Looking for the best Greatswords in Elden Ring? Greatswords are primarily Strength or Dexterity-based weapons in Elden Ring, capable of inflicting huge amounts of damage. Some Greatswords also scale with either Faith, Intelligence or Arcane and in doing so, are equipped with powerful Weapon Skills.
Below we’ve gathered a list of the best Greatswords in Elden Ring based on physical damage, Weapon Skills and how obtainable they are for both early and late-game playthroughs.
Whether you are into new game plus or are picking up Elden Ring for the first time before the Elden Ring: Shadow Of The Erdtree DLC release, we have you covered with a comprehensive list below.
Claymore
- Weight: 9.0
- Requirements: Strength 16, Dexterity 13.
- Attribute Scaling: Strength D, Dexterity D.
- Weapon Skill: Lion’s Claw.
- Attack Power: Physical 138, Critical 100.
When looking for a relatively early-game Greatsword option in Elden Ring, either the Claymore or Bastard Sword is a great choice. Both swords have incredibly similar movement patterns and damage output. The Claymore just takes the edge for the slightly improved speed and marginally longer range via its thrust attack.
Although the Bastard Sword can get up to an A-grade in Heavy scaling vs the Claymore’s B grade, the Claymore is moderately more forgiving if you miss a hit and additionally comes with the Lion’s Claw Weapon Skill. This skill is one of the best Ashes Of War in Elden Ring for Strength builds and is otherwise only available much further into the game, via the Lion Guardian in Fort Gael, Caelid.
This Skill allows the Tarnished to perform a somersault with a large downward strike as they land. This Skill is particularly useful for the stance damage it can inflict on foes (up to 33 with Greatswords). However, it should be noted that both the Claymore and Bastard Sword can be infused with Ashes of War if you prefer something else.
For additional Talismans, we like to keep a Claymore build relatively simple and easy to obtain. Try the Viridian Amber Medallion for an increase to maximum Stamina, or the Green Turtle Talisman for better Stamina recovery.
How to get the Claymore
The Claymore is located within Castle Morne, in the southern region of the Weeping Peninsula. Inside Castle Morne’s outer courtyard and on top of the pile of burning corpses, travel northwest to the nearby ledge. Here, go past the spikes and turn right at the tent to go through the adjacent room. Inside, turn left and loot the glowing chest to retrieve the Claymore.
Alternatively, if you prefer the sound of the Bastard Sword, you can buy it from a Nomadic Merchant by the Castle Morne Rampart Site Of Grace.
Blasphemous Blade
- Weight: 13.5
- Requirements: Strength 22, Dexterity 15, Faith 21.
- Attribute Scaling: Strength D, Dexterity D, Faith D.
- Weapon Skill: Taker’s Flames.
- Attack Power: Physical 121, Fire 78, Critical 100.
The Blasphemous Blade has featured in many of our Elden Ring guides, including the best weapons and the best Faith weapons roundup along with an additional Blasphemous Blade build guide where we detailed how to get the most out of the sword.
In short, this Greatsword is fantastic. Mostly due to its Weapon Skill, the Taker’s Flames, in which players raise the sword above them and bring it down in a swipe that emits flames. The flames deal Fire damage and heal the Tarnished up to 10% of their max HP pool +150.
If you’re looking for a good Strength/Faith hybrid build, this sword is the way to go. Dealing both Physical and Fire damage whilst healing, it can also knock opponents and deal 22 stance damage. You can buff the damage output of this weapon even more by equipping a Sacred Seal and using the Flame, Grant Me Strength Incantation. This gives players a +20% increase to both Fire and Physical damage (+15% in PvP).
How to get the Blasphemous Blade
You can trade the Remembrance of the Blasphemous with Enia at the Roundtable Hold to get the Blasphemous Blade for yourself. This means you must defeat Rykard, Lord of Blasphemy at Volcano Manor first. The best way to reach him is by following Tanith’s sidequest.
Sword of Milos
- Weight: 10
- Requirements: Strength 15, Dexterity 19.
- Attribute Scaling: Strength D, Dexterity D.
- Weapon Skill: Shriek of Milos.
- Attack Power: Physical 141, Critical 100.
The Sword of Milos is perhaps one of the edgiest looking Elden Ring weapons, formed from a giant’s backbone with the ability to saw through flesh. This is one of the few Greatswords that can cause passive Bloodloss build-up (up to 55) and rewards enemy kills with FP restoration (5 FP per kill). This is a nice little boost, especially when paired with an Intelligence or Faith caster build.
Its Weapon Skill, the Shriek of Milos costs 30 FP to perform and reduces enemies’ damage resistance by 15% (5% in PvP). Additionally, it increases the physical damage output of the Tarnished by 7.5% and adds a +5 to their Strength scaling. Heavy attacks will also be changed into a three-hit combo.
Many players have found success pairing this blade in a power stance with the Blasphemous Blade and utitlising the FP recovery by re-casting its Weapon Skill. It should be noted, however, that a second weapon will not receive the same buffs from the Shriek of Milos and a power stance build will inherently need some investment into Endurance to pull off successfully. Consider equipping the Erdtree’s Favor medallion for a buff to your maximum HP, Stamina and Equip Load.
Also, to take advantage of the heavy combo attack via the Shriek of Milos Skill, we recommend pairing this blade with the Godskin Swaddling Cloth Talisman. This rewards players with HP recovery after delivering successive attacks (30 + 3% HP). Otherwise, the Roar Medallion is also a good choice as it will increase the damage of the attacks delivered whilst under the effects of the Shriek of Milos Skill by 15%.
How to get the Sword of Milos
To get the Sword of Milos, you need to Kill the Dung Eater and avoid completing his sidequest. You’ll need to trigger his questline and complete enough steps to meet him underneath the Capital, but if you complete the steps beyond this point you can miss out on the sword. We have a full rundown of the Dung Eater quest to help you through it. You need to kill him at either the Subterranean Shunning-Grounds when you first meet his physical form or whilst he is in NPC Invader form in the Capital Outskirts, Outer Moat.
Be warned though, killing the Dung Eater early will lock you out of one of the possible Elden Ring endings, a rather bleak one at that.
Sacred Relic Sword
- Weight: 11.0
- Requirements: Strength 14, Dexterity 24, Faith 22.
- Attribute Scaling: Strength E, Dexterity D, Faith D.
- Weapon Skill: Wave of Gold
- Attack Power: Physical 118, Holy 76, Critical 110
If you’re looking for a Greatsword that also deals Holy damage, the Sacred Relic Sword has an extremely powerful Weapon Skill. This Skill is called the Wave of Gold and is somewhat similar to the Gold Breaker skill on Marika’s Hammer.
The Wave of Gold Skill allows players to charge the sword with Holy energy, then release it in a wave that travels some distance. This Skill costs 42 FP to perform but is great for crowd control. So much so, that it had to be nerfed slightly for PvP in the 1.09 Patch, reducing the damage of the Skill the further it travels away from the caster. Despite this, it remains a formidable weapon, especially within the main game.
The downside of this weapon is that you can only obtain it right at the very end of Elden Ring. For this reason, it is suited to a new game plus playthrough or as a possible weapon of choice for the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC. As the Weapon Skill scales solely with Faith, we recommend using the Two Fingers Heirloom Talisman, as this will give you a plus 5 to Faith.
How to get the Sacred Relic Sword
As alluded to above, the Sacred Relic Sword is only available after defeating the Elden Beast boss. Afterwards, trade the Elden Remembrance with Enia at the Roundtable Hold. See our tips and tricks guide to the Elden Beast boss fight for additional info on this its strengths and weaknesses.
Dark Moon Greatsword
- Weight: 10.0
- Requirements: Strength 16, Dexterity 11, Intelligence 38.
- Attribute Scaling: Strength D, Dexterity D, Intelligence C.
- Weapon Skill: Moonlight Greatsword.
- Attack Power: Physical 82, Magic 98, Critical 100.
Long-time Dark Souls fans will recognise the Dark Moon Greatsword as a close relative to the franchise-favourite Moonlight Greatsword. This weapon has earned a spot in our best weapons list and now, our best Greatswords list.
As a perfect choice for any Strength/Intelligence hybrid builds, the Dark Moon Greatsword excels in delivering physical damage, magic damage and Frostbite build-up to enemies (up to 55). It is a unique weapon and as such, cannot be infused with Ashes Of War.
The good news is that its Weapon Skill, aptly named Moonlight Greatsword is both powerful and essentially charges the weapon up with 15 added frost damage and 65 magic attack power on top of its base values. When performing the Skill, the Tarnished raises the sword, charges it, and releases a magic projectile with a heavy attack. This then continues with every heavy attack for the duration (60 seconds).
The Moonlight Greatsword skill costs 32 FP to perform, projectiles can cause 22 stance damage (or 35 if the heavy attack is charged prior) and the stamina consumption for both charged and standard heavy attacks was reduced via the Elden Ring 1.07 patch.
To get additional power out of your projectiles with this Skill, we recommend applying it with the Godfrey Icon Talisman which raises the attack power of charged Skills and Spells by +15%. Likewise, the Shard of Alexander will offer the same effect. You can also increase the magic damage by improving your Intelligence stat further (the Stargazer Heirloom raises Intelligence by 5).
How to get the Dark Moon Greatsword
Obtaining the Dark Moon Greatsword requires following Ranni’s questline through to completion. This is a hefty challenge with over 20 steps and includes taking on bosses like Starscourge Radahn and Astel, Naturalborn of the Void. Luckily, we have a full walkthrough of Ranni’s questline to help you complete all steps, obtain the Dark Moon Greatsword and obtain one of the slightly more cheerful Elden Ring endings.
That rounds off our guide to the best Greatswords in Elden Ring and where to get them. For more Elden Ring tips and tricks see our best classes, best armor, mods, builds or boss locations guides.
