Elden Ring - Benefits of Two-Handing Weapons

Benefits of Two-Handing Weapons in Elden Ring

In Elden Ring, you can wield most melee weapons with two-hands which comes with different benefits and limitations in battle. Two-handing your equipped armament can be done by pressing and holding △ + L1 / L2 (two-hand the weapon on your left hand) or pressing and holding △ + R1 / R2 (two-hand the weapon on your right hand).

Advantages

• Increases Strength by 1.5
• Changes the moveset and available combos that can be executed which may allow you to deal more damage or stagger and knock down enemies more easily

Two-handing weapons grants you a temporary increase in your Strength stat by 1.5, allowing you to wield certain weapons with requirements that you would not normally be able to meet while one-handing them. Another benefit of two-handing your equipped armament is giving you a moveset which can be similar or drastically different from attacks you can perform while wielding the weapon with one-hand.

Disadvantages

• Shields cannot be used
• Staves cannot be used (preventing you from casting Sorceries and Incantations)
• Changes the moveset and available combos that can be executed which may have shorter range and different swinging directions that are not effective when dealing with groups of enemies.

The most obvious disadvantage of two-handing weapons is being unable to block incoming enemy attacks using a shield. This may pose as a downside, especially for players not very skilled with dodging. It is also not possible to equip two different weapons on each hand which may be limiting for builds that thrive on dual-wielding or prefer fighting with a melee armament and Glinstone stave at the same time.

Certain weapons such as various type of swords also lose a bit of their attack range when wielded with both hands. This may be unfavorable for players who like to poke enemies that they can outrange in battle.

Get Comfortable with Using Weapons One- or Two-Handed

It is recommended to train yourself to wield your preferred weapon both with one hand or with two. Being adept at both will largely expand the movepool available to you at different combat situations which is highly advantageous both in player-versus-environment (Pve) runs or player-versus-player engagements.