Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree new weapons tier list

Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree knocked it out of the park with all of its new additions to the game. The Land of Shadow brings new enemies to fight, horizons to explore, and, most importantly, new weapons to try out. The DLC introduced eight new weapon types to the game, and each pack quite a punch.

However, not all new weapons are always made equal, and some perform better than others. Today, we'll be putting all the new weapon types in Shadow of the Erdtree on a tier list to help you pick the right one for yourself. Let's get into it.

Note: This article is subjective and reflects the writer's opinions.

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Tier list for all new weapon types in Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree

S Tier

Light Greatswords are excellent in Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree (Image via FromSoftware)

• Light Greatswords
• Thrusting Shields
• Reverse-hand Swords

You will come across the Light Greatsword weapon type pretty early into the DLC, as the Milady Light Greatsword is one of the first weapons you'll find in the Land of Shadow. These swords hit hard and can obliterate enemies when combined with something like the Wing Stance Ash of War.

Light Greatswords give you the flexibility of a katana with the strength of a Greatsword, which makes them one of the best new weapon types in the DLC. Milady and Rellana's Twin Blades are the strongest weapons in this new weapon type.

Thrusting Shields give you the best of both offense and defense. The unique moveset granted by this weapon allows you to block incoming attacks while dealing damage at the same time, making it incredibly useful for most boss encounters in the Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree. You can even combine these weapons with the Scholar's Armament incantation for the best results.

Reverse-hand Swords can make short work of most enemies (Image via FromSoftware)

Reverse-hand Swords are extremely fast and give you access to some of the fastest-hitting movesets in the DLC. You can apply the blood affinity to this weapon and use its fast combos to get blood procs with ease, allowing you to roll through most enemy encounters.

The Backhand Blade and Curseblade's Cirque weapons from this new weapon type also come with some of the strongest Ash of Wars in the game, making them excellent for the DLC.

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A Tier

Great Katanas hit hard (Image via FromSoftware)

• Great Katanas
• Throwing Weapons

Great Katanas provide players with a ton of range and essentially act like giant katanas. They also deal more damage than your standard katana, but this higher damage comes at the cost of lower attack speeds. If there was some way to make these weapons hit faster, they'd easily be one of the best options in the game.

But for the time being, the speed of the Great Katanas holds them back from being in the S-tier. However, they are still amazing weapons, and a build with the Rakshasa's Great Katana can even carry you throughout the game.

Throwing Weapons don't hit all that hard, but their range makes them extremely versatile. Moreover, you can use these weapons along with the Smithing Talisman to greatly boost their damage. With Throwing Weapons, you don't have to fear for your life, as you can stand back and spam ranged attacks to take down almost any enemy.

However, their damage can be unimpressive at times, and if your opponent knows how to dodge, landing attacks can be quite tricky. You should only use these if you're confident that you can land your shots more often than you miss.

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B Tier

Hand-to-hand arts suffer from a lack of range (Image via FromSoftware)

• Hand-to-hand Arts
• Beast Claws

Hand-to-hand Arts in Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree may be the coolest way to play this game. Depending on your stats you can apply different affinities to this weapon type to wield great results. However, what holds this weapon type back is its range.

To land attacks with the Hand-to-hand arts, you have to get extremely close to your enemies, which can be quite a hassle if you're facing highly mobile opponents. Boss enemies like Commander Gaius and the Golden Hippopotamus are notoriously difficult to beat using this new weapon type, bringing them down a tier.

Beast Claws are also a lot of fun to use but suffer from the same shortcomings as the Hand-to-hand arts, i.e., you have to get extremely close to your opponents to land meaningful attacks. If it weren't for the poor range of these two weapon types, they would easily be in either the A tier or the S tier.

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C Tier

Perfume bottles have been nerfed to the ground (Image via FromSoftware)

• Perfume Bottles

Perfume Bottles builds in Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree were broken when the game first came out. With the correct damage buffs and the Rolling Sparks Ash of War, you could use this weapon to regularly dole out 6-7k damage in just a couple of hits. However, with the recent patches to SOTE, Perfume Bottles have been nerfed to the ground.

You can still use them for some decent crowd control, but running a Perfume Bottle as your main weapon after the nerfs is a quick way to get stomped by the many enemies in the Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree.

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Check out our other articles covering Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree:

• All Elden Ring weapon buffs and nerfs for Shadow of the Erdtree
• How to get overpowered early in Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree
• What level should you be for ER DLC Shadow of the Erdtree?
• How to create Ansbach cosplay build in Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree