You’ve started a new Elden Ring save. You’ve been sent far from your home. Maybe you’re a traitor, maybe you’re part of a long-lost kingdom. Whoever you once were, now you’re a Vagabond. If you want to survive The Lands Between, you’re going to need to know a few things about this build.
Building a Vagabond
Your Vagabond comes clad in heavy armor with a badly beaten shield. You may immediately notice that your roll speed is quite slow from the encumbrance. You can mitigate that by pumping points into your endurance, which we recommend you do anyway since you’re going to be tanking a lot of hits with our shield in this build. Your character is going to be baiting out openings with their shield, delivering guard counters, and landing heavy attacks to stagger enemies, so endurance is going to be the MVP for this run.
Lots of strength and vitality will make for a powerful Vagabond. We recommend a few points in faith for this build as well. You’ll gain access to some strikingly potent tools with 12 faith like the Golden Halberd and the Bloodflame Blade incantation.
Weapons
The Vagabond starts with a halberd, a longsword, and a shield with 100% damage reduction. This loadout in some form or another is going to carry you through the game. Taking down the Tree Sentinel early on and topping off your faith to the minimum requirement gives your Vagabond a massive damage boost in the early game. The Golden Halberd will most likely become your favored weapon; its damage output is respectable while the range, attack speed, and stagger damage will give you an edge in boss battles.
In the mid to late game, you’re going to start coming across more enemies with resistance to your holy damage, by the time you reach the Altus plateau we recommend picking up a seal and some incantations that buff your weapon. Bloodflame blade will rest comfortably on your longsword, adding bleed buildup and boosting its damage in fights where the Golden Halberd can’t quite cut it. If you find yourself meshing with a buffed longsword, incantations like Electrify Armament and Blackflame Blade might suit your fancy.
The Vagabond is a fearless character type. You’ll find yourself facing down bosses as closely as possible, delivering powerful blows and bringing them to their knees. The strategy is simple without becoming too restrictive, so feel free to experiment with other weapons if you grow tired of looking at the Golden Halberd or find yourself craving something more expressive than the longsword. Remember that patience will grant you the openings you need, and trudge ceaselessly towards the throne of Elden Lord.
