Elden Ring - Daggers

Take a dagger when your damage comes from ripostes, status buildup, or carrying a free Ash of War, not from swinging it.

Combat

Pros

• Owns the two highest critical multipliers in the game: Miséricorde 140 and Dagger 130. 's Miséricorde page states outright that 140 is the highest critical stat of all weapons.
• Weight 1.5 (Blade of Calling) to 3.5 (Cinquedea) per class-leaders.md: the cheapest possible carry slot for a buff/utility Ash of War. 's Daggers page calls this out explicitly as a stat-efficient way to cast Golden Vow or Shared Order.
• Occult infusion pushes Dagger, Great Knife, Erdsteel Dagger and Parrying Dagger to A Arcane at max, the class's real scaling ceiling for an Arcane build.
• Keen Great Knife reaches S Dexterity at max: the only S in any of the five classes covered here.

Cons

• Hardest hitter in the class at +0 is Cinquedea at 98 physical, below every common straight sword (Broadsword 117, Lordsworn's 115, Longsword 110).
• Guard boost tops out at 18 (Wakizashi, Cinquedea) versus Sword Lance's 42 and Milady's 36, daggers are not a guard-counter platform.
• Very short reach and low damage against both health and poise.
• Daggers won't stagger most foes, and the dual-wield opening attack is three separate hits, making it slow to commit to.

Builds

Dexterity-forward, with Arcane added only if you commit to Occult or Reduvia.

• Entry is trivially cheap, the plain Dagger needs 5 Str / 9 Dex and Miséricorde 7 Str / 12 Dex (items.json), so a dagger fits in any build as an off-hand riposte tool without stat investment.
• For a Faith build, Blade of Calling reaches B Faith at max standard (173 phys / 105 holy) at 1.5 weight.
• For Arcane bleed, Reduvia hits B Arcane with 50 blood at max, or infuse a Great Knife/Dagger Occult for A Arcane.
• The next chunk of damage almost never comes from levels here, it comes from swapping to a higher-crit dagger or from an infusion that changes the scaling letter.

Best Weapons

Weapon	Image	Attack	Weight	Str	Dex	Int	Fai	Arc	Why Take It
Cinquedea		98	3.5	10	10	-	-	-	The class's hardest hit: 98 physical at +0 and 240 at max standard, both class highs, with B Strength at max standard. The catch is E Dexterity base and a 10 Str / 10 Dex requirement, it is the Strength dagger, not the Dex one.
Wakizashi		94	3	9	13	-	-	-	230 physical at max standard, second only to Cinquedea, with 38 innate bleed and the class-best 18 guard boost. it does not powerstance with other daggers, it powerstances with Katanas.
Miséricorde		92	2	7	12	-	-	-	140 critical, the highest of any weapon in the game, 92 physical at +0 rising to 225 at max standard. it tends to outperform the Rapier (second-highest crit at 130) when used purely for critical hits. 7 Str / 12 Dex, behind a Stonesword Key fog wall in Stormveil Castle.
Reduvia		79	2.5	5	13	-	-	13	B Arcane at max standard with 50 blood loss, plus Reduvia Blood Blade, a ranged skill. 13 Arcane requirement; obtainable very early from Bloody Finger Nerijus at Murkwater Cave.
Great Knife		75	1.5	6	12	-	-	-	S Dexterity on Keen at max (158 phys) and A Dexterity on Blood (154 phys, 82 buildup), the highest scaling letter available in any of these five classes. Free for the Bandit origin.

Notes

• Critical multiplier is the reason to hold one: 140 (Miséricorde) / 130 (Dagger) versus a class-typical 110, applied to backstabs and ripostes.
• Low weight makes daggers stat-efficient Ash of War casters: explicitly recommends them for holding buffs like Golden Vow or Shared Order with no attribute investment.
• 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; the sickles do a two-handed side swipe.
• Powerstance is unusually fast, but Wakizashi pairs with Katanas and the DLC Main-gauche pairs with Thrusting Swords, not with other daggers.
• The first dual-wield attack is three separate hits and therefore slow, and daggers won't stagger most enemies out of it.

All Daggers

Name	Image	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	32 31.0	0 18.0	0 18.0	110	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	2.0	D 7	D 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