How and Why You Should Two-Hand Weapons in Elden Ring

Mahirul Alam Chowdhury
By Mahirul Alam Chowdhury
4 Min Read
credits: FromSoftware

Learn how to Two-Hand Weapons in Elden Ring and the benefits that come with it

Just like any other FromSoftware game, there are a plethora of different weapons to wield in Elden Ring. Any weapons you know and desire, the game probably has it. Giant heavy swords that inflict insane damage; swift, finessed and sleek longswords, hammers, maces, etc. Elden Ring has everything. Moreover, like other FromSoftware games, you can two-hand these weapons in Elden Ring too.

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Why you should Two-Hand Weapons in Elden Ring

Two-Handing lets you use different moves and abilities. It also helps you wield a weapon that you are not yet ready to wield with one hand. Furthermore, it increases your attack by a little bit. It does not sound much here, but the difference is enough to slay enemies a bit quicker.

Why you should Two-Hand Weapons in Elden Ring
credit:gorebyss.research

For example, a greatsword, when in two-hand lets you make some deadly slam attacks, longswords have slash attacks that can slay enemies easily. While two-handing weapons give you new moves and attack power, using some weapons in this stance decreases attack speed. So make sure you are well adapted to it.

Two-hand weapons might sound like a wonderful way to play Elden Ring, but you should always use it depending on what situation you’re in and how well you are at the game.

You lose the shield when you wield weapons in both hands. Therefore you should be ready to dodge and roll all attacks. Also, some attacks become useless in tighter areas where the weapons hit the walls and negate the attack; a simple example is horizontal or vertical attacks with a large arc. Hence, here you should be using that attacks forward or concentrated at a point or use shorter weapons. Being aware of your surroundings is also an essential trait in using weapons, whether two-hand or single-handed.

Lastly, another advantage of two hand weapons in Elden Ring is that it decreases the requirements to wield the weapon. So if you are short of a few attack power to wield that one giant sword, you’re yearning to use, just grab it with both hands.

How to Two-Hand Weapons

Two-Handing in Elden Ring works a bit differently than the earlier FromSoftware games. Since Elden Ring has new movement mechanics to give a more sense of freedom in your playstyle, some of the control had to be remapped accordingly. In other games, like Dark Souls, you could take a weapon in both hands just by pressing a button. Here these buttons are changed to other controls.

For controller:

  • Hold down the Y/ Triangle button
  • Press R1/RB or R2/RB depending on which handed weapon you want to select
  • Right shoulder buttons two-hands the right handed weapon. Meanwhile Left Shoulder buttons two-hands the left handed weapon
  • To cancel two-hand stance, again press Y/ Triangle and the Right/ Left shoulder button.

For Keyboard-Mouse:

  • Hold down the interact button ( Check the keybinding from control settings and remap anyway you like)
  • Press Right mouse button to two-hand right handed weapon/ Left mouse button for left handed weapon

That is all there is to it. At first, it may sound confusing because of the change of controls from the other games; nevertheless, this is too is simple.

Read more: All games releasing in March 2022

Mahirul Alam Chowdhury is a writer and HR Manager at GameRiv.