Hand Ballista | Elden Ring Wiki

Ruchnoy Ballista Dragunova

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Interesting it says "perfect for storming a castle". I'm guessing it's intended that you out-ballista the guards at the castle gates, especially since the Arrow's Reach Talisman is right near there as well. Not sure if it works though, the one time I tried it I either was having the projectiles arc too much before the target to keep trying or decided it's less of a pain to be shot by the ballistas when I charged in. That said, will have to try it this time!

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lv.1’s strongest weapon per hit, imo

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"I always hated ballista; take too long to load."

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One of the coolest (and useless) weapons in the game. The 20-bolt limitation and no scaling is what kills it completely. A pity.

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This thing is so much fun in the Haligtree… just got to the roots, and sent so many envoys in the canopy yeeting over the edge of the tree with headshots from this.

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How do you use the hand ballista mine won't fire my ballista bolts?

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Waiting for Feet ballista in the DLC Miyazaki please

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omg guys bolt thrower reference

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It is called the hand ballista, yet needs both handSSSSS to fire it. I am extremely saddened by this.

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Chad Jar cannon user vs Thad hand ballista user

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Ash of war on this should be like the ballistas that guard stormveil and redmane castles

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Fabulous Max!

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Parry this you ****ing casual

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Imo the Hand Ballista should deals less damage than the Jar Cannon (as is currently), but reload faster.
It'd help differentiate it from its bigger cousin more, allowing for more maneuverability in combat at the cost of damage.

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camera shakes less when you fire while scoped compared to the jar cannon, arguably making this better for sniping.

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Hi there, I don't know who'd need this information, however:
You can wield the Hand Ballista on the off-hand while using a weapon with the AoW: Wild Strikes to use the skill without two-handing the Hand Ballista, and while one-handing your melee weapon.
This is the only skill with this interaction to my knowledge.
I haven't tested this with the Jar Cannon, so I don't know if this interaction holds true with that weapon.
(I could've sworn that this also applied to crossbows, but after testing it just now it doesn't seem to be the case.)

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Crossgreatbow or Greatcrossbow ?

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I think you should be able to fire 3 shots with these before reloading, not fast successive shots like the pulley crossbow but it would justify the ridiculous reloading time.

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after using the jar cannon a lot i'm kinda starting to like the look of this thing more, it has a really nice intricate design with moving parts. only thing i wish was different was if you could choose when to reload it like crossbows, kinda silly that your character feels some sort of desperate need to immediately reload it right then and there

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Will knock a tarnished to the curb no matter how much metal they've stapled to themselves. This + spear talisman, and whatever else you wanna use to get damage up.


Let's see you try to trade hits when your getting flung across the room.

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Own a hand ballista for home defense, since that’s what the Golden Order intended. Four maidenless break into my castle. “Marika's tits?” I yell as I grab my deathbed dress and jar cannon. Blow a golf ball sized hole through the first man, he’s dead on the spot. Draw my pulley crossbow on the second man, miss him entirely because of lag and nails the neighbors +10 rotten stray. I have to resort to the trebuchet mounted at the top of the ramparts loaded with firepots, “Touch Grace!” I shout. The exploding pot shreds two men in the blast, the sound and extra shrapnel wake up nearby warrior jars. Switch to misercorde and charge the last terrified rapscallion. He bleeds out waiting on the lordsworn to arrive because of the 145 crit modifier. Just as the Golden Order intended.

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What's the point of using this weapon instead of Jar Cannon other than lower stats requirement and weight?

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So we all know that the crossbows here are pretty pathetic here right? Which makes little sense to me since the crossbow historically has been more powerful than bows. And with the exception of the great bows, it leaves logic in the corner unattended.And for a while, I've wanted a crossbow that was powerful enough to eliminate standard grunt enemies with a single shot. Whether the shot is a charged shot or uses a special bolt, eliminating from range has always been preferable and people will do it, so why not let players make good use out of the crossbows, rather than needing to rely on the great bows which are hard and unwieldy and no where near as cool as crossbows.So I have an idea, that I would love to see happen, especially since there are TWO DLC's coming out in the future, and plenty of potential. What if we have a Great Crossbow? Like a Great Bow, it's a crossbow that does immense damage, with the drawback of long reload time, and perhaps even the concept that in order to exact its full power, you need to aim down the sights and charge the bolt before firing, or perhaps your character needs to crouch down and aim in order to fire it at all, like how great bows have to be planted down before you fire. Wouldn't it be cool if to aim it, your character lowers down a bipod on the bow turning into a small balista?But the upside is that the crossbow does enough damage to kill standard grunt enemies like undead archers, sword wielders and dogs. Perhaps even erode the health of tougher enemies like knights to near death. So basically the bow works like this.- Long aim time, reload time- High damage potential- Difficult to use.- In order to operate it, you need to aim it, which causes an animation for aiming, then the reticle shows up (like great bows), and you're immobile during this animation.Obviously Dark Souls is a melee game, but I've seen players use other methods as their main, and I would love to be able to use the crossbow as a main next to the sword. Even if the crossbow is a very difficult weapon to wield.Now before people begin raging that this is too OP, too easy, and would be seen too often, let me offer some points to this argument."Enemies will be killed too quickly, the level becomes too easy"Not exactly. As I said, the weapon does heavy damage, but not enough to one shot Lothric knights, executioners or giants, just enough to kill off standard grunt enemies. However this isn't a weapon that you can quickly whip out and no scope the enemy as it runs to you. And plus if the enemy is killed, but it isn't alone, most enemies realize that they're under attack and rush to you. This is a weapon that's meant to be slow but powerful, and if enemies rush at you, then good luck reloading and firing before they beat you up."The weapon can fire too quickly and easily"If you have nerves of steel sure. I want this to be a difficult weapon to wield, and I want it to be difficult for people to use. For those who easily panic when enemies come, yeah, this will be a nightmare to wield. I want people to learn to master it only if they're devoted to the style of play."PVP becomes unfair especially for strength builds"Not at all. Again, this isn't a weapon you can use effectively in the middle of combat. This is a weapon meant for long range assassination. Which will only be possible in PVP in a 1/10 chance.Like I said, if your enemy is unaware, then you have a chance, but if an enemy is aware, then this weapon isn't as practical. And unless your enemy is too stupid to hold up a shield or dodge the bolt, then it's not the best PVP weapon. Possible, but not the most practical."This weapon is too hard and isn't a main."Yeah, that's the idea. I want it to be less a main weapon and more a tool. A hard tool to master, but a tool none the less that offers high reward, for anyone patient enough to use it.So in closing, I hope to see in the future DLC's a Great Crossbow, which acts just like a Greatbow, but in the form of a Crossbow, and with the immense power to kill standard grunt enemies in one shot, while at the same time, being impractical against aware and group enemies. This is a weapon meant for a select few people, but I'd love to see Fromsoftware make it happen.

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With most other weapon descriptions it says something like "this thing was made for scraping meat off of bone" or "this is used with both hands for cutting" but the ballista on the other hand is "this is a gun, we gave the gun to you, a person who will most likely try to shoot everything with a gun until it stops moving or existing"

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So, is that last sentence referencing the lone warrior, also referenced in the arsenal charm/grafted greatsword? I think it seems likely. I wish I knew more about this character.

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Best strategy for dps: shoot just when you're half a second away from being hit. You'll shoot the enemy down and it will stun you, skipping the reload animation and allowing you to load the next shot way sooner.

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Medieval awp

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One important note besides lower stat investments and weight to use this weapon over the Jar Canon is the utility of it is more reliable. The Jar Canon sometimes will “Misfire”, as in the projectile just disappears (not sure if this is a bug or a feature) but it does this roughly 1 in 10 shots. The other problem the Jar canon has is it’s not as reliable when point blanking a player sized opponent. You can do this quite consistantly with the ballista; wait till your opponents attack animation and counter fire. But the canon will sometimes not go off in time or misfire.

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Groovy.

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Why is it called a Hand Ballista if it's far too big to fit in your hand? Perhaps it's meant for giants?

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As cool as this weapon looks, it doesn’t feel very fun to play. I get that it’s mostly for sniping, and if you do snipe, you better have the Arrows Reach talisman and the thunder greatbolt or it’s still not going to feel fun to use.
They fixed the problem of most playstyle not one-shotting but keeping that “fun factor” with combos etc.
But the fact that this takes an age to reload and you can’t even reload separately after firing really limits this weapon’s playstyle. For all the trouble it takes to hit someone it should atleast one shot point blank.

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How to start every run off right: Go to weeping peninsula, get the ballista, get Radagons scarseal from the evergaol to wield said ballista, buy all the ballista bolts from patches and both merchants in weeping peninsula. You are now ready to siege a mother****ing castle

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time to besiege a ****ing castle

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Um don't quote me but I think the bolt goes through enemies, I was at that farming spot and shot one of those gray dudes hit him and the guy behind him. So I think the hand ballista can hit multiple enemies.

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me like

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Incredibly valuable for a RL1 run.

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I love the item describtion. The choise of badass

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Shoot, bandage, and pillage. the dancing steps of war

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I've had this in the storage chest for a good while, but I tried it earlier on out of curiosity, I was on the high platform near the underground roadside grace, there's a horned omen standing opposite the platform, when I shot him the ballista bolt knocked it right off its feet, the damage wasn't all that great even with arrows sting talisman, but it was still really funny seeing these omen being knocked flat on their backs,.

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“Keep lining em up and I’ll keep knocking em down”

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Looks like something Joerg Sprave would make on the Sling Shot Channel.

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Does it deal a lot of stance break dmg? Im considering making a new character kept at low lvl with this weapon to help new tarnished with early bosses.

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Have fun storming the castle !

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I love this and the jar cannon both, but they highlight a seriously annoying UI function: Do not ever inform me that I need to two-hand this to use it. I know that. I have tutorial prompts turned off for a reason. Don't force me to do extra menuing for that. Lemme turn that crap off, From

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Pretty sure the description is a reference to Biorr

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so the minimun stats for this are 20 STR / 14 DEX?

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Feel like it should be in the wiki you only need 20str to use since you can only 2h it, especially since theres no damage difference

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We on that momster hunter ****

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Need to increase great arrow limit and allow dodging before reloading like a crossbow. It's nearly useless against bosses since everything is so hyper aggressive.

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This really gives the vibes of Heavy Bowgun from Monster Hunter

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why would you use this instead of the jar cannon?

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nothing more satisfying then headshotting those giant trolls for like half their health and watching them fall over after another shot as they try to cover their face (the bolts have high penetration through targets so it seems to go through their hand protecting their face to hit their head regardless)

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my hand ballista seems to shoot on the right side if i auto lock a target. is this a bug or?

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As a Hint and a big up Note here , i Confirm you only need 20 Strength in order to Wield this Ballista. ( However you do need to 2 Hand it anyway , plus the only downside is that you cant Melee Hit attack with it on Horseback/Torrent ). Having just spending few extra Strength Point upto 15 STR , while Equipping Radagon's Soreseal which will make it upto 20 STR ahead. ( Then 2 Handing this Ballista is okay to Shoot Greatbolts with ). Ohh and another Cool Side note , Keep farming Big Bear Beasts there are 2 Farmable Bears in North Caelid by the Cliffside just before the Minor Erdtree from Dragonborrow. ( There's also a Mini-Boss shade called Hunter Bearing Boss that spawns at Night only which he can drop the Bell Bearing to have Inifinite Supplies of small thin Animl Bones and Hefty Animal Bones altho i suggest farming the Bears better as they are just 1 shot , Not Rune Bears just regular Bears in Dragonborrow Minor Erdtree ). There's also the Merchant ontop of Mt.Gelmir who sells infinite Explosive Bolts aswell.... Enjoy , as for the Jar Cannon you only need 25 or 26 Strength to 2 Hand it and Shoot with it altho the Ballista is fine. ( Golden Vow and Flame Grant Me Strength does also affect and increase the Damage further on with Regular Bolts from Golden Vow , and Flame Grant me Strength enhances the Explosive Bolts as they are considered Fire dmg-type ). Goodluck ;)

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This Ballista is actually really Handy in all situations specialy in Catacombs , Big Dungeons and entering Castles. ( Like Stormveil Castle , Raya Lucaria Academy , Lyndell Royal Academy , Volcano Manor , All Castle Areas and Sieges ). What you only need is a Bare-Minimum of 20 Strength and usually handling and shooting with this Ballista is that you have to 2 Hand it... So not neccessary 30 Strength.... Having this as a Back-up when your FP is finished like with my Build i'm focusing mainly High INT with Dex ( My Strength is still 25 and i could use this Ballista while 2 handing it ). With Maximum upgrade this Ballista goes to 600 Physical Damage , but equipping Bone GreatBolts and Crafting them they deal actually +150 per shot. ( That means the Total Physical Damage Value is 750 not 600 as mentioned ). So respectfully this Ballista legit shoots 750 damage per shot , and while i have 80 INT my normal Glintstone Pebbles deals around that range with a Fully Upgraded Staff at +10... So this Ballista is not Bad specialy when facing tough large enemies , many small Enemies and busting your way thru while your FP is finished and no Potions at hand. ( Altho i do have my Blackbow at +10 , but with the Bow i generally use it for Status effects like Sleep , Poison , Bleed and Rot ). However in terms of damage the Ballista is insanely great specialy with a good Supply of Explosive Greatbolts your gonna literally wreck things up... You could farm up Runes , and then visit the Merchant uptop Mt.Gelmir he sells the Explosive Greatbolts where you can save them up for Boss Fight or clearing up Enemy Strongholds or Castles with this Ballista... ( And personally the Ballista feels much better than the Jar Cannon , with Reload Speed as the Jar Cannon loads much slower with just abit of damage increase which isn't that much by that point ). Goodluck.

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Actually incorrect the hand Balista does 600 physical dmg plus 150 physical dmg of the bolt itself. Making it one of the strongest ranged weapons in the game.

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Damage stacks with "Flame, Grant me Strength" & "Golden Vow" incantations. Boosts Attack rating up to nearly ~750 for about 30 seconds. Use with Explosive bolts for even more damage from the "Flame, Grant me Strength" incantation.

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Keep in mind that you can avoid the limited bolt supply by using the craftable Ballista Bolts and carrying extra Hefty bones (there is a ball bearing to allow you to buy infinite) to craft them on the fly. Save your explosive and holy bolts for bossfights

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there's a serious glitch here. not sure if its game breaking or not. i went into the fight with the black knife ash summon, and even after half health he would not transition, he using me with the rush stomp attack chains. for reference i was also using the rotten breath dragon spell and black flame, trying to stack of dot's on him, so that might have had something to do with it.

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As a note (I will edit the article later) you will physically hit with the ballista while mounted (not with the arrows). It's a bit of a wtf.

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Does 2-handing this reduce the required strength to 20? Or is it still 30?

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gun

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Gonna take this + greatsword and make a guts build

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Definitely isn’t the most practical ranges weapon but this thing is so much fun to use lol

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I hate that you can only hold 20 bolts.

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stuns enemies even if they use shield, 10/10 would throw invader into the depths again.

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"Perfect for reckless acts" Miyazaki knows us strength users well

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*This weapon cannot be infused with Ashes of War*
rip infernoplus

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Can only be used 2 handed, so the real str requirement is 20.
Can only hold 20 bolts at once.
You can make bone bolts for this by buying nomadic warriors cookbook 13. Purchased from a merchant Down the path of bellum Church.

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Ye' Olde Anti-Material Rifle

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It also has explosive bolts as ammunition can be bought unlimited by merchant near mr.gelmir

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Looks and used in almost the same way as a Heavy Bow Gun in Monster hunter, even has roughly the same no ammo shake too.

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This can be found on the Weeping Peninsula, in a chest at the top of a ballista tower near the center of the island.

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Hand Ballista is found southeast at Forest Lookout Tower

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Perfect for Guts build

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the grim sleeper has achieved his ultimate form

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