You can pretty much use any weapon to get through the early parts of the game. However, you can only advance further after you upgrade your weapons and armaments in Elden Ring.
In the typical fashion of a Souls game, the weapon-upgrade process is a bit complex in Elden Ring. There are several factors that come into play here, each factor altering the upgrade in some manner.
Basically, you can not only upgrade your weapons to boost their overall stats, but you can also customize them in several ways. This allows you to keep an eye on your defense stats as well as offense when improving your weapons in Elden Ring.
Sounds convoluted? Keep reading to know how the entire upgrade process works in the game.
How to upgrade weapons in Elden Ring
To upgrade the basic levels (along with scaling) of your Elden Ring weapons, you will require two simple things. These are the upgrade materials, and a workbench/blacksmith which can use those materials to upgrade your weapon.
There are two types of upgrade materials you will require, both of which play a certain role in weapon upgrades. They are divided into two different categories – Somber Smithing Stones and Smithing Stones, but you also have different tiers of them in each category – which determine the extent, or the level of upgrade you can get with them.
Smithing Stones
Smithing Stones are the less rare version of the two categories and are bronze in color. You will find nine different tiers to Somber Smithing Stones itself. Each tier can only level up your armament to a specific level, after which you have to find a higher-tier item to upgrade further.
The last tier that you have, i.e. Smithing Stone [9] is also known as the Ancient Dragon Smithing Stone. This is the final tier that lets you upgrade your weapon to the maximum level in Elden Ring. The normal or more common weapons can be upgraded to level 25, which is their maximum level.
The first upgrade is denoted by a “+1”, indicating that you have upgraded it a total of 1 time. Similarly, the maximum of 25 is denoted by “+25”.
| Smithing Stone Tier | Upgrade Levels |
|---|---|
| Smithing Stone [1] | Up to +5 |
| Smithing Stone [1] | Up to +6 |
| Smithing Stone [1] | Up to +9 |
| Smithing Stone [1] | Up to +12 |
| Smithing Stone [1] | Up to +15 |
| Smithing Stone [1] | Up to +18 |
| Smithing Stone [1] | Up to +21 |
| Smithing Stone [1] | Up to +24 |
| Ancient Dragon Smithing Stone/Smithing Stone [9] | Up to +25 |
Somber Smithing Stones
Somber Smithing Stones are silver in color and are the rarer version of the upgrade materials. These are mainly used to level up your unique weapons/Remembrance weapons or to strengthen your Legendary Armaments.
While you had nine different tiers in the former category, there is one more tier to Somber Smithing Stones, which makes a total of ten tiers. Each of these tiers works in a similar fashion as before, but can only be used to upgrade the weapon once – where a higher tier will be required for a higher upgrade level.
The last tier, i.e. the Somber Smithing Stone [10] is also known as the Ancient Dragon Somber Smithing Stone.
An important thing to note is that Somber Smithing Stones only work in case of unique/Remembrance weapons or legendary armaments. Each of these can be upgraded a total of ten times, which means that their maximum level will be +10 – hence why there are ten tiers to Somber Smithing Stones.
| Somber Smithing Stone Tier | Upgrade Levels |
|---|---|
| Somber Smithing Stone [1] | Upgrades weapon to level +1 |
| Somber Smithing Stone [2] | Upgrades weapon to level +2 |
| Somber Smithing Stone [3] | Upgrades weapon to level +3 |
| Somber Smithing Stone [4] | Upgrades weapon to level +4 |
| Somber Smithing Stone [5] | Upgrades weapon to level +5 |
| Somber Smithing Stone [6] | Upgrades weapon to level +6 |
| Somber Smithing Stone [7] | Upgrades weapon to level +7 |
| Somber Smithing Stone [8] | Upgrades weapon to level +8 |
| Somber Smithing Stone [9] | Upgrades weapon to level +9 |
| Somber Smithing Stone [10] | Upgrades weapon to level +10 |
An important thing to note is that you cannot upgrade your armor in Elden Ring. The armor sets that you obtain have their own stats, which stay the same till the end of the game. The only thing you can do is obtain a better armor set or upgrade your weapon or shield – which increases defense in general.
Where to find Smithing Stones in Elden Ring
You can find Smithing Stones and Somber Smithing Stones scattered all over the world, but you can also purchase them using Bell Bearings either at Smithing Master Iji, or the Twin Maiden Husks at the Round Table Hold.
You can obtain them pretty early on in the game, but there are many other places in the late game as well where you can find said items. Some of these locations include West Limgrave, Raya Lucaria Tunnel, Sealed Tunnel (Liurna), Waypoint Ruins, Limgrave Tunnels, etc.
Note that while you can purchase an infinite amount of Smithing Stones from the aforementioned merchants, you can only purchase a limited number of Somber Smithing Stones.
Once you obtain the necessary items required, the next question that arises is where to upgrade your weapons in Elden Ring.
Where to upgrade weapons in Elden Ring
Weapons in Elden Ring can be upgraded at Blacksmiths and Smithing Tables with the respective upgrade item on hand. Both of them function a bit differently.
Church of Elleh
You can obtain your first Smithing Table pretty early on in the game, located at the Church of Elleh. You can start upgrading your basic weapons here, but note that you can only upgrade them to a maximum level of “+3. ”
When you reach the Church of Elleh, find the merchant there and look to his left to find the Smithing Table, which is basically an anvil. Interact with the anvil and you will see a “strengthen armament” option, which you can use to level up your weapons. Note that there are several Smithing Tables located all over the different regions of The Lands Between.
Since you can only upgrade your weapons to a max of “+3”, this way, you will have to find another way to upgrade them even further i.e. up to “+25” or “+10”. For that, you will have to make your way over to a Blacksmith called Master Hewg.
Roundtable Hold
Smithing Master Hewg is the main person you have to go to in order to upgrade your weapons past “+3” and all the way up to the max levels. This blacksmith is located at the Roundtable Hold.
The upgrade materials that you acquired, including Runes, would have to be given to Hewg for him to upgrade your weapons. Simply head over to him beside the Roundtable Hold’s main room to interact with him and upgrade your weapons.
That’s pretty much it about leveling up your weapons. If you want to customize it even further, like its affinities and scaling, then that’s a whole other aspect of upgrade.
Types of weapon upgrades in Elden Ring
Another aspect of upgrades is its customization to Scaling. Next to your weapons’ stat requirements, you may also see some letters assigned to them, which indicates their Scaling. Scaling with a stat determines how much damage adds to a weapon with an upgrade depending upon the stat it is concerned with.
For example, if a weapon mainly scales with the Strength stat, investing your attribute points to increase your Strength will make the weapon in question perform better, i.e. dealing more damage. Some weapons may even scale with a few different stats. Strength often scales with Dexterity, and sometimes with Intelligence – you have to keep this in mind when using a particular weapon.
Moreover, the extent of damage you deal with scaling depends upon the hierarchy of the letter assigned to it. A scaling of “S” is the best of all, and goes on with the letters “A”, and “B”… until it reaches the letter “E”, which is the worst of all.
Along with upgrading the levels of your weapons, you also improve their general scaling with the concerned stats. To modify or customize your weapons’ scaling with a particular stat, you must upgrade it through weapon affinities.
Whetblades
You can obtain and use Elden Ring’s Ashes of War by collecting Whetblades. You can infuse your weapons with any Ash of War that you like while resting at a Site of Grace to modify said weapon’s skills/affinities.
There are a total of six different Whetblades scattered throughout the Lands Between, offering you a total of 12 different Ashes of War affinities – since on Whetblade offers you three Ashes of War.
The first Whetblade you acquire in Elden Ring is located near the Gatefront Ruins (Limgrave). This one is called the Whetstone Knife, but you will find five more of them in different regions, each offering a different affinity.
| Whetblade | Location | Affinity Unlocked |
|---|---|---|
| Whetblade Knife | Gatefront Ruins | Standard |
| Iron Whetblade | Stormveil Castle | Quality, Heavy, Keen |
| Ghost Whetblade | Liurnia – Raya Lucaria Academy | Cold, Magic |
| Red-Hot Whetblade | Caelid – Redmane Castle | Flame Art, Fire |
| Sanctified Whetblade | Leyndell – Fortified Manor | Lightning, Sacred |
| Black Whetblade | Nokron, Eternal City | Poison, Occult, Blood |
Use Ashes of War to modify attribute scaling
As you can see from the table above, there are 12 different affinities that can modify your weapons’ attribute scaling. Aside from the standard affinity, you must infuse your weapons with Ashes of War to modify other types of scaling.
Remember that while a particular affinity adds one type of attribute scaling along with a few benefits, it decreases all other types of attribute scaling.
| Affinity | Scaling Effect |
|---|---|
| Standard | Default Scaling |
| Heavy | Enhances Strength scaling. |
| Quality | Enhances Strength and Dexterity scaling. |
| Keen | Enhances Dexterity scaling. |
| Cold | Enhances Intelligence scaling. Allows use of Frostbite. |
| Magic | Enhances Intelligence scaling. |
| Flame Art | Enhances Faith scaling. Adds fire damage. |
| Fire | Enhances Strength scaling. Adds fire damage. |
| Sacred | Enhances Faith scaling. Adds holy damage. |
| Lightning | Enhances Dexterity Scaling. Adds lightning damage. |
| Poison | Enhances Arcane Scaling. Adds poison buildup |
| Occult | Enhances Arcane Scaling. Increases blood loss, poison, madness, and sleep build-up. |
| Blood | Enhances Arcane Scaling. Adds blood loss buildup |
Note that for some of the affinities, while they may reduce a particular type of scaling, they do increase the scaling multiplier for that particular affinity, which means that they get significantly better with upgrades. Examples of these include Cold, Blood, and Poison affinities.
