The best weapons in Elden Ring are the ones that fulfill what you need in a game. Thankfully, this game has a lot of weapons that offer impressive damage values and are suited for players of many kinds.
Icerind Hatchet
The Icerind Hatchet is an incredible axe. It inflicts frost and its Ash of War, Hoarfrost Stomp, is notorious for being one of the most powerful in the game.
It’s a good weapon to use when dealing with mobs, given the Hoarfrost Stomp’s area of effect. It scales with Strength and Dexterity, but it leans more towards the latter stat at higher levels.
The major flaw of the Icerind Hatchet is that its base damage isn’t very noteworthy, even at maximum level.
You can find this weapon in Temple Quarter in Liurnia. It’s in a chest inside a sunken tower.
Golden Order Seal
The Golden Order Seal is a Sacred Seal used for Incantations. At max level, it has the highest Incantation scaling in the game. It also boosts Golden Order Fundamentalist Incantations by 10%.
To take advantage of this seal’s full power, you’ll need to level both of the stats it scales with, which are Faith and Intelligence. This makes the weapon a beast for pure mage builds.
You can obtain this weapon by looting a corpse found next to the Minor Erdtree Church in Leyndell.
Prince of Death’s Staff
The Prince of Death’s Staff is to Sorceries what the Golden Order Seal is to Incantations. This staff reaches enormous levels of damage at max level and once your Intelligence and Fath are leveled up enough.
You can find this staff in Deeproot Depths. It’s at the top level of one of the towers you can reach by running on the large branches in the area.
Giant-Crusher
The Giant-Crusher is the ultimate weapon for those who want to carry a weapon that’s larger than their bodies. This Colossal Weapon is colossal indeed. It deals an immense amount of physical damage, but it also requires a huge amount of Strength to wield.
The Giant-Crusher has a 60 Strength requirement. It has a Strike damage type, which means enemies that are weak to this like Crystalians and Miners will absolutely crumble to this weapon.
Like all Colossal weapons, the main drawback of this weapon is its slow attack speed.
You can loot the back of a carriage south of the Outer Wall Phantom Tree Site of Grace to get this weapon. Be mindful of the Ulcerated Tree Spirit that will spawn once you get close to it.
Reduvia
The Reduvia is a Dagger that inflicts bleed. It can be obtained very early in the game, making it one of the best weapons during the early game.
However, this weapon can definitely carry you until the end of the game. It scales with Strength, Dexterity, and Arcane. As long as you increase its necessary stats, Arcane in particular to raise its bleed build-up, this dagger can put down any boss in Elden Ring.
Like all daggers, the weapon’s main downside is its short reach. Its lack of reach, however, is compensated by its ranged Ash of War, the Reduvia Blood Blade. This hurls a blood disc towards enemies, dealing damage and causing blood loss build-up.
You can get this item after defeating Bloody Finger Nerijus. This NPC invades you outside Murkwater Catacombs in Limgrave.
Ruins Greatsword
The Ruins Greatsword is a fantastic and powerful weapon. It’s perfect for Strength builds that also incorporate a bit of magic into their arsenal.
Its Ash of War, Wave of Destruction, has you slam the ground, causing spikes to rise up from the ground in a straight pattern across you. This can cause enemies to stagger or to completely get knocked back.
It has a Strength requirement of 50. At max level, the weapon’s Strength scaling reaches S level, which means its damage increases further the more you level up the stat.
You earn this weapon after defeating the Misbegotten Warrior and Crucible Knight duo boss fight in Redmane Castle.
Hand of Malenia
The Hand of Malenia is, as the name implies, Malenia’s weapon. Those who fought her know how excruciatingly difficult this boss is. One of her moves, in particular, requires perfection to be avoided.
After you defeat her, you then have the opportunity to use that move on other enemies. The Hand of Malenia’s Ash of War, the Waterfowl Dance, replicates Malenia’s infamous move. It’s a great attack to deal with multiple enemies. It also staggers humanoid enemies as the attack is going on.
This katana also causes blood loss buildup, making it even deadlier than it already is. It scales with Strength and Dexterity, but the scaling for the latter stat is higher than the former.
Go to Enia at the Roundtable Hold after you defeat Malenia. You can obtain the weapon there from her Remembrance.
Ghiza’s Wheel
Bloodborne fans, rejoice! Ghiza’s Wheel is very reminiscent of the Whirligig Saw from Bloodborne. It also has a very similar function. Its Ash of War causes the wheel at the head of the weapon to continuously spin. It will continue to deal damage and build up blood loss as long as it’s in contact with an enemy.
The Ghiza’s Wheel is a Strength weapon, but it also scales with dexterity.
You can get this weapon by defeating the Inquisitor Ghiza on the second floor of the Volcano Manor.
Winged Scythe
The Winged Scythe is a decent quality weapon that also scales with faith, making it deal holy damage. Its range is substantial and its attack speed is fast for its range. On top of that, it also causes blood loss build-up.
The weapon also has a ranged attack with its Ash of War, Angel’s Wings. This skill sends discs of light hurling toward enemies. What’s even more incredible about this is that it disables another enemy’s ability to use Flasks. This means they won’t be able to heal if they get hit by this. This makes this weapon an absolute monster for PvP.
You can find this weapon in a chest in a small room in the Tombsward Ruins.
Sword of Night and Flame
The Sword of Night and Flame sword is the best weapon for pure mage builds. It scales with Faith and Arcane, and a little bit with Strength and Dexterity.
Its weapon skill essentially transforms the sword into an instrument of magic. Once activated, the normal attack is replaced with Comet Azur, and the strong attack summons flames bursting forward.
You can find this weapon in a chest in Caria Manor.
Starscourge Greatsword
The Starscourge Greatsword is the weapon of the famed General Radahn. It is classified as a Colossal Sword, which means it has a slow attack speed but grossly high damage output.
The skill of this weapon causes enemies to get drawn in, which is then followed up by a ground slam which causes a massive explosion. This deals immense damage and is great for dealing with crowds.
The weapon scales primarily with Strength, and a little bit with Dexterity and Intelligence. Of all the Colossal Weapons in the game, the Starscourge Greatsword has the shortest reach. Don’t let that caveat turn you off, however.
When two-handing the weapon, you instead dual-wield both Greatswords, giving you two weapons for the price of one.
You can get this by trading Radahn’s Remembrance for this weapon from Enia.
Blasphemous Blade
The Blasphemous Blade is the weapon of Rykard, Lord of Blasphemy. It’s a great weapon for Strength/Faith builds. It deals fire damage, making it perfect for those who are weak against this element.
The best thing about this weapon is its Ash of War, Taker’s Flames. This skill sends pillars of fire in a line across you. Upon hitting enemies, 10% of your health gets restored. It’s also capable of knocking back enemies.
You can obtain this by giving Rykard’s Remembrance to Enia at the Roundtable Hold.
Eleonora’s Poleblade
Eleonora’s Poleblade is a twinblade that deals both physical and fire damage. To boot, it also causes blood loss build-up. Being a twinblade, the attack speed for this weapon is insanely fast.
What makes it even more powerful is that this weapon has a very strong stagger. You can potentially cause enemies to become immobile for a short while as you keep dealing damage to them. As an icing on the cake, its weapon skill is not only stylish but also very effective and deadly.
Eleonora’s Poleblade scales with Dexterity and Arcane, and a little bit with Strength.
You can get this weapon after defeating Eleonora, Violet Bloody Finger. She invades you at the Second Church of Marika in Altus Plateau.
Greatsword
The Greatsword is an insanely powerful weapon that’s perfect for Strength builds. It is very straightforward. It’s more on power and less on gimmicks. You can buff and infuse this weapon with any compatible Ash of War, which means you can turn this into a bleed weapon, a cold weapon, or whichever you see fit.
It has a considerably long reach. Couple this with the weapon’s swiping attack pattern and you have a weapon that’s great for handling multiple enemies at once.
The design of the weapon itself is a reference to Guts’ weapon from the manga Berserk.
You can obtain this weapon by looting the back of a black carriage in Caelid.
Rivers of Blood
The Rivers of Blood katana is the god of all bleed weapons in Elden Ring. Given how a lot of enemies and bosses in the game are weak to bleed, the Rivers of Blood is potentially the deadliest weapon you can use. It’s also an absolute killer in PvP for the same reason.
Its weapon skill, the Corpse Piler, sends you hurling and slashing at enemies at an outrageous pace, dealing damage and building up blood loss.
This weapon scales primarily with Arcane and Dexterity. Once you level up your Arcane stat high enough, its blood loss build-up rate also rises, making it so much more powerful.
