Weaponsupporting

Greataxe

Greataxe is a heavy ordinary axe found in the troll-drawn carriage travelling Limgrave's main road. Its high Strength requirement, strong charged attacks, Barbaric Roar, and affinity freedom make it an early foundation for committed physical builds.

Importance

supporting

Elden Ring · weapon

Key Takeaways

Greataxe is a heavy Strength-oriented axe that rewards deliberate spacing and committed attacks rather than rapid exchanges.

Heavy axe with strong physical pressure

Its heavy class gives Greataxe substantial reach and damage potential, while its slower attacks demand careful timing and positioning.

Default skill: Barbaric Roar

Greataxe starts with Barbaric Roar, which temporarily boosts attack power and changes the follow-up heavy attack; the skill can be replaced through the Ash of War system.

High Strength commitment

The weapon has a demanding Strength requirement and a meaningful weight cost, making it better suited to Strength-focused characters than lightly equipped builds.

Reliable stance pressure, slower recovery

Its committed swings can pressure enemy stance and punish openings, but missed attacks are costly because the weapon is slower and less forgiving than lighter axes.

Customizable standard weapon

Greataxe follows the regular reinforcement path and supports Ashes of War and affinities, allowing its damage profile and skill to follow the build rather than locking the player to one setup.

A heavier alternative to ordinary axes

Compared with lighter axes, Greataxe emphasizes reach, impact, and raw commitment at the cost of speed, weight efficiency, and recovery time.

Overview

Greataxe is a standard great axe in Elden Ring: a heavy, strength-oriented melee weapon built around deliberate swings, strong physical damage, and committed close-range attacks rather than speed or utility.

The Greataxe is a conventional weapon rather than a named legendary or quest-exclusive armament. Its identity comes from the great axe class: attacks cover a broad area in front of the user and demand more commitment than ordinary axes, while still occupying the great axe category rather than the slower colossal-weapon classes. That makes it a straightforward choice for players who want a heavy physical weapon without relying on a unique weapon gimmick.

Its default skill, War Cry, supports an aggressive melee role by changing the weapon’s attack pattern and encouraging a short burst of stronger attacks after activation. The weapon has no distinctive innate status effect or lore-driven passive that defines its use, so its main advantages come from its moveset, physical damage profile, and compatibility with conventional Strength-focused setups. Its handling rewards spacing and timing more than rapid hit trading.

As a regular weapon, the Greataxe follows Elden Ring’s customizable reinforcement path rather than the fixed upgrade route used by unique armaments. Its Ash of War and affinity can therefore be part of the build decision, allowing the weapon to serve more than one physical-damage archetype when the appropriate options are available. This flexibility is an important distinction from great axes whose skills or damage characteristics are fixed.

The Greataxe is available in the base game and is not a Shadow of the Erdtree-exclusive weapon. In practical progression, it represents an accessible entry into heavy axe play: it can suit a character already investing in Strength, but its weight and committed attacks make it less attractive for players who prioritize quick recovery, low equipment burden, or highly specialized weapon skills. Its closest alternatives should be judged by reach, requirements, skill flexibility, and attack rhythm rather than damage alone.

Statistics

Elden Ring publishes no 0–100 stat bars, so this page lists the verified requirements, scaling and handling figures instead. Taken from the project's verified weapons database, not from generated text.

Category
Greataxes
Damage Type
Slash
Primary Scaling
Str D
Weight
13
Skill
Ash of War (varies)
Str Req
22
Dex Req
8
How to Obtain
Merchant, chest

Figures verified against Consolidated Game Weapons Database.

Compared to similar greataxes

Weapon	Str Req	Dex Req	Weight	Primary Scaling
Greataxe	22	8	13	Str D
Rosus's Axe	24	14	13	Str C
Gargoyle's Great Axe	26	14	13.5	Str C
Smithscript Greataxe	22	15	13.5	Str C
Longhaft Axe	22	12	14	Str D

Requirements, scaling grades and weight are the game’s own published figures. From Consolidated Game Weapons Database.

How to Obtain

Before you start

Access to Limgrave and the road east of the Gatefront Site of Grace; no boss, quest, vendor, DLC, or New Game Plus requirement is needed.
The chest's Greataxe can be collected once per playthrough. No alternate vendor or recovery route is established for a missed pickup.

01Travel to the Gatefront Site of Grace in Limgrave, then follow the main road east until you find the moving carriage convoy pulled by two Trolls. The Greataxe is inside the chest at the rear of the carriage.
02Open the chest to receive the Greataxe. The chest can be looted without defeating the Trolls, although stopping the convoy by dealing with them makes the pickup safer. The weapon is a guaranteed chest acquisition, not a random enemy drop or quest reward.

Mechanics and Handling

The Greataxe’s handling is defined by commitment rather than a complex gimmick. Its attacks cover useful space in front of the Tarnished, but the swings take long enough to begin and recover that careless attacks can leave the wielder open. It performs best when spacing creates time for a complete attack sequence, or when an opening has already been created by a stagger, guard break, or enemy recovery.

Wide swings and committed follow-ups

The regular attack sequence uses broad axe swings suited to catching targets close to the weapon’s front and sides. The heavy attack changes the commitment into a more deliberate chop, while the charged heavy attack extends that commitment for a stronger punish when the enemy is stationary or recovering. Jumping attacks provide a more direct downward option and can be useful for opening engagements or pressuring stance, but they still require the player to account for the Greataxe’s recovery.

War Cry and customizable skill use

The standard Greataxe is equipped with the War Cry weapon skill. War Cry temporarily improves the weapon’s physical attack performance and changes the character of its strong attacks while the effect is active, giving the weapon a more aggressive way to capitalize on a short opening. The Greataxe is compatible with Ashes of War, so its skill and affinity can be changed when the appropriate systems and whetblades are available. Any resulting damage or scaling change belongs to the selected reinforcement and affinity, not to the weapon’s unmodified moveset.

Spacing, defense, and status behavior

The Greataxe can be used while guarding, but its weight and attack commitment make it a poor substitute for a dedicated shield when defense is the priority. Its value comes from threatening enough space to discourage an approach and from converting safe openings into heavy attacks. In its standard form, it does not provide an innate status buildup; status effects therefore require an applicable affinity, buff, or other external source rather than appearing as a built-in property of every hit.

Upgrades and Variants

Strengths, Weaknesses and Best Uses

Strengths

Its heavy swings deliver substantial single-hit pressure and can contribute strongly to stance damage, rewarding deliberate openings rather than repeated light attacks.
The broad axe head gives ordinary and jumping attacks useful hit coverage at close range, which helps punish groups or enemies that stay within melee distance.
Greataxe supports a strength-focused playstyle while retaining the flexibility of a standard weapon: its Ash of War and affinity can be changed, allowing the setup to emphasize different physical damage or utility options.
Its War Cry skill supports burst-oriented play by temporarily strengthening attacks and altering the heavy-attack pattern.

Weaknesses

The weapon's weight and slow attack commitment make missed swings costly, especially against enemies that can interrupt, roll away from, or punish recovery animations.
Its practical reach is limited compared with some longer colossal weapons, so spacing errors can leave the wielder outside attack range or vulnerable to counterattacks.
Heavy swings consume meaningful stamina and are difficult to chain safely; the weapon is less forgiving when several enemies attack from different angles.
Its emphasis on strength and deliberate melee exchanges makes it a poor fit for players who rely on rapid status application, quick hit-confirmation, or constant repositioning.

Best uses

Use it for PvE encounters where an opening is long enough for a committed heavy, charged heavy, or jumping attack and stance pressure can be converted into a critical hit.
It suits strength-led builds that want a customizable standard weapon rather than a fixed unique weapon skill, especially when War Cry's altered heavy attacks fit the encounter.
It performs best in close-range fights against larger or committed targets, where its attack coverage and single-hit pressure matter more than rapid recovery.
Choose another weapon when the matchup demands long reach, rapid successive hits, or frequent attacks while moving around several fast enemies.

Compared With Similar Weapons

Compared With Similar Weapons
Weapon	Class and damage profile	Skill and customization	Practical distinction from Greataxe
Executioner's Greataxe	Infusible and compatible with changeable Ashes of War	A thematically similar alternative for heavy physical builds; choose it when its moveset and critical-oriented profile better suit the build	—
Rusted Anchor	Infusible; uses Barbaric Roar as its default skill	Its pierce profile can suit players who want a different damage type from Greataxe's standard slash-oriented attacks	—
Great Omenkiller Cleaver	Infusible; uses Wild Strikes as its default skill	A more aggressive alternative for players who prefer sustained skill attacks over Greataxe's War Cry-based setup	—