Elden Ring Greatsword Build Guide – Colossal Knight

Elden Ring Greatsword Build – Mechanics and Equipment

The Colossal Knight is a Strength-based build that takes advantage of the War Cry ability in order to change your charged R2 attack into a charging attack. You charge forward, do an overhead swing, then do an uppercut which knocks enemies into the air. This does absolutely devastating damage, which is made possible by the War Cry ability.

War Cry only buffs your right-hand weapon and using R2 will only use one weapon, so this is a single weapon build. You’re going to want the biggest weapon you can find that can still be equipped with War Cry. This means any Greatsword or colossal weapons which cannot be slotted with an Ash of War are immediately ruled out. This is the reason I chose the Greatsword for this build. Not only does it have incredible damage, it’s a colossal sword, and it can be slotted with an Ash of War, which allows War Cry to function.

You’re going to see huge damage, upwards of over 1000, early on in the game. Even if your Greatsword is only at +4 or +5, you’re going to see over 1000 damage depending on the enemy, which is absolutely incredible. You can one-shot early game bosses, maybe even 3 or 4 hits on mid-game bosses. A lot of times, you’ll be able to stagger bosses, and they’ll never get a chance to do anything to you.

Elden Ring Greatsword Build – Talismans

We’ll also be usisng the Axe Talisman and Roar Medallion. The Axe Talisman increases your charged R2 attacks by 10%. If you hold R2 until your character attacks, you’re going to get an extra 10% damage, which is really huge. Roar Medallion increases your War Cry attacks by 15%. It doesn’t buff the amount of damage you get from War Cry, it will buff the attacks after using War Cry. This will be a total of 25% damage increase when using the charged R2 attack, which already deals a substantial amount of damage.

Another talisman you can use for this build is the Green Turtle Talisman. You tend to empty your stamina bar in a split second. You need to regenerate your stamina very quickly, which you’re going to have with this talisman. You’ll have a lot of Endurance for this build, so I feel like having the Green Turtle Talisman is more effective with this build than a lot of talismans.

For the fourth talisman, you could go with Erdtree’s Favor in order to get more health, equip weight, and stamina. All of those things are good for this build. You’re going to take damage playing this build, you’ll struggle with equip load, and having more stamina is good in general, so this is a good choice.

You could also use Claw Talisman if you find yourself doing jump attacks from time to time, which you will, although you’re going to lean more into the charge attacks. This talisman provides you with a 15% damage increase on jump attacks. If you’re leaning towards jump attacks instead of charge attacks, you can use this one.

Another option for this build is the Viridian Amber Medallion, which increases your maximum stamina. You really can’t have enough stamina with this build. If you get your stamina high enough, you’ll be able to do three charged attacks in a row, which’ll happen at around level 100.

Elden Ring Greatsword Build – Gameplay

Whenever you’re facing a tough enemy or a group of enemies, you’re going to hit L2 in order to buff yourself with War Cry. This increases your damage, and it will change your R2 into that charging attack. You’re then going to prematurely use R2 towards enemies that are moving towards you, and that’s going to stagger them. When they’re staggered, you can hit R2 again to do another hit. You can finish them off with another R2 attack if they’re still alive.

This build plays similarly to the Barbarian build, but it’s even more effective now that you have the Roar Medallion and a stronger weapon. One of the things that’s really fantastic about this build is the Poise you can from the charged R2 attack. When you’re buffed with War Cry, you can literally go through arrows and some attacks in order to connect with the enemy. If you have trouble with enemies that stagger you, if you can get the animation of the attack going at least halfway through, you’re going to finish it no matter what. You might even stagger them and be able to finish them off, trading damage. It can be a great way to get rid of a tough enemy.

Another thing about this build that’s really fantastic is it is absolutely devastating on horseback. If you use L2 and R2, not only does it do damage when you’re dragging it through enemies, but also when it pops up from the ground. It deals incredible damage, and you can ride around the landscape. I would recommend you using this on areas you can use your horse.

Elden Ring Greatsword Build – Attributes

There are three attributes you need for this build; Strength, Endurance, and Vigor.

Strength is the most important one because not only does it increase your damage by about 5 or 6 per point, which is significant, but it is also needed to meet the requirements for the weapon. You can start using the Greatsword at 21 Strength, but you can one-hand it at 32. You don’t really need to one-hand it, as you’re going to be playing two-handed with this build anyway. If you decide to move on from that to a better weapon, you’re going to need more Strength.

Next up, we have Endurance. This gives us stamina and equip weight, things we both really need for this build. Equip weight allows you to use better armor. Our armor weights a lot, so it doesn’t leave a lot of room for good armor. As you progress the game further, you’re going to want to continue to improve this. As I mentioned, if you get your stamina high enough, you can do three charged R2s in a row.

Lastly, we have 25 Vigor. This is quite a lot for this part of the game. You’ll be increasing this as well, as you really can’t have enough health. One of the things about this build is that you’ll trade damage a lot. Once you get hit on the first swing, you still want to tank that second hit so you can continue swinging and finishing an enemy off. Some fights that last a couple of minutes can be ended in a few seconds by trading hits, which is the way this build plays.

Elden Ring Greatsword Build – Final Tips

You can use Fire Grease or other greases on this weapon. One of the benefits to using a single weapon is that you only have to grease one weapon. Obtaining Fire Grease is rather easy. You can get it if you go to the Warmaster’s Shack. There’ll be Root Resin in front of the shack, and Smoldering Butterflies will be nearby. You can do a loop to farm this, which’ll give you infinite Fire Grease. It doesn’t provide that much more damage, but there are other greases you can use such as Blood Grease.

Lastly, this build is a good candidate for greatbows. One of the real detriments to this build is that it lacks range at all. It doesn’t have a way to lure enemies unless you make throwing daggers. If you want to use a greatbow, this is a fantastic build to use it. Just keep in mind that you’ll probably need a few more points in Dexterity in order to use a greatbow.

That’s it for our Colossal Knight Build Guide! As always, let us know if you have questions or other tips in the comments below. We have a ton more builds coming for Elden Ring and Shadow of the Erdtree so stay tuned for those. If you need help finding items, and securing some personal objectives, make sure to check the Elden Ring Map. Happy building!