How to Two-Hand Weapons in Elden Ring

How to Use Two-Handed Weapons in Elden Ring

Image: FromSoftware Inc, Bandai Namco Entertainment via HGG

Human Made

My name is Gibson Vasela. I am a freelance writer who has been playing video games for almost 20 years now. I play all kinds of games, but I especially love immersive sims and RPGs.

Reviewed by Benjamin Barr

Elden Ring is a fantastic open-world RPG, with a rich world to explore and complex RPG mechanics. The game allows for a wide variety of different character builds catered to your unique playstyle. One such option is the ability to hold certain melee weapons with two hands!

But doing this is a little counterintuitive. How exactly do you two-hand weapons in this game? What is the benefit of two-handing your weapon? Is it worth doing? We’ll be going over each of these questions and more in today’s article on how to two-hand weapons in Elden Ring!

So without any further delays, let’s get right into the walkthrough!

How Do You Two-Hand Weapons?

First things first. You’ll need to select what weapon you want to two-hand by equipping it from the Equipment menu. You can two-hand almost any melee weapon in the game, including shields. Equip whatever weapon you want to use, then leave the menu. The button you’ll need to press to two-hand depends on the platform you’re playing on.

For PlayStation players, you’ll need to press and hold down the Triangle Button first, followed by L1 or R1. If you’re holding your weapon in your right hand, for example, press R1 to two-hand it.
As for the Xbox players, you’ll want to press and hold the Y Button and then press either LB or RB, again, based on which hand you’re holding the weapon you want to two-hand in.
If you’re playing on a PC, you’ll first need to press and hold the E Key. While still holding it down, press either the Left Mouse Button (LMB) or the Right Mouse Button (RMB), and your character will two-hand the weapon.

If at any time you want to go back to holding your weapon with just one hand, all you need to do is press the same respective buttons again and your character will go back to one handing it. You can also swap between the weapons you have equipped for either your left or right hand and it will undo the two-handed effect.

What Is the Benefit of Two-Handing Weapons?

If you choose to learn how to use two-handed weapons, there are quite a few benefits that you can take advantage of. For starters, you will often gain new and interesting moves that you can pull off. Holding your weapon a different way changes the style of combat, offering different ways to attack enemies. Play around with all of your weapons and see if there’s anything new!

If you happen to find a weapon with a very high Strength requirement, then two-handing your weapon will lower the stat required for you to use it effectively. This can be very handy for early-game players and those who haven’t gotten around to leveling up their Strength stat that much. It’s especially good if you’re going for a non-Strength build, but want to use a certain melee weapon.

Additionally, you’ll gain a big bonus to damage with your weapon! There doesn’t seem to be an exact number for the buff. The damage seems to vary quite a lot depending on the weapon you’re using.

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