Elden Ring Dex Build: Weapons, Armor, & Talisman (2023)

The Elden Ring Dex Build is one of two different styles of Build in the game that focus on physical stats as their primary source of damage output. The other of course is Strength, but even then, neither of these are really purely focused on their own particular attribute. Any decent Elden Ring Dexterity build will have secondary stats that you’ve invested in.

Because the truth is that no weapon in Elden Ring relies solely on one stat to wield properly. Most armaments require investment in a combination of two different attributes, with the best weapons in the entire game even requiring you to take a dip into Arcane, Faith, or Intelligence on top of that. These are not usually stats that you’d want to spend points on for melee builds, but the payoff is usually worth it.

So with this Elden Ring Dexterity Build, we’ll show you all of the best Weapons, Armor, and Talismans you should consider using as a Dex character. We’ll also try and explain scenarios where you might want to spend Runes on secondary stats, and what you’ll get out of those as a result.

You can continue reading our guide or watch the video listing the best dexterity weapons for the perfect dex build in the game.

Elden Ring Best Dex Build Guide

To start with, it should be mentioned that an Elden Ring Dexterity Build primarily focuses on mobility over the defense. This is not supposed to make a character that uses heavy armor and a greatshield, for that you want to invest in the Strength stat. And if that’s what you’re looking for instead, you can find something similar in our Greatsword Build guide.

An Elden Ring Best Dex is intended to make a character that is fast on their feet and utilizes dodge rolling as opposed to blocking and negating damage. You are not supposed to be able to take hits, you are aiming to completely evade attacks and stay away from enemies and their blows. The goal is to stay away from crowds and only move into melee range to deliver quick attacks that will deal immense damage in a short amount of time.

Similar Read: How To Parry In Elden Ring: Best Tips.

And once again, your starting class does not matter at all. You can literally begin as any of the 10 different presets on offer and still end up making the Elden Ring Dexterity Build of your choice.

But if you do want a quick head start at the beginning of the game, I highly recommend either the Warrior or the Samurai classes since they start with the highest Dexterity at 16 and 15 points respectively. They also have the starting weapons that scale the best with the stat, so that’s simply a nice bonus.

Now that we’re jumping into the best Weapons, Armor Sets and Talismans recommended for an Elden Ring Dexterity Build, a little something has to be said beforehand in terms of our choices.

All of the items we’ll list below are the ones that worked best for us in the game. Everything mentioned is based on our personal experiences with a Dex build, so don’t take what we have to say as objective facts. This is a massive game with a lot of great weapons, and so what works for one player won’t always work for another.

You may disagree with some of our choices and have alternatives that work best for you, and that’s okay. A range of opinions are correct on this subject and we’re more than willing to hear you out and take your choices into account.

But with that out of the way, lets dive into our recommendations properly.

Dex Build Weapons

Unlike previous FromSoft games, Elden Ring features a brand new Ash of War system that allows players to pick and choose from a range of different skills for their weapons. These not only allow you to equip special abilities to armaments, but also let you change their affinities, and the stats they scale with as a result.

Using this, players can give good Dex scaling to weapons that might not otherwise have it. For example, think of Greatswords as a class of armament. These usually scale with Strength as their primary stat, but by changing affinities you can create one that uses Dexterity instead. This is obviously a great system, but it should be noted that Ashes of War can only be applied to regular weapons. Special armaments like the Dark Moon Greatsword cannot take advantage of this since they have their own unique skills.

The point I’m trying to make here is that regardless of what items we list below, you can choose whatever works best for you.

Uchigatana

I will sing the praises of the Uchigatana until my dying breath because I genuinely believe that it is one of the best weapons in Elden Ring. It’s extremely easy to acquire in the first couple of hours with the game and can be upgraded to stay useful throughout your entire playthrough. It’s also not necessary that you have to use this for an Elden Ring Dex Build, it can even be adjusted to scale with other playstyles like an Intelligence Build.

It is a little surprising that it starts out with a D in Dex scaling that only goes up to a C even at the maximum upgrade level of +25, but that’s not really an issue either. Because by changing the affinity of this weapon to Keen, that scaling changes to a B without any upgrades, and an A at +23. So with at least 35-40 points in Dexterity, you can expect to breeze through most of the game.

On top of this, the Uchigatana has the incredible ability to inflict the Hemorrhage Status Effect on enemies. As you rapidly attack foes with this weapon, the Bleed meter keeps building up until eventually a percentage of their health completely disappears.

Bloodhound’s Fang

Being a greatsword, the Bloodhound’s Fang might not seem like a good addition to an Elden Ring Dexterity Build but bear with me here. Unlike most greatswords in the game, this one scales primarily with Dex and can reach B rank as soon as you upgrade it to +7. On top of this, it also has the ability to inflict the Hemorrhage Status Effect, making it a devastating close-range armament.

Its unique Bloodhound’s Finesse skill lets you dance around enemies with a surprising amount of speed. While using it, you perform a slash and then do a backward somersault away from your target. Press the button again and you close the distance again with a powerful blow that deals a lot of damage.

Additionally, the Bloodhound’s Fang is one of the handful of unique armaments in the game that can be buffed with magic. So use something like the Bloodflame Blade Incantation on it, and allow your blows to keep on building the blood loss bar even after your attacks have landed. Basically what you have now is a weapon that can nuke bosses.

Godskin Peeler

Almost all Twinblades in the game can work for an Elden Ring Dex Build, but the Godskin Peeler is the best among them. As a standard weapon, it only has a C rank in Dex scaling, which only changes to a B at +25. But if you change its affinity to Keen, then it starts off at C rank, then improves to a B at +1, and finally an A at +20.

This weapon has an incredibly fast moveset that allows you to inflict multiple blows on an enemy within a relatively short amount of time. It’s also excellent at crowd control, allowing you to hit multiple enemies at the same time, especially when you’re Two-Handing it.

And although you can put whatever Ash of War you want of this armament, I would highly recommend sticking with its default Black Flame Tornado skill. While using this, the player character spins the weapon over their head and then slams it into the ground. What follows is an area-of-effect vortex of flame that damages enemies in a 360-degree radius and even launches them up into the air.

Hand of Malenia

The Hand of Malenia is a hard weapon to recommend for two different reasons. First, it has insanely high perquisites at 16 Strength and 48 Dexterity, all but ensuring that you’ll have to respec into this build unless you’ve been putting all your points into Dex. And second, acquiring it requires you to beat Malenia, Blade of Miquella, the hardest boss in the game.

But overcome these obstacles, and you’ll be rewarded with a weapon that has great reach, incredible damage output, and the ability to stagger enemies fairly easily. It also has a B in Dex scaling, which it reaches at +3 and maintains even at max upgrade level.

Its unique Waterfowl Dance skill is also an incredibly effective ability that delivers a series of slashes that damage enemies all around the player. These attacks are also extremely effective at inflicting Hemorrhage on foes within seconds. And finally, the Hand of Malenia can also be buffed with Incantations like the Bloodflame Blade to boost its rate of Blood Loss buildup.

Moonveil Katana

No Elden Ring Dexterity Build can ever be complete without mentioning the Moonveil Katana, a weapon so powerful that it basically breaks the game. We actually have a full Moonveil build guide up for players considering using it, but keep in mind that it makes the game a cakewalk. It saps the challenge out of a lot of boss fights.

Basically, this armament deals both physical and magical damage at the same time. It also requires 12 Strength, 18 Dexterity and 23 Intelligence to properly wield, so as you might assume, the main focus is on magical damage. It also primarily scales with Intelligence during the early levels, but upgrading it to the maximum of +10 brings both Dexterity and Intelligence scaling to a B.

The Moonveil also applies the Hemorrhage status effect on top of this, and its Transient Moonlight skill is one of the best in the entire game. While assuming the stance, a light attack can get multiple enemies in an arc in front of you, while the devastating heavy attack can stagger even the toughest enemies in the game with a few slashes, leaving them open to critical hits. Basically, this is one of the Best Katanas in Elden Ring, and one of the best melee weapons overall.

Armor For Dex Build

When it comes to armor in an Elden Ring Dexterity Build, the best advice I can give is to go with whatever looks good to you. I’m being serious here, this entire build is predicated on your ability to effectively dodge roll and not get hit by attacks. And if you’re able to master that one aspect of your playstyle, then your choice of armor doesn’t really matter.

The only thing to keep in mind is that dodge rolling is only possible at low and medium loads. You can still technically do so at a heavy load as well, but it’s so slow and ineffective that you might as well let yourself get hit at that point. Wear armors that are lightweight, or otherwise consider investing points in the Endurance Stat to boost your maximum equipment load to equip heavier sets.

Also, consider boosting your Vigor for more health and upgrading your Flask of Crimson Tears with Sacred Tears. If you do manage to get hit in fights, the least you can do is make sure that your health pool is large enough to take those blows and that your primary healing items are up to the task.

With that all being said, I do have a few recommendations for armor sets that worked for me.

Land of Reeds Set

During my first 10 or so hours with the game, I stuck exclusively with my Land of Reeds Set. It’s light, provides decent protection, and honestly looks really cool. The magic damage reduction could be better, but remember that we’re aiming to not get hit at all.

And even if you do manage to take some stray blows from regular grunts, the armor can easily keep you alive for a few hits. If you however take some stronger attacks from larger enemies like giants or bosses, then you might go down in one or two hits. But that danger is all part of the Best Dex Build In Elden Ring, and you’re going to have to learn to overcome it.

Royal Remains Set

The Royal Remains Set is another armor that can be found early on in the game, and it’s a decent step up in terms of physical protection. It’s a bit worse in terms of other types of damage negation compared to the Land of Reeds set, but up until the mid-way point of the game, most enemies should still be coming at you with physical attacks.

The set is also a bit heavier than the Reeds set, but it also has a unique healing ability. Basically, you recover 8 HP per second while you are under 18% of your total health. This isn’t all that great at first glance, but if you’ve been putting points into Vigor and your health pool is massive, it can make a big difference.

Briar Set

Now the Briar Set is a great option for an Elden Ring Dexterity Build, because it provides a decent amount of both physical and magical damage reduction. But to get it, you do have to find the two halves of the Dectus Medallion first and reach the Altus Plateau. And after defeating a boss named Elemer of the Briar here, you can finally go and purchase the set from the Palm Reader in the Roundtable Hold.

It also has the added benefit of inflicting a bit of physical damage to enemies when you roll through them, on account of the thorns wrapped around the set. The more pieces you have equipped, the greater the damage you do, And for an Elden Ring Dex Build centered around dodge rolling, this works out great.

Raging Wolf Set

Now finally we get to the armor set that I personally used for my run of the game, including most of the end-game bosses. This is called the Raging Wolf Set, and it’s the armor that was featured heavily in some of the gameplay trailers of the game.

Not only is this one of the most impressive looking sets in the game, but its weight is also acceptable and it provides great physical damage reduction for a medium armor. Protection from other sources of damage is also okay, but Lightning defense specifically is not great. So maybe don’t have this equipped for a boss fight that involves a lot of lighting, but otherwise, you’re good in most other scenarios.

Talismans For Dex Build

Elden Ring features a large collection of Talismans that are useful in a number of different situations. They offer a lot of flexibility when choosing a playstyle, and they can make or break a lot of different builds.

So we’ll now go over some of the most useful Talismans for an Elden Ring Dexterity build.

Erdtree’s Favor

Every build in Elden Ring can take advantage of increased Health, Stamina, and Equip load, and this particular Dex Build is no different in that regard. So that’s exactly what the Erdtree’s Favor Talisman bestows on characters.

In fact, the Equip load in particular, is a massive boon when it comes to armor, as it allows players to offset the weight cost of some of the better sets in the game. Using this can be the difference between life and death in a boss battle, especially if you haven’t invested many points in Endurance and Vigor.

Rotten Winged Sword Insignia

When playing as a Dex build, you do not utilize heavy charged attacks with long animations for most situations. Your focus is on landing a lot of fast attacks in a short amount of time and doing as much damage as possible within the limited windows you are given.

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For a build like this, the Rotten Winged Sword Insignia is absolutely indispensable. With this Talisman equipped on your character, your attack power is boosted with successive attacks, and this effect lasts for a while. So as you keep the pressure on, you are rewarded in turn with greater damage output.

Millicent’s Prosthesis

This addition to our Elden Ring Dex Build functions a lot like the Rotten Winged Sword Insignia, but it has another function as well that makes it more valuable. I highly recommend discarding the previous entry on the list as soon as you get this one.

On top of the increase to your attack power with successive attacks, the Millicent‘s Prosthesis Talisman also gives you a +5 to your Dexterity stat on top of that. This is a massive increase to your core attribute and one that lets you invest in other stats that might not be your first priority. Because if you know that you have a +5 to your Dex, you’ll be more willing to put some points into Vigor or Mind.

Radagon’s Soreseal

The Radagon’s Soreseal is a phenomenal Talisman for a lot of different builds, but for this one in particular it can be an absolute godsend. This increases your Strength, Dexterity, Vigor, and Endurance stats by +5, which is a 20 level boost. But in return, you take +15% damage from all sources.

Now it’s obvious why this might not appeal to all players. But as I’ve mentioned multiple times before in this article, the Elden Ring Dexterity Build is focused on dodging over blocking. And when you’ve trained yourself to simply not take the hits, a mere +15% increase to damage taken is no problem at all.

Flask of Wondrous Physick Crystal Tears Mix

The dex build playstyle in Elden Ring requires players to be agile and swift in landing consecutive attacks. That is why having Thorny Cracked Tear and Stonebarb Cracked Tear in Flask of Wondrous Physick will give you the best damage output.

It is because the former increases the attack power of consecutive attacks for three minutes and the latter breaks enemy’s poise faster. The quicker you disable an enemy from attacking you the more chances you will get to do consecutive attacks, hence both Crystal Tears are perfect for the Dex build playstyle. Also, while you’re at it, consider reading our Elden Ring Crystal Tear guide and discover the locations of all 29 of these in the game.

Dex Build Playstyle

We’ve gone over this briefly before, but let’s discuss the Playstyle you’ll be utilizing as an Elden Ring Dexterity Build in a bit more detail now.

First off, learn to evade attacks. I know this is a pretty obvious thing to say, but enemies in this game hit harder than in other FromSoft games, and their attack animations and wind up times are much trickier than anything we’ve ever seen. Many enemies and bosses in the game have ridiculous faints that trick you into thinking that an attack is coming much earlier than it actually is, and so players dodge roll early and end up getting hit as a result.

There is no shame in doing a couple of death runs, where the objective is not to deal damage but to analyze your targets and get the timing down perfectly. Don’t view this as wasted time, think of it as strategizing that will save you hours down the line.

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When you do eventually jump into an encounter seriously, try and remain calm and collected. You are not a tank, and one or two powerful hits can easily down you. So stay mobile, and do not be afraid to completely run away from a fight if you have to. You can always jump back in once you’ve collected your thoughts. Now, this is obviously a difficult thing to do in boss arenas with no escape, but even then putting distance between yourself and the boss is a valid tactic.

And when you do go all in, hold nothing back. Speed is your friend, and most of the weapons in this guide are at their most effective when you use them in rapid succession. Do not be afraid to die, because that fear will force you to make mistakes. And if you do drop dead, then no problem. You can always try again and again.

Also, there is absolutely nothing wrong with using the Spirit Calling Bell in the game. It isn’t a magical tool that will immediately win the game for you, it is an integral part of the experience that helps you with fights. Some of the toughest battles in this game are downright unfair without Spirit Ashes, and for a Dex build in particular they provide a much welcome respite from the constant dodge rolling by distracting enemies.

This has been out Elden Ring Best Dex Build Guide. While you’re here, why not also check out our Elden Ring Confessor Build guide.