PSA if you're struggling in Lies Of P.
I struggled a fair bit on my first playthrough I didn't look up how things worked and took my time figuring it out. Near the end of my first run, I learned how amazing the elemental weapons are I did mostly a quality build my first run it took a round 40 hours. The other day, I started a fresh run, deciding to do heavy weapons but also using the elemental weapons as I found them. I gotta say using the elemental weapons makes the game a LOT easier! I just got to the swap area last night, and I've only played for 10 hours, I wish I knew in my first run how effective it was to use elemental weapons and exploit weaknesses when I was stuck or having a hard time.
Each elemental weapon has an early-game version and a late-game version, but honestly, some of the early-game ones are OP even at the end of the game.
Here is a little rundown on them: Puppets & carcass-puppet hybrids are weak to Electric Blitz weapons that deal Electric Blitz as a default are - Circular Electric Chainsaw Blade & Electric Coil Stick Head. Carcass, carcass-puppet hybrids, and humans are weak to Fire damage; weapons that deal Fire damage as a default are -Black Steel Cutter Blade & Salamander Dagger Blade. Humans and Electric-themed Puppets are weak to Acid damage; weapons that deal Acid damage as a default are - Acidic Crystal Spear Blade & Carcass Crystal Axe Blade.
Using a crank to change the damage scaling to match whatever stat you are primarily running works well to get more damage out of these weapons when fighting enemies weak to them of course, this is optional.
The Salamander Dagger and Acidic Crystal Spear are two of my favorite weapons, I destroyed all of areas IV & V with the Salamander Dagger with ease & the Acidic Spear makes the Black Rabbit Brotherhood fight a joke.
Also, if you combine the head of the Circular Electric Chainsaw Blade with the Pistol Rock Drill Handle, you effectively get the Whirligig Saw weapon from Bloodborne it also shares some similarities with the Ghiza's Wheel from Elden Ring. I found that the Chainsaw Blade on the Spear of Honor Handle is also a lot of fun, as the charged heavy is a charging attack with the Chainsaw spinning and deals a good chuck of damage while being a gap closer and seems to break weapons as an added bonus.
