Great Stars
Great Stars is a spiked great hammer obtained from an Altus Plateau carriage and, through a second route, Magnus the Beast Claw. It combines strike damage, innate blood loss, healing on hit, and full affinity and Ash customization.
Key Takeaways
Great Stars combines great-hammer impact with innate Blood Loss and healing on successful hits, giving it a distinct close-range identity.
Great hammer with bleed
Its heavy great-hammer moveset deals strike damage while its innate Blood Loss buildup adds pressure against susceptible enemies.
Healing is tied to contact
Successful attacks restore a small amount of health, rewarding committed hits but not replacing ordinary defensive play.
Altus Plateau pickup
Great Stars is obtained from a chest on a carriage in Altus Plateau, making it a fixed pickup rather than a random enemy drop.
Requires heavy-weapon investment
Its great-hammer class brings substantial handling and attribute demands compared with lighter bleed weapons.
Customizable progression
Great Stars supports Ashes of War and affinity customization, allowing its skill and damage profile to suit different melee setups.
Best against bleed-vulnerable targets
Its passive and healing matter most when attacks can connect repeatedly; bleed-immune enemies reduce one of its defining advantages.
Overview
Great Stars is a standard great hammer in Elden Ring that combines heavy blunt attacks with innate blood loss and modest health recovery on successful hits. Its flexible upgrade path lets it serve several Strength-focused melee setups.
Great Stars is a base-game great hammer rather than a unique or legendary weapon. It occupies the heavy end of Elden Ring’s melee roster, using large, committed swings to trade speed for impact and stagger potential. Its defining passive is innate blood loss buildup, while successful attacks also restore a small amount of the wielder’s health. These effects give ordinary strikes value beyond their physical damage without making the weapon dependent on a single status-focused build.
Statistics
Elden Ring publishes no 0–100 stat bars, so this page lists the verified requirements, scaling and handling figures instead. Taken from the project's verified weapons database, not from generated text.
- CategoryHammers
- Damage TypeStrike
- Primary ScalingStr D
- Weight18
- SkillWild Strikes
- Str Req30
- Dex Req12
- How to ObtainGrave Warden Duelist drop
Figures verified against Consolidated Game Weapons Database.
Compared to similar hammers
| Weapon | Str Req | Dex Req | Weight | Primary Scaling |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Great Stars | 30 | 12 | 18 | Str D |
| Scepter of the All-Knowing | 13 | 13 | 6.5 | Fai D |
| Morning Star | 13 | 10 | 5.5 | Str D / Dex E |
| Envoy's Horn | 10 | 10 | 5 | Arc C |
| Club | 12 | 6 | 4.5 | Str D |
Requirements, scaling grades and weight are the game’s own published figures. From Consolidated Game Weapons Database.
How to Obtain
- Base game access to the Altus Plateau.
- For the alternate copy, access to the Magnus the Beast Claw invasion sign at Writheblood Ruins; the encounter is also used as an offline alternative for White-Faced Varre's invasion objective.
- 01In the base game, travel to the Road of Iniquity Side Path Site of Grace in the Altus Plateau and follow the road south. A guarded wagon stands along the road; open the chest at its rear to receive Great Stars. This is a guaranteed pickup and does not require a vendor, boss, quest, DLC, or NG+ cycle.
- 02A second copy is available in the Altus Plateau at Writheblood Ruins. Interact with the red invasion sign for Magnus the Beast Claw and defeat him; Great Stars is a guaranteed reward from this encounter. This route is also obtainable in the base game and provides an alternate copy rather than replacing the wagon pickup.
Availability
Requires No DLC or vendor purchase required.
A single fixed world pickup is available during the base-game progression.
Requires Requires access to a new playthrough.
The fixed pickup can be obtained again in a subsequent playthrough; it is not a rotating vendor item.
Mechanics and Handling
Great Stars is a greathammer whose handling combines heavy strike attacks with innate blood loss buildup and a small amount of healing when its attacks connect. Its main commitment is recovery time: swings cover useful space, but missing a hit leaves the wielder exposed longer than a lighter weapon would. The weapon’s reach is serviceable for a greathammer, though spacing still matters because its attacks are close-range and generally do not provide the broad control of a dedicated polearm.
Greathammer attack pattern
The light-attack chain uses weighty horizontal blows suited to catching targets in front of the wielder. The heavy attack is more committed and is better used after an enemy whiffs, during a stagger window, or when an opening is large enough to accommodate its slower recovery. Jumping attacks provide a practical way to close distance or apply pressure, while charged attacks trade additional commitment for stronger impact and improved opportunities to interrupt vulnerable enemies. Its ordinary strikes are physical melee attacks rather than a separate projectile or ranged mode.
Blood loss and hit-based healing
Great Stars applies innate blood loss buildup through qualifying attacks. The buildup is most valuable against enemies that can suffer hemorrhage, but it does not replace normal damage against targets resistant or immune to that status. Successful attacks also restore a small amount of the wielder’s HP, making repeated contact more valuable than a single isolated swing. The healing is tied to hitting with the weapon; it should not be treated as passive regeneration, and it does not remove the need to manage spacing or punish windows.
Endure and customizable weapon skill
Its default skill is Endure. Activating Endure briefly reinforces the wielder’s stance, allowing a committed action to be started with greater resistance to interruption while reducing incoming damage during the skill’s active window. It is a defensive timing tool rather than a damage attack: use it before a trade, a charged swing, or another action that would otherwise be vulnerable to interruption. Great Stars follows the regular customizable-weapon model, so its Ash of War can be changed where the chosen skill and affinity are compatible. Changing the skill changes the weapon’s handling option, but does not by itself remove the weapon’s innate blood loss effect.
Upgrades and Variants
Strengths, Weaknesses and Best Uses
Strengths
- Innate Blood Loss buildup gives each hit a status-pressure component without requiring an affinity change.
- Great Stars restores a small amount of HP when it connects, rewarding sustained contact and making ordinary clearing less attritional.
- Its great-hammer attacks provide substantial impact for trading with ordinary enemies and can create openings through stagger or stance pressure.
- The weapon is infusible and can change its Ash of War, allowing its physical damage, affinity, and active skill to be adapted to a build.
Weaknesses
- Great-hammer attacks commit more time than lighter weapon classes, making missed swings and delayed recovery easier for enemies to punish.
- Its weight and attribute requirements compete with armor, shield, or other equipment capacity, especially on early or low-level characters.
- Blood Loss is less useful against enemies that resist or cannot suffer hemorrhage, so part of its offensive identity is matchup-dependent.
- The HP restoration requires successful contact; it does not compensate for repeatedly whiffing against mobile targets or attacking outside effective spacing.
Best uses
- Sustained PvE melee against bleed-susceptible enemies, where repeated hits combine physical pressure, hemorrhage buildup, and on-hit healing.
- General exploration when reliable contact matters more than maximum attack speed, particularly against groups of ordinary enemies vulnerable to great-hammer impact.
- Builds that want a flexible great hammer rather than a fixed unique weapon, since its Ash of War and affinity can be tailored to the character's attributes.
Compared With Similar Weapons
| Weapon | Class and damage role | Build and handling distinction | When it is the closer alternative |
|---|---|---|---|
| Great Mace | Infusible and compatible with changeable Ashes of War, but lacks Great Stars' innate bleed and on-hit healing effect. | Choose when a straightforward strike weapon and flexible infusion matter more than status pressure or sustain. | — |
| Brick Hammer | A strength-oriented option with customizable Ashes of War. It trades Great Stars' bleed and healing utility for a simpler heavy-weapon profile. | A practical alternative for strength builds that want a direct hammer moveset without relying on innate status effects. | — |
| Prelate's Inferno Crozier | Larger, slower, and more demanding to handle than Great Stars, with fire damage and a fixed weapon skill rather than Great Stars' great-hammer flexibility. | Use it when a strength-focused colossal weapon and fire damage are preferable to Great Stars' faster, status-oriented role. | — |
Lore and Design
Great Stars has limited explicit lore. Its item description presents it as a large iron great hammer fitted with several prominent spikes and notes that its strikes cause blood loss. The description’s emphasis is on the weapon’s construction and violent function rather than on a named owner, historical event, or documented relationship to a character or faction.
The name and blood-focused description give Great Stars a distinct identity among Elden Ring’s great hammers, but the available text does not establish a broader “Great Stars” order or a real-world design source. Any interpretation that connects the weapon to a specific culture, warrior, or developer inspiration should therefore be treated as speculation rather than canon.
Trivia
- Great Stars is classified as a Great Hammer, despite its name describing the weapon’s large spiked head rather than a separate weapon class.
- Its innate health-restoring effect is triggered by successful hits, making multi-hit attacks an especially notable interaction for this weapon.