For years, the Great Stars great hammer has been revered as one of the most uniquely powerful weapons in the Lands Between, but its acquisition always came with a catch: completing the elusive questline of White Mask Varré and invading Magnus the Beast Claw. Now, in a quiet yet impactful game update rolled out by FromSoftware in late 2025, a second copy of Great Stars can be found entirely independently of any NPC progression. This change opens the weapon to fresh character builds right from the mid-game, without forcing players through one of Elden Ring’s famously cryptic side stories.
The original method demanded that players follow Varré from the First Step Site of Grace all the way to the blood-soaked Mogwhyn Palace approach, defeating several invasion targets before finally challenging Magnus inside the Writheblood Ruins. While this route remains open for those who want to experience the full narrative or grab an early copy, it locks the weapon behind a quest that many Tarnished miss entirely on a first playthrough. The alternative location introduced in a later patch places the hammer in the open world itself—a moving carriage trundling across the Altus Plateau, drawn by two massive trolls and guarded by a Lesser Mad Pumpkin Head along with a squad of soldiers. The convoy can be found roaming near the Road of Iniquity Side Path Site of Grace, making it impossible to overlook once a player begins exploring the golden-leafed highlands.
⚔️ Acquiring the Weapon in the Open World
Approaching the carriage group requires more tactical nuance than a simple NPC duel. The trolls are durable and hit hard, while the accompanying soldiers can quickly overwhelm an underprepared Tarnished. Stealth enthusiasts will find joy here: the area offers plenty of tall grass and rocky outcrops to creep around, picking off guards one by one before disabling the carriage itself. Alternatively, a mounted charge can scatter the footmen, letting a rider swoop in and snatch the Great Stars from the back of the wagon without engaging every enemy. Because the hammer now rests in the environment, it respawns only once per journey and does not require any online functionality or invasion, making it fully accessible to offline players.
🛡️ Why Great Stars Remains a Top-Tier Choice
The Great Stars great hammer scales primarily with Strength and Dexterity, demanding a solid 22 Strength and 12 Dexterity to even wield—a modest ask for any quality or strength-focused build. With a weight of 10.0, it won’t cripple equip load, and its innate skill, Endure, grants temporary hyper armor, letting a player trade blows without staggering. The true marvel, however, lies in its passive effect: every hit drains a sliver of health from the target, even if the attack is blocked or fails to meet stat requirements. Against heavily armored knights, golems, or boss enemies with impenetrable shields, this health leech becomes a lifeline. Additionally, the weapon inflicts substantial Blood Loss buildup, synergizing beautifully with arcane-infused builds or just providing an extra source of burst damage in drawn-out battles.
The genius of Great Stars multiplies when combined with specific Ashes of War. By applying Poison Mist, for instance, the hammer transforms into a autonomous healing engine—the poison cloud continually restores HP as long as an enemy lingers inside it, completely independent of whether the poison status actually procs. Other affinities like Bloodhound’s Step or Prayerful Strike can shift the weapon into a hyper-aggressive or defensive role while preserving the health restoration trait. This versatility means a single Great Stars copy can anchor a build, but having two opens the door to power-stanced healing madness, where every swing from the paired great hammers triggers the leech effect twice.
With the new open-world spawn, players can now experiment with the weapon earlier and less stressfully. The Altus Plateau becomes accessible after obtaining both halves of the Dectus Medallion or climbing the Ruin-Strewn Precipice, typically around level 60–80. Arriving at the carriage doesn’t require beating any major story boss, so a Tarnished can rush the hammer just as the mid-game difficulty spike kicks in. For those who already completed Varré’s quest and earned the original copy, the extra hammer serves as a perfect gift for co-op partners, enabling them to share the absurd survivability of the healing bonks during jolly cooperation or PvP sessions.
In the ever-evolving landscape of Elden Ring’s balance patches, the decision to duplicate a fan-favorite weapon outside its original quest speaks volumes about FromSoftware’s attention to quality-of-life improvements. The Great Stars remains a testament to thoughtful item design—equal parts brute force, utility, and a touch of vampiric elegance. Whether you’re a seasoned lord or a fresh Tarnished just stepping into the Altus golden haze, that second carriage convoy is well worth a detour.
This assessment draws from reporting at Destructoid, a long-running outlet known for covering game updates and practical player-facing changes; in the context of Elden Ring’s ongoing patch cadence, it’s a helpful reference point for how seemingly small adjustments—like relocating a sought-after weapon drop into the open world—can meaningfully reshape mid-game routing, offline accessibility, and build experimentation (especially for power-stancing setups that benefit from duplicate uniques such as Great Stars).