As you’d expect, you can upgrade weapons inElden Ring Nightreignto deal some extra damage, but the mechanic works a little differently than inpast Soulsborne games. You won’t need a dozen smithing stones and a blacksmith to keep your gear in check.

Weapons are now split into rarities, with white, blue, purple, and gold denoting common, uncommon, rare, and legendary. To upgrade your weapon’s tier, you still need smithing stones, but the entire system has been streamlined to suit the faster-paced roguelite gameplay, so rather than a bunch of different variations, there are only two.

Elden Ring Nightreign player buying a Smithing Stone (1) from a merchant.

Where To Find Smithing Stone (1)

To upgrade a common weapon, you need a singular Smithing Stone (1). These are pretty easy to come by,usually found in chests, but you can alsobuy them directly from merchantsfor 6,500 Runes.

Merchants can be found by key landmarks like camps, forts, churches, and castles. But if you don’t find any in Limveld, don’t worry, asthere’s a guaranteed merchant and smithing table before every Nightlord.

Elden Ring Nightreign Revenant upgrading a hammer at a smithing table.

Where To Find Smithing Stone (2)

If you want to upgrade an uncommon weapon to rare, then you need to get your hands on a Smithing Stone (2). The best way to do that is byexploring a mineshaft. These aremarked on the map with a tunnel entrance icon.

Inside, you’ll find a few knights and miners, but you can run past these pretty easily. Your goal here isthe giant troll miniboss in the centre, who isguaranteed to drop a Smithing Stone (2).

If you’re lucky, you can also get a Smithing Stone (2) from red phantoms, i.e. dead players from other worlds.

You can’t upgrade your weapons from rare to legendary, so this is the highest tier that you can take them to, but with the right Relics augmenting your starting gear, these improvements can shift the balance against a Nightlord.

How To Upgrade Weapons

Once you have the required smithing stones,you need to find a smithing table. These arealways found next to a merchant, and there’salways one before the Nightlord.

You need to be level three to use rare gear, level seven for epic, and level ten for legendary.

Interact with the table and you’ll be met with an upgrade menu.It doesn’t cost any Runes to improve your gear, just the required smithing stone.