How to Two-Hand Weapons in Elden Ring: A Comprehensive Guide
Elden Ring, with its vast world and challenging bosses, demands optimal combat strategies. One such strategy involves wielding your weapons with two hands, significantly boosting your damage output. This guide will walk you through the process, explaining the benefits and how to best utilize this technique.
Understanding the Benefits of Two-Handing
Two-handing your weapon in Elden Ring offers several key advantages:
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Increased Damage: This is the most obvious benefit. By wielding your weapon with both hands, you drastically increase your attack power, making short work of tougher enemies.
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Improved Weapon Art Utilization: Some weapon arts become significantly more effective when two-handed, often with increased range or damage.
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Enhanced Stamina Efficiency (Sometimes): While two-handing generally consumes more stamina per attack, certain weapons and builds might experience better overall stamina efficiency due to the damage increase, allowing you to end fights faster.
How to Two-Hand Your Weapon
The process of two-handing is remarkably simple:
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Equip your weapon: Make sure the weapon you want to two-hand is equipped in your main hand.
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Unequip your off-hand: Simply remove any item equipped in your off-hand (shield, secondary weapon, etc.). You can do this through your inventory screen.
That's it! Once your off-hand is empty, your character will automatically wield the weapon in your main hand with both hands, granting you the associated damage bonuses.
Strategic Considerations for Two-Handing
While powerful, two-handing isn't always the best option. Consider these factors:
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Loss of Shield Protection: Without a shield, you'll be more vulnerable to enemy attacks. This is a significant trade-off, particularly against powerful enemies or bosses with fast-paced attacks.
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Increased Stamina Consumption: Two-handed attacks often consume more stamina, leading to more frequent exhaustion. Manage your stamina carefully.
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Weapon Choice: Not all weapons benefit equally from two-handing. Experiment with different weapons to find which ones excel in this style.
Optimizing Your Two-Handed Build
To maximize your two-handed combat effectiveness:
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Strength Scaling: Focus on building your Strength stat. Many weapons scale strongly with Strength, meaning increased Strength will lead to dramatically increased damage when two-handed.
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Weapon Selection: Choose weapons with high damage output and good scaling. Greatswords, Ultra Greatswords, and Colossal Weapons often benefit the most from two-handing.
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Consider Vigor: Increasing your Vigor stat boosts your health, mitigating the risk associated with foregoing a shield.
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Tactical Retreats: Learn when to disengage and recover stamina. Don't get greedy; a well-timed retreat is often better than a reckless attack.
By understanding the mechanics and strategic considerations of two-handing weapons, you'll significantly enhance your combat capabilities in Elden Ring, leading you closer to conquering the Lands Between. Remember to experiment, adapt your strategies to different enemies, and find the perfect balance between damage output and survivability.
