Hammers | Elden Ring Wiki

From's most neglected weapon class

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This might be just a me problem, but I hate how they gave 2 handed mace and flails poise. It's not even good, it's just that it looks really stupid, if I'm using a mace or a flail i want it with a shield, but Miyazaki decided using maces as a dumb club like a barbarian was the way of the future for these weapons.

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The weapon type of all time

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Speaking from a PvE perspective here:

Hammers, and especially those with the 'Club' moveset (i.e fast overhand strikes rather than the slower horizontal swings) are arguably the best Guard Counter weapons in the game. They share the same annoying Guard Counter animation as Great Hammers, albeit a solid bit faster in its animation. Hammers were nerfed in their poise damage to (annoyingly) be just under the 40 poise breakpoint for guard counters and charged R2s at 36.4 poise damage. 40 is an important breakpoint because a great many main bosses have Stance in multiples of 40. Margit/Morgott has 80, Malenia has 80, Radahn has 200, Placidusax has 160, Maliketh has 80, Godskin Apostle and Noble both have 80, Godfrey has 80, and Radaon has 120. There are a ton of other side-bosses that also follow this multiple of 40 rule as well.

With that said, being just under the 40 poise breakpoint is a bit annoying, but can be solved by using Cragblade which grants 10% extra poise damage, and raises any hammer to 40.04 poise damage, *just* enough to hit the breakpoint. It's unfortunate to have to give up both your Ash of War and a potential weapon buff to achieve this, but guard-counter builds are generally light on weapon buffs already due to needing so much strength and endurance to use heavy shields and good poise-break weapons. Cragblade does grant 15% extra physical damage, so all is not lost in that regard.

That out of the way, I'd say that a Heavy affinity Stone Club is probably the best of the bunch, as it boasts best in class damage, and has the longest reach of any of the Hammers with the Club moveset, which can be desireable due to its fast attack speed and quick starting frames. Horizontal swings are good for small amounts of crowd control, but that is not the Hammer weapon class' strong-suit.

Once you've guard-countered an enemy into a stance-break, it's best to weapon swap to a Fire Misericorde of course due to the solidly stronger riposte damage and low weapon weight.

tl;dr Heavy Stone Club with Cragblade is goated for Guard-Counter builds.

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Does the warpick really have longer reach than the standard mace? I'm testing it out visually, and the mace actually seems to be a big longer. They also share the same moveset. I'm unsure how to test whether the hit detection extends past the tip of the models, though. Anyone know? I know this wiki was put together back when the game came out years ago, but I figure not a lot of people use hammers so a mistake on the wiki could be overlooked for some time.

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If anyone wants to make a fix: there is a note added about Patch 1.08 on this page (and I think on the page of many specific hammers) that poise damage was reduced, but poise damage is increased for two-handed hammers. This is wrong.

According to the patch notes poise damage (which should probably have been called stance damage) was decreased for hammers. They do less stance damage to enemies than they did before 1.08.

Poise (not poise damage) was increased while two-handing hammers in 1.08. So, you are less likely to get knocked out of your attack while two-handing, but you are still dealing less stance damage than before the patch.

This conflation of poise and poise damage seems to have been posted across all relevant hammer pages, a well-meaning but misleading update in hammer functionality.

If anyone with editing access feels inclined to update the affected pages, thank you.

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IMO both hammers and basic axes should get true hyperarmor on their heavy attacks. You still take full damage, but at least you can get your attack off without fear of stagger. Would also help them get a lot more mileage out of the Axe Talisman.

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I never, ever touch these outside of a catacomb in any From game. If I want to use a hammer for anything but whacking skeletons, I play Bloodborne. Maces in these other gamers are the blandest of the bland.

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Why only hyperarmor when two-handed?

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I don't understand why fromsoft is so scared of making hammers or pretty much anything else besides ss, katanas, spears and so forth the best thing to use for everything.

I just want my hammer to strike fear in the heart of men, but unfortunately.. It was never meant to be..

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Feels really nice to use, got a good weightiness to it that most other weapon classes don't possess. Nice compromise between speed and damage overall. With the added thrust and range, I am 100% being honest when I say that the Scepter of the All-Knowing is my favorite weapon in this whole damn game, just a shame you obtain it so late is all

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Stone Club fux.

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Where reinforced club, dagnabbit FROM you had ONE job!

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The moveset on these isnt that bad, but the range is god awful, and they dont really have any good attacks for closing distance.

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grants 2 whole superarmor when holding with 2 handed and light attacking

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I wish hammers were better. They have had a special place in my heart since Demon Souls.

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For god's sake FromSoft, please give hammers a different guard counter animation.

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It's quite surprising that the Scepter of the All Knowing and the Hammer are tied in hitbox length. If you compare them in-game then the Scepter is clearly much longer visually, but the length graphics on this wiki are based on datamining, so I guess the Hammer has a disjointed hitbox. Scepter feels very lengthy though which is pretty cool, and its total AR is actually pretty good if you build for it but a lightning infused Hammer beats it for total AR and evidently has the same reach despite looking much shorter.

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Most of these don't really look like the typical hammer, I see a lot of clubs, I guess I'll stick to the warhammer for my Thor Build.

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scepter is kinda bad, but its length is nothing to sneeze at

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2 handing these and spamming charged attacks/guard counters is some of the best stance damage you can put out in pve, even if they arent all that great in pvp.

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Funny how both the longest and the shortest hammers have the most effective range

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Let the bonking begin

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It is ironic how Nox is both the shortest and longest hammer

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Sad that power stance doesn't get hyperarmor. Not like it's gonna be powerful, the PS moveset is still bad you'd be better off just 2 handing the hammer.

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I haven't tried the others yet, but the Mace definitely has hyper armor on the 1 handed r2 now, and a noticeable amount of it. It's feeling really good in boss fights.

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Rest assured my fellow hammer enjoyers, the hyper armor is REAL

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You made a mistake while updating, Two handling doesn't increase poise damage, it increases poise. aka weak hyperamor.

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They allegedly have DS3 style hyper armor now when 2 handed. Can someone confirm?

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Favorite weapon category :) but they’re all literally trash in pvp. They lose trades against thrust swords, have no priority against 2h curved swords. And don’t do the damage or poise damage they should be doing. I want these to get a 10-20% damage buff and a similar poise damage buff. They should be mini great hammers or great swords, just like past games. With combos gone, strength resistances made overkill and health pools massively increased in ER, hammers do less than half their former damage from past games and fail to overcome the resistances of strength builds. This logic only applies to hammers however, because other small weapons are still fast enough to land double or triple combos, have the range to roll catch or punish, have thrust and have short enough recoveries to avoid trades if they didn’t poise break.

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Am I the only one who wants a literal modern hammer for nail hammering in this game?

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Hammers are deceptively powerful in PVE provided you use the charged R2. 2-3 hits will knock down virtually everything including bosses; colossals aren't that much better at stance breaking but are slower, heavier, and take massive stat investments and tend to have bizarrely terrible hitboxes as you pull the weapon in close or swing it at awkward angles. Carry a Misericorde in your pocket with an infusion of choice and enjoy effortless criticals on everything in the game.

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Probably the best out of the crappy moveset bunch (axes, hammers, flails), with noticeably better range and quicker r1 chains.

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I want to love this weapon class, but holy crapped From absolutely murdered them.

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Just give them good poise damage From, Jesus Christ. Literally what hammers are supposed to do. This way I can actually murder crouch poke spamming idiots with my beloved mace.

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So the dual wield jumping attack won't stagger bigger enemies (like the various heavy knights you find all over) but the 1 handed jumping heavy will... why?? It's literally the same thing but with more hammer. The dual wield jump attack already does alot of poise damage so why not let it stagger? I want to like hammers darnit

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The hammer guard counter missing rats and dogs at point blank is frustrating, especially since straight-sword guard counter can hit/stun like 2-3 enemies at a time with its range. Working as intended?

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the hammers at the longer end of the spectrum are surprisingly good at rollcatching

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Hammer named finger:

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surprisingly good as an off hand weapon. the hammer, finger, and gideon scepter all have decent range and satisfactory damage, can easily stagger somebody into a thrusting sword or dagger attack.

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These things are really limited by their miniscule reach and very mediocre moveset, they aren't bad, they are just bland and not very fun to use imo, the fact they do strike damage is good though in of itself, and they are excellent at stance breaking though, so although i don't think they are particularly great, that doesn't necessarily mean you should sleep on them.

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Lmao those dudes in denial about nox, it’s go look up the source on YouTube, dude is pulling straight hit box information. Nox is shorter ranged.

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That’s it, I’m getting me mallet-

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seconding anon below me. i refuse to believe nox hammer can have the shortest range when its clearly one of the longest.

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Really? Nox Flowing has shorter reach than flamemace and clubs? It doesnt look like it, it doesnt feel like it.

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Underrated PvE weapon class. Beat some sap over the head with the crazy stance break build up and quickly swap to a dagger or something with a high crit multiplier and go to town.

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Ahh, miss my drang twinhammmers. Can you dual the nox hammers for similar effect?

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the image at the top cannot be right... nox flowing hammer has the least range??? its like the longest hammer there is. ingame, switch between varres and nox hammer and look at the difference. nox hammer cannot possibly be that short.

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Checking the data from the PC version, Hammers have an abnormally high stance break build up from charged heavy attacks. They have second strongest charged heavy attacks in the game in terms of stance break surprisingly enough and are second only to colossal weapons in raw numbers.

When you factor in the eternity it takes to charge a colossal weapon though, Hammers are arguably the best stance break weapons in the game as long as you make use of charging.

Without charging they are roughly on par with greatswords, which is still pretty decent given their weight.

I wish From made this information more accessible.

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People who say this class is bad have clearly haven’t held a morningstar

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People say this class is bad but my brother in Christ
MORNINGSTAR

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When you realize katanas out damage or tie these with straight dmg values and scaling your realize how much of a ducking joke katanas are in this game.

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Is it just me or you can stance break bosses very easily with this class of weapons?

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Underwhelming damage in pvp generally. Short reach would be fine if they could win trades like in previous titles. In ds3 5 hits or 3 combos would about kill most pvp builds. Now I can land a full 5 hit combo on an r1 spammer and he’s just under half health. They removed combos and allowed players to have more health and another 10% armor from ds3. This means maces now do less than half their previous damage. Same for collosal hammers. They are literally useless as a result. Meanwhile if you powerstance fast weapons instead... well you already know that’s leagues better and dominates pvp.

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They aren’t the best class of weapons. But they do tons of stance damage relative to their weight, close to that of greatswords which are a fair bit heavier on average, and are really good for rapidly building stance break, especially so with guard counters.

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I have not tested very much, but hammers in general seem a little underwhelming in pvp. The slow speed and short reach will pretty much limit you to jump attacks. I still upgrade one for enemies with heavy armor or stone skin, however.

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Would be cool to see the ash of wars that can be put on hammers here

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MURIEL, I'M GETTEN' ME MALLET.

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This no good. Club go bonk, but enemy no stagger. Bonk no good bonk. Why no bonk? R1 bad. Bonk bad. Feels bad man.

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Anyone know if it's possible to get the poison hammer guardians turn their swordspear into?

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Remember when they buffed hammers and gave them more forward momentum and hyper armor on their 2h attacks, thus turning a previously bland and unwieldly weapon class into something fun and fearsome? Yeah, that needs to happen again ASAP.

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Where’s the brick hammer?

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Where's muh reinforced club?

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I feel insulted by how outclassed the normal Club gets by others hammers. Seriously, the only hammer that hits lower on a Str-Build is the damn Warpick (and the Holy/Int ones)

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I like how only 3 of them are actually hammers

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I miss ds3 hammers...

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Dropped on my first try 9 arcane lol

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Why do people think hammers are bad? The poise damage of heavy attacks is absurd; jump heavy deals the poise damage of a colossal sword while being on a weapon that swings almost as fast as a straight sword.

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Although they buffed the R1 spam speed, not having a unique, slightly higher poise breakpoint (like in DS3) makes this class of weapons objectively worse than most of the other standard arms. They are largely short range and have redundant R2s. I love them for PvE but, in PvP, they just make me want to cry.

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Why are these worse than Katanas at staggering and breaking poise, on top of already being worse than Katanas in every other way? Why would you ever use a Hammer instead of a Katana in this game? Why does From hate maces?

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Maybe the worst weapon class in the game. Could somebody explain me why hammers do so little poise damage, while great thrusting swords do so much, while also being 3x longer, faster and have similiar weight?

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The poise damage is insultingly low.

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make hammers great again

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Is the classic warhammer not droppable? I see a ton of the soldiers using it.

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Strenght weapons should always be twohanded for the 50% STR bonus
So why would anyone use onehand hammers?