The Bandit is one of the most popular starting classes in Elden Ring thanks to its high Arcane and Dexterity stats. This makes it a great choice for building powerful bleed and critical hit builds. In this guide, I‘ll share my expert insights on how to create the ultimate Elden Ring Bandit build.
Overview of the Bandit Class
The Bandit begins the game with the following stats:
- Vigor: 10
- Mind: 11
- Endurance: 10
- Strength: 9
- Dexterity: 13
- Intelligence: 9
- Faith: 8
- Arcane: 14
As you can see, Bandit starts with very high Arcane which boosts bleed buildup and item discovery. The decent Dexterity also allows you to wield quick dexterity-scaling weapons effectively.
In terms of starting equipment, Bandit comes with the Knife and Shortbow. The Knife has the Quickstep skill which enhances dodging, while the Shortbow allows ranged attacks. Both weapons scale well with Dexterity.
Overall, Bandit provides a great foundation for extremely deadly bleed and critical hit builds in Elden Ring. The high Arcane and Dexterity facilitates massive hemorrhaging damage against bosses and tough enemies.
Stats and Attributes to Level
Here are the key stats you should focus on leveling for a strong PvE bleed build:
- Vigor: Get this to 40-60 for good survival. Bleed builds require close quarters combat so you need sufficient vigor and health.
- Mind: Raise it to 15-25 so you have enough FP for weapon skills and skills.
- Endurance: 25-35 is ideal for medium armor and weapon arts usage without fat rolling.
- Dexterity: Level this aggressively to 80 as it boosts damage for Bandit‘s weapons.
- Arcane: Along with Dex, massively boost this as high as possible to 80 to cause devastating bleed buildup.
I would advise focusing heavily on Vigor, Dex, and Arcane in the early game. Get them to 30-40 first. After that aim for 50 Vigor and 80 Dex/Arcane in mid to late game.
Best Weapons for a Bandit Bleed Build
Here are my top 4 weapon recommendations for a devastating PvE Elden Ring Bandit:
1. Reduvia Dagger
This potent dagger has 138 critical rating and causes 50 bleed buildup per hit. Combined with the blood blade weapon skill, you can shred foes rapidly. It scales purely with Arcane and has excellent DPS.
2. Nagakiba
With the longest katana blade in the game, the Nagakiba allows insane attack range. It has innate bleed and can be further boosted with ashes of war. At +25 rank it has an S scaling with Dexterity.
3. Uchigatana
A lightning fast katana with 130 critical rating and 45 bleed buildup. It‘s one of the most reliable dexterity weapons in the game and absolutely decimates with the unsheathe skill.
4. Bloodhound Fang
This unique curved greatsword allows the special Bloodhound Step skill that enhances mobility. It has 140 critical damage and 55 hemorrhage buildup to savage enemies.
As you explore the lands, keep an eye out for any weapons that cause bleed and scale with Dexterity or Arcane. These will take your Bandit to deadly heights in PvE content.
Recommended Ashes of War
Ashes of war provide special skills that can further augment your weapons. For bleed focused Bandits, I suggest the following ashes:
- Seppuku: Costs HP to activate but grants your weapon 85 bleed buildup! This is a must-have for boss battles.
- Blood Tax: Adds 45 bleed buildup at the expense of small max HP reduction. Excellent for general combat.
- Corpse Piler: The infamous Rivers of Blood katana skill that rapidly hits to inflict huge bleed stacks.
- Hoarah Loux‘s Earthshaker: A colossal weapon ash that brings down a lionshead for high poise damage. Useful to create openings.
Bleed and critical boosting ashes like Seppuku are vital for maximizing the hemorrhaging potential of your weapons as a Bandit.
Recommended Talismans
The right Talismans can really amplify your combat prowess as a Bandit. These are great options:
- Lord of Blood‘s Exultation: Raises attack power by 20% after triggers blood loss in enemies! Works beautifully with innate bleed weapons to snowball damage.
- Rotten Winged Sword Insignia: Successive attacks will build up attack, perfect for aggressive players with fast weapons or multi hit weapon arts!
- Millicent‘s Prosthesis: Gives 5 Dex and you take less damage while blood loss is in effect which makes it ideal for PvE!
- Claw Talisman: Greatly enhances your jumps attacks, perfect when pairing an Uchigatana with Bloodhound step to chase enemies down!
Make sure to mix and match your Talismans based on the weapons you are using to maximize bleed related damage and mobility.
Recommended Flask and Consumables Loadout
As a Bandit, you want to increase the number of Cerulean Flasks you carry to allow frequent usage of weapon arts and skills:
- Cerulean Flasks: Have at least 3-4 of these so you constantly have FP for your bloodletting weapon skills.
- Crimson Flasks: Carry about 5-6 for ensuring you have enough health during intense fights.
- Exalted Flesh: Great defensive consumable that boosts physical and holy damage negation.
- Uplifting Aromatic: Restores lost FP over a duration so you can keep dishing out those weapon arts!
With enough Cerulean Flasks, your bleed focused skills will always be available to shred foes with ease in PvE battles.
Early Game Tips for Bandits
When you first begin Elden Ring as a Bandit, follow these tips for an easier early game:
- Fully explore Limgrave and Weeping Peninsula before taking on Margit and Godrick. This allows you to gather more weapons, talismans, flasks, spells etc.
- Infuse your starter Knife with a Bleed Ash of War like Seppuku. This will turn it into a monster boss shredder.
- Grab the Meteorite Staff and Rock Sling sorcery. Having some ranged gravity magic helps a lot.
- For bigger slower enemies, use guard counters and critical strikes after parrying or riposting them. Fast bleed procs!
- Level up Vigor early so you can survive deadly enemy combos while playing aggressively in melee range.
By maximizing bleeding and critical hits through your weapon choice, ashes of war, skills etc. even early game bosses and enemies will melt away rapidly versus the Bandit‘s onslaught!
Playing as a Bandit in Mid to Late Game
Once you reach mid to late game areas after defeating General Radahn, your Bandit will have access to all the essential tools needed to become a true master hemorrhager!
Make sure to explore all of Liurnia, Caelid, Altus Plateau etc. to find powerful staffs, seals, spells, armaments and talismans to complement your build.
- Obtain the Dragon Communion Seal along with swarm spells like Swarm of Flies to demolish enemy groups.
- Dual wield weapons like the Uchigatana and Nagakiba together for absolutely insane bleed procs.
- Grab the White Mask from Varre‘s questline for even more attack damage after blood loss occurs!
- Defeat Rykard to gain access to the Blasphemous Blade – a colossal weapon with health regeneration weapon skill.
- Explore underground areas to snag ancient somber smithing stones for upgrading special weapons to max level.
Additionally, start putting points in Faith and grab some buffing incantations from merchants. This allows you to use Golden Vow to further boost attack damage by a whopping 15% for even bigger bleeds!
Destroying Bosses with the Bandit
While bleed focused Bandits excel at shredding basic enemies, they also perform incredibly well against notorious Elden Ring bosses:
Radahn: Stay underneath him and keep unleashing your Seppuku empowered Uchigatana! He gets bled very easily in second phase. Dodge his aerial slams.
Malenia: Dual wield bleed katanas and play aggressively, dodging her endless combo strings. Keep reapplying bleed through jumping attacks and Guard Counters. Push her poise meter down with heavy ashes like Earthshaker!
Godfrey and Hoarah Loux:Bait their easily readable charged attacks and huge AOEs, then retaliate. Both forms are weak to repeated bleed procs through fast step dodging and whip strikes from Bloodhound Fang‘s unique moveset!
Maliketh: His HP isn‘t massive so getting 2-3 bleed triggers here can finish him very quickly. Dodge under his sword slices, punish his long recovery animations then jump away from his aerial black blade!
Very few late game bosses and enemies can withstand the absolutely punishing onslaught from the Bandit and his vast bleeding based arsenal. Mastering movement with Bloodhound Step and slicing away relentlessly will be rewarded with some extremely quick boss fight completions!
So that sums up my ultimate guide for dominating Elden Ring PvE content with the incredible Bandit class and its strong bleed focused builds! Let me know if you have any other tips for aspiring Bandits in the comments section.
