Elden Ring Five Fun Builds Shadow of the Erdtree

Elden Ring – Five Fun Builds For Shadow of the Erdtree

Shadow of the Erdtree, the upcoming DLC for the award-winning fantasy RPG Elden Ring, is out later this week and most players are refining their builds before leaping into the new content. If you’re still unsure about your build, we’ve got five builds that we think will be pretty fun to try out.

Before we proceed, make sure you’re all caught up on the required content that you need to complete before you can access Shadow of the Erdtree. Read up our guides on how to defeat Starscourge Radahn, how to defeat Mohg, Lord of Blood and how to unlock Mohgwyn Palace, the access area for the DLC.

It goes without saying but every weapon you’ll be using below should be upgraded to its maximum limit.

Five Fun Builds for Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree

Elden Ring has a lot of build variety to offer so we won’t be able to get to every single one available. Rather, we’re simply highlighting five builds that we’ve personally tried out in the past and provided the most fun while still being incredibly effective in combat. Some forums and message boards have also highly recommended these builds too. We’ll briefly go over each as well as what stats and gear you’ll need to complete them.

Each build will account for level 150 characters as that’s apparently the recommended level for Shadow of the Erdtree.

Guts Berserker Build

Elden Ring Five Fun Builds Shadow of the Erdtree

Building on the foundations of our previous Guts build (largely inspired by the manga Berserk), the Guts Berserker build offers some of the highest raw damage in the game. It has become a go-to for many players seeking big damage in exchange for mobility. It takes some practice before you can nail the timing of your slower attacks but with the (Guts) Greatsword, you can turn this colossal weapon into a devastating stance-breaking machine.

You main attributes will be Vigor, Endurance and Strength, with Strength taking priority first. Your stat spread should look like this:

  • Vigor: 60
  • Endurance: 40
  • Strength: 54

You can stop levelling Strength at 54 because you’ll be two-handing the Guts Greatsword, which offers a secret bonus multiplier that brings 54 up to 80 if you two-hand. For the Ash of War, you’ll want to apply Lion’s Claw, which is dropped by the Lion Guardian in Fort Gael.

Your gear will consist of the Guts Greatsword and the full Maliketh set, which can be acquired using the Remembrance for defeating Maliketh, the Black Blade. For Talismans, equip Radagon’s Scarseal, the Strength Talisman and the Claw Talisman to increase jump attack damage. The Axe Talisman also provides extra damage to your charged attacks.

Arcane Bleed Build

Elden Ring Five Fun Builds Shadow of the Erdtree

The good ol’ bleed build for Elden Ring is held in high regard for a very good reason. Using a skill called Hemorrhage, this causes massive bleed build-up that eventually procs Blood Loss. This delivers a significant chunk of damage that can absolutely melt a bosses health bar. Obviously, it requires players to be very aggressive and attack continuously for the bleed effect to build up.

Your main attributes for the Arcane Bleed Build will be Arcane, Dexterity, Endurance and Vigor, with Arcane taking priority. You stat spread should look like this:

  • Vigor: 40
  • Endurance: 30
  • Dexterity: 40
  • Arcane: 45

For gear, your weapon of choice will be the Rivers of Blood katana, obtained from defeating Bloody Finger Okina at the Church of Repose in the Mountaintop of the Giants. The incantation Swarm of Flies will also be required to further boost your bleed build-up. Keep in mind that Swarm of Flies requires a minimum of 11 Faith to use. It can be found in a cave near the Palace Approach Ledge-Road Site of Grace in Mohgwyn Palace.

As for armour, there’s no requirement. You can choose whatever you think looks good on you. However for Talismans, we strongly recommend the following:

  • Lord of Blood’s Exultation: Raises attack power by 20% for 20 seconds when Blood Loss occurs.
  • Rotten Winged Sword Insignia: Increases attack power relative to the number of attacks you land.
  • Dragoncrest Greatshield Talisman: Enormously reduces damage taken by 20%.
  • Millicent’s Prosthesis: Raises Dexterity by 5 and raises attack power of successive attacks.

Blasphemous Build

Elden Ring Five Fun Builds Shadow of the Erdtree

One of the most popular weapons in Elden Ring is the Blasphemous Blade, acquired after defeating Rykard, Lord of Blasphemy. This build centres entirely around it. Known for its incredible weapon skill, the Blasphemous Blade hits hard, has excellent crowd control and can demolish enemies from a good distance. To top it off, you also recover HP when you use its skill, Taker’s Flames.

To make this build effective, you’ll need to dump points into three primary attributes. They are Vigor, Mind and Faith with Faith taking priority. Here’s how you spread them:

  • Vigor: 50
  • Mind: 40
  • Faith: 60-80

The Blasphemous Blade is a must for your set-up which will be two-handed (go with whatever armour you want). However, you only need to meet the weapon requirements (Strength at 22 and Dexterity at 15) to wield this efficiently. You might have some extra points to pour into Strength and Dexterity in the end, but most of your damage is going to come from the weapon’s fire abilities which is why Faith scales the best.

As for Talismans, we strongly recommend the Shard of Alexander which greatly boosts the attack power of skills by 15%. The rest are optional depending on your preference but we also recommend the Dragoncrest Greatshield Talisman for extra defence. Your bread and butter in this playstyle will rely solely on your Taker’s Flames to deal damage. It will cost 30 FP to use which is why putting points into Mind comes in handy.

Black Knife Assassin Build

Elden Ring Five Fun Builds Shadow of the Erdtree 4

The Black Knife Assassin build is one of the most lethal and agile builds in Elden Ring. It’s a high-risk, high-reward playstyle that’s perfect for players who like mobility while being very quick with successive attacks, though it’s not the easiest playstyle to master. For this build, we’ll be dual-wielding two specific daggers that apply both bleed and Scarlet Rot.

For attributes, we recommend putting points into Vigor, Dexterity and Arcane with Arcane taking priority. Here’s the spread:

  • Vigor: 60
  • Dexterity: 40
  • Arcane: 50-60

For your gear, you’ll need two daggers: Reduvia (main hand) and Scorpion’s Stinger (secondary). Reduvia can be found pretty early in the game by defeating Bloody Finger Nerijus outside Murkwater Cave in Limgrave. Scorpion’s Stinger is found in the Lake of Rot near the Grand Cloister Site of Grace. Reduvia is going to provide bleed build-up while Scorpion’s Stinger will inflict Scarlet Rot, making this an incredibly deadly build for applying statuses.

For armour, you’ll want the Black Knife Assassin set that can be found exploring Ordina Liturgical Town in Consecrated Ground (aka the entry point to the Haligtree).

We recommend equipping the Lord of Blood’s Exultation Talisman to raise your attack power with Blood Loss, Millicent’s Prosthesis to further boost successive attacks, Kindred of Rot’s Exultation to raise your attack power with Scarlet Rot and Rotten Winged Sword Insignia to raise your attack power with the number of attacks you land.

Godslayer Build

Elden Ring Five Fun Builds Shadow of the Erdtree

Last but certainly not least is the Godslayer build. This playstyle utilises the Godslayer’s Greatsword which can be acquired after defeating the Godskin Apostle in the Divine Tower of Caelid. This particular greatsword actually has a faster speed than standard greatswords as well (plus it just has the best weapon design in the game, in our opinion). The weapon skill, The Queen’s Black Flame, is going to be a big damage dealer in this build, though you’ll also want to hit hard with the weapon.

You’re going to focus on four attributes for this build: Vigor, Mind, Dexterity and Faith. You’ll need at least 20 in Strength to meet the minimum requirements for wielding the Godslayer’s Greatsword. Here’s the spread:

  • Vigor: 50
  • Mind: 40
  • Dexterity: 40
  • Faith: 50-60

We’ve spread the points this way in order to utilise the weapon skill effectively plus still be capable of doing decent melee damage. Any incantations that use Black Flame also pair very well with this spread so you’re not limited in choice for casting spells. Mind also lets you throw out The Queen’s Black Flame a lot more, which deals constant chip damage to enemy HP if they’re in the flame’s Area of Attack.

Some highly recommended Talismans include the Old Lord’s Talisman which extends the duration of spells by 30%, Marika’s Soreseal and the Axe Talisman, which raises charged attacks. This is important to the build as you’ll need to use charge attacks to stance-break bosses so that you have a window to use The Queen’s Black Flame.

Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree launches on 21 June 2024 for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and PC. Make sure you also check out the game’s pre-load and file size.

Writer
Editor-in-Chief of Nexus Hub, writer at GLITCHED. Former writer at The Gaming Report and All Otaku Online. RPG addict that has wonderful nightmares of Bloodborne 2.

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