Elden Ring is packed to the brim with murderous beasts and power-hungry, insane demi-gods looking to destroy you. If you hope to survive fighting these monsters, you will need to keep your weapons fully upgraded at a professional blacksmith whenever you can while traveling the Lands Between.
However, the weapon upgrade system in Elden Ring is somewhat tricky to grasp at first. There are tons of upgrade materials hidden throughout the game that grant your weapons various stat boosts and unique passive or active power-ups to help you defeat difficult enemies. Not to mention these upgrade materials are hard to find and require experimentation to figure out how useful they will be to you.
So, we have together a guide that will help you find where you can locate Blacksmiths and the weapon upgrade materials they will require to reforge your weapons into unstoppable instruments of destruction in one of the best soulslikes for Xbox and PC.
Elden Ring: How to upgrade weapons
To begin upgrading your weapons, you will need to find a smithing table to operate on or a blacksmith who will re-work your weapons. You can find a vacant smithing table at the "Church of Ellah" Site of Grace, which you can find north of the tutorial area.
There's Blacksmith Hewg, who will upgrade weapons for you in the right wing of the Roundtable Hold hub area, which is unlocked after encountering the boss, Mergit the Fell Omen. And finally, there's the Smithing Master Iji who upgrades weapons and sells Somber Smithing Stones. Iji is located at the "Road to the Manor" Site of Grace in the northwestern area of the Liurna of the Lakes region.
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Every weapon requires a sufficient number of Smithing Stones and Runes in order to be improved. You can also augment a weapon's properties through the use of special items called Ashes of War. These will allow you to change the Weapon Skill of a weapon and change its damage scaling so that it can cater to your build by applying Affinities.
For example, say you're using a Strength-focused build, but you want to use a Spear that ordinarily caters to Dexterity-focused builds because you like its move-set. You can Infuse it with an Ash of War, then use the "Heavy" Affinity option to change its damage-scale rating so it favors the Strength stat instead of Dexterity.
However, there are some restrictions when it comes to upgrading weapons:
You can't change the stat requirements of a weapon when infusing an Affinity via Ashes of War. This means you will still need to invest points towards the required stat if you want to use a weapon effectively and their Weapon Skill.
The special weapons you obtain from bosses and certain treasure chests can't be customized with an Ash of War, thus they are stuck with their default damage scaling. They make up for this by possessing unique Weapon Skills you won't find anywhere else.
Elden Ring: Smithing Stone tiers
There are several different tiers of Smithing Stones available for players to find throughout the Lands Between, with higher tier Smithing Stones required for more powerful upgrades.
Note that each weapon upgrade will increase the number of Smithing Stones you need for the next upgrade until you eventually require the next tier of Smithing Stones. At that point, the number of Smithing Stones you need to perform a new upgrade will "reset" back to one.
The max upgrade limit you can reach for normal weapons is +25. The table below shows which Smithing Stone tiers correspond to each upgrade level.
In addition to regular Smithing Stones, there are also Somber Smithing Stones that are necessary for upgrading special weapons, such as those obtained from defeating bosses or finding treasure chests in dungeons. Somber Smithing Stones are rarer than normal ones but also require fewer upgrades to fully max out a weapon's effectiveness.
Like regular Smithing Stones, there are several tiers of Somber Smithing Stones, with the max level being +10. Each one, as well as the upgrade level they correspond to, is listed below.
Elden Ring: Whetblades
If you want to take weapon upgrading to the next level, you will need to find special key items called Whetblades. These are exceptionally rare tools that can unlock new Affinities to infuse a weapon with. Some of these Whetblades can even grant your weapon the ability to inflict status effects at the cost of lower damage-scaling.
Here is the full list of Elden Ring's Whetblades and where you can find them:
Whetstone Knife
This item allows you to apply Ashes of War to a weapon when resting at a Site of Grace. It is located in the southeastern part of the Gatefront Ruins. There is a flight of stairs that will lead you to an underground chamber where the Whetblade Knife will reside in a treasure chest alongside the "Storm Stomp" Ash of War.
Iron Whetblade
The Iron Whetblade will let you augment a weapon's damage scaling with the Keen, Heavy, or Quality Affinity when applying Ashes of War. The Keen Affinity increases a weapon's damage-scaling rating heavily towards the Dexterity stat while decreasing damage-scaling from other stats.
The Heavy Affinity increases a weapon's damage-scaling rating heavily towards the Strength stat while decreasing damage-scaling from other stats. Finally, the Quality Affinity increases a weapon's damage-scaling rating slightly towards the Strength and Dexterity stat while decreasing damage-scaling from other stats.
It is located in Stormveil Castle, being held by a corpse in a large armory room, situated next to the fortress of the Many Armed Key Master. However, the hallway that leads to this room is blocked by a magic fog that can be dispelled by using a Stonesword Key on the Imp Statue next to the fog.
Glintstone Whetblade
When applying a physical or magical-type Ash of War, the Glintstone Whetblade will allow you to grant the weapon the Magic affinity to deal magic-based damage that scales towards the Arcane stat. Or you can grant the weapon the Frost Affinity to deal Cold damage and inflict Frostbite status effect, which deals significant damage and reduces the target's defenses by 20% when it triggers.
The Glintstone Whetblade is located in the Raya Lucaria Academy. It can be looted off a corpse hanging off a fence of an office balcony. To get there, go to the fountain of the academy's courtyard, head west, and climb up the ruined slope. Be wary of the mages and zombies guarding the office entrance.
Red-Hot Whetblade
The Red-Hot Whetblade grants a weapon the Flame Affinity or the Flame Art Affinity when applying a physical or flame-type Ash of War. Flame Art inflicts less Fire damage, but it also includes Faith scaling to make up for it.
It is located in a locked room in Redmane Castle. To unlock it (along with all of Redmane Castle's rooms) you will need to defeat Starscourge Radahn, speak with the NPC who allowed you to fight Radahn until their dialogue is exhausted, then rest up at the "Chamber Outside the Plaza" Site of Grace.
Black Whetblade
The Black Whetblade infuses a weapon with the Poison, Blood, or Occult Affinity when applying a physical or occult-type Ash of War. The Poison Affinity grants a weapon the ability to inflict the Poison status, which slowly drains an enemy's health over time.
The Blood Affinity instills a weapon with the ability to induce the Haemorrhage aka Bleed status effect that deals damage based on a percentage of the enemy's max HP when triggered. And the Occult Affinity allows a weapon to have damage scaling towards the Arcane stat.
The Black Whetblade can be found on a corpse, lying in front of an altar in the Night's Sacred Ground area of Nokron, Eternal City.
Sanctified Whetblade
The Sanctified Whetblade can infuse a weapon with the Sacred or Lightning Affinity when applying a physical or golden-type Ash of War. The Sacred Affinity allows a weapon to deal Holy Damage (which can prevent undead enemies from resurrecting) and obtain damage-scaling from the Faith stat. The Lightning Affinity grants a weapon the ability to deal lightning damage.
This item is located in the Fortified Manor in the Leyndell region. To enter the manor, you will need to climb up a dragon's wing, just northwest of the "Avenue Balcony" Site of Grace.
When you enter, take a left from the manor's front entrance, then go right past the dogs and make your way up a wooden structure on the side of the manor on your right. You should then see a small doorway past a broken wall. Go inside it, and then you will see a corpse holding the Sanctified Whetblade, lying on an anvil to your left.
Sharpen your blades and conquer the Lands Between
Thus we have now reached the conclusion on how to upgrade your weapons in Elden Ring. We hope you have now gained a far greater understanding of the game's weapon upgrade system with our guide and use it to its full potential to create ideal and fun playstyles to beat and enjoy one of the best Xbox Games now available for Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One, and PC.
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With Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree on the horizon, there will no doubt be new upgrade materials to improve your weapons and new whetblades to imbue your weapons with unique properties. As such, we will update this guide with any additions the DLC expansion will bring to the weapon upgrade system once it drops on June 21, 2024, so make sure to bookmark this article so you don't miss out.
While you wait, you can preparations to take on the new challenges of Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree with our Elden Ring Guides. We have guides on what the Best Spells are, where you can locate the best armor sets, learn which Spirit Ashes are the best, and see which weapon suits you best with our Best Weapon tier list.
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