The Best Arrows and Bolts in Elden Ring, Ranked

Arrows & Bolts Overview

Before we get into the meat and potatoes of this article, let’s first go over some basics about how arrows and bolts work in Elden Ring. Firstly, there are a total of four different types of ammunition in the game. There are arrows, greatarrows, bolts, and greatbolts. Certain ammunition types cannot be used by certain weapons. For example, ballistia bolts can only be used by baristas and the jar cannon.

There is a huge amount of arrows and bolts in the game, more than are listed here in this article. Many of these different arrows and bolts will apply special status effects to enemies. For instance, there are poison arrows. These will fill up a meter on the enemy. When filled up, it will cause them to be afflicted with the poison status effect.

If you are doing a ranged build, I highly recommend that you keep multiple different arrows/bolts with you at all times. This will give you more versatility, giving you more options with how you want to deal with the enemies in the game.

Next up, I’ve ranked the top arrows and bolts in Elden Ring from good to great.

#9 Dwelling Arrow

Dwelling Arrows are a magic-damage dealing arrow, one of the few that does that damage type in the game. These do small amounts of physical damage, but 95 points of magic damage. This is a really good arrow type to get a hold of, as there are many enemies in the game that are weak to magic damage. Having some of these on hand is very handy if you want to deal lots of this damage type.

They can be farmed relatively easily by heading to the Siofra River, an underground region full of Ancestral Followers. These enemies can be killed for a chance at dropping this arrow type. Alternatively, if you don’t want to grind for these arrows, you can simply purchase them from a merchant found in the Mohgwyn Dynasty Mausoleum. Keep in mind you can’t get to this location until the later parts of the game.

#3 Poisonbone Arrow

The Posionbone Arrow is an ammunition that will deal very low physical damage to enemies. It makes up for this with its special ability. When an enemy is hit with a Posionbone Arrow, it will build up the poison status effect meter. Once the meter is filled up, the enemy will be affected with poison. This will cause them to slowly take damage over time. This is a really useful strategy for dealing with targets that have high health, such as bosses and mini-bosses.

The only way that you can obtain these arrows is by crafting them. They CANNOT be looted anywhere in the game and they cannot be purchased by any of the merchants either. To craft them, first you need to get 3 thin animal bones and one poison bloom. The animal bones can be found by killing wildlife such as deer and sheep. Poison blooms can be most easily found by killing Giant Miranda Sprouts. Lastly, you will need to have the crafting recipe unlocked by finding the Nomadic Warrior’s Cookbook (3).

#1 Explosive Greatbolt

The Explosive Greatbolt does MASSIVE damage. In fact, it deals out more damage than any other arrow or bolt in the entire game. This makes it a really strong arrow type that can be used to deal with most enemies, as well as most bosses. It does 50 physical damage, but 150 fire damage. There are some enemy types that are resistant to fire damage, so do keep that in mind.

This ammo type cannot be crafted, only looted or purchased. The best way to get lots and lots of these greatbolts would be to purchase them from a merchant. You can buy them for exactly 800 runes from the merchant that is found on Mt. Gelmir.