Best Straight Sword in Elden Ring - Ranking All 19 Straight Swords
May. 1, 2024Best Straight Sword in Elden Ring – Ranking All 19 Straight Swords
In thisElden Ring Best Straight Sword and Ranking Guide, we’ll be taking a look at the 19 Straight Swords in Elden Ring and discuss 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 withShadow of the Erdtreeas well.
Straight Swords in Elden Ring:
Straight Swords are one of the 31 Weapon types in Elden Ring, soon to be 39 whenShadow of the Erdtreereleases on June 21st. When used, Straight Swords don’t take a lot of equip load to use as its weight ranges from only 2.5 to 5.5. It also has a very good hitbox, as the moveset slashes from left to right, or the other way around. It also hits enemies more reliably than other weapon types. It attacks a lot faster than other weapon types, so you can spam R1 to attack enemies to death. It has a longer reach compared to other weapon types, such asAxes,Maces, andCurved Swords. Sqaure Off is only useable on Straight Swords and Stance Breaks bosses easily. Lastly, a few Straight Swords have thrust attacks in addition to their slashing attacks, allowing you to use a different damage type if enemies are resistant to one or the other.
However, even if Straight Swords have a fast attack speed, it doesn’t support status effects as much as other weapons. Status Effect builds are harder to make with Straight Swords, as they don’t attack as rapidly as others. Majority of Straight Swords don’t have native status effect build-up on them, which makes it so that you’ll have to add them via Ashes of War if you want to have one. It also doesn’t have as good of a dual wield moveset as other weapon types, such asTwinbladesorCurved Swords. Lastly, it deals less damage than other weapon types. As stated above, they don’t excel at status build-up, while not also being good at jump attacks. They’re more of a weapon type that’s in the middle when it comes to weapon types.
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TheCane Swordshares the moveset of the Broadsword, and deals Physical Damage. It is the lightest Straight Sword in Elden Ring, weighing 2.5, and requires few points in Strength and Dexterity in order to wield.
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Conclusion: The Cane Sword and Ornamental Straight Sword are the two lowest Attack Rating Straight Swords in Elden Ring, but this one is infusable. It has very short reach, and it’s not found until late into the game, making it most likely obsolete by the time you find it.
The Fire/Lightning infusions are the best with it, and Magic is just behind with Sacred/Flame Art pulling up 3rd, and Keen edging out Heavy by about 20 Attack Rating. And, much like the Weathered Straight Sword and Short Sword this weapon lends itself well to a dual wield build that takes advantage of theBlue Dancer Charm.
TheWeathered Straight Swordshares the default moveset of most Straight Swords, and deals Physical Damage. It is a very light Straight Sword in Elden Ring, weighing 3, and requires some points in Strength and Dexterity in order to wield.
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Conclusion: The Weathered Straight Sword is essentially a lower Attack Rating version of the Short Sword, but with slightly longer reach, a cooler visual appearance and it costs slightly less Stamina to swing. In short the best reason to use this weapon is the lower Stamina consumption, particularly if you want to dual wield. This will allow you to hit more times before draining your Stamina bar, even though your attacks will deal less damage. Either go with Fire/Lightning for max damage, or go for Bleed/Poison for a Status Effect Build.
TheShort Sword‘s R2 attacks are both thrusts unlike most other Straight Swords, and deals Physical Damage. It is a very light Straight Sword in Elden Ring, weighing 3, and requires few points in Strength and Dexterity in order to wield.
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Conclusion: The Short Sword has shortest reach of all Straight Swords, it has some of the lowest damage of all Straight Swords, but it does have a few things going for it. It is light weight, has low requirements, it can deal Thrust Damage with R2s, and is easy to acquire. However, nearly every other Straight Sword is has longer reach and higher Attack Rating, so as long as you can spare the extra .5 equip load, the Longsword is already an upgrade.
The Sacred and Flame Art Infusions are at the top of the list when it comes to total Attack Rating for this weapon, followed closely by Fire/Lightning and Magic. The weapon also scales better with the Keen infusion when compared to heavy.
If you insist on using this weapon, I recommend using it in a dual wield that focuses on low equip load, trying to make use of theBlue Dancer Charm, since this weapon doesn’t weigh much. You could also cast some Incantations if you use the Sacred or Flame Art Affinities, which have the most damage, and there are Sacred Seals that weigh 0.0 so they won’t add to your equip load.
TheGolden Epitaphshares the default moveset of most Straight Swords, and deals Physical and Holy Damage. It is a light Straight Sword in Elden Ring, weighing 3.5, and requires some points in Strength, Dexterity and Faith in order to wield.
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Attack Rating: 607
Conclusion: Golden Epitaph is in a strange place because it has high attack rating, but it does a fair bit of Holy Damage, which is less than ideal. On top of this its weapon Skill:Last Ritedoes NOT stack withGolden Vow, which is a better buff and is obtained earlier than Golden Epitaph. This makes this weapon really only use for builds that don’t intend to increase their Faith to 25, which would likely be few given that you need 14 in order to wield this weapon effectively, or when you are facing Undead. Still the weapon has only slightly less damage than a Sacred Longsword, and it has longer reach, so if you weren’t factoring in Golden Vow the Spell, it would sort of be a trade off.
Last Rites was buffed in patch 1.07 though increasing its duration to 60 seconds, adding 10% damage to your attacks and spells, and increasing the damage you deal vs. Undead by a whopping 100%. That’s on top of the 25 Holy Damage it adds to both weapons you are holding. This all looks great on paper, but the Golden Vow Ash of War gives you and party members +12.5% damage, and 7.5% protection, lasts 45 seconds and costs 40 FP. The spell gives you and party members +15%, and 10% protection and lasts 80 seconds, but costs 40 FP. Which means if you can use the Spell, then there is no reason to use Last Rites since they don’t stack.
The sweet spot for this weapon is right around 50 Strength, 50 Dexterity and 50 Faith, meaning you’d ideally use this in some sort of Build that takes advantage of Incantations, which should include Golden Vow, and you likely won’t reach the optimal stat spread for this weapon until NG+. Note that Faith has much better scaling that either Dexterity or Strength, which both have nearly identical scaling.
In my opinion the best way to use this Weapon is in a Sword and Board setup, where you can rebuff your damage easily without having to swap to a Sacred Seal, even if your Faith is high enough to use Golden Vow. Or when using a Weapon Skill on your Shield, likeBarricade Shield, since you can swap between two handing and buff and then swap back while retaining the buff. Just make sure you have enough Strength to use a Great Shield. You can reach around 1k Attack Rating this way by end game if you use theJellyfish Shield.
TheLazuli Glintstone Swordhas an R2 that blocks incoming attacks before striking, and deals Physical and Magic Damage. It is a light Straight Sword in Elden Ring, weighing 3.5, and requires some points in Strength, Dexterity, and Intelligence in order to wield.
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Attack Rating: 598
Conclusion: The Lazuli Glintstone Sword is an interesting weapon because it has rather high Attack Rating for a Straight Sword, but it doesn’t have very long reach, and it has an R2 attack that Blocks incoming attacks before attacking, which is improved by two-handing the weapon and theGreatshield Talisman. However, it has terrible protection and Guard Boost natively, making it a strange choice for using to Block. This makes its R2 less useful than other weapons.
Glinstone Pebbleis a decent Weapon Skill that is very inexpensive FP wise, and the projectile portion is improved by increasing Intelligence and Magic Damage, but not Strength, Dexterity or Physical Damage. While the follow up attack seems to do the same ratio of Physical and Magic Damage as the weapon itself. That is to say, depending on how you are setup, about 55% Magic Damage and 45% Physical Damage, and you will get more damage out of this no matter whether you pump Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence or increase Physical or Magic Damage.
The sweet spot for this weapon is right around 50 Strength and 50 Intelligence, with both Intelligence and Strength adding roughly the same amount of damage between about 30-50 of either in these stats, despite Intelligence having D scaling and Strength having C. However, you could take Intelligence higher, sacrificing some melee damage in exchange for better Sorcery Scaling, which I advise if you wish to make a Spellblade Build using this weapon.
I’d recommend you farm two of these weapons and dual wield them for very high Attack Rating with Straight Swords, or use one of them with aGreatshieldfor a Block Counter Build that also deals decent damage, since this weapon has decent Strength Scaling, and Greatshields require a good amount of Strength in order to wield. However, of the the two, dual wielding is arguable better since its short reach can make you miss Block Counters. And because it scales decently with both Strength and Intelligence, and it scales with Dexterity, you can use this weapon effectively in NG+, as its damage will continue to improve as you level up, albeit at a slower pace.
TheCrystal Swordshares the default moveset of most Straight Swords, and deals Physical and Magic Damage. It is one of the heavier Straight Swords in Elden Ring, weighing 4.5, and requires some points in Strength, Dexterity, and Intelligence in order to wield.
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Attack Rating: 636
Conclusion: The Crystal Sword has one of the highest Attack Ratings of unique Straight Swords that deal Magic Damage, has the best Strength Scaling of the bunch, but is in the middle of the pack when it comes to Straight Sword length. It has a normal R2 attack, which I think is an improvement over the LGS and the CKS, adding another reason to use it.
It’s weapon skillSpinning Slashis not very effective, particularly because the weapon doesn’t have the greatest reach, but it can work in a pinch if you have high enough Poise.
The sweet spot for this weapon is about 50 Strength, 50 Dexterity and 50 Intelligence, which won’t be reachable until NG+, making it a great weapon for successive playthroughs. Because it has much better Strength Scaling than Intelligence, I don’t recommend using this in a Spellblade Build or you will lose more Attack Rating than the LGS or the CKS.
The Crystal Sword works best in a dual wield setup due to its high Attack Rating and Strength Scaling, just because its length is not that great and Spinning Slash isn’t as effective of a weapon skill, making a Block Counter Shield setup less effective than the previous two weapons. This will let you lean into L1 attacks that hit for lots of damage, while using another Straight Sword in your main hand that has a better Ash of War.
TheRotten Crystal Swordshares the default moveset of most Straight Swords, and deals Physical and Magic Damage. It is one of the heavier Straight Swords in Elden Ring, weighing 4.5, and requires some points in Strength, Dexterity, and Intelligence in order to wield.
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Attack Rating: 610
Conclusion: For all intents and purposes the Rotten Crystal Sword operates nearly identically as the Crystal Sword. They have the same appearance, except for the color, they are the same length, and they share the almost the same exact scaling and weapon skill. The only real difference is that the Rotten Crystal Sword adds Scarlet Rot build up to its attacks, has slightly lower Attack Rating, and it isn’t found until the very end of the game.
Because of this you’re almost always better off with the Crystal Sword on regular enemies, while using the Rotten Crystal Sword on Bosses in NG+ or when cooperating, where they have higher health pools andScarlet Rotcan really put in some work.Spinning Slashis also a better weapon skill on this weapon compared to the Crystal Sword, because it allows you to strike rapidly, building up Scarlet Rot more quickly than if you were just attacking with R1 attacks, though not by much.
In short, the Rotten Crystal Sword while dealing less damage than the Crystal Sword, trades outright damage for Scarlet Rot. This is really only helpful in boss encounters where enemies live long enough to benefit from this, or in PvP where it can pressure players. Otherwise, you’re better off going with the Crystal Sword, particularly because there are no other Straight Swords that have Scarlet Rot build up you can pair it with.
TheSword of St Trinashares the default moveset of most Straight Swords, and deals Physical and Magic Damage. It is a very light Straight Sword in Elden Ring, weighing 3, and requires some points in Strength, Dexterity and Intelligence in order to wield.
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Attack Rating: 534
Conclusion: Sword of St. Trina is near the bottom in terms of unique Straight Sword Attack Rating, and it has very short reach. However, it does have Sleep build up on every hit, which can be a game changer in Elden Ring, as a surprising amount of enemies are affected by it, even if they can’t be completely be put to sleep. These enemies usually stagger slightly allowing for extra attacks or backstabs if you’re quick.
Mists of Slumbernot only deals damage, but it does some sleep build up in a small AoE and adds an additional 70 Sleep build up to your attacks for 30 seconds, which over doubles your Sleep build up. This allows you to build up Sleep much more easily on hard to kill enemies, even if you have to buff with it out of melee range.
The sweet for this weapon is about 50 Strength and 50 Dexterity, making it a Quality weapon for all intents and purposes, as the Intelligence scaling is extremely poor. For this reason, I don’t recommend using this weapon in any sort of Spellblade Build that also uses Sorceries, since you will sacrifice melee damage, and you don’t have much as it is.
I’d recommend using this in a Sword and Shield Build that focuses on R1 attacks to build up Sleep quickly while also doing Block Counters, or in a dual wield setup if you can get two of these, such as in NG+ or if another player drops you one.
TheWarhawk’s Talonhas a unique R2 that swipes 2x rapidly, and if charged on the second R2 does another 2 attacks, and deals Physical Damage. It is a light Straight Sword in Elden Ring, weighing 3.5, and requires some points in Strength and Dexterity in order to wield.
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Conclusion: The Warhawk Talon has roughly the same Attack Rating as the Noble’s Slender Sword at nearly every infusion, can take nearly as long to farm, but it’s a bit shorter and it hasSpinning Slashas its Ash of War instead of Square off. However, it’s claim to fame is its unique R2 that slashes twice, and if you hold R2 will attack 2 more times, and 1 if you don’t charge the R2.
Because the R2 is really the reason to use this weapon, I recommend using it in a Build with a Shield with the Flame Art infusion, or in a spellblade build that uses sorceries or incantations with the Magic or Sacred/Flame Art Infusions. Make sure to use Talismans that reward multiple hits like theWinged Sword InsigniaandMillicent’s Prosthesis, and theAxe Talismanfor Charged R2 damage.
TheCarian Knight Swordhas an R2 that blocks incoming attacks before striking, similar to the Lazuli Glinstone Sword, and deals Physical and Magic Damage. It has an average weight for a Straight Sword in Elden Ring, weighing 4, and requires some points in Strength, Dexterity, and Intelligence in order to wield.
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Attack Rating: 615
However,Carian Grandeur, its weapon skill, does less damage with the same stats than any other Cold or Magic infused Straight Sword. Additionally, it does 100% Magic Damage and doesn’t increase with Strength or Dexterity. What this means is that you lose Attack Rating to get more Carian Grandeur damage, or you lose Carian Grandeur damage to get more Attack Rating, which is far from ideal and isn’t an issue for Magic Infused straight swords. In short, if you really like Carian Grandeur I’d advise using a Magic or Cold infused Straight Sword instead of this one.
Note that this weapon skill benefits fromGodfrey Icon, so make sure you use it. It is also quite expensive at 26 FP, so you may want to useCarian Filigreed Crestto bring down its cost. And make sure to use the Magic Scorpion Charm for added damage.
The sweet spot for this weapon is about 50 Strength, 50 Dexterity and 50 Intelligence, which won’t be reachable until NG+, making it a great weapon for successive playthroughs. And as I mentioned earlier, it has very high damage at minimum requirements, making it a good choice for low level players. Much like the LGS, you can favor Intelligence for more Carian Grandeur damage and Sorcery Scaling if you go the Spellblade route, but you lose Attack Rating this way, and you might be better off with a Magic Infused straight sword with better Intelligence scaling if you go this route.
Much like the LGS, the Carian Knight Sword works best in a dual wield setup or a Block Counter build with a Greatshield due to its high Attack Rating and Strength Scaling, but can also be used in a Spellblade Build, though not completely optimal.
TheMiquellan Knight’s Swordhas a unique R2 attack that lunges and slashes forward when charged, and deals Physical and Holy Damage. It is a light Straight Sword in Elden Ring, weighing 3.5, and requires some points in Strength, Dexterity and Faith in order to wield.
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Attack Rating: 589
Conclusion: The Miquellan Knight’s Sword deals fairly good damage, has great reach for a Straight Sword, and has a unique R2 attack that can pull you closer to enemies, allowing you to use it more easily while standing outside their attack range. You also only need 9 more Faith in order to be able to useGolden Vow, which will boost your damage by another 15%. However, it does deal about 30% of its damage as Holy, which isn’t a good damage type in Elden Ring, andSacred Bladeonly increases this more.
Sacred Blade is a much better weapon skill since patch 1.07 as its had its speed and range increased, the blade can now connect for damage making it great at point blank range, and it now adds 90 Holy Damage to your attacks instead of 85 and lasts twice as long at 40 seconds. However, this weapon has terrible Faith scaling, and the damage of Sacred Blade is not increased by Strength or Dexterity, only Faith.Sacred Scorpion Charmis not a bad choice here, as it can boost this weapon skill’s damage by a good amount.
The sweet spot for this weapon is around 50 Strength and 50 Dexterity, as the Faith scaling is extremely poor. However, as I mentioned Sacred Blade scales with Faith which isn’t optimal. Additionally, if you want to be able to cast any Incantations effectively with theClawmark Seal, you will need to split your stats between Strength and Faith, which gives you a lower Attack Rating. This forces you to make a tough decision about optimizing between the weapon’s damage itself or Sacred Blade’s damage and Incantation Scaling.
I recommend splitting your Attributes between Strength and Faith in order to be able to use Incantations, and for more Sacred Blade damage. The difference between optimal stat spread for the weapon itself and for spellcasting is not that much damage, and being able to cast Incantations will more than make up for this.
Either go for a Spellblade type build that uses Incantations and Sacred Blade, or grab aGreatshieldand Block Counter since you’ll have high Strength, using Sacred Blade for your ranged attacks, or combine both into one build that can do it all, ergo a Paladin Build.
TheOrnamental Straight Swordshares the default moveset of most Straight Swords, and deals Physical Damage. It is a very light Straight Sword in Elden Ring, weighing 3, and requires some points in Strength and Dexterity in order to wield.
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Attack Rating: 472
Conclusion: The Ornamental Straight Sword has some really amazing features, even though it’s one of the lowest Attack Rating Straight Swords, and even though it doesn’t have very long reach. It’s 1 of 2 paired weapons that aren’tClawsorFists, and the R2 attacks hit with both weapons ifGolden Temperinghas been used, even if you’re only one-handing the weapon.
Golden Tempering was buffed in patch 1.07 to be faster, deal more poise damage, and it now adds 100 Holy Damage instead of 85 to your weapon attacks, and now lasts 60 seconds. In short, this weapon skill was already strong, as we showcased in our Golden Champion Build, but now it’s even stronger!
The sweet spot for this weapon is about 50 Dexterity, but you can take this all the way to 80 Dexterity effectively, though you aren’t going to get much more damage out of it after this point, with both and Strength and Dexterity giving you about 1 point of damage per point invested after this. This means this weapon is much better in a first play through then it will be in NG+ or beyond, though you can still increase your damage by a bit.
Personally, I like to use this weapon with a Shield in my off-hand. This allows you to use aShieldin the off-hand, while still dealing damage with R2s as if you were dual wielding. You can use theJellyfish Shieldfor an additional 20% damage for example. Additionally, your off-hand will remain buffed for the duration, even if you stop dual wielding, allowing you to swap back and forth at will.
TheCoded Swordshares the default moveset of most Straight Swords, and deals Holy Damage. It is the lightest Straight Sword in Elden Ring, weighing 2.5, and requires some points in Faith in order to wield.
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Attack Rating: 564
Conclusion: The coded sword might be the most unique Straight Sword in Elden Ring, if you don’t include the Ornamental Straight Sword. It deals 100% Holy Damage, and only scales with the Faith Attribute, making it perfectly suited for Faith casters who will pump this attribute anyways. It’s normal attacks are not repelled by Shields, and its weapon Skill Unblockable Blade goes through them.
Unblockable Bladewas buffed in Patch 1.07 and now has a reduced FP cost at 18, and the motion speed of the weapon skill itself is much faster, allowing for it to be used more often and more easily. The ability itself doesn’t deal a ton of damage, though its nothing to sneeze at, and its medium range allows you to begin swinging before enemies get too close to you.
The sweet spot for this weapon is around 50 Faith, at which point the damage begins to drop off significantly, making this a much better weapon for a first playthrough than NG+, however, you don’t get it until very late in the game, so you won’t be able to use it for most of a first one.
I’d pair this with theErdtree Sealfor high Incantation Scaling and decent damage with a Straight Sword. You can even use a Shield if you want, as long as you have enough Strength. Make sure to use theSacred Scorpion Sealfor increased damage, and to use theHoly-Shrouding Cracked Tearoften to boost your damage even more. Since you deal 100% Holy Damage with your weapon attacks, you will get 100% efficacy out of these items.
TheLongswordshares the default moveset of most Straight Swords, and deals Physical Damage. It is a light Straight Sword in Elden Ring, weighing 3.5, and requires few points in Strength and Dexterity in order to wield.
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Conclusion: The Longsword is a direct upgrade in pretty much every way over the Short Sword, for only 2 more Strength and .5 Equip Load you gain 20 to 40 Attack Rating over every Short Sword Infusion, much longer reach, and you can still deal Thrust Damage with your R2. The Longsword also has the second highest Attack Rating of all infusable Straight Swords, being about 10 to 20 points behind the Broadsword in nearly every infusion, though the broadsword is slightly shorter.
Fire/Lightning deal the most damage, followed closely by Sacred/Flame Art, which Magic pulling up 3rd. Heavy and Keen deal have about the same scaling, so it doesn’t matter which of these you choose.
Because both the Lordsworn’s Straight Sword and Noble’s Slender Sword deal only slightly less damage, both have longer reach, and both have higher Critical Rating, they make a better choice for any sort of Block Counter build, which means I’d recommend using this in a dual wield build or in a Spellblade Build that takes advantage of the high Magic and Sacred/Flame Art scaling.
TheLordsworn’s Straight Swordshares the default moveset of most Straight Swords, and deals Physical Damage. It is a light Straight Sword in Elden Ring, weighing 3.5, and requires some points in Strength and Dexterity in order to wield.
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Conclusion: The Lordsworn’s Straight Sword might be the most well-round Straight Sword in Elden Ring. It has the third highest Attack Rating of all infusable Straight Swords, it’s in the top half of Straight Swords when it comes to length, it’s lighter than most Straight Swords, and it’s tied for the highest Critical Rating. However, if you are not doing Critical Attacks with this weapon regularly, there are better Straight Swords.
Sacred and Flame Art are the highest damage with Fire/Lighting pulling in a close second, and Magic not too far behind. Keen and Heavy have nearly identical scaling, but I don’t recommend using Heavy since the Broadsword has much better Heavy Scaling.
Because this weapon has high Critical Attack, it makes a good candidate for a Block Counter Build that can take advantage of Stance Breaks, particularly using the Fire Infusion that will give you solid Strength Scaling, and allow you to use aGreatshield. Another good option is using the Magic Infusion in some sort of Spellblade Build that takes advantage of theGlintstone PhalanxAsh of War or theGreatblade PhalanxSpell.
TheNoble’s Slender Swordshares the default moveset of most Straight Swords, and deals Physical Damage. It is a light Straight Sword in Elden Ring, weighing 3.5, and requires some points in Strength and Dexterity in order to wield.
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Conclusion: The Noble’s Slender Sword is the longest Straight Sword in Elden Ring, giving it exceptional reach, and it deals more damage than most other infusable Straight Swords, even though it doesn’t have the highest Attack Rating. It also has high Critical Attack, allowing you to dispatch staggered enemies effectively. However, it can take you hours to farm one, and I mean hours…
Fire/Lightning deal the most damage with this weapon, with Magic just behind in the second spot, and Flame Art pulling up third. The weapon does much more damage with the Keen infusion when compared to Heavy, so I recommend using this one if you can’t decide between the two.
Because the Noble’s Slender Sword scales better with Keen than Heavy, it doesn’t lend itself as well to Block Counter Builds, because Strength is needed for Great Shields which make Block Counters easier to pull off due to their higher Hardness rating vs. Medium Shields. However, the Fire Infusion solves this issue and I recommend using this one if you want to use it for Block Counters, taking advantage of its length. Additionally, Keen and Cold are still great for Parry builds that don’t need heavy Shields, but still deal regular Critical Attacks.
TheSword of Night and Flameshares the default moveset of most Straight Swords, and deals Physical, Magic and Fire Damage. It has an average weight for a Straight Sword in Elden Ring, weighing 4, and requires some points in Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence and Faith in order to wield.
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Attack Rating: 660
Conclusion: The Sword of Night and Flame is legendary in Elden Ring and for good reason. It has the highest Attack Rating for a Straight Sword, particularly at minimum requirements where it deals 615 damage, and its weapon skill:Night-and-Flame Stanceis deadly, dealing either Fire or Magic Damage, depending on what the situation calls for. The caveat is that it doesn’t scale well with Strength or Dexterity, but rather Intelligence and Faith instead, making this weapon much more suited to a spellcaster than a pure melee build.
Night-and-Flame-Stance was nerfed and then rebuffed in patch 1.07 increasing its damage once again. The Night Comet ability allows you to shoot a stream of magic forward giving you very good range for such a short weapon, and fire sweep ability is excellent at AoEing down groups of enemies and those weak to Fire Damage.
The sweet spot for the Sword of Night and Flame is around 50 Intelligence and 50 Faith, after which point it barely gains any damage from these Attributes. However, because it’s a great pairing with thePrince of Death’s Staff, you’ll likely take these stats higher in NG+ in order to get the most from this Staff.
I’d pair this weapon with theCarian Regal Scepterin my first playthrough, prioritizing Intelligence once the requirements for the weapon has been met, and then swapping to the Prince of Death’s Staff in NG+ when you have more Faith. This will allow you to cast spells and the sword effectively. You can also pair it with a Shield if you want, though your Block Counters won’t be as good as if you’re using aGreatshield, which you won’t be due to low Strength.
TheRegalia of Eochaidshares the default moveset of most Straight Swords, and deals Physical and Magic Damage. It is the heaviest Straight Sword in Elden Ring, weighing 5.5, and requires some points in Strength, Dexterity and Arcane in order to wield.
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Attack Rating: 618
Conclusion: The Regalia of Eochaid has high Attack Rating, but has a short reach and is the heaviest Straight Sword in Elden Ring. However, you can get it quite early in Elden Ring with a little jumping, and it has one of the deadliest Weapon Skills in the game in Eochaid’s Dancing Blade.
Eochaid’s Dancing Bladenot only hits repeatedly allowing you to make excellent use ofRotten Winged Sword Insignia,Millicent’s Prosthesisand theThorny Cracked Tear, it can also be charged for longer spins allowing it to hit more times and increase its damage viaGodfrey Icon. This allows you to defeat Bosses in 1 or 2 casts of this ability if you can land the whole thing.
The sweet spot for this Weapon is about 50 Arcane, though 80 Arcane still gives decent damage, and Dexterity is also not bad once you’ve reached 50 Arcane, allowing this weapon to progress into NG+ and beyond just fine. Because you need so much Arcane for this Build it makes a great pairing with theDragon Communion Sealwhich scales off mostly Arcane, and with Dragon Spells since these don’t require many points in Faith in order to use, like I showcased in my Dragon Dancer Build.
You could also use this a Shield and just focus on using the weapon skill when needed, since Spells are nice, but a bit overkill in many cases.
TheBroadsword‘s R2 attacks are both slashes unlike most other Straight Swords, and it’s rolling R1 attack is also a slash, and deals Physical Damage. It has an average weight for a Longsword in Elden Ring, weighing 4, and requires some points in Strength and Dexterity in order to wield.
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Conclusion: The Broadsword is the pound for pound king when it comes to Attack Rating for Infusable Straight Swords, and is the only Infuse-able Straight Sword that can hang with the unique Straight Swords when it comes to damage. The downside is that it is shorter than over half the Straight Swords in Elden Ring, including the Longsword, Lordsworn’s Straight Sword and the Noble’s Slender Sword. It also cannot deal any Thrust Damage with its R2 attacks, making it less versatile in some ways.
Fire/Lightning take the top spot when it comes to damage, followed by Sacred/Flame Art, Magic and Heavy pulling up close in the 4th spot, with Cold not far behind in 5th. The Heavy Scaling on this weapon is exceptional, and so is cold by extension, since it scales with Strength as well. This puts this weapon in a great spot to useGreatshields, and still deal excellent damage. The downside is that it doesn’t have the Critical Rating of the Lordsworn’s Straight Sword, or the reach, but some of this is made up by its higher Attack Rating, and if using Cold being able to set this status effect.
If you enjoyed thisStraight Swords Ranked Guide, be sure to check out our other Weapon Guides, and also our article on how to Prepare forShadow of the Erdtree!
Castielle
Senior Editor at Fextralife. I enjoy gaming, playing and watching sports, cooking yummy food, watching a good movie and hanging out with Fex.
