Again, this isn’t exactly a necessity for this build, but certain tears can help compliment the overall strategy. The first is the Spiked Cracked Tear , which further enhances consecutive attacks while the physic is active. The other is the Cerulean Hidden Tear ; this one eliminates all FP consumption while active, so players can use it at the beginning of the battle and summon Black Knife Tiche Ashes for free. One could also probably get a few hits too, before it wears off. These won’t necessarily be the go-to choices for every fight, but they do at least consistently offer more attack power and allow for a summon that may or may not be impossible otherwise, depending on how many points one has in the Mind stat.
As the name implies, the idea of a bleed build is to inflict as much blood loss damage as possible as quickly as possible. Aside from a handful of enemies and bosses, just about everything in Elden Ring is susceptible to this which makes it very easy to get a lot of bonus damage when engaging otherwise beefy enemies. Many weapons can inflict blood loss, including the samurai starter weapon: the Uchigatana . Some are better at this than others though, so that'll be the first thing to take care of after doing a character re-spec.
The Nagakiba is the more genetically blessed sibling of the Uchigatana ; it inherited the tall genes in the Elden Ring katana family. For Tarnished who want the short and simple version of obtaining this long katana, there are four methods they can use to obtain it:
At the moment, the consensus seems to be that there are three weapons that compliment a bleed build best: the Rivers of Blood katana, Eleonora's Poleblade and Mohgwyn's Sacred Spear . To get the Rivers of Blood , players will need to go to the Church of Repose on the Mountaintops of the Giants . Upon arriving there, a named NPC will invade. Defeat him to claim the katana. Eleonora's Poleblade can be obtained at Second Church of Marika on Altus Plateau .
All the weapons compatible with this build have a bit of wind-up for their skills, so this one can help. Grab it from the Golden Lineage Evergaol located to the southwest of the Grand Lift of Dectus on the Altus Plateau . If one has unlocked a fourth talisman slot, then just put whatever suits the situation best. Most often though, either a damage negation or FP increasing talisman is what works well in this slot.
However, Yura's questline can be quite long compared to a lot of other NPC questlines and will require you to unlock/reach the Altus Plateau, which is unofficially considered a mid-game area in Elden Ring Nightreign Expansion Ring . Once you encounter Yura at the Second Church of Marika in the Altus Plateau and talk to him, the Nagakiba is yours. To complete this questline in full, you'll need to meet with and help Yura out a number of times, so let's break down exactly what's involved in this questline below:
As for weapon choice, the Eleonora's Poleblade does well against single enemies, but struggles against groups; use the katana or spear for those. The spear does well against massive enemies with exploitable blindspots, such as dragons, but its weapon art leaves the user exposed to smaller enemies/bosses with a high stagger threshold. The katana is good overall, so it’ll probably be one’s weapon of choice more often than not. Its drawback is that it leaves the user exposed if it doesn’t either kill or stagger the target with the opening series of slashes. In short, consider the enemy’s strengths and weaknesses and choose accordingly. The same goes for the Ash summons and the tears used in the Wondrous Physick. This build isn’t a guaranteed win every time, but it should make many encounters go much more easily once one gets used to it. So, why not give it a shot?
Tarnished may stumble upon the Cliffbottom Catacombs in Liurnia of the Lakes near the Purified Ruins, which is Hyetta’s second location in Elden Ring . The whole cave can be explored without trouble. However, there is one room inside guarded by an Imp Statue.
There are no upgrade materials in the cave though players will also get their Stonesword Key refund in the cave as it's one of the items scattered in the area. Players will need to prepare themselves for the boss in the area though since the Crystalians can be unfair and annoying without a blunt weapon to make quick work of them.
There are two notable uses for Stonesword Keys in Volcano Manor. One is for unlocking the area leading to the Dagger Talisman and the other is for the Crimson Amber Medallion +1 . Both are considerable talismans in the game, and here's how to get to the Gargoyle locks to obtain these items.
By this point in the game, one will likely be in the low to mid-hundreds as far as their level goes, so there should be a lot of points available for a re-spec. All the weapons typically employed by this build scale on Arcane, so that will be the stat focused most. Assuming a level 130 character, the stats should be something like this:
