If there is a duel capable of unleashing the anger of the Elden Ring players due to how unfair it is, it is without a doubt the one formed by the Sacroderm Duo. Neither more nor less than a confrontation against an Apostle and a Noble who do not stop resurrecting each other when you kill anyone… even if they share life.
Yes, they each have their own life bar, but there’s actually a global bar that really tells you how much you have left to take down this duo. And yes, you can summon some ash or someone else to help you, but there is a amazing trick to defeat them easily without being harassed non-stop.
Santa Trina’s sword and her powerful “Dream”
Unlike the iconic Ornstein and Smough from the first Dark Souls, the problem is that the Sacroderm Duo will never stop harassing you by reviving each other within seconds. It doesn’t matter if this fight takes place in one of the last areas of the game (Farum Azula), that the way it is designed is cruel.
Without help from summoning ash or other people, it’s almost impossible. At least if you go with melee attacks, of course, since we already know how much difference advanced magic makes in Soulsborne. If you want your principles to stand, you have a very easy solution and it’s called Holy Trinity Swordone of those rather unfairly overlooked weapons.
Why do we say it? For giving that feeling of not being a straight state of great power, but not precisely because of its not insignificant attributes starting at 107 physical damage plus 32 magic, but rather because of that passive effect that says that “causes accumulation of sleep (66)”. This class of altered effects always prioritizes the typical, like poison, bleeding, or putrefaction, not forgetting the hard-hitting freeze, like the Frostbark Hatchet.
Big mistake if you ignore the dreambeing a critical state in Elden Ring. The reason is that the vast majority of enemies are vulnerable to sleep. Or put another way: they stay fried and go to sleep. A smaller percentage are stunned for a couple of seconds, which is also not something to be underestimated, eye.
The fact is that this sword is the only one in the entire game that causes sleep and you can get it faster than you think, being right at the entrance to the Caelid region. Specifically, in the Ruins of the Forsaken, at the foot of the Putrefaction Viewpoint where there is a Grace. Use a stone sword key to open the access to the chest that these ruins hide and you will obtain this sword that inflicts sleep on enemies with ease.
And what is so special about the dream? Apart from the most obvious in the case of the Sacroderm Duo, such as the possibility of putting any of these enemies to sleep and thus the duel is simply one on one for a long time, there is the fact that any enemy that falls asleep completely applies a much more powerful critical attack than stealth or counter-attack.
There are knights who resist sleep enough and take a light snooze, but you can also take advantage of it to give them another critical. The interesting thing is that you will need between three or four blows to provoke that state, be it total or partial. It matters little that it is not the most powerful sword of its kind, which palliates it with this state. And if not, you can always have it as secondary and move to a better one when someone falls asleep. Or use it with your left hand.
In addition, by requirements it is quite affordable. It calls for as little as 10 Strength, 12 Dexterity, and 14 Intelligence. And at maximum level it reaches 262 power in physical attack and 78 Magic, scaling in D in Strength and Intelligence, and C in Dexterity.