Darksiders 3: How to Get Strength Shards & What They Do

Darksiders 3, unlike previous Darksiders games, adopts a Dark Souls style of combat, which makes the game difficult but fall shy of a true Souls-like challenge. Still, you might find yourself occasionally struggling with enemies the protagonist Fury, a Horse(wo)man of the Apocalypse, should easily slaughter. Lucky for you, Darksiders 3 is full of tricks and mechanics that give you a helping hand.

Fury can use a wide variety of weapons, forms, and consumable items to make combat easier. One such item is Strength Shards, which can help immensely during certain fights. However, Strength Shards aren’t as straightforward as their name implies, so here’s a guide on how to get Strength Shards and what they do.

How to Get Strength Shards in Darksiders 3

You won’t find Strength Shards littering the world of Darksiders 3. You might luck out and discover them in the corpses of slain enemies, but those odds are low. If you want a reliable source of Strength Shards, you should seek out Vulgrim, the Darksiders franchise’s de facto merchant.

Vulgrim pops up constantly in Darksiders 3. He floats around in set locations, helps Fury level up, and sells her crucial items, including Strength Shards. However, Vulgrim is a demon, which means he isn’t helping Fury out of the kindness of his heart.

When Vulgrim first meets Fury, he tells her that he is all about blind capitalism, which is why he increases an item’s price whenever Fury buys it. He might initially sell Strength Shards for the “low” price of 500 Souls, but the cost skyrockets every time Fury purchases a shard.

Vulgrim might have infinite stock of Shards for sale in Darksiders 3, but thanks to inflating costs, you will be hard pressed to buy even a few and still have enough Souls for other items and services.

What Strength Shards Do

As its name suggests, Strength Shards temporarily boost Fury’s Strength, which makes her physical attacks hit much harder. The Shard’s buff doesn’t last forever, but it usually persists long enough for Fury to kill whatever enemy has her on the ropes.

You might assume that these Shards improve all of Fury’s attacks, but that isn’t so. Strength only affects the normal attacks of her whip and Hollow weapons. All of her other attacks use the Arcane stat, including her dodge counters, Havoc form, Wrath attacks (not to be confused with Wrath the boss enemy), and Hollow charge attacks.

If you want to temporarily increase the power of Fury’s non-normal attacks, you need an Arcane Shard, which is also rarely found on enemies and sold by Vulgrim at exponentially inflating prices, starting at 500 Souls.

That’s everything you need to know about how to get Strength Shards and what they do in Darksiders 3. For more tips, tricks, and guides, be sure to search for Twinfinite or check out more of our guides below.