Elden Ring: 15 BEST Builds [700+ Hours Experience]

Players in Elden Ring get to make unique builds by using some of the best weapons, talismans, spells, and incantations and leveling up the character attributes accordingly. You can create a build-in early game and take it all the way to end-game or respec your existing character attributes by consuming larva tear at a specific location. Whatever you decide to go with, I have curated the best Elden Ring builds for the early, mid, and late games for the lowly tarnished ones. These include Dexterity Build, Faith Build, Sorcery, Bandit, Strength, and other builds.

Elden Ring Best Builds Summary

Dexterity And Intelligence Build

For a Dexterity and Intelligence build in Elden Ring, focus on the following character attributes:

• Increase Dexterity to 20 levels for improved weapon damage.
• Raise Intelligence to 50-60 levels to enhance spell effectiveness.

Secondary attributes:

• Invest around 30 levels in Mind for faster spell casting.
• Allocate 25-30 levels to Vigor for increased health.
• Put 15-20 levels into Endurance for better stamina.

Avoid leveling stamina, faith, and arcane. If you need more runes, why not read the Best Elden Ring Rune Farming Spots guide?

Faith And Strength Build

Creating a Faith and Strength build in Elden Ring is challenging, ideal for Soulsborne veterans. However, it’s tough in the early game, requiring grinding to acquire the best lightning and holy spells.

You’ll need to defeat dragons for a Dragon Heart item and buy dragon spells, which demand at least 20 Arcane levels.

• With this Faith and Arcane build, you’ll excel at ranged damage, prioritizing ranged playstyle over melee.
• Aim for Faith at 50, Arcane at 30-40, and Mind at 30 levels.
• Stock up on Golden Seeds and Sacred Tears for your flasks.

For secondary attributes, I invested in Vigor (25-30), Endurance (15-20), and Dexterity (20) to reduce casting time.

Pure Sorcery Build

My next favorite Elden Ring build is the pure sorcery or pure intelligence build. The Comet Azur build is a prime example of this approach, capitalizing on magic’s effectiveness against nearly 80% of the game’s bosses.

• Invest heavily in intelligence, aiming for at least 60 levels, and bolster Mind to 30-35 levels. This maximizes your sorcery’s potential.
• Focus on secondary attributes such as Vigor (30), Stamina (15), and Dexterity (20) to reduce spell-casting times.
• Ignore Faith and Arcane for this sorcery-focused build.

Utilize a staff as your primary weapon, with the option to wield a secondary weapon for lesser foes, although it becomes less necessary in the mid to late game.

Pure Faith Or Lightning Build

The pure lightning attacks caster build in Elden Ring offers versatility and powerful ranged and AoE damage. You can use lightning incantations, thunderbolts, and lightning spells to deal with enemies and bosses effectively.

• To excel in this build, prioritize Faith at 60 and Mind at 30-35.
• Vigor should be raised to 30, and Endurance and Dexterity can be kept at 15-20 levels.
• Avoid investing in Strength and Arcane, except for keeping Strength at a minimum of 15.

Darth Maul Build

Strength and Faith are primary attributes if making a Darth Maul build is your focus in the game.

One of the writers here at eXputer has already curated an Elden Ring Darth Maul build guide, which lists how to collect gear, weapons, incantation, and other necessary items required to make Darth Maul build in the game. This is one of my personal favorite Elden Ring builds, thanks to it having no downsides.

Ultimate Strength Build

The best strength build should be the one that can give you high survivability in Elden Ring by rocking the heaviest armor pieces, shields, and weapons. Using a strength build has less to do with dealing with the highest DPS and more with making the boss feel worthless and challenging to kill you. After all, any tarnished one who equips heavy armor, shield, and weapon will be a menace to look at.

The Elden Ring Greatsword build is the closest and most accurate description of the ultimate Strength build in the game. You can get a decent armor set and an amazing greatsword at the very start of the game. 

Bandit Archery Or Bleed Build

Bandit build in Elden Ring can be easily made further into archery or bleed build as well. This starting class mainly focuses on dexterity and strength and that is why has the perfect balance between approaching enemies from range using arrows or up close and personal using melee weapons.

The primary character attributes for this playstyle or build are Dex and STR, because the ranged damage from bows, and crossbows scale excellent as you level up Dexterity and strength levels. You may check Elden Ring Bow Build as well.

• The Bandit starting class is the perfect character you should start Elden Ring if you want to create an archery-focused build from early on.
• You should keep Strength up to 45 and Dexterity to 35-45 for an effective archery build in the game.

Armor Set

You can pick any armor set you want while rocking the archery build. However, for the Bleed build in Elden Ring, I’d recommend picking the Royal Remains armor set as it looks cool while rocking the bleed build in the game.

Other than that, if you’re going for the archery bandit build in Elden Ring then I’d recommend going with the White Reed Set with Okina Mask as a headpiece. 

Vampire Build

The vampire build has a heavy focus on draining the enemy’s health upon killing them hence the term vampire.

This is not an official build as no item or weapon you equip while rocking this build comes with the term “vampire”. However, the name just fits right since your lowly tarnished character can suck enemies’ health after killing them.

One of my fellow writers has also curated a mid-to-late game Elden Ring Vampire build that entails the best weapons, talismans, and armor sets. It also focuses on how to get each of the items to make the perfect vampire build in the game.

To make this build you’d need to reach and access mid-to-late game content. Killing the Rykard boss would be the start since you need that great rune to get a weapon that drains the enemy’s health. 

Night And Flame Build

The Night and Flame build in Elden Ring is centered around Intelligence and Faith.

• Focus on raising your Intelligence to 40-45 and Faith to 40 to maximize the effectiveness of the Night And Flame weapon, which combines magic and fire elements.
• Secondary attributes should include Vigor at 30, Mind at 30, and Stamina at 20-25.
• Keep Dexterity and Strength at a minimum of 15, as the weapon doesn’t require higher values.
• You’ll need 12 STR and DEX to effectively wield the Sword of Night and Flame.
• Ensure your Faith and Intelligence are at least 24.

Obtaining the weapon early in the game is challenging, as you’ll need to reach Carian Manor, which involves defeating several bosses. Consider the Night and Flame build for mid-to-late game progression in Elden Ring.

Armor Set

Royal Remains armor set is the recommended armor set while using the Night and Flame build in Elden Ring. It is because this armor set also gives you back the lost health points. However, triggering the health regeneration process is not straight-up easy as your character will need to drop health below 18%.

After that, the armor offers health points regeneration but that too back to 18% only. In any case, I personally fancy the Royal Remains item for the Night and Flame build playstyle.

Death Blight Build

Death Blight is essentially a PvP-oriented build in Elden Ring as this status effect occurs only on tarnished ones. My take on this build is that currently it is broken and may later be fixed. That being said, it is extremely fun to try and kill other tarnished players online.

• To do that you have to have a certain weapon that causes the death blight status effect.
• After acquiring that, you need to have a fire or pyromancy-oriented incantation.
• Once you have both, just use the fire incantation and get close to other PvP invaders or players if you’re the invader and they’d simply die in less than five seconds.

Fire’s Deadly Sin incantation basically not only produces the Death Blight status effect but also works with Blood Grease, Freezing Grease, Rot Grease, and Sleep Grease.

Pure Dexterity Build

Dex weapons have made a comeback in Elden Ring, and this time around, there is no shortage of small-to-mid-sized Dex weapons. On top of that, you can always dual-wield most Dexterity weapons and still manage not to overload your equipment, which is a blessing. Dual-wielding weapons are a challenging task to pull off in strength builds but running pure Dexterity builds has its advantages.

• The secondary stats would be investing in endurance and strength, typically both should be somewhere in 20-30 levels.
• Doing so will also allow you to create a quality build that relies mostly on ranged and melee weapons instead of spells.

Next, the beauty of a Dex build in Elden Ring is that you can make a melee or ranged build out of it. For example, dual-wielding katanas or using crossbows both are excellent weapon opportunities for a Dexterity build in the game.

Guts Build

A Guts build in Elden Ring draws inspiration from the character Guts from Berserk and focuses on strength-based gameplay with heavy greatswords and distinctive armor sets. There are three main variants of the Guts build:

1. Classic Guts Build: This variant features a single greatsword wielded alongside a medium-weight armor set. It captures the essence of Guts’ iconic appearance.
2. Dual-Wielding Guts Build: In this variant, you dual-wield greatswords and wear silver or dark-toned medium-sized armor for a formidable and stylish combat style.
3. Blaidd’s Armor Set: The Blaidd’s armor set, minus the wolf mask, combined with the Royal Greatsword, is considered the perfect combination of power and aesthetics for a Guts build in Elden Ring.

When creating a Guts build, focus on leveling up primary attributes like Vigor, Endurance, and Stamina. Aim to reach 30-35 levels in Vigor and 35-40 levels in Endurance. To wield greatswords effectively, invest heavily in Strength, reaching levels between 60-80 for a satisfying Guts-style playthrough of Elden Ring.

Arcane Build

Arcane builds in Elden Ring offer a unique playstyle, different from traditional magic and spells. These builds heavily rely on dragon-oriented spells and weapons that cause rapid bleed build-up. To create an effective Arcane build, follow these guidelines:

1. Primary Attributes: Focus on leveling up Arcane, Mind, and Vigor in the early game. Aim for Arcane at 40-50 levels, Mind at 35-40 levels, and Vigor at 40 to maximize your spellcasting and combat abilities.
2. Secondary Stats: Invest in Faith and Dexterity. Many spells require moderate to high Faith levels, and higher Dexterity improves spell-casting speed. Ideally, level up Faith to 30-35 and Dexterity to 18-25.
3. Discovery Benefits: Increasing your Arcane stat also boosts your discovery, making it easier to obtain armor set pieces and useful items from slain enemies.

Pure Holy Build

Creating a Pure Holy Build in Elden Ring provides a diverse playstyle with a focus on Holy Incantations. To effectively build this character, follow these guidelines:

1. Primary Attributes: Concentrate on Faith, Mind, and Vigor. Aim for Faith at level 60, Mind at 30-35, and Vigor at level 30. This setup allows you to make the most of Holy spells and enhances your character’s durability.
2. Secondary Stats: Consider Endurance and Dexterity. Keeping them in the 15-20 level range should suffice. However, if you opt for heavy armor sets, raise Endurance to level 30 for better equip load management.

This Pure Holy Build excels in using Holy Incantations for various purposes, including buffing your character, dealing AoE damage, and enhancing primary weapons. For a comprehensive guide on the best armor sets, weapons, talismans, and spells for your Pure Holy Build.

Pyromancy Build

Creating the best Pyromancy build in Elden Ring involves focusing on the Faith and Arcane character attributes. These attributes enhance the power of your fire spells, making your Pyromancy character more potent. To effectively build this character, follow these guidelines:

1. Primary Attributes: Prioritize Faith, Arcane, and Mind. Aim to level up Faith to 30-35, Arcane to 40-45, and Mind to 35-40 during early, mid, and late-game stages. These attributes significantly boost the offensive capabilities of your Pyromancy spells in Elden Ring.
2. Secondary Stats: Concentrate on Vigor and Endurance. Maintaining Vigor at level 35 or higher and Endurance at level 40 or above provides better survivability, allowing you to withstand more hits and cast FP-hungry Pyromancy spells without quickly depleting your mana bar.

By following this character attribute distribution, you’ll be able to maximize the effectiveness of your Pyromancy build in Elden Ring. It will enhance your offense while also ensuring you can endure more damage during battles.

My Thoughts On The Best Build After Playing Elden Ring For More Than 750 Hours

I’ve tried hundreds of niche and meta-focused builds throughout the updates, and currently, my go-to is a reliable Strength and Faith build. If you asked me in 2022, I would’ve easily recommended some top-tier Bleed builds, but after the nerfs and changes, I’ve seen that Faith and Strength hybrids have either gotten constant buffs or stayed consistent in the meta.

For your weapons here, I’d recommend going for the Blasphemous Blade if you need versatility or the Erdsteel Dagger if you prefer customization. And for the incantations, my current experience on Madness incantations, specifically Frenzied Burst and Unendurable Frenzy, has been extremely satisfying thus far in both PvP and PvE.

That is pretty much everything I had to list in my Elden Ring best builds guide. What has been your go-to build so far in the game? Have you tried replacing your existing character attributes using a Larval Tear? Share your thoughts with me in the comments section below.

Next:

• Elden Ring: Best Prisoner Build
• Elden Ring: Lanya’s Location
• Elden Ring: All Celestial Dew Locations