Best Strength builds in Elden Ring

Elden Ring offers a variety of builds for players to experiment and play with. For each playthrough to be truly unique, you’ll have to invest points into different stats to focus on specific builds. Here, we’re focusing on the best Strength builds.

Best Strength builds in Elden Ring

Before we get into talking about actual builds, we will first need to know what constitutes a Strength build. The focus of a Strength build will be heavy weapons or great shields that have high Strength requirements. Since they are quite heavy, they are generally slow when it comes to attack and defense, especially when you compare them to dexterity weapons and magic users.

Strength builds are really fun to play because you get the satisfaction of destroying most of your enemies in a couple of swings. The heavy swings do leave you open to counter-attacks if you aren’t careful, so positioning is key. If you feel like Strength is the way to go and want a challenging playthrough, try any of the builds we have listed below.

Since there is no objective best build in Elden Ring, we have listed out a few builds you can try out and feel for yourself which one would suit you best.

These builds are sorted by progression, with some builds that work best for the early game, some for the mid-game, and some for the end-game. Feel free to switch your builds up if you feel like they have peaked at any point in time.

Best early-game Strength builds

The early game builds work best for characters from level 50 to level 80. This is the point where you’re still probably getting your footing and learning the ropes. The best armaments are not quite available to you yet, so you make the best of what you find.

1) Champion

• Recommended Level: 50
• Primary Stats: Strength, Endurance
• Secondary Stats: Vigor, Mind
• Weapons: Lordsworn’s Greatsword, Claymore
• Armor: Banished Knight Set
• Talismans: Any talisman that gives you bonus damage or stats
• Weapon Skills: Golden Vow, Determination
• Spells: N/A

The Champion build is an ideal starting build for anyone who wants to get used to how the Strength playstyle works. The Banished Knight set that you wear will protect you from most early damage so that you can learn your tanking limits. The damage of this build comes from your two weapons, Lordsworn’s Greatsword and the Claymore.

Both of the weapons are powerful options for a Strength build, but they really shine with two Ashes of War. Golden Vow (from the Golden Halberd) can be applied on one weapon to buff your attack and defense while Determination buffs your next attack with 60 percent increased damage. A combination of these two abilities will make short work of any foes that get in your way in the early game.

2) Colossal Knight

• Recommended Level: 50
• Primary Stats: Strength
• Secondary Stats: Vigor, Endurance
• Weapons: Greatsword
• Armor: Any heavy armor set (as heavy as possible to avoid fat rolling)
• Talismans: Any talisman that gives you bonus damage or stats
• Weapon Skills: War Cry
• Spells: N/A

The Colossal Knight build revolves around the all-purpose Strength weapon, the Greatsword. This weapon is not only one of the best for any Strength build but it can also be infused with any Ash of War you might need. In this case, we go with the War Cry skill to buff the build even more, providing bonus damage and increased Strength for the duration of the buff.

War Cry also changes your strong attacks to charged attacks that get stronger the longer you charge them up. If you get your hands on the Axe Talisman and the Roar Medallion, your War Cry gets even stronger. The Roar Medallion buffs your War Cry damage by an additional 15 percent while the Axe Talisman increases the power of your charged attacks by an additional 10 percent, making them perfect for this build.

Best mid-game Strength builds

The mid-game builds work best for characters from level 90 to level 120. At this stage of the game, you are probably used to your primary attribute, which would be Strength. If you have explored a lot of caves and side dungeons, you would have picked up most of these armaments already.

1) Colossus Guardian

• Recommended Level: 100
• Primary Stats: Strength
• Secondary Stats: Vigor, Endurance
• Weapons: Prelate’s Inferno Crozier, Sacred Seal, Dagger
• Armor: Lionel’s Set
• Talismans: Roar Medallion, Axe Talisman, Green Turtle Talisman, Lord of Blood’s Exultation
• Weapon Skills: Barbaric Roar
• Spells: Flame Grant Me Strength, Bestial Vitality

The Colossus Guardian build uses the colossal weapon Prelate’s Inferno Crozier to output heavy amounts of damage in tandem with Barbaric Roar which increases your damage output even further. Flame, Grant Me Strength is the perfect incantation to use with your Sacred Seal because it will buff up both physical and fire damage, both of which benefit the Prelate’s Inferno Crozier.

Use Bestial Vitality to keep up your assault since you will be taking damage while you dish it out. Because of this, armor sets like Lionel’s Set with high poise are perfect to use. If you use the Blood affinity on your weapon, you can buff the Hemorrhage effect with it in combination with the Lord of Blood’s Exultation talisman, leading to multiple sources of damage.

2) Blasphemous Beastmaster

• Recommended Level: 100
• Primary Stats: Strength, Faith
• Secondary Stats: Vigor, Mind
• Weapons: Clawmark Seal, Blasphemous Blade, Cinquedea
• Armor: Any heavy armor set (as heavy as possible to avoid heavy rolling)
• Talismans: Ritual Sword Talisman, Radagon’s Soreseal, Green Turtle Talisman, Dragoncrest Shield Talisman +1
• Weapon Skills: Taker’s Flames
• Spells: Golden Vow, Flame Grant Me Strength, Stone of Gurranq, Beast Claw, Bestial Sling

The Blasphemous Beastmaster build uses the titular Blasphemous Blade that the build revolves around. The Clawmark Seal is the perfect off-hand weapon in this build to use beast incantations that can be used to take down tough enemies from long range. If they survive the burst damage and manage to get closer, Taker’s Flame will finish them off while healing you up.

The Cinquedea is a weapon that further boosts beast incantations while also scaling with Strength, making it the perfect swappable weapon when you decide to use the incantations. Golden Vow and Flame, Grant Me Strength round off this build by buffing your attack and defense further.

Best end-game Strength builds

The end-game builds work best for characters up to level 150 and beyond. This is where you start feeling the late-game power spike from most enemies. Everything hits harder and will not go down easily, so it would be best for you to go all out with your choice of armaments with these builds.

1) Royal Frost Knight

• Recommended Level: 150
• Primary Stats: Strength, Intelligence
• Secondary Stats: Vigor, Endurance
• Weapons: Royal Greatsword, Clayman’s Harpoon, Eclipse Greatshield
• Armor: Haima Glintstone Crown, any heavy armor set (as heavy as possible to avoid heavy rolling)
• Talismans: Shard of Alexander, Radagon’s Soreseal, Great-Jar’s Arsenal, Carian Filigreed Crest
• Weapon Skills: Wolf’s Assault, Ice Spear
• Spells: Scholar’s Shield

The Royal Frost Knight build revolves around taking down your foes with the power of the Royal Greatsword’s Wolf’s Assault skill to inflict frostbite on your enemies. Since the build revolves around frostbite, using Ice Spear with the Clayman’s Harpoon will increase the chances of successfully inflicting frostbite on all your foes.

Depending on the situation, you can swap between them.

The Eclipse Greatshield is your defense of choice to negate incoming damage. It can be buffed with Scholar’s Shield to allow you to absorb even more damage (if you choose to equip a Staff in your right hand).

The Shard of Alexander improves your skill damage even further while the Carian Filigreed Crest reduces your FP costs, so make sure to include both.

2) Flame Dancer

• Recommended Level: 150
• Primary Stats: Strength, Faith
• Secondary Stats: Vigor, Endurance
• Weapons: Giant’s Red Braid, Clawmark Seal, any Greatshield
• Armor: Any heavy armor set with high poise (as heavy as possible to avoid heavy rolling)
• Talismans: Fire Scorpion Charm, Ritual Sword Talisman, Shard of Alexander, Great-Jar’s Arsenal
• Weapon Skills: Flame Dance
• Spells: Flame Grant Me Strength, Golden Vow, Black Flame, Black Flame Ritual, Flame Fall Upon Them

The Flame Dancer build is the final build and it uses the Giant’s Red Braid as its weapon of choice. Its Flame Dance ability is the centerpiece of this build and it uses the whip’s bonus range to its fullest. The ability deals fire damage so pairing it with a Fire Scorpion Charm to increase your fire damage is a no-brainer. Pair that with a Ritual Sword Talisman to deal even more damage if your HP is full.

Since fire damage is the key to this build, complementing it with incantations like Black Flame, Black Flame Ritual, and Flame, Fall Upon Them is ideal. Since you will be vulnerable in between attacks, utilizing a Greatshield to block attacks and then using the whip’s bonus range to block counter your enemies is your best defense in most situations.

Depending on which point in the game you are, any of these builds should serve your purpose if you choose to go down the Strength path for your playthrough.

All credits for the builds go to the minds at Fextralife.

Best weapons for strength builds in Elden Ring

There are so many great weapons in Elden Ring, that just picking a few to represent feels counter-intuitive. With that being said, we know plenty of you all want to know which weapons are the cream of the crop. We’ve made a list containing the best strength weapons in the game.

Greatsword

• Stat requirements – Str 31, Dex 12
• Physical Attack: 164

Greatswords are a long time mainstay of both RPGs and FromSoft games. This one is a direct homage to Guts from the manga Berserk. You can find it in Dragonbarrow, and its active skill is Stamp (Upward Cut), which is great for tearing down enemies quickly. We think it’s a great pick because of its phenomenal damage and excellent late game scaling

Grafted Blade Greatsword

• Stat requirements: Str 40, Dex 14
• Physical attack: 162

This behemoth looks like it’s straight out of Game of Thrones with its many grafted-on blades. It is acquired from Leonine Misbegotten at Castle Morne and is one of the most devastating strength build weapons around. We like this one not just because of its gargantuan damage output, but also for its unique weapon skill: Oath of Vengeance. This skill gives 5 points to all of your attributes for 60 seconds, which can be huge in the right circumstances.

Starscourge Greatsword

• Stat requirements: Str 38, Dex 12, and 15 Int
• Physical Attack: 129

The great blade of Radahn himself. You can obtain this mighty sword yourself by giving Remembrance of the Starscourge, acquired by beating General Radahn, to Enia at the Roundtable Hold. Not gonna lie, this is probably my favorite greatsword in the game because of how awesome it looks. This sword’s weapon skill is Starcaller Cry, which pulls enemies in like a black hole, then damages them with a gravitational explosion.

Axe of Godrick

• Stat requirements: Str 34, Dex 22
• Physical Attack: 142

We couldn’t possibly make a list of the best strength weapons without including at least one axe. The Axe of Godrick isn’t just any axe, it’s the axe of axes. You can get this bad boy after receiving the Remembrance of the Grafted from the boss Godrick the Grafted. Its weapon skill is “I Command Thee, Kneel!”

Brick hammer

• Stat requirements: Str 31
• Physical attack: 122

This is one of our favorite hammers in Elden Ring. The Brick Hammer packs a wallop and looks darn cool while doing it. Its weapon skill is Barbaric Roar, which temporarily increases attack power when activated. This weapon is great for staggering enemies easily.