Arbalest is a Weapon in Dark Souls 3.
The largest crossbow, and suitably powerful for its size.
The bow string is made of metal, requiring great strength to fire.
Skill: Tackle
Lunge into a shoulder tackle pushing back enemies to create distance.
Notes and Tips:
- Cannot be Infused or Buffed.
- Reinforced with Titanite.
- Best Crossbow in terms of raw damage.
Location/Where to Find
- Found at Cathedral of the Deep: Can be found as a treasure on the balcony before the cathedral rafters on the way to Rosaria. It is also a random drop from the hollow arbalesters on the roof of the Cathedral.
Moveset and Videos:
(If your name is not on THIS list, please do not post videos here. If you wish to post videos, please click the link and apply in the thread)
Arbalest Upgrade Table
| Attack ValuesBonus | Parameter Bonus | Auxiliary Effects | Damage Reduction (%) | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name |
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 |
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| Regular | 78 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Regular +1 | 97 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Regular +2 | 117 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Regular +3 | 136 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Regular +4 | 156 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Regular +5 | 175 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Regular +6 | 195 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Regular +7 | 214 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Regular +8 | 234 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Regular +9 | 253 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Regular +10 | 273 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
Table Key
| Requirement | Parameter Bonus | Attack Values | Damage Reduction % | Auxiliary Effects | Others |
 Strength |
Strength |
Physical |
Physical |
Bleeding |
 Durability |
 Dexterity |
Dexterity |
Magic |
Magic |
Poison |
|
 Intelligence |
Intelligence |
Fire |
Fire |
 Frost |
|
 Faith |
Faith |
Lightning |
Lightning |
 Curse |
|
| Dark |
Dark |
||||
 Critical |
 Stability |
||||
 Spell Buff |
|||||
 Range |
Parameter Bonus: Strength, Dexterity,Magic, Fire, Lightning and Dark bonuses - The scaling multiplier applied to the [Attack: stat]. Scaling quality is from highest to lowest as follows: S/A/B/C/D/E.The higher the player's [Str, Dex, Mag, Fire, Light] stat, the higher the [Attack Bonus: Stat] is (found on the player status screen). The higher the scaling letter, the higher the percent multiplier applied to the [Attack: Stat].This resulting bonus damage is added to the base physical damage of the weapon and is shown in the equipment screen in blue numbers as a "+ X".
Durability: The weapon's HP, when the durability hits 0, the effectiveness of its attacks become weakened to the point of almost uselessness. When an items durability is low, a message will come up saying "Weapon At Risk!" at this point the weapon does not perform at it's best.
Weight: How much the item weights when equipped.
Stability: How well the player keeps stance after being hit
Attack Type: Defines what kind of swing set the weapon has: Regular(R), Thrust(T), Slash(Sl), Strike(St)
| Crossbows |
Avelyn ♦ Heavy Crossbow ♦ Knight's Crossbow ♦ Light Crossbow ♦ Repeating Crossbow ♦ Sniper Crossbow |
AnonymousThe Community: Crossbows suck because they don't have scaling
The Arbalest: Only 11 points of AR behind the Black Bow at 99 STR & 99 DEX
(The Dragonrider Bow, admittedly, is 50 AR higher. But it's also 40 higher than Black Bow, so that's Dragonrider specifically that's riding the scaling to victory.)
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
There's the repeating crossbow memelord, there's the passive avelyn fan and here's the 50.cal arbalest enjoyer
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
Planning to pick this beast up in my Holy Knight Faith/Strength Build as a reliable side weapon, on my main Strength/Dex hybrid character it still does great damage in NG+ while being +6. PvE wise, great to get rid of annoying ranged enemies or enemies that are behind an invisible wall that they back up from. PvP wise it's great for punishing people who overextend with heavy attacks and miss. I call mine The Right Arm of Hercules for obvious reasons. I heard the Repeating crossbow is also pretty good but I used Gael's Soul for the Sword so idk about that one
- Anonymous
Planning to pick this beast up in my Holy Knight Faith/Strength Build as a reliable side weapon, on my main Strength/Dex hybrid character it still does great damage in NG+ while being +6. PvE wise, great to get rid of annoying ranged enemies or enemies that are behind an invisible wall that they back up from. PvP wise it's great for punishing people who overextend with heavy attacks and miss. I call mine The Right Arm of Hercules for obvious reasons. I heard the Repeating crossbow is also pretty good but I used Gael's Soul for the Sword so idk about that one
- Anonymous
You can bring this back to ER. Just please From leave the explosive bolts in Ds3
- Anonymous
I usually punish 2h ultras with a bolt to the face with this crossbow whenever they swing randomly or swing when I'm slightly out of range. Also people who parry spam. Let me just say they DO NOT like it
- Anonymous
funny how the weapon literally called the arbalest is the only crossbow in the game that wouldn't be considered an arbalest (other than maybe the avelyn)
- Anonymous
My favorite offhand weapon. Good for roll spamers as well as WA spammers.
- Anonymous
Unfortunate that you can't infuse crossbows. This thing would be nuts with a fire infusion loaded with exploding bolts
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
I just noticed that your character is holding the crossbow as if there's a pistol grip, but they're not actually holding onto anything. Couldn't they reuse the shotgun holding animations from BB?
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
"The largest of the crossbows" Ever been to the smoldering lake?
- Anonymous
Picked up this weapon normally then immediately got one as a drop. Guess I can duel wield them now? lol
- Anonymous
I (Grim) regularly destroy top tier PKCS users with the crossbow. Just freeaim exploding bolts on the ground, throw a few rope black firebombs, and whenever they get in melee range just spam with your gotthards
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
Uhh...you apparantly missed something; I got my arbalest from the first Cathedral Knight wielding one. They drop 'em, too.
- Anonymous
I found one dropped by a Hollow soldier right before the chapel of the deep.
- Anonymous
As odd as it seems, I just got my second arbalest dropped from a random arbalest bearer undead. It should not be classified as Rare Item anymore, I guess.
- Anonymous
Whenever you enter the arena and your opponent spawns in with a dark infused Lothric Knight Sword and an Arbalest on their side, you know you're in for fun time.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGw82yx9G0Y that is the actual video for the location
- Anonymous
"The largest crossbow"
Is lighter than half of the other crossbows.
- Anonymous
Funnily enough it's a direct copy of Dark Souls 2's Heavy Crossbow.
- Anonymous
The best weapon in the whole damn game. There's no 'hard' boss it can't cheese, or at least make MUCH easier. Champion Gundyr? Cheesed. Nameless King? CHEESED. He spends the whole fight slow-walking at you. Friede? Well, not cheesed, but made much safer during the first and third phase, and she's filled with bolts to ruin her invisibility for good measure. Even at NG+7, this thing is indispensable. Long live the arbalest. Composite bow, go home.
- Anonymous
The stagger on this looked to almost break my character's back when they were hit. With the new poise rules, if you don't have a lot of poise it WILL stagger you.
- Anonymous
For all you non weeaboos out there this is arbelest's location
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGw82yx9G0Y
- Anonymous
most gamebreaking weapon in pvp with exploding bolts free aimed at the ground dealing always 200-350 damage interrupting each *****in time nearly every move, it's so op, love to troll with it lol
- Anonymous
So, compared to the light crossbow for example, which only has the base damage, why does the arbalest have (base) + (scaling) for damage? The screen says it has no scaling.
I think it's a great alternative to the avelyn. I don't know why but I just feel like its more accurate, maybe its because that one shot makes me try to time its shots better I don't know. lolOnce loaded, it shoots very fast one handed so it makes for a surprisingly strong ranged surprise when switched to. Plus it looks badass.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
So far this has carried me through some of the more annoying bosses that felt like stamina challenges. Couldn't live without it.
- Anonymous
Hope the damage is meaty, and it might be worth using. The tackle skill is a nice touch to help when you are up close.
My tears are gone and I have 1HP
My rival pulls this thing out of his pocket
I swap to shield to protect myself from the bolts
Too late
Caught in the midst of the menu
Too slow
I die
I have been skill issue'd
2
+10
-1