The Ultimate Elden Ring Strength Build: All items, stats, and weapons

After a few hundred hours of personal gameplay and multiple different playthroughs on fresh characters and new game plus cycles, I have found one of the best strength builds in Elden Ring. It comes down to sheer ease of use, power, and ability to withstand almost any hit coming your way.

In my opinion, using a colossal sword is one of the best ways to play Elden Ring and one of the most fun. I mean, who wouldn't love coming across a formidable boss in the lands between and quickly sending them on their way with a big ole bonk on the head?

Don't get me wrong, even the best strength builds in Elden Ring will still require some skill on the player's part. After all, it is a melee play style, so you will be up close and personal, so you need to have decent timing with your dodges. The good news is that with this build guide, we will eliminate many of those challenges with the ability to poise through almost anything and stagger bosses in only a few hits.

Best Elden Ring Strength Build: Stats

The three most essential stats for any strength build are Vigor, Endurance, and, most importantly, Strength. Also, invest extra points into Faith to use the Incantations further in this guide. The stats are as follows:

• Vigor:40

• Endurance: 25-30

• Strength: 60

• Faith-25

All of these stats are important for this build, but I would recommend prioritizing Strength first to reach 31 strength so you can wield the Greatsword with one hand if you choose to, even though it is best used with two hands. Vigor is the second most important since you will be up close and personal with every enemy, so you'll want a good amount of health to live long enough to get your damage in and get out. Lastly, Endurance should be your third focus, as leveling it up will give you more stamina and a higher equip load to wear higher defense armor while still keeping the ability to light roll.

Best Elden Ring Strength Build: Weapon and Ash of war

Weapon: Greatsword

In this build, we will be using the Greatsword, which is, in my opinion, the best colossal weapon in the game because of how early it can be obtained, the relatively low stat requirements, and the already amazing damage.

Thankfully, it is pretty close to the Rotview Balcony site of grace in Caelid. All you have to do is go there, follow the road east for a very short time until you come across a carriage guarded by two large dogs, and you can either defeat them or quickly run up and jump up on the back and loot the Greatsword.

Ash of War: Savage Lions Claw

The Savage Lions Claw Ash of War is a dramatic improvement on an already excellent AoW, the Lions Claw, except it added two follow-up front flips and another slam for even more damage.

With this being the AoW of choice for this build, you will need to have access to the Shadow of The Erdtree DlC, but fortunately, you can get it right away, and it is very straightforward. Once you get to the Three-Path Cross site of grace in the starting area of the DLC, follow the road North for a short time and then look west for a large piece of land with gravestones all over it and over towards the wall there will be a campfire with the Savage lion's Claw right next to it. If you don't have access to the DLC yet and don't want to rush through, I recommend using the regular Lion's Claw Ash of War to get accustomed to the move set.

Best Elden Ring Strength Build: Talismans

Talismans can make or break a build in Elden Ring, and this build is no different. We will utilize some fantastic talismans to boost our damage, stamina recovery, and damage negation to give you the best odds of winning.

The first talisman that, in my opinion, is vital for almost every strength build is the Dragroncrest Greatshield talisman. This talisman does a fantastic job of reducing the amount of physical damage you will take by a whopping 20%, thus giving you a much better chance of survival and getting your damage in. I recommend watching a YouTube video about the location of this one as it can be confusing to navigate Elphael, Brace of the Haligtree.

Next up are two talismans that are both found in the DLC and the first is the Two-Handed Sword talisman. While this talisman will not work with the Savage Lion's Claw skill, it will still provide a 15% damage increase to any two-handed attacks, including jumping and heavy attacks, to give you that extra damage boost while trying to break the enemy's poise. It is found in the Temple Town Ruins at the top of the highest structure and is looted from the chest in the room after the fight with the Horned Warrior.

The third talisman in this guide and the second one found inside the DLC area is the Two-Headed Turtle talisman, which will significantly boost your stamina recovery speed by 22.5%, which is extremely important for any heavy melee build. It is just east of the Rivermouth cave on the north end of the Ellac River in Gravesite Plain, in a small cave hidden behind a waterfall.

Last but certainly not least is the Shard of Alexander talisman. This talisman is a must-have for this build, considering it will boost the damage by 15% to our primary damage dealer, the Savage Lion's Claw. Unfortunately, this talisman is acquired by completing Iron Fist Alexander's quest and defeating him, which is close to the end of the base game. Alternatively, once you find him the first time at the beginning of the game and help him out of the ground he is stuck in, you can defeat him, and he will drop the Warrior Jar Shard talisman, which will give you a 10% damage boost to skills instead of 15%.

Best Elden Ring Strength Build: Incantations and Phsyick Tears

With the combination of the incantations and phsyick tears for your Flask of Wondrous Physick, you will vastly increase your damage output and further decrease the amount of damage you will take.

Incantations:

Golden Vow is not only a crucial part of our strength build that we will be using; it is just one of the best incantations in the entire game. This incantation will provide a buff of an extra 15% damage and damage negation of 10% for 80 seconds and has a Faith stat requirement of 25. Also, this does not only affect you; the buffs will be applied to anyone you are playing with nearby. This essential part of our strength build can be found at the Corpse-Stench Shack in Mt Gelmir. Alternatively, if you don't reach 25 faith for a while, I suggest using the Golden Vow Ash of War on a secondary weapon.

The following incantation on our list is one of my favorites and a go-to for anyone wanting to do some extra damage. Flame Grant Me Strength plays a significant role in your build by increasing your physical damage by another 20% for 30 seconds, and the best part is that it stacks with Golden Vow, getting you up to a 35% damage increase without even factoring in the damage buffs from your talismans. It has a very low Faith stat requirement at only 15 and can be found behind Fort Gael in Caelid between the two flame chariots on the outer wall.

Flask of Wondrous Physick Tears:

The physick tears used in this Elden Ring build have the role of helping you tank much more damage and increase the ability to break the poise of enemies and bosses much more effortlessly.

First and foremost, I believe the Opaline Hardtear should be a staple of almost every player's build and not just for strength builds. This tear increases all damage negation by 15% for 3 minutes and will stack with your Dragroncrest Greatshield talisman and your Golden Vow Incantation, giving you a total of 50% damage reduction. Pair this with armor with decent defensive stats while still maintaining your medium roll, and that increases to around a 60% damage reduction. This tear is an absolute must-have for the best Elden Ring strength build, and it is found at the Minor Erdtree in Caelid, North of Fort Faroth, and dropped by defeating the Putrid Avatar.

The Stonebarb Cracked Tear should be your next tear of choice for this strength build, as it will make your life much easier when fighting tough bosses by giving you an extra 30% stance damage for 30 seconds. This tear will break any boss's poise much faster than usual, allowing you to get the follow-up critical attack that deals considerable damage. The location of this tear is also in Caelid under the Minor Erdtree in the Dragonbarrow and drops from another Putrid Avatar.

Best Elden Ring Strength Build: Armor

When it comes to using armor in Elden Ring, most of the time, players will use it for looks, as the defensive stats for most of the sets in the game are pretty negligible or are too heavy to use. The only armor I recommend for this build is the Raptors Black Feathers chest piece. It is very lightweight and gives a bonus of 10% damage to jumping attacks, but it will not work with the Savage Lion's Claw ash of war. Pair this with any other armor with good defensive stats, but it isn't too heavy, so you lose your medium roll. It is found in the Altus Plateau in the Sage's Cave behind an illusory wall.

Hopefully, this build guide will help you enjoy your time in Elden Ring a little more and make some challenges more manageable. If you've made it this far in the guide, check out our TikTok page for more of the best Elden Ring builds.