Elden Ring Bandit Build - Archer Guide for Beginners
Mar. 8, 2024Elden Ring Bandit Build – Archer Guide for Beginners
ThisElden Ring Archer Buildguide covers a build with a play style that’s completely ranged. This Bandit build features a formidable ranged attacker when used correctly. It can be a bit more difficult to pick up compared to other beginner builds, but it’s definitely rewarding and showcases a lot of skill.
TheArcher Bandit builduses only bows (Shortbows and Bows) and nothing else – no melee attacks whatsoever. Archers take a little bit more prep work to get going compared to other builds, which is why you want to do that prep work so that you are successful and you feel like you can play an Archer. Otherwise, what ends up happening is that you’re going to fail and you’re going to feel like you just can’t be an Archer. In that endeavor, in this guide, I’m going to show you how it’s possible and what has worked well for me.
We have over 110Elden Ring Buildsnow, for all classes and playstyles. This Archer build is recommended for beginner players.
When it comes toClassselection, you’re going to choose eitherBanditorSamuraifor this build. I chose Bandit mainly because I’ve played Samurai before. If you haven’t played Samurai, it might also be a good choice for you – there’s a case to be made for either one. The Bandit begins the game with aShortbow, while the Samurai begins the game with theLongbow. The Shortbow is more used in this build, but you can get one much more easily early on, and you’re going to want to have both of them regardless of which class you start with. It’s not super important – you can play either.
As forKeepsakes, getting theGolden Seedis definitely helpful as it will give you an extra flask early on. I really recommend this for all builds generally. It’s just the best pickup early on as that extra flask can make all the difference.
The first thing you need to sort out if you’re playing an Archer is of courseammunition. There’s no point in making an Archer character if you’re constantly out of arrows and having to melee – you want to get yourself backlogged on arrows so that you can play and not worry about running out of ammo.Arrows and BoltsareconsumableinElden Ring, meaning that they are not an infinite supply, and you’re going to have to continuously farm them, craft them, or buy them.
The way I recommend stocking up on them early on is by buying therecipe bookfrom themerchantand thecrafting kitfor the bone arrows, and then you can just farm little animals here and there to get maybe 10 arrows very easily. It doesn’t take very long, but you definitely will have to spend some time for the first couple of hours killing enemies and killing bosses, like the easy bosses at the beginning of the game, so you can start to get a good amount of runes in which you can then just purchase a backlog of arrows with. The ones you can purchase from the vendors early on are actually better because they do more damage per shot.
Not all arrows are created equal – arrows can do various different things. One of the great things about playing an Archer in this game is that you can use the perfect arrows for each situation as long as you can keep stock of them.
You need toupgradeyour bows to at least +3 as fast as possible. You’re going to get the best increase in damage by upgrading your bows. One really good way is going up the hill onStormhillwhere the trolls are. There’s a stone object there that they can smash if you lure them to it, and you’ll get sixSmithing Stonesout of it. That will be enough to get you to +2 in a snap, so make sure to go and get those immediately. You can then get some more stone down the tunnel in the mine area that’s kind of attached to the lake. There are a bunch ofupgrade materialsthere that can get you to +3 ASAP before you start doing anything else after you’ve accumulated your arrows. Only afterward can you start really tackling the content.
Another thing really important to note is that you’ll be using your Shortbow a lot more regularly with this build, so when you’re trying to figure out which to prioritize upgrading for damage, if you’re low on resources or time or whatever, always prioritize the Shortbow.
This build, especially when using the Shortbow, is going to be aStamina-hog, so getting things that increase your stamina or stamina recovery will be a tremendous help. For that matter, the bestTalismanfor this build is theGreen Turtle Talisman. You can get this rather early on in avillageinStormhill. It makes your stamina recover faster, which means you’ll be able to jump around, roll, reposition, and shoot more. You never want to just shooting stationary with this build, unless you’re sniping from a distance which isn’t going to be as often as you’d think.
When it comes toAttributes, I like to level upVigorfirst, especially if you’re playing the Bandit class. You start off at 10 Vigor. I like to get this up to 15 or 20 on any character I’m playing. You are going to get hit, you are going to inevitably take damage. You want to live – that’s the main thing you want to do is survive, and you don’t have to survive by much but you want to survive long enough to be able to take that health potion, so getting your Vigor up is priority number one.
In case you’re tempted to pump up Dexterity before Vigor, putting attribute points early on into Dexterity or Strength in order to increase your damage with bows isn’t that fruitful. The scaling on these bows that you have early-game is very bad, so you’re not going to get a lot of damage out of putting points into these stats. You’ll actually get more damage out of buying arrows from the vendor than if you would buy points to put on Dexterity or Strength. Getting better arrows early on, and actually upgrading your bows, is more important than leveling up those stats when it comes to increasing your damage.
Once your Vigor is up, only then should you start to increase Dexterity. It’ll get you doing a little bit more damage, and it’ll also help you meet requirements for future bows that you might use. Like I mentioned previously, this build is aStamina-hog because you’re constantly rolling, jumping, and shooting – all of which consume stamina. It would seem likeEnduranceis a good choice because of the amount of stamina you consume, but you get very little stamina for the amount points you put into the stat – you actually get much better equip load than you do stamina, so it’s not something you should prioritize early on.
Now, how do you play one? So the first thing you need to know is that you’re going to wantMighty Shoton your Longbow andBarrageon your Shortbow. These are the two weapon abilities you want. You’re going to use Mighty Shot to pick off enemies from afar, as the Longbow has much better range and more damage per shot. You want to use this to snipe anytime you can pick enemies off and thin out enemies as far away as you can hit them. It uses just a little bit of FP, and you’re going to want to spend most of your FP on this. I like to have one FP flask, or maybe two at most, depending on how far you are and how many flasks you have. You really don’t need that much but you need it to get those mighty shots off.
Now, Barrage isn’t very good for damage. It actually reduces the amount of damage your arrows do in exchange for being able to fire them really quickly. What Barrage is really good for is inflictingStatus Effects. You can easily setbleed,poison, or whatever status effect you’re trying to use because you can hit enemies very rapidly with arrows that build up the gauge of these status effects. Don’t use it for damage – it’s a waste of arrows. You probably won’t use this much early on other than maybe when you get bleed arrows. You’ll probably use it later on in the game when you have other types of arrows that can set other status effects likefrostbite, etc. So, keep that in mind: use Barrage for status effects and use Mighty Shot for damage.
Beyond that, you’re going to use the Shortbow probably sixty or seventy percent of the time. You’re going to engage enemies and start fights with the Longbow, and once they come at you you’re going to switch immediately to the Shortbow. The Shortbow is exceptional at firing quickly even with movement involved. You should never ever just be standing there and shooting your bow unless you’re picking off an enemy at range, it’s a lone guy, and he’s never going to get you. That’s probably the only scenario that it’s acceptable to be stationary with this build, aside from you maybe you panicking or something. When you’re playing with both bows, you want to be ready to move, if not moving while you shoot. For the Longbow, you may have to reposition after you shoot. But especially with the Shortbow, you really want to be moving when you shoot. If you want to shoot at something, jump and shoot instead – it’s more accurate and it fires more rapidly. It is more likely to hit something that’s in the head area of a shorter or hunched creature, and headshots do extra critical damage and often stagger the enemy. Additionally, when you’re wielding a Shortbow, when you land from your initial shot, you can fire again instantly. So all in all, you need to get in the habit of jump-shooting and then shooting again when you hit the ground. This will be your bread-and-butter combo, firing two arrows off.
Similarly, you also need to master how to roll and shoot instantly. Again, don’t stand there and fire. When you want to fire, roll and shoot or jump and shoot, and then shoot again when you land instead. You can even sprint and shoot – coming out of a sprint and shooting is much faster than standing there. You’ll need to master these things because this is really what’s going to make you succeed at playing an Archer. When you’re using your Longbow, you can also jump and shoot, but you cannot instantly shoot another arrow when you hit the ground, so really its purpose is to get that Mighty Shot off and wear or thin your enemies down before you confuse them with your Shortbow moves.
Just a couple of helpful tips for this build – first, you can only carry 99 of each arrow type, so you want to have multiple different arrow types so that you don’t run out. You have two different arrow slots set to R1 and R2 and you’re going to have to make sure you know which are equipped on which button at all times. That’s pretty straightforward, but try and carry at least 99 of two different arrow types to get you going. That’s harder to do at the beginning when you’re already struggling to get arrows as it is, but as the game goes on it’ll be easier to do. If you find yourself running out of arrows make sure you rest at aSite of Grace. So, in a pinch, you could progress part of the game or do part of aLegacy Dungeonor something just so you can get to the next Site of Grace and rest to ultimately replenish your arrows.
Secondly, don’t be afraid to get in close to enemies when you’re shooting with the Shortbow. The Shortbow has very short range and it does more damage when you fire within its range limits, so make sure you’re staying close. It doesn’t have to be too close, but don’t be afraid to dodge through attacks to get behind an enemy, as you would with a melee weapon, and shoot them. This is especially true if they have a shield – you can even jump over their shield and shoot them. You can also play close to enemies by using the I-frames on your dodge rolls. So get used to doing that and don’t be afraid to be close to enemies.
And that’s it for our beginner Archer build! If you have other questions about playing an archer or other helpful tips, please leave them in the comments below so other players can get helped out as well. As always, let us know if you have questions too in the comments below. We have a ton more builds coming for Elden Ring andShadow of the Erdtreeso stay tuned for those. If you need help finding items, and securing some personal objectives, make sure to check theElden Ring Map.
Castielle
Senior Editor at Fextralife. I enjoy gaming, playing and watching sports, cooking yummy food, watching a good movie and hanging out with Fex.
