8 Best Melee Weapons In Elden Ring: [Our Handpicked Suggestions]

Here's my guide for the best melee weapons in Elden Ring, You are sure to find the weapons that you need to conquer your enemies.

By Usama Mehmood

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April 28, 2023

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Elden Ring has a beautiful combat system involving tons of melee weapons, ranged spells and incantations, and much more. Your melee weapons arsenals include katanas, swords, daggers, halberds, spears, and more. You, the tarnished one, might have difficulty deciding which weapon to pick and start your first journey to become the Elden Lord. Therefore, I curated the best melee weapons Elden Ring guide to help you decide the best one to stick to for a long time.

Key Highlights

Melee weapons in Elden Ring excel in close-range combat, and they mainly scale with Strength, Dexterity, and Faith.
The best thing about these weapons is their Ash of War attacks, which can effectively cover long-range, close-range, and wide-range combat.
However, since melee weapons are often reliant on their Ash of War, players need a lot of Mind stat-dumping, which doesn’t raise the potency of their attacks whatsoever.
Most top melee weapons in Elden Ring belong in the katanas, swords, daggers, halberds, and spears category.

Author’s Note: You can rely on my takes, experience, and authenticity since I’ve spent over 150 hours in Elden Ring.

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Best Melee Weapons Comparison

Weapon	Weapon Type	Best For	Physical	Magic	Critical
Wakizashi	Dagger	The Best Dagger For Katana Builds	94.0	0.0	100.0
Crystal Knife	Dagger	The Highest Int Scaling In Daggers	82.0	53.0	100.0
Reduvia	Dagger	The Best Bleed Dagger In Elden Ring	79.0	0.0	110.0
Misericorde	Dagger	The Highest Crit Stat In The Game	92.0	0.0	140.0
Erdsteel Dagger	Dagger	The Best Dagger For Quadruple Scaling	67.0	0.0	110.0
Moonveil	Katana	The Best Katana For Int Builds	73.0	87.0	100.0
Serpentbone Blade	Katana	The Best Katana For Poison Builds	120.0	0.0	100.0
Nagabika	Katana	The Longest Katana In Elden Ring	115.0	0.0	100.0

Related: Elden Ring Weapon Tier List

Daggers

The first type that you can come across is the dagger in Elden Ring. While wielding the weapon itself, you can obliterate enemies with insane speed, launch high attack numbers, and get rid of opponents quickly. You can deal highly great crit damage, accounting for victory in combat.

1. Wakizashi

The Best Dagger For Katana Builds.

elden ring best melee weapons — Wakizashi In The Game

Wakizashi is a dagger that aims to be used if you want to deal significant crit damage but also wish to take part in close-range combat against stronger enemies.

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It comes with a lot of combo attacks that can increase melee damage. As a player, you can take advantage of the skills it provides.

Physical	Magic	Fire	Light	Holy	Critical
94	0	0	0	0	100

Physical	Magic	Fire	Light	Holy	Boost
42	24	24	24	24	18

Requirements and Scaling

The Wakizashi weapon requires you to have 9 Strength Points and 13 Dexterity Points.
The weapon primarily scales with Strength D and Dexterity D; therefore, I suggest you to invest in these scalings.

Main Skill

The primary skill of Wakizashi in Elden Ring includes “Quickstep,” which allows players to regain their original position while fighting enemies to dodge opponents’ attacks.

Can be powerstanced with katanas despite being a dagger.
Has modifiable Ash of war and Bleed build-up.

Combo range is pretty short.
Powerstancing with katanas creates range inconsistencies.

2. Crystal Knife

The Highest Int Scaling In Daggers.

Crystal Knife is yet another dagger that aims to support you in close-ranged combat, and you can combine it with “Magic Damage,” which will buff your character and increase their overall crit damage.

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Physical	Magic	Fire	Light	Holy	Critical
82	53	0	0	0	100

Physical	Magic	Fire	Light	Holy	Boost
32	31	18	18	18	15

Requirements and Scaling

Crystal Knife requires a total of 8 Strength Points plus 12 Dexterity Points. Also, 9 Intelligence Points are required to wield this weapon.
The weapon scales with Intelligence D, Dexterity D, and Strength D regarding scalings.

Main Skill

The primary skill of Crystal Knife is “Quickstep,” which is the same as Wakizashi.

Considerable physical and magic damage.
The skill quickstep can be very useful.

Can not be buffed or dmg boosted in any way.
Low critical value as compared to other daggers.

3. Reduvia

The Best Bleed Dagger In Elden Ring.

Following through with Reduvia, I consider it to be one of the best-ranged attack weapons for combat against formidable foes. It allows you to obliterate enemies with Backstabs, deal a lot of damage, and launch attacks with a good amount of speed.

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Physical	Magic	Fire	Light	Holy	Critical
79	0	0	0	0	110

Physical	Magic	Fire	Light	Holy	Boost
38	22	22	22	22	16

Requirements and Scaling

The players need to have at least 5 strength Points, 13 Dexterity, and 13 Arcane Points in their arsenal to equip.
When talking about scaling, Reduvia scales off Arcane D, Dexterity C, and Strength D, which makes the player stronger when dealing with opponents.

Main Skill

Reduvia’s primary skill, called “Blood Blade”, carries its name with pride, obliterating enemies while decreasing their blood buildup slowly but surely, rendering them useless in the end.

The skill Reduvia Blood Blade is very good for ranged bleed buildup.
The starting bandit class can utilize this weapon right from the get-go.

Attack range other than skill is pretty limited.
Raw damage output excluding bleed is comparatively low.

4. Misericorde

The Highest Crit Stat In The Game.

Making your way along, another dagger that belongs in the best melee weapons Elden Ring includes Misericorde, which is excellent for close-ranged combat.

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Its main aim is to support you with repositioning during motion in the battle to avoid taking damage from opponents.

Physical	Magic	Fire	Light	Holy	Critical
92	0	0	0	0	140

Physical	Magic	Fire	Light	Holy	Boost
36	21	21	21	21	15

Requirements and Scalings

To equip Misericorde, players will need to own up and give 7 Strength Points, as well as 12 Dexterity Points.
Misericorde scales with Dexterity D and Strength E can significantly aid players in battle.

Main Skill

Misericorde has “Quickstep” as its primary skill. It aids you in battle with repositioning to get rid of enemies while dealing insane Damage but also not being able to take any yourself.

Unique R2 attack makes it exceptional for versatile combos.
Can dish a ton of damage with its highest Crit value (140).

Short attack range for the standard combo.
Damage efficiency drops in non-crit playstyles.

5. Erdsteel Dagger

The Best Dagger For Quadruple Scaling.

For players who want to deal with a lot of crit damage and want the ability to get rid of opponents while being close with them. The Erdsteel Dagger grants extra attack powers to the adventurer, aiding greatly in combat.

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The Erdsteel Dagger comes with the following stats:

Physical	Magic	Fire	Light	Holy	Critical
67	0	0	0	0	110

Physical	Magic	Fire	Light	Holy	Boost
36	21	21	21	21	15

Requirements and Scalings

Erdsteel Dagger requires a total of 7 strength points, along with 12 Dexterity Points too, which I think you can start investing in if you want to equip it.
Scalings-wise, Erdsteel Daggers aim to scale off of Strength D and Dexterity D.

Main Skill

The Erdsteel Dagger gets its primary damage buff off of Quickstep, which is the skill that is equipped by high-class daggers like Misericorde.

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Charged heavy attack does consecutive slashes for considerable damage.
Comes with triple scaling, which can be modified to quadruple for end-game builds.

True potential is unlocked in high Faith investment builds.
No ranged attacks and thus works only in close-range.

Katanas

elden katana types — types of katanas elden ring

Following up with the following types of weapons, you come across the Katanas, which aim to help players with mid-range combat to slash their way through the toughest foes.

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You can also launch consistent “Thrust Attacks” at your opponents and place the status of Hemorrhage on them. Let’s look at some of the katanas that I believe belong in the best melee weapons.

6. Moonveil

The Best Katana For Int Builds.

Moonveil aims to be an excellent assistance for adventurers that allows you to attack opponents with consistent Pierce damage, which can inflict the Hemorhhage status.

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You can also take out your weapon with insane speed and get rid of your foes in a split second using Light. No matter how many times I use it, Transient Moonlight is one satisfying skill to use.

A Similar Read: Elden Ring Moonlight Greatsword

Physical	Magic	Fire	Light	Holy	Critical
73	87	0	0	0	100

Physical	Magic	Fire	Light	Holy	Boost
31	57	26	26	26	31

Requirements and Scaling

I recommend taking care of your Strength Points, as this weapon requires 12 Points. Along with that, 18 Dexterity Points and 23 Intelligence Points.
As for scaling, the Moonveil scales off with Intelligence C and Dexterity D. it also scales partially with Strength E, so players should invest in these skills.

Main Skill

Moonveil has the skill “Transient Moonlight,” which allows you to deal with an additional normal attack upon making slash attacks, which I consider to be pretty handy.

Transient Moonlight can make short work of many foes.
Deals high poise damage both in close and long ranges.

Requires investment in both Dex and Int to utilize properly.
Needs considerable Mind stat to easily spam skills.

7. Serpentbone Blade

The Best Katana For Poison Builds.

The Serpentbone blade, a katana that takes after a serpent bone, is for you if you’ve jacked up your Dex stat. This katana is not for short-range combat but instead for mid-range.

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It allows you to ruin enemies with a few Slash and Pierce attacks with a lot of speed.

Physical	Magic	Fire	Light	Holy	Critical
120	0	0	0	0	100

Physical	Magic	Fire	Light	Holy	Boost
45	30	30	30	30	30

Requirements and Scalings

You’ll need at least 11 Strength Points while also having 22 Dexterity Points to wield it.
The weapon scales with dexterity E and Strength E, so make sure to look into the investments.

Main skill

The Serpentbone blade comes with the “Double Slash,” allowing you to bend down low and perform consistent slashes in Figure X to taunt enemies and get rid of them quickly.

If you need to poison your enemies to death but lack Serpentbone Blade, I suggest using the Venomous Fang instead for its fast moveset and excellent poison buildup.

Causes high poison build-up as additional damage source.
Continuous application changes it to deadly poison for an extra punch.

The Ash of War can not be modified
Obtained by progressing through lengthy NPC questline.

8. Nagakiba

The Longest Katana In Elden Ring.

Following the Nagakiba, this weapon offers an excellent physical damage boost to the tarnished one. It allows for close-range combat, the perfect combination needed to take down the worst of enemies.

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Physical	Magic	Fire	Light	Holy	Critical
115	0	0	0	0	100

Physical	Magic	Fire	Light	Holy	Boost
49	33	33	33	33	33

Requirements and Scaling

You need to put in at least 18 Strength Points and 22 Dexterity Points, which are needed to equip this weapon.
The Nagakiba scales with Dexterity C and Strength D,

Main skill

The primary skill of the Nagakiba is the “Piercing Fang”, which aims to support you with increased physical Damage.

This weapon’s affinity can be changed to cold, etc. which is beneficial in cold/bleed builds.
Has exceptional attack range for a speedy moveset.

Requires completion of an NPC questline.
In terms of damage, Uchigatana is a slightly better option.

Other Honorable Mentions

Here are some additional melee weapons in Elden Ring that I haven’t included. You may want to consider using them based on your preferences.

Dark Moon Greatsword: Scales primarily with Intelligence, Dexterity and Strength but, its Ash of War is slow.
Bloodhound Fang: Considered a good option as it performs brutal melee attacks against enemies and immediately takes distance from them.
Blasphemous Blade: It scales really good with faith, does a ton of damage and you gain health from defeated enemies.

My Take On The Melee Build And Melee Weapons

The Melee build in Elden Ring is refined to the core, and it is probably the most fun to use. In my opinion, Melee weapons are the best weapons in Elden Ring, as I like close combat the most. Of course, there are some exceptions, but overall, I hold these aggressive close-range weapons in high regard.

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There are tons of great Melee Weapons you can choose from, but as there are so many, I would recommend you try out Moonveil, Nagakiba, and Reduvia. Of course, you can try out different options, too, but these are my favorites, and with the right build, you can have an enjoyable experience with them.