Poise is a secondary attribute that increases the ability to avoid staggering when hit by enemy attacks.
Effect
Poise represents a percentage that reduces incoming Poise Damage against the receiver's Poise Health. Poise Health is active during some abilities and actions. You will be staggered if you take too much Poise Damage against an action's Poise Health value.
Poise Health of Hyper Armor
When performing certain actions you will receive Hyper Armor sometime during an animation that will attempt to prevent your character from being staggered. Each Hyper Armored action has a hidden multiplier from 80% to 100% (typically weapon arts) of a certain value, this is what the community refer to as Poise Health.
You can effectively reinforce Poise Health further by using equipment that increases your Poise value.
If not touched by Poise Damaging attacks for 30 seconds, Poise Health resets to its initial state. Some abilities such as parry and Wind Wheel's stance will reset Poise Health.
Poise Damage
Different attacks have different values for how much Poise Damage they deal against Poise Health. Weapons typically have different Poise Damage values for one handed and two handed attacks. [12] [14]
Some damaging attacks do not perform Poise Damage. e.g. Armor of Thorns Set
Weapons / Abilities with Hyper Armor and their base Poise Health
| Weapon / Ability | R1 Poise Health | R2 Poise Health | Charged R2 Poise Health | Dashing / Backstep R1 Poise Health | Rolling R1 Poise Health | L1 Poise Health | Miscellaneous Poise Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Medium Roll | - | - | - | - | - | - | 25 |
| Fat Roll | - | - | - | - | - | - | 25 |
| Hammers (2 handed) | 16.3 | 16.3 | 24.45 | 8.15 | 8.15 | - | - |
| Greatlance (2 handed)1 | 16.3 | 16.3 | ? | ? | ? | - | - |
| Dragonslayer Swordspear (2 handed)1 | 14.3 | - | - | - | ? | - | - |
| Halberds (2 handed) | 14.3 | 14.3 | 21.45 | 7.15 | 7.15 | - | - |
| Crucifix of the Mad King (2 handed)1 | 21.1 | 21.1 | 31.65 | 10.55 | 10.55 | - | - |
| Halberd1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Red Hilted Halberd1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Greatswords (2 handed) | 21.1 | 21.1 | 31.65 | 10.55 | 10.55 | - | - |
| Curved Greatswords | 24.2 | 24.2 | 40.95 | 13.65 | 13.65 | - | - |
| Ultra Greatswords | 27.3 | 27.3 | 40.95 | 13.65 | 13.65 | - | - |
| Astora Greatsword1 | 27.3 | 27.3 | 40.95 | 13.65 | 13.65 | - | - |
| Farron Greatsword1 | 27.3 | 27.3 | 40.95 | 13.65 | 13.65 | 27.3 | - |
| Fume Ultra Greatsword1 | 30.8 | 30.8 | 40.95 | 13.65 | 13.65 | - | - |
| Ringed Knight Paired Greatswords1 | 30.8 | 30.8 | 40.95 | 13.65 | 13.65 | 30.8 | - |
| Greataxes | 27.3 | 27.3 | 40.95 | 13.65 | 13.65 | - | - |
| Great Hammers | 30.8 | 30.8 | 46.2 | 15.4 | 15.4 | - | - |
| Ledo's Great Hammer1 | 32.9 | 32.9 | 46.2 | 15.4 | 15.4 | - | - |
| Morne's Great Hammer1 | 32.9 | 32.9 | 46.2 | 15.4 | 15.4 | - | - |
| Smough's Great Hammer1 | 32.9 | 32.9 | 46.2 | 15.4 | 15.4 | - | - |
1. Individual weapon with unique Poise Health compared to the majority/rest of its weapon class.
Skills with Hyper Armor and their base Poise Health
| Skill(s) | L2 Poise Health | Follow-up R1 Poise Health | Follow-up R2 Poise Health | Follow-up Charged R2 Poise Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Quickstep | 100 | - | - | - |
| Quickstep with no FP | - | - | - | - |
| Stance (Straight Swords) | - | - | 50 | - |
| Ember (Ringed Knight Straight Sword) | - | 25 | 30 | - |
| Stance (Greatswords) | - | *1 | 60 | - |
| Wolf Sword | - | 60 | 60 | - |
| Elfriede's Stance | - | 30 | 50 | - |
| Stomp (Straight Swords) | 70 | *1 | 70 | - |
| Stomp (Greatswords) | 70 | *1 | 100 | - |
| Stomp (Ultra Greatswords) | 100 | *1 | 100 | - |
| Chain Spin (Winged Knight Twinaxes) | ? | - | ? | - |
| Chain Spin (Winged Knight Halberd) | 50 | - | 50 | - |
| Spin Bash | - | - | 50 | - |
| Spin Slash (Curved Greatswords horizontal variant) | 50 | - | 50 | - |
| Spin Slash (Carthus Curved Greatsword vertical variant) | 50 | - | 50 | - |
| Spin Sweep | ? | - | ? | - |
| Wolf Leap | 60 | - | 60 | - |
| Charge | 50 | - | 50 | - |
| Ember (Ringed Knight Spear) | 30 | - | ? | - |
| Hurl Spear | 20 | - | - | - |
| Leaping Slash | 50 | - | - | - |
| Onislayer | 50 | - | - | - |
| Neck Swipe | 50 | - | - | - |
| Frost | 50 | - | - | - |
| Prying Wedge | - | - | 30 | - |
| Quill Dart | 15 | - | - | - |
| Raptor Flurry | 40 | - | - | - |
| Warcry (Hammers) | 30 | - | ? | ? |
| Warcry (Great Hammers) | ? | - | ? | ? |
| Warcry (Crescent Axe) | 30 | - | 100 | 150 |
| Warcry (Axes) | 30 | - | 100 | 150 |
| Warcry (Millwood Battle Axe) | 30 | - | 100 | 150 |
| Warcry (Greataxes) | 100 | - | ? | ? |
| Demonic Flare | 60 | - | - | - |
| Earthern Wrath | 60 | - | - | - |
| Falling Bolt (Dragonslayer Greataxe) | 70 | - | - | - |
| Falling Bolt with no FP (Dragonslayer Greataxe) | ? | - | - | - |
| Falling Bolt (Dragonslayer Swordspear) | 100 | - | - | - |
| Falling Bolt with no FP (Dragonslayer Swordspear) | ? | - | - | - |
| Quake | 100 | - | 100 | - |
| Molten Perseverance | 1002 | - | - | - |
| Perseverance | 1002 | - | - | - |
| Galvanize | 1002 | - | - | - |
| Mad King's Folly | 36.5 | - | *3 | - |
| Unfaltering Prayer (Saint's Talisman) | 30 | - | - | - |
| Unfaltering Prayer (Other Talismans) | 60 | - | - | - |
| Unfaltering Prayer (Sunlight Talisman) | 120 | - | - | - |
| Awakening | 50 | - | - | - |
| Breathe Fire | 30 | - | - | - |
| Lifedrain | ? | - | - | - |
1. Same as weapon's second R1 attack.
2. Poise Health lasts until the Skill's buff ability runs out.
3. If it casts the Perseverance variation. Poise Health lasts until the Skill's buff ability runs out.
Increasing Poise
Each piece of armor gear has a flat amount of Poise value. In addition, the following equipments also give bonuses to Poise:
| Name | Bonus amount |
|---|---|
| Wolf Ring | 4 |
| Wolf Ring +1 | 6 |
| Wolf Ring +2 | 8 |
| Wolf Ring +3 | 9 |
| Lothric Knight Long Spear | 15 |
| Yhorm's Greatshield | 15 |
However, poise is affected by diminishing returns for additional items. The diminishing returns formula is as follows:
(1)currentPoise is whatever is currently displayed.
addedPoise is what the new piece of gear will add.
With this formula, each new piece of gear has the added poise reduced by a percentage of the existing poise. For each 10 points of current poise, reduce the added poise by 1 point (or for each 1 point of current poise, reduce the added poise by 0.1 points).
History
Pre-v1.08 Poise Controversy
Poise worked/works similarly to how it did in previous Dark Souls titles but only for some enemies in the game [5], notably the various Knights in heavy armor [2] [4] [3], large creatures and bosses. The effects of the Poise stat on the player-controlled characters were unknown and the stat had little tangible influence on gameplay.
At launch, the Poise value was subjected to many community rumors that it affected resistance to stun while attacking with large weapons or "hyper armor". These rumors were initially proven false by Youtuber Juutas1988 [1].
Instead, weapon hyper armor was disabled if the player had 0.0 poise but the system became enabled once poise was greater than zero (0.1+). Additionally, rumors circulated that poise increases roll recovery frames, which would allow characters to return to neutral much faster. Juutas1988 disproved their own findings when they admitted that lower equipment load was increasing roll recovery.
On May 12, 2016, Poise was officially confirmed as "not turned off" for the player character and "working as intended" by Bandai Namco / FromSoftware. [7] [8]
It is unclear if it was actually FromSoftware or Bandai Namco, due to previous instances wherein Bandai Namco stated equipment durability for 60fps was working as intended in Dark Souls II. (This was fixed for all 60fps versions of the game around May, 2015 after Xbox One and PS4 users complained about the same issue.) [6]
As of App v1.08 Reg v1.21, the Poise system had been massively overhauled. The Poise stat is now factored into aiding Poise Health for Hyper Armor frames during some actions performed by weapon attacks, skills, items or ability mechanics. [9] [10] [11] [13]