10 Most Disgusting Soulsborne Weapons, Ranked

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Dark Souls

Elden ring player character holding the blasphemous blade

From Dark Souls to Bloodborne to Elden Ring, FromSoftware has filled its games with fun and powerful weapons for players to use. Combat is central in these games, and providing a huge arsenal for players to pummel bosses with is key to making the games fun on repeated playthroughs. Pretty much every one of these games builds on the number of weapons characters can fight with; Elden Ring, the most recent game in the franchise, has over four times the weapons of the original Dark Souls.

There are regal swords, elegant bows, fancy staves, and the list goes on. But among the most iconic weapons from these franchises are some really gross options that get downright nasty if players stop to think about them too long. Fashioning blades from the body parts of enemies is a fairly common experience; while the world may judge Godrick the Grafted, the tarnished, chosen undead, ashen one, hunter, and bearer of the curse aren't much better.

10 The Rotten Ghru Dagger And Curved Swords Embody The Word "Yuck"

These Weapons' Descriptions Outline Their Awfulness

The rotten Ghru weapons are wielded by the Ghru in Dark Souls 3, awful goat-folk that live in swamps and are notorious for their aggressive movesets. The daggers and curved swords they wield are alike in both description and aesthetic, resembling rusted metal weapons coated in slime and barnacles.

Blighttown and the Lake of Rot from From Software's Dark Souls and Elden Ring.

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The description of these items calls them "rancid" and specifies that they are "drenched in rotten waste." Not only will these weapons kill you, but they will smell bad and cover you in swamp water in the process. There is no denying these weapons are gross, but lore-wise, they're just blades that some goats dipped in a swamp.

9 The Tooth Whip Is As Bad As It Sounds

Two Words That Never Should Have Gone Together

Elden Ring's Shadow of the Erdtree DLC introduced the tooth whip into the game at a place called the whipping hut. It's close by to the Bonny Village, where the shamans were tortured and killed, often having their body parts used in rituals by the hornsent.

It's likely that the teeth adorning this whip were both taken from shamans and used against them. The item description here calls the teeth "rotten" and "misshapen," meaning that the previous owner of this whip couldn't even bother to give it proper dental care. It also inflicts wounds that "grow inflamed and ooze pus," which explains why this weapon causes deadly poison buildup.

8 The Kos Parasite Sees Players Weaponize An Eldritch Squid

Bloodborne's Grossest Offering By Far

For a game that leans so hard into horror and Gothic tones, there aren't many weapons that classify as "gross." The Kos parasite is the exception, found after defeating the orphan of Kos in the Old Hunters DLC. It looks like a translucent squid, with tentacles that wrap around the player character's arm and shoot out during attacks.

Bloodborne Orphan of Kos statue next to in-game model

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The sound effects that accompany this weapon make it sound wet and oozy, two descriptors that most people would not want for their weapon. It plays into the Lovecraftian elements of the game quite well, though, allowing the player to become something of an eldritch horror themselves. There is a version of this weapon called the "uncanny" Kos parasite that can be found later; one could argue, however, that every version of the Kos parasite is uncanny, and that this name is a little redundant.

7 Gargoyle Weaponry Is More Disturbing Than It Looks

That Isn't Earwax On That Axe

The gargoyle's twinblades and axes in Elden Ring have an odd look to them, with spots along the edges of the blades covered in a waxy substance. The twinblade slightly resembles a Q-Tip which has been used to clean out someone's ears. However, the description of these items says that they have been repaired with "corpse wax."

The black blade kindred carry similar weapons to the gargoyles, only with black corpse wax. This is said to symbolize their connection to Maliketh, guardian of destined death, whose influence may reveal why these enemies use corpse material on their weapons.

Unfortunately, corpse wax is exactly what it sounds like. Not only does this seem like an inefficient way to repair a blade, but it also seems like a horrific fate for anyone these flying menaces defeat. The description does call this repair job a "patchwork of champions," whereas most people would just call it disgusting, and most champions would probably rather not have a living statue stealing all their wax.

6 Weapons Formed From Beast Parts Are As Cool As They Are Disgusting

Players Should Probably Wash Their Hands After Fighting With These

Ever since the chosen undead cut off a bell gargoyle's tail for use as a battleaxe, turning the chopped-off parts of monsters into weapons has been a Soulsborne staple. There's the spider fang and scorpion stinger in Dark Souls 2, the fallingstar beast jaw in Elden Ring, and the many, many dragon tail weapons in the original Dark Souls. And while many of these weapons are objectively cool, they're still pretty disturbing when you stop to think about it.

In the original Dark Souls , players can obtain many of these weapons mid-fight by targeting certain parts of a boss repeatedly with slashing damage. It would be neat to see this cool but ruthless tactic return in some way in later FromSoftware games.

With something like the gargoyle twinblade or tooth whip, the player character is finding and using these pre-made atrocities. But in the case of these weapons, the player is the one committing these awful crimes, taking away another's parts and fashioning them into tools of violence. And that doesn't even get into the implications of using a beast-part weapon against another enemy of the same type, which has to be classified as some sort of war crime.

5 Too Many Weapons Are Just A Person's Hair

Magic Gear Gathered From The Shower Drain

This may not be as morally objectionable as beast-part weaponry, but it is at least as uncomfortable. Spellcasting tools like velka's talisman and the white hair talisman are powerful, but also just some hair that has been bound together. Whether it's the hair of a god, a giant, or some unknown spellcaster, it's pretty off-putting to just be carrying around a lock of someone else's hair.

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Plus, visually, some of these are pretty gross. Velka's talisman looks withered and dry, and just unpleasant to hold. Others, like the witch's locks, are used as whips. It may not be as disturbing as being whipped with your own teeth, but it's still fairly nasty to be hit by someone's dead hair.

4 The Crucifix Of The Mad King Seems Inefficient In Addition To Horrible

Decaying Bodies Should Probably Be Removed From Weapons Before Using Them

A dead body still being on a spear centuries after it was used is not good weapon management. However, the crucifix of the mad king technically doesn't have a dead body on it. That's because the man impaled through its point is still alive.

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In fact, he will actively yell out and flail his arm when players use this weapon, implying that it causes him immense pain. His shriveled body acts as the main bludgeoning force of the weapon, after all, and it seems to derive power from his suffering. What's worse than using the dead remains of one's enemies to kill others? Using a living person as a glorified halberd.

3 Using Decapitated Heads As Weapons Feels Like Overkill

Combat With Craniums

Elden Ring contains several weapons that are made to resemble human heads, but only one that actually is a human head: the crania vessel candlestand. At first glance, and from its name, this item seems more like a piece of furniture than a weapon. And, as the item's description says, that was its intended use.

A monk named Birac severed his own head and had it fashioned into the top of this candlestick, apparently as a lesson to the other monks worshiping the giant's flame to treat it with more respect. It seems that the lesson did not take with the other monks, and instead, this candlestand started being used as a blunt force weapon. As a final insult, the tarnished can use this weapon to help kill the fire giant and use the giant's flame to their own ends.

2 The Blasphemous Blade Deserves Its Name

The Rykard Cutscene Alone Earns This Spot

The blasphemous blade is maybe the most disturbing and gory weapon in its physical appearance. It's a greatsword coated in the blood and guts of heroes who have been eaten by the god-devouring serpent. Even dead, they writhe along the blade's surface, and it is their combined strength that gives it its power.

Rykard, Lord of Blasphemy from Elden Ring surrounded by fire

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All of that is pretty gross, but what takes this weapon to another level is the cutscene in which it is introduced. Praetor Rykard, a demi-god now fused with the serpent, pulls the sword violently up through its throat, bodies and blood falling out of the serpent's mouth all the while. Not only is this weapon a symbol of violent assimilation and carnage, it has also been in someone's mouth for a long time. One of those things has to be enough to ward players off.

1 Elden Ring's Fascination With Fingers Is Truly Disturbing

Weapons That Epitomize The Uncanny

These last weapons are not gory, or even outwardly disgusting. Instead, they disturb players through their uncanny nature and almost alien sense of strangeness. They are the finger weapons: the ringed finger, gazing finger, and staff of the great beyond. Each of these weapons are large, discolored, and distended fingers cut off from hand-shaped abominations.

One cannot overstate how grotesque it feels to wield these weapons. It is bad enough with a sword that is fashioned from bones or the remains of a beast. The fingers are too human, not yet decomposed, and have a sense of awareness about them. They may not be the typical type of disgusting, but they disgust Elden Ring players nonetheless.