Elden Ring – The 13 Best Weapons In Shadow Of The Erdtree

In Elden Ring, the Shadow Of The Erdtree expansion brought forth over 100 new weapons to experiment with. With the sheer amount of options available, it can be tricky to discover which weapon will suit your play style. Thankfully, many of the new additions are strong across a variety of builds.

Faith builds received an overwhelming number of items compared to other builds, which could potentially skew the best weapons to be for Faith. While there were definitely more Faith weapons added, Arcane and Intelligence did receive some love. As such, this list attempts to congregate the best weapons that can be utilized by as many builds as possible, with some notable exceptions.

13 Star-Lined Sword

For Master Yoda Enthusiasts

The Star-Lined Sword is a new katana that scales primarily with Dexterity and Intelligence, boasting an incredible Ash of War. Onze’s Line of Stars, the unique skill of the demi-human swordsmen, is a 5-hit attack that utilizes a teleport slash for the final hit in the chain. This is excellent for consecutive hit builds, allowing you to reach the maximum buff from the Rotten Winged Sword Insignia quite easily.

With the limited amount of options the Shadow Of The Erdtree expansion gave to intelligence builds, the Star-Lined Sword is a breath of fresh air. However, even though the Star-Lined Sword is a great new option for intelligence builds, it actually scales more with dexterity. If you plan to use the Star-Lined Sword, you will benefit more from higher dexterity than you would with higher intelligence.

12 Carian Thrusting Shield

Block And Attack Together

The Carian Thrusting Shield is one of the best new options for intelligence builds, coming with innate magic damage and can be infused with other Ashes of War. There are plenty of great options, both defensive and offensive, as it functions as both a shield and a weapon. Shield Crash is amazing if you plan to use it more as a shield, while Chilling Mist is great if you plan to use it offensively.

The unique aspect of a thrusting shield is that you can attack while guarding as long as you are two-handing the weapon. This can eat into your stamina bar rather quickly, so make use of the Two-Headed Turtle Talisman to speed up your stamina regeneration. Set up with Chilling Mist for Frostbite buildup, and you’ll have a perfect weapon for both exploration and bosses.

11 Greatsword Of Solitude

Big Damage With Fast Attacks

Shadow of the Erdtree adds plenty of large weapons into the game, such as the Greatsword of Solitude, whose ability makes it more versatile than it appears. At first, you may think this is a standard Greatsword, but its speed is far better than most tools of its type. Although this weapon is something only Strength builds will resonate with, its unique skill covers a weakness of that archetype.

This Greatsword is not for every build, as it has one of the highest Weights of any tool in the game at 15.5.

The Greatsword of Solitude’s skill is called Solitary Moon Slash, which causes the weapon to shoot a projectile of energy at a target. You can follow-up this projectile with a powerful heavy attack that deals a ton of stagger to enemies, especially those with shields. This combo is a great way to break enemy defenses, especially as you run into more lethal enemies in areas like the Shadow Keep.

10 Backhand Blades

Dash Swiftly Through Any Enemies

The Backhand Blades are one of the earliest new weapons you can get in Shadow of the Erdtree. This set of swords isn’t too far from where you start the DLC, acting as an introduction to the new Backhand Blade weapon type added to the expansion. The Backhand Blades can do spinning slashes at blinding speeds, making this a great weapon for Dex builds trying to begin their journey in the Land of Shadow.

The Backhand Blades are prized for their versatility, as they can be infused with almost any Ashes of War. However, the unique skill of this weapon, Blind Spot, is its strongest tool. This ability allows you to dash in a blink, stabbing forward with the weapon at the end of your movement. The start-up of Blind Spot gives your character temporary invincibility frames, giving you a way to dodge attacks.

The start-up of Blind Spot makes the Backhand Blades excellent against bosses and even other players in PvP. With enough FP to use this skill over and over, you can use it in quick succession to almost stack your invulnerability. Since the Backhand Blades can also be infused with magic and consumables, there are tons of ways to make it stronger based on your specific build.

9 Dragon-Hunter’s Great Katana

Curse You Bayle!!!

The Dragon-Hunter’s Great Katana is the best weapon in Elden Ring for dragon encounters, of which there is no shortage in both the base game and the Shadow Of The Erdtree expansion. The Ash of War, Dragonwound Slash, does massive bonus damage against dragons, making this weapon an exceptional choice against one of the hardest bosses in the expansion, Bayle the Dread.

This Dragon-Hunter’s Great Katana has quite low stat requirements, meaning it can reliably fit into any build when encountering a dragon. This weapon also excels in the penultimate area of the game, Crumbling Farum Azula, the disintegrating city of dragons. Combo Shard of Alexander and the Godfrey Icon to reach comical levels of damage against dragons.

8 Falx

Amazing For Consecutive Hit Builds

The Falx curved sword, the weapon of the Hornsent, is an absurdly strong weapon for consecutive hit builds and bleed builds, excelling in both PVE and PVP. The Ash of War, Revenger’s Blade, can be charged to increase the distance of the lunge, making it a great tool for gap closing. Follow up with a strong attack to unleash a flurry of six strikes, racking up consecutive hits and blood loss buildup.

This weapon combos incredibly well with a variety of talismans, such as the Rotten Winged Sword Insignia, Millicent’s Prosthesis, and the Lord of Blood’s Exultation. Utilize these three talismans together to massively boost your attack power. This weapon is relentless in the hands of an invader, and can swiftly cut down enemy groups.

7 Sword of Night

Free Magic Damage!

The Sword of Night is one of the coolest new weapons in Shadow Of The Erdtree, a pure Dexterity weapon with innate magic damage and blood loss buildup. The blade is semicorporeal, allowing it to ignore armor negations. It’s Ash of War, Witching Hour Slash, is a jack of all trades. It can be charged to increase its damage, it hits multiple times, and it cannot be blocked. Unfortunately, getting this weapon can be a little convoluted.

Once you have progressed through Count Ymir’s questline and have defeated him, Jolán will be sitting dejected where you first met her. Using the Iris of Occultation on Jolán will lay her to rest, dropping the Sword of Night. However, if you want to acquire her Spirit Ash instead, use the Iris of Grace.

One Iris of Occultation can be found by defeating an Omenkiller in the basement of the Fort of Reprimand and the other by defeating an Ulcerated Tree Spirit in the flooded area of Shadow Keep.

6 Milady

A Buttery Smooth Moveset

The Milady belongs to a new subset of weapons in Elden Ring called the Light Greatswords. While it can be infused with various Ashes of War, the Ash of War Wing Stance is designed specifically for this weapon. Holding the skill button will put you in a stance with two options: a multi-hit light attack or a piercing jump-strong attack.

If you are using Rellana’s Cameo, using other weapons with stance skills can help enhance your build’s versatility.

This weapon is meant to be combined with the new talisman, Rellana’s Cameo, which will increase the damage of any stance attacks by 15%. This not only applies to Wing Stance, but other stances as well, such as Moon-and-Fire Stance, Night-and-Flame Stance, and Unsheathe.

5 Ancient Meteoric Ore Greatsword

The Fastest Colossal Weapon

The Ancient Meteoric Ore Greatsword, a Strength/Arcane colossal sword, lives up to its name as one of the Ruined Forges Treasures. Its Ash of War, White Light Charge, can close gaps incredibly quickly as well as hit incredibly hard for massive magic damage. The standard attacks of this weapon scale vastly more with Strength than Arcane, but the damage from the Ash of War scales more with Arcane than Strength.

Colossal swords are already champions at breaking poise, but with the addition of White Light Charge, enemies and bosses will be staggered incredibly often. Utilize the Shard of Alexander for increased damage from White Light Charge. This weapon fits wonderfully into Dragon Communion builds, which also break poise incredibly fast with incantations like Dragonmaw and Dragonclaw.

Utilize the Stonebarb Cracked Tear for additional poise damage with this weapon.

4 Bloodfiend’s Arm

For When The Boss Is Too Hard

The Bloodfiend’s Arm has already become infamous for its ability to cause blood loss in one hit with its strong attack. It can be infused with a variety of Ashes of War, but there’s really only one option in Royal Knight’s Resolve, as this weapon revolves entirely around single-hit attacks. Royal Knight’s Resolve provides an 80% damage buff on your next attack that lands, having perfect synergy with the Bloodfiend’s Arm.

Because this weapon causes blood loss with every strong attack, the 20% damage buff from the Lord of Blood’s Exultation Talisman will always be active. This makes this item a mainstay talisman for any build using the Bloodfiend’s Arm. Utilizing the Axe Talisman for 10% increased damage from charged attacks is also a perfect addition since there is no reason to use light attacks with this weapon.

3 Fire Knight’s Greatsword

Innate High Faith Scaling

The Fire Knight’s Greatsword is a new colossal sword that comes with innate higher Faith scaling, meaning infusing this weapon with a Flame Art Ash of War will boost its damage even further than other infusions. The new Ashes of War, Flame Skewer and Flame Spear, are both excellent choices for this weapon as they provide a fire-coating buff. These even outpace the tried and true Flaming Strike from the base game.

Unfortunately, this weapon is not a guaranteed drop and will need to be farmed to obtain it. The Fire Knights in the Shadow Keep are no easy enemies either, so be prepared to use some magic or form a reliable strategy for taking out Messmer’s faithful quickly.

Raising your Arcane raises your Discovery, which will help during the farming process. Utilize Silver-Pickled Fowl Foots for an increased chance for this weapon to drop. It can be farmed easily near the Storehouse, First Floor Site of Grace after taking the lift down.

2 Euporia

Spinning Twinblade Of Pure Holy Might

Euporia is a Twinblade that deals both Physical and Holy damage, tearing through enemies once it gets fully upgraded. Although it can’t use Ashes of War or be imbued with magic, this weapon shines through its unique skill – Euporia Vortex. This ability causes you to spin Euphoria in a circular rotation, turning it into a spiraling death machine that rips health bars to shreds in seconds.

Whenever you land seven hits within a ten-second window, you can apply a buff that empowers the Vortex skill. In addition, Vortex then fires holy bolts forward on top of its base effect, giving it projectiles on top of fast attacks that you don’t have to activate manually. The more hits you get, the more Holy damage the Twinblade does as well.

Euphoria’s unique charge effect does not work if you are fighting undead enemies.

This weapon is a must-have for Faith builds, especially when paired with Talismans or other items to buff your damage when dealing multiple hits. Anything that boosts Euporia’s damage will help it destroy even the toughest bosses, even if they resist Holy damage.

1 Spear of the Impaler

The Embrace Of Messmer’s Flame

The Spear of the Impaler is the remembrance weapon of the boss Messmer the Impaler, one of the hardest bosses in the Shadow Of The Erdtree expansion. The Ash of War, Messmer’s Assault, is a multi-hit attack that coats the spear in flame, rapidly slashing and stabbing foes. It finishes the combination by thrusting the spear into the ground, forming dozens of spears around you.

The Spear of the Impaler’s unique skill has three parts,
meaning it can be extended or ended early
depending on your situation.

This weapon synergizes with successive hit builds and fire damage builds, two of the strongest tools in the game. Strong attacks with the spear will also throw it, giving it plenty of ranged potential. It can also be thrown while on horseback. Try this weapon with the Rotten Winged Sword Insignia to embrace your enemies in Messmer’s Flame.

As a boss weapon, it should be little surprise that the Spear of the Impaler is one of the strongest tools you can add to your arsenal. Those who don’t use a Dexterity-focused build in Elden Ring‘s Shadow of the Erdtree DLC may want to use Messmer’s Remembrance on something else, but this new weapon is perhaps your best choice regardless.