Dawn of Sorrow – Destructoid

The Soul System in Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow allows for some great customization and gameplay. It’s also required to collect souls for the best weapons. Every series of weapons has an upgrade chain to create stronger weapons using souls. This guide will help you make the strongest and most versatile of each weapon.

How to Collect Souls for Fusion

Getting different souls is a bit of a vague process, so we’ll give a quick breakdown of best practices. First and foremost, you’ll want the Soul Eater Ring. The problem is that it’s not available until the later half of the game. Worse still, it’s prohibitively expensive at 300,000g. But once you acquire it, it doubles the rate at which enemies drop their souls when you defeat them.

The best way to get a particular soul is find a place where you can easily farm the monster that drops it. Anywhere that you can quickly turn to leave the room, and turn back to reset the monsters is best. You can go in, kill the monster, see if it’s soul drops, then exit and re-enter. It’s a bit tedious, though the late-game Black Panther soul allows you to dash quickly.

Luck, it turns out, does not help much at all. Increasing your lucks stat has a fragment of a percent at boosting Soul drops. It’s honestly better to make sure you have equipment that helps you down enemies faster. That said, if you also want to farm for enemy item drops, Luck isn’t a bad thing to have. Just don’t focus on it. Hard Mode quadruples the effect Luck has on Soul Drops, but that’s still not a terribly helpful amount.

Finally, if you’re playing on Castlevania: The Dominus Collection, there is one more cheat. Whether or not an enemy drops a soul is determined the moment you kill that enemy. Seeing as how The Dominus Collection has a quick rewind feature, that means you can constantly go back in time a few seconds and try again. This is especially useful on enemies like Final Armor, who take forever to kill AND have a rare drop chance. It’s a very useful tool and I highly recommend it.

Sword Fusion Guide

The Sword guide is interesting because there are multiple times when weapons branch off. Most weapons are a straight line, but swords have more of a tree. Whenever a weapon is Synthesis Exclusive, it will be marked with an asterisk(*). Many weapons can be found in game or purchased in the shop, so this should help you avoid spending souls you’d rather hold onto.

Base Weapon	Soul Required	Resulting Weapon
Short Sword	Armor Knight	Cutlass
Cutlass	Corpseweed	Long Sword
Long Sword	Great Armor	Fragarach
Fragarach	Mollusca	Hrunting*
Fragarach	Treant	Mystletain*
Hrunting* or Mystletain*	Killer Clown	Joyeuse*
Joyeuse*	Catoblepas	Milican’s Sword* (plus stone effect)
Joyeuse*	Frozen Shade	Ice Brand* (plus ice damage)
Joyeuse*	Ukoback	Laevatain* (fire damage, plus INT)
Milican’s Sword*, Ice Brand*, Laevatain*	Iron Golem	Burtgang* (plus DEF, CON)
Burtgang*	Arc Demon	Kaladbolg*
Kaladbolg*	Abaddon	Valmanway* (Usable while running)

Great Swords Guide

Bigger than normal swords, these swords usually hit much harder. In exchange, they’re also a lot slower. Their wide arc makes up for that, in my opinion, which is why I tend to gravitate towards them.

Base Weapon	Soul Required	Resulting Weapon
Claymore	Warg	Falchion
Falchion	Great Armor	Great Sword
Great Sword	Valkyrie	Durandal
Durandal	Lilith	Dainslef* (plus curse damage)
Dainslef*	Draghignazzo	Ascalon*
Ascalon*	Gergoth	Balmung*
Balmung*	Final Guard	Final Sword*
Final Sword*	Alastor	Claimh Solais* (plus holy damage)

Rapiers Guide

These are faster than swords, but otherwise aren’t terribly special. They have a decent bit of reach to them. They’re biggest advantage is that they do Piercing instead of Slashing damage.

Base Weapon	Soul Required	Resulting Weapon
Main Gauche, Small Sword, Estoc	White Dragon	Whip Sword*
Whip Sword*	Quetzalcoatl	Garian Sword*
Garian Sword*	Malacoda	Nebula*

Polearms Guide

My personal favorite weapon type, they have range and piercing. They’re not much slower than rapiers, either.

Base Weapon	Soul Required	Resulting Weapon
Spear	Armor Knight	Partizan
Partizan	Axe Armor	Halberd
Halberd	Valkyrie	Lance
Lance	Mini Devil	Trident*
Trident*	Decarabia	Brionac*
Brionac*	Slogra	Geiborg*
Geiborg*	Erinys	Longinus*
Longinus*	Bugbear	Gungner* (plus electric damage)

Axes Guide

While I prefer spears, there’s no denying the power of Axes. But it takes a while to get the best one, and it comes at the cost of a very valuable soul. If you’re willing to part with Death’s soul, the resulting scythe is probably the best weapon in the game.

Base Weapon	Soul Required	Resulting Weapon
Axe	Axe Armor	Battle Axe
Battle Axe	Manticore	Bhuj*
Bhuj*	Great Axe Armor	Great Axe*
Great Axe*	Final Guard	Golden Axe*
Golden Axe*	Death	Death Scythe (plus curse damage)

Maces Guide

There’s not much to the mace line of weapons. Mjollnjr is kind of a weak weapon, too. That said, having a Morgenstern on hand is always handy for any enemy that is weak to bashing damage.

Base Weapon	Soul Required	Resulting Weapon
Mace	Needles	Morgenstern*
Morgenstern*	Bugbear	Mjollnjr

Katanas Guide

There’s nothing wrong with a good katana, but they’re not terribly special either.

Base Weapon	Soul Required	Resulting Weapon
Blunt Sword	Bomber Armor	Katana
Katana	Mini Devil	Kotetsu
Kotetsu	Devil	Masamune
Masamune	Barbariccia	Osafune*
Osafune*	Malachi	Kunitsuna*
Kunitsuna*	Gaibon	Yasutsuna*
Yasutsuna*	Malacoda	Muramasa* (plus curse damage)

Fist Weapons Guide

Fist weapons are the alternative for bashing damage, but require you to be up close. That said, they can be pretty quick. The Kaiser Knuckle does multiple hits, making it a solid weapon for those brave enough to get up close.

Base Weapon	Soul Required	Resulting Weapon
Brass Knuckles	Zombie	Cestus
Cestus	Slaughterer	Whip Knuckles*
Whip Knuckles*	Hell Boar	Mach Punch*
Mach Punch*	Werewolf	Kaiser Knuckle* (multiple hits)

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