Turns out a guy who uses two swords constantly has to break new ones in quite often, we're of course talking about Geralt from The Witcher games. Geralt has an eye for swords, whether steel or silver. There are a ton of different swords throughout the three games, all of which have vastly different appearances and gimmicks. So, we're hopping in real quick to talk about our personal picks for the strongest 5 in the franchise as well as the 5 most disappointing. Obviously, it would be silly to put 5 Relic blades as strongest and 5 common ones as weakest, so this list is made up of all swords at Relic or better quality.
10 Strongest: The Iris, Olgierd's Sword From The Witcher 3
The Iris is probably one of the more unique looking and most useful weapons in the entire franchise, and it's held by one Olgierd von Everec, the main subject of the Hearts of Stone DLC. If Geralt chooses to save his soul in the end, Olgierd will gift this sword to him, a Relic blade named after his sadly departed wife. It's an insanely useful blade that flashes red after striking the enemy 2-4 times with a light attack. If Geralt executes a strong attack when it flashes, he'll do some insane damage at the cost of a bit of his health. But, the real draw of this blade is the fact that all strong attacks do double damage, even if it's "uncharged" so rely on those big swings with this thing.
9 Weakest: Winter's Blade From The Witcher 3
Next, we have an example of a disappointing blade from both a gameplay and narrative point-of-view. Crach An Craite gives this weapon to us as a reward during our adventures in Skellige and tells us to go "slay some specters" with it. One small problem, it's a steel blade...which can't hurt specters. For those who know this setting, silver tends to be a weakness for most creatures, which is why Geralt uses a silver sword as his secondary weapon. So, it already doesn't make sense that this would be used against monsters or the Wild Hunt (there are much better options). But, on top of that, it's just not a great weapon statistically.
8 Strongest: The Aerondight From the Witcher 3
The Aerondight, like the Iris, is another blade with an extra mechanic in W3: The Wild Hunt. It's also incredibly rare. But, unlike the Iris, the Aerondight's mechanic allows it to grow along with its wielder, essentially making it the end-all-be-all blade for Geralt. It's a silver sword, and the one most players recommend for anyone at endgame/DLC in W3's campaign. To summarize its gimmick, attacking enemies without getting hit builds a charge, and if players kill an enemy with a full "charge" their Aerondight permanently gets a couple of point boost in damage.
So, throughout the course of the game (or even NG+), the Aerondight can and will outclass any other weapon if your version of Geralt is decent at dodging and fights constantly.
7 Weakest: A Blade from the Bits In The Witcher 3
Again, the term "weakest" in this context is in terms of both its damage and skills compared to other weapons as well as its disappointment in terms of the design, implementation, or extra gimmick. The Bits is a Relic version of a basic blade given to us by Hattori, a Master Blacksmith, after finishing the "Of Swords And Dumplings" sidequest in Novigrad. Yes, it's awesome to have a master blacksmith permanently unlocked, but this "weapon" he gifts us is only good if its the player's first Relic weapon, and even then its soon outclassed by basic weapons a few levels higher.
6 Strongest: The Caerme From The Witcher 2
Finally, we've moved on from talking about The Witcher 3 to talking about the swords in some of the previous games from the franchise. The Witcher 2: Assassin Of Kings is a fantastic game in a completely different way than Witcher 3. Each of the three games plays pretty differently and what may work in one may not work in the next. For example, in TW2 the Caerme Steel Sword is one of the best in the game and was of the "Magical" rarity level. Plus, the design of the blade itself was quite unique, giving it this serrated look that many players latched onto.
5 Weakest: The Caerme (Again) From The Witcher 3
And we're right back to The Witcher 3, but this time it's to insult it for completely ruining the very same Caerme blade from TW2. Boy, do we wish we could have imported the W2 version of this blade into the W3 like they let you do in the transition from W1 to W2.
Instead of being a Magical rarity weapon, its a relic gear in the third iteration, and it's not memorable in almost any way outside of its classic design. And, instead of being a quest reward, the Caerme is now just a random drop.
4 Strongest: The Elven Blade G'valchir From The Witcher 1
The Witcher 1 is a whole different beast of a game, and trying to play it nowadays is a tad bit difficult just because it's janky and you have to troubleshoot a couple of things to get it running usually. But, if players tough it out, the first entry is absolutely a worthwhile experience for fans of the franchise. It also has a few less "variables" at play when it came to weapons, so there were hands down choices for the best and worst weapons in the game. And, the best steel sword in the original CDProjekt adaption was no doubt the G'valchir, a reward from a quest called "Won't Hurt A Bit". This insanely good sword essentially does double damage as well as piercing all armor by default.
3 Weakest: The Elusive Blood Sword From The Witcher 2
Here's the thing, this sword is actually the best Silver Sword Geralt could possibly use for all of Chapter 2 in TW2: Assassin of Kings. So why is it on the weakest part of this list? Well, because the process to get it is needlessly complex and restrictive making it ultimately not worth it from our point of view. To summarize a long explanation, the sword is restricted to only Roche's path and even then sometimes the path to it is blocked. On Xbox 360 apparently, it was available for both routes, and many players were confused as to why people on PC were having so much trouble finding it. If you happen to know where it is and the path isn't blocked, sure pick it up, but otherwise, it's not quite worth the effort.
2 Strongest: The Moonblade From The Witcher 1
Remember how we said the G'valchir was the best steel sword in the first Witcher game? Well, the Moonblade was by far the best silver sword. This weapon is simple yet very well designed and goes great with any of Geralt's many amazing armor sets. Funnily enough, this weapon is gained in the same way the G'valchir could be, where it's a reward given to Geralt from the Royal Huntsman after bringing in all ten Trophy Monster heads.
Geralt can pick between either this or the G'valchir, and we recommend this considering you can get the G'valchir in another way. It has a similar effect to the steel sword as well, essentially doubling your damage with this silver weapon.
1 Weakest: The Addan Deith, Returning In The Witcher 3
We're ending on a sword whose previous owner gives us hints towards characters of grave importance in The Witcher franchise. Basically, the description for this weapon is from an Elf that hails from another world, one where the King of the Wild Hunt Rules. The Addan Deith is found in Loc Muinne in the northwestern Rune Room. It's an overall pretty decent sword that finally lets game-only fans know about the Wild Hunt and the other worlds. But once again, it reappears in the Witcher 3 with none of the previous skills it had or any of its utility. You'd think for something that has importance to the plot they wouldn't relegate to dropping in a few odd situations.