FromSoftware’s Bloodborne remains one of the greatest PlayStation exclusives of all time and one of the better entries in the Souls franchise. Where it lacks in weapon and build variety compared to other titles by FromSoftware, it more than makes up for this with rich mechanical depth, great boss fights, and some of the coolest weapons in any action RPG.
Bloodborne’s Trick Weapons are fiendishly creative, allowing players to utilize two weapons in one. With the tap of a button, any Trick Weapon can completely change, offering the player an incredible amount of moment-to-moment variety that very few action games can pull off. Naturally, not every weapon is worth using, so seek out the one that feels the best to slay foes with.
15 Beast Claw
The Beast Claw isn’t the most popular of Bloodborne’s weapons. It’s not found during the course of the main story, for one thing, and isn’t really very well renowned in terms of attack speed or power.
The saving grace of the weapon, however, arrived with The Old Hunters expansion. In the DLC, Hunters can acquire the Beast’s Embrace Rune, which transforms the player’s appearance and gives them a new moveset to employ with the Beast Claw, including leaping attacks and frantic flails. With a build that takes advantage of its strengths, it’s both very powerful and a whole lot of fun, though perhaps isn’t as practical as the weapons we’ve ranked higher. It’s also guarded by one of the most infamous bosses in the game: Laurence, the First Vicar.
How To Get The Beast Claw
- In a layer 2 treasure room chest in a dungeon made with an Ailing Loran Chalice
14 Saw Cleaver
The Saw Cleaver may be one of the game’s starting weapons, but Bloodborne doesn’t really discriminate when it comes to the Cane, Hunter Axe, and Saw Cleaver. While the Saw Cleaver may not be the strongest of the bunch, it’s usable for the entire game, even the DLC.
The Saw Cleaver handles crowds of enemies extremely well, something that never loses value in the game. Better yet, the Saw Cleaver’s immediate availability means that players can start upgrading their weapon right away, ensuring that their early game isn’t spent hoarding materials. The Saw Cleaver is arguably the best starting weapon in Bloodbornefor players new to FromSoftware games, as it’s very easy to use.
How To Get The Saw Cleaver
- Choose it as the starting weapon when playing a new game
- Can be bought from messengers after acquiring the Saw Hunter Badge from defeating a giant pig in Yharnam
13 Beast Cutter
A common theme that most of Bloodborne’s best weapons share is their ability to properly crowd control. Unlike Dark Souls, enemies in Bloodborne often attack players in small waves and, again unlike Dark Souls, players are expected to take down all these enemies more or less in one go.
This makes weapons like the Beast Cutter very much worth it. Better yet, when in trick mode, the Beast Cutter has whip-like properties that can make use of enemies placed closer to the ground. The Beast Cutter also scales with Strength, making it almost a beefier version of the Threaded Cane.
How To Get The Beast Cutter
- Can be picked up from a spot near to the entrance of the nightmare version of The Grand Cathedral
12 Bloodletter
The Bloodletter is another unique weapon that was added with the expansion. The signature weapon of the Church’s fearsome assassin, Brador, this brutal weapon is capable of dealing tremendous damage.
Like the Chikage, its tricked mode costs the player some HP, but just one chunk of it on each transformation rather than a constant drain. It scales with Strength in its regular mode and primarily Bloodtinge when tricked, making it quite awkward in terms of the character build required. Still, the transformed mode has a nice range and is very strong, also coming with a potent AoE attack. It’s well worth the journey into Bloodborne’s deepest depths to get your hands on it.
How To Get The Bloodletter
- The Bloodletter is dropped by Brador, the Healing Church Assassin after he is defeated
11 Chikage
The Chikage may gradually drain the wielder’s health, but a competent enough player can mitigate this downside entirely by making use of the Chikage’s innate abilities. As is, the Chikage is one of the best weapons in Bloodborne, without its handicap it would almost certainly be overused.
There are even tricks to get around the health absorption with stronger attacks. The Chikage is the kind of weapon that rewards mechanical mastery. It’s fast, strong, and its two-handed mode can even deal poison damage. Its only downside is that it’s not a proper Trick Weapon, but its move set is fun enough as is.
How To Get The Chikage
- Can be purchased from messengers for 50,000 Blood Echoes after joining the Cainhurst Vilebloods covenant
10 Simon’s Bowblade
From the most towering and terrifying bosses to the lowliest mobs, the enemies of Bloodborne mostly utilize the same battle tactics that they do in the wider Dark Souls games: they make a beeline for you and try to shred you into sad, defeated hunks of failure.
With this being the case, their AI doesn’t usually deal well with taking ranged damage. This is where DLC weapon Simon’s Bowblade truly excels. A standard powerful curved sword in its regular form, it transforms into a bow that can deal huge damage if the player has leveled up their Bloodtinge. It can decimate a lot of enemies from relative safety, only held back by being a little slow to use and unwieldy to aim (yep, ‘Monocular sniping’ is a thing). As such, Simon’s Bowblade is one of the best ranged weapons in Bloodborne.
How To Get Simon’s Bowblade
- Can be found on the dead body of Simon the Harrowed in the Fishing Hamlet near the Lighthouse Hut lantern
- In The Hunter’s Nightmare or the Research Hall, players can potentially kill Simon the Harrowed to get his weapon
9 Church Pick
From a giant sword to a war pick, the Church Pick doesn’t stand out as one of the better weapons in the game on a surface level. Its transformed variation also does shockingly little damage, a rarity for the Trick Weapons. That said, the Church Pick’s transformed state also allows the player to make use of very reliable stunlocks.
When properly stunlocking, the Church Pick becomes one of the best weapons in Bloodborne as far as combo potential goes. The transformed Church Pick’s amazing range also ensures that stunlocking an enemy isn’t particularly difficult. A little bit of damage tradeoff is simply the price to pay for trying to land combos.
How To Get The Church Pick
- The Church Pick is dropped by the hunter wearing the Yahar’Gul set in The Hunter’s Nightmare
8 Burial Blade
Gehrman’s personal weapon, the Burial Blade is easily one of the best Trick Weapons in Bloodborne. Half scythe, half sword, the Burial Blade is aesthetically appealing if nothing else. As the weapon of the game’s penultimate boss, though, it goes without saying that using the Burial Blade does have its perks.
For starters, a charged L2 attack has arguably the best reach in the game out of the many possible charged attacks, encompassing pretty much everything in its path while doing great damage. The Burial Blade also makes use of a variety of attack animations, giving players plenty of options when it comes to combat— a necessity when tackling harder Chalice Dungeons or the DLC.
How To Get The Burial Blade
- Can be bought from messengers for 60,000 Blood Echoes after defeating Gehrman, the First Hunter, and acquiring the Old Hunter Badge
7 Kos Parasite
The Kos Parasite is too slow for its own good and doesn’t really shine when it comes to range, but these flaws are necessary so as to not to make the Kos Parasite too overwhelming. In terms of damage, the Kos Parasite may not hit as hard as it could, but it has amazing stagger potential. With the right tactics, it’s possible to comfortably chip enemies to death.
This is really to say nothing of the fact that the Kos Parasite is just a fun weapon to use. Slow it may be, but it has a great move set and has a super creative design. There’s nothing else quite like it in Bloodborne, which is what gives it so much value as a weapon.
How To Get The Kos Parasite
- Dropped by the Orphan of Kos when they are defeated
6 Blade Of Mercy
While Skill-based weapons don’t boast the damage-per-hit that their huge, cumbersome counterparts do, they make up for it with swift, graceful attacks. The Blade of Mercy is the perfect example of this.
It’s the signature weapon of Eileen the Crow, one of the mysterious Yharnam’s most intriguing denizens. The Hunter of Hunters wields this short sword and dual blade combo with dexterity and skill, and if the player can do the same, it will reward them well. The Blade of Mercy ties in perfectly with the game’s evasive combat style, dealing boosted damage from quickstep attacks and allowing the player to dodge through foes’ onslaughts while piling on the pressure. Its damage per hit is also low, though, and the player will need a lot of skill to get the best from this Bloodborne weapon.
How To Get The Blade Of Mercy
- Can be bought from messengers for 40, 000 Blood Echoes after acquiring the Crow Hunter Badge (complete Eileen the Crow’s questline)
- Players can also get the Crow Hunter Badge as a drop from killing Eileen the Crow
5 Rakuyo
The Rakuyo is, in many respects, a better version of the Chikage. It removes the Chikage’s personal limitations and uses a similar move set to the weapon. That said, it isn’t entirely identical to the Chikage and the Rakuyo actually has its own set of strengths and weaknesses to balance things out.
The Rakuyo is technically a dual-wield weapon, changing up the control scheme on the player. At the same time, mastering this control scheme leads to Rakuyo turning into one of the best weapons in Bloodborne.
How To Get The Rakuyo
- Rakuyo gets dropped after defeating one of the two Shark Giant enemies that are at the bottom of a well in the Fishing Hamlet
4 Holy Moonlight Sword
The Holy Moonlight Sword is basically a Dark Souls weapon slapped into Bloodborne. Theoretically, it shouldn’t work. The Wooden Shield is very much the same concept, but From knew that fans needed a recognizable sword for The Old Hunters DLC. The end result is the coolest version of the series signature weapon: the Holy Moonlight Sword.
It’s fast, hits hard, has an incredibly fun move set, and fundamentally changes how Bloodborne’s gameplay loop feels. The Holy Moonlight Sword is one of the best Bloodborne weapons for mixed Arcane builds. The Holy Moonlight Sword scales evenly with Strength and Dexterity, so it’s a good weapon for any Melee and Arcane hybrid.
How To Get The Holy Moonlight Sword
- Found in the Underground Corpse Pile after defeating Ludwig, the Holy Blade
3 Hunter Axe
The Hunter’s Axe might be a starting weapon, but it’s not only the best weapon of the bunch, it’s one of the best weapons in Bloodborne. Perfect availability, great scaling, amazing range, useful both in trick mode or otherwise, and one of the more powerful weapons in the game in terms of pure damage; there’s no reason not to use the Hunter Axe.
It fills a lot of roles as a weapon without falling into one clear archetype. It can be a great one-on-one weapon, it can crowd control easily, it’s useful for pretty much every boss fight, and players will never feel like they’re doing chip damage. It may not be the game’s very best weapon, but it’s close.
How To Get The Hunter Axe
- Choose it as a starting weapon when beginning a new game
- Can be bought from messengers after acquiring the Saw Hunter Badge from defeating a giant pig in Yharnam
2 Whirligig Saw
The Whirligig Saw is one of the most simple, brutal, and horrifying weapons in the game. Part mace, part vicious, flesh-rending saw, there’s no denying that this is one of the best Strength-based weapons in Bloodborne.
When transformed, the Whirligig Saw (which has S scaling in Strength when fully upgraded) allows the player to hold L2 to continuously grind through enemies (as stamina allows). Preying on the weaknesses of beast foes, in particular, its damage output is amazing.
How To Get The Whirligig Saw
- It is located on a small incline on the path surrounding the Nightmare Church
1 Ludwig’s Holy Blade
Everything the Hunter Axe does, Ludwig’s Holy Blade does better. It doesn’t have the same range as the Hunter Axe at its best, but Ludwig’s Holy Blade is faster. It can tear enemies apart with no real effort. Its move set is also reliable–chaining into a hard to avoid combo. As such, Ludwig’s Holy Blade is the best weapon in Bloodborne for most players.
While its availability certainly isn’t as good as the starting weapon’s, Ludwig’s Holy Blade can be obtained alarmingly early if players know what they’re doing. After obtaining the sword, there’s no real reason to unequip it. Ludwig’s Holy Blade can and will carry players through the entire game and beyond.
How To Get Ludwig’s Holy Blade
- Can be bought from messengers for 20,000 Blood Echoes after acquiring the Radiant Sword Hunter Badge from a chest in the Healing Church Workshop
Bloodborne is available on the PlayStation 4.
