Elden Ring - Helms

Head armor offers the least defense of any slot yet carries nearly all of the game's armor passives, so the real choice is which passive to wear, not which number is biggest.

Combat

Pros

• Effects live in this slot. Far more head pieces carry a special effect than chest, arm or leg pieces, so stat boosts, FP discounts and spell multipliers are almost always a head-slot decision.
• Helms are cheap to carry: the median helm weighs 3.8 and the average just over 4, across a range from 0.7 (Commoner's Headband (Altered)) to 12.3 (Pumpkin Helm and Greatjar).
• Useful poise comes without the weight. Bull-Goat Helm's 15 is the slot ceiling, but Crucible Axe Helm reaches 11 at 6.6 weight and Briar Helm 9 at 5.1. Circlet of Light holds 5 poise at 1.0 weight, a poise-per-weight ratio of 5.00 and more than double any other helm.
• Status resistance concentrates here. Mushroom Crown holds the slot's best immunity at 46 alongside 45 robustness, and the five scarab helms all sit at 42 immunity for 5.1 weight. The stat-bearing Imp Heads follow at 35 immunity and 35 robustness for 8.1 weight.

Cons

• Helms move defense the least of any slot. The best physical negation on a head piece is 8.0 (Greatjar) against 20.4 on chest and 11.9 on legs; the best poise is 15 against 47 on chest and 28 on legs; the best immunity is 46 against 102 on chest and 63 on legs. Swapping helms pulls a small defensive lever for a large passive reason.
• Most of the passives are small: Rakshasa Helm adds 2% to all damage, Spellblade's Pointed Hat 2% magic damage on skills, Dancer's Hood 2.5% on dancing moves, Death Knight Helm 2% on Dragon Cult abilities and Alberich's Pointed Hat 6% on thorn sorceries. Only a short list clears 10%.
• The strong crowns charge heavily for their stats. Twinsage Glintstone Crown costs 9% max HP and 9% max stamina, Witch's Glintstone Crown 18% max stamina, Lazuli Glintstone Crown 18% max HP, and Divine Beast Head takes 11% off the Flask of Crimson Tears. Curseblade Mask and Divine Beast Head also carry a heavy focus penalty that leaves their own focus at zero.
• The FP discounts are paid for in negation. All five scarab helms carry negative values in every negation column, Glintstone Scarab at -5.8 physical and -4.9 magic, so the wearer takes roughly 5% more damage.

Builds

Pick the passive first, then check what the rest of the loadout can afford to carry.

• Casters buy attribute levels outright: Twinsage Glintstone Crown at +6 Intelligence for 9% HP and 9% stamina is the largest single-stat swing in the slot, and Greathood at +2 Intelligence and +2 Faith suits hybrids while also leading the slot in focus and vitality at 47 each.
• A spell-specific crown such as Azur's Glintstone Crown, Lusat's Glintstone Crown, Snow Witch Hat or Alberich's Pointed Hat only pays off when that exact spell is the main line.
• Poise builds work from a short list: Bull-Goat Helm's 15 at 11.3 weight when the equip load is already heavy, otherwise Crucible Axe Helm or Radahn's Redmane Helm at 11 for 6.6 and 7.5, which gives most of the poise for about two-thirds of the weight or less.
• Status-heavy areas such as Lake of Rot, Caelid and the Mohgwyn blood swamp are where raw resistance decides the pick: Mushroom Crown's 46 immunity and 45 robustness beat every effect-carrying alternative, while the five scarab helms trade negation for 42 immunity and a 15% FP discount, a caster's trade rather than a melee one.
• The only head passives that raise damage on every weapon rather than one spell school are the attack buffs: White Mask on a bleed build and Mushroom Crown on a rot build.

Best Helms

Piece	Image	Poise	Weight	Physical	Immunity	Robust.	Focus	Vitality
Bull-Goat Helm		15	11.3	7.5	31	35	20	23
Mushroom Crown		10	9.1	5.8	46	45	18	22
Twinsage Glintstone Crown		6	5.1	4.4	16	26	10	10
Glintstone Scarab		6	5.1	-5.8	42	22	27	26
Greathood		5	5.1	3.8	33	20	47	47
White Mask		5	3.2	2.7	23	18	21	22

Notes

• Armor carries no stat requirement and no upgrade path, so a helm's numbers are fixed: any helm found in the first hour stays exactly as good at the end, and every one can be worn from level 1.
• Damage negation stacks multiplicatively across the four slots. Physical damage splits into Standard, Strike, Slash and Pierce, with Slash and Pierce mitigated mostly by heavy armor and Lightning and Holy mostly by robes and garbs, which is why the light caster hoods lead the holy and lightning columns.
• The four resistances add up across all slots and only slow status build-up: Immunity covers poison and scarlet rot, Robustness blood loss and frostbite, Focus sleep and madness, and Vitality death blight. None of them reduce damage once the status has landed.
• Equip load, not weight, is the real cost of a helm. Light load ends at 30% and Heavy begins at 70%; Light and Medium rolls share the same recovery frames while a Heavy roll has almost twice the recovery animation, so the only weight that matters is whether the helm pushes the total over one of those two lines.

All Helms

The table below lists all Helms in Elden Ring.