Shadow of the Erdtree Bloodfiend's Arm location and build

Shadow of the Erdtree Bloodfiend's Arm
(Image credit: Bandai Namco)

The Shadow of the Erdtree Bloodfiend's Arm location is on one of the enemies in Prospect Town, South of Belurat. Since the Elden Ring expansion released, it's become recognised as one of the best Shadow of the Erdtree weapons, a Colossal Weapon that scales to Strength, Dexterity, and Arcane, inflicting huge amounts of bleed damage on its heavy strikes.

For those to whom that appeals, we'll lay out where to find the Bloodfiend's Arm in full detail in Shadow of the Erdtree below, as well as how to make the best Bloodfiend's Arm build at time of writing, as the giant severed chicken leg has turned out to be something of a boss-melter when handled correctly.

Bloodfiend's Arm location in Shadow of the Erdtree

Shadow of the Erdtree Bloodfiend's Arm

(Image credit: Bandai Namco)

The Bloodfiend's Arm in Shadow of the Erdtree is located in Prospect Town, an optional area found by following the cliffs South from Belurat. Specifically, players need to climb up through the ruins to the group of hulking Bloodfiends (the grey-skinned brutes), at the top of the town, just before you find the Outer God Heirloom in a chest.

The first time you kill them, one of them will drop the Bloodfiend's Arm, though this doesn't appear to happen on respawns until you start NG+ and actually reset the game. This means that anybody who wants to dual-wield these Colossal Weapons will have to commit to New Game Plus to get a second one (or have somebody choose to leave one behind in multiplayer for you to take).

Shadow of the Erdtree Bloodfiend's Arm

(Image credit: Bandai Namco)

The Bloodfiend's Arm requires 28 Strength, 11 Dexterity and 16 Arcane to wield, and starts with D-Scaling in Strength/Arcane, a lesser E-Scaling in Dexterity. Its unique effect is to manifest a small bleed-effect AOE on its heavy attacks, though it doesn't on regular hits. Basically, this is a weapon for Strength and Arcane users! Oh, and speaking of which…

Best Bloodfiend's Arm build in Shadow of the Erdtree

Shadow of the Erdtree Bloodfiend's Arm

(Image credit: Bandai Namco)

The Bloodfiend's Arm is best used for Bleed/Arcane Builds and boss-killing with charged two-handed attacks. The Elden Right community has locked pretty firmly on some variation of the following assortment of items and stats to achieve that maximum potential:

  • Primary Stats: Arcane, Strength
  • Main weapon: +25 Bloodfiend's Arm with Blood Affinity and Royal Knight's Resolve Ash of War
  • Talismans: Lord of Blood's Exultation, Two-Handed Sword Talisman, Blade of Mercy Talisman, Axe Talisman
  • Armor: White Mask with Rakshasa Armor, Gauntlets and Greaves

The key here is to rush into the boss arena after using consumables like the Golden Vow and Bloodboil Aromatic, as well as any incantations you can wield to buff yourself, and then immediately do a charged two-handed attack on the boss to do massive damage. Don't let up - keep hitting them for continuous Bleed damage, stagger and more, and the vast majority of bosses, even the Shadow of the Erdtree final boss, will be devastated by this.

Of course, there is one major weakness of the build - the enemy needs to be susceptible to Bleed, which fortunately most bosses are. If they're not or you don't want to be dependent on it, swap the Blood Affinity for Occult, and replace the Bleed-affecting Talismans with those that emphasise stagger and critical hits.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission

Joel Franey
Guides Writer

Joel Franey is a writer, journalist, podcaster and raconteur with a Masters from Sussex University, none of which has actually equipped him for anything in real life. As a result he chooses to spend most of his time playing video games, reading old books and ingesting chemically-risky levels of caffeine. He is a firm believer that the vast majority of games would be improved by adding a grappling hook, and if they already have one, they should probably add another just to be safe. You can find old work of his at USgamer, Gfinity, Eurogamer and more besides.