Death's Poker is a Greatsword in Elden Ring. Death's Poker scales primarily with strength, dexterity, and intelligence. It does piercing damage and causes frostbite.
Barbed rod carried by Deathbirds.
The birds are graveyard fire keepers; it is said they rake out the ashen remains of the dead from their kilns.
Where to Find Death's Poker in Elden Ring
The Death's Poker weapon can be found at the following location:
- Southeast of the Southern Aeonia Swamp Bank Site of Grace. A Death Rite Bird boss can be encountered there at night time. See the exact location in the [Elden Ring Map Here]
Elden Ring Death's Poker Notes & Tips
- Weapon Skill: Ghostflame Ignition
- The Weapon Skill: Ghostflame Ignition purely scales with Intelligence.
- Scaling on the weapon art is considerably higher than the E/D value would suggest. Granting significant scaling up to at least 50 INT
- This weapon cannot be infused with Ashes of War
- Can't be enchanted with Magic nor boosted by Consumables.
- Death's Poker can be upgraded by using Somber Smithing Stones
- This weapon has a unique R2 shared with Sword of Milos, an upward diagonal slash starting from the lower right side. Charging the R2 attack will cause your character to take several steps forward before delivering the attack (similar to attacks empowered by the War Cry ash of war)
- Causes Frost buildup:
(65)
- Weapon art builds Frostbite at a significantly higher rate than this base value would suggest
- Sell Value:
200
- The weapon art can cause unusual "lag" when hitting large enemies that cause your character to appear to be skipping frames.
- It is caused by the Ghostflame Ignition weapon art continuously triggering the Hit Stop effect that gives attack impacts their sense of weight/collision. There is a video by Zullie the Witch dissecting this mechanic and weapon art in particular.
- You can pick 75% of the way through the moveset if you want to make it an AOE stagger bomb or a ground DOT projectile, and you can aim the projectile at the very last moment. Keep in mind that choosing neither option leaves the initial ghost fireball in place, which will continue to deal damage and frost buildup, effectively giving you three variations on the weapon art depending on the situation
- The unique charge r2 is highly situational but very hard for your opponent to zone.
- Ghostflame Ignition deals 100% Magic Damage and can be boosted by wearing the Spellblade Set
- Ghostflame Ignition ONLY scales with Int, and at a much more significant rate than the E-D scaling would suggest, making this a solid option for Int builds, so long as you lean into the weapon art.
- NOTE: As of Patch 1.09, the scaling values of this weapon were changed. Please refer to the Upgrades Table of this weapon below. Additionally, speed, range, recovery time and guard counter speed of Greatswords weapons has increased.
Moveset & Videos in Elden Ring for Death's Poker
Death's Poker 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 (%) | ||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Death's Poker | Phy | Mag | Fir | Lit | Hol | Sta | Str | Dex | Int | Fai | Arc | Any | Phy | Mag | Fir | Lit | Hol | Bst | Rst |
Standard | 123 | 36 | - | - | - | 58 | D | D | E | - | - | ![]() |
60 | 39 | 33 | 33 | 33 | 39 | 19 |
Standard +1 | 140 | 41 | - | - | - | 63 | D | D | E | - | - | ![]() |
60 | 39 | 33 | 33 | 33 | 39.39 | 19 |
Standard +2 | 158 | 46 | - | - | - | 69 | D | D | E | - | - | ![]() |
60 | 39 | 33 | 33 | 33 | 39.78 | 19 |
Standard +3 | 176 | 51 | - | - | - | 75 | D | C | E | - | - | ![]() |
60 | 39 | 33 | 33 | 33 | 40.17 | 19 |
Standard +4 | 194 | 56 | - | - | - | 81 | D | C | D | - | - | ![]() |
60 | 39 | 33 | 33 | 33 | 40.56 | 19 |
Standard +5 | 212 | 62 | - | - | - | 87 | D | C | D | - | - | ![]() |
60 | 39 | 33 | 33 | 33 | 40.95 | 19 |
Standard +6 | 230 | 67 | - | - | - | 92 | D | C | D | - | - | ![]() |
60 | 39 | 33 | 33 | 33 | 41.34 | 19 |
Standard +7 | 247 | 72 | - | - | - | 98 | D | C | D | - | - | ![]() |
60 | 39 | 33 | 33 | 33 | 41.73 | 19 |
Standard +8 | 265 | 77 | - | - | - | 104 | D | C | D | - | - | ![]() |
60 | 39 | 33 | 33 | 33 | 42.12 | 19 |
Standard +9 | 283 | 82 | - | - | - | 110 | C | C | D | - | - | ![]() |
60 | 39 | 33 | 33 | 33 | 42.51 | 19 |
Standard +10 | 301 | 88 | - | - | - | 116 | C | B | D | - | - | ![]() |
60 | 39 | 33 | 33 | 33 | 42.9 | 19 |
- Anonymous
The AoW doesn't exclusively scale with Intelligence, actually. I tested it on Snow Troll near Giants' Gravepost site of grace, who has enough resistance not to get a frostbite proc from a single ghostflame trail. With 20 str/80 dex/11 int, it deals roughly 20% more damage than when your stats just match minimum requirements. Though Intelligence still boosts the AoW to a greater extent, with 15 str/17 dex/80 int it deals 40% more damage (which is not very significant to be honest). Death's Poker is a decent quality weapon, not meant to be used only by INT builds with the purpose of spamming its weapon art. I think the same goes for other "deathrite" weapons that have low INT scaling like Death Ritual Spear, Rosus Axe and Family Heads.
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Bruh when cheesing for this weapon **** arrows use rock sling
- Anonymous
I just tried this for my INT/FTH build. And it ****ing surprised me. I have INT maxed and STR/DEX at minimum and hell yes, it works. Not only works,
it´s fun to use and highly effective as well.
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I am astounded how easily I obliterated Malenia on NG+7 with this, though I was fighting her with a random summon
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A dex/quality weapon with a Int AoW that you can super charge by pumping Int.
Plays nice with multiple builds, can be gotten early if you wish to cheese the Death bird, and is a decent greatsword
- Anonymous
Does anyone know which talisman would be to pair with the deaths poker?
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Ghostflame = INT and magic damage.
Blackflame = FTH and fire damage.
Looks like peiple are confusing these two things. Hope that cleared up somr confusion.
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One trick weapon. Damage with attacks is abyssman for a GS, only aow usefull. Well if you into spamming one thing its your weapon. I like to mix things. If i wanted spam one thing i'd went full on sorceries. Basically this gives you "spell" thats all its good for.
- Anonymous
everyone saying this should scale with faith, id rather it scaled with int and did fire damage instead of magic. that would make fgms really good with the poker, i mean ffs every other type of "flame" weapon and attack does fire damage except ghostflame... why fromsoft?
- Anonymous
i would trade some damage on the AoW for a speed buff no lie
- Anonymous
I was having a very difficult time with the Haligtree Putrid Tree Spirit as part of Millicent's quest. High level melee-only build, I couldn't get off an attack. Fell to my death a few dozen times.
A quick jaunt to Caelid secured this oddball "greatsword".
It is the perfect weapon to use in that situation. Standing on the closest tree branch, I fired off the frost trail. It didn't seem like it would reach him, but it did. And the damage just kept piling up until he was dead. I took zero damage.
Thank you, death's poker.
- Anonymous
This really is the best weapon in the game hands down!
Praise the Jesus Builds! [T]/
- Anonymous
To you people saying it should scale to faith: Just let us int guys have this. You faith dudes have regular flame, Giantsflame, Black Flame, Destined Death Flame, Frensied Flame, and Goldflame. I think you can let the int guys have Ghostflame.
Checked out 50str/57dex/11int vs 15str/53dex/50int 2Handed and you basically trade 18% physical AR(& +19 magic ar lol) in exchange for about 18% AoW damage.
Personally i treat this as a dex>str weapon with base int but if you love to spam the AoW then go for dex>int!
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He who desires but act not, breeds pestilence
So it is written
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>>The Death's poker
>>the bird use it like a scraper or rake
>>also it can go kaboom for some reason
Dont you hate it when ur just tryna scraping out some burned corpses or a just cooked pizza and just randomly got an explosion on face?
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I don’t really think anyone would disagree that this should also scale with faith
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Honestly one of the best weapons. So much fun using the as of war und to destroy everything in your way.
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Basically Elden Ring's Boom Hammer in terms of functionality. Luring a bunch of enemies into a group then Killer Queening their asses never gets old.
- Anonymous
Why in marikas name does this thing not scale with int+faith? It’s themed after the death sorceries even, it makes no sense. I would love to use this on a death build but the scaling makes it impossible. Thank you, Miyazaki. Thank you so much
SAVIOUR, BLOODSTAIN, HELLFIRE, SHADOW! HEAVEN ON A LANDSLIDE
- Anonymous
Awkwardly this is like the best death staff, you got like 3 spells built nto the weapon art the ball you can roll away from then the stretching flame that can stack insane damage and an aoe explosion that clears a sizable area at 80 int the hit ridiculously hard plus frostbite
- Anonymous
This thing trivialized my fight against Astel the Natural-born, even with his being immune to frostbite. The skill just hits so damn hard
- Anonymous
I love this weapon because of its high risk / high reward quality for PvE.
There are other weapons that are mainly just high reward (falling beast jaw, ruins greatsword) that turn the game into a boring "spam that special" paint by numbers.
But this weapon forces you to get up-close and personal, and time the ignition to pull off the big boom.
Plus you essentially have 3 different weapon skills, depending on how you follow through on it.
Just far more enjoyable in my opinion. (I say this as someone who, after acquiring the blasphemous blade on a STR/FTH build, found the second half of the game pretty easy and boring)
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I wanna do a roleplay playthrough using this weapon. Any character backstory suggestions?
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For anyone wondering.. the W/A is still very strong on a dex build because with all ashes upgrade level is the dominating factor, then type of infusion, then scaling.. minus a few exceptions, this isn't one of those exceptions. Though the scaling is still pretty good
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Absolutely destroyed NG+ Radagon and Elden Beast with just 11 INT despite the disclaimer that the skill only scales with INT.
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You're better off treating this as a dex leaning quality weapon. Tested at 20 Int vs 50 Int, the increase in AoW damage was only 12.5%.
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the sticks got ghostflame ignition
and its weapons arts *****in
justa meltin the bad guys
don't need no graces of vision
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The swing on each of the weapon art variations also counts as an attack against enemies in front of it.
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Honestly I wish this weapon did blunt damage cause it's literally just a stick so it'd make sense.
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Other than the weird scaling (int barely touched the base damage but *catapults* the weapon art into insanity), it's an a amazing weapon against anything that doesn't stick an adrenaline shot straight up it's bunghole--ala black knives, red wolves, and Malekith part 2
The trail of ghost flame (l2 --> pop with r1) will cold roast anything that doesn't hustle out of the aoe
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this is a sword and the butcher knife is an axe. makes sense
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"The birds are graveyard fire keepers; it is said they rake out the ashen remains of the dead from their kilns." Yeah. It's a big Dark Souls 3 reference.
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This thing absolutely melted the Draconic tree sentinel in Farum Azula, and for that, I love it.
- Anonymous
Such a great feeling weapon. There is multiple ways to deliver the ash of war (L2. L2 R2. L2 R1) the unique R2 is an excellent gap closer which looks stylish and is perfect for charging into an enemy knocked down by your L2 R2, and the fact that this weapon can be used effectively on a dedicated int build with minimal investment in melee stats (radagons +5 seal means u only need +2 in dex) is glorious!!
The only stat it's lacking in is fashion... 9/10 would bonk again
- Anonymous
Weird bug with 1.06 if you have this weapon equipped while in the level up menu it shows the incorrect AP value and it won't change when adding stats
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The “unusual lag” is supposedly fixed on this, as of the newest patch
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How cool this weapon looks and functions vs. what it’s called really makes me wish you could rename gear in this game.
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For its looks they took fantastic looking firelink greatsword from DS3, changed colors and bent the tip to make it extremely ugly.
Good thing the skill is fantastic and R2s are very good.
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This has an ugly design similar to great stars, it looks more like a rusty walking stick some old duffer would use than a greatsword.
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“Yeah so all these weapons thematically associated with the death birds and death sorceries, let’s have them have no faith scaling and be quality physical scaling instead? What? Players might want int/faith weapons? Well let’s just give them the sword of night and flame and or make them slap sacred on a Clayman Harpoon”
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What can I say, I love weapons that just go BOOM! And Death's Poker does just that with its L2 + R2 ghostflame explosion! For once, Boomers are actually cool!
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The weapon art can be used in 4 different ways :
- WA once for a single spark, which stays in the air even if you roll away.
- WA repeatedly at melee range to keep igniting the enemy (kinda like O' Flame but with ghostflame).
- WA + normal attack to send a trail of flames forward.
- WA + strong attack for a large AoE explosion.
Tricky to use but really fun. My main weapon even though I'm not playing Intelligence build (mostly Faith caster) just because I love the moveset.
- Anonymous
"the weapon is bugged in a way that every time you hit with the skill your character will pause for a brief moment. This can make dodges and other movements feel extremely awkward. Not impossible to use, but you'll certainly have to get used to it."
This is not a bug, rather just a quirk of hitlag. Every attack that you perform will have hitlag when it connects with an opponent (excluding ranged attacks) and the weapon-art is classified as a normal attack.
- Anonymous
When it says you can pick between an AoE or DoT, exactly how would I do that? I've just been messing about with this now, and while I'm never going to respec for high intelligence over high faith, I really like this sword. I'd like it even more if it didn't look like a pensioners walking.
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Bonus of this weapon is that due to its stat requirements, a lot of classes can wear it with relative min-max with a difference of 1-2 skill points even if you upgrade INT and it includes Wretch. Only Prophet, Confessors and kinda Bandit got a bit more points left if you include getting STR to 15. Prisoner would be the best I think to use it.
- Anonymous
Being able to cancel out of the WA is great
I would like to see this be the case across the board with combat
I think it would increase immersion and feel a lot smoother—more in line with a person’s real decision making
You could say it would be OP to be able to cancel out of stuff, but not if you base all the combat around having that ability
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This is the only fire weaponb that scales with Int. All others scale with Fai
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After getting this, I then proceeded to call myself as Vlad the Poker.
- Anonymous
Upon testing build ideas on the secluded cell giant, I accidentally discovered a bug(?) with Ghostflame Ignition: The trail of flames it can leave on the ground were inheriting some of my weapon buffs when I swapped weapons. I sent the flames out, which gave the giant frostbite while I was swapping to the Antspur Rapier and used Seppuku with it. Without doing any further actions, the giant then underwent blood loss while standing in the lingering flames. I tried doing it again with poisonous mist coating the same Antspur instead of using Seppuku (even aimed the mist far away from the giant to make sure it wasn't the cloud) and sure enough, the flames then poisoned him. I haven't tested any other weapon buffs like these, and no, he wasn't getting afflicted with scarlet rot or any other status effects native to the weapon without buffs.
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It's unfortunate that the weapon art only scales with the stat that has the worst scaling for the weapon itself.
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I wish this rolling attack was the poke. I hate the slam down attack most every greatsword has. The special r2 this has is amazing. The normal heavys of most all other greatswords is not very fun. I think they should update some of the movesets of the greatswords. I go to this one over the claymore for the special r2 but I like the poke better on the claymore for the rolling attack.
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Why the hell is this a greatsword and not a hammer type (not that i'm complaining)
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The WA does a shitton of damage even though i didn't make my build around it (i was running a dex/arc bloody helice build)
So yeah, as long as you upgrade it, it's very powerful
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Pretty lousy damage for the normal attacks but its still worth it for the skill alone
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Surprising good weapon and possibly the most satisfying AoW. Either a bomb that blows up everything infront of you or make a road of fire that builds frostbite as enemies stand on it.
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OMG just fix the WA on this already Fromsoftware.... Zullie the Witch even isolated the bug and elaborated on a possible fix for it....in April! we're on June ffs
- Anonymous
This weapon's skill can be built to be extremely powerful: Rogier's set, Jar Shard (Or Alexander Shard if you have the patience) Magic Scorp Charm and high Int will make the thing hit like a dumpster truck.
However, keep in mind the weapon is bugged in a way that every time you hit with the skill your character will pause for a brief moment. This can make dodges and other movements feel extremely awkward. Not impossible to use, but you'll certainly have to get used to it.
- Anonymous
Little slow on the cast time for the skill however it makes up for it when the skill hits.
- Anonymous
Little slow on the cast time for the skill however it makes up for it when the skill hits.
- Anonymous
Couldn't bleed elden beast. couldn't comet azur it. This crushed it easy. Sanity restored.
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Started using this weapon because it reminded me of my favorite DS3 spell black serpent. This weapon however, is Black serpent on steroids its so good.
First ability makes a mine that causes dmg and frost bite build up overtime before exploding. second ability turns it into black serpent causing longer dmg overtime and frost build up, great to use against multiple enemies. the 3rd ability turns it into a freaking huge bomb. overall fun to use in PVE.
- Anonymous
Started using this weapon because it reminded me of my favorite DS3 spell black serpent. This weapon however, is Black serpent on steroids its so good.
First ability makes a mine that causes dmg and frost bite build up overtime before exploding. second ability turns it into black serpent causing longer dmg overtime and frost build up, great to use against multiple enemies. the 3rd ability turns it into a freaking huge bomb. overall fun to use in PVE.
- Anonymous
Started using this weapon because it reminded me of my favorite DS3 spell black serpent. This weapon however, is Black serpent on steroids its so good.
First ability makes a mine that causes dmg and frost bite build up overtime before exploding. second ability turns it into black serpent causing longer dmg overtime and frost build up, great to use against multiple enemies. the 3rd ability turns it into a freaking huge bomb. overall fun to use in PVE.
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Despite the lag from this weapon when you use the weapon art on some enemies, this thing melts enemies.
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I can't describe how much fun this weapon is it does so much damage with the secondary explosion
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This weapon is highly underrated in pvp. With high int, this thing is insanely versatile. You can pick 75% of the way through the moveset if you want to make it an AOE stagger bomb or a ground DOT projectile, and you can aim the projectile at the very last moment.
It's the only weapon art that gives you several options after you have activated it on where and how to use it based on how your opponent reacts. The only safe counter is running away, and since it's underused, you can catch people pretty easily with it.
The unique charge r2 is highly situational but very hard for your opponent to zone.
It's the most versatile mele weapon in the game for pure int players in my opinion.
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Feels like it should've done strike damage since it really has no blade
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the lag from the weapon art makes this completely unusable
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In my opinion, for people who want the aesthetic of a death knight or death mage style build, I suggest using this weapon with heavy Int investment and your armor fashion of choice (Mausoleum Knight fits with this well due to the Deathbird connection) is better than using the Death Sorceries, which require awkward stat split and leave you with only Sword of Night and Flame as your weapon choice, not that it's a bad weapon.
This also lets you make full use of any sorceries for changing up your playstyle without having to respect. You could also start to invest in Dex after you're Int capped to get better damage on weapon swings but really you use this for the amazing Ash of War and not for smacking stuff
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Very solid weapon, but i wish the damage numbers on regular attacks were little bit higher...
- Anonymous
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Why do they make weapons that scale better with str/dex, to then make the weapon art scale exclusively with int/faith...
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Sword of Milos is a great off-hand pairing. You get power stance, passive FP regain on kill, small bloodloss buildup, and can combine the debuff 15% with Death's Poker Frostbyte 20% debuff.
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The weapon art absolutely melts anything that stands in it even for a few ticks. Generally good for zoning against small bosses and damage against big, only exceptions are things immune to frost or with very small ground hitboxes (like, of course, death birds, and surprisingly fire giant.)
Hope the hitlag bug on this get's fixed soon as it's basically unusable atm on boss fights.
This is my stop gap weapon on magic greatsword builds until I get Helephens if I'm not going for the MLGS or Blaidds'.
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