The Ultimate Elden Ring Stat Cap Guide: Master Your Character's Power

Elden Ring is a standout RPG that pays homage to the legacy of modern open-world role-playing games. The game adheres to traditional genre tropes but also cleverly subverts them through its gameplay mechanics. Player stats, known as attributes, play a significant role in controlling the game and govern all secondary stats of the player character. By leveling up these primary attributes through earned Runes at a Site of Grace, players can create various builds that are available in the game. However, stat progression in Elden Ring is more intricate than it may appear at first glance. The game features both a "hard cap" maximum level of 99 and "soft cap" levels, where attributes advance with diminishing returns at different rates. To build the best Tarnished, it's crucial for players to keep track of the soft cap levels for each important stat and invest in them efficiently. By doing so, players can optimize their Tarnished and gain the most benefit for each invested level.

Vigor (Soft cap: 40/60)

Vigor plays a crucial role in Elden Ring as it directly affects the player's health points. While it also affects certain resistances, its primary function is to determine the character's health bar. What sets Vigor apart from other attributes is its ability to provide increasing returns in HP gained, but this is only true until level 40. Beyond this point, investing in Vigor will yield diminishing returns, and by level 60, the increase in HP gained is negligible. The Immunity resistance, which is determined by Vigor, affects the player's susceptibility to Poison and Scarlet Rot ailments at similar rates and limits as HP based on level.

Mind (Soft cap: 50/60)

In Elden Ring, the Mind stat is responsible for regulating the player character's FP, which is essential for casting spells or using specific items. This resource is crucial to balance the immense power of some abilities. It's advisable to invest in Mind up to level 50, as there are significant benefits. However, the returns begin to diminish after level 60, eventually dropping back to their starting levels.

Endurance (Soft cap: 15/30/50, 25/60)

Investing in Endurance is crucial for most builds in Elden Ring as it directly affects two important secondary stats - Stamina and Equip Load. A few levels allocated into Endurance can significantly impact the player's Stat requirements. While Stamina offers incremental returns that decrease slightly after reaching soft cap levels of 15, 30, and 50, Equip Load only decreases after hitting the soft cap levels of 25 and 60.

Strength (Soft cap: 16/60/80)

Strength is a vital Attribute in Elden Ring, affecting both attack damage and stat requirements for strength-based weapons. It's important to note that strength not only allows players to wield these weapons but also increases damage scaling beyond certain levels. Soft cap levels for strength vary depending on the type of weapon affinity and damage being inflicted, with diminishing returns starting around levels 16, 60, and even 80 for dedicated strength builds. Additionally, it's worth mentioning that strength has a "true" hard cap of 150, taking into account items and other modifiers that can increase the stat beyond its actual level.

Dexterity (Soft cap: 16/60/80)

Dexterity governs not only weapon requirements and damage scaling, but also the finesse and skill required to wield more advanced weapons in Elden Ring. In fact, it affects multiple types of damage scaling from various affinities. Interestingly, Dexterity also has an impact on casting speed, which soft caps around level 70. Similar soft cap values are observed at levels 16, 60, and 80 for physical damage and other types of damage scaling.

Intelligence (Soft cap: 20/50/80)

In Elden Ring, Intelligence is a crucial magic attribute that determines a player's proficiency in performing Sorceries. Apart from meeting the spell requirements, Intelligence also influences the scaling of magic and elemental damage. For those who wish to specialize in sorcery damage, it's advised to level up the stat to at least 20 and 50 for optimal returns. However, after level 80, the returns start to diminish gradually.

Faith (Soft cap: 20/50/80)

Faith serves as the antithesis to Intelligence and empowers the wielder to utilize Incantation spells in Elden Ring, rather than Sorceries. This attribute also governs the scaling of magical and elemental damage, and is indispensable for meeting the weapon requirements of a Faith-based character. Similar to Intelligence, the soft cap values decrease after reaching levels 20, 50, and 80.

Arcane (Soft cap: 16/60/80, 20/50/80)Arcane in Elden Ring is the most unique stat, governing a combination of the Discovery stat for items through flat increases, status build-up infliction, and damage of weapons and spells that scale with it. Due to the diversity of options in the game associated with the Arcane attribute, it can be affected by similar soft caps to both the physical and magic stats depending on the build that the player is creating. When it comes to the status build-up aspect of Arcane, however, its soft caps can vary depending on the method of infliction, while they remain relatively similar to the main damage increase soft caps.

Elden Ring is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.