Shadow of the Erdtree introduces several new weapons and spells never seen before in the base game. With so many flashy options to choose from, the new talismans sometimes go unnoticed. One of the new options introduced is the Blade of Mercy.
How to get the Blade of Mercy in Elden Ring
The Blade of Mercy is a new talisman introduced in Shadow of the Erdtree. You can find this extremely early in the DLC. Make your way to the Scorched Ruins, north of the first Site of Grace you stop at. Once you reach the ruins, climb to the top and enter the main door to find a chest. Open this chest to find the Blade of Mercy talisman.
With this equipped, you gain a 20 percent damage boost every time you land a critical hit. This damage bonus resets every 20 seconds, and you will need to land another backstab or riposte on a staggered enemy to regain the bonus. This talisman is great in combination with other talismans in Elden Ring which also boosts your critical damage.
Now that you know how to acquire the talisman, we need to work it into a viable build.
The best Blade of Mercy build in Elden Ring
The Blade of Mercy build of our choice will require some adjustments. If you are currently using a pre-made build, we recommend using a Larval Tear to respec your character into this endgame build.
| Build parameters | Requirements |
| Recommended level | 150+ |
| Primary stats | Strength, Dexterity |
| Secondary stats | Vigor, Endurance |
| Weapons | Quality Twinblade |
| Armor | Raptor’s Black Feathers Any other armor (maintain medium load) |
| Talismans | Blade of Mercy Dagger Talisman Assassin’s Cerulean Dagger Claw Talisman |
| Weapon skills | Storm Assault |
| Additional spells | N/A |
The next part of this build showcases an ideal stat distribution to make it work.
Stat distribution
The Blade of Mercy build is a Quality build. As such, it has two main stats: Strength and Dexterity. This means you will need to get both of the main stats to at least 40 each. After that, pump out some Vigor to boost your survivability and Endurance to improve your equip load capacity while gaining more stamina for your offense.
This is what your endgame stats should look like.
- Vigor: 50
- Mind: Base level
- Endurance: 35
- Strength: 45
- Dexterity: 45
- Intelligence: Base level
- Faith: Base level
- Arcane: Base level
This build should cap out at around level 175. Any excess points left over from the reallocation and subsequent levels can either be invested into Str/Dex for more damage or Vigor for additional survivability.
Gear breakdown
The weapon is the centerpiece of this build. Our choice is the Twinblade with the Quality affinity. This weapon allows you to slash and break enemy poise with a flurry of attacks fairly quickly. Having the Quality affinity allows it to scale up to a B-tier through Strength and Dexterity. Additionally, you can improve the damage of your weapon with the grease of your choice.
You can also imbue the Twinblade with Ashes of War, our choice is the Storm Assault Ash of War. This skill allows you to leap into the air and slam down with the power of the storm, knocking every enemy aside. It is also a powerful tool to help you break enemy poise, which creates a great opening to land a critical hit.
In terms of armor, you will want the Raptor’s Black Feathers to boost your jumping damage. Most of your attacks will come through jump attacks and Storm Assault, making this piece worth it. The rest of your armor is up to your preference as long as you maintain a medium equipment load.
Talisman breakdown
The Blade of Mercy is the main talisman for this build. As mentioned earlier, your overall damage increases by 20 percent for 20 seconds every time you land a critical hit. You can achieve this through a backstab or a riposte after you break an enemy’s poise and stagger them.
The Dagger Talisman increases your critical hit damage by 17 percent. Since you aim to stagger enemies as much as possible (or backstab them), having a flat boost to your follow-up critical hit is ideal. The damage boost will help you take down bosses faster.
The Assassin’s Cerulean Dagger restores 15 FP every time you land a critical hit. With enough critical hits, this talisman should keep you topped up on FP every time you decide to spam Storm Assault to attack groups of enemies.
The Claw Talisman increases your jump attack damage by 15 percent. When you combine this with the Raptor’s Black Feathers, your jump attack damage increases by 25 percent instead. Additionally, these attacks also deal heavy poise damage.
