The Elden Ring Dark Moon Greatsword is a version of a longstanding FromSoftware weapon: the Moonlight Greatsword. Indeed, the weapon’s Ash of War is called Moonlight Greatsword. If you’re familiar with previous iterations of the weapon across Souls games, it’s much the same, though it shares most of its traits with the Dark Souls 3 variation. Thankfully, this weapon is better than Dark Souls 3‘s, and it has some additional abilities that make it one of the more robust versions of the weapon. Our guide tells you how to get the Dark Moon Greatsword in Elden Ring.
How to Find the Elden Ring Dark Moon Greatsword
Here are the essential steps for getting the Dark Moon Greatsword in Elden Ring:
- Complete Ranni’s questline.
- Fight Astel, Naturalborn of the Void.
- Dive into the cave in the Church of Manus Celes.
- Put the Dark Moon Ring on Ranni’s Doll.
You must complete Ranni’s questline to get the Elden Ring Dark Moon Greatsword. I know, it’s a hassle if you’ve tried to do it before. Ranni’s questline is probably the longest and most tedious quest chain in the game, and you go through the Lake of Rot of all places. Doing it more than once can be a larger ask. You’ll also need to fight Astel, Naturalborn of the Void, who I don’t care for thanks to its weirdly timed attacks and teleport-behind-you-and-grab attacks.
Provided you can get through those obstacles and make your way to the Church of Manus Celes, you can dive into an underground cave near the altar. At the cave’s end, you’ll find Ranni’s doll, battered and bloodied. When you put the Dark Moon Ring on her finger and swear yourself as her consort, she’ll revive nearby and speak to you before vanishing again.
Shortly after her departure, a glowing item will appear where Ranni was sitting. This is the Dark Moon Greatsword, one of the best in its class thanks to its sword beams, Frostbite buildup, and the many buffs the weapon class received over Elden Ring’s life cycle.
You can sadly only get one Dark Moon Greatsword per playthrough, and if you want two of them, prepare to do Ranni’s quest all over again. Or you could have a friend drop the weapon for you, but I do recommend doing Ranni’s quest once, if only to unlock her ending.
Elden Ring Dark Moon Greatsword Passives & Abilities
Every swing of the Dark Moon Greatsword does a moderate amount of Frostbite buildup. When that bar fills, the enemy will explode in a burst of ice, dealing significant damage. More importantly for PvP, those afflicted with Frostbite see a substantial reduction in their stamina regeneration. PvE enemies and bosses have effectively infinite stamina, so this secondary effect of the Dark Moon Greatsword doesn’t do much to them.
How to Use the Dark Moon Greatsword and Get the Moonlight Greatsword
Your standard R1/RB attack uses the traditional greatsword moveset. R2/RT is the charge attack, also as usual. It isn’t until you press L2/LT that the Dark Moon Greatsword comes alive, and you use its Ash of War, Moonlight Greatsword.
You bathe the blade in additional frost, increasing the Magic damage the weapon deals and enabling the legendary sword beam with charged R2/RT attacks. The beam’s range is longer than the weapon in both Bloodborne and Dark Souls 3 but doesn’t have nearly as much utility as Dark Souls 1‘s version.
With the proper stat allocation, the beam can deal upwards of 800-1,000 damage, uses no additional Focus Points, and does a large amount of stance damage, allowing for more frequent ripostes.
Dark Moon Greatsword Stats
Here are the Dark Moon Greatsword’s base stats.
- Damage type: Standard/Pierce
- Ability: Taker’s Flame (FP cost — 23)
- Weight: 13.5
- Attack Power
- Physical: 82
- Magic: 98
- Fire: 0
- Lightning: 0
- Holy: 0
- Critical: 100
- Guarded Damage Negation
- Physical: 42
- Magic: 63
- Fire: 31
- Lightning: 31
- Holy: 31
- Guard Boost: 36
- Attribute Scaling
- STR: D
- DEX: D
- INT: C
- Attributes Required
- STR: 16
- DEX: 11
- INT: 38
- Passive Effects
- Causes frost buildup (55).
And that’s how you get the Dark Moon Greatsword in Elden Ring. Getting to its location is almost all of the battle, and it’s a later-game weapon. But it’s worth picking up, especially for PvP. If you don’t know how to invade other players, here’s our primer on that mechanic. You’ll likely want to upgrade it, and you’ll need Somberstone to do so. For more weapon locations, boss tips, and other walkthroughs, head over to our expansive Elden Ring guides hub.
