ELDEN RING – Stat Breakpoints (Soft Caps)

Analyzing each added stat point and its benefits to find where the diminishing returns give you the best value for your levelups.

TL;DR

• Vigor = 40/58
• Mind = 40/57
• Endurance = 25/40/50/60
• Strength / Dexterity = 20/53/80 (STR only: 35/53 if 2Handed)
• Intelligence / Faith = 20/50/80 (for attack power) 60/80 (for casting damage)
• Arcane = 20/53/80 (for attack power) 30/45 (for casting damage)

Introduction / Methodology

Stat breakpoints are not always intuitive; many people think 40 and 60 are the default points at which diminishing returns start in all souls-like games, but the data is more complex than that.

Elden Ring handles some stats a little wierdly; often times the benefits ramp up such that the first point you put in gives you very little but each additional point gives more and more… up to a cutoff. Thus you generally want a stat either as low as possible or directly at the breakpoint with anything in-between costing you value. That makes classes with the LOWEST starting stats in things you do NOT want, the most valuable to a min/maxer. Keep in mind; even with respecs, you can’t go below the lowest value allowed by your class, so a Wretch is stuck at a min of 10 while eg a Vagabond can take Arcane down to 7

Keep in mind; each level gives a baseline bonus to Physical / Magic / Fire / Lightning / Holy / Immunity / Robustness / Focus / Vitality, the table shows the ADDITIONAL increase to these over-top that baseline. Which is why I label them eg “Focus+”

My methodology for collecting this data is as follows. I started as a lvl 1 Wretch with 10s in all stats. I… “aquired” enough souls/runes to level one stat all the way up to 99, hand recording all the stat changes for each point, and then reset and repeated the process for each different stat. My character was completely naked for this to avoid any unwanted contributions. Now, this works for most things, but I’m not happy with the data for Strength/Dexterity/Intelligence/Faith. There is data available for these, but I will need to do more in-dpeth testing and analysis on them, so for the moment just assume the 40/60 rule applies to those, until we learn otherwise.

Since this information was hand recorded, there is always the possibility my finger slipped and eg hit a 2 instead of a 1 and I never noticed or something else like that, but since the raw data is available to all – you are perfectly free to rerun the experiment yourself and check the results. That said there is at least one error in this data on Fromsoft’s side and not mine. Discovery from Arcane scales linearly; as in – one point in, one point out… except at 91 Arcane, then it gives you 2 points and then zero points for lvl 92 – this seems to me be a clear mistake, but it is in the game so I record it. Not that it’ll really affect anyone.

Breakpoints

The hard cap for everything is 99 btw. Additionaly, Weapon+NUMBER does not actually change the scaling in anything I’ve tested so far. It only applies a multiple to the bonuses thus leaving the breakpoints in the same places as +0

Vigor = 40/58

“Attribute governing HP – Your life. If reduced to nothing, you die.

Also affects fire resistance and immunity – Your resistance to various poisons and rot.”

Hard decrease at 40, and very little benefit going from 58 to 60

Recommendation: Since HP gains ramp up there is no reason not to take Vigor to 40, but I wouldn’t bother going to 58

Mind = 40/~55

“Attribute that determines FP – Energy consumed to use spells and skills.

Also affects focus – Your resistance to sleep and bouts of madness.”

Focus hits a hard decrease at 40, but FP actually continues to ramp up all the way to 52 then slowly tappers at 55 and 57 with a hard stop at 60; best value here would be at 57, but look at the raw data to see what I’m talking about.

Recommendation: If you use FP, then take Mind all the way to 57 imo, but some players disagree with me here. At least take it to 40

Endurance = 25/40/50/60

“Attribute governing stamina. Endurance determines how heavy your equipment can be.

Also affects robustness – Your resistance to blood loss and frostbite.”

Stamina hard stops at 50, Equip Load has two stopping points at 25 and 60, and if you care about it – Robustness has a hard decrease at 40.

Recommendation: If you primarily cast, leave this at 25, otherwise I’d take it to at least 40 if not higher but some players disagree with me here

Strength = 20/50/80 (35/53 if 2Handed)

Casting Damage = 30/45 (with Clawmark Seal or Frenzied Flame Seal)

“Attribute boosts attack power of strength-scaling armaments and affects your physical defense.”

STR and DEX appear to be fairly heavily front loaded with your greatest gains coming in on the way to 20, the weapons I’ve tested are fuzzy on the 50 number with ranges of 51 to 53…

Since 2Handing a weapon multiplies your effective STR by 1.5x you could stop ~35.

Physical defense is fairly linear and diminishing returns really only start after 61.

Recommendation: If you use it; take it to 20 asap, then focus on survivability/utility before coming back and making the push for 35/53, I do not think 80 is a worthwhile goal unless via 2Hands

Dexterity = 20/50/80

Casting Damage = 30/45 (with Frenzied Flame Seal)

“Attribute boosts attack power of dexterity-scaling armaments, reduces casting time of spells, softens fall damage, and makes it harder to be knocked off your horse.”

STR and DEX appear to be fairly heavily front loaded with your greatest gains coming in on the way to 20, with slower growth between 20 and 50, and very little growth past that but yes it takes an even steeper decline after 80.

I have no data on the rest of the tooltip information; to get numbers on casting speed – you’d have to have video capture capability and count the difference in individual frames between different DEX levels… which is not something I am capable of. If you want to tho, please do, I’d love to know the results.

Recommendation: If you use it; take it to 20 asap, then focus on survivability/utility before coming back and making the push for 50, I do not think 80 is a worthwhile goal

Intelligence = 20

Attack Power = 20/50/80

Casting Damage = 20/40/60/80 (Warning: different staves have different breakpoints)

“Attribute boosts magic power of intelligence-scaling sorceries and improves magic resistance.”

At least for Magic resistance there is a hard decrease at 20/

For weapon damage from INT/FTH scaling, these stats also appear to follow a 20/50/80 split.
Casting damage has many different breakpoints depending on which staff you are using, but the general trend is a new breakpoint every 20 levels. As an example the Demi-Human Queen’s Staff only has breakpoints at 20/40.

Recommendation: If you use it; take it to 20 asap, then focus on survivability/utility before coming back and making the push for 50/80 (if you are going in on a casting stat, go all in)

Faith

Attack Power = 20/50/80

Casting Damage = 30/45/60/80 (Warning: different seals have different breakpoints)

“Attribute boosts magic power of faith-scaling incantations.”

Attack power from weapons with INT/FTH scaling also appears to follow a 20/50/80 split.

Casting damage appears to have two soft caps at 60 and 80 for most seals, with the Clawmark Seal having breakpoints at 30/45.

Recommendation: If you use it; take it to 20 asap, then focus on survivability/utility before coming back and making the push for 50/80 (if you are going in on a casting stat, go all in)

Arcane = 20/45

Attack Power = 20/50/80

Casting Damage = 30/45 (with Dragon Communion Seal)

“Attribute governing discovery – Likelihood of finding items on the corpses of defeated foes.

Also affects holy defense, certain sorceries and incantations, and vitality – Your resistance to instant death.”

Like Intelligence, Holy resistance here has a hard decrease at 20 while Vitality shows softer decreases at 15 and 39; Discovery as mentioned previously is linear (mostly) all the way to 99.

Bleed buildup appears to plateau around 44 to 46, while attack power follows the 20/50/80 rule, casting damage however is much different here coming in at 30/45

Recommendation: If you use it; take it to 20 asap, then focus on survivability/utility before coming back and making the push for ~45, I do not think 80 is a worthwhile goal.

Example Leveling Path

• Pick two attack stats; STR/FAITH, DEX/INT, STR/DEX, etc and push them both to 20 asap
• Then branch out, maybe push Endurance to 25, then Vigor and/or Mind to 40
• From there you could go deeper into an attack stat, or Endurance, pushing it to 50 (melee) or 80 (casting)
• Eventually (assuming you do cast) I’d want Mind all the way to 52 to 57 – the gains to FP are just so good

I haven’t tested it, but STR gives a 50% bonus when 2Handing a weapon which could save you a few levels since 34 x 1.5 = 51

Alternatively, if you are crazy like me, you could get Arcane to 20 first, then do everything else here (I wouldn’t actually recommend that unless you really are investing in Arcane)

Basic Quality Build

40 Vigor
50 Endurance (I wouldn’t do less than 40 here, but that’s me)
35 Strength (2Handing makes this equal to 52.5)
20 Dexterity (next step can be DEX 50, or Arcane 45 if you want to make things bleed)
————–
= Level 106
(101 with Hero or Vagabond, 102 with Samurai; Hero is best if you want to go Arcane)

Basic Magic Build

40 Vigor
40 Mind (this gives 220 FP, 17 more points would increase that to 335)
20 Dexterity (faster casting)
80 Intelligence (if you are going in on a casting stat, go all in)
————–
= Level 141
(134 with Astrologer, 138 with Prisoner, Prisoner becomes slightly better than Astrologer if you will invest in the above AND both STR&Endurance, otherwise => Astrologer)

Basic Fire & Lightning Build

40 Vigor
40 Mind (this gives 220 FP, 17 more points would increase that to 335)
20 Dexterity (faster casting)
80 Faith (if you are going in on a casting stat, go all in)
————–
= Level 141
(137 with Prophet, Vagabond becomes slightly better than Prophet if you will invest in the above AND both STR&Endurance, otherwise => Prophet)