How to Use Bleed in Elden Ring

Hemorrhage—or bleed—is a status condition in Elden Ring that mirrors how it performed in other FromSoft titles, namely the Dark Souls trilogy. That said, it has become almost controversial in Elden Ring on account of how powerful it is. So, how can you leverage bleed to your advantage in the new release? Let’s take a look!

How Does Bleed Work?

Bleed is listed as an additional effect on weapons, particularly those with the blood affinity. Each time you hit an enemy with such a weapon, a hidden counter increases on the target. Once this counter reaches a certain threshold, the target will take a substantial amount of damage that scales with their maximum health.

It’s worth noting, however, that some enemies are actually immune to bleed so you will want to keep an eye out for those if you intend to make use of this status effect.

What’s the Best Way to Use Bleed?

It’s worth noting that weapons which scale with the Arcane stat will increase any bleed buildup that they cause proportionally to the player’s amount of Arcane. This is easily achievable by applying the blood affinity with an Ash of War. Obviously, it’s key to prioritize weapons with as high of a bleed value as possible.

Beyond that, you should simply aim to hit the target as many times as possible. This sounds overly obvious, but dual wielding for instance will dramatically increase your potential bleed buildup. Additionally, some weapons deal multiple hits with a single attack. Dual-wielded curved swords having running and jumping attacks that deal 4 hits almost instantaneously. Utilizing these sorts of attacks will help enormously with dealing bleed damage.

It’s also possible to add bleed buildup with the Blood Grease consumable item, though this won’t stack with blood affinity applied via Ashes of War.

So How Do I Use Bleed Optimally?

Use a weapon with high bleed buildup, ideally one that scales with the arcane stat. Leveling up your arcane with such a weapon is key when using a bleed strategy. Additionally, experiment with weapons that deal hits very rapidly, like dual wielded weapons and weapons like curved swords or katanas. That’s all there is to know about bleed in Elden Ring!