Upgrades/Materials

Upgrade Materials

For detailed information see the invidual pages. For farming information see Upgrade Material Farming.

• Titanite Shard - upgrades standard equipment to +3
• Large Titanite Shard - upgrades standard equipment to +6
• Titanite Chunk - upgrades standard equipment to +9
• Titanite Slab - upgrades standard equipment to +10
• Twinkling Titanite - Upgrades special equipment to +5
• Petrified Dragon Bone - Upgrades boss equipment to +5
• Fire Seed - Upgrades Pyromancy Flames to +10

It's worth noting that upgrade items cannot be dropped.

Infusion Materials

Infusion requires giving the Dull Ember to Steady Hand McDuff.

• Faintstone - reduces physical damage/scaling, adds Magic Damage/scaling. Adds Magic resistance to shields.
• Firedrake Stone - reduces physical damage/scaling, adds Fire Damage/scaling. Adds Fire resistance to shields.
• Boltstone - reduces physical damage/scaling, adds Lightning Damage/scaling. Adds Lightning resistance to shields.
• Darknight Stone - reduces physical damage/scaling, adds Dark Damage/scaling. Adds Dark resistance to shields.
• Poison Stone - reduces physical damage/scaling, adds Poison effect. Adds Poison resistance to shields.
• Bleed Stone - reduces physical damage/scaling, adds Bleed effect. Adds Bleed resistance to shields.
• Raw Stone - increases base damage, reduces physical scaling.
• Magic Stone - removes current item stat scaling to add Intelligence based physical scaling. Does not work on shields.
• Old Mundane Stone - reduces base damage by 50% for all damage types and lowers all damage scaling by two ranks, but physical damage scaling is replaced by a special scaling based on the lowest value of all ability scores. Does not work on shields.
• Palestone - removes infusions from weapons and shields. Not required to change infusion type, only to restore back to uninfused state.

Upgrade Mechanics

Weapons

Basic Damage Upgrades

Each upgrade increases the damage by a set percentage of the base damage (the un-upgraded damage).

The percentage is determined by the upgrade material. Weapons that use Titanite or Twinkling Titanite increase by 10% per upgrade. Weapons that use Petrified Dragon Bone increase by 30% per upgrade.

So when fully upgraded, a weapon that uses Titanite will have 2 times its base damage, Twinkling Titanite will have 1.5 times its base damage and Petrified Dragon Bone will have 2.5 times its base damage.

• Formula: Damage = Base Weapon Damage + (Upgrade Level * Material Modifier * Base Weapon Damage)

This can be a little confusing with weapons that have decimal upgrades, eg. the Caestus.

The Caestus has a base damage of 45 and uses Titanite for upgrades which means it increases by 10% (4.5) damage per level.

• +1 increases damage by 4 (45->49, but it is actually 49.5)
• +2 increases damage by 5 (49->54, actually 49.5 + 4.5)
• +10 has twice the damage (90) of +0 as expected

It is further complicated by Infusion (see Infusion Mechanics below), eg. the Lightning Short Bow.

The Short Bow has a base damage of 65, which after infusion becomes 45.5 physical and 45.5 lightning damage (in game shown as 45) and also uses Titanite for upgrades which means it increases by 10% (4.55) damage per level.

• +1 increases damage by 5 (45->50, but it is actually 45.5 + 4.5)
• +2 increases damage by 4 (50->54, actually 54.5)
• +3 increases damage by 5 (54->59, 54.5+ 4.5)

Innate Elemental Damage

Some weapons have innate elemental damage. That is, elemental damage prior to being infused, this includes weapons such as the Heide Knight Sword, Dragonslayer's Crescent Axe and many of the boss weapons.
This does not include the Fire Longsword as that is an infused weapon, you can tell by the fire icon on the items portrait.
Check out the Elemental Weapons page for a complete listing of weapons with innate elemental damage.

The elemental damage on these weapons does not increase according to the upgrade material used, but by a unique value that differs from weapon to weapon.
However, their physical damage still increases according to the upgrade material, eg. the Smelter Sword

The Smelter Sword has a base damage of 132 physical and 100 fire and uses Petrified Dragon Bone for upgrades which means it increases by 30% per level.

• +1 increases physical damage by 39 (132->171, but it is actually 39.6, a 30% increase)
• +1 increases fire damage by 10 (100->110, a 10% increase)

We can see here that the elemental damage does not increase by the expected amount for the upgrade material. To show that the percentage differs from weapon to weapon, see how the Dragonslayer Spear upgrades:

The Dragonslayer Spear has a base damage of 52 physical and 60 lightning and uses Petrified Dragon Bone for upgrades which means it increases by 30% per level.

• +1 increases physical damage by 15 (52->67, but it is actually 15.6, a 30% increase)
• +1 increases lightning damage by 9 (60->69, a 15% increase)

Again the elemental damage does not increase by the expected amount for the upgrade material, but also increases by a different percentage to the Smelter Sword.

Poison and Bleeding

Poison and Bleed values increase by different percentages to physical and elemental damage.

Weapons that use Titanite or Twinkling Titanite increase by 5% per upgrade. Weapons that use Petrified Dragon Bone increase by 10% per upgrade.

Exceptions

• Spell casting items, such as the Cleric's Sacred Chime, don't always follow the formula, however most do.

• The Craftsman's Hammer has 250 attack at +5 and has 166 at +0, which means it should be 249 at +5. It should be noted that this is a special weapon (uses Twinkling Titanite) so this may allow it to bend the rules. In this particular case though, it seems From decided to round off the number.

Basic Defense Upgrades

Weapon defense is a factor when a weapon or shield is used to block an otherwise successful hit. Damage is reduced by the corresponding defense stat as if it were a percentage; a shield with 100 physical resistance will absorb 100% of the physical damage inflicted by a blocked hit. Absorbed damage reduces stamina, and the hit itself still drains poise. The stability value of the weapon or shield reduces the loss of stamina and poise, again as if it were a percentage; a shield with 80 stability will only transfer 20% of the damage it absorbs to stamina, the rest being deflected completely, and it will take five times as many blocked hits to break the blocker's poise as it would if he/she were not blocking.

Basic upgrades also increase defense stats, but in a different manner than damage. Instead of directly increasing the defense scores, they reduce the damage penetration (100 minus the displayed value) by 2.5% per upgrade, up to a 25% reduction in penetration for normal titanite upgrades and a 12.5% reduction for twinkling titanite and petrified dragon bone upgrades. Stability increases by the more standard manner, and in fact increases by 8 points at maximum enhancement for all weapons and shields tested so far, regardless of upgrade material.

Armor

Upgrading Armor follows a very similar formula to weapons where each upgrade increases defense values by a set percentage of the base defense values (the un-upgraded defense).

The percentage is determined by the upgrade material just like with weapons. Armor that uses Titanite or Twinkling Titanite increases by 10% per upgrade. Armor that uses Petrified Dragon Bone increases by 30% per upgrade.

So when fully upgraded, armor that uses Titanite will have 2 times its base defense, Twinkling Titanite will have 1.5 times its base defense and Petrified Dragon Bone will have 2.5 times its base defense.

• Formula: Defense = Base Defense + (Upgrade Level * Material Modifier * Base Defense)

It should be noted that each defense value is calculated separately. That is, physical defense increases by 10% of base physical defense and fire defense increases by 10% of base fire defense.

Exceptions

• It is not uncommon for a defense value to be 1 point off of the expected value, it is impossible to say for certain without looking at the game's code but this may be because the base defense value is actually a decimal.

Infusion Mechanics

The following may not work with boss weapons.

• Weapon with only physical attack rating: magic, fire, electric and dark paths will lower the physical attack rating by 30% and give that value to the chosen elemental attack rating independently of the weapon's level. For example, a Greatsword +1 with 220 physical attack rating will result in 154 in both physical and elemental attack rating (220 * 0.7 = 154). A Greatsword +10, with 400 physical attack rating this time, would result in 280 in both attack rating types (400 * 0.7 = 280).

• Weapon with a physical attack and one elemental attack:
  
  
  • Same elemental path: If a weapon with one elemental type is infused with the same type, the physical attack rating will be lowered by 5% and the elemental attack rating will be increased by 44%. This is because, similar to the below, it lowers the elemental attack rating by 10% but also increases it by 60%. Math: 0.9 * 1.6 = 1.44
    
    
  • Different elemental path: If a weapon with one elemental type is infused with a different type, both the elemental and physical attack rating will be lowered by 10% and the new one will be the 60% of the initial elemental type.

• Weapon with a physical attack and two elemental attacks: There are two such weapons in the game — the Drakeblood Greatsword and Mace of the Insolent. At present their infusion mechanics are not completely understood.

Available Infusions

Some pieces of equipment can't be infused with certain stones.

• Shields cannot be Raw, Enchanted or Mundane.
• Bows, Greatbows and Crossbows cannot be Poison or Bleed.
• Hammers and Great Hammers cannot be Bleed.
• Spell Tools can only be infused Dark, Magic or Lightning, depending on what types of spells they can cast.