Best Early Game Weapons
First 10 Hours Tier List

Last updated: August 11, 2026

The weapons you find in your first 10 hours can carry you through half the game if you choose wisely. Here's every notable early-game weapon ranked by how well it serves a Switch 2 beginner, with locations and upgrade paths.

Two hundred weapons in the game. You need one good one and a blacksmith.

Quick Reference Table

Everything here is available in Limgrave, the Weeping Peninsula, Stormveil, or a short risky ride into Caelid. None of it requires beating a story boss.

The One Rule That Matters Most

Pick one weapon. Upgrade it. That's it.

New players spread Smithing Stones across five weapons because everything looks cool, then wonder why bosses take forever. Upgrade level is the single biggest source of damage early — bigger than your character level, bigger than your Strength. Your favourite weapon at +6 beats your dream weapon at +0, every time.

The Weapons, One by One

Longsword — the one you'll underestimate

STR 10, DEX 10. Regular Smithing Stones.

Vagabond starts with it; if you picked another class, Godrick's soldiers drop the nearly identical Lordsworn's Straight Sword everywhere. Fast enough to punish a whiff, long enough to hit from outside grab range, light enough that you still roll properly. Nothing about it is exciting, which is why it works — and it takes any Ash of War, so it becomes whatever your build needs later.

Uchigatana — the best beginner weapon in the game

STR 11, DEX 15. Innate blood loss. Skill: Unsheathe. Regular Smithing Stones.

It swings fast with generous reach, and every hit builds bleed — fill that hidden meter and the target takes a chunk of damage based on its own max health. Against big early bosses that's enormous.

Samurai starts with it. If you didn't, ride to Deathtouched Catacombs in northern Limgrave, near Summonwater Village; the katana is on a corpse inside. A Black Knife Assassin guards the deeper part of that dungeon and will kill you at low level — you don't have to fight it. Grab and leave.

Bloodhound's Fang — the durable pick

STR 18, DEX 17. Innate blood loss. Skill: Bloodhound's Finesse. Upgrades with Somber Smithing Stones.

The strongest weapon a brand-new player can realistically own in their first few hours, and it stays relevant for dozens more. A curved greatsword with absurd reach, a bleed passive, and a skill that lunges in then rolls you back out of danger.

Ride to the Forlorn Hound Evergaol in southern Limgrave, near Agheel Lake South. Before stepping into the circle, touch the summon sign outside for Blaidd — he'll tank most of Darriwil for you. The other beginner perk: Somber stones mean one stone per level, no duplicates, no waste.

Twinblade — for players who like buttons

STR 10, DEX 18. Skill: Spinning Slash. Regular Smithing Stones.

Every light attack hits twice, so it applies bleed, frost or bought greases twice as fast. Excellent against groups, merely fine against single bosses. It's in a chest in the basement of the Dragon-Burnt Ruins, the sunken ruins in Agheel Lake. There's a dragon nearby you can simply ride past.

Claymore & Great Épée — the Strength options

Claymore: STR 16, DEX 13. Skill: Lion's Claw. In a chest inside Castle Morne at the southern tip of the Weeping Peninsula, up past the burning corpse pile in a room off the courtyard.

Great Épée: STR 15, DEX 16. A heavy thrusting sword with monstrous reach, in a chest in the enemy camp on the cliffs east of Agheel Lake South. The camp is full of Kaiden Sellswords, but the chest sits near the edge — open it and ride away.

Both are slower than a katana and both hit hard enough to make enemies flinch. Lion's Claw is a leaping slam that flattens most humanoids. The Great Épée pokes from behind a shield, which is the safest way for a nervous newcomer to learn timings. Can't meet the Strength requirement? Two-hand it — that multiplies Strength by 1.5, so 12 counts as 18.

Morning Star & Spiked Club — cheap bleed

Morning Star: STR 12, DEX 8. Strike damage plus bleed, in a chest on a broken carriage along the road toward Castle Morne.

Spiked Club: STR 12, DEX 7. Also strike plus bleed, with Barbaric Roar to buff your attack. Random drop from Demi-Humans carrying one — the group near Coastal Cave in west Limgrave and the Forest Ruins in the Weeping Peninsula are the usual spots.

Why a lumpy club when katanas exist? Strike damage wrecks armoured knights and skeletons that shrug off slashes, and the requirements are so low that any class can hold one in hour two.

Meteoric Ore Blade — the reward for a scary detour

STR 15, DEX 14, INT 18. Physical and magic damage, with blood loss. Skill: Gravitas. Somber Smithing Stones. Cannot take Ashes of War.

A katana that scales with Intelligence too, which makes it the perfect bridge if you started as a caster and want something real in your hands. It's in a chest in the cellar beneath Caelid Waypoint Ruins in southern Caelid. Caelid is no place for beginners, but this pickup is a short sprint from the stairs — ride in on Torrent, take the chest, ride out.

If You're Playing a Caster

Your damage comes from a staff or seal, which cares about Intelligence (sorceries) or Faith (incantations), not weapon skills. Astrologer's starting Glintstone Staff is fine for a few hours. The real jump is the Meteorite Staff, on a corpse hanging from a ledge in the Street of Sages Ruins, Caelid. It needs only STR 6 and INT 18, has top-grade Intelligence scaling out of the box, and boosts gravity sorceries — grab Rock Sling in the same ruins and you'll melt early bosses.

Smithing Stones and Blacksmiths

Two blacksmiths matter early. Smithing Master Hewg lives at Roundtable Hold, the hub Melina offers to take you to shortly after you start exploring — say yes. He's at the far end, past the Twin Maiden Husks. Smithing Master Iji sits outside Caria Manor in Liurnia and does the same job later.

There are two stone economies, and mixing them up is the most common beginner confusion:

Somber +10 is roughly as strong as a regular +25, which is why unique weapons feel so good so early — you can max one long before a common weapon gets close.

Where the early stones are: Limgrave Tunnels in east Limgrave and Morne Tunnel in the Weeping Peninsula are packed with Smithing Stone [1] and [2] veins — mine every glowing node. Later, the Crystalian at the end of Raya Lucaria Crystal Tunnel drops the Smithing-Stone Miner's Bell Bearing [1]; hand it to the Twin Maiden Husks and you can buy stones [1] and [2] in unlimited quantities. That's when upgrading stops being a bottleneck.

Scaling: STR vs DEX

Every weapon shows letter grades next to Strength, Dexterity and the caster stats. They tell you how much damage you gain per point invested — S is best, E is nearly pointless.

• Strength weapons (Claymore, greataxes, hammers) hit harder and stagger faster, but swing slower. Forgiving to learn, punishing when you miss.
• Dexterity weapons (Uchigatana, Twinblade, curved swords) swing and recover faster — more chances to react while you're still learning timings.
• Split scaling is fine. Bloodhound's Fang wants both and is still one of the best weapons in the region.

Don't obsess over this on a first run. Pick the move set that feels good, meet its requirements, put the rest into Vigor. Beat Rennala and you can respec with a Larval Tear, so early mistakes are reversible.

Ashes of War and Infusions

Ashes of War swap a weapon's skill and can change its scaling. You need the Whetstone Knife first — it's in a chest in the Gatefront Ruins, the fortified camp in the middle of Limgrave. After that you can apply Ashes at any Site of Grace, free, as often as you like. Knight Bernahl at the Warmaster's Shack in Stormhill sells a solid starter selection.

One catch: unique weapons like Bloodhound's Fang and the Meteoric Ore Blade can't be infused at all. Their built-in skills are the trade-off.

Upgrade Priority

1. +1 to +3: Smithing Stone [1] — Limgrave Tunnels, Morne Tunnel, early merchants
2. +4 to +6: Smithing Stone [2] — same mines, deeper in
3. +7 to +9: Smithing Stone [3] — Liurnia-era mines
4. +10 to +15: Stones [4] and [5] — Altus Plateau onward
5. +16 to +24: Stones [6] to [8] — late-game mines
6. +25 (max): Ancient Dragon Smithing Stone — endgame only
7. Somber weapons: one stone per level, [1] to [9], then an Ancient Dragon Somber Smithing Stone for +10

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