Rather than trying to sort out which Spirit Ashes you’ve collected are the best, here’s a list of the best ones to invest your upgrades into in Elden Ring.
In every FromSoftware Souls game, summons have existed in multiple forms. There are helpful human summons that can fight alongside you, but also human invaders that aim to kill you. Alternatively, there are NPC summons that can serve those same two purposes. The situations and requirements for how and when you can access these summons change from game to game, but in Elden Ring there is a third option thrown into the mix. Instead of costing items, humanity, or only being available in specific locations, Spirit Ashes are a new type of NPC summon that calls a ghostly figure — usually based on an enemy — to your side. There are dozens of them to be collected in The Lands Between, and all can be upgraded with rare materials. But the power gap between some of them is quite large. Spirit Ashes can’t be called anywhere or if you’ve already summoned help via another means, but if you’ve got the right ones, they’re arguably better than summoning human help. Most will cost you some FP, just like magic, but don’t come with the downside of increasing the boss’s health to compensate like a regular summon would. Since the bosses of Elden Ring are so aggressive, and there are more than a few where you’re facing two at once, having a reliable buddy to back you up is almost necessary for evening the odds. Rather than fumble around trying to sort out which out of the dozens of Spirit Ashes you’ve collected is best, here’s a list of the best ones to invest your upgrades into in Elden Ring. Our first pick comes with one asterisk — technically two. The technical one is that, yes, this Spirit Ash was nerfed in a patch, but that really hasn’t diminished its potential as the best one in Elden Ring. The more major asterisk is that key word we used — “potential.” You see, for anyone who somehow hasn’t been exposed to just how crazy the Mimic Tear is, this Spirit Ash summons a copy of your own character to fight alongside you. Whatever armor and weapons you’re packing, that’s what they’ll use too. So, in that sense, the Mimic Tear is only as good as you are. Another huge potential advantage to this specific Spirit Ash is that, unlike the others, it doesn’t cost any FP to summon, meaning you won’t have to invest to get a high enough Mind stat to summon it. Instead, it will drain 660 HP, so as long as you’ve got enough HP in reserve, it really will just cost you a sip of your flask. The other downside to the Mimic Tear is that even if you’ve got a great build, having two of certain builds just isn’t as advantageous as it is for others. If you are basically any kind of melee build, having another close range attacker to draw aggro when you need to back off and heal is always great, but if you’re a spellcaster then you’d probably want a Spirit Ash that summons someone who will go in and keep the enemy’s or boss’s attention and keep them as far away from you as possible. Being so powerful, the Mimic Tear is not one you’re going to find early on, or easily, in Elden Ring. You need to beat Radahn, travel through Nokron, Eternal City, and use a Stonesword Key on a secret gate to get your hands on it. How useful could a headless knight be? Oh, you have no idea until you call upon Lhutel the Headless. Unlike basically every other Spirit Ash in the game, including the Mimic Tear, this summon can attack from both close and long range. You’ll notice right off the bat that Lhutel comes with a hefty shield and spear, which she will not only use in the normal fashion poking and prodding enemies but also launch it at ranged enemies. On top of all that, she can inflict the Death Blight status effect, teleport short distances, and is very rich in defense and HP. Lhutel, in nearly every way, is just plain hard to kill. It will cost you 104 FP to summon, so you will need to spend a few levels getting to that amount. If you want to get this headless Spirit Ash on your side, you will need to beat the Cemetery Shade boss inside the Tombsward Catacombs, which can be found in the Weeping Peninsula, straight south from the Church of Pilgrimage.
