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DARK SOULS™ III > Guides > Lyyti's Guides

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Damage Types

By Lyyti

Wondering what all those damage types do, or which you're not aware of? Know how to use each type, and who-- or what-- is weak to each.

Award

Created by

Lyyti
Offline

Category: Gameplay Basics, Weapons

Languages: English

Posted

Updated

8 May, 2016 @ 7:04am

2 May, 2017 @ 3:20pm

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Guide Index

Overview

Physical Damage

Elemental Damage

Status Effects

Damage Bonuses

Comments

Physical Damage

Physical attacks are actually divided into 4 different kinds of damage. You can see what kind of damage a physical weapon will do by checking near the top of the stat breakdown in-game!

Strike

“This crude, bladeless strike weapon is effective against most foes.”
Blunt damage type.

Metal armor lacks resistance to this form of attack.
Tends to have a greater potential to break guards.
Most shield bashes fall under this type of damage.

Weapons of this type:
Caestus, Mace, Club, etc.

Slash

“The scimitar's flesh-rending slash attacks are greatly compromised against armor and tough scale-covered hides.” Cutting damage type.

Slashing weapons are usually very quick.
Doesn't tend to bounce off of shields.
Very common in dexterity-oriented weapons.

Weapons of this type:
Scimitar, Uchigatana, Great Scythe, etc.

Thrust

“Spear attacks are centered on thrusting, and can inflict high damage when timed with the end of an enemy's swing.” Stabbing damage type.

Any sort of stab or thrust on a weapon's moveset will fall under this type of damage.
Are often more difficult to dodge in PvP due to a more subtle telegraph.
All physical arrows fall under this category.

Weapons of this type:
Spear, Rapier, Shortbow, etc.

Standard

“Easily-wielded axe crafted for battle and inflicting standard damage.”
Miscellaneous damage type.

Seems to be reserved mainly for axes and for more "heavy" kinds of swords.
Tend to be slower in exchange for hitting a bit harder.

Weapons of this type:
Battle Axe, Longsword, Greatsword, etc.

Elemental Damage

Elemental damage as a whole is much less likely to have defenses built against it. Most enemies and players are more susceptible to these forms of damage than to physical attacks.

Magic

“The azure blade is said to cut down heavily armored knights with ease.”
Power originating from the knowledge of the soul.

Conventional armor lacks defense against it.
Most enemies and bosses don't have a particular resistance to magic.
If applicable, scales with Intelligence.

Weapons of this type:
Sorceries, Moonlight Greatsword, Simple and Crystal infused weapons, etc.

Fire

“Pyromancy is to at once know fear and longing, the resultant power of which depends on both the caster's intelligence and faith.” Power in its most unchanged form.

Tends to be strong against abyssal enemies.
Repels maggots.
If applicable, scales with Intelligence and/or Faith.

Weapons of this type:
Pyromancy, Torch, Fire and Chaos infused weapons, etc.

Lightning

“This tale describes the lost practices of ancient dragonslayers, who found that in order to pierce dragonscale, lightning should be thrust as a stake directly into the dragon's hide.”
Power granted by the gods.

Metal armor often lacks defense against it.
Strong against dragons and giants: enemies of the gods.
If applicable, scales with Faith.

Weapons of this type:
Miracles, Knight's Crossbow, Lightning infused weapons, etc.

Dark

“Be it sorcery or pyromancy, all techniques that infringe on humanity lead to the same place. That is to say, they all seek a will of their own.”
Power originating from the darkness of the human soul.

Expensive to use, stat-wise.
Often inflicts very high damage.
If applicable, scales with Intelligence and/or Faith.

Weapons of this type:
Certain spells, Dark Hand, Deep and Dark infused weapons, etc.

Status Effects

Status effects build up in a separate, onscreen bar before activating.

Bleed

“Strangely curved sword crafted to cause bleeding, wielded by Carthus Swordsmen.”
Damage-burst status effect.

Inflicts a large burst of damage after building up.
Fleshy, organic enemies are very susceptible to bleeding.
Build-up speed scales with Luck.

Weapons of this type:
Katana weapons, Notched Whip, Carthus Rouge, Blood infused weapons, etc.

Poison

“Farron Keep was swallowed by the rotted wood, where the blunt-horned Ghrus concoct this resin.” Damage-over-time status effect.

Begins inflicting damage over time after building up.
Toxic is a variant of poison that does more damage.
Build-up speed scales with Luck.

Weapons of this type:
Rotten Ghru weapons, Poison Mist pyromancy, Rotten Pine Resin, Poison infused weapons, etc.

Frost

“This weapon is enshrouded in frost, and causes frostbite.”
Crippling status effect.

Reduces movement speed, stamina regen, and inflicts damage once built up.
Mostly inflicted by non-player enemies.
Acts like bleed from Dark Souls II.

Sources of this type:
Irithyll Straight Sword, Outrider Knights, Vordt of the Boreal Valley, etc.

Curse

“Humans are helpless against curses, and can only redirect their influence.”
Instant death status effect.

Instantly kills you after building up.
Seems to be exclusively inflicted by non-player enemies.
Resistance to curses scales with Luck.

Sources of this type:
Basilisks, the Deep Accursed, certain other enemies.

Damage Bonuses

These rarer weapons have (somewhat hidden) damage bonuses against specific types of enemies.

Blessed

“Special blessed weapons gradually restore HP and heavily damage reanimated foes.”
Weapons used against spooky skeletons.

Recieves 20% bonus damage against reanimated undead, as well as keeping them dead.
Look for glowing white eyes that indicate whether an enemy is going to reanimate.
Weapons with this ability also provide health regeneration.

Weapons of this type:
Blessed Weapon miracle, Anri's Straight Sword, Blessed infused weapons, etc.

Anti-Abyss

“The wolf knight was the first Abyss Watcher, and his sword is more punishing against creations of the abyss.” Weapons specialised to fell creatures of the abyss.

Recieves a 20% damage bonus against abyssal enemies.
Enemies of this type are sometimes recognizeable by glowing red eyes.

Weapons of this type:
Farron Greatsword, Wolf Knight's Greatsword, etc.

Anti-Hollow

“Greatsword used for a lifetime by a masked knight. Harbors the fears that lurk within the mind of Hollows, and is particularly effective against them.”
Weapons more effective against hollows.

Recieves a 50% damage bonus against hollowed enemies.
Doesn't seem to affect hollowed players in PvP.

Weapons of this type:
Hollowslayer Greatsword

Anti-Chaos

“Greatsword wielded by the Black Knights who wander the lands. Designed to face chaos demons.” Effect common to Black Knight weapons.

Recieves a 20% damage bonus against chaos demons.

Weapons of this type:
Black Knight Sword, Black Knight Glaive, Black Knight Greataxe, etc.

29 Comments

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NaniByte 27 Oct, 2021 @ 6:54pm

I'm not sure how useful this guide is, but is sure does look nice.

JT 22 Apr, 2021 @ 1:02pm

I'm sorry but this guide is not great. It's not even accurate in some areas and missing key information.

Takoita 19 Jun, 2017 @ 9:10am

Somebody probably already mentioned this, but that one red eyed silver knight doesn't seem to take any bonus damage from anti-abyss weaponry.

Stand with Ukraine 2 May, 2017 @ 8:43am

Excellent guide, the quotes, the screenshots, well done.

Remicalane 24 Nov, 2016 @ 4:56pm

PRAISE THE F#CKING SUN! also i didnt know about the Anti-(Insert thing here) damage types,

Paris Hilton 16 May, 2016 @ 2:15pm

Question here: What kind of damage are things like whips?

Seariiz 16 May, 2016 @ 7:08am

Ah,thank you very much @Disethas! However,I can't seem to get the close-up shots to work with me,they either show a blurred version or show the background instead of my character(even after doing the steps that you mentioned). Do you have any tips,perhaps?

Eluem 14 May, 2016 @ 5:22pm

Under thrust, you missed the fact that, when someone is attacking, their thrust absorbtion drops extremely low (usually into the negatives). This makes thrust attacks have extremely high counter attack damage.

Lyyti [author] 14 May, 2016 @ 10:34am

@Seariiz, First and biggest key to quality is to disable the antialiasing in the graphics settings: the antialiasing method is FXAA, so it blurs the detail of textures and normal mapping.

After that, you can go into the game's interface settings and toggle the HUD off for picture-taking.

At that point, you can try different attack animations and camera angles and take screenshots! A great way to get high quality screenshots is to set Steam's screenshot settings (underneath Settings > Ingame ) to make a .png copy in another folder. Then pressing F12 will give you a nice, lossless picture too!

Seariiz 14 May, 2016 @ 3:30am

I love these pictures! They illustrate your point pretty well. Mind telling me how you got these pics at this resolution and detail? I'd love to make my own for a wallpaper. Thank you! <3

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