Serpent-Hunter is a Great Spear in Elden Ring. The Serpent-Hunter scales primarily with Strength and Dexterity. It is a good Weapon for attacking enemies at a long reach and does not require any stats value.
Weapon that serves as both greatsword and spear. Thought to
have been used to hunt an immortal great serpent in the distant
past, it manifests a long blade of light when facing such a creature.
When their master's heroic aspirations degenerated into mere
greed, his men searched for a weapon with which they might halt
their lord.
Where to Find Serpent-Hunter in Elden Ring
The Serpent-Hunter weapon can be found at the following location:
- Held by a corpse on the left as you enter the boss chamber of Rykard, Lord of Blasphemy. [Elden Ring Map here]
- If the players picks up the Serpent-Hunter in the middle of being summoned. After picking up the spear and getting summoned, a second copy of the Serpent-Hunter would appear at the original location upon returning to their world, allowing you to dual wield the Serpent-Hunters.
- This weapon will not be respawned on a New Game Plus. The only way to respawn the weapon is to discard it. After discarding the weapon and reloading your location, the weapon would reappear at its original location provided that Rykard, Lord of Blasphemy was still alive.
- If the player manages to beat Rykard, Lord of Blasphemy without picking up the Serpent-Hunter, the weapon disappears.
- Video Location
Elden Ring Serpent-Hunter Notes & Tips
- Weapon Skill: Great-Serpent Hunt
- This weapon cannot be infused with Ashes of War
- Serpent-Hunter can be upgraded by using Somber Smithing Stones
- A solid weapon for Strength build due to its A scaling for Strength. While slightly heavier than the Lance and cannot be infused with Ashes of War, the Serpent-Hunter has a horizontal sweep as its strong attacks. It can also be used as an offhand weapon for the Lance if one wants to dual wield Great Spear class weapons.
- Sell Value:
0
- This item cannot be sold.
- This item cannot be dropped and given to another player.
- NOTE: As of Patch 1.08 incorrect physical attack values of some attacks of the Serpent-Hunter weapon have been fixed.
- NOTE: As of Patch 1.09, the scaling values of this weapon were changed. Please refer to the Upgrades Table of this weapon below.
Regarding the weapon's special properties while fighting God-Devouring Serpent and Rykard, Lord of Blasphemy:
- The weapon's attacks, and its weapon skill, will generate additional beams of swirling wind that greatly extend its range to allow the player to hit Rykard from outside the lava pool at his feet.
- Axe Talisman and Spiked Cracked Tear, Claw Talisman (and by extension, Raptor's Black Feathers), Twinblade Talisman, Spear Talisman and Curved Sword Talisman do not affect the special damage of the weapon.
- Warrior Jar Shard and Shard of Alexander does boost the damage of the weapon's Skill.
- Because of the long windup of the skill, people can believe that Godfrey Icon boost its damage, but that is not the case.
- Ritual Sword Talisman, Red-Feathered Branchsword, Kindred of Rot's Exultation and Lord of Blood's Exultation work as normal, and provide a general damage boost. The same applies to the incantation Flame, Grant me Strength.
- Winged Sword Insignia does not trigger while attacking, but does receive the benefit if triggered by another weapon.
- When dual wielding with another Great Spear class weapon, both spears will generate the beams during the powerstance attacks.
Moveset & Videos in Elden Ring for Serpent-Hunter
Serpent-Hunter 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 (%) | ||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Serpent-Hunter | Phy | Mag | Fir | Lit | Hol | Sta | Str | Dex | Int | Fai | Arc | Any | Phy | Mag | Fir | Lit | Hol | Bst | Rst |
Standard | 111 | - | - | - | - | 73 | B | E | - | - | - | - | 72 | 42 | 42 | 42 | 42 | 50 | 24 |
Standard +1 | 127 | - | - | - | - | 80 | B | E | - | - | - | - | 72 | 42 | 42 | 42 | 42 | 50.5 | 24 |
Standard +2 | 143 | - | - | - | - | 87 | B | E | - | - | - | - | 72 | 42 | 42 | 42 | 42 | 51 | 24 |
Standard +3 | 159 | - | - | - | - | 94 | B | E | - | - | - | - | 72 | 42 | 42 | 42 | 42 | 51.5 | 24 |
Standard +4 | 175 | - | - | - | - | 102 | B | E | - | - | - | - | 72 | 42 | 42 | 42 | 42 | 52 | 24 |
Standard +5 | 191 | - | - | - | - | 109 | B | E | - | - | - | - | 72 | 42 | 42 | 42 | 42 | 52.5 | 24 |
Standard +6 | 207 | - | - | - | - | 116 | A | E | - | - | - | - | 72 | 42 | 42 | 42 | 42 | 53 | 24 |
Standard +7 | 223 | - | - | - | - | 124 | A | E | - | - | - | - | 72 | 42 | 42 | 42 | 42 | 53.5 | 24 |
Standard +8 | 239 | - | - | - | - | 131 | A | E | - | - | - | - | 72 | 42 | 42 | 42 | 42 | 54 | 24 |
Standard +9 | 255 | - | - | - | - | 138 | A | E | - | - | - | - | 72 | 42 | 42 | 42 | 42 | 54.5 | 24 |
Standard +10 | 271 | - | - | - | - | 146 | A | E | - | - | - | - | 72 | 42 | 42 | 42 | 42 | 55 | 24 |
Do you have to defeat Godskin Big Boy first, to get this weapon?
Do you have to beat Godskin to get it? In the Volcano Manor/Mt Gelmir area?
I thought you could just no boss into it through the Abductor Virgin warp or the Rya invite. Am I missing something?
- Anonymous
I love this weapon man, I decided near the end of the game to go full braindead mode and got 66 str and charge attack buffs to melt everything within weapon's reach. Pair this with 60 endurance and and bull goat armor with the poise talisman and you become a trade machine.
Some good pros to this weapon are that you never have to invest in anything but strength, so you can disregard every other damage stat entirely; poise damage is also fantastic on this weapon and can immediately down weaker enemies with a charged attack.
The fact it only has physical damage is a blessing and a curse as you don't have an easy time with more physically resistant enemies but never have to worry about the downsides of split damage.
Some downsides are that it's unbuffable and cannot be infused either, and it's ash of war is absurdly slow and committal for not really much reward.
Anyways I'm so glad they made a decent version of the storm ruler but it is a shame it doesn't keep actual wind properties outside of Rykard's fight.
You can dual wield the Serpent Hunter with another Great Spear during Rykard's fight and the wind attacks will also be generated
- Anonymous
Why does the swordspear with a edged blade get a poke for the crouch attack, while a lance with no edges at all gets a sweep?
- Anonymous
love watching people who don't know how to animation blend properly use it. its cute
- Anonymous
watching people try to do chainsaw after the easy version of it was patched is hilarious
- Anonymous
i wish the ash retained a little bit of the air magic, obviously not like an entire parking lot worth of range, but like maybe double the range of the spear
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
Use the ash of war as an opener to enemies you sneak up on or on enemies you've staggered, don't be afraid to use the followup, either, it tends to hit, and boy do these attacks hit for a damn lot. It also deals massive stance damage.
- Anonymous
soft counter for crouch poking is simply moving or rolling to the right side of the opponent since they stab it from your left side
- Anonymous
The Ash of War on this weapon is horrendous outside the boss fight but when you land it on someone in PvP it is the most funny thing ever. Does great poise damage to bosses and scales pretty well with strength so it’s still quite good even outside the Rykard fight. In PvP it has a very high skill ceiling though it can be annoying to fight against someone trying to vortex you with the crouching attacks the whole match. What it lacks in range and ash of war it makes up in damage and moveset and is an overall quite good option for a strength build.
- Anonymous
Actually crazy people complain about this weapon being used in PvP. It's a solid weapon to be sure but it's not anywhere near OP.
It's the shortest greatspear in the game, it's R2 attack isn't great for PvP because of its range, and it has a basically unusable ash.
Plus sides of this weapon is it has good damage on a strength build and has crouch poke R1, though it should be noted that this crouch poke isn't anywhere near as powerful as the old colossal sword one. It has less range, less damage, and worse tracking.
Like I said, a solid choice for PvP but there's setups like powerstanced spears, greatspears, and straight swords that are way more OP than someone two handing the serpent hunter. Plus using this effectively takes some actual skill/understanding of PvP mechanics like spacing, timing and roll catching. Putting this in the hands of a new player to PvP isn't going to yield good results for them.
- Anonymous
I wish this thing was infusible with weapon arts, so you could put thunderbolt/lightning strike on it to make it Elden Ring's version of the Dragonslayer Swordspear
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
I've maybe found a way to get two in one game cycle. All I did was to pick it up, then I teleported to roundtable hold to buff it. But I got killed there by Ensha (I was AFK then, okay?..) which teleported me back to rykard and it respawned despite already having one.
- Anonymous
So boring to fight people that know how to use this. Just run away - have a seizure- poke and repeat. Not to say it’s a bad tactic it’s just sooooo boring to fight
- Anonymous
If you use this in PvP you didn't get enough attention as a child
- Anonymous
There is an unlisted passive effect when using this weapon: your character suddenly starts sweating and can no longer see the sun light or go near grass
- Anonymous
got summoned as a hunter from inside Rykard's boss room (before initiating fight.) I picked the spear up and once I returned there was another spear.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
Sad that glitchers ruined the reputation of this weapon, I always gotta be careful when I see someone in duel or invasion with one now
- Anonymous
There's some misinformation on this page, winged sword insignia does work it also works with the beam attacks on rykard
- Anonymous
I wonder if there's any lore connecting this weapon to the old Storm Lord that presided over Stormveil Castle, considering its skill seems to generate a blade out of concentrated storm wind like the other storm-related ashes of war.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
Any **** that uses this for the bug in PVP should be permabanned. Don't like people joining coop with it either. How From hasn't made this an absolute priority to fix is beyond me.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
Very good charged heavy and great fun to use against Rykard but a shame it can't be infused with ashes of war.
- Anonymous
You can do a lot of interesting one-shot and fun glitches with this weapon, it's like the composite bow in DS3. I only use it for that.
- Anonymous
Just wish we could put ashs on it. Hell if outside the boss room serpent hunt functioned exacly like giant hunt it would be perfect
- Anonymous
Great weapon to punish gankers with the rob serpent-hunter glitch, hopefully from won't patch this
- Anonymous
Powerstancing this weapon does in fact cause the effect in the Rykard boss fight. Thanks to that other anon for detailing the dupe process :)
- Anonymous
can I use PUREBLOOD KNIGHT'S MEDAL to get a second one of these spears?
- Anonymous
The crouch poke attack is insanely good for PvP, not quite as broken as the old UGS poke, but pretty close
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
favorite weapon in the game, imo, however can we make the weapon art cast the arm of light outside of rykard or make it somewhat usable
- Anonymous
Maaan, I was so pumped to dual wield this on NG+. Do the dual wield L1 attacks both get the Stormruler treatment?
- Anonymous
There's another way to aquire multiple Serpent-Hunters. You have to do it in this specific order:
1. Unlock the grace right in front of Rykard boss room but don't go into the arena.
2. Acquire the right half of the Haligtree Secret Medallion from the Villiage of Albinaurics.
3. Go back to Rykard's arena. Pick up the Serpent Hunter.
4. Immediately go back to the Roundtable Hold. Ensha will try to kill you since you acquired the medallion. Let him kill you.
5. You will respawn in Rykard's arena and another Serpent Hunter will be there.
Repeat 4 and 5, and you can get as many Serpent Hunters as you want.
- Anonymous
if you powerstance this spear with another great spear in the offhand during the rykard fight the second spear has a blade of light when it attacks but it doesn't get the bonus damage
- Anonymous
Was this weapon nerfed? I remember completely stun locking with a mimic. But now, months later, it does not seem to stun lock most of the time at all.
- Anonymous
Can you do the summoning trick then powerstance these in pvp? Is that legal play or is it bannable as the weapon was obtained through an in game glitch?
- Anonymous
Pair this with a great shield that has an Ash of war to bypass the N/A ash that this weapon has while still having access to premium shield poke/shield crash shenanigans with great strength scaling.
- Anonymous
Equip only the spear, remove excessive weight, use mimic tear, change back equip, then watch the world BURN! So fun seeing a copy of urself wreckin the boss hahaha.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
ummm why does it say the winged sword insignia doesnt trigger? it 100% does, i use it in my serpent hunter build. not sure why anyone would put that it doesnt, you only need to try it out for yourself to see
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
this weapon resembles nameless kings spear from dark souls 3 a lot might be worth a mention
- Anonymous
Does anyone know if the invading bug to get a second one still works for patch 1.08?
- Anonymous
This weapon keeps through ng+ right? Sorry if this is a stupid question but I'd rather not waste ancient dragon stones if I can avoid it.
- Anonymous
Says here that it's it scales at A for strength but I'm looking at it right now and it's only B. Post patch maybe?
- Anonymous
Crouch attack damage type has been changed in 1.08 from standard to thrust, buffing counter attacks.
I believe its jump heavy attack its also thrust even though it is clearly a slashing animation.
Haven't tested the heavy attack, would be nice if it is also considered thrust damage, given the considerably high motion value it has.
- Anonymous
"As of Patch 1.08 incorrect physical attack values of some attacks of the Serpent-Hunter weapon has been fixed."
Anyone know how the attack values were changed? Or if its a net buff or nerf?
- Anonymous
Did they negate the "bug" pizza swap??? What did they do to my boy??? My last trump card against ganks maaaaan.
- Anonymous
You deny this weapon its true purpose. miyazaki clearly designed it for endurance builds, hence the non existent requirements
- Anonymous
The jumping R2 of this thing doesn't get enough love. Its fast and satisfying
- Anonymous
It's such a bummer that the AoW is so bad and non-infusable, this thing and Giant Hunt are made for each other. The good thing though - all great spears have basically the Charge Forth AoW for free in their running heavy attacks which is pretty awesome.
- Anonymous
best weapon ever, that machine gun tricks making a short work on Elden f.u. . c.king Beast everytime. The only easy mode, in case you're in no time to get gud. This, and magic I guess?
- Anonymous
serpent hunter users dont use the same attack 5000 times in a row challenge
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
If I discard it on NG+, can I get a second one? I could upload my save é and try it, but it takes too long to get there.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
people are using this weapon to instakill anyone in a 50 foot radius via an exploit. maidenless behavior.
- Anonymous
Weird that not one person mentions if its skill effect is increased by upgrading it. No one else thought of this?
- Anonymous
Lmao @ this weapon. I said screw it let me try it out for the boss fight and see what happens, already running a quality build and had 40 pts in strength so why not. I went it grabbed it, infused it to +7, and COMPLETELY WAXED RYKARDS ASS LOL. Seriously every single jump attack was 5-6k, and I actually landed one weapon art right to his head for almost 10k damage. And the range on all the attacks in the arena are absurd. Had no idea it was going to do all that, made the boss into a complete joke.. haha.
If you are having trouble with this boss (as I don’t know what the fight is like without this weapon), I HIGHLY recommend you try this out, even if you aren’t fully invested into strength, it completely thrashes him.
If you use a greatshield with shield bash, you become a force to be reckoned with. Namely, the Dragonclaw Greatshield. Always had reliable damage for me. It also takes the place of your ash of war so you don't need to worry about the one on the spear.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
A great weapon over-all good range, scaling, damage and style. The AoW is even situationally useful. Pretty good weapo- BUT NOT NEARLY AS GOOD AS VYKES WAR SPEAR THE MOST POWERFUL ARMAMENT IN THE WHOLE GAME. IT INFLICTS MADNESS UPON WHOEVER IT TOUCHES! IT'S CHAOTIC TOUCH IS SO STRONG IT EVEN INFLICTS MADNESS ON THOSE WHO I-FRAME ITS ATTACK! THE MADNESS AND CHAOS IS UN-ESCAPABLE! IT IS INEVITABLE SO JOIN IT AND BECOME A TRUE LORD, A SERVANT TO THE THREE FINGERS!
MAY CHAOS TAKE THE WORLD! MAY CHAOS TAKE THE WORLD! MAY CHAOS TAKE THE WORLD! MAY CHAOS TAKE THE WORLD!
- Anonymous
i got 2 of these at some point. possible glitch? will miyazaki come after my soul and ban me?
- Anonymous
Join the nameless king as family....And together we will devour my father for disowning me!
- Anonymous
the only sweaty pvp weapon i can respect since it doesn't rely on a busted ash
- Anonymous
In my opinion, you should be allowed to change the ash of war once you’ve killed Rykard in your world. Like take it to the blacksmith and have him reforge it so it can take the respective ashes for this weapon class. It’s still a good weapon as is with great strength scaling. I just think it would be fun to have different ashes of war to try on it
- Anonymous
I land this weapon art surprisingly often in pvp, considering how comically slow it is.
Either they start panic rolling and still get hit by the painfully slow first hit of Great Serpent Hunt, or they wait the first hit out, think that's it and charge you , only to get hit by the optional follow up hit that noone ever expects for some reason.
- Anonymous
Why is this thing so strong? I see it used a lot for challenge runs, and it seems to do crazy damage for what I assumed was a gimmick weapon.
Also it looks like a slightly less cool version of the Dragonslayer's swordspear which is pog
- Anonymous
This would be an absolutely awesome strength weapon if only you could change the weapon art, or if the weapon art kept the beam of light, but it was just smaller and maybe weaker than it is against Rykard.
- Anonymous
I'm gonna get borealis to low health then when someone invades, kill borealis and then use dragonbolt blessing, everybody gangsta till you invade the nameless king.
- Anonymous
Surprisingly great weapon. Deals great damage for str builds, has a great moveset and the skill is slow but the slowness works to its favour, as the follow-up is deceptively fast and hits like a cargo train on jet engines, which means a lot of people will get baited by the slow first attack and then get hit by the follow-up when they go in to punish.
- Anonymous
Dear Miyazaki plz, If that pissible- after Rycard defeat serpent hunter become not rare but common weapon with str and dex (something like 40 str and 14 dex) requirenment and (most importante) CHANGEBLE ASH OF WAR.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
Really good weapon for str builds, great moveset for PvE and PvP, ash is actually decent (not in PvP) and has literally no requirements to use, only bad thing is how annoying it is to get two but it's perfectly good without dual wielding so it's fine, great weapon
- Anonymous
Hands down best greatspear for strength builds. Massive damage, great moveset and looks fine as hell. Skill is situational but does tremendous damage if you manage to land it, you can bait people into the second part which comes out surprisingly fast. Here's a few interesting things I've noticed while using this weapon: The rolling/crouch attack is different from all the other greatspears, it's the colossal sword poke which is a nice bonus to an already great moveset. Second thing, all of its attacks are considered pierce attacks, even the R2 sweeps and jumping R2 so you'll greatly benefit from the spear Talisman.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
I swear, if one more Host summons me for Rykard just to sleep on this and go long-range with their dinky bow and arrows...
You don't have to upgrade it to get better damage, you don't ever require any attributes to wield it: this was made for all builds. Just pick it up and go to town playing fireman or sumthin.
- Anonymous
this weapon has a followup skill, sadly i learned it after my 10th try :( when you combo the weapon art by pressing the same button again it does like 9K damage sometimes
- Anonymous
Has good strength scaling, looks cool and has no requirements, but afaik its weapon art is useless outside of Rykard's fight, so sadly its mediocre outside of that fight, atleast its not completely useless unlike stormruler
- Anonymous
Seems to have an odd interaction with Radahn where it has the effect of subsequent attacks dealing more damage, similar to how it behaves with Rykard but this doesn't seem to apply to the weapon universally.
Tested on NG with a +10 Serpent Hunter Spear and 37 STR.
Starting from a rolling R1:
Rolling R1: 433 DMG
Second R1: 626 DMG
Starting from a standing R1:
First R1: 567 DMG
Second R1: 581 DMG
Third R1: 626 DMG
Jumping R2:
First R2: 771 DMG
Second R2: 1002 DMG
- Anonymous
They could've given us something like that one attack godrick does where he throws air at you, though since It dissapears in ng+ It would have to be really good to upgrade
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
If i didn't got/discard serpent hunter in first walkthrough is it possible to get one on new game plus or it not respawn even if i don't have copy?
- Anonymous
"Serpent Hunter will not be respawned on a New Game Plus". Does it mean if i discard/didn't get it on ng i won't be able to get one in ng+?
- Anonymous
Weapon art is so slow, it should have wind beams outside the boss fight aswell.
- Anonymous
This would have been a cool weapon if we can use its beam mode against serpent type enemies, not with just rykard.
- Anonymous
"honest" lance... at least there's no reason to dual wield these.
0
+10
-1