Among the most traditional builds in Elden Ring, the Bleed build is a strong and reliable option.
Builds are how you make the experience of playing Elden Ring unique every time. Some are focused on casting powerful spells and obliterating enemies from afar, while others work around heavy armour and massive weapons.
In case you’re looking for a good build to start the game or get back to it, we’ve got you covered. In this guide, we explain the best Bleed build in Elden Ring, listing the best weapons, armours, and talismans to you need.
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How to play the Bleed build in Elden Ring
At first, it’s important that you understand how the Bleed build works if this is your first time playing with it. In Elden Ring, the Bleed effect – called Hemorrhage in the game – takes large chunks of the enemy’s health bar once applied.
The Bleed effect is applied by weapons, sorceries or incantations, skills, consumables, and even Spirit Ashes. They apply a certain amount of Bleed effect per hit indicated in their status.
For you to apply Bleed to an enemy, you must hit them a certain number of times to surpass their resistance. For example, the Nagakiba katana builds up 45 Bleed per hit. When facing an enemy with 200 of resistance to Bleed, you need to hit them five times with this specific weapon. If you take too long between attacks, the build-up process restarts.
Enemy’s resistance values are different from each other and they get higher as you apply the effect. But, whenever you trigger the effect, enemies lose from 10% to 15% of their max HP from blood loss.
Considering how hemorrhage works in Elden Ring, you want to be aggressive and build up the Bleed effect. Because there is the need to perform sequences of attacks, you want to use light armour and weapons for quick blows. Abuse from jump attacks and Ashes of War as well.
The downside of this build is that a more aggressive approach forces you to stay close to enemies and risk getting hit by their attacks. You won’t be running a shield or heavy armour to protect you, so work on your reflexes and be ready to pop flasks from time to time.
Elden Ring best Bleed stats
In order to use the best armour sets and weapons to apply Bleed to enemies in Elden Ring, you need to meet their stats prerequisites. Below, you find the numbers you should have late in the game for each stat.
- Vigor: 50
- Mind: 25
- Endurance: 30
- Strength: 18
- Dexterity: 50
- Intelligence: 9
- Faith: 15
- Arcane: 45
As you can see, for this build, Dexterity and Arcane are the stats you should spend most of your points on, followed by Vigor. The reason for this is that we will be focusing on weapons whose damage scales are based on these stats.
Although you can play around with the secondary stats, we suggest having enough Endurance for the initial loadouts. But, in the end, if you didn’t like the final result or you’re not enjoying the build, you don’t need to worry, since you can respec your character.
Elden Ring best Bleed weapons
This build is structured around Eleonora’s Poleblade, a twinblade weapon that you acquire by defeating Eleonora, Violet Bloody Finger. To use it properly and take the most out of it, you need at least 12 Strength, 21 Dexterity, and 19 Arcane.
Eleonora’s Poleblade is not only a fast weapon, but it also has the cool-looking and pretty effective skill Bloodblade Dance. It allows you to apply Bleed faster since you unleash a quick sequence of slash attacks with this ability.
There are two methods of finding Eleonora. First, you can complete Bloody Finger Yura’s quest, which you can start right in at the beginning of the game. Progressing the quest leads you to the Second Church of Marika, where you’re invaded by Eleonora. While you can just go direct to the church and she will appear, completing the quest is the best path for new players.
Unfortunately, Eleonora’s Poleblade is not a weapon that you can get early in the game. To start, you should look for the Uchigatana, a solid initial weapon that applies 45 points of Bleed. The best method to get this weapon is by choosing samurai as your class since it has the Uchigatana as its starting weapon.
The Uchigatana is a solid weapon that, after a few upgrades, can carry you for the initial part of the game. In case you want a stronger weapon, then you should consider getting the Bloodhound’s Fang. You need 18 Strength and 17 Dexterity to use it though.
Elden Ring best Bleed armor
When it comes to armour sets for this build, there isn’t a specific one you need to run. All that matters is to use good pieces and still have a medium equipment load. If you’re struggling with this, you might want to consider spending more points on Endurance.
There are some individual pieces that are extremely good for this build. The first is the White Mask, which buffs your damage when you inflict Bleed. The Raptor’s Black Feathers is a strong chest piece since it increases the damage of your jumping attack.
Among the initial sets that you can get, the Royal Remains set is a solid choice to run until you find better pieces. Besides having good physical resistance, this set has a passive to heal a couple of health points per second if you’re low health.
Elden Ring best Bleed talismans
For talismans, there is only one that we see as mandatory. The Lord of Blood’s Exultation one which buffs your attack when the Bleed effect is triggered. This talisman’s effect stacks with the one from the White Mask, making them the perfect pair.
Besides this one, you should look for talismans that compensate for anything you feel you’re missing. Talismans like Radagon’s Soreseal, which increases Vigor, Endurance, Strength, and Stamina, or Marika’s Soreseal, which increases Mind, Intelligence, Faith, and Arcane are pretty useful.
Now, for more general purposes, a good talisman to consider having is the Great-Jar’s Arsenal, which increases your Equip Load by 19%. While you’re still at the beginning of the game, the Claw Talisman is a good one to equip to increase your jumping attack damage.
Need more help? Jump back to our list of Elden Ring bosses or our Elden Ring walkthrough.
Good luck triggering Bleed as you fight your way through Elden Ring.
