How To Change Weapon Affinity Elden Ring

How to Change Weapon Affinity in Elden Ring

Changing your weapon's affinity in Elden Ring is crucial for optimizing your build and adapting to different combat situations. This guide will walk you through the process, explaining the different affinity types and how to choose the best one for your playstyle. Understanding weapon scaling and affinity boosts will significantly impact your damage output and overall effectiveness in the Lands Between.

This article will cover:

• Understanding Weapon Affinities
• Finding the Right Smithing Stones
• The Process of Changing Weapon Affinity
• Choosing the Best Affinity for Your Build

Understanding Weapon Affinities

Weapon affinities in Elden Ring fundamentally alter how your weapon scales with your stats. Each affinity emphasizes a specific stat (Strength, Dexterity, Faith, Intelligence, Arcane), boosting damage based on your character's level in that attribute. The available affinities are:

• Standard: A balanced approach, scaling reasonably well with multiple stats. A good starting point for many weapons.
• Heavy: Greatly boosts Strength scaling, ideal for Strength builds focusing on powerful, slow attacks. Expect reduced attack speed.
• Keen: Prioritizes Dexterity scaling, perfect for fast, agile builds that utilize high Dexterity weapons.
• Quality: A balanced blend of Strength and Dexterity scaling, offering versatility and good damage output across a range of builds.
• Faith: Boosts damage based on your Faith stat, making it essential for Faith builds utilizing incantations and holy damage.
• Sacred: Combines Faith and physical damage scaling, providing a hybrid approach.
• Magic: Significantly increases scaling with Intelligence, perfect for spell-casting builds that want their weapons to contribute magical damage.
• Cold: Infuses your weapon with cold damage, scaling with Intelligence. Effective against enemies weak to frost.
• Fire: Adds fire damage, scaling with Faith. Particularly effective against enemies weak to fire.
• Lightning: Adds lightning damage, scaling primarily with Faith. A strong choice against lightning-susceptible enemies.
• Occult: Scales with Arcane, increasing damage and inflicting status effects like madness.

Finding the Right Smithing Stones

To change your weapon's affinity, you'll need the appropriate Smithing Stones. These are scattered throughout the Lands Between and are categorized by rarity and the level of upgrade they allow. You'll need different types of Smithing Stones depending on the affinity you choose and the weapon's current upgrade level. Finding these stones often requires exploration and defeating challenging bosses. Some specific stones are only found in certain areas. For example, some of the rarest stones are found in late-game locations.

The Process of Changing Weapon Affinity

Once you have the necessary Smithing Stone, follow these steps:

1. Locate a Smithing Master: Find a blacksmith like IJI, Roderika, or Hewg.
2. Select your Weapon: Choose the weapon you want to change the affinity of.
3. Access Weapon Upgrades: Select the option to upgrade your weapon.
4. Choose Affinity: Select the desired affinity from the available options.
5. Confirm the Change: Confirm your choice, and the weapon's affinity will be changed.

Choosing the Best Affinity for Your Build

Selecting the right affinity is crucial for maximizing your damage output. Consider these factors:

• Your Stats: Choose an affinity that complements your highest stats. If you have high Strength, Heavy or Quality might be ideal. High Dexterity favors Keen or Quality.
• Weapon Type: Certain weapon types benefit more from specific affinities. Faster weapons might benefit from Dexterity-based affinities. Slower, heavier weapons might prefer Strength-based options.
• Enemy Weaknesses: Consider the enemies you'll be facing. Elemental affinities can be exceptionally effective against susceptible foes.

By carefully considering these factors and utilizing the appropriate Smithing Stones, you can optimize your weapons and significantly improve your performance in Elden Ring. Remember to experiment and find the best combination for your preferred playstyle. The journey to finding the perfect weapon setup is a key part of the Elden Ring experience.