This guide will show you the uniforms worn by the rank-and-file soldiers in Messmer’s army along with the weapons they use, what stats they provide, and how to get them in Elden Ring’s DLC Shadow of the Erdtree!
This guide will showcase the Common Soldier, Messmer Soldier, and Shadow Militiaman armor sets alongside the Messmer Soldier Axe, Shield, Spear, and Heavy Crossbow, as well as the Vulgar Militia Saw and Shotel. We have a dedicated guide for the Black Knight Gear.
Table of contents
Visual Overviews
These armor sets in Elden Ring, with the exception of the Vulgar Militia Saw and Shotel, are available exclusively in the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC. Each has all 4 pieces (helm, chest, gauntlets and greaves).
Messmer Soldier Armor Set, Axe, and Shield
You can alter the chest piece to remove the tattered cloak, though I don’t recommend doing that. These guys fought “in a war without Grace or honor”. Don’t take away their blankie.
Common Soldier Armor Set and Messmer Soldier Spear
The Common Soldiers actually seem to use Torchpoles modified with Messmer’s Flame, not Messmer Soldier Spears, but I wanted to show both off.
Shadow Militiaman and Vulgar Militia Saw
Messmer’s Soldiers Armor Sets Descriptions and Stats
This section covers the description and stats of the Messmer’s Soldiers’ uniforms exclusively. Their armaments will follow in their own dedicated section.
Messmer Soldier Armor Set Descriptions and Stats
The Messmer Soldier Armor Set has a combined weight of 21.6 and is part of the 5th heaviest weight class alongside all of the soldier sets featuring a Surcoat found in the base game.
Common Soldier Armor Set Descriptions and Stats
The Common Soldier armor set has a combined weight of 21.0 and is part of the 5th lightest weight class alongside all of the other Tabard-wearing Foot Soldier sets from the base game.
Shadow Militiaman Armor Set Descriptions and Stats
The Shadow Militiaman armor set has a combined weight of 16.9 and is part of the 4th lightest weight class alongside the garb of all of the other ne’er-do-wells. Sadly, even though the Shadow Militiaman Helm will absolutely make you look like a Jawa, it does not increase the number of Runes you get from selling junk to vendors.
Messmer’s Soldiers Armaments Descriptions and Stats
This section covers the descriptions and stats of the Messmer Soldier’s Shield, Axe, Spear, and Heavy Crossbow, along with the Vulgar Militia Saw and Shotel. You can’t get the ball-and-chain weapon used by some of the Vulgar and Shadow Militiamen.
Messmer Soldier’s Shield Description and Stats
The Messmer Soldier’s Shield is a lighter, but weaker cousin of the Brass Shield. Both are very capable Medium Shields.
Messmer Soldier’s Axe Description and Stats
The Messmer Soldier’s Axe is a pretty basic weapon with low stat requirements. It can’t do the rock stomp move they (and other enemies) typically use after a War Cry, and such a thing does not exist as an Ash of War.
The closest options are the Blades of Stone (Sorcery), Ash of War: Hoarfrost Stomp, and Ash of War: Divine Beast Frost Stomp.
Messmer Soldier’s Spear Description and Stats
The Messmer Soldier’s Spear is actually a Greatspear. Sometimes, you’ll see Messmer Soldiers ignite their spears with Messmer’s Flame. You can do this too with the Ashes of War: Flame Spear and Flame Skewer, both of which come from specific places at the Shadow Keep.
Heavy Crossbow
Some of Messmer’s Soldiers are equipped with Heavy Crossbows so that they can antagonize you while you’re getting hacked to pieces by their compatriots that you didn’t take seriously enough. There are better Crossbows, and this one can be found in the Lands Between, but I opted to include this for completeness.
Vulgar Militia Saw and Shotel Description and Stats
You know those hooks used by shepherds, off-stage cartoon characters, and some countries’ police? The Vulgar Militia Shotel is the violent version of that. The Vulgar Militia Saw, on the other hand, is just a saw blade attached to the end of a long stick, presumably so that the lil’ guys could reach the heads of their victims.
Both weapons are so similar that I think it makes sense to talk about them at the same time. They’re both Standard/Pierce Halberds with similar stat requirements and identical weights and Ashes of War.
The Saw inflicts Bleed as a baseline effect and scales more evenly with Strength (D) and Dex (C). The Shotel is heavily weighted towards Dexterity (B) compared to Strength (E).
The devs chose to make Black Blade an Incantation rather than an Ash of War, so there is no way to add a Black Blade max HP-reducing effect employed by some Vulgar Militia to the Vulgar Militia Saw and Shotel.
Messmer’s Soldiers Farming Locations
Individual pieces of these armor sets have a chance to drop from the enemies wearing the associated set and wielding the weapons in question. In general, they are most commonly found on the Gravesite Plain and Scadu Altus.
Rather than increase the drop rate of these pieces, FromSoftware opted to continue causing needless frustration by requiring you to farm this gear if you want it. They’re obviously aware of this because practically every enemy in the game has a “good” farming spot.
Messmer Soldier Armor, Axe, and Shield Farming Spot
Individual pieces of the Messmer Soldier armor set and equipment have a chance to drop from Messmer’s Soldiers. This includes the Messmer Soldier Axe, Spear, and Shield, as well as the Heavy Crossbow. One of the best locations to farm Messmer Soldier gear is at the war camp in front of the Shadow Keep at Scadu Altus.
It’s good to farm both the Black Knight and Messmer Soldier gear at the same time since you can find a lot of both in that area.
Common Soldier Armor and Messmer’s Soldier Spear Farming Spot
Individual pieces of the Common Soldier armor set, part of the Tabard-wearing Foot Soldier series, have a chance to drop from Messmer’s Common Soldier enemies wearing the set. One of the best locations to farm the Common Soldier set is at the war camp in front of Castle Ensis.
Shadow Militiaman Armor and Vulgar Militia Weapons Farming Spot
Individual pieces of the Shadow Militiaman armor set have a chance to drop from the lil’ Shadow Militiamen enemies wearing the set. One of the best locations to farm the Shadow Militiaman set, including the Jawa helmet, is at the Shadow Keep after unlocking the shortcut from the Main Gate Plaza (Golden Hippo room) to the Specimen Storehouse elevator.
You can also farm the Vulgar Militia weapons in the base game. There are a ton of them in the Forbidden Lands between Lyndell and the Grand Lift of Rold, as well as in front of the Bestial Sanctum in Caelid.
We have a complete catalog of all Armor Sets and associated weapons in Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree. You will find high-quality images of the front and back of every armor set and its altered version (if one is available in-game) as well as all associated weapons, seals, shields and other gear and items that belong to the same set.
At the end of each set, you will also find a link to a more in-depth guide about it, including even more images from more angles, lore descriptions, stats comparison, and tips on when, how, and why to use each item.
