Which DS1 Boss Soul Weapon is Truly the Best?

U just know that Artorias is the goat when he has 3 swords

I literally search for this exact video 2 hours ago and was disappointed when I didn't see you had one. Thank you.

Queelag's fury sword got done a little dirty. Artorias' awkward requirements are a massive downside for most players.

I don't agree with the method to decide which weapon is the best. Giving yourself the required stats heavily shifts the balance of which weapon is better than the others, not only because the higher the requirement, the higher the scaling bonus will be, but it also removed the main thing making some of these weapons bad to begin with: their stupid stat requirements. Great Sword of Artorias and Smough Hammer are prime exemples: they require about 40 levels of investment (and in a disgusting split in the case of Artorias GS) while weapons like Quelaag's Furysword gets absolutly 0 levels from you for its scaling despite having a B in DEX. Each weapon should get a 50 levels of investment in the stats so it is more fair. The only other option is to go 60 in every stat woth all of them so you are at the hard cap in every offensive stat.

I’m going to be honest, outside of the DLC bosses, it’s probably Quelaag’s Furysword. The GLGS, AGS, and CGSA have exceedingly high physical damage on single hits, the Chaos blade is a boss deleter, the scythe demolishes absolutely everything of you’re willing to rig your build for bleed resistance, but the consistent dps, reach, and not harming yourself in any way of the furysword is great

Dark Souls 1 has so many features that isn't really used in the newer games. that risk vs reward with the chaos weapons and Priscilla scythe are pretty cool.

Dude forgot the Blood Shield. Combined with the Bloodbite you practically have to TRY to bleed yourself with Lifehunt Scythe. And yes the shield works if your two handing the scythe and the shield is on your back.

I'm of the opinion that none of the Artorias swords are really worth the bother. I'd rank them fairly low on the list. Something you didn't mention aside from its basic requirements is that you need to have an obscenely high soul level to actually exceed the normal AR you'd get from an ordinary weapon. At that point, you'd be one shotting everything anyway. Below that level, they don't do much damage. And aside from that, the unique R2 is often more of a detriment. I consider the top weapons to probably be Quelaag's and the Golem Axe, both of which are not slow, have good movesets, low requirements and good attack ratings across most builds within reasonable soul level ranges. The Artorias swords are mostly famous for their total inaccessibility; they're more victory lap weapons for people on NG+.

- My ranking - #12: Dragon Bone Fist. I pretty much agree. Trash weapon with no upsides, even within its own weapon category. #11: Artorias's Greatsword (Uncursed). Weapon requirements are way too high for the minimal scaling you get from the weapon. The divine modifier is rarely beneficial, and the split damage means that you'll be doing mediocre damage until the very, very end of your run. #10: Smough's Greathammer. Way too heavy and stat-dependent, even when two-handing. Most strength weapons only need 27 strength, which is 12 points lower than what you need for this weapon. That is easily a sixth of your leveling in a run dedicated strictly to using this specific weapon. Health gain is negligible. #9: Dragonslayer Spear. Yet again low damage for the weapon's requirements, you would do better with the spear you used to make it. Fragile, heavy, and not worth the special attack. #8: Artorias's Greatsword (Cursed). The main upside to this weapon is the fact that it is not split damage, meaning that you can stop leveling Intelligence and Faith at 18. This weapon is basically a Claymore with higher stat requirements and worse heavy attacks. (At this point, the weapons become much better) #7: Great Lord's Greatsword. A mediocre weapon you get more than halfway through your second run, which is rather light on requirements for the damage it has... while it's technically alright, its existence is benign beyond NG. You will already have a weapon that does as much or more damage than this. Not bad but not good. #6: Abyss Greatsword. Has lower stat requirements than both of Artorias's other greatswords, with the main benefit of scaling off of humanity. With the massive damage it deals, it can compete with the Claymore (kinda) at the level you get it. Also lighter and has the coolest attacks of any boss weapon here. #5: Golem Axe. Heavy, but only requires Strength and can be two-handed and spammed very easily. While I would recommend the ordinary Battle Axe, its one-handed heavy attack makes it the only Strength weapon with a ranged option (and a decent one at that). #4: Moonlight Butterfly Horn. It is also a mediocre weapon, but is actually surprisingly easy to make. Distill the Lightning Spear and boom! Already done. Very good weapon for the middle of an Intelligence build, and much faster to make than an Enchanted Spear, with higher range. Low damage, but can be easily substituted with magic, making its main weakness negligible against enemies that are weaker to magic than physical damage. #3: Priscilla's Scythe. Extremely high damage, but extreme self bleed. It is the best weapon of its own class, and can be paired with bleed resistance to mitigate the self damage. Its running attack is very quick, and its light attacks can be easily chained together. However, I would advise not using it against targets immune to bleed, as you can easily screw yourself over. #2: Chaos Blade. Very good damage with a moderate amount of self damage. Highest damage katana in the game that scales with humanity, making it an easy choice for any Dexterity build. While the self damage can be concerning, it can be used to synergize with RTSR (without Power Within lol) for even more damage. At 1500 hp, you will have 300 hp, or 14 hits, to kill the boss with RTSR (which will always be possible at that point). If you build for it, the Chaos Blade will serve you well. #1: Quelaag's Furysword. Solid damage, humanity scaling, light weight, minimal stat requirements, and a curved sword. The Furysword can be used with any build and still pack a punch. Since you need to kill Quelaag for it, you really won't need to worry about fire resistance, since all of the other bosses can just be skipped. With how efficient this sword is, you can also quite easily make a pyromancer and just burn everything into the ground. As a note, don't bother leveling Dexterity for this weapon. It has nice returns, but is not at all required for its good damage.

13:33 It's also the weapon with the highest divine modifier in the game, dealing 40% extra damage to all skeletons, crow demons, and the 2 giant slimes in new londo ruins (instead of the usual 10% that generic divine weapons get), It also gets a unique 20% damage boost against Darkwraits, Kirk, and The Four Kings.

The Lifehunt Scythe is probably one of my favorite Weapons in the game. I love having a strong weapon which a caveat and the Blood Shield helps out a lot in that regard. Anything that helps me against my grass crest shield addiction

A lot of the ds1 weapons feel like they were still experimenting. Shield that shoots magic, R2s turning into weapon arts/ash of war, humanity scaling. Even if some are borderline unusable there are so many fun mechanics in the early souls games

Queelag's Sword must be higher 😢

How did I not know the Abyss Greatsword has Chaos scaling?! (probably because I always give Artorias' soul to Ciaran every time 😅) 10 years later and I'm still learning something new about Dark Souls 1. Great video as always ❤

It's not a given that an Enchanted Spear will always outdamage the Moonlit Butterfly Horn; it depends on the mix of thrust defense and magic defense. The enchanted spear's physical AR is too low to contribute much against most bosses but the difference in magic AR means there's enemies that the horn can hit somewhat effectively that the spear can't (the formula is set up so your damage falls off a cliff if your AR is less than the matching Def.) Either way, the damage difference between them will generally be small, but the difference in range is noteworthy. Also if something is heavily resistant to magic you're not going to want to use either weapon so I don't consider that to be an argument in favor of the enchanted spear.

Man the Quelaag weapons were absolutely robbed. They should both be in the top 3 based on availability alone. You can aquire and wield either of them shortly after the game started. Contrast that with Artorias final sword, which asks you to invest a massive 36 levels for just the base requirements and has to be aquired from a late game boss in the DLC. The Gwynn sword is even worse, the game is literally over before you even get it. It could do 1 trillion damage per hit and shoot lasers with every swing and it would still be completely useless.

13:20 That is the True Blade of Artorias. Deals insanely high extra damage to Abysal creatures like Darkwraiths, 4 Kings, Bloated Ones, Humanity Souls and Manus (roughly 35% more physical damage) Edit: Ironically also works on Artorias himself due to him being consumed by the abyss. His own sword works against him. But DLC scaling makes the damage increase negligible on NG+ and beyond

18:37 Sif going bonk mode

The dragon bone fist will always have a special place in my heart because it's one of the greatest low level miniboss role-playing noob invasion weapons because the uppercut is so flashy. This way the noob can have some breathing room to figure out pvp since you're role-playing a miniboss. The black knight ultragreatsword is another good one for this because of the flashy golf swing. Just make sure to test the weapons vs a friend without armor or many levels to ensure you can NEVER one-shot your opponent. The hits should be threatening but not unfair when training noobs. :)

Lifehunt scythe is my favorite out of these, its bleed is so satisfying amd fast to get off