Best spears in Elden Ring
Be deadly from a distance with the best spears and great spears in the Lands Between.
Fast and light while dealing solid damage from a good distance away, the best spears in Elden Ring rank as some of the game’s most popular weapons, able to take down the hardest bosses and PvP invaders alike in no time at all. Spears also come with the benefit of allowing you to attack from behind the safety of a raised shield, providing excellent protection and range overall.
Naturally, the biggest draw of spears is their reach, and many of Elden Ring's spears offer the best attacking distance of any melee weapon, allowing you to engage enemies in battle while keeping out of range of their own attacks - especially when you're riding around on Torrent. And that's before you get to Elden Ring's great spears, which provide even greater power and range at the cost of being slower and heavier.
If speed, range and protection fit your preferred play style, spears are the weapon for you. This guide will help you find the best Elden Ring spear to suit your play style, as well as telling you where to find every spear, the stats you’ll need to wield them and how to use them most effectively.
Best spears in Elden Ring
Spears combine the faster attacking speed of swords with the longer reach of conventionally heavier weapons such as axes or halberds. Excelling in jabbing your enemies to death while keeping them at a distance, spears are an excellent weapon choice for those looking for something between close-quarters melee and fully-ranged combat, and the greatest spears rank as some of Elden Ring’s best weapons overall.
There are two categories of spear in Elden Ring: spears and great spears. Standard spears offer lighter weight and good distance, while the rarer great spears demand higher equipment load and exchange attack speed for greater damage and even longer reach. Regular spears can also be customised with Ashes of War skills, while most great spears include fixed weapon abilities. This list will include both spears and great spears, helping you to find the best spear in Elden Ring for you.
Bolt of Gransax
As one of Elden Ring’s nine legendary weapons, the Bolt of Gransax is one of very few items you can permanently miss during your playthrough, meaning you will want to hunt it down as soon as it’s available. The lightning spear must be acquired before Leyndell, Royal Capital transforms into its Ashen Capital state after the defeat of Maliketh, the Black Blade in Crumbling Farum Azula - otherwise, you’ll have to find it in your next playthrough. The spear is picked up from the top of the enormous spear stuck in the side of Leyndell’s palace wall, which you can reach from the balcony after defeating Godfrey, First Elden Lord.
The Bolt of Gransax requires 20 Strength and 40 Dexterity to wield, with its damage then scaling with extra points in either stat - though we’d recommend focusing on Dexterity, as that will boost its weapon skill. As its origins as a smaller version of the huge dragon-slaying armament might suggest, it deals significant bonus damage against dragon enemies, with extra damage against ancient dragons.
The Bolt of Gransax’s infamy as a boss-slayer and PvP stalwart comes from its Ancient Lightning Spear weapon skill, which enables the player to throw a bolt of red lightning at their target for enormous lightning damage (which can be charged for even more oomph). The incredible range, speed of the projectile and attack power - even with a later patch reducing its overall damage - makes the Bolt of Gransax truly formidable.
Vyke's War Spear
One of Elden Ring’s greatest great spears, Vyke's War Spear is originally wielded by the NPC invader Festering Fingerprint Vyke near the Frenzied Flame Village’s Church of Inhibition in Liurnia of the Lakes. One of the game’s tougher invaders due to his combination of his namesake spear and his madness-inflicting spells, the effort of taking Vyke down is amply rewarded by acquiring this standout spear.
Vyke's War Spear requires fairly low stats to use: 16 Strength, 20 Dexterity and 18 Faith, which then scale the weapon’s damage. Standard attacks are quite nasty, inflicting a mixture of physical damage, fire damage and a high build-up of Madness in your foe. The spear’s real draw, though, is its unique weapon skill Frenzyflame Thrust, which slams into the ground with an explosion that causes both fire damage and a high build-up of the Madness status in the wielder and their target.
Madness is one of Elden Ring’s most brutal status effects, inflicting high health damage and draining the afflicted player’s FP, draining their power to cast spells. While the status only applies to fellow players in PvP, there are few more terrifying spears to encounter when being invaded and Vyke's War Spear holds its own as a deadly pick against bosses and enemies, too.
Cleanrot Spear
The favoured spear of Malenia’s Cleanrot Knights, the Cleanrot Spear can be picked up as a random drop from the spear-wielding Cleanrot Knights encountered around The Lands Between. With a very low drop rate, you’ll need luck or patience on your side, but it will be worth it to wield this excellent spear.
Finding the spear is at least the hardest part of being able to use it, as its low stat requirements of 16 Strength, 16 Dexterity and 14 Faith are all very easy to achieve. All three stats then scale the weapon’s damage, which is split across physical and holy damage - making this one of the best spears when going up against enemies weak to holy. As an added bonus, the spear also passively boosts your character’s immunity to scarlet rot, making it a good choice when exploring areas such as Caelid.
The Cleanrot Spear features a unique weapon skill, Sacred Phalanx, that sweeps forward with a physical attack before summoning dozens of enchanted spears from the ground, dealing holy damage to anything they impale. While the slow execution time makes it riskier against fast-moving foes, the wide attack range can make it deadly against groups of enemies and bigger bosses, especially if they’re vulnerable to holy.
Cross-Naginata
The Cross-Naginata is unique among Elden Ring’s spears, switching the familiar moveset of its fellow spears for a unique combination of slashes and jabs that make it feel closer to a halberd or sword-spear hybrid than a pure spear.
The one-of-a-kind spear can be found early in the game, inside the Gael Tunnel between the starting areas of Limgrave and Caelid. You’ll need just 16 Strength and 20 Dexterity to wield it, making it highly accessible for lower-level characters. The spear itself excels in pure physical damage, scaling most effectively with Dexterity, making it one of the best spears for pure Dex builds or those that combine Dex with another stat such as Strength, Faith, Intelligence or Arcane for added spell-casting.
On top of its strong physical damage and interesting moveset - which allows for improved crowd control with its sweeping attacks - the Cross-Naginata also inflicts Bleed on enemies, sealing the deal on a spear that looks great, is fun to use and will leave your foes in pieces.
Mohgwyn's Sacred Spear
If you’re working your way toward starting Elden Ring’s Shadow of the Erdtree DLC, you’ll be primed to pick up this immensely powerful great spear. Mohgwyn's Sacred Spear is acquired by giving Finger Reader Enia the Remembrance of the Blood Lord item obtained by defeating Mohg, Lord of Blood, who also guards the entrance to the Shadow Realm in the DLC.
Putting Mohg’s weapon in your own hands, the great spear is one of few spears to require a high Arcane stat at 27, alongside 24 Strength and 14 Dexterity. That magical requirement reflects the spear’s additional fire damage, Bleed buildup - which increases the more Arcane you have - and its unique skill, Bloodboon Ritual.
Bloodboon Ritual raises the spear into the air to cause huge fire damage and Bleed to every enemy in a wide area of effect, with the ability to combo three thrusts of the ability in a single use for extra damage. The effect’s already devastating damage also increases with additional points in Arcane, making it even more formidable. The combination of fire damage and Bleed has made Mohgwyn's Sacred Spear one of the favoured weapons for taking down the legendarily difficult boss Malenia, Blade of Miquella, proving its place as one of Elden Ring’s strongest spears.
Death Ritual Spear
The Death Ritual Spear is another spear that goes beyond the standard requirements of Strength and Dexterity, requiring a minimum level in Intelligence to wield this powerful weapon and its unique magical skill.
You’ll need 14 Strength, 20 Dexterity and 18 Intelligence to use the Death Ritual Spear, once you’ve claimed the spear itself by slaying the Death Rite Bird encountered at night near Castle Sol in the Mountaintops of the Giants. The weapon then scales its mixture of physical and magical damage with Dexterity and Intelligence in particular, though we’d recommend pumping points into Intelligence to boost the power of its skill.
That skill is Spearcall Ritual, an ability unique to the Death Ritual Spear that summons a hail of ghostly spears from the sky, dealing magical damage that is increased with additional Intelligence. The wide area-of-effect makes the weapon skill especially useful against groups of enemies and larger bosses, although its relatively fast cast speed and range means that it can be a major threat in PvP invasions, too.
Siluria's Tree
This elaborate great spear divides its damage between physical and holy, requiring higher stats in Strength and Faith to wield properly. Its unique weapon skill then makes Siluria's Tree a truly top-tier spear with a ranged attack that inflicts huge damage at a distance. As the name suggests, Siluria's Tree is acquired by defeating Deeproot Depths’ side boss Crucible Knight Siluria, who can prove quite tricky to take down if you’re not prepared. You’ll then require 27 Strength, 13 Dexterity and 20 Faith to use the weapon.
The great spear inflicts both physical and holy damage by default, scaling most effectively with a mixture of Strength and Faith on top of its minimum stats. Siluria's Tree deals good damage with its standard attacks - helped by its long reach - but it's the Siluria's Woe skill that makes it essential.
Siluria's Woe fires a tornado of energy forward, dealing significant physical and holy damage. Charging the attack can also knock enemies backwards, making it even greater in PvP combat particularly. (Pair with the Godfrey Icon talisman for additional charged power, too.) With a mixture of physical and holy damage, range, and the might to push foes back for breathing room, Siluria's Tree stands strong as one of Elden Ring’s best spears for those looking to combine raw strength with magical might.
Clayman's Harpoon
Compared to some of the flashier spears on this list, Clayman's Harpoon is arguably underrated as one of Elden Ring’s best spears. Don’t sleep on it, though - this highly adaptable weapon has the unique ability to fit with a wide range of character builds. You can get your hands on a Clayman's Harpoon by slaying the spear-wielding Claymen found underground in Siofra River, Ainsel River and the Uhl Palace Ruins - though it may take some patience for the item to finally drop.
What makes Clayman’s Harpoon notable is the fact that it deals a mixture of physical and magical damage by default, which can be scaled with points on top of its minimum 12 Strength, 10 Dexterity and 12 Intelligence requirements, but can also be infused to additional elemental or status effects, adding both extra attack power and scaling options for different character builds. As far as we know, the Clayman’s Harpoon is the only melee weapon of any kind in Elden Ring that can be infused to add extra scaling and elemental effects on top of its innate split between physical and magic - making it genuinely unique in the game.
If that wasn’t enough to make Clayman’s Harpoon one of the best spears in Elden Ring for any character build, its default Impaling Thrust weapon skill - shared with many spears - can also be replaced by another Ash of War, making it even more versatile. In other words: Clayman’s Harpoon may be Elden Ring’s very best spear for every type of character, allowing you to customise the spear in whatever direction you need to fit your build. Impressive for an unassuming weapon dropped by a fairly nondescript enemy.
Need more help? Jump back to our list of best Elden Ring builds or our Elden Ring walkthrough.