Best greatswords in Elden Ring
What’s the greatest of the greats?
The best greatswords in Elden Ring include some of the hardest-hitting weapons from across The Lands Between. Noy only are they stronger and have greater reach than Elden Ring's standard swords, but they're also not as slow or unwieldy as the best colossal weapons. As such, greatswords are a great choice if you’re looking to balance mighty strength with a bit more mobility and speed.
Greatswords have long been a popular weapon choice in FromSoftware games, and Elden Ring’s selection of greatswords is no different. Whether you’re building your character as a pure physical powerhouse of Strength and Dexterity, or looking to supplement raw attack with magical or elemental effects and Ashes of War, there’ll be a greatsword to suit your play style.
This guide will help you find the best greatsword in Elden Ring, from unbridled physical power to masters of magical melee. You’ll also learn where to find each greatsword in The Lands Between, the stats you’ll need to wield them and how to make the most of each weapon.
Best greatswords in Elden Ring
Greatswords offer a brilliant balance between the speed of Elden Ring's smaller blades and the massive attack power of its even larger colossal swords. Their mix of damage, speed and mobility makes them a great choice for players looking to slice off big chunks of enemy health while still having the flexibility to evade incoming attacks.
Many greatswords focus on raw physical power, meaning you’ll likely want to spec your character with Strength and Dexterity as a priority to make the most of the weapons. However, some greatswords split high physical attack with additional magical or elemental damage, often requiring a minimum level in Intelligence or Faith to properly wield them. We've covered both types of greatsword in our list, so read on to see our top picks for the best greatswords in Elden Ring.
Claymore
A favourite of the Soulsborne games and fantasy in general, the Claymore is as straightforward as greatswords come. Requiring low stats of 16 Strength and 13 Dexterity to wield, plus a weight of only 9, it's one of the best greatswords to use early in the game. It then scales its raw physical damage with additional Strength and Dexterity, making it perfectly suited to characters focused on pure physical prowess. The Claymore can also be acquired early in the game, as it’s found in Castle Morne at the very bottom tip of The Weeping Peninsula.
Adding to the Claymore’s fantastic damage and stagger potential is its default weapon skill of Lion’s Claw, one of the best Ashes of War for melee-focused characters. The skill sees the player quickly somersault into the air and come crashing down onto their target, dealing damage and efficiently breaking enemy stances to leave them vulnerable for follow-up attacks.
There’s a reason the Claymore is a classic greatsword pick: it’s ruthlessly effective, easy to acquire and will cut through many foes like butter. Elden Ring’s variant is no different, offering a simple but deadly option for slicing your way to Elden Lord.
Knight’s Greatsword
Like many other greatswords in Elden Ring, the Knight’s Greatsword is tailored for characters built around high Strength and Dexterity, scaling neatly from its starting requirements of 16 Strength and 12 Dexterity to bolster its raw physical damage.
The Knight’s Greatsword may seem unassuming, especially as it’s relatively straightforward to come by. It's dropped from a variety of knight enemies encountered throughout The Lands Between, but don’t write it off as less worthy than rarer finds, as this greatsword’s fantastic reach, fast speed and unique attack combo makes for a deadly mixture.
Its default weapon skill performs a stamp and upper-cut combo, but its by two-handing the sword and performing its standard attack combo that the Knight’s Greatsword really shines, landing a rapid series of blows with excellent range that can then be followed by its powerful heavy attack. The sword can also be customised with alternative Ashes of War and elemental upgrades, making it a great choice to spec in whatever direction you prefer.
Blasphemous Blade
The Blasphemous Blade build is one of Elden Ring’s most formidable loadouts, utilising the Taker’s Flames weapon skill attached to serpent-demigod Rykard’s greatsword to sizzle enemies to a crisp with immense fire damage, while healing yourself at the same time.
Requiring 22 Strength, 15 Dexterity and 21 Faith to wield, the Blasphemous Blade is acquired by defeating Rykard, Lord of Blasphemy in Volcano Manor, before trading his Remembrance of the Blasphemous with Finger Reader Enia in the Roundtable Hold to obtain the greatsword.
With the sword in hand, investing additional points in your character’s Faith stat can help scale the damage of Taker’s Flames to even more powerful levels, with the HP-siphoning effect of the unique weapon skill providing an unbeatable combination of damage output and protection. Combine the blade with strengthening incantations such as Golden Vow and Flame, Grant Me Strength to create one of Elden Ring’s most powerful character builds.
Lordsworn's Greatsword
The Lordsworn's Greatsword is yet another greatsword that excels in scaling with Strength and Dexterity, pairing with increased critical damage when performing backstabs, attacks on enemies with a broken stance and parries for an immensely powerful melee offering.
The Lordsworn's Greatsword is one of the best greatswords to use early in Elden Ring, able to be found in a chest in Limgrave on the way to Stormveil Castle via the main path through Stormgate. You’ll only need 16 Strength and 10 Dexterity to use it, too, meaning that many low-level characters will be able to wield it as soon as they pick it up.
As well as having high physical damage that scales with both Strength and Dexterity, and a good reach when attacking, the standout advantage of the Lordsworn's Greatsword is its increased Critical Damage value of 110, compared to the common stat of 100.
Alongside the Sacred Relic Sword - which can only be obtained at the very end of the game - it is one of only two greatswords with a Crit value above 100, making it the best choice for players who enjoy parrying, backstabbing and forcing their foes into a vulnerable state before finishing them with a powerful blow.
Dark Moon Greatsword
The Moonlight Greatsword is another recurring element of FromSoftware’s games, appearing throughout the series as a typically powerful magical weapon. Elden Ring’s equivalent is the Dark Moon Greatsword, which features the unique Moonlight Greatsword weapon skill. Boasting high magical attack power and the ability to let loose blasts of magical energy, the Dark Moon Greatsword continues the Moonlight Greatsword’s legacy as one of the best greatswords in Elden Ring.
The Dark Moon Greatsword requires quite a bit of work to obtain, needing you to progress Ranni’s quest to its completion by reaching the Cathedral of Manus Celes and returning the Dark Moon Ring to her body. In return, the witch will leave behind the legendary greatsword.
Reflecting its magical power, you will need 16 Strength, 11 Dexterity and a whopping 38 Intelligence to wield the Dark Moon Greatsword, with extra Intelligence increasing its magical damage. Its standout effect is the unique Moonlight Greatsword weapon skill, which increases its magical attack, applies additional frost status and unleashes magical projectiles when using the sword’s heavy attack, which can be charged for additional damage and stagger.
Banished Knight’s Greatsword
Whereas many other greatswords in Elden Ring require both Strength and Dexterity, the Banished Knight’s Greatsword only requires a minimum 9 Dexterity and 17 Strength to wield effectively, making it an excellent choice for characters built solely with Strength in mind.
While the sword scales with both Strength and Dexterity, it does so equally, meaning that pumping points just into Strength in a valid way to increase its raw physical damage. The sword also has a different two-handed moveset to the majority of other greatswords, resulting in an overall faster combo of light attacks.
As the name implies, the Banished Knight’s Greatsword can only be found as a drop from Banished Knight enemies, such as those found in Stormveil Castle, providing a chance to acquire this powerful greatsword early in the game.
Death’s Poker
This greatsword will look familiar if you’ve run into the Deathbirds that appear in The Lands Between during the night. In order to obtain one of the birds’ weapons for yourself, you’ll need to defeat the Death Rite Bird boss found to the south of Caelid’s Aeonia Swamp at night.
The rod-like greatsword requires 15 Strength, 17 Dexterity and 11 Intelligence to wield, scaling its mixture of physical and magical damage further with any of the three stats. However, the weapon’s true highlight is its unique Ghostflame Ignition skill, which summons a flaming ball of ghostflame that can then be struck with either a normal attack to send forth a blast of spectral fire (which deals magic damage and frostbite, despite its fire-like flames) or a heavy attack to cause a close-range explosion.
The skill’s magical damage scales most effectively with additional Intelligence, making the Death’s Poker an excellent greatsword choice for characters built around magic rather than pure strength. In particular, the skill’s light attack follow-up can quickly ‘burn’ through even tougher bosses very quickly with its high magic damage and added Frostbite effect. Don’t write off this unconventional greatsword - with the right build and use of its skill, it’s one of the best in Elden Ring.
Iron Greatsword
The Iron Greatsword is another physical-focused greatsword that relies on high Strength and Dexterity to scale into an extremely powerful damage-dealing machine. It requires fairly low starting stats of 18 Strength and 10 Dexterity to wield, but scales especially well with additional Strength, adding quickly to its already high physical damage to become one of the most powerful greatswords in all of Elden Ring.
On top of that, it can be customised with Ashes of War and elemental upgrades to exploit particular elemental weaknesses for taking down particular bosses. Even its blocking ability is very solid for a sword, offering 73 Physical guard and 39 guard against magic damage and other elemental effects.
With the Iron Greatsword easily one of the best greatswords in Elden Ring, the main challenge is in actually acquiring it for yourself. It only has a very low chance to drop from red-haired Misbegotten found in the capital of Leyndell and Misbegotten Warriors encountered in Miquella's Haligtree, meaning you’ll have to be very lucky or ready to spend a while farming enemies to finally obtain it. The effort is arguably worth it for one of Elden Ring’s best greatswords when it comes to pure damage output and Strength scaling, leaving few weapons that can match its ridiculous attack power.
Need more help? Jump back to our list of best Elden Ring builds or our Elden Ring walkthrough.