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Dark Souls Remastered Weapon Upgrade Guide: ember locations and all elemental upgrades explained

by RPG Site Staff on 26 May, 2018

Weapons in Dark Souls Remastered can be upgraded in various ways. Through the use of Titanite and unique Embers dropped by bosses allows for players to add elemental attributes to their weapons, or simply upgrade for raw damage.

We've listed the items required for weapon upgrades on each of these unique paths. A warning to new players, there are some spoilers listed below in relation to upgrading materials so you might want to come back after you've reached certain parts of the game.

Dark Souls Remastered Weapon Upgrade Guide: all weapon upgrades and materials

Okay, so let's get into it - with Embers, and the various elemental upgrades you can use on wepaons. Remember, if you want assistance with Titanite, we've got a full Dark Souls Remastered Titanite Upgrade guide, too.

Embers

Large Ember - Found in the Depths, in a treasure chest near the table with the raw meat on it. Guarded by the Butcher
Large Flame Ember - Found in the area between the Ceaseless Discharge boss and the Demon Firesage, left of the fog gate.
Chaos Flame Ember - Found in the Demon Ruins, behind the Minor Taurus Demon mini-bosses, which appear after Ceaseless Discharge is defeated.
Large Magic Ember - Found in The Duke's Archives, after defeating Seath the Scaleless.
Divine Ember - Found in the Darkroot Garden, in the area where the Moonlight Butterfly is fought. Cross the bridge and climb the tower to find the ember at the top.
Dark Ember - Enter the Painted World of Ariamis. It is inside the Courtyard of the Annex, so it will require the Annex key to enter.

Raw Upgrade

Normal +5 weapons can be ascended to Raw weapons by Andre of Astora using Titanite. The Large Ember is required. A Raw weapon's base attack value becomes higher at the cost of its Strength / Dexterity scaling property becoming lower. This is why Raw weapons are more powerful in the early game or for characters with relatively low Strength / Dexterity stats.

  • Increases base damage from the Normal path
  • Adds base damage per upgrade level at a higher rate than the Normal path
  • Lowered Strength and/or Dexterity scaling from the Normal path
  • Adds damage scaling from Strength and/or Dexterity stat per upgrade level, but at a lower rate than Normal
  • Crossbows and Shields cannot be upgraded to Raw

Lightning Upgrade

Normal +10 weapons and shields can be ascended to Lightning +5 by the Giant Blacksmith using Titanite. The Large Ember is required. The base damage of the weapon you upgrade is significant. Lightning is useful for low level PvP or an initial New Game playthrough. Elemental damage, such as Lightning, Fire, or Chaos, benefits lower-level characters. Stat-scaling upgrades outclass elemental weapons at higher soul levels.

  • Adds Lightning damage equal to base damage for standard weapons
  • Lightning and base damage is increased with each upgrade level
  • Slightly lowers base damage from Normal path
  • Removes scaling from Dexterity and/or Strength stats
  • Adds Lightning defense for shields per upgrade level

Fire Upgrade

Normal +5 weapons and shields can be ascended to Fire weapons and shields by Vamos with Green Titanite and Red Titanite. The Large Flame Ember is required. The base damage of the weapon you upgrade is significant. Lightning is useful for low level PvP or an initial New Game playthrough. Elemental damage, such as Lightning, Fire, or Chaos, benefits lower-level characters. Stat-scaling upgrades outclass elemental weapons at higher soul levels.

  • Base and Fire damage of standard weapons is increased with each upgrade level
  • Additonal Fire damage is equal to base damage, although base damage is slightly lowered from the Normal upgrade path
  • Fire defense of standard Shields is increased with each upgrade level
  • Removes scaling from Dexterity and/or Strength stats

Chaos Upgrade

Fire +5 weapons can be ascended to Chaos weapons by Vamos with Red Titanite. The Chaos Flame Ember is required. Chaos weapons scale with Humanity stat, up to 10 Humanity.

  • Adds bonus Physical and Fire damage that scales with Humanity (stat)
  • Adds damage scaling from Humanity (stat) per upgrade level
  • Adds base and Fire damage per upgrade level. Fire damage is slightly higher than base physical.
  • Lowers base damage even more than Fire path
  • Removes scaling from Dexterity and/or Strength stats

Magic Upgrade

Normal +5 weapons and shields can be upgraded to Magic +10 by Rickert of Vinheim using Blue Titanite. The Large Magic Ember is required. This is a good upgrade for Mid-game intellect builds, since it's balanced between depending on base damage and scaling. Very good upgrade for endgame PvP or NG+.

  • Adds bonus Magic damage that scales with Intelligence
  • Adds Magic damage scaling from Intelligence stat per upgrade level
  • Adds base Magic damage
  • Reduces base damage from Normal path
  • Lowers Strength and/or Dexterity scaling from Normal path
  • Adds base damage per upgrade level, lower rate than Normal path
  • Adds physical damage scaling from Strength and/or Dexterity stat per upgrade level, lower rate than Normal path
  • Adds Magic defense for Shields per upgrade level

Occult Upgrade

Divine +5 weapons can be ascended to Occult +5 by Andre of Astora using White Titanite. The Divine Ember and Dark Ember are required. Occult upgrade path reduces the weapon's base Magic damage. Regardless of Faith level, this lowered base Magic damage is bad enough that the Occult path's Magic damage will never overcome its Divine counterpart, even with 99 Faith.

Although, Divine path's physical damage will never overcome its Occult counterpart. This means without factoring the auxilliary effect, at the same Occult/Divine level, the damage difference is almost negligible; some enemies may take slightly higher damage with Occult, and other enemies may take slightly higher damage with Divine.

  • Adds base Magic damage to weapons and adds bonus Magic damage that scales with Faith
  • Adds base damage to weapons per upgrade level, but at a lower rate than Normal path
  • Reduces base damage for weapons from Normal path
  • Adds physical damage scaling to weapons from Strength and/or Dexterity stat per upgrade level, lower rate than Normal path.
  • Lowers Strength and/or Dexterity scaling to weapons from Normal path
  • Adds 110 Occult auxiliary effect

Divine Upgrade

Normal +5 weapons and shields can be upgraded to Divine +10 by Andre of Astora using White Titanite. The Divine Ember and Large Divine Ember are required. Even though Divine weapons have a lower scaling letter for Faith than Occult weapons, a Divine weapon's higher base magic damage gives them more magic damage overall than its Occult counterpart, even up to 99 Faith. 

  • Adds base Magic damage to weapons and adds bonus Magic damage that scales with Faith
  • Adds base damage to weapons per upgrade level, but at a lower rate than Normal path
  • Adds physical damage scaling to weapons from Strength and/or Dexterity stat per upgrade level, lower rate than Normal path
  • Lowers Strength and/or Dexterity scaling to weapons from Normal path
  • Adds 110 Divine auxiliary effect
  • Adds Magic defense to Shields per upgrade level

Demon Weapons

The followig armor requires Demon Titanite to upgrade:

  • Abyss Greatsword
  • Chaos Blade
  • Darkmoon Bow
  • Demon's Spear
  • Dragonslayer Spear
  • Golem Axe
  • Gravelord Sword
  • Great Lord Greatsword
  • Greatsword of Artorias
  • Greatsword of Artorias (Cursed)
  • Lifehunt Scythe
  • Moonlight Butterfly Horn
  • Quelaag's Furysword
  • Smough's Hammer

These following shields require Demon Titanite to upgrade:

  • Crystal Ring Shield
  • Greatshield of Artorias

Dragon Weapons

The following weapons require Dragon Titanite to upgrade:

  • Dragon Bone Fist
  • Dragon Greatsword
  • Dragon King Greataxe
  • Dragon Tooth
  • Drake Sword
  • Moonlight Greatsword
  • Obsidian Greatsword
  • Priscilla's Dagger