Best One-Handed Swords Ranked In Elden Ring

The Lands Between may be beautiful and enchanting to the human eye, but it can be brutal and deadly as you must be adequately equipped for what lies ahead. Utilizing the best equipment, such as Talismans, armor, and weapons, can help you stave off enemies and bosses that wish to hamper your journey to become Elden Lord.

While most weapons are dual-wielded, an excellent variety of one-handed weapons are as powerful and viable as their dual-wielding counterparts, but which weapons are the top-ranked in Elden Ring? We've investigated and ranked our top five best one-handed swords and how to get them in Elden Ring.

Five Best Elden Ring One-Handed Swords Ranked

One-handed swords like Daggers, Straight Swords, Katanas, and Thrusting Swords are often ranked among some of the best one-handed weapons, along with Twinblades, Shields, and Crossbows. Generally equipped to your off-hand, these weapons can make for good primary weapons, granted that you consistently upgrade them and have powerful Ashes of War applied.

With the addition of various Talismans that can enhance the weapon's Affinity and damage output, these one-handed swords can work well in most builds and playstyles, particularly with Magic/Intelligence, Bleed, and Light melee builds.

As there are multiple weapon options available to you, we've rounded out our list of five notable one-handed weapons that every player should consider adding to their build in Elden Ring:

5. Antspur Rapier

Thrusting Swords are often the first weapon type for one-handed weapons as they're often light, have good reach, and moderate Attack damage dealing Slash and Pierce damage. Antspur Rapier is the most preferred rapier amongst players because it's one of the weapons that can apply Scarlet Rot with every strike.

This can further be enhanced when utilizing the Impaling Thrust Weapon Skill, which sees a lunge attack that penetrates through enemy shields and pierces their guard dealing Piercing damage but can aid in applying Scarlet Rot to shielded enemies. As for finding this weapon, you'll need to defeat Maleigh Marais, who can be seen in the fields nearby The Shaded Castle in the Altus Plateau.

4. Hand of Malenia

One of the three katanas on this list is one of the most recognizable weapons, the Hand of Malenia. This weapon has one of the highest base Physical Attack damage, and as with most katanas, it causes inflict Hemorrhage or Blood Loss build-up with every strike.

Nevertheless, its Weapon Skill, Waterfowl Dance, may be the hardest to avoid as it performs consecutive slashing attacks while leaping across the field, which can deal Stance damage. While enemies can attack you during the wind-up, it's a pretty beautiful animation to behold, and yes, defeating Malenia, Blade of Miquella is required before turning her Remembrance to Enia to acquire this katana.

3. Moonveil

The Moonveil katana may be slightly outclassed by another katana featured in this list; however, the weapon itself deals high Slashing Physical and Magic damage which is excellent for Dexterity and Intelligence builds. It also has one of the game's best Weapon Skills, Transient Moonlight, which sheathes the katana in a stance before launching a series of attacks.

These attacks start with a normal attack that sees a magic arc launched from the weapon, followed by a Heavy Attack that sees another Magic arc released from the weapon, both dealing with Magic damage only. The damage from this Weapon Skill can be increased by wearing the Spellblade Set, but you'll need first find the katana, which the Magma Wyrm boss at Gael Tunnel in Caelid can drop once defeated.

2. Sword of Night and Flame

A few weapons have a large following within the Elden Ring community, and the Sword of Night and Flame Straight Sword is just one of these such weapons. This weapon is commonly seen in Intelligence builds as it primarily scales in Intelligence, dealing considerable Physical Attack damage while its Magic and Fire damage are equally split.

However, its Weapon Skill, Night-and-Flame-Stance, holds the weapon above you before launching a Comet sorcery in the first attack, with the follow-up attack dealing Fire damage. It's because of its varied damage of Physical, Magic, and Fire that makes it one of the best Straight Swordsin-game and luckily, you'll need to locate a room within Caria Manor to own the weapon.

1. Rivers of Blood

We cannot explain how overpowered yet widely popular the Rivers of Blood katana is in Elden Ring. Despite multiple updates nerfing the weapon's stats and passive effect, it remains a mainstay in numerous Dexterity/Bleed builds.

Its Weapon Skill, Corpse Piler, inflicts Physical and Fire damage onto the Blood Loss build-up it causes with every hit of the katana. Because of this Blood Loss build-up, the weapon has a high Arcane requirement, as you'll need 20 Arcane, 18 Dexterity, and 12 Strength and defeat Bloody Finger Okina at the Church of Repose to acquire it.