It's been a week since Shadow of the Erdtree dropped, and outside of the standard Fromsoft discourse around difficultly there’s been a host of gameplay videos showing off all the fun new things available in the DLC.

If you’re just about to dive in, or your looking for something to mix up your second or third DLC playthrough here’s our breakdown of the 8 new weapon types available in Shadow of the Erdtree!

Backhand Blades

One of the first new weapon types you’re liable to stumble across in the Land of Shadow are Backhand Blades. These paired weapons scale primarily with Dex and Str and are utilise a fast slashing moveset perfect for inflicting status conditions. The also have a unique running R1 that doesn’t stop you from sprinting when using them.

The 3 backhand blades available are the Backhand Blade, Curseblade’s Cirque and the Smithscript Cirque. Slap a bleed affinity on them (note: the Curseblade variety is somber and cannot be changed but has innate bleed) and watch boss health bars melt.

The Smithscript Cirque variety can also be thrown using a charged heavy attack, giving melee builds a little bit of range to their arsenal.

Beast Claws

Similar to the new Fist weapons there are two new Beast Claw weapons – Beast Claw and Red Bear’s Claw. They scale primarily with Str and Dex.

Again these are paired weapons (there’s a lot of these in the DLC), and they both have innate bleed build up. Add this to the inherently fast moveset and they are great for building up bleed.

Beast Claw’s also have a unique feint mechanic where dodging whilst in an attack chain will cancel your chain and cause you to do a backflip away from the enemy.

Great Katanas

As you’d expect by something called a Great Katana these weapons are just really big katanas! The scale similarly to normal katanas, so primarily Dex with some extra Str.

All 3; the Great Katana, Dragon Hunter’s Great Katana and Rakshasa’s Great Katana have innate bleed and some fun Ashes of War. The standard Great Katana comes with the Overhead Stance Ash of War – stance mechanics being a new thing for the DLC. Pair it with Rellana’s to maximise damage!

Both the other’s are Somber Weapons, so you can’t change their affinities or Ashes, but they are still a lot of fun and will be sure to please current katana users!

Hand-to-Hand

There’s a few fist weapons in previous Fromsoft games (Bone Fist, my beloved) but genuine martial arts weapons are unique to the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC.

The Dryleaf Arts and Dane’s Footwork unleash a series of punches and kicks respectively that scale with Str and Dex, and both have very unique movesets. They can be infused, but not buffed using greases or spells.

Unfortunately Dane’s Footwork is only accessible toward the end of the DLC, but you can’t tell me that running through the base game on NG+ kicking everything to death isn’t going to be a wonderful time.

Light Greatswords

The Light Greatsword weapon class is made up from, as the name implies, Greatswords but much lighter and faster to wield.

There primary scaling is Str and Dex, however for Leda’s Sword you’re also going to need some Faith and Rellana’s Twin Blades will require Faith and Int.

The last is the Milady, and the 3 are very unique in what builds might want to use them. All 3 chain together light and heavy attacks into some lovely combos with a lot of momentum making them a lot of fun to experiment with.

Perfume Bottles

In the base game Perfume Bottles are a craftable consumable item that can be used for damage of to buff your character. In the DLC they are a full weapon class of their own with 5 different varieties (Chilling, Deadly Poison, Frenzyflame, Firespark, and Lightning).

All of the Perfume Bottles are paired weapons and can be used an unlimited amount unlike their consumable counterparts. They also do not use FP unless using a Ash of War (these can also be changed).

They scale with Dex and the standard R1 utilises an forward facing AOE and the R2 is a full 360 twirl which is great for large groups of enemies.

Throwing Blades

There’s only one Throwing Blade weapon in the DLC and it’s the Smithscript Dagger. Scaling with Str, Dex, Faith and Int this weapon is a bit of a strange one.

The range is surprisingly low, as is the damage and the stagger potential. You can change the affinity on them, but they cannot be buffed, and they do get bonus damage from the Arrow’s Sting talismans.

I’m sure someone much better at the game than me could get a very fun build running with these – but I think I’ll stick to my Backhand Blade.

Thrusting Shields

You’ll be familiar with the Dueling Shield variant of this weapon type from the trailers, but there’s also the Carian Thrusting Shield to play with. Both combine a melee weapon and shield, and scale with Str and Dex.

They both have a very unique moveset, especially using the R1 in conjunction with guarding to do a fun little shield poke that allows for a lot of damage negation whilst still dealing damage.

Paired with the right talismans and you can essentially become a bit of a wall while hitting for big chunks of counter damage. If you’re have an issue with a particular boss maybe give one of these a go!

And that’s all!

Hopefully everyone is having fun with the DLC, and has had a chance to try out some of the new weapons!