With Elden Ring’s wide and diverse weapons, items, and attacks, it may be the best From Software game for developing all kinds of unusual and strange builds to run through the game with. Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls were well known for their challenge runs like fists only or no stat upgrades, but Elden Ring excels both for those continuing that tradition of challenge runs, but also outright ridiculous builds as well.
While some of these entries are actually viable, or even just an outright traditional challenge run, their rankings only reflect how creative or outright ridiculous the build is. With that in mind, here are the ten best unconventional builds used so far in Elden Ring.
10 Double Whip
Possibly the most normal of any on this list, Whips have been in Souls games since Dark Souls 1, but have never been more viable than they are in Elden Ring. Their ability to hit from range and act as a useful offhand tool for a variety of builds has given them also as much use as spells. Their use as a doubled weapon, however, excels in their frequency of attacks and infliction of status effects using whips like Hoslow’s Petla Whip is exceptional.
Anybody who has played Elden Ring for a moderate amount of time can tell you how effective status effects are. Whips effectiveness with crowd control and quickly building up status effects. If it weren’t for shielded enemies and bosses having such high poise, double whips would be an outright meta build.
9 Dual Crossbow
Another recurring weapon type in the Souls series is the Crossbow. Available rather early in Elden Ring, Crossbows can be used to attack enemies from range by using bolts that can either be picked up in the overworld or crafted. Unlike Bows, Crossbows cannot be given new Ashes of War, which limits the variety of ways to use Crossbows.
Dual Crossbows commit heavily to poking at enemies from a distance, acting as more of a Spirit Ash than a regular player, with the option to use an aggressive Spirit Ash to aggro an enemy while you safely attack from a distance and vice versa. The different kinds of bolts can also be used to inflict status effects, making this a far more viable build than in other Souls games.
8 Spirit Ash Summons Only
New to Elden Ring, Spirit Ashes allow the player to summon a spirit in exchange for either FP, or in some cases HP. These Spirit Ashes are usually based on enemies found in the lands between and can range anywhere from a handful of different enemies, a singular enemy that aggressively attacks enemies, or a stationary spirit that fires attacks from a safe distance.
Being acquired very early on, it is possible to clear the entire game from the beginning using only Spirit Ashes. This build forbids any forms of attacking, so it will probably be necessary to use an item like Shabriri’s Woe to draw the enemies’ aggro without attacking until unlocking a dominant meta Spirit Ash like the Mimic Tear.
7 Full Poise/Heaviest Armor/Max Equip Load
A classic Souls build, this involves using the heaviest armor in the entire game and relying on high poise to tank enemies’ hits and counteract the pitiful roll and dodging ability you will have. The Bull-Goat Set is the heaviest set of armor in Elden Ring. For a true challenge, you could also run multiple heavy weapons in your equip slots in order to keep your equip load high without the benefit of using such bulky armor.
In any case, all three largely rely on the same play style in having to counteract the downsides to running over the max equip load in both movement speed and lack of range on your roll.
6 No Armor
Another classic Souls build, the complete opposite of the heaviest armor is running no armor at all. In general armor, other than having some strong passive effects on a handful of sets, offer limited benefits. There are not many differences between the protection offered by most armor sets outside the outright heaviest in the game.
Running none, on the other hand, can make withstanding enemy attacks almost impossible. While running with no armor whatsoever is definitely handicapping yourself, it’s hardly as big of a difference as running with no weapons, for instance.
5 Wretch Starting Class, No Leveling
The Souls series has always had some variation of the level 1 starting class. The classes’ weak club weapons and lack of armor make it an additional challenge for series veterans to take on from the very beginning. A small benefit the wretch has is being able to spec into whatever kind of build they want as they are not constrained by initial stat categories that make it more difficult to change midway through.
The real challenge here, on the other hand, is not upgrading your build whatsoever. While much of this build involves slowly chipping away at enemies and having to perfectly dodge attacks for upwards of a significant amount of time for some later encounters, it is possible, and some experienced players have made it a goal to achieve it in every From Software release.
4 Double Shield
The added combat options in Elden Ring like jumping attacks and guard counters have made the double shield build one to be feared. Combined with heavy armor sets like the Bull Goat Set, and even shields’ wide range of weapon arts and status infliction have made double shield builds the most viable they have ever been.
The more popular versions of this build have utilized the game’s greatshields in order to withstand stronger attacks from major bosses, whereas status infliction shields such as the Marred Leather Shield are more reliable for bigger groups of enemies.
3 Fists Only / No Weapon
Another of the more popular classic Souls builds, fists only is the act of removing your weapons entirely and only attacking with the default unarmed striking attacks for minimal damage. While there are a handful of fist-based weapons in Elden Ring like the Caestus and the Iron Ball, this run in particular is centered around the default fist option.
Similar to the no upgrade run, the strategy involves avoiding attacks almost perfectly. While the no-upgrade run can still rely on certain early-game meta weapons, the fist-only run can also benefit from regular leveling and armor sets.
2 Items Only
Easily the most tedious of any unconventional build in Elden Ring, the items only run relies on farming materials for certain items such as the cracked pot and throwing daggers. Getting enough materials for this run can be incredibly time-consuming and annoying, but the wide variety of consumables and certain throwing items such as the throwing dagger that can be purchased from merchants can significantly speed up the process.
What Elden Ring excels at is the number of throwable items that deal different kinds of damage. The Crystal Dart can inflict magic damage, the Kukri can inflict blood loss, and the Fire Pot can deal fire damage. While none of these items individually deals significant damage, certainly not enough to be considered meta, it allows a wide option of items for every type of enemy based on their strengths and weaknesses that encourages a good diversity of weapons used throughout the run.
1 Kicks Only
An underrated mechanic explored only somewhat recently by players attempting challenge runs, the kick weapon art is featured on mostly crossbow-type weapons, with a few exceptions for whips and hammers. The kick weapon art is intended to be used for guard-breaking shielded enemies and getting slight distance for some ranged weapons like crossbows and whips, but does deal a minor amount of damage as well.
The kick-only run is philosophically similar to the fists-only run, the sheer comedy of watching a player repeat the same exact kicking animation over and over, in addition to it being a new mechanic in Elden Ring is more than enough to put it over the edge and make it the best unconventional build in Elden Ring.
