| “ | A hero's greatsword. Answers only to those it deems worthy. |
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Gram is a Greatsword in Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night.
Description[]
The Gram is an overhead-swing weapon that comes across as a modest upgrade over the previous such weapon, Carnot's Rebuke, which can be found for free in the upper-left region of the Towers of Twin Dragons. Compared to that, the Gram features only 3 more base ATK and does not retain the Carnot's Rebuke's unique trait of being able to charge up its attack by holding the attack button down. It is the first greatsword-style weapon that can produce and teach the Sickle Moon technique (↓ ↘ → + [Attack], 60 MP/s), which can be seen as a more unwieldy version of the Penetrate technique seen on spears like Gondo-Shizunori — a technique arguably most useful for its ability to give Miriam a dashing function until the Accelerator shard is found near the end of the game. It can only perform the Trucidating Gyre technique (↓ ↙ ← → + [Attack], 50 MP) once you have mastered it on a weapon like Pelekus or Berdiche.
Crafting it is not particularly difficult once you find the required recipe book, Damascus Equipment/R, in Underground Sorcery Lab. Ever since Double Jump would have been acquired by defeating Andrealphus much earlier, you will have had the opportunity to explore a room filled with advanced enemies in the Entrance zone above the early "Sabnock chamber", and all of the required materials are dropped by the enemies there. The Axe Outsider drops both Damascus (12%) and Mithril (10%), and the Shield Outsider and Bloodbringer drop Silver (10% and 8%, respectively). Disregarding this, all three materials occur within blue chests between both the earlier and later regions of Livre Ex Machina, and the Lance Armors in the area drop both Silver (12%) and Damascus (8%). Axe Outsiders thoroughly populate Hall of Termination, where blue chests also contain Mithril. Finally, a free Gram is found in the hidden room just above the warp room in the Hall.
Despite being barely more powerful than Carnot's Rebuke in and of itself, the Gram unexpectedly represents a major breaking point for your hitting power with overhead swing weapons in general. If you have been using such weapons up to this point, you ideally would have equipped the Greatsword Expertise passive shard at Grade 9 (created by converting 9 Claymores while holding at least one Sword Expertise shard) to significantly enhance your ATK power. It would have taken three Pelekus to enhance the shard's rank to 4 and then three Flamberges to enhance it to rank 7, which by itself slightly improves attack speed. Ranks 8 and 9 are reached by using up one Gram each, meaning that you can very quickly create the skill shard clone of Greatsword Expertise and grant yourself another equally large layer of attack damage with Gram and future greatswords, one that stacks with the passive shard version.
The other way the Gram represents a stepping stone toward exceedingly strong overhead swing attacks is that it is the first such weapon in a series of craftable "upgrades" that will eventually lead to the game's ultimate greatswords. While finding Fine Equipment/R in the Hall of Termination will unlock the privilege to upgrade separate Grams into the three "elemental greatswords" Lohengrin, Schedar, and Steel Lightning, you will largely be unable to craft them until you start collecting the required Crystals in blue chests in the Hidden Desert. Once you do accumulate Crystals, you only need to additionally devote one of the corresponding "elemental ring" — Flame Ring, Ice Ring, and Thunder Ring — to create each greatsword. (Incidentally, the Schedar can be bought directly at Dominique's supply post as soon as you defeat the Glutton Train, a free Steel Lightning can be found just off the west exit of Hidden Desert, and a free Lohengrin can be found in Inferno Cave later on.)
Once you have all three elemental greatswords, collecting Very Fine Equipment/R will then let you "combine" them into the amazingly powerful Durandal. The recipe book, though seemingly placed at a point in upper Dian Cécht Cathedral that requires Invert or High Jump to reach, can already have been reached by using Double Jump's dive kick on a hanging lantern to land on a nearby bell, meaning you can already create Durandal in time for the boss in Hidden Desert. Durandal can easily carry you to the end credits by itself, and endgame-exclusive recipes will allow you to further upgrade it into the Dies Irae and then two even more fearsome legendary-tier greatswords: Eternal Blue and Ukonvasara.
Availability[]
- Arvantville:
- Hall of Termination: In the vertical room with the nearby Save Room and Warp Room, break the ceiling to access a secret room with many treasures, one being a green chest containing the Gram.
Gram is a mid-level sword made from materials that are relatively easy to acquire; all can be found in blue chests in early-game areas and are dropped at high rates by common enemies. Making it requires the player first acquire the recipe book Damascus Equipment/R from Underground Sorcery Lab.
Usage[]
While Gram is equipped, Miriam's attack becomes the "greatsword overhead swing" with a +42 ATK boost and the Slash attribute.
It is initially capable of the Sickle Moon technique (60 MP per second, Down → Down-Forward → Forward + Attack), which will be passed on to all G-Swords once mastered.
Gram is a material used to craft the following items:
- Lohengrin (Gram ×1, Crystal ×1, Flame Ring ×1)
- Schedar (Gram ×1, Crystal ×1, Ice Ring ×1)
- Steel Lightning (Gram ×1, Crystal ×1, Thunder Ring ×1)
Gram is a material used to enhance the following shard:
- Greatsword Expertise Ranks 8, 9 (Gram ×1)
Gram can be quite strong for the point in the game when it can be crafted, but its real significance is that it is a precursor used in the making of high-power elemental swords that themselves form crafting ingredients for endgame Greatswords such as Durandal and Dies Irae (and, through the latter, the ultimate Greatswords Ukonvasara and Eternal Blue).
Trivia[]
- Gram (Norse Gramr, "wrath"), also known as Balmung or Nothung in other translations, was the Norse hero Sigurd's sword, which he used to slay the dragon Fafnir.