Arcane is arguably the most overlooked attribute inElden Ringdue to the fact that very few weapons scale with it, at least when compared to other main attributes. Having said that, there’s definitely a fair amount of players that do enjoy what Arcane has to offer, especially now that they have a few more toys to play with inShadow of the Erdtree.
Elden Ring: Best Faith Weapons Tier List
Have faith that some of these weapons will carry you through the entirety of Elden Ring and its DLC.
If you’re a diehard fan of Blood Loss and other status effects, you came to the right place because we put together a tier list that ranks every Arcane weapon in Elden Ring, including those added in Shadow of the Erdtree. Options are still somewhat limited even after the release of the DLC, but beggars can’t be choosers, so we’ll just have to make do with what we have.
Our Ranking Criteria
We took into consideration every factor we could think of when putting together this tier list. That includes not just raw stats, but also weight, length, speed, versatility, moveset, status effect buildup, and unique skills. Weapon requirements were deemed less important, and we didn’t factor in the difficulty of obtaining these weapons at all. We’re not dismissing the satisfaction of using a hard-earned weapon, but those weapons don’t necessarily perform better than those found randomly during exploration.
It’s also worth noting that we ranked all these weapons based on their max level stats. There’s a major difference between a base level weapon and a fully upgraded weapon. Needless to say, we also assumed that players wielding these weapons would have high enough Arcane to get the most out of them. The Arcane soft cap is 60 for skills and 80 for weapon scaling. However, it’s generally agreed upon that you’ll get the most out of Arcane at around 45 to 50 points. Past that, you’ll see minimal scaling for status effects, which is one of the main reasons you’ll want to invest in Arcane in the first place.
The last thing we need to mention is that Arcane is the most important attribute for every weapon on this list. Depending on the weapon, this means that investing points into Arcane provides the biggest damage boost, skill boost, or status effect scaling.
These are the best weapons in the game for builds that focus heavily on Arcane. Most of these weapons have been around for a while, but we also have a new entry that was introduced in the DLC. The Putrescence Cleaver isn’t quite on the same level as the other three, however, it still deserves to be in this tier regardless.
Weapon Name
Weapon Type
Weapon Skill
Rivers of Blood
Corpse Piler Skill
Eleonora’s Poleblade
Bloodblade Dance Skill
Mohgwyn’s Sacred Spear
Great Spear
Bloodboon Ritual Skill
Putrescence Cleaver
Spinning Guillotine
While not quite as overpowered as some of the S-Tier weapons, these weapons are certainly no joke. Shadow of the Erdtree added a couple of powerful Arcane weapons like the Bloodfiend’s Arm and the Poleblade of the Bud that were inches away from making it into S-Tier. We cheated a bit with the Maternal Staff since it has split scaling, but most players would agree that Arcane is more important than Intelligence when it comes to a weapon like this.
Regalia of Eochaid
Straight Sword
Eochaid’s Dancing Blade Skill
Bloody Helice
Heavy Thrusting Sword
Dynast’s Finesse Skill
Bloodfiend’s Arm
Colossal Weapon
Endure Skill
Poleblade of the Bud
Romina’s Purification
Reduvia Blood Blade Skill
Maternal Staff
Glintstone Staff
Not great, not terrible. These weapons will serve you well for a while, but we wouldn’t recommend investing too much time and effort into them. Even though options are pretty limited, you can still find much better Arcane weapons in Elden Ring.
Ripple Crescent Halberd
Spinning Slash Skill
Flowerstone Gavel
Flower Dragonbolt
Albinauric Staff
Dragon Communion Seal
Sacred Seal
The weapons found in this tier have very few redeeming qualities and/or are simply weaker versions of other weapons. Unless you’re going for a very specific build where you’re using them as an off-hand weapon, you shouldn’t bother with these.
Ripple Blade
Wild Strikes Skill
Bloodfiend’s Sacred Spear
Bloodfiends' Bloodboon
Poisoned Hand
Fist Weapon
Poison Spear-Hand Strike
If you’re considering using either of these as your go-to Arcane weapon, we strongly urge you to reconsider. Varre’s Bouquet is a notoriously poor weapon while the Deadly Poison Perfume Bottle is only worth it if you’re going for a gimmicky Poisoner build. And even then, you’re able to easily find better weapons that inflict Poison buildup.
Varré’s Bouquet
Blood Tax Skill
Deadly Poison Perfume Bottle
Perfume Bottle
Deadly Poison Spray
Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree
Shadow of the Erdtree is the first and only DLC expansion for FromSoftware’s groundbreaking Elden Ring. It takes players to a whole new region, the Land of Shadow, where a new story awaits the Tarnished.
Elden Ring: Best Intelligence Weapons Tier List
Fight intelligently as you explore The Lands Between.
