Have you tried running any of these bleed weapons already?
The wide variety of weapons available at your disposal in Elden Ring means you’ll have tons of options when it comes to making a build. As far as build goes, one of the strongest so far is bleed builds. These are builds that rely on the hemorrhage or bleed mechanic which is similar to the ones in previous FROMSoftware titles.
What makes it even stronger than previous bleed reiterations, however, is that bleed buildup in this game is insanely quick. With the right build, paired with the best bleed weapons, you can inflict bleed on your enemies in just 1-3 hits, making it a really reliable status effect for both PVE and PVP scenarios.
What you need to keep in mind is that a LOT of enemies are susceptible to bleed. Also, there are lots of weapons that are capable of inflicting blood loss, either by applying Blood affinity to them or through their innate Blood Loss passive effect.
In this article, however, we’re going to talk about the 5 best weapons you can use when doing a bleed-focused build. I know there are a lot of strong contenders out there, but I personally find these weapons to be among the most reliable in both PVE and PVP situations.
Let’s get started.
5. Uchigatana
Surprisingly, one of the best bleed weapons in the game can be obtained pretty early. In fact, if you choose Samurai as your starting class, you can have this weapon from the get-go. Better yet, you can obtain another copy by heading to the Deathtouched Catacombs near Stormhill and looting it from a corpse.
Despite being an early-game weapon, it can actually carry you all the way to the late game, even endgame in some scenarios, with proper investment and the right Ash of War. It’s such a versatile weapon that you can slap it into any build and will still remain viable. However, it does shine when used as a weapon for a bleed-focused build.
You can apply the Seppuku ash of war into it for increased blood loss buildup. Meanwhile, your choice of affinity will depend on personal preference. If you want to just focus on blood loss buildup, you can apply the Blood affinity so it can also scale with Arcane, essentially increasing allowing you to apply bleed in just 1-2 hits.
However, if you want to focus on higher damage with a bit of bleed on the side, you can apply the Keen affinity so it will scale with Dexterity. With Seppuku active, you can apply bleed within 3-4 hits which isn’t really that bad.
Uchigatana Stats:
- Physical Damage: 115
- Weapon Class: Katana
- Default Ash of War: Unsheathe
- Passive: Causes blood loss buildup (45)
What Uchigatana Excels In:
- Early weapon for bleed builds
- Quick bleed buildup due to its fast attack speed
- Quite versatile to build around
How to Get the Uchigatana:
Either as a starting weapon for the Samurai class or from a corpse in the Deathtouched Catacombs:
4. Scavenger’s Curved Sword
Uchigatana surely is a great bleed weapon, but I personally prefer the Scavenger’s Curved Sword due to its moveset when powerstanced. If you’re wondering, powerstancing is basically wielding two weapons of the same class, a mechanic that was present in Dark Souls 2. This opens up a completely different moveset than simply two-handing said weapon.
What makes the Scavenger’s Curved Sword better than the Uchigatana is that you can reliably proc bleed to your target with just a single running L1/LB attack. This attack animation involves slashing both swords at your target TWICE, and since you’re wielding two of them at the same time, you’re essentially hitting your target FOUR times in a single attack.
This means you can easily proc bleed on your target and deal significant damage all at the same time. This, paired with the Blood affinity and Seppuku, makes proccing bleed way easier. However, I personally prefer going for an Occult affinity on this one instead so I can take advantage of a higher AR while still applying bleed at a decent rate.
Scavenger’s Curved Sword Stats:
- Physical Damage: 105
- Weapon Class: Curved Sword
- Default Ash of War: Spinning Slash
- Passive: Causes blood loss buildup (45)
What Scavenger’s Curved Sword Excels In:
- Works best when powerstanced with another copy of the weapon
- Deal high damage while still applying decent bleed buildup via the Occult affinity
How to Get the Scavenger’s Curved Sword:
Can be found on a corpse guarded by a Grafted Scion near the First Mt. Gelmir Site of Grace:
3. Eleonora’s Pole Blade
Patch 1.03 has fixed the bugged Arcane scaling on several weapons, and that includes Eleonora’s Pole Blade. Finally, you can now take advantage of the increased AR this weapon offers given the right Arcane investment.
To be honest, the weapon has really poor scaling across Strength, Dexterity, and Arcane. In fact, even its overall damage at +10 isn’t something to write home about. Where the weapon shines, however, is in its Ash of War.
The weapon’s skill, which is Bloodblade Dance, allows you to weave through the battlefield and kill groups of enemies pretty quickly. You can even follow it up with another attack which allows you to perform an evasive maneuver shortly after.
If not for its Ash of War, I would have placed other better bleed weapons on this spot instead like the Nagakiba or Godskin Peeler with the Blood affinity. However, its Ash of War is more than enough to compensate for that. In fact, I was able to kill players using the skill, especially those who are trying to trade hits during the animation.
In PVE, it can easily stagger enemies and even some bosses as long as you manage to get the hits in. The only issue is that the animation is a bit clunky and you’re also locked throughout the duration. It does offer a bit of hyper armor though which is nice.
Eleonora’s Pole Blade Stats:
- Physical Damage: 72
- Weapon Class: Twinblade
- Default Ash of War: Bloodblade Dance
- Passive: Causes blood loss buildup (55)
What Eleonora’s Pole Blade Excels In:
- Dealing with a group of enemies pretty quickly
- Staggering enemies and even bosses with its Ash of War
- Killing players in a single combo as long as the attacks connect
How to Get Eleonora’s Pole Blade:
Obtained from defeating the phantom Eleonora at the Second Church of Marika:
2. Mohgwyn's Sacred Spear
Mohgwyn's Sacred Spear is my personal favorite for a very simple reason: its Ash of War is insanely good. Sure, it’s not as crazy as the number one weapon on this list, but its skill is really amazing for nuking groups of enemies as well as gank squads.
The weapon’s spear, Bloodboon Ritual, includes stabbing the spear into the air to create an AOE pulse that deals damage to a wide area and even procs bleed pretty easily. You can tap the hotkey for its Ash of War up to three times, with the last stab dealing the highest overall damage.
Not only does it work really well on enemies and players, but it also works great against bosses. With the right investment, you can shred bosses in the game pretty quickly as long as they’re not immune to bleed.
This is actually my go-to weapon for invasions despite the fact that the Rivers of Blood exists and is currently the meta weapon for most bleed builds. With its crazy Ash of War, I was able to win roughly 90% of my invasions without a problem.
However, it’s not meant for 1v1 duels as its long windups when performing its Ash of War will leave you wide open to enemy attacks and staggers. But since invasions involve ambushes and using the surroundings to your advantage, you can pretty much say it’s GG every time the host and his phantoms enter the range of the weapon’s skill.
Mohgwyn's Sacred Spear Stats:
- Physical Damage: 96
- Fire Damage: 96
- Weapon Class: Great Spear
- Default Ash of War: Bloodboon Ritual
- Passive: Causes blood loss buildup (73)
What Mohgwyn's Sacred Spear Excels In:
- Nuking groups of enemies and gank squads
- Inflicting blood loss pretty quickly using its Ash of War
How to Get Mohgwyn's Sacred Spear:
Obtained by trading the Remembrance of the Blood Lord:
1. Rivers of Blood
We can’t really talk about a bleed build without mentioning Rivers of Blood. With the fix on the bugged Arcane scaling, Rivers of Blood went from being overlooked to being the meta for both PVP and PVE scenarios. In fact, you can almost always see someone wielding this weapon during invasions and even in 1v1 duels.
There are a few good reasons for this. For one, as a katana, it has a pretty fast moveset which allows you to apply and proc bleed on your target with just a few hits. Second, its Arcane scaling means you can increase its overall bleed buildup by just focusing on leveling up your Arcane.
The icing on the cake, however, is its Ash of War which is called Corpse Piler which involves a series of slashes that can apply and proc bleed quite easily. What makes it even more overpowered is the fact that its Ash of War has a pretty decent range. This means you can hit several targets in a cone shape in front of you without any problem.
Also, you can press the button twice in sequence to add even more slashes. This quick yet insanely powerful combo is the reason why a lot of players are able to take on the game’s content without any problem. In fact, it might just be the fastest way of inflicting and proccing bleed while dealing an insane amount of damage at the same time.
The only caveat is that the pretty can be obtained in a late-game area of the game, so you’ll have to endure a little bit to get your hands on this monster. Unless of course, you have a friend to drop it for you, in which case you can get it pretty early as wreck bosses as you go.
Rivers of Blood Stats:
- Physical Damage: 76
- Fire Damage: 76
- Weapon Class: Katana
- Default Ash of War: Corpse Piler
- Passive: Causes blood loss buildup (50)
What Rivers of Blood Excels In:
- Dealing insane burst damage with its Ash of War
- Destroying bosses and players alike
- Snowballing the game’s content (a nerf is likely to happen)
How to Get Rivers of Blood:
Obtained by killing the invader, Bloody Finger Okina near the Church of Repose:
I know there are tons of other strong weapons out there that compliment bleed builds. However, these top 5 are my personal pick due to how insanely strong and overpowered they are, especially the top 3 on this list.
Bleed builds are overpowered in general, so it’s most likely that FROMSoftware will nerf them in the incoming patches. But as of now, you’re better off enjoying these bleed weapons which will carry you throughout the game, with the exception of the endgame boss. SPOILER ALERT: it’s immune to bleed.
