Weapons

Armaments in Elden Ring are more than a damage number. A weapon carries stat requirements, a set of scaling grades, one or more damage types, a passive status effect in some cases, a skill, and an upgrade path that decides how far it can be pushed. Two swords with the same base attack can behave completely differently once you factor those in, which is why so many players end up carrying a weapon that never quite matches their build.

This guide explains the systems first and the catalogue second. The opening sections cover requirements and scaling, damage and status types, Smithing Stone upgrades, affinities and Ashes of War, two-handing and power stancing, and critical hits. After that comes a set of pick lists by build stat, the boss and Remembrance weapons, and the nine Legendary Armaments. The second half walks through every weapon class on our wiki with a table of each weapon, how you get it, and what it asks of your character. Each entry links to a dedicated page with the full route, stats table and recommended setup.

If you already know the systems and just want the lists, jump to the class sections. If you are choosing a first weapon, read the early-game picks and the build stat table, then follow the link to the matching roundup such as Best Strength Weapons or Best Dexterity Weapons.

How weapons work in Elden Ring

Requirements and attribute scaling

Every armament lists the minimum attributes needed to use it properly. Fall short and the weapon still swings, but attacks lose damage and the moveset can stumble. Requirements range from almost nothing, such as the 9 Strength and 9 Dexterity asked by the Harp Bow, up to the 60 Strength demanded by the Giant-Crusher, the steepest single requirement of any weapon in the game.

Next to the requirements sits the scaling block, a letter from S down to E against each attribute the weapon cares about. Attack power on the stat screen is shown as a base number plus a bonus. The base part is fixed by the weapon and its upgrade level. The bonus part is what scaling produces from your attributes, so a B in Strength on a Strength-heavy character adds far more than an E. Grades also move as you upgrade: the Godslayer's Greatsword starts at D in Dexterity and climbs to B by +10, while the Giant's Seal reaches an S in Faith at +19. Our attribute scaling page walks through the maths and How Weapon Scaling Works covers how to shift grades with affinities.

Damage types and status effects

Physical damage is split into standard, slash, pierce and strike, and enemies resist each differently. Thrusting swords and spears deal pierce, which our Best Pierce Weapons guide notes works well against scaled and lightly armoured foes. Hammers deal strike, the blunt type covered in Best Blunt Weapons, which is the answer to heavily armoured knights. On top of physical, a weapon can carry magic, fire, lightning or holy damage, either natively or through an affinity.

Status effects are a second layer. Each hit adds build-up, and once the bar fills the effect triggers. Blood loss takes a chunk of the target's health in one burst, frostbite deals damage and lowers the target's damage absorption, poison and scarlet rot tick over time, sleep puts the target down for a free critical, and frenzy builds madness. Our roundups explain each one and rank the weapons that apply it fastest.

Elemental damage has its own set of roundups: Best Fire Weapons, Best Lightning Weapons, Best Holy Weapons and Best Gravity Weapons. Several weapons also carry a hidden bonus against a creature type. The Dragon Greatclaw, Dragon Halberd and Dragon King's Cragblade all punish dragons, and the Treespear is especially effective against skeletal enemies.

Upgrades: Smithing Stones and Somber Smithing Stones

Upgrading is where most of a weapon's damage comes from, and every armament falls into one of two tracks. Standard weapons use regular Smithing Stones and go to +25. Unique, boss and Legendary weapons use Somber Smithing Stones and stop at +10. The two tracks end at roughly the same power, so a +10 somber weapon is not weaker than a +25 standard one. The difference is flexibility: standard weapons accept Ashes of War and affinities, somber weapons keep their built-in skill and scaling.

Early upgrades happen at the anvil in the Church of Elleh, and everything past the first few levels goes through Smithing Master Hewg at the Roundtable Hold or Iji in Liurnia. Both blacksmiths will also sell stones once you hand them the matching Bell Bearing, which is the route to an unlimited supply described in How To Get Unlimited Smithing Stones. For the full picture of what each level costs and where to find every tier, see How To Upgrade Weapons and How to Get an Early Max Level Weapon. Staves follow the same rules, with one famous exception: the Meteorite Staff cannot be upgraded at all, a trade-off covered in How To Upgrade Staves.

Affinities, Ashes of War and Whetblades

An Ash of War does two things when applied to a standard weapon. It replaces the weapon skill, and it sets an affinity that rewrites the scaling block. There are thirteen affinities in total. Heavy pushes Strength, Keen pushes Dexterity, Quality balances the two, Magic and Cold favour Intelligence, Fire favours Strength while Flame Art favours Faith, Lightning favours Dexterity, Sacred favours Faith, and Blood, Occult and Poison lean on Arcane. Each one also changes the damage or status the weapon deals, so Cold adds frostbite and Blood adds blood loss. Our Affinities page describes every option and when to choose it.

Affinities are locked behind Whetblades, which you hand to a blacksmith or use at any Site of Grace. Each Whetblade unlocks a group of affinities, and the Whetblades Locations Guide maps them all. The Iron Whetblade in Stormveil Castle is the first you will reach and opens Heavy, Keen and Quality.

Not everything takes an Ash of War. Somber-track weapons such as the Nox Flowing Sword, Death's Poker and Crystal Staff keep their fixed skills, and many of them refuse consumable buffs and enchantments too. Some staves and seals, including the Azur's Glintstone Staff and Staff of Loss, have no skill of their own and simply use whatever skill is on your other hand.

Ashes of War are not consumed on use, so once you own one you can move it between weapons freely, and Hewg can copy any Ash you hold using a Lost Ash of War, as explained in Lost Ashes of War Locations. Taking one off is just as painless; see How To Remove Ashes Of War. For the individual skills we cover in depth, start with Ashes of War.

Two-handing and power stancing

Gripping a weapon in both hands raises its damage and, more importantly, counts your Strength at roughly one and a half times its real value for the purpose of requirements. That is how a character with 40 Strength can swing the 60 Strength Giant-Crusher, and why the Hand Ballista lists 30 Strength one-handed but only needs 20 in two hands. The cost is your shield. Power stancing means equipping two weapons of the same class, one in each hand, which unlocks a paired moveset and doubles the speed at which status effects build. Bows and other ranged weapons are two-handed by default. The controls and the trade-offs are in How To Two-Hand Weapons And Power Stance.

Parries, guard counters and critical hits

Critical hits from backstabs, parries and stance breaks multiply damage by the weapon's critical stat. Almost every weapon sits at 100, but daggers go higher, and the Misericorde in Stormveil Castle has the highest critical value of any dagger, which is why parry players carry one as a finisher. The full ranking is in Highest Critical Damage Weapons. Guard counters, a heavy attack right after a block, are the safer alternative to a parry and scale with heavier weapons; How To Guard Counter and How To Parry compare the two.

Which weapon should you use? Picks by build stat

The fastest way to narrow 150 weapons down is to match the scaling block to the attribute you are levelling. The table below pulls the standout weapons for each stat from our individual pages, with the requirement that matters most. Every roundup in the right column ranks a longer list.

Early weapons worth grabbing before Stormveil

Limgrave and the Weeping Peninsula hold more strong weapons than most first-time players realise, and several of them stay viable to the credits. These are the ones our pages flag as reachable before or just after the first legacy dungeon.

• Uchigatana: the Samurai starting blade, otherwise picked up in the Deathtouched Catacombs. Bleed on every slash and a moveset that never falls off.
• Reduvia: dropped by Bloody Finger Nerijus outside Murkwater Cave. Somber-track dagger with a blood blade skill that hits at range.
• Twinblade: sits in a chest in the Dragon-Burnt Ruins in the middle of Agheel Lake and accepts any Ash of War.
• Lordsworn's Greatsword: looted from the parked carriage at the Gatefront Ruins, the earliest greatsword and a fine Heavy or Quality base.
• Morning Star: in a carriage just past the Bridge of Sacrifice. A spiked hammer that bleeds and breaks stances.
• Winged Scythe: a chest under the Tombsward Ruins gives Faith characters a holy reaper before they meet a single demigod.
• Grafted Blade Greatsword: beat the Leonine Misbegotten at the end of Castle Morne for a Legendary Armament with 40 Strength on the label.
• Rusted Anchor: the Scaly Misbegotten in Morne Tunnel drops this Strength greataxe once per playthrough.
• Golden Halberd: the Tree Sentinel patrolling the first field carries it. Holy damage and a fight that teaches you to use Torrent.
• Dragon Communion Seal: a Banished Knight in Fringefolk Hero's Grave guards the Arcane-scaling seal that every dragon incantation build wants.
• Meteorite Staff: lying on a corpse in the Swamp of Aeonia in Caelid, with S scaling in Intelligence from the moment you pick it up.
• Sword of St. Trina: the Forsaken Ruins in northern Caelid hide a sleep-inflicting straight sword that trivialises many humanoid enemies.
• Greatsword: the colossal sword in a Caelid wagon. Thirty-one Strength to one-hand, and the weapon of choice for anyone recreating Guts.

For a ranked version with stat tables, read Best Early-Game Weapons, and if you want to skip the slow start entirely, How To Get Overpowered Early pairs an early rune farm with a weapon plan.

Boss and Remembrance weapons

Shardbearers and other major bosses leave behind a Remembrance, which Enia at the Roundtable Hold trades for one of two rewards. Some of the game's most distinctive weapons come from this exchange, and a few more drop directly from a boss. All of them upgrade with Somber Smithing Stones.

Because each Remembrance offers two items, choosing is part of the fun. Grafted Dragon vs Axe Of Godrick weighs the first decision you will face. Remembrances can be duplicated at Walking Mausoleums if you want both, a trick detailed in How To Duplicate Weapons.

The nine Legendary Armaments

Collecting all nine Legendary Armaments unlocks a trophy, and only one of them can be permanently missed. Bolt of Gransax disappears once the Erdtree burns and Leyndell becomes the Ashen Capital, so grab it before you light the forge. The other eight wait for you as long as you finish the relevant quest or fight.

1. Bolt of Gransax: climb the giant spear lodged in a dragon in Leyndell, Royal Capital. Missable.
2. Dark Moon Greatsword: the reward at the end of Ranni's questline, collected beneath the Cathedral of Manus Celes.
3. Devourer's Scepter: taken from Knight Bernahl, either early at the Warmaster's Shack or later in Crumbling Farum Azula if you follow his story.
4. Eclipse Shotel: resting on an altar in the Church of Eclipse inside Castle Sol. No boss required.
5. Golden Order Greatsword: guarded by the Misbegotten Crusader who waits at the back of the Cave of the Forlorn, out in the Consecrated Snowfield.
6. Grafted Blade Greatsword: the Leonine Misbegotten at Castle Morne guards it.
7. Marais Executioner's Sword: beat Elemer of the Briar at the top of The Shaded Castle.
8. Ruins Greatsword: the Misbegotten Warrior and Crucible Knight pair in the Redmane Castle plaza drop it.
9. Sword of Night and Flame: in a chest in Caria Manor, reachable once Godrick is down.

Step-by-step routes for all nine, and a note on the trophy not popping, are in How To Get All Legendary Armaments.

Every weapon class on the wiki

The rest of this guide is the catalogue. Classes are ordered from light to heavy and then by ranged and casting tools. Each table gives the weapon, how our page says you obtain it, and the attributes it scales with or requires. Weapons marked as drops are farmable, and our pages list the drop chance where it is known.

Daggers

Daggers hit fast, weigh almost nothing and carry the best critical multipliers in the game, so they shine as an off-hand finisher for parry and backstab play and as a main hand for bleed builds that stack hits quickly. They lose out on reach and stagger. Our All Dagger Locations guide covers the full set and Best Daggers ranks them.

The Weathered Dagger shares this class's name but is a quest item rather than a weapon: Fia hands it to you, and the page under items explains who to deliver it to and what that choice costs.

Straight swords

Straight swords are the safest class in the game: quick recovery, a thrust in the moveset, low requirements and enough weight to stagger ordinary enemies. Several of them double as casting tools for hybrid characters, with the Sword of Night and Flame carrying a Comet Azur and a fire sweep in its stance and the Coded Sword dealing pure holy damage for Faith characters.

Two more pages sit in this group by legacy. Maliketh's Black Blade is a colossal sword and appears in the greatsword table, and Morgott's Cursed Sword is a curved greatsword covered under curved swords.

Thrusting swords

Rapiers and estocs trade sweep for a fast, long poke that can be thrown out from behind a raised shield. They reward Dexterity and pair naturally with a status effect, since repeated thrusts stack build-up quickly. The Dragon King's Cragblade is the heavy variant of the class and asks for 37 Dexterity.

Despite the name, the Glintstone Cometshard is not a blade but a Carian sorcery bought for 12,000 Runes after turning in the Conspectus Scroll; it is covered with the rest of the spells.

Curved swords and curved greatswords

Curved swords are the class for aggressive players who want to stay in an enemy's face. Their running and jumping attacks flow into each other and they are the natural home for power stancing, which is why so many bleed and frost builds run two of them. Curved greatswords keep the slashing rhythm but add reach and stagger.

Two sword-named items in this class are talismans, not blades, and are covered in the talismans guide: the Blue-Feathered Branchsword, dropped by a Deathbird in Limgrave and halving damage taken when your health is nearly gone, and the Primal Glintstone Blade from the Stargazer Ruins, which cuts spell FP costs by a quarter in exchange for some maximum health.

Katanas

Katanas mix slash and thrust, almost all of them inflict blood loss, and their unique skills are some of the most used in the game, from Unsheathe on the basic Uchigatana to Transient Moonlight on Moonveil. Dexterity is the home stat, with Intelligence and Arcane variants for hybrid builds. All Katana Locations ranks the eight base-game blades and Katana Builds shows how to gear around them.

• Uchigatana: Samurai starting weapon or Deathtouched Catacombs. The baseline every other katana is measured against.
• Nagakiba: the longest katana, taken from Yura at Murkwater Cave, at the end of his questline, or from his camp.
• Moonveil: the Magma Wyrm in Gael Tunnel drops it. 12 Str, 18 Dex, 23 Int and a magic slash that opens most fights.
• Meteoric Ore Blade: chest in the Caelid Waypoint Ruins, a gravity katana for battle mages.
• Rivers of Blood: drop from Bloody Finger Okina at the Church of Repose. 12 Str, 18 Dex, 20 Arc and the Corpse Piler skill.
• Dragonscale Blade: the Dragonkin Soldier in the Lake of Rot drops this Dexterity blade with lightning in its skill.
• Hand of Malenia: Malenia's Remembrance, with Waterfowl Dance as its skill.
• Serpentbone Blade: the poison katana from Tanith's assassination contracts, listed above under thrusting swords by legacy.

Twinblades

Twinblades are one-handed by default but come alive when two-handed, spinning through wide sweeps that hit everything nearby. They ask for Dexterity with a Strength floor and take Ashes of War well, which makes the basic Twinblade one of the best early bases for a status build.

• Twinblade: chest in the Dragon-Burnt Ruins on Agheel Lake, with Spinning Slash out of the box.
• Twinned Knight Swords: corpse near the eastern pasture of Windmill Village. 16 Str, 18 Dex, once per playthrough.
• Godskin Peeler: drop from the Godskin Apostle at Windmill Village. 17 Str, 22 Dex and a black flame tornado.
• Eleonora's Poleblade: finish Yura's questline. 12 Str, 21 Dex, 19 Arc and fire with blood loss on every spin.

Greatswords and colossal swords

This is the largest group on the wiki and the backbone of most Strength builds. Greatswords are the balanced choice: heavy enough to stagger, quick enough to chain. Colossal swords step up again in reach and stance damage at the cost of speed and weight. Boss-tier examples here include the Blasphemous Blade with its life-steal skill and the Starscourge Greatsword with a gravity pull. Best Greatswords and Best Colossal Weapons rank the field.

Axes, hammers and great hammers

Strike damage is the reason to carry a hammer. Armoured enemies that shrug off slashes crumble to a mace, and the great hammers and greataxes pile on stance damage so bosses fall over sooner. Several here carry an unusual perk: the Great Stars restores health on every hit and bleeds, and the Icerind Hatchet comes with Hoarfrost Stomp built in. Flails are their own small class, mapped in All Flail Locations.

Spears, great spears and halberds

Polearms let you attack from behind a shield and out-range most enemies, which makes them the class of choice for cautious play and for fighting from Torrent's back. Spears deal pierce, halberds mix sweeps and thrusts, and great spears bring colossal-tier stagger. The Bolt of Gransax is the standout, a lightning spear that throws bolts and ranks among the strongest anti-dragon tools. Best Spears ranks the class.

Two spear-named incantations are easy to confuse with this class. Lightning Spear needs 17 Faith and comes from the Dragon Cult, and Ancient Dragon's Lightning Spear needs 32 Faith and the Ancient Dragon Prayerbook. Both are covered in the spells guide and in Incantations Locations.

Reapers, whips, fists and claws

These four small classes share a niche appeal. Reapers sweep wide and bleed, whips reach further than any melee weapon and bleed too, and fists and claws are the fastest weapons in the game for stacking status build-up up close. Our roundups fill in the entries we do not have individual pages for: Every Scythe Location, Every Whip, Best Fist Weapons and Best Claws.

• Winged Scythe: Tombsward Ruins chest. A holy reaper and one of the earliest Faith weapons.
• Hoslow's Petal Whip: kill Juno Hoslow or finish the Volcano Manor contracts. 10 Str, 20 Dex, heavy blood loss.
• Urumi: inside Caria Manor. 10 Str, 19 Dex with a B in Dexterity, the highest attack rating of the whips.
• Cipher Pata: below the Roundtable Hold balcony. Weighs nothing, needs 30 Faith, and its Unblockable Blade ignores shields.
• Clinging Bone: dropped by Ensha of the Royal Remains at the Roundtable Hold, with Lifesteal Fist.
• Grafted Dragon: Godrick's Remembrance. A fire-breathing fist for Strength and Faith.
• Spiked Caestus: sold by the Isolated Merchant in Dragonbarrow and comes as a pair.
• Star Fist: a soldier's corpse in Leyndell. Blood loss and Endure.
• Veteran's Prosthesis: drop from Commander Niall on the roof of Castle Sol. 15 Str, 12 Dex and lightning.

Colossal weapons

Colossal weapons are the heaviest class and hit like it: enormous stance damage, slow swings, and requirements that often demand two-handing. Many of the colossal swords and great hammers above belong here in spirit, so treat this section as the odd-shaped ones.

• Dragon Greatclaw: Draconic Tree Sentinel drop. 30 Str, 14 Dex, Endure, and extra damage against dragons.
• Ghiza's Wheel: kill Inquisitor Ghiza inside Volcano Manor. 28 Str, 18 Dex and a spinning saw skill that shreds anything standing still.
• Fallingstar Beast Jaw: dropped by the Full-Grown Fallingstar Beast on top of Mt. Gelmir. Our boss page covers the fight; the weapon is a gravity colossal that features in Best Gravity Weapons.

Bows, greatbows, crossbows and ballistae

Ranged weapons are two-handed the moment you draw them and scale poorly, so their value comes from the arrow you load and the skill on the bow. Light bows fire on the move, longbows hit harder, greatbows stagger, and crossbows and ballistae ignore scaling altogether in favour of raw bolt damage. Best Bows, Best Ranged Weapons and Every Greatbow cover the class, and Best Arrows And Bolts covers the ammunition.

Glintstone staves

A staff does not fight; it multiplies. Its sorcery scaling number, driven almost entirely by Intelligence, sets how hard every sorcery you cast will hit, and many staves add a percentage boost to one school of magic on top. Casting speed and FP cost can also change, which is the Azur and Lusat trade-off. All Staff Locations lists every staff and Best Staffs ranks the ones that matter.

Sacred seals

Seals are to incantations what staves are to sorceries. Faith drives their scaling, though the Dragon Communion Seal runs on Arcane and the Golden Order Seal splits Faith and Intelligence. Most seals boost one family of incantations by around 15 to 20 percent, so a Faith character usually swaps seals to match the spell. Best Sacred Seals ranks them.

The Imp Statue Seal is unrelated to casting despite the name. It is the misty door opened with a Stonesword Key, and the page under locations maps every one of them.

Farming, rarity and the weapons to skip

A surprising number of good weapons never appear in a chest. They drop from enemies at rates our pages record as low as 0.5 percent for the Noble's Slender Sword, 1 percent for the Cleanrot Spear, 1.5 percent for the Bandit's Curved Sword, 2 percent for the Beastman's Curved Sword and Guardian's Swordspear, and a comparatively generous 4 percent for the Knight's Greatsword. All of those figures assume 100 Discovery, and Discovery rises with Arcane, so a few levels or a Silver-Pickled Fowl Foot cut the grind. Rarest Weapons ranks the worst offenders and where to farm them.

At the other end, some weapons are simply not worth the slot. Worst Weapons explains why the Serpent-Hunter is a one-fight gimmick, why the Axe of Godfrey disappoints after the fight that earns it, and what to carry instead. For the overall picture, Best Weapons and Where to Find Them picks a winner in every class, and once you have settled on a weapon, the Builds section shows the talismans, Ashes of War and summons that complete it.

Elden Ring weapons FAQ

What is the best weapon in Elden Ring?

There is no single answer because scaling ties every weapon to a build. On a Strength character the Giant-Crusher, Ruins Greatsword and Starscourge Greatsword lead; on Dexterity the katanas and the Dragon King's Cragblade; on Intelligence Moonveil and the Sword of Night and Flame; on Faith the Blasphemous Blade; on Arcane Rivers of Blood and the Ripple Blade. Start from the build stat table above and follow the roundup.

How many Legendary Armaments are there?

Nine, and gathering all of them unlocks a trophy. Bolt of Gransax is the only one you can lose, because it vanishes when Leyndell turns to ash.

Do I need Smithing Stones or Somber Smithing Stones?

Look at the upgrade menu. Standard weapons take regular stones and go to +25. Boss, Remembrance, Legendary and other unique weapons take somber stones and stop at +10. A weapon that refuses Ashes of War is almost always on the somber track.

What is the highest stat requirement on any weapon?

The Giant-Crusher's 60 Strength. Two-handing it lowers the effective bar to 40, since a two-handed grip counts Strength at about one and a half times its value.

Can every weapon be upgraded?

No. The Meteorite Staff cannot be reinforced at all, which is why it falls behind other staves later even though it starts with S scaling. A few other catalysts and consumable throwing weapons such as the Kukri also sit outside the upgrade system.

Which weapon classes does the wiki cover?

Daggers, straight swords, thrusting swords, curved swords and curved greatswords, katanas, twinblades, greatswords and colossal swords, axes and hammers, spears and halberds, reapers, whips, fists and claws, colossal weapons, bows and crossbows, glintstone staves and sacred seals, with 150 individual weapon pages across them. Shields have their own section in Shields.