There are hundreds of Elden Ring weapons to choose from, so finding the best is something of a challenge.
With over 300 of them, the sheer variety offers plenty of choices when it comes to dealing hefty damage in The Lands Between. Not all of them will suit your playstyle, so it's important to know what the different types are as you play.
Elden Ring weapons list can be a seriously daunting thing at first glance. Do you go for speed over strength? Or are you a spellcasting aficionado? The possibilities are as limitless as the Lands Between themselves, and your time in Elden Ring could be significantly more difficult if you choose the wrong kind of weapon for your build. There are even some weapons that can be used to apply extra damage to certain bosses, but you'll need to know where to find them first.
To help you out, we’ve put together an overview of the different Elden Ring weapon types. From light daggers to two-handed great swords to ranged crossbows, get the lowdown on the vast range of Elden Ring weapon classes right here.
Elden Ring weapons
Elden Ring weapons: Light
- Claws
- Daggers
- Fists
Light weapons tend to have incredibly low range, lesser stat requirements, and absurdly high attack speed. Daggers have a slightly longer range than the other two listed, and also have excellent critical damage, which means you’ll do more damage with backstabs or ripostes.
Claws are incredibly fast weapons that excel in building up Bleed on your opponents. While they do little Poise damage, meaning you won't stun enemies often, the bleed effect tends to stagger most enemies. Finally, Fists mostly do blunt damage, which is great against armored enemies. They come with a variety of damage types too.
If you’re looking for a recommendation, we love dual-wielding the Hookclaws. These Claws require eight Strength and fourteen Dexterity to wield. You can find them in Stormveil Castle by taking the optional secret path to the left of the main gate. Once you get inside, they are just past a patrolling enemy underneath the first set of stairs.
Elden Ring weapons: Standard
- Axes
- Curved Swords
- Flails
- Hammers
- Katanas
- Reapers
- Straight Swords
- Thrusting Swords
- Torches
Standard weapons are the most common of the weapon groups. It encompasses a great many weapons, each with its own pros and cons. Axes, for example, have a slightly shorter range than something like a Thrusting Sword.
The stat requirements and weight of each weapon tend to be higher than the light weapons, but they also generally have slightly better damage, and the boost to your attack range is often worth the extra weight.
The Sword of Night and Flame is one of the legendary weapons in Elden Ring. It can easily carry you through large chunks of the game. It requires twelve Strength and Dexterity, and twenty-four Intelligence and Faith. The main draw of this weapon is that it deals Physical, Magic, and Fire damage, and its special abilities can stun bosses or wipe out hordes with ease. You can find this in Carian Manor after reaching the second Site of Grace.
Elden Ring weapons: Midrange
- Spears
- Halberds
- Whips
If you like melee weapons but you don’t really like being up in your enemies’ faces, you’ll likely want to pick one of these weapon types. Spears are excellent for poking enemies while keeping your shield up and can be great on horseback. Halberds can be used for both thrusting attacks and sweeping attacks, which makes them more versatile than spears, though they’re also usually slower. Whips tend to have lower damage than most weapons, but their range is unparalleled when it comes to melee weapons.
Our pick for this class is the Golden Halberd. If you’ve met the Tree Sentinel already, then you’ll know how strong this can be. You need thirty Strength, fourteen Dexterity, and twelve Faith to use this. The weapon's skill buffs you and nearby allies, and you can get your hands on it by killing the Tree Sentinel right next to where you enter Limgrave.
Elden Ring weapons: Two-Handed
- Colossal Swords
- Colossal Weapons
- Curved Greatswords
- Greataxes
- Great Spears
- Greatswords
- Heavy Thrusting Swords
- Twinblades
- Warhammers
If you’re looking to embrace weapons with massive stat requirements and equally hefty damage, you’re in the right place. Two-handed weapons come in a large variety of types, tend to weigh a lot, and are generally geared more towards strength builds.
You don’t actually have to two-hand these weapons, but given how high some of the stat requirements are, it’ll likely be how you learn to use them initially. Twin-Blades are the odd ones out here, but while they tend to be lighter than the other weapons in this section, you’ll usually want to two-hand them as it vastly improves your damage output thanks to the more fluid combo potential.
Ghiza’s Wheel is a super fun, hulking giant pizza cutter-like weapon. It applies Bleed to enemies and the weapon's skill allows you to make the wheel spin. It requires twenty-eight Strength and eighteen Dexterity to use. You can get this weapon quite easily when you reach Volcano Manor up on the Altus Plateau. Just go upstairs once you reach the manor and beat the invader to acquire this.
Elden Ring weapons: Ranged
- Ballistas
- Bows
- Crossbows
- Greatbows
- Light Bowslist
As long as you don’t mind the additional crafting, you can have a lot of fun with ranged weapons. Ballistas and greatbows are both excellent for strength-based characters, crossbows can be fired from the hip fairly well, and bows and short bows are both good for more surgical attacks.
The downside of these weapons is that the scaling on them is never especially great, which means your stats won’t affect the damage you’re doing as much as it would with other weapons.
Crepus’s Black-Key Crossbow is quite the mouthful, but it’s also a wonderfully reliable weapon. It needs fourteen Strength and sixteen Dexterity to use, and it fires out whatever bolts you equip at the time. You can get this as soon as your reach the Roundtable Hold too. Just go downstairs past the blacksmith and use a Stonesword Key before opening a chest.
Elden Ring weapons: Magical Catalysts
- Glintstone Staffs
- Sacred Seals
Finally, we have the magical catalysts. Glinstone Staffs are the ones you’ll want if you’re looking to dabble in sorcery spells, while Sacred Seals allow you to cast incantations. Intelligence governs sorcery spells, and faith is in charge of incantations. Most schools of magic also have dedicated magical catalysts that will give spells from that school a substantial buff to their damage. That said, there’s nothing to stop you from casting any spell you have apart from your stats.
The Meteorite Staff is an oddity among Elden Ring weapons because you can’t upgrade it. Thankfully, it comes with an S rating scaling in intelligence anyway, so you don’t need to make it better. You need six Strength and eighteen Intelligence to wield it, and it also boosts gravity sorcery spells. You can find this on a body hanging out of a window in some ruins in the swamp area of Caelid.
