The Demon's Souls remake features the brutal challenge that FromSoftware titles are known for, but knowing what the best weapons are can make the game more manageable. Released in 2009, Demon's Souls - the first entry in the so-called Soulsborne RPG subgenre - raised the bar for in-game equipment design. With 2020's remake, a new generation of players can take up arms against the enemies that rove through the Kingdom of Boletaria.

With stunning designs, dozens of individual stats, and a clever mix of perks and debuffs, it can often be difficult for you to choose which weapons to use in your playthrough. While no weapon works the same in all scenarios, numerous weapons rise above their peers in of utility. As you war through Bluepoint Games' remake of Demon's Souls, you should take care not to miss these outstanding weapons.

17 Knight Sword

Pick Up The Perfect Starting Weapon

A classic starting weapon for Demon's Souls is the Knight Sword, a simple weapon that can be wielded in one or both hands by your character. This tool is the ultimate example of flexibility, as you can upgrade it or infuse it however you want without the risk of it losing its best qualities. The low Stamina cost on each swing means that your strikes will be fast and reliable without putting your character at risk.

Although this weapon won't deal nearly as much damage as others on this list, it boasts some of the most customization options in the game. For example, you could turn the Knight Sword into a Dragon Knight Sword for Fire damage or a Crushing Knight Sword to guarantee an S Rank of Strength scaling damage. Any build can use this weapon with minimal stat requirements, which can be something that holds builds back during the early game.

16 Scraping Spear

Make Your Enemies' Defenses Worthless

While its damage-dealing stats aren't anything impressive, a weapon's greatness is not always about raw numbers. No weapon in Demon's Souls makes this case better than the Scraping Spear. This weapon, forged from the soul of the Phalanx Demon, possesses the unique ability to degrade the durability of enemy weapons and armor.

Even low-level players can benefit from this spear's ability. Though they may not be able to inflict physical damage on enemies if they are below the Scraping Spear's utility level, they can still inflict its durability damage. You can also reduce the effectiveness of enemy armor and weapons, making even the most tank-like foes and bosses more manageable to face.

15 Crescent Falchion

Regenerate Mana While Using This Weapon

While plenty of other weapons can be imbued with the benefits of the crescent upgrade path by giving Blacksmith Ed Darkmoonstone, a Crescent Falchion can be found early in your journey through Demon's Souls' fog-filled Kingdom of Boletaria. Obtainable in area 4-1, as you can see in the above video by YouTube creator Ashen One, you only need to defeat the Phalanx boss from level 1-1 to gain access to this weapon.

This weapon also does excellent Bleeding damage, taking out huge chunks of an enemy's life bar when you can build up the Bleed status effect enough.

The Crescent Falchion isn't well-suited for all builds, but it's a must-have for anyone focusing on magic. The weapon scales very well with your Magic stat, and it allows you to ively regenerate mana while it is equipped. This extra ability is great if you are looking to use spells often either to get through an area or take down a difficult boss weak to magic damage.

14 Ritual Blade

Pick Up A New Tool Unique To The Remake

For an axe of its stature, the Ritual Blade's Weight rating is only 10, making it easily usable by most characters regardless of your build. Though its damage output dwindles mid-game once you begin to upgrade other weapons, the Ritual Blade is a powerful early-game tool, particularly for those who invest in Strength and Endurance stats in Demon's Souls first stages.

Stylistically, the Ritual Blade resembles a powerful weapon from Dark Souls 3 used by the boss Yhorm the Giant. This weapon bears the distinction of being the only weapon on this list that is new to the 2020 remake of Demon's Souls. Anyone who purchased the Digital Deluxe Edition of the game gains access to this mighty ax through Stockpile Thomas at the Nexus at any point in the game, making it easy to get early.

13 Adjudicator Shield

Slowly Regain HP Over Time

Encountered in a ruin roughly halfway through 4-1, the Adjudicator Shield, while not a weapon in a traditional sense, is an excellent complementary piece for builds that aren't excessively reliant on parrying or dexterity. Classified as a large shield, it's not practical in all situations, and it doesn't even negate one hundred percent of incoming damage.

However, the Adjudicator Shield provides the precious resource of Demon's Souls healing, ively healing two HP per second when equipped. This effect increases by one every time the shield is upgraded. This is extremely useful and can either mitigate health drain as a result of debuffs or help conserve the use of healing items in between combat encounters.

12 Kilij

Stay Mobile With A Fast Curved Sword

The Kilij is one of the fastest striking weapons in Demon's Souls, acting as a Curved Sword with a surprising amount of reach when used by your character. This weapon almost acts as a prototype to katanas but with better Durability and more customization. Even when two-handed, you can easily get three or four swings of this weapon off with some of your Stamina still intact, allowing you to still dodge roll at the end of a combo.

Another reason why this weapon is so strong is how easy it is to get. You can simply pick this weapon off a corpse near the Vanguard boss very early into your adventures, giving you an extremely powerful tool for dealing with the first few Demon's Souls bosses. With the right Infusions, you can make the Kilij even stronger and take it far further into the later stages of the game than you may expect.

11 Dragon Bone Smasher

Bolster Your Character's Fire Defense

One of only two weapons occupying Demon's Souls' Very Large Swords category, the Dragon Bone Smasher is, as the name implies, a massive weapon forged with the intent of aiding in battle against dragons. With a strength requirement of 30 and B damage scaling in that stat, it's an excellent mid-to-late game weapon for Strength builds. Ironically enough, it's not all that useful against the Dragon God due to the puzzle-like design of the fight.

The Dragon Bone Smasher can be found just after entering the Demon's Souls Dragon God boss arena, but it requires pure white World Tendency to find. This weapon also gives you slightly more protection against fire damage, making it almost like another piece of armor. This will help you make it through certain levels with a lot of enemies that use fire, such as the Flamelurker boss encountered in the game.

10 Claymore

Take Out Enemy Groups Reliably

The Claymore is an early-to-mid-game staple in most FromSoftware games, and Demon's Souls is no exception. Sold by a vendor in 1-2, the Claymore is categorized as a Large Sword and can be purchased very close to the start of your adventures through different levels. However, its strength requirement of 20 means that builds that don't emphasize the Strength stat will probably miss out on it.

According to the above video by YouTube creator Youwy, the Claymore is also extremely flexible with Infusions applied to the weapon. You can even push an S Rank Damage scaling for Strength if you turn the weapon into a Crushing Claymore.

A giant sword capable of broad, sweeping strikes that can hit multiple enemies, it's perfect for taking out the dregs of Boletaria early on. This can prevent your character from ever getting overwhelmed by enemy groups, especially as you are still trying to build up your character's health. Repeated attacks will also allow you to plow past an enemy's guard, albeit at a significant stamina cost.

9 Penetrating Sword

Combine Strength And Dexterity For Versatile Balance

As the weapon of choice for the ultra-challenging Penetrator boss, fans of Demon's Souls undoubtedly understand how devastating this versatile blade can be. Featuring a balanced weight-to-damage ratio, the Penetrating Sword's great strength resides in its unique features as a medieval Demon's Souls weapon, boasting unparalleled reach and high-damage thrusting attack.

Like other Piercing weapons, this sword scales with your Dexterity, making it an effective choice for character builds that focus on a weapon's finesse. In combat, this massive blade feels like an unusual mix of slashing, thrusting, and polearm weapons, so you should make sure to familiarize yourself with its diverse attacks before running headlong into a horde of demons.

8 Meat Cleaver

Recover Health By Striking Enemies

Featuring a design that looks inspired by Pyramid Head's sword from the Silent Hill franchise, the Meat Cleaver packs a hefty punch in its oversized blade. Belying its sword-like appearance, this weapon is classified as a Large Hammer in the game. As a result, it can only be created by imbuing a mace, war pick, or Great Club with the soul of the Adjudicator Demon boss.

As you can see in the above video by YouTube creator PanFro Games, some builds with the Meat Cleaver are incredibly broken because of how the weapon can continuously stagger enemies, preventing them from ever striking back.

This unorthodox weapon deals both Physical and Magic damage, giving it various damage types to exploit enemy weaknesses. This is also one of the few weapons capable of two S Ranks in damage scaling with both Strength and Dexterity. This crude blade also has the added benefit of restoring 1% of player health with every successful strike, making it a mechanical antithesis to other Demon's Souls weapons that hurt the wielder.