Highlights
- Strength weapons in games like Lords of the Fallen and Dark Souls have high stat requirements, making them suitable for players who invest heavily in Strength.
- The Giant-Crusher in Elden Ring and Ledo’s Great Hammer in Dark Souls 3 are some of the most powerful Strength weapons, but they require a significant amount of Strength to wield.
- In games like Elden Ring and Path of Exile, players may need to make substantial stat investments to use certain weapons, showcasing the importance of character customization and leveling up.
Leveling up has become synonymous with gaming, a constant desire to strive and get more powerful. Across the vast amount of video games and genres, players can be hard-pressed to find a title that doesn’t feature some sort of leveling system in one way or another.
Elden Ring: 13 Overpowered Builds
These powerful, OP builds will make adventuring and fighting through the world of Elden Ring feel like a walk at the local park.
Of course, in some games, leveling up a character comes with the addition of stats to increase their power. For example, Skyrim. As more progression in a game is made, the higher the level and the more powerful a player will become, leading to some ridiculous numbers. In games where stats are present, weapons will also have an entry threshold, with these requiring specific stats to wield, some of which can require ridiculously high investment in order to use.
8 Lords Of The Fallen – Sword Of Skin And Tooth
36 Strength
Lords of the Fallen (2023)
- Released
- October 13, 2023
- Developer(s)
- HEXWORKS
- Genre(s)
- Action RPG
As Lords of the Fallen is a Souls-like, Strength weapons hold some of the highest stat requirements in the game, with the Sword of Skin and Tooth needing the most.
Viewed as a pure Strength build weapon among the numerous armaments available, the Sword of Skin and Tooth is also one of the heaviest.
Lords Of The Fallen: Best Grand Swords, Ranked
Grand Swords in Lords of the Fallen are sort of a niche category of weapon, surprisingly. Among all of them, these Swords are the best of the best.
The Sword of Skin and Tooth might not be seen as the definitive best Strength weapon Lords of the Fallen has to offer; that goes to the Iron Wayfarer’s Hammer. However, it is a decent alternative, possessing a B- in Strength scaling.
7 Dark Souls – Smough’s Hammer
58 Strength
Dark Souls Remastered
- Released
- May 23, 2018
- Genre(s)
- Action RPG
Boss weapons can be very hit or miss in the Dark Souls series, offering some of the best tools to kill enemies with at times, but then also providing some armaments that make players wonder if they truly deserve to be obtained from a boss.
Smough’s Hammer is in the former category in this case, with it being one of the best Strength weapons in Dark Souls, along with the Black Knight Halberd and the Great Club.
6 Elden Ring – Giant-Crusher
60 Strength
Elden Ring
- Released
- February 25, 2022
One of the weapons in Elden Ring that requires comitted and heavy investment.
Named the Giant-Crusher, this weapon is able to do more than that. Made out of stone, it is a miracle it doesn’t crack when slamming down on enemies, but it also outputs some of the biggest damage in Elden Ring.
Often seen as the poster child for Strength builds and their numerous weapons, the Giant-Crusher requires a huge amount of Strength to wield it, but can be used at a lower level when two-handing.
5 Dark Souls 3 – Ledo’s Great Hammer
60 Strength
Dark Souls 3
- Released
- March 24, 2016
- Genre(s)
- Action RPG
Ledo’s Great Hammer possesses the highest stat requirement in Dark Souls 3.
Another massive hammer weapon, Ledo’s Great Hammer shares the same Strength requirement as Elden Ring’s Giant-Crusher, but has a slight improvement in its own stats.
Dark Souls 3: The 5 Best Strength Builds
Dark Souls 3 players seeking to demolish their enemies with an overwhelming show of melee power should consider trying out one of these top builds!
Ledo’s Great Hammer deals a bit more damage, but is heavier. As a bonus, the hammer also possesses higher poise than most weapons and is one of the better Strength weapons to deal damage with when two-handing.
4 Elden Ring – Carian Regal Scepter
60 Intelligence, 10 Dexterity, and 8 Strength
Usually, Strength weapons need the biggest stat investment to wield them, but the Carian Regal Scepter requires a wide variety of stat investments.
While not technically a weapon to fight with, the Carian Regal Scepter is needed to cast the many Sorceries available, and is one of the better staves in Elden Ring
Aside from the B in its Intelligence scaling, making it a good option for magic builds, the Carian Regal Scepter possesses an underrated Ash of War, and a passive that boosts Full Moon Sorceries.
3 Path Of Exile – Numerous Weapons
200 Points In Any Single Stat
Path of Exile
- Released
- October 23, 2013
- Genre(s)
- Action RPG
Owing to it being an MMO, Path of Exile offers a good chunk of loot and, especially, weapons. Items towards higher levels need large amounts of investment, some requiring over 200 points in their respective stat.
Path of Exile prides itself on never indulging in pay-to-win mechanics. As a result, there is a fixed level for players to reach and invest stats in instead of making the grind faster via money. This can take a varied amount of playtime depending on the individual player.
Reaching these stats could be a big investment for one player, and not at all for others. Regardless, weapons can end up reaching very high levels of stat requirements due to this design that can play into the detailed amount of character customization Path of Exile offers.
2 Classic World Of Warcraft – Weapon Proficiency
300 levels
World of Warcraft
- Released
- November 23, 2004
Numbers in World of Warcraft have always been on the larger scale, at times needing to be squished, but reaching the highest proficiency with weapons will require a ton of gameplay.
Stats in World of Warcraft don’t really play a big role in wielding a weapon; that’s usually left up to the level of the player. Stats on weapons are used more to increase the power level of the player.
However, weapon skill proficiency is most definitely needed in Classic WoW to wield weapons competently. A certain level of proficiency is needed in a class, or they won’t be able to hit an enemy, as they are not skilled enough yet. Leveling these skills up will happen naturally, as hitting level 60 is a long road, but the maximum proficiency being 300 makes for quite the ridiculous number of levels, especially when using a new weapon class for the first time.
1 Dark Souls 2 – Smelter Hammer
70 Strength 6 Dexterity
Dark Souls 2
- Released
- March 11, 2014
- Genre(s)
- Action RPG
FromSoftware has taken the Smelter Hammer’s stat requirements to the extreme.
The Strength stat in From Software’s games is almost always the highest stat that endgame weapons require to be wielded, with Dark Souls 2 being no different.
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Not every weapon in a Soulslike game is meant to look ‘cool’. In fact, there are quite a few weapons that are designed to look ridiculous instead.
The Smelter Hammer has one of the highest requirements ever introduced in Dark Souls’ array of Strength weaponry. While it is possible to wield the weapon at a lower stat total via two-handing it (as it is Strength orientated), it still doesn’t take away the sheer number of levels required to be put into Strength to use the Smelter Hammer.
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Ranked: 25 Most Powerful Weapons In Dark Souls
Dark Souls is one of the most difficult games around. Players need the best weapons in order to succeed.