Best Black Steel Greathammer build in Elden Ring

The mysterious Black Knights of Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree wield their Black Steel Greathammers to great effect in the Shadow Realm. When you wield it, you can fell gods. Let’s go over the best ways to make your Black Steel Greathammer effective.

Best stats for the Black Steel Greathammer in Elden Ring

These stats were calculated on a level 150 Confessor. Most classes can readily get to this statline by level 160, so don’t worry about starting a brand-new character to access this build relatively early in Shadow of the Erdtree.

• Vigor: 47
• Mind: 13
• Endurance: 39
• Strength: 40
• Dexterity: 12
• Intelligence: 9
• Faith: 60
• Arcane: 9

In order to understand these stats, we need to talk about the Black Steel Greathammer. You get it from the Black Knight in the shrine to the northeast of the Gravesite Plain Site of Grace. This weapon uses the basic Greathammer moveset, but has innate Faith scaling, can be imbued with different affinities, and has a unique Holy damage explosion on Guard Counters. Your goal is to make a Sacred Black Steel Greathammer build that utilizes its excellent Holy damage scaling to decimate foes after you block a hit.

40 Strength and 60 Faith are the stats you need to scale well into mid-to-late-game Shadow of the Erdtree. While you may want more Strength over time, a soft-cap on Faith gives you excellent Holy damage, reaching a total Attack Rating of nearly 1,000. 40 Strength is also barely enough to utilize most Greatshields.

39 Endurance is exactly the amount of Equip Load you need to use all our recommended armor. If you want to use different armor, feel free to lower or raise your Endurance score. The rest of our points go right into Vigor.

Best Seals, Shields, and Spells for the Black Steel Greathammer in Elden Ring

The Black Steel Greathammer build utilizes the Godslayer’s Seal best, since it scales slightly with Strength. Incantations worth casting include body buffs, like Golden Vow or Flame, Grant me Strength, and a handful of ranged options to ping enemies from afar, like Black Flame or Multilayered Rings of Light. Realistically, any Greatshield works great, but we recommend getting the Jellyfish Shield for optimal damage.

It’s a great idea to use the Godslayer’s Seal with buffing incantations. However, Godslayer Incantations deal Fire damage. While having options like Blackflame Blade or Black Flame can be nice, your build is best when it focuses entirely on Holy damage. Ring of Light spells can give you access to this damage type while still providing good range and debuffs.

As for your shield, any Greatshield with high Guard Boost work. The Jellyfish Shield has one of the best Weapon Skills in the game, boosting your damage by a massive 12.5 percent while you hold it. But if you want to save your FP for spells or Black Steel Greathammer weapon skills, the Black Steel Greatshield is great for flavor while still providing impressive stats.

For the Ash of War on your Black Steel Greathammer, Sacred Blade provides a massive boost to Holy damage, including on your Guard Counter. By buffing with the weapon skill beforehand, you can crush enemies with nearly 4,000 points of damage.

Your Wondrous Physick should have the Deflecting Hardtear Crystal Tear. If you drink this before fighting a major enemy, you can easily output 7,000 or more damage on a Guard Counter against a Holy-weak foe. It also helps you take hits better, as long as you block right before the hit lands, which is great. You’re going to be reducing our defenses quite significantly with your setup, so the extra defense is much-wanted.

Best armor for the Black Steel Greathammer in Elden Ring

While there is no armor that specifically buffs Guard Counters in Elden Ring, the Rakshasa Armor can let you deal increased damage at the cost of having very low damage negation itself. Otherwise, solid medium or heavy armor can help you soak hits much better.

The Rakshasa Armor offers two percent damage up per armor piece, but suffers heavily from having negative damage negation. Despite its very heavy weight, this armor set provides very low durability. Your 39 Endurance is almost entirely to support this piece, and you can very safely reduce your Endurance if you don’t feel comfortable using it.

If you want similar armor, the Black Knight Armor Set provides exceptional defensive values. The Haligtree Knight Helm can get you a small amount of Faith, allowing you to more readily diversify your build for more Vigor or Mind.

Best Talismans for the Black Steel Greathammer in Elden Ring

The four Talismans you need for this build are available quite early. They are:

• Curved Sword Talisman (Stormveil Castle): The 20 percent boost to Guard Counter damage also buffs the holy explosion afterward. This is a huge deal if your gameplan is to Guard Counter consistently.
• Sacred Scorpion Talisman (Smoldering Church, Caelid): A 12 percent boost to Holy damage means your initial hit and the Holy explosion afterward hits significantly harder. But, this does mean you’ll be taking a lot more Physical damage—especially given the extra damage taken from the Rakshasa armor.
• Erdtree’s Favor +2 (Leyndell, Ashen Capital): While the best version of this Talisman requires you to reach the endgame of Elden Ring, this Talisman grants a small amount of Equip Load, Stamina, and Health. The Talisman gives you just enough Equip Load to wear the Rakshasa armor, use a large Greatshield, and hold the Godslayer’s Seal.
• Dragoncrest Greatshield Talisman (Haligtree Roots): This 20 percent boost to your physical protection is essentially designed to counterbalance the Rakshasa Armor and the Sacred Scorpion Talisman.

If you don’t need the Dragoncrest Greatshield’s defensive stats, the Ritual Sword Talisman can provide a nice generic damage boost. The Claw Talisman can work well against bosses that hit many times, like Metyr, where blocking can be risky.