You found a weapon that feels perfect. The moveset clicks. The weight is right. You've killed three bosses with it and you're starting to think this might be your build. Then someone in a Discord tells you it's "not optimised" and suddenly you're staring at a spreadsheet at 1am questioning every decision you've made.
Stop. Breathe. Here's what actually matters about Elden Ring weapon upgrades — without the spreadsheet.
Two Upgrade Paths. One Decision That Shapes Your Whole Run.
Every weapon in Elden Ring falls into one of two upgrade categories. This is the most important thing to understand before you spend a single stone:
- Standard Weapons — Upgraded with Smithing Stones. Common, farmable, and available in large quantities throughout the game. You can upgrade multiple weapons simultaneously without running out of materials. Most weapons in the game fall into this category.
- Somber Weapons — Upgraded with Somber Smithing Stones. Rarer, limited per playthrough, and only upgradeable to +10 instead of +25. These are typically unique weapons with special skills or fixed scaling that can't be changed with Ashes of War.
Neither path is better than the other — but they suit different playstyles, and spreading your Somber Stones across five weapons is a guaranteed way to have five mediocre weapons instead of one powerful one.
What "Scaling" Actually Means — And Why It Matters
Every weapon has letter grades next to your stats — S, A, B, C, D, E. This is scaling. It tells you how much that weapon benefits from your character's attributes.
A sword with A-scaling in Strength means the higher your Strength stat, the more damage that sword deals. A weapon with E-scaling in Dexterity means your Dexterity points are almost wasted on it.
This is why copying someone else's weapon choice online often doesn't work — their build has 80 points in Faith and their weapon scales off Faith. Your build has 40 points in Strength. The same weapon will hit completely differently on your character.
Before upgrading anything past +6 or +7, make sure the weapon's scaling actually matches where you're putting your stats.
The Infusion System — Ashes of War Change Everything
Standard weapons can be infused using Ashes of War at any Site of Grace. This changes both the weapon's skill and its scaling. The main infusion types and what they do:
- Standard / Heavy — Boosts Strength scaling. Best for pure Strength builds.
- Keen — Boosts Dexterity scaling. Best for pure Dex builds.
- Quality — Balanced Strength and Dexterity scaling. Good for Quality builds investing in both.
- Magic / Cold — Adds Intelligence scaling. Cold also applies Frostbite.
- Sacred / Lightning — Adds Faith scaling. Lightning also deals physical damage.
- Flame Art — Pure Faith scaling with fire damage.
- Poison / Blood — Adds status buildup for bleed or poison builds. Loved by Arcane builds.
Somber weapons cannot be infused. Their scaling is fixed. This is the trade-off for their unique skills.
The Upgrade Material Problem — Don't Make This Mistake
Smithing Stones are tiered — Smithing Stone [1] through [8], then Ancient Dragon Smithing Stone for the final push to +25. The higher tiers are scarce early in the game and require either purchasing from specific merchants or finding them in the world.
The mistake almost every new player makes: upgrading four or five different weapons to +12 or +15 because they kept finding new things they wanted to try. Then they hit a wall boss and don't have the materials to push their main weapon to +20 or higher.
Pick your main weapon. Push it to max. Experiment with alternatives only once your primary is capped.
So Which Weapon Should You Actually Upgrade?
There's no universal answer — and anyone who tells you there is hasn't played your build. But here's a practical framework:
- Does it match your build's main stat? Check the scaling grades.
- Do you enjoy using it? Movesets matter more than raw numbers in actual gameplay.
- Is it a Standard or Somber weapon? Save your Somber Stones for something you're committed to.
- Does its skill suit your playstyle? A weapon with a skill you never use is wasting half its value.
If you can answer yes to most of those — upgrade it. Fully.
Calculate Before You Commit
Want to see exactly how much damage your weapon will deal at each upgrade level, with your specific stats? Our Elden Ring Weapon Calculator shows you damage output, scaling grades, and upgrade comparisons — so you know what you're getting before you spend a single stone.