There are a lot of ways to get ahead inSoulsgames. The traditional way of learning their action-based mechanics and reading enemies' attacks is one way, and every player will need to do this at some point. Another way is using the right equipment.Elden Ringhas more armor, weapons, and spells than ever before, just so long as players explore to find them. If push comes to shove, NPC summons or other players can be brought in to add more damage and distractions for enemies.Elden Ringeven provided an enhanced alternative to this with Spirit summons, collectible allies that can turn the tide of battle.
However, these are all still role-playing games. Characters are maintained with skill and equipment, but there must always be an underlying baseline of statistics to manage.Elden Ringcarries forwardmany ofDark Souls’ stats, including a variety of attack types and resistances. When the player sits at a site of Lost Grace, they are given the option to spend runes and level up eight stats. These stats can be raised to 99, but they all have several soft caps and one hard cap where their returns stop being worth the investment. A soft cap is any level where the stat bonuses gained by leveling change, and a hard cap is generally where they become useless. While many caps are standardized across stats, some are unique.
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Vigor
The Vigor stat is either the most or least important stat inElden Ring. It governs how much health a character has, and can also boost fire defense and Immunity. Unlike pastSoulsgames,Elden Ring’s Vigor grants lots of health pointswith every level up to 40. It appears FromSoftware wanted players to at least hit this first soft cap, considering the amount of damage late-game enemies deal. Health gains up to level 60 continue to be significant, and Vigor has an unusually high hard cap of 90. Players will often need to ask themselves whether equipping a new sword they found is worth more than surviving two hits from the next boss.
Mind
Next up is Mind, the attribute that controls how much FP - or Focus Points - a character has. It also affects the Focus stat, which governsSleep and Madness resistance. Mind is unique in that the amount of FP it grants increases at level 50 before gradually trailing off toward level 60. This seems to be a reward for players who stuck with the attribute for so long, though by that point they should be able to use all the Spirits, Ashes of War, and spells they want.
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Endurance
The all-important Endurance stat affects the player’s stamina.AnyDark Soulsveteran will value staminafor attacking and defending, whether that be with a shield or a roll. This stat also affects physical defense, Robustness, and the player’s max equip load. The increases in equip load obey normal soft and hard cap rules, but stamina is wholly unique. An alternating one and two to stamina points are received up until Level 50, after which a single stamina point is awarded every three levels. Stamina is measured differently than other stats, but because of that, it also has the least impactful soft caps and most debilitating hard cap.
Equip Load Caps:
Strength
Beyond the stats tied to HUD elements are attributes governing gear usability and effectiveness. There are rare weapons or spells that require a stat to be above one or more caps to use, but at least that implies a lot of power is going into it.Strength leads as a straightforward stat, increasing damage dealt and decreasing physical damage taken.
Dexterity
Dexterity behaves similarly to Strength, allowing players towield Dexterity-based weaponsand granting more damage. Defensive power and the resistances tied to Body are also increased. A lot of miscellaneous attributes improve with Dexterity, including casting speed, fall damage, and resistance to being knocked off of Torrent. Even if the player is not going for a Dexterity build, it may be worth putting a few points into.
Intelligence
Moving away from stats concerned with physical performance,Intelligence is the stat most associated with sorceries. Leveling it unlocks the use of better weapons, casting implements, and spells, and it will increase magic defense. It’s worth noting that spell damage scaling involves different caps than those of other attributes, so magic knights and spellcasters may want to stop at different thresholds.
Sorcery Caps:
Faith
Faith is the Dexterity counterpart to Intelligence, doing the same basic things while offering a greater variety of spell types. Increasing Faith allows players to make use of moreFaith-based weapons and incantations, and ups general magic resistance. It is basically a parallel to Intelligence in terms of its affected numbers, so which one the player wants is up to their preference in style.
Incantation Caps:
Arcane
Finally, Arcane is the replacement forDark Souls’ typical Luck stat, also increasing Discovery for better item drop rates. While Faith is the counterpart to Intelligence like Dexterity is to Strength, Dexterity’s penchant for miscellaneous attributes falls to Arcane. Arcane also increases holy defense, Bleed buildup, the power of certain gear, and Vitality; which protects againstElden Ring’s form of instant death. Arcane is technically another magic stat, but it is a strange one due to very few spells scaling with it, and none doing so exclusively. Thus,Arcane spell catalystsdrawing from another magic stat have different caps than pure catalysts, so they aren’t made too powerful.
Hybrid Catalyst Spell Caps:
Pure Catalyst Spell Caps:
Elden Ringis availabke now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
