In Dark Souls 3 you can infuse many different Weapons and Shields with Gems that change the properties, damage type or Scaling. In order to infuse a Weapon or Shield to your chosen type you must:

  1. have found and give the appropriate Coal to Blacksmith Andre,
  2. have a Gem of the chosen type, and
  3. have the required Souls.

The exceptions here are Refined, Raw or Fire which require no Coal to be given. You can use a Shriving Stone if you wish to remove the Infusion from your Weapon or Shield (this must also be done at Blacksmith Andre). Again, not all Weapons and Shields can be Infused so check the Weapons pages to verify which can and can't.

These weapons CANNOT be infused:BowsGreatbowsCrossbowsChimesTalismansStaves, Pyromancy Flames and any weapon that upgrades with Twinkling Titanite or Titanite Scale

Name & Icon

Effect

Coal Required

Buffable

shriving stone iconShriving Stone

Removes Infusion None Yes

refined gem iconRefined Gem

Reduces Base Damage
Adds Strength & Dexterity Scaling

Yes

raw gem icon

Raw Gem

Increases Base Damage
Removes Scaling
Yes

 fire gem icon

Fire Gem

Reduces Base Damage
Removes Scaling
Adds Fire Damage
No

heavy gem icon Heavy Gem

Reduces Base Damage
Adds Strength Scaling

farron coal icon

Farron Coal

Yes

 sharp gem icon

Sharp Gem

Reduces Base Damage
Adds Dexterity Scaling
Yes

 poison gem iconPoison Gem

Reduces Base Damage
Reduces Strength & Dexterity Scaling
Adds Poison Aux
No

crystal gem icon Crystal Gem

Reduces Base Damage
Reduces Strength & Dexterity Scaling
Adds Intelligence Scaling
Adds Magic Damage

sages coal icon

Sage's Coal

No

 blessed gem iconBlessed Gem

Reduces Base Damage
Reduces Strength & Dexterity Scaling
Adds Faith Scaling
Adds HP recovery
No

deep gem icon 

Deep Gem

Removes Scaling
Reduces Base Damage
Adds Dark Damage
No

 dark gem icon

Dark Gem

Reduces Base Damage
Reduces Strength & Dexterity Scaling
Adds Faith & Intelligence Scaling
Adds Dark Damage

profaned coal icon

Profaned Coal

No

blood gem icon Blood Gem

Reduces Base Damage
Reduces Strength & Dexterity Scaling
Adds Bleed Aux
No

 hollow gem iconHollow Gem

Reduces Base Damage
Reduces Strength & Dexterity Scaling
Adds Luck Scaling
Luck Stat When Hollow

Yes

 lightning gem iconLightning Gem

Reduces Base Damage
Reduces Strength & Dexterity Scaling
Adds Faith Scaling
Adds Lightning Damage

giants coal icon

Giant's Coal

No

 simple gem iconSimple Gem

Reduces Base Damage
Reduces Strength & Dexterity Scaling
Adds Intelligence Scaling
Adds Magic Damage
Adds FP Recovery
No

 chaos gem iconChaos Gem

Reduces Base Damage
Reduces Strength & Dexterity Scaling
Adds Faith & Intelligence Scaling
Adds Fire Damage
No



Tired of anon posting? Register!
    • Anonymous

      the reason why split damage is generally undesirable in this game, is because say that you have 2 hypothetical longswords that have 100 ar, but the first only does physical damage, and the second does 50 physical and 50 in any element. In DS3, unlike it's predecessors, you have 2 different stats that reduce the damage you take when hit: Defense and Absorption. In this context, we can think of Defense as a "flat" damage reducer (it's more complicated than that), and Absorption as a % based reducer. When you attack, your damage first goes through this flat defense, so that it can be reduced by a percentage by absorption, and since every damage type has a different defense stat, when you attack with a split damage weapon, your damage has to go through defense twice, once for the physical damage, and once for the elemental damage, which will lower your attack damage more than if it only had to go through defense once. That's why, when we think back to the two hypothetical longswords, even though they have the same AR, the pure physical one will always outperform the one with split damage, since all of it's damage only goes through defense once, which by this logic will increase the damage taken.

      • Anonymous

        This may just be me but before playing the game again recently I was 100% confident “serrated” was an infusion, to the point where I was confused when I couldn’t put It on my sword. Curse you Mandela, I hope collision screws you over and you die of fall damage from a very survivable fall

        • Anonymous

          To put it simple: stick with physical infusions. If you want elemental damage to your weapon, use resins, buffs or boss weapons. And if you're a caster that wants a backup sword, use a raw gem.

          It ain't only about split damage, it's also because elemental weakness is too niche. Like, you have 150 base magic damage on your weapon but oh! An entire area have enemies resistant to magic. Your minuscule physical ar from that crystal infusion is what you have left in these situations.

          • Anonymous

            When you infuse a weapon with a gem that has a passive ability like the simple gem with the FP regen does its passive get stronger with the weapon reinforcement

            • Anonymous

              the real question is, why they didn't put a gem vendor? if those were sold you could just cut thorough farming, even if those may be expensive, just think at the pices of titanite...

              • Anonymous

                do infusions affect pvp? like if i have an infused weapon will i only be able to invade players with infused weapons and vice-versa?

                • Anonymous

                  Seems like in elden ring, weapon arts varies depending of infusions. What a nice change. Idk if there are status effects regarding elemental damage types, but it's quite possible.

                  • Anonymous

                    I'm no coder, or game dev, but why are infusions so unimaginative? Game would be more diverse if it wasn't just different flavors of ice cream. The meta would be more exciting & definitely wouldn't be stuck in Quality limbo if they did. Shield infusions are whack too, need balancing & extra effects to make them interesting. Some ideas off the top of my head;

                    Heavy increases weight but also STR scaling, stamina damage on blocked attacks with strikes, & stability (esp. shields).

                    Sharp reduces weight & base AR, but increases DEX scaling, increases damage slightly with consecutive attacks, & slightly improves bleed & poison on slashes.

                    Refined slightly increases weight, balances STR/DEX, increases counter thrusts slightly & riposte damage, & improves physical block on shields.

                    Fire/Chaos causes slight fire DOT, like Sekiro. Fire build up causes DOT to damage equipment, while Chaos build up reduces AR. Fire shields cause DOT to attackers

                    Poison/Toxic cause poison DOT. Poison build up reduces elemental resist, while Toxic build up stacks another poison DOT. Poison shields cause Poison build up to attacks

                    Bleed reduces stamina regen. Bleed build up deals 1/4 HP damage. Bleed shields increase stamina regen slightly.

                    • Anonymous

                      I miss how Ds2 did infusions, it was a balance of losing attack power for the tradeoff of no split damage, and gaining split damage for more attack power. Now in Ds3 elemental infusions are gutted because you can't buff them, so why risk ALWAYS having split damage when you could get more damage by buffing a physical infused weapon? Not to mention how quick and easy bundles are to use too, it's a damn shame, really.

                      • Anonymous

                        If you have a +3 weapon and then get it infused by refined gem, can you contribute to reinforce it to level 10?

                        Thanks!

                        • Anonymous

                          Just wondering, if split damage gets crippled by damage reduction and defense values, why go for them in the 1st place?

                          • Anonymous

                            if you upgrade a weapon to say plus 4 for example and infuse it will it go back to plus zero or will it be say dark +4

                            • Anonymous

                              does infusing a weapon affect who you can summon, like your soul level or weapon upgrade level

                              if i’m SL12 with a +0 and i infuse will that change who i can summon/invade

                              • Anonymous

                                miyazaki keeps changing dark souls. Why is the chaos upgrade path related to the giant? He's the typical artist never satisfied with his work.

                                • Anonymous

                                  I'm on a sl1 challenge and I'm stuck in lothric and lorian. Should I replace my fire +10 Millwood with a simple infusion? I know lothric is weak to magic but is it worth it? I also have a lightning gem of I should do that.

                                  • Anonymous

                                    Should I infuse mu weapons with Dark and Chaos ? I heard they are really good in PvP, or should I use refined, heavy or sharp gem ? And why does everyone use the dagger + Chaos infusion ? I use the Lothric Knight Straightsword, Claymore, Spitleaf, Estoc, Rapier, Zweihänder, Astora Greatsword, Carthus curved sword, with what should I infuse them ? My stats are: 25 strength 25 dex 15 faith 14 intelligence

                                    • Anonymous

                                      About some of the earlier posts about the heavy gem infusions (which is only to ever be used if you are and plan to always be a strength build), note that this information is not completely accurate, as while sharp gems do reduce strength scaling while increasing dex, heavy gems completely removes dex scaling entirely. I'm not sure if this was due to a patch since the time of this post, but heavy gems completely eliminate all other scaling. This is as of 2019, so things could have been very different at the time of this posting. So as always, be sure to run the numbers before any infusion, making sure to take into account where you are with your current build and perhaps more importantly, where you plan to ultimately end up stat wise. While these infusions can always be switched later if you alter or respec your character, but early in the game, where gems are scarce, this is definitely something to take into consideration.

                                      • Anonymous

                                        The elemental infusions to shields really does not give you much additional protection at all to that element, considering you can easily find shields through natural progress that addresses all your concerns, however, I will say that infusing a small parry shield, like the small leather or target shield with a blessed gem, that constantly recovers health while equipped is very useful, especially if you have the sun princess ring equipped. It is not advisable to do this with a shield that has a 100% physical block as it reduces the shield to only 95% physical block, except for the very unique oak shield in Ashes. The simple gem can be used on a parry shield as well to regain FP, although very, very, slowly. So if you have any skills at all with parrying, which is not very important for PvE but but critical for PvP, this is the way to go. Otherwise, do not infusion shields, does more harm than good.

                                        • Anonymous

                                          Ya know, after NG and NG +1, now on NG+2, I still do not think I fully understand how to get the most bang for my buck in designing weapons for PvP using infusions. I'm now at 70/70/70/70 down the board. I was doing great from SL88-350, with about an 80% success rate against any invader to my world. However, not realizing what it meant to go past SL 350, being summoned to other worlds to help players is very difficult considering I'm matched against players at max SL 802, to my SL 351. So maybe it's a bit off topic, but I was wondering if anyone has any really serious knowledge on infusions at high level PvP. Obviously if you are 70 in str, dex, int, faith, you're going with either chaos, dark, or refined, and sometimes sharp. The Lothric knight sword scales incredibly well with chaos and dark infusions, at C-C-A-A. They are light and fast, the DPS is insane if you back someone into a corner. However, the refined millwood battle axe (best weapon in the game for any build in my opinion) buffed with lightning damage, (as even high SLs are weak too as raising your stamina over 40 is just silly unless you are at 99 with everything else except luck) seems to be very good. I was wondering, do any highly experienced PvP players had any thoughts on this matter? For someone that's rocking straight 70s (only 7 luck) down the board, what infusion do you use? Basically, if you're fighting someone whose stats are unknown to you, except that they are powerful, do you use elemental infusions, or do you believe that just straight physical damage (with buffs) is the way to go? And I am asking in general as well, it does not have to be a discussion based only on very high SLs. What do you do?

                                          • Anonymous

                                            Infusion on a Shield seems like a minor thing, what? use one of my resources to make something absorb one thing better, but make the rest weaker?

                                            • Anonymous

                                              Does the -A- scaling you get from the heavy gem only happen if you infuse it @+10 wep, or will it upgrade to a-scale as you improve the wep to +10?

                                              • Anonymous

                                                im a new player and i dont know how the infusion works. i already googled it but still i didnt get the clear picture. if my stat is 50 str and dex 25.. what gem should i use? from what i observe from the smith..refined gem seems better than sharp and heavy..

                                                • Anonymous

                                                  Quick questions- After I infuse can I still reinforce a weapon? Also, can you put multiple gems on one sword or is that not possible?

                                                  • Anonymous

                                                    I don't really understand what it means when it says: example Increases Base Damage Removes Scaling: what does removes scaling mean and how does it effect me and the weapon ?? plz help

                                                    • Anonymous

                                                      Lets suppose I no longer need a Fire Gem infused Battle Axe... If I use the needed Gem to remove the Fire Gem, the Fire Gem become unusable or does it become available for a later Infusion?

                                                      • Anonymous

                                                        Because it's not listed here, weapons infused with heavy, sharp, refined or raw gems can still be buffed with resins and spells. All other infusions preclude buffing of any kind. Heavy and sharp gems also reduce or outright remove scaling of the inverse of the scaling it increases, i.e. heavy gems reduce dex scaling and sharp gems reduce strength scaling.

                                                        • Anonymous

                                                          To all the people who don't understand why they didn't get the achievement, make sure you've really done the infusion. I was in the same situation when I suddenly realized the Deep Battle Axe in my inventory was looted from a Mimic, not infused by myself.

                                                          • Anonymous

                                                            Is it possible to trade these infusion stones? I'm doing a sorcery only run and want to get simple gen before Irithyll dungeons

                                                            • Anonymous

                                                              Something i found is that it can't infuse executioners greatsword. It scales with normal titonite. Anyone know why it can't infuse.

                                                              • Anonymous

                                                                Dev's got LAZY with this aspect of the game. Most infusions hurt my base damage. Unless I'm keeping a D&D monster manual of every enemy and their weakness (this particularly applies to elemental dmg, scaling or no) I'm better off with straight upgrades and MAYBE a heavy/sharp/refined infuse. LAAAAME

                                                                • Anonymous

                                                                  Ok next dlc needs to add a frost gem no if ands or buts, they have every other infusion except a frost gem

                                                                  • Anonymous

                                                                    When I infused my offhand shield with a blessed gem, the HP recovery continued when I two-handed my mainhand weapon. If I were to do the same with a caestus, would I continue to get the bonus, when two-handing my main weapon?

                                                                    • Anonymous

                                                                      So I was about to infuse my uchigatana with a sharp gem for it ot get better dex scaling but I noticed that the C scaling it has does not go up to a B scaling in dex even if I infuse. The C in dex does become blue indicating it is getting some scaling but does not become a B. So is it even worth it, or is it better to wait and just upgrade the weapon normally until the scaling goes up and then use the gem? Or are there different levels of scaling even within the same letter? Like you have a high C scaling and a low C scaling in dex and I am just making the C scaling better with the sharp gem. Kinda confusing.

                                                                      • Anonymous

                                                                        Which infusions can I do that still allows me to use spells similar to Magic Weapon? I've noticed that it works on some, but not others.

                                                                        • Anonymous

                                                                          I did all the infusions listed and my achievement didn't pop up, is there another requirement here? I used the shriving stone to see if that would work.

                                                                          • Anonymous

                                                                            do infusions themselves have levels to them I.E. if I have a fire weapon and want to add another fire gem to it is that a thing? I'm a noob so sorry for the noobish question

                                                                            • Anonymous

                                                                              Where is the Mage's Coal? its needed for crystal, blessed, and deep infusions, and no one, online has found it! There's even an achievement for getting all infusions that needs it! I get the feeling its in NG+ or NG++. T-T

                                                                              • Anonymous

                                                                                You can use pine resins on weapons that only affect your base damage and scaling (sharp, raw, etc).But not on weapons that add aux bonuses or different damage types.

                                                                              Load more
                                                                              ⇈ ⇈