Elden Ring Best Katanas Guide - All Katanas Breakdown | Why Katanas are the Best Weapon in Elden Ring

In this Elden Ring guide, we're going to be showing why Katanas are the best weapon or runes in Elden Ring. This is the first guide of our new series where we go through each weapon type and show you what you can do with each weapon and why you may or may not use these weapons on your build.

Best Katanas List:

• Uchigatana

• Nagakiba

• Serpentbone Blade

• Moonveil

• Rivers of Blood

• Dragonscale Blade

• Hand of Melania

• Meteoric Ore Blade

Why Katanas are the Best Weapon in Elden Ring

We'll show you why Katanas are the best weapon in Elden Ring, go over each weapon type, and show you what you can do with each weapon and why you might or might not use it on your build.

Serpentbone Blade

• Has better raw damage than the Nagakiba and Uchigatana.

• You can't change the poison affinity of the weapon.

• 50 points into dexterity is recommended.

• Best paired with kindred of rot exultation and mushroom crown.

• Two-hand playstyle and dual wield katana playstyle is recommended.

• The weapon is not recommended for NG+ playthrough.

Moonveil

• Dual wield moonveil and cold infused Uchigatana for best result.

• Spellblade playstyle paired with carian regal scepter and greatblade phalanx is recommended.

• Still viable for NG+ playthrough.

• 55 points into dexterity and 50 intelligence is recommended.

• Best paired with the Assassin's cerulean dagger.

• Has exceptionally high stagger damage.

Rivers of Blood

• A great weapon for NG+ and beyond.

• The playstyle focusing on the weapon skill corpse piler is highly recommended.

• Can be paired with dragon communion seal.

• 55 points into arcane and 50 dexterity is recommended.

• Best paired with Lord of Blood's exultation and Shard of Alexander.

• Corpse piler is one of the strongest weapon skill in the game.

• One of the strongest weapon in Elden Ring.

Meteoric Ore Blade

• Two-hand playstyle is also viable.

• Best paired with cold Uchigatana for a dual wield playstyle.

• Viable for NG+ and beyond.

• 55 points into strength and minimum points into dexterity and intelligence is recommended.

• Has a terrible weapon skill.

• Has decent strength scaling and a unique R2.

Dragonscale Blade

• 50 points into dexterity is recommended.

• Not recommended for NG+ playthrough.

• Best paired with cold Uchigatana for a dual wield playstyle.

• Has increased damage against dragon type enemies but dragons are also resistant to slash damage.

• Must use ice lightning sword to apply frostbite damage.

• Does not natively apply status effect such as bleed or poison.

Hand of Malenia

• Two-hand or dual wield with keen Nagakiba playstyle is recommended.

• Still viable through NG+ and beyond due to the waterfowl dance weapon skill.

• Pushing dexterity to 80 is recommended.

• Very good against bleed resistant or bleed immune enemies and bosses.

• Waterfowl dance has a slow build up time.

• Waterfowl dance can be made even stronger with high poise and successive attack buff talisman.

• Overall a very good katana with long reach, high physical damage, and a fantastic weapon skill.

Uchigatana

• Poison infusion is best paired with the Serpentbone Blade.

• Cold infusion is best paired with Dragonscale blade or Moonveil.

• Dual wield playstyle is recommended.

• Very good at status effect build up.

Nagakiba

• Double slash, repeating thrust, blood tax, spiiling slash, sword dance and seppuku is good on this weapon.

• Both the two-hand playstyle and the dual wield paired with hand of Malenia is recommended.

• Has a very long reach.

• Best all-round weapon in Elden Ring.