Hammers of From Software Trivia Quiz

Answer: Dirty Colossus Archstone

The player must first be in Pure Black World Tendency. After defeating Maiden Astrea and Garl Vinland during their formal boss fight, the player would need to first kill themselves as defeating that boss will ensure they briefly cannot have Pure Black World Tendency. After dying enough times to achieve that World Tendency, the player can travel to the Dirty Colossus Archstone to fight a Black Phantom version of Garl Vinland.

This Black Phantom is tough. Predictably, it deals more damage and takes hits more effectively than the real deal. However, it can also be cheesed if the player has a ranged option, as it will not follow the player outside of the Dirty Colossus boss room. If the player retreats far enough, the phantom will as well, and the player can shoot it as it does.

Once slain, it will drop the Crest of Vinland as well as the Bramdt.

Answer: Morning Star

The Morning Star has a fairly high Bleed stat, sitting at 100. This is the fifth highest Bleed stat in the entire game. The four weapons sitting above the Morning Star all deal far less base damage than it does, and have poorer general scaling as well. This is part of why the Morning Star is one of the better, more well rounded weapons in the entire game.

Answer: Giant Blacksmith

It's good that this is a "Soul Level One" playthrough, because killing this big, lovable giant will be the equivalent of selling the player's own soul. In return for doing a deal with the devil, the player gets a very formidable weapon for their playthrough. Requiring 16 Strength, this weapon is ever so barely wieldable by an SL1 character. With its low scaling and massive base power, it is ideal for a player who will not be leveling up their character at any point.

Answer: Kill Asylum Demon on first encounter

The very first encounter with the Asylum Demon, the player is not intended to actually fight it. From Software themselves left a message on the floor during this encounter highly advising the player to run away to safety during this time. The player will only have a measle Broken Straight Sword and no means of healing themselves whatsoever.

The Broken Straight Sword cannot deal more than two damage to the demon, who has 886 HP. This means the player must hit it 443 times in order to win. The player cannot heal, and the Asylum Demon will kill them in four hits. The player has three hits to work with, versus needing to dish out 443 to win. They'll need to average hitting the demon almost 150 times without getting hit in return.

If they manage to pull it off, the demon will drop the Demon's Greathammer. If slain later, it will not drop the weapon at all. Personally, this feat took me 31 minutes to accomplish. It is only for those up for a surprisingly big challenge against the game's tutorial boss!

Answer: Adaptability

Bizarrely, equipping this weapon will increase the player's Vitality and Endurance by 1, their Adaptability by 2, at the cost of decreasing Dexterity by 1. There is no clarity offered by the game in terms of lore as to why this effect takes place. Given how horrible the weapon is, however, these stat changes are the only reason to ever equip it. If you are running a build where you want a little bit more HP and i-frames for your dodge roll, and you can spare a point in Dexterity, perhaps having this weapon in your off-hand could be of use.

Answer: Poise Damage

Higher Poise Damage fits hand-in-glove on a weapon that's best reserved exclusively for boss fights due to its horrible durability. Having both the highest base damage and Poise Damage of all Great Hammers, this is arguably the best in its class for taking down bosses such as The Rotten, Velstadt or Fume Knight.

Answer: It deals extra Fire damage

After transforming the weapon, the very next attack used deals an extra 60 Fire damage. It also expends slightly more stamina. With many beasts across the game being weak to Fire, this 60 may not sound like much, but it really starts to add up especially in boss fights.

Answer: Untended Graves

Untended Graves is essentially an alternate version of Firelink Shrine. The layout is the same, only there is no sunlight and all but one of the NPCs in the Firelink Shrine are absent here. In the place where Blacksmith Andre would be sitting if this was the Firelink Shrine, the Blacksmith's Hammer can be found.

Answer: Reduce Magic and Holy resistances of everyone nearby

This applies even to the caster themselves. Considering that Gideon himself mainly wields Magic sorceries and Holy incantations, the Ash of War synergizes with him in a straightforward way. Since his build can be essentially copy/pasted for the player, they can take a page from his book and use the Ash of War in similar fashion.

Answer: It has Hyper Armor

Hyper Armor means that this Ash of War cannot be interrupted by anything. Because the animation involves the user levitating in the air, they are out of the range of grab attacks as well. This makes it impossible to interrupt this Ash of War with anything at all, and because the attack itself deals a wide AoE holy explosion, it is difficult to dodge as well.

This makes it very spammable in PvP, as it also cannot be parried.