Patch 1.17 made Carian Retaliation stronger, according to the notes. They just don’t say how much. The counter’s base attack value went from 115 to 248, more than double. We pulled that number, and every other one the notes skip, straight from the game files.
Every Elden Ring patch ships with a regulation file, the data behind every damage number and stamina cost you run into in a fight. We compared the vanilla files from 1.16.1 and 1.17 line by line. Most of the changes are new Tarnished Pack gear, but the balance tweaks from the notes are all in there with real values, plus a few changes the notes never mention.
Where you see a percentage below, that’s our own math from the raw values. Patch 1.17.2 didn’t touch balance, so everything here still applies. If you missed the first part of our 1.17 coverage, here’s what the patch changed in the Realm of Shadow.
24 Shields, Every Guard Boost
Guard boost decides how much stamina a blocked hit takes from you. The higher the number, the less your stamina bar drops when something slams into your shield. Patch 1.17 raised it on 23 shields and cut the weight on 14 of those. The Haligtree Crest Greatshield only lost weight.
The Crucible Hornshield gained the most at +10, and the Icon Shield lost the most weight at 2.5 units. Read down the guard boost column and you’ll find 15 shields now sitting between 70 and 72. The gap between a mid-tier greatshield and the best ones got a lot smaller.
| Shield | Guard boost | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Crucible Hornshield | 60 → 70 | 11.5 (unchanged) |
| Dragonclaw Shield | 61 → 70 | 13.5 (unchanged) |
| Erdtree Greatshield | 60 → 69 | 13.5 → 11.5 |
| Jellyfish Shield | 52 → 60 | 8.0 (unchanged) |
| Ant’s Skull Plate | 63 → 70 | 13.5 → 12.5 |
| Cuckoo Greatshield | 64 → 70 | 15.0 (unchanged) |
| Wooden Greatshield | 56 → 62 | 8.0 (unchanged) |
| Redmane Greatshield | 65 → 70 | 14.0 (unchanged) |
| Inverted Hawk Towershield | 65 → 70 | 16.0 → 15.5 |
| Briar Greatshield | 58 → 62 | 9.5 → 8.5 |
| Spiked Palisade Shield | 59 → 63 | 11.5 → 9.5 |
| Manor Towershield | 67 → 71 | 16.0 → 15.5 |
| Crossed-Tree Towershield | 67 → 71 | 16.0 → 15.5 |
| Eclipse Crest Greatshield | 67 → 71 | 15.0 (unchanged) |
| Distinguished Greatshield | 68 → 71 | 17.0 → 16.0 |
| Golden Beast Crest Shield | 60 → 63 | 12.5 → 10.5 |
| Lordsworn’s Shield | 60 → 63 | 10.0 → 9.0 |
| Dragon Towershield | 69 → 71 | 17.5 → 16.5 |
| Gilded Greatshield | 69 → 71 | 17.5 → 16.5 |
| Black Steel Greatshield (DLC) | 69 → 71 | 19.5 → 18.0 |
| Golden Greatshield | 70 → 72 | 17.0 (unchanged) |
| One-Eyed Shield | 67 → 69 | 20.5 (unchanged) |
| Icon Shield | 59 → 61 | 11.5 → 9.0 |
| Haligtree Crest Greatshield | 71 (unchanged) | 18.5 → 17.0 |
All values are for the shields at +0. The Black Steel Greatshield is the only one on this list that needs Shadow of the Erdtree.
Sorceries and Incantations
The spell changes are where the notes undersell things the most. Carian Retaliation more than doubled, and Divine Bird Feathers got a bigger bump than the notes’ vague wording suggests.
| Spell | Base attack value | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Carian Retaliation | 115 → 248 (magic) | +116% |
| Divine Bird Feathers (DLC) | 42 → 53 (physical) | +26% |
| Rain of Fire (DLC) | 52 → 62 and 63 → 75 (fire) | about +19% |
| Founding Rain of Stars | 49 → 54 and 54 → 60 (magic) | about +10% |
These are the values the game starts from before your catalyst and stats come in. Your scaling multiplies that base, so the spell’s attack rating rises by the same share at every build. What lands on an enemy grows by roughly that much, once its defenses take their cut. Rain of Fire and Founding Rain of Stars each have two attack entries, and both went up by the same share.
O, Flame! and Gravitational Missile hit as hard as before but behave differently now.
- O, Flame! The burst of fire now grows outward to a radius of 1.0 over its first tenth of a second, where it used to have a fixed size. It also stays active a little longer, 0.16 seconds instead of 0.1. That’s the wider range the notes promise, and it applies to the charged version too.
- Gravitational Missile (DLC). One part of the spell now passes through terrain instead of colliding with it, and it moves at 0.5 instead of starting at 10 and speeding up to 20. In practice the spell no longer pops the moment it touches a wall or the floor.
Perfume Bottles and the Carian Sorcery Sword
All five perfume bottles in the notes come from Shadow of the Erdtree, and each one gained about 7% base attack. Small, but it applies to every throw.
| Perfume bottle (DLC) | Base attack at +0 |
|---|---|
| Firespark | 110 → 118 (fire) |
| Lightning | 110 → 118 (lightning) |
| Chilling | 105 → 112 (magic) |
| Frenzyflame | 105 → 112 (fire) |
| Deadly Poison | 92 → 98 (physical) |
The Carian Sorcery Sword (DLC) is the trickiest change in the whole patch, because it went down and up at the same time. Its base physical attack dropped from 69 to 38. In exchange, Intelligence now scales all of its damage types, where before it only fed magic.
Whether that helps your swings depends on how much Intelligence you have. Here’s the physical attack rating at +25 with 15 Strength and 20 Dexterity. Magic attack rating didn’t move.
| Intelligence | Physical AR, 1.16.1 → 1.17 |
|---|---|
| 20 | 156 → 126 |
| 36 | 156 → 158 |
| 60 | 156 → 195 |
| 80 | 156 → 217 |
Below roughly 35 Intelligence you lose physical damage. Above it you come out ahead, by up to 61 attack rating at 80.
As a casting tool, the sword got much better. At 60 Intelligence and +25, its scaling for physical sorceries like the gravity spells rose from 119 to 270, and for fire and holy from 100 to 251. Magic sorceries stay where they were, at 271. Where that puts it among the staffs, and why it looks like a nerf at lower upgrade levels, gets its own article.
Smithscript Weapons and the Spear of the Impaler
The three Smithscript throwing weapons and the Spear of the Impaler all come from Shadow of the Erdtree, and all four got better at their main job. Every attack has a motion value, a multiplier on your weapon’s attack rating. At 100 the move hits for your full AR; at 120 it hits 20% harder.
Stamina below is what you actually pay, after each weapon’s own stamina multiplier. Each cell shows one-handed / two-handed.
| Weapon (DLC) | Attack | Stamina, 1h / 2h | Motion value, 1h / 2h |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spear of the Impaler | R2 throw | 60 → 41 / 66 → 48 | 105 → 111 / 107 → 113 |
| Spear of the Impaler | Charged R2 | 99 → 66 / 109 → 72 | 120 → 129 / 122 → 132 |
| Spear of the Impaler | Running R2 | 66 → 41 / 72 → 45 | 101 → 107 / 103 → 109 |
| Smithscript Axe | R2 throw | 33 → 27 / 39 → 29 | 105 → 111 / 107 → 113 |
| Smithscript Axe | Charged R2 | 42 → 36 / 52 → 39 | 125 → 135 / 128 → 138 |
| Smithscript Axe | Jumping R2 | 31 → 22 / 36 → 28 | 102 → 108 / 104 → 110 |
| Smithscript Spear | R2 throw | 34 → 28 / 38 → 33 | 105 → 111 / 107 → 113 |
| Smithscript Spear | Charged R2 | 46 → 41 / 50 → 45 | 125 → 135 / 127 → 137 |
| Smithscript Spear | Running R2 | 34 → 29 / 38 → 33 | 101 → 107 / 103 → 109 |
| Smithscript Greathammer | R2 throw | unchanged | 76 → 80 / 80 → 84 |
| Smithscript Greathammer | Charged R2 throw | unchanged | 100 → 120 / 110 → 132 |
| Smithscript Greathammer | Running R2 throw | unchanged | 60 → 63 / 60 → 63 |
The motion values are for the main hit of each throw. Smithscript Spear throws from horseback got the same stamina cut.
The Spear of the Impaler is the big winner on stamina. Its one-handed charged throw dropped from 99 to 66, so the same stamina bar now gets you 50% more throws.
The Greathammer went the other way. Its throws still cost what they did, but the charged throw now hits 20% harder. It also breaks stance much faster, because its poise damage multiplier rose from 140 to 240 one-handed and from 160 to 260 two-handed. The other two throws got a smaller poise bump, from 75 or 80 up to 90.
On top of that, the Smithscript Spear’s thrown spear stays active longer now, 0.35 seconds instead of 0.25.
Critical Hits
Two weapons and one whole weapon type got harder-hitting backstabs and ripostes, all of them from Shadow of the Erdtree. Critical hits use motion values like any other attack, so a higher number means a bigger hit here too.
| Weapon (DLC) | Critical hit | Motion value, before → after |
|---|---|---|
| Smithscript Dagger | Backstab | 220 → 294 |
| Smithscript Dagger | Riposte | 300 → 420 |
| Smithscript Dagger | Backstab and riposte, regular enemies | 420 → 483 |
| Rellana’s Twin Blades | Backstab | 200 → 230 |
| Rellana’s Twin Blades | Riposte | 300 → 345 |
| Rellana’s Twin Blades | Backstab and riposte, regular enemies | 400 → 420 |
| Rellana’s Twin Blades | Riposte, large enemies | 100 + 250 → 132 + 331 |
| Great Katanas | Backstab, regular enemies | 55 + 350 → 55 + 385 |
| Great Katanas | Riposte, large enemies | 100 + 250 → 127 + 316 |
Some criticals land as two hits. Those show up as two numbers, like 55 + 385.
The Smithscript Dagger’s riposte made the biggest jump, from 300 to 420, a 40% boost. Its riposte against large enemies was rebuilt into two separate hits, so it isn’t in the table.
The Great Katana change is listed as a bug fix, not a buff. The notes say criticals with this weapon type did too little damage to large enemies. You can see the fix in the large-enemy riposte, where both hits went up by roughly a quarter. The second hit of the backstab on regular enemies gained 10% as well. All three Great Katanas share these values, Rakshasa’s included.
PvP: Rakshasa’s Great Katana and Rot Breath
Rakshasa’s Great Katana (DLC) already made you pay for its damage. While you attack with it, you take extra damage. Before 1.17 that penalty was a flat 10% against everything. Now enemies still deal 10% extra, while other players deal 25% extra. If you only fight bosses with it, nothing changed.
Rotten Breath and Ekzykes’s Decay are both base-game incantations. Against other players, they now get their own hit-reaction level of 3, where before they used the same one they cause in enemies. So a player caught in the breath gets stuck in the stagger for a shorter time and can move again sooner.
What the Notes Left Out
Golem Fist Costs Less Stamina
The notes list one change for the Golem Fist (DLC), a longer reach on its fist-launching heavy attack. That part is in the files. The launched fist now flies for 0.25 seconds instead of 0.1, so it stays in the air two and a half times as long.
The notes don’t mention the second change. Its heavy attacks got cheaper on stamina:
| Attack | Stamina |
|---|---|
| R2, one- or two-handed | 45 → 33 |
| Charged R2, one-handed | 57 → 44 |
| Charged R2, two-handed | 35 + 35 → 26 + 26 |
That’s roughly a quarter off every heavy attack. On a slow, heavy weapon, that adds up quickly over a long fight.
Glintstone Dragons Changed Shape
This one is odd, and we haven’t tested it in-game, so treat it as what the files say and nothing more. Smarag, Adula and the other base-game glintstone dragons got new body dimensions. The radius of their body went from 12 to 7, and its height from 12 to 14. The separate hitbox that handles bumping into other characters changed the same way, from 10 to 7 in radius and from 10 to 14 in height.
These values cover collision, not damage. The dragons hit as hard as before. What might change is how close you can get to them and how you bump into them. If you fight one after the patch and notice something, let us know in the comments.
What the Files Don’t Show
A few items from the notes didn’t leave a trace in the regulation data. They live in the animation files, which we haven’t compared.
- Parry, Storm Wall and Thops’s Barrier. All three parry better now, and Parry recovers faster with daggers, curved swords and small shields. The only number we found is Storm Wall’s FP cost, which dropped from 3 to 0.
- Meteorite and Meteorite of Astel. Both cast faster, but the cast time isn’t stored in the regulation file.
- Rakshasa’s Great Katana in the off hand. After an attack with it in your left hand, your right-hand weapon has to wait a bit longer before it can swing.
- Great Katana jump attacks. These could be parried by mistake. That’s fixed.
- Roar of Rugalea (DLC). The notes say it now does less damage to players. We found no change to its values at all.
We’re not going to guess at numbers for any of these. If they turn up in a trustworthy source later, this article gets an update.
Got a greatshield or a Smithscript weapon gathering dust in your chest? Check the tables above before you write it off again.
That’s what the numbers told us. A few findings still need a proper test in-game, but the values in the files point in a clear direction. Spotted a mistake in our research, or found a 1.17 change we missed? As we said above, leave a comment below.
The regulation files we compared come from TKGP’s ER Regulation Archive, and the field names from the Paramdex project.
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