# The Definitive Professional Guide to Mastering the Elden Ring Samurai Build - Canonical: https://33rdsquare.com/elden-ring-samurai-build/ - Published: 2023-12-08 - Categories: [Games](https://33rdsquare.com/category/games/) --- As a long-time Soulsborne fan and avid gamer who has played over 500 hours of Elden Ring, I‘ve tested and experimented with just about every build imaginable. And let me tell you, the **samurai** stands tall as one of the most versatile, balanced, and enjoyable playstyles in the entire game! In this comprehensive professional guide from a souls veteran, I‘ll be breaking down everything you need to know about crafting the ultimate samurai character in Elden Ring. ## Origins of the Samurai To understand this iconic build, it helps to briefly cover the origins of the samurai warrior archetype that inspired it. **Samurai emerged in medieval Japan as an esteemed class of military nobility and prepared warriors.** They valued duty, honor, martial skill, and service to their lords. Known for their elegant yet lethal katana swordsmanship, samurai upheld strict warrior principles like courage, integrity, and loyalty unto death. From battling rival clans to defending castles, samurai were expert combatants capable in swordplay, horseriding, and archery. These versatile warrior-scholars form the historical foundation for FromSoftware‘s take on the archetypical samurai. ## Strengths of the Samurai Build Now let‘s examine why the samurai makes for such a great starting class and build in Elden Ring: ### Jack of All Trades The samurai is the quintessential **balanced character** – starting with decent stats in vigor, mind, endurance and well-rounded physical attributes. This versatility enables you to wield most weapons effectively. You have options to specialize as a agile swordsmaster, battlemage spellcaster, mounted archer, and more. Adaptability is the samurai‘s strength. ### Excellent Dexterity Right off the bat, samurai begins with **sky-high dexterity**. This governs attack speed, evasion, bleed affinity, and skill with nimble armaments like katanas. Prioritizing dex lets you shred enemies with quick successive strikes before they can react. Once you proc hemorrhage blood loss, most standard foes will crumble. ### Solid Survivability Despite wearing relatively light armor, the samurai‘s generous starting vigor, mind, and endurance attributes allow you to **withstand enemies‘ blows**. Having enough HP, focus, and stamina boosts survivability tremendously while solo or co-oping. You won‘t be a literal tank capable of just face-tanking damage. But with proper positioning, spacing, and timed evasion, samurai can go blow for blow with formidable foes. ### Stylish Aesthetic Lastly, I have to mention how undeniably **cool** the traditional samurai panoply looks in Elden Ring. Donning the elegant Land of Reeds set with your trusty katana just oozes style. Few other builds capture that lethal yet graceful warrior flair like the samurai does. And aesthetics matter – looking awesome makes the grueling journey more rewarding! Now let‘s get into optimizing stats, weapons, skills, and tactics to excel as an Elden Ring ronin. I‘m sharing lots of insider knowledge from my extensive testing here! ## Leveling Guide – Which Stats to Focus On While the samurai‘s opening stats provide a solid foundation, you‘ll want to **strategically invest runes** as you progress. Here‘s a quick overview of which attributes to prioritize: - _**Vigor** – Get this to 40-60 ASAP for more HP_ - _**Dexterity** – Level to 80 for bleed/crit damage_ - _Mind – Raise for more focus, enabling weapon arts_ - _Endurance – Boost to medium load with good armor_ I cannot overstate the importance of **vigor** – it literally boosts your health and ability to survive deadly boss combos. **Prioritize pumping vigor to 40-60** before damage stats! Next, keep **leveling dexterity** which improves your katana wielding, while mildly raising endurance as needed. Some mind helps too. Stay tuned for recommended weapons! ## Best Samurai Weapons – Killer Katanas Once you‘ve gained some runes and smithing stones from exploring the Lands Between, here are the definitive best katana weapons to obtain: ### **Uchigatana** Your trusty **starting katana** is excellent even endgame given the right affinity and ashes. The unsheathe skill shreds postures. ### Moonveil This magical katana packs **devastating ranged heavy attacks**. The weapon art Transient Moonlight sends arcane waves crashing down, disintegrating groups of enemies. Extremely potent. ### Rivers of Blood Arguably the **most powerful katana** against formidable foes. It‘s skill Corpse Piler makes you whirlwind through enemies, annihilating health bars by inflicting constant hemorrhage blood loss. Highly recommended by late game. ### Hand of Melania While slower and more strength-oriented, the **mighty Hand‘s skill** Waterfowl Dance renders Melania nigh-unstoppable against you. With high dexterity, you can turn enemies into mincemeat with it instead! There are also many other great katanas worth experimenting with like Nagakiba, Meteoric Ore Blade, Dragonscale Blade and more. But the ones listed above will carry you through the game with proper upgrades. Now let‘s cover some advanced tactics and synergies to master… ## Critical Hit Pro Tips If you really want to maximize the lethality of your samurai, mastering **ripostes and critical hits** is essential against formidable foes: ### Parry Then Riposte Bait out big whiffed attacks from enemies, parry them with precise timing, then perform the riposte animation for massive damage. You can practice parry timings against easier enemies first, then attempt it against Crucible Knights and beyond. Learning when bosses have recovery windows takes practice. ### Unsheathe After Dodge If you time it correctly, dodging _into_ an enemy‘s attack then activating unsheathe allows you to fluidly slash right through their strike hitbox and score a critical blow. This works amazingly against giant dragons too! ### Misericorde Dagger Swap Keep a Misericorde dagger equipped in your off-hand. After parrying or critting an enemy during their vulnerable animation, quickly swap to the dagger for a **juicy 150 critical modifier**, dishing out insane burst damage! Now let‘s get into advanced builds that samurai can specialize in… ## Specialized Builds to Dominate With Once you‘ve grown accustomed to the balanced samurai playstyle, here are some of the most powerful specialized builds you can transition towards: ### Rivers of Blood Bleed Build Dual-wielding **Rivers paired with either Nagakiba or Uchigatana** allows you to dash in, unleash a flurry of slashes, instantly hemorrhaging enemies to death. With high arcane and dexterity, very few enemies can withstand the onslaught of bleeding katana dance. Surprisingly effective in PvP too! ### Moonveil Magic Build Combine swift Carian Slicer and Glintblade spells along with the **ranged explosion of Moonveil‘s Transient Moonlight**. Magic buff items like the Graven Mass Talisman boost damage even further. Demolish enemies with waves of magic and the flurry of Moonveil‘s unique strong attack. A bit glass cannon, but extremely fun! ### Hoarfrost Stomp + Uchigatana One of the most efficient early game builds is combining Uchigatana with a spear that has **Hoarfrost Stomp** ash of war. since both scale with dexterity, you melt enemies by spamming stomp then slashing the posture-broken foes. Extremely ammo efficient too! There are many more creative possibilities – bow build, poison build, shield build, and status effect builds work well with samurai too. Experiment and have fun mixing weapons, ashes of war, spells, and talismans to create your own signature build! Now let‘s cover some key combat tactics to take your skills to the next level… ## Mastering Combat – Essential Tactics All the optimization with weapons and stats means nothing if you can‘t leverage them effectively in combat. To truly excel as a samurai, integrate these key tactics into your repertoire: ### Spacing and Punishing Whiffs Against formidable enemies, **bait out big attacks by keeping distance**. Be prepared to dodge, then dash in and punish their recovery with 1-2 running/jumping attacks. Repeat to take them down efficiently without taking damage. ### Charging Heavy Slashes Sometimes slowly **charging that heavy katana slash** causes enemies to rush you, resulting in them impaling themselves for massive posture and HP damage. Useful against overly aggressive foes. ### Guard Counter Ripostes While maintaining protection with a shield isn‘t very samurai-esque, having a brass shield to **block enemy combos then smash them with a guard counter** can decisively turn the tables. Follow up with a critical hit! ### Rotten Breath Cheese One surprisingly effective and safe cheese tactic is wielding a secondary crossbow with Rotten Breath ashes. Staying out of aggro range, repeatedly pelt enemies with Scarlet Rot bolts to massively drain their health bars. Then go collect the spoils of war! Through key spacing tactics, punishing enemy whiffs, charging heavy attacks, guard counter ripostes and strategic skill/spell use, you can systematically deconstruct any enemy. Practice makes perfect! Finally, let‘s cover some top-tier equipment picks… ## Best Equipment for Elden Ring Samurai To round out your build, here are the most powerful armor sets, talismans and flask boosts worth acquiring: ### Top Armor Sets - **Tree Sentinel** – Balances defense, poise and weight - **Bull Goat** – Massive poise greatsword users - **Raging Wolf** – High style and well-rounded stats ### Most Potent Talismans - **Claw Talisman** – Boosts jumping attack damage - **Lord of Blood‘s Exultation** – Raises attack power after blood loss nearby - **Kindred of Rot‘s Exultation** – Bolsters attack after applying Scarlet Rot - **Radagon Icon** – Decreases weapon art casting time ### Killer Flask Effects - **Opaline Bubbletear** – Negates all damage for a short duration (great for boss nuke attacks) - **Spiked Cracked Tear** – Boosts charged attack damage significantly Prioritize the Tree Sentinel armor set for the best balance. Offensively, equipping Claw, Lord of Blood‘s Exultation and Radagon Icon talismans will make your weapon arts absolutely demolish enemies with faster speed too. Opaline Bubbletear helps survive giant boss one shot combos. The rest comes down to practice and execution! Study enemy patterns closely and integrate spacing/punishing tactics. You‘ll be slaying Elden Ring bosses in style in no time on your journey to become Elden Lord. I hope this samurai guide from a Souls veteran provides everything you need to dominate as an uchigatana-wielding ronin in the Lands Between. Let me know if you have any other questions – happy to provide tips. Now get out there, Ashen One! --- Source: [The Definitive Professional Guide to Mastering the Elden Ring Samurai Build](https://33rdsquare.com/elden-ring-samurai-build/)