Soulframe Polearm Build: Building Around Courage

A Soulframe polearm build runs on Courage: all six polearms listed on the Avakot community wiki require it, and Farilwyd also asks for 10 Grace. Rook gets you started with a requirement of just 11 Courage, while Gathannan is the long-term goal with the highest base attack in the class.

So the core decision is made before you forge your first weapon. This guide covers the six confirmed polearms, how to spread your Virtues for them, which Combat Arts the weapon type gets and why the strongest polearm isn't automatically the most efficient one. Status: October 2026, Preludes 16 with Hotfix 6.

🗡️ What polearms are in Soulframe

In game the weapon category is called Polearm. Polearms are long halberds and glaives with plenty of reach. According to the community wiki they're slower than most other weapons but hit hard in return.

They have their own Combat Arts tree. The Avakot community wiki lists Duhk Halic, Rook, Vasp-IV, Veilk, Farilwyd and Gathannan under the Polearm Combat Art, while the greatsword Needleseye sits under Heavy.

That matters more for planning than it sounds. Points you put into another weapon type's tree do nothing for your polearms. How the system works in detail is covered in our guide to Soulframe Combat Arts.

📊 The six polearms for your Soulframe polearm build

The Avakot community wiki lists these six weapons with full stats (cross-checked in October 2026). The numbers come from there and are not official figures from Digital Extremes. Soulframe has no official wiki, and values can shift with any Preludes update. The fan database Midrath, which the first version of our German guide relied on, still showed 59 attack for both Duhk Halic and Vasp-IV.

Two things stand out. First, Rook is the only Blunt polearm of the six. Normally you'd have to switch weapon types to get Blunt damage. Within polearms you cover both damage types without leaving your Combat Arts tree.

Second, the Virtue requirements range from 11 to 19 Courage, with Farilwyd also needing 10 Grace. You can start early with Rook or Duhk Halic and grow into Gathannan later without ever leaving the class.

💡 The number no tier list shows you

Tier lists sort by raw damage. For a Soulframe polearm build a different number matters more: how much base attack do you get per point of Courage the weapon demands? We worked this out ourselves from the documented values. You won't find it in any source.

The result flips the usual advice. Rook gives you far more base attack per invested Courage point than Gathannan (5.9 vs. 3.6), and it's only four points behind in raw damage. While your Courage is low, Rook is clearly the better weapon, and the points you save can go into Grace or Spirit.

Gathannan only pays off once you push Courage high anyway. Then its higher base value adds to every extra point you invest.

🧪 Spreading Virtues for a Soulframe polearm build

The only official source on Virtues is the Preludes 13 "A Triquetra of Virtues" announcement on soulframe.com, and it covers just their basic roles. According to the community wiki, the Virtue Prisms that used to split your points automatically were removed with Preludes 14.5. Today you spread points freely in the Arsenal, and each loadout keeps its own setup.

For a Soulframe polearm build that means: treat your current weapon's requirement as the minimum (11 for Rook, 19 for Gathannan) and spread the rest to suit your playstyle. According to the community wiki, Spirit cuts the cooldown of all Arcanics by 1.5 percent per point. Grace pays off mainly if you carry Flyblades or a bow as your second weapon, because those scale with Grace.

One thing a lot of players underestimate: the Virtue requirement is a threshold, not a slider. Below the required value you don't get a smaller bonus, you get none. So always tie your spread to the weapon you're actually carrying. More on that in the guide to Soulframe Virtues.

⚒️ Combat Arts in a Soulframe polearm build

According to the community wiki, every weapon grants five Combat Art points, at ranks 1, 5, 11, 19 and 30. All polearms share one tree, and each weapon counts separately, so six fully leveled polearms give you 30 points. This order works well:

• Spectre Strike first. The counter after a Perfect Dodge suits the class's reach. You roll out of an attack and hit back from a distance where other melee weapons would still have to close in.
• Unyielding against bosses. Per the community wiki it lets you parry heavy enemy strikes. Heavy attacks are usually why parries suddenly stop working against world bosses.
• Charge speed (Headlong). Per the wiki values, the charged heavy attack sits roughly 30 percent above the normal attack: Gathannan 90 instead of 69, Rook 85 instead of 65 (rank 0). Headlong charges it faster, Helm Gong raises its Stagger.
• Smite chance. Vasp-IV, Veilk and Farilwyd have the highest base chance in the class at 5%, Rook the lowest at 2%. The Smitten Combat Art adds 1 to 3 percentage points according to the wiki. How the loop works is in the Smite guide.

🩸 Runes, Tempers and fine-tuning

Since Preludes 15, weapons drop fully forged with a Craftwork tier and Tempers, random modifiers that give a weapon extra properties. The Temper system itself arrived with Preludes 14.5 "Ode'n Tempers". The loot rework only came with Preludes 15.

For a Soulframe polearm build, the practical takeaway is to collect duplicates. Two Gathannans with different Tempers aren't dead weight. They're two rolls on the same base stats. Since Preludes 16, salvaging pays off too: Tuvalkane learns the Tempers and applies them to rank 30 weapons. What the modifiers do is covered in the Tempers guide, and the bonus slots themselves in the guide to Soulframe Runes.

Also useful: according to the community wiki, every polearm has its own Throw value, such as Gathannan 104, Duhk Halic 99, and Rook and Vasp-IV at 98 each (rank 0). A Perfect Throw (Combat Art) roughly doubles it. Throwing and recalling the weapon is a fixed part of this class's moveset, and players on the official Soulframe forum have thanked the developers for the polearm recall.

🗺️ How to get each polearm for your build

Since Preludes 15, most weapons drop fully built. A few, like Gathannan, are still forged from Fragments according to the Avakot community wiki. You can't tell from the stars: Farilwyd drops fully built despite being 3-star. Sources per Avakot:

• Vasp-IV: drops from Sinecure soldiers carrying a Vasp-IV, Bisulcam, Fore-Feller Hewyl, Gruulseeker Selvins and Nimrod, plus Ode'n Weapon Racks and Buried Banneret Chests in Rovgot. The usual starting point.
• Veilk: drops from Sinecure Knights and Officers, Gruul-Seeker Sontaro, Discharged Nimrod and Ichorous Wardog, among others, plus the same containers as Vasp-IV.
• Duhk Halic: drops fully built from Discharged Nimrod and Nimrod. Per Avakot you get the Fragment by cleansing all 15 Blighted World Trees on the map.
• Rook: from Hark, The Collector, Collector Crates and Dendrit Chests in the Glades of Andurin, plus the Silent Rose Votive (tier 3) and the Silent Rose vendor from rank 2.
• Gathannan: two Fragments from the Vadagar Stag, plus 20 Scrap Brass, 8 Sappheline, 8 Moranite, 2,500 Dracs, Bond rank 3 with Tuvalkane and ten hours of forging time.
• Farilwyd: drops fully built from the Mendicant Reinbreaker despite being 3-star.

📌 What recent updates did for the class

According to Digital Extremes' official announcement, Preludes 15 added Veilk, the Long Blade Ilverac and the heavy mace Vrusht-IX, among others. Preludes 14 brought the rapiers Navalha and Espadarte. The community wiki lists Veilk as a Polearm with its own Poleaxe moveset, so Preludes 15 did give the class one new weapon.

Per the patch notes, Preludes 16 "Of Hook and Hound" brought three new weapons: the sidearm Grimana, the mace Wreath and the staff Gystalt. None of them is a polearm. The patch notes also say Warp on all weapons was cut significantly, so spacing matters more now. According to the developers in Devstream 17, polearms benefit from that, because reach is what this class does best.

All in all the class grows slowly: Veilk in Preludes 15 was the latest new polearm, and Preludes 16 didn't add one.

❓ FAQ: Soulframe polearm build

Which Virtue does a Soulframe polearm build need?

Courage. All six polearms on the community wiki require between 11 and 19 Courage. Farilwyd also needs 10 Grace.

What's the best polearm in Soulframe?

By raw damage, Gathannan with 69 base attack. Measured by damage per required Courage point, Rook leads clearly with 5.9.

Are polearms better than greatswords?

Gathannan has a higher documented base attack (69) than the greatsword Needleseye (66, rank 0 per the community wiki) and more reach. Greatswords deal more Stagger in return.

Do my Combat Arts carry over to other weapons?

No. Polearms have their own Polearm tree, while greatswords fall under Heavy. Points only work within their own weapon type.

Can you throw polearms?

Yes. According to the community wiki, every polearm has its own Throw value, and you can recall the thrown weapon.

🏁 Bottom line

A Soulframe polearm build is one of the most straightforward builds in the game: one main Virtue, six weapons, one Combat Arts tree. Start with Vasp-IV or Rook, keep Courage exactly at your current weapon's threshold and spread the rest across Spirit or Grace. Only switch to Gathannan once your Courage sits at 19 anyway. Before that you're paying points into a requirement that barely pays you back in damage.

All English Soulframe guides are on our Soulframe overview.

Checked against Preludes 16 with Hotfix 6 as of October 2026. We cross-checked the weapon stats against the Avakot community wiki in October 2026. The Preludes 16 patch notes list no stat changes to individual polearms. Officially confirmed are the basic Virtue roles from the Preludes 13 "A Triquetra of Virtues" announcement on soulframe.com, the patch notes archive on soulframe.com and the Preludes 15 content from Digital Extremes' announcement.

Community data, not confirmed by Digital Extremes: all weapon stats, requirements, Smite chances, forging costs, drop sources, Combat Art points per rank and the removal of the Virtue Prisms (Avakot community wiki). The Needleseye comparison values also come from Avakot: 66 attack at rank 0, 120 at rank 30, 18 Courage required. The "attack per Courage point" figure is our own calculation from these values. Soulframe has no official wiki and is in its pre-alpha phase, Preludes, so values can change with every update.