The best weapons to dominate Elden Ring

Shatter your enemies just like they shattered the Elden Ring

There are many ways to go about becoming the Elden Lord, but some weapons will make the quest easier and make you look cooler while doing it than others. There’s no such thing as a truly awful weapon in this game. Pretty much any build and playstyle can conduct you to victory — even Elon Musk’s comically and cosmically dumb build — perhaps. Anyway, here are the ones we’d pick to conquer the Lands Between in style.

Starscourge Greatsword

The Starscourge Greatsword is two incredibly powerful greatswords for the price — ahem, weight — of one. This means we can “powerstance” (aka using two weapons at once), without the need for actually having a weapon to use on your other hand.

Switch it to two-handed mode and your character will be wielding two magnificent Greatswords. That might feel like an exploit but no, we’re not breaking the game. The Starscourge Greatsword just bends its rules, just like it bends gravity itself. This is a weapon all Greatsword lovers are sure to want.

Required Attributes: Str 38, Dex 12, Int 15

Where to find: As with some of the best weapons in the game, you’ll have to get them by killing their wielders. And yeah, you guessed it, Starscourge Radahn isn’t an easy enemy. Once you’ve killed him, bring his remembrance to the roundtable hold and trade it in for his weapon.

Strengths: High damage, powerstancing for free, and the ability to use a Mass Effect style singularity that will line up your enemies perfectly for a massive finishing blow.

Weaknesses: Nothing, really.

Winged Scythe

The Winged Scythe has been one of the game’s most interesting weapons since the day of its release. On top of it working as a scythe, it also casts Ki blasts at enemies. Sign us up. It also helps that it’s not just flashy, it’s also really powerful. This is one of if not the best possible picks for faith users in the game.

Required Attributes: Str 16, Fai 24, Dex 16,

Where to find: Inside a chest that you’ll find in the Tombward Ruins in Weeping Peninsula.

Strengths: Its awesome weapon skill also prevents enemies from healing. Excellent scaling with faith.

Weaknesses: Nothing serious. Does looking too jolly for such a grimdark world count as a problem?

Dark Moon Greatsword

As all Fromsoft historians know by now, every From game must feature a weapon called “Moonlight Greatsword”. Elden Ring is all about shattering conventions so it doesn’t have it exactly; but it does feature the Dark Moon Greatsword, a weapon containing the skill “Moonlight Greatsword”, so that’s something. It also helps that the skill is incredibly strong. Instead of giving you a free attack, it works as a buff that will seriously shoot up your magic attack power.

It also causes frost buildup in enemies, though we don’t know whether that’s one of the weapon’s attributes or the effect it naturally causes on enemies who see you wearing it.*

*It’s one of the weapon’s attributes.

Required Attributes: Str 16, Dex 11, Int 38

Where to find: There’s no easy way to get this one. You’ll have to finish Ranni’s quest. It’s totally worth it, though.

Strengths: An incredible weapon skill combined with frost buildup make this one of the best weapons in the game.

Weaknesses: It’s not faster than any other greatsword in the game.

Death Poker

The Death Poker is a greatsword-class weapon that comes equipped with the edgiest weapon skill name imaginable — Ghostflame Ignition. It does deserve the name, however, as it both buffs your regular attacks and gives you a new and very explosive heavy attack.

Required Attributes: Str 15, Dex 17, Int 11

Where to find: You will need to kill a boss called Death Rite Bird once you head southeast of the Southern Aeonia Swamp Bank. Remember that he only shows up during nighttime.

Strengths: Another brutal Greatsword, and likely the most flashy of the bunch. This one literally causes explosions when you use its beautiful weapon skill.

Weaknesses: The regular lack of speed you’d expect out of a Greatsword.

Hand of Malenia

Players who’ve faced Malenia are 100% likely to hate the waterfowl dance, Malenia’s deadliest attack. The good news is that said attack comes with her weapon, meaning that it allows players to use it against their enemies. Outside of that awesome and awesomely flashy attack, it’s still a great Katana with awesome scaling properties.

Required Attributes: Str: 16, Dex 48

Where to find: Sadly, you will have to take it from Malenia’s cold dead hands — after you’ve killed her. She’s at Elphael, Brace of the Haligtree.

Strengths: It’s a katana (usually a great attribute by itself), and it comes with one awesome built-in ability.

Weaknesses: The waterfowl dance will make every single one of your online opponents hate you. Even though it replenished Malenia’s HP, it doesn’t replenish the players’. That’s a shame, but we get it. The weapon would just become even more overpowered than it already is.

Eleanora’s Poleblade

Katanas aren’t the only weapons that will lead enemies to a bloody demise. Eleanora’s Poleblade excels at bleed buildup, so pick it up if you want to feel like an anime ex-samurai who’s sworn never to use Samurai swords again for some honorable reason but isn’t able to escape his ways entirely.

Its weapon skill, the Bloodblade Dance, is also a thing of beauty that’s sure to leave opponents confused right before they die.

Required Attributes: Str 12, Arc 19, Dex 21

Where to find: You must defeat Eleanora, Violet Bloody Finger at the end of Bloody Finger Hunter Yura’s quest.

Strengths: An awesome weapon skill and very quick bleed buildup.

Weaknesses: Its regular attacks are rather unremarkable damage-wise.

Rivers Of Blood

This katana was once a go-to weapon when dominating Elden Ring. Fast, easy to use, and featuring arguably the best weapon skill in the game – Corpse Piler – which does a series of wide and long-reaching slashes that deal a high amount of damage. It heavily resembles Mortal Draw, one of the best combat abilities in Sekiro.

It also has the ability to make most enemies bleed hard. The Rivers Of Blood Katana needed nerfs from the get-go, but it remains an all-time great even after losing some of its punch.

Required Attributes: Str 12, Dex 18, Arc 20

Where to find: When you reach the eastern part of the Mountaintop of the Giants, move toward the Church of Repose ready for a fight. As soon as you get there, Bloody Finger Okina will spawn. Kill her to get the weapon.

Strengths: It’s still the perfect weapon for either PVP or PVE.

Weaknesses: it has been stronger in the past, but it’s still a beast. It’s not great against either of the two forms of the final boss as they don’t bleed.

Greatsword

Forget all the bells and whistles. The greatest of the greatswords in the game is the greatsword they call just “Greatsword”. We hope that was easy to follow.

The regular greatsword allows players to both look and act just like Guts, the hero from the Berserk manga that inspired all of the Souls games. That means it packs one hell of a punch and will ravage pretty much any enemy in the game. Combine it with the Lion’s Claw weapon skill for maximum destruction.

Required Attributes: Str 31, Dex 12

Where to find: Near the Caelem Ruins’ site of grace. You’ll have to steal it from a giant’s carriage. An appropriate challenge, if there ever was one.

Strengths: Excellent for PVE. Easy to use and to deal tons of damage with. Will make you look like the most badass hero of the most badass manga ever written.

Weaknesses:  It’s very simple and therefore likely too predictable for players looking for PVP action.

Blasphemous Blade

Having trouble keeping your HP above zero in Elden Ring? Then the Blasphemous Blade might just be the weapon you’re looking for. On top of it dishing out tons of damage and being relatively easy to use, it also features a weapon skill that’ll take your enemies’ HP to replenish your own. That’s where the blasphemy comes from, we assume.

It requires some faith to use, but only in the sense of in-game faith stat requirements. In real life, it doesn’t require much faith because anyone will quickly realize how great of a weapon this is. Also, have we mentioned how it looks great in an almost Bloodborne kind of way?

Required Attributes: Str 22, Dex 15, Fai 21

Where to find: Kill Rykard at Mt. Ghelmir and convert his remembrance at the roundtable hold into this beautifully horrifying weapon.

Strengths: It’s a truly blasphemous weapon in the sense that it provides players with much more healing options than they’d expect from anything in this world.

Weaknesses: It’s so powerful you might anger the gods that watch over this world, but they already hate everyone!