Elden Ring Best Early Game Weapons: Location, Stats, Upgrade

While you start your long epic journey in Limgrave, you can easily venture into the much harder, mid-game continent known as Caelid if you’re not careful. With no turning back, you will need the best weapons to deal with the opponents and progress the campaign.

Our Picks With Comparison

Here is a comparison table of my best early-game weapons in Elden Ring. Each stat can be sorted to view the highest and lowest values, which has been done for your convenience:

No.	Weapons	Best for	Weight	FP Cost	Physical Damage	Physical Defense	Magic	Fire	Lightning	Holy	Critical	Boost	Sorcery Scaling
1	Lordsworn’s Greatsword	The best early and easily attainable greatsword.	9	5 (-8)	136	65	35	35	35	35	110	42	-
2	Twinblade	Best Twinblade in the early-game	7.0	6 (-12)	119	45	30	30	30	30	100	30	-
3	Winged Scythe	Best Bleed weapon for PvP builds.	7.5	17	87	30	25	25	25	104/55	100	30	-
4	Reduvia	Best Bleed weapon for the early game.	2.5	6 (-6)	79	38	22	22	22	22	110	16	-
5	Bloodhound's Fang	Best Melee Bleed Weapon.	11.5	8 (-12)	141	68	36	36	36	36	100	44	-
6	Meteoric Ore Blade	Only early weapon with natural S scaling.	7.5	13	112	50	72/45	31	31	31	100	33	-
7	Meteorite Staff	Katana specialized in dealing with Magic Damage.	4.5	-	39	28	17	17	17	17	0	17	262
8	Greatsword	Classic colossal Greatsword for Str Builds.	23	5 (-8)	164	84	50	50	50	50	100	56	-
9	Carian Knight Sword	Best Sword for Intelligence Melee Builds.	4.0	26	88	36	88/52	26	26	26	100	31	-
10	Sword of Night and Flame	One of the best late-game weapons you can get early.	4.0	26 (-32)	87	36	56/45	56/42	26	26	100	31	-

Related: Elden Ring Best Early Game Armours

1. Lordsworn’s Greatsword

The best early and easily attainable greatsword.

The Lordsworn’s Greatsword is one of the best early game weapons in Elden Ring. It is one of the best greatsword, commonly praised for having the highest critical modifier on any greatsword, i.e., 110, that players can easily come across well within the first hour of the game.

Complementing its early attainment, it only requires 16 strength and 10 dexterity to wield, which can be easily met if you choose the Hero class at the start.

	Phy	Mag	Fire	Light	Holy	Crit	Boost
Attack	136	0	0	0	0	110	-
Guard	65	35	35	35	35	-	42
	Str	Dex
Scaling	D	D
Requires	16	10
Greatsword	Standard / Pierce
Stamp (upward cut)	FP 5 (- 8)
Wgt. 9	Passive -

The Hero class comes with 16 strength and 9 dexterity, completing 95% of the requirement automatically – all you have to do is level up dexterity once, and you’ll be good to go! Fortunately, you also meet Melina at the exact location where you find the greatsword, so you can level up right after getting it.

The Lordsworn’s Greatsword naturally possesses a D scaling in strength and dexterity, already giving an impression of being best used on a quality build – but hold your horses!

Apart from accepting Smithing Stones as upgrade material that reinforces it to +25, don’t forget that it allows infusions with ashes of war. This makes such an early-game weapon surprisingly versatile, opening the door for poison, bleeding, and even occult infusions.

However, if you’re looking to use this bad boy at its best, I would recommend a quality infusion that improves both its strength and dexterity scaling to a whopping B-tier! In a nutshell, at +25 reinforcement with a quality infusion, the Lordsworn’s Greatsword achieves a whopping 268 physical damage.

Regarding the weapon’s location, once you enter the Gatefront Ruins and the Godrick military camp in front of it, sprint to the Site of Grace on the left.

Once you talk with Melina and level up your dexterity by one, make your way to the nearly black carriage on the back of which there will be a chest. A Godrick soldier will guard it, so reward yourself with the Lordsworn’s Greatsword after stealthily taking him down!

2. Twinblade

Best Twinblade in the early-game

While I wasn’t privileged enough to partake in it, every other streamer I checked on was using this beast of a weapon, making it, without a doubt, one of the best early-game blades. Finding this weapon was truly a pleasant surprise, as the last time we saw Twinblades was Dark Souls 2, which was a good while ago!

	Phy	Mag	Fire	Light	Holy	Crit	Boost
Attack	119	0	0	0	0	100	-
Guard	45	30	30	30	30	-	30
	Str	Dex
Scaling	D	D
Requires	10	18
Twinblades	Standard / Pierce
Spinning Slash	FP 6 ( - 12)
Wgt. 7.0	Passive-

Regardless, the weapon requires 10 strength and 18 dexterity to wield, which, in my opinion, is very reasonable. Don’t be intimidated, for if you choose a dexterous class like Warrior (10 strength and 16 dexterity) or Samurai (12 strength and 15 dexterity), you’ll meet these minuscule requirements in no time!

The Twinblades, despite being a dexterity-based weapon, actually comes with a natural scaling of D in both strength and dexterity. Both of these scalings, similar to the Lordsworn’s Greatsword, can be significantly escalated through smithing stone reinforcement and ash of war infusions.

Just remember that when you’re upgrading, your smithing stones should match with the current level of the Twinblade; so if it’s at +13, you’ll need Smithing Stone [4] to bring it to +14.

While the Twinblade possesses decent affinity with strength, one can not help but run this killer on a quality build; through infusing with a quality ash of war, it achieves a B scaling in both strength and dexterity!

Other than that, if you’re feeling a little adventurous, the Twinblade makes for a pretty good auxiliary build, too, such as frostbite, poison, and bleed. My recommendation would be to go bleed purely because of how overpowered it is in the game.

Regarding the weapon’s location, you can get this fairly quickly if you know where it’s located because, unlike the Lordsworn’s Greatsword, you don’t naturally come across it at the start. Anyways, go to the Dragon-Burnt Ruins on the right of the First Step Site of Grace.

Here, you’ll need to descend a set of underground stairs and open the chest to get the Twinblade. Do note that there are two underground stairs here, and you need to go to the one that is not guarded by enemies and is fenced, such that you’ll need Torrent to jump over to it.

3. Winged Scythe

Best Bleed weapon for PvP builds.

The Winged Scythe is one of the strongest weapons you can get early in the game if you’re running a faith-related build. It’s a sacred scythe that resembles a pair of white wings that come with 105 natural holy damage, something that would make any incantation-use drool. Even as a melee weapon, it passively causes bleed, albeit 55, but nonetheless, it makes the idea of a faith-bleed build very viable! 

	Phy	Mag	Fire	Light	Holy	Crit	Boost
Attack	87	0	0	0	104	100	-
Guard	30	25	25	25	55	-	30
	Str	Dex	Faith
Scaling	E	D	D
Requires	16	16	24
Reaper	Slash
Angel's Wings	FP 17
Wgt. 7.5	Passive (55)

The Winged Scythe demands its users to invest 16 attribute points into strength, 16 into dexterity, and a massive 24 in strength. If you want to use this weapon as quickly as possible, I would highly recommend going Confessor as your starting build since it comes with 12 strength, 12 dexterity, and 14 faith, giving you a reasonably good headstart overall.

Despite demanding 16 strength off you, the Winged Scythe oddly comes with a natural scaling of E in strength, D in dexterity, and D in faith – the possibilities of a strength/quality build are already looking pretty grim.

But as I said before, this weapon is something I would mainly recommend for incantation users. Regardless, its scalings can unfortunately only be improved through reinforcement as it does not support infusions with ashes of war.

As far as reinforcement is concerned, the Winged Scythe requires Somber Smithing Stones as upgrade materials. These are a tad bit rarer than ordinary Smithing Stones and can reinforce your weapon upto +10. Moreover, similar to Smithing Stones, they also require your weapon’s current level to match with the Somber Smithing Stone you’re trying to upgrade it with.

To simplify, if your Winged Scythe is at +8, you’ll need Somber Smithing Stone [9] to level it up to +9.

The weapon itself is found in the Tombsward Ruins in the Weeping Peninsula. It is quite a trek from your starting bonfire, so follow the red path I’ve drawn on the map for you to get to as quickly as possible.

Once you’re there, make your way down the underground stairs similar to what you did for getting the foregoing Twinblades, and open the chest to get the Winged Scythe. Remember that two NPCs will guard this chest, but you can easily evade them to get your hands on it!

4. Reduvia

Best Bleed weapon for the early game.

The Reduvia is one of the most unique looking armaments on this list of best early game weapons in Elden Ring, exhibiting a completely different vibe with its distinctive, jagged appearance. It is one of the few daggers in Elden Ring built towards maximizing bleed, to the point where its weapon art is also quite bloody.

Furthermore, it has a unique stat requirement, demanding 5 strength, 13 dexterity, and 13 arcane.

	Phy	Mag	Fire	Light	Holy	Crit	Boost
Attack	79	0	0	0	0	110	-
Guard	38	22	22	22	22	-	16
	Str	Dex	Arc
Scaling	E	D	D
Requires	5	13	13
Daggers	Slash / Pierce
Reduvia's Blood Blade	FP 6 ( - 6)
Wgt. 2.5	Passive (30)

But don’t be intimidated by seeing arcane as a stat requirement! You can easily breeze through this stat requirement with Bandit as your starting class. On top of having a Great Knife, a Shortbow, and a Buckler (amazing parry tool), Bandit comes with 9 strength, 13 dexterity, and 14 arcane, meaning you can use Reduvia the moment you get it!

The Reduvia comes with an interesting scaling of E in strength, D in dexterity, and D in arcane. These scalings do improve quite a tad bit once you reinforce the weapon to its maximum, that is +10 with Somber Smithing Stones, where the stones themselves must be compatible with the Reduvia’s current level.

Other than that, there isn’t much to do upgrade-wise as the Reduvia does not allow for infusions with ashes of war. However, this dagger can be enchanted with magic or boosted with consumables, so hope is not all lost.

I recommend using it for critical attacks (backstabs and ripostes) and as a bleed weapon. Passive bleed is the only benefit this weapon has to offer, which, given how viable the auxiliary effect is in the meta right now, is not a bad bargain.

As far as the weapon’s location is concerned, it is dropped from Bloody Finger Nerijus, an invading NPC phantom you encounter outside the Murkwater Catacombs located in the ravine towards the northeast of Agheel Lake.

You must not engage with him as he is of a higher level and will give you a hard time – just stay patient, and Bloody Finger Hunter Yura, a friendly NPC, will eventually come to your aid. Once he joins the fight, you can overpower Nerijus and get his amazing dagger!

5. Bloodhound’s Fang

Best Melee Bleed Weapon.

The Bloodhound’s Fang is undoubtedly one of the best early game weapons you can find in Limgrave and will carry you much into the later parts of the game. However, at the same time, it is also the only weapon on this list that requires you to beat a boss to get, which, in my opinion, is pretty doable!

Regardless, it is a solid bleed-inflicting curved greatsword that requires you to invest 18 attribute points into strength and 17 into dexterity, a quality weapon through and through.

	Phy	Mag	Fire	Light	Holy	Crit	Boost
Attack	141	0	0	0	0	100	-
Guard	68	36	36	36	36	-	44
	Str	Dex	Arc
Scaling	D	C	-
Requires	5	18	17
Curved Greatsword	Slash
Bloodhound's Finesse	FP 8 ( - 12)
Wgt. 11.5	Passive (55)

While you can choose any starting class from Hero, Warrior, and Vagabond, I recommend Vagabond for quality-based weapons. This is because Vagabond has a well-balanced stat distribution, i.e., 14 strength and 13 dexterity. It’ll take some farming to meet the Fang’s requirement, but you’ll be there when you beat the boss!

While a quality-based weapon, the Bloodhound’s Fang leans towards dexterity (being lightweight), coming with a natural scaling of D in strength and C in dexterity. Being a boss weapon, you may rightfully expect it not to accommodate ash of war infusions, which you’re spot on about!

However, it allows reinforcement up to +10 with Somber Smithing Stones and, interestingly enough, can be buffed with the Scholar’s Armament sorcery for some reason.

The Bloodhound’s Fang is dropped from the Bloodhound Knight Darriwil boss found at the Forlorn Hound Evergoal in southern Limgrave, just before you enter the Weeping Peninsula. Beating the boss early is quite doable, and I would highly recommend keeping your shield up when not attacking as he is quite agile. 

6. Meteorite Staff

Only early weapon with natural S scaling.

The Meteorite Staff is one of the most sought-after staff and best early game weapon, and if you don’t already have it, keep reading because, spoiler alert, it’s the only weapon on this list that comes with a natural S-scaling! That, too, is at the cost of just 6 strength and 18 intelligence!

	Phy	Mag	Fire	Light	Holy	Crit	Sorc	Boost
Attack	39	0	0	0	0	100	262	-
Guard	28	17	17	17	17	-	-	17
	Str	Int	Arc
Scaling	D	S	-
Requires	6	18	-
Glintstone Staff	Strike Damage
No Skill	FP -
Wgt. 4.5	Passive Boosts Gravity Sorcery

You can meet the Meteorite Staff’s requirements very quickly by going Astrologer as your starting class as it comes with 8 strength and  16 intelligence – just 2 more intelligence, and you can use an S-grade staff! This staff is significantly better than the basic Astrologer Staff you start the game with, a C-grade stave at best.

The Meteorite Staff comes with a natural scaling of D in strength and S in intelligence, making it the best early-game glintstone staff available in the game without a speck of doubt.

Regarding upgrading, the staff is the only weapon on this list that does not allow for infusions and reinforcements, which is quite reasonable when you think about it. 

 

As Glintstone Staffs do not come with a skill of their own but instead cast a wide array of spells, I’ll quickly get to the burning question: where do you get the Meteorite Staff from? It’ll be quite a journey, but keep up!

First, after getting Torrent, make your way to the Dragon-Burnt Ruins. Remember when I talked about two chests in this area (Twinlade), one guarded and the other not? Well, you’ll need to open the other, more guarded chest, and upon doing so, you’ll be engulfed in a white mist that will warp you to Sellia Crystal Tunnel.

Once in the Sellia Crystal Tunnel, observe stealth and leave here as it is a pretty high-level area! Walk down the downward slope into the small little tunnel leading you to a ladder and the area’s Site of Grace. After resting, exit the tunnel and head north into the Swamp of Aeonia, into the Street of Sages Ruins. Here, you’ll find the Meteorite Staff and the Rock Sling gravity sorcery, which I highly recommend also grabbing as the staff specifically boosts gravity sorceries.

7. Meteoric Ore Blade

Katana specialized in dealing with Magic Damage.

Regardless, this katana, forged out of a meteorite, like the preceding meteorite staff, leans more towards the magical side as per its origin. Therefore, as far as its stat requirements are concerned, it demands 15 strength, 14 dexterity, and 18 strength to use – not bad.

	Phy	Mag	Fire	Light	Holy	Crit
Attack	112	72	0	0	0	100
Guard	50	45	31	31	31	-
	Str	Int	Dex
Scaling	D	D	E
Requires	15	18	14
Katana	Slash / Pierce
Gravitas	FP 13
Wgt. 7.5	Passive(50)

While you may think Samurai is the way to go because Samurais wield katanas, statistically, you can wield the Meteoric Ore Blade much more quickly if you go Prisoner instead.

This is because the Prisoner comes with 11 strength, 14 dexterity, and 14 intelligence compared to Samurai, which only comes with 12 strength, 14 dexterity, and 9 intelligence. Thus, a Prisoner is generally more suited for melee-sorcerer weapons.

The Meteoric Ore Balde comes with a natural scaling of D in strength, E in dexterity, and D in intelligence, a rather odd combination of scalings in my opinion. Furthermore, these scalings can only be improved through special reinforcement via Somber Smithing Stones, a much rarer kind of Smithing Stones.

Unfortunately, that is as far as it can go regarding upgradeability. Neither can it be infused with ashes of war, nor can it be enchanted or boosted with magic and consumables, respectively.

But this is still an excellent early game katana nonetheless, and it can be a fierce combo with a standard katana like the Uchigatana. While the Uchigatana is a pure physical weapon, the Meteorite Ore Blade inflicts magic damage, which can peak at 176, along with 274 physical damage at +10 reinforcement. Last but not least, being a Katana also inflicts bleeding, and that’s always a nice thing to have!

To obtain this neat weapon, make your way to the Street of Sages Ruins in Caelid (as discussed in the preceding Meteorite Staff), and from here, make your way to the Caelid Waypoint Ruins highlighted on the map. Once there, walk into the underground tunnel using the stairs and sprint straight for the door ahead – there will be many enemies before the door, and right now, your top priority should be getting the weapon. You may not be able to leave alive, but at least you got that epic katana!

8. Greatsword

Classic colossal Greatsword for Str Builds.

While many doubted the reappearance of the original Greatsword, many did not waver. They firmly believed that FromSoftware would honor the death of Kentaro Miura by adding Gut’s Greatsword to the game. The amazing thing is that FromSoftware did add it to Elden Ring and made it very early obtainable, easily making it one of the best early-game Elden Ring strength weapons out there.

	Phy	Mag	Fire	Light	Holy	Crit	Boost
Attack	164	0	0	0	0	100	-
Guard	84	50	50	50	50	-	56
	Str	Int	Dex
Scaling	C	-	E
Requires	31	-	12
Colossal Sword	Standard
Stamp (upward cut)	FP 5 ( - 8)
Wgt. 23	Passive -

As a heavy ultra greatsword, the Greatsword reasonably demands its wielders to have 31 strength and 12 dexterity. While this may be intimidating, it should be fairly easy to achieve if you choose Hero as your starting class, which comes with 16 strength and 9 dexterity.

Remember that two-handing any weapon increases your strength by 50% so that you can two-hand the Greatsword at 21 strength and 12 dexterity perfectly well! While you may think one-handing is better, let me remind you that this ultra greatsword is usually meant to be two-handed.

Despite being an ultra greatsword, the Greatsword is an astonishingly versatile weapon. It comes with a natural scaling of C in strength and E in dexterity, already giving off strength vibes. Furthermore, these stat scalings can be improved both through reinforcement with Smithing Stones (which go to +25) as well as infusions with a wide variety of different Ashes of War.

The Greatsword works well with most builds, even auxiliary ones such as frostbite, where, with a Cold infusion at +25, it achieves a B scaling in strength, a D in dexterity, and a D in intelligence while having 153 frostbite! On the other hand, a Sacred infusion can achieve both 310 physical and holy damage, an eye-opener for incantation users.

However, the Greatsword is best utilized on a pure strength build. It achieves an A scaling with strength upon a heavy infusion, enabling it to reach some of the highest damage numbers anyone has ever seen on a strength weapon.

Getting it can be quite a dangerous task if you’re not stealthy. Regardless, make your way to the Street of Sages Ruins in Caelid (refer to the two weapons above), and from there, you need to head left towards the Caelem Ruins. On the outskirts of the Ruins, you will see a black caravan guarded by ferocious beasts.

I would recommend using summons to distract those beasts briefly until you can sneak up on the back of the caravan and loot the Greatsword from its chest.

9. Carian Knight Sword

Best Sword for Intelligence Melee Builds.

The Carian Knight Sword is a straight sword you’ll often come across in the hand of Carian Knights, albeit it does not exactly drop from them. Regardless, while you may think of throwing it on your quality build, let me remind you that Carian Royalty are half sorcerers, meaning this straight sword is also one to be used by melee sorcerers. 

	Phy	Mag	Fire	Light	Holy	Crit	Boost
Attack	88	88	0	0	0	100	-
Guard	36	52	26	26	26	-	31
	Str	Int	Dex	Faith
Scaling	D	D	D	-
Requires	10	18	10	24
Straight Sword	Standard / Pierce
Carian Grandeur	FP 26
Wgt. 4.0	Passive -

Given how quickly you can find this bad boy, it’d be best to use it immediately by choosing Astrologer as your starting class as it comes with 8 strength, 12 dexterity, and 16 intelligence. From that point, all you need to do is level up strength and intelligence, and you’ll easily be able to wield the Carian Knight Sword, making it one of the best early game weapons in Elden Ring for melee-sorcerers.

The Carian Knight Sword comes with a natural scaling of D in all three stats, strength, dexterity, and intelligence. This makes it a very flexible weapon as far as build fitting is concerned because you can throw it on pure strength, dexterity, or intelligence build.

However, you’d better marry it with intelligence to capitalize off its magic damage. Unfortunately, the sword does not allow for infusions with ashes of war or enchantment with magic and consumables.

Therefore, regarding the weapon’s upgradeability, all you can do is upgrade it using Somber Smithing Stones, ensuring that the stone tier coincides with your weapon’s current level. At +10 reinforcement, apart from 215 physical and magic damage, the Carian Knight Sword achieves a C scaling in strength, tying things back to my recommendation of running it on a strength-intelligence build.

Regarding the weapon’s location, first, you need to enter the Lake of Lunaria region, which you can get to without needing to defeat Godrick. There is a shortcut to it from the Stormhill Shack Site of Grace, where if you head up into the windy hills, you’ll come across a broken bridge – at the end, you’ll see a small descent which you can take to venture into the Lake of Lunaria.

Then, you must traverse past the lake segment towards the Foot of the Four Belfry Site of Grace (follow along the red line, and you’ll find it). Once there, ride up the road ahead, and you’ll find a Giant convoy carrying a black caravan. Just attack one of the giants to make them stop and sneakily loot the chest at the back of the caravan to get the Carian Knight Sword!

10. Sword of Night & Flame

One of the best late-game weapons you can get early.

The Sword of Night and Flame is the most late-game weapon you can obtain pretty early in Elden Ring, to the point that it will make clearing out Limgrave a walk in the park.

	Phy	Mag	Fire	Light	Holy	Crit	Boost
Attack	87	56	56	0	0	100	-
Guard	36	42	42	26	26	-	31
	Str	Int	Dex	Faith
Scaling	E	D	E	D
Requires	12	24	12	24
Straight Sword	Standard/Pierce
Night-and-Flame Stance	FP - (26 32)
Wgt. 4.0	Passive -

Due to the weapon’s hefty requirements, I recommend going Confessor as your starting build. It will speed up the process like no other class can. Confessor does not overshoot strength and dexterity, coming at you with 12 strength, 12 dexterity, 9 intelligence, and 14 faith, allowing you to focus solely on the latter two attributes.

The Sword of Night and Flame comes with a natural scaling of E in strength and dexterity and D in intelligence and faith, clearly preferring magic over physical attributes. Unfortunately, you can do nothing about that as its scalings can not be adjusted since it does not allow for infusions with Ashes of War.

While its scaling improves through reinforcement, I would recommend fitting it onto either a strength-intelligence or strength-faith build to maximize its potential.

As far reinforcement is concerned, though, the Sword of Night and Flame requires Somber Smithing Stones to upgrade, as you may have guessed from its uniqueness. These upgrade materials are rare but can be purchased from certain blacksmith NPCs such as War Counselor Iji. Anyways, at +10 reinforcement, the Sword of Night and Flame achieves a D scaling in strength and dexterity and B in intelligence and faith, on top of 213 physical damage and 137 magic/fire damage.

 

To get this sword, you need to venture past the area from where you obtain the Carian Knight Sword, making your way to the Caria Manor. From here, hug the left wall and cross the garden, avoiding those creepy hand-like creatures because they’ll probably one-shot you.

Regardless, enter the small building on the left and activate the Manor Lower Level Site of Grace. From here, proceed to the rooftops, where you must jump off to the left at the first intersection. From here, proceed down the ladder to find a chest containing the Sword of Night and Flame!

What Would I Recommend?

I strongly recommend using the Meteorite Staff or Meteoric Ore blade to achieve the best damage output from an early-game weapon. 

You should not miss out on the Lordsworn’s Greatsword, the Twinblade, the Winged Scythe, the Reduvia, and most importantly, the Bloodhound’s Fang. If you’re brave enough, you can also go for the Meteorite Staff, the Meteoric Ore Blade, and the Greatsword in Caelid to pursue the high-damage dishing build early in Elden Ring.

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