The Way of Bushido
It's safe to say that two things are very true for the RPG world of games. The first is that in every game, especially in fantasy, there's some kind of sword and likely a devoted fan base to using swords. The second is that everything follows social interest trends.
After the age of the Vikings with games like Assassin's Creed Valhalla, the next big trend was feudal Japan and with that we saw the rise of the samurai games. Now, Ghost of Tsushima may have really set the stage for the samurai fad, but Elden Ring was right there with it, being one of the first major recent RPG titles to open up an entire class dedicated to samurai. With that, the way of Bushido was born, and so were the builds dedicated to the samurai warrior.
What Is a Samurai Build and Why You Should Play One
*Note: All builds in this are for New Game+ up to level 200. Entry level starting builds and build credits will be provided at the end of each section.
If you really get down to it, the Samurai class is probably one of the most well-rounded classes of them all. It plays well into Strength builds just like the Hero, but the options for Dexterity make this build more open to a wide range of weapons including bows. It also opens up well to the status side of Elden Ring, having an answer and a special build for almost any type of status or damage type.
The Samurai class plays just as well for the players who end up going the Berserker route and dual wielding, as it does for the archer that is trying to clean up the enemies at range. The Samurai build isn’t for the faint of heart, just to be clear. This is one of the more skill-based classes that I’ve started out in so far, and it can be daunting to try and figure out how to balance your range and your melee. But this build does it right and even the earliest bosses end up taking a hit when running up against weapons with skills like Bloodflame Blade or Corpse Piler.
When you get down to it, there are so many options for how to play the Samurai that it can feel kind of daunting at first. And there are so many ways to take this class that narrowing it down into a top 5 list was nearly impossible to do. As a result, I ended up choosing this list based entirely on how the builds would look for a New Game+, while also accounting for the fact that this build can be taken in any direction. It was hard to leave some of my favorites off the list, such as Blazing Bushido, but in the end these builds are focused around the number of options available to them, how many enemies the build can be used against across the board, and how little I had to modify these builds when testing them on different playthroughs.
5. Serpent Samurai
The Path of the Poisoner
The Serpent Samurai is essentially the poisoner damage build being put into the samurai build. Samurai already scales well with weapons that focus on dexterity and that includes pretty much all of the poison weapons. There are even dedicated weapons to the idea in the Serpent Bow, Serpentbone blade, and Serpent arrows. Since the katana and longbow are the original parts to this build, it just seems like poison makes the list.
There were a lot of contenders for the top 5 samurai builds, and it really boiled down to what could do the most damage. There are a lot of elemental builds that could have made the list like the Fextralife popular 'Blazing Bushido' which can be turned into an all-game fire build. Or there are several builds like the 'Soul Samurai' which effectively balances with the spellblade concept. But poison made the build for a few key reasons.
Several of the elemental builds have late game enemies that are fairly resistant to it. But almost nothing is completely resistant to both poison and scarlet rot. This build is just good because it can trigger two different status effects that keep on taking chunks out of the enemy HP bar. What makes it better is that this build can trigger two status effects pretty easily which means stacking options.
But this build does have some weaknesses. Poison is a bit of a slow burn, even with scarlet rot helping it out. If you have an aggressive enough enemy, they may manage to land a fatal hit before you finish the job. There's also the fact that samurai are not always the most tanky builds, and this build is meant to trade blows on a fairly regular basis. That means that sometimes it might be hard to get one over on a really aggressive enemy or if you get caught on the bad side of the traded blows.
Key Components of the build:
The Important stats for this build are primarily going to be put into Dexterity and Endurance for this build. Endurance gives you better stamina bars for attacks, and Dexterity is the big winner for scaling the poison damage on the Serpentbone blade and Uchigatana weapons. Arcane can be buffed up some, but it ends up as a secondary stat in this build. It's good to have, but not really necessary unless some extra flare is being added somewhere else.
The big star of the melee for this build is going to be the Serpentbone Blade. It has a double strike ash of war that lets it deal plenty of physical damage and then a 132 poison buildup if both hits strike. This is dual wielded with another katana, or another weapon that has been given poison power to trigger poison damage and whittle down large chunks of their health over time.
The Serpent Bow and Black Bow are the stars of this build when it comes to range. The Serpent bow gives poison damage to any arrow fired from it, and has good damage with mighty shot. The black bow doesn't give any additional damage, but it shoots like a short bow and has barrage which means getting off multiple arrows fast to trigger faster poison buildup.
Suggested Build Loadout:
Melee Weapons:
- Serpentbone Blade- This is the primary weapon for this build and deals poison damage with a double slash technique. Serpentbone Blade requires: 11 Strength, 22 Dexterity
- Nagakiba- This is the longest ranged katana of them all and can be enchanted with poison mist or Poison Moth Flight to give an additional weapon to the build. Nagakiba requires: 18 Strength, 22 Dexterity
- Uchigatana- set with poison affinities and ashes of war to serve as a good left-hand weapon. Uchigatana requires: 11 Strength, 15 Dexterity
- Cross-Naginata- This is a good long reaching melee weapon that can be given poison affinities or ashes of war. Cross-Naginata requires: 16 Strength, 20 Dexterity
- Rotten Crystal Spear- this is a spear that does a decent amount of physical and magic damage, but also causes 55 scarlet rot buildup. It makes for a good secondary weapon and uses a skill called charge forth. If you catch an enemy straight on this can trigger multiple hits and rot buildup, and also bring the player in close for a double slash follow-up for poison damage. Rotten Crystal Spear requires: 10 Strength, 16 Dexterity, 16 Intelligence
Ranged Weapons:
- Serpent Bow- This is a good bow for damage, but also applies 15 poison buildup to any arrow fired from it. It also scales with arcane to apply faster buildup. Serpent Bow requires: 8 Strength, 15 Dexterity, 11 Arcane
- Black Bow- This bow has the barrage ability and can be fired like a short bow in combat. It doesn't have any special poison abilities to it except that it can hit a target several times fast to apply a faster rate of buildup. Black Bow Requires: 9 Strength, 20 Dexterity
Other Tools:
- Erdtree Seal- There are a few good poison incantations out there that can be used, but the Erdtree seal is good because it has no carry weight to it. This makes it ideal as an incantation option in any build. The Erdtree Seal has a high faith requirement so other seals can be used in its place if you don’t want to put that much time into the faith stat. Erdtree Seal requires: 40 Faith
- Arrows- Serpent arrows apply 78 poison buildup on damage and do 30 physical damage. Poisonbone arrows also have a rate of 60 poison buildup and only do 10 physical damage. Rotbone arrows can be added to this build. These have 25 physical damage but cause 50 scarlet rot buildup. This stacks with poison status and also triggers the mushroom crown effect.
Armor:
- Land of Reeds Armor
- Zamor Armor
- Raging Wolf Armor
- Nox Swordstress Armor
Armor:
- Land of Reeds Armor
- Zamor Armor
- Raging Wolf Armor
- Nox Swordstress Armor
Greaves:
- Land of Reeds Greaves
- Zamor Bracelets
Gauntlets:
- Land of Reeds Gauntlets
- Zamor Armor
Helms:
- Mushroom Crown- Increases damage whenever you or an enemy suffer poison or scarlet rot damage.
- Silver Tear Mask- This Helms gives a major boost to arcane damage
Spells and Ashes of War:
- Poison Mist (Requires: 12 Faith)
- Ash of War: Poison Moth Flight
Talismans:
- Kindred of Rot's Exultation- Raises attack damage when the player or an enemy suffers from poison status effect
- Shard of Alexander- Raises attack power by 15%
- Rotten Winged Sword Insignia- This talisman raises attack power with successive attacks
- Dagger Talisman- Increases critical damage dealt by 17%.
- Dragoncrest Greatshield Talisman- Reduces physical damage taken by 20%.
Stats:
- 50 Vigor
- 24-30 Mind
- 32-45 Endurance
- 11-25 Strength
- 65-80 Dexterity
- 12-18 Intelligence
- 16–45 Faith
- 12-22 Arcame
Credits for this build’s origin:
Serpent Samurai by Fextralife:
http://fextralife.com/elden-ring-serpentbone-blade-build-guide-serpent-samurai/
Serpent Archer by Emerald Wolf:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PX2j9t0aQAo&t=15s
Scarlet Spear by Fextralife:
http://fextralife.com/elden-ring-scarlet-rot-build-guide-scarlet-spear/
4. Sorcerous Samurai
The Sorcery of the Sword
The Sorcerer Samurai is a Samurai adaptation on the Spellblade builds and focused heavily on the fact that there is an entire Katana that is dedicated to unsheathing for massive amounts of magical damage. With a mix of sorcery and swordsmanship, this build lays enemies and demigods alike low, clearing the way for the magically inclined player.
Are there pros and cons to this build? Absolutely. When I first started playing, Moonveil was absolutely considered one of the best weapons that could be picked up throughout the game. It came with a longer ranged, more damage dealing unsheathe skill that made it hard for even strong enemies to get close. The weapon definitely feels more nerfed and mid-range now that the game has been patched several times, but that doesn’t stop it from being my favorite weapon to try out against a boss or enemy group that is giving me too much hassle.
The build also has a weakness in the fact that Terra Magica is not a mobile spell and basically functions as the big buffing skill for this build. Being a sitting target, or even accidentally buffing up enemy magical attacks is not the best idea in the world, but it can do what is needed if it has to.
That being said, there are plenty of advantages to this build too. Sorcery seems to hold up a little better than some of the faith or the other elemental builds out there. It also has a fairly wide range of spells that can customize this build to fit the player even better. When it comes down to it, this is probably one of the more versatile builds and really it ended up lower on this list because of the patches and the fact that the weapon ends up being less than it could have been. Does that make this build weak? Absolutely not, and when in doubt, the Sorcerous Samurai is also one of the easiest builds to turn into a hybrid build later in the game to give it more punch later on.
Key Components of the build:
The big stat for any spellblade build is going to be intelligence, and that's the big stat for this one too. It needs to be high to get the most out of the sorceries and to cast them faster. Dexterity is also a major factor for this build since it focuses on using the Moonveil Katana.
Moonveil and Dragonscale Blade are the bread-and-butter melee weapons to this build with Moonveil being the main one for its special ability to deal a large amount of magic damage and stagger at the same time. The melee isn't that different from the standard melee of any Samurai build that uses unsheathe. If the player really doesn't like to focus on the Unsheathe ability, then the Nagakiba makes for a great weapon to enchant with any number of magic Ashes of War which can give the blade a different approach while still keeping it, Samurai.
This build is probably one of the more versatile range builds when it comes to samurai because it builds off of the needs of the Magic Marksman concept. The player uses the Horn Bow to deal a substantial amount of damage at range with any of the magic arrows such as dwelling arrows, spiritflame arrows, or magicbone arrows. This build also has the benefits of the Loretta's Greatbow spell which has the same ability as enchanted shot, but also comes equipped with a staff for spell casting which can have its own ranged options to back up the sword.
Suggested Build Loadout:
Melee Weapons:
- Moonveil Katana- This is the bread and butter of this build with its special skill Transient Moonlight. It combines well with spells like Terra Magica to go for a speed draw ability to stagger an enemy and deal large amounts of damage. Moonveil requires: 10 Strength, 18 Dexterity, 23 Intelligence
- Dragonscale Blade- This is a great backup blade and inflicts frost damage which fits in well with this build. Dragonscale Blade requires: 12 Strength, 20 Dexterity
- Nagakiba- This blade can be enchanted with any number of magic Ashes of War to add extra depth to this build, or just be buffed with Scholar's Armament using the Unsheathe skill. Nagakiba requires:18 Strength, 22 Dexterity
Ranged Weapons:
- Horn Bow- given rain of arrows or enchanted shot to deal magic damage at range against enemies while also adding magic damage to the archery side of the build Horn Bow requires: 10 Strength,
- Black Bow- used for barrage and closer range combat against tough enemies. Black Bow requires: 9 Strength, 20 Dexterity
- Misbegotten Bow- For horseback archery primarily Misbegotten bow requires: 16 Strength, 8 Dexterity
Other Tools:
- Arrows- Dwelling Arrows, Magicbone arrows, and Ghostflame Arrows
- Carian Knight’s Shield- A good shield with magic damage and no skill slot so it can be paired better with blades like moonveil katana. Carian Knight’s Shield requires: 10 Strength, 10 Dexterity, 15 Intelligence
- Jellyfish Shield- the jellyfish shield provides a special 20% damage increase to all types of damage when its special ability is used. It makes for a powerful addition to any build that takes advantage of debuffing the enemy defenses. Jellyfish Shield requires: 20 Strength, 14 Dexterity
- Lusat’s Glintstone Staff- This staff has excellent scaling and works well with glintstone sorceries. Lusat’s Glintstone Staff requires: 10 Strength, 52 Intelligence
Armor:
- Land of Reeds Armor
- Spellblade's Traveling Attire- Increases attack power of magic and frost
Greaves:
- White Land of Reeds Greaves
- Spellblade's Travelling Trousers- Increase attack power of magic and frost
Gauntlets:
- White Land of Reeds Gauntlets
- Spellblade's Gloves- Increases Attack power of magic and frost
Helmss:
- Spellblade's Travelling Hat- Increases Damage done by sorcery and frost
- Zamor Mask- strong but lighter weight Helms
- Raging Wolf Helm
- Queen's Crescent Crown- Intelligence stat increase
- Okina Mask- Dexterity Increase
Spells and Ashes of War:
- Carian Phalanx- acts as a defensive counter attack and deals a good amount of stagger damage. Carian Phalanx requires: 34 Intelligence
- Terra Magica- Enhances magic damage for 30 seconds. Terra Magica requires: 20 Intelligence
- Loretta's Greatbow- This serves as a great charged shot that can hit an opponent hard at range. Loretta’s Greatbow requires: 26 Intelligence
- Ash of War: Scholar's Armament- This can be used to apply magic damage to a katana with unsheathe. It serves as an alternative to using Moonveil.
- Ash of War: Rain of Arrows- A skill used for its ability to bring down large amounts of damage and inflict frost damage depending on the right type of arrows used.
- Ash of War: Enchanted Shot- This is a good magic damage sniping shot, although it can often be traded for Mighty Shot for more damage
- Founding Rain of Stars- This spell rains magic star damage down on the enemy and leaves them vulnerable to melee attacks at the same time. Founding Raing of Stars requires: 52 Intelligence
Talismans:
- Carian Filigreed Crest- Reduces spell cost for sorceries and magic based abilities
- Assassin's Cerulean Dagger- Recovers FP on critical hits to recharge magic bar
- Magic Scorpion Charm- Increases damage done by magic
- Green Turtle Talisman- Increases stamina recovery
- Old Lord's Talisman- Increases Spell duration time
- Radagon Icon- Decreases spell casting time
Stats:
- 50 Vigor
- 24-30 Mind
- 30-38 Endurance
- 18-24 Strength
- 45-65 Dexterity
- 55-80 Intelligence
- 9-18 Faith
- 7-18 Arcane
Credits for Build Origins:
Moonveil Samurai Build by Fextralife
http://fextralife.com/elden-ring-moonveil-katana-samurai-build-guide/
Moonveil Shinobi Build by Fextralife
http://fextralife.com/elden-ring-moonveil-katana-build-guide-moonveil-shinobi/
Soul Samurai Build by Fextralife
http://fextralife.com/elden-ring-intelligence-samurai-build-guide-soul-samurai/ ]
Haima Hoplite by Fextralfe
http://fextralife.com/elden-ring-spear-and-shield-build-guide-haima-hoplite/
Glinstone Archer by Everyday Engineer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRKNwKL9ZzU&t=66s
Moonveil Katana by Coldbwoyy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Yq-H5QECog
3. Rime Ronin/Frost Samurai
Freezing the Foe
The Rime Ronin, the name chosen for this build by the Fextralife community, is the Frostbite samurai build that focuses on triggering frostbite on an enemy then dealing massive amounts of damage. Frostbite does damage on its own and can take out a big chunk of your opponent’s health on its own. But that’s not the only reason this build came in at three. Frostbite is a powerful status effect that majorly lowers enemy defenses and makes them vulnerable to most attacks. This build focuses on getting the most out of each swing while the opponent has frostbite applied to try and take huge chunks off the enemy.
There aren’t that many enemies in the game that are resistant to frostbite, but that’s only part of what makes this build both hot and cold. A lot of the builds in this article tend to favor fast skills like Unsheathe to get the job done but Frost builds always end up feeling a little bit slower in my playthroughs. It feels more like a sword and board build for a Paladin than it does for a Samurai build. There also needs to be some extra stats into strength as well, while arcane and faith both seem really kind of useless in this situation.
That all said, this build hits hard, and when you blend in the damage from the Dragonscale Blade, or even Moonveil as a backup weapon, this build is pretty good at wiping out almost a third of the enemy health bar with ease. Sometimes that slow really just builds up for a stronger hit, and that works well for the Rime Ronin.
Key Components of the build:
The big stats for this build are going to fall almost exclusively into Dexterity and Intelligence. Vigor usually sits about 50-60 for these builds because most of them end up being new game + builds. So really that leaves the rest of the stats open where they’re needed. For players running the Jellyfish shield, strength is more important for that shield. The Black Bow requires a little extra put into the arcane stat for barrage to get a little extra damage, but it’s nowhere near as necessary as in other builds.
Close range combat in this build focuses on triggering the Freezing Mist of Chilling Mist abilities which will cause the frostbite and then leave the enemy vulnerable. There is a way to mix in some assassination skills for this build using darkness, but that’s really more of an extra win-more strategy that doesn’t necessarily work that well in this build if it’s not a common way for you to play. The best option for this build is to trigger the frostbite and then use the shield to boost attack damage power and try to hit the enemy as much as possible before the frostbite ability wears off.
The range in this build is also fairly limited. The player can always take notes from builds that use some of the Magic Marksman inspiration, but really the bows are for triggering frost early on and at a distance, or getting that little extra push in against an aggressive boss that ends up winning more of the damage exchanges than you do. Rain of Arrows will always be popular for any status build because it fires off one arrow and releases 12 or more on the enemy. For large enemies that’s enough to trigger frostbite, where Black Bow gets the shots in a little more rapid fire at closer range.
Suggested Build Loadout:
Melee Weapons:
- Dragonscale Blade- This is the backup to this build and can add an extra layer to this build that deals lightning damage. The primary skill of this weapon is the Ice Lightning Blade ash of war and it works well for triggering Dragonscale Blade requires: 12 Strength, 20 Dexterity
- Nagakiba- This weapon serves as the bread and butter to this build when it’s given a keen affinity or a frost affinity and paired with the Chilling Mist ash of war. This makes for a fast damage build that focuses heavily on the frostbite status ailment to weaken enemy defenses. Nagakiba requires: 18 Strength, 22 Dexterity
- Jellyfish Shield- The jellyfish shield provides a special 20% damage increase to all types of damage when its special ability is used. It makes for a powerful addition to any build that takes advantage of weakening the enemy defenses. Jellyfish Shield requires: 20 Strength, 14 Dexterity
- Moonveil- There’s always going to be some overlap between magic and frost thanks to the spellblade set so Moonveil benefits from this build as a backup weapon to use to stagger enemies and trigger that extra damage fast using transient moonlight. Moonveil requires: 10 Strength, 18 Dexterity, 23 Intelligence
Ranged Weapons:
- Horn Bow- This bow is used primarily for its Rain of Arrows ability which can trigger frost immediately in some cases. Usually, the Albinauric bow takes the cake for this, but there is some magic arrow usage in this build and it focuses on intelligence which only makes magic damage better. Horn Bow requires: 10 Strength, 14 Dexterity, 12 Intelligence
- Black Bow- This bow is great for its barrage ability and the fact that it plays like a short bow. I usually include a short bow for mounted combat, but with a build that focuses on frostbite, it’s better to be more up close and personal for this build to do damage with your swords. So horseback combat ended up being fairly minimal for me in this build which meant I could toss the short bows for a staff to add in some extra magic. Black Bow requires: 9 Strength, 20 Dexterity
- Lusat’s Glintstone Staff- This staff serves as a great staff with good scaling for casting spells fast. Lusat’s Glintstone Staff requires: 10 Strength, 52 Intelligence
Other Tools:
- Arrows- Frostbone, and Ghostflame Arrows serve well for this build. Frostbone arrows are just simple frost arrows that cause a good amount of status buildup. Ghostflame arrows are the harder of the two to get, but they also deal magic damage as well as frost buildup which gives them a little extra power when being used.
Armor:
- Zamor Armor
- Land of Reeds Armor
- Spellblade's Traveling Attire- This boosts frost and magic damage
Greaves:
- Zamor Bracelets
- Land of Reeds Greaves
- Spellblade's Traveling Trousers- Increases frost and magic damage
Gauntlets:
- Spellblade's Gloves- Increases frost and magic damage
Helms:
- Zamor Mask
- Iron Kasa
- Okina Mask- This Helms boosts dexterity
- Silver Tear Mask- This serves as a boost to arcane stats.
Spells and Ashes of War:
- Ash of War: Chilling Mist- This is the freezing mist spell applied to a sword as a special skill. It serves as a good way
- Freezing Mist- A spell that causes the frostbite buildup and can be used at the start of battle for an early advantage. Freezing Mist requires: 21 Intelligence
Talismans:
- Arrow's Reach Talisman- This talisman improves arrow range significantly.
- Arrow's Sting Talisman- This talisman improves arrow damage.
- Bull-Goat's Talisman- Raises poise by 33%.
- Rotten Winged Sword Insignia- Raises attack damage on successive attacks.
- Millicent's Prosthesis- Increases dexterity and attack damage on successive hits.
- Green Turtle Talisman- Increases stamina regeneration.
- Dragoncrest Greatshield Talisman- Reduces physical damage taken by 20%.
- Shard of Alexander- Increases attack power.
Stats:
- 50-55 Vigor
- 25-32 Mind
- 19-25 Endurance
- 18-24 Strength
- 65-80 Dexterity
- 55-65 Intelligence
- 10-15 Faith
- 11-22 Arcane
Credits for Build Origin:
Rime Ronin by Fextralife
http://fextralife.com/elden-ring-frost-samurai-build-guide-rime-ronin/
Freezing Battlemage by Fextralife
http://fextralife.com/elden-ring-cold-sorceries-build-guide-freezing-battlemage/
Dragonscale Daimyo by Fextralife
http://fextralife.com/elden-ring-dragonscale-blade-build-guide-dragonscale-daimyo/
2. Sanguine Samurai
Bathed in Blood:
The Sanguine Samurai is the bleed build that is probably the most well-known build for the samurai class. This build focuses on dual wielding and using different katana that trigger the hemorrhage effect. The best sword for the build is the Rivers of Blood katana, but as long as one of the katana blades can be granted a blood ash of war, it can be accessed pretty early on and works against almost any enemy.
Just like any build, this one has its fair share of pros and cons. First and foremost, bleed is usually considered one of the most effective skills in the game. It works on most enemies and it takes big chunks out of health bars fast.
There is the downside that this build focuses pretty heavily on the use of the special abilities that it has to do a lot of damage fast. This can mean devoting a lot of resources to FP recovery, which can mean that this build ends up kind of like a glass cannon. If you aren't good at dodging, or trade blows a lot, this might be a rough build to master.
Key Components of the build:
The big three stats for this build are Dexterity, Arcane, and Mind. Mind goes towards having plenty of FP for those abilities, which arcane serves to trigger at a faster rate. Dexterity is a necessity in every samurai build since it is what gives the player their katana damage.
This build is most well-known for dual wielding its katana. Rivers of blood is used in the dominant hand and then a blade with a blood affinity is used in the secondary hand to trigger the bleed status as often as possible. It relies heavily on the special abilities of the weapons that it uses.
For the range, the player really only needs to add the basic weapons in for the bloody bowman. Arrows's Reach and Arrow's Sting both give the player some range control and damage, and the bloody bowman shares most of the armor traits of any bleed build with the white mask and the usual talismans. Barrage is a great skill on the Black Bow because it can trigger bleed fast at range. For horseback, the misbegotten bow is the way to go.
Suggested Build Loadout:
Melee Weapons:
- Rivers of Blood - This is the bread and butter of this build because of the corpse-piler ability and the ability to trigger bleed damage over and over with an aggressive fighting style. Rivers of Blood requires:12 Strength,18 Dexterity, 20 Arcane
- Nagakiba- This weapon is enchanted with a blood ash of war and given its own bleed ability. Having the extra range for this fight is always good because it means getting more damage fast. Nagakiba requires: 18 Strength, 22 Dexterity
- Morgot's Cursed Sword- This is a good extra weapon for this build because it does add a good long-range blood and flame damage option to this weapon. What makes this skill even better is that it can be spammed and lay waste to a large group of enemies. Since this build will already be dealing with heavy FP consumption, this weapon fits right in as a backup heavy hitter. Morgot’s Cursed Sword requires: 14 Strength, 35 Dexterity, 17 Arcane
Ranged Weapons:
- Black Bow- Used for barrage to rapidly trigger blood loss. Black Bow requires: 9 Strength, 20 Dexterity
- Albinauric Bow- Used for rain of arrows on large targets at range. Albinauric Bow requires: 7 Strength, 18 Dexterity
- Staff of the Guilty- This is a staff that adds thorn sorcery to the build, which is another way to trigger bleed and lean into a sanguine spellblade hybrid. Staff of the Guilty requires: 8 Strength, 12 Faith
Other Tools:
- Giant's Seal- This seal boosts flame monk incantations and serves as a better boost for spells like Flame, Grant Me Strength or Bloodflame Blade if it's used on the Nagakiba. Giant’s Seal requires: 4 Strength, 14 Faith
Armor:
- Land of Reeds Armor
- Zamor Armor
- Raging Wolf Armor
- Nox Swordstress Armor
Greaves:
- Land of Reeds Greaves
- Zamor Legwraps
Gauntlets:
- Land of Reeds Gauntlets
- Zamor Bracelets
Helms:
- White Mask- increases blood loss damage whenever a bleed effect is triggered.
- Silver Tear Mask – increases arcane stats
- Okina Mask- increases dexterity
Spells and Ashes of War:
- Flame, Grant me Strength- This spell boosts fire damage and physical damage by 20% for 30 seconds. Flame, Grant me Strength requires: 15 Faith
- Golden Vow- This is a standard in a good majority of holy. Golden Vow requires: 25 Faith
Talismans:
- Rotten Winged Sword Insignia- Raises attack damage on consecutive attacks
- Winged Sword Insignia- raises attack damage on consecutive attacks
- Carian Filigreed Crest- reduces casting costs and ash of war costs
- Shard of Alexander- boosts damage by 15%
- Lord of Blood's Exultation- Greatly increases attack power by 20% for 20 seconds anytime someone suffers blood loss
- Old Lord's Talisman- Increases spell duration time
Stats:
- 50 Vigor
- 30-50 Mind
- 18-25 Endurance
- 12-24 Strength
- 65-80 Dexterity
- 9-18 Intelligence
- 15-25 Faith
- 50-65 Arcane
Credits for Build Origin:
Sanguine Samurai by Fextralife
http://fextralife.com/elden-ring-rivers-of-blood-build-guide-sanguine-samurai/
Ultimate Bleed by Syrobe
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bk-lBN9RChE
Bloodfire Ronin by Kimo Chaser
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ce3GXP9K_kQ
1. Supreme Samurai
The Sacred Swordsman
When it comes to builds, there really is nothing better than the tried-and-true build of the Supreme Samurai. The name for this build comes from the Fextralife build originally, but the build itself focuses on the use of the katana and the Unsheathe ash of war while giving the blade a wide range of affinities depending on the situation.
The first thing you really notice about this build is that it is universally good because it's such a multipurpose build. Have an enemy that is weak to status? This build has Lightning, Fire, and Bleed all right there. There are also magic and holy enchantments that can be put on it as well. Have an enemy that is resistant to status like the Elden Beast? Physical damage is the bread and butter of this ability.
So where does this build falter? It gives you a lot of options and if you like to put all your options forward, you slow yourself down just getting through everything you have equipped. Anyone playing this build has to have an eye for knowing when to use certain items in certain situations. This is a build that takes some getting used to, but the diversity makes it worth it for an all-game build that can take out any enemy.
Key Components of the build:
The most important stats for this build are going to focus around Dexterity, Faith, and Endurance for this build. For any of the Samurai builds, Dexterity is one of the biggest factors to make it work. The other big one for this build ends up being faith. Most of the blade enchantments come from the Faith stat, and this makes them faster to cast and more potent.
The close-range combat in this build is almost completely based around the use of the unsheathe ability and getting in critical hits after breaking the opponent stance. Physical damage is a main center part of this too, because unsheathe is good for dealing straight physical damage if you don’t want to enchant the blade.
The Albinauric Bow is the usual bow for this build since it has the strongest stats and can change around its ashes of war depending on what it needs. It does particularly well with the Rain of Arrows ash of war and with mighty shot. The Black Bow is the other bow for this weapon and is used for firing arrows at a much faster rate than other longbows.
Suggested Build Loadout:
Melee Weapons:
- Uchigatana- The big deal is being able to use enchantments on the blade so it needs to be the Uchigatana Keen affinity. Uchigatana requires: 11 Strength, 15 Dexterity
- Dragonscale Blade- This is a good weapon for a second-hand weapon because it inflicts lightning and frost damage. It can't be enchanted with the special enchantments but it does enough on its own to be an extra layer to the build. Dragonscale Blade requires: 12 Strength, 20 Dexterity
- Nagakiba- This is the longest-range katana in terms of weapon length, and that makes it good for range control. It doesn't have as much attack power as the Uchigatana but it still has plenty of good features of its own. Having the extra range is always good too, because some enemies do a lot of damage once they get in close enough. Nagakiba requires: 18 Strength, 22 Dexterity
- Cross-Naginata- The Cross-Naginata makes for a good larger weapon for the build and also fits into the samurai aesthetic. It can be enchanted the same way as the katana for blade damage, but it has a different ash of war. Cross-Naginata requires: 16 Strength, 20 Dexterity
- Moonveil- It's not the strongest sword but it does have a good ranged special and it does do a decent amount of stagger damage. It's good for catching an enemy off guard then going for a killing blow. Moonveil requires: 12 Strength, 18 Dexterity, 23 Intelligence
Ranged Weapons:
- Albinauric Bow- This is the strongest damage longbow in the game and is preferred over the Pulley Bow because it can change around the ashes of war on the bow. That means that it can be changed to Rain of Arrows or Mighty Shot. Albinauric Bow requires: 7 Strength, 18 Dexterity
- Black Bow- This bow handles like a short bow on foot and has the barrage ability to trigger the bleed effect regularly when at closer range against enemies. Black Bow requires: 9 Strength, 20 Dexterity
- Misbegotten Bow- This bow is for mounted combat. Misbegotten Bow requires: 16 Strength, 8 Dexterity
Other Tools:
- Erdtree Seal- This is one of the best casting seals in the game and also has no weight meaning it doesn't add any extra heaviness to a build that needs to be fast and mobile. The downside is it requires a high 40 Faith to use it. That's good for the incantation side of this build so I go with it but a different seal can be used if you don't want to put that much into the stat. Erdtree Seal requires: 40 Faith
- Grease- There are plenty of greases in the game, but this build focuses mostly on Lightning, Fire, and Bleed damage so it's whatever can be applied fast in the moment.
- Arrows- Stormwing Bone Arrows, Elemental Arrows, and Status Arrows
Armor:
- Nox Swordstress Armor
- Land of Reeds Armor
Greaves:
- Ronin Greaves
- Land of Reeds Gauntlets
- Gauntlets:
- White Reed Gauntlets
- Land of Reeds Gauntlets
Helms:
- Iron Kasa- This Helmss is used as an aesthetic piece to match the samurai theme.
- Silver Tear Mask- Grants +8 to arcane for bleed builds.
- Okina Mask- Grants extra dexterity but lowers poise.
Spells and Ashes of War:
- Ash of War: Unsheathe- This ash of war is put on the katana and used to break enemy stances.
- Ash of War: Rain of Arrows- This ash of war does damage to large enemies, triggers status buildup in enemies, and can weaken groups of enemies at range.
- Electrify Armament- Grants Lightning damage to enchanted armament. Electrify Armament requires: 15 Faith
- Bloodflame Blade- Grants fire damage and bleed buildup to any weapon that it's enchanted with. Bloodflame Blade requires: 12 Faith, 10 Arcane
- Order’s Blade- Grants Holy damage to the enchanted weapon. Sacred Order requires: 13 Intelligence, 13 Faith
- Golden Vow- Grants 15% damage increase and 10% damage negation Golden Vow requires: 25 Faith
Talismans:
- Lord of Blood's Exultation- This talisman boosts attack power whenever the bleed effect is triggered.
- Bull-Goat's Talisman- This talisman significantly improves poise.
- Arrow's Reach Talisman- This talisman improves arrow range significantly.
- Arrow's Sting Talisman- This talisman improves arrow damage
- Great-Jar's Arsenal- this talisman greatly increases equip load.
- Shard of Alexander- this card increases attack power for physical damage
- Dragoncrest Greatshield Talisman- Reduces physical damage taken by 20%.
- Assassin's Cerulean Dagger- A talisman that restores FP when enemies are slain.
- Ritual Sword Talisman- this talisman boosts damage when health is full.
- Millicent's Prosthesis- Increases dexterity and attack damage on successive hits.
Stats:
- 50 Vigor
- 25-32 Mind
- 38 Endurance
- 18-24 Strength
- 80 Dexterity
- 15-28 Intelligence
- 40-55 Faith
- 18-30 Arcane
Credits for this Build’s Origin:
Supreme Samurai Build by Fextralife
http://fextralife.com/elden-ring-samurai-build-guide-supreme-samurai/
OP Samurai Build by Nizar GG
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZHqoovDtzo&list=PLGsjkEmdpvt0pH6DXrKPJkPIceIRaSK2o&index=21
Your Way of Bushido
The way of Bushido is an honorable path and the player will fight many hard enemies to claim their honor. Will that way come through fire or lightning? Magic? Blood? Or just a mastery of the sword that can’t be matched? The Samurai class is one of the harder classes to get a feeling for when the player starts, but by the time you get into your comfort zone with a build, the samurai class may be one of the most aggressive and technical classes out there.
The weapons can all be upgraded to just about any need, the swords are some of the most powerful in the game, and the build allows for more armor than your lighter weight battle mages or marksmen. One of the things I loved about the Samurai build was just how rounded and well put together it was when I first started playing. Even with all the patches, that remains true. With honor, your sword, and the right build, it’s only a matter of time before a new Shogun sits on the Elden Throne and claims the title of lord.
Which way of Bushido will claim you the most honor? You decide.
