Briars of Sin

Type

Sorcery

FP cost

6

Memory slots

1

Stamina cost

26

Damage types

magic

Requires

24Fai

Spell school

Thorn sorceries

Effects

An aberrant sorcery discovered by exiled criminals.

Theirs are the sorceries most reviled by the academy.

Wounds the caster with thorns of sin, creating a spiral of bloodthorns.

This sorcery can be cast repeatedly, up to three times.

The guilty, their eyes gouged by thorns, lived in eternal darkness. There, they discovered the blood star.

Thorn sorcerer north of Artist's Shack

Liurnia of the Lakes

Starting Site of Grace: Artist's Shack

1. Use the Artist's Shack in eastern Liurnia. Go north along the raised ground toward the Fire Monk area and look for the lone thorn sorcerer beside a group of fire slugs.
2. Defeat that sorcerer to receive Briars of Sin. This is an enemy reward rather than a corpse or chest pickup.
3. The spell is the fixed reward from this specific sorcerer. If a Staff of the Guilty also drops, collect it separately; the spell reward does not make that random weapon drop guaranteed. You do not need a boss fight or a key for this outdoor pickup.

Notes

• Requires 24 Faith and one memory slot, but is cast with a glintstone staff. It deals magic damage using that staff's sorcery scaling. The Faith requirement does not make an Intelligence-scaling staff use Faith; Staff of the Guilty is the option that casts through Faith.
• Each cast costs 6 FP and 80 HP and adds 30 blood loss buildup to you. The buildup is separate from the immediate health cost. Repeated use can trigger your own hemorrhage if your bar fills, especially after an enemy has already inflicted bleed.
• The thorns burst around your position. Continue casting for a three-part chain, with each part spending its own FP and HP. The later bursts are stronger, but committing to the whole chain leaves you close to the enemy for longer.
• Inflicts 95 base blood loss buildup on a target hit by a burst before casting-staff status scaling. The number is buildup toward hemorrhage, not 95 immediate HP damage, and bleed-immune enemies will only take the direct magic damage.
• It cannot be charged. Holding a button does not provide a Godfrey Icon bonus; repeated casts are separate attacks. Use the surrounding burst when enemies are already within its reach rather than expecting it to chase a distant target.
• Staff of the Guilty increases the direct damage by 20%, including when held in your other active hand while a different staff casts. Two copies multiply to 44%. This bonus does not increase blood loss buildup.
• Alberich's Pointed Hat, either version of that hat, the unaltered robe and the bracers each give a 6% damage bonus. The trousers and altered robe do not. These are damage bonuses rather than extra bleed buildup.
• An Arcane-scaling casting staff, such as Albinauric Staff or Maternal Staff, can increase the spell's blood loss buildup with Arcane. Merely carrying one in your other hand does not lend that status scaling to a spell cast through a different staff.