The variety of new weapons added in Shadow of the Erdtree makes for some interesting new build options. One of the more fascinating weapons introduced is the Beast Claw, a new Fist weapon with a powerful Ash of War.
How to get the Beast Claw in Elden Ring
The Beast Claw is acquired early into your Shadow of the Erdtree playthrough. When you first enter the Land of Shadows, you will rest at the Gravesite Plain Site of Grace. From this point, you head southeast into the forest until you come across Logur the Beast Claw. After defeating this enemy, he will drop the Beast Claw weapon.
Unlike most close combat fist/claw weapons in Elden Ring, this one scales primarily with Strength and a secondary scaling in Dexterity. Its Ash of War, Savage Claws, unleashes a flurry of swipes that rapidly build up bleeding. With a few more consecutive swipes, you should cause blood loss, allowing you to take easily down bosses with high HP.
Now that you know how to acquire the Beast Claw, we need to work it into a viable build.
The best Beast Claw build in Elden Ring
The Beast Claw build we recommend will be a Strength build. As such, the primary stat investment will be Strength, with leftover points used to increase Dexterity for damage-scaling purposes. Use a Larval Tear to respec your character, and let’s get started.
| Build parameters | Requirements |
| Recommended level | 150+ |
| Primary stats | Strength, Dexterity |
| Secondary stats | Vigor, Endurance |
| Weapons | Beast Claw |
| Armor | Horned Warrior Helm Any armor (maintain medium load) |
| Talismans | Two-headed Turtle Talisman Lord of Blood’s Exultation Rotten Winged Sword Insignia Shard of Alexander |
| Weapon skills | Savage Claws |
| Additional spells | N/A |
The next part of this build showcases an ideal stat distribution to make the Beast Claw work.
Stat distribution
Since the Beast Claw build is a Strength build with a secondary Dexterity scaling, pumping points into Strength with the occasional Dexterity investment is the way to go. Getting your Strength up to 40 is ideal before investing points into Vigor and Endurance for survivability. Having about 50 Vigor and 30 Endurance before entering the DLC should be enough.
This is what your endgame stats should look like.
- Vigor: 50
- Mind: 15
- Endurance: 30
- Strength: 50
- Dexterity: 40
- Intelligence: Base level
- Faith: Base level
- Arcane: Base level
This build should cap out at levels 165 to 170. Any excess points left over from the reallocation and subsequent levels are best invested into more Strength for more damage or Endurance for more stamina/equip load until you reach a soft cap.
Gear breakdown
The only weapon in this build is the Beast Claw. As such, you need to meet a prerequisite of 13 Strength and 11 Dexterity to wield it. You can infuse the weapon with different Ashes of War, but we recommend sticking with Savage Claws to be evasive and proc blood loss at the same time. Once you go through a Strength soft cap, it might be better to invest points into Dex.
There are great armor sets in the DLC for Strength builds, like the Black Knight Set and the Death Knight Set. If there’s one piece we recommend using, it would be the Horned Warrior Helm for the Strength boost. Your flasks will heal you for seven percent less, but the damage boost is worth it. Just remember to maintain a medium equip load at all times.
Focus on high-speed attacks to cause blood loss by chaining your light and heavy attacks with Savage Claws. In PvP, you should be difficult to catch because of the weapon’s erratic moveset, so take advantage of that.
Talisman breakdown
Four talismans work perfectly with the Beast Claw.
The Two-headed Turtle Talisman is a new talisman introduced in the DLC. This talisman grants you the most stamina regen of any talisman and is a must-have for any build that utilizes a lot of stamina. You should be able to roll and attack more effectively with this.
The Lord of Blood’s Exultation is the go-to talisman for any build that procs bleeding. Every time you cause blood loss, your damage gets boosted, making subsequent attacks even more effective. Keep this one on at all times.
The Rotten Winged Sword Insignia is the talisman to choose for any build that uses rapid attacks. Every successive attack improves your damage output even further, which is great when you chain your light/heavy attacks with Savage Claws.
The Shard of Alexander is the best talisman for any build that relies on Ashes of War. This talisman boosts the power of your weapon skills, making Savage Claws deal even more damage in conjunction with the other two talismans mentioned above.
