Best Spirit Ash summons in Elden Ring

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Think the Elden Ring version of the perfect Pokemon team

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The devs at FromSoftware knew the bosses in Elden Ring would cause a lot of trouble for players. To make things more bearable, Elden Ring lets players summon random players, but not everyone wants to share their glory with another human. The game added spirit ashes, which are various different ghostly apparitions players can summon to get help fighting the more serious enemies. Some of these summons absolutely own — and they’ll never tell on you for asking for help.

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Lone Wolves

The lone wolves behave much like the starter weapons from Bloodborne: don’t think less of them just because the game gives them away for free early on. This spirit ash spawns multiple wolves that will be helpful throughout the game, so long as players keep on upgrading it.

Get them by speaking to Rella at the Church of Elleh in Limgrave.

Strengths: They’ll give enemies three different targets to worry about before getting to players. They move fast. They’re wolves.

Weaknesses: They don’t have much HP. You can’t pet them.

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Skeletal Militiamen

Don’t you just hate it when you kill a skeleton in the Souls series and he just comes back? Great, because now you can inflict that pain upon your enemies. This is the only summon in the game that will keep on coming back a short while after death. The Skeletal Militiamen don’t deal much damage and nor do they take much damage, but they do a great job when it comes to keeping your enemies permanently busy.

You get them after beating the Tibia Mariner in Summonwater Village.

Strengths: They will keep the bosses occupied forever and ever.

Weaknesses: Low damage output. Low HP. High spookiness.

Lhutel The Headless

Want a summon that does everything right? Well, Lhutel won’t cost much FP and it comes equipped with some of the best armor, weapons, and abilities in Elden Ring. Yeah, no more high damage at the cost of being an absolute glass cannon. Lhutel deals a lot of damage but can also withstand a lot of damage via melee as well as ranged attacks. This is one of the best possible picks for players who want a summon that won’t make bosses feel like an escort mission.

You can get Luthel by defeating the Cemetery Shade that haunts the Tombsward Catacombs.

Strengths: Everything, really. This is a perfect all-rounder

Weaknesses: No real weaknesses as this is a very well-balanced summon.

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Image via From Software

Mimic Tear

The Mimic Tear is the absolute best spirit ash you can get in Elden Ring. It creates a copy of the player and its equipment. This thing will scale forever, meaning it will go beyond the power of any other summon in the game. When Elden Ring first came out, the Mimic Tear had such power that the developers had to nerf it to prevent players from ignoring every other spirit ash summon in the game. The Mimic Tear no longer has the same high stats that it once had, but it’s still the best summon in Elden Ring.

You get it from a chest after defeating your doppelganger at Nokron, Eternal City. Protip: take off all of your clothes and weapons before the fight starts. Relax, we’re not joking. This will cause players to face off against an unarmed and mostly defenseless opponent.

Strengths: Players get a clone that will absolutely destroy most enemies.

Weaknesses: Players who experienced the game at launch may feel sad because it’s just ultra-powerful now instead of all-mighty.

Black Knife Tiche

For a short while after the Mimic Tear nerfing, Black Knife Tiche rose to the top of spirit ashes ranking in Elden Ring. It deals incredibly high amounts of damage to enemies and isn’t exactly easy to kill due to its good dodging abilities.

While never as powerful as the Mimic Tear due to the mimic’s infinite scaling properties, Black Knife Tiche is still the best spirit ash for players who don’t want to feel like they’re cheating.

You can get this summon by defeating Alecto, Black Knife ringleader at the Ringleader’s Evergaol in Southwest Liurnia.

Strengths: Looks great. Incredibly High damage output. Good melee and ranged abilities. Very fast.

Weaknesses: Low HP. Might make players feel puny for dealing too much damage to enemies.

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Tiago Manuel
Tiago is a freelancer who used to write about video games, cults, and video game cults. He now writes for Destructoid in an attempt to find himself on the winning side when the robot uprising comes.
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