Our recommendation for the best melee weapons you should track down first, such as the Twinblade.
Sourcing the best weapon possible in Elden Ring will help improve your chances of survival.
Depending on your starting class, the weapon you begin with range from middling to half-decent to take you through your immediate surroundings.
However, by the time you want to tackle the critical path proper and head to Stormveil Castle – or even some of the meatier locations within Limgrave – then you need a decent armament.
What follows is our recommendations for the best weapons to find at the start of Elden Ring – specifically for melee-based classes. If you’re after magic, then we can suggest where to find a staff location and a sorcery teacher.
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Where to find the Twinblade, our best weapon choice for Elden Ring’s early game
Perhaps the best early weapon you can find is the Twinblade, which is just a stone’s throw away from where you emerge in Limgrave. There are other strong weapons out there – some of which we’ll discuss shortly – but in terms of accessibility location-wise, and how much of a step up it is versus starting class weapons, is one we’d highly recommend tracking down.
Where to find the Twinblade in Elden Ring.
To find the Twinblade location, head to the south of Lake Agheel and approach the Dragon-Burnt Ruins.
At the south-east most corner of the ruins, you’ll found a walled structure which you can only access by leaping with the aid of your horse.
Once within, you’ll find an underground passage. The chest within contains the Twinblade.
The Twinblade comes with the stat requirements of 10 Strength and 18 Dexterity, the latter putting it out of reach of any starting class choice. As such, you might need to farm Runes so you can level stats high enough to wield it.
Once you do, it works both as a fast but strong one-handed blade and as a powerful two-handed weapon that, with a couple of Smithing Stone upgrades, will put a decent dent in the more challenging enemies in the areas to come.
Once you have settled on a starting class and starting Keepsake item, you should first work out how to level up, how to unlock the horse, Ashes of War, crafting and multiplayer. Need some direction from there? Try finding map fragments, flask upgrades, the best weapons and a staff location. If you want to improve your prowess, then we recommend rune farming, finding smithing stone locations and Stonesword Keys – especially against the likes of Magrit and the Tree Sentinel.
Other best weapons you can find early in Elden Ring
If you don’t fancy the stat requirements of the Twinblade, then other weapons available in the early hours of Elden Ring include the following drops from Limgrave enemies…
The Bandit’s Curved Sword is a strong weapon that’s a possible drop from certain enemies, such as a skeleton found in the river north of Lake Agheel (just north of where the glowing jellyfish spawn at night in the cave, and before the gust of air which can take Torrent up when jumping).
The stat requirements are accessible – 11 Strength and 13 Dexterity – and though the drop rate is low, we found clearing the group of skeletons here in a loop could be achieved in about a minute before fast travelling back to the Grace at Murkwater Catacombs just to the north.
Elsewhere, the Grave Scythe can drop from skeletons that wield them, such as those at the graveyard just east of Saintsbridge in the north of Limgrave.
The 17 Strength and 13 Dexterity requirements give you a slow but very powerful early game weapon to wield; our recommendation is using it as a jump and slashing weapon before switching it out to something a little faster to finish foes off. It also has a useful blood loss buildup passive effect.
Meanwhile, defeating Mercenaries has a slight chance in dropping a Dismounter. This has a 19 Strength and 16 Dexterity requirement, which is pretty high at the start of the game. You can find one Mercenary location very early on the north side of the beach close to where you start in Limgrave, otherwise they can be often found in bandit camps, such as the one in the far south-east of Limgrave, mentioned below.
If you’re not patient enough to wait for a weapon drop via the above sources, then you can pick up a Great Epee – a heavy thrusting sword – from a treasure chest in the bandit camp in the south-west corner of Limgrave.
This camp, situated at the foot of some ruins, is heavily guarded – including by several Mercenary (one on a horse!) which as mentioned above, can drop a Dismounter as well. However if you are careful, it’s possible to sneak in from the east, open the chest and grab the weapon before the worst of the sentries come down on you.
With the ability to roam most of Elden Ring’s regions from the off, chances are there are many more strong early game weapons to be found easily if you know where to look.
Whatever you decide to go with – hope it serves you well for the opening hours of Elden Ring!