As a passionate Elden Ring gamer with over 200 hours under my belt, I‘ve tested the full spectrum of character builds the Lands Between has to offer. Of all the mystical warriors I‘ve created, my personal favorite is the Astrologer.
There‘s nothing quite like decimating groups of enemies with powerful gravity magic from afar while my summons occupy them up close. The immense damage I can deal just by casting a few intricately woven glintstone spells makes all those hours spent mastering the arcane arts worthwhile.
However, I learned firsthand that Astrologers start off extremely vulnerable. With low health and melee prowess, just a few hits from lowly soldiers can quickly overwhelm an amateur mage early on.
That‘s why choosing the right keepsake for your Astrologer can make or break your experience in those critical first few hours. The keepsake‘s starting bonus could save your life.
After testing all 10 keepsake options extensively, I‘ve narrowed down the 5 best suited for an Astrologer looking to amplify their deadly mystical potential.
What Makes A Good Astrologer Keepsake?
Before ranking each keepsake, it‘s important to understand what benefits an Astrologer build specifically. Here are a few key factors I prioritized when evaluating:
Magic Power – Since Astrologers rely so heavily on sorceries, keepsakes that increase FP, sorcery strength, or casting speed are extremely valuable. The more magic you can unleash, the better!
Survivability – With pitifully low Vigor, Astrologers fall quickly if enemies manage to reach them. Keepsakes that increase health, physical defense, or mobility provide a safety net.
Utility – Astrologers need solutions for handling close-quarter threats themselves before spirits can engage. Keepsakes that distract, debilitate or damage groups of enemies can buy precious time.
Sustainability – FP and health flasks are an Astrologer‘s lifeblood. Keepsakes that improve flask effectiveness restore the magic and durability needed to press on.
With these criteria in mind, let‘s evaluate how helpful each keepsake could be towards cultivating a killer mage:
5. Golden Seed
The Golden Seed‘s utility is obvious – starting with extra sacred flask charges accelerates HP and FP regeneration.
However, Golden Seeds that permanently boost flask effectiveness litter the Lands Between. Twin Maiden Husks also sell them for cheap. So while the keepsake version saves some hassle, it doesn‘t provide an effect you won‘t easily replicate.
Still, I can‘t deny an extra emergency heal early on gives squishy Astrologers a bit more breathing room to learn. Ultimately though, there are more impactful keepsake choices.
4. Fanged Imp Ashes
Transforming FP directly into additional allies is a great way for casters to offset low close-range DPS. Imps dart at foes quickly, grabbing aggro with slash attacks while inflicting poison buildup. Their harassment buys time to sling spells safely.
However, Imps have pitiful poise and damage. They won‘t occupy tough enemies long. Since ashes only summon spirits temporarily, maintaining the advantage requires regularly re-summoning more imps which drains FP fast.
But used judiciously, imps make solid meat shields. Their knives can also finish weakened survivor‘s poison does its work. Ultimately though, direct damage or survivability boosts enable better solo carrying potential.
3. Cracked Pot
Having free bombs on hand is undoubtedly useful, but the crafting flexibility comes with downsides…
Firstly, all throwables require spending precious FP to create which diminishes the caster‘s magic potential. Bombs also lack ranged pressure compared to bows or crossbows. Lobbing projectiles leaves Astrologers exposed compared to instantly-connecting sorceries.
Still, leaving harmful gifts for pursuing foes helps control the battlefield. Poison and fire bombs punishing groups are especially potent after softening them up with wide-reaching gravitas sorceries.
While risky to utilize offensively, pottery‘s utility for setting traps or controlling zones in a pinch can‘t be understated.
2. Crimson Amber Medallion
Few starting classes have vigor as horrifically low as Astrologers do. As a caster, I noticed even many early enemies could grievously wound or kill with just 2-3 clean blows. That‘s simply unacceptable!
The Crimson Amber Medallion‘s permanent health buff helps mage builds endure incidental hits while learning enemy patterns from a safer distance.
At low levels, the 7% HP increase grants up to 50 extra health which does wonders for survivability early on. As I continued to reinforce vigor through leveling, the medallion passively boosted those gains too.
While 7% seems minor, every little bit mattered while I struggled learning. And let‘s not forget the medallion also raises maximum stamina for potentially life-saving dodges!
No other starting gift synergizes better with the Astrologer‘s glaring weakness than the Crimson Amber Medallion. It‘s essential for fledgling mages scaling damage stats instead of vigor.
1. Cerulean Hidden Tear
This unassuming consumable might seem useless considering Astrologers replenish FP via flasks already… But looks can be deceiving.
Doubled FP Recovery
Normally, Astrologer flasks only restore half their FP pool per use. But the Cerulean Hidden Tear enables a FULL FP bar restore instead!
This effect can‘t be understated in early levels when your flask holds only 80 FP. Being able to fully replenish it off just one sip cuts the chugging in half. More uptime means faster field stability.
But how does MORE FP recovery help you kill enemies faster you might ask? Simple…
More Damage Uptime
Powerful gravity, glintstone and full moon sorceries that utterly dominate battles drain huge FP per cast. My starter spell "Glintstone Arc" for example consumed a third of my entire FP reserve!
By doubling my pitiful FP flask‘s recovery, I could brute force TWO extra Glintstone Arcs per refill. Pair that with reduced drink speed from mixing in a Stonedigger Tonic, and I could evaporate whole groups with magical machine gun fire!
No other keepsake enables such explosive damage potential right from the start. The impact only expands exponentially later on as your FP pool and sorcery arsenal widens. It‘s simply unmatched!
And there‘s no downside either. You can unequip the tear anytime without waste, so it remains viable even endgame. For a caster, what could possibly compete?
Now let‘s compare all the keepsake contenders side-by-side:
| Keepsake | Effect |
|---|---|
| Golden Seed | Extra sacred flask charge |
| Fanged Imp Ashes | Summons twin imp spirits |
| Cracked Pot | 5x empty throwable pots |
| Crimson Amber Medallion | Permanently raises max HP by 7% |
| Cerulean Hidden Tear | Next FP flask restores FULL FP |
I hope this breakdown gives you insight into keepsakes that‘ll supercharge your Astrologer‘s potential for delivering unmatched mystical destruction onto the Lands Between!
Of course, you can‘t go wrong with any of these 5 options. But in my experience, prioritizing damage sustainability to enable nonstop spell output is ideal.
The Cerulean Hidden Tear is the ultimate force multiplier for achieving that, letting you unleash devastating arcane arts beyond what early FP constraints would normally allow.
Combined with boosted health from the Crimson Amber Medallion to weather early game storms, you‘ll rapidly accumulate enough power to lay waste to all foolish enough to oppose your eldritch abilities!
Let me know in the comments which keepsake you ended up choosing and how your sorcerous conquest goes! I‘m always seeking more mystical insights to further my own arts…
