Elden Ring Samurai Build Guide: How to Master the Samurai Class in Elden Ring
The Samurai class in Elden Ring is an excellent choice for both beginners and experienced players alike. It offers a balanced playstyle, combining melee and ranged combat with high mobility, making it a versatile choice for taking on Elden Ring's challenging world. In this guide, we’ll dive deep into the Samurai class, including weapon choices, strategies, and tips to help you get the most out of your samurai playthrough.
Why Choose the Samurai Class in Elden Ring?
If you’re starting Elden Ring for the first time or are new to the Souls series, the Samurai class is a great choice. It offers a balanced approach to combat with a strong melee weapon, a longbow for ranged attacks, and solid starting armor. Unlike more specialized classes, the Samurai can handle a variety of combat situations and adapt to different enemies and environments, making it an excellent option for new players.
Weapons: The Samurai starts with two primary weapons—the Uchigatana for melee combat and a longbow for ranged attacks. The Uchigatana, known for its quick, precise strikes and bleed damage, is one of the most powerful early-game weapons. The longbow, on the other hand, gives you the ability to pick off enemies from a distance, allowing you to soften up packs of foes or even start boss fights from a safe distance.
Armor and Mobility: Samurai armor is decent for early-game protection while still allowing for good mobility. You’ll have a balanced approach to defense, with the option to upgrade or change pieces later in the game if needed.
Stats: The Samurai leans towards dexterity-based combat but can effectively use strength-based weapons as well. In the early game, focus on dexterity and vigor to boost your survivability and melee damage.
Starting Your Journey: Tips for Beginners
When creating your Samurai, one of the first decisions you’ll make is choosing a starting gift. If this is your first time playing Elden Ring or a Souls game, I highly recommend taking the Golden Seed as your starting item. This item grants you an additional charge for your healing or mana potions (Flasks), giving you a slight edge in the early hours of the game when every healing opportunity counts.
Managing Arrows: Crafting and Purchasing
One of the main challenges of the Samurai class early on is managing your supply of arrows. The longbow is an integral part of the Samurai playstyle, allowing you to thin out enemies from a distance before engaging in melee combat with your Uchigatana. However, arrows can be scarce early in the game, and you'll quickly run through your initial supply.
To remedy this, head to the Church of Elleh early in the game, where you can purchase a crafting kit. This kit will allow you to craft basic arrows using animal bones, which can be farmed from the wildlife scattered across the world. A good farming spot for animal bones is located just past the first set of ruins where you pick up the map shard. There’s an area with trees and a lot of sheep—farm them for bones to craft your arrows.
In the beginning, you’ll want to craft arrows as often as you can. However, once you’ve acquired enough runes and resources later in the game, it’s more efficient to purchase arrows in bulk.
Combat Strategies: Balancing Melee and Range
The strength of the Samurai class lies in its flexibility. With both melee and ranged options, you’ll need to learn when to use your longbow and when to switch to the Uchigatana. Here are some general combat strategies to keep in mind:
Using the Longbow: The longbow is excellent for picking off enemies from a distance, particularly when you’re approaching a group of foes. Instead of rushing in with your Uchigatana, use your bow to whittle down their numbers. The bow’s Mighty Shot ability can also deal significant damage to single targets at the cost of a small amount of FP (Focus Points), making it a great tool for eliminating tougher enemies from a distance. In boss fights, you can use your bow to soften up the boss from a distance before switching to melee.
Uchigatana and Unsheathe: The Uchigatana’s moveset is one of the best in the game, featuring a fast, long-range thrust and the incredibly powerful Unsheathe skill. The charging R2 attack lets you quickly close the distance on enemies, often interrupting their attacks before they can land a hit. To use Unsheathe, you need to two-hand the Uchigatana. This skill delivers a quick horizontal or vertical slash with a high damage output, making it one of the most powerful abilities for this build.
Unsheathe Mastery: The Key to Success
The Unsheathe ability is what makes the Samurai build truly shine. This powerful skill allows you to deliver quick, high-damage strikes that can stagger enemies, break their poise, and deal massive damage. Learning to use Unsheathe effectively can be the difference between a good and great Samurai build. Here’s how to master it:
1. Timing and Positioning: You’ll need to learn enemy attack patterns to know when to dodge and when to use Unsheathe. This skill allows you to close the distance quickly, so use it when the enemy is winding up for an attack or recovering from one. Practice using Unsheathe to dodge incoming attacks while delivering a powerful counterstrike.
2. Two-Handing: To use Unsheathe, you need to two-hand the Uchigatana. On a controller, hold down the Y or Triangle button and press R1 to switch to a two-handed stance. This will allow you to use the ability and maximize your damage output.
3. Use in Boss Fights: Many early-game bosses can be defeated using Unsheathe and careful dodging. Dodge their attacks, then close in and use Unsheathe to deal high damage. Rinse and repeat, and you’ll often find that bosses fall quickly to the power of this ability.
Bleed Damage: A Hidden Advantage
One of the Uchigatana’s most powerful features is its innate bleed buildup effect. Bleed damage is a powerful mechanic in Elden Ring that causes a portion of an enemy’s health to be lost when their bleed meter fills up after consecutive hits. The Uchigatana can quickly build up bleed on most enemies, causing them to take massive chunks of damage after just a few strikes.
This bleed effect is especially effective against tougher enemies and bosses, as you’ll be able to whittle down their health much faster than with standard attacks alone. Keep in mind that each enemy has different bleed resistance, so some may take longer to succumb to this effect than others.
Horseback Combat: Versatility on the Move
One of the unique aspects of Elden Ring is mounted combat, and the Samurai class excels in this area. The longbow gives you the ability to hit enemies from a distance while riding your horse, making it easier to take out groups of enemies without putting yourself in danger. Similarly, the Uchigatana’s R2 and L2 attacks while mounted are powerful and can be used to devastate enemies.
With practice, you can even take on some of the game’s field bosses without ever dismounting. The flexibility of switching between ranged and melee attacks on horseback gives the Samurai a significant advantage over other classes that may rely solely on one form of combat.
Attribute Allocation: Where to Spend Your Points
When leveling up your Samurai, you’ll want to focus on a few key stats to maximize your effectiveness in combat:
1. Dexterity: The Uchigatana scales primarily with dexterity, so you’ll want to invest points here to increase your melee damage. Aim to get dexterity to around 20 early on.
2. Vigor: Since you’ll be in melee range often, you’ll need to be able to take a few hits. Pump vigor early to increase your health pool and survivability. Getting vigor to 20 early is a solid choice.
3. Mind: While not the most critical stat, having a bit of extra FP (Focus Points) will allow you to use Unsheathe and Mighty Shot more frequently. Consider putting points into mind to extend your FP bar.
4. Endurance: This stat increases your stamina and equip load. You won’t need a ton of endurance early on, but having enough stamina to dodge and attack consistently is important. A few points here will help with that.
Final Thoughts
The Samurai class is a great all-rounder in Elden Ring, offering flexibility, power, and versatility. Whether you’re slicing through enemies with the Uchigatana or picking them off from afar with the longbow, mastering the Samurai’s balance of ranged and melee combat will make you a force to be reckoned with in the Lands Between.
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