Games

Elden Ring Best Samurai Build 2023

by Sagar Choudhury

Updated on

Elden Ring is a 2022 action role-playing game developed by FromSoftware, and the genre that this classifies as is the Soulsborne game genre. Here, you get to play the role of a hero that gains different attributes while moving through the game’s storylines. This has troubled some new players about the ideal build or setup you must select for your hero to play the game with the best possible chances of completing it.

In the Elden Ring game, a particular Samurai build has proven to be a possible solution for these confused players. Here in this article, we will dissect this ideal build to give you a clear insight into how you can set up this build and what sort of advantages or use cases you can from it. So without any further ado, let’s get into it.

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Elden Ring

Elden Ring Best Samurai Build 2023

The Samurai Build we will discuss here does not require the user to get any number of deaths. All the equipment mentioned here is the starting gear you get very early in the game. And using this gear, you can complete a significant chunk of the game simply by using and upgrading these simple tools to a higher level. This setup won’t mean you will be completely overpowered in your early ventures, but it will also ensure that you don’t fight with your enemies powerless.

Let’s briefly look at the build here in a simple table now.

MINIMUM STATS WEAPON ARMOR KATANA TALISMAN
  • Vigor: 12
  • Mind: 11
  • Endurance: 13
  • Strength: 12
  • Skill: 15
  • Intelligence: 9
  • Faith: 8
  • Arcane: 8
 Longbow Land of Reeds Armor Set Uchigatana
  • Arrow’s Reach Talisman
  • Axe Talisman
  • Assassin‘s Crimson Dagger

What Is Samurai Class In Elden Ring?

The Samurai is one of the game’s best characters, and it allows players to use a diverse choice of weapons and attributes. For new players specifically, this could be the ideal choice. You get access to a powerful weapon like the Uchigatana, and that too at a very early stage of the game.

Apart from the Uchigatana, you can also equip yourself with a tremendous long ranger weapon, the Longbow, which can be used to fire both normal and fire arrows.

Additionally, you also get access to the Land of Reeds armor set. This set can make the early section of the game easy to traverse. You can also regularly upgrade your weapons, attributes, and armor as you progress in the game. If done correctly, these upgrades can help you play the game from start to finish using the Samurai build.

Samurai Build Guide

First, you will have to pick the Elden Ring Samurai class to get started with your character. As the main melee armament, you will have the Uchigatana, the primary weapon you must build gradually. As a secondary weapon, you have the Longbow, the best long ranger weapon you can gain early in the game, and it completes the entire attack arsenal of the Samurai build perfectly.

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To get the Uchigatana, you must take the optional Deathtouched Catacombs north of the Limgrave region. And for the Longbow, you will have to purchase it from the Twin Maiden Husks NPC at the Roundtable Hold. If you find it challenging to find the place, you just need to know that it is where the first Blacksmith of the game is located. Just get close to that, and you will find the shop.

So basically, both weapons can be acquired in the early part of the game, thus making it an easy choice for a build to pick when you are just starting.

Samurai Build Gear

Let’s discuss our Elden Ring Samurai Build gear in detail, starting with the best early melee weapon. You should know that all the equipment mentioned here are early-build weapons that you find out early in the game. This build is specifically for players just starting and wanting to complete the first chunk of the game with the correct combination. As you move along the game, you will come across weapons that could be better alternatives to the mentioned weapons. You can change the weapon, then. Just be sure you choose an alternative, not a different weapon entirely.

Uchigatana.
Attribute Scaling Attribute Requirements Katana Type Weight Passive Effects Unsheathe
STR D, DEX D STR 15, DEX 15 Slash/Pierce 5.5 Bleed FP – (10 15)
Attack Guard
Physical Damage 155 Physical Resistance 45
Magic Damage 0 Magic Resistance 30
Fire Damage 0 Fire Resistance 30
Lightning Damage 0 Lightning Resistance 30
Holy Damage 0 Holy Resistance 30
Critical Damage 100 Guard Boost 30

This is one of the select few Katanas in the game with some impressive attack skills that can be fully utilized in the gameplay. Only a few hours into the game will give the ability to upgrade the Uchigatana significantly, making it an excellent choice as a weapon to take down level bosses. You won’t be a completely overpowered beast with it, but if utilized correctly, this can complete a significant chunk of the game’s initial stages.

The reason behind the Uchigatana’s effectiveness is its Blood Loss Buildup passive effect which is just a fancy term to define the Bleeding effect. This cannot be used all the time as it takes a few moments to build up to take full effect. There is a small meter that you will notice filling as you use this weapon more affinity, and as soon as the meter fills up, you can use this attack to deal a great deal of damage to your enemy.

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Another skill called Unsheathe in this katana is useful in attacking a hoard of enemies in one go. While two-handling the weapon, you need to press the skill button on your controller, and the character will then take a ready stance to use the UAffinityskill. Simply press the light attack button when you are prepared in the proper stance, and the hero will have a powerful wide arching slash that will damage all the enemies caught in the slash.

The Uchigatana has a D ranking for both Strength and Dexterity. This means that even if you put points into either of these stats, the damage inflicted by them won’t vary much. However, there is an element called Ashes of War that you can use to change the affinity of any weapon in a way that suits your needs. For instance, if you put a lot of points into the StreAffinityribute and apply Heavy Affinity to it, the Strength ranking will change from a D to A. You can then use the Uchigatana to inflict significant damage on your enemies that was previously impossible. You can do the same with Dexterity as well.

You can use Affinity with both Strength and Dexterity, but the ideal choice would be to go with Dexterity.

Longbow

Attribute Scaling Attribute Requirements Bow Type Weight Mighty Shot
STR E, DEX D STR 9, DEX 14 None 4.0 FP 6
Attack
Physical Damage 80
Magic Damage 0
Fire Damage 0
Lightning Damage 0
Holy Damage 0
Critical Damage 100
RNG 50

Now coming to the secondary weapon, the Longbow, a ranged weapon, is an ideal choice as the first long ranger weapon you can have to take out enemies from afar. It starts with Dexterity ranking as D, but you can improve that with affinity. After that, your Samurai would be able to release shots in much quicker succession than before.

You should definitely use this weapon’s Mighty Shot skill, as it can deal large amounts of damage to your enemies while using only a tiny amount of FP. In terms of ammunition, you can get arrows for your Longbow anytime by simply spending some runes. Merchant Kalé in the Church of Elleh is somewhere you can get the basic arrows, each for 20 runes. If you are concerned about spending your runes on these arrows regularly, you could start farming runes to take care of it.

If you don’t wish to keep purchasing the wooden arrows, you can even choose to make them for yourselves using thin animal bones. These bones will be made of bones, and to make them, you will have to acquire the recipe for it by purchasing Desrter’s cookbook once for 150 runes. Again, you can find this cookbook at the Merchant Kale as well. In terms of ingredients, the basic component you would need for one arrow is three thin animal bones. You can then create arrows anytime if you have the necessary bone resources.

Armor

Land of Reeds Armor Set 

The Land of Reeds armor set looks cool, but it’s actually the least important part of this Elden Ring Samurai Build. You can use any equipment as armor if it provides basic defensive and physical damage negation abilities.

Talismans

As far as Talismans for the Samurai build is concerned, we have four main recommendations. The first of these is the Arrow’s Reach Talisman, which would allow you to get distant kills. That is, it will increase the range up to which you can use your ranged weapons, and you will be able to take care of the enemies even before they can harm you in any way.

Here’s a quick look at the Arrow’s Reach Talisman:

Weight Effect
0.7 Increases the range of projectiles.
The second recommendation we have is the Axe Talisman. This will increase the damage you would inflict in your charge attacks. The Uchigatana mentioned above has great two-handed attack options, and combined with this Talisman, you could provide highly efficient charged blows to your enemies that could be enough to take out the simple enemies in one go.
Let’s have a look at its description:
Weight Effect
0.8 Increases Charge Attack damage by 10%

Our third and final recommendation for a Talisman is the Rotten Winged Sword Insignia talisman which increases attack power with successive attacks. As a samurai, your character will rely heavily on doing consecutive attacks on various bosses, and with this talisman, you can inflict greater damage with every attack.

Here’s a brief look at the talisman:

Weight Effect
1.4 Greatly raises attack power with successive attacks (6%, 8%, 13%)

And finally, we have the Assassin’s Crimson Dagger talisman that will be able to restore your health every time you inflict critical and severe damage on your enemies. The samurai build has devastating attacks, as mentioned above, like Unsheathe, and if you are low on health, such an attack can prove to be an absolute lifesaver. You would harm the enemy and improve your health with such an attack.

Last but not least, here’s a summary of the talisman:

Weight Effect
0.8 Critical attacks restore 10% + 85 HP

Samurai Build Stats

Attributes.

As mentioned above, the starting samurai melee armament scales really well with either Strength or Dexterity. But as you progress along the game, you must choose whether you want to improve your dexterity or strength. As a samurai, you would be using your Katana a lot, and in that sense, it would be better to upgrade your dexterity as you would want to land as many blows as possible on your enemy in quicker succession.

Both your Uchigatana and Longbow have powerful skills in them, and at the expense of some FP, you can use them with great effectiveness. The best way to ensure that you always have ample FP is to invest in the Mind attribute, which will significantly enhance the FP meter.
You must also pump as many points as possible into Vigor to increase your Hit Points. In simplicity, you need to do this in all of the available builds in the game. But it is of utmost importance with the Samurai build as you might not be able to defend yourself when you are attacking your enemies with two-handed powerful attacks.

Samurai Build Playstyle

Elden Ring Best Samurai Playstyle.
During the game’s early stages, the samurai build is really low on taking hits from enemies. A few hits would be enough to kill it. So based on this, we have some strategies you should consider if you have opted for the Samurai build.
  • Do not dive directly into enemy hordes right away. Even if you manage to kill a major chunk of the enemy horde at one ago, even a few still attacking you would be enough to kill you. So keep your distance and try to take out your enemies individually.
  • Using powerful attacks, try to kill your enemies with as few attacks as possible. That way, they won’t have enough to kill you as you do not have the ability to withstand too many attacks.
  • Use the long-range Longow as much as possible to deplete your enemy’s attacks from afar without having to deal with their attacks at all.
  • You can use your Longbow even singularly to attack enemies that are moving in a group. This will draw their attention towards you, and they will get separated from their group with an aim to attack you. Once they are close enough, you can pull out the Katana. This is effective against enemies that usually require a lot of hits to die.
  • You should use a shield without an associated skill of its own. This would mean that both of your hands would be free, and you could use two-handed attacks as much as possible when you are in close combat with an enemy.

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