You won’t survive for long in Elden Ring without investing in your weapon. Armaments are scarce early on, and you’re likely to stick with whatever you find particularly useful. That’s when it becomes important to upgrade your weapon. There are options to increase weapon statistics, change Affinity and attribute scaling, and even add both active and passive abilities. Are you ready for more powerful gear?
How to Upgrade Weapons in Elden Ring
Elden Ring lets you to upgrade weapons by using a smithing table or visiting a blacksmith. Upgrading your armaments costs both Runes as well as Smithing Stones. Just like leveling up your character, upgrading weapons will become more costly with each increased level.
Basic weapons, including starter weapons and those dropped by standard enemies, can all be upgraded to +3 at the smithing table. You’ll find one early in the game at the Church of Elleh in Limgrave. Beyond +3, they’ll need to be taken directly to a blacksmith. As luck would have it, you’ll find one at Roundtable. The blacksmith Smithing Master Hewg is found in Roundtable’s eastern wing.
Upgrading Armaments Requires Smithing Stones
Upgrading weapons requires a small amount of Runes. It usually isn’t much. Instead, the real cost comes in the form of Smithing Stones. You’ll need to spend set amounts of Smithing Stones of different types to upgrade your weapons. The demands change at various levels:
- Smithing Stone [1] upgrades weapons up to +3
- Smithing Stone [2] upgrades weapons up to +6
- Smithing Stone [3] upgrades weapons up to +9
- Smithing Stone [4] upgrades weapons up to +12
- Smithing Stone [5] upgrades weapons up to +15
- Smithing Stone [6] upgrades weapons up to +18
The requirements change once again for non-standard weapons. Special armaments, such as those you’ll find dropped by bosses, require Somber Smithing Stones to upgrade. They too have different demands at various levels:
- Somber Smithing Stone [1] upgrades weapons up to +1
- Somber Smithing Stone [2] upgrades weapons up to +2
- Somber Smithing Stone [3] upgrades weapons up to +3
- Somber Smithing Stone [4] upgrades weapons up to +4
- Somber Smithing Stone [5] upgrades weapons up to +5
Be sure to keep your eyes peeled for Smithing Stones while traveling, and stay on special lookout for mines. Many of the mines spread across Elden Ring‘s enormous map contain ten or more Smithing Stones.
Ashes of War and Weapon Affinity
Aside from upgrading a weapon’s base stats, you can also swap out their abilities. These are called Ashes of War. Master Hewg at Roundtable can apply these to your weapons. He can also make copies of your existing Ashes, provided you have a Lost Ashes of War in your inventory.
When applying Ashes to your weapon, you’ll notice an option to change its Affinity. Though it may seem confusing at first, Affinities are quite simple: They change the weapon’s attribute scaling. Here are some common examples:
- Standard Affinity is the default for the weapon
- Heavy Affinity applies Strength scaling
- Keen Affinity applies Dexterity scaling
- Quality Affinity applies both Strength and Dex scaling
- Magic Affinity applies Intelligence scaling
The type of Affinity granted depends on the Ash of War chosen. If you choose an elemental Ash of War, you may even see a reduction in certain stats. For example, Fire types will scale to Strength, boost Fire and Lightning damage negation, but reduce Physical, Magic, and Holy damage negation. Sacred will scale to Faith, boost Magic and Holy damage negation, but reduce Physical, Fire, and Lightning damage negation.
Ashes of War may also provide passive effects or even additional attack damage. For example, the Cold Affinity applied to a Mace will scale to Intelligence, provide extra Magic damage, and even cause frost buildup on enemies.
That’s everything you need to know about how to upgrade weapons in Elden Ring. Smithing Stones are the main requirement to increase weapon stats, while Ashes of War are used to change attribute scaling or swap out combat abilities. No matter what sort of change you need to make, Smithing Master Hewg at Roundtable can help you out.
