Every single invasion I see people with horribly unoptimized builds that have NO vigor, so I'm writing this guide to link an easily available explanation to them so I don't have to keep repeating this advice in different words to different people.

Early on in EVERY soulsborne game (not just elden ring), leveling your damage stats does almost nothing, since the damage scaling for weapons that is tied to those stats are low when your weapon levels are low, damage stats being strength, dexterity, intelligence, faith, and arcane.

So since it's a waste of level ups to invest further than the minimum requirement of damage stats to use whatever weapon you're using, you should instead level up the only stat that is entirely strong on its own to level, not requiring any other item or equipment for it to be useful, and even then passively only gets stronger once you get more defensive armor later on anyway, Vigor.

For example, imagine there are two characters, both are early level 31 strength builds and both are using a +3 claymore.

One of them (Character A) has 15 vigor (the starting amount) and 36 strength (54 while 2handing). His claymore has 228 attack rating, but he only has 522 hp.

The other character (Character B) has 35 vigor (with almost every level so far invested in that stat) and 16 strength (the minimum required to one hand claymore, though he has 24 effective strength while 2handing).
His claymore has 199 attack rating, and he has 1216 hp.

As you can see, Character A only gains 29 attack rating from 20 levels worth of strength stat, which is only 1.45 damage per level, making him only do, 1.14x (or 14%) more damage from 20 levels, even less when you factor in enemy defenses. This damage increase is absolutely abysmal for a level investment as big as 20 levels.
Meanwhile, Character B gains almost 35 HP per level, giving him over double the amount of HP as Character A, meaning he is literally over TWICE as tanky with the same armor.

The math is doesn't lie.

Now, you might be thinking, how much damage do both characters get if they both level their weapon a single time to +4? Character A gains 13 attack rating on his claymore, while Character B gains 11 damage.

That's Right! Both characters are basically still gaining the same amount of damage per early weapon level! This means that early on, the damage that early damage stats contribute is basically nothing compared to the damage increase from just leveling your weapon up.

And anyway, by the time you hit the Hard cap (which is the point at which the game stops giving you significant amounts of hp for each additional level) for your hp stat (60 vigor in elden ring), which usually happens around level 57 to 60, you should be at a point in the game where your weapons are at a high enough level where your damage stats actually do start mattering (which is around +12 weapons), and at that point its a waste to put any more levels into hp, so you can start leveling whatever damage stat you want from that point on.

There is ONE exception to weapons not having good scaling early, and that is the Meteorite Staff from Caelid. This weapon breaks the rules in that its scaling is excellent when unupgraded, but the weapon also can't be upgraded at all. Almost all intelligence builds use this staff early and reap the benefits of decently high damage early from leveling intelligence early to get very decent sorcery scaling from it.
HOWEVER, this does not mean that intelligence builds alone should disregard leveling vigor in favour of intelligence, as the base amount of intelligence required to use this staff is already enough to get adequate enough damage from early spells. Intelligence caster builds should still regard the advice of leveling vigor unless they need intelligence to meet the minimum requirements for a weapon or spell that they want to use (granted that requirement isnt ludicrously high where they should instead level vigor anyway and only invest in enough int to cast that spell later on anyway).

Oh, and if you're wondering when you should level endurance? Simply level it up when you find a piece of gear you like that is too heavy for you to wear without heavy rolling. Otherwise there are ways to mitigate a lack of endurance, like the Great-Jars arsenal which can always be gotten extremely early, and usually you'll never need more than anywhere between 21 to 30 endurance (depending on how heavy your armor is).

And if you are heavy rolling from carrying too many weapons, DON'T CARRY SEVERAL WEAPONS UNLESS YOU ARE USING THEM AT THE SAME TIME*. You can always swap between weapons in your inventory whenever you want, almost at the same speed as swapping between your hands if you organize your inventory well.

You should NEVER be carrying several weapons in different equip slots of the same hand *unless those weapons weigh virtually nothing like a quick off-hand swap dagger, parry shield, sacred seal, or staff, or a main-hand dagger swap for high critical hit damage.

And if you want to level endurance for more stamina, you should never need more stamina than enough to hit twice and then roll, and if you use heavier weapons that use more stamina per swing, you'd level endurance anyway to carry the thing with decent armor without heavy rolling.
Just tell me you have bad stamina management without telling me.

If you're wondering when you should level mind, simply don't if you are a physical fighter.

There is no reason to ever have more than the base amount of fp as most of your damage comes from your weapons normal moveset like r1, uncharged r2, rolling/crouch r1, charged r2 during large openings, and occasionally jump r1 or r2 if the enemy uses an attack that requires jumping to avoid. You shouldnt ever be spamming ashes of war against bosses unless you're running some crazy cheese one shot build, and even then you only need to hit most bosses a few times anyway so you still dont need more than the base amount of mind.

And if you're a mage? You only need to level mind up to 18 or 20 at MOST.

For boss fights, you'll only ever need to drink your blue flask once or twice (sometimes thrice) and you don't need to be spamming high FP using spells against every enemy, and you can conserve FP for bosses by fighting normal enemies with a physical weapon that scales with intelligence or faith anyway (you can get sacred blade or glintstone pebble ash of war VERY early to make ANY customizable weapon scale with faith or intelligence).

Simply put, for mages, if your blue flask doesnt fully heal your fp at any point in the game, you have too much mind at that point.

Common criticisms against what I have said are as follows:


"But I'm using a bad build on purpose so the game isnt too easy or too boring"

The answer to this is simple, if you want the fights to be more fun or challenging, then why are you making it easier to die instead of making it harder to kill them? Just don't level up your weapons as much or at all but still level your vigor and wear good armor and the fights will only last longer and be more fun instead of just short fights where you constantly get one-shot. Why is your idea of challenging dying easier instead of enemies being harder to kill? Getting one-shot is never fun.


"I'm just trying to have fun, I don't care about using an optimal build"

Is constantly dying to hits that you could have survived if you built your stats better and having to run to the boss again only to die even faster than last time fun to you? Do you legitimately think that soulsborne games are to be played as if you're supposed to keep bashing your head against a brick wall (yes, this is a REAL argument i have seen someone say with 100% sincerity as they walked back into Malenia's boss room for the 50th time with 30 vigor and a moonlight greatsword only to call the game ♥♥♥♥ and never playing it again), instead of being the types of games where you build your character cleverly to counter whatever the game throws at you? (in this case raising hp to reduce the general risk of dying to ANYTHING, which is the NUMBER 1 BE ALL END ALL obstacle of these games)
Do you REALLY delude yourself into thinking that said bashing of head into a brick wall is fun, when you could actually be having fun by taking time to actually learn the intricacies of the game, improving your own gameplay and knowledge of the games mechanics?
If you truly believe that to be so, then I pity you, but I'll also be laughing at you when you inevitably get invaded and die to them in 2 seconds (or more likely, run away to jump off of a cliff after realising just how hopelessly outmatched you are because of how GARBAGE your no vigor having build is).


"I just want to be a glass cannon build, I dont care about surviving, only one-shotting bosses"

Do you realize what game you're playing? Soulsborne games don't lock you into specific stats with specific stat growths depending on your class like other rpgs. You can be tanky AND do damage. Why be a glass cannon when you can just be a cannon?

Now, a lot of people don't know this, but I'm about to share some secret knowledge for build making in elden ring that will make your build so strong that it almost feels like you're using Tw!nk Build (which is a build that is low level with endgame gear), except you aren't because its entirely possible to do this early on without getting any late game gear.

You know the talismans that each give you 5 levels worth of stats like the starscourge heirloom, prosthesis wearer heirloom, two fingers heirloom, and stargazer heirloom? You can use those to reach weapon requirements even earlier without leveling those stats so that you can reach 60 vigor even EARLIER than you usually would. Combine these with the Godrick Great Rune (which gives at least 15 levels worth of useful stats, useful stats only counting 5 levels worth of vigor, endurance, and damage stats of your choice that scale with your favored weapon) and Great Jars Arsenal (which gives around 9 levels worth of equip load) to get at LEAST 29 levels worth of useful stats, and at most 39 LEVELS worth of useful stats if you're running a dual stat build like a quality build (which is 50% strength and 50% dex).

Oh, and if you're wondering where you're gonna get the rune arcs to constantly keep the godrick rune active? Just invade. I guarantee you that by following this guide, you'll win at least 50% of all your invasions just by the fact that your build will be infinitely stronger than 80% of most random pve'ers at lower levels, and that 30% margin of error depends on your pvp skill.

KEEP IN MIND: Once you hit at LEAST 50 vigor and start leveling up your damage stats for real, then Morgotts great rune actually outscales Godricks in terms of virtual stats by giving you beyond 99 vigor's worth of hp. Whereas at level 45 for example, Morgotts great rune only gives you barely over 60 vigors worth of hp which is slightly worse compared to the 20 levels worth of vigor, endurance, strength, and dexterity that you would otherwise gain from Godricks rune.

Pictured below is my level 60 quality build that effectively has 99 levels worth of stats at level 60, which is achievable before even reaching Leyndell.

Keep in mind though, that because I'm a sweaty pvp'er who enjoys having an organized inventory full of usable weapons to provide variety while invading, I use talismans and Godrick's great rune to get as high as 26 strength and 22 dexterity, which are required to one hand the Nightrider's Glaive and the Nagakiba, the 2 highest stat requirement weapons I enjoy using. So if you're making your own build like this but your chosen weapons required stats are much lower than whatever talismans + godricks rune gives you, simply just invest unneeded stats past your chosen weapons required stats into vigor (or endurance if you hit 60 vigor) and use Morgotts great rune instead.