10 Most Powerful Dark Souls Weapons

If you favour the safety of attacking from behind your shield, consider picking up the Estoc. Found on a corpse in a breakable pot just before the entrance to the cursed New Londo Ruins, this is a perfectly viable thrusting sword that lets you poke every enemy ahead of you into oblivion.

Like many other rapiers in the game, the Estoc comes into its own in the hands of a player very skilled with the parry mechanic, but will also make mincemeat of any heavily armoured foes with enough patience.

Best build strategies would include using a spell like Magic Weapon or consumables to add extra damage to your attacks and dancing around foes wearing lighter armour to find an opening and chain some quick combos together.

For more dangerous foes, toss up your shield, hunker down behind it and start attacking. This practice, known as "turtling", is not the most exciting tactic, and you'll deal less damage with these attacks, but it's definitely a strategy that might work.

It's not the most versatile weapon, but with the longest range of any thrusting sword and a solid (if not amazing) damage output makes it a worthwhile weapon for your next undead pilgrimage.