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Forget the shield for a moment, those are the training wheels in Elden Ring. You want to embrace danger and demise head-on, charging head-first with both hands clutching one weapon. That’s the ‘art’ of two-handing in Elden Ring, and if you want to expand your playstyles and even make more powerful weapons accessible. Here’s a guide on how to two-hand a weapon in Elden Ring.
How to Two Hand in Elden Ring
[Updated on June 6, 2024 – Revised the guide and added more insights into two-handing]
It’s different depending on the platform. Here is how to hold a weapon in Elden Ring with two hands:
| Platform | Controls |
| PC | 1. Hold ‘E‘ on the keyboard. 2. Click LMB or RMB. LMB makes you two-hand the weapon in your left hand, RMB is for two-handing the weapon in the right hand. |
| PlayStation | 1. Hold Triangle on the controller. 2. Press either L1 or L2 to make your left weapon the two-handed weapon, or press R1 or R2 to make your right weapon the two-handed weapon. |
| Xbox | 1. Hold ‘Y’ on the controller. 2. Press either LB or LT to make your left weapon the two-handed weapon, or press RB or RT to make your right weapon the two-handed weapon. |
It might look more intuitive on the controller, but I’d argue that the PC control scheme lets you two-hand much faster and seamlessly during the heat of combat since you can still move the camera.
Regardless, there are certain benefits to Two Handing in Elden Ring.
Why Two-Hand in Elden Ring
Apart from looking cooler and more intimidating, two-handing your weapon has a couple of game-changing technical advantages as well.
- It increases the weapon’s damage per swing.
- Two handing multiplies your character’s Strength by 1.5x. This lets you use the weapon even if you don’t meet the Strength requirements as long as the result of the 1.5x two-handing multiplier makes your Strength fall within the weapon’s Strength requirement.
A lot of speedrunners and even some of the fancy min-maxed or challenge builds utilize this method, enabling them to use more powerful weapons with minimal stat investment.
Whether this offsets the ability to use a shield in your off-hand is up to your preference or skill.
Best Elden Ring Weapons to Two-Hand
Of course, not all weapons in Elden Ring will magically become more powerful by two-handing them.
Some weapons yield better results when you two-hand them:
- Starscourge Greatsword (oddly enough, it turns into a dual-wield colossal weapon when two-handed).
- Greatsword (massive Strength requirement)
- The Grafted Greatsword (Weapon Skill gives +5 to all stats)
- Halberds
- Any weapon with an S or A scaling in Strength.
It’s still up to you which weapons you want to two-hand, you can even two-hand the Caestus or the Torch.
Elden Ring is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.
