In this Elden Ring Best Twinblades and Ranking Guide, we’ll be taking a look at the 6 Twinblades in Elden Ring, and discussing why you might use them in combat. We’ll take a look at attack power, damage type, length, Weapon Skills, and other factors such as how long it takes you to acquire them, to determine if they are best suited for you. We are doing a guide for all Weapon types in Elden Ring, and these will be updated to reflect those added with Shadow of the Erdtree as well.
Twinblades in Elden Ring:
- Eleonora’s Poleblade
- Twinned Knight Swords
- Godskin Peeler
- Gargoyle’s Twinblade
- Twinblade
- Gargoyle’s Black Blades
Best Twinblade in Elden Ring – Ranked
Twinblades are one of the 31 Weapon types in Elden Ring, soon to be 39 when Shadow of the Erdtree releases on June 21st. If you’re using Twinblades, there are pros and cons in which you need to think about if you’re going to use them. A Twinblade’s damage sits between a Greatsword and a Straight Sword. It won’t be any lower than any Straight Sword, but it also won’t exceed any Greatsword in terms of damage. Also, if you’re going for a status effect build set-up, it builds those faster than other weapon types. Its jumping attack hits 4 times rapidly, so it’ll build up any status effects you have set on your Twinblades.
However, there are a few downsides of using Twinblades. 5 out of 6 Twinblades aren’t found until you get to Altus Plateau. This means that if you’re using Twinblades, you’ll be stuck with using Twinblade until you get to Altus Pleatue, which is found much later in the game. Also, you can’t farm Twinblades from enemy drops, so you’ll need to either get a player to drop another one for you, or play NG+ to obtain another one.
PROS
CONS
- 5 of 6 Twinblades aren’t found until Altus Plateau
- Can’t get two of one Twinblade unless a player drops it
Gargoyle’s Black Blades – #6 Best Twinblade in Elden Ring
Gargoyle’s Black Blades shares the default moveset of many other Twinblades, and deals Physical and Holy Damage. It is the heaviest Twinblade in Elden Ring, weighing 8.5, and requires some points in Strength, Dexterity and Faith in order to wield.
PROS
CONS
- Poor Faith Scaling
- Found very far into the game by defeating the Black Blade Kindred in Mountaintops of the Giants
- Holy Damage is resisted by some of the toughest Bosses in Elden Ring
- The worst Strength Scaling compared against all Heavy Infused Twinblades by nearly 100 damage
Attack Rating: 699 (727 two-handing)
Conclusion: Although Gargoyle’s Black Blades has the highest damage of all Twinblades, it does both Physical and Holy Damage. Holy Damage is arguably one of the worst damage types late game in Elden Ring, because some of the hardest Bosses resist it.
Additionally, Spinning Slash does not take advantage of both ends of this weapon, making it a terrible Weapon Skill on a Twinblade. The damage dealt by Spinning Slash will be the same or less than regular attacks, and those don’t cost FP. Because you cannot change this Weapon Skill on the Gargoyle’s Black Blades, you will essentially be playing without a Weapon Skill if you use this Weapon in your main hand, unless you one-hand it.
The Gargoyle’s Black Blades have terrible Faith Scaling, making 80 Strength the optimal stat spread for this weapon, with minimum requirements in Dexterity and Faith. You’d think two-handing this weapon would increase your damage significantly because of this, but it really doesn’t, boosting it by a mere 27 Damage.
This puts this weapon in a terrible place because Two-Handing doesn’t boost damage much, and also sticks you with a crappy Weapon Skill if you do. And if you dual wield it you’ll need to boost strength to get the most damage out of it, so whichever Twinblade you pair it with will also need Strength scaling, but neither weapon will gain the extra damage from Strength.
If you insist on using this Weapon I’d actually one-hand it and treat it as a regular “Sword” and pair it with a Greatshield since you already have high Strength anyways. This will allow you to Block Counter and to use Spinning Slash when needed. It’s certainly not the ideal use of a Twinblade, but 700 Attack Rating is Greatsword levels of damage on a weapon that swings faster.
Twinblade – #5 Best Twinblade in Elden Ring
The Twinblade shares the default moveset of many other Twinblades, and deals Physical Damage. It is the second lightest Twinblade in Elden Ring, weighing 7, and requires some points in Strength and Dexterity in order to wield.
PROS
CONS
- Lowest damage at nearly every Infusion
Attack Rating:
- Lightning/Fire – 642
- Magic – 636
- Sacred/Flame Art – 625
- Cold – 577
- Keen – 574
- Heavy – 571 (610 two-handing)
- Occult – 571
- Quality – 552
- Blood/Poison – 468
Conclusion: Really the only reason to use the Twinblade is because you can get it so early on in the game, but otherwise it falls behind all other Twinblades in nearly every Infusion. However, it’s not so far behind Twinned Knight Swords and Godskin Peeler that you need to replace it once you have these, especially if you’ve already upgraded it and are short on materials. I’d wait to swap it with Gargoyle’s Twinblade once you get it.
You will gain the most damage from the Fire/Lightning Infusion, with Magic coming in second, and Sacred/Flame Art landing at third. If you’re two-handing it Heavy comes in a solid fourth place, with all other Infusions much further behind. However, as I mentioned earlier, Twinblades are particularly good at setting Status Effects, so the Cold Infusion is not a bad option as it outperforms Keen, Occult, Quality and Blood/Poison in terms of total Attack Rating.
Because you won’t have access to another Twinblade Weapon for some time, you’ll likely two-hand this weapon until you get another one, or just use it as a regular “sword” with a Shield until you acquire Twinned Knight Swords or Godskin Peeler. I highly recommend going with the Cold or Bleed Infusions if you’re two-handing for status effect build up, or going with Lightning or Fire if you’re one-handing with a Shield.
The Twinblade leans towards the Dexterity side of things scaling wise, which makes it better suited to a dual wield Build than two-handing, because you don’t gain extra damage when two-handing from the Dexterity stat like you do with Strength. For this reason you should pair it with Godskin Peeler which also has better Dex scaling than Strength once you have it, and probably replace it with Gargoyle’s Twinblade or Twinned Knight Swords.
Gargoyle’s Twinblade – #4 Best Twinblade in Elden Ring
Gargoyle’s Twinblade shares the default moveset of many other Twinblades, and deals Physical Damage. It is the heaviest Twinblade in Elden Ring, weighing 8.5, and requires some points in Strength and Dexterity in order to wield.
PROS
CONS
- Shortest length of all Twinblades
- Found far into the game by defeating the Valiant Gargoyle duo
- Heaviest of all Twinblades
Attack Rating:
- Lightning/Fire – 685
- Magic – 678
- Sacred/Flame Art – 667
- Heavy – 630 (677 two-handing)
- Cold – 630
- Keen – 596
- Occult – 578
- Quality – 566
- Blood/Poison – 537
Conclusion: The Gargoyle’s Twinblade has the best all around damage of Infusable Twinblades in Elden Ring. It wins out in terms of damage in nearly every category, only losing to the Godskin Peeler in Keen and Occult. The downside is that it has the shortest reach of all Twinblades by a lot, and it isn’t found until much further into the game than Twinned Knight Swords, which as I mentioned before has similar scaling.
Because the Gargoyle’s Twinblade leans to the Strength side of things and has the best Strength Scaling of all Twinblades, it makes an ideal candidate for a single two-handed setup, preferably with an Ash of War that is boosted in damage by Strength. However, you don’t need to use the Heavy Infusion with this weapon, and can use Cold or Blood if you wish, since you will still have very good Strength Scaling with these Infusions and they apply status effects.
If you’re going to two-hand this weapon, definitely go with Heavy, Cold or Blood for best results, but if you want to one-hand it like a sword (which you could), the Lightning or Fire Infusions will give you almost the same damage as the Gargoyle’s Black Blades, and you can change your Ash of War to something better.
Godskin Peeler – #3 Best Twinblade in Elden Ring
The Godskin Peeler has a unique R2 that changes when two-handing, and deals Physical Damage. It is the second heaviest Twinblade in Elden Ring, weighing 8, and requires some points in Strength and Dexterity in order to wield.
Attack Rating:
- Lightning/Fire – 653
- Magic – 649
- Sacred/Flame Art – 634
- Keen – 609
- Cold – 605
- Occult – 587
- Heavy – 581 (620 two-handing)
- Quality – 550
- Blood/Poison – 510
Conclusion: The Godskin Peeler has the best Keen and Occult Scaling of all Twinblades, making it an ideal weapon to be dual wielded in some sort of Bleed Build. When set to the Occult Affinity and used with Seppuku it has incredibly good damage as well as Bleed build up, and that’s not even if you pair it with another Twinblade that can do Bleed. Since Bleed is less effective on regular enemies since they tend to die before it triggers, this allows you to have solid damage even when not buffed, and apply Seppuku as needed for more challenging enemies or Bosses.
Good choices to pair this weapon with are Eleonora’s Poleblade since it will have native Bleed Build up on it, or the Twinned Knight Swords set to Bleed Affinity so it doesn’t need to be buffed. You can even use the Gargoyle’s Blood Twinblade if you wish, though it has shorter range.
When set to the Occult Affinity you should crank Arcane to boost damage, and to boost Bleed Build Up when Seppuku is used. Wear the White Mask and Lord of Blood’s Exultation for increased Attack Power, and slot Winged Sword Insignia and Millicent’s Prothesis plus the Claw Talisman for maximum damage output.
Twinned Knight Swords – #2 Best Twinblade in Elden Ring
The Twinned Knight Swords shares the default moveset of many other Twinblades, and deals Physical Damage. It is the second heaviest Twinblade in Elden Ring, weighing 8, and requires some points in Strength and Dexterity in order to wield.
PROS
CONS
- Found late into the game in Altus Plateau
- Does less damage than Gargoyle’s Twinblade in the majority of cases, and Godskin Peeler in some cases
Attack Rating:
- Lightning/Fire – 659
- Magic – 647
- Sacred/Flame Art – 638
- Heavy – 607 (649 two-handing)
- Cold – 604
- Occult – 583
- Keen – 582
- Quality – 567
- Blood/Poison – 506
Conclusion: Twinned Knight Swords is a very well rounded Twinblade that scales better with Strength than Dexterity, but still outperforms the Twinblade in every case, including the Keen Infusion, though not always by much. It also has the longest reach of all Twinblades by a very small amount, though it is much longer than the Gargoyle’s Twinblade, which is its biggest competition because of similar scaling. So factor this into your decision when choosing between the two.
Much like the Twinblade, you will gain the most damage from the Fire/Lightning Infusion, with Magic coming in second, and Sacred/Flame Art landing at third. However, unlike the Twinblade two-handing this weapon puts Heavy, Cold and Blood/Poison in a much better position due to Strength Scaling. Heavy actually comes out second when two-handing, and Cold lands just under Sacred/Flame Art.
By the time you acquire this Weapon you should have access to the Twinblade, and you should have the Godskin Peeler and Eleonora’s Poleblade not long after which will allow you to dual wield if you want, though as I mentioned Strength scaling is particularly good with this weapon, and you won’t gain that extra damage if you dual wield so the choice is really up to you.
Of the available Twinblades, Godskin Peeler is probably the best choice to pair it with if you’re going for a Bleed Build setup. Otherwise strongly consider the Heavy or Cold Infusion if you want to two-hand it for solid damage, with good Strength Scaling.
Eleonora’s Poleblade – #1 Best Twinblade in Elden Ring
Eleonora’s Poleblade has a unique R2 that increases in rotation if it’s charged, and deals Physical and Fire Damage. It is the lightest Twinblade in Elden Ring, weighing 6, and requires some points in Strength, Dexterity and Arcane in order to wield.
PROS
CONS
- Found late into the game in Altus Plateau
- Has split damage that isn’t ideal for enemies that resist Fire Damage
Attack Rating: 583
Conclusion: Eleonora’s Poleblade is arguably the most powerful Twinblade when used alone. Between its native Bleed build up on every hit, and its Weapon Skill: Bloodblade Dance that not only hits rapidly, but often staggers enemies, it is one of the deadliest Weapons in Elden Ring. Its damage is in the middle bottom of the pack when it comes to Twinblades, but has far more damage than any Twinblade set to the Bleed Affinity.
Because this weapon scales with Dexterity and Arcane, you can also pair it with the Dragon Communion Seal quite well, allowing for a hybrid sort of Build that also casts some spells. You won’t have a ton of points to invest in Faith, but you should have enough for Dragon Spells and some buffs. This is great because you can use Talismans that boost your Attack Power on successive hits like Winged Sword Insignia, and then cast spells for increased damage, similar to the Dragon Warrior Build I made, just with this weapon instead.
The sweet spot for this weapon is about 50 Dexterity and 50 Arcane, with Arcane further increasing your Bleed build up. You’ll be able to increase the damage of this weapon on into NG+, making it viable for successive playthroughs, particularly because Bleed damage is based off of the max health of enemies.
Because Bloodblade Dance is so deadly, I’d either use this weapon two-handed and lean into this Weapon Skill, or pair it with the Dragon Communion Seal for some spell casting. Remember that Weapon Skills do not take into account your off-hand when using them, so there is no real reason to dual wield if you are spamming Bloodblade Dance. However, if you pair it with an Occult Infused Godskin Peeler in your main hand that uses Seppuku, you will have insane damage and Bleed build up with Jump Attacks. Make sure to use White Mask and Lord of Blood’s Exultation when using this setup.
If you enjoyed this Twinblades Ranked Guide, be sure to check out our other Weapon Guides, and also our article on how to Prepare for Shadow of the Erdtree!
