Elden Ring Strength Build Guide: Colossal Weapons and Unstoppable Power

Strength builds in Elden Ring deliver the most visceral combat experience in the game. Staggering bosses with colossal weapons, trading hits while your heavy armor absorbs damage, and watching health bars evaporate from a single charged heavy attack. This guide covers stat allocation, the best weapons, armor, and talismans for a pure Strength build.

Starting Class

Choose Hero or Vagabond. Hero starts with the highest Strength at 16 and decent Vigor. Vagabond has slightly lower Strength at 14 but better overall stat distribution and starts with a sword and shield for safer early gameplay.

Stat Priority

Vigor first. Get to 40 Vigor before investing heavily elsewhere. Elden Ring hits hard, and Strength builds need to survive trading blows. Aim for 60 Vigor by endgame.

Strength to 60, then 80 if using a pure Strength weapon. Two-handing a weapon multiplies your effective Strength by 1.5, so 54 Strength while two-handing reaches the 80 soft cap.

Endurance to 25-30. You need stamina for heavy attacks and enough equip load to wear heavy armor without fat-rolling. The Great-Jar’s Arsenal talisman helps here.

Top Weapons

Giant-Crusher: The hardest-hitting weapon in the game on a pure Strength build. Its charged heavy attack staggers almost everything. Found in a chest on the outer wall of Leyndell.

Greatsword: The iconic colossal sword. Excellent moveset with wide sweeps for crowd control and thrust attacks for narrow spaces. Found early on a carriage in Dragonbarrow.

Grafted Blade Greatsword: Unique weapon art grants +5 to all stats for 30 seconds. Found in Castle Morne in Weeping Peninsula, making it available very early.

Ruins Greatsword: Intelligence-scaling Strength weapon with a weapon art that launches a devastating gravity wave. Earned from the boss at Redmane Castle.

Armor

Heavy armor matters for Strength builds because you will be trading hits during slow attack animations. Bull-Goat armor provides the highest poise in the game, letting you attack through enemy hits without being interrupted. Veteran’s Armor offers a good balance of poise and weight.

Talismans

Great-Jar’s Arsenal for massive equip load increase. Claw Talisman boosts jump attack damage, which is the bread and butter of colossal weapons. Shard of Alexander boosts weapon art damage. Erdtree’s Favor +2 gives HP, stamina, and equip load.

Combat Strategy

Jump attacks are your primary tool. They deal high poise damage, have good range, and recover faster than charged heavy attacks. Against bosses, watch for openings after their combo strings end, jump in, and jump-attack once or twice before rolling away.

Charged heavy attacks are for guaranteed openings, such as after a boss’s long recovery animation or when an enemy is staggered.

For more Soulsborne content, see our boss ranking guide and combat system comparison.

Spirit Ashes

Spirit Ashes provide a significant advantage for Strength builds by drawing aggro and creating openings for your slow attacks. The Mimic Tear, which copies your character, is the strongest summon for Strength builds because it also uses your colossal weapon and can stagger bosses alongside you.

Upgrade your preferred Spirit Ash using Ghost Gloveworts found in underground areas. A fully upgraded Mimic Tear at +10 is essentially a second player character in boss fights.

For earlier game, the Skeletal Militiaman summon is excellent because the skeletons revive themselves if not killed by holy damage, providing persistent aggro throughout long fights.

Progression Route

Early game: Start in Limgrave, clear Gatefront Ruins, and head to Weeping Peninsula for the Grafted Blade Greatsword from Castle Morne. This weapon carries you through the early game with excellent damage and a useful weapon art.

Mid game: Push through Liurnia and Caelid to reach Dragonbarrow, where the Greatsword sits on a carriage chest. Upgrade it with Smithing Stones from mining tunnels. Clear Redmane Castle for the Ruins Greatsword as an alternative.

Late game: Reach Leyndell for the Giant-Crusher. By this point you should have 50+ Vigor and 50+ Strength. Focus on upgrading your weapon to +24/+25 using Ancient Dragon Smithing Stones from late-game areas.

Dealing with Fast Bosses

The biggest challenge for Strength builds is fast bosses like Malenia and Maliketh who punish slow attacks. Against these bosses, shift to a more reactive playstyle. Wait for clear openings. Use jump attacks instead of charged heavies. Consider keeping a faster backup weapon like a Greataxe for fights where colossal weapon speed is too punishing.