Intro
Helpful?
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Too much text? I get it. Just check the index and go to the section you need.
Why play this build?
This build is great for new players who want to explore the game with a lot of options. While your main focus is buffing the projectile of the Dark Moon Greatsword's Moonlight Greatsword skill, you can utilize spells to solve other problems. Swap some trinkets and gear and now you're just as strong as any pure spellcaster build. You get all of the fun of wielding a huge ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ melee weapon with all the benefits of the wide toolkit of sorceries. With some additional dexterity investment you can widen your toolkit with the special skills of the Wing of Astel and Moonveil.
You don't need the DLC to play this build, but it does add some fun toys to play with.
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Map Genie, Elden Ring[mapgenie.io]
The guide will mention locations but will not necessarily provide instructions on how to get there. If you need help, try using a game map.
Endgame Build
Roughly these stats. See the Stats section for more info. Haven't decided if you're interested in Sword of Astel or Moonveil but need to choose a class? Pick Astrologer, it'll be fine.
lvl 150
DMGS WoA Moonveil Class Astrologer Prisoner Prisoner VIG 60 60 60 MIND 30 30 30 END 15 15 15 STR 16 16 16 DEX 12 17 18 INT 80 76 75 FAI 7 6 6 ARC 9 9 9
Why stop leveling at 150?
First of all, there's no way to lower your level. Many builds stop at 125 or 150 because that's when you start hitting soft caps in your primary stats and that sets limits on what you can do. This is a good thing, because leveling indefinitely makes you overpowered for PVE content and makes everyone kind of same-y. Because there's a meta agreement on 125-150, you'll also have access to the most players for co-op or pvp.
Bosses - Dark Moon Greatsword, Generic Strategy
• Take Consumables/Physick
• Power up the Dark Moon Greatsword's Moonlight Greatsword skill.
• Cast Ranni's Dark Moon on boss to lower their magic resistance and build up a little Frostbite.
• Moonlight Greatsword boss to death, re-upping buffs/debuffs when necessary.
Everywhere else
• Whatever you want. You have a huge toolkit.
Stats
Vigor: Ideally 60
Vigor is always great. In the early game you should level it AT LEAST enough to cover your flask refill ability (detailed below in its own section), but really it should be high enough so you're not getting one-shot. It is very important in the early game and the main source of your defense, much much moreso than the armor you're wearing. In the late game Vigor continues to give good returns until 60.
Can you get by with less than 60 Vigor? Sure, when you're very experienced you will be able to make the informed decision of whether it's worth pulling out of Vigor for other stats, but it's not recommended for newer players.
• Vigor Ramp/Diminishing Soft Cap: 40
• Vigor Low-Value Soft Cap: 60
Mind: 30-38
Flask +12 can recover all your FP at 38 Mind. If you're playing a pure spellcaster, you might even like 40 mind. For this build you should get by with 30 Mind. There's not a lot of wiggle room in other stats so this is the stat we're not pushing to a specific softcap.
• Mind Ramp Soft Cap: 41
• Mind Diminishing Soft Cap: 50
Endurance
Your endurance should only be just high enough to allow medium rolling while wearing your highest equip load. If you can get by with less weight, those points are better placed elsewhere.
• Endurance First Diminishing Soft Cap: 25
• Endurance Second Diminishing Soft Cap: 60
Strength: 16
Minimum 16 strength needed to one-hand the Dark Moon Greatsword. This is also the minimum requirement for the Brass Shield as well, which is a very strong medium shield if you have the endurance to support its high weight.
Dexterity: 12-18
Minimum 12 Dex needed for the Dark Moon Greatsword. You'll need 17 Dex for the Wing of Astel, and 18 Dex for Moonveil. You don't need any more points in Dex than your weapon's minimum requirement because the Wing of Astel and Moonveil are more about their Ash of War skill than their dex scaling.
Dexterity technically helps with spell casting speed up to a cap of 70 Dex, but the difference isn't significant enough to dedicate so many points. If you really want more casting speed for whatever reason (and it's not necessary at all) Radagon Icon Talisman adds 30 virtual dex, and the Azur Glintstone Staff adds 40 virtual dex at the cost of 20% more FP per spellcast.
Intelligence: 72-80
This is your big stat. Adds to your weapon and spell damage. You need 72 to cast every spell in the game (includes DLC). 80 is a really strong soft cap so you don't want to go above that.
• First Diminishing Soft Cap: 50
• Second Diminishing Soft Cap: 80
Faith
Not used in this build.
Arcane
Not used in this build.
Flask Of Crimson/Cerulean Tears
Your flask upgrades give you more charges and refill more of your HP/FP overall. Keeping your Vigor and Mind high enough to accommodate the full power of a flask refill will allow you to push your character through longer stretches of dungeons that are chipping away at these resources.
Flask Level +0 +1 +2 +3 +4 +5 +6 +7 +8 +9 +10 +11 +12 Vigor for full HP refill 1 6 11 15 17 20 21 22 23 24 25 25 26 Mind for full FP refill 11 15 18 21 24 26 28 30 32 34 35 37 38
Despite the low amount of Vigor needed for a full HP flask refill, you should prioritize getting Vigor to 40 as soon as possible to protect against getting effectively one-shot.
Great Rune
The ideal Great Rune is Morgott's Great Rune which gives you a 25% bonus to max HP. That's a percentage increase, so it's going to make your very strong vigor that much better.
Radahn's might seem good at first glance because it gives a chunk of Stamina and FP as well, but you really aren't going to feel those differences. Your not pumping a lot of points into Endurance or even Mind, so those percentage increases aren't that big to begin with, and those are stats you honestly don't need a whole lot of compared to more HP.
To use a Great Rune, you need to kill the associated boss and then visit the Great Rune's specific Divine Tower to "activate" it. Equip it at a site of grace (it has it's own option in the grace) and then actually activate the rune by using a Rune Arc.
• Recommended
Boss Location Effect Divine Tower Location Morgott, the Omen King Leyndell, Royal Capital Raises maximum HP by 25% Divine Tower of East Altus
• The Other Great Runes
Boss Effect Why Not? Godrick the Grafted Raises all attributes by +5 Primarily early game utility. Starscourge Radahn Raises maximum HP, FP and Stamina by 15% It's okay, but you are really going to want the extra health over more stamina and FP. Rykard, Lord of Blasphemy Restores HP upon defeating enemies Okay for clearing dungeons, but is it really worth the Rune Arc for even that? Malenia, Blade of Miquella Attacks recover HP for a short time after taking damage You don't attack quickly enough. Mohg, Lord of Blood Grants a blessing of blood to phantoms Specifically for PVP
Weapons
Dark Moon Greatsword
• Bread and Butter, and the focus of the build
• Deals Physical & Magic Damage
• The skill is what we're buffing, but it's an excellent general purpose melee weapon as well.
• Acquired as part of Ranni's Questline (see walkthrough below).
• Can be acquired before accessing Atlus Plateau.
Skill: Moonlight Greatsword
• Lasts 60 seconds, costs 32 FP
• Adds 65 magic damage and 15 frostbite buildup to weapon.
• Heavy attacks shoot a magical projectile that deals 84/105 Frostbite buildup, 15/24 stance damage, and deals magic damage (no FP cost)
• Can be charged.
• Damage from the melee swing can be combined with the projectile from the skill for heavy physical/magic and stance damage.
• The projectile does the same amount of damage whether it's one-hand or two-hand.
Sword of Astel
• Primarily used for it's skill, Nebula.
• Requires 17 Dex
Skill: Nebula
• Particularly effective against bosses with wide hitboxes.
Moonveil
• Mostly just used for its skill. Honestly kind of a boring weapon, but your taste may vary.
• Requires 18 Dex
Skill: Transient Moonlight
• Short projectile
• Pierces through enemies
• Bleeds
• Like the Dark Moon Greatsword, can combine melee swing with projectile.
Armor
Spellblade Set
You want to get the most out of the Moonlight Greatsword projectile? Each piece of this set gives a 2% damage bonus to sorcery skills for an 8% bonus total. It doesn't affect your casted sorceries at all though, so don't get confused by the description. It comes from Rogier at the end of his mini-questline.
Mushroom Set
• Huge bonuses to your immunity.
• It's good for specific situations.
• Can be found in Seethewater Cave (Mt. Gelmir, but accessible from Atlus Peninsula)
Black Knife Armor
• The chestpiece totally silences your movement sounds.
• Found in the Consecrated Snowfield.
Not too interested in specific sets and want to play dress up to look cool instead? Same. Wear whatever you want for fashion, it's fine. Just keep in mind what your endurance needs to be to cover it.
Shields
Some people would rather dodge everything. That's fine. I enjoy having the option to block and parry.
It's hard to get around it. The Brass Shield is the best general purpose medium shield outside it's hefty 7 weight. It's frustratingly good against everything but lightning, and it's not even that bad at that. Importantly, it also has the best Guard Boost of any medium shield, which means it's going to cost you less stamina to block attacks. You're also allowed to change out its Ashes of War, which allows it to use the Ash of War: Carian Retaliation for parries that have the longest possible parry window.
But this build has tight weight/endurance limits. For a lightweight option, I like the Eclipse Crest Heater Shield for its even Elemental blocking, 3.5 weight, and pleasing looks. Any of the Heater shields (except the Heater Shield) are very similar and only going to offer slightly different Elemental resistances. They can all have their Ash of War changed as well.
Medium Shields - Organized by Guard Boost
Parrying
• Medium shields get 3 frames of a parry window
• Small Shields get 5 parry frames and recover 2 frames faster
• The Buckler gets 5 parry frames, same as all small shields, but recovers 2 frames faster than them.
• If you put Ash of War: Carian Retaliation on your Medium shield, it gets the largest parry window possible, 1 extra frame better than Small Shields / Buckler, and recovers 1 frame faster. It only costs FP if you use it to parry a spell, otherwise it's just straight better against normal attacks.
• The Ash of War: Golden Parry used to have the longest parry window at the cost of FP, but they changed it to instead affect a wider area at the cost of FP, otherwise it's the same as parrying with a medium shield. It is not recommended.
This is how FromSoft decided to balance parrying and it's stupid. Sorry about that. There's only one choice. Put the Ash of War: Carian Retaliation on your shield of choice if you want to parry.
Staves
*For the purpose of this section, "main-hand" refers to the staff that's actively casting the spell, as opposed to "off-hand" which we'll define as another held staff just there to provide bonuses.
A staff applies its sorcery scaling only if the staff itself is actively casting a spell. There is no benefit to upgrading a staff that you are only using for off-hand boosts/bonuses.
Meteorite Staff (early game)
• +30% damage to specific gravity sorceries (see Staff Damage boost chart below)
• You cannot upgrade it with smithing stones, so trade it out for another staff as soon as you have the smithing stones to get an upgraded staff with superior sorcery scaling. I think this generally happens at 40+ INT. (detailed below in the 'When to upgrade the Meteorite Staff' sub-section)
• It is totally outclassed, even with its 30% boost to gravity sorceries, at 72 INT by the Carian Regal Scepter.
Academy Glintstone Staff (mid game)
• Best general purpose staff between Intelligence 41 to 68.
• Requires (roughly) +14 upgrade to be an upgrade over the Meteorite Staff.
Carian Regal Scepter (late game)
• Best general purpose staff from Intelligence 69 and above.
• +10% damage when casting Ranni's Dark Moon, Rennala's Full Moon, or Rellana's Twin Moons.
• You can max out with Somber upgrades earlier than regular, so you might upgrade from the Academy Glintstone staff earlier than 69 INT just out of convenience.
Azur's Glintstone Staff
• Adds 40 virtual dex to spellcasting. Applies whether main-hand or off-hand.
• Spells cost 20% more FP.
• 3% lower scaling than the Carian Regal Scepter.
• More of a PVP thing, the casting speed isn't that noticeable.
Lusat's Glintstone Staff
• 10% higher scaling than the Carian Regal Scepter
• Spells cost 50% more FP.
• The higher scaling only applies if being cast in your main-hand. This staff will always apply it's 50% increased FP costs whether it's your main-hand or off-hand.
Staff of Loss
• +30% damage when using Night Shard and Night Comet. (main-hand or off-hand)
• When casting those two spells, this staff has higher scaling than any other staff.
• Get a second one in NG+ to do shockingly high damage with those two spells.
Staff Damage Boost to Specific Sorceries
• Some staves apply a boost to specific sorceries. This doesn't line up with the category a sorcery claims to be in. For instance, Ambush Shard is a "Night Sorcery" but it is not affected by the 30% boost from the Staff of Loss.
Staff Scaling Chart
• Numbers organized by sorcery scaling at 80 int. Assumes this build's generic lvl 150 stats for the other stats that affect sorcery scaling.
• Solid line represents the sorcery scaling of a single staff casting a spell.
• Dotted line represents using a single staff with it's boost to specific sorceries (such as Staff of Loss casting Night Comet or Night Shard)
• Green backgrounds on the chart represent boosted staffs. For the most part, I ignored them because they didn't affect spells I care about.
• Meteorite Staff is better than it seems at low levels of INT because you are very unlikely to have a the max upgraded staffs at that point.
Here's a handy calculator for staffs by Jerp.[jerp.tv]
When to upgrade the Meteorite Staff
At 40 INT, this is what level a staff needs to be upgraded to to have higher scaling than the Meteorite staff.
The Demi-Human staff can get ahead of the Meteorite staff at lower levels of upgrade and intelligence, but the difference isn't a whole lot for the investment. I think it's better to just hang onto the Meteorite until you're ready to upgrade to the Academy Glintstone.
• Demi-Human Queen's Staff +14
• Academy Glintstone Staff +14
• Astrologer's Staff +15
• Carian Glintblade Staff +15
• Carian Glintstone Staff +16
• Digger's Staff +19
• Staff of Loss +21
Talismans
• Core Build, Moonlight Greatsword
Talisman Description Explanation Dragoncrest Greatshield Talisman • Reduces Physical Damage taken by 20% Helps cover Magic Scorpion Charm's physical damage taken increase. Change this Talisman out when it's not necessary. Magic Scorpion Charm • Increases Magic Damage by 12%
• Increases Physical Damage Taken by 10% Affects your DMGS melee damage, Moonlight Greatsword projectile damage, and your spells. Godfrey Icon • Raises attack power of charged Spells and Skills by 15% Improves the damage of charged Moonlight Greatsword projectile AND your charged spells. Shard of Alexander • Boosts the attack power of Skills by 15% Improves the damage of the Moonlight Greatsword projectile, charged or not.
The Magic Scorpion Charm and the Shard of Alexander are missable!
• Do not give Ranni the Fingerblade until you've completed just enough of Seluvis' quest to get the Magic Scorpion Charm.
• Do not kill Alexander (you can safely smack him out of his holes though)
Godfrey Icon does not affect the Sword of Astel's Nebula skill at all because it cannot be charged. The talisman still helps spells, but you probably should change it out anyway.
The Blessed Blue Dew Talisman has a fast enough FP regen to be useful in the late game. You can get it immediately upon entering the DLC. I use it instead of the Dragoncrest Shield Talisman in the open world or while dungeon crawling.
Besides these, you should have all the situational talismans. The Drake Talismans for all the elemental negations. The resistance horn talismans for encounters with troublesome status effects. Gold/Silver Scarab for farming.
Have you already screwed up and can't get the Magic Scorpion Charm this playthrough? Well you bungled this run. That's a lot of magic damage to lose. If you're not willing to restart, go ahead and keep the Dragoncrest Shield Talisman on 100% of the time and use the fourth trinket slot for one of the elemental damage negation talismans for specific boss situations, or maybe one of the turtle talismans for extra stamina regen.
Other Tools
There's so many little tools you can make use of, but these are the ones I'd like newer players to be familiar with.
Lantern
• Light that doesn't cost a hand or spell slot.
• Pick it up from Merchant on the west side of Weeping Peninsula or the south side of Liurnia of the Lakes for 1,800 runes.
Bow
• Sometimes it's helpful to poke enemies or environmental objects.
• Stats/req don't matter.
• I like the Harp Bow for it's light weight and musical note.
Ash of War: Quickstep
• Helpful for crossing sludge and other things that slow you down.
• Apply it to a light weapon. A lot of dagger-type weapons come with it.
Sacrificial Axe
• A weapon you can use as a stat stick.
• 4 FP restored per enemy killed.
• Keep holstered in off-hand.
• Good for helping someone through a zone in co-op.
• Acquired from the Deathbird that spawns north of Castle Morne in Weeping Peninsula (night only)
Glintstone Whetblade
• Provide Magic/Cold affinity to weapons before you have your Dark Moon Greatsword.
• Not all weapons can be given affinities.
• Found in Raya Lucaria.
Sentry's Torch
• Reveals invisible enemies.
• Functional even when holstered (even though it appears snuffed)
• Available from a Merchant in the Leyndell Capital Outskirts for 7,000 runes.
Rainbow Stones
• Glowing stones you can place as markers for your session. (33 limit)
• If you throw them off a cliff, they explode if it's a long fall that will kill you.
• Crafted from Ruin Fragments, which you can farm in various places.
• Ruin Fragments can be purchased infinitely after acquiring a Smithing-Stone Miner's Bell Bearing [4] in the Crumbling Farum Azula.
Flask Of Wondrous Physick
Fighting a boss? Another player? An annoying enemy? Just pop your Physick Flask. Yeah, it can only be used once per grace visit, but it lasts for 3 whole minutes. It's fiiiiine. Experiment and play around with it.
• Recommended Crystal Tears
Name Effect Duration Why Location Magic-Shrouding Cracked Tear Magic dmg +20% 3 min Most of your damage is Magic. Liurnia, Minor Erdtree (NE), Erdtree Avatar Opaline Hardtear Damage Negation +15% 3 min More beef! Caelid, Minor Erdtree (E), Putrid Avatar
• Other Options
Name Effect) Duration Why Location Intelligence-knot Crystal Tear Intelligence +10 3 min Not great at 80 int, but good to boost towards 80. Better early. Liurnia, Base of a cliff SW of Carian Manor. Opaline Bubbletear Damage Negation 90% for 1 hit. 3 min* Strongly resist one hit. Better early game. Weeping Peninsula, Minor Erdtree, Erdtree Avatar Crimsonburst Crystal Tear 7 hp/s (1260 total) 3 min Early game HP recovery. Weeping Peninsula, Minor Erdtree, Erdtree Avatar Cerulean Hidden Tear Eliminates all FP consumption 10 sec Comet Azur Shenanigans Mt. Gelmir, Minor Erdtree, Ulcerated Tree Spirit
Sorceries
If you wanted to, you could swap some trinkets and become a pure spellcaster and then we can talk forever about every spell in the game and the value of every possible loadout, and that would be a lot. If you'd like some in-depth analysis of sorceries, you should find a guide talking about pure spellcasters. I'm just going to talk about some basic walking-around sorceries that I find go along well with this build.
The Dark Moon Greatswords Moonlight Greatsword projectile is single target with a range that's on the shorter side of medium. These are some sorceries that complement that.
Ranni's Dark Moon
• Staff Boost: Carian Regal Scepter (10%)
• Chargable?: No
• Location: Liurnia of the Lakes, Chelona's Rise, accessible as part of Ranni's Questline.
Open boss fights with it. It has a bit of a wind-up where you're vulnerable, then flies off, causes slight AoE explosion for a small chunk of damage, add some frostbite, and, most importantly, add a debuff that lowers magic resistance by 20% for 1 minute. It also dispels any spells that come into contact with it. You only need to recast it to re-apply debuff, otherwise swing away with your Moonlight Greatsword projectiles.
Rellana's Twin Moons
• Staff Boost: Carian Regal Scepter (10%)
• Chargable?: No
• Location: DLC, Remembrance from Rellana in Castle Ensis
Vulnerable while casting, but satisfyingly strong AoE with stance damage and a knockdown on the final hit.
Gravitational Missile
• Chargable?: Yes! Benefits from Godfrey Icon (+15% dmg)
• Location: DLC, dropped by a overworld miniboss at the crater in the Hinterlands.
Kind of neat in PVE because NPCs don't avoid it and pulls them in while dealing good damage. Where it really shines is PVP where you can deny a wide area for a fair amount of time. If you want to be clever, you can try and hide that you're casting other gravity based sorceries like Collapsing Stars while standing in the middle of it.
Cannon of Haima
• Staff Boost: None
• Chargable?: Yes! Benefits from Godfrey Icon (+15% dmg)
• Location: Liurnia of the Lakes, Converted Fringe Tower
I initially slept on this spell, but learned to love its utility. AoE, strong knockdown, and you can do some tricky arcs in the air.
Loretta's Greatbow
• Staff Boost: None
• Chargable?: Yes! Benefits from Godfrey Icon (+15% dmg)
• Location: Liurnia of the Lakes, Caria Manor, Royal Knight Loretta
Excellent spell I use all the time in the open world, delving in dungeons, and in PVP. It's the sniper spell. I'm not including Loretta's Mastery in this list (the similar sorcery that fires four arrows) because it's pretty FP heavy and hard to get the full effect out of because the arrows hit terrain too easily. But feel free to keep it on hand for when you want to nuke something in the distance.
Shard Spiral
• Staff Boost: None
• Chargable?: Yes! Benefits from Godfrey Icon (+15% dmg)
• Location: Sellen's Questline, side with Sellen.
This spell hits multiple times as it travels slowly, so it's great for enemies with big hitboxes.
Night Comet
• Staff Boost: Staff of Loss (+30%)
• Chargable?: Yes! Benefits from Godfrey Icon (+15% dmg)
• Location: Bought from Gowry in Caelid after progressing through the Caelid portion of Millicent's questline.
It's a piercing projectile, but NPCs won't actively dodge it. Simple, useful.
Night Maiden's Mist
• Staff Boost: None
• Chargable?: Yes, for a bigger AoE, but it doesn't benefit from Godfrey Icon.
• Location: Bought from Gowry in Caelid after progressing through the Caelid portion of Millicent's questline.
Early game cheese spell. It does aggro enemies, but you can kite them, or otherwise hide from them while they take 1500+ damage from the AoE. It can damage you, but will not damage allied players in co-op. In PVP it is EXCELLENT for surprise covering ladders, as well as area denial. It does not benefit from any scaling or items at all so it isn't all that useful in the late game.
You can buy this sorcery after completing a little bit of Millicent's questline. If you want this cheese spell, you probably aren't too against cheesing, and it can be acquired very early in a playthrough by cheesing the Commander O'Neil portion of Millicent's quest by kiting him through the scarlet geysers outside his arena.
Character Creation
Class
Astrologer if you're not interested in adding Sword of Astel and/or Moonveil to your tookit. Prisoner if you are interested in those weapons. Personally, I have more fun with the Dark Moon Greatsword and started with Astrologer anyway.
It depends on how much dex you want in the endgame, and I suppose what spells you want immediately. It's a 1 point difference between those two classes, so just follow your heart. The spells shouldn't really come into this decision because it is not hard to go grab the spells that the other class starts with.
You can also sacrifice attribute points in your final lvl 150 build to start with a different class. I'll list the ones that have minimal costs.
Dark Moon Greatsword, Basic (planning for 12 Dex)
• Astrologer: Most attribute points available.
• Alternates for -1 Attribute: Prisoner, Vagabond, Warrior
+ Sword of Astel / Moonveil (planning for 17+ Dex)
• Prisoner: Most attribute points available.
• Alternates for -1 Attribute: Astrologer, Vagabond, Samurai
Keepsake
Whatever you like. Nothing is particularly necessary as you can acquire it all in other ways. So grab whatever makes the early game easier for you.
• Golden Seed: Immediately get 1 extra flask use.
• Stonesword Key: One less Stonesword key to find.
• Cracked Pot is good for those who know how to manage pots.
• Fanged Imps is fine, whatever.
Walkthrough: Basic Game Outline, Allocating Stats
I'm not going to literally tell you what to do every single little step of the way. It's an exploration game and you should be exploring as many dungeons and overworld content as possible, especially on your first playthroughs. I'm just going to provide the basic outline.
Need a map? I like Map Genie[mapgenie.io]
Early Game
Limgrave
Weeping Peninsula
Caelid
Stormveil Castle
The most important stat in the early game is Vigor. It's the best source of your defense. You're going to want to push 30 as soon as you can. The best source of your offense is weapon upgrades. If you want to go pure spellcaster in the early game instead, you're going to struggle juggling your vigor, mind, and intelligence. It's not impossible by any means, it's just the reality of early game spellcasters.
Night Maiden's Mist is a spell that can be acquired quite early that doesn't scale with intelligence (or anything at all). It has a lot of utility as AoE and a cheese spell. You can coast through the early and a lot of the mid game with it. You can get it through the Millicent/Gowry Questline in Caelid and will require killing Commander O'Neill in the Swamp of Aeonia, who can be cheesed by kiting him through the Scarlet Geysers outside his arena if you really want to.
Need a melee weapon? You can temporarily skip Stormveil and grab the Carian Knight's Sword in Liurnia of the Lakes. Or just use whatever. The important thing is you're upgrading your weapon because it's more important than your stats for damage.
By the end of Stormveil, your Vigor should easily be above 30, and ideally 40.
• Staff: Meteorite Staff
• Sorceries: Rock Sling, Night Comet, Night Maiden's Mist
• Talismans: Green Turtle Talisman, Dragoncrest Shield Talisman, Gold Scarab
• Crystal Tears: Opaline Bubbletear, Crimsonburst Crystal Tear
• Tools: Lantern
Early-Mid Game
Liurnia of the Lakes
Siofra River
Ainsel River
Lake of Rot
Now you can start thinking about how to weave more intelligence and mind into your build, and this region is all about sorcery. There's a whole lot of content in this portion of the game between all of the dungeons, quests, and items available. Do explore and collect all you can.
Want a good weapon before Dark Moon Greatsword? Go grab the Carian Knight's Sword from the Carriage being pulled north of the Four Belfries.
Do the Ranni and Seluvis questlines, which you can follow along in the Walkthrough section below. Don't miss the Magic Scorpion Charm.
• Weapons: Carian Knight's Sword, Dark Moon Greatsword
• Armor: Spellblade Set, Mushroom Set
• Staves: Academy Glintstone Staff, Carian Regal Scepter
• Talismans: Magic Scorpion Charm
• Sorceries: Loretta's Greatbow, Cannon of Haima, Ranni's Dark Moon,
• Crystal Tears: Magic-Shrouding Cracked Tear, Intelligence-knot Crystal Tear
Mid Game
Atlus Plateau
Mt. Gelmir
Leyndell
Your build should be coming into its own. By the end of Leyndell, your Vigor should be on its way to 60. You should have the Intelligence and Mind to spellcast effectively. 40+ INT easily, but even up to 60+ depending on how much content you've been doing.
Complete Sellen's questline and side with Sellen at the end for Star Shard, a strong situational spell.
• Talismans: Godfrey Icon, Dragoncrest Shield Talisman +1
• Sorceries: Shard Spiral
• Crystal Tears: Opaline Hardtear
• Tools: Sentry's Torch
Late Game
Get your build to 150 as you continue to explore and experiment with your toolkit. Two of your core trinkets are available in this part of the game. The Shard of Alexander is in Crumbling Farum Azula and the Dragoncrest Shield Talisman is in the Haligtree.
• Talismans: Shard of Alexander, Dragoncrest Shield Talisman, Silver Scarab
DLC
• Talismans: Blessed Blue Dew Talisman
• Sorceries: Rellana's Twin Moons, Gravitational Missile
Walkthrough: Ranni's Questline
Build-Specific Rewards
• Dark Moon Greatsword
• Magic Scorpion Charm (Missable!)
• Sorcery: Ranni's Dark Moon (incidental, accessible only by progressing this questline)
Because the Magic Scorpion Charm can be missable as a result of progressing Ranni's questline too far, this will also be a walkthrough for Seluvis' questline.
Limgrave
• Optional: Meet Renna at the Church of Elleh (at night) after acquiring Torrent.
Liurnia of the Lake
• Progress through Caria Manor to access this the Three Sisters region. On the way you'll fight Loretta and receive a very useful sorcery. (pictured)
• Find Ranni in Ranni's Rise. She won't be available if the Radahn Festival is currently active.
• Ranni will have you speak to the three people in her service. Go downstairs and fully exhaust all of their dialogue before returning to Ranni.
Siofra River
• Siofra is accessible from an elevator in the Mistwood region of Limgrave. It's an obvious building on the map right next to the minor erdtree.
• Find Blaidd who will suggest you talk with Seluvis. (pictured)
• This step will start the Radahn Festival in Redmane Castle in Caelid.
- - - - - Seluvis Questline
Liurnia of the Lakes
• Speak with Seluvis in his tower. He'll suggest you talk with Sellen.
• Seluvis will have a task for you. He'll give you Seluvis' potion with instructions to give it to Nepheli Loux. You don't have to do that though.
Various Options
• Give potion to Gideon Ofnir: Fastest, no reward option. He's in Roundtable Hold.
• Give potion to Nepheli Loux: Dire implications for Nepheli. Makes her spirit ash available (mutually exclusive with Dung Eater's spirit ash)
• Give potion to Dung Eater: Lot of work and requires a lengthy excursion to Leyndell Royal Capital and its Catacombs. Makes his spirit ash available (mutually exclusive with Nepheli Loux's spirit ash)
Liurnia of the Lakes
• Locate Seluvis' hidden chambers. Interact with his special message there and bring down the illusory wall. (pictured)
• Return to Seluvis in his tower. Buy a puppet spirit ash.
• Reload and talk to Seluvis, and you might need to reload again to be able to buy a second puppet. Do so. This will cost starlight shards which you can find next to Stone Astrolabes throughout the world.
• Seluvis will send you to gather the Amber Starlight Shard.
Atlus Plateau
• Collect the Amber Starlight Shard.
Liurnia of the Lakes
• Bring the Amber Starlight Shard to Seluvis in his tower. You'll be rewarded with the Magic Scorpion Charm! Hooray!
• Seluvis will give you the Amber Draught to administer to Ranni. DO NOT DO THIS. I mean, you can if you want. It'll fail, piss Ranni off, and then you'll need to go absolve your sins with Celestial Dew. It's a whole thing with no benefit.
- - - - -
Limgrave (probably optional)
• Speak with Sellen. She has her own questline you may be interested in following, but for Ranni's quest she'll direct you to slay Radahn.
• Cross-Quest: Complete Alexander's questline to the point before you fight Radahn.
Caelid
• Defeat Starscourge Radahn. You can access him from Redmane Castle in Caelid once the Radahn Festival is active, which should be active already from interacting with Blaidd in Siofra River. It can also become active by you entering Atlus Plateau.
Limgrave
• Enter the crater into Nokron.
Nokron, Eternal City
• Progress through this lengthy zone and acquire the Fingerslayer Blade
If you give the Fingerslayer Blade to Ranni, Seluvis will become inaccessible and you won't be able to acquire the Magic Scorpion Charm! It is a core talisman of your build, so don't ♥♥♥♥ this up. If you haven't completed the Seluvis portion above, you need to do so now.
Liurnia of the Lakes
• Give Ranni the Fingerslayer Blade. She'll leave.
• Iji can tell you where Ranni has gone. (probably optional)
• Go to the now accessible Renna's Rise. You'll find the Snow Witch Set in a chest at the top of the portal room.
• Take the portal upstairs.
Ainsel River
• Pick up the Ranni doll ahead of you.
• Rest at the site of grace and talk with the Ranni doll multiple times until she gives you a new task.
• Seek out and slay the Baleful Shadow for a Discarded Palace Key.
• You should be near the Lake of Rot. Go find a site of grace so you can get back here.
Raya Lucaria
• If you haven't completed Raya Lucaria, you will need to do so.
• Loot the chest in the final boss room to get the Dark Moon Ring.
Lake of Rot
• Go to the end of the Lake of Rot. You'll find a coffin in the Grand Cloister. Take it.
Special Location
• Defeat Astel, Naturalborn of the Void
• Exiting this arena (out the other side) will bring you to the Moonlight Altar, a special sub-region of the Liurnia of the Lakes.
Moonlight Altar
• Go to the Cathedral of Manus Celes. I recommend you collect the 11 Starlight shards around here.
• Go down the hole.
• Interact with the doll. You will receive the Dark Moon Greatsword!
• Go check out Chelona's Rise in the SW of this region. There's a turtle search that will reward you with the sorcery Ranni's Dark Moon which is also part of your build. You cannot teleport around between Sites of Grace to collect them all. You HAVE to physically run/ride to each turtle. (puzzle answer pictured)
Walkthrough: Alexander's Questline
Build-Specific Rewards
• Shard of Alexander (MISSABLE!)
This quest will fail if you kill Alexander before the end of his questline.
Limgrave
• Find Alexander in Northern Stormhill and rescue him from his predicament.
Caelid
• Optional: Chat with Alexander at the Gael Tunnel
• Start the Radahn Festival. Either enter Atlus Plateau for the first time or progress through Ranni's questline to the point you discuss Radahn with Blaidd in the Siofra River.
• Defeat Starscourge Radahn, summon Alexander during the fight.
• Reload area, talk with Alexander in the Radahn arena.
Siofra River
• Buy the Nomadic Warrior's Cookbook [17] from the Abandoned Merchant. You can find him by climbing this structure and following along the path.
Liurnia of the Lakes
• Find Alexander south of Carian Study Hall and rescue him from his predicament. This will require an Oil Pot, which you can craft after buying the Nomadic Warrior's Cookbook [17].
Mt. Gelmir
• Find Alexander in the lava field on Mt. Gelmir.
Bonus help you to Azur.
Mountaintops of the Giants
• Defeat the Fire Giant to access the Crumbling Farum Azula. You can optionally summon Alexander.
Crumbling Farum Azula
• Find Alexander. He's just past the dragon that fires lightning with the giant birds along the path.
• Complete the quest to recieve the Shard of Alexander.
Walkthrough: Millicent's Questline
(sorry if it's short and basic, just added it in. Will update)
Because I'm suggesting Night Maiden's Mist and Night Comet, let's walk through the early portion of Millicent's questline to be able to get these sorceries.
• Talk to Gowry in Caelid
• Defeat Commander O'Neill in the Swamp of Aeonia to get the Unalloyed Gold Needle.
• Talk to Gowry, reload, talk to him again.
• Find Millicent in the Church of the Plague (accessible through Sellia puzzle or jumping down from Dragonbarrow)
• Give Millicent the Unalloyed Gold Needle. Reload and then talk to her again.
• To back to Gowry's shack. Talk to Millicent there. Reload. Talk to Gowry.
Gowry now sells spells. Buy Night Maiden's Mist and Night Comet.
Walkthrough: Sellen's Questline
(sorry if it's short and basic, just added it in. Will update)
Shard Spiral is a very useful spell for enemies with large hitboxes, so let's walk through Sellen's questline so you can get it.
• Meet Sellen at the Waypoint Ruins, just past the Mad Pumpkin Head boss.
• Go meet Azur in the Hermit Village on Mt. Gelmir (path pictured below)
• Go back and speak with Sellen for the glintstone key.
• Find Sellia Hideaway hidden behind an illusory wall in Caelid (check a map[mapgenie.io] !)
• Interact with Lusat inside.
• Starscourge Radahn must be defeated to progress.
• Go back to speak with Sellen.
• Find Sellen in the Witchbane Ruins in Weeping Peninsula and acquire her Primal Glintstone.
• Speak with Witch-Hunter Jerren in Redmane Castle to ensure the Radahn Festival is over.
• Find Jerren in Witchbane Ruins and speak with him.
• Go to Seluvis' Hidden Chambers in Liurnia of the Lakes. Interact with Sellen.
• Rennala must be defeated in Raya Acaria before the next step.
• Just outside Rennala's boss room, interact with the yellow summon sign to help Sellen.
• Help Sellen defeat Jerren.
• Talk with Sellen in the Rennala boss room. On reload she'll move to the side of the room. Shard Spiral should be available to purchase in her shop for 8,000 runes.
Source: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3368366716
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