The Lands Between is about to get a lot larger. With the upcoming Shadows of the Erdtree expansion, now is the perfect time to start a new playthrough of Elden Ring. Let’s get some great build ideas down so you can explore with ease.
For our purposes, “early game” in Elden Ring means you are under level 50 and presumably in the starting area of Limgrave, Weeping Peninsula, or early Liurnia of the Lakes. Check out our starting classes guide for the best starting classes. But here are four builds perfect for clearing the first few areas of Elden Ring, taking out Godrick, and setting you up for success.
The best early Strength/Faith build in Elden Ring
| Starting Class | Confessor |
| Important Stats | Faith 20, Strength 24, Vigor 30, Dexterity 14 |
| Important Items | Golden Halberd, Clawmark Seal, Flame, Grant Me Strength |
| Pros | Versatile, able to heal, deals massive damage with single attacks |
| Cons | Slower attacks, requires you to defeat Tree Sentinel |
Strength and Faith are a huge theme in Elden Ring, with many boss weapons requiring both stats to function properly. A Confessor splitting their wants between Strength and Vigor will be rewarded with a build capable of a wide array of buffs, able to do good damage with big weapons and take a hit. The largest issue with this build is that its best weapon, the Golden Halberd, is found when slaying the Tree Sentinel—a difficult boss this early on. Try to find a weapon you want to upgrade before taking down the big guy. Maybe with the Sacred Blade weapon art you can find outside of the Third Church of Marika.
This build is also early enough to have several points in great stats for pivoting. If you want to change your build to facilitate Dexterity-based weapons, a Strength of 24 lets you move towards a Quality build with enough Faith to cast important buffs, like Faith, Grant Me Strength. However, as you level, be ready to invest more in Mind and Endurance to have more FP and Stamina.
The best early pure Dexterity build in Elden Ring
| Starting Class | Warrior |
| Important Stats | Dexterity 33, Vigor 40 |
| Important Items | Uchigatana or Shamshir, Blue Dancer Charm |
| Pros | High damage, great speed, adaptable into late game |
| Cons | Lower single-hit damage, slightly lower durability than most builds if you use the Blue Dancer Charm |
Unsurprisingly, Dexterity is a popular stat in Elden Ring and is well-supported even as early as Limgrave. By focusing on the Warrior’s solid starting Dexterity, you give yourself access to an immediate variety of weapons—like the Great Épée, Caestus, and Uchigatana—to try before properly entering The Lands Between.
If you want a ton of levels quickly, grab a weapon with bleed, like the Morningstar, and go east to Dragonbarrow. Kill the Sleeping Dragon by whacking her tail, and you can easily get 40 or more levels and decimate the early game.
A great way to augment this build is with the Blue Dancer Charm, a unique Talisman in the Highroad Cave, which buffs your damage as your Equip Load gets lower. If you only use a weapon, this can lead to big damage numbers with relatively small weapons. Since Dexterity weapons are fast, you can safely deal damage and back up before taking a hit, compensating for your lower armor. The Shamshir and other Curved Swords work great in this role, capable of quick lights or dedicated, high-damage heavies.
Then, as you level up, you can work towards a flavored build like the Assassin or specialize in a weapon like the Nagakiba or Dual Katanas.
The best early Sorcery build in Elden Ring
| Starting Class | Astrologer |
| Important Stats | Intelligence 30, Mind 25, Vigor 29 |
| Important Items | Academy Glintstone Staff, Meteorite Staff, Graven-School Talisman, Royal House Scroll, Academy Scroll |
| Pros | Deals incredible damage at a safe range, deals rarely resisted damage |
| Cons | Casting time requires charging |
Intelligence is not as well-liked as Faith in Elden Ring, but it comes with the benefit of most of the build being available early on. Raya Lucaria is a magic school, making your journey almost complete by the time you take out Rennala. Since you can sneak to Liurnia of the Lakes immediately through a path northeast of Stormveil Castle, it’s possible to meet the sorcerer Thops and gain access to the school quite early.
Even without this cheesy method, you can meet the Sorceress Sellen in Waypoint Ruins almost immediately. By getting her aid, you gain access to many useful early game Sorceries—like Glintstone Stars and Scholar’s Armament—and her questline. In addition, you can ride to the east to a murky, poisonous swamp and get the S Scaling Meteorite Staff—alongside the Rock Sling Gravity Sorcery—without fighting a single thing.
Since Sorcerers only need Intelligence, you can bump Vigor to your heart’s content. And it’s not like Astrologers only need to be casters—you can safely pivot to Spellblade-like builds with the Dark Moon Greatsword or Moonveil Katana without much effort by investing slightly into Dexterity and Strength.
The best early Bleed build in Elden Ring
| Starting Class | Bandit |
| Important Stats | Arcane 30, Dexterity 20, Mind 21, Vigor 22 |
| Important Items | Reduvia, Uchigatana, Ash of War: Bloody Slash |
| Pros | Fantastic item find, high boss damage |
| Cons | Reliance on status which some bosses resist |
This build revolves around the Reduvia dagger, a very early bleed-centric weapon that scales fantastically with Arcane and Dexterity. Found east of the starting location by slaying the invader in the river, this dagger has a blood splash weapon skill able to build bleed quickly. Alternatively, you can get the Bloody Slash Art of War from Fort Haight and make nearly any weapon a Blood Weapon—we recommend the Uchigatana for its innate bleed and solid reach.
In either case, this build rewards consistently damaging foes and proccing the Hemorrhage status effect, taking out 10 to 15 percent of most bosses’ health bar. Reduvia is an excellent way to do this, but Elden Ring has many weapons with innate bleed chances and ways to buff it as you go on, making it a
As you progress, you can stick with the Bleed theme or go for a more Arcane approach. You can even use fun weapons like the Ripple Blade with great Arcane scaling or become a Dragon Knight through having high Arcane.
