The Best Bleed Weapons in Elden Ring DLC

Summary

Key Takeaways:
Elden Ring players are exploring new builds & weapons in ER DLC for best build options.
Bleed weapons like Barbed Staff-Spear are popular due to high bleed buildup.
Backhand Blades & Claws of Night are strong options for powerful bleed builds.

With the release of Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree, players are experimenting now more than ever with new builds, weapon types, and Ashes of War to figure out what the unequivocal best build is in the current state of ER.

Hornsent standing on a hill in Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree.

10 Great Elden Ring Mods That Work With Shadow Of The Erdtree

Given how recently Elden Ring's Shadow of the Erdtree DLC was released, the fact that these mods already work with the new content is very impressive.

Posts

By Peter Morics

To absolutely no one’s surprise, Bleed weapons are as overpowered as they ever were in the base game, and with FromSoftware adding even more options, players are spoiled for choice. For those looking to switch things up with a different weapon for a bleed build, here are the best options the DLC has to offer.

6 Barbed Staff-Spear

barbed staff-spear in elden ring shadow of the erdtree

Location: Darklight Catacombs
How to Get: Defeat Jori, Elder Inquisitor

The Barbed Staff-Spear can be used in one of the most broken anti-boss builds in the entire game: the Greatshield + a Thrusting Weapon infused with a status effect. For those unaware, if wielding a Greatshield and a dedicated poke weapon like a spear or a greatspear, players can hold the shield to block in their left hand and attack using the spear from their right hand. This way, any attack from the front is blocked by the shield while the spear deals constant damage, proccing bleed frequently.

The Barbed Staff-Spear has an innate bleed buildup of 55, which is significantly better than the Bloodfiend's Fork’s meager 30, making it a very viable option in this build. Of course, something like the Cross-Naginata will have more range but the unique weapon skill Jori’s Inquisition makes a strong case for the Barbed Staff-Spear. Holding it creates a swarm of small golden arcs that work exactly like the Golden Arcs Incantion but better because it can be held down to spawn a staggering number of arcs in one go, giving this already broken build a viable ranged option.

5 Dane’s Footwork

dane's footwork in elden ring shadow of the erdtree

Location: Enir-Ilim
How to Get: Defeat Leda and her allies

Both Dane's Footwork and the Dryleaf Arts are equally viable options for a hyper-fast bleed build that relies on getting tons of hits on an enemy at extremely close range. However, Dane’s Footwork is overall the better option as it takes full advantage of the Shattered Stone Talisman to boost its base DPS to staggering amounts.

While the Ash of War: Palm Blast is quite good on its own, for a bleed build, it should be swapped out for Ash of War: Dryleaf Whirlwind with the Blood infusion as a faster AoE option that also helps with bleed. Each hit of a Blood Infused Dane’s Footwork causes 57 blood loss buildup, which can quickly stack up to a bleed proc once every single combo. The only downside here is that hand-to-hand weapons require a lot more skill to wield than something like a simple sword or greathammer.

4 Sword Lance

sword lance in elden ring shadow of the erdtree

Location: Near Shadow Keep, Back Gate Site of Grace
How to Get: Defeat Commander Gaius and use the Remembrance of the Wild Boar Rider at Roundtable Hold

The Sword Lance is one of the most overlooked weapons in the entire DLC, mainly because of its unique Ash of War: Spinning Gravity Thrust that manages to steal the spotlight from the weapon itself. What players may not realize is that the weapon has insane scaling when infused with bleed, managing to inflict a ton of blood loss buildup on every hit.

Elden Ring Shadow of The Erdtree: Best New Curved Swords, Ranked

Elden Ring's Shadow of the Erdtree DLC brings in a few new Curved Swords for players to collect. Here are the strongest ones worth building around.

Posts

By Gerardo Molina

Combined with the fact that stab-heavy moveset makes it very poke-heavy, the Sword Lance makes for an excellent bleed option for players who prefer staying at a safe distance when trying to stab enemies. Both the Ash of War: Blood Tax and Ash of War: Repeating Thrust are excellent options for this, though Repeating Thrust is more spammable as it uses less FP. Like the Barbed Staff-Spear, the Sword Lance can be used in a Greatshield poke build as well, increasing its value even further.

3 Backhand Blades

backhand blades in elden ring shadow of the erdtree

Location: Gravesite Plains
How to Get: Northwest of the Scorched Ruins, inside a small mausoleum

One of the new unique weapon types introduced in the Elden Ring DLC is the Backhand Blade, a set of paired curved swords with a fast-paced moveset. Naturally, the multi-hit nature of the Backhand Blades lends itself quite nicely to a bleed build where keeping a consistent output of damage is necessary for frequent procs.

Surprisingly, the strongest variant of the Backhand Blades is the standard weapon, also called the Backhand Blades. The other two choices, Smithscript Cirque and Curseblade's Cirque, have shorter ranges and worse movesets, making the base weapon the go-to. While it might be tempting to experiment with different choices, the standard Ash of War: Blind Spot that the blades already come with is the overall best option, allowing players to weave in and out of danger at a moment’s notice.

2 Bloodfiend’s Arm

bloodfiend's arm in elden ring shadow of the erdtree

Location: Variable
How to Get: Can be farmed from Bloodfiends wielding this weapon

Undoubtedly the most broken weapon in the DLC at release, Bloodfiend's Arm has since seen a nerf that has stopped the weapon’s reign of terror. That being said, it remains one of the best bleed weapon options for players who want something that can break poise just as easily.

Bloodfiend’s Arm doesn’t have innate bleed, but when infused with a blood Ash of War, each swing inflicts 120 bleed buildup per hit. And since the weapon is infusable and buffable, it has a lot of flexibility to counter specific enemies and bosses with different loadouts. Typically, players want to hold it two-handed and spawn the charged attack to both break poise and inflict bleed. While it can’t proc bleed in one hit any longer, it’s still one of the strongest bleed weapons in the game.

1 Claws of Night

claws of night in elden ring shadow of the erdtree

Location: Cathedral of Manus Metyr
How to Get: Defeat Swordhand of Anna in Finger Ruins of Miyr

Lighting-fast Claws with extremely high blood loss buildup in relation to how fast their moveset is, the Claws of Night are one of the best weapons to go for when putting together a powerful bleed build. Not only do the Claws of Night melt bosses, they are a terror in PvP, with few players having the skills and the means necessary to counter the relentless onslaught with any degree of success.

Of course, Tarnished using the Claws will need to get up-close and personal to dish out the hurt, but that’s a small price to pay for sheer damage output these weapons provide. The Ash of War: Scattershot Throw provides a very reliable ranged option that covers the one weakness short-range weapons have.