Elden Ring Bandit Build: How To Create An Arcane Blood God

Arcane blood gods are always a blast to play and if you want to do it yourself, you'll want to follow our Elden Ring Bandit build, which utilises bleeding effects to eviscerate the majority of enemies. Elden Ring gives you tonnes of control over specialising your build through levelling stats and obtaining powerful equipment, making for a wide number of build possibilities. So, if you want to know how to make an effective Elden Ring Bandit build, we've got you covered. 

For more class builds, check out:

• Elden Ring Samurai build
• Elden Ring Vagabond build
• Elden Ring Astrologer build
• Elden Ring Hero build
• Elden Ring Prophet build
• Elden Ring Warrior build
• Elden Ring Prisoner build
• Elden Ring Wretch build
• Elden Ring Confessor build

Elden Ring Bandit Build: Starting And Levelling

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Choosing the Elden Ring Bandit class will start you at level five, with your highest stats being Arcane, Dexterity, and Mind. You'll start pretty thin in terms of equipment, with a shortbow, some arrows, and a buckler shield, meaning you have zero melee options - though we'll remedy that quickly. 

Levelling for the Bandit can also be a task as the Arcane stat is one of the weaker stats during the early portion of the game, and it takes a while to start being effective. While Arcane will be your main stat later on, at the outset of the game, focusing on your Dexterity, Mind, and Vigor is the better choice and will allow you to actually survive until you can get weapons that utilise Arcane. At that point, you'll want to dump points into the Arcane stat often, and utilising the respec option with Rennala might even be a good idea to get the most out of all your levels. 

• If you're looking to get some well-needed levels early on, then our Elden Ring rune farm locations are key.

Elden Ring Bandit Build: Best Equipment

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There are many good quality weapons for this build, and you'll want to prioritise those with bleed effects to get the most out of it. The first weapon you'll want to beeline for is the Uchigatana, which is a katana weapon that will serve you well for many hours. It can be found in the Deathtouched Catacombs, which is located in Limgrave, meaning you can get it pretty much from the outset. 

Another weapon that is close to the start is the Dragon Communion Seal, which is located in the Fringefolk Hero's Grave in Limgrave. You can enter this from the first site of grace in the game, but it requires two Elden Ring Stonesword keys. This will allow you to use magic, such as incantations, and is especially good with dragon-based spells. 

The first unique weapon you can aim for after will take a while to get to, as it's located in the Altus Plateau region, but it's a gamechanger thanks to its power potential. Eleonora's Poleblade is a twin-blade weapon that requires 21 Dexterity and 19 Arcane and can be earned by defeating Eleonora, Violet Bloody Finger at the Second Church of Marika. 

The other two endgame weapon options are the Rivers of Blood, and Mohgywn's Sacred Spear. The first is a katana weapon that requires 18 Dexterity and 20 Arcane, and it can be found by defeating Bloody Finger Okina near the Church of Repose in the Mountaintops of the Giants region. The Sacred Spear requires you to defeat the boss Mohg, Lord of Blood to gain the Remembrance of the Blood Lord, which can be traded in at the Roundtable Hold. It requires 26 Strength, 14 Dexterity, and 27 Arcane to wield, and it's the most powerful weapon for this build, and it can be improved further with specific talismans which we'll explain later.

One of the better armour choices for the start of the game is the Samurai-themed Land of Reeds set. It's got a great balance of physical and magical defence and will last you all the way until you get the next set of armour which is key to improving this build. To get this armour set, you can purchase it from the Isolated Merchant in the Dragonbarrow area of Caelid, costing you only 1500 runes in full. 

The War Surgeon set are the next pieces of armour that you'll want to track down. The set's helmet, called the White Mask, is the only necessary piece for this build due to its passive effect, so you can swap out the rest if you desire. The helmet piece will allow you to deal more damage for twenty seconds whenever you inflict blood loss on an enemy, allowing it to combo well with the above weapons. The full set can be found by defeating the Nameless White Mask invaders in the Mohgywn Dynasty Mausoleum, but you have to kill them before Mohg, otherwise, they'll be unavailable.  

There are a few talismans that really boost the efficacy of this build, specifically making the skill of Mohgywn's Sacred Spear more powerful, and increasing the power of your weapon's bleed effects. One of the first you can track down is the Winged Sword Insignia, which raises the attack power of successive hits, key for the Sacred Spear weapon. This can be found in the Stillwater Cave after defeating the boss, which is located at the southern tip of Liurnia.

The Lord of Blood's Exultation is another key talisman that can be found by defeating a boss called Esgar in the Leyndell Catacombs. When worn, this increases the attack power of your attacks after inflicting blood loss, and also stacks with the White Mask. 

The next two talismans can be found in a late-game legacy dungeon called Elphael, Brace of the Haligtree. The first of these is the Dragoncrest Greatshield Talisman which we've covered in our Elden Ring legendary talismans guide, but in short, this talisman will massively boost your physical damage negation. Marika's Soreseal is the second one, which increases all your magic-based stats by +5 while decreasing your received damage by 15%. 

There are a couple of spells that cap off the build and use bleed effects. The Elden Ring Swarm of Flies spell is a solid choice that deals a lot of damage and will let you increase your power thanks to its bleed. Bloodflame Talons is another great spell choice that also deals fire damage. The rest of your spell choices are up to you, as your melee weapon damage will be enough to destroy most enemies, but it will give you extra utility in some situations.

That's the rundown of our best Elden Ring Bandit build, and now you know how to create an effective Arcane-based class that deals heavy damage thanks to bleed effects. 

If you want to get one of the game's alternative endings, take a look at how to finish the Elden Ring Fia quest.