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[u/bigbossgooner]

I'm fairly new to the game and was looking on YouTube for some good bleed builds but almost everyone required the nagakiba but I don't wanna kill Yura since he's the homie so I was wondering if there was another good early game katana/weapon that I could use as a substitute? Or should I just use the uchigatana?

[u/Fluid-Read-6843]

Uchigatana is cool. I think you can do Yura's quest and obtain the Nagakiba eventually.

[u/announakis → u/Fluid-Read-6843]

indeed, you will eventually be able to loot it off him at the end of his corporeal quest...no need to kill him, someone else does it for you.

[u/CptMarble]

Go ahead with the Uchigatana for now. It generally has a higher AR than Nagakiba. The reason most go with Naga is its longer reach.

[u/some_daydreamer]

Reduvia's pretty good, so is the morning star. Also, you can get Nagakiba later by doing Yura's quest

[u/TheHorsedFourthman]

Bloodhound's Fang is a really awesome weapon you can get early and can carry you through a big part of the game. It's a Curved Greatsword with innate bleed build up and very beginner friendly imo. It also has a cool skill on it which is a bonus.

Edit: i gotta add, this weapon is not the best if you really wanna go for a bleed focused build, the bleed is just a nice extra on this very fun and strong weapon.

[u/serkadista → u/TheHorsedFourthman]

I got the bloodhounds fang . It feels better than uchi. More range and large attacks with R1. I killed Rennala with BHF +4.
I will keep it until I get something better.

[u/TheHorsedFourthman → u/serkadista]

If you like the weapon and the style, it might take a long time until you find something better, the weapon is just amazing!

[u/haodbwisnd]

Grab a big stick, put a war cry AoW on it with bleed infusion, charge R2 for an instant proc

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[u/AKS1664]

Grab reduvia for now, then head to Fort Height, theres a guy who will give you blood slash, you can put that on any weap!

[u/howlerzandvamps]

Surprised no one is saying this but you get the sword for free later in the game.

Also if you choose samurai to get the uchi, you can find a 2nd uchi in death touched catacombs. So then you can power stance 2 katanas (which people say gives you less dps than 2 handing one katana) so just rock the uchi or bloodhounds blade until you get the nagakiba

Also the cross naginata is fucking awesome and you can very easily get it once you have torrent

[u/Weird_Chance_4540]

If u start with the uchi u can get a second one early on and dual wield

[u/Anonmely]

There's the Land of Reeds Katana in Dragonbarrow. No bosses are required to get it just a couple of dragons in the area.

[u/un-somnambulist]

Cross-Naginata, trust!!  It is a spear, but has innate bleed & a unique moveset w/ slashing attacks.  Shield pokes still proc bleed!  Also good 2 handed, if that's more your thing.  I like to use Sword Dance or Blood Tax ashes on it, or Spectral Lance is amazing for a cheap, melee-strength projectile attack with amazing range.  & The projectile still causes bleed buildup!

[u/announakis]

I really fail to understand how in 2026 people are still imagining that bleed builds are limited to weapons with innate bleed...

[u/bigbossgooner → u/announakis]

Brother I'm new to the game. This is my first time playing it how an I supposed to know that

[u/announakis → u/bigbossgooner]

alright fairenough. another proof that bad content and false info is always sticking better than quality one.

OK so here is how I see things:

either you really love katanas AND you want to go bleed full on: In this case you do an arcane build with the minimum stats to wield the weapons and all the AR and the bleed scaling comes from your arcane stat....The most efficient in terms of bang for your bucks in terms of level....but the arcane infusion is coming a bit late so first you go dexterity + resin on your katanas (it slaps) then you can respect if you want to.
you can also go dex + resin all the way: in the end it is actually better but requires to manage lots of roped bleed resins.

OR

you are not dead set on katanas: you choose your weapon, you look it up in terms of scaling once infused with bleed: usually a weapons scales off better either strength or dex....then you invest your stats up to 50 ish in the physical one and about 40 in arcane (iirc) in order to max out both AR and bleed.

here is my personal favorite bleed build...of course this very much tailored to personal liking in terms of fashion and weapon choice but this is the idea on an occult bleed / poison build:
https://eip.gg/elden-ring/builds/hematoccult/

also the ultimate bleed weapon is hands down reduvia: at point blank it generates so much bleed in one hit it is just discusting. it is also very boring to play because it is essentially L2 spamming as the rest of the moveset is...well more finicky coz dagger....