The curved sword is the choice for many players looking for a fast, light, reliable weapon. As opposed to their straight counterparts, the best curved swords tend to fit best in Dexterity-centric builds, although that is not always the case. These weapons are quite versatile and can find a home on many builds. Whether it’s dual-wielding, used as an off-hand melee weapon, or even two-handing, curved swords offer a range of play styles to suit your build.
In order to help you get a better grasp on these weapons and how to make them work for you, we’re breaking down the five best curved swords in Elden Ring, telling you where to find them, and giving you some tips on how to use them!
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5 Best Curved Swords in Elden Ring
Let’s jump right into the five best curved swords in Elden Ring, ranked from respectable to unbelievable.
5/5
Serpent-God’s Curved Sword
Looking to heal as you hurt? Not only does this curved sword deal respectable damage, it also turns that damage back into healing for you.
Stats
Contrary to most curved swords, the Serpent-God’s Curved Sword actually tends to lean more towards the Strength side of things. It has a base Physical attack of 113 and it requires 13 Strength and 9 Dexterity in order to wield. Damage scaling favors Strength a bit more, with a base D grade that reaches a C by max upgrade. Meanwhile, it has a base E grade in Dexterity that reaches a D grade by max upgrade.
Where to Find It
Finding this curved sword involves first going to the Run-Strewn Precipice. From the Ruin-Strewn Precipice Overlook site of grace, you’ll want to take the nearby elevator down and, sneaking past two bats, head northward. Here, you’ll want to climb the ladder where you will see a Land Octopus. The Serpent-God’s Curved Sword is behind that Land Octopus, so either defeat it or run past it and grab the weapon.
How to Use the Serpent-God’s Curved Sword
Aside from its tendency towards Strength, the most notable aspect of the Serpent-God’s Curved Sword is its passive ability that heals the user upon defeating an enemy. This ability heals the user by 2.5% of their max HP, plus an additional 25 HP for each enemy defeated.
What’s even better is that you receive this effect even if you don’t defeat the enemy with the Serpent-God’s Curved Sword. This means you can use this weapon in your offhand if you prefer to use something like a finger seal or glintstone staff in your main hand and still receive the healing benefit.
The default Weapon Skill on the Serpent-God’s Curved Sword is Spinning Slash. While we can infuse it with other ashes of war, Spinning Slash works well with this curved sword since it allows the user to spin in a circle, slashing all enemies in range.
It also deals a relatively high amount of poise damage, something curved swords aren’t typically great at doing. Curved swords also have a unique feint move that allows you to charge a heavy attack and then dodge to perform a quick slash and backwards cartwheel, allowing you to put distance between you and your enemy. Use this move to get out of tricky situations!
4/5
Bandit’s Curved Sword
A fast and powerful weapon like the Bandit’s Curved Sword is the ideal choice for players looking to dual-wield curved swords. What’s even better is the Bandit’s Curved Sword has the highest Physical attack of any curved sword.
Stats
At a base Physical attack stat of 118, the Bandit’s Curved Sword has the highest Physical attack stat of its class. While it is the heaviest of the curved swords, it is comparatively light for its high attack. This balance of power and weight makes it the ideal candidate to dual-wield.
You only need 11 Strength and 13 Dexterity to wield it. It also scales pretty evenly across both Strength and Dexterity, with a base D grade in both. It favors the latter by a slight margin, as it reaches a C grade by max upgrade.
Where to Find It
The Bandit’s Curved Sword is a 2% drop from the Skeletal Bandit enemies found around Limgrave and the Altus Plateau. Having a somewhat low drop rate means you may need to spend some time farming for it.
A good place to do this is at the Church of Pilgrimage on the northern tip of the Weeping Peninsula. There is a site of grace right inside the church and the Skeletal Bandits spawn just outside of it, making it easy to rest at the site of grace and reset the spawns.
How to Use the Bandit’s Curved Sword
This weapon works best when dual-wielded. It comes with the default Weapon Skill Spinning Slash. While this is generally a pretty good skill for curved swords to have, the Bandit’s Curved Sword really shines when it is infused with elemental skills.
Ashes of war that grant Poison or Bleed affinity are ideal, as both give this weapon a C grade in Strength and Dexterity, as well as a D grade in Arcane in addition to the Blood Loss or Poison build up passive ability.
A good choice in this case would be the Bloody Slash ash of war. This ash of war grants the Bleed affinity and allows the use of the Bloody Slash skill. Bloody Slash is an excellent early game skill for inflicting Blood Loss on your enemies and quickly depleting their HP.
If you decide to go the Bleed route with this weapon, a must-have talisman is the Lord of Blood’s Exultation. This talisman increases your attack power by 20% for 20 seconds whenever Blood Loss occurs in your vicinity. This is a deadly ability when paired with a Bleed weapon!
3/5
Magma Blade
While it may not seem like your typical curved sword, the Magma Blade combines Faith and Strength scaling with the fast, light moveset of a curved sword. Top it off with an excellent Weapon Skill and you have a hidden gem of a weapon.
Stats
As expected, this weapon has its damage split between 96 Physical attack and 62 Fire attack. For scaling primarily with Strength, it only requires 9 Strength to wield, along with 15 Dexterity and 16 Faith. It has a base D grade across those three stats, but both Strength and Faith reach a C by upgrade +5 and +7, respectively. Keep in mind that the Weapon Skill on the Magma Blade scales solely with Faith.
Where to Find It
Finding this weapon can be a bit of a challenge, since it’s a rare drop from a later-game enemy. The Man-Serpent enemies found around Volcano Manor who wield this curved sword have a 1% chance to drop it.
Be sure that you are only farming the ones who wield the sword themselves, as they are the only ones that can drop it. A good place to farm is just to the north from the Temple of Eiglay site of grace. Head up the wooden elevator here and you can find two enemies nearby that can drop it.
How to Use the Magma Blade
While this weapon can work well in a Strength build that has a little bit of Faith investment, we would recommend using it on a Faith-focused build to better take advantage of its excellent Weapon Skill, Magma Shower. This skill has the user perform a spinning slash that spews magma in the area around the user. Following up with an additional input allows the user to perform another attack.
Using this weapon on a Faith build allows you to get the most damage out of this skill. To further increase the damage you can do, try equipping the Two Fingers Heirloom talisman, which raises your Faith by 5, and the Fire Scorpion Charm, which increases your Fire damage by 12% at the cost of a 10% increase in damage taken.
With this set up, you can use Magma Shower as your primary attack, allowing you to deal heavy Fire damage across a wide area of effect. Melt your opponents with this deadly combo!
2/5
Scavenger’s Curved Sword
While this sword may look unimpressive on its own, with the right tinkering, it makes for the perfect match in a dual-wielding pair. This is thanks to its passive Blood Loss buildup and potent infusion potential.
Stats
The Scavenger’s Curved Sword has a base Physical attack stat of 105. It has very reasonable requirements to wield, needing only 9 Strength and 14 Dexterity. These requirements combined with its light weight make it an excellent candidate for dual-wielding.
It has balanced damage scaling across both Strength and Dexterity with a base D grade in each that reaches C by max upgrade. However, for optimal play with this weapon, you may want to consider using it on an Arcane-focused build. We’ll explain why in a moment.
Where to Find It
You can find this weapon on a corpse in the northeastern section of Mt. Gelmir. Follow the path from the First Mt. Gelmir Campsite site of grace northwest until you come to a stone pillar bridge. Head across this bridge, being careful of the nearby Grafted Scion enemy, and you will see a corpse next to a ladder. The Scavenger’s Curved Sword is on this corpse.
How to Use the Scavenger’s Curved Sword
The highlight of this curved sword is its passive ability to deal Blood Loss build up. This is where your Arcane level comes into play. To get the most damage out of the Blood Loss status, you will want to level your Arcane, since that’s the stat Blood Loss scales with. Additionally, we recommend infusing this sword with an ash of war that grants the Occult affinity.
The Occult affinity changes your damage scaling to an E in Strength, a D in Dexterity, and — most importantly — a B in Arcane. Having a high Arcane stat boosts damage scaling on melee attacks as well as on Blood Loss with this affinity.
There are few ashes of war that offer the Occult affinity, and the only one that the Scavenger’s Curved Sword can be infused with is White Shadow’s Lure. Aside from the Occult affinity, the skill it grants allows the user to lure human enemies with a white mist.
This can be useful for drawing single enemies away from large groups to deal with them more safely. In this case, however, we’re really only interested in the Occult affinity, so you’re better off using this weapon in your off hand and focus on using the Weapon Skill of the weapon in your primary hand.
As this weapon works best when dual-wielded, we recommend pairing it with the Bandit’s Curved Sword, as both weapons can make use of the Blood Loss status. As with most Blood Loss builds, the Lord of Blood’s Exultation talisman is a must to boost your damage output even further.
1/5
Wing of Astel
A fantastic weapon for Dexterity/Intelligence hybrid builds, the Wing of Astel has an incredibly useful unique heavy attack as well as a unique Weapon Skill. Do not sleep on this weapon!
Stats
The Wing of Astel leans more towards the Magic side of things, with a base Physical attack stat of 65 and a base Magic attack stat of 78. It requires 7 Strength, 17 Dexterity, and 20 Intelligence to wield. Although it has steeper requirements than other curved swords, it makes up for it with excellent damage scaling.
It has a base D grade in Dexterity and Intelligence that reach grade C and B by upgrade +5 and +8, respectively. Scaling in Strength is reduced with only a constant E grade throughout each upgrade.
Where to Find It
Finding the Wing of Astel can be a bit tricky. It is located in Uhl Palace Ruins underground near the Ainsel River. However, it is only accessible from the northern section of the area. Starting at the Nokstella, Eternal City site of grace, head east up a ladder and through a door.
From here, head up the watery cave staying to the right and you will eventually come to the end of the tunnel and see an enemy standing on a ledge. Head right along a narrow cliff walkway until you can spot a chest atop the beams of the ruins. That chest contains the Wing of Astel.
How to Use the Wing of Astel
This weapon has a lot going for it that makes it worthy of your consideration. It has a unique heavy attack that fires magic projectiles without consuming any FP. Right away, this makes it a great weapon for both close and ranged combat. In addition to this ranged option, the Wing of Astel also has a unique Weapon Skill, Nebula.
This skill has the user send forth a cloud of magic that then explodes in an arcing radius in front of them. With a wide area of effect, this skill is useful for dealing with large groups of enemies and adds to the combat options the Wing of Astel has at its disposal.
For good equipment to pair with this weapon, consider using the Magic Scorpion Charm talisman to increase your Magic damage. Another talisman to consider is the Carian Filligreed Crest, which lowers the FP cost of skills, allowing you to use Nebula more often.
To get even more power out of Nebula, try using the Spellblade armor set. Each piece of this set increases the power of Magic skills by 2%. The set drops from Sorcerer Rogier in Roundtable Hold. Utilize a combination of this equipment and the awesome moveset of the Wing of Astel for a versatile Magic focused build!
Join the High Ground
Do you agree with our ranking of the five best curved swords in Elden Ring? Which weapons have you found success with? Let us know in the comments below, and feel free to share any build tips you have as well. Be sure to subscribe to our newsletter so you don’t miss out on any future Elden Ring content!
Happy gaming!
Related Reading: Elden Ring Weapons, Ranked
