Elden Ring: Ashes of War, how does it work?

As part of our Elden Ring guide, in this article we focus on the Ashes of War, a series of items that serve to enhance our weapons thanks to status effects, skills and stat modification. We tell you everything you need to know to get the most out of them.

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Ashes of War in Elden Ring, what are they and how to use them?

These are a series of items that you can find by exploring the open world, dungeons and also by defeating enemies. You can also try to track down those silver beetles that roam all over the stages, as they will often drop one of them. There are a huge amount of different Ashes of War and it never hurts to take a look at your inventory to see if any of them can be of any use.

The Ashes of War are equipped to the weapons (only one for each piece, not forgetting that there are special weapons that cannot be modified). The result of doing so is always a new ability that you can perform while holding the weapon with two hands and pressing the special attack button (L2 on PlayStation and LT on Xbox). They are very powerful attacks: stomp jumps, spiral swords and even magic projectiles, among other moves.

Furthermore, some Ashes of War are able to imbue permanently a special state to your weapons. For example, some ashes with magical effect equipped on a sword will automatically transform it into a sword that not only damages physically, but also with magic.

You can manage the Ashes of War in the blacksmith of the Roundtable Hold or in the forge found in the first church you see after completing the game. Although the easiest and fastest way is to do it in the menu that appears when resting in any Site of Grace.

Duplicate Ashes of War

If you equip an ash to a certain weapon, you won't be able to use it on another one. Fortunately, in Elden Ring everything -or almost- has a remedy: it is possible to duplicate the Ashes of War to store several in the inventory and thus use it with as many weapons as you want. To do this, you need to have a Lost Ashes of War, an object that many enemies drop after being defeated.This action can only be done by talking to the blacksmith in the Roundtable Hold.

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