What is more amazing than unleashing a huge amount of energy from your staff and devastating your foes in an enormous ethereal explosion? Not much.
Every Soulsborne Tutorial Area, Ranked
Every Soulsborne title has a tutorial, but which one stands out among the rest?
TheSoulsbornetitles let you live out your magical power fantasy in any way you desire with a combination of sizzling Sorceries, punishing Pyromancies, and various other mystical arts.
Of course, not all spells are created equal. As players explore and test out their abilities, they soon come to realise that if they want to stand a fighting chance, they’ll need to equip the right spells.
And I, for one, can’t blame them. Souls games are supposed to be hard, yes, but also fun. And these spells? Well, safe to say, you’re going to have a blast when you add these seriously over-powered options to your bag of tricks.
I have omitted Bloodborne and Sekiro from this list, as they don’t really have much in the way of spells. The ones that do exist in these titles are extremely underwhelming.
10Rock Sling
Harness The Very Earth
Appears In
Elden Ring
Description
Summons rocks from the earth and sends them flying
Stat Requirements
18 Intelligence
Caelid, Street Of Sages Ruins
Rock Sling, while perhaps not the strongest sorcery in the game in terms of damage, might just be one of the most easily accessible and powerful spells that’ll carry you throughthe majority of the game.
When paired with the Meteorite Staff and a decent Intelligence level, Rock Sling can output a tremendous amount of Physical Damage while building up that stun meter extremely quickly. Not only that, but the spell has great tracking for those enemies that just love to dodge out of the way of your spells.
So long as you keep your distance and time your casts, Rock Sling will be a formidable companion for much of yourElden Ringplaythrough.
9Poison Cloud
Lingering Miasma
Demon’s Souls
Spell from the Demon Leechmonger’s Soul. Generates a cloud of poison.
10 Intelligence & 10 Magic for Sage Freke
Sage Freke, the Visionary
Does Poison Cloud count as Cheese? Maybe. But we’re talking about powerful spells here, not “the right way to play.” So long as it gets you the win, that’s a plus in my book.
This spell will inflict the target with poison for a whole 3 minutes, constantly chipping away at their health while you either Soul Ray them down from a distance, or just simply run and hide. Hey, no judgment here.
What’s really great is that Poison Cloud works on a huge number of bosses in the game, trivialising many of them should you wish to utilise it. On your next run ofDemon’s Souls, give this a go on The Old Hero or Flamelurker, or really any humanoid bosses.
8Great Chaos Fireball
The Chaos Flame Writhes
Dark Souls 2
This special flame creates a short-lived surge of molten lava wherever it lands.
N/A (Scales with Intelligence and Faith)
Brotherhood of Blood (Rank 3)
Fire. Yes. Lava. Yes. Explosions? Of course. Not only is this monster of a spell killer for PvE, but it’s greatin PvP too.
You will output a tremendous amount of damage with a single cast, and then, if your opponent still has HP left, they will be caught by the lingering lava pool to finish them off. With this, your enemies need to think about dodging not only the impact of the spell but also the environmental hazards that remain after.
Of course, this kind of power doesn’t come cheap. You’re going to have to do a lot of PvP to reach Rank 3 of the Brotherhood of Blood, but oh, is it worth the effort.
7Crystal Soul Spear
Shatter Your Enemies Like Glass
Dark Souls 1 & 3
Fires a piercing crystal soul spear.
44 Intelligence (DS1) or 48 Intelligence (DS3)
Big Hat Logan (DS1) or Orbeck of Vinheim (DS3)
Crystal Soul Spear has always been a universally brilliant source of damage in the Souls series. While you may need a rather high Intelligence level to wield this spell, there’s absolutely no doubt that it’ll be worth your while.
Not only can you cast this magical spear from a distance, but it also pierces enemies that happen to be standing together. In all honesty, you don’t even need to worry about health and armour when you’re using this, as your enemies will be dead and buried before you even take a hit.
While this spell may not have many casts inDark Souls, inDark Souls 3, you can simply restore your FP! Whatever boss you’re fighting, make sure your Crystal Soul Spear is by your side.
6Golden Vow
A Source of Courage
Increases attack power and defense for the caster and nearby allies.
Mt Gelmir, Corpse Stench Shack
Are you lacking a bit of Oomph? Is that katana not hitting quite as hard as it used to? Well, grab yourself a bit of faith and then whack on this spell. You’ll thank me later.
Honestly, Golden Vow is a bit of a game changer. It can be acquired relatively early in your playthrough if you beeline to Mt Gelmir, and with a measly 25 faith or even 20 faith and the Two Fingers heirloom needed to wield, you get a 15% boost to your attack and some damage mitigation too.
Elden Ring: 20 Best Incantations, Ranked
Elden Ring is a massive game with many ways to build your character. Here are the best Incantations for you to use.
While 15% might not sound like much, this boost stacks multiplicatively with things like Flame, Grant me Strength, and Howl of Shabriri. And what’s more, this buff can be shared with allies too, if you need a helping hand during yourimportant boss fights. Just ensure to use this spell and not the Ash of War.
5Great Resonant Soul / Climax
Power Comes At A Price
A hex that distorts the power of life.
30 Intelligence and 47 Faith
Pilgrims of the Dark Reward (Rank 2 & 3)
Hexes were a great addition toDark Souls 2, and with that came some serious power. Of course, if you want access to this crazy damage, you’re going to have to make some sacrifices.
First of all, you’re going to want a good amount of both intelligence and faith to maximise your damage output, and then a good amount of souls stored up too, to be able to cast the spell.
If you’re a little broke, try out Great Resonant Soul for a measly 500 souls per cast. If you’re drowning in souls, then perhaps Climax is the spell for you, though it’ll cost you all your souls when you cast it, with the max power being when you spend 5,000 at once.
Of course, with this great sacrifice comes a quite frankly ridiculous amount of damage. When paired with something like a dark-infused Caitha’s Chime, the bosses will fall like dominoes.
4Comet Azur
Stream Of Destruction
Fires a tremendous comet in a torrent akin to the distant starry expanse.
60 Intelligence
Mt Gelmir, Hermit Village, from Primeval Sorcerer Azur
Fancy defeating a boss without even having to move? While this spell might seem cheap and a little overpowered to some, there’s no denying how badass it feels to rip through a boss' entire health bar in one single torrent of starry magic.
This spell is going to require some serious stat investment on your part, but when you reach that all-important 60 intelligence requirement, you’re pretty much set.
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Sorceries are high damage spells that scale from your intelligence stat. Here are the best ones you should add to your build in Elden Ring.
What’s more is that this spell can be buffed in all manner of ways—from a Glintstone Crown, to Graven talismans, to Terra Magica, to the most important, Cerulean Hidden Tear for maximum casting potential. Of course, with this set-up, you may walk through that fog-gate, charge up your spell, and crush whoever stands in your path. They won’t even have a chance to attack.
3Power Within
Pay Your Victories In Blood
Dark Souls 1
Excessive power eats away the life-force of its caster
Blighttown, beneath the Parasitic Wall Hugger
Power Within has got to be the most powerful buff in all of Soulsborne history, especially in Dark Souls 1. If any of your builds are struggling, just activate this buff for a serious boost in power. How serious, you ask? Well, how about 40%? Is that enough damage for you?
And yes, 40% is pretty ridiculous for the tiny nuisance of losing a teensy bit of HP every second. Just increase your health pool, and you will barely notice the drain. This buff is great for gimmicky builds like crossbows and bows that struggle to scale against later bosses in the campaign.
And what’s more, it’s seriously easy to activate. Just grab any pyromancy flame, head down to Blighttown, squash a big bug, and with 0 stat investment, you have a major new weapon in your arsenal.
2Firestorm
Volcanic Eruption
Generates a storm of fire around the caster.
18 Intelligence (For the 3 magic slots)
Yuria, The Witch
If you’ve ever played around with Pyromancies in Demon’s Souls, you’ll know about Firestorm. Was this properly balanced? Who knows, but the damage is crazy—and that’s how we like it here.
While the spouts of flame that shoot up around you are random, as long as the boss has a decent-sized hitbox, it’s more than likely that they’ll be hit by a few of them. And the longer they stay in the fire… well, I’m sure you know what that means.
Most bosses can be downed in just 1 or two casts of this spell. The only thing you need to be careful of is spacing and not getting interrupted, which, in all honesty, is pretty easy if you just take your time. Luckily, the cast time here is nothing compared to something like Comet Azur, so feel free to spam away.
1Dark Bead
Master The Dark Arts
Fires successive Dark Orbs
16 Intelligence
Chasm of the Abyss
Of course, the infamous Dark Bead. Player Killer, Boss Destroyer, perhaps the most ridiculously overpowered spell in Soulsborne History, and certainly one of the most satisfying to use.
Dark Bead, found in the Chasm of the Abyss, is a particularly deadly sorcery that deals both magical and physical damage. When cast, 7 dark orbs will quickly fire from the player’s catalyst. And while perhaps the damage of each orb isn’t anything to write home about, if you manage to get all of them to land, it’s game over for the boss.
Dark Bead has a pretty ridiculous cast speed, and when used against bosses with large hitboxes, it just hits stupidly hard. Maybe too hard, in fact. When used with high intelligence and proper mage gear like the Tin Crystallisation Catalyst, you won’t need more than a couple of casts for any boss, way into New-Game Plus and beyond.
To nerf, or not to nerf. That is the question. Personally, for where you find it in the DLC, I think this brutally powerful spell is well-earned.
