Elden Ring Nightreign weapon upgrades explained – how to get Smithing Stones and legendary weapons

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Wondering how to upgrade your weapons in Elden Ring Nightreign? Alongside systematically levelling up your Nightfarer as you explore Limveld and cycle through the two starting days, one of the best ways to prepare for the final fight with the Nightlord is to upgrade your weapons. These drastically improves their attack power but also any affinities and status ailments.

Amid the tense boss fights, being chased by the Night Tide, and exploring a dense map, figuring out how to upgrade your armaments can be a little opaque. In this guide, we’ll walk you through how to upgrade weapons, get Smithing Stones, and how to find those elusive Legendary rarity weapons. As for what gear to prioritise, check out the best weapons for each class.

Weapons are upgraded at any Smithing Table using Smithing Stones. Captured by VideoGamer

How to upgrade weapons in Elden Ring Nightreign

To upgrade weapons in Elden Ring Nightreign, you’ll need to visit a Smithing Table next to a Merchant and use a Smithing Stone to increase a weapon’s rarity. Approach the table, tap the Strengthen Armament prompt, select a weapon, and tap X (A on Xbox) to upgrade.

You’ll find Merchants in points of interest dotted across Limveld. Their positions aren’t fixed and change from Expedition to Expedition, but they spawn based on a fixed pool of locations – encampments, churches, and townships. You can also bring up the map, tap triangle on PS5 or Y on Xbox for more details, and see locations where Merchants are present. Before the Day 3 Nightlord fight, you’ll also have access to one final Merchant.

Weapons come in one of four rarities, which is an indicator of their current upgrade level and is shown by the border surrounding the weapon in your inventory. A weapon’s current rarity determines what type of Smithing Stone is required to strengthen the armament with an upgrade. There are only two Smithing Stone types, conveniently called Smithing Stone 1 and Smithing Stone 2.

RarityColourRequired Upgrade MaterialsMinimum Level Requirement
CommonGreySmithing Stone 10
UncommonBlueSmithing Stone 23
RarePurpleThe Crater Smithing Table7
LegendaryGoldN/A – max rarity10

How to get Smithing Stones in Elden Ring Nightreign

  • Buy them from Merchants in encampments, townships, and other locations in Limveld
  • Dormant Power rewards in the Tunnels
  • Random drops from chests, corpses, and breakable crates

You can buy Smithing Stone 1 from any Merchant for 6,500 Runes. They also pop up as random drops from chests, corpses, and breakable crates across Limveld, though they are quite rare compared to other items.

How to get Smithing Stone 2

Smithing Stone 2 are much harder to come by but a reliable source are the two tunnel networks in Limveld – one to the north and one to the south of the map. Inside you’ll find a an troll or knight that when defeated includes Smithing Stone2 among its Dormant Power rewards. Smithing Stone 2 can also be obtained as random drops from enemies during Day 2, especially later in the day, though this quite rare. You can also get them from corpses, crate, and chests in Shifting Earth events, notably The Crater.

Lastly, you can buy Smithing Stone 2 from the Merchant in the Township for 18,000 Runes per stone. The Township is a small village devoid of any enemies that features a Merchant alongside a stack of breakable crates full of items such as Greases and Warming Stone. The Township doesn’t pop up in every instance of Limveld and is quite rare so this isn’t as reliable as the Tunnels.

Elden Ring Nightreign weapon upgrades: Dormant Power rewards.
Dormant Power rewards from bosses late in Day 2 are a good source of Legendary weapons. Captured by VideoGamer

How to get Legendary weapons

Luck, my friend, lots of luck and a prayer to the RNG deities looming over Limveld. In all seriousness, they are quite rare, but the best way to get Legendary weapons is to take on field bosses, location bosses, and raid bosses during Day 2. Legendary weapons will occasionally appear among the Dormant Power rewards for defeating them. I’ve had particularly good luck defeating the Fallingstar beast in The Crater Shifting Earth even near the end of Day 2.

You can also upgrade a weapon to Legendary rarity under very strict conditions. Firstly, you’ll need to play an Expedition with The Crater Shifting Earth event active. Secondly, you’ll need to explore the large volcanic crater in the north of Limveld and defeat the boss at the bottom to unlock a unique Smithing Table that lets you upgrade one weapon to Legendary rarity. The upgrade also removes the usual Legendary weapon minimum level requirement, meaning you can use it to its full potential regardless of your level.

For more help exploring Limveld, check out how to get Murk, how to unlock the Dresser and get skins, and how to unlock the Duchess and Revenant classes.

About the Author

Tom Bardwell

Tom is guides editor here at VideoGamer.

Elden Ring Nightreign

  • Platform(s): PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S/X
  • Genre(s): Action RPG, Multiplayer, Roguelike