Elden Ring Guide: Best Dueling Weapons and How to Get Them

Elden Ring stands as a landmark in action role-playing games, particularly celebrated for its sophisticated player-versus-player combat system. The game’s dueling mechanics demand precision, tactical awareness, and weapon mastery to overcome skilled opponents. With hundreds of armaments available, selecting the right tool for competitive encounters becomes crucial for victory.

This comprehensive guide examines eight exceptional weapons that dominate the PvP meta, providing detailed acquisition methods and advanced combat strategies to elevate your dueling performance.

Bloody Helice

This heavy thrusting sword excels at applying blood loss buildup while maintaining exceptional mobility. Its unique weapon art, Dynast’s Finesse, allows players to execute an elegant evasive maneuver followed by a powerful thrust, creating opportunities to punish aggressive opponents while building bleed accumulation.

Acquiring the Bloody Helice requires journeying to the Writheblood Ruins within the Altus Plateau region. This location becomes accessible after obtaining both halves of the Dectus Medallion and activating the Grand Lift.

Within the ruins, you’ll confront the Sanguine Noble, an optional boss specializing in blood-based attacks. Strategic use of ranged combat proves essential, as the boss aggressively closes distance to trigger hemorrhage effects. Summoning spirit ashes like the Mimic Tear or Black Knife Tiche provides crucial distraction, allowing you to exploit openings. Counter blood loss buildup with consumables like Blood Grease or protective incantations such as Blood Ward for sustained engagements.

Upon defeating the Sanguine Noble, you’ll receive 8,800 runes and can claim the Bloody Helice from a chest within the dungeon. This weapon particularly shines in duels against heavily armored opponents vulnerable to bleed effects.

Pike

As the longest-reaching melee weapon in Elden Ring, the Pike dominates spacing and control in duels. Its Charge Forth weapon skill enables devastating forward momentum that can catch retreating opponents or break through defensive formations.

Obtaining this exceptional spear requires navigating Stormveil Castle’s heavily fortified courtyard in Limgrave. The weapon rests on a corpse positioned between patrolling soldiers and archers, requiring careful positioning or stealth approaches to avoid alerting multiple enemies simultaneously.

The Pike’s extraordinary length allows players to maintain safe distance while applying constant pressure. In PvP scenarios, this reach advantage forces opponents to commit to risky approaches, creating predictable patterns you can punish. Advanced techniques involve mixing charged heavy attacks with quick pokes to break opponent poise while controlling engagement range.

Zweihander

This iconic colossal sword delivers staggering damage with wide sweeping arcs that can catch multiple opponents or control large areas. Its Stamp (Upward Cut) weapon art provides hyper armor during execution, allowing trades that frequently result in opponent staggers or knockdowns.

Purchasing the Zweihander requires 19 Strength and 11 Dexterity alongside 3,500 Runes from the Isolated Merchant.

The merchant operates from the Isolated Merchant Shack situated in the western Weeping Peninsula. Reach this location by crossing the bridge extending south from Limgrave, then following the coastal path westward.

Mastering the Zweihander involves understanding its slow recovery frames and leveraging jump attacks to mitigate speed disadvantages. The weapon excels at roll-catching opponents who panic dodge and can break guards effectively with its immense poise damage.

Blasphemous Blade

Originally described as dealing dark damage, this greatsword actually inflicts fire damage that scales exceptionally with Faith investment. Its Taker’s Flames weapon art creates a devastating forward wave that steals health from struck enemies, providing both offensive pressure and sustainability.

Acquiring the Blasphemous Blade necessitates trading the Remembrance of the Blasphemous with Enia at the Roundtable Hold after defeating the required boss.

Obtain the Remembrance by vanquishing Rykard, Lord of Blasphemy, within Volcano Manor on Mt. Gelmir. Access this demigod either through completing Tanith’s assassination contracts or discovering the secret passage hidden within the manor’s Drawing Room.

The Blasphemous Blade synergizes powerfully with faith builds, particularly when combined with talismans that enhance fire damage or skill effectiveness. Its health-stealing property makes it exceptionally durable in extended duels, forcing opponents to play more aggressively to overcome your sustain advantage.

Misericorde

This dagger possesses the highest critical damage modifier in Elden Ring, making it devastating for backstabs and parry follow-ups. Its Quickstep weapon art provides exceptional mobility, allowing precise positioning for critical strikes.

Retrieving the Misericorde requires navigating Stormveil Castle, Limgrave’s legacy dungeon. The weapon rests on a corpse within the armory, accessible only after using a Stonesword Key on an imp statue to dissipate the obstructive white fog barrier.

The Misericorde’s 140 critical modifier makes it the premier choice for riposte and backstab-focused builds. Pair it with a parry-capable weapon in your off-hand for devastating counter-play opportunities. Advanced techniques involve using Quickstep to position directly behind shielding opponents for guaranteed critical hits.

Reduvia

This dagger features innate blood loss buildup combined with exceptionally fast attack speed. Its Reduvia Blood Blade weapon art projects short-range blood projectiles that rapidly accumulate hemorrhage, creating constant pressure even at distance.

Acquiring Reduvia requires defeating Bloody Finger Nerijus, an NPC invader who appears near Murkwater Cave in Limgrave.

Power-stancing dual Reduvias dramatically increases attack speed and bleed accumulation rate. This setup can trigger blood loss in just 2-3 hits against most opponents, forcing defensive play or rapid healing consumption.

Strategic application involves mixing physical attacks with blood blade projectiles to maintain pressure. The weapon excels against opponents with low bleed resistance and can quickly overwhelm those unfamiliar with managing status effect buildup.

Bloodhound’s Fang

This curved greatsword combines innate bleed buildup with substantial physical damage and impressive reach. Its Bloodhound’s Finesse weapon art enables a backward evasion followed by a forward dash attack, creating unpredictable movement patterns.

Obtaining the Bloodhound’s Fang requires defeating Bloodhound Knight Darriwil within the Forlorn Hound Evergaol in Limgrave.

The weapon’s ability to accept buffs from spells and consumables makes it exceptionally versatile. Combine it with Bloodflame Blade or Scholar’s Armament to enhance its damage output or status effect buildup.

Mastering the weapon art’s timing allows you to evade incoming attacks while simultaneously countering. This makes it particularly effective against aggressive opponents who commit heavily to their attack sequences.

Death Poker

This greatsword specializes in frostbite buildup while scaling effectively with both Intelligence and Dexterity. Its Ghostflame Ignition weapon art creates versatile area control with multiple activation modes.

Acquiring the Death Poker requires defeating the Death Rite Bird, an optional field boss located at Caelid Highway within Southern Aeonia Swamp Bank.

The weapon’s unique skill can either detonate immediately for burst damage or leave lingering ghostflame trails for area denial.

Frostbite not only deals damage but also reduces damage absorption and stamina recovery. This dual effect makes the Death Poker exceptionally potent against stamina-dependent builds and heavily armored opponents.

Strategic application involves using the ghostflame trail to control space while applying pressure with the weapon’s inherent frost buildup on direct hits.

While these eight weapons represent top-tier choices for Elden Ring PvP, success ultimately depends on mastering their unique mechanics and adapting to opponent strategies.

Effective dueling requires understanding weapon matchups, timing skill activations strategically, and maintaining appropriate spacing based on your weapon’s effective range.

Remember that no single weapon dominates all scenarios—adaptation and tactical flexibility remain paramount. For comprehensive guidance on character development, consult our Class Guide to optimize your build around your chosen weapon’s scaling and requirements.

Experiment with different weapon combinations and ash of war infusions to discover setups that complement your personal playstyle and counter prevalent meta strategies.

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