Elden Ring: Top 10 Best Weapons and Where to Find Them

With the release of the Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree DLC many of us have decided to pick this game to either play it for the first time or replay it to experience the DLC. Whether you’re a fledgling struggling or a veteran looking to try out new builds, this roundup of the top 10 strongest weapons in Elden Ring is sure to have something useful for you.

The weapons here are ranked based on how good they are at delivering AoE damage as well as chopping away at chunks of boss HP with their Weapon Arts. From a PvE perspective, we consider none of these as weapons so busted that they need to be nerfed. One of the great things about Elden Ring’s questionable balancing is that you can lean heavier into becoming as OP as possible than you could in other Souls games.

Sacred Relic Sword

The Sacred Relic Sword is one of the best weapons in the game, and the best weapon, period, if you ranked by weapon art alone. Its skill, Wave of Gold fires out a massive wave of AoE damage that arcs out and travels for a ridiculously long distance for 50 FP. Its damage is enough to one shot smaller enemies and seriously damage larger foes while staggering them as well. Enemies killed by the Wave of Gold also drop additional Runes.

You can cast your weapon art at a group of enemies and then pick off at the ones left with a sliver of health. The weapon itself scales on Str/Dex while favoring Dex, and the projectile scales on Fai alone. Its ideal use case is with a Dex-Quality build with decent investment in Faith and Mind. You can also powerstance it with the Blasphemous Blade or Sword of Milos to have HP regen or FP regen respectively. You can also hold it just for its weapon art in a mage build and get some good use out of it.

One of the caveats of the weapon is that due to the large AoE of its skill, you have the risk of accidentally killing NPCs that stand in the way, but a little bit of awareness goes a long way in avoiding that.

Where to Find: Trade Elden Remembrance with Enia at Roundtable Hold after defeating the Elden Beast.

Blasphemous Blade

Blasphemous Blade is another Str/Dex/Fai weapon with slightly better scaling than the Sacred Relic Sword. As briefly mentioned before, when you kill an enemy while holding this blade, you restore some HP. This attribute makes it one of the best sustain weapons for general exploration. Its weapon art, Taker’s Flames, is similar to Sacred Relic Sword, except that it fires out in a straight line on the ground instead, and it costs 30FP. You can use this weapon and the SRS with the same Quality build with some investment in Faith.

Where to Find: Trade Remembrance of Blasphemous at the Roundtable hold with Enia after defeating Rykard.

Sword of Night and Flame

Sword of Night and Flame is a Str/Dex/Int and Fai weapon with two unique weapon arts depending on whether you do a light attack or a strong attack with your FP. Doing the former shoots a beam that does decent damage from a range for 19FP, but it is prone to misses and doing the latter unleashes a flame wave with rather short range and decent AoE for 23FP, but the damage is quite good. The weapon provides good utility and damage with the added benefit of being able to run this in a Dex/Int focused build.

Where to Find: In Caria Manor in a locked room behind the gardens in the east side of the manor.

Moonveil

The Moonveil is one of the most stylish weapons in the game and definitely a fan favorite. It has strong, quick slashes with its light and heavy attacks. Its unique skill, Transient Moonlight does either a short horizontal or vertical wave depending on whether you do a light attack or a heavy attack for 15FP and 20FP respectively. The weapon scales on Str/Dex and Int. The best aspect of this weapon is how quickly each of its attacks come out. It’s perfect if you are the type of player who prefers to dodge around the enemy and unleash devastating damage after dodging each attack. This weapon’s only caveat is that it has short range, requiring you to stay closer to your enemies.

Where to Find: Defeat Magma Wyrm.

Rivers of Blood

Rivers of Blood is a highly powerful katana that, as its name suggests, gets its damage output primarily from bleed effects. Because of this, the weapon usually requires Dex/Arc build. Its weapon art, Bloody Finger Okina, fires a flurry of diagonal slashes that procs bleed and does fire damage in a small AoE in front of the player. It is also one of the fastest weapons to afflict the hemorrhage effect with its skill. Its light and heavy attacks come out quite fast and they do impressive physical damage from. The one downside of this weapon is that its damage falls off when taking on bleed resistant enemies.

Where to Find: Defeat Bloody Finger Okina.

Bloodhound’s Fang

The Bloodhound’s Fang finds its place in this list because of how early you can find this weapon and its innate potential. It scales primarily on Str and Dex and its unique skill, Bloodhound’s Finesse, makes you do a backflip away from your foe and gives you some distance with the option of doing a follow-up attack to do decent damage. This skill has some invulnerability frames also, providing even more utility to those who can make use of it. It’s also one of the few weapons that proc the bleed effect innately. The Bloodhound’s weapon has many things going for it, and it is definitely worth considering despite it being found in the early game.

Where to Find: Defeat Knight Darriwil

Ruins Greatsword

The Ruins Greatsword is one of the best Str weapons because of its wide AoE slashes and powerful weapon skill. The skill is like the Blasphemous Blade’s, in that it shoots out a straight wave on the ground except that it does gravity damage for only 25FP. Strength players usually have to rely mostly on slashing their weapons around, but this weapon is different as its skill, Waves of Destruction, is quite good and very much worth using.

One thing to note about gravity attacks is that they’re considered physical damage so they’re easier to block than, say, fire or holy attacks.

Where to Find: Defeat Misbegotten Warrior and Crucible Knight.

Dark Moon Greatsword

You can’t have a Souls game without the staple Moon Sword. This implementation scales with Int, Dex and Str and deals 100% magic damage when used effectively. This weapon skill, Moonlight Greatsword makes your character hold up their weapon and harnesses the power of the moon for 32FP. It imbues your attacks with magic and each attack deals magic damage. Its strong attack is also unique as it fires a projectile when buffed by its skill which can also be charged to deal increased damage. The weapon’s downside is that you must remember to use its still every 60 seconds to use it effectively. Since the Dark Moon Greatsword deals primarily magic damage, you can invest heavily in Int and play this in a mage build.

Where to Find: Give Ranni The Dark Moon Ring after finishing her questline.

Winged Scythe

The Winged Scythe is a unique reaper that scales incredibly well even into NG+. It deals primarily physical damage, inflicts bleed innately, and scales on Fai, Dex and Str. With its skill, Angel’s Wings, you do a leap and 2 diagonal slashes that deal decent holy damage for only 17FP. You can spam this skill to do a burst of damage in a small AoE. The con of this weapon is that it falls off a little in late game as most enemies resist holy damage at that point, but this is one of the best reapers in the game and it scales better the more you invest in your character.

Where to Find: Underground, in a chest in Tombsward Ruins.

Moghwyn’s Sacred Spear

Mohgwyn’s Sacred Spear is a great speat that scales with Str, Dex and Arcane. Its skill, Bloodboon Ritual, deals fire damage in an AoE and inflicts bleed onto enemies for 20FP. It also adds fire damage to the weapon. The weapon boasts high single target damage even though it is AoE. It is recommended to invest in Arc as the weapon’s skill damage and bleed both scales well from it.

Where to Find: Trade Remembrance of the Blood Lord with Enia at Roundtable Hold after defeating Mohg.

Honorable Mention: Banished Knight’s Halberd 

Banished Knight’s Halberd gets an honorable mention on this list because of the utility it provides and how well it scales well into late game. You can come across this weapon right as you start this playthrough and pretty much use it till the end of the game. It scales on Str and Dex. You can either do a Quality build or a Dex build and get good damage out of it. The light attacks are all pokes that do high piercing damage from a decent range, and the heavy attacks offer decent AoE and damage during the few opportune moments that allow them. Its default skill, Charge Forth, is quite useful at 16FP if you can make use of its long range, but you can also slap on an Ash like Stormcaller too.

Where to Find: Farm Banished Knights in Stormveil for a chance to drop this weapon.

Also, check out our Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree review and other guides below:

- Elden Ring: Top 10 Best Ashes of War and Where to Find Them
- Elden Ring: Top 10 Armor Sets and Where to Find Them
- How To Unlock Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree DLC
- Shadow of the Erdtree: Scadutree Fragments & Revered Spirit Ash Locations
- Elden Ring: Shadow of The Erdtree | How to Find All Map Fragments
- Shadow of the Erdtree – Full Story and NPC Quest Guide
- Top 10 Optional Bosses in Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree
- All Remembrance Duplication Coffin Locations in Shadow of the Erdtree
- Top 10 Best Weapons in Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree DLC
- Top 10 Best Ashes of War in Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree DLC
- Top 10 Best Armors in Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree
- Top 10 Talismans in Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree
- Top 10 best Incantations in Elden Ring DLC: Shadow of the Erdtree
- Ranking All 14 Sorceries in Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree
- All Helmets, Armor Pieces with Special Effects in Shadow of the Erdtree

And I've published my Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree Review | PlayStation 5 on GamesCreed. Give it a read.