Can You Infuse Weapons in Elden Ring?

Yes, absolutely! Infusions breathe new life into weapons in Elden Ring by altering their scaling, damage type, and granting powerful skills. Unlocking more infusion options allows for tremendous build diversity so you can slay enemies with your preferred playstyle. This guide will teach you everything you need to know to master infusions on your quest to become Elden Lord.

What Are Infusions and Ashes of War?

Infusions change a weapon‘s affinity, modifying the scaling and sometimes the damage type it deals. For example, a Heavy infusion boosts Strength scaling, while Flame Art converts all damage to fire. The affinity dictates which of your stats will govern that weapon‘s attack rating.

Ashes of War give weapons new skills and tie directly into the infusion system. Applying an Ash of War will automatically infuse a weapon with the matching affinity. For instance, Glintblade Phalanx Ash of War infuses a weapon as Magic type.

Unlocking More Infusion Types

You start with access to Standard and Heavy. Additional infusions must be unlocked through acquiring Whetblades:

• Iron Whetblade: Keen and Quality
• Glintstone Whetblade: Magic, Cold, and Poison
• Ghostflame Whetblade: Flame Art, Sacred, Lightning
• Blood Whetblade: Blood and Occult

I highly recommend obtaining all Whetblades. This gives the most options for customizing weapons to suit your playstyle. The early Iron Whetblade found in Stormhill Shack is especially nice.

According to community testing, Keen and Quality infusions excel on many dexterity/quality focused weapons like katanas. Cold infusion can enable potent frost builds. Blood and Occult make bleed powerhouses. The options are vast, so experiment!

Top Weapons To Infuse

These weapons shine the brightest with certain infusions tailored to them:

• Moonveil‘s unique Transient Moonlight gains insane boosts from Intelligence
• Rivers of Blood wrecks with extreme bleed buildup on Blood infusion
• Winged Scythe splits holy/physical damage for big Fai gains
• Clayman‘s Harpoon already has innate lightning so Sacred infusion adds huge lightning attack rating

These observed attack ratings come from community testing at the noted stat benchmarks. Your damage will vary based on exact stats.

The key takeaway is matching your primary scaling stats to the infusion. This optimization compounds with percentage boosts from weapon skills, buffs, talismans to enable destroying bosses.

Infuse For Bleed and Status Effects

Many weapons have movesets perfectly suited for applying deadly statuses like bleed, frost, rot, poison, and more:

• Bandit Curved Sword – Fast slashes stack bleed rapidly
• Antspur Rapier – Innate scarlet rot scales heavily with Arcane for melting health bars
• Vulgar Militia Shotel – Occult infusion to boost already high bleed buildup

Dual wielding curved swords, katanas, or rapiers with bleed infusions lets you shred through enemies. Combine with skills like Seppuku for even higher hemorrhaging. Seppuku on double bleed Cross-Naginata is a popular community choice.

Alternatively, use frost to lower enemy defenses then switch to your hard-hitting main weapon. This "priming" tactic works great for tough bosses.

Rot and poison steadily eat away health which helps when outnumbered by groups. Remember to reapply status before they expire for maximum carnage!

Optimizing Your Build

To maximize damage, carefully spec your stats to match chosen infusion affinities and weapons.

For example, a faith build focuses on Sacred, Flame Art, and Lightning by heavily investing in Faith. Intelligence builds pump Intelligence for Magic/Cold sorceries and weapons like Dark Moon Greatsword.

Quality builds split between Strength and Dexterity with Keen/Quality weapons to reap well-rounded benefits. Arcane boosts bleed, poison, rot statuses.

Observe Soft Caps

Importantly, be aware of soft caps where damage gains diminish per point invested:

• Vigor: 50
• Mind: 50
• Endurance: 50-60
• Strength/Dexterity/Intelligence/Faith/Arcane: 80

Consider reallocating stats at Walking Mausoleums once your weapons reach max upgrade level. For example, respec out of Vigor into offensive stats since you‘ll rely on dodging instead of tanking hits. This optimization compounds with percentages from weapon skills, consumable buffs, and talismans.

Sample Builds

Here are some powerful samplebuilds from community discussion:

Crunch numbers, analyze your playstyle, and test weapons to create your ideal build. Infusions tie everything together to let you eradicate enemies with your preferred combat flow.

Infusion Tips and Tricks

Infuse Icon Shields to apply status without switching weapons. Some Ashes can’t be applied based on the weapon type. Change affinities at sites of grace to fine tune your build. Occult often overtakes Heavy once upgraded.

I hope this guide has shed light on mastering one of Elden Ring‘s most interesting mechanics – infusions. Investigate, experiment, theorycraft and melt bosses down with the incredible power at your fingertips. See you at the Erdtree, and may the good blood guide your way!