Your Elden Ring weapons' elemental affinities explained, and how to change them
What are affinities in Elden Ring?Affinities are the elemental powers your character has the chance to use to upgrade their weapons inElden Ring. Depending on an item’s affinity, its scaling value can change. This means that you can tweak the attribute scaling of a weapon to affect its attack power, and in some cases, deal elemental damage or inflict status ailments with your attacks.
On this page, we’ll go over every affinity inElden Ringand what it does, as well as where to find the Whetstone Knives that can change an item’s affinity.
What are affinities in Elden Ring?
Affinities are part of Elden Ring’s vast weapon customisation system, allowing you to alter the attribute scaling and elemental buffs of your attacks.
There are a total of 12 affinities in the game, including the standard (no affinity) state:
You unlock the ability to change a weapon’s affinity when you obtain your first Whetstone Knife. Using a whetstone, you can apply Ashes of War to your weapons to upgrade them with affinities and other special status effects, according to the type of Ashes you use. Furthermore, there are different types of whetstones you can collect, which further expand your customisation options, since there are some affinities that are only made available by using certain whetstones.
Below is a list of all the types of whetstones we’ve found in Elden Ring so far, as well as the areas in which we’ve picked them up. This list of locations isn’t comprehensive, though, so be sure to keep your eyes peeled for them (probably literally, this is a Soulsborne game after all).
For more on your choice of weaponry to help you survive in the Lands Between, see ourbest weapons in Elden Ringguide. If you’re right at the start of your journey and are struggling to pick an origin for your character, be sure to take a look at ourElden Ring best classpage.
