Best Elden Ring early game weapons, including dex and strength weapons
The melee weapons you should track down.
Sourcing some of the best early game weapon in Elden Ring will help improve your chances of survival.
Depending on your starting class, the weapon you begin with range from middling to half-decent to take you through your immediate surroundings.
On this page is our recommendations for melee builds - including the best early weapon to see you through the more challenging dungeons.
We also explain the best choices for stat builds - including dexterity, magic and strength weapons.
On this page:
- The best early weapon in Elden Ring
- Some of the other best early game weapons
- The best melee weapons for dexterity, strength and magic
If you're after magic at the start of the game, then we can suggest where to find a staff location and a sorcery teacher - and if you want to look beyond armaments, our best armor sets can help there.
The best early weapon in Elden Ring
Your starting weapon will do fine for most of the opening hours - but the time you want to tackle the critical path proper and head to Stormveil Castle - or even some of the meatier locations within Limgrave - then you need a decent armament.
Perhaps the best early weapon in Elden Ring is the Twinblade, which is just a stone's throw away from where you emerge in Limgrave. There are other strong weapons out there - some of which we'll discuss shortly - but in terms of accessibility location-wise, and how much of a step up it is versus starting class weapons, is one we'd highly recommend tracking down.
To find the Twinblade location, head to the south of Lake Agheel and approach the Dragon-Burnt Ruins.
At the south-east most corner of the ruins, you'll found a walled structure which you can only access by leaping with the aid of your horse.
Once within, you'll find an underground passage. The chest within contains the Twinblade.
The Twinblade comes with the stat requirements of 10 Strength and 18 Dexterity, the latter putting it out of reach of any starting class choice. As such, you might need to farm Runes so you can level stats high enough to wield it.
Once you do, it works both as a fast but strong one-handed blade and as a powerful two-handed weapon that, with a couple of Smithing Stone upgrades, will put a decent dent in the more challenging enemies in the areas to come.
Some of the other best early game weapons
If you don't fancy the stat requirements of the Twinblade, then other weapons available in the early hours of Elden Ring include the following drops from Limgrave enemies...
The Bandit's Curved Sword is a strong weapon that's a possible drop from certain enemies, such as a skeleton found in the river north of Lake Agheel (just north of where the glowing jellyfish spawn at night in the cave, and before the gust of air which can take Torrent up when jumping).
The stat requirements are accessible - 11 Strength and 13 Dexterity - and though the drop rate is low, we found clearing the group of skeletons here in a loop could be achieved in about a minute before fast travelling back to the Grace at Murkwater Catacombs just to the north.
Elsewhere, the Grave Scythe can drop from skeletons that wield them, such as those at the graveyard just east of Saintsbridge in the north of Limgrave.
The 17 Strength and 13 Dexterity requirements give you a slow but very powerful early game weapon to wield; our recommendation is using it as a jump and slashing weapon before switching it out to something a little faster to finish foes off. It also has a useful blood loss buildup passive effect.
Meanwhile, defeating Mercenaries has a slight chance in dropping a Dismounter. This has a 19 Strength and 16 Dexterity requirement, which is pretty high at the start of the game. You can find one Mercenary location very early on the north side of the beach close to where you start in Limgrave, otherwise they can be often found in bandit camps, such as the one in the far south-east of Limgrave, mentioned below.
If you're not patient enough to wait for a weapon drop via the above sources, then you can pick up a Great Epee - a heavy thrusting sword - from a treasure chest in the bandit camp in the south-west corner of Limgrave.
This camp, situated at the foot of some ruins, is heavily guarded - including by several Mercenary (one on a horse!) which as mentioned above, can drop a Dismounter as well. However if you are careful, it's possible to sneak in from the east, open the chest and grab the weapon before the worst of the sentries come down on you.
With the ability to roam most of Elden Ring's regions from the off, chances are there are many more strong early game weapons to be found easily if you know where to look.
The best melee weapons for dexterity, strength and magic
Once you have your hands on a strong early weapon, and build your character, you'll get a taste of your preferred playstyle and which stats you want to invest in, or build on depending on your starting class choice.
For example, for high strength and / or dexterity weapons, you'll want high strength and dex stats to begin with, such as confessor, vagabond, prisoner and samurai and then continue levelling them. But some weapons will also require investing in faith or intelligence.
Here's our best melee weapon choices by various stats:
- The best dexterity weapon is the Bloodhound's Fang, a curved greatsword that can be found near the start of the game in Limgrave, although you'll need to overcome a pretty tough boss fight to get it.
- The best strength weapon is Grafted Blade Greatsword, found in Castle Morne in Weeping Peninsula, a region to the south of Limgrave that's accessible from the start of the game.
- The best magic melee weapon is Sword of Night and Flame, which can inflict both magic and fire damage. It does however require an equally significant amount of intelligence and faith. You'll find it in Caria Manor in northwest of Liurnia, which is on the way to the start of the Ranni quest.
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