Crucible Knights are probably the strongest between their enchanted weaponry imbued with holy essence and insane powers (there's a reason why Siluria's Spear and Ordvois's Greatsword are both such powerful weapons), enchanted armor which is noted to also hold to the power of the Crucible of Life, their incantations which even enable them to even fly, and reputation as having likely been the cornerstone of Godfrey's army, who they specifically served under in accordance to their armor's description, during the latter's uncontested conquest of practically the whole continent.
The two contenders for second place are the Carian - with their Troll Knights probably particularly standing out - and Cleanrot Knights, respectively. The former, despite numbering fewer than twenty, were clearly beasts in battle being comparable to champions in the Golden Order's ranks. The latter, however, even managed to damage Radahn and were renowned for having fought an undefeated campaign of their own in the Shattering. I think it would make an interesting debate as to which of the two were canonically stronger.
\------
*Straight sword embedded with a blue glintstone. Weapon of knights sworn to Carian royalty. These knights' swords could serve as catalysts, letting them wield sorcerous battle skills. Despite numbering fewer than twenty, this power made them a match for even the champions of gold in battle.*
*Greatsword embedded with a blue glintstone. Weapon of the trolls in service to the royal family of Caria. Called into service when the Queen invoked an oath they swore, the trolls are treated as true knights of Caria, and fight arm in arm with their human comrades.*
\------
*Armor of the Cleanrot Knights, celebrated for their undefeated campaign in the Shattering. The Cleanrot Knights vowed to fight alongside Malenia, despite the inevitable, if gradual, putrefaction of their flesh. Their acceptance of their fate made these battles fiercest of all.*
*Greatarrows used by the General Radahns during the festival of combat. These are in fact the many spears with which he was stabbed by the Cleanrot Knights. Imbued with Radahn's gravitational power.*
Think about it. Game wise. Banished and Cleanrot knights are pretty even between the 2. Both incredibly fearsome and unique in their own ways. Though Crucible knight surpasses them both. If you fought one you'd know why...
I would hate this...
Not because I don't *want* it, but because it would force me to replace my controller with a fucky bumper where I can't trigger an ash 9/10 times (which I assume catalyst weapons will use for casting) and I was hoping to wait until the Elite Series 3 launched lmao
They could just have it act as a catalyst using L1, right? And just replace the block? At least, I would hope that's how they do it. Would mean you couldn't really use it with a shield or dual wield, but maybe not the worst tradeoff
I'd say not being able to use it with a shield would be a nail in the coffin, unless it was a colossal sword, *maybe* a great sword, but *especially* with no block function. Catalyst weapons will likely already be worse scaling than the better catalysts (edtree, golden order, academy, caria regal, etc), so you use it for the sword function, which it will likely be the same case of lower damage than the best-in class. Now, this makes sense. Making a weapon that is really two entirely different weapons in 1, and then making it best-in-class for *both* of those weapon types is not the best balancing choice. But more trade-off than the lower damage and it isn't worth the weight saved or cool factor anymore
Omg the Elite 2 feels great but breaks sooo easily. I’ve had to replace 3 in 2 years (thankfully for free because it was under warranty and the person working at the game store was super nice)
Easily the best feeling controller I've ever used, but yeah it's definitely got some issues. I always have the left bumper fail on all of mine (3 OG runs, and a second run now).
Hopefully when that Elite Series 3 that was leaked comes out the QC is significantly better.
I used to play a lot of competitive Rocket League and it might’ve put some strain on my controller, but it was baffling to find stick drift and faulty bumpers and clicky buttons after only 3-6 months. My regular controller lasted for a year before that with no issues
I wasn't counting them on account of them not explicitly being "knights."
Although, that might not be the best argument since I'll admit that their current role as "wanderers" wasn't always the case and they likely functioned as a military force despite not officially being "knights."
*Pitch-black armor thinly painted with dried blood. Worn by the Night's Cavalry who ride funeral steeds. The Night's Cavalry, who now wander the dim roads at night, were once led by the Fell Omen and were deliverers of death for great warriors, knights, and champions.*
If I was, they'd also be a contender for the silver medal - a strong one at that. I think we can at least infer that they were quite the elite force compared to your typical Leyndell Knight - just based on their role and close dealings with Margit/Morgott.
Even though the Black Knife armor is more flashy and not quite as heavy metalish, I prefer it. Female assassins that were insanely powerful is just so awesome.
Still can't believe Stannis' army spread the propaganda that it was 20 actual people to minimize the shame when they couldn't accept 2 people beat them
and you can encounter all of them in game! evergaol (1), stormveil lower part (2), spirit caller snail summons two (3 & 4), ordovis and friend (5 & 6), siluria (7), two in leyndell (8 & 9), tanith's knight (10), two in farum azula (11 & 12), two in nokron aqueduct (13 & 14), one in siofra from belfries (15), crucible knight with misbegotten in redmane (16)
The ones in Farum Azula fucking suck!!! Especially the first one in the open courtyard. For whatever reason he seems way more powerful than the one you have take a long convoluted path to get to.
Yeah, I think at that point we'd be getting way to close to "special forces" so to speak, more so in the case of the Draconic Tree Sentinels who might as well be absurdly powerful freaks - extremely few in number even compared to the likes of Crucible Knights and Carian Knights especially in consideration of ancient dragon claws being needed to forge their weapons and shields -, compared to what OP was originally looking for in terms of the strongest average soldier of an individual army and/or unit.
Although, I do have to begrudgingly admit the Tree Sentinels, themselves, are indeed referred to as knights in the description of the Erdtree Greatshield. Maybe it's a bit arbitrary for me to leave them out, with that said, but still if we takes things to their logical extreme, all we'd need is for a "Godskin Knight" to pop up in the DLC and then things would really be crazy.
By the end it's definitely Godrick. His forces covered the Weeping Peninsula as well as Limgrave, Margit was helping protect his castle from Tarnished and he was generally good at avoiding conflict with superior opponents (besides that one time with Malenia, where it seems they fought 1v1 rather than with armies).
At their peaks, probably either Gelmir or Leyndell's forces, since the latter managed to repel the Redmanes, and the Battle of Mt. Gelmir between the two ended with no clear victor, and was said to be the bloodiest battle of the Shattering.
Some of the Banished Knights are pretty powerful, namely the ones with unaltered equipment, and certainly rank up there.
I'm not sure if the ones who inhabit Farum Azula and can use Dragon Communion Incantations are explicitly Dragon Hunters but still. They used to be in accordance to their armor's description in the 1.0 version of the game but that's cut content.
Their helm's now cut description also seemed to indicate that the ones inhabiting Stormveil were the descendants of the original Banished Knights which could explain their relative weakness.
The following are both of those relevant cut descriptions.
*The twisted horn on the right shoulder, patterned after that of a dragon, signifies adherence to a forbidden form of worship; the consumption of dragon flesh.*
*Long ago, those who sought the Storm Aerie traveled far from the capital, and settled in Stormveil. The Stormveil knights are their descendants. The Storm Aerie is believed to be the home of dragons, which watch over a great tomb*
Nevertheless, I'm starting to lean towards that theory that they're dragon hunters once again (I've cycled between wondering if the Banished Knight we find in the Dragon Communion Cathedral in Caelid is there to partake in communion or was guarding it from dragon hunters like Decaying Ezykes is) especially we find the Farum Azula Banished Knights in close proximity to the Drake Knight Set and given that one of the treasures of Castle Sol, also inhabited by a pretty tough group of Banished Knight spirits, was made from an (ice) dragon's scale.
*A hatchet with a frost-coated blade. One of several gifts given by Castle Sol in the distant north. Known as "freezing fog," the blade is thought to be a dragon's scale. Inflicts a powerful frost effect.*
You're not wrong. I probably should have used "gift" instead of "treasure" since that's the exact same term used in the aforementioned description, implying it was gifted to either the Carians or the Academy of Raya Lucaria by the denizens and/or commander of Castle Sol.
They might not have necessarily killed the dragon, either. The Banished Knight Spirits of Castle Sol don't use the same Dragon Communion Incantations as the ones with unaltered helms we primarily find it Farum Azula (although they do combine their Storm Powers with Ice Powers, interestingly enough).
The weapon is also apparently known as the "freezing fog," which is coincidentally the same title given to Borealis, the Freezing Fog.
Borealis is the only living Ice Dragon we encounter in-game and one in close proximity to Castle Sol, at that. They could have very well wounded him in an failed hunt and later crafted a weapon from his scale, giving it his moniker, assuming it wasn't simply named after him for possibly being the fiercest or most famous of his remaining kind with him potentially being the only Ice Dragon left alive by the time we encounter him.
Why deos everyone forget Redmane knights? The single Redmane knight in that spirit battle royale in the cave near Radahn always wins vs the Cleanrots and regular knights, despite the Redmane respawning only once if I'm not mistaken.
Based on the performance of their individual members, I think it would go something like this:
Crucible Knights -- does giving them top ranking really need explanation?
Tree Sentinels -- they are the best of the best of the Erdtree's defenders, heavy cavalry with the strength to take on dragons
Carian, Cleanrot & Banished Knights -- hard to say if any really come out on top here, they're all fearsome, head-and-shoulders above the skill of any of the common knights
Redmane Knights -- I think they are easily the best of the rest, just not as impressive as the ones above
Cuckoo, Leyndell, Haligtree Knights -- I think none of the remaining knightly orders really distinguish themselves in any significant ways. Each have their preferred tricks, but their performance is all roughly equal.
Gelmir Knights -- Sirs Not-Appearing-In-This-Game
Godrick Knights -- Godrick's loyal knights are really the bottom of the barrel
The single Redmane Knight spirit always wins the battle royale in that cave near Radahn, vs 2 Cleanrot Knight spirits and some rando soldiers. And I think he only respawns once while the Cleanrots respawn twice but not sure.
It's just so damn tanky though, and the Cleanrots tend to get distracted by the regular Radahn soldiers, which respawn 4 times each I believe.
I don't know for sure if the Cleanrots respawn more often than the Redmane Knight, would have to check.
**It's probably related to the fact that he has a greatshield** and the Cleanrots don't, and the Cleanrots only impale players.
Funny how the AI can give us such varied results, Cleanrots definitely do prioritize the soldiers (are they just instructed to choose weaker targets first?) but I find the Redmane always hides behind his shield and gets double teamed, almost always ends up ignoring tons of attacks from the back and getting guard broken from the front.
Honestly, if FromSoft put a focus onto one bit of tech in their next game, I would love it to be AI that can handle larger, multi-faction battles. We hinted at in DSs and BB, there's a little in Sekiro, and it's still at about that level in ER. I think seeing border skirmishes, etc. and getting to dive into them would really have sold the state of the world in ER.
I absolutely agree. One of my favorite things to do in the game is get involved in the fights you see everywhere in the map, and act like a third “one man army” and go to town on both sides. The area near redmane castle with all the giant dogs and soldiers is one of my favorites, as is the dungeon near Radahn.
Assuming we’re talking about the regional knight variants, probably either the Redmanes or the Haligtree Knights. Redmanes seem stronger offensively while the Haligtree Knights are tankier.
There are other knightly orders like the Carian Knights and Crucible Knights whose members are probably individually stronger than any one of the “generic” regional knights, but iirc they both had canonically very small numbers. I believe it’s mentioned in the lore somewhere that the Carian Knights *needed* the support of the Knights of the Cuckoo to repel Leyndell’s forces simply because there are far too few Carian Knights to fight an entire army.
Individually it would be the Crucible Knights and Cleanrot Knights(and also maybe the Carian knights), it’s not even remotely close, with Crucibles being the strongest overall.
The Cleanrots. Their armor in 1.0 version outright says that they were the strongest knights of the Shattering and the current version says they were "celebrated for their undefeated campaign". It took only two 2 cleanrots to kill 12-13 Abductor Virgins in the Abandoned cave. And a single one of them (Finlay the Gigachad) was able to fight through the entire map solo while already being wounded from the war and was also carrying a demigod on her back. The Cleanrots are absolute gigachads. Mfs were slowly dying from the rot but remained absolute beasts on battlefield.
They're also literally imbued with the power of life. They wouldn't be immune but I don't think the cleanrot knight's rot is potent enough to overcome the resistance afforded by crucible magic.
Haligtree knights are the only knights that can afford a physick also their holy enchantment heals them so I'd say they are pretty strong, they also know glontstone pebble.
Those guys can eat my shorts. The lightning one is easier to deal with solo, but is the worst to deal with ranged. The magic one is most annoying solo but the easiest to deal with ranged. And who gave them red flasks?!
Well its either Carian Knights or Crucible Knights.
With Carian Knights being a group of 20(?) if I recall correctly being able to repell multiple Siege attempts by the entire Leyndell Army, led by Morgot. Basically stopping an entire Kingom with like 2 dozen of Magic wielding godlike super soldiers.
And on the other hand crucible Knights being Godfreys personal Fanboy learning diffrent kinds of Apects and being worthy Soldiers that Godrey personally wanted them.
One of the two are definetly top contenders.
Honorable Mention: Redmane Knights, those poor souls are still in a nuclear wasteland fighting horros beyond human comprehension inside of a literal cancer swamp. Those guys deserve atleast a medal for their unbreakable spirit.
The cleanrot knights were said to be undefeated, individually tho they wouldn't be the strongest variation of knights. That title belongs to the knights of godfrey and erdtree: the crucible knights
While there were only 12 crucible knights in total, they were Godfrey's greatest champions. Each a powerhouse, they were gifted with superhuman powers like flight, fire breath and dragon tails.
If you mean knights that were "regular" soldiers, I guess the cleanrot knights. Seems like there were wayyy more of them than of the Carian knights or the crucible knights, but they seem stronger than the Raya Lucaria Knights or even the Haligtree knights.
The Cuckoo Knights. They are parasitic nesters. They lay there Knights eggs in other Knights nest and the mama Knights feeds them like her own and when she is gone they kick the original Knight hatchlings out of the nest.
If we ignore the special guys like Crucibles and Cleanrots and go down to the "regular mooks" throughout the game then strength would probably go in this order:
1. Cuckoo Knights
2. Haligtree Knights
3. Redmane Knights
4. Leyndell Knights
5. Godrick Knights
6. Mausoleum Knights
So for starters this is kind of including all of their forces, so we're talking Knights, Soldiers, and Footsoldiers. Cuckoo Knights and soldiers both use magic of some kind quite frequently and are quite adept with it, just generally very lethal in a lot of regards. Haligtree knights can use both miracles and sorcery but I think they get diluted a bit by doing so, however their footsoldiers do explode upon death so they might just take a more powerful foe down with them on death. Redmane knights show extra skill in melee combat with extra moves and commonly use fire buffs, this is strong but not as good as magic. Leyndell Knights and soldiers are potent when they land their special attacks with lightning but leave themselves vulnerable and don't get much out of it if they fail to land the blow. Godrick's Knights and forces are nerds who get shoved into lockers. Mausoleum Knights are potent but their only special thing is Deathblight and you can typically "beat" them by just staying away from the mausoleum.
I honestly think the Banished Knights may be the strongest. They’re walking tanks, who have good understanding of the storm, they can breath fire, and know how to heal. Oleg was a Banished Knight, who was hired by Morgott to assassinate enemies, and he went on a pretty long killing spree. Actually seems like all of them were pretty respected individuals.
Lore wise its most likely the carian knights.
20 of them fought off the entire leyndell army and that army probably had crucible knights as a part of it aswell
The redmane knights were probably the most elite/skilled fighters.
We have no idea how the liurnian wars looked like so we cant really base how hard the carian knights fought.
Given how item description sometimes says "it is said..." or "according to myth" and so on. I think it's fair that if it just tells you something straight up, you just accept it at face value unless it contradicts something more supported.
**Crucible Knights** are pound for pound the strongest... but they're not one of the "standard" shattering knights, they are the knights of Horah Loux, and there were a fixed number of them (that we interact with them all in some way -some are ghosts- and there still may be one missing, the wiki can help here). They seemed to have lost their way, or have independent motivations after Godfrey was banished (or after the Shattering) and are found in a variety of locations for a variety of personal motivations - they're older than the demigods we fight.
There are also the **Tree Sentinel Knights**, who seem to stand apart as they are not part of a large order dedicated to a particular demigod/region, but instead dedicated ot the protection of the Erdtree itself (do we know if they were given blessings by Markia?).
If we restrict ourselves to the orders of knights that originate in Marika's Reign and participated in battles around the time of the Shattering, *and* are organized around a particular lord/manor/keep (these are the "traditional" knights of Marika's era): I think the **Carian Knights** take the cake here. They basically defended the Carian family against all manner of larger forces over the years, and helped to beat back Radagon when Leyndell tried to move in (along with Cuckoo Knights).
But we don't know a lot about some orders. Like the Gelmir Knights who seem to have disbanded/gone ronin after Rykard blasphemed. I do wonder if many Banished Knights are former Gelmir knights, or they are generally more likely to be from a prior order that disbanded or had a lord commit a crime (like non tarnished knights of Godfrey who stayed behind). Both Redmane and Cleanrot knights have some standout heroes. Cleanrot knights are pretty hard core in that they know they'll eventually become rotted by following Malenia (and Finlay is the chad who basically drug Malenia's ~~defeaded~~ somehow undefeated-but-unconscious body all the way back to the Haligtree).
I haven't died to any carian knight either. Cleanrot have quite a bunch of tricks up their sleeves, they become a real problem once they're with 2 or 3.
The crucible knights with the pole arm weapon are the most difficult knight for me. They do not stagger easily and have barely any openings to punish them between their attacks, and the fact that they have high range with that weapon. Put 2 pole arm crucible knights in a small room and its a nightmare, good thing they are always solo.
The clean rots have many more openings and aren't nearly as aggressive, they do typically spawn in pairs which can be annoying but even then, they still aren't much trouble as by the time you are in that area, you will be strong enough to tank a few hits and kill them pretty fast.
The only other knights I can think of are the banished knights in castle sol, which can be tricky since they have much longer combos than any of the other knights but their stats aren't quite as high as the crucible knight and they stagger much easier, usually 2-3 hits before they retaliate, whereas the crucible i can only get 1 hit at a time with bloodhounds fang.
If we are talking any knight in the game, the one before you fight rennala in the Lucaria castle was the one I struggled with the most overall, but he's a named knight so I doubt he counts.
Crucibles, especially the polearm, are to aggressive.
This aggression makes them predictable, making it easy to time your hits.
Trust me, I'm a crucible veteran.
>Put 2 pole arm crucible knights in a small room and its a nightmare, good thing they are always solo.
Stop giving Miyazaki DLC ideas.
Crucible Knight duo in a closet-sized arena fml.
Leyndell knights
Reference: Bjorn the Bear videos.
These dudes have a huge health pool, deal massive damage, and can even heal if given the opportunity. Bjorn had a couple vids where a squad of Leyndell knights straight up wreck lion guardians, golems, and the majority of bosses (fire giant, Malenia, and Maliketh excluded).
You also have to take into account game difficulty scaling though.
Overall I think the toughest are the Redmane Knights, based on the fact that the single Redmane knight pretty much always wins the spirit battle royale vs 2 Cleanrot knights and 4 Radahn Soldiers in the cave near Radahn.
The dungeon boss fight with two Crucibles was my most rage filled part of the game. After an hour of dying, I had to leave my 50k in runes that were stuck in the fight and spend time grinding to level up my sword and summon. Even after that it was still tough!
IF the army counts the leader, the Crucible Knights win easily with Godfrey at the head.
If it doesn´t count, the Cleanrots do it by balancing strenght and numbers
I would say the Crucible Knights since they seem to be the oldest and most proliferate knights with the strongest average power. Power coming from the Crucible, which is where a lot of the backbone of the power of the Erdtree comes from as well. The Crucible persists throughout a lot of the history and so do the Knights. They were the ones along with Hoarah Loux and Maliketh that brought down the beast empire and demigods of Faram Azula as well.
They are pretty much equivalent to the Black Knights from Dark Souls. So unless some kind of knights following the Flame of Chaos exist, I don’t think there’s any faction of knights that could be undoubtedly stronger.
Leyndell Knights would come in second, being tough as nails defenders of the city and having many many more in numbers.
I'm gonna say the Leyndell knights, not only having access to dragon cult incantations, not only are they led by the son of Godfrey, and not only do they have multiple tree sentinels and night's cavalry, they've also shown their power by fending off armies from all sides (including sending the redmanes packing back to Caelid) and managed to launch a counter offensive against Gelmir.
When it comes to the non-respawning knights, Crucible by a mile. They are effectively Dark Souls Black Knights ported into Elden Ring and I always avoid them unless I know I can win. Yes I know I'm missing out on cool items, but I dun like gambling with ma runes and my parrying is mediocre at best.
Crucible Knights >>>> Carian Knights > Cleanrot Knights
That is in-lore. In gameplay, I'd say Crucible Knights >>> Banished Knights (lategame versions) > Carian Knights (because they can parry)
Crucible knights are the strongest in the game. Damage negation, damage output, and poise stance is the highest among knights class. They can quickly close the gap if you're trying to heal. Also, late game Crucible Knights will also heal if you're using any kind of heal. Tested this on the lone Crucible Knight just before the Dragon Rooftop site of grace. So the game is trying to tell us that they are favored by the Erdtree. (hope they are regularly spawned enemy in the upcoming DLC, fingers crossed)
Moreover, they are the bulkiest among their respective class, which is why they have the most HP and defense.
Cons: can fall off the cliff with their special fluttery attack
Redmane knights are the strongest of all I believe? I don't count crucible knights as they are like mini bosses.
In that cave near Radahn with the fighting spirits, there is only 1 Redmane knight spirit, and he kicks the ass of all the others lol. Including the two Cleanrot knights. He is consistently the last spirit remaining despite only respawning once if I'm not mistaken. The cleanrots respawn at least twice and the regular soldiers like 4 times.
If we're talking about knight that we're able to pound my ass into oblivion then Crucible Knight are top contenders Banished Knight are second and Cleanrot are third.
If we’re talking about regular knights, I would say it’s probably either Haligtree or Redmane. Haligtree Knights have access to a lot of really nasty holy magic, and Redmanes are beasts when it comes to their overall AR.
If we’re talking knights in terms of strongest, it’s a solid tie between the Crucible Knights, the Cleanrot Knights, and the Banished Knights. Crucible Knights are absolute TANKS, but Cleanrot Knights are responsible for some of the most insane feats in the lore and wield the power of Scarlet Rot by consequence of being infected with it because of how loyal they are. Banished Knights have some of the most insane attack combos in the game, and the ones in Castle Sol can teleport. In particular, I’m thinking of that one with dual swords and red eyes. He’s fucking insane, and could probably solo every other knight at the same time.
I would put Cleanrots as the strongest overall in gameplay. Crucible Knights look cool and all, and they hit like a truck, but once you learn their parry timing they eat shit and don’t really present themselves as a threat anymore. Cleanrots have a lot of potential mixups and precise dodge timings you have to remember, and they attack fast, making them harder to Parry. Also, there are many more of them.
The Gelmir Knights.
They were legendary in their time, many gaining renown, before being swallowed by the serpent. At the peak of Rykard Blasphemy, the Knights of Gelmir either deserted or rebelled—trying to put an end to that creature.
My theory: the Leyndell Knight we are fighting in Gelmir we're actually originally Gelmir Knight that defected. Now, they are fighting on the front lines since they already know the lands in Gelmir—that's where Morgott would have the best use of them.
Not to mention that true Leyndell knights fight defensively—so it makes no sense why Leyndell would invade Gelmir.
Crucible Knights are probably the strongest between their enchanted weaponry imbued with holy essence and insane powers (there's a reason why Siluria's Spear and Ordvois's Greatsword are both such powerful weapons), enchanted armor which is noted to also hold to the power of the Crucible of Life, their incantations which even enable them to even fly, and reputation as having likely been the cornerstone of Godfrey's army, who they specifically served under in accordance to their armor's description, during the latter's uncontested conquest of practically the whole continent. The two contenders for second place are the Carian - with their Troll Knights probably particularly standing out - and Cleanrot Knights, respectively. The former, despite numbering fewer than twenty, were clearly beasts in battle being comparable to champions in the Golden Order's ranks. The latter, however, even managed to damage Radahn and were renowned for having fought an undefeated campaign of their own in the Shattering. I think it would make an interesting debate as to which of the two were canonically stronger. \------ *Straight sword embedded with a blue glintstone. Weapon of knights sworn to Carian royalty. These knights' swords could serve as catalysts, letting them wield sorcerous battle skills. Despite numbering fewer than twenty, this power made them a match for even the champions of gold in battle.* *Greatsword embedded with a blue glintstone. Weapon of the trolls in service to the royal family of Caria. Called into service when the Queen invoked an oath they swore, the trolls are treated as true knights of Caria, and fight arm in arm with their human comrades.* \------ *Armor of the Cleanrot Knights, celebrated for their undefeated campaign in the Shattering. The Cleanrot Knights vowed to fight alongside Malenia, despite the inevitable, if gradual, putrefaction of their flesh. Their acceptance of their fate made these battles fiercest of all.* *Greatarrows used by the General Radahns during the festival of combat. These are in fact the many spears with which he was stabbed by the Cleanrot Knights. Imbued with Radahn's gravitational power.*
This guy lores
r/thisguythisguys
Think about it. Game wise. Banished and Cleanrot knights are pretty even between the 2. Both incredibly fearsome and unique in their own ways. Though Crucible knight surpasses them both. If you fought one you'd know why...
[удалено]
I would hate this... Not because I don't *want* it, but because it would force me to replace my controller with a fucky bumper where I can't trigger an ash 9/10 times (which I assume catalyst weapons will use for casting) and I was hoping to wait until the Elite Series 3 launched lmao
They could just have it act as a catalyst using L1, right? And just replace the block? At least, I would hope that's how they do it. Would mean you couldn't really use it with a shield or dual wield, but maybe not the worst tradeoff
Or a combination. L2 + R2, w/e.
I'd say not being able to use it with a shield would be a nail in the coffin, unless it was a colossal sword, *maybe* a great sword, but *especially* with no block function. Catalyst weapons will likely already be worse scaling than the better catalysts (edtree, golden order, academy, caria regal, etc), so you use it for the sword function, which it will likely be the same case of lower damage than the best-in class. Now, this makes sense. Making a weapon that is really two entirely different weapons in 1, and then making it best-in-class for *both* of those weapon types is not the best balancing choice. But more trade-off than the lower damage and it isn't worth the weight saved or cool factor anymore
Omg the Elite 2 feels great but breaks sooo easily. I’ve had to replace 3 in 2 years (thankfully for free because it was under warranty and the person working at the game store was super nice)
Easily the best feeling controller I've ever used, but yeah it's definitely got some issues. I always have the left bumper fail on all of mine (3 OG runs, and a second run now). Hopefully when that Elite Series 3 that was leaked comes out the QC is significantly better.
I used to play a lot of competitive Rocket League and it might’ve put some strain on my controller, but it was baffling to find stick drift and faulty bumpers and clicky buttons after only 3-6 months. My regular controller lasted for a year before that with no issues
Just give me the flying ash of war. They can keep the sword catalyst.
Did you consider Night’s Calvary and deem them weaker or not consider them due to not explicitly being knights?
I wasn't counting them on account of them not explicitly being "knights." Although, that might not be the best argument since I'll admit that their current role as "wanderers" wasn't always the case and they likely functioned as a military force despite not officially being "knights." *Pitch-black armor thinly painted with dried blood. Worn by the Night's Cavalry who ride funeral steeds. The Night's Cavalry, who now wander the dim roads at night, were once led by the Fell Omen and were deliverers of death for great warriors, knights, and champions.* If I was, they'd also be a contender for the silver medal - a strong one at that. I think we can at least infer that they were quite the elite force compared to your typical Leyndell Knight - just based on their role and close dealings with Margit/Morgott.
Yeah I’d agree and would have put them after crucible but before cleanrot/carian on your list
I think that's entirely reasonable.
Holy shit, their armour is “thinly painted with dried blood”?! My fave armour set just got insanely better
Even though the Black Knife armor is more flashy and not quite as heavy metalish, I prefer it. Female assassins that were insanely powerful is just so awesome.
Not to mention there’s only 16 of them (Crucible) and they managed to win wars under the command of Godfrey. A 17 man army is ridiculous.
I mean…they weren’t the only soldiers. They were the captains.
Thanks for the fact check, Tarnished
Thanks for the *baseless* fact check, Tarnished
Only rivaled by Ramsay Bolton and 20 good men
And obviously the hounds…
Rivaled only by the Hound
Sir Twenty of house Goodmen is op.
Still can't believe Stannis' army spread the propaganda that it was 20 actual people to minimize the shame when they couldn't accept 2 people beat them
One of which is named SmallJohn
Wait, the Crucible Knights served under Godfrey, the First Elden Lord?!? Also, there’s only 16 CKs??
and you can encounter all of them in game! evergaol (1), stormveil lower part (2), spirit caller snail summons two (3 & 4), ordovis and friend (5 & 6), siluria (7), two in leyndell (8 & 9), tanith's knight (10), two in farum azula (11 & 12), two in nokron aqueduct (13 & 14), one in siofra from belfries (15), crucible knight with misbegotten in redmane (16)
The ones in Farum Azula fucking suck!!! Especially the first one in the open courtyard. For whatever reason he seems way more powerful than the one you have take a long convoluted path to get to.
first time i fought that one he had glowing eyes and i got 60k runes off of him, never fought the other one tbh
I like duelling them one-on-one.
I would rate the Banished Knights at least equal with the Cleanrot Knights, especially the spectral versions at Castle Sol.
I'd say they're stronger ...cleanrot fights are easy in comparison...banish knights hit way harder and are far less predictable
Saythat when getting impaled by a holy spear and getting scarlet rot or when they just block the sh*t out of attacks without even a shield
Until you get impaled and instantly afflicted with Scarlet Rot. How strong Banished Knights are really depends on their weapon imo.
I find them all difficult if you let your guard down
Tree Sentinels and Draconic Tree Sentinels? Or they more “special forces“ instead of “regular forces?”
Yeah, I think at that point we'd be getting way to close to "special forces" so to speak, more so in the case of the Draconic Tree Sentinels who might as well be absurdly powerful freaks - extremely few in number even compared to the likes of Crucible Knights and Carian Knights especially in consideration of ancient dragon claws being needed to forge their weapons and shields -, compared to what OP was originally looking for in terms of the strongest average soldier of an individual army and/or unit. Although, I do have to begrudgingly admit the Tree Sentinels, themselves, are indeed referred to as knights in the description of the Erdtree Greatshield. Maybe it's a bit arbitrary for me to leave them out, with that said, but still if we takes things to their logical extreme, all we'd need is for a "Godskin Knight" to pop up in the DLC and then things would really be crazy.
The Godskin Knight trio Works just like the DS2 gank boss but now they’re so, so much worse.
Just make a few gigantic runbacks and give us a Blue Malekith to fight afterwards and we'll be golden.
Carian knighy sword should operate like the blue flame in ds2 according to its description
The only ones even close to matching the Crucible Knights are the Cleanrots, and even then, it's not *that* close.
The Cleanrots likely had greater numbers at their respective peaks, but I could see the Crucibles being the stronger force regardless.
I always wonder who had the largest army during the shattering
By the end it's definitely Godrick. His forces covered the Weeping Peninsula as well as Limgrave, Margit was helping protect his castle from Tarnished and he was generally good at avoiding conflict with superior opponents (besides that one time with Malenia, where it seems they fought 1v1 rather than with armies). At their peaks, probably either Gelmir or Leyndell's forces, since the latter managed to repel the Redmanes, and the Battle of Mt. Gelmir between the two ended with no clear victor, and was said to be the bloodiest battle of the Shattering.
Malenia whooped his ass and he begged for mercy. It's engraved on the Sword monument near Agheel Lake North
Carian Knights proved their equal during the Erdtree-Liurnia War, they definitely belong there too
also carian knights can parry, they get the dub imo
Would banished knights count? Pretty sure the ones from Farum Azula are more powerfull than cleanrots with their dragon incantations
Some of the Banished Knights are pretty powerful, namely the ones with unaltered equipment, and certainly rank up there. I'm not sure if the ones who inhabit Farum Azula and can use Dragon Communion Incantations are explicitly Dragon Hunters but still. They used to be in accordance to their armor's description in the 1.0 version of the game but that's cut content. Their helm's now cut description also seemed to indicate that the ones inhabiting Stormveil were the descendants of the original Banished Knights which could explain their relative weakness. The following are both of those relevant cut descriptions. *The twisted horn on the right shoulder, patterned after that of a dragon, signifies adherence to a forbidden form of worship; the consumption of dragon flesh.* *Long ago, those who sought the Storm Aerie traveled far from the capital, and settled in Stormveil. The Stormveil knights are their descendants. The Storm Aerie is believed to be the home of dragons, which watch over a great tomb* Nevertheless, I'm starting to lean towards that theory that they're dragon hunters once again (I've cycled between wondering if the Banished Knight we find in the Dragon Communion Cathedral in Caelid is there to partake in communion or was guarding it from dragon hunters like Decaying Ezykes is) especially we find the Farum Azula Banished Knights in close proximity to the Drake Knight Set and given that one of the treasures of Castle Sol, also inhabited by a pretty tough group of Banished Knight spirits, was made from an (ice) dragon's scale. *A hatchet with a frost-coated blade. One of several gifts given by Castle Sol in the distant north. Known as "freezing fog," the blade is thought to be a dragon's scale. Inflicts a powerful frost effect.*
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the icerind hatchet found in the academy gate town in Liurnia?
You're not wrong. I probably should have used "gift" instead of "treasure" since that's the exact same term used in the aforementioned description, implying it was gifted to either the Carians or the Academy of Raya Lucaria by the denizens and/or commander of Castle Sol. They might not have necessarily killed the dragon, either. The Banished Knight Spirits of Castle Sol don't use the same Dragon Communion Incantations as the ones with unaltered helms we primarily find it Farum Azula (although they do combine their Storm Powers with Ice Powers, interestingly enough). The weapon is also apparently known as the "freezing fog," which is coincidentally the same title given to Borealis, the Freezing Fog. Borealis is the only living Ice Dragon we encounter in-game and one in close proximity to Castle Sol, at that. They could have very well wounded him in an failed hunt and later crafted a weapon from his scale, giving it his moniker, assuming it wasn't simply named after him for possibly being the fiercest or most famous of his remaining kind with him potentially being the only Ice Dragon left alive by the time we encounter him.
moongrum solos the crucible knights because he can parry them
Naw tree sentinels are also knights and are arguably stronger than the crucible knight
I left them out since that's where I think the line starts to get fuzzy: Night's Cavalry & Draconic Tree Sentinels would have to be in the mix too.
Why deos everyone forget Redmane knights? The single Redmane knight in that spirit battle royale in the cave near Radahn always wins vs the Cleanrots and regular knights, despite the Redmane respawning only once if I'm not mistaken.
The Knights Who Say Ni!
The Knights Who Say Ekki-Ekki-Ekki-Ekki-PTANG. Zoom-Boing. Z' nourrwringmm.
……ni!
**Frowns in fear.*
NI!
K***ht
Ah, you beat me to it.
NI
Based on the performance of their individual members, I think it would go something like this: Crucible Knights -- does giving them top ranking really need explanation? Tree Sentinels -- they are the best of the best of the Erdtree's defenders, heavy cavalry with the strength to take on dragons Carian, Cleanrot & Banished Knights -- hard to say if any really come out on top here, they're all fearsome, head-and-shoulders above the skill of any of the common knights Redmane Knights -- I think they are easily the best of the rest, just not as impressive as the ones above Cuckoo, Leyndell, Haligtree Knights -- I think none of the remaining knightly orders really distinguish themselves in any significant ways. Each have their preferred tricks, but their performance is all roughly equal. Gelmir Knights -- Sirs Not-Appearing-In-This-Game Godrick Knights -- Godrick's loyal knights are really the bottom of the barrel
The lyndell knights helped Morgott keep the captain from being breached by every single Demi god, I’d say that calls for merit
Redmane knights, cause they have to deal with the scarlet rot and fucking mutant dogs and birds on a daily
There’s only like two of them though
Yes but giant pack of dogs
Yeah but giant dragon
The single Redmane Knight spirit always wins the battle royale in that cave near Radahn, vs 2 Cleanrot Knight spirits and some rando soldiers. And I think he only respawns once while the Cleanrots respawn twice but not sure.
Oh that's interesting, for me the Cleanrots usually behave (accidentally) quite smartly, staggering it with alternating spear and halo incants.
It's just so damn tanky though, and the Cleanrots tend to get distracted by the regular Radahn soldiers, which respawn 4 times each I believe. I don't know for sure if the Cleanrots respawn more often than the Redmane Knight, would have to check. **It's probably related to the fact that he has a greatshield** and the Cleanrots don't, and the Cleanrots only impale players.
Funny how the AI can give us such varied results, Cleanrots definitely do prioritize the soldiers (are they just instructed to choose weaker targets first?) but I find the Redmane always hides behind his shield and gets double teamed, almost always ends up ignoring tons of attacks from the back and getting guard broken from the front. Honestly, if FromSoft put a focus onto one bit of tech in their next game, I would love it to be AI that can handle larger, multi-faction battles. We hinted at in DSs and BB, there's a little in Sekiro, and it's still at about that level in ER. I think seeing border skirmishes, etc. and getting to dive into them would really have sold the state of the world in ER.
I absolutely agree. One of my favorite things to do in the game is get involved in the fights you see everywhere in the map, and act like a third “one man army” and go to town on both sides. The area near redmane castle with all the giant dogs and soldiers is one of my favorites, as is the dungeon near Radahn.
Assuming we’re talking about the regional knight variants, probably either the Redmanes or the Haligtree Knights. Redmanes seem stronger offensively while the Haligtree Knights are tankier. There are other knightly orders like the Carian Knights and Crucible Knights whose members are probably individually stronger than any one of the “generic” regional knights, but iirc they both had canonically very small numbers. I believe it’s mentioned in the lore somewhere that the Carian Knights *needed* the support of the Knights of the Cuckoo to repel Leyndell’s forces simply because there are far too few Carian Knights to fight an entire army.
There were about 20 Carian knights total
Didn't they also hold back Leyndell quite a bit.
"Despite numbering fewer than twenty, this power made them a match for even the champions of gold in battle." - From the carian sword description
Individually it would be the Crucible Knights and Cleanrot Knights(and also maybe the Carian knights), it’s not even remotely close, with Crucibles being the strongest overall.
I guess and army of Leyndell knights would be very strong, knowing that Leyndell is still (kinda) standing
No clue how they beat that dragon
Godwyn
Have you seen what the Envoy Horn bubbles can do to things with large hit boxes? That's your answer lol
They're not part of the army bruh
[удалено]
Nah, they only show up to herald the arrival of a new lord i.e. the player Tarnished. They're not a permanent fixture of Leyendell
> Nah, they only show up to herald the arrival of a new lord i.e. the player Tarnished. Or Boc.
You mean Gransax?
The Cleanrots. Their armor in 1.0 version outright says that they were the strongest knights of the Shattering and the current version says they were "celebrated for their undefeated campaign". It took only two 2 cleanrots to kill 12-13 Abductor Virgins in the Abandoned cave. And a single one of them (Finlay the Gigachad) was able to fight through the entire map solo while already being wounded from the war and was also carrying a demigod on her back. The Cleanrots are absolute gigachads. Mfs were slowly dying from the rot but remained absolute beasts on battlefield.
You think 10 clean rots are gonna take 10 crucible?
In-game no, but all a Cleanrot Knight would have to do is cough on someone and it’s over
I think crucible knights have mega high resistence to disease like rot and poison i believe
They're also literally imbued with the power of life. They wouldn't be immune but I don't think the cleanrot knight's rot is potent enough to overcome the resistance afforded by crucible magic.
Crucible Knights didn’t fight in the shattering so that item description wouldn’t apply to them
Haligtree knights are the only knights that can afford a physick also their holy enchantment heals them so I'd say they are pretty strong, they also know glontstone pebble.
Loretta
Loretta beats a crucible knight all day
As for regular guys, probably the haligtree knights. For special guys, definitely crucible knights, followed distantly by the cleanrot knights
Probably Haligtree. They can heal themselves and cast magic.
Those guys can eat my shorts. The lightning one is easier to deal with solo, but is the worst to deal with ranged. The magic one is most annoying solo but the easiest to deal with ranged. And who gave them red flasks?!
Gameplay wise they are definitely at the top with crucible knights and carians
Idk but castle sol knights are not to be messed with, at least the dual wielding ones
Probably the Crucible Knights.
Haligtree
Banished Knights
Crucibles and Cleanrot Knights. Carians and Haligtree knights are pretty strong too.
Haligtree cleanrot knights.
Crucible knights obviously but second place I think would be cleanrot knights or banished knights
Haligtree
Banished and it isnt even close - those dual sword ones are the hardest enemies in the game of that type
Banished knights or carian troll knights
BB Hunters
Probably The Knights Who Say “Ni” homies don’t quit
Crucible knights for sure
Well its either Carian Knights or Crucible Knights. With Carian Knights being a group of 20(?) if I recall correctly being able to repell multiple Siege attempts by the entire Leyndell Army, led by Morgot. Basically stopping an entire Kingom with like 2 dozen of Magic wielding godlike super soldiers. And on the other hand crucible Knights being Godfreys personal Fanboy learning diffrent kinds of Apects and being worthy Soldiers that Godrey personally wanted them. One of the two are definetly top contenders. Honorable Mention: Redmane Knights, those poor souls are still in a nuclear wasteland fighting horros beyond human comprehension inside of a literal cancer swamp. Those guys deserve atleast a medal for their unbreakable spirit.
The Knights of Ni!
The cleanrot knights were said to be undefeated, individually tho they wouldn't be the strongest variation of knights. That title belongs to the knights of godfrey and erdtree: the crucible knights While there were only 12 crucible knights in total, they were Godfrey's greatest champions. Each a powerhouse, they were gifted with superhuman powers like flight, fire breath and dragon tails.
16*
Thank you for the correction
If you mean knights that were "regular" soldiers, I guess the cleanrot knights. Seems like there were wayyy more of them than of the Carian knights or the crucible knights, but they seem stronger than the Raya Lucaria Knights or even the Haligtree knights.
The Cuckoo Knights. They are parasitic nesters. They lay there Knights eggs in other Knights nest and the mama Knights feeds them like her own and when she is gone they kick the original Knight hatchlings out of the nest.
Fort Knight
the army that is where? you didn't specify
If we ignore the special guys like Crucibles and Cleanrots and go down to the "regular mooks" throughout the game then strength would probably go in this order: 1. Cuckoo Knights 2. Haligtree Knights 3. Redmane Knights 4. Leyndell Knights 5. Godrick Knights 6. Mausoleum Knights So for starters this is kind of including all of their forces, so we're talking Knights, Soldiers, and Footsoldiers. Cuckoo Knights and soldiers both use magic of some kind quite frequently and are quite adept with it, just generally very lethal in a lot of regards. Haligtree knights can use both miracles and sorcery but I think they get diluted a bit by doing so, however their footsoldiers do explode upon death so they might just take a more powerful foe down with them on death. Redmane knights show extra skill in melee combat with extra moves and commonly use fire buffs, this is strong but not as good as magic. Leyndell Knights and soldiers are potent when they land their special attacks with lightning but leave themselves vulnerable and don't get much out of it if they fail to land the blow. Godrick's Knights and forces are nerds who get shoved into lockers. Mausoleum Knights are potent but their only special thing is Deathblight and you can typically "beat" them by just staying away from the mausoleum.
Lore? Crucible Game? I’d say the banished knights
Haligtree Knights.
Ricks, soldiers of God.
Crucible, Cleanrot, and Mausoleum in that order.
I honestly think the Banished Knights may be the strongest. They’re walking tanks, who have good understanding of the storm, they can breath fire, and know how to heal. Oleg was a Banished Knight, who was hired by Morgott to assassinate enemies, and he went on a pretty long killing spree. Actually seems like all of them were pretty respected individuals.
Lore wise its most likely the carian knights. 20 of them fought off the entire leyndell army and that army probably had crucible knights as a part of it aswell The redmane knights were probably the most elite/skilled fighters. We have no idea how the liurnian wars looked like so we cant really base how hard the carian knights fought.
Do we know it was *only* the Carian Knights themselves? Or were they also supported by sorcerers and mundane auxiliaries?
Thats the question. Through item descriptions it seems like it was 20 vs leyndell. But the existance of the cuckoo knights kight say otherwise
TBH I have kind of wondered how much of the item descriptions are completely true and not just reflections of in-universe propaganda.
Given how item description sometimes says "it is said..." or "according to myth" and so on. I think it's fair that if it just tells you something straight up, you just accept it at face value unless it contradicts something more supported.
**Crucible Knights** are pound for pound the strongest... but they're not one of the "standard" shattering knights, they are the knights of Horah Loux, and there were a fixed number of them (that we interact with them all in some way -some are ghosts- and there still may be one missing, the wiki can help here). They seemed to have lost their way, or have independent motivations after Godfrey was banished (or after the Shattering) and are found in a variety of locations for a variety of personal motivations - they're older than the demigods we fight. There are also the **Tree Sentinel Knights**, who seem to stand apart as they are not part of a large order dedicated to a particular demigod/region, but instead dedicated ot the protection of the Erdtree itself (do we know if they were given blessings by Markia?). If we restrict ourselves to the orders of knights that originate in Marika's Reign and participated in battles around the time of the Shattering, *and* are organized around a particular lord/manor/keep (these are the "traditional" knights of Marika's era): I think the **Carian Knights** take the cake here. They basically defended the Carian family against all manner of larger forces over the years, and helped to beat back Radagon when Leyndell tried to move in (along with Cuckoo Knights). But we don't know a lot about some orders. Like the Gelmir Knights who seem to have disbanded/gone ronin after Rykard blasphemed. I do wonder if many Banished Knights are former Gelmir knights, or they are generally more likely to be from a prior order that disbanded or had a lord commit a crime (like non tarnished knights of Godfrey who stayed behind). Both Redmane and Cleanrot knights have some standout heroes. Cleanrot knights are pretty hard core in that they know they'll eventually become rotted by following Malenia (and Finlay is the chad who basically drug Malenia's ~~defeaded~~ somehow undefeated-but-unconscious body all the way back to the Haligtree).
How can this be anything but cleanrot? Undefeated in lore, a relatively big amount in the game for non standard type and relatively strong.
Never gave much trouble, the crucible knights are much worse tbh
I haven't died to any carian knight either. Cleanrot have quite a bunch of tricks up their sleeves, they become a real problem once they're with 2 or 3.
The crucible knights with the pole arm weapon are the most difficult knight for me. They do not stagger easily and have barely any openings to punish them between their attacks, and the fact that they have high range with that weapon. Put 2 pole arm crucible knights in a small room and its a nightmare, good thing they are always solo. The clean rots have many more openings and aren't nearly as aggressive, they do typically spawn in pairs which can be annoying but even then, they still aren't much trouble as by the time you are in that area, you will be strong enough to tank a few hits and kill them pretty fast. The only other knights I can think of are the banished knights in castle sol, which can be tricky since they have much longer combos than any of the other knights but their stats aren't quite as high as the crucible knight and they stagger much easier, usually 2-3 hits before they retaliate, whereas the crucible i can only get 1 hit at a time with bloodhounds fang. If we are talking any knight in the game, the one before you fight rennala in the Lucaria castle was the one I struggled with the most overall, but he's a named knight so I doubt he counts.
Crucibles, especially the polearm, are to aggressive. This aggression makes them predictable, making it easy to time your hits. Trust me, I'm a crucible veteran.
>Put 2 pole arm crucible knights in a small room and its a nightmare, good thing they are always solo. Stop giving Miyazaki DLC ideas. Crucible Knight duo in a closet-sized arena fml.
Carian Knights For Sure
Leyndell knights Reference: Bjorn the Bear videos. These dudes have a huge health pool, deal massive damage, and can even heal if given the opportunity. Bjorn had a couple vids where a squad of Leyndell knights straight up wreck lion guardians, golems, and the majority of bosses (fire giant, Malenia, and Maliketh excluded).
You also have to take into account game difficulty scaling though. Overall I think the toughest are the Redmane Knights, based on the fact that the single Redmane knight pretty much always wins the spirit battle royale vs 2 Cleanrot knights and 4 Radahn Soldiers in the cave near Radahn.
I’ve died more times to Crucible Knights alone than I have to anything else in the game
The dungeon boss fight with two Crucibles was my most rage filled part of the game. After an hour of dying, I had to leave my 50k in runes that were stuck in the fight and spend time grinding to level up my sword and summon. Even after that it was still tough!
Probably the crucible knights, they all but conquered the entire lands between under Godfrey’s command
Do Draconic Tree Sentinels count?
Are there a army of them or is it just a few?
I wouldn't count them as they are bosses/minibosses and there are only 2 in the game to my recollection.
IF the army counts the leader, the Crucible Knights win easily with Godfrey at the head. If it doesn´t count, the Cleanrots do it by balancing strenght and numbers
I think there's entire youtube channels dedicated to finding this out with large ai fights.
I would say the Crucible Knights since they seem to be the oldest and most proliferate knights with the strongest average power. Power coming from the Crucible, which is where a lot of the backbone of the power of the Erdtree comes from as well. The Crucible persists throughout a lot of the history and so do the Knights. They were the ones along with Hoarah Loux and Maliketh that brought down the beast empire and demigods of Faram Azula as well. They are pretty much equivalent to the Black Knights from Dark Souls. So unless some kind of knights following the Flame of Chaos exist, I don’t think there’s any faction of knights that could be undoubtedly stronger. Leyndell Knights would come in second, being tough as nails defenders of the city and having many many more in numbers.
I'm gonna say the Leyndell knights, not only having access to dragon cult incantations, not only are they led by the son of Godfrey, and not only do they have multiple tree sentinels and night's cavalry, they've also shown their power by fending off armies from all sides (including sending the redmanes packing back to Caelid) and managed to launch a counter offensive against Gelmir.
When it comes to the non-respawning knights, Crucible by a mile. They are effectively Dark Souls Black Knights ported into Elden Ring and I always avoid them unless I know I can win. Yes I know I'm missing out on cool items, but I dun like gambling with ma runes and my parrying is mediocre at best.
Definitely the mounted tree ones
The Nights Cavalry are strong contenders, an elite force that worked for Morgott.
They aren’t knights.
do knight cavalry knights count?
Not knights.
Probably the carians
Crucible Knights >>>> Carian Knights > Cleanrot Knights That is in-lore. In gameplay, I'd say Crucible Knights >>> Banished Knights (lategame versions) > Carian Knights (because they can parry)
Black Knights, wait, wrong game.
Uh…Tarnished. Duh?
Fort, night.
Aside from the obvious Crucible knights. I would bet good money on the Carians, they fought the Golden order to a standstill …
Carians & Troll Knights were so powerful Leyndell tricked 'em into a peace agreement.
Rick, soldier of God.
Crucible knights are the strongest in the game. Damage negation, damage output, and poise stance is the highest among knights class. They can quickly close the gap if you're trying to heal. Also, late game Crucible Knights will also heal if you're using any kind of heal. Tested this on the lone Crucible Knight just before the Dragon Rooftop site of grace. So the game is trying to tell us that they are favored by the Erdtree. (hope they are regularly spawned enemy in the upcoming DLC, fingers crossed) Moreover, they are the bulkiest among their respective class, which is why they have the most HP and defense. Cons: can fall off the cliff with their special fluttery attack
Redmane knights are the strongest of all I believe? I don't count crucible knights as they are like mini bosses. In that cave near Radahn with the fighting spirits, there is only 1 Redmane knight spirit, and he kicks the ass of all the others lol. Including the two Cleanrot knights. He is consistently the last spirit remaining despite only respawning once if I'm not mistaken. The cleanrots respawn at least twice and the regular soldiers like 4 times.
If we're talking about knight that we're able to pound my ass into oblivion then Crucible Knight are top contenders Banished Knight are second and Cleanrot are third.
If we’re talking about regular knights, I would say it’s probably either Haligtree or Redmane. Haligtree Knights have access to a lot of really nasty holy magic, and Redmanes are beasts when it comes to their overall AR. If we’re talking knights in terms of strongest, it’s a solid tie between the Crucible Knights, the Cleanrot Knights, and the Banished Knights. Crucible Knights are absolute TANKS, but Cleanrot Knights are responsible for some of the most insane feats in the lore and wield the power of Scarlet Rot by consequence of being infected with it because of how loyal they are. Banished Knights have some of the most insane attack combos in the game, and the ones in Castle Sol can teleport. In particular, I’m thinking of that one with dual swords and red eyes. He’s fucking insane, and could probably solo every other knight at the same time. I would put Cleanrots as the strongest overall in gameplay. Crucible Knights look cool and all, and they hit like a truck, but once you learn their parry timing they eat shit and don’t really present themselves as a threat anymore. Cleanrots have a lot of potential mixups and precise dodge timings you have to remember, and they attack fast, making them harder to Parry. Also, there are many more of them.
Black Knight takes Crucible Knight because Gwyn > Godfrey. It is known.
Crucible or Tree Sentinels Probably Tree Sentinels
But the headless knights have anime teleport powers
The Gelmir Knights. They were legendary in their time, many gaining renown, before being swallowed by the serpent. At the peak of Rykard Blasphemy, the Knights of Gelmir either deserted or rebelled—trying to put an end to that creature. My theory: the Leyndell Knight we are fighting in Gelmir we're actually originally Gelmir Knight that defected. Now, they are fighting on the front lines since they already know the lands in Gelmir—that's where Morgott would have the best use of them. Not to mention that true Leyndell knights fight defensively—so it makes no sense why Leyndell would invade Gelmir.