The best builds for Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree (2024)

The best builds for Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree (1)

You could go wandering around Elden Ring's new expansion using the same old gear you finished the new game with, but that would be something just short of a crime. Shadow of the Erdtree introduces eight new weapon categories and dozens of new weapons across its entire arsenal—there are so many new powerful, unique choices that the best Shadow of the Erdtree builds all pull from the expansion's gear set. We've been experimenting with as many different builds as we can while playing the expansion to hone in on the best new Shadow of the Erdtree weapons (and the ones that make us hoot and holler, even if they aren't ideal for a high stakes boss showdown).

Here are the deadliest, effective Shadow of the Erdtree builds we've assembled during our collective hundreds of hours in the Land of Shadow so far.

Str/Dex: Bearserker

The best builds for Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree (2)

Weapon: Beast Claw or Red Bear's Claw
Armor: Iron Rivet set/Pelt of Ralva
Minimum stats: 13 strength, 11 dexterity
Stat priority: Strength, dexterity, vigor, endurance
Talismans: Crusade Insignia, Rotten Winged Sword Insignia, Lord of Blood's Exultation, Carian Filigreed Crest or Shard of Alexander

If you're enjoying the new Beast Claw weapon archetype, running around dressed as a murderous rune bear might appeal. The two most important parts of this build are Red Bear's Claws, which you get by defeating Red Bear in the Northern Nameless Mausoleum, and the Pelt of Ralva—the fancy bear hat—which comes from beating Ralva the Red Bear in Scadu Altus. You could also use regular Beast Claw with this build since you can change its affinity and ash of war for extra customisation.

For stats, you'll want to focus on strength and dexterity to buff the Red Bear's Claw damage, and then vigor, since you'll be lightly armored, and Endurance to ensure you keep can slashing away to build bleed and gain the talisman benefits. The new Crusade Insignia is the perfect talisman for a berserker, since it buffs your damage after you defeat an enemy. You can get this by defeating Fire Knight Queelign when he invades in Belurat.

Winged Sword Insignia and Lord of Blood's Exultation also work well with for a wild flurry of blows, since you'll gain extra attack for consecutive hits, and gain attack when you proc bleed with the claws. For the final touch, either add Carian Filigreed Crest, reducing FP cost so you can use the Red Bear Hunt skill more, or the Shard of Alexander to boost its damage.

Int: Carian spellblade

The best builds for Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree (3)

Weapon: Carian Sorcery Sword and Carian Thrusting Shield
Armor: Rellana's set
Minimum stats: 17 strength, 19 dexterity, 16 intelligence
Stat priority: Intelligence, strength, dexterity, mind
New spells: Glintstone Nails, Glintblade Trio, Gravitational Missile, Miriam's Vanishing
Talismans: Graven Mass Talisman, Beloved Stardust, Glintstone Blade, and Graven School Talisman

The Carian Sorcery Sword is one of the flashiest new weapons for sorcerers. This thrusting blade, which you can find on top of Castle Ensis if you drop down from Scadu Altus, also counts as a staff and can cast spells when you use its heavy attack. This offers some unique possibilities in terms of throwing out spells while also keeping an intelligence-scaling weapon in your hand to stab enemies with.

The Carian Thrusting Shield is another fun addition; one of the new 'striking shields' that deals magic damage and also scales with intelligence, though you won't find this until the Specimen Storehouse area in the Shadow Keep later on. Both weapons are perfect if you're a sorcerer who's tired of simply casting spells and wants to mix it up with some close combat, too.

For stats, you'll want intelligence and mind for casting spells, then strength and dexterity to buff weapon damage. While Rellana's set doesn't enhance sorceries, it does look cool as hell. You can purchase this from Finger Reader Enia after you defeat the boss in Castle Ensis. You'll also want your typical sorcery talismans such as Graven Mass, Graven School, and Glintstone Blade to increase spell damage.

Beloved Stardust is a new talisman you get through Count Ymir's quest which massively shortens cast time. You can also purchase all of the new sorceries mentioned above from the count as well, though you'll have to find him first in the big cathedral in east Scadu Altus.

Erdtree map fragments: Uncover the Land of Shadow
Scadutree fragments: How to level up in Erdtree
Erdtree bosses: A full hit list for the DLC
Leda quest: Track the Erdtree main quest
Sir Ansbach quest: Help the former servant of Mohg
Hornsent quest: Complete the quest for vengeance

Str/Dex: Courtly duelist

The best builds for Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree (5)

Weapon: Milady with Ash of War: Wing Stance and Main-gauche
Armor: Winged Serpent Helm/Oathseeker Knight Armor
Minimum stats: 12 strength, 17 dexterity
Stat priority: Strength, dexterity, endurance, vigor
Talismans: Rellana's Cameo, Dagger Talisman, Two-Handed Sword Talisman, Carian Filigreed Crest or Shard of Alexander

This build is centered around the new light greatsword weapon archetype: in particular the Milady, and the new Ash of War: Wing Stance. You can find both of these in Castle Ensis and they function perfectly together. Wing Stance raises the blade at your side, letting you unleash either a series of quick slashes or a jumping thrust. To compliment the courtly vibes of this build, I also recommend you pick up the new Main-gauche parrying dagger from near to the Shadow Keep entrance.

For stats you'll want strength and dexterity for weapon damage, then endurance and vigor for longer combos and more survivability. While your duelist fashion is up to you, I rate the Oathseeker Knight Armor you can get at the southern end of the Cliffroad Terminus area by the Church of Benediction, complemented by the Winged Serpent Helm you get by defeating Fire Knight Captain Kood near the top of the Shadow Keep.

Talisman-wise, I recommend the new Rellana's Cameo which you also find in Castle Ensis. This boosts attack after you hold a stance, so works perfectly with the Wing Stance ash. I'd also suggest the Dagger Talisman for increased crit damage after you parry with Main-gauche, then the new Two-Handed Sword talisman that's a straight up damage buff for two-handed weapons if you're comfortable swapping grips during the action. You can get this at the top of the Temple Town Ruins in Rauh Ruins Base. Lastly, whack on Carian Filigreed Crest for more skill use, or Shard of Alexander for more skill damage.

Dex: Monking around

The best builds for Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree (6)

Weapon: Dryleaf Arts
Armor: Anything that keeps you light on your feet
Minimum stats: 8 strength, 8 dexterity, 25 faith
Stat priority: Dexterity, vigor, endurance, faith
Ash of War: Bloodhound Step
Spells: Golden Vow, Flame Grant Me Strength
Talismans: Rotten Winged Sword Insignia, Millicent's Prosthesis, Shattered Stone Talisman, Green Turtle Talisman

Dryleaf Arts is an unarmed weapon technique that turns you into a martial arts master, battering enemies with your furious fists. The technique can be learned from Dane after you've challenged him to a fight. The above build is a pretty simple one, but there are so many ways to build a Dryleaf Arts monk: you can focus on strength, go for a bleed build, stomp around freezing everyone—it lends itself well to a bunch of different playstyles. The one thing they all have in common, though, is that you're going to be spending a lot of time getting up in monsters' faces, so you're going to have to master dodging.

This is why I recommend picking the Bloodhound Step Ash of War initially. For a miniscule FP cost, you can dash while invisible, and you're invulnerable during the dash. It's great for repositioning and avoiding an HP-bar-demolishing attack. So you can use this Ash of War instead of dodging, letting you save stamina for relentless punches and kicks. Dryleaf Arts scales with strength and dexterity, but I recommend choosing the Keen affinity for Bloodhound Step so you can focus on dexterity.

The technique lets you unleash a rapid barrage of blows, so you'll want talismans that take advantage of this. Both the Rotten Winged Sword Insignia and Millicent's Prosthesis are perfect, since they raise attack power with successive attacks. The latter also boosts your dexterity. To get both you'll need to be in NG+ (or ask a friend to gift you one), since you can only get one of these rewards from Millicent's quest. Your R2 attack unleashes a powerful spinning kick and you'll be using it a lot to stagger enemies, so grabbing the new Shattered Stone Talisman is also a good idea, since it empowers kicks and stomps. Green Turtle Talisman increases your stamina regeneration and reduces downtime.

Investing in faith is a good idea—at least to 25, which means you can cast the Golden Vow incantation. Flame, Grant Me Strength will also be helpful. Together you'll get a nice attack boost. For your Wondrous Physick mix, the Stonebarb Cracked Tear is handy, enhancing your poise-breaking ability, and the Greenspill Crystal Tear will let you keep attacking for longer by boosting your stamina. If you opt for light armor, which is worth doing since a light load increases Bloodhound Step's travel distance, you're going to be squishy, so you might want to take Morgott's Great Rune for the big HP boost.

Str/Fai: Unholy knight

The best builds for Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree (7)

Weapon: Sword of Darkness, Dryleaf Seal
Armor: Haligtree Knight Helm, Malformed Dragon Armor
Minimum stats: 14 strength, 11 dexterity, 24 faith
Stat priority: Strength, faith, endurance, vigor, mind
Spells: Lightning Spear, Golden Vow, Fortissax's Lightning Spear, Aspect of the Crucible: Thorns
Talismans: Blessed Blue Dew Talisman, Sacred Scorpion Charm, Dragoncrest Greatshield Talisman, Erdtree's Favor

One of the most involved mini questlines in Shadow of the Erdtree is finding and awakening one of its new legendary weapons, the Stone-Sheathed Sword. Follow our guide to get your hands on this blade, then take it to an altar to transform it into the Sword of Darkness, which has C strength scaling and D on dexterity and faith. This unholy knight build is all about playing up the sword's holy damage: when you trigger its unique skill Darkness, you'll raise the sword above your head and conjure a dark fog that not only deals holy damage but lowers the holy protections of any enemies it blankets. That's your cue to strike.

The Haligtree Knight Helm offers a small +2 bump to faith, while the talismans are designed around keeping you tanky while regenerating enough FP to use incantations without constantly chugging flasks. Wear whatever armor you want; the golden Malformed Dragon Armor just happens to be gold and ugly in a way that says Holy, but wrong.

A seal in your off-hand to quickly cast spells is the daring way to play, but you can also go in with a shield and focus on delivering holy damage with your blade. But incantations are just more fun: dump enough points into faith to use some higher level incantations and you can do big damage with Fortissax's Lightning Spear, buff yourself with Golden Vow and roll around like an unhinged hippo with the new Aspect of the Crucible: Thorns. Sub in your favorite faith spells or progress further into Shadow of the Erdtree to turn the Sword of Darkness into the Sword of Light, which still deals holy damage but with an entirely different unique attack.

Dex/Str: Great Katana Edgelord

The best builds for Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree (8)

Weapon: Rakshasa's Great Katana
Armor: Diallos' Mask, Drake Knight Armor
Minimum stats: 12 strength, 27 dexterity
Stat priority: Dexterity, then Strength, then Faith for incantation buffs
Physick: Deflecting Hard Tear
Talismans: Dragoncrest Greatshield, Two-Handed Sword Talisman, Curved Sword Talisman, Shard of Alexander

On my first Shadow of the Erdtree character, I rocked the Star-Lined Sword, a Dex/Int katana that pairs beautifully dual wielded with my old friend, Moonveil. While its ash of war, Onze's Line of Stars, is rad as all hell, it's not the greatest against bosses. On my second guy, I wanted a weapon where the ash of war was always the center of attention, one which was, dare I say it, spammable.

Enter Rakshasa's Great Katana, aka "Giant Rivers of Blood." Its Weed Cutter ash of war, a quick two part swipe that can be repeated until you run out of stamina, feels like the sort of thing you can replace basic attacks with. It's light on FP cost, and while you take more damage during the animation, the super high poise you gain actually makes it very forgiving when used judiciously. It's an ash of war I can hang my hat on.

To that end, I rushed it on my evil, blood-themed, Frenzy ending character formerly armed with Eleonara's Poleblade, and you can check out a guide I wrote on how to get Shadow of the Erdtree's best Great Katana fairly early. You can pretty much nab Rakshasa's Great Katana without doing any legacy dungeons, but I recommend at least going through Belurat so you don't bork the NPC questlines, as well as exploring for Scadutree Fragments so the fight with Rakshasa herself isn't too brutal.

I was having enough fun with this sword on its own, but then I found out about the Deflecting Hard Tear Physick powerup in Shadow of the Erdtree. Basically? It gives you the ability to perform perfect blocks like in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, making blocking and performing guard counters viable even without a shield. I'm finding it to be an incredible pairing with Rakshasa's Great Katana, with Weed Cutter being a perfect follow-up to a guard counter.

So for talismans, I'm using the Two-Handed Sword Talisman, because I don't like shields, the Curved Sword Talisman to bolster guard counters, the Shard of Alexander to power up Weed Cutter, and the Dragoncrest Greatshield because that extra tankiness is never unwelcome.

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The best builds for Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree (9)

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Wes has been covering games and hardware for more than 10 years, first at tech sites like The Wirecutter and Tested before joining the PC Gamer team in 2014. Wes plays a little bit of everything, but he'll always jump at the chance to cover emulation and Japanese games.

When he's not obsessively optimizing and re-optimizing a tangle of conveyor belts in Satisfactory (it's really becoming a problem), he's probably playing a 20-year-old Final Fantasy or some opaque ASCII roguelike. With a focus on writing and editing features, he seeks out personal stories and in-depth histories from the corners of PC gaming and its niche communities. 50% pizza by volume (deep dish, to be specific).

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The best builds for Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree (2024)

FAQs

What is the strongest build up in Elden Ring? ›

Lightning Perfume Bottle Prophet build

The Lightning Perfume Bottle is incredibly strong against most enemies in the game, capable of dealing devastating amounts of damage in a single attack. This weapon gets absurd when you pair it with the Ash of War: Rolling Sparks to add lightning explosions to each attack.

What is the best build to choose in Elden Ring? ›

While some builds are created with the intent of mixing spellcasting with sword-wielding, the pure Intelligence build is the best when it comes to raw power. With a pure Intelligence build, your character cast sorceries, a specific type of magic in Elden Ring capable of absurd numbers when it comes to direct damage.

What is the best warrior to choose in Elden Ring? ›

The Warrior class in Elden Ring best enables dual-wielding or otherwise high dexterity builds, since this is the stat that helps the class scale in damage. Strength builds are not entirely out of the question for Warriors, but the Barbarian Hero is ultimately better suited for this role.

What is the best item in Elden Ring? ›

Thrusting Shields are considered the best weapons in Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree due to their versatility and high attack and defense stats. Players can maximize Thrusting Shields' potential by using the Greatshield Talisman, the Shard of Alexander, and a potent Ash of War attack while focusing on endurance.

What is the most op class in Elden Ring? ›

Strongest Elden Ring class

The strongest class in Elden Ring is the Hero Class with a starting strength stat of 16. As such, this is a great option for any melee-focused players who want to start making a strength build.

Is samurai better than vagabond? ›

Depends on what build you want. Vagabond is a decent starter if you're indecisive on your build, but if you've already committed to one, a specific build would give an edge. Astrologer and confessor are better if you want a magic build, and samurai is better for a dexterity build.

Which character is best in Elden Ring? ›

As the player progresses through Elden Ring, the Astrologer acquires more and more powerful Sorceries that can make even the game's harder bosses incredibly manageable. The Astrologer has the tools they need from the beginning of the game through to the very end, making it the best class in all of Elden Ring.

What is the best choice in Elden Ring? ›

  • Vagabond is the best class for beginners.
  • Samurai is the best class for combat variety.
  • Hero is the best class for tanks.
  • Bandit is the best class for rogues.
  • Astrologer is the best class for spallcasters.
  • Wretch is the best class for the pros.
Jun 28, 2024

What is the hardest item to get in Elden Ring? ›

The Grafted Dragon can be only obtained by trading the Remembrance of the Grafted with Enia at Roundtable Hold. To get the Remembrance of the Grafted you must defeat Godrick the Grafted in Stormveil Castle, the first Shardbearer boss in Elden Ring.

What does the most damage in Elden Ring? ›

Discover the incredible damage potential of the blasphemous blade in Elden Ring. Upgrade it to max, equip powerful talismans, and unleash devastating attacks.

What is the strongest attribute in Elden Ring? ›

Elden Ring: Every Main Attribute, Ranked
  • 8 Strength.
  • 7 Faith.
  • 6 Intelligence.
  • 5 Dexterity.
  • 4 Arcane.
  • 3 Mind.
  • 2 Endurance.
  • 1 Vigor.
Jun 12, 2024

What is the strongest effect in Elden Ring? ›

Best Elden Ring Bleed build

Bleed in Elden Ring is arguably one of the strongest effects to afflict an enemy with. With a build that amplifies the build-up of blood loss, you can cause devastating damage to whoever may cross your path in The Lands Between.

What is the best strength build in Elden Ring? ›

For the best Strength build in Elden Ring to work, you will need the Giant Crusher. This monstrous weapon can be found in the Altus Plateau and requires a whopping 60 Strength. Ideally, you want two of them - one in each hand - but one will work fine if you can't get a trade.

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