Weapons Tier List in Elden Ring on Steam Deck

Elden Ring is an open-world action role-playing developed by FromSoftware and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment.

Just like Bloodborne, Demon’s Souls, Sekiro, and the Dark Souls series, Elden Ring was directed by Hidetaka Miyazaki. The caveat here is that the game was made in collaboration with the award-winning fantasy novelist and source material creator for the highly popular Game of Thrones television show, George R. R. Martin, who provided a lot of source material for the game’s setting.

Elden Ring was released for Microsoft Windows, Steam Deck, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S on February 25, 2022.

The Soulsborne games are known for their difficulty level and Elden Ring is no exception. One of the things that can ease the difficulty curve is knowing which weapons are the best for a player’s class. There are a variety of choices and this is a personalized tier list for all weapons.

Weapons

Weapons in Elden Ring are offensive equipment that is used by the player’s character to inflict damage against Enemies and Bosses. Elden Ring features new categories of Weapons, as well as some returning from previous Souls games.

Weapons can be divided into several categories:

• Axes
• Ballistas
• Bows
• Claws
• Colossal Swords
• Colossal Weapons
• Crossbows
• Curved Greatswords
• Curved Swords
• Daggers
• Fists
• Flails
• Glintstone Staves
• Greataxes
• Greatbows
• Great Spears
• Greatswords
• Halberds
• Hammers
• Heavy Thrusting Swords
• Katanas
• Light Bows
• Reapers
• Sacred Seals
• Spears
• Straight Swords
• Thrusting Swords
• Torches
• Twinblades
• Warhammers
• Whips

As players can see, weapons are the lifeblood of any Soulsborne game, even more so in Elden Ring, because the variety of weapons and weapon types make it so that any and every playstyle is encouraged by the game.

Feel like attacking really fast? Daggers are perfect. Want to bonk an enemy really hard on the head? Why not try Hammers or Greataxes? Want to do big damage in large arcs? Greatswords are the best bet. Just want to sit back and hit targets from afar? Definitely a Bow user. Hell, if blasting hapless creatures with magic is the need of the hour, any sort of Staff will do the trick.

As with any game, however, there are weapons that are great at what they do and some that do not do those same things quite as well. So which one is which? To answer that question, a tier list is required, one that will detail which weapons to look out for and which weapons to just flat out avoid for the sake of efficiency.

Listed below is the tier list of weapons.

Tier List

To make it easier, we will be dividing the weapons into tiers ranging from S, A, B, C, D, E and F, with S-tier being the best and F-tier being the worst.

S-Tier List

The best weapons in the game. No other weapons in their class beat these choices:

• Beast-Repellent Torch
• Black Knife
• Cranial Vessel Candlestand
• Crystal Knife
• Death Ritual Spear
• Eclipse Shotel
• Erdsteel Dagger
• Falingstar Beast Jaw
• Gargoyle’s Black Halberd
• Gargoyle’s Blackblade
• Giant’s Red Braid
• Golden Halberd
• Grafted Dragon
• Inquisitor’s Girandole
• Jar Cannon
• Magma Whip Candlestick
• Magma Wyrm’s Scalesword
• Onyx Lord’s Greatsword
• Rivers of Blood
• Rosus’ Axe
• Scepter of the All-Knowing
• Starscourge Greatsword
• Steel-Wire Torch
• Sword of Night and Flame
• Winged Scythe

A-Tier List

Almost the best weapons in the game, only falling short to S-tier. Use any of these if there is no access to an S-tier weapon:

• Academy Glindstone Staff
• Astrologer’s Staff
• Bastard’s Stars
• Carian Glinstine Staff
• Carian Knight’s Sword
• Crystal Sword
• Devourer’s Scepter
• Dragon Greatclaw
• Finger Seal
• Glinstone Staff
• Greataxe
• Ivory Sickle
• Rusted Anchor
• Torch
• Troll’s Hammer
• Veteran’s Prosthesis
• Wing of Astel

B-Tier List

Good weapons that can hold their own. They can be at least A-tier if used with the right builds:

• Axe of Godrick
• Bloody Helice
• Digger’s Staff

C-Tier List

Your average weapon pick. Not great, but not bad either. Use when nothing better is available:

• Axe of Godfrey
• Carian Regal Scepter
• Estoc
• Grossmesser
• Hoslow’s Petal Whip
• Pulley Crossbow

D-Tier List

Below average weapons. Anything below C-tier is not worth keeping unless nothing better is acquired:

• Azur’s Glinstone Staff
• Bloodhound’s Fang
• Butchering Knife
• Chainlink Flail
• Falchion
• Flail
• Ghiza’s Wheel
• Golem’s Halberd
• Grafted Blade Greatsword
• Greatbow
• Great Club
• Great Epee
• Hammer
• Mantis Blade
• Misericorde
• Monk’s Flamemace
• Nightrider Flail
• Noble’s Estoc
• Omen Cleaver
• Partisan
• Pike
• Prelate’s Inferno Crozier
• Scavenger’s Curved Sword
• Scimitar
• Sword of St Trina
• Whip

E-Tier List

Basic weapons. Best to not hold on to them for too long:

• Battle Hammer
• Broadsword
• Composite Bow
• Dismounter
• Hookclaws
• Light Crossbow
• Lion Greatbow
• Mace
• Morning Star
• Red Branch Shortbow
• Reduvia
• Scorpion’s Stinger
• Scythe
• Serpentbone Blade
• Short Bow
• Short Spear
• Shotel
• Stormhawk Axe
• Uchigatana
• Winged Greathorn
• Zweilhander

F-Tier List

Worst possible choices. Avoid under any circumstances unless the player is doing some sort of challenge run:

• Antspur Rapier
• Banished Knight’s Halberd
• Battle Axe
• Cane Sword
• Clawmark Seal
• Club
• Dagger
• Demi-Human Queen’s Staff
• Dragon Halberd
• Dragonscale Blade
• Forked Hatchet
• Frozen Needle
• Gargoyle’s Twinblade
• Godskin Peeler
• Godslayer’s Seal
• Golden Order Seal
• Great Knife
• Guardian’s Swordspear
• Halberd
• Hand Axe
• Hand Ballista
• Highland Axe
• Iron Cleaver
• Katar
• Longsword
• Lordsworm’s Straight Sword
• Maliketh’s Black Blade
• Meteorite Staff
• Morgott’s Cursed Sword
• Nightrider Glaive
• Ornamental Straight Sword
• Parrying Dagger
• Pest’s Glaive
• Rapier
• Short Sword
• Spiked Caestus
• Spiked Club
• Twinblade
• Twinned Knight Swords
• Warped Axe
• Warpick
• Winged Spear
• Zamor Curved Sword

One final tip is that no weapon is inherently bad in any Soulsborne games, as players have managed to find success with just about anything. Choose the weapon that is ideal for the player’s playstyle and their level of endurance when it comes to the challenging aspects of the game with a weaker weapon.

If all else fails, fall back on the infamous, and slightly annoying, Dark Souls proverb, “Git gud.”

Is this everything you needed to know? Let us know!