This is a Dexterity/Strength build that focuses on making archery viable all the way through to endgame (barring some sidebosses) inElden Ring. Your main weapon will be theBlack Bow, which you will use to focus enemies down from a great distance. You’ll need tons of arrows to make this build work, but you can just use regular Arrows for trash mobs (don’t waste anything good on them).

For tougher enemies, you’re going to use Serpent Arrows or Bloodbone Arrows (Fletched). These will be best saved for bosses. With that being said, there are going to be some bosses that this build can’t reliably take on. Mohg, for instance, will make really quick work of this build - so consider some melee backup, or respecing, before taking him on.

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Serpent Arrow

Bloodbone Arrow (Fletched)

These arrows, paired with the Barrage ability of the Black Bow will inflict a lot of status damage on bosses quickly. They also do a bunch of damage in their own right.

Bloodbone Arrow (Fletched) are crafted. You’ll needNomadic Warrior’s Cookbook [6]in order to make them, along with Thin Beast Bones, Bloodroses, and Flight Pinions.

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Character Creation

Since you really won’t be able to make this build work well until much later, you can pick just about anything you want to start with. I recommend picking the class you feel most comfortable with getting through the game at least one time with. Just keep in mind that we will be focusing on Strength and Dexterity for this build, and will be dropping points in Vigor and Endurance if you prefer builds with more of that in them.

Stat Distribution

Attributes

Intelligence

Endgame Gear

As mentioned before, we’ll be using the Black Bow for this build. This Bow is incredibly fast, and has the same abilities as a Short Bow. This means you can jump and shoot, and most importantly, shoot twice in rapid succession. It also has the Barrage ability. This Bow is extemely fast and agile, and does a lot of damage.

Barrage Skill

This build also has a heavy talisman requirement. We’re going to want to get our hands on theRitual Sword Talisman, theShard of Alexandertalisman, theArrow’s Sting Talisman, and theSpear Talisman. This combination is tailored to suit a pure archer build like this one, enhancing your character’s overall damage as well as the damage you will do with arrows. These are my favourites for this build, though if you want to play around with your talisman loadout, you may find some combinations that work better for you.

Ritual Sword Talisman

Shard of Alexander

Arrow’s Sting Talisman

Spear Talisman

As for your armor, you can pretty much get away with anything as long as it’s light. You’re going to be quite squishy as a pure archer, so your focus should be getting armor that keeps you fast on the battlefield. You could even go naked, if you wanted to.

However, for our helmet, we’re going to go with theWhite Mask.

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White Mask

The reason why we choose this helmet for this build is because we’ll be inflicting a lot of status damage. The faster we can bleed our enemies while wearing this helmet, the faster we can benefit from its buffs - a 10% boost to our attack power for 20 seconds. This buff activates as soon as we inflict blood loss on our enemies (it stacks with theLord of Blood’s Exultationbuff, so if you were going to pick another talisman to use, it’d be that one).

If you’re not sure where to start with light armor, here are some suggestions to get you going:

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Black Knife Set

The way that I liked to play with this build was to forgo armor almost entirely. I used the White Mask and then theZamor Legwraps, for decency.

Zamor Legwraps

This build is a lot of fun to run around the open world with and taking on bosses in arenas where there’s a lot of space. Enjoy, gamers!

Elden Ring: Butt Slam Build Guide

The heavier you are, the chunkier your butt slams are going to be.

Elden Ring

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