In this Elden Ring Guide, Guided author Kevin Willing shows you how to create the perfect skill for your Samurai build in the latest Elden Ring release.
This is the Samurai: As a Samurai in Elden Ring, you start with a Katana and a longbow. This Katana is by far the best starter weapon in Elden Ring. The Longbow is used to lure away enemies from their groups. You also have the fanciest starter armor of all 10 starter classes. As a samurai, your focused attributes are primarily in
Together, you and I want to create the best build ever and find the perfect skill for the Samurai. You should level fast and be equipped with good gear right from the start. That's why you'll go to Caelid, one of the most dangerous regions, right after the start. To make your journey easier, use the teleporter at the Dragon burned ruins. You now start in the middle of Caelid and first move south, then follow the places of mercy in a spiral fashion until you reach Fort Faroth.
These are the items you are looking for: In Fort Faroth, ignore all enemies and sprint through to the end of the fortress. You should come across a ladder that will take you up to the castle walls. In a crate right by the battlements, you will find the right half of the Dectus Medallion. Once you have found this item, jump down the wall on the right and move further over the roof of the fort. You will then reach a hole in the roof: jump down, run to the end of the wall again, and collect the item "Radagon's Soreseal". Radagon's Soreseal gives you 5+ points on the following skills:
Defeat Boss Greyoll: Now find the Elderdragon Greyoll, who is sleeping as an optional boss in Caelid. No, really: the boss just sleeps and you can finish him off meanwhile -- at least from a certain spot (via youtube.com). Once you've defeated him, you'll get tons of runes that will let you level up around 20 to 25 levels.
Before that, you should use the item "Gold-pickled Fowl Foot". The item gives you +30% gain of runes. You can find a Pickled Fowl Foot directly in the starting area of Limgrave at this place:
This is how you skill: Let's assume you've now reached level 35 and haven't invested any skill points in your attributes yet. As a samurai, you should improve the following stats first for the best skill:
Throughout your playthrough below, make sure to upgrade your attributes as follows:
Why so much arcane energy? The Samurai starts with few points in Arcane Energy. You need to fix that in the mid-game and get the attribute to at least 30. This will help you build a bleed build, and scale better with your later weapons. Bleed is still one of the strongest builds around, even in the most recent version of Elden Ring.
Together with the already very good skills for your Samurai, the beginning and the midfield of the game should no longer be a problem for you. Now we'll show you some items you should collect along the way to round out your Bleed build.
Dectus Medallion (right): You already have this item, we're just listing it for completeness.
Dectus Medallion (left): You can find this item in Fort Haight in the southeast of Limgrave.
Bloody Cut: Defeat the knight in Fort Haight. You must pack this Ashes of War on your main weapon, which is the sword you wield in your right hand. The ash is one of the strongest in the game, but it does suck a little HP from you.
Blood Blade: Find the flying scarab in the west of the Altus Plateau region. With this ash of war, you can deal bleeding damage from a distance.
Nagakiba: This katana is huge and offers great range. Use it in your main hand. You can get the Nagakiba in the Altus Plateau region. Go to the second church of Marika and loot the corpse of Yura (you must have completed Yura's quest).
Uchigatana: You continue to use the Uchigatana, but now in your left hand. Give this sword the War Ashes Blood Blade.
What is missing now? In order to get the best out of your swords, you must now improve them with forging stones. You'll need over 100 of them, and you'll have to search for them in the world of Elden Ring. Use our guides or our interactive Elden Ring map to quickly find all the stones.
I love this build! However, I do have a question: with the nagakiba/uchigatana power stance, you have the blood blade on the uchi. What about the nagakiba? Is it worth it to put the blood slash ash on the nagakiba and have dual bloody katanas? Or keep the nagakiba as keen for the extra base damage and dex scaling? Currently I am using this build, but I have blood uchi in left hand and keen nagakiba in main hand with sword dance ash. I'm wondering if I could get more damage output by switching the nagakiba to a blood ash and having dual blood katanas. What is your opinion on this? Thanks!