcerated Tree spirit while standing on branch to proceed Milicent's quest at Haligtree
- Anonymous
My go to weapon when I want to make a new build fast and blaze through till the end ot Morgott. Then I just respec.
- Anonymous
It's probably hard to tell from looking at it, but this weapon is actually made from cheese.
Seriously though, as long the aow skilk hits, it does the 10% hp decrease regardless of blocking. It does the flat % hp eating kinda like black flame does. And on top of both of those, it does damage that scales with your faith. Not to mention being able to jump over some aoes and ranged attacks if you time it right. And that jump looks really cool with my fashion souls...
- Anonymous
This thing allowed me to defeat the gargoyle duo!
I only had 8 faith (samurai default) so I used the faith knot crystal tear.
10/10 I can now sleep in peace <3
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
Love how people open duels with this and reduce my hp with a phantom hit i can't avoid
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
To all the people complaining about its low crit compared to other daggers: do the daggers with higher crit have a weapon art as busted as black knife? No, the lower crit is most likely a balancing thing because the other aspects of the dagger are good.
- Anonymous
Godwyn killed Gransax, who is almost as big as Leyndell, but died to one backstab from a +0 Black Knife
- Anonymous
it's interesting how much of this game tells you dex should go with int, even tho in the lore assassins used FTH for their spells. this seems to be one of the few exceptions
- Anonymous
No better way to start a boss fight than to knock 10% of their hp off in one hit.
- Anonymous
So you're telling me that the legendary assassins who murdered a god were using a base-level weapon? Damn his **** must have been weak
- Anonymous
The black knives are misshapen and death-imbued versions of The Blade of Calling... Very curious.
- Anonymous
At 50 faith this thing is absolutely busted. It’s all I use against bosses or hard enemies anymore. The R2 attack has pretty crazy range, eats away at their HP, and is actually great at jumping over and avoiding a lot of attacks. I spam this thing without shame and have made short work of tooo many bosses.
- Anonymous
The unique R2 attack is also shared by the Erdsteel dagger. So basically the faith scaling daggers all have a better R2 than most other daggers
- Anonymous
I always scream ninja noises at the top of my lungs whenever i do the weapon art. I just can't not do it. Somebody help me.
- Anonymous
The weapon art entirely scales with faith, so if you have a faith build, keep this weapon as secondary, it weights only 2, can be wielded by anyone due to 12 dex requirement, and the weapon art will immidiately deals %15 of their total hp, and occasionally use the weapon art instead of incantations, hence it does more damage than %80 of the incantations in the game.
- Anonymous
Doing a playthrough with godslayer great sword and this seems to complement it nicely, when you need some range or faster attacks switch to this, when you need to stagger someone switch to godslayer gs, it started with godslayer more primary but this weapon is becoming more primary as I get used to it
- Anonymous
Kind of odd that the Black Knife of all things only gets 110 critical
- Anonymous
I've done a full playthrough based around this weapon and it's WA - Easy mode unlocked ;o)
- Anonymous
I've now just realized that when you obtain this weapon, it has yellow surrounding it in the pop-up menu, but it is not considered a legendary armament. I have also noticed this with the god slayer's great sword.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
Mambele is also known as "Hunga Munga". Do what you will with that information.
- Anonymous
Mambele is also known as "Hunga Munga". Do what you will with that information.
you mean to tell me the knife looks like THAT and the ****ing MISERICORDE has higher crit damage? BY 30%?!
- Anonymous
This weapon has helped my first RL1 run immensely in late game. Especially in Faram Azula. It takes a bit of setup to get the right faith boosting gear to hit the requirements but is definitely worth it.
- Anonymous
is this darn thing supposed to phantom proc the fire damage even if you dodge through the projectile? that seems like a busted pvp setup. worth more of a nerf than RoB
- Anonymous
Incantations like Black Flame Blade and Blood Flame Blade cannot be used with this dagger.
- Anonymous
Left Hand: Dragon Communion Seal
Right Hand: Black Knife, BBlade (switch out when I see fit) Just beat Radagon/Elden Beast with this setup
- Anonymous
For bonus style points: Acquire the knife by finishing off the assassin with a backstab.
He had one job, and you did it better.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
I feel like the crit value should be a little higher for this dagger in particular.
- Anonymous
should i use this or the forked hatchet for an abyss watchers cosplay
- Anonymous
so ive been getting one hit killed by this thing with over 2k hp and a crimson bubbletear... anyone know how that one works?
With minimal Str and dex and 80 faith for this and blade of calling, the Black Knife will have 1 single point more AR despite it's way worse faith scaling.
- Anonymous
I've just completed a playthrough using this weapon and it was a breeze. I completed the game in record time (for me). The only part which was tricky was the final boss pair, other than that the WA on this weapon destroyed everything.
- Anonymous
I like it, but unfortunately it suffers from the same major problem of all daggers: extremely short range.
If you like the idea of having access to this weapon's max HP reduction and damage over time effect, but don't really want to use it, try the ash summon Tiche. She utilizes this dagger and its weapon art, and is overall a very strong summon for boss fights (unless it's a duo/trio fight, in which case other summons might be better.)
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
So... An interesting thing to note.
The max health debuff from Blade of Death/Destined Death/Black Blade are actively detrimental to you if you use any other form of % health damage such as Black Flame, Bleed, Scarlet Rot, Frostbite or Poison.
Since lowering the max health of a target, means that the percentage damage these effects deal is calculated off of their reduced max health.
Meaning that if your build focuses on other status effects, you should only use Blade of Death for the initial hit of the fight where it'll do 12.25% of the targets max health (10% from the health reduction and then 2.25% from doing 2.5% max health burn to their reduced health) and then refrain from using it again so your other effect(s) will deal full damage.
- Anonymous
I think the idea is that you main hand this, and you off hand the Blade of Calling so then you're powerstancing daggers with similar damage profiles, and with the Sacred Scorp and Holy DMG Tearstone you can start shredding anything that's not resilient to Holy damage. Since both of these are Fth focused if you need to you can swap them for a Fire DMG weapon like Godslayer Greatsword or Vyke's Spear if you're going against something like Elden Beast, and swap your Talismans/Tears accordingly.
With the powerful ranged skill and the rapid attack speeds of powerstance daggers, makes for a pretty flexible tool for Dex/Fth builds.
- Anonymous
This weapon is trash compared to the Jar Cannon, only nubs and casuals run around with this piece of garbage.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
Good in PVP if you free aim. The HP reduction works even while invincible.
- Anonymous
Very very good and amazing weapon overall. But you can dodge this attack in PvP. All you need to do is just timing. When you see your enemy using this skill just right after the animation close the distance to the attacker and wait for the projectile. When the projectile is out just close more distance to the attacker and then dodge roll when is about hit you. In this way you gonna dodge the atack and you get nothing not even the health reduction effect. And if you do it correctly you will end up right front of your opponent after his attack animation in the ground for a free counter attack. You have to be light or med heavy fot this and it is even better if you use bloodhound step ashes of war. You are welcome!
- Anonymous
In PvP dodging the weapon skill when in the path of the projectile will still get you the chip damage and health reduction, which is utterly bullshit.
- Anonymous
Wish it has a moveset resembling the ones the assassins use. They could increase the size of it and make it a little slower than a standard dagger, as the one the bosses use is much bigger proportionally to them than the one we can use is to us. Still a cool weapon though.
- Anonymous
Debuff stacks with Tiche, no idea if it stacks in multiplayer
- Anonymous
It dropped after I defeated the boss, but I can't find it in my inventory. Seems to be a bug..
- Anonymous
the blade of death, that kills by deathing opponents to death
- Anonymous
Did my own black knife build and after 3 other characters this is the most fun/challenging. I’ve done pure int, bleed arcane, rot strength, and then this, dex/faith. Love the lore behind the black knives and this weapon is awesome
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
When I got this on a new playthru just now may 7 22 the drop color was legendary. Doesn’t say it in description of item in game either nor is part of achievement. Maybe was just orange background of Altus messing with my eyes?
- Anonymous
Faith/STR Build, but still use this in off hand for the skill alone. I've got middling dex for increased cast time and some other weapon requirements, but the weapon skill on this slaps so hard I'm fine using it for just that and swapping between it and my seal.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
I really hope they don't nerf the damage on this WA... The raw damage is already low enough...
- Anonymous
Malenia was so much easier after I switched to using this weapon. Also got the final boss. Legit one of the best weapons in the game. Try using Shard of Alexander, Old Lord's Talisman, Carian Filigreed Crest and the Sacred Scorpion Charm to boost the weapon art further.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
I only now just used this on a boss last night 4/28/22 and Idk if this is a bug from one of the recent updates or it’s always been like this, but once the max hp reduction expires they get all that health back. So the boss that had no heal kept getting health back because I couldn’t kill them in the 30 seconds, or however long, that it lasts. So it’s basically useless in a fight that you can’t kill the enemy while their max HP is reduced. Imo
- Anonymous
Can't seem to dodge the weapon art of this without getting hit by the status effect. Not sure why from decided to make status effects depend on the one applying it point of view.
How did they put the rune of death in it if it can't be infused or buffed?
- Anonymous
It's said that when godwyn was stabbed with this he changed his name to godlose last second
Blade of Death casting tool, for PvE most of the time, nothing more.
4/10
0
+10
-1