Summary
Elden Ring’sShadow of the ErdtreeDLC introduces new weapon types that change how players can approach the game.New attack forms and unique abilitiesexpand options for both aggressive and tactical playstyles, and help refresh the game’s current arsenal.
Each addition seamlessly blends into the game’s combat while offering some change to current armaments and entirely new ones. These new weapon archetypes both challenge old strategies and expand upon them, redefining combat in interesting ways.
1Dragon-Hunter’s Great Katana
The Colossal Dragon Slayer
The Dragon-Hunter’s Great Katana is acolossal katana imbued with great powerdesigned for slaying dragons. This sword has a unique skill that is similar to the Moonveil katana, but this one performs a high leaping slash. Charging the attack fires a red aura at a distance, perfect for clearing enemies afar and closing range on dragons.
While this weapon can be effective in PvP combat when used right, or against a small crowd of enemies, its effectiveness lies in slaying dragons with its 20% bonus damage toward both Dragons and Ancient Dragons. Meaning this DLC weapon can help anyone struggling against previous dragon encounters, and most certainly tackle Jagged Peak.
2Rellana’s Twin Blades
Blades Of The Twin Moon
Normally a magical weapon has one element of magical power, unless they’re modified with magic or consumables. Rellana’s Twin Blades offers a new spin on dual wielding blades and fuses two magic sources in one, glintstone and fire.
This light greatsword scales with Strength, Dexterity, Intellect, and Faith, and has a Moon-and-Fire Stance that cannot be changed out or buffed. This is a paired weapon that allows players to dual wield it. While assuming stance, players can use a normal attack to cast glintstone light waves, and strong attack to perform a spinning attack that bathes the area in a circle flame.
3Thrusting Shields
Turning Defense Into Offense
TheDueling Shield and Carian Thrusting Shieldchange combat dynamics by being able to attack and defend at the same time. These shields allow for precise thrusts that eventually break poise and stagger foes. The ability to block while winding up for a heavy attack makes fighting aggressive bosses a breeze.
Both shields come with the Shield Strike Ash of War, but can infuse any other Ash of War instead. A creative use of the thrusting shield is infusing Cold to allow the heavy attack to cause a lot of Frost buildup, allowing players to effectively chisel away their foes.
4Backhand Blades
Dual Wielding With Style
Backhand Blades offer new nimble ways to dispatch enemies. They can be dual wielded without needing a duplicate, and provide new ways to dance around.New Ashes of Warare found in these, like Swift Slash which lets the player dash forward with a flurry of slices, and Blind Spot that dashes at an angle and is useful for dodging around attacks.
Other Backhand Blades like the Smithscript Cirque and Curseblade’s Cirque offer another wild twist. The Smithscript Cirque can be thrown in several curving trajectories, and Curseblade’s Cirque has the unique skill Deadly Dance, which launches the player up and forward in a flurry of spinning slices and follows up with a sharp axe-kick.
5Beast Claws
The Wild Leaping Slasher
What sets the Beast Claw and Red Bear’s Claw apart from the base game claws is their unique skills, which provide insane combinations of attacks and movement. The Beast Claws have Savage Claws, which viciously slash into the foe repeatedly up to a total of 6 slashes. The Red Bear Hunt skill from Red Bear’s Claw slaughters prey with a series of slashes that create a vacuum of continuous damage.
These claws redefine this weapon type inShadow of the Erdtreeby providing these aggressive close range skills.Beast Claws excel at closing gapsand maintaining pressure with fast-paced, high-risk, high-reward gameplay. Their high weapon status building can be utilized effectively by modifying the damage type with different Ashes of Wars, so this offers a lot of customizability in status affect approach.
6Smithscript Weapons
Keeping Pressure At A Distance
Throwing Weapons turn the tables by offering a permanent way to throw weapons at enemies, almost overriding the necessity of throwable items. Smithscript weapons return to the wielder’s hand automatically after throwing, so any pure melee builds can have a good chance at keeping pressure at a distance.
The Smithscript Spear proves fearsome when riding on the back of Torrent, as its range goes farther than other Smithscript weapons. When the Smithscript Shield is thrown, it lingers in the air and hurls toward a target, effectively acting like a homing disc. Even the Smithscript Greathammer can be thrown, annihilating everything in a straight line.
7Perfume Bottles
Firespark & Chilling Alchemical Warfare
Not to be confused with the key item of the same name, Perfume Bottles are now a weapon type that deal clouds of elemental damage. The Ash of War Rolling Sparks shoots a trail of perfumed powder that explodes several hitboxes, and Wall of Sparks Ash of War scatters perfume in a circle with an intense AoE explosion by the end of it.
This style of magic is unique as these elemental clouds can be devastating to a crowd of enemies, and be overwhelming in PvP.The best perfume bottlesto utilize in most scenarios are the Firespark Perfume Bottle or Chilling Perfume Bottle, with the Rolling Sparks Ash of War.
8Dryleaf Arts
Master of Martial Arts
The Dryleaf Arts by far is the most unique weapon addition toElden Ring. Since there are many ways to buff characters with Talismans and Magic,Dryleaf Arts can become quite overpowered. Especially in combination with the Palm Blast Ash of War it comes with.
Palm Blast imbues the palm with energy to strike with a devastating blast—charging the attack provides an insane amount of poise which means it’s virtually impossible to get knocked out of the attack. Due to how quick and wide the normal attacks are paired with unbreakable poise, the Dryleaf Arts allows players to effectively tackle up close battles with no worries at all.
