Before its release, Elden Ring was being touted as FromSoftware's most accessible game yet, and to a certain extent, this is pretty true. The ability to summon players and spirits, Stakes of Marika acting as boss checkpoints, and a non-linear structure allowing newcomers to take on challenges only when ready all help to make this a great entry-level Souls-like, but the game doesn't tell new players everything.
Though the game's brief tutorial will teach a player the basic controls, it does little in the way of explaining some of the game's more complex mechanics. Power stances, and equipment loads, for example, are barely even mentioned. While players can get through quite a bit of Elden Ring without knowing its more complex mechanics, weapon scaling is a feature that is vital to Elden Ring's mid-late game.
Explaining Elden Ring's Weapon Scaling
When it comes to taking on Elden Ring's tougher bosses, weapon scaling can play a massive part in how much damage a player is outputting. Put simply, most weapons scale based on a specific attribute, meaning that the more points that are put into that attribute, the stronger the weapon becomes.
To use a specific example, the 
Short Sword has a physical attack power of 102 but also has an additional number following a "+" symbol. The "102" marks the weapon's base damage, a stat that can only be increased by upgrading the weapon via Smithing Stones at a Blacksmith. However, the additional damage stat of the Short Sword is increased via weapon scaling.
When looking at the inventory menu, a weapon's scaling stats can be found underneath the Attack Power section, in a space marked "Attribute Scaling." For the Short Sword, this section says that the weapon has Strength scaling in class D, and Dexterity scaling also in class D. This essentially means that for every point a player puts into either Strength or Dexterity, this "+" number will increase, meaning that the weapon will output a higher damage.
If a player starts as the Astrologer class, for example, they have a starting Strength stat of 8, and a starting Dexterity stat of 12. With these attributes, the Short Sword outputs 102+10 damage. However, if a player increases their Strength to 22, and Dexterity to 36, for example, then the Short Sword will deliver 102+35 damage.
Though this isn't the case for all weapons, when a player strengthens their armament via a Blacksmith or workbench, the attribute scaling class can sometimes be increased. Using the Short Sword as an example again, if a player strengthens the weapon to +12, then it will now have a Dexterity scaling class of C, as opposed to D, meaning that even more damage will be added to the weapon if a player levels Dexterity.
Weapon scaling becomes pretty important during Elden Ring's mid-late game, when enemy's continue to get tougher and tougher. It's vital that a player chooses a weapon that suits their build, such as a weapon that has a high scaling class in Dexterity if they have a Dex build, or a weapon that scales well in Strength if they're going for a tank build.
Players also need to be careful about adding certain Ashes of War or magic buffs to their weapons, as this can occasionally affect how the weapon scales. For instance, some Ashes of War change the weapon so that it scales specifically in Strength, getting rid of any prior scaling benefits the weapon might've had. As is the case with most of Elden Ring, players should take a minute to think about their upgrades before rushing in.
Elden Ring is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.