Best Elden Ring Strength Build: Best weapons, stats, and items

Update: Elden Ring has had plenty of updates, so we've updated this Elden Ring Strength build with up to date stats and recommendations, including new talismans, gear, and weapons to consider when stomping through enemies across The Lands Between. We've also added some additional links to our newest guides on item and gear locations to help you further with finding what you need.

Looking for the best Elden Ring Strength build? There's seemingly no end of options when it comes to flexing those muscles and bashing your way through The Lands Between, but, if it's massive swords, hammers, or clubs you want, this build is for you.

This build requires a lot of investment into strength as you'd imagine, but is easy to start using early in the game. Not only that, but players can transition off a pure strength build into numerous other variants later on, making this a brilliant starting build for Elden Ring players.

Those looking for something a bit more involved and specific, rejoice. We've also included a different kind of strength build that requires lower strength but often deals even more damage than colossal weapons.

For our full list, these are the best Elden Ring builds.

Elden Ring Strength Build: Stats and Starting Class

There are three stats that you should prioritise with a strength build in Elden Ring. These are Strength, Vigor, and Endurance.

Strength is your primary damage stat you'll be dumping points into as you level up. More often than not, you'll be wanting to pump this up when you're struggling on bosses or later game zones. In terms of milestones, you'll want to reach 31 Strength as soon as possible to wield your first main weapon with one hand (we'll get to that later on). After that, investing in Strength will be your default option.

Vigor is a hugely important stat for all builds in Elden Ring, but it's incredibly crucial for strength builds who will be committing to huge powerful melee attacks. As such, try and bump Vigor up consistently as you level up, keeping it as your second highest stat and investing levels into it whenever you notice yourself getting killed in a few hits.

Finally, Endurance is a brilliant third option. Not only is additional stamina always useful, the ability to equip heavier armour without sacrificing your fast rolls is a brilliant boon for Strength builds. The additional resistances and damage reduction provided by heavier gear will help keep you alive in tense fights.

As for your starting class, we recommend the Vagabond. Not only does this class provide a healthy amount of starting Vigor, Endurance, and Strength, it also provides enough Dexterity needed for a brilliant starting weapon for this build.

By level 30, your stats should be close to the following (assuming Vagabond start):

• Vigor: 20
• Mind: 10
• Endurance: 16
• Strength: 25
• Dexterity: 13
• Intelligence: 9
• Faith: 9
• Arcane: 7

From there, just keep those three priority stats topped up. There aren't any particular milestones you'll want to be working towards, just be mindful that once you reach past 50 in a stat. you start to receive diminishing returns in most stats.

Strength is calculated a bit differently and still gives worthwhile returns until 80, but if you're two-handing weapons, you can stop around 55 thanks to the two-handed stat multiplier. 60 is good for other Strength builds, or if you're opting for something other than a colossal weapon, you can actually get away with a lower number.

Elden Ring Strength Build: Weapons

The weapon you absolutely want to rush out and grab as soon as you can is the Greatsword. This weapon, available early and one of the best endgame colossal weapons when upgraded, is only a short horse ride away from the First Steps Site of Grace.

To grab it, ride up to the entrance to Caelid from Limgrave, past the Rotview Balcony. Following the road, you'll find two giant dog monsters guarding a coffin carriage. Ride up quickly and grab the sword from the back, and you'll have earned yourself a mainstay for your build for the rest of the game. It also only requires 31 Strength and 12 Dexterity to wield, with a C scaling in Strength.

For a weapon to use while slowly pumping points into your stats, the Bastard Sword only requires 16 Strength and 10 Dexterity to use. It comes with the Stamp (Upward Cut) Skill and can be infused with an Ash of War, making it a solid early-pick. On top of that, there's also the Morning Star, which does less damage than the Broadsword, but does cause passive Bleed build-up in enemies making it stand-out early on in Elden Ring. It only needs 12 Strength and 8 Dexterity to use, too!

After messing around with weapons during the early-game and ultimately wielding the Greatsword in Elden Ring, you can literally keep using this weapon all the way up until the very end of the game. However, if you're feeling like really showing off how strong you are, you can pick up the Giant Crusher. Requiring 60 Strength to one hand, you can grab this humongous hammer from the Atlas Plateau. It's got a shorter range than the greatsword, but wow, does it slap. You'd hope it would, considering the investment you need to make to use it. On top of that, Ash of War: Lion's Claw has a very similar animation to one of the Giant Crusher's attacks, albeit faster, so infusing the weapon with this before taking it into PvP can really throw players off.

Other weapons you can consider in the later portion of the game, depending on your playstyle, are the Beastman's Cleaver. This weapon has C scaling with Strength and requires 25 Strength and 14 Dexterity to use, and comes with the Spinning Slash Skill. It doesn't quite outperform the Greatsword, but is good fun to use.

Those of us who like using maces and hammers in our builds will probably also appreciate the Great Mace and Great Stars. The Great Stars weapon requires 22 Strength and 12 Dexterity to use, and simultaneously triggers Bleed build-up on opponents. That said, the Great Mace - which requires 28 Strength to use - has a better scaling with Strength, and actually outperforms the Great Star when fully upgraded, but it's stil worth experimenting with both if you're into swinging maces around.

Alternatively, by focusing on Srength you can really mix and match this build quite a bit with other stats. Splash in a touch of Intelligence and you can use some handy sorceries to protect yourself while recovering from giant swings. You can also splash Faith and use beastial incantations! These can be gained from the beast clergyman in the North east of Caelid. Both are great options, for those bored of just swinging a giant sword around.

Elden Ring Strength Build: Talismans

When it comes to talisman options, Erdtree's Favour is a brilliant pick as it boosts your maximum HP, Stamina, and equip load, and will boost them even further if you manage to acquire Erdtree's Favour +2. This is everything a Strength user needs all in one package!

In addition, be sure to equip the Arsenal Charm when needed. This further improves your equip load, meaning that with both of this and Erdtree's Favour equipped you'll be able to wear some very hefty armour without any issues.

On top of that, slap on your trusty Green Turtle Talisman. This boosts your stamina recovery speed, which is universally useful for all builds where you'll be up close and attacking all the time.

Alternatively, we would also argue that the Dragoncrest Greatshield talisman is a must-have in many tough boss fights. This talisman will reduce the amount of Physical damage you take by 20%, which can determine whether you breeze through that next fight or experience another loss.

Elden Ring Strength Build: Spells and Incantations

Depending on your point of view, you'll see the lack of spells and incantations this build uses as either a massive pro, or a major con. If you want to keep things simple, you can leave off the magic and keep all your buffs coming from consumable items for that pure unga bunga sword swinging goodness.

However, investing a little bit into Faith can be hugely beneficial. Incantations like Flame/Magic/Lightning fortification can be a cool bonus going into tricky fights, while Bloodflame Blade or Poison Armament can provide some much needed additional damage.

Elden Ring Strength Build: Armour

Since this build has you invest a decent amount into Endurance, you can afford to wear some hefty armour sets to provide some incredibly useful defensive stats in Elden Ring. That said, you can just opt for the most fashionable pieces of gear you find if you want.

The Twinned Armour from D or the Royal Remains Armour are both brilliant options for players early on. There's also the Scaled Set which is great at protecting players from non-Physical attacks, too, which a lot of our enemies will utilise.

Regardless of your options, be sure to stick to a medium equip load, as maintaining a fast roll is crucial throughout the game.

Elden Ring Strength Build: Ash of War

Regardless of which Ash of War you use for your colossal weapon, be sure to make your weapon Heavy to further boost the Strength scaling it has. This, granted you've boosted up your Strength stat, will increase your damage output.

In terms of which Ash of War to use, Stamp (Upward Cut) is a great option that provides a useful upwards slash. This can be handy if you're looking to deal with airborne enemies, or find yourself under a dragon and desperately trying to land hits on their head.

Flame of the Redmanes is a popular choice, since it deals fire damage that scales with Strength. Naturally, it only works with weapons that don't have one built-in, but it's worth giving up one of the fancier weapons or removing their skills for it. You'll find Flame of the Redmanes in Fort Gael on the border of Limgrave and Caelid.

Alternate Elden Ring Strength Builds

Some of the most popular strength builds in the Elden Ring community ignore the strength stat itself in favor of weapons and effects that scale with strength. One is a build that prioritizes Dexterity and Vigor, with Strength and Arcane as secondary stats. The ideal weapons for this are:

• Reduvia Dagger - from Bloody Finger Nerijus (Invader) in Limgrave. He spawns outside of Murkwater Cave.
• Eleonara's Poleblade - from Eleanora (Invader) in Altus Plateau. Follow Yura's quest to battle her, or ignore Yura's quest entirely and head to the Second Church of Marika to fight them.

The dagger is there primarily for inflicting bloodloss status, but the real star is the poleblade. This twinblade deals Physical and Fire damage that scale with Strength and Arcane. We mention it in our best Bleed build, too.

The Winged Sword Insignia is good for any strength build, since your strategies naturally revolve around consecutive attacks, but it's essential for the poleblade. The skill hits multiple times, and you can follow it up with more attaacks, really cranking up the amount of damage it does.

That wraps up our Elden Ring strength build! For more Elden Ring guides, check out our pieces on the best armour for mages and melee classes, as well as our guide on how to respec in case you want to shift into this Strength build or our blackflame build right now!