Best Elden Ring Builds on Steam Deck

Elden Ring is an open-world action role-playing developed by FromSoftware and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment.

Just like Bloodborne, Demon’s Souls, Sekiro, and the Dark Souls series, Elden Ring was directed by Hidetaka Miyazaki. The caveat here is that the game was made in collaboration with the award-winning fantasy novelist and source material creator for the highly popular Game of Thrones television show, George R. R. Martin, who provided a lot of source material for the game’s setting.

Elden Ring was released for Microsoft Windows, Steam Deck, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S on February 25, 2022.

The Soulsborne games are known for their difficulty level and Elden Ring is no exception. To ease that difficulty, there are 10 different starting classes in the game. Each class is a baseline for how the player can go about building them. Even though there is no hard-and-fast rule for how players can choose to build their characters, there are some templates that work better than the rest.

We will be highlighting the best templates that players can follow for an optimal playthrough, with not much need to rely on RNG and other unreliable miscellaneous factors.

Best Builds

Every character has a few certain ways to be built that will bring out the most in their potential power. As mentioned earlier, these are not the only ways to play the character, just the more efficient ways.

Certain kinds of builds, such as the player’s weapon and armor choice, can make characters overpowered early in the game. Players who know what they are doing can take this even further by finding the best weapons and armor the game has to offer and make builds substantially better.

These are the best builds that we can agree on, one for each character. Included below are the builds mentioning the best armaments for that character as well as the most optimal stat growth needed to make them thrive.

1. Best Astrologer Build

• Primary Stats: Intelligence, Mind
• Secondary Stats: Endurance, Vigor
• Weapon: Azur’s Glintstone, Meteorite Staff, Lusat’s Glintstone
• Armor: Raya Lucarian Sorcerer Set, Snow Witch Set, Alberich’s Set
• Talisman: Radagon Icon, Erdtree’s Favor, Cerulean Amber Medallion
• Spells: Swift Glintstone Shard, Comet, Loretta’s Greatbow, Carian Slicer, Glinstone Pebble, Comet Azur, Founding Rain of Stars
• Ashes of War: Glintblade Phalanx (Found on Rogier’s Rapier), Gravitas, Loretta Slash

2. Best Bandit Build

• Primary Stats: Dexterity, Endurance
• Secondary Stats: Vigor, Arcane
• Weapon: Reduvia, Shortbow
• Armor: Royal Remains Set, Land or Reed Sets, Exile Set, or any of the best Light Armor sets available
• Talisman: Lord of Blood’s Exultation, Arrow’s Reach Talisman, Kindred of Rot’s Exultation
• Ashes of War: Bloody Slash (optional depending on weapons)

3. Best Confessor Build

• Primary Stats: Faith, Vigor
• Secondary Stats: Mind, Dexterity/Strength
• Weapon: Sacred Scythe, Winged Scythe, Godslayer’s Seal, Shield (Your Choice)
• Armor: Best Light Armor available to you
• Talisman: Radagon Icon, Two Fingers Heirloom, Radagon’s Soreseal
• Spells: Lightning Spear, Urgent Heal, Flame of the Fell God, Frozen Lightning Spear, Black Flame

4. Best Hero Build

• Primary Stats: Strength and Endurance
• Secondary Stats: Vigor and Dexterity
• Weapon: The Colossal Weapon of your choice (I recommend Troll’s Hammer, Dragon Greatclaw, Gargoyle’s Blackblade, or Grafted Blade Greatsword)
• Armor: Radahn’s Armor, Crucible Set, Elden Lord Set, the best Heavy Armor available
• Talisman: Green Turtle Talisman, Erdtree’s Favor, Crimson Seed Talisman
• Ashes of War: War Cry

5. Best Prisoner Build

• Primary Stats: Intelligence, Vigor
• Secondary Stats: Mind, Dexterity
• Weapon: Estoc, Crystal Knife, Demi-Human Queen’s Staff, Rogier’s Rapier, Meteorite Staff
• Armor: Raya Lucarian Sorcerer Set, Sage Set, Errant Sorcerer Set
• Talisman: Radagon Icon, Graven-School Talisman, Winged Sword Insignia, Cerulean Amber Medallion
• Spells: Rock Sling, Swift Glinstone Shard, Glinstone Pebble, Glinstone Arc, Carian Slicer, Scholar’s Armament
• Ashes of War: Glintblade Phalanx (found on Rogier’s Rapier), Loretta’s Slash

6. Best Prophet Build

• Primary Stats: Mind, Faith
• Secondary Stats: Vigor, Arcane
• Weapon: Winged Scythe, Dragon Communion Seal, Finger Seal, Shield (your choice)
• Armor: Sage Set, Alberich’s Set
• Talisman: Radagon Icon, Carian Filigreed Crest, Faithful Vangas Talisman
• Spells: Catch Flame, Dragonfire, Flame of Frenzy, Black Flame, Black Flame Blade, Dragonclaw, Dragonfire, Agheel’s Flame
• Ashes of War: Sacred Blade

7. Best Samurai Build

• Primary Stats: Dexterity, Vigor
• Secondary Stats: Endurance, Mind
• Weapon: Uchigatana, Rivers of Blood, Longbow, Lion Greatbow
• Armor: Briar Set, Raging Wolf Set
• Talisman: Lord of Blood’s Exultation, Arrow’s Reach Talisman, Erdtree’s Favor
• Ashes of War: Keen Ash of War, Unsheathe, Mighty Shot, Enchanted Shot

8. Best Vagabond Build

• Primary Stats: Strength, Vigor
• Secondary Stats: Endurance, Dexterity
• Weapon: Lordsworn’s Greatsword, Gargoyle’s Greatsword, Bastard Sword, Colossal Weapon (your choice), Spiked Shield, Dragonclaw Shield, Greatshield (your choice)
• Armor: Bull-Goat Set, Radahan’s Set, Lionel’s Set, Crucible Axe Set
• Talisman: Erdtree’s Favor, Starscourge Heirloom, Green Turtle Talisman
• Ashes of War: Endure, Square Off, War Cry, Cragblade, Vow of the Indomitable, Barricade Shield

9. Best Warrior Build

• Primary Stats: Vigor, Endurance
• Secondary Stats: Dexterity, Strength
• Weapon: Starscourge Greatsword, Magma Wyrm’s Scalesword, Scimitar, Dual-Wield Weapons of Your Choice
• Armor: Bull-Goat Set, Hoslow’s Set, Radahan’s Set
• Talisman: Great-Jar’s Arsenal, Erdtree’s Favor, Green Turtle Talisman
• Ashes of War: Quickstep, Storm Blade, Sword Dance, Spinning Slash

10. Best Wretch Build

• Primary Stats: ?
• Secondary Stats: ?
• Weapon: ?
• Armor: ?
• Talisman: ?
• Ashes of War: ?

If players are wondering what’s up with the Wretch, there is a reason why there is no fixed build. That is because the Wretch is your typical Soulsborne character class that starts from scratch and has no one way to be played.

Players who decide to choose the Wretch as their starting character class are players who have a specific vision for how they want their character to be and the standard cookie-cutter classes just won’t do it for them. As such, there is no best way to play the Wretch, as everything about him/her is based on player preference.

Due to the very nature of the Wretch, they can be played in the player’s own style or they can be built in any of the builds mentioned above. The elusive Spellsword build would be perfect for the wretch, but that is a whole other topic in itself.

Credits go to denofgeek for providing build ideas that we cannot help but unanimously agree on.

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