The Astora's Straight Sword is genuinely my favorite weapon in Dark Souls 1 - Looks pretty - GOATed Longsword moveset - No need to collect Embers - No respawning skeletons - Makes bossfights last longer What's not to love? 😛
The Astora's Straight Sword really is just "a weapon". Nothing unique, nothing its specifically good at, but nothing that really makes it challenging to use, aside from lackluster damage
@@DrEpilepsy Yeah, this has to be the most idiotic take on the weapon I've ever read. If there's anything I have learned recently, it's how useful Astora's Straight Sword is, but nothing like generating bad faith discussion.
Skipping the depths mean you lose out on at least 33,000 souls. 6,000 from capra and 25,000 from gaping dragon. 33k is notbing to scoff at especially in early game
Especially when you can parryclip into the fog gate to cheese Capra (basically the same setup as O&S AI cheese, but you don't go back to the bonfire, you just hit Capra through the fog gate)
@@theapexsurvivor9538 Or you can do the much easier skip from undead burg to the lower burg clipping through the ground and jumping inside Capra's arena - which causes his AI to freeze completely.
Bruh what. 33k can easily be collected from elsewhere, even without killing anything. And after u start to beat bosses you’ll get tens of thousands of souls very quickly
This sword carried me through half of my first ever playthrough of DS1 all those years ago. I didn't understand builds and scaling back then so the fact this could kill things easily even unupgraded, was a godsend for me. It got me to Anor Londo which is where it really started dropping off, so I switched to the BKS. But the astora sword is something I pick up straight away on all of my new playthroughs as a quick and accessible early weapon to deal with skeletons without hunting for necromancers.
Fully agree. It was the first weapon a friend suggested I pick up when I said I was doing a "paladin" type build when I did my very first playthrough. I haven't played in years, but I remember this weapon fondly and would definitely snag it on a new playthrough.
one critique I always had about souls games is that there are a ton of weapons but 90% of them are either useless or easily replaceable by a better option
Ds2 tried to balance this by making higher ar weapons more heavy/less durable/consume more stamina. Game still has some really bad ones but more "ok but not meta weapons" I think
Pfft, that's not even remotely close to being the worst weapon in the game. Did you forget that fist weapons exist? Or what about the sniper crossbow? Or the two broken swords? Or daggers? Or whips? There are tons of worse weapons than the astora straight sword.
Actually daggers are good ... and i'm not even referring to the silver tracer the bandit's knife is actually the easiest way to beat any bleadable boss... also quick attacks mean buffs are way more valuable on a dagger
daggers are pretty good, actually. all daggers do good damage when built correctly. Even the parrying dagger can be used as a good weapon. With a divine infusion, I use the parrying dagger in my left to parry and then quickly slice down the skeletons
This sword is OP is the early game, it just doesn't scale well. Vitality and Endurance and very good stats in Dark souls 1, so choosing a weapon with high base damage and low stat investment will allow you to allocate points into vitality and endurance early. It's a great weapon if you want to start the game and immediately go to Bell Gargoyles or Blighttown, and it can even get you through Anor Londo at +2 with high vitality and endurance investment. Where it excels is if you plan to begin with the catacombs, since the sword has the benefit of permanently killing skeletons. If you go through the catacombs normally, without the skip, you can access several useful items, including the great scythe, and the crescent axe, as well as the blacksmith for early infusions. If you're dead-set on using it late-game, you should probably scale it with faith, since those points will also allow you to access miracles. Going through the catacombs right after killing the Capra demon will allow you do save Reah, who will sell you some of the best miracles in the game. C-C scaling with strength and dexterity means that on faith builds, you can allocate some points toward a higher-investment weapon without those points being completely useless to the Astora Straight Sword. I've never tried using it in late-game before, so I don't really know how good it effective it would be, but it certainly has it's uses and has served me well on several playthroughs.
This, good to prioritise Dex over Strength a little too for the Casting Speed. And even if it’s one of the weaker straight swords, it’s still a straight sword with a decent moveset. Edit: I’ve just done a full run with the ASS after watching this video and while I still stand by the fact that it can be (kind of) viable with Faith Builds, I will say that y’all weren’t joking about the damage falloff after O&S. Goddamn it was kinda nice against Nito but it was horrific against the Four Kings, it did so little damage that I ended up having to fight six of them at once.
exactly. early in my faith run this weapon was insane. after a few upgrades i melted Capra demon in 4 hits. common sense had me switching weapons pretty soon after, but Astora is goated for early game
@@MaddBadgerr In ASS’s defence, it’s a twinkling weapon that’s much easier to upgrade than a Divine Infused weapon. You could even get it to +5 before Sens Fortress by killing the Crystal Lizards in Great Hollow which ain’t too tough to do. But yes I agree that a Divine Broadsword would eventually make the ASS obsolete, I just really don’t wanna get the Large Divine Ember in Tomb Of The Giants early in the game ever again.
It's a twinkling titanite weapon, meaning you can get it maxed out with upgrades before you fight the Bell Gargoyles. That's nothing to scoff at, considering it's probably the easiest twinkling titanite weapon to wield when it comes to stat requirments, especially if you're planning on switching weapons at some point in the run. Here's my route for a quick twink weapon : 2x from the crystal lizard in undead burg 2x from the crystal lizard in darkroot garden 4x from Snuggly if you trade the moss you got from darkroot garden. 2x from the crystal lizard in the catacombs.
It's not bad because of 1 reason... Early access to Divine without requiring you to do almost ANYTHING, and its a twinkling titanite weapon meaning if you use a different weapon for either sunlight blade, darkmoon blade, or boss weapons, you got your backup weapon for skeletons
Well it's just Oscar on the cover I think. He's pretty based for the little amount he's in the game. Gives us our escape, our flask, and then dies. Based
I mean, how bad can it be? It does average damage, swings at a medium speed and has okay damage scaling. Yeah, it isn't going to one-shot anything but seems like it would be decent enough in all scenarios. Maybe late game it starts to taper off a bit but wouldn't something like the Drake Sword be worse in that regard?
Surprisingly bad, it scales poorly due to split scaling and scaling being a % of base numbers, from the get go is worse than your Mace two handed with no upgrade, if we assume you're a Cleric, any normal weapon +5 due to puré phys damage (and terrible numbers on ass) will make it useless, and Twinkles can be used to upgrade BGH right away later. I've tried everything and surprisingly is bad no matter the point of the game, stat spread, and upgrade level, simply there's no run in which this won't just slow you down.
The low base damage, which is also split, makes it very bad against late game and NG+ enemies that have high defense. On paper, the scaling is average, but because the base damage is low, scaling is also poor in practice. It's definitely much worse than a +15 longsword.
@@johnkalyvas4838 I mean sure, but it ought to be leagues better than say a +0 broken straight sword. Maybe it is the worst weapon in regards to underperforming on expectations.
@@Cayden.1 nah... nobody has ever done fist only and that's for a reason... Or I mean true fist only! obviously some have done the glitch where u can imbue crystal magic weapon or GMW etc onto their fist.. but basic fist? Yeah nah ur tweaking lol idc how good u are lmao would take hours each attempt. like how this guy skipped out on manus and etc and he even had a SWORD
ASS being a straight sword immediately disqualifies it as the "worst" weapon in the game. Is it low tier? Sure. The absolute worst piece of dogshit? No.
I used it one time as my starting weapon when I rp as a knight and when I realized that the damage was so bad even upgraded I had a crisis of faith literally until I switched to a divine claymore
3:47 thats literally beta content. Originally, oscar and you had been supposed to be playing simultaneously. After getting all 4 Lord souls, he would invade you in the Void before the kiln and he would've talked about how you betrayed him because he thinks that he was the chosen one
Because it is. I got a ”can you beat Elden Ring with a dagger” challenge video recomended to me months after countless people have beaten these games fist only. Challenge runs only get interesting when the only gimmick isn't low damage, it could even be the opposite like 1-shoting all bosses etc.
I've been saying this for years. Even maxed out this thing barely keeps up with a +5 Divine Longsword. Bear in mind that Longsword still has 5 upgrades left in it and can be made Occult or Divine, either of which end up with superior base damage and scaling. First time players are unlikely to come across the Astora Straight Sword until after Blighttown, at which point they'd already have access to Green Titanite for a Divine weapon. It isn't even a noob trap if you look at it like that, it's just bad. There are worse weapons, sure, but it's in the unique position of being just good enough that uninformed players might consider it worth upgrading at a glance but just bad enough that you feel how bad the damage is.
Also, no one in these comments is saying it's the best weapon, most people are just pointing out he's calling a severely mid-tier weapon the worst weapon, when it's nowhere near the worst.
@moosecannibal8224 My point was that a weapon that most informed players consider quite bad is considerably worse than many realize it is. Playing the game without Master Key the A.S.S has already been outcompeted in its role when most find it by a +5 Divine Longsword (easily farmable Green Titanite is available in Blighttown). Even with Master Key, where it gets a chance to be fairly good through Gargoyles, this thing falls off a cliff damage-wise as soon as you enter Quelag's boss arena and was already slipping by the time you reached Depths. A +2 A.S.S barely gets Yellow damage on Quellag, which is as high as you can get one by Quellag without doing Great Hollow. The Astora Straight Sword is easily among the worst Twinkling Titanite weapons. It's only real redeeming quality is its early availability if you started with Master Key. Otherwise it gets at best 2 bosses it's anything but terrible for, being Gargoyles and Capra Demon. If the best quality of a weapon is it's ability to stomp Undead Burg and Parish if you started as Cleric (which already starts with Mace which does so as well) it's a bad weapon.
You're talking about first time players like they have a clue about what any of the terms you used mean. Or that they understand a lick of how the upgrade system works. And if they are guide readers, then they won't ever even encounter the weapon in the first place, because there are better things to get.
@OzixiThrill On my very first playthrough of the game, I explored Darkroot Garden thoroughly enough that I found the Divine Ember, the elevator to Valley of Drakes and the Astora Straight Sword by the time I beat Gargoyles. I used a +2 Astora Straight Sword all the way to Ornstein and Smough, and by that point, I had long since been feeling the low damage. As a first-time player, I just assumed that the game had a huge difficulty spike and my weapon was not the problem. After beating O&S I did more exploring in Anor Londo and found the Occult Club, saw it scaled off Faith and realized that weapon infusions were both a thing and could make my weapon scale off of Faith since I'd already found a regular Club as well. I then made the connection that the Divine path mentioned by the Divine Ember I'd found before and given to Andre probably also did that. I bought a Longsword from Andre and fumbled with the upgrade system to make one. Lo and behold, on my very first playthrough, I figured out that a Divine Longsword beats an Astora Straight Sword.
The thing that upsets me the most about the sword, is that it doesn't get enough of an increase from upgrading. If you turn a longsword elemental, it'll always perform better once you get to using titanite chunks. Otherwise, it's not actually a bad weapon. It has lackluster damage, but it gets a divine modifier and excels for the early game - where you would need it most. You could skip the divine ember entirely, and the process of upgrading a weapon into divine.
This sword is legit one of my favorite weapons: - Available early by running till darkroot garden or even earlier with Masterkey - Simple and efective movement - Low requirements - Can kill the skeletons in the graveyard permanently - 20% more damage (divine weapons are just 10%) against undead enemies - Magic + physical damage - Increases your resistances against every non physical damage type and also every status effect in the game
Besides skeletons, it's... a straight sword. Whatever graphs you could draw about its hypothetical performance compared to other similar weapons or weapons in its stats niche or so on, it's ultimately a pretty unremarkable spanking stick with a good moveset. Having to hit a guy one more time to kill 'em is hardly a game changer
7:20 this clip already shows the difference between this weapon and others, with soul spear at this stage you can one shot each of them with i think over 1k damage per shot, with any ultra greatsword you need two R1 hits i believe, with this weapon you deal 44 damage per R1 it seems.
I totally understand not fighting Manus and Khalameet. I've killed Yhorm with only Caestus and 30 straight minutes of shin punching; it was terrible. (One you get the Pontiff rings its low-key a really fun build if you're good at dodging)
@@Weldedhodag I don't think this is correct, the greatsword of Artorias made from the broken straight sword is the true greatsword, it deals magic damage but can't damage ghosts. The (cursed) greatsword of Artorias is made from any standard straight or greatsword iirc
@@Garl_Vinland before long, you people always show up at some point. Some point you're entire existence is to just tell people they are wrong like you are on the spectrum.
@@calemr Scaling doesn't matter for most weapons the letter just doesn't matter because scaling is based off of the base damage of the weapon too, which would make it pretty lackluster in damage despite having an a scaling
used a titanite catch pole the first time I ever beat O&S Loved that weapon, didn't realize it was a rare drop till my next playthrough when I didn't get one
I wanted to go through Dark Souls being like Oscar, playing the role as his living legacy, but I just can’t bring myself to use this damn sword. It’s cool looking, but that’s it.
@@IamUzyf kind of, a +5 lightning greataxe is still pretty decent. It's really more about if you mind spending 20 minutes fighting a boss and whether or not you enjoy a weapon's moveset. I would agree that it is not advisable to use elemental weapons against DLC bosses unless you want to be challenged.
People think this is a bad weapon? A.S.S is the best weapon for the start of the playthrough. Minimal stat investment and a few easy twinklies. Way more viable and useful than the Drake Sword (which is the OG Noob weapon)
Drake is stronger. Believe me I run this game in non meta routes, it doesn't work like the other Twinkling weapons, there's simply no way to make this stronger than, let's say, a +5 Uchi, no matter the stat investment or upgrade level or where you are, it always sucks compared to pretty much any option.
The one thing I found about the weapon is that it's sort of like a drake sword for faith builds. You can get it relatively early and the split damage will far outdo most conventional weapons at the start and will carry you until you've found a suitable replacement.
I don't think you grasp the weapon, there's weapons in the game that deal way more damage than Astora sword, it's not about a warped perception, is about this weapon being mediocre against ever other weapon
On my first playthrough I was a cleric and I used that sword through Blighttown, New Londo and the Catacombs, all before Sen's Fortress, so even if it wasn't my main weapon (Zweiheinder and Nito's Sword) it has a special place on my heart.
With the Master key my average run start nets +5 Astoras Straight Sword in under an hour that lasts me till NG+2 when I eventually swap to Occult Winged Spear
High Strength and dex or faith Max level weapon Power Within Yeah it still does numbers and playing as a knight your planning on investing vitality too
It is a good early game weapon. Get twinkling titanite from burg and dark root. Trade herbs from dark root with the crow and you have plus 4 weapon without even going to the depths. Once in the depths, stock up on green shards from slimes, farm the crystal golems in dark root and grab the enchanted ember. Now you have an almost fully maxed enchanted weapon before stepping foot in blight town. I like to do this with a balder side sword myself.
I used it once in a playthrough. Basicly it was support for miracle build. It is good for support role on miracle build. Don't expect much. It is for lesser enemies and mostly finishing off boss health when you run out of casts
To be honest, the main draw of the weapon is the holy damage, which helps you deal with the crypt and the respawning skeletons. However the whole point of the smiths is being able to make weapons that outpace the ones you find in the game.
I liked the sword for the innate ability to kill skeletons dead, and because I'm a Sucker for medieval swords so yeh, I realized in Anor Londo that I needed something with way more punch, Queelag's Sword for Ornstein and Smough.
I think it’s less they made a bunch of “trap weapons” but more that in the start of development they probably were going the traditional route of making weapons that work for the area they’re found in and nowhere afterwards before the later weapons were made to scale better.
Astora's Straight Sword is a decent starting weapon.... if you upgrade it all the way immediately upon obtaining it. I started a "Pure Faith build" today. The ASS (huh, guess it tracks)- fully upgraded with twinkling titanite from the lizards in the Great Hollow, Catacombs, etc. (which you can get to immediately with the master key)- makes quick work of early enemies and is on par with the Divine Claymore I created when the latter was at +2. I think my faith stat was 25 at this point. Once you get a +5 or higher Divine weapon the ASS needs to be retired. But for that first half hour it makes the early game easy.
I used the Astora's Straight Sword as my primary weapon for my very first Dark Souls run. DS was also my first soulslike, so this was my first time playing any of these sort of games, as well. I honestly don't recall having too many issues clearing the game, with Kalameet being the only boss that took more than a handful of attempts. In fact, because of this, all of my first runs in every Souls game, including Elden Ring, were Faith builds.
... it's an early game weapon for faith builds. It's in the same vein as the Drake Sword, very good when you find it, but something you want to switch off of when you find something better.
One of my favorite characters is to either start a knight or a cleric with master key. Grab Astora straight sword, grass crest shield and elite knight set early. And in that the Astora straight sword is a pretty good smaller sword till I grab divine ember and start upgrading a divine claymore. I would NEVER think of trying to 100% the game with it. That doesn't make it trash. More like a handy early game pickup for characters that can benefit from some faith scaling.
I love it because it's a great tool for faith builds to grab an early large white ember and decent enough as a faith weapon until you can find enough green titanite
I remember one of my first solo runs of DS1 I used this sword for a lil bit, don't think I made past Quelag before I felt the damage drop off. Going from a strength main to a mid character was a hell of a change. Although now I mostly play light rolling mid damage characters since strength can feel ploddy and dex using bleed doesn't feel satisfying to me.
To be fair I use the Astora in my speedrun. Paired with tumblebuffing to get CMW on it, its got some banger damage. That said my speedrun isn't terribly fast, with ideal luck and RNG I'd probably be able to pull just over two hours (last race with a friend was 3:04:51 IGT)
It's objectively a good weapon. Good moveset, early access, low stat requirements, divine effect, and easy early upgrading which gives it solid damage. I used this for at least the first half of my faith-build and it was very useful.
I play with utility in mind so this sword isn't really bad. I grab it before entering the catacombs to grab nito's sword. also one thing to check off when I collect swords and other weapons.
Astoras straight sword is actually great early game for going through the graveyard for the best great sword in the game that can be used right away. The Zweihander from the start.
The Astora's Straight Sword is genuinely my favorite weapon in Dark Souls 1
- Looks pretty
- GOATed Longsword moveset
- No need to collect Embers
- No respawning skeletons
- Makes bossfights last longer
What's not to love? 😛
It is what I used in the Catacomb and to kill Nito!
Plus is a divine weapon that dont need to scale with faith
I made a divine greatsword on my first playthrough to deal with skeletons lol
Don’t. Don’t use that emoji. I don’t like it
@@recluse5245 😛
The Astora's Straight Sword really is just "a weapon". Nothing unique, nothing its specifically good at, but nothing that really makes it challenging to use, aside from lackluster damage
It's a bit unique since it kills skeletons permanently
@@spacecowboy5486 That isn't a unique effect, any weapon with Divine infusion will do the same.
perfect for the catacombs
@Crota0100 yeah but if you have master key and dared loot the dragon near Blighttown as a new player, that feels unique
@@Tp_hedgelinghog We aren't talking about new players though.
I have bad news for you: this is, to my knowledge, the first of your videos that has been recommended to me. Chasing the algorithm is sadly working.
Same here!
Thankfully, it's gonna be the last, cause I don't know who the hell let this guy cook.
Same and you can also tell by the bumped up view count.
@@DrEpilepsy Yeah, this has to be the most idiotic take on the weapon I've ever read. If there's anything I have learned recently, it's how useful Astora's Straight Sword is, but nothing like generating bad faith discussion.
@@ArctheLadder I expected a deep dive into the mechanics of the weapon or something like that, but it's just a generic commentated let's play.
Excuse me? DS1's "worst weapon" is clearly the whip.
an underwhelming weapon for its "poster child" stature
Without the whip there is no sexy party solaire build.
Broken Sword Hilt
You know this is just a joke video to say "ASS" a lot, right? SolarPellets and DevBox does crossovers like this a lot
it does kinda suck. But it's pretty fun to do a run with it. Think I used Magic Weapon on it to make it good? Can't remember
Skipping the depths mean you lose out on at least 33,000 souls. 6,000 from capra and 25,000 from gaping dragon. 33k is notbing to scoff at especially in early game
Especially when you can parryclip into the fog gate to cheese Capra (basically the same setup as O&S AI cheese, but you don't go back to the bonfire, you just hit Capra through the fog gate)
@@theapexsurvivor9538 Or you can do the much easier skip from undead burg to the lower burg clipping through the ground and jumping inside Capra's arena - which causes his AI to freeze completely.
Bruh what. 33k can easily be collected from elsewhere, even without killing anything. And after u start to beat bosses you’ll get tens of thousands of souls very quickly
@@Lassila96 my point still stands that he skipped 33k souls which is nothing to scoff at
@@thesmolpopato4972 it is a lot to scoff at.
This sword carried me through half of my first ever playthrough of DS1 all those years ago. I didn't understand builds and scaling back then so the fact this could kill things easily even unupgraded, was a godsend for me. It got me to Anor Londo which is where it really started dropping off, so I switched to the BKS.
But the astora sword is something I pick up straight away on all of my new playthroughs as a quick and accessible early weapon to deal with skeletons without hunting for necromancers.
Fully agree. It was the first weapon a friend suggested I pick up when I said I was doing a "paladin" type build when I did my very first playthrough. I haven't played in years, but I remember this weapon fondly and would definitely snag it on a new playthrough.
BKS is the goat
one critique I always had about souls games is that there are a ton of weapons but 90% of them are either useless or easily replaceable by a better option
Basically Castlevania syndrome where bigger numbers = better results.
Imo Bloodborne perfectly solves this
Ds2 tried to balance this by making higher ar weapons more heavy/less durable/consume more stamina. Game still has some really bad ones but more "ok but not meta weapons" I think
Looks, mf. Looks. Cant become the world's new God if you're not looking dapper now can we?
Bloodborne gets around this thankfully.
Pfft, that's not even remotely close to being the worst weapon in the game. Did you forget that fist weapons exist? Or what about the sniper crossbow? Or the two broken swords? Or daggers? Or whips? There are tons of worse weapons than the astora straight sword.
Yes there are, this was just an excuse to say ASS and play Dark Souls
Actually daggers are good ... and i'm not even referring to the silver tracer the bandit's knife is actually the easiest way to beat any bleadable boss... also quick attacks mean buffs are way more valuable on a dagger
daggers are pretty good, actually. all daggers do good damage when built correctly. Even the parrying dagger can be used as a good weapon. With a divine infusion, I use the parrying dagger in my left to parry and then quickly slice down the skeletons
@@SGT_Squid_Dogsaying your divine weapon is good at killing skeletons is extremely redundant
To this day, it still baffles me that DkS1 crossbows lacked an aiming reticle...as the Sniper Crossbow has a scope on its model.
This sword is OP is the early game, it just doesn't scale well. Vitality and Endurance and very good stats in Dark souls 1, so choosing a weapon with high base damage and low stat investment will allow you to allocate points into vitality and endurance early. It's a great weapon if you want to start the game and immediately go to Bell Gargoyles or Blighttown, and it can even get you through Anor Londo at +2 with high vitality and endurance investment. Where it excels is if you plan to begin with the catacombs, since the sword has the benefit of permanently killing skeletons. If you go through the catacombs normally, without the skip, you can access several useful items, including the great scythe, and the crescent axe, as well as the blacksmith for early infusions. If you're dead-set on using it late-game, you should probably scale it with faith, since those points will also allow you to access miracles. Going through the catacombs right after killing the Capra demon will allow you do save Reah, who will sell you some of the best miracles in the game. C-C scaling with strength and dexterity means that on faith builds, you can allocate some points toward a higher-investment weapon without those points being completely useless to the Astora Straight Sword. I've never tried using it in late-game before, so I don't really know how good it effective it would be, but it certainly has it's uses and has served me well on several playthroughs.
This, good to prioritise Dex over Strength a little too for the Casting Speed. And even if it’s one of the weaker straight swords, it’s still a straight sword with a decent moveset.
Edit: I’ve just done a full run with the ASS after watching this video and while I still stand by the fact that it can be (kind of) viable with Faith Builds, I will say that y’all weren’t joking about the damage falloff after O&S. Goddamn it was kinda nice against Nito but it was horrific against the Four Kings, it did so little damage that I ended up having to fight six of them at once.
So basically the sword is a great starting weapon before you transition into your final weapon for the game.
exactly. early in my faith run this weapon was insane. after a few upgrades i melted Capra demon in 4 hits. common sense had me switching weapons pretty soon after, but Astora is goated for early game
Its overall damage is outmatched by a Divine Broadsword, which can be acquired pretty early.
@@MaddBadgerr In ASS’s defence, it’s a twinkling weapon that’s much easier to upgrade than a Divine Infused weapon. You could even get it to +5 before Sens Fortress by killing the Crystal Lizards in Great Hollow which ain’t too tough to do. But yes I agree that a Divine Broadsword would eventually make the ASS obsolete, I just really don’t wanna get the Large Divine Ember in Tomb Of The Giants early in the game ever again.
geez no wonder Astora's knights died.
That's not sniper's crossbow I expected to see.
Ayy it’s the fume knight guy
It's a twinkling titanite weapon, meaning you can get it maxed out with upgrades before you fight the Bell Gargoyles. That's nothing to scoff at, considering it's probably the easiest twinkling titanite weapon to wield when it comes to stat requirments, especially if you're planning on switching weapons at some point in the run.
Here's my route for a quick twink weapon :
2x from the crystal lizard in undead burg
2x from the crystal lizard in darkroot garden
4x from Snuggly if you trade the moss you got from darkroot garden.
2x from the crystal lizard in the catacombs.
oh I scoff alright. I scoff
It's not bad because of 1 reason... Early access to Divine without requiring you to do almost ANYTHING, and its a twinkling titanite weapon meaning if you use a different weapon for either sunlight blade, darkmoon blade, or boss weapons, you got your backup weapon for skeletons
This sword, saved my ass at First playthrough.
Well it's just Oscar on the cover I think. He's pretty based for the little amount he's in the game. Gives us our escape, our flask, and then dies. Based
Not to mention the guy wasn’t even an undead with the curse.
The thumbnail killed me.
Seeing my buddy, that carried me through NG - NG+7, get called "ASS" is heartbreaking... 💔
I clicked on this video expecting a stat breakdown, not a challenge run. I know, "youtube meta" and all that, but.
Same I was actually interested in a weapon analysis, sorely disappointed :
Best way to put it, I love breaking down scaling and numbers that were randomly decided on 😂@@Laezar1
I used it in my str/faith build.
It's basically ol reliable. It's not busted, or particularly weak. It does the job
I mean, how bad can it be? It does average damage, swings at a medium speed and has okay damage scaling. Yeah, it isn't going to one-shot anything but seems like it would be decent enough in all scenarios. Maybe late game it starts to taper off a bit but wouldn't something like the Drake Sword be worse in that regard?
Surprisingly bad, it scales poorly due to split scaling and scaling being a % of base numbers, from the get go is worse than your Mace two handed with no upgrade, if we assume you're a Cleric, any normal weapon +5 due to puré phys damage (and terrible numbers on ass) will make it useless, and Twinkles can be used to upgrade BGH right away later.
I've tried everything and surprisingly is bad no matter the point of the game, stat spread, and upgrade level, simply there's no run in which this won't just slow you down.
The low base damage, which is also split, makes it very bad against late game and NG+ enemies that have high defense. On paper, the scaling is average, but because the base damage is low, scaling is also poor in practice. It's definitely much worse than a +15 longsword.
@@johnkalyvas4838 I mean sure, but it ought to be leagues better than say a +0 broken straight sword. Maybe it is the worst weapon in regards to underperforming on expectations.
You say it's the worst weapon and yet you don't struggle at all...
Almost like most of the difficulty of Souls games is in the fundamental mechanics.
because the game is not hard. they clearly know how to play
he used 20 flasks on artorias
people can beat the game with their fists and make it not look like a struggle if they know how to dodge as well...
@@Cayden.1 nah... nobody has ever done fist only and that's for a reason...
Or I mean true fist only! obviously some have done the glitch where u can imbue crystal magic weapon or GMW etc onto their fist.. but basic fist? Yeah nah ur tweaking lol idc how good u are lmao would take hours each attempt. like how this guy skipped out on manus and etc and he even had a SWORD
It's the best looking weapon, which makes it the best weapon.
ASS being a straight sword immediately disqualifies it as the "worst" weapon in the game. Is it low tier? Sure. The absolute worst piece of dogshit? No.
It's a great transitional weapon. Upgrade it while upgrading a faith halberd on the side for example
I used it one time as my starting weapon when I rp as a knight and when I realized that the damage was so bad even upgraded I had a crisis of faith literally until I switched to a divine claymore
3:47 thats literally beta content. Originally, oscar and you had been supposed to be playing simultaneously. After getting all 4 Lord souls, he would invade you in the Void before the kiln and he would've talked about how you betrayed him because he thinks that he was the chosen one
ive watched so many challenge runs that i fully believe its possible to beat ds with anything that does damage
Because it is. I got a ”can you beat Elden Ring with a dagger” challenge video recomended to me months after countless people have beaten these games fist only.
Challenge runs only get interesting when the only gimmick isn't low damage, it could even be the opposite like 1-shoting all bosses etc.
I've been saying this for years. Even maxed out this thing barely keeps up with a +5 Divine Longsword. Bear in mind that Longsword still has 5 upgrades left in it and can be made Occult or Divine, either of which end up with superior base damage and scaling.
First time players are unlikely to come across the Astora Straight Sword until after Blighttown, at which point they'd already have access to Green Titanite for a Divine weapon. It isn't even a noob trap if you look at it like that, it's just bad. There are worse weapons, sure, but it's in the unique position of being just good enough that uninformed players might consider it worth upgrading at a glance but just bad enough that you feel how bad the damage is.
"There are worse weapons"
So... "A.S.S. is the worst weapon" is untrue?, and you've been saying that for years?
Also, no one in these comments is saying it's the best weapon, most people are just pointing out he's calling a severely mid-tier weapon the worst weapon, when it's nowhere near the worst.
@moosecannibal8224 My point was that a weapon that most informed players consider quite bad is considerably worse than many realize it is. Playing the game without Master Key the A.S.S has already been outcompeted in its role when most find it by a +5 Divine Longsword (easily farmable Green Titanite is available in Blighttown).
Even with Master Key, where it gets a chance to be fairly good through Gargoyles, this thing falls off a cliff damage-wise as soon as you enter Quelag's boss arena and was already slipping by the time you reached Depths. A +2 A.S.S barely gets Yellow damage on Quellag, which is as high as you can get one by Quellag without doing Great Hollow.
The Astora Straight Sword is easily among the worst Twinkling Titanite weapons. It's only real redeeming quality is its early availability if you started with Master Key. Otherwise it gets at best 2 bosses it's anything but terrible for, being Gargoyles and Capra Demon. If the best quality of a weapon is it's ability to stomp Undead Burg and Parish if you started as Cleric (which already starts with Mace which does so as well) it's a bad weapon.
You're talking about first time players like they have a clue about what any of the terms you used mean. Or that they understand a lick of how the upgrade system works.
And if they are guide readers, then they won't ever even encounter the weapon in the first place, because there are better things to get.
@OzixiThrill On my very first playthrough of the game, I explored Darkroot Garden thoroughly enough that I found the Divine Ember, the elevator to Valley of Drakes and the Astora Straight Sword by the time I beat Gargoyles. I used a +2 Astora Straight Sword all the way to Ornstein and Smough, and by that point, I had long since been feeling the low damage. As a first-time player, I just assumed that the game had a huge difficulty spike and my weapon was not the problem.
After beating O&S I did more exploring in Anor Londo and found the Occult Club, saw it scaled off Faith and realized that weapon infusions were both a thing and could make my weapon scale off of Faith since I'd already found a regular Club as well. I then made the connection that the Divine path mentioned by the Divine Ember I'd found before and given to Andre probably also did that. I bought a Longsword from Andre and fumbled with the upgrade system to make one. Lo and behold, on my very first playthrough, I figured out that a Divine Longsword beats an Astora Straight Sword.
It's an early game weapon for Faith builds and nothing else. It has decent base damage but poor scaling. And it's good in that role.
+15 longsword supremacy
The thing that upsets me the most about the sword, is that it doesn't get enough of an increase from upgrading.
If you turn a longsword elemental, it'll always perform better once you get to using titanite chunks.
Otherwise, it's not actually a bad weapon. It has lackluster damage, but it gets a divine modifier and excels for the early game - where you would need it most. You could skip the divine ember entirely, and the process of upgrading a weapon into divine.
Why do you think Oscar of Astora whom wields it is found dead at the beggining of the game ?
using this weapon for a pvp build is miserable.
This sword is legit one of my favorite weapons:
- Available early by running till darkroot garden or even earlier with Masterkey
- Simple and efective movement
- Low requirements
- Can kill the skeletons in the graveyard permanently
- 20% more damage (divine weapons are just 10%) against undead enemies
- Magic + physical damage
- Increases your resistances against every non physical damage type and also every status effect in the game
BAIT USED TO BE BELIEVABLE 🗣🗣🔥🔥💯
'I don't have the stats to wield my ass properly' is now a phrase in my personal lexicon.
Never used it beyond for killing skeletons in the crypt myself, but there are worse weapons in the game.
Besides skeletons, it's... a straight sword. Whatever graphs you could draw about its hypothetical performance compared to other similar weapons or weapons in its stats niche or so on, it's ultimately a pretty unremarkable spanking stick with a good moveset. Having to hit a guy one more time to kill 'em is hardly a game changer
This is nowhere near the worst weapon, you are encountering the problem of not having the stats to wield the weapon oopsie ...
7:20 this clip already shows the difference between this weapon and others, with soul spear at this stage you can one shot each of them with i think over 1k damage per shot, with any ultra greatsword you need two R1 hits i believe, with this weapon you deal 44 damage per R1 it seems.
15:25 Even if the scaling isn't that great you can't expect much damage on 20str 20dex 23fai blud, should have atleast one of them at 40 on end game
It's far from the worst weapon. It's a decent early game weapon, especially if you want to venture the catacombs as soon as possible.
so that's why it's THE Dark Souls sword... it's just like the chosen undead... nothing special. also great vid!
I totally understand not fighting Manus and Khalameet.
I've killed Yhorm with only Caestus and 30 straight minutes of shin punching; it was terrible.
(One you get the Pontiff rings its low-key a really fun build if you're good at dodging)
This sword also has the added bonus that if you pick it up you get moved up an invasion tier so you can get rekt by dark bead even harder!
Broken straight sword next!! It’s better than the Astoria’s straight sword trust!!
Well, it's buffable so, yeah. By default buffable weapons are better than nonbuffable weapons.
@@jamesgrenier8856dark moon covenant carry
@@jamesgrenier8856 also you can turn it into a weapon with a permanent Cursed buff
@@Weldedhodag I don't think this is correct, the greatsword of Artorias made from the broken straight sword is the true greatsword, it deals magic damage but can't damage ghosts. The (cursed) greatsword of Artorias is made from any standard straight or greatsword iirc
You know my first run of this game was grass crest shield, balder side sword. Side sword was fun to use, had no idea it was even a rare drop.
It winds up with an A in Int if you make it enchanted, so it's a pretty decent weapon for mage builds to use too.
No one uses the Balder’s Side Sword as a first build unless you use the Wiki before hand
@@Garl_Vinland before long, you people always show up at some point. Some point you're entire existence is to just tell people they are wrong like you are on the spectrum.
@@calemr Scaling doesn't matter for most weapons the letter just doesn't matter because scaling is based off of the base damage of the weapon too, which would make it pretty lackluster in damage despite having an a scaling
used a titanite catch pole the first time I ever beat O&S
Loved that weapon, didn't realize it was a rare drop till my next playthrough when I didn't get one
I wanted to go through Dark Souls being like Oscar, playing the role as his living legacy, but I just can’t bring myself to use this damn sword. It’s cool looking, but that’s it.
2:40 is definitely NOT a backstab💀
To quote a highly successful TH-camr, there are no bad weapons in dark souls
except elemental weapons against DLC bosses
Ghost knife
@@IamUzyf kind of, a +5 lightning greataxe is still pretty decent. It's really more about if you mind spending 20 minutes fighting a boss and whether or not you enjoy a weapon's moveset. I would agree that it is not advisable to use elemental weapons against DLC bosses unless you want to be challenged.
Fist weapons and the two broken swords are objectively bad.
@@st.haborym they're fast and buffable, I actually enjoyed my broken straight sword run quite a bit even though I stopped after Ornstein and Smough
People think this is a bad weapon? A.S.S is the best weapon for the start of the playthrough. Minimal stat investment and a few easy twinklies. Way more viable and useful than the Drake Sword (which is the OG Noob weapon)
The problem is that unless you're doing a faith build, the 14 faith requirement is a huge waste of levels.
Drake is stronger. Believe me I run this game in non meta routes, it doesn't work like the other Twinkling weapons, there's simply no way to make this stronger than, let's say, a +5 Uchi, no matter the stat investment or upgrade level or where you are, it always sucks compared to pretty much any option.
Zweihander is the beet by a large margin, two-hands it and you are good to beat the game
@SoftBoiledArt
Even a +5 Uchi would still be better because it's a katana so the moveset is better in most cases and bleed damage goes crazy.
0:43 Metaphor Refantazio, huh?👀
Astora Straight Sword is good for a faith build in early game, but you should make a divine or occult weapon later
Hello from the algorithm. You get to continue hollowing.
I remember doing a run of this weapon back in the day. It's not the worst "real" option.
People: Of course the Astora SS is good IT'S ON THE COVER!
You: No matter how tender, how exquisite. A LIE REMAIN A LIE!
Quite curious, seeing how it's one of the, if not the, best early game weapon in DS3, using the blunt upgrade for high fixed damage.
Worst weapon?
A sword with a blessing and cool design is considered the worst? My man you are insane
Astora's straight sword is great early to midgame weapon for a faith build, with you can swap out for a divine longsword later on.
Astora's Straight Sword is my go-to for early Pinwheel if I already plan on leveling faith
Me too
The one thing I found about the weapon is that it's sort of like a drake sword for faith builds. You can get it relatively early and the split damage will far outdo most conventional weapons at the start and will carry you until you've found a suitable replacement.
I.. must see dark souls in a different light. I don't see what exactly is wrong with this weapon outside of not doing INSANE damage
Yeah elden ring truly ruined our minds anything with ar less than 700 is now seen as bad
I don't think you grasp the weapon, there's weapons in the game that deal way more damage than Astora sword, it's not about a warped perception, is about this weapon being mediocre against ever other weapon
@@Eric6761 Mediocre? Isn't the whole point here that it's supposed to be the worst?
@@Eric6761 but it's not.
Used man serpent greatsword in my last playthrough and damm what a good ng+1 weapon
got that thing on my first snake kill once and it carried me through so much of the game.
Beeeautiful weapon dude
It's good if you are on NG and don't want to bother upgrading a divine weapon for catacombs. That's about it.
On my first playthrough I was a cleric and I used that sword through Blighttown, New Londo and the Catacombs, all before Sen's Fortress, so even if it wasn't my main weapon (Zweiheinder and Nito's Sword) it has a special place on my heart.
Basically a faith drake sword. Really strong early on but drops off pretty fast
With the Master key my average run start nets +5 Astoras Straight Sword in under an hour that lasts me till NG+2 when I eventually swap to Occult Winged Spear
Im surprised you didn't use Power Within
High Strength and dex or faith
Max level weapon
Power Within
Yeah it still does numbers and playing as a knight your planning on investing vitality too
It is a good early game weapon. Get twinkling titanite from burg and dark root. Trade herbs from dark root with the crow and you have plus 4 weapon without even going to the depths.
Once in the depths, stock up on green shards from slimes, farm the crystal golems in dark root and grab the enchanted ember. Now you have an almost fully maxed enchanted weapon before stepping foot in blight town. I like to do this with a balder side sword myself.
I used it once in a playthrough. Basicly it was support for miracle build. It is good for support role on miracle build. Don't expect much. It is for lesser enemies and mostly finishing off boss health when you run out of casts
I wonder why didn't you just go to the great hollow and use the sword's single large advantage of being maxed out before killing a single boss
To be honest, the main draw of the weapon is the holy damage, which helps you deal with the crypt and the respawning skeletons. However the whole point of the smiths is being able to make weapons that outpace the ones you find in the game.
I fully expected you to say 'Ceaseless discharging off the cliff' 😂
I so love that a particular speedrun used it and made it raw in DS3, so you literally raced to get a Raw ASS.
Meme magic is real.
It has a cheeky hexagon on the crossguard with a woman's face in it.
Velka, probably, given that the Very Big Ember (of Astora) is found in New Londo.
I liked the sword for the innate ability to kill skeletons dead, and because I'm a Sucker for medieval swords so yeh, I realized in Anor Londo that I needed something with way more punch, Queelag's Sword for Ornstein and Smough.
Its basically the best starter weapon. after O&S it falls off so hard.
"In the Hands of a Master anything can be deadly"
I think it’s less they made a bunch of “trap weapons” but more that in the start of development they probably were going the traditional route of making weapons that work for the area they’re found in and nowhere afterwards before the later weapons were made to scale better.
Astora's Straight Sword is a decent starting weapon.... if you upgrade it all the way immediately upon obtaining it.
I started a "Pure Faith build" today. The ASS (huh, guess it tracks)- fully upgraded with twinkling titanite from the lizards in the Great Hollow, Catacombs, etc. (which you can get to immediately with the master key)- makes quick work of early enemies and is on par with the Divine Claymore I created when the latter was at +2. I think my faith stat was 25 at this point.
Once you get a +5 or higher Divine weapon the ASS needs to be retired. But for that first half hour it makes the early game easy.
I used the Astora's Straight Sword as my primary weapon for my very first Dark Souls run. DS was also my first soulslike, so this was my first time playing any of these sort of games, as well. I honestly don't recall having too many issues clearing the game, with Kalameet being the only boss that took more than a handful of attempts. In fact, because of this, all of my first runs in every Souls game, including Elden Ring, were Faith builds.
I’m still running with this build in my first playthrough, is it that bad because I just made it past the iron golem?
First video of yours I've watched.
"You thought I was mixing up the lore, but I was ACTUALLY being a pervert!"
You. I like you. Subscribed
How did you have black fire bombs for the asylum demon and the master key?
... it's an early game weapon for faith builds. It's in the same vein as the Drake Sword, very good when you find it, but something you want to switch off of when you find something better.
Man this sword is great, like is not the chaos blade or the great scythe but is average or above average
It is below average. It is the worse a weapon can be and still be usefull.
One of my favorite characters is to either start a knight or a cleric with master key. Grab Astora straight sword, grass crest shield and elite knight set early.
And in that the Astora straight sword is a pretty good smaller sword till I grab divine ember and start upgrading a divine claymore.
I would NEVER think of trying to 100% the game with it. That doesn't make it trash. More like a handy early game pickup for characters that can benefit from some faith scaling.
I love it because it's a great tool for faith builds to grab an early large white ember and decent enough as a faith weapon until you can find enough green titanite
I don’t think you expected this to blow up as much as it did
Great vid man keep up the good work. Reminds me of the backlogs in the best way.
what do you guys think of the silver knight straight sword tbh I think it's pretty and worth the grind
This is a cool video and I hope ur channel continues to grow 🙏
I remember one of my first solo runs of DS1 I used this sword for a lil bit, don't think I made past Quelag before I felt the damage drop off. Going from a strength main to a mid character was a hell of a change. Although now I mostly play light rolling mid damage characters since strength can feel ploddy and dex using bleed doesn't feel satisfying to me.
To be fair I use the Astora in my speedrun. Paired with tumblebuffing to get CMW on it, its got some banger damage. That said my speedrun isn't terribly fast, with ideal luck and RNG I'd probably be able to pull just over two hours (last race with a friend was 3:04:51 IGT)
I use Astoras Straight Sword in every run that has near the faith requirement for it.
However, after the Catacombs I usually dont need it anymore.
I didn't even know the Four Kings had a grab attack!!! I guess that with the Zweihander i kill em too fast...
I’m not shocked a weapon that has A.S.S as an acronym, is bad. 💀
It's objectively a good weapon. Good moveset, early access, low stat requirements, divine effect, and easy early upgrading which gives it solid damage. I used this for at least the first half of my faith-build and it was very useful.
Why dump twinkling titanite into the ASS when you can upgrade the Titanite Catchpole?
I play with utility in mind so this sword isn't really bad. I grab it before entering the catacombs to grab nito's sword. also one thing to check off when I collect swords and other weapons.
It is because they limit all Twinkling Titanite upgrade to +5 only
What game is the icon of the short haired girl on your PlayStation home page? Looks kinda familiar, but I can’t place it.
Astoras straight sword is actually great early game for going through the graveyard for the best great sword in the game that can be used right away. The Zweihander from the start.