The best Elden Ring DLC weapons

There’s no shortage of Elden Ring DLC weapons. FromSoftware added over 100 new armaments to Shadow of the Erdtree, from freaky little whips to swords with spectacular skills and a particularly potent sorcery staff you can only get from completing an easily missable side quest. The balance of weapon types isn’t exactly even. Faith and dexterity builds have the most freedom to choose in Shadow of the Erdtree, but there’s something unique and fun for any Elden Ring build.

We’ve put together a list of the best Elden Ring DLC weapons in every stat category, including arcane, along with where to get them and why they're so good.

Best Elden Ring DLC weapons

• Elden Ring DLC strength weapons
• Elden Ring DLC dexterity weapons
• Elden Ring DLC intelligence weapons
• Elden Ring DLC faith weapons
• Elden Ring DLC arcane weapons
• Elden Ring DLC weird weapons

Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree: Best strength weapons

• Greatsword of Solitude – Defeat the Blackgaol Kight
• Devonia’s Hammer – Defeat Devonia, Knight of the Crucible near the Rauh Ruins Miquella’s Cross
• Bloodfiend’s Arm – Dropped from Bloodfiend enemies, common in Prospect Town and Rauh Ruins
• Putrescence Cleaver – Exchange Putrescence Knight Remembrance
• Ancient Meteoric Ore Greatsword – Complete Ruined Forge of Starfall Past
• Greatsword of Radahn (Lord) – Exchange Miquella’s Remembrance

I played almost all of the DLC except the final fight with the Greatsword of Solitude thanks to its exceptional Ash of War that fires off an arc of moonlight and follows up with a powerful slash. Take it off the Blackgaol Knight as soon as you can. Devonia’s Hammer makes up for its skills long animation time with the fact that it actually reaches further than five inches, unlike the nifty-but-limited Anvil Hammer, while Bloodfiend’s Arm infused with a bleed Ash of War has a whopping 200+ blood loss rating.

The Putrescence Cleaver’s skill is powerful and has a wide range, while the Ancient Meteoric Ore Greatsword hits as hard as it is big – which is to say, really hard. Its Light Charge skill is swift, making it a good balance for the weapon’s size, and it even has magic damage at higher levels.

Finally is Radahn’s sword. Both are solid picks for a strength build, but the Lord version’s skill – Promised Consort – lets you add holy pillars of light to every slash in a fantastic combo just like the ones Radahn used against you.

Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree: Best dexterity weapons

• Rakshasha’s Great Katana – Won in the Eastern Nameless Mausoleum
• Beast Claws – Obtained after defeating Logur in Gravesite Plain
• Obsidian Lamina – Obtained at the end of Ansbach’s quest
• Dragon Hunter’s Great Katana – Obtained after defeating the boss of Dragon Pit
• Sword of Night – Obtained from Jolan after giving her the Iris of Occultation

Dexterity characters are eating so well in Shadow of the Erdtree that it’s hard to pick just a few. I’m a big fan of the Rakshasha Katana’s weed cutter skill, but if you do use this weapon, make sure you don’t wear the armor. Every piece of the set increases how much damage you take, because why not make life harder. The Beast Claws are brutal, a highly effective – and fun – variant of the hookclaws, and the Red Bear’s Claws are a good substitute if you want to, well, be a bear.

Obsidian Lamina has a strong built-in skill, good reach, and decent blood loss stacking, and the Sword of Night has the double bonus of dealing magic damage and giving you a fantastically stylish skill, which makes up for the slightly lower damage scaling.

Also bear in mind that the Dragon Hunter’s Great Katana is still useful outside the Jagged Peak area. It’s very good at harming dragons, as you’d expect from the name, but it also has high damage scaling in general.

Elden Ring DLC: Best faith weapons

• Sword of Light and Sword of Darkness – Transform the Stone-Sheathed Sword
• Euporia – Found in Enir-Ilim
• Greatsword of Damnation – Exchange Midra’s Remembrnace
• Lightning Perfume Bottles – North Cerulean Coast
• Shadow Sunflower Blossom – Exchange Shadow Sunflower Remembrance

There’s no shortage of faith weapons to experiment with, and most of them are really quite good. Greatsword of Damnation just sounds cool, and its built-in Ash of War is fantastic, as it either inflicts heavy damage on a target in front of you or sends barbs out in a circle around you. Euporia lets you charge and fire a vortex of holy light, and the Sword of Light or Sword of Darkness are essential for any holy build. Their skills buff your holy power or reduce the enemy’s holy resistance, respectively.

Shadow Sunflower Blossom works wonderfully if you’re running a strength and faith build, with a good mix of physical and holy damage and a powerful skill. Finally is the Lightning Perfume Bottle, one of the best choices for a Perfumer build and an easy way to deal lots of damage quickly, if you have the Rolling Spark Ash of War.

Elden Ring DLC: Best intelligence weapons

• Maternal Staff – Dropped by Mother of Fingers during Count Ymir’s quest
• Chilling Perfume Bottles – Found in Lamenter’s Gaol in Charo’s Hidden Grave
• Rellana’s Twinblade – Exchange Rellana’s Remembance to obtain
• The Velvet Sword of St Trina – Found in Stone Coffin Fissure

Shadow of the Erdtree compensates for the base game’s glut of intelligence weapons by adding very few, and most of the ones that are in the DLC have faith or dexterity requirements that they scale off more efficiently. There are some good intelligence weapons, though. Chilling Perfume Bottles make applying Frostbite – an ailment nearly every boss is weak to – easy, while Rellana’s Twinblades deal high magic damage and have two skills that stagger foes. The Velvet Sword of St Trina puts enemies to sleep properly, instead of just stunning them like old sleep weapons did, and the Maternal Staff has some of the highest sorcery scaling in the game.

Elden Ring DLC: Best arcane weapons

• Dryleaf Arts – Defeat Dryleaf Dane in Moorth Ruins
• Dryleaf Footwork – Defeat Dane in Enir-Ilim
• Poleblade of the Bud – Exchange Romina’s Remembrance
• Flowerstone Gavel – Obtain from Florissax after defeating Bayle

We’re lumping both Dryleaf weapons under arcane since they end up with higher arcane scaling at higher levels, while dexterity and strength stay pretty low. They’re fast, fun, and easy to use, and you can imbue them with some pretty neat Ashes of War. Romina’s poleblade gets a mention for being one of just a few weapons that actively build Scarlet Rot, an affliction often used against you, but one we rarely get the chance to use in return.

The Flowerstone Gave’s skill is very helpful for lightning builds, as the red lightning it emits reduces the lightning resistance of enemies it hits.

Elden Ring DLC: Best weird weapons

• Tooth Whip – Found in Bonny Village
• Rabbath’s Cannon – Found on Rabbath’s Rise
• Forked-Tongue Hatchet – Obtained randomly in Fog Rift Catacombs
• Bonny Butchering Knife – Found in Bonny Village
• Poisoned Hand – Found in Belurat Tower’s sewer
• Madding Hand – Near Woodland Trail Site of Grace in the Abyssal Woods
• Thiollier’s Hidden Needle – Obtained by completing Thiollier’s quest

The Tooth Whip and Hands are nasty and weird, but they’re surprisingly good sources of poison (and madness, in the Madding Hand's case). Rabbath’s Cannon is fun because who doesn’t want a handheld cannon, and the Bonny Butchering Knife is just plain creepy. The potentates of Bonny Village use them, presumably in butchery, and what’s leftover probably ends up in jars. If that’s not creepy to you, visit Bonny Gaol or Belurat Gaol, and also remember all those potentate cookbooks with recipes for livers and other body parts.

Thiollier’s Needle is weird in the sense that you’d think a quest weapon would scale better. Its damage output is low, but it’s one of the easiest ways to spread eternal sleep on the battlefield – a curiously underused ailment, despite its importance to the plot.

Also, an axe made like a lizard tongue? Sure, why not.

If you're after more Elden Ring help, check out our picks for the best Shadow of the Erdtree Ashes of War and outfit yourself with some peak skills.