Weapon Upgrade Types in Elden Ring – One of the ways of upgrading weapons in Elden Ring is through affinities, These special skills allow you to alter the attribute scaling and increase your weapon’s damage, Every weapon in the game you’ve picked up, purchased, or crafted has affinities,
Standard — The Standard affinity is the default weapon state in Elden Ring. Each weapon has its own default scaling, Heavy — The Heavy affinity enhances the strength scaling, but it reduces the scaling on all the other attributes. Keen — With this affinity, you’ll get an increased dexterity scaling on the weapon at the expense of all other attributes. The Keen affinity can be applied to swords, katanas, greatswords, double-edged swords, spears, and great spears, Quality — The Quality affinity will enhance the weapon’s dexterity and strength scaling while decreasing all the other attribute scalings. You can use this affinity on swords, katanas, greatswords, curved and double-edged swords, spears, great spears, hammers, and axes, Magic — If you want to boost the intelligence scaling of the weapon by splitting it with both physical and magical damage, you can opt for the Magic affinity, but remember that your weapon’s default scaling will be reduced. You can apply this affinity to swords, katanas, greatswords, curved and double-edged swords, spears and great spears, hammers, and axes, Fire — The Fire will increase your weapon’s physical/fire damage at the expense of its default scaling, Lightning — This will improve the weapon’s dexterity scaling and add both physical and lightning damage while decreasing the default scaling of the weapon. A lightning affinity is an option for swords, katanas, greatswords, curved and double-edged swords, spears, great spears, hammers, and axes, Sacred — The Sacred affinity increases faith scaling and adds both physical and holy damage to the weapon at the cost of all other attributes’ scalings. It can only be used on small and regular shields, Poison — This affinity gives the weapon ability to make poison attacks and enhances strength, dexterity, and arcane scaling, Blood — This affinity increases the arcane scaling and enables the weapon to make bleed attacks but weakens the default scaling, Cold — The Cold affinity reduces the weapon’s default scaling but enhances the intelligence scaling and allows you to attack the enemies with frostbite. Occult — The Occult affinity also reduces the weapon’s default scaling, but it increases arcane scaling and prevents undead enemies from auto-revive.
To upgrade a weapon in Elden Ring in any other manner besides the standard, you’ll need to apply Ashes of War — items that can be found in the Lands Between, dropped by bosses, or sold by merchants. And to apply the Ash of War in Elden Ring to enhance your weapon, you’ll also need Whetstones,
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How do you make weapons do more damage in Elden Ring?
How to improve and change weapon scaling – 
(Image credit: FromSoftware) Strengthen and upgrade your weapons in Elden Ring 
(Image credit: FromSoftware) Want to know how to strengthen weapons in Elden Ring and make them even more powerful? Check out our guide to get a proper god-slaying blade. It is possible to alter a weapon’s attribute scaling beyond simply improving it with Smithing Stones.
- Applying Ashes of War allows you to choose new “Qualities” for the weapon that worsen some scaling and improve others.
- A Keen Quality, for example, worsens Strength scaling while improving Dexterity scaling.
- Great for some builds, bad for others.
- Players can also find Whetstones throughout the game that increase how many Qualities you can pick from, including adding bonus effects like fire or ice damage.
These can be very useful, but it’s still important to recognise the best use of scaling. At the end of the day, you want your weapon to be doing as much damage as possible, with the actual damage type tending to be less important overall (unless you’re leaning into certain very specific builds).
Elden Ring weapons | Elden Ring armor locations | Elden Ring Smithing Stones | Elden Ring best builds | Elden Ring best spells | Elden Ring Ashes of War | How to get the Elden Ring Golden Scarab | Elden Ring Stonesword Keys | Elden Ring Meteorite Staff | Best Elden Ring early game weapons | Elden Ring Sacred Relic Sword Get the best gaming deals, reviews, product advice, competitions, unmissable gaming news and more! Joel Franey is a writer, journalist, podcaster and raconteur with a Masters from Sussex University, none of which has actually equipped him for anything in real life.
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Should you strengthen weapons Elden Ring?
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(Image credit: Bandai Namco) It’s important to know how to upgrade weapons in Elden Ring as strengthening weapons is as vital as levelling up – increasing your character stats will only go so far if you don’t improve your gear as well. There’s an element of gatekeeping here with +1, +2, +3 or more level Elden Ring weapons dealing increasing damage and make higher level areas more accessible.
- As you find Elden Ring map fragments and unlock more of the map you’ll eventually start to reach tougher places where better weapons will make all the difference.
- You can upgrade Elden Ring weapons yourself at the start, using the anvil you find at the Church of Elleh, and the Elden Ring Smithing Stones you find in the world.
You’ll need a blacksmith eventually though to reach the higher levels in Elden Ring, which could leave you wondering what to do next for a while. So strengthening your weapons in Elden Ring ultimately involves finding a blacksmith, finding the right smithing stones, and understanding what the numbers mean for damage so you don’t waste limited stones on the wrong thing.
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Does dexterity increase weapon damage Elden Ring?
Dexterity Elden Ring Guide –
Dexterity (DEX) is a Main Attribute that primarily allows the wielding of Dexterity-based Armaments (Weapons). It also acts as the primary modifier that influences the damage dealt by such weapons. Weapons in Elden Ring have a minimum Stat requirement that needs to be met before the weapon can be wielded. Most weapons require investment in either the Dexterity or Strength stats, or a combination of both. For example, the Scimitar requires 12 DEX and 8 STR to equip. Some weapons may also require points in Intelligence, Faith or Arcane in order to wield. This is especially true for spell-based weapons such as Glintstone Staves and Sacred Seals, Weapons are also given a Scaling Grade denoting the degree to which they scale with an attribute. Each point allocated to the Dexterity stat increases the damage dealt by weapons with Dexterity scaling. A weapon with a Dexterity scaling grade of S will benefit the most from the Dexterity Attribute, followed by grades A, B, C, D, and E, Note that attributes will incur diminishing returns at higher levels, significantly reducing their benefits after a certain point with regards to weapon scaling. This is often referred to as the ‘Soft Cap’. A ‘Hard Cap’ also exists in which additional points in an attribute returns little to no benefit. When scaling the attack power of a melee armament, like all stats, Dexterity soft caps differ depending on the weapon and the damage type being scaled. Scaling on physical damage is often 18/60/80 by default, 20/60/80 on keen affinities and some unique weapons, and 16/60/80 on quality affinities. Note that in the rare case that magic, fire, lightning, or holy scales on dexterity, the soft caps are always 20/50/80. When scaling the incantation scaling of the Frenzied Flame Seal, Dexterity soft caps are 15/30/45. Dexterity also affects the cast speed of Sorceries and Incantations, Every point in Dexterity increases the cast speed slightly. Points in Dexterity reduces Fall Damage, as well as making it harder to get knocked off Torrent,
What are the best early game strength weapons in Elden Ring?
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 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,
Once you have settled on a starting class and starting Keepsake item, you should first work out how to level up, how to respec and use Ashes of War, Need some direction from there? Our Elden Ring walkthrough and Elden Ring boss order can help with where to go next, but we also recommend hunting down Golden Seeds, Sacred Tears, Crystal Tears, Talismans and some of our best weapon and best armor choices.
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What weapon is worth upgrading Elden Ring?
Best Elden Ring quality weapon: Bloodhound’s Fang – 
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Stat requirements: STR 18, DEX 17 Scaling: STR D, DEX C
Quality weapons — weapons that work best with a relatively even split of both Strength and Dexterity — aren’t as effective in Elden Ring as they’ve been in previous Soulsborne-style games. With that said, some of them are still incredibly capable, and the best of these is arguably the Bloodhound’s Fang.
- This Curved Greatsword ends up with C Strength scaling and B Dex scaling when upgraded and outputs a ton of damage, especially when you use its Bloodhound’s Finesse Ash of War.
- Its range is fairly long, too, and as a bonus, it also inflicts bleed buildup with every hit.
- You can acquire the Bloodhound’s Fang by defeating Bloodhound Knight Darriwhil at the Forlorn Hound Evergaol in southern Limgrave, just before the bridge that leads to the Weeping Peninsula,
For more information about this encounter, check out our guide on how to complete Blaidd’s quest in Elden Ring,
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Does raising Intelligence increase damage Elden Ring?
Elden Ring Intelligence Stat General Information –
Intelligence (INT) is a Main Attribute that is required to cast most, It is also a primary requirement for equipping the weapons required to cast these spells. Weapons in Elden Ring have a minimum Stat requirement that needs to be met before the weapon can be wielded. In the case of spell-based weapons, most of them require investment in either the Intelligence or stats, or a combination of both. For example, the requires 14 INT to equip. Some weapons may also require points in,, or in order to wield. Weapons are also given a Scaling Grade denoting the degree to which they scale with an attribute. Each point allocated to the Intelligence stat increases the effectiveness and damage dealt by cast with weapons that have Intelligence scaling. A weapon with an Intelligence scaling grade of S will benefit the most from the Intelligence Attribute, followed by grades A, B, C, D, and E, Note that attributes will incur diminishing returns at higher levels, significantly reducing their benefits after a certain point with regards to weapon scaling. This is often referred to as the ‘Soft Cap’. A ‘Hard Cap’ also exists in which additional points in an attribute returns little to no benefit. When scaling the attack power of a melee armament, like all stats, Intelligence soft caps differ depending on the weapon and the damage type being scaled. Scaling on magic, fire, lightning, or holy damage is always 20/50/80. Scaling on physical damage may be 18/60/80 or 20/60/80. While Cold weapons normally have soft caps of 18/60/80 on physical damage and 20/50/80 on magic damage, the following Cold weapons have soft caps of 18/60/80 for both physical damage and magic damage:
Cold Dagger Cold Parrying Dagger Cold Misericorde Celebrant’s Cold Sickle Cold Great Knife Cold Wakizashi Cold Bloodstained Dagger Cold Erdsteel Dagger
When scaling the sorcery scaling or incantation scaling of a, Intelligence soft caps differ depending on the catalyst. The soft caps can be 18/60/80, 25/60/80, or 15/30/45. The has a unique scaling formula, with soft caps of 20/40/80. The soft caps of Intelligence on each catalyst are as follows: Points in Intelligence will also improve your, reducing damage from sources of,
+2 Magic Defense per level from 1 to 20 Intelligence +0.66 Magic Defense per level from 21 to 35 Intelligence +0.4 Magic Defense per level from 36 to 60 Intelligence +0.25 Magic Defense per level from 61 to 99 Intelligence
Do you get better weapons in NG+ Elden Ring?
There Are No New Weapons, Enemies, Items, or Bosses In NG+ – 
Unfortunately there are really no other major differences between New Game Plus and a regular playthrough of Elden Ring, Dark Souls required players to go to at least New Game +2 to get all achievements for the game, Dark Souls 2 changed enemy and item placements and added stronger items for players to discover, and Dark Souls 3 made all upgraded versions of rings only accessible in subsequent playthroughs.
- All FromSoftware games have had some kind of New Game Plus mechanic, but it would be remiss to say that Elden Ring ‘s feels a bit lacking compared to other offerings in the past.
- It’s still a worthy experience for all players to take on when looking for more challenge after beating the Elden Beast – but try going for a different ending or using a completely different build to make it more worthwhile.
Elden Ring is available now for PC, PlayStation 4 and 5, and Xbox One and Series X|S. MORE: Complete Guide To Elden Ring: Weapons, Tips, Tricks, Bosses, & Builds
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