Daggers | Elden Ring Wiki

The most useless weapon type :) everything it does - Claws do better. You want status build up? Use claws instead. Trust me. Only thing daggers have is Misericorde (aka the ugliest dagger where you dont even feel like youre using a dagger cuz it looks like a Sword, which is the main reason you want to use daggers cuz you DONT want them to look like swords, you want them to look like DAGGERS but okay) but theres other weapons which deal higher crit than Misericorde because total AR matters too and daggers have no AR.

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daggers are cool

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Black Knife has the highest damage number for daggers, however it isn't raw damage. Best raw would be Misericorde which also has the highest crit of all daggers! This applies for most stat settups.

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just started a run where i'm powerstancing reduvia with the normal dagger, Smaller enemies can't even move, never seen anything like it.

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The main draw of daggers in Souls games is the high crit damage, but despite ER having the largest selection of daggers out of any Souls game, only 2 of these have crit modifiers that are any better than what you often find in other weapon classes. The Lordsworn's Greatsword has a crit modifier of 110 and is available much earlier than most of the daggers, has a much higher overall AR (as you'd expect; it is a greatsword after all), and it only needs 11 STR to wield it 2-handed too.

The ones you find later on that have unique WA's aren't affected by this since they'll always have good utility beyond the crit modifier, but for those that don't, you have to look pretty hard for reasons to use them - by the time you find them, you've likely already found better alternatives (either other daggers or other weapons that do the same things but better on your build).

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I didn't know that the Night Maiden dagger wasn't droppable... until i came to look on here.

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they weigh nothing and are fast as ****, might as well have one on every build

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Even if their not the strongest in PVP, or PVE, daggers will always be some of my favorite weapons.

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wish there was a flowing dagger like the nox have

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whats the best dagger for pure physical damage? misericorde? great knife?

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I wish they'd make an int dagger like Aquamarine Dagger in DS3 again. Its concept is very interesting.

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these dont really hold a candle to fists and claws in terms of damage or range, which is a shame because they look cool af

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Why is it I can stun lock normal godrick soldiers but not a knight? by stun lock I stop them from attacking me if I keep attacking.

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It it just me or are the daggers kinda underwhelming this time around. Sure they are by no means unusable but i struggle to see why over literally anything else. The dual blade of calling build was just a lot more work then everything else. Hopefully fromsoft shows some love to this weapon type.

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Why are daggers slower than rapiers and katanas the size of houses?

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ooooo daggerss

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daggers NEED to 1 shot when stabing from behind none of that half to 1/3 of health crap and have a cool animation for different daggers depending on the dagger it would have a different animation like a picture reduvia have an animation where it grabs the enemy from behind and slicing their throat or scorpion's stinger just stabing into the spine or back. for bosses it would do like 1/4 maybe even 1/5 to 1/3 health (this is all my opinion)

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You know what would be fan-f***ing-tastic for daggers? If you could backstab with them while off-handed... It would actually give them greater significance and utility in most builds. Like I get that you can swap.. that's fine. However, it's so fun to have a big slow weapon in your main, and a quick small one in your left. I mean, that's literally the abyss watchers for DS3. Yes, you can do that but it seems silly to have to be like "oh, time to crit hit this guy... Lemme just put down my ultra great sword and swap to a teeny tiny toothpick"

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Are any of the infusable daggers actually useful besides the misericorde? It got the best range, highest crit modifier, and has the best ar on keen/heavy; are any of the others worth using?

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I like daggers to go alongside my colossal weapon cause sometimes the colossal is just too big and slow to get the job done, even if daggers do less damage they're really fast, in the same amount of time I can swing my golem's halberd I can get like 3-5 dagger hits off

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would have been cool if daggers had a higher status MV on riposte, so you could insta-proc bleed or poison on a stab

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Hi Tarnished, why complain that daggers are the worst weapon class? They’re daggers. What did you expect? They have niche uses, which makes sense. Mainly crits and low-weight conduit for Golden Vow AoW. Why should you expect to main these without struggling? Of course they’re worse than swords.

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Too fast

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I think all the daggers with less than 130 critical could afford to have their modifier increased by 10 or 15. It would make weapons like the greatknife feel a bit stronger early, which is where daggers struggle the most, compared to other weapons.

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now completely outclassed by fists. fromsoft doesn't know wtf they are doing

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Wakizashi is unique in that it power stances with Katanas. even though it is a dagger. It wont power stance with other daggers.

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For anyone wanting to do power stance, Wakizashi doesn't do it with Reduvia for some reason

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Update on single-wielding a Wakizashi: It's moderately fun, similar to Caestus kind of? It's like Caestus in having really good uncharged strong attacks that you can use as your main attack, but one interesting difference from the Caestus is that there's actually a reason to use one-handed strongs in some situations and two-handed strongs in other situations. The one-handed strong is a quick wide slash with a nice step forward and a very quick followup into a second strong, very versatile and quick with good hitboxes and decent damage, while the two-handed strong is a forceful stab with more power (and Piercing damage instead of Slashing) but slower and with worse hitboxes, BUT it also follows up faster from a running strong. So two-handed has a nice running strong->strong combo, while one-handed has a nice standing strong->strong combo. Anyway also if you're going this route I strongly recommend Scholar's Armament or Electrify Armament or other weapon buffs to massive improve your damage.

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I'm interested by doing a Strength run with a two-handed dagger, and for some reason I've been assuming that the Misericorde was best because of its seemingly very high base damage combined with good scaling, but I just checked with the AR calculator and... at 60 strength (and 13 dex incidentally), the two-handed Heavy Misericorde +25 (411 damage) is beaten by the Heavy Bloodstained Dagger +15 (443 damage, with 169 base damage but amazing 174.2 strength scaling), the Heavy Wakizashi +25 (453 damage, with 211 base damage and 123.2 scaling) and the Cinquedea +10 (480 damage, with high 240 base damage and 102.6 scaling). Unfortunately the Cinquedea has a one-handed handle so it looks like **** when two-handed if you notice your hands, plus the Wakizashi and Bloodstained Dagger have bleed to make up for their relatively lower damage. Haven't actually evaluated whether they look good two-handed yet but based on the simple shape of their handles it looks promising, tho the Bloodstained might have a very short handle...

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Crazy, apparently no one here is good with daggers.I'm dex/arc and use reduvia left and blood Misericorde with bloodhound step in right. I've tried out most other weapons that fit my build like rivers of blood, uchigatana, elonoras poleblade, curved swords, but daggers are definitely my best, at least in pvp.

The strategy isn't mashing L1. At least for bleed, you wanna throw in a few quick hits until they bleed, with either jump L1 or running L1, or use the L1 combo if you find an opening, then back out quickly.

Bloodhound is awesome with daggers. The side dodge and then L1 lands very often, or you can use quick R2 after sidestep to quickly break poise then follow up with L1 combo.

Definitely the best weapons for bleed IMO

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The skinny on daggers.

Despite being sped up, the base AR is low and the range abysmal, so being in position to land a combo on a boss during their vulnerable periods requires that much more skill on your part.

The attack speed makes landing multiple status effects possible.

The stance jump attack is awful compared to straight swords, curved swords and many others.

They have high crit, but with flame of the redmanes nerfed, the only way to stagger for crits is glintblade phalanx or keeping a dagger as a swapout weapon and using a high stagger weapon main.

That said, several are outstanding weapons.

Glintstone Kris packs what is effectively a 10 fp Comet spell. Hits about as hard as the Moonveil ash with better range and a charge option.

Reduvia blood blade has huge bleed buildup from range. Possibly the best bleed weapon in the game after the bleed nerf.

Black Blade is the best way to start a boss fight as the ash knocks a chunk of health off the boss with one hit. It's a good ash even after the first hit.

Cinquedea is for beast caster builds.

Misericorde is the best crit sidearm and you could use glintblade phalanx with magic infusion and swap out for the glintstone kris to fight from range until you get a stagger. Honestly not a bad way to fight bosses.

The rest are kind of bad and will require superior play on your part to compare to other weapons.

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Bro, like 4 of them scale with INT, and three of those 4 are lackluster at best. Really hoping they add some non-niche daggers in the eventual DLC.

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Patch 1.08 they are now faster and have significant forward momentum

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Daggers were really bad before, havent been touched by a single patch since release and were also indirectly nerfed by the reduction in status build up on powerstance and the poise buffs to all armours, to the point they are virtually useless. Power stance moveset is actively a detriment, not a help and they desperately need changes now because as it stands they are literally a hair more than useless. They need more than crit damage, which misericorde is only useful for anyway, and is literally the only infusable one to use because of its thrust r2, but why bother when the entire weapon class is outclassed by literally anything else. Worst damage, no range, jank hitboxes, bad movesets, no poise damage, no speed advantage. For fashion or masochists only.

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These are by far the most underpowered weapon type. The powerstanced attacks are way too slow and NEED attack canceling. I just tested the dodge roll L1 between daggers, straight swords and curved sword and they're all the exact same speed. Dual curved swords get 4 hits in a powerstanced jump attack while daggers only get 2. Dual straight swords transition from a jump attack fluidly into the second chain of their normal attacks while dual daggers have a pause and then begin their normal chain from the beginning. There's so much more but you get the point - Daggers, which are supposed to be the weapon type with the most fluid and fast playstyle, are unbelievably clunky to use. Even for applying status effects you're better off with curved/thrusting swords (better damage, moveset and range), claws (innate bleed), or fists (strike damage). There's sadly absolutely no unique positive to daggers, except for carrying misericorde for crits and spamming reduvia/black knife AoW's.

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At least one dagger with innate poison would be nice.

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Miyazaki pls buff.

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Why did they nerf status on these? The other weapons I get but status effects on dual daggers would have been a good niche. From honestly REALLY hates daggers.

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As long as curved swords and thrusting swords are as good as they are dual daggers will be pointless.

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They should have nerfed status build-up for all weapons EXCEPT daggers. Typical From blanket nerfing everything the absolute wankers.

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Thrusting swords stack status faster, have more range, and more damage.

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all of these should have 115 crit at the minimum, thats literally half the reason to use a dagger in the first place

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Where are the colossal daggers?

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Dagger? I hardly know her

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Wish we had a margit throw AOW would be cool, or even as an incantation in dlc

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Why can't I get the glowy meteorite knife the claymen use? I don't normally use daggers in these games but I would make a whole build just for that one. :(

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I want to parry with my dagger, or L1 for quick interrupts. Try to parry an enemy on a hill. It doesn't work very well at all. Otherwise is fun.

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Not a single dagger with innate poison to satisfy my assassin build dream, but TWO (!!!) shields that cause build-up of this status (Coil Shield & Ant's Skull Plate). From, you ok?

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Doing a dagger build at endgame, running a great knife/misericorde combo, switching to black knife to start a fight with and the frenzied flame for incants. The hitboxes make big bosses super annoying but really fun when it works. Everything's low weight so you can have a massive versatility of options with low cost. Successive attack talismans, stacking status effects, and getting crits make for a weird stealth/poise style of combat. This would be my favorite playstyle if not for the hitbox issue.

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Just completed a daggers only playthrough on NG+ 7, here are my insights:
-Reduvia Blood Blade will melt pretty much anything that can bleed, and for pure physical damage the Reduvia and Cinqudea powerstanced are your best bet
-The Glintstone Kris staggers things a lot more than you'd expect, and a fully charged Glintstone Dart does a lot of damage
-The Black Knife is good for starting off a boss fight, and the Blade Of Calling is pretty decent against anything undead (it was doing 4000+ damage to Death Rite Birds)
-I only used the Scorpion's Stinger against Rykard and Fire Giant, and it only rotted Rykard, so I wouldn't say it's worth it
-The Misericorde is of course super good for crits

Daggers are fun, I'm gonna do a straight sword only playthrough now. Results pending.

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Just completed a daggers only playthrough on NG+ 7, here are my insights:
-Reduvia Blood Blade will melt pretty much anything that can bleed, and for pure physical damage the Reduvia and Cinqudea powerstanced are your best bet
-The Glintstone Kris staggers things a lot more than you'd expect, and a fully charged Glintstone Dart does a lot of damage
-The Black Knife is good for starting off a boss fight, and the Blade Of Calling is pretty decent against anything undead (it was doing 4000+ damage to Death Rite Birds)
-I only used the Scorpion's Stinger against Rykard and Fire Giant, and it only rotted Rykard, so I wouldn't say it's worth it
-The Misericorde is of course super good for crits

Daggers are fun, I'm gonna do a straight sword only playthrough now. Results pending.

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you know daggers have been done dirty when the basic dagger has the lowest range in the dagger class

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any ash of war that adds flat damage can be really good on these, tedious to reapply, but effective

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I use a misericorde and reduvia dagger. Honestly, my two favorite daggers in the game.

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Yet another weapon class that shows the trend of longest weapon = highest damage. Why is ER so backwards with its weapon balancing? It makes no sense.

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My 1st NG+ was a dagger build. And it was alot of fun.

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****ing useless weapons. They suck on everything compared to other weapon classes. The only advantage these have is increased buildup. Tried to use dual blade of calling and black knife vs maliketh. Both max upgraded. The damage is ****ing miserable. Its just not worth the buildup increase cuz regardless of weapon speed most of the bosses will only let you hit them a couple of times before they unleash the next furry of combos on you. So unless you want to make the game harder, stick to other weapon classes.

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If it wasn't so easy to apply status, I don't think daggers would even be good in pve. Early game dagger gameplay in previous Souls feels like easy mode compared to Elden Ring.

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Daggers are overall bad and very situational. First, they suck at ad clear because of the range, moveset and weird collision boxes; enemies will just clip through each other and hit you. Also, they don't stagger anything at all and they rebound from hitting shields. Also, since they don't break poise, fighting humanoid enemies is really hard and dangerous mobs are better dealt with using heavier weapons.

That leaves daggers as specialized single-target DPS weapons mostly for bosses. Most bosses won't even give openings to land that many hits and powerstance L1 locks you for eternity; it is way too slow and can't be canceled. The hitboxes are horrible and there is the collision issue where attacks whiff point blank. On top of all of that, you can't stagger bosses easily with them to make use of the critical value or spam fast attacks to cause status effects

Yeah they are powerful against VERY specific bosses to apply status effects but that's it. Overall, you can land 4 hits midair and do more damage with powerstanced curved swords or powerstance GS/straightswords to get staggers AND spam attacks for status effects.

I am trying to have fun with daggers but the ridiculous hitboxes and collision issues make it a miserable experience.

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As the two below have said, adaptation is important. While you basically have to be up against your opponent, 3 L1s can melt health bars. In the early game, I've been doing great with Reduvia and the Great Knife paired together.

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these things may not do a lot of damage, but they stack status like nothing else and have hella swag

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Idk what are you all seething about, I literally beat Radhan dual-wielding black-knife+5 and reduvia+5

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None of you know how to use daggers if you are saying they're underpowered. The sheer speed of the swings can stun lock people in both pve and pvp. Add status effects and they're even better.

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Daggers are butchered all around. There are some good ones like reduvia, glintstone kris and black knife, but even then they rely heavily on their skills, due to lackluster range, made more obvious against fast bosses

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Literally no point to this class of weapon anymore. Barely was a point in some of the other soulslike. Dark Souls 2 saw the best uses of them with some silly shenanigans in DS3 but overall From seems to hate them...a lot.

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I dont care if daggers are bad. Im just mad there isint a sai weapon. I want to co-op as monsoon

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Worst weapon class. Only good one is Misericorde for crits. Every other RPG gives them something to be able to stand toe to toe with other weapon classes, but from gives them nothing.

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Daggers are all garbage.

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Reduvia is cool and i love power stance moveset, but nothing is even close to Aquamarine Dagger

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This is my first soulsbourne game and from what i get you are just supposed to use quickstep and backstab regular enemies. I tested it a bit and it works. for bosses you'll get your chance to punish after they do a heavy attack or a long combo which is weird since that's how I use big weapons. I really thought daggers would be more versatile but nope. Only difference between powerstance daggers instead of colossals is now you are punishing with blood buildup instead of jump attacks. i don't know if it was different in darksouls but that's how it is now.

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Aside from Misericode, the critical damage seems a bit lacking for most of the daggers. At +17 with Great Knife, I regularly riposte for like 700-ish damage. That's like comparable to straight-swords and axed. Meanwhile, Misericode hits over 1000 at +12. It's not like other daggers have better movesets or higher AR to make up for this either.

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None of these are worth using for direct combat. Misericorde is the only good crit dagger, not that parrying/backstabbing is much of an element of the game anymore, and Black Knife is the only good unique L2. Glinststone Kris is alright but you could just put Glinststone Pebble on anything and achieve similar, or better, results.

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Hope the clayman's glowing dagger is added in the DLC.

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This community is full of toxic losers it's not even funny lmao

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I do like daggers in this game overall, but no blindspot, BHS on every weapon, and zero hitstun makes these feel pretty bland. The speed and crit just don't serve much in a game where everything is fast, strong, spammable, and gigantic. They feel like pure crit tools more than ever before short abusing generic overtuned status effects like every other weapon type lol

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This entire weapon class needs an AR buff. MHS and 2 hit combos are no longer a thing, so it's not like a damage buff would suddenly break them.

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yall complaing how daggers are bad, how about fromsoftware brings back the MHS? how would you feel about that?

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Why you guys say daggers are bad? They're pretty fast, do decent damage, and have fast recovery time compared to most weapons in elden ring. They're not really viable in pvp, but they're good enough for pve.

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This weapon type is pretty bad, but that's what makes it good. Great for "dagger only" challenge runs, for people who aren't total masochists but are looking for a challenge.

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