Highlights
- There are numerous build options in Elden Ring, allowing players to customize their character with different weapons, armor, and spells.
- Players can choose to follow meta builds or opt for more interesting and unique builds that bring curiosity and surprise to the game.
- Some notable examples of bizarre builds include the Mushroom King, Shield Wall, Mech Suit, Let Me Solo Her, and Sonic the Hedgehog, each with their own distinct playstyles and strategies.
There's no shortage of options when it comes to choosing a build in Elden Ring. The massive pool of weaponry, armor, and spells, paired with the right allocation of stats, provides plenty of character combos to choose from. Truly, Tarnished can be whatever they want to be as they ascend the throne and become Elden Lord. While any normal person would try and curb the game's difficulty by choosing one of the most overpowered builds in Elden Ring, others prefer to take a more interesting route, brandishing builds that beg curiosity and bewilderment.
Seeing players' bizarre builds in Elden Ring never gets old, and there are just as many weird builds as there are meta builds to play through the game with. Legends have been born in the Elden Ring community for their unique builds, creating fun gameplay through game-breaking mechanics or sheer absurdity. Since the game's release over a year and a half ago, there have been plenty of updates giving players even more weird ways to play the game. With the release of Shadow of the Erdtree on the way, now's the perfect time to pick from the catalog of weird builds to play through the upcoming DLC with.
Mushroom King
Two of the most annoying damage sources in Elden Ring have to be poison and scarlet rot. These are petulant life drains that slowly and steadily diminish a character's health. While being afflicted by these damage over time effects would irritate anyone, it's quite the opposite when they're the ones doing the afflicting, and the Mushroom King build is arguably the most fun way to stack those afflictions on one's enemies. Wielding the quirky-looking Mushroom armor set and the Antspur Rapier will have your foes down with the sickness so fast that they won't know what hit them.
This build mostly relies on having the Antspur Rapier paired with either the Poison Moth Flight or Poisonous Mist Ash of War. The Antspur Rapier comes pre-installed with scarlet rot, and using one of the two poison Ash of Wars will make it easy to double-down on the damage over time effects. Having the Frenzied Flame Seal in the offhand slot, as well as utilizing the Poison Mist, Pest Threads, and Scarlet Aeonia spells, will also help to stack poison and rot.
The Mushroom armor set is the preferred armor of choice, but aside from its fungal look that helps players get into the poisonous role they're playing, it has no real benefits. Since this build is reliant on stacking poison and scarlet rot ASAP, it's best to allocate stats into Arcane, Faith, Dexterity, and Mind.
Shield Wall
Fat-rolling has become a meme in the Soulsborne community. The comical lethargy of characters dodge-rolling while over-encumbered with gear is laughable, but it can also mean a character is an absolute unit not to be reckoned with, especially in Elden Ring—enter the Shield Wall. This is a heavy-armor build that dual-wields two of the best shields in Elden Ring, making the most of a character's mass to brush off attacks and pulverize enemies.
Players will need to don themselves in some of the heaviest equipment that's available in Elden Ring if they want to become a true shield wall. For armor, the Bull Goat set is the go-to for its epic poise and damage reduction. Additionally, dual-wielding the Fingerprint Stone Shield will ensure you'll never be knocked back by enemies. These shields will also let you lay down the law with their attacks that, albeit slow, provide some hefty DPS.
To make the most of this build, it's recommended to use the following talismans: Great Jar's Arsenal, Dragoncrest Greatshield, Greatshield Talisman, or the Bull-Goat's Talisman. With all this weight to bear, players will need a lot of points in Endurance, Strength, and Vigor to be viable. That'll be easy enough after spending some time at the best rune farm locations in Elden Ring.
Mech Suit
Channeling one's inner anime has never been easier than through Elden Ring. But one build reigns above the rest when it comes to creating animation-worthy fights, and that's the Mech Suit build. Coming into popularity from a video posted on YouTube by Adam Barker, the Mech Suit build is a madness build that front-loads damage to enemies with the Unendurable Frenzy. For anyone looking to become the Lord of the Frenzied Flame in a flashy fashion, this is it.
The first thing players need for this build is the powerful Unendurable Frenzy incantation. Secondly, they'll need the Ironjar Aromatic and a Flask of Wondrous Physick with a Cerulean Hidden Tear and Crimsonwhorl Bubbletear inside. Combining the Ironjar Aromatic item with the aforementioned Flask of Wondrous Physick combination will make characters nearly indestructible as they lash opponents with missile-like tendrils of madness.
This item and flask combo will make players move very slowly, but that's a small price to pay for extreme mech-like power and defense with unlimited FP. Slotting stats into Vigor and Mind will help players cast the Unendurable Frenzy incantation more, as well as prevent the madness that will build up from it. Most mechs use Hoslow's Set for the build, but really any high-end armor will do.
Let Me Solo Her
Rising to fame from their epic encounters with Melania, Let Me Solo Her is legendary in the Elden Ring community. Spending most of their time at the base of Miquella's Haligtree, Let Me Solo Her helps weary tarnished with possibly the most difficult encounter in the game, Melania, the Blade of Miquella. But they're not famous for simply being a helping hand. They're famous because they do it without any help from the player they're assisting, and they come completely naked aside from a jar on their head.
The Let Me Solo Her build is a glass cannon build that relies on killing fast and not getting hit. It's a dual-wield katana build, wielding an Uchigatana +25 with Ash of War Hoarfrost Stomp in the main hand and Elden Ring's Rivers of Blood +9 in the offhand. The Jar Helm is not required, but for anyone looking to truly recreate the glory of Let Me Solo Her, it's highly recommended. For talismans, Let Me Solo Her uses a Green Turtle Talisman, Viridian Amber Medallion, Kindred of Rot's Exultation, and Claw Talisman. To make the most of the fast-paced katanas and the constant dodging required as a glass cannon, players should primarily stat into Dexterity and Strength and secondarily into Endurance and Vigor.
Sonic the Hedgehog
Saving easily the weirdest for last, the Sonic build is based on the blue, furry, and fast little hedgehog Sonic the Hedgehog. This build first came around from YouTube content creator Marco Yolo who used it as a funny way to defeat invading tarnished in PvP. The build's play style is entirely based on rolling into enemies to deal damage, slowly draining their HP and oftentimes their will to continue playing.
To make this build a reality, all a player really needs is Elden Ring's Lightning Ram Ash of War. Lightning Ram surrounds a player in electricity and somersaults them toward enemies to deal damage. It also deals stance damage to enemies, meaning they're easily staggered and making the somersault offensive difficult to counter. Aside from that, everything else a player chooses to use is up to them. Lightning Ram uses FP and Stamina, so leveling points into Mind and Endurance respectively will allow more rolls, which means more damage. Of course, making a fully blue character might also help sell the immersion while trying to be like Sonic.
Elden Ring is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Series X/S.
