In Elden Ring, stats play a major role in your character’s progress. Understanding what improving a stat entails when leveling up is fundamental to properly building your build. So here is a detailed guide to all the stats in the game to help you with your character progression. You can also watch our video above to understand all details about stats in Elden Ring. (Video player won’t work with adblocker)
Table of Contents
All Main Stats in Elden Ring
- Vigor
- Mind
- Endurance
- Strength
- Dexterity
- Intelligence
- Faith
- Arcane
VIGOR
Vigor (HP) increases the following:
- Determines how much HP you have.
- Raises your Immunity, which determines your resistance to Poison and Rot.
- Also raises resistance to Fire.
No matter which build you choose, it’s usually one of the first stats you want to improve in order to be able to take more hits and therefore have a greater margin of error.
Choosing to invest in force rarely turns out to be a bad choice, especially at the beginning when you discover the game, and this is particularly true in Elden Ring where certain bosses can very easily one-shot you without a significant investment so n Don’t be afraid to dedicate your first levels to it.
MIND
Mind increases the following:
- The number of FP (game mana)
- Focus (and therefore resistance to Sleep and Insanity)
In Elden Ring , you need FP to use spells, but also to use summons, weapon skills, and Ashes of War. Thus, it’s a stat that will appeal to all builds, not just mages. That being said, since you have the ability to split your Vials freely between healing HP and FP, you may very well decide to sacrifice a vial or two for your FP rather than investing in Mind.
ENDURANCE
Endurance Stat increases the following:
- The stamina bar
- Physical Defense
- Toughness (and therefore resistance to Bleeding and Freezing)
- Allows you to carry more equipment and use heavier gear by raising your maximum equipment load
The stamina bar is simply fundamental in the game. Sprinting, jumping, attacking, dodging or blocking an attack consumes stamina. When your bar is empty, you can’t do any of these actions, which leaves you completely vulnerable and therefore puts you in a very delicate situation until the bar refills.
Along with vitality, endurance will therefore be a statistic that you will have to focus on regardless of your build in order to increase your ability to act against enemies.
STRENGTH
Strength increases the following:
- weapon damage with Strength scaling
- The maximum load of equipment
- Is required to equip some heavy weapons
So, if in the old From SoftWare, raising the Force was useful only if you wanted to play it big nag, in Elden Ring , it’s a stat that will be useful for all builds since it influences the maximum load of equipment , and therefore your ability to wear more or less resistant armor while still being able to roll correctly.
Regarding the maximum load of equipment, this initially determines the total equipment that you can carry on your character. This includes the two weapons for both hands, the four armor slots (helmet, robe, gloves, pants), and talismans. Your gear to gear ability ratio cannot exceed 100%.
Secondly, it is important to note that when your equipment / equipment capacity ratio is below 70%, your character moves much faster and your dodges are much more effective. Otherwise, you perform what is called a “Fat roll”, that is to say that the invulnerability frame of your dodges is very thin, which makes your dodges very poor. The game makes you realize that you perform a Fat roll by making the ground shake every time you perform a roll.
Therefore, increasing your stamina gives you the following choice: increase the maximum capacity of equipment in order to reduce my ratio below 70% and have more mobility with certain equipment, or be able to equip even heavier armor in order to have better protection.
As for bonus physical damage, it mostly depends on weapon scaling versus strength. If a weapon has no Force scaling (or only E/D), your Force investment will have little/no influence. Investing in Strength is therefore only really profitable if you plan to use weapons with a scaling of at least B or A in Strength to do a lot of additional damage with each hit.
However, it is important to know that carrying a two-handed weapon allows you to obtain a 50% bonus in Strength, which makes it possible not to be able to use a one-handed weapon, but to be able when even use it while carrying it with two hands. For example, if a weapon requires Strength 15 to use and you only have 10, you can still use it as long as you wield it with two hands.
DEXTERITY
Dexterity increases the following:
- Weapon damage with Dexterity scaling
- Reduces fall damage
- Is required to use advanced equipment
- Reduces time to cast a spell
- Makes you harder to knock off your mount
Weapons that scale with Dexterity are generally less powerful weapons than those that scale with Strength but are much faster (Daggers, Rapiers, Katanas…), as well as ranged weapons like Bows. Dexterity is therefore a stat that will interest you if you are the type who prefers to make several blows rather than a single devastating blow, if you want to have options to manage enemies from a distance, but also if you use a lot of spells since this will allow you to launch them much faster.
Regarding the last bonus, this may seem trivial, but it is actually very practical, especially during certain boss fights where staying on your horse will be crucial to not being overwhelmed by the opponent.
INTELLIGENCE
Intelligence increases the following:
- spell damage
- Weapon damage that scales with Intelligence
- The magic defense
- Needed to use shardstone sorceries
Intelligence is a stat you only need to level up if you plan on using magic, otherwise it will be more or less a waste. If you don’t want to play a pure mage, a hybrid build mixing Strength / Intelligence or Dexterity / Intelligence is quite possible.
The latter even allows you to have a synergy effect with Dexterity which allows you to cast spells more quickly. An Intelligence build will require you to also mount the Spirit in order to have more CP so that you don’t run out of spells in combat.
FAITH
Faith increases the following:
- Weapon damage that scales with Faith
- The damage of faith-based spells
Unlike old Souls, Faith builds have a lot more offensive options than before, which makes these builds much more effective. That being said, the main interest of the Faith builds remains despite everything the possibility of accessing Incantations which offer defensive solutions, support, or even healing.
Just like Intelligence, only increase this stat if you really plan to use incantations, either offensively or defensively. A hybrid build with Strength, Dexterity, or even Intelligence is possible to have access to Support Incantations. Some large physical weapons also require some Faith investment.
ARCANE
Arcane increases the following:
- Discovery (chance to get rare items in drop)
- Required to use certain spells
- A fairly vague stat, Arcane raises your defense against Holy element attacks and your resistance to Death – the instant-kill status ailment, not the concept.
- It also can boost the power of certain Sorceries and Incantations, as the last of the magic-focused stats.
Beware, this stat has nothing to do with the Arcane of Bloodborne and rather resembles the Luck stat from Dark Souls. This affects the drop rate of enemies and animals killed (since the drops from bosses and chests are fixed), and mainly helps to speed up the farming of certain materials.
So it’s not a vital stat for most builds, but can still be useful for dropping more items, or for using certain spells if you have an Intelligence build. Certain weapons or skills, in particular those obtained at the draconic communion, require a certain investment in arcane
If you are new to this game, check out our 15 Tips you should know before starting Elden Ring article.
