Stance is a hidden enemy-only Stat in Elden Ring. It governs how well an enemy can resist collapsing under your attacks.

See also Poise for the related player-character stat that governs when a player is staggered by incoming attacks. Players often casually refer to 'Poise' and 'Stance' as different terms, but that's technically the same mechanic, although stance normally refers to the PvE or enemy-only version of poise that is relevant to Bosses.

Stance in Elden Ring

Stance Basics

stance 1 image elden ring wiki

Every attack that hits an enemy deals a certain amount of stance damage. How much stance damage is dealt per hit is hidden from players, and isn't always closely related to the amount of HP the attack removes from the enemy. Once an enemy's total stance damage is higher than their Stance stat, they become stance-broken. This usually renders the enemy vulnerable to a critical hit, making a golden glow appear at a spot on their bodies, where you should stand to deliver the critical hit. Other enemies don't provide a critical hit opportunity and instead have a stance-break animation that will interrupt any attacks they're doing and provide you a chance to get in some free attacks.

After some time taking no damage, an enemy's Stance will begin to recover. Different enemies take varying amounts of time to start recovering, but once they do they all recover their stance damage very quickly. If you're trying to break an enemy's Stance be sure to keep the pressure on. Projectiles like Throwing Daggers can help preserve your damage if the enemy retreats.

Although parries generally have the same effect as breaking an enemy's Stance, they have a separate counter and don't actually do any stance damage. Parrying an enemy won't reset its stance damage meter, and stance-breaking an enemy won't reset its parry counter.

Stance Damage From Skills

stance 3 image elden ring wiki

Skills that deal damage will also deal stance damage. Below are some skills that inflict particularly large amounts of stance damage:

Since stance damage doesn't depend on your character's stats at all, and Skills don't have any stat requirements beyond those of the weapon they're attached to, they're one of the most effective ways to stance-break enemies.

Stance Damage in Melee

stance 2 image elden ring wiki

Heavier melee weapons usually inflict more stance damage, and different types of attacks with a given weapon deal different amounts of stance damage. The precise details vary from weapon to weapon (see below for a full table), but in general:

  • Fully charged heavy attacks and guard counters deal the most stance damage.
  • Jumping heavy attacks deal a very large amount of stance damage.
  • Uncharged heavy attacks deal a large amount of stance damage.
  • Light attacks deal the least stance damage.

Running attacks typically deal the same stance damage as their corresponding standing attack. However, the running heavy attacks on Greatswords, Great Spears, Greataxes, and Great Hammers will deal less stance damage than their standard heavy attack. 

Stance Damage From Magic

stance 4 image elden ring wiki

Any spell that deals damage also inflicts stance damage, and some are particularly effective at it:

Stance Modifiers

stance 5 image elden ring wiki

  • Enemies who haven't noticed you take 20% more stance damage.
  • Wielding a weapon with both hands generally increases stance damage by 30% for light attacks and 10% for heavy attacks and guard counters. This does not apply to skills.
    • The charged heavy attacks on the Duelist/Rotten Greataxe, Dragon Greatclaw, Axe of Godfrey, and Troll's Hammer do not benefit from two-handing. This is likely a bug, since guard counters do receive this bonus.
  • Certain enemies have weak points that take extra stance damage. For example, Golems' ankles take double the amount of stance damage than other parts of its body do.
  • Bosses take 40% less stance damage if you summon another player or an NPC. (Spirit Ashes don't impose a Stance penalty.)
  • Stonebarb Cracked Tear: +30% stance damage.
  • Stormhawk Deenh Spirit Ash. +20% stance damage.
  • Cragblade Skill. +10% stance damage.
  • Starting in NG+2, all enemies take reduced stance damage. See New Game Plus page for details.

Stance Damage by Weapon Type

Note: These are averages. Some values are slightly inaccurate due to rounding, and some weapons have different values from the rest of their class. This table provides a general idea of how much stance damage you'll be dealing.
These values are for one-handed weapons. Remember that two-handing generally increases the stance damage of light attacks by +30%, and heavy attacks/guard counters by 10%.

Weapon Type Light Attack Jumping Light Heavy Attack Jumping Heavy Charged Heavy PS Attack Jumping PS Attack Guard Counter
 Colossal Weapons (Hammers)* 18 18 15 28 42 22 33 42
Colossal Weapons, Colossal Swords 15 15 15 24 36 18 29 36
Great Hammers 13 13 17 26 40 16 31 42
Greatswords, Curved Greatswords, Great Katanas sote newGreataxes, and Great Spears 10 10 11 22 33 13 27 33
Halberds and Reapers 9 9 10 20 30 12 15 30
Flails  and Hammers 6 9 12 24 36 8 29 36
Heavy Thrusting Swords 6 9 11 22 33 7 27 33
Light Greatswords 6 8 11 22 33 7 17 33
Straight Swords, Curved Swords, Axes, Spears, Twinblades, and Katanas 5 8 10 20 30 6 15 30
Backhand Blades sote new 5 8 10 20 30 6 9/22 (light/heavy) 30
Fists 5 8 10 20 30 6 9/24 (light/heavy) 30
Beast Claws sote new 4 6 8 16 24 5 7/18 (light/heavy) 24
Hand to Hand Arts sote new 4/6 (arts/footwork) 6 12 16 28 5/7 (arts/footwork) 6/19 (light/heavy) 26
Perfume Bottles sote new 4 6 4 16 12 5 7/12 (light/heavy) 24
Thrusting Swords 4 6 8 16 24 5 12 24
Whips 4 6 8 16 16 5 12 30
Daggers and Claws 3 5 6 12 18 6 9 18
Throwing Blade sote new 2 3 4 4 6 2 3 6
Small Shields 5 8 10 20 30 - - 30
Medium Shields 6 9 11 22 33 - - 33
Dueling Shields sote new 10 10 11 22 22 - - 33
Greatshields 12 12 12 24 36 - - 36



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    • Anonymous

      How does normal attacking a stance broken enemy work? Ie sometimes I can charge 2+ charge R2s during certain stance broken bosses, while other times I can only do a fast R1 then go for critical strike. Also, when an enemy is in recovery animation from being stance broken and gets hit, does that contribute stance dmg towards the next stance break?

      • Anonymous

        Replace Glintblade Phalanx with Giant Hunt, please.

        Each Glintblade now only does 5 poise damage so 20 poise damage if all hit.

        Giant Hunt:
        30 stance damage on Twinblades, Spears, Halberds.
        36 stance damage on Greatswords, Colossal Swords, Heavy Thrusting Swords, Great Spears.

        • Best combat mechanic in the game, it can be a bit OP sometimes on a normal playthrough but it's incredibly balanced for RL1 and adds a whole other layer of strategy to boss encounters. Mastering stance breaking is ESPECIALLY rewarding against Morgott and Malenia, I highly recommend taking advantage of their low poise the next time you fight them.

          • Anonymous

            Couple things to clear up. One, invaders, NPCs, other enemies that are like you, can't be stance broken, not by hitting them (parry stance break- yes, bonk with big stick- no). Two a lot of enemies, a lot a lot, have stance break cancelling moves, mostly their side step and back step maneuvers, so lets say and enemy has 80 stance and you hit them with a move that does 40 stance damage and then hit them with second attack for 40 stance dam- stance broken, but if this second hit connects while they are doing a side step or back step maneuver- then no stance break AND there stance meter will reset as you hit their stance limit but their move cancelled the stance break, ok same scenario but this time the first hit connects during a side step or back step and the second hit lands clean, this will stance break them, these side or back step moves don't cancel stance damage, just the stance break itself. This is how you can hit Melania with 4 Lions claws with a colossal hammer and never break her stance, every stance breaking hit was during one of her big sweeping side steps and so cancelled them out. Morgotts big leaps back do the same thing. The side and back step are just the most common, there are other ones that do too, like certain attack animations.

            • Anonymous

              Everyone acting like stance breaking is op never even bothered with ng+ and it shows. I had a run from base game to ng+7 with my bro on seamless, and from like ng+3, my giant crusher rarely broke stances on bosses. Status is king, poise damage is simpler often since u have hyperarmor to protect ur mistakes, but this is only the surface. Not talking about op **** like starfists, those break stances quite fast even in later ng's since it's fast asf.

              • Anonymous

                Funny how this is the most powerful mechanic in single-player, but in coop it's hardly useful because Elden Ring players prefer fighting giant dragons with light shows and Japanese kitchen knives.

                • Anonymous

                  At the giant jar, offline, the summon sign in the middle which brings a guy with a little sword and a buckler. I hit him with the square off heavy like 27 times and never broke his stance. What is going on here?

                  • Anonymous

                    ok let's be real the stance mechanic needs a nerf. I mean it's too late to nerf it now but the next game needs it to be nerfed. currently it is basically a status effect but the enemies don't gain resistance to it. it is literally just bleed but better.

                    • Anonymous

                      Idk if its a bug but certain attacks from enemies will stop stance damage from registering. Seemingly attacks that get hyperarmor. Very noticable on malenia, but I've also had it happen on trolls, bell bearing hunters and haligtree soldiers.

                      my theory is that if you trigger a stance-break during an attack that has hyperarmor, it won't break their stance and the stance bar will be full, so even if you keep attacking it will never stance break until u let it go down and then up again. that's how it seems to me

                      • Anonymous

                        What happens to an enemies stance bar when you parry-crit them? Does it get reset, or is the previous stance damage "preserved"?

                        • Anonymous

                          What happens to an enemies stance bar when you parry-crit them? Does it get reset, or is the previous stance damage "preserved"?

                          • Anonymous

                            Out of all the mechanics i'm not a fan of in Elden ring, this has to be the one I most dislike. Just grab an ash of war that does stance damage fast like spinning slash and you don't even have to play the game anymore. So many bosses can be riposted and immediately stance broken again before doing anything. Combine this with bleed and there is zero challenge. I fought Malenia "normally" using R1s and R2s and had a fairly tough time, then one attempt i just started spamming spinning slash and she couldnt do ****, never even seen a waterfowl dance lmao. I really hope the next fromsoft game tones down this mechanic to like once or twice at most per fight so you actually see the bosses attacks and learn them instead of just winning trades against the boss

                            • Anonymous

                              Some informal testing on magic; tested on omens in subterranean shunning grounds (all are charged if possible):
                              Greatblade Phalanx: 3 casts___
                              Magic Glintblade: 7 casts___
                              Glintblade Trio: 4 casts___
                              Gavel of Haima (direct hit): 3 casts___
                              Cannon of Haima: 4 casts___
                              Shatter Earth: 4 casts (chaincasts considered a seperate cast)___
                              Rock Blaster: 1 or 3 whether held or or not___
                              Collapsing Stars: 5___
                              Oracular Bubbles: 3___
                              Great Oracular Bubble: 4___
                              Ancient Death Rancor: 4___
                              Crystal Burst: 3___
                              Explosive Ghostflame: 3___
                              Loretta's Mastery: 2___
                              Fort's Lightning Spear: 2___
                              Crucible Tail: 1.5___
                              Crucible Horn: 3___
                              Flame of the Fell God: 4___
                              Beastial Sling: 9___
                              Stone of Gurranq: 5___
                              Flame of Frenzy: 2___
                              Unendurable Frenzy: 1___
                              Wrath of Gold: 4___
                              Radagons Ring: 6___
                              Rejection: 5___
                              Noble Presence: 3___
                              Elden Stars: 2___
                              Theo's Magma: 2___
                              Grounded Dragon Breath: 2___
                              Dragonmaw: 2___
                              Dragonclaw: 3___
                              [The "___" are for in case the formatting gets mesed up when posted]

                              • Anonymous

                                For certain thrusting weapons with two strikes per heavy attack (i.i, Rogier's rapier), does it deal double the stance damage listed?

                                • Anonymous

                                  is this stance damage per hit or per button press, like if a charged heavy does 2 hits is that double stance damage or no?

                                  • i knew the smithscript dagger was bad but i didn't know that it was doing 6 stance damage per CHARGED R2. thats a whole different level of absolute garbage

                                    • Anonymous

                                      Can't wait until all of the dlc content gets their pages updated with stance damage/values. I need an alternative to glintblade phalanx for my misericorde asap after those nerfs

                                      • Anonymous

                                        Hope this page gonna be updated soon. I want to know how much stance damage hand to hand arts weapons have.

                                        • Anonymous

                                          Honestly this mechanic is an absolute downgrade of how they managed enemies' poise in previous games (aside from ds1) because it trivializes the game too hard. At least in ds3 you could've stance broken some bosses and large enemies only by blasting them to the head, of course there were bosses like Nameless King and Lorian but they have huge amount poise unlike most elden ring bosses, especially Morgott and Maliketh who get absolutely memed by stance breaking builds. It just wasn't worth it.

                                          • Anonymous

                                            light attacks are crutial for keeping stancedamage low, until the enemy does a slow heavy attack that is easy to dodge and leaves them open for a jump attack or charged attack. guard counters are most effective when the enemy bounces off your shield as a free punishing move, but is risky to use when it doesn't happen unless you memorize the patterns and "stamina" of the enemies, who behave much like the player after all and will need to recover after a long combo, powerful attack, or spell.

                                            • Anonymous

                                              There is a mistake on the page in "Stance Damage From Skills" on Unblockable blade:
                                              Unblockable Blade (sword) deals 36 stance damage according to the fextralife page for the skill.
                                              Unblockable Blade (fist) deals 30 stance damage according to the fextralife page for the skill.
                                              The Stance Damage From Skills part of this page lists Unblockable Blade at 30 (equal to fist), but links to the sword page. (sword does 36)

                                              • Anonymous

                                                honestly imma stop using this mechanic. its like optimized-bleed-build levels of good and its making the game a lil boring

                                                • Anonymous

                                                  i had to get chatgpt to make me a script to automatically change the word "poise" to "stance" on here and reddit cuz yall CANNOT stop getting them mixed up oh my god

                                                  • Anonymous

                                                    lol the sudden realization that this and poise-damage are kinda just two different status-effect adjacent systems based around "stunning" & "flinching" is nuts.

                                                    its the same "invisible bars where you benefit from consistent attacks due to the built-up status dwindling over time while resetting if you succeed in procc'ing it" concept but its also understandably convoluted in explanation due to the little differing knacks between these systems and something like a hemorrhage proc. Wow.

                                                    • Anonymous

                                                      What mechanism governs whether a boss's movement gets interrupted? Instead of staggering, I'm talking about just interrupting their attack so they flinch and have to restart the movement if they wish to attack again. Some bosses get interrupted (especially when they are human sized and when I'm wielding a heavier weapon) by my attacks as well but they are not staggered.

                                                      • Anonymous

                                                        the stance break mechanic is basically fromsoft's way of fixing the infamous DS3 roll R1 spam combat and i like it.

                                                        • Anonymous

                                                          This mechanic trivializes the game to be honest. I'm halfway through the game and I haven't died to a single boss since I changed my weapon to the large club. On the other hand I was struggling pretty hard with the initial longsword. Spirit ashes are also pretty cheesy but you always could have summoned helps since the first game in the series, so that's whatever.

                                                          • Anonymous

                                                            This mechanic trivializes the game to be honest. I'm halfway through the game and I haven't died to a single boss since I changed my weapon to the large club. On the other hand I was struggling pretty hard with the initial longsword. Spirit ashes are also pretty cheesy but you always could have summoned helps since the first game in the series, so that's whatever.

                                                            • Anonymous

                                                              From my experience fist weapons like the ball fist and spiked fists are insane at stance breaking. Their charged up attacks do as much or almost as much stance break damage as a colossal weapon, except they come out very fast. I don't know if the numbers here are counting per fist, but also claws have way less stance break damage than fists.

                                                              • Anonymous

                                                                Damn I though thrusting swords were on the same tier as straight swords, axes, katanas and twinblades but they actually do half the stance damage on a charged heavy, on the same tier as whips. I guess is to balance the speed of the R1 but still...

                                                                • Anonymous

                                                                  Say if I’m attacking a godrick knight if I hit him even with a heavy attack with a dagger he won’t be stun locked and can still attack even though I’m hitting him. Now I take a solider and light attack with a dagger it will stun lock him preventing him from attacking. Why is this if I hit the knight even with a light attack of a great sword he is stun locked and can’t attack back until I’m done attacking? Very confused it’s as if I may as well use a great sword or higher to always stun lock him so he can never attack back. Why would I want a weapon that can’t stun a weak godrick knight I mean I can easily kill him with the dagger but I don’t think weak mobs like him should not be stun locked by daggers he’s not a huge mob like fire giant.

                                                                  • Anonymous

                                                                    The game does a pretty poor job at explaining this mechanic, and I think that's why a lot of people find certain enemies unfair.

                                                                    • Spectral lance on a lance provides 55 stance/poise damage at range before Deenh's 20%, two handed 10% bonus, unaware 20% bonus, and 30% physick.

                                                                      So basically the spectral lance skill has low damage because it can deal 100 stance/poise damage easily.

                                                                      • Anonymous

                                                                        "Note: These are averages. A detailed list of poise damage for each weapon and attack can be found"

                                                                        Ok, but where can this list be found?

                                                                        • Anonymous

                                                                          Why isn't Wing of Astel's Nebula skill listed as dealing lots of stance damage? Each explosion does a lot (I don't know how much), and if you hit a big enemy with some or all of them, it can almost instantly break their stance in my experience.

                                                                          • Anonymous

                                                                            Hammers, Great Hammers and Colossal hammers got a buff in 1.07 and a nerf in 1.08 revolving about stance. Please update those values.

                                                                            • Anonymous

                                                                              So what exactly is the difference between stance and poise? is it poise that takes damage and the stance being broken is when poise takes enough damage, or are they two completely different stats / mechanics?

                                                                              • Anonymous

                                                                                These stance damage values are wrong colossal weapons (hammer) (at least the giant crusher and prelate's ) breaks stance faster than any colossal sword I tried, using only standing light attacks, even though it says the value us higher on colossal swords

                                                                                • Anonymous

                                                                                  If these values are correct then this is utter nonsense and completely unbalanced. Colossal Swords/Weapons Standing Light, Jumping Light and Standing Heavy are all the same while all other weapon types get increased values? How does that make any sense? Also a jumping heavy of a Colossal Sword is only 4 more stance damage than a straight sword??? Why do Colossal Weapons/Hammers do less stance damage than colossal sword? Shouldn't it be the opposite/the same? Why do Straight Swords etc get 4x the stance damage from a Standing Light to a Jumping Heavy? That is an absolutely insane increase. From 5 to 20?? While a Colossal goes from 15 to 24?! HUH? So a 400% increase VS a 60% increase. Yeah, totally fair and makes sense.

                                                                                  • Anonymous

                                                                                    The 'stone of gurranq' incantation should be on that list of spells. Also, some mention of certain enemies where From Soft have moved the goal posts to ramp up difficulty in the laziest and cheapest way possible. Crucible knight duo boss fight at Auriza hero's grave don't so much as flinch when hit by the weapon art on a +10 blasphemous blade. The sword slamming down hit AND taker's flames and the c**t poised right through it and took 3 / 4 of my HP with one f**king hit.

                                                                                    • Anonymous

                                                                                      I think stats might have a role for stance breaking. I don't know which stats but I tried it on Golems at Mountaintops using +19 Heavy bastardsword. Without Godrick's rune, it took 2 full charge attack and 1 light attack to stagger. With great rune, it took 2 full charge attack. Currently lvl 110.

                                                                                      Stats (Godrick's Rune activated)
                                                                                      vigor 45
                                                                                      mind 16
                                                                                      end 30
                                                                                      str 54
                                                                                      dex 19
                                                                                      int 23
                                                                                      faith 35
                                                                                      arc 12

                                                                                      • Anonymous

                                                                                        I hope this is not a stupid question, but I read on the 1.07 patch notes that poise damage when using 2 handed normal attacks was increased. Does this have any effect on stance?

                                                                                        • Anonymous

                                                                                          It seems to me that the warpick doesnt count as Mace (anymore). Because it needs substantially more Guard Counters to break Radagons stance, than the other maces I own.

                                                                                          • Anonymous

                                                                                            Once you fully realize how the posture system works and how you can use throwing daggers to bait out aggression from bosses and keep the posture damage high, the game becomes so much quicker and more enjoyable, since you can start seeing how the boss chooses what attack they will do at which time and how much you can punishe them DURING their combos.

                                                                                            • Anonymous

                                                                                              A Reddit user created an impressive spreadsheet for detailed stance damage per weapon https://libreddit.hu/r/Eldenring/comments/uftvei/updated_comprehensive_stance_damage_spreadsheet/

                                                                                              Wing of Astel really shines here

                                                                                              • Anonymous

                                                                                                Does "Power Attack" mean 2x (since you swing with 2 weapons of the same class)?

                                                                                                Because it makes no sense that Halberds' Jumping Power Attack deal half as much as Maces for example.

                                                                                                • Anonymous

                                                                                                  Stance damage may be my favourite new system in Elden Ring, but how it works is just super unsatisfying.
                                                                                                  It feels like they wanted R1/R2 stance damage to be an average, but it makes it so that even weapons that should feel weighty end up feeling less powerful than expected.
                                                                                                  There's already little reason to use maces/flails and their powerstance is awful, extremely so in ways I cannot describe and on top of that they don't even stance break while losing out on DPS.
                                                                                                  So in the end the only way to interact with stance in a dedicated build for it, in a very Elden Ring fashion is to just exploit the hell out of it with goofy jumping attack spam with random arts of war.
                                                                                                  Or you can just spam moonveil and get free staggers for days, since an elequent and intellectual spellblade tool is exactly what I'd go for when I want to knock my opponent out.

                                                                                                  • Anonymous

                                                                                                    The amount of stance damage that lion's claw does depends on the type of weapon it is infused upon. E.g lion's claw on a colossal does more stance damage than on a great weapon which in turns does more stance damage than on a straight sword.

                                                                                                    • Anonymous

                                                                                                      Two questions:
                                                                                                      1. In the case of multi-hits (powerstance columns, as well as "two-handed" weapons that hit multiple times like claws, fists, Radahn's swords, etc) is the listed number per hit, or is it the total assuming everything hits?
                                                                                                      2. Where do sprinting heavy attacks fall on this table?

                                                                                                      • Anonymous

                                                                                                        Based on the phrasing used in tutorial messages and descriptions, stance is not a stat so much as it is a state. Breaking an enemy's poise (the actual stat) will break their stance, but so will parrying or guard breaking them. The internal values for enemy poise are one-tenth of what they are for poise damage, but so is the the player's compared to what's displayed in menus. It's just multiplied by 10 to be represented to the player without decimal values. Basically, the information on this page should be moved to Poise with the values multiplied by 10 to match. Dividing the two concepts like this just causes more confusion, especially when it runs contrary to how the game itself describes it.

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