Elden Ring: 10 Most Disappointing Weapons & Spells That Aren't Nearly As Cool As We Hoped

Elden Ring is one of our favorite games of the year — maybe of all time — but even the best games have their disappointments. You can’t have the good without the bad, and in a game as massive as Elden Ring, some weapons and spells will never compete with the top-tier finds. Instead of talking about the best, we’re talking about the worst. The weapons and magic attacks that left us cold, unimpressed, and totally disappointed.

And these weapons aren’t even that bad! Anything is viable in the Lands Between, and some of these totally unique weapons are incredibly stylish, special, and all-around pretty neat. The weapons and magic spells here are all disappointing for glaring reasons — even if they have their specific uses. Elden Stars might look awesome until you see the truly pathetic damage each projectile dishes out. The Cipher Pata are tiny swords made out of words! But they’re also entirely useless in a real fight. How about a Scepter that can’t actually cast spells? Or a Legendary Weapon that will never, ever apply its signature status effect? We talk so much about the best weapons in Elden Ring. Now we’re talking about the lamest weapons that completely fell short of our lofty expectations.

Speaking of disappointment — if you’re looking for cool weapons to replace the recently nerfed Rivers of Blood, here are 5 more OP weapons to choose from.

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Elden Stars

An Incantion found deep beneath Erdtree is both the most impressive and completely disappointing things on this list. Located in the Deeproot Depths, in the ant-infested cave to the northwest of Great Waterfall Crest site of grace. The spell requires 50 Faith, uses 2 Slots (ouch) and unleashes a dazzling golden star that fires a barrage of homing projectiles. It really is an incredibly cool magic spell — too bad the projectiles deal almost no damage.

Other similar spells like the Stars of Ruin deal real damage while tracking. The Elden Stars spell fires way, way more than 12 — but those projectiles are so weak they can barely kill an early game basic enemy. Some players like this spell for PVP or for distracting powerful enemies in PVE so you can score a killer final strike. But that doesn’t make this spell any less disappointing. It’s the greatest fireworks show in the Lands Between, and the best damage you can get is barely a tickle.

Flowing Curved Sword

A sword used by a master garbed in blue, designed like flowing water, which gives you a special moveset that also flows like water — almost like a waterfowl dance. The Flowing Curved Sword is hidden in the Consecrated Snowfield on a treasure cart pulled by two trolls. The moveset is cool — press [R2] to perform a uniquely flowing dancing slash. But that’s about it.

What sounds like a legendary sword is barely better than a standard Short Sword you’ll find at the start of the game. It also has terrible scaling with both STR and DEX — a common feature of disappointing weapons. There’s no reason to waste your time with this seemingly unique sword. It doesn’t even have a good Ash of War!

Grafted Dragon

One of the most disappointing boss weapons in all of Elden Ring — here’s hoping you didn’t waste your Remembrance on this thing. Earned by defeating Godrick the Grafted and trading his Remembrance, you’ll be able to gain this Fist weapon. Like Godrick, it’s a dragon head you can attach to your arm and spew fire. But this thing isn’t nearly as impressive as a Tarnished. Godrick launches a massive burst of flame that covers the entire arena. When you do it? It’s barely a spurt. Totally pathetic.

Even the head is tiny in comparison. A tiny head with a weak little spray of fire breath? This really can’t compare with the coolness factor of Godrick’s boss weapon. This isn’t just a disappointing weapon; it is a guaranteed skip. If you get a second Remembrance of the Grafted, you’re better off just breaking it for runes.

Scarlet Aeonia

Another Remembrance rewards, but this time we’re talking about one of the most disappointing spells. Scarlet Aeonia is Malenia, Goddess of Rot’s signature power that immediately infects your Tarnished with Scarlet Rot. Summoning a giant Scarlet Aeonia flower that explodes with rot, this is one of her most impressive and feared attacks. Once you get your hands on it? This thing is about as dangerous as a real flower in your garden.

The Scarlet Aeonia incantation uses 3 slots (!!!) and is incredibly slow to fully reveal itself. To use it properly, you’ll need to summon a distraction or use another player while you’re making a giant flower (very slowly) grow. Even then, the boss needs to stand still inside the flower — if you manage to pull it off, you can deal insane damage to a boss, but ain’t nobody going to step into this flower if you’re PVP. The Scarlet Aeonia might be a fearsome flower in the hands of Malenia, but for the rest of us it’s just a flower.

Eclipse Shotel

The worst Legendary Weapon without a doubt, the Eclipse Shotel looks incredibly cool — a curved blade in the shape of an eclipse — with an even cooler Ash of War ability. The Eclipse Shotel deals guaranteed damage through shields and applies the Deathblight status, which kills instantly if you can apply it. Operative word is “if” because the Eclipse Shotel will almost never kill with Deathblight. The weapon has terrible scaling, weak damage through shields, and a worthless (though totally unique) Ash of War.

The Eclipse Shotel is located at the church altar in Castle Sol, far into the game — making it one of the easier Legendary Weapons to find just by exploring the world. It might be (sorta) lame, but it does have one impossibly handy use. If a hacker with infinite health is griefing you, the Eclipse Shotel is the perfect solution. Whip this bad boy out and you actually will be able to apply the Deathblight status. Infinite health won’t save hackers.

Great Dragonclaw

A weapon wielded by the fearsome Tree Sentinels, this massive hammer deals bonus damage to Dragons and Ancient Dragons, overflowing with electricity that can pierce shields. Too bad the hammer has some serious, depilating drawbacks. The Great Dragonclaw is found at the Capitol Outskirts — defeat a Tree Sentinel guarding the bridge to the northwest gate of the capitol city to find it.

For being a huge weapon, it is surprisingly weak. The hammer has bad scaling for both STR and DEX, and even worse it comes with a completely useless Ash of War. Endure increases poise for a moment and lowers incoming damage — but why use it at all in PVE when you’re better off dodging or blocking? You can’t change the Ash of War of the Dragonclaw either, it is locked permanently — and it can’t be enchanted or buffed in any way. Just a weird weapon all around. If you want to deal +15% / +30% damage to Dragons, you might want to bust it out. Otherwise avoid.

Nox Flowing Hammer

A shape-changing weapon wielded by the priests of Nokron, this weird hammer is located in the Night’s Sacred Ground area of the underground city. Found on an exterior window of the city while exploring — and it is fun to get your hands on this thing. One of the “flowing” weapons of Nox, these are crafted from Silver Tears. Able to change shape at will, the enemies you fight transform their weapons into giant fists, whips, and other implements of war. It made our minds run wild. What kinds of weird shapes can we use?

There’s just one. The Nox Flowing Hammer is exactly like every other hammer in the game if not for the Flowing Form Ash of War. Not even a heavy attack, to transform the weapon (briefly) you need to spend FP. This turns the hammer into a whip-like weapon that has some range but doesn’t deal much damage. The enemies you fight in these areas transform their weapons into spiked shields, or into giant smashing gauntlets — they do it at will! The Nox Flowing Hammer doesn’t really compare to the bad guys. A neat curiosity. Never a favorite.

Cipher Pata

One of the wierdest weapons in the game, the Cipher Pata is a fist weapon — basically, you can punch people with the holy power of words. Equipping the Cipher Pata emblazons golden words onto your fists that are impossible to block. No shield can guard against the Cipher Pata. If only they were actually strong.

There are two unblockable Faith Weapons. The Cipher Pata and the Coded Sword have a similar theme — they’re both blades made from holy glowing words that form an unreadable sentence. While the Coded Sword can become one of the most powerful straight swords in Elden Ring with the right build, the Cipher Pata is just there… looking kinda cool. It comes with an Unblockable Blade Ash of War ability for punching forward. In the end, the Cipher Pata has an incredibly unique style that doesn’t exactly transition into usefulness.

Envoy’s Greathorn

For being one of the hardest weapons to acquire in Elden Ring, once again we’re dealing with a weapon that is much cooler when used by enemies. The Greathorn is dropped by Giant Oracle Envoys at Miquella’s Haligtree. They drop at an absurdly low rate — about 2% — and are already rare enemies. You’ll have to farm giant oracles for hours to get your hands on this thing. Seriously.

And there’s only one reason to get it. If you want a full band of hornplayers, you’ll need at least one Greathorn. All the horns blow damaging bubbles, and the Greathorn blasts the biggest bubble. Just one really big bubble. The regular enemies you face launch a barrage of five giant bubbles! And this thing might be “great” but it barely deals more damage than the other horns. An impressive-looking weapon that isn’t worth the effort.

Scepter Of The All-Knowing

And finally, we end our list on one more massive disappointment — a weapon that promises infinite knowledge and gives us a little hammer to smack things with. The gulf between the lore of the Scepter of the All-Knowing and what you actually do with it is the size of the Grand Canyon.

The Scepter of the All-Knowing is the weapon that allows Gideon Ofnir to unleash a vast of array of magic. For Sir Gideon, this isn’t just a club — it is a divine magical weapon that allows the casting of magic. For Tarnished that collect it after defeating Sir Gideon in battle? It is merely a big stick to swat at enemies weakly. Even the Ash of War is pretty weak — an AOE debuff that removes everything’s magic damage negation in a wire area. Including the player.

The Scepter ofthe All-Knowing is neither a scepter or all-knowing. Maybe Sir Gideon was all hype — his boss fight isn’t going to make anyone’s top 10 hardest — but Gideon’s signature weapon could’ve been cooler.

That’s 10 weapons we were totally underwhelmed by. Some of these aren’t bad at all. Some are even useful! But all of them didn’t meet our expectations. Let us know what weapons you didn’t love and we’ll make another list.