Stormhawk Axe is a Axe in Elden Ring. The Stormhawk Axe scales primarily with Strength and Dexterity and is a good weapon for users who want to engage enemies in close combat with slashing attacks, with the addition of lightning damage.
Battle axe designed to resemble a hawk, with its wings comprising the blade. Signature weapon of warriors who strive to remain one with the storm, despite being so far from their place of birth.
Their hearts are proud, and thereby easily undone.
Where to Find Stormhawk Axe in Elden Ring
The Stormhawk Axe weapon can be found at the following location:
- 2x looted from Nepheli Loux at the Village of the Albinaurics in Western Liurnia of the Lakes. [Map Link]
- You must first talk to Nepheli Loux in her first location, and exhaust her father's dialog options and then hers in the round table to get her to move to the pathway under the bridge. This is to get her to move to the location. You can slay her in her first location and get the axes as well. It is also possible to bait the enemies to attack her in her first location, in which she doesn't retaliate against the enemies.
- 2x left by Nepheli Loux at the Roundtable Hold in the room outside the library.
- For the axes to be left at this location, Nepheli's quest must not be advanced, preventing her from leaving the room until after the Roundtable starts burning. At which point, Nepheli will be absent and the two axes will be left where she stood.
- Looted from a dead body in the courtyard with Iron Maidens near Fortified Manor, First Floor at Leyndell, Royal Capital. [Map Link]
- Castle Sol: 1x found on a corpse on a wooden awning in the central building of the courtyard. To reach this, head north while hugging the western ramparts from the castle's Main Entrance. Look for a room inside the ramparts near the northern section. This room has several slimes and a ladder. Climb the ladder to get on top of the ramparts and follow it west to a wooden bridge that connects to the central building. Beware the spectral Exile enemies mounted on ballistae on the ramparts, as well as the central building. Once on the central building's roof, jump on top of the cluttered objects draped in cloth in the northeastern section so you can get over the wall onto the awning and collect the axe. [Map Link]
- Video Location
Elden Ring Stormhawk Axe Notes & Tips
- Weapon Skill: Thunderstorm
- This weapon cannot be infused with Ashes of War
- Stormhawk Axe can be upgraded by using Somber Smithing Stones
- Thunderstorm damage scales with both Strength and Dexterity.
- Sell Value: 200.
- NOTE: As of Patch 1.08, the speed and distance of some attacks have been increased and the recovery time has been reduced. Also the stagger damage of Axes’ guard counters has been increased. PVP's poise damage has also been reduced with this patch.
- NOTE: As of Patch 1.09, the scaling values of this weapon were changed. Please refer to the Upgrades Table of this weapon below.
- Physical damage updated as of Patch 1.08.
Moveset & Videos in Elden Ring for Stormhawk Axe
Stormhawk Axe PvP Poise Damage Values in Elden Ring
Patch 1.10 adjusted PVP Poise Damage of all Weapons including some Spells and Incantations. Please take note that these adjustments are exclusive to PVP.
One-Handed Attacks
- 1H R1 (1/2/3/4/5 Attacks): 135/67.5/67.5/67.5/135
- 1H R2 (1/2 Attacks): 270/270
- 1H Charged R2 (1/2 Attacks): 810/810
- 1H R1 Jumping: 202.5
- 1h R2 Jumping: 540
Two-Handed Attacks
- 2H R1 (1/2/3/4/5 Attacks): 175.5/87.5/87.5/87.5/175.5
- 2H R2 (1/2 Attacks): 297/297
- 2H Charged R2 (1/2 Attacks): 891/891
- 2H R1 Jumping: 263.25
- 2h R2 Jumping: 594
Stormhawk Axe 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 (%) | ||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Stormhawk Axe | Phy | Mag | Fir | Lit | Hol | Sta | Str | Dex | Int | Fai | Arc | Any | Phy | Mag | Fir | Lit | Hol | Bst | Rst |
Standard | 136 | - | - | - | - | 58 | D | D | - | - | - | - | 49 | 33 | 33 | 33 | 33 | 31 | 16 |
Standard +1 | 155 | - | - | - | - | 63 | D | D | - | - | - | - | 49 | 33 | 33 | 33 | 33 | 31.31 | 16 |
Standard +2 | 175 | - | - | - | - | 69 | D | D | - | - | - | - | 49 | 33 | 33 | 33 | 33 | 31.62 | 16 |
Standard +3 | 195 | - | - | - | - | 75 | D | D | - | - | - | - | 49 | 33 | 33 | 33 | 33 | 31.93 | 16 |
Standard +4 | 214 | - | - | - | - | 81 | D | D | - | - | - | - | 49 | 33 | 33 | 33 | 33 | 32.24 | 16 |
Standard +5 | 234 | - | - | - | - | 87 | C | D | - | - | - | - | 49 | 33 | 33 | 33 | 33 | 32.55 | 16 |
Standard +6 | 254 | - | - | - | - | 92 | C | D | - | - | - | - | 49 | 33 | 33 | 33 | 33 | 32.86 | 16 |
Standard +7 | 274 | - | - | - | - | 98 | C | D | - | - | - | - | 49 | 33 | 33 | 33 | 33 | 33.17 | 16 |
Standard +8 | 293 | - | - | - | - | 104 | C | D | - | - | - | - | 49 | 33 | 33 | 33 | 33 | 33.48 | 16 |
Standard +9 | 313 | - | - | - | - | 110 | C | D | - | - | - | - | 49 | 33 | 33 | 33 | 33 | 33.79 | 16 |
Standard +10 | 333 | - | - | - | - | 116 | C | C | - | - | - | - | 49 | 33 | 33 | 33 | 33 | 34.1 | 16 |
- Anonymous
All's fair in love and invasions. A message to invaders-- when you sprint at me with this axe in your hands, it never works. You need to practice hard swapping, or you need enough carry weight to equip it as a hidden soft swap. It is very funny when you lock yourself into the lengthy animation, letting me burn you away with the flame of frenzy, but I'm starting to feel bad about it. This has happened to me three times this week. Please try harder!
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for how nigh-impossible invasions are when you try to play fairly, its remarkable how stupidly easy they become when you equip this weapon and only ever press L2
- Anonymous
Seeing hosts whine about invaders being able to fight back against their ganks will always make me smile
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When you wanna invade someone but want them to immediately know you have no personality
- Anonymous
for those that want this weapon early without killing nepheli, you can use the trapped chest in weeping peninsula to go to the capital, use taunters tongue to get invaded and the invader will spawn at the bottom of the elevator, activating it to send it up. You can then use the elevator to access leyndel early (you can also use early leyndel to grab an early somber 7 stone without having to do the volcano manor jump)
- Anonymous
This isn't a fishing game, but there are lots of fishermen...
- Anonymous
The AoW is great for finishing off invaders that cower in a pack of enemies.
- Anonymous
Guys... finally a good axe
no need to hate this baby, you will cry if it get nerfed
- Anonymous
The best all round weapon in the game for me, and believe me- I've thought about it...
Fast guard counters, huge dps aow with thunderstorm (especially early game), easy to get early game, somber upgrades.
It's just a shame Nephali has to die :(
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Insanely powerful weapon if you’re playing an aggressive build that can stand to trade a hit if needed.
The Skill is so insanely effective, you can stunlock both enemies and players and pulverize them, provided you manage to anticipate them getting close, and it hardly costs any FP to use either.
- Anonymous
for a somber weapon the game sure hands it like it's candy within one game cycle
- Anonymous
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A fair weapon against our beloved & maidenless Gankers!! otherwise i also dislike guy's who using this in arena for tryhard win. Pls no nerf fromsoft we need an effective gankhunter
- Anonymous
The only somber weapon you could quad wield in one new game cycle
- Anonymous
Range is bad, but the design is awesome, the particles are so cool, and the skill...holy shite, pull this off when ur getting gangbanged by mobs. It's also the signature weapon of the true lord of limgrave so 10/10
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Anyone else bothered how the ash of war of this weapon doesn't buff both axes when dual wielding?
- Anonymous
A few things about this weapon:
1) Axe stance damage is pretty poor (only 33 for a charged R2, meaning you need 4 hits to stagger most bosses) but if you play smart and aggressive this axe will reward you will amazing damage on a stance break. I don't mean from the riposte: instead you should just start spamming the weapon art and don't stop until they get back up and smack you. Ritual Sword/Shield, Bull-Goat, and Shard of Alexander help with this, as do high-poise armor sets.
2) This is a quality weapon that scales better with STR than DEX. As such, your first investment should be to pump STR to 54, at which point your two-handed bonus and the scaling hardcap. From there, you can start bringing DEX up. Vagabond gets 80 STR and 15 DEX at level 77 at the lowest, but you'll see superior AR at the same level by capping STR and getting to 41 DEX.
3) The lightning buff your weapon art adds is substantially better (120 lightning dmg) than the buff from Lightning Slash or a grease (85 lightning damage). It's not great outside the first few areas of the game, but it boosts your AR a bit.
4) Pairs well with the Dragon Halberd, itself also a quality weapon that gets a lightning buff and scales better with STR -- not to mention its excellent moveset.
Have fun!
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Only stupid players fall for this. And by stupid I mean the average ganker/password summon.
- Anonymous
I love this thing as secondary pvp weapon. Hide it, at first, get em drawn em in, switch,
crank, start laughing. The gank pvp players deserve no less. Enjoy before they nerf it.
- Anonymous
I have a +10 one mostly for the fashion souls, it's not bad but there are just way better weapons.
- Anonymous
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Great for low level pvp, but the price you have to pay to get it isn't worth it.
- Anonymous
You should always assume that any invader is going to start up this AoW at any moment. Insta-win
- Anonymous
This is the best axe to kill Malenia by the way. Killer her in my second attempt and fist time she blossomed (second phase). Just locked her in the skill and she keeps stunning. So if you are having difficulty killing her use the axe. Talismans include Godfrey Icon and shard of Alexander.
- Anonymous
Making a Quality build won’t be the first thing on the player-base mind. It’s a shame, cause this axe gets nearly 700 AR. And of course, the weapon skill is busted against mobs/ganks.
- Anonymous
Oh no, did you and your ganksquad mindlessly run face first into an invader as usual, and get punished for it?
- Anonymous
Basically the dragonslayer axe but not good cuz elden ring doesn't like regular axes, for shame
This really should have been a paired weapon like the Winged Knight Twinaxes from DS3.
- Anonymous
Are axes slower than other one-handed weapons in powerstance? Yes. Are they a bit clunky? Sure. Did I enjoy using a pair of these for a NG+ playthrough? Also yes, and I tend to play healers and casters in most games (including this one.) Also, my previous playthrough was using the Golem's Halberd (which I also had some fun with) and compared to that, dual axes felt damn-near acrobatic.
These axes in particular do make up for some of the shortcomings with their AoW as well. As mentioned in other posts, it does have a bit of animation lock and short reach, but if you get under something and start spinning (especially if the enemy is staggered for a few seconds) you do rip health off of most things.
- Anonymous
The damage you get out of this weapon by just meeting the minimum requirements is huge. Remarkably high base damage + flat lightning buff from the weapon art. I've been really enjoying this weapon on my RL 1 run.
- Anonymous
the aow, if you connect it's great, but if they move out of the way you're a sitting duck. swirling, unable to move like a fool as they destroy you out of its range.
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4 per playthrough? they really didn't want us to miss this thing
- Anonymous
When you see someone with this in PVP it means you need to kill them from outside the hitbox of the one trick pony ash of war which they will spam because the moveset is lacking.
- Anonymous
I like how they removed the startup stun on stuff like the royal greatsword because it would "feel bad to play against".
Then keep stuff like this
- Anonymous
Fantastic weapon, be it early game or end, even max level this darn thing holds up consistently for PVE as well as PVP. If you like axes, lightning, god forbid both, this is your weapon!
- Anonymous
S tier weapon when invading as it just delete ganks in seconds. Even when you get hit out of the WA the hitbox of it lingers for a second forcing a trade. Never jump attack into it unless you’re willing to take a trade. This weapon is worth having in your inventory as a swap even if your Dex or Str isn’t very high due to its insane base damage.
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As someone still learning about over/pvp stuff,does Godfrey’s icon work for this and if not, what setup would anyone recommend,appreciate the help
- Anonymous
Ash of war needs nerfing, once you get hit by the First hit, youre in for the whole Party. Not fun to play against.
- Anonymous
why are there multiple of this weapon that uses sombers but not many others (i think at least, might be wrong)
- Anonymous
honestly it does have a gimmicky weapon art but with base stat requirements and its high base damage, when 2 handed, this is one of the best VIT gouge weapons in the game. My RL1 weapon of choice as well.
- Anonymous
By far the easiest and fasted way to kill the teleporting banished knights in castle sol for their armor
- Anonymous
A lightning axe, with low requirements, that shines especially at low levels, and is obtained through killing an NPC after progressing a quest. DS3 Dragonslayer's Axe would be proud.
- Anonymous
The one located in Leyndell is missable, isn't it? As far as I'm aware, you will no longer be able to enter the Fortified Manor after defeating Maliketh, the Black Blade.
- Anonymous
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Very cool looking axe, reminds me of the eagle themed elven axes from Skyrim.
- Anonymous
****s HARD after the buff to Axes' speed and range. Now an actually viable chasedown option to compliment larger weapons, while also having a pocket nuke in the form of one of the dumbest, highest damage Skills in the game. It's not meta or anything, but it's a breath of fresh air.
- Anonymous
These weapons are not that great at all. Spent about an hour making a character and setting it up to do a build with both of them, theyre very underwhelming. You cannot buff both at once, so only receives the buff. The range on the ash of war isnt that great, neither is the poise. The damage is ok, just ok. There are many other options which are both stronger and more fun to play. If you are looking to do a dual wield build I recommend using curved swords for dex, dual greatswords for a str build, or dual katanas for bleed. These axes arent worth the time.
- Anonymous
I wonder if someone out there has been stunlocked by someone as an invader with this Stormhawk Axe's weapon art while their phantom friend brings out their Giant-Crusher for a full charge heavy just to smash you to the ground.
Don't know if I would laugh about that or be mad to be honest. But hey if it's happened I would like to know xD
With the optimal scaling cutoffs of 47/40 Strength/Dex, which can be achieved at level 69 on a Vagabond, this axe gets a physical AR of 569, plus 120 additional lightning from the Thunderstorm for a total of 689 AR. When landing the full Thunderstorm combo on an NG+3 troll outside of Godrick's boss room I get a total damage value of 4,507.
To compare to a roughly comparable weapon and Ash of War, the Jawbone Axe with Stormcaller comes to mind considering its exactly equal weight (5.5), and for the fact that Stormcaller is essentially the exact same Ash as Thunderstorm minus some scaling differences and the lack of the 120 additional Lightning damage. To reach about the same AR as a 47/40 +10 Stormhawk Axe (569 AR), a +25 Heavy Jawbone Axe needs 61 Strength (571 AR). To simulate the additional lightning damage, we need 21 Faith with a +25 Finger Seal, which provides 159 Incant Scaling, which results in 119 lightning damage with Electrify Armament. This is ever so slightly less than 120, but the Jawbone axe is also dealing 2 more AR than the Stormhawk, so it's basically a wash; 690 AR for Jawbone when buffed, and 689 AR for Stormhawk when buffed with the Ash of War.
I did the same test on the same NG+3 troll with this Jawbone Axe setup, and dealt only 3,588 damage, or in effect, the Stormhawk Axe full combo dealt nearly 26% more damage, even with nearly the same AR and the same physical/lightning split, and at basically the same required level on a Vagabond at level 68. Prophet only required level 62, so you could dump in a few extra levels of Strength, or maybe Faith for Golden Vow, but the same can be said for the Stormhawk stat requirements, which are actually quite low for the amount of damage the Ash of War, and even just the axe itself can output.
At 150 on a Vagabond you could go for something like 60 Vigor, 20 Mind, 21 Endurance, 47 Strength, 40 Dexterity, 25 Faith. Gear could be something like a full set of unaltered Banished Knight Gear + Fire Prelate Greaves, and maybe Shard of Alexander, Great-Jar's Arsenal, Erdtree's Favor +2, and Carian Filigreed Crest (or Dragoncrest Greatshield Talisman for massive physical negation) for Talismans. That should give you tons of damage, relatively high poise, and great damage negations, all with a solid pool of FP for buffs like Golden Vow and Flame Grant Me Strength, plus the actual use of Thunderstorm.
All this to say, this axe is really good, and makes for a very fun playthrough, especially because you can max out Somber Stone weapons way earlier than Smithing Stone ones.
- Anonymous
Buffed with 1.07, extremely strong weapon in PvE. The AoW deals insane damage even at low levels (flat lighting dmg buff) and staggers a lot, will easily take care of knight-like enemies without allowing them to retaliate. Against bosses, you should try to stance-break with charged attacks/guard counters, then use the AoW - quite possibly killing them on the spot. Only downside is the short range, other than that, killer weapon.
While murdering Albinaurics en masse I discovered (as of 1.06) that this axe's weapon skill is silent as far as enemies are concerned: you can use Thunderstorm to murder an enemy without alerting other guards a meter or two away as long as you're not in those other guards' line-of-sight. This silence is useful for stealthily clearing areas, esp. that certain group of Alibinaurics.
- Anonymous
is it even possible to get out of its ash of war? I really don't understand the timing
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As far as I can tell, the skill does NOT exclusively deal lightning damage but a mix of lightning and physical damage, with the latter being the majority of the damage output. The skill deals much less lightning damage than one would expect.
I tested it by first using the skill normally, dealing 2101 total damage with my current setup. With the Lightning-Shrouding Cracked Tear (which buffs lightning damage by +20%), the skill deals 2148 total damage -- a 2.2% increase. Much less than the +20% buff to lightning damage the tear is supposed to yield. Do the math and that means the skill deals 89% physical damage and just 11% lightning damage.
My setup is a two-handed Stormhawk Axe +10 at 43 strength/43 dexterity and Shard of Alexander. Tested against the Troll just outside of Godrick's arena.
- Anonymous
The lightning damage weapon buff that gets applied after using the Ash of War does not get buffed by Shard of Alexander. Shard of Alexander only buffs the damage of the thunderstorm itself, Roar Medallion buffs neither the thunderstorm nor the buff -- just tried it to be sure. Obviously it isn't a roar attack.
- Anonymous
From Software: “No you cannot have another broadsword.”
Also From Software: “Here’s four Stormhawk Axes.”
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Biggest issue with this weapon is that is rewards a passive playstyle, you know, the best one that there is to begin with. When you see somebody with this, you can tell 100% that they are a 1-trick pony that will only use the Ash of War as axes are absolutely dogwater in this game aside from this one, and again only for it's Ash which is shutdown completely by ranged options. What I don't understand is how Stormcaller, the generic version of this Ash of War, can't true combo/rollcatch into itself while doing substantially less damage as well. I feel a parity change is in order for this weapon, to either remove the stunlock or give the standard Ash of War the same stunlock capabilities. My personal wish is would be that they buff the axe, hammer, and flail moveset, but nerf this thing's Ash of War to same level as Stormcaller to make up for the buffs.
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I don't know why I disregarded this for so long--it's my new favorite weapon
- Anonymous
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great weapon art for both pvp and pve AND its the only weapon in the game with actual good quality scaling, i swear every other "quality" weapon in this game only starts to perform well when both stats are maxed and even then only really benefits from one
honestly my only complaint with using this is that theres no innate lightning damage and you cant buff it but thats still understandable and this is still an A to S teir weapon imo
- Anonymous
Is the weapon buffable with incantations such as the dragon buffs?
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My counter against bloodhound step dual katanas, just wait for then to bhs towards you and use the ash of war to insta kill them with the full combo
- Anonymous
Something interesting I found with this axe which I haven't seen mentioned anywhere: It will buff any shield you have equipped in your off-hand with I assume is lightning damage while the Ash of War is active (AKA while your axe is imbued with the lightning). Found this completely by accident when running alongside a Dragonclaw greatshield in the same build. Useful when paired with Shield Bash or Shield Crash AoW and quite useful with the Dragonclaw Greatshield in particular seeing as it already does a split of physical + lightning damage by default.
Tried to see if the buff also applied to off-hand weapons but it didn't, only shields.
The Stormhawk Axe will perform best with a quality build, slightly favoring strength but not as much as you'd expect. I encourage you to test the numbers yourself, but from my testing 47/40 seems like the ideal split, but this of course depends on how many leftover points you have after leveling Vigor and Endurance... Honestly, the differences are pretty slight tho so as long as your stats are somewhat close to each other it shouldn't matter much.
- Anonymous
The ash of war is hilariously strong. You can one-shot entire ganks with ease, especially when they get overconfident thinking an axe build is easy pickings
- Anonymous
The fact that these don't actually deal lightning dammages will forever confuse me.
- Anonymous
The very best weapon in the game. Carried me through most of RL1 +0 run to the end of Farum Azula. AoW damage and stunlock are insane.
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This weapon should be dex, and that colossal axe that scales dex should scale strength
- Anonymous
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Just a note, didn’t talk to her at village of the albinaurics all game and once I got to I believe farum azula her axes were at the village, maybe she tried to fight the omenkiller and dies?
- Anonymous
Just returned from Fighter.PL's video and tested this out myself. The WA is the perfect counter to RoB. Fast startup animation, sufficient hyperarmour to tank the first corpse piler slash, and finally staggers the enemy and pulls them out of the corpse piler.
- Anonymous
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Theres the npc in a room before godrick boss fight, killed her and got two of those. Idk if it is a random drop or what, but if anybody tryna find it early, you can try
- Anonymous
Only interacted with Nepheli at her first location and got the axes at the Roundtable Hold after beating the Godskin Duo
- Anonymous
The entire weapon art stun lock combos with forth hit being a roll catch. It did 1900 damage no joke.
- Anonymous
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This thing can stub lock for almost the whole weapon art in pvp, atleast 3 hits. Just lans the first bit.
I get to cosplay as my old character in Titan Quest using both of this and with Bull-Goat helm which looks really similar to Phrygian Great Helm.
- Anonymous
You get a Stormhawk Axe! And you get a Stormhawk Axe! Everybody gets a Stormhawk Axe!
- Anonymous
Please for the love of god make this dual wield with just one axe similar to Starscourge...its not used and only makes sense since its meant to be dual wielded and wish the AoW would apply buff to both axes.
If you're complaining about invaders in this game I hate to say it...you are very bad at this easy video game. Who would have thought DS3 would be the last sensible game to invade in. Yet people STILL complain about invaders here? Been playing PvP in these games since 2012 (although I stopped cause lol Elden Ring PvP) and it still boggles my mind players are so bad that they complain about invaders despite them getting nerfed harder with each game. Then again, Elden Ring is casual friendly and all the normies love it. So it is mostly just them complaining. You poor ER normies never had to deal with TWoG in DS1 or R1 vortexes from weapons like PKCS or Murky in DS3 huh...
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