Builds to Master Before a Potential Elden Ring 2 — Plus the New Tarnished Class
I've respecced my Elden Ring character at least fifteen times. Not kidding. Rennala probably has a dedicated chair for me at this point.
The thing about build crafting in Elden Ring is that it's insanely flexible. You can go from a pure strength bonk build to a dex/arcane bleed machine in about 30 seconds at the respec screen. And honestly, half the reason I keep playing this game four years later is trying new builds I haven't done before.
If Elden Ring 2 ever happens (and that's a big if, as I covered in the development status article), the build system from the original will almost certainly carry over in some form. FromSoftware iterated on this system across Dark Souls 2, Dark Souls 3, and Elden Ring. Each time they made it more flexible but kept the core idea of stat allocation and weapon scaling.
So here are the builds worth mastering now, whether you're prepping for the Tarnished Edition, the inevitable DLC replays, or just want to dominate in PvP. I've tested all of these across multiple NG+ cycles.
The Bleed Build That Everyone Uses (Because It Works)
I resisted this build for so long. It felt cheap. Like I was cheating somehow. Then I tried it and killed Malenia in four attempts after dying 60+ times with my strength build.
Core weapon: Rivers of Blood katana. Even post-nerf, it shreds. The Corpse Piler weapon art is still one of the highest DPS moves in the game against anything that bleeds.
Stats: 45 Arcane (soft cap for bleed buildup), 20 Dexterity minimum for Rivers of Blood, rest into Vigor and Endurance. At level 150 you can hit 60 Vigor, 25 Endurance, 20 Dex, 45 Arcane, and have points left over for Mind if you use weapon arts a lot.
Talismans: Lord of Blood's Exultation (non-negotiable, 20% damage boost on bleed proc), Shard of Alexander (boosts weapon art damage), Dragoncrest Greatshield Talisman (physical defense because you'll be in melee range), and the fourth slot is flexible. I like Carian Filigreed Crest to reduce FP costs, but honestly you can slot whatever.
How it plays: Aggressive. You're not waiting for openings, you're making them. Corpse Piler comes out fast, bleeds most things in two uses, and staggers surprisingly well. For bleed-immune enemies (gargoyles, I'm looking at you), keep a Flame Art Uchigatana in your second slot.
Pure Strength: The "I Don't Need to Dodge" Build
When bleed feels too sweaty and you just want to trade hits with a god, this is your build.
Core weapon: Giant-Crusher hammer. It's ugly, it's slow, and it does absolutely disgusting damage on a strength build. At 80 Strength with Heavy affinity, you're looking at over 900 AR before buffs. Kinda hard to argue with those numbers.
Stats: 60 Vigor, 40 Endurance (this thing is heavy), 80 Strength, minimum everything else. You need the endurance because good armor is heavy and you're going to get hit. A lot.
Key setup: Royal Knight's Resolve ash of war on the hammer. One use gives your next hit 80% extra damage. Combine with a charged heavy attack and you can chunk bosses for 3,000-4,000 damage in a single swing. Flask of Wondrous Physick with Strength-knot Crystal Tear and Stonebarb Cracked Tear for maximum stagger pressure.
How it plays: Walk up. Royal Knight's Resolve. Charged R2. Boss falls over. Critical hit. Repeat. Some bosses don't even get to do their phase 2 transition because they get stance-broken too fast. It's not elegant. It's not flashy. But it works. And it's honestly kind of hilarious watching a god get flattened by a rock on a stick.
The Faith Caster That Actually Feels Powerful
Faith builds in Elden Ring start slow and become gods by endgame. The problem is surviving the early game with enough FP to actually cast things. I died so many times in Limgrave with 15 Vigor because I put everything into Faith. Don't do that.
Weapons: Blasphemous Blade is the obvious choice. Fire damage that scales with Faith, heals on hit, and the Taker's Flames weapon art is basically a screen clear. But don't sleep on the Coded Sword for pure Faith. It deals holy damage that bypasses shields and weighs almost nothing. Great backup weapon.
Seals: Erdtree Seal at 69+ Faith (best scaling). Before that, Godslayer's Seal for the early-mid game. It has the best scaling below 69 Faith and boosts Black Flame incantations, which are great against bosses with huge HP pools.
Essential incantations: Golden Vow (15% damage + 10% defense, stacks with everything), Flame Grant Me Strength (20% physical and fire damage for 30 seconds), and Black Flame for bosses. Black Flame does percentage-based damage over time. On NG+7 bosses it does the same damage as NG, which is honestly broken.
The Blasphemous Blade loop: Golden Vow, Flame Grant Me Strength, then spam Taker's Flames. It heals you on hit, knocks down most humanoid enemies, and the fire damage is buffed by both your Faith stat and Flame Grant Me Strength. This build trivialized my NG+3 run. I mean, it wasn't even fair.
There's also dragon communion builds, pure sorcery builds, shield-only meme builds... I could list stuff all day. But these three are the ones I keep coming back to.
The Tarnished Edition's New Class: What We Know
Dataminers found references to a class called "Nightfarer" in the Tarnished Edition's pre-load files. This was back in May 2026 when Nintendo accidentally pushed an encrypted build to Japanese eShop servers before pulling it. Classic Nintendo.
From the scraps people extracted:
Starting level seems to be 7 (same as Wretch, interestingly). Comes with a unique weapon called "Umbral Kris" that's a dagger apparently scaling with both Intelligence and Arcane. Starting armor set is called "Nightfarer's Garb" with a cloak that has some kind of visual effect when dodging.
If the Umbral Kris scales with Int and Arcane, that suggests a spellblade or night sorcery focus. Elden Ring's night sorceries (Night Comet, Night Shard) are already underrated. They're invisible to NPC enemies, so they never dodge them. A class built around that concept could be extremely strong. Kind of exciting, honestly.
I'll update this guide when the Tarnished Edition actually launches and I've had time to test the new class properly. For now, any of the builds above will carry you through the base game and DLC without breaking a sweat. Well, maybe a little sweat. But not much.