Best Weapons For Crowd Control In Elden Ring

Highlights

Some of the toughest encounters in Elden Ring can overwhelm players with hordes of enemies, leading to frequent "YOU DIED" messages.
Weapons like the Sword Of Night And Flame, Axe Of Godrick, and Starscourge Greatsword offer crowd control abilities to handle these situations.
Consumables like Sleep Pots and powerful Ash of War abilities like Gravitas can also be crucial for effective crowd control and enemy management.

Although perhaps being the most tameable of FromSoftware's titles, Elden Ring is a tough game. Whether players are using a flashy spellcasting build or a heavy Strength build, enemies can often get the better of the Tarnished. The infamous "YOU DIED" message is a common occurrence for most fans. Some of the hardest encounters that players will regularly face will flood the battlefield with hordes of enemies and leave the Tarnished surrounded and with few options.

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These weapons are the most effective counters to these situations, letting players damage huge numbers of enemies and get some breathing room to quickly heal or wind up for another attack.

1 Sword Of Night And Flame

Caria Manor - Straight Sword

Scaling: Str - E, Dex - E, Int - D, Fai - D
Weapon Skill: Night And Flame Stance
Requires: Str - 12, Dex - 12, Int - 24, Fai - 24

Perhaps because it is found quite late into the game in a difficult dungeon area, the Sword Of Night And Flame is one of the most powerful straight swords in the entire game. Scaling off of a variety of stats, players will have access to a range of attacks of different types. Wielders will do slashing attacks when two handing and thrusting attacks when one handing. The real crowd control capability is in the Ash Of War, though.

By using the weapon's unique skill, the Tarnished will enter a combat stance: pressing light attack will cast the Comet Azur sorcery, doing a line of decent magic damage using the Intelligence Scaling and pressing heavy attack will conjure a sweeping cone of flame that emanates from the player and scales off of Faith. Both moves mean that the sword can be used at a decent range, and the massive damage over a huge area in the flaming sweep can make short work of any hordes that manage to surround the Tarnished. The sword can use a lot of FP though, so some builds may find it hard to use it to its full potential.

2 Axe Of Godrick

Unlocked With Remembrance Of The Grafted - Greataxe

Scaling: Str - D, Dex - D
Weapon Skill: I Command Thee, Kneel!
Requires: Str - 34, Dex - 22

Another weapon with a skill that sets it apart from the rest of its weapon type, the Axe Of Godrick is a huge weapon that grants the user the "I Command Thee, Kneel!" skill; players can use some FP to slam the axe into the floor in quick succession, damaging any enemies in a huge circle around them. This attack is fast, and its range makes it a great tool for dealing with many foes. As well as this ability making it really impressive against encircling armies, the weapon also offers decent resistance when blocking.

Light attacks are quite narrow, but heavy attacks are slow swings that hit in a huge circle around the wielder. Using heavy attacks when enemies close in, and the unique weapon skill when surrounded, the Axe Of Godrick may be best in combined Strength and Dexterity builds but can serve as a useful Area of Effect weapon when needed.

3 Starscourge Greatsword

Unlocked With Remembrance Of The Starscourge - Colossal Sword

Tarnished Wielding Dual Starscourge Greatswords Elden Ring in the Waterfall Basin

Scaling: Str - D, Dex - D, Int - E
Weapon Skill: Starcaller Cry
Requires: Str - 38, Dex - 12, Int - 15

Defeating General Radahn in the Hunt Festival is one of the most epic moments in Elden Ring. Radahn himself was known as the Starscourge because of his incredible ability to use Gravitational Magic. The Starscourge Greatsword is unique in that deciding to dual-wield the colossal sword will instead dual-wield two of the huge weapons. While they are quite short, the wide blades make for a huge arc of damage in front of the player and the amazing heavy attacks make it easy to stun enemies quickly.

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The weapon skill is the star (pun intended) of the show, yet again. Starcaller Cry sees the player using the Gravity magic imbued in the blades to pull enemies closer in a large circle around the player, dealing damage as it does. This can be followed up with a slam attack that pushes foes away again while doing massive amounts of damage. The Area of Effect attacks with this weapon make it a must-have for dealing with quick enemies and hordes of assailants alike.

4 Greatsword

Dragonbarrow - Colossal Sword

Tarnished holding large Greatsword over shoulder in Elden Ring

Scaling: Str - C, Dex - E
Weapon Skill: Stamp (Upward Cut)
Requires: Str - 31, Dex - 12

A weapon that many have identified as an homage to the Berserk manga: the Greatsword is a mammoth, menacing weapon. Scaling mainly with the Strength stat, the sword can do ridiculous amounts of damage and fans have quickly proven that it is the bane of big, slow bosses. The size of the weapon certainly helps in its ability to cleave through several foes. The range and size of the swings mean that getting close to the wielder, or even behind them, will prove fatal.

While some of the attacks can be slower, it is hard to dodge due to their reach and are fast enough with their wide attacks that they can punish any enemy combatants. The sword has a fairly decent weapon skill, but this can be replaced with any compatible Ash of War, meaning players can add Area of Effect attacks, damaging spells, or buffs to customize their strength build.

5 Banished Knight's Halberd

Dropped By Banished Knights In Stormveil - Halberd

Scaling: Str - D, Dex - D
Weapon Skill: Charge Forth
Requires: Str - 14, Dex - 12

If players are lucky enough to have the Banished Knight's Halberd drop from an enemy, they will be able to wield one of the longest weapons in the game. The halberd has impressive reach, letting players keep themselves out of the fray, and giving them some much-needed distance. The Weapon's skill can be replaced similar to the Greatsword's, but the "Charge Forth" skill that it starts with will let players close any distance with a long thrust that shoots them into combat.

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Using Elden Ring's weapon upgrade system, the Halberd can be upgraded to scale more off of Strength to do more damage from relative safety. But the low stat requirements mean that this weapon can be used fairly early and can poke at tough enemies without forcing fans into close-quarters combat. For wide and brutal attacks, the halberd can even be dual-wielded if players manage to collect two of the armament. This lets players keep their distance but gives them fast flurries of attacks that will shred through enemies that manage to close the gap.

6 Sleep Pots

Recipe In Fevor's Cookbook - Consumable

Scaling: Arc - C
FP Cost: 9
Crafting Requires: Mushroom, Trina's Lily, Empty Cracked Pot

Disregarding one of the most useful consumables in the game would be foolish when Sleep Pots are so effective at crowd control. Some bosses, like the Godskin Duo, pose a significant threat to any player: fighting two separate boss enemies can often lead to the Tarnished getting cornered, caught in a combo, or hounded without a chance to heal up. Crafting Sleep Pots can solve this problem, and make fighting large numbers of enemies a breeze.

Throwing the pot at an enemy slowly builds the sleep status and when it triggers, the foe is unable to move or attack and can be hit for a brutal stagger attack without having to stagger or parry. Putting enemies to sleep can mean players have room to deal with other foes first, cutting the number of foes down to something manageable. Trina's Lilys can be hard to acquire in large numbers, but a little goes a long way with these consumables, and the amount of sleep buildup scales with players' Arcane skill.

7 Gravitas

Dropped By Lesser Alabaster Lord In Limgrave - Ash Of War

Scaling: Int - Unknown
FP Cost: 13
Ash of War Requires: Large Melee Weapons

Ash of War abilities can be equipped on any compatible weapons, and the Gravitas skill is by far the most effective crowd control AoW that players can acquire. An out-of-the-way mini-boss, the Lesser Alabaster Lord, can be defeated to gain the Ash. Players can then equip Gravitas on any of the large melee weapon types, including Colossal Swords like the Greatsword. This can make any weapon an effective crowd control weapon, and the level of the equipped armament as well as the player's Intelligence stat will determine the damage that it deals.

It acts like the start of the Starscrouge Greatsword skill, hitting all enemies in a huge circle around the player, knocking them down, and pulling them in. While there is no follow-up blast, the damage and low FP cost - as well as the ability to stop enemy attacks by knocking them over - make this an amazing option. The customization options of having an Ash of War that is so effective means that any weapon can have a backup Crowd Control attack for when players feel overwhelmed. Gravitas will also add weapon buff effects, meaning that players could stack bleed on hordes of enemies by using this awesome power.