Introduction
There really isn't any crystal Tear I can think of that's objectively useless across the board.
There is no Soldier's Crossbow or Mantle of Thorns here that's easy to just point and laugh at.
Yet there is one easily forgettable Tear that, when drafting up the list and moving ♥♥♥♥ around, I constantly had to keep reminding myself that it existed.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3216135239
№ 37 — Purifying Crystal Tear
Purifying Crystal TearThe resulting concoction purifies the curse from Mohg, Lord of Blood's terrifying rite of blood
Consider this a disclaimer, because I'm just not ranking this one.
It's a single-use, one-and-done, Mohg's stomping button that allows you to take his trusty trident, oil it up, and thoroughly wrench it between his asscheeks.
Mohg's phase 2 transition can still heal off of you, you still take damage, although significantly less, and you have the entire game to concoct a nightmarish bleed setup that can munch right through his entire health bar before his second phase even rolls out of bed.
It has exactly two good uses, each of which can be bypassed by just getting off your ass and making a good build.
The quest to get it is way too easy to miss, and reserving half of my physic flask for a gimmick just so I don't get stapled to the floor by an unblockable AoE is a decision that's only made me increasingly upset as time has went on.
№ 36 — Crimson-Sapping Cracked Tear
Crimson-Sapping Cracked TearThe resulting concoction temporarily restores HP upon landing attacks
Man, I- I don't-
I don't get it.
This could have been such a great crystal tear on paper, but less than 1% maximum HP per effect proc combined with how hard it is to proc that effect on DLC bosses that have swallowed a gallon of pre-workout and PCP to prepare for your arrival, combined with a 45 second timer versus loading out with swaddling cloth and having a better version of the effect on you at all times.
Man, I- I-
♥♥♥♥ it.
This video just started and I'm already too exhausted to figure out the math on this.
Just don't even pick it up.
There.
There's your math.
This feels like someone took an armor effect and transformed it into a tear.
Someone had to look at 0.8 max HP per proc and think, no, 3 minutes is too long for this.
The very first tear you find at the beginning of the game restores half your max HP.
Like, why the ♥♥♥♥ wouldn't I just use this?
Why would I choose this over Crimson Tears, or the Crimsonburst Tear, or even the Crimsonbubble Tear?
You could have taken this effect and given it to mages who still don't have a single lifesteal effect anywhere in the Sorcery Library.
You could have boosted flask efficiency.
You could have boosted critical damage as a counterpart to Stone Barb.
There were so many free ideas you hadn't thought of for Crystal Tears yet, and this is what you settled on?
№ 35 — Crimsonburst Dried Tear
Crimsonburst Dried TearThe resulting concoction gradually restores the HP of one's allies over time. Has no effect on the imbiber
It's just like the Vanilla Crystal Tear, only it helps your friends instead of yourself.
And who the ♥♥♥♥ wants to do that?
7 HP per second is really just a drop in the bucket of how much health your summon is losing at any given moment.
I had to double check to see if it was even equipped, because a good several seconds went by and I didn't notice a single pixel difference in my guy's health bar.
I can slap on Shabriri's Woe and anything I want on top of it, and I can never seem to even hold aggro long enough for healing 7 HP a second to make any significant difference.
And once I learned how strong heal from afar is, I'd much rather just keep an open Tear slot for a bonus that lets me do something a little more proactive.
№ 34 — Crimsonburst Crystal Tear
Crimsonburst Crystal TearThe resulting concoction gradually restores one's HP over time
If you've been poisoned, swallow this tear and it'll counteract the whole thing.
Usually.
I have officially run out of positive things to say about the Crimsonburst Tear.
Once you get Spirit Summons into +10, most of them have pretty chonky health bars, much larger than yours usually.
And since the Crimsonburst effect regenerates a flat amount of health per second, it just ends up being more useful on those with lower health bars.
Such is the explanation for why I've placed the regular Crimsonburst Tear over the Dry Tear.
Uh, ♥♥♥♥♥♥', boom.
Roasted.
Next.
№ 33 — Crimson Bubbletear
Crimson BubbletearThe resulting concoction automatically heals one's HP in the moment before death
This poor tear was already dragging its ass toward the end of the base game where every boss past the Mountaintops could deal so much damage that it bypassed the effect completely and prevented the heal, but the masochistic DLC scaling has taken this tear and shoved it so far back into the kitchen cabinet that it's starting to collect mold.
This tear just cannot function on its own.
Just period. It needs something else with it.
That could be Boiled Crab, that could be Opaline Hard Tear, some sort of damage negation item that can muscle through an enemy attack well enough to trigger that 20% HP effect without knocking you out completely.
And if you're anywhere past the base game, that's just not gonna happen.
They give it to you in the mountaintops, which is just late enough for the tear's value to begin its final descent, and FromSoft tends not to update Crystal Tear data that much.
So, as of now, it just got a nice dose of power creep shoved down its throat and it's not coming back.
№ 32 — Twiggy Cracked Tear
Twiggy Cracked TearThe resulting concoction prevents one's runes from being lost upon death
A solution to a problem you will only ever have on your first playthrough.
I understand its appeal, but excavating the Mohgwyn Palace by drastically lowering the albinauric population with my favorite L2 stick for a few minutes sounds much more exciting and productive.
The content in the DLC renders rune hoarding a far less fruitful endeavor than it ever has been, and the base game being so open in the first place prevents a lot of the difficulty that comes from having no choice but to continue ramming your head through a boss 78 times until you finally get it.
If you've literally never played the game before, or if there's like a platforming segment you're having trouble with, then sure, I would suggest throwing this thing on if you don't have space for anything else.
But that's the only situation I could ever think of using it over another better tear.
Oh, and being killed by Death Blight negates the effect entirely, so.
№ 31 — Viridian Hidden Tear
Viridian Hidden TearThe resulting concoction eliminates all stamina consumption
This tear had a lot of elbow room to work with, so I'm not sure how they ♥♥♥♥♥♥ this one up, but that's what they did.
The Deflecting Hardtear could have paired amazingly with this if it weren't for the extremely short duration, and all the new shield-type talismans in the DLC have proven that tucking your balls between your legs and hiding behind a large iron wall is unfortunately a playstyle that's just never going away.
But the Viridian tear only involves stamina consumed by player actions.
Blocking still takes away stamina just like it would normally.
10 seconds is pretty much bad no matter what context it's in.
It's barely justifiable on the Lead and Hardear, but because PvP exists, even that still manages to find a niche.
The Viridian tear has no niche.
It had actually scratched that.
No, I just thought of something, it has one niche.
You can pair it with the Cerulean Hidden Tear, because even though casting spells won't cost any FP, a lot of charged casting is still gonna dig into your stamina.
So if you're just itching for an extra 2 or 3 seconds of uptime on that puke green miscarriage laser people call a sorcery, then I guess the Viridian Hidden Tear can give you just that, if that's what you really want.
№ 30 — Crimsonspill Crystal Tear
Crimsonspill Crystal TearThe resulting concoction temporarily raises one's maximum HP
I just really wish it was more helpful than it currently is.
I'd be asking for a Vigor Nought tear if the soft caps wouldn't give such an obviously low ceiling, so this is the best we're gonna get.
The HP boost is at least nice enough to be percentage based, and it stacks multiplicatively with other HP boosting effects.
So let's say you have Radahn's Great Rune at 80 Vigor, and if you use up a rune arc and increase your max HP to 2317, using Crimsonspill here will boost your max HP by 10% of 2317, not your base max HP.
This is only useful in theory, since the tear doesn't actually fill up the now-vacant gap in your health bar that just destroyed the ♥♥♥♥ out of your Ritual Sword build, forcing it to pair with one of the other Crimson Tears, but I guess you can just throw down a Warming Stone or something and take care of it that way.
Not filling your health bar to capacity isn't really the massive setback people think it is, but the Opaline Hardtear's 15% damage negation is generally just a more valuable function to have.
№ 29 — Windy Crystal Tear
Windy Crystal TearThe resulting concoction increases the effectiveness of dodgerolls for a certain duration. However, damage taken is also increased during the concoction's effect
The only Crystal Tear in the game with its own penalty for using it.
That's...
that's very strange.
That kind of pisses me off, honestly.
I get why it's on the Talisman.
Tacking on more iframes per dodge is one of the strongest benefits anything can give you, so decreasing damage negation is a fair tradeoff for a Talisman with no timer attached to it.
But the tear is a temporary effect, and I still have to deal with 15% less damage negation than normal.
I don't know, that just rubs me the wrong way.
I am against that on principle.
I would rather them just shorten the duration than attach a penalty to it that'll almost always require Opaline Hardtear in the second slot, which just feels very restrictive.
And keeping DLC scaling in mind, I'm not about to look at anything that decreases my damage negation with a twinkle in my eye.
№ 28, 27, 26, 25 — Four Knot Crystal Tears
Intelligence-knot Crystal TearFaith-knot Crystal TearStrength-knot Crystal TearDexterity-knot Crystal Tear
There's no complaining from me here regarding location.
You can pick these up relatively easily, since the Strength and Faith Knot Tears are in Limgrave, while the Dex and Intelligence Knot Tears are in Liurnia.
If you're two to three points away from your next ideal sorcery, or if a big pointy stick is just barely too heavy for you, this is usually what you're gonna be swallowing these for.
Commonly used in tandem with Godrikc's Great Rune and the Oath of Vengeance unique skill, they have some tremendously helpful effects during the early game, such as allowing you to test out potential future builds and giving you a clearer blueprint on how to level your character.
They can still be used near the endgame and even post-game DLC if you find one of your stats to be lacking, but you just really want to see what this new spell does.
Most of its benefits are clearly in the early game, I'd say up to and including Altus, but since you can technically reach any of these within like 10 minutes of starting a new game, I think that's perfectly fine.
Honestly, given their track record, I'm just glad they didn't stick one of these at the ass end of the Haligtree.
№ 24 — Leaden Hardtear
Leaden HardtearThe resulting conconction temporarily boosts one's poise
The hell am I supposed to do with that?
Tie my ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ shoes?
I have a long list of complaints with this one, including its awkwardly short duration.
Mainly because a 10 second bonus tied to a crystal Tear makes the effect feel almost reactionary at this point. If you use this, you better have planned out exactly what you're gonna do next and how it can go wrong.
It has some interesting combinations, such as with the Crimson Whirl Tear, especially in PvP settings, allowing you to sponge up damage spam while giving you a free one-shot space hadouken.
And in most duels, 10 seconds is all you really need, to be fair.
But the most common misconception about this Tear is that it actually affects poise, which it doesn't. It affects your toughness.
And in some ways, I will admit that's honestly better.
Attacks from larger enemies just won't give a ♥♥♥♥ about whether or not you have 101 poise, but modifying your toughness can change that.
Shame the player's toughness can only resist stagger values up to 3, so horned warriors, fire knights, medium hefty guys will have difficulty flinching you out of attacks.
But if you get stomped on by a dragon, it's still gonna feel like you got stomped on by a dragon, and without any damage negation to go with it.
This ain't no Ironjar.
№ 23 — Cerulean-Sapping Cracked Tear
Cerulean-Sapping Cracked TearThe resulting concoction temporarily restores FP upon landing attacks
Honestly, I thought this was gonna be way ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ than it was.
Putting this effect on your FP bar instead of your HP actually ends up making a massive difference in utility.
It grants a flat 5 FP per hit, but there seems to be a limiter tied to how frequently the effect can activate.
Testing it with Yokai's Dancing Blade, the unique skill very clearly lands more hits than the amount of times FP is restored, whereas if you're just whacking something with standard R1s, the FP regen is granted on pretty much every hit.
It can even keep up with R1s from a dagger, but if you start power stancing them, you can see the effect begin to lose some of its potency, as not every single hit landed will restore FP.
This ultimately means using this with, say, the Wing's Aspect, Ash of War, may not replenish the amount of FP you're wanting it to.
Even if you have an Ash or a unique skill that can accumulate hits quicker, power stancing daggers seems to be the most effective way to restore FP with this Tear.
It's also a flat amount of FP restored, so if you're running a bonk build with very low mind, you might consider slapping a dagger on there, because a full recharge from this Tear probably won't take you more than a few seconds.
№ 22 — Greenspill Crystal Tear
Greenspill Crystal TearThe resulting concoction temporarily raises one's maximum stamina
Maximum stamina is one of those pseudo-helpful phrases designed to appear important without actually doing anything too beneficial.
It's a Tear you consider when you feel like one extra swing of your weapon would make all the difference in the world, and this development team spending the past 16 years encouraging its player base in the exact opposite direction should be your first obvious sign that you may not need this much as you think.
But that extra bit of stamina does feel very comfortable on counter-attack builds.
It can stack with Erdtree's Favor and the Viridian Medallion, and RL1 builds have a much easier time running past waves of evildoers that want nothing more than a piece of your ass.
The uses are ultimately really niche, and using Greenspill won't get you nearly the same amount of universal benefits as something like Greenburst, the notably superior of the two stamina effects.
№ 21 — Glovewort Crystal Tear
Glovewort Crystal TearThe resulting concoction temporarily increases the attack power of spirits
Nah, I'm just not a fan.
7.5% damage is already a bit of a letdown when buffs like Golden Vow and Commander Standard apply nearly twice the damage boost or more to both you and your spirit, but there's only a very small handful of spirit ashes that are actually used to fill a damage roll.
Tishe and Rollo are great examples, but the single main benefit of having a spirit ash has always been forcing a 2v1 against a powerful boss to take some of the heat off of you when necessary.
Other spirit ashes like Florissax and the Stormhawk are attack buffer units with abilities designed to make you a better damage dealer, yet another situation where Golden Vow would just perform ten times better.
I get that it stacks, I get people like it, but I'm the only one in the room with an oversized sunflower, so if I'm increasing anybody's damage, it's gonna be my ass.
№ 20 — Crimson Crystal Tear
Crimson Crystal TearThe resulting concoction restores half of one's maximum HP
You can... you can heal yourself with it.
It's...
it's uh...
it's 50% more health.
♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ whoopie.
I guess having a simple straightforward function makes it really compatible with most other Tears in the selection.
You can pair it with the Cerulean Crystal Tear and make a multi-purpose flask, or combine it with Opaline Bubble Tear to make your own «oh ♥♥♥♥» button.
It's as simple as they come, and I'm not really that interested in making a case for or against it.
№ 19 — Cerulean Crystal Tear
Cerulean Crystal TearThe resulting concoction restores half of one's maximum FP
I'm just ranking this one above the Crimson variant because it has some obvious synergy with Cerulean Hidden Tear.
If you don't feel like waiting until the mountaintops to have the second Cerulean Tear for a full top-off, you can always just load it with the Hidden Tear and fire half your FP bar into someone's face at no cost, and it'll basically have the similar effect.
Probably even better.
Otherwise, yeah, it's a Tear that restores FP.
Half of it.
Yeah, let me know if you need instructions on how to take a ♥♥♥♥, maybe I can help with that too.
№ 18 — Speckled Hardtear
Speckled HardtearThe resulting concoction temporarily raises all resistances and heals all status ailments
This is the only status resistant tool in the entire game that I know of with the ability to not only increase your resistance to but alleviate the additional build-up that results afterwards.
And the reason this is so insane is because depending on the order of which you stack your own buffs before a fight or a big area, you can use items like the cured meats or switch out certain talismans and then pop the physic flask afterwards and all that additional build-up is just gonna piss right off and not bother you again.
This is wonderful for fighting bosses like Mohg and Malenia, but if you're trying to get as much mileage as you can out of the Tear, you can head in with a madness-themed build that usually requires one of those long man-sized resistance meters.
Covering all status ailments at once is still a bit too broad for my taste, but DLC items like the Ailment talisman and all the +2 Horn Charms give the Speckled Tear plenty of places to do some good work in and out of the DLC.
№ 17 — Opaline Bubbletear
Opaline BubbletearProvides significant damage negation
The mileage on this one just doesn't go as far as it used to, I think.
Take it anywhere outside the context of branch sword builds and RL1 runs and the utility starts to take a vertical nosedive off the chart and into the garbage can.
But what it offers, it does so with pride and efficiency.
It only pops when you would have taken damage from something, so blocking hits with a 100% damage negation shield allows the effect to persist, and the addition of the deflecting Tear allows you to ♥♥♥♥ up the rhythm exactly once with little to no consequence.
It's not useless, it's pretty far from it, actually. But combo attacks exist, and they are unfortunately a very common threat in both the base game and the DLC.
Grab attacks from a boss like Astel also tend to have multiple instances of damage, meaning the bubble will only block a partial amount of it.
This also usually ends up being the least harmful instance of damage, so the Tear might as well just not even be doing anything in that context.
№ 16 — Ruptured Crystal Tears
Ruptured Crystal Tear Causes concoction to explode
If you only have one, it's a dying sneeze from an old woman in a nursing home.
If you have both, it's a middle finger shaped nuclear warhead delivered straight from the mouth of hell.
Holy builds have a really fun range of artillery when you get past how boring most of the spells are.
Golden buzz saws, pitch black death swords, ethereal spears from the ground, ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ bubbles.
But no single tool in your pocket screams «get bent ♥♥♥♥♥» as loudly as delivering a timed payload of golden domestic terrorism right into someone's ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ mouth.
The damage received by enemies is scalable and boostable just like any other, but the damage you take is a flat 700 from both Tears.
And sadly, this cannot be negated through talismans, damage negation buffs, or even the Opaline Bubble Tear.
It is persistent as god itself.
You are-
there is not a single thing you can do about that 700 damage.
You're taking it whether you like it or not.
But you can use weapon skills like blink bolt and white light charge to launch yourself forward for style points, or you can save it for when a boss gets poise broken and use this instead of going for a critical hit.
№ 15 — Oil-Soaked Tear
Oil-Soaked TearThe resulting concoction temporarily causes the imbiber to break out in an oily sweat, soaking nearby enemies in oil. Oil-soaked enemies are highly susceptible to fire damage
You know what?
Points for creativity.
Range is a little awkward, but points should be awarded nonetheless.
Increases an enemy's fire damage taken by rubbing up against them like you're trying to ask them out to the high school prom.
There is an obvious focus here tailored towards melee range builds with fire affinity weapons, but incantations like catch flame or bale's tyranny usually work just as fine.
It only lasts 30 seconds, but builds meant to stay in an enemy's face will be constantly reapplying the effect with very little delay, if any at all.
My only glaring issue with this one is the noticeable potency difference between this and another oil item like the oil pot, which increases the next instance of fire damage taken by 50, whereas the oil from the Tear only gives you 20%.
Think of it as a modified flame shrouding Tear specifically for melee builds.
Stacking it with the actual flame shrouding Tear grants a pretty enormous increase to fire damage, which in practice even further lends itself to close range builds.
You might be looking at a 40+ percent damage boost against enemies weaker to fire. Ideally, you would use this against something that has trouble moving, like a dragon or a troll or just something that can't really move its ass out of the way too quickly.
Bosses like knights cavalries, red wolves, and enemies who spend a lot of time out of melee range probably won't be too affected by this.
№ 14, 13, 12, 11 — Elemental Shrouding Cracked Tears
Magic-Shrouding Cracked TearFlame-Shrouding Cracked TearLightning-Shrouding Cracked TearHoly-Shrouding Cracked Tear
I still think magic is in third place out of the four, but only off of the good faith assumption that they plan to look at the vanilla crystal Tears again soon, and the circus act going on with how impenetrable thorns deals its damage was in fact a freak accident.
So once that gets nerfed, just pretend I retroactively edited this video to move the Holy Tear up to 13th.
Thing is, the holy element has been given quite a lot of improvements in the DLC to the point where I can just no longer confidently say it's the worst performing element.
Ghostflame dragons, horned warriors, fire knights, and even remembrance bosses like the Putrescent Knight really open up a lot of doors for what was previously just an undertuned element.
Fire and lightning are still locked in the cosmic arm wrestle that they've been in for years, but the debuff on the Flowerstone Gavel and water, uh, existing in convenient places means lightning has probably finally taken the edge in the competition.
№ 10 — Spiked Cracked Tear
Spiked Cracked TearThe resulting concoction increases the power of charged attacks for a certain duration
The potency of the effect by itself I would say is just slightly above average, but there are plenty of DLC items that indirectly buff this Tear by just giving it more space to work.
It's one of the most stackable effects in the game currently,
since it gets helped out by the Axe Talisman,
two-handing your weapon with the Two-Handed Sword Talisman boosts it by 15% more,
charged heavy attacks that are modified by Warcry and Braggart's Roar
get boosted by the Roar Medallion,
and weapons that have throwing attacks as their heavies like Messmer Spear and dismiss script weapons
allow you to take advantage of the boost by charging heavy attacks at a much more comfortable distance.
Additionally, pretending you're an olympic athlete by just throwing hammers at ♥♥♥♥ or bret farving a spear into someone's face is really ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ fun, and that play style is directly enabled by this Tear.
№ 9 — Opaline Hardtear
Opaline HardtearThe resulting concoction temporarily boosts all forms of damage negation
It's 15% less damage taken from every source, every misstep, and every bonk on the head.
The effects of this one are pretty straightforward, and it's honestly hard to beat the classics.
With the addition of all the +3 shield talismans, the Pearl Shield Talisman, Golden Braid, Vertigris Discus, it even spells like Dragonbolt of Florissax, access to a quality damage negation setup has become inexcusably easy.
Like a pair of shoes, it's just one of those things you just need to have.
15% less damage from both physical and elemental sources is probably one of the greatest defensive tools you would ever need, because you don't have to do mental cardio about which attacks from Commander Gaius are technically harder to avoid and how that should factor into which great shield talisman you're equipping, when you can just swallow the whole ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ pill and not have to worry about anything.
№ 8 — Cerulean Hidden Tear
Cerulean Hidden TearThe resulting concoction removes all FP consumption
Okay, so... so the nerf didn't do ♥♥♥♥.
It just didn't do a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.
Man, some of y'all really out here just getting your milk pissed in over five ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ seconds.
The amount of time it gives you is still more than enough for at least one free dragon communion spell, even if you pop it before crossing the gate.
Ekzyke's Decay is more useful than ever this way now because of the Poison Flower ash of war, but you can also pair it with the Stonebarb Tear and give your least favorite boss what could legally be considered cruel and unusual punishment for the next 30 seconds.
You can still pair it with Speckled Hardtear for a good 2 or 3 more seconds you can plug into the madness tank.
The Cerulean Hidden Tear has a utility that's just way too strong to be taken care of by shaving a few seconds off the timer.
It's probably going to be an S Tear for the rest of time.
№ 7 — Bloodsucking Cracked Tear
Bloodsucking Cracked TearThe resulting concoction temporarily increases attack power but drains HP over time
20% more damage, just out your ass, no matter what.
Works on spells too.
The only tangible downside here is that HP sap ain't no Power Within.
This ♥♥♥♥ will kill you if you let it.
The sapping effect is determined only partially by your maximum HP, but the flat 20 HP per second is what mainly contributes to the HP loss, effectively draining a minimum of 3600 health over time.
Even if you're an endgame build, that's still around 50% bigger than what your health bar is probably going to look like.
Pairing it with Crimsonburst isn't nearly enough, and you can't stack a regen heal on top of it because, well, it just overwrites the Crimsonburst effect.
So unless you feel like digging out that regen build in your closet you haven't touched in nine months, you better just pay the ♥♥♥♥ attention.
Oh, and the critical hit animation also pauses the drain effect. So, uh, don't tell FromSoft.
№ 6 — Stonebarb Cracked Tear
Stonebarb Cracked TearThe resulting concoction make one's attacks more likely to break an enemy's stance
Why does it only last for 30 seconds?
♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, 30 seconds is all you need!
Who cares if it's only a boss fight Tear?
If you feel like the short duration is that huge of a problem, I just don't believe you've actually used this.
30% more poise damage on lighter weight builds usually won't mean a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ thing, and that's doubly true if you spend that 30 seconds with your nuts between your legs hiding in a corner while Mesmer 19-hit combos all the air particles in front of him.
Spam Stone of Gurranq, Rock Sling, Glintstone Nails, any long-range kneecapper you've got.
You need to use this Tear with a mission in mind.
Don't use this and then immediately start dry humping the walls of the arena while the clock runs out.
Give your balls a tug, march in there, and shove your heaviest pair of great hammers up Messmer's scrawny ass and keep them there until somebody dies.
Then tell me this Tear needs a buff.
№ 5 — Thorny Cracked Tear
Thorny Cracked TearThe resulting concoction makes consecutive attacks grow stronger the longer they continue
This Tear has only gotten stronger with time.
It was already in a powerful enough position since it stacked with the Rotten Winged Sword Talismans, but the amount of uptime you can get on a weapon like Smithscript Dagger or long-range weapon skills like Scattershot Throw completely just beats the ♥♥♥♥ out of any other offense Tear you could have in your loadout.
You can pair it with Cerulean Sapping Tear or pretty much any Tear with an on-hit effect and long-range weapons will proc it immediately and consistently.
If your build enables quick hits with low recovery time and you don't play like an AI, it basically just becomes a melee Bloodsucking Tear without the HP drain.
№ 4 — Crimsonwhorl Bubbletear
Crimsonwhorl BubbletearThe resulting concoction converts incoming damage into recovered HP instead
Flask empty?
Can't heal?
No problem.
Just stand in a magma pool and let the essence of the volcano gods repair your smooth brilliant skin.
Rematerialize your very bones by swallowing the breath of a dragon.
Who needs health insurance when you can headbutt the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ sun?
Turn that Messmer dunk into a deflated balloon of smoke and fart gas with this one simple trick.
Or take Radahn's final meteor attack and just wave that ♥♥♥♥ off your chest like a sprinkle of pop tart crumbs.
It's a 15 second long middle finger to anyone who deals elemental damage, which is literally every remembrance boss in the DLC except Romina.
And ♥♥♥♥ Ramina, you don't need help with her ass.
It's not as fun to use as the other Tears, and it doesn't open up doors to unique build ideas by lessening your equip load or strengthening guard counters or anything.
But after getting your soft little head repeatedly bounced off the pavement 79 times by Miquella's holy ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ laser, sometimes you just feel like walking in with a gimmick of your own.
Even if that gimmick is a big round button that just says «♥♥♥♥ off I win».
And that's exactly what this Tear is.
№ 3 — Greenburst Crystal Tear
Greenburst Crystal TearThe resulting concoction temporarily boosts stamina recovery speed
Greenburst is pretty hard to beat for obvious reasons.
15 extra stamina regen for three minutes is something that's very, very dangerous once you start getting used to it.
Because when the effect expires, it's just going to feel like your character has tied an ankle weight to all their belt loops.
Stacking it with the Two-Headed Turtle Talisman and Pickled Turtle Neck means there's almost no idle time between actions.
Like the stamina bar might as well just not exist at that point.
You can deflect more, you can get your knees busted less frequently.
Charged heavies with colossal weapons don't feel nearly as debilitating.
Putting stamina regen on anything is just an all around improvement to the quality of life.
The worry of going for an attack and having your character just stand there catching your breath before you look up and realize the tank's empty is just not a thing that happens anymore.
It feels safe, and if you have a playstyle that belches through stamina like an old land rover, there's a high chance you are dangerously reliant on this Tear.
№ 2 — Winged Crystal Tear
Winged Crystal TearTemporarily reduces equipment load
No amount of weight distribution can lift the burden of my guilty conscience when using this ♥♥♥♥ in a duel.
The Blue Dancer Charm unfortunately isn't compatible with it, but the DLC added the Vertigris Discus, which helps it out even more by boosting defense based on your equip load.
Except that it...
except that it doesn't.
Because the Discus actually goes by the category of the load and not the amount of the load itself. It's completely opposite of how the Blue Dancer Charm works.
I don't get why.
You had the template, you had the blueprint right there.
All you had to do was copy it over.
But the discus wants to be different for some reason.
Whatever.
This talisman video is going to be great.
This Tear throws your load limit up so high that you actually end up having enough space for multiple heavy weapon loadouts.
If you're running a counter-attack build with full solitude armor and you suddenly decide you'd like to blow someone's ♥♥♥♥ off with a Rabbath's Cannon, you can just stack all that ♥♥♥♥ in your weapon slots and still have enough room for a cooler.
This is ultimately what makes this Tear so strong in PvP settings.
If someone figures out how to get around the pair of detached car doors you're holding, what a fun surprise it'll be when you bring out that Mohg Trident you had cleverly hidden between your asscheeks like you were trying to sneak it past airport security.
№ 1 — Deflecting Hardtear
Deflecting HardtearThe resulting concoction temporarily enhances spontaneous guard. Damage negation and guard poise will be heightened in the moment immediately after assuming a guarding stance. Successfully executing a spontaneous guard will also strengthen guard counters
And the only thing better than being a cast iron gymnast while not taking damage is standing completely still and not taking damage.
By blocking every glancing blow, strike, and slash with a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ toothpick if you wanted to.
Blocking physical attacks at the precise moment results in absolutely none of that damage going to your character.
You can block it with a shield, with a katana, an axe, a relatively thick checkbook, anything capable of blocking, you can deflect with it.
I love the attitude of this Tear because it gives me a particularly entertaining headcanon that the balancing team read all the comments about Malenia being in the wrong game and ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Sheldon in the back of the room just took it way too personally and snuck this into the DLC without anyone seeing it.
Counter-attack builds were already strong enough with even a decent shield, but that last sentence hanging off the Tear's item description like a contract clause is very ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ important, because it doesn't tell you HOW it strengthens guard counters, only that it does.
After testing it multiple times against this Godskin, I observed that there are three separate levels to the boost applied to guard counters. Guard countering immediately after deflecting something heightens that attack by 40%.
Each consecutive deflect after that raises your next guard counter by 20, with a final ceiling of 80% extra damage.
I'm not entirely sure that's how the system works, so feel free to leave corrections, but I tested it in multiple environments against multiple enemies and I never saw anything that looked like it could have been more than 80%.
It's fun, it enhances what was already one of the most powerful melee attacks in the game, and it feels like the whole game has just been given a brand new skill ceiling that everyone's going to be making challenge runs out of for the next three years.
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📝 Other Elden Ring Guides
Ranking All ... in Elden Ring from Worst to Best
16 Daggers18 Staves25 Bows35 Crystal Tears47 Gestures64 Spirit Summons69 Shields70 Sorceries88 Unique Skills91 Talismans91 Ashes of War101 Incantations115 Consumables126 Armor Sets308 WeaponsGreat Runes
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3155117973
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3213283813 https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3216135239
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3275057381 https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3283203994
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3292574189 https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3301039954
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3006733096
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3045134910
Source: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3302257948
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