There are numerous weapons to choose from in Elden Ring. You can blindly pick any random weapon and still complete the game. But (and there is a huge but), not all weapons are worthwhile (like hammers).
And if you are trying to complete your first playthrough of Elden Ring without struggling against every boss you meet, you need to pick a good weapon and make an awesome build.
So for your convenience, we have gathered some powerful builds that completely annihilate all in-game enemies, from birds to bosses, to groups of enemies, all in a fell swoop.
This guide is all about five cherry-picked ultimate builds to use against all kinds of enemies you come across in PVE for a New Game of Elden Ring and help you smoothly complete your first playthrough.
Table of Contents
Blasphemous Blade Build
- Stat Focus – Faith (main) and Strength or Alternative: Strength (main) and Faith
- Weapon – The mighty Blasphemous Blade
- Supplementary Weapons – Sword of Milos/ Cinqueda/ Greatshield (Distinguished GS, Fingerprint Stone Shield)
- Sacred Seal – For Bestial Incantations, use Clawmark Seal, and for Fire Giant Incantations, use Giant’s Seal
- Starting Class – The most optimized starting class is the Confessor
- Incantations –
Buffing Incantations – Flame Grant Me Strength(at Faith Lvl 15), Golden Vow
Offensive Incantations – With Giant’s Seal, use Giantsflame Take Thee, Catch Flame, and with Clawmark Seal, use Bestial Sling, Stone of Gurranq, Beast Claw - Talismans – To boost the damage of Taker’s Flame – Shard of Alexander and Fire Scorpion Charm.
Reduce MP consumption of Weapon Art – Carian Filigreed Charm
To boost the damage of Incantations – Flock’s Canvas Talisman
Other Options: Erdtree’s Favor/Bull Goat’s Talisman/ DragonCrest Greatshield Talisman/Great Jar’s Arsenal - Armor – Best armor available that can keep you at 51+ Poise and still enables you to Midroll
- Physick Mix – Boost fire damage with Flame-Shrouding Cracked Tear and boost stamina recovery using the Greenburst Crystal Tear
- Consumables – You can use Fire Throwing Pots or Holy Water Pots as they scale well with Faith
Build Guide
The creepy-looking Blasphemous Blade is the reigning king of all PVE weapons.
A quick tip for beginners, if you use the mimic tear summon with this weapon, it won’t even die to Malenia, as every time it uses the weapon skill of Blasphemous Blade, it heals, just like Malenia does. And with how tanky the mimic is, that is very OP.
But you don’t have to use Mimic Tear to feel powerful with the Blasphemous Blade in your hands. This greatsword will carry you from the New game to the New game +7 without any issues.
With how powerful it already was, in the most recent patch, it was buffed! Making it even more unfairly strong.
You can build an endurance-focused tanky build with this Sword by using a sturdy Greatshield offhand, and there are so many alternate options, and each can annihilate bosses and enemies.
We have given you two variants of this build depending on the Sacred Seal you choose.
You can go all in on fire by using Giant’s Seal and Fire Incantations, or you can choose the Clawmark Seal to take advantage of your hybrid STR and FAI stats by using Bestial Incantations. The damage of Bestial Incantations is boosted additionally by Cinquedea, making it a very good offensive choice.
Stat Distribution
| Level | Level 50 | Level 100 | Level 150 |
| Vigor | 25 | 36 | 50 |
| Mind | 13 | 15 | 24 |
| Endurance | 13 | 18 | 25 |
| Strength | 23 | 40 | 55/45/50 |
| Dexterity | 12 | 12 | 12 |
| Intelligence | 9 | 9 | 9 |
| Faith | 25 | 40 | 45/55/50 |
| Arcane | 9 | 9 | 9 |
Note: If you use the Faith Knot Crystal tear in order to cast the Golden Vow, you can keep faith at 15 and increase your Dexterity, Vigor, or Arcane more.
Moonveil Katana Build
- Stat focus – Dexterity and Intelligence
- Starting Class – Astrologer or Samurai(best)
- Weapon – Moonveil Katana
- Secondary Weapon – Uchigatana or Nagakiba offhand with magic or cold infusion. You can use a Wakizashi Dagger with Bloodhound Step and Quick-Step with magic or cold infusion.
- Staff– Main hand – Academy Glintstone Staff/ Carian Regal Scepter. Offhand- Meteorite Staff/Staff of Loss.
- Sorcery – Choose any you want. Terra Magica is for overall. The Staff of Loss users can use Night Shard and Night Comet. The Meteorite staff users can use Rock Sling, Meteorite of Astel, and Collapsing Star.
- Sacred Seal – For INT build Golder Order Seal is the best choice
- Incantation – Flame, Grant me Strength. Optionally, If you have 25 FAI you can use Golden Vow (Using physick mix with Faith Knot Crystal Tear can grant 10 FAI)
- Armor – Spell Blade Set boosts the damage of Transient Moonlight. Each piece boosts by 2% and full set by 8%. Alternatively, use a decent armor combination with mid-roll and 51+ poise.
- Talisman – To boost the damage of Weapon Art – Magic Scorpion Charm, Shard of Alexander
To reduce MP cost of Weapon Art – Carian Filgreed Crest
Optional Talismans – Godfrey Icon/ Ritual Sword Talisman/ Great Jar’s Arsenal/ Erdtree’s Favor - Physick Mix – Boost damage with the Magic Shrouding Cracked Tear, and optional choices are – Green Burst Crystal Tear/ Faith Knot Crystal Tear/ Opaline Hardtear
Build Guide
Moonveil is regarded as the best beginners friendly weapon with a very gentle learning curve.
PewDiePie, the YouTuber, even completed a no-death run of Elden Ring with this weapon because it is so easy to use and deals massive damage.
So, if a filthy casual like Pewds can perfectly complete Elden Ring, you can also beat the game with zero deaths.
The best thing about Moonveil is you can get it very early in the game once you beat a not-so-difficult boss. If you need a guide on beating this boss and getting the amazing Moonveil as soon as you begin the playthrough, we have a video for you.
This build depends on using the Transient Moonlight weapon art of Moonveil. This deals a lot of damage and can damage enemies on a long range.
You can use Moonveil in a power stance with another good katana (with frost infusion) and proc frostbite status effect on enemies, which will cause them to take increased damage. Although Moonveil is no good for repetitive playthroughs, as its damage starts being lackluster after NG+3, this is your best and safest bet for your first playthrough of Elden Ring.
You can start your game as a Samurai class, get the Meteorite Staff from Caelid to kill early bosses, and also use it to defeat the Magma wyrm that drops the Moonveil.
With the Moonveil in hand, you can now focus on using it, and I guarantee you, it will carry you till the end of the game.
You can use spells as well, as long as you meet the stats and carrying capacity for the Staffs. The Metorite Staff and the Staff of Loss are very good early game staffs you can use.
You can even use some basic incantations like Golden Vow and Flame Grant Me Strength to buff your overall damage.
Stat Distribution
| Level | Level 50 | Level 100 | Level 150 |
| Vigor | 20 | 32 | 40 |
| Mind | 18 | 18 | 20 |
| Endurance | 18 | 21 | 24 |
| Strength | 12 | 12 | 12 |
| Dexterity | 20 | 31 | 48 |
| Intelligence | 25 | 40 | 60 |
| Faith | 8 | 17 | 17 |
| Arcane | 8 | 8 | 8 |
Marais Executioner Sword
- Stat focus – Strength (main), Arcane, and some Faith
- Starting Class – Hero or Prophet
- Weapon – Marais Executioner Sword
- Secondary Weapon –
For Late Game- Any decent Weapon with Seppuku and Mohgwyn’s Sacred Spear
For Early Game – Reduvia with another dagger on Powerstance (early game) - Sacred Seal – Arcane focused build should use Dragon Communion Seal if you use any damaging incantations.
- Incantation –
Buffing Incatations – Flame, Grant me Strength,
Optional if you can increase faith more – Golden Vow (needs 25 faith), Howl of Sabriri (optional and needs 33 faith) - Armor – A decent armor combination that still enables you to mid-roll and has 51+ poise. Wear the White Mask (for Seppuku Build. )
- Talisman – Many options available. Shard of Alexander, Millicent’s Prosthesis/ Rotten Sword Insignia, Godfrey’s Icon/Ritual Sword Talisman and Magic Scorpion Charm, Lord of Blood’s Exultation(for Seppuku Build), for more weight (Great Jar’s Arsenal/ Erdtree’s Favor)
- Physick Mix – Magic Shrouding Cracked Tear – Increases the damage of Marais Executioner Sword’s Weapon Art
Thorny Cracked Tear – Increases the damage of consecutive hits
Build Guide
Marais Executioner Sword is an absolute beast of a weapon. This will melt all bosses you come across, but unlike Moonveil or the Blasphemous Blade, it has a steeper learning curve.
You can get this weapon as soon as you reach Atlus Plateau after beating an optional boss, and this one can be reached without beating any big bosses. A word of caution, this boss is one of the difficult ones, especially in the early game.
Although we started by praising this weapon, it does have one large downside, as it can be useless against a group of enemies. You will be swarmed on many occasions during your playthrough of Elden Ring, so you will need a good secondary weapon to deal with the swarms.
For that, we advise you to use Mohgwyn’s Sacred Spear, but since that is a late-game weapon.
For the early game, you can use another weapon like the easily found Reduvia Dagger, which works quite well as it also scales with STR and ARC. Use Reduvia with another dagger on power stance till you get your hands on Mohgwyn’s Sacred Spear.
Stat Distribution
| Level | Level 50 | Level 100 | Level 150 |
| Vigor | 21 | 40 | 50/55 |
| Mind | 15 | 20 | 25 |
| Endurance | 17 | 20 | 25 |
| Strength | 24 | 40 | 55 |
| Dexterity | 14 | 14 | 14 |
| Intelligence | 7 | 7 | 7 |
| Faith | 8 | 8 | 8 |
| Arcane | 23 | 30 | 45/40 |
Sorcerer Build
- Stat focus – Intelligence
- Starting Class – The best class is Astrologer for any pure sorcery build
- Staff –
For Late Game – Lusat’s Glintstone Staff(LGS)/ Carian Regal Staff (CRS)
For Early Game – Astrologer’s Staff
For Mid Game – Academy Glintstone Staff or if you prefer magic blade sorceires use Carian Glintblade Staff/Carian Glintstone Staff - Sorcery –
For Lusat’s Staff – Comet Azur(LGS)
For Carian Regal Scepter – Rennala’s Full Moon / Ranni’s Dark Moon,
More spells to use – Adula’s Moonblade, Glintstone Icecrag, Carian Slicer, Star Shower, Terra Magica, Glintstone Cometshard or Comet, - Secondary Weapon – Wings of Astel (WoA) /Dark Moon Great Sword (DMGS)/Moonveil Katana (MvK) / Glintstone Kris (GsK)
- Armor – To boost the damage of Comet Azur, wear Azur’s Gintstone Crown and for Moon Sorceries, wear Snow Witch’s Hat.
You can wear the hats in combination with a decent armor enabling mid-roll and reaching 51+ poise.
Alternatively, Spellblade Set can boost the damage of the Weapon Arts of your Secondary Weapons. - Talisman –
Boost Magic Damage – Magic Scorpion Charm and Graven Mass Talisman,
Boost Casting Speed – Radagon’s Icon,
Optional Talismans – Ritual Sword Talisman/ Carian Filgreed Crest, Shard of Alexander - Physick Mix – Cerulean Hidden Tear for infinite MP for 15 second to use Comet Azur and Magic Shrouding Cracked Tear to boost damage,
Optional – Greenburst Crystal Tear for stamina regen
Build Guide
Magic damage is one of the best types of damage in Elden Ring. Magic Build can do everything and anything you require to complete your first playthrough, as it can destroy huge bosses and huge groups without no discrimination.
We have two sets of magic builds for your use, but seeing that both of these builds need a high stat requirement with around 60 to 70 INT, meaning you have to build your character for quite a while to get to this build.
You can get the Carian Regal Scepter by exchanging Rennala’s Remembrance. Whereas the Lusat’s Staff can be obtained from Sellia, the town of Sorcery, by defeating a Duo boss after solving a puzzle, we have a video that can help you with that.
Since both the Carian Scepter and Lusat’s Staff are late-game weapons and need a bunch of stats, you will have to use something else in the early game.
Start with standard Astrologer’s Staff and get your hands on Glintstone Cometshard as soon as possible, as it will be your main source of damage during mid-game, replacing Glintstone Shard.
Alternatively, you can go the route of Carian Sword Sorceries for the mid-game.
Once you hit the required stats and get the required equipment and spells, switch to the build and start to decimate your foes with zero issues.
We have also picked up some good weapons for you if it comes to melee combat. Each Secondary weapon mentioned above scales with INT and does a lot of magic damage.
Stat Distribution
| Level | Level 50 | Level 100 | Level 150 | Level 150 (WoA) | Level 150 (DMGS) | Level 150 (MvK) | Level 150(GsK) |
| Vigor | 25 | 30 (min) | 50 (min) | 52 | 50 | 50 | 53 |
| Mind | 23 | 25 (min) | 30 (min) | 31 | 30 | 30 | 33 |
| Endurance | 15 | 18 (min) | 25 (min) | 30 | 30 | 28 | 30 |
| Strength | 8 | According to staff’s and weapon requirement | According to staff’s and weapon requirement | 8 | 16 | 12 | 10 |
| Dexterity | 12 | According to staff’s and weapon requirement | According to staff’s and weapon requirement | 17 | 12 | 18 | 12 |
| Intelligence | 30 | 60 (min) | 75 (min) | 75 | 75 | 75 | 75 |
| Faith | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 |
| Arcane | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 |
Dual Curved Sword (Blood or Occult)
- Stat Focus – Dexterity (Main) and level up Aracane once Dexterity is soft capped
- Starting Class – Best class for Arcane and Dex build is the Bandit.
- Weapons– Power Stance with curved swords infused with Blood or Occult
-Blood Scavenger’s Curved Sword and Blood Bandit’s Curved Sword (or 2X Blood Bandit’s Curved Sword) with Ash of War: Seppuku on one and something like Bloody Slash on another
-Alternatively, infuse them with Occult Instead of Blood for bosses immune to Bleed damage. - Secondary Weapon – Reduvia (Dagger) with another dagger, such as Great Knife (Use Ash of War or Weapon Art: Quickstep infused with Blood affinity) in Power Stance. Reduvia enables you a ranged combat option whereas another dagger offers escape and evasion.
- Sacred Seal – For Arcane-oriented Build Dragon Communion Seal is best.
- Incantations –
Buffing Incantation- Flame Grant me Strength.
Optionally, Golden Vow can be used if you have 25 Faith (Plus 10 Faith can be obtained by Faith-Knot Crystal Tear Physick mix) - Talismans –
Boost Jump Attack – Claw Talisman,
Increase attack when bleed occurs – Lord of Blood’s Exultation,
Increse damage with successive strikes – Rotten Winged Sword Insignia/ Winged Sword Insignia+Millicent’s Prosthesis (either use Millicent Prosthesis + Winged sword Insignia or only use Rotten Winged Sword Insignia)
Optional utility – Bull Goat’s Talisman/ Green Turtle Talisman/Great Jar’s Arsenal - Armor –
Also increases damage when bleed occurs in vicinity – White Mask
Increase Jump attack damage – Raptor’s Black Feather
Additionaly wear heavy armor like bull goat’s set on hand and leg or use Bull Goat’s Talisman to attain 51+ Poise. Make sure you can always Mid Roll if possible. - Physick Mix – Thorny Cracked Tear further increases the damage of consecutive attacks
For casting Golden Vow – Faith Knot Crystal Tear
Increase Stamina regen – Greenburst Crystal Tear
Build Guide
This build is focused on making the most of the power stance move sets of Dual Curved Sword. The jump attack of Dual Curved Sword is insane as it strikes 4 times, and with a bleed build, you will shred your enemies quickly.
The build would better work with dual-wielded Scavenger’s curved swords, but unluckily you get only one in your first playthrough. Instead, you can get two of Bandit’s curved swords by farming them very early in the game. You can use the Ash of War: Sacred Blade to kill the skeletons aside the Church of the Pilgrimage till you get two Bandit Curved Swords.
You will also require to get something like Bloody Slash to imbue blood affinity to your weapon. You can duplicate the Bloody Slash by using a Lost Ashes of War and get the blood-infused dual wield quite early. But in the beginning, you can use them as they are with normal attributes, as it’s not ideal for leveling up both Arcane(ARC) and DEX/STR early on, as you will still need to level up HP and other vital stats.
To make the most of this build, you will need to learn how to land your jump attacks and circle around your foes quickly.
Bloody Slash is a good AoE damage option and keeps increasing in damage relative to the damage of your weapons.
Note: You can change the affinity from blood to occult if you run into enemies that are immune to bleed.
Stat Distribution
| Level | Level 50 | Level 100 | Level 150 |
| Vigor | 25 | 35 | 50 |
| Mind | 11 | 15 | 15 |
| Endurance | 15 | 21 | 21 |
| Strength | 9 | 9 | 9 |
| Dexterity | 30 | 50 | 55 |
| Intelligence | 9 | 9 | 9 |
| Faith | 15 | 15 | 25 |
| Arcane | 15 | 25 | 45 |
Note: Optionally, you can use the Faith Knot Crystal tear in order to cast the Golden Vow. That way, you can keep faith at 15 and increase another more vital stat.
FOR MORE AWESOME BUILDS, check our top 13 best builds for PVP and PVE, or for something specific, check out the best strength-faith build or best dexterity-faith builds.
