Elden Ring - Daggers

Daggers earn their slot through ripostes, status buildup and carrying a cheap Ash of War, far more than through the damage of their own swings.

Combat

Pros

The two highest critical multipliers in the game belong to this class, Miséricorde at 140 and Dagger at 130, and no weapon anywhere beats 140.
Daggers weigh 1.5 (Blade of Calling) to 3.5 (Cinquedea), the cheapest possible carry slot for a buff or utility Ash of War and a stat-efficient way to cast Golden Vow or Shared Order.
An Occult infusion pushes Dagger, Great Knife, Erdsteel Dagger and Parrying Dagger to A Arcane at max upgrade, the class's real scaling ceiling for an Arcane build.
A Keen Great Knife reaches S Dexterity at max upgrade with 158 physical.

Cons

The hardest hitter in the class at +0 is Cinquedea at 98 physical, below every common straight sword (Broadsword 117, Lordsworn's Straight Sword 115, Longsword 110).
Guard boost tops out at 18 (Wakizashi, Cinquedea), against Sword Lance's 42 and Milady's 36, so daggers make a poor guard-counter platform.
Reach is very short, and the damage is low against both health and poise.
Daggers will not stagger most foes, and the dual-wield opening attack is three separate hits, which makes it slow to commit to.

Dexterity leads, with Arcane added only for an Occult infusion or Reduvia.

Entry is trivially cheap: the plain Dagger needs 5 Strength and 9 Dexterity and Miséricorde 7 Strength and 12 Dexterity, so a dagger fits any build as an off-hand riposte tool without stat investment.
A Faith build can run Blade of Calling, which reaches B Faith at max upgrade (173 physical, 105 holy) at 1.5 weight.
For Arcane bleed, Reduvia reaches B Arcane with 50 blood loss at max, or an Occult Great Knife or Dagger reaches A Arcane.
The next chunk of damage almost never comes from levels here; it comes from switching to a higher-critical dagger or from an infusion that changes the scaling letter.

Weapon	Attack	Weight	Str	Dex	Int	Fai	Arc
Cinquedea	98	3.5	10	10	-	-	-
Wakizashi	94	3	9	13	-	-	-
Miséricorde	92	2	7	12	-	-	-
Reduvia	79	2.5	5	13	-	-	13
Great Knife	75	1.5	6	12	-	-	-

Standing heavy attacks split three ways: Glintstone Kris, Main-gauche, Miséricorde and Scorpion's Stinger thrust, Black Knife, Blade of Calling, Erdsteel Dagger and Fire Knight's Shortsword do a quick double-hit slash, and the sickles do a two-handed side swipe.
Powerstancing daggers is unusually fast, but Wakizashi pairs with Katanas and Main-gauche pairs with Thrusting Swords rather than with other daggers.
Main-gauche and Fire Knight's Shortsword belong to the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion, and Fire Knight's Shortsword reaches A Arcane on Occult.

The table below lists all Daggers in Elden Ring.

Name	Physical	Magic	Fire	Light	Holy	Crit. Boost	Weight	Str.	Dex.	Int.	Fai.	Arc.	Sell Price	Skill
Black Knife	66 26	0 15	0 15	0 15	65 42	110 15	2	E 8	D 12	0	D 18	0	100	Blade of Death
Blade of Calling	71 31	0 18	0 18	0 18	43 30	110 15	1.5	D 6	D 13	0	C 15	0	1000	Blade of Gold
Bloodstained Dagger	81 36	0 21	0 21	0 21	0 21	110 15	2	C 9	E 12	0	0	0	100	Quickstep
Celebrant's Sickle	79 35	0 20	0 20	0 20	0 20	100 15	1.5	E 6	C 11	0	0	0	100	Quickstep
Cinquedea	98 43	0 25	0 25	0 25	0 25	100 18	3.5	D 10	E 10	0	0	0	500	Quickstep
Crystal Knife	82 32	53 31	0 18	0 18	0 18	100 15	2	D 8	D 12	D 9	0	0	100	Quickstep
Dagger	74 35	0 20	0 20	0 20	0 20	130 15	1.5	D 5	C 9	0	0	0	100	Quickstep
Erdsteel Dagger	67 36	0 21	0 21	0 21	0 21	110 15	2	D 7	D 12	0	D 14	0	200	Quickstep
Fire Knight's Shortsword	75 32.0	0 18.0	22 31.0	0 18.0	0 18.0	110 15	2.0	D 8	D 13	0	D 12	0	100	Quickstep
Glintstone Kris	57 23	68 45	0 14	0 14	0 14	110 15	1.5	E 5	D 12	D 16	0	0	100	Glintstone Dart
Great Knife	75 35	0 20	0 20	0 20	0 20	110 15	1.5	E 6	C 12	0	0	0	100	Quickstep
Ivory Sickle	60 26	60 42	0 15	0 15	0 15	100 15	2	E 6	D 11	D 13	0	0	100	Quickstep
Main-gauche	79 38.0	0 22.0	0 22.0	0 22.0	0 22.0	110 16	2.0	D 7	C 15	0	0	0	100	Parry
Miséricorde	92 36	0 21	0 21	0 21	0 21	140 15	2	E 7	D 12	0	0	0	100	Quickstep
Parrying Dagger	75 35	0 20	0 20	0 20	0 20	110 15	1.5	E 5	C 14	0	0	0	100	Parry
Reduvia	79 38	0 22	0 22	0 22	0 22	110 16	2.5	E 5	D 13	0	0	D 13	100	Reduvia Blood Blade
Scorpion's Stinger	79 38	0 22	0 22	0 22	0 22	110 16	2.5	D 6	C 12	0	0	0	100	Repeating Thrust
Wakizashi	94 42	0 24	0 24	0 24	0 24	100 18	3	D 9	D 13	0	0	0	100	Quickstep