Highlights

• The Beast Claw is a unique weapon that caters to players who want to embrace their inner beast. When transformed, it grants a beasthood meter that increases damage output. However, it has limited range and lacks versatility compared to other weapons.
• The Bloodletter is a highly sought-after weapon that requires players to sacrifice their own health to unlock its true potential. Its transformed mode deals devastating blood damage but at the cost of the player's own well-being. It's a high-risk, high-reward weapon that suits those willing to take a gamble.
• The Hunter Axe is a reliable starting weapon that offers a balance between range and power. Its transformed mode grants the ability to perform sweeping attacks that can hit multiple enemies. It's a great choice for players who prefer a straightforward and adaptable playstyle.

It would be impossible to talk about the greatest games on the PS4 without mentioning the absolute masterpiece that is Bloodborne. FromSoftware took the special formula they'd devised in Dark Souls and applied it to a new IP (one with a surprising amount of meme potential) with excellent success. The Lovecraftian world of Bloodborne, coupled with its brutal yet fair combat, has made this title one of the greatest games of all time.

Two stats govern a player's damage in melee combat — Strength and Skill. While other stats can also play a role in close-range combat, there's no denying that these two skills are what players should focus on while creating a build. Skill builds might be great and all, but people who wish to make the most of the bigger and heavier weapons in Bloodborne would be served well with an investment in Strength instead. For the people who wish to make the most of their Strength build and deal as much damage as possible, the best Bloodborne Strength weapons will be right up their alley.

Updated on March 8, 2024 by Ritwik Mitra: Bloodborne is one of the greatest video games ever made. The fact that most people still consider it to be Hidetaka Miyazaki's best title is a testament to the sheer amount of love and expertise that went into developing this impressive video game. The Gothic and Lovecraftian inspirations are presented beautifully in a game with amazing lore, a fun combat system, and engaging boss fights that will push players to the very limit. To tackle the many challenging foes in this game, players must employ everything in their arsenal and utilize the best weapons to take out a myriad of threats without being sent back to a lantern too many times.

A Guide On Upgrading Weapons

• Unlike Dark Souls, Bloodborne's upgrades are fairly simple. Players need certain items along with a set number of Blood Echoes to upgrade weapons and increase base damage.
• Players need Blood Stone Shards for initial upgrades, Twin Blood Stone Shards for later upgrades, and a Blood Stone Rock for the final upgrade.
• Along with this, there are various runes that players can equip on their weapons to increase the weapon's stats as well.
• Magical damage can be integrated into weapons through these runes as well, although players need to take care of their Intelligence stat to ensure they're effective.

16 Fist Of Gratia

A Left-Handed Weapon With Excellent Stunning Abilities

• Base Damage: 60 (Physical)
• Skill Requirements: 7 Strength, 9 Skill, 5 Bloodtinge
• How to Find: On Gratia's corpse in the cells seen after defeating Ludwig

The Fist of Gratia was added in the game's expansion, The Old Hunters, and were a favored weapon of Simple Gratia. Gratia, the game’s lore explains, lacked the intelligence to operate complicated firearms, so she opted to pummel beasts with a slab of solid metal instead.

While the Fist of Gratia can be very niche (taking up the valuable Firearm slot), certain Strength builds will appreciate its effectiveness at opening up enemies and interrupting their attacks. It may be an unconventional tool for those who have tried numerous Bloodborne builds, but it's far from essential equipment.

15 Tonitrus

A Mace That Can Be Infused With The Bolt Element

• Base Damage: 120 (80 Physical, 40 Bolt)
• Skill Requirements: 12 Strength, 8 Skill
• How to Find: In Hypogean Gaol; can be purchased after getting the Spark Hunter Badge

The Tonitrus is a great weapon simply because it can apply additional bolt damage when transformed, allowing it to deal extra damage to most of the enemies and super-challenging bosses in the game.

That being said, one can only maximize the damage of the Tonitrus if they go for a Strength/Arcane build, which might be asking too much. Still, in the right hands, it's a great backup weapon to damage enemies weak to bolt, which includes most of the kin enemies that will be encountered in the latter stages of the title.

14 Cannon

A High-Damage Dealer That Requires A Ton Of Bullets

• Base Damage: 200 (Blood)
• Skill Requirements: 30 Strength, 13 Skill
• How to Find: Inside the decrepit windmill in the Forbidden Woods

Generally speaking, the Strength stat doesn’t really benefit the game’s selection of Firearms much. Bullet damage scales with Bloodtinge instead. This isn’t to say that Strength-favoring players are out of luck, though.

The Cannon, found in the Forbidden Woods, uses an absurd 12 Quicksilver Bullets to fire in normal circumstances (if players have less, they’ll get one last shot off). It’s capable of tremendous damage, though, the sort of brute force one would expect of a Firearm that requires 30 Strength to use. In the end, though, its limited uses and impractical nature hurt its effectiveness.

13 Stake Driver

Boasts The Strongest Charged Strong Attack In The Game

• Base Damage: 85 (Physical)
• Skill Requirements: 18 Strength, 9 Skill
• How to Find: Can be purchased after getting the Powder Keg Hunter Badge

Like the Cannon, the Stake Driver is a powerful and impractical creation of the Powder Kegs, a division of hunters who favored such experimental, super-dangerous weaponry.

The Stake Driver is a short-ranged, brutal weapon that can drive stakes into its opponents (hence the name, of course). A fully charged R2 attack, in particular, is incredibly powerful, but it’s hard to land because it’s outrageously slow. The Stake Driver is one of the most under-appreciated Trick Weapons in the game, boasting great potential but lacking in comparison to other Strength weapons.

12 Kirkhammer

A Sword-Hammer Hybrid That Switches Between Slow And Fast Movesets

• Base Damage: 105 (Physical)
• Skill Requirements: 16 Strength, 10 Skill
• How to Find: Can be purchased after getting the Sword Hunter Badge

The Kirkhammer has the second-highest scaling with Strength out of all the base game weapons, which is enough in itself for this weapon to bag a spot on this list. One of the major reasons why the Kirkhammer ranks so low is that its untransformed state deals very little damage, while the transformed state can deal a ton of damage.

However, the attacks in this state are so slow that the player is open to a counter with every single attack. So, players should switch to the sword against faster enemies or be really careful about when they decide to swing this hammer for optimal results.

11 Holy Moonlight Sword

A Legendary Weapon That Becomes Even More Potent By Investing In Both Strength And Arcane

• Base Damage: 140 (90 Physical, 50 Arcane)
• Skill Requirements: 16 Strength, 12 Skill, 14 Arcane
• How to Find: Found in the Underground Corpse Pile after the fight against Ludwig, The Holy Blade

Some people may find it cheating to add the Holy Moonlight Sword to the conversation about Strength weapons. Most players would consider this to be a weapon better for Quality builds that focus on both Strength and Arcane, but there's no reason why players who just focus on the former can't use this weapon.

After all, the moveset of this weapon is so alluring that fans can't help but try and accommodate this blade in their arsenal somehow. It can be a challenge, but players can make good use of this weapon even if they haven't invested too many points in Arcane. For what it's worth, players can always dump more points in this stat after reaching the hardcap for Strength if the Holy Moonlight Sword catches their fancy.

10 Boom Hammer

An Explosive Hammer That's A Lot Of Fun To Use

• Base Damage: 150 (90 Physical, 60 Fire)
• Skill Requirements: 14 Strength, 8 Skill
• How to Find: Inside a house in the Hunter's Nightmare where a wheelchair-bound hunter wields a Gatling Gun

The next DLC weapon on this list comes in the form of the Boom Hammer, a handy weapon that can cause an explosion with its transformed attack.

That being said, there's nothing really of note about it aside from this added caveat, making the Boom Hammer a rather boring weapon to use in combat. As a result, like the Stake Driver, it's often overlooked in favor of weapons with flashy transformations.

9 Beast Claw

A Claw That Lets The Hunter Transform In Conjunction With The Beast's Embrace Rune

• Base Damage: 75 (Physical)
• Skill Requirements: 14 Strength, 12 Skill
• How to Find: In the Ailing Loran Chalice Dungeon

The Beast Claw might not have a ton of range or seem all that amazing... but it's easily among the most fun and intense weapons to use in combat.

The best — and recommended — way to use this weapon is to pair it with the Beast's Embrace rune. This allows the Beast Claw to unleash a new moveset on enemies while also garnering Beasthood with every successful attack. This puts the player in a position where they can dispatch most enemies in just a few hits... while also being vulnerable to being one-shotted themselves. It's easily one of the most adrenaline-inducing weapons that players can utilize in the game if they wish. It doesn't utilize the Strength stat as heavily as some others and has a very limited range, however.

8 Bloodletter

An Excellent Weapon For Strength-Bloodtinge Builds

• Base Damage: 180 (90 Physical, 90 Blood)
• Skill Requirements: 14 Strength, 6 Skill, 16 Bloodtinge
• How to Find: On Brador's corpse in the cells seen after defeating Ludwig

Before The Old Hunters expansion was released, there wasn’t really a weapon that made effective use of a Strength/Bloodtinge build. The Bloodletter filled this niche in a glorious fashion.

This brutal weapon is obtained from the assassin Brador. Its base form is a short and simple club, but its transformed mode (which the player must activate by sacrificing some HP) has a huge range and damage potential. It even has a great AoE blast attack, but this can also heavily damage the Hunter if they’re not careful with their build! It's very tough to use and acquired super late in the game, diminishing its value somewhat.

7 Hunter Axe

A Starting Weapon Perfect For Strength Users Who Want Crowd Control

• Base Damage: 98 (Physical)
• Skill Requirements: 9 Strength, 8 Skill
• How to Find: Starting weapon; can be purchased after getting the Saw Hunter Badge

It's a testament to Bloodborne that the starting weapons present in the game have been scaled so efficiently that they can last to the endgame without causing too much trouble for the player.

The Hunter's Axe is a great example of this, with this weapon being incredibly powerful and easy to use as well. Players can't go wrong by choosing this weapon to start and end the game with. Its transformed mode has incredible reach and an infamous spin-to-win charged move; the player is equipped to take on any of the game's numerous nasties with this in their hands.

6 Saw Cleaver

A Simple, Easy-To-Use Weapon With Valuable Serrated Damage

• Base Damage: 90 (Physical)
• Skill Requirements: 8 Strength, 7 Skill
• How to Find: Starting weapon; can be purchased after getting the Saw Hunter Badge

The Saw Cleaver was heavily featured during Bloodborne's promotion, and it's easy to see why this is the case. After all, this weapon is arguably the best starter weapon and completely decimates most foes in its path with the greatest ease.

The fact that it does 20% extra damage to beasts is incredibly helpful throughout the game, especially during the starting moments when most of the tough enemies that players encounter fall under this category.

5 Ludwig’s Holy Blade

A Fan-Favorite PvP Weapon

• Base Damage: 100 (Physical)
• Skill Requirements: 16 Strength, 12 Skill
• How to Find: Can be purchased after getting the Radiant Sword Hunter Badge

This iconic weapon has been a favorite of many Bloodborne players since the game’s launch. A quick, light blade that transforms into a two-handed heavy hitter, it’s a formidable and versatile weapon that can still excel in PvE and PvP situations alike.

Ludwig's Holy Blade is usually considered a ‘quality’ weapon, which means that an equal investment in the Strength and Skill stats makes the most of its damage potential (which is very high indeed with a lot of quality weapons across Soulsborne titles). Very competent at staggering targets and landing slow, hefty blows, it only loses out because it isn’t as heavy on the Strength stat as some other weapons here.

4 Beast Cutter

A Fun Serrated Weapon Added In The Old Hunters DLC

• Base Damage: 92 (Physical)
• Skill Requirements: 11 Strength, 9 Skill
• How to Find: Near the stairs leading up to the Cathedral in the Hunter's Nightmare

Another DLC weapon on this list is the Beast Cutter, which — fittingly enough — is an incredibly powerful weapon that can cut down any foe with the greatest of ease.

It's a serrated weapon just like the Saw Cleaver — which should be obvious enough — and can take down mobs of enemies with ease due to its wide range, high damage, and great stagger potential.

3 Amygdalan Arm

A Powerful Strength Weapon That Looks And Feels Great To Use

• Base Damage: 120 (80 Physical, 40 Arcane)
• Skill Requirements: 17 Strength, 9 Skill
• How to Find: Inside the cave with the Blood-Starved Beast in the Hunter's Nightmare

It's a testament to the sheer quality of the DLC that the best Strength weapons in the game come from this additional content. The Amygdalan Arm gets this hefty moniker, and it's easy to see why this is the case.

The untransformed mode can stunlock most enemies with the greatest of ease, while the transformed mode has an incredibly long reach and can slowly whittle down the health of harder enemies while maintaining a safe distance. It truly is a jack-of-all-trades when it comes to Strength weapons in Bloodborne.

2 Logarius' Wheel

An Odd Weapon With A Varied Moveset

• Base Damage: 125 (100 Physical, 25 Arcane)
• Skill Requirements: 20 Strength, 12 Skill, 10 Arcane
• How to Find: Can be purchased after getting the Wheel Hunter Badge

Logarius' Wheel has the highest Strength scaling out of any base game weapon and looks incredibly cool in battle as well, making it an instant favorite for gamers who are playing with a Strength-build character.

While getting this weapon might take a while — unless the player is heartless enough to kill Alfred before his questline is finished — the result is more than worth it.

1 Whirligig Saw

The Transformed L2 Attack Rips Through Health Bars

• Base Damage: 95 (Physical)
• Skill Requirements: 18 Strength, 12 Skill
• How to Find: A short way into the canals near the Nightmare Church

The Whirligig Saw is considered by many to be the best weapon in Bloodborne, and it's easy to see why. While using a mechanical saw in battle is cool enough as is, the Whirligig Saw truly shines due to how much damage its transformed L2 can do while simultaneously stunlocking any enemy unlucky enough to be trapped by this weapon.

The fact that this move works on those brilliant/pesky bosses as well is one of the biggest reasons why gamers love the Whirligig Saw, and any boss that might be giving the player a tough time (which is most of them) can be taken care of with the greatest ease by utilizing this weapon.