Elden Ring leveling and rune farming guide: soft caps, level targets and the best farms

• Every level costs the same number of runes whatever attribute you raise, and the price climbs from 689 runes at level 2 to more than 150,000 at level 150. Runes do double duty as experience and currency, so a level is always a purchase you make instead of something else.
• Vigor is the only attribute with no bad answer: 40 before Leyndell, 50 to 60 for the endgame and Shadow of the Erdtree. Damage stats stop paying well at 60 for Strength and Dexterity, at 50 to 60 for Intelligence and Faith, and at 45 for Arcane status builds, with a final hard stop at 80.
• Most players finish the base game between level 120 and 170. The map does not require it: weapon upgrades matter more than raw levels from Liurnia onward.
• The three farms worth knowing are the Vulgar Militia south of Bestial Sanctum for the early game, the albinaurics and the giant crow at Palace Approach Ledge-Road in Mohgwyn Palace for the mid and late game, and the Furnace Golem bridge at Rauh Ancient Ruins, East in Shadow of the Erdtree.
• Golden Runes are never lost on death. Keep them unspent as insurance and crack them open right before a level-up.
• A respec costs one Larval Tear at Rennala after you beat her in Raya Lucaria. There are 18 tears in the base game and 9 more in the expansion, so experiment freely.

How levels and runes work#

Elden Ring has one resource for everything. Runes drop from every enemy, sit inside Golden Runes on corpses, and get spent on levels, Smithing Stones, spells, armor and consumables alike. Nothing distinguishes the runes you plan to level with from the runes you plan to shop with, which is why the game feels so tense when you are carrying 40,000 of them through a new area. Die and they lie on the ground where you fell (or on the nearest safe ground if you dropped into a pit). You get exactly one attempt to walk back and touch the glowing spot. Die on the way and the pile vanishes for good.

A level is not a stat itself. It is the sum of your eight attributes minus 79, which is why a Wretch with 10 in everything starts at level 1 and a character with 99 in every attribute stops at 713. Raising any attribute by one point raises your level by one, and the price of the next level depends only on the level you are moving to, never on which attribute you chose. Vigor and Arcane cost exactly the same at the same level.

The cost curve is steep. Levels 2 through 11 cost between 689 and 847 runes each, which is roughly what you get from a single Godrick Soldier camp. At level 12 the formula switches to a polynomial, and from there the cost roughly doubles every 20 levels in the mid game and keeps accelerating after that.

Rune cost per level

Two things follow from that table. First, the early levels are almost free, so buying ten levels in Limgrave before Margit is cheap insurance. Second, the last hundred levels of a "max everything" character cost more than the first six hundred combined, which is why 713 is a novelty rather than a goal. Nobody needs it; the game is tuned for a character well under a quarter of that.

Starting classes and the Tarnished Pack

Your class only sets the starting spread and the starting level. Vagabond begins at level 9 with 15 Vigor, Astrologer at level 6 with 16 Intelligence, Wretch at level 1 with 10 in everything. Since August 28, 2026, the Tarnished Pack (included in Elden Ring Tarnished Edition on Nintendo Switch 2, sold separately on PlayStation, Xbox and Steam alongside patch 1.17) adds two more: Heavy Knight, starting at level 10 with 17 Endurance and 15 Strength, and Idus Knight, starting at level 7 with 15 Dexterity, 13 Strength, 12 Mind and 11 Faith. The Heavy Knight has the highest starting Endurance of any class, which makes it the most comfortable start for anyone who wants to wear real armor from the first Site of Grace.

None of it locks you in. A respec later resets every attribute down to the class minimum, so the only lasting consequence of a class is the floor under each stat.

What every attribute actually does#

Elden Ring shows you eight numbers and explains almost nothing about how they scale. The soft caps below are the levels where each extra point starts returning noticeably less. They are not walls: you can go past them, and for Vigor you usually should, but they tell you where the cheapest gains end.

Vigor

Vigor sets your HP, plus fire resistance and immunity. It is the single most important number on the sheet and the one new players underinvest in. The curve accelerates up to 40, then flattens hard.

Between 20 and 40 you gain almost 800 HP, an average of 40 per level. Between 40 and 60 the same twenty levels give 450 HP. Between 60 and 99 you buy 200 HP for 39 levels, which is a waste under almost any circumstances. Sensible targets: 20 before Stormveil Castle, 30 before Raya Lucaria, 40 before the Altus Plateau, 50 before Mountaintops of the Giants and 55 to 60 for Shadow of the Erdtree, where boss combos are long enough that a single extra hit of survivability is worth more than a few percent of damage.

Mind

Mind is your FP pool, which fuels spells, incantations, Ashes of War and Spirit Ash summons. It also raises Focus, your resistance to sleep and madness, from 31 upward.

Soft caps sit at 50 and 60. A pure melee character who only uses a weapon skill occasionally is fine at 12 to 16 and can lean on Cerulean Flasks. A hybrid who casts buffs and leans on a skill such as Lion's Claw every few seconds wants 20 to 25. A dedicated sorcerer or incantation build should reach 35 to 40 by Liurnia and settle at 45 to 55 in the endgame. Spirit Ashes are the sneaky FP sink: Mimic Tear costs HP, but Black Knife Tiche and most legendary ashes cost more than 100 FP to summon, which is a whole Mind investment on its own.

Endurance

Endurance governs stamina, equip load and robustness (resistance to bleed and frostbite, gains from 31). Stamina caps softly at 15, 30 and 50; equip load caps softly at 25 and 60.

Stamina passes 105 at 15 Endurance, the first soft cap, and gains only about a third of a point per level after 50.

The number that matters most is equip load, because staying under 70 percent of it keeps the medium roll, and the medium roll is the difference between dodging Malenia and dying to her. Most builds are comfortable at 25 to 30 Endurance with a mid-weight armor set, which also lands you right at the first two stamina caps. Heavy armor and colossal weapons want 35 to 40. Going to 50 is only for characters who intend to wear Bull-Goat armor and swing a Giant-Crusher, and even then the stamina gain per level from 30 to 50 is barely over one point.

Strength

Strength scales physical damage on heavy weapons, adds a little to your total equip load capacity and lets you wield things like the Greatsword or the Giant-Crusher at all. The damage curve is close to linear from 20 to 60, drops sharply after 60 and stops at 80. Two-handing multiplies Strength by 1.5 for requirement and scaling purposes, which is why 54 Strength two-handed counts as 81 and why 54 is the classic endgame Strength target for players who always two-hand. A one-handed Strength build that uses a shield should go to 60 and no further; the last twenty points to 80 give a few percent on most weapons and cost well over 3 million runes at level 150.

Dexterity

Dexterity scales katanas, curved swords, twinblades, bows and most fast weapons on the same 60 / 80 shape as Strength. It also speeds up spell casting (up to 70 Dexterity) and reduces fall damage. For a pure Dexterity build, 60 is the endgame target. For a sorcerer, 20 to 30 Dexterity is a real quality-of-life buy because faster Glintstone Pebbles and Comets mean more damage between boss windows, but it is a luxury, not a requirement.

Intelligence

Intelligence scales sorceries and Intelligence-scaling weapons such as the Moonveil, Dark Moon Greatsword and any weapon with a Magic or Cold affinity. Requirements gate spells hard: Comet Azur needs 60, Ranni's Dark Moon 68, Rennala's Full Moon 70. Weapon damage shows diminishing returns past 50 and again at 80; spell scaling through a staff softens around 60 and 80. The practical target is 60 for a sorcerer who wants the big spells and 50 to 55 for a hybrid who leans on the Moonveil or Wing of Astel. Intelligence also raises magic resistance, which is a small bonus in Raya Lucaria and nothing anywhere else.

Faith

Faith scales incantations and Faith weapons (Blasphemous Blade, Sacred Relic Sword, Coded Sword, Flame and Sacred affinities) on the same shape as Intelligence: 50 to 60 is the meaningful stopping point, 80 the hard stop. Faith builds have an extra reason to hit exact numbers: Golden Vow needs 25, Flame, Grant Me Strength only 15, Lightning Spear 24, and the dragon incantations ask for Faith in the teens or twenties plus an Arcane requirement on top. A melee character who only wants Flame, Grant Me Strength and Golden Vow as buffs needs 25 Faith and not one point more.

Arcane

Arcane does three separate jobs. It raises item discovery by exactly one point per level, so 30 Arcane means 130 discovery and 30 percent better drop odds, which matters for Rune Arc farming and for the Smithing Stone miners. It scales status buildup (bleed, poison, Scarlet Rot, madness) on Occult, Blood and Poison affinity weapons, with gains that peak between 40 and 45 and fall off at 60. And it scales the dragon incantations and Bloodflame spells. For a bleed build, 45 Arcane is the target and 50 the ceiling; past that, points in Dexterity or Vigor are worth more. Arcane also raises vitality, your resistance to Death Blight.

Soft caps at a glance

Level targets for every part of the game#

The Lands Between has no level gate, only a damage gate. The ranges below describe where the game stops punishing you for your level and starts punishing you for your reflexes, which is where it is most fun. Two rules matter more than any number in the table: your weapon upgrade level counts for at least as much as your character level, and 40 Vigor by the Altus Plateau covers more sins than any other single investment.

Somber weapons use Somber Smithing Stones and cap at +10, so read the right-hand column as +25 for standard weapons and roughly +10 for somber ones at the same point in the game.

Bosses and the level that makes them fair

A boss is "fair" at the level where it takes five to ten attempts to learn rather than thirty attempts to outlast. Margit, the Fell Omen, is built to beat a level-15 character; at 25 with a +3 weapon and Spirit Ashes he becomes a lesson instead of a wall. Godrick the Grafted is comfortable at 30 to 40. Rennala is a pushover at 40 with any weapon and a summon. Starscourge Radahn, the first real gate, is designed around 60 to 70 with a +10 to +12 weapon and the NPC summons the festival hands you. Morgott in Leyndell wants 90 to 100. The Fire Giant wants 100 to 110 and, more than anything, a weapon that can reach his ankles. Maliketh, the Black Blade, wants 120 and 50 Vigor because his Destined Death attacks lower your maximum HP. Malenia is the one fight where level matters less than anything: 130 to 150 is typical, but her Waterfowl Dance kills a 60-Vigor character just as reliably as a 40-Vigor one if you stand in it. Radagon and the Elden Beast together are a 120 to 150 fight where 50 Vigor is the entire difference between three hits and four.

Shadow of the Erdtree runs on a second track

The expansion adds a parallel progression system that overrides your character level for most of its difficulty. Scadutree Fragments, 50 in total, raise your Scadutree Blessing up to level 20, and each level multiplies the damage you deal and divides the damage you take inside the Land of Shadow. Since patch 1.12.2, blessing level 1 gives 1.10x damage dealt and 0.909x damage taken; level 5 gives 1.35x and 0.740x; level 10 gives 1.65x and 0.606x; level 15 gives 1.92x and 0.519x; and level 20 gives 2.05x dealt and 0.487x taken. The early levels cost a single fragment each, the later ones up to three. Revered Spirit Ashes do the same for Spirit Ashes and Torrent on a separate track.

The consequence is blunt: a level-200 character at blessing level 2 will struggle against Rellana, and a level-130 character at blessing level 10 will not. Do not grind character levels for the expansion. Grind fragments, and treat Messmer at blessing 8 to 10 and the final boss at blessing 15 or more as the targets that actually matter.

The best rune farms by phase of the game#

Farming in Elden Ring is rarely required, but two or three cheap levels or a stack of Smithing Stones before a wall is legitimate. The spots below are ranked by runes per minute against effort and risk, with the best in each phase first. Every one of them resets by resting at the named Site of Grace.

Early game: Bestial Sanctum through the back door

The Vulgar Militia camp below Bestial Sanctum in Dragonbarrow gives 1,023 runes per kill for enemies that die in two hits from a +3 weapon, and you can be there within the first hour thanks to a hidden portal in Limgrave.

1. Ride to the Third Church of Marika in east Limgrave, on the road toward Caelid. Pick up the Flask of Wondrous Physick and the Sacred Tear inside.
2. Leave through the front and go north to the shallow river behind the church. Follow it east and search the bushes along the eastern cliff: a Sending Gate is hidden in the foliage.
3. Step through. You arrive at Bestial Sanctum, the sanctum where Gurranq, Beast Clergyman, trades Deathroot for incantations. Touch the Site of Grace at the doors.
4. Do not climb the steps. The Black Blade Kindred sitting on them is a late-game boss. Instead go down and south toward the bridge.
5. The Vulgar Militiamen patrol the road toward the bridge in groups of two and three. Pull them one at a time with a thrown Kukri or a bow so you never fight three at once. They stagger easily and drop 1,023 runes each.
6. Rest at the Bestial Sanctum grace, repeat. Twenty kills is a little over 20,000 runes, which is Vigor from 15 to 25 in Limgrave prices.

The same trip opens Lenne's Rise to the southeast, near the Farum Greatbridge, which has the single best rune-per-second trick in the early game. From the Lenne's Rise Site of Grace, ride west on Torrent. A giant Silver Tear spawns and rolls toward you; jump to the right and back so it rolls off the cliff edge. It dies for 1,952 runes, and the whole loop takes fifteen seconds. Ride back, rest, repeat.

If you would rather not leave Limgrave, the trolls at the Stormgate south of Warmaster's Shack give 1,000 runes each and are slow enough to jump-attack from behind. It is safer and roughly a third as fast.

Early to mid game: the two rune boosters

Before any mid-game farm, get the two items that multiply everything else.

1. Gold Scarab is a talisman that raises rune gains by 20 percent. It sits in the Abandoned Cave in Caelid. From the Smoldering Wall Site of Grace on the Caelid highway, head east to the canyon and cross it on the tree branches that bridge the gap. The cave is full of Scarlet Rot pools, so bring Preserving Boluses or a Flame, Cleanse Me incantation. The bosses at the end are two Cleanrot Knights, one with a sickle and one with a spear. They are manageable at level 50 with a summon that splits them up.
2. Gold-Pickled Fowl Foot is a consumable that raises rune gains by 30 percent for three minutes. It is crafted from Missionary's Cookbook [2] with three Rowa Fruit, one Four-Toed Fowl Foot and one Gold Firefly. The effect survives resting at a Site of Grace but not fast travel, so use it only once you are standing at the farm.

The two multiply rather than add: 1.2 times 1.3 is 1.56, so a 1,023-rune militiaman becomes 1,596 and an 11,000-rune crow becomes 17,160.

Mid game: a one-time 50,000 and an early ticket to Mohgwyn

Elder Dragon Greyoll lies outside Fort Faroth in Dragonbarrow and never moves. She has enormous HP but is defenseless against bleed. With a Morning Star (12 Strength, 8 Dexterity) or any weapon with a Blood affinity, stand at her flank, hit her repeatedly and let the bleed procs do the work. Her five smaller dragons wake up and breathe at you, so fight from the side closest to the Fort Faroth Site of Grace and retreat to reset if needed. She gives 50,000 runes and drops five Dragon Hearts, once per playthrough.

The better mid-game move is to unlock the best farm in the game forty hours early through White Mask Varré's questline.

1. Talk to Varré at The First Step in Limgrave until he stops, then find him again at the Rose Church in western Liurnia. Tell him the Two Fingers did not seem right.
2. He gives you five Festering Bloody Fingers. Invade another player three times (winning is not required; you only need to arrive) and return to him.
3. He hands you the Lord of Blood's Favor. Soak it in the blood of a maiden. The usual choice is the dead Finger Maiden at the Church of Inhibition in northern Liurnia, where Festering Fingerprint Vyke invades as you approach; Irina's body on the Weeping Peninsula also works once her story has ended.
4. Return the cloth to Varré. He gives you the Pureblood Knight's Medal. Use it and you are teleported to the edge of Mohgwyn Palace.
5. Run north through the cave and the forest of albinaurics to the Palace Approach Ledge-Road Site of Grace.

If you play offline or refuse to invade, the other entrance is a Sending Gate on a cliff north of the Yelough Anix Ruins in the Consecrated Snowfield, which requires both halves of the Haligtree Secret Medallion and is a 110-plus area.

Late game: Palace Approach Ledge-Road

This is the farm everybody talks about, and it has two halves.

1. From the Palace Approach Ledge-Road grace, look over the ledge to the lake of blood below. A monstrous crow wanders there. Hit it once with any bow or spell; it charges up the cliff, misjudges the edge and falls to its death for 11,000 runes. Rest, repeat. Every loop is under thirty seconds.
2. The slope in front of the grace is lined with sleeping albinaurics who do not fight back until struck. With a fast weapon and Gold Scarab, a full sweep of the slope is worth tens of thousands of runes and takes about two minutes. With Rot Pots or any area spell you can hit several at once.
3. The fastest version needs the Sacred Relic Sword, forged from the Elden Remembrance you get from defeating the Elden Beast. Its skill, Wave of Gold, sends a horizontal wave down the entire slope. One or two casts kill everything in view for 40,000 runes or more in about twenty seconds. Rest at the grace, walk two steps, cast again. This is how players reach level 200-plus for New Game Plus in an evening.

For a lower-tech late-game alternative, the Prayer Room grace in Elphael, Brace of the Haligtree, begins a corridor where nearly every enemy faces away from you. Backstabs on the Haligtree Knights and Cleanrot Knights there give 2,000 to 3,000 runes each without a single fair fight.

Shadow of the Erdtree: let the Furnace Golem do the work

The expansion multiplies rune drops to match its difficulty, so even ordinary soldiers are worth more than a Caelid boss. Three spots stand out.

1. Rauh Ancient Ruins, East. From the Site of Grace, walk west toward the broken bridge below. A Furnace Golem stands at the far end and wakes up as you step onto the bridge, winding up a spiralling fire attack. The bridge is packed with Messmer soldiers. As soon as the flames start, run back and rest at the grace: the attack keeps going while the enemies respawn, and it burns all of them. Expect roughly 14,000 to 18,000 runes per loop, about 30,000 with Gold Scarab and a Fowl Foot, for ten seconds of walking. Do not kill the golem or the farm ends.
2. Shadow Keep, Storehouse First Floor. The library beside the grace holds a crowd of librarian spirits worth 1,495 each and Vulgar Militiamen worth 2,895 each. With any area skill you clear about 40,000 runes before the room is empty, then rest and repeat.
3. Sunken Chapel in the Church District of Shadow Keep, after you lower the water. Walk around the building to the northeast and up the stairs into the large church. A red fire mage keeps igniting a pack of undead who then walk toward you and explode. Each one is worth roughly 1,500 to 2,000 runes, and they line up so a single sweep hits several. Do not kill the mage: he is the reason they keep coming.

Every one of these spots is worth doing once for the Smithing Stone money, but not as a substitute for Scadutree Fragments. The runes are for upgrades and a few Vigor levels; the fragments are what actually make Messmer beatable.

Items that carry, protect or multiply runes#

Golden Runes, Hero's Runes and Lord's Runes

Consumable runes are the closest thing the game has to a savings account. They stay in your inventory when you die, so an unspent stack of Golden Runes is a safety net you carry through every boss fog. Use them only when you are standing at a grace with a level-up in mind.

The tier tracks the region: [1] to [3] lie around Limgrave, the teens of thousands show up in Leyndell and the Mountaintops, and Hero's and Lord's Runes are endgame finds in Crumbling Farum Azula and the Haligtree. Golden Rune [13] is worth ten levels in Limgrave and a third of a level at 120, which tells you everything about the cost curve.

Rune Arcs and the Great Runes

A Rune Arc activates whichever Great Rune you have equipped, until you die. Without a Great Rune equipped it only gives a small HP bump, which is why using one before beating Godrick is a waste. Twin Maiden Husks at Roundtable Hold sell five for 4,000 runes each, the Nomadic Merchant in northern Liurnia three, and Hermit Merchants a few more at 4,000 to 8,000. Giant rats drop them rarely: Earthbore Cave in the Weeping Peninsula has eight rats near its entrance and is the standard farm for them, with Arcane and a Silver-Pickled Fowl Foot helping the odds. Helping another player beat a boss as a summon also rewards one.

Each Great Rune must first be restored at its Divine Tower before it does anything.

Godrick's is the best one for most of the game because +5 to eight attributes is effectively 40 free levels, worth several hundred thousand runes at mid-game prices. Morgott's overtakes it once your damage stats are near their caps and 25 percent HP is worth more than +5 everywhere. Radahn's is the choice for casters who value FP and stamina as much as HP.

Boosters and insurance

• Gold Scarab (talisman, Abandoned Cave in Caelid): +20 percent runes from enemies. Wear it while farming and while clearing a region for the first time; take it off for bosses where a real talisman matters.
• Gold-Pickled Fowl Foot (craftable): +30 percent runes for three minutes, stacks with the scarab for 56 percent total.
• Sacrificial Twig (talisman, 3,000 runes from Patches in Murkwater Cave, the Isolated Merchant on the Weeping Peninsula or the Twin Maiden Husks once you have Patches' Bell Bearing): you keep your runes when you die, and the twig is destroyed instead. It does not protect against Death Blight.
• Twiggy Cracked Tear (Flask of Wondrous Physick, found at the Minor Erdtree in the Capital Outskirts): the same protection for 180 seconds after drinking, with the same Death Blight exception.

Mistakes that waste runes#

Leveling damage stats before Vigor

The single most common error is a level-60 character with 25 Vigor and 45 in a damage stat. Leyndell bosses two-shot that character while a 40-Vigor version survives an extra hit, and one extra hit is exactly the margin a boss attempt turns on. Damage stats past 40 give a few percent per point; Vigor from 25 to 40 gives 40 HP per point. Until Vigor is at 40, every level spent elsewhere is a worse trade.

Spreading points across four scaling stats

A weapon with a C in Strength and a C in Dexterity does not want 40 in each; it wants 60 in one and the minimum in the other, or a different weapon. Pick the stat that your main weapon scales best with and drive it to its soft cap before touching anything else. A "quality" build that splits Strength and Dexterity only works with weapons that scale well with both, such as the Banished Knight's Greatsword or the plain Greatsword on a Quality affinity.

Chasing levels instead of Smithing Stones

Ten levels at level 60 cost about 250,000 runes. Taking a weapon from +6 to +12 costs a fraction of that in stones and roughly doubles its damage. From Liurnia onward, always check whether the next wall is an upgrade problem before it is a level problem. Bell Bearings handed to the Twin Maiden Husks make Smithing Stones [1] through [6] purchasable, so the money is never wasted.

Over-leveling the base game

A level-180 character makes the late base game feel like Limgrave, then walks into Shadow of the Erdtree and finds that nothing changed because the expansion scales on Scadutree Blessing. The endgame is tuned for 120 to 150, and multiplayer summoning ranges are tied to level and weapon upgrade, so a very high level also shrinks the pool of players you can help or be helped by. Invasion and duel communities gather at 125 to 150 for the same reason. If you want more power without inflating your level, that is what Great Runes, talismans and Physick tears are for.

Carrying runes into a boss fog

Every boss room is a place where you either lose your runes or spend them afterward. Spend them before. If you are 3,000 short of a level, use a Golden Rune. If you cannot afford a level, buy the Smithing Stones you were going to buy anyway. Walking into Radahn's arena with 60,000 runes is a choice to gamble the equivalent of four levels on a first attempt.

Leveling Endurance for equip load alone

The heavy roll is a punishment, but the answer is usually lighter armor rather than fifteen levels of Endurance. Armor in Elden Ring scales poorly compared with the damage negation you get from talismans and buffs; the Great-Jar's Arsenal talisman adds 19 percent equip load and the Erdtree's Favor +2 another 8 percent. Endurance to 30 is right for nearly everyone. Endurance to 50 is right only for the Bull-Goat set.

Respec: Rennala and Larval Tears#

Defeating Rennala, Queen of the Full Moon, at the top of Raya Lucaria Academy gives you the Great Rune of the Unborn and turns her into an NPC at the Raya Lucaria Grand Library grace. From then on she offers Rebirth: hand over one Larval Tear and redistribute every attribute point you have earned, with two limits. No attribute can go below your starting class's value, and your total level does not change. She also offers Cosmetics, which changes your appearance for free. If you back out of the rebirth menu before confirming, the tear is not consumed.

There are 18 Larval Tears in the base game and 9 more in Shadow of the Erdtree, which is enough to respec every dozen levels if you want to. The base-game ones:

In the Land of Shadow, the nine tears appear only at night, inside rings of glowing blue gravestones, at Prospect Town, the Scorched Ruins, the Suppressing Pillar, the Church of the Crusade, the Abandoned Ailing Village, Rabbath's Rise, Messmer's Army Encampment and two spots at Rauh Base. Change the time of day at any Site of Grace to make them show up.

Respeccing is not a luxury. It is the intended way to try a bleed build in Caelid, a sorcerer for the Haligtree and a Faith build for the expansion on one character, and it is cheaper than a second playthrough by fifty hours.

Level targets by build type#

The spreads below are for level 150, which is where most builds finish the base game and where the expansion is tuned. They assume a common starting class for each build and sum to the 229 attribute points a level-150 character has. Adjust down proportionally for level 120 or 125 by trimming Endurance first, then the damage stat.

Three notes on reading the table. The Strength build stops at 70 rather than 80 because two-handing already pushes effective Strength past the cap; a player who never two-hands should swap ten points from Strength to Vigor. The Sorcerer's 18 Dexterity is for cast speed and Moonveil access, not damage. The bleed build's 40 Dexterity exists because Rivers of Blood and most Blood-affinity katanas still scale with Dexterity for base damage while Arcane drives the buildup.

Frequently asked questions#

What level should you be to finish Elden Ring? Most players beat the Elden Beast between 120 and 170. The fight is fair at 120 with a +25 weapon and 50 Vigor; the extra levels are comfort, not necessity.

What level should you be for Shadow of the Erdtree? Enter at 150 or so with a +25 (or +10 somber) weapon, then stop counting levels and count Scadutree Fragments instead. Blessing level 10 before Messmer and 15 or more before the final boss matters far more than any further character levels.

Does the game get harder if you level up? No. Enemies in Elden Ring do not scale with your level. Every area has fixed stats, which is why a level-40 character can go back to Limgrave and one-shot everything and why Caelid feels impossible at level 20.

Is there a level cap? Level 713, reached when every attribute is at 99. Getting there costs about 1.69 billion runes, and the final level alone costs 8.9 million. It has no gameplay purpose beyond bragging.

Do Golden Runes get lost when you die? No. Consumable runes stay in your inventory through death. Only the loose runes shown in the corner of the screen drop where you fell.

How many times can you respec? Once per Larval Tear. There are 27 tears across the base game and expansion, and they return in New Game Plus, so there is no practical limit for anyone willing to collect them.

Should you use a Rune Arc before every boss? Only after you have a restored Great Rune equipped. With Godrick's or Morgott's active, yes, on any boss you expect to beat within a couple of tries; on a boss that is going to take twenty attempts, save the arc for the attempt where you finally learn the second phase.

Is it worth farming runes at all? Rarely for levels, often for upgrades. Fifteen minutes at Bestial Sanctum buys a +6 weapon in Liurnia; twenty minutes at Palace Approach Ledge-Road with a Sacred Relic Sword buys a complete second build for New Game Plus. Farming to skip learning a boss usually just moves the wall one boss later.