Elden Ring: The Best Starter Build Guide For Shadow Of The Erdtree DLC - Moonlight Katana Samurai Build

Elden Ring features a blue NPC named Ranni the Witch. She is considered one of the most fascinating characters in Lands Between, as she grants players the ability to use Spirit Calling Bell, which gives them access to Spirit Ashes. As players continue their adventures in Liurnia of the Lakes, she will reappear with a series of quests for players to complete. To complete Ranni’s questline, players must travel to a hidden location called Nokstella, Eternal City, a hidden underground city filled with a variety of interesting enemies, mysterious lore, and fantastic scenery. However, getting there can be a hard process. This guide will detail how to reach Nokstella, Eternal City and collect the many valuable resources hidden there, such as Elden Ring Runes and items used to upgrade Spirit Ashes. Path 1 Step One: Starting Ranni’s Questline Starting Ranni, Witches’ long questline is the easiest way to get to Nokstella, Eternal City. First, you need to collect an item from Ranni. You will then need to make your way through Caria Manor, eventually defeating Royal Knight Loretta and fighting Glintstone Dragon Adula before visiting her in the tower at Ranni’s Rise in Three Sisters area of ​​Liurnia of the Lakes. After successfully defeating the ghost of Loretta and confronting Adula, you will meet Ranni. After speaking with her, you will need to pledge your allegiance to Ranni, and only then will she give you the quest to retrieve Fingerslayer Blade from Nokron. Step Two: Getting Fingerslayer Blade For Ranni Go to Redmane Castle in the southeastern corner of Caelid to find and defeat Starscourge Radahn. Once you defeat this Scarlet Rot-infested demigod, his control over the universe will weaken, causing a comet to crash-land near Ancestral Woods, thus opening the way to the underground city of Nokstella. After making your way through the city and dealing with various skeletons, Nokstella warriors, and giant metal balls, you will fight the Mimic Tear boss. You will then open a Site of Grace called Mimic Tear at the base of a large bridge. Crossing this bridge, you will see a crack in the stone railing and a path leading down a hill. Follow the path down the hill and then up another hill and you will reach Ancestral Woods Site of Grace. You will then need to deal with Albinauric enemies as you make your way through the city. Finally, you will come to an area with another giant spherical enemy. Going out the front door of this area will take you to a path leading to another building and a series of Silver Tear enemies. The last Silver Tear in front of the building will turn into a giant. After defeating it, continue forward and find and open the chest under the giant skeleton to reveal Fingerslayer Blade. Step Three: Getting To Nokstella, Eternal City Once you have Fingerslayer Blade, give it to Ranni and you will gain access to Renna’s Rise. Climb to the top of the castle and use the portal there, and you will make it all the way to Ainsel River. First, go through Uhl Palace Ruins and then through the tunnel system that leads to Nokstella, Eternal City. Path 2 To reach Nokstella Eternal City via this path, you will need to deal with a pretty tough double boss fight. To do this, you need to return to Ancestral Woods Site of Grace, then go east, cross the road and enter a small forest area, after finding the spirit jellyfish continue to the right, you will eventually come to an area with numerous spirit jellyfish on the edge of a cliff. Keeping to the left wall will bring you to the edge of the cliff, jump down and continue along the path. You will reach another Site of Grace, continue forward into a tower and then enter Siofra Aqueduct. Go through this area all the way to the end. You will fight a Valiant Gargoyle & Valiant Gargoyle. These two fast-moving bosses are extremely difficult to deal with because of their powerful sweeping attacks and poisonous AoE. Successfully killing these bosses will grant you access to a new Site of Grace at the base of the waterfall, as well as a coffin that, when interacted with, will teleport you to Deeproot Depths. Heading north in this area, you’ll eventually find another coffin that will transport you to Ansel River Main, from where you can enter Nokstella, Eternal City. You can also reach Deeproot Depths by traversing Subterranean Shunning Grounds in Leyndell and fighting Mohg, Omen. After defeating the boss, go through a secret passage behind his reward chest to enter Deeproot Depths without having to travel to Nokron. This path will lock you into the Flame of Frenzy ending, though. Whichever path you choose to get here, be well prepared, as each step is filled with challenges and dangers. In addition, to make it easier to complete the above tasks, you can follow Giveaway channel in iGMeet discord, which will post information about Elden Ring product giveaways sometimes. Hopefully, this guide will help you get to Nokstella, Eternal City, and have fun exploring it!

In Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree DLC, there is an NPC called Twin Maiden Husks. When you give her a special item, Bell Bearing, you will expand your shop a little. Although you don’t need to find all Bell Bearings in DLC, there may be some players who like to collect them all. If you are one of them, this guide will help you by detailing the location of some Bell Bearings. Most of Bell Bearings in Shadow of the Erdtree are hidden in pots, so you need to use ranged attacks to break the pot. So before you start your search, please prepare your ranged weapons. Greasemonger's Bell Bearing If you want to get Greasemonger Bell Bearing, you’ll need to start at Grace Ruins on High Road in Church District of Skad Altas. From there, head southeast for a short distance, then head south at the right point, keeping the cliff face to your right. Continue along this south path, and you’ll eventually reach a cliff face with a pot hanging from it. You can use your ranged weapon, such as a bow, to shoot the pot. Eventually, Greasemonger’s Bell Bearing will fall to the ground. Herbalist's Bell Bearing In theory, you can find the pot containing Herbalist’s Bell Bearing on the road between Pillar Path Waypoint Site of Grace and Dragon’s Pit in Scadu Altus. However, in actual gameplay, you’ll find that you’re surrounded by two cliffs on this road, which is actually difficult to move, so you need to be extremely careful. The pot is on the western wall. Igon's Bell Bearing You can get Igon’s Bell Bearing directly by completing Igon’s questline, without breaking any pots or containers. If you think it’s more cost-effective to kill this NPC directly than to complete his quest line - in addition to obtaining Igon’s Bell Bearing, there are also a lot of Elden Ring Runes, so you can kill him first without following the rules. Moldmonger's Bell Bearing Moldmonger’s Bell Bearing is a bit tricky to get. You need to go to Ruins of Unte in Shadow of the Erdtree, then head south across the water and follow the path along the cliffs toward the waterfall. During this expedition, you will need to use Torrent to jump over gaps. This path will eventually lead you to Rescluses’ River Downstream Site of Grace. Remember to look up the cliffs to the northeast to find the pot containing Moldmonger’s Bell Bearing. It is important to note that you need to use the small platform extending from the southeast of Recluses’ River Downstream Site of Grace to reach the location where Moldmonger’s Bell Bearing falls. Moore's Bell Bearing Moore is an NPC in Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree DLC. He can be found at Main Gate Cross Site of Grace in Gravesite Plain. He is unique among the other NPCs that can obtain Bell Bearings because you can obtain his Bell Bearing in several ways. First you need to kill a Forager Brood in Shadow of the Erdtree, then go to the place mentioned above and talk to Moore. Then kill another Forager Brood to allow Moore to invade. After that, you can return to Main Gate Cross and pick up Moore’s Bell Bearing. When you see the message “Somewhere, a great rune has broken.” in Shadow of the Erdtree, you still have to go to Main Gate Cross to find Moore and tell him: “Put it behind you.” After you complete the critical path of the entire DLC, you can force a battle with Moore, and you will eventually find Moore’s Bell Bearing on his body. The premise is the same as the second method, but this time you need to tell Moore: “Remain sad forever.” This will trigger a different ending - you will eventually find his body north of Church of Crusade in Scadu Altus. But the ending is still the same. You can find some Elden Ring Runes and Moore’s Bell Bearing on his body. Mushroom-Seller's Bell Bearing (1) This Bell Bearing is also located near Castle Front Site of Grace in Gravesite Plain. Once you reach this location, descend into Poison Swamp. You will need to cross this area to reach a small freshwater pool. Be careful of poison. Enter a cave along the southwest edge of the pool and walk west until you reach Ellac River Cave Site of Grace. You can take a break here to adjust, but be careful not to stay there too long. The exit is on the west side of the cave, and once you are out of the cave, ride north across the water. This path will take you to a waterfall, but don’t go in. Instead, turn west at the end and keep going until you reach a grassy path. This path will allow you to follow the cliff face. As you walk, keep an eye out for the pot containing Mushroom-Seller’s Bell Bearing (1). Spellmachinist's Bell Bearing To get Spellmachinist’s Bell Bearing, you must first go to the top of Rabbath’s Rise. When you enter the top, don’t think that this Elden Ring Item will be given to you so easily. You also need to jump down from the walkway to get closer to the corpse with Spellmachinist’s Bell Bearing. This guide only introduces some of the more important Bell Bearings in Shadow of the Erdtree. The remaining hidden models are waiting for your own exploration!

While Elden Ring isn’t really a game that allows for full player expression and creativity, it does allow you to customize your builds to your liking, giving you a great deal of freedom. The game world and boss fights may play out in much the same way, but you can use different play styles and builds to handle different situations. There are a lot of options for a variety of playability in this game. After the release of Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree DLC, things got even better, as the new DLC provides players with a ton of new weapons and amulets that work perfectly with items in the base game, allowing you to achieve extraordinary builds. But if you’ve already tried a lot of ordinary builds, check out this guide to get some new build ideas. It should be noted that these builds may only be suitable for the DLC at the moment, and we will continue to follow up on the builds in the base game later! Perfumer Build Perfumer Build seems to have been nerfed in the latest patch, but this build based on the new DLC can easily reduce the health of the boss. In this build, you can combine the fully upgraded Lightning Perfume Bottle and Rolling Sparks Ash of War to give you huge lightning damage. And add Lightning Shrouding Cracked Tear and Lightning Scorpion Charm to deal even more damage to enemies! Perfumer Build is actually an Arcane spellcaster build, so you don’t need to invest in intelligence and arcane here. In addition, the weapons based on this build do not rely on Ash of War or Spells, so you don’t need a lot of FP. Rakshasa Bleed Build If you want to face the final boss of the DLC and be able to defeat it easily, then you can definitely try Rakshasa Bleed Build. This is a high risk but high reward build that relies heavily on your high mobility. Your rewards will be a large number of Elden Ring Runes and special weapons and armor. In this build, you can use Rakshsha’s Set and Bloodsucking Cracked Tear, trading lower defense for more damage. Secondly, Rakshaha’s Great Katana will also use its own bleed build up to help you end the battle quickly. In combat, if you are used to ranged attacks, you may not be suitable for this build, but if you enjoy the excitement of close combat, you will definitely like Rakshasa Bleed Build. Bloodfiend Bonk Stick Build Next up is a bleed build, and even if you’ve tried many bleed options, Bloodfiend Bonk Stick Build will definitely give you a fresh feel. In this build, Bloodfiend’s Arm is a weapon that can provide you with huge physical damage, and it also bursts out arcane-driven bleed damage when charging attacks. In addition, you equip Two-Handed Sword Talisman and Axe Talisman, plus Viridian Hidden Tear, and you can participate in almost every battle in DLC. As the battle progresses, your bleed effects will also begin, and the enemy’s health will be reduced unknowingly. Ancient Meteoric Build If you use this build during Ruined Forge Starfall Past, it is equivalent to finding a very powerful weapon in the entire DLC. This not only can cause a lot of damage, but it can also extend to your strength and arcane attributes. In addition to this, you can use Solitude Set and Verdigis Discus to give you a little more defense and make you more tanky. Secondly, you can also use White Light Charge Ash of War to give yourself the icing on the cake, which is very useful when you face large enemies. Backhand Blade Dex Build Although you need to start searching for Scorched Ruins as soon as you enter the DLC. Backhand Blade in this area may not look so outstanding, but if you dare to take the risk, you will find that Ash of War of this weapon-Blind Spot, which makes Backhand Blade Dex Build a very interesting build. It should be reminded that in order to avoid excessive use of Blind Spot and over-consume your own stamina, you can use Greenburst Tear or Two-Headed Turtle Talisman to protect your own health. You can also apply some blood fat on the weapon to increase these weapons, and you will have a very fast-paced but smooth build that makes it impossible for the enemy to catch you. Iron Dancer Build Iron Dancer Build is somewhat similar to Backhand Blade Build, in that both builds are meant to hit as many enemies as possible. Unlike Backhand Blade Build, however, this build relies more heavily on the strength and defense provided by Ironjar Aromatic. It may make you heavier overall when you equip these consumables, but you’ll have a delicate balance. You don’t have to worry about your movement speed, though, because Ash of War Unending Dance of this weapon lets you dish out rapid, continuous damage to your enemies. Often you’re only able to whittle down their health bit by bit before they can do the same to you. Sure, it removes any nuance or challenge from combat, but there’s no denying that it’s a satisfying, cathartic structure, save for the novelty of melting away an enemy’s health bar. After reading this guide, open the game and enter the DLC to try out some of these new builds! I believe it will definitely give you a surprise, and I wish you a happy exploration!

The arrival of Shadow of The Erdtree DLC has dropped a lot of new gear, especially some Samurai-related weapons. If you enjoy destroying anything with wild swings and inflicting bleeding on your enemies, then this Raging Rakshasa Samurai Build is definitely what you are looking for. In this guide, we will cover the play style of this build, what gear to use, the best amulets, useful gameplay tips, and more. So that eventually you will master the enormous power of the newest weapons in DLC and delete everything that stands in your way. Gameplay Raging Rakshasa relies heavily on the power of Rakshasa’s Great Katana, hence the name. Swinging this Great Katana violently is able to deal a lot of raw damage and apply additional bleeding effects, making it even more deadly. In addition, when making said swings, players will also gain a huge Hyper-armor to focus more on destroying enemies, especially bosses. Raging Rakshasa also has high Strength and Dexterity, and a little Faith Stat that grants attack and defense boosting buffs. Its overall gameplay is simple but very effective. Weapons Now that the basic gameplay is out of the way, let’s move on to the gear you need to complete Raging Rakshasa. Main Weapon: Rakshasa’s Great Katana Let’s start with the major weapon of the build, which is Rakshasa’s Great Katana, one of the newest weapons added in DLC. This Great Katana requires 12 Strength, 27 Dexterity, and no Arcane Scaling, which is really weird in my opinion, and it’s D scaling for Strength and B for Dexterity. Not only does Rakshasa’s Great Katana look really exceptional, but it also offers a devastating skill, Weed Cutter. This skill cuts the target horizontally and removes it like a weed, so its name matches its ability. As long as they have Stamina, the user can extend the use time of Weed Cutter, and it only costs 8 FP per use, which is crazy. This skill hits like a truck every time it swings, and since it has an additional bleed effect on top of the original damage, you’ll be dealing a ton of damage in a matter of seconds. Additionally, the user will gain Hyper-armor in the middle of the animation, allowing them to defend against or face normal attacks. While it sounds OP, it has its downsides. While having Hyper-armor is good, the user will also take more damage in the process. And I think the animation of Weed Cutter is very slow, and if you don’t use it correctly, you’ll be vulnerable. Secondary Weapon: Finger Seal Moving on to the secondary weapon for this build, I recommend using Finger Seal. While any Seal will work, Finger Seal is the easiest one for us to get. And by equipping Seal, we can get the buff later. Finger Seal is the starting equipment for Confessor and Prophet classes. If you don’t choose either of these classes, you can also choose to get it directly from Twin Maiden Husks for 800 Elden Ring Runes. Spells With the weapons out of the way, let’s move on to the suggested spells. Flame Grant Me Strength I mentioned that we’ll be getting buffs when using this build, so the first one on the list is Flame Grant me Strength, which provides an additional 20% Physical Attack Boost and Stamina Recovery Buff. Golden Vow The second buff on the list is, of course, Golden Vow. This buff increases overall damage by 15% and adds 10% Damage Negation, which is very helpful for us to offset the negative effects of Weed Cutter. Related: The Best Route To Quickly Complete Ymir And Jolan Questline In Elden Ring! Talismans Next, let’s get to the best Talismans for this build. Shard of Alexander The first Talisman on the list is our major hit, Shard of Alexander, which increases skill damage by 15%, especially when performing Weed Cutter. So be sure to slot this one. Lord Of Blood’s Exultation Since we deal with Bleed procs a lot with this build, I recommend slotting Lord of Blood’s Exultation. This Talisman will provide another 20% attack damage if blood loss procs occur near the user, which happens all the time when using this build. Two-Headed Turtle Talisman Next on the list is Two-Headed Turtle Talisman, which greatly increases Stamina Recovery. This is an upgrade from Green Turtle Talisman, and it will become the main Talisman I use in my build. My gameplay and strategy always revolves around super aggressive gameplay and strategy, so most of the time, I’m completely running out of stamina. Therefore, the faster my stamina recovers, the more damage I can do to the enemy. What’s more, there are a lot of times you’ll find yourself with no stamina, especially after using Weed Cutter skill. Dragoncrest Greatshield Talisman For the next Talisman, I recommend slotting Dragoncrest Greatshield Talisman for an extra 20% Physical Damage Negation. There’s a good chance you’ll be taking a ton of damage, especially when using Weed Cutter skill, so the damage reduction this Talisman provides will greatly help you survive. Not to mention that almost every enemy in DLC can take 1 or 2 shots and die, so you need this talisman. Stats Let’s move on to the stats for Raging Rakshasa. Starting with Vigor, 50 points have been assigned to it. Since I’m used to Glass Cannon Builds, I rarely assign a lot of points to Vigor, however, since this build is more likely to go head-to-head with enemies, I think 50 points are best. If you’re really good at the game, you can lower it. But if you’re still tuning in, make sure to assign 50 points, otherwise you’ll have trouble resisting the impact of all the enemies in DLC. Next up is Mind, which has 25 points assigned to it. You can at least bump it up to 20 if you want and add it to your other stats since this build doesn’t require that much FP and Weed Cutter is very cheap to use. Talking about Endurance next, we have allocated 30 points to it since the intended gameplay for this build is super aggressive. You will be facing off against bosses most of the time and will continue to use Weed Cutter skill, so I feel 30 points is enough for now. Of course, Endurance being an offensive stat, the more you have, the more damage you will be able to do. In addition, you will also want to have at least 50 Strength and 79 Dexterity so that you can match up well with Rakshasa’s Great Katana. These two are the key attributes of this build, so pay attention to them.  Next is Faith. We allocated 25 points so that you can use the aforementioned Golden Vow and Flame Grant me Strength. Finally, since we don’t need Intelligence and Arcane, no points were allocated to them, they remain at 10 points. How To Optimize This Build? Now that stats are out of the way, let’s move on to Raging Rakshasa’s gameplay and optimization tips. Prepare Wakizashi The first tip I have for you is to prepare Wakizashi and fuse it with Ash of War: Golden Vow. Now, this tip is only for when you don’t want to invest up to 25 points into Faith. While it’s relatively weak, with it you can still increase your damage by 11.5% and increase damage negation by 7.5% across the board. Of course, feel free to use any dagger, I just used Wakizashi to match the theme of the build. Improve Your Opener Secondly, optimizing your opener is also crucial. When the fight starts, I usually use Flask of Wondrous Physick first to make my continuous attacks more powerful. And, to get more damage negation, I will choose to cast Golden Vow to deal more damage and damage reduction. Finally, pop Flame Grant me Strength for more attack boosts, then rush the boss and start executing Weed Cutter skill. Use Weed Cutter Wisely The third tip is to manage Weed Cutter skill wisely. You can still die if you use this skill carelessly, so use it intentionally and leave time to use the skill. Gear Up Properly For the last tip, if you are playing well and don’t need damage reduction, you can swap out Dragoncrest Greatshield Talisman for something like Rotten Winged Sword Insignia to get more damage. You can also remove Opaline Hardtear and choose something like Strength-knot Crystal Tear, or get more stamina regeneration by equipping Greenburst Crystal Tear. That’s all about Raging Rakshasa Samurai Build. More top builds are coming soon as more new gear emerges. Try to choose the one you like best and start your adventure!