How To Two-Hand And Power Stance Weapons In Elden Ring

In this guide, we will walk you through how to Two-Hand weapons in Elden Ring since the control mechanism works a bit differently this time.

If you are coming from any of the Dark Souls games, you will be familiar with the ability of Two-Handing weapons to enter the Power Stance in Elden Ring.

This time, however, the combat mechanic comes with a different set of bindings. There are also some other things to know about Two-Handing weapons and Power Stancing in Elden Ring.

If you were wondering about your character wielding two weapons at the same time, here is what you need to know about Two-Handing weapons in Elden Ring.

Two-Hand stat requirements in Elden Ring

There is no stat requirement for two-handing a weapon but if you do, it will provide you a virtual Strength boost of almost 50 percent. That increased strength will allow you to hold and use the weapon even if you don’t meet the Str requirements.

The said strength amplification will only work with weapons that scale with Strength. Two Handing does not amplify other stat of the weapons like Dexterity, Arcane, Faith, etc.

How to Two-Hand weapons in Elden Ring

To Dual wield or Two-Hand weapons in Elden Ring, you must equip the two weapons you want to wield in each hand. Choose a weapon for your left-hand and right-hand slots respectively.

Almost all the weapons in Elden Ring can be dual-wielded or Two-handed, the exception being bows and other ranged weapons. This is because you require the use of both hands to operate the weapon.

The first step to two-hand is to select the weapons that you want to hold with both hands. Press the right arrow to change your Right-Hand Weapon and the left arrow to change your Left-Hand Weapon

Now once your weapons are slotted console players can Two-hand by holding the Y or triangle button on their controllers; and pressing L1/LB for using their left-handed weapon and Pressing R1/RB for using their right-handed weapon.

To two-hand or dual-wield on a PC using a keyboard and mouse, you must press and hold the E key. Now to use your left and right, hand weapons click the Left and Right click button on your mouse respectively.

Why use Two-Hand weapons in Elden Ring

Where traditional weapon setups allow you to wield a weapon and a shield on each hand, two-handing a weapon increases your damage output by giving you the opportunity to use multiple weapons of different classes and create different attacks. 

For example, with two hands you can use weapons that have a higher strength requirement compared to your current level. Doing this will give you a slight boost in strength that may be enough to use.

Two-Handing weapons are extremely useful for the boss fights as you will increase your damage of both light and heavy attacks. You can also experiment by pairing different weapons with each other to create interesting combos. 

Interestingly you can while dual wielding you can utilize the light attacks of different weapons having different weights. So by two-handing, you can equip a slower weapon like a hammer in one hand and a quicker weapon like a dagger in the other.

Two-Handing weapons will also affect your damage rolls as they will give a 1.5 increase to your Dexterity bonus, while off-hand weapons only give a 0.5 Dexterity bonus.  

Dual-Wielding is a high-risk, high-reward gamble, that with the right attack combos can be really useful. However, the only downside to using weapons on both hands is that you can’t use a shield, so you have to dodge enemy attacks by yourself instead of relying on shields to give extra protection.

You must also know that a drawback of two-handing in Elden Ring is the limitation of combos and moves available. This is further reduced when you are not power stancing which can reduce your attack options.

How to Power Stance in Elden Ring

The Power Stance allows you to wield two weapons of the same type in each hand to unlock different movesets that you cannot access by two-handing.

There is no stat requirement to use Power Stancing in Elden ring. You just need to arm yourself with the same type of weapon in both hands.

The same type of weapon means the same class. For example, if you put Keen Uchigatana in your left hand, you must put another Katana in your other hand to enable Power Stance.

You also need to make sure that both of your weapons are of the same level. The damage output will be the product of both weapon levels. Hence, if one weapon has a low level, the overall power of both weapons is going to decrease.

To enter the power stance in Elden Ring, you need to press the L1 button for PlayStation and the Left Bumper for Xbox, and the player will do combo moves that will involve both weapons at the same time and crisscross each other in their paths.

PC players will have to use their right mouse button to enter the Power Stance.

Two Hands vs Power Stance

One of the biggest advantages of two-handing a weapon is that you can equip a shield on the offhand to boost your defenses in the head of combat. Carrying a shield becomes impossible in Power Stance since you’re required to hold two weapons in both hands.

For example, if you’re two-handing a curved sword, the attack pattern is with one hand. But if you are Power Stancing, the attack pattern is with both hands at the same time. The damage done by the weapon is the same, but Power Stance doubles the amount of time the weapon is used at a particular amount of time. The result is double damage with Power Stancing.

Power Stancing a weapon will result in an almost 10 percent increase in the poise damage. For example, two-handed poise damage for the curved sword is 56, and for Power Stance it is 61.

An advantage to Two Handing a weapon is the increase in Strength which you cannot get with the Power Stancing.

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