Elden Ring: 7 Best Ashes Of War For Bosses

Elden Ring

By Evan Arnoldi Sebayang

Published 6 days ago

Elden Ring bosses are known for their ferocity and multiple transformation phases. With just how tough it is to beat them, powerful Ashes of War might just be the best tool for the player to use to defeat them. Some of these Ashes of War can be tricky to obtain, but powerful when utilized correctly.

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These Ashes of War range from a strong stagger, quick offensive, charging forth, ground blasting area of effect, to weapon enchanting type Ashes of War. Each of these ashes of war is single-handedly powerful enough to defeat enemy bosses in the Lands’ Between. By simply using them repeatedly during the right time window, players will not need other utilities or any other attack moves.

7 Great Hunt

Powerful Thrust Weapon Skill Granting

Grants the Great Hunt skill.
Can be used with any affinity.
So long as the weapon allows skill replacement, it can be applied to the following weapon categories: Twinblades, Thrusting Swords, Heavy Thrusting Swords, Straight Swords, Greatswords, Katanas, Halberds, Spears, Great Spears

This skill is used by Yura the Bloody Finger Hunter. The movement starts with the blade held horizontally backward, making it a powerful thrust that cannot be blocked. This Ashes of War is available to be used by all medium and large armaments capable of thrusting.

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The Great Hunt weapon skill has great poise damage and considerably long reach for a melee skill, making it potent enough while keeping the Tarnished safe and sound. Players can use it repeatedly to defeat the bosses, as it has small FP requirements.

6 Unsheathe

Powerful Katana Quick Drawing Moveset

Grants the Unsheathe skill
Can be used with any affinity
So long as the weapon allows skill replacement, it can be applied to any katana weapon.

Unsheathe can be followed up with either a normal or charged attack to perform a swift slash attack. It can be dropped by a Teardrop Scarab in the shallow water of the South East portion of Agheel Lake, North West of the Agheel Lake South Site of Grace. The skill starts by sheathing the blade and holding it in a composed stance.

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With how simplistic the Unsheathe movesets are, players can maneuver and position them without much effort to kill bosses at ease. Unsheathe has incredible damage with a swift window that could be used flexibly during any boss’s phase. The normal attack of unsheathing draws the katana horizontally, while the charged attack of unsheathing draws the katana vertically, with more damage to the poise and health.

5 Square Off

Powerful Vertical Thrust Granting Sword Moveset

Grants the Square Off skill
Can be used with any affinity
So long as the weapon allows skill replacement, it can be applied to any Straight Sword weapon.

Square Off starts with the sword held level downwards, then followed up with a normal attack to thrust upwards through the enemy's defense, or a strong attack to perform a moving forward thrust. It can be dropped by an idle Teardrop Scarab near the edge of the cliff in Siofra River. Just like Unsheathe, Square Off has low FP requirements, and two simple movesets which give players the freedom to maneuver and position through any bosses’ moves and phases.

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The normal upward thrusting move of square-off could be used as an opening or finisher at close range to damage bosses, the charged attack of square-off can be used repeatedly throughout any boss's fight with its poise-breaking and closing distance move.

4 Charge Forth

Swift Forward Charging Long Distance

Grants the skill Charge Forth.
Provides the Quality affinity, which balances Strength and Dexterity scaling, and decreases base damage.
Can be used with any affinity Upgrade.
Can be applied to the following weapon categories, so long as the weapon allows skill replacement: Twinblades, Heavy Thrusting Swords, Spears, Great Spears, Halberds.
While the Golem's Halberd has Charge Forth as its default weapon skill, the Ash of War version cannot be applied to it due to being a Colossal Weapons class weapon.

Quickly charge forward with the armament at the hip, carrying the momentum into a thrust. Hold to cover a greater distance. Dropped by a Teardrop Scarab located in Liurnia of the Lakes. West of the Academy Gate Town site of grace, the scarab can be found hanging on the ceiling beneath the bridge.

Charge Forth has an imminent advantage against bosses from its innate continuous charge attack sequence until the end sequence that unleashes the tip of the weapon. Charge Forth could be timed to be used during any boss's idle window after an attack to close the distance by a far margin, and could also be used to tank any boss's light attack sequence to trade damage.

3 Sacred Blade

Additional Holy Damage Imbuing For Massive Offensive

Grants the skill Sacred Blade.
Provides the Sacred affinity, which adds Holy Damage and Faith scaling, decreases physical damage, most damage negation
Can be used with the following affinity Upgrades: Standard, Heavy, Keen, Quality, Lightning, Sacred
Can be applied to the following weapon categories, so long as the weapon allows skill replacement: Daggers, Straight Swords, Greatswords, Colossal Swords, Curved Swords, Curved Greatswords, Katanas, Twinblades, Thrusting Swords, Heavy Thrusting Swords, Hammers, Great Hammers, Axes, Greataxes, Flails, Spears, Great Spears, Halberds, Reapers, Colossal Weapons

Grants armament attacks an additional holy essence and fires off a golden blade projectile. The armament retains its holy essence for a while. It is obtainable by killing a Teardrop Scarab north of the Third Church of Marika, next to a spirit spring jump point.

Sacred Blade’s additional holy damage and golden blade projectile grant a massive advantage towards undead bosses such as Deathwing-type bosses. Sacred Blade’s long duration and the golden blade’s heavy damaging projectile make the ashes of war one of the best for bosses, even for the non-undead ones.

2 Chilling Mist

Additional Cold Damage And Frostbite Status Imbuing

Grants the skill Chilling Mist.
Provides the Cold affinity, which adds Frostbite buildup to attacks and increases Intelligence scaling, decreasing all other scaling types.
Can be used with the following affinity Upgrades: Standard, Heavy, Keen, Quality, Magic, Cold
So long as the weapon allows skill replacement, Can be applied to the following weapon types: Daggers, Straight Swords, Greatswords, Colossal Swords, Curved Swords, Curved Greatswords, Katanas, Twinblades, Thrusting Swords, Heavy Thrusting Swords, Hammers, Great Hammers, Axes, Greataxes, Flails, Spears, Great Spears, Halberds, Reapers, Colossal Weapons

Coat armament in frost, and then slash, spreading frigid mist forwards. The armament retains its frost for a while. Dropped by a Teardrop Scarab located in Three Sisters, Liurnia, in the ruins south of Renna's Rise. Chilling Mist provides decent cold affinity damage and a frostbite status that amplifies damage taken by any Bosses.

Chilling Mist can be used effectively against Ulcerated Tree Spirit and Erdtree Avatar bosses as these bosses have susceptible resistance against frostbite and cold affinity. The lingering mist tick damage caused by the Chilling Mist is a fine addition to help decrease bosses' health, players should be wary as the mist provokes Bosses toward the player aggressively.

1 Golden Land

Powerful Ground Stomp With Holy Shockwave

Grants the skill Golden Slam.
Can be used with the following affinity Upgrades: Standard, Heavy, Keen, Quality, Lightning, Sacred
So long as the weapon allows skill replacement, the Ashes of War can be applied to the following weapon types: Daggers, Straight Swords, Greatswords, Colossal Swords, Curved Swords, Curved Greatswords, Katanas, Twinblades, Thrusting Swords, Heavy Thrusting Swords, Hammers, Great Hammers, Axes, Greataxes, Flails, Spears, Great Spears, Halberds, Reapers, Fists, Claws, Whips, Colossal Weapons

Jump up high into the air and crash down on the ground ahead for massive damage. The resulting pratfall sends golden shockwaves in all directions. Dropped by a Teardrop Scarab northwest of Woodfolk Ruins, near the Altus Plateau Erdtree.

Golden Land has an effortless advantage towards Bosses with its slam move that could knock Bosses out of their guard and deal massive damage at the same time within a fingertip of a button. With its large area coverage, players could cast Golden Slam at a distance safely to prevent any cancels from Bosses’ attack.