In Elden Ring, your ability to use most basic weapons is determined by your physical attributes, including your Strength, your Dexterity, and so on. However, some weapons also require you to have proficient levels in other attributes; magical weapons, for instance, may have an Intelligence requirement. If a weapon is specifically employing holy magic, then it may have a Faith requirement. Here’s what you need to know about Faith weapons in Elden Ring.
Faith is the last stat on your list of character attributes in your Status menu. The primary application of the Faith stat is allowing you to use Incantations and Sacred Seal weapons, the holy counterpart to Glintstone Sorceries and staves. Certain rare weapons in Elden Ring, however, may have a requirement of a particular level of Faith, as well as Faith damage scaling either in addition to or in place of physical or magical damage scaling. This makes these kinds of weapons handy for classes like Confessors, who have high starting Faith levels, though technically any class can use them with enough leveling up and point allocation.
Elden Ring Faith Weapons
Obviously, there are a lot of weapons in Elden Ring, far too many that either have Faith requirements or scale with Faith to list, so for your convenience, here’s a shortlist of Faith-powered weapons, their general specs, and an abridged idea of where to find them.
Winged Scythe
- Weapon Class: Reaper
- Scaling: STR E, DEX D, FAI D
- Requirements: STR 16, DEX 16, FAI 24
- Special Skill: Angel’s Wings; holy-powered jumping attack that also makes it difficult for foes to use healing abilities like Flasks.
One of the earliest Faith-powered weapons you can get your hands on, the Winged Scythe is great for those who both want to deal a little more holy damage and take a little less of it. As far as raw damage output goes, there are stronger weapons, but if you’ve got the Faith for it, it can be a handy early-game buddy.
The Winged Scythe can be found in the Tombsword Ruins, located in the western part of the Weeping Peninsula. Look for the staircase going down and follow it until you find a chest containing the Winged Scythe.
Golden Halberd
- Weapon Class: Halberd
- Scaling: STR D, DEX E, FAI D
- Requirements: STR 30, DEX 14, FAI 12
- Special Skill: Golden Vow; buff yourself and nearby allies with increased attack and defense for a brief time.
Technically speaking, the Golden Halberd is the first Faith-powered weapon you could get in Elden Ring, but in all likelihood, it won’t be, for a reason I’ll explain in a moment. Once you do get it, though, it’s a quality armament, packing a respectable amount of holy damage bolstered by solid physical strength. The Strength requirement is pretty high, so this is definitely a weapon more intended for certain classes.
As for the reason you probably won’t get it first, the Golden Halberd is the personal weapon of the Tree Sentinel, one of the first boss enemies you can encounter in the field after leaving the tutorial area. You have to defeat him to obtain it, and you definitely won’t do that the first time you try.
Cipher Pata
- Weapon Class: Fist
- Scaling: FAI C
- Requirements: FAI 30
- Special Skill: Unblockable Blade; deliver a lunging strike that cannot be blocked by any means.
This is a weapon for the extremely devout. You don’t need Strength or Intelligence or anything else to use it, just Faith, and it only deals holy damage, no physical damage. If your Faith is your highest attribute, you can definitely make use of Cipher Pata, especially its Unblockable Blade skill. You can even dual-wield it to make two swords of light appear in your hands!
Cipher Pata is found in the Roundtable Hold. If you take the center staircase and jump off the balcony, you’ll land in a large open room, and in the far left door will be a corpse on a bed holding the weapon. Just a heads up, going down there will make the NPC Invader Mad Tongue Alberich. You technically don’t have to beat him to get Cipher Pata, but the way back up to the balcony won’t appear unless you do, so you either have to beat him or let him kill you and abandon any Runes you’re carrying.
Gargoyle’s Blackblade
- Weapon Class: Greatsword
- Scaling: STR D, DEX E, Fai D
- Requirements: STR 18, DEX 10, FAI 22
- Special Skill: Corpse Wax Cutter; charge up the blade and launch it forward as a projectile to hit further enemies.
Now here’s a big boy sword. As you’d expect from a greatsword, the Gargoyle’s Blackblade is absolutely crushing at close range thanks to its high physical and holy damage, but thanks to its skill, Corpse Wax Cutter, you can also maintain pressure on enemies out of direct striking range. Just remember to hold it with two hands.
The Gargoyle’s Blackblade can be obtained by defeating the Black Blade Kindred, a gigantic gargoyle creature that, strangely, doesn’t actually use it in battle. There are actually a couple of Black Blade Kindreds in the world; the one you’re specifically looking for hangs out around the entrance of the Bestial Sanctum in Dragonbarrow. That particular Black Blade Kindred also drops a second weapon, Gargoyle’s Black Halberd, which is another great Faith weapon if you’d like some options.
Coded Sword
- Weapon Class: Straight Sword
- Scaling: FAI B
- Requirements: FAI 20
- Special Skill: Unblockable Blade; same as Cipher Pata, see above.
Another solid weapon for the especially devout, and with a much lower barrier to entry than Cipher Pata, and better Faith scaling to boot. Both the Coded Sword and Cipher Pata have the same flat damage rating, both only dealing holy damage, but since the Coded Sword has a physical form, it provides slightly better resistances against other types of attack. The only major edges Cipher Pata has over the Coded Sword is that Cipher Pata provides better holy defense and is weightless, but the better scaling is a pretty fair trade-off.
The Coded Sword can be found in Leyndell, the Royal Capital. It’s sitting on a table inside of an abandoned horse stable in the overworld.
