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The best Elden Ring early game weapons will help you get a running start as you take on the first challenges of Elden Ring. Getting the best weapons will ensure you have the best possible chance of killing bosses and finding stuff that’s even better, eventually getting you up to finding the best Elden Ring weapons in the later phases of the game.
How to strengthen weapons in Elden Ring
Once you’re properly armed, find out how to strengthen weapons in Elden Ring!
In this guide we’ve got seven of the best early Elden Ring weapons you can find almost as soon as you walk out of the tutorial. Obviously you might encounter a few enemies along the way, so it’s up to you how much you want to chance it or level up a bit first to make life easier. That said, four of the seven options here can technically be picked up without fighting anyone depending on your running or stealth abilities. The rest involves a bit of fighting here and there, and only one involves a boss fight (but it’s one of the easiest in the game).
One thing to take note of is that because you can get these weapons really early on you might have to wait to boost stats before you can use them. That could be Strength or Dexterity, say, but most likely, Endurance will need the most topping up so you can lift things without causing a heavy load penalty that slows your dodging. We’ve got some Elden Ring Rune farming locations that can help there if you need to raise a few points.
However, while these are all great early starter weapons, a lot of the class starter options are also good and more than capable of carrying you far into the game. So don’t feel like you have to chase other options right at the start.
Best Elden Ring early game weapon locations
- Flail
- Great Axe
- Bloodhound’s Fang
- Reduvia
- Uchigatana
- Great Épée
- Twinblade
As you can see on the map, these seven early Elden Ring weapons can all pretty much be got from the moment you walk out into the world. Although as we mentioned earlier, you might want to explore and level up a bit before you try for some of these as even basic enemies and encounters will test a baby Tarnished.
You’ll also probably find most of these weapons will have an attribute or two initially out of reach. So you’ll have to grow into them, so to speak, as you level up – which we’ll cover below. However, these are powerful weapons to get early and worth the effort to use.
So let’s talk a look at these early Elden Ring weapons and what they can do.
1. Elden Ring Flail
- Attack – Phy 109
- Weight – 5
- Scaling
- Str D
- Dex D
- Requires
- Str 10
- Dex 18
- Passive effect causes blood loss
The flail can be found easily in the large black caravan at the Gatefront Ruins enemy camp. You don’t even have to fight for it, just sneak in and take it from the back of the caravan (although it might be safer to backstab the guard quietly in case he hears you).
As well as the blood loss passive effect, this weapon can’t be parried and should be useable out of the box for most players with a Str/Dex build. The spinning attack can also stun lock enemies, as this story on using it to destroy NPC invaders shops.
2. Elden Ring Great Axe
- Attack – Phy 151
- Weight – 13
- Scaling
- Str D
- Dex D
- Requires
- Str 30
- Dex 8
Head to the location marked and you’ll encounter a moving caravan, dragged by two trolls. You only have to take one down to stop things moving and steal the Great Axe. The whopping strength requirement of 30 and 13 Weight obviously marks this out as a Strength build only weapon, but this is a devastating heavy hitter for anyone planing to tank the game.
3. Elden Ring Bloodhound’s Fang
- Attack – Phy 141
- Weight – 11.5
- Scaling
- Str D
- Dex C
- Requires
- Str 18
- Dex 17
- Passive effect causes blood loss
This one will require a small boss fight, triggered by activating the stone seal you’ll find in a circle. But it’s one of the easier ones, especially if you have ranged attacks. For your efforts you’ll get a Str/Dex based curved greatsword that can cause bleeding. Worth noting that while this weapon can be upgraded with smithing stones, it can’t use any Ashes of War. It’s also pretty heavy, so you’ll need some decent Endurance to stay light on your feet.
4. Elden Ring Reduvia
- Attack – Phy 79
- Weight – 2.5
- Scaling
- Str E
- Dex D
- Arc D
- Requires
- Str 5
- Dex 13
- Arc 13
- Passive effect causes blood loss
This weapon is almost a freebie. If you head to the location to the map you’ll be invaded by an NPC called Bloody Finger Nerijus. Which might sound scary, but you’ll be almost immediately rescued by Bloody Finger Hunter Yura who also appears to save you. When Nerijus dies you’ll get the Reduvia which is an Arcane based dagger with bleed damage. Obviously this is only one for people using an Arcane build.
5. Elden Ring Uchigatana
- Attack – Phy 115
- Weight – 5.5
- Scaling
- Str D
- Dex D
- Requires
- Str 11
- Dex 15
- Passive effect causes blood loss
This is another relatively easy weapon to get, as you can just grab it off a body in the Deathtouched Catacombs and leave. It’s on the corpse on the high level in the hall you can reach, with the stairs up reachable from an earlier side entrance. You will have to fight a few skeletons to reach it (remember to hit them on the floor to stop them coming back). But you don’t have to touch the boss fight if you don’t want to. This is also the starting sword for the Samurai Class, so obviously don’t get it twice if that’s you.
6. Elden Ring Great Epee
- Attack – Phy 124
- Weight – 6.5
- Scaling
- Str D
- Dex D
- Requires
- Str 15
- Dex 16
There’s a small enemy camp here where you can find the Great Epee in a chest you can open. There’s a lot of enemies here, and a horseback guard so you might want to be fairly confident you can tackle that before you go in – watch out for two sorcerers on top of the ruins either side of the camp as well. You can sneak in around the back to use stealth and try to take out the soldiers one at time as well. This is a heavy but powerful sword that can be upgraded and, as a piercing weapon, can be used to attack from behind a shield.
7. Elden Ring Twinblade
- Attack – Phy 119
- Weight – 7
- Scaling
- Str D
- Dex D
- Requires
- Str 10
- Dex 18
The Elden Ring Twinblade is another free weapon. All you need to do is find the basement in the Dragon-Burnt Ruins, open the door and take it from the chest inside. The thing with this weapon is, while you can hold it in one hand, you’ll have to two hand it to use its flurry of spinning attacks. So no shields if you want to get the best from it. Just stay quick on your feet, though, and it’s great for cutting down groups of enemies and not giving anyone time to counter between all the blows.
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