Elden Ring is the next best thing that has happened to the gaming community ever since Dark Souls 3. The game carries several attributes from its predecessors, like game mechanics, difficulty levels, physics, and character-building system. That’s right!
Remember the different caps in the Souls? Well, they are back in Elden Ring but with even greater importance.
So, what are the Elden Ring soft caps? Essentially, they are the stat caps for Elden Ring attribute levels. Fortunately, this article covers all the information you need to utilize the runes efficiently.
Table of Contents
What are Elden Ring Soft Caps?
Elden Ring is an RPG similar to its predecessor, the Soul games. In short, everything you do or collect in the game affects your gameplay and, in some cases, even the story.
For example, Elden Ring has far more weapons and armor than all Soul games combined. So, you can get ahead in the game by collecting the top-rated equipment from different quests. Character building is yet another factor that greatly affects your gameplay.
For instance, you can increase your vitality, strength, stamina, resistance, and many other stats by utilizing the runes.
However, the runes are limited in the game, and you must level up to acquire them. In other words, earning the runes is challenging, so you must utilize them to build your character efficiently.
Soft caps are the point beyond which the value of bonuses gained by upgrading various stats decreases. Moreover, if you continue leveling up, there comes a point when your rune investment doesn’t yield any gain. This point is known as a hard cap, and you better avoid Elden Ring’s caps.
Elden Ring Soft Caps:
Another thing to note is that Elden Ring doesn’t offer much information regarding the soft and hard caps, and players were almost clueless about the concept.
Fortunately, the Reddit community got to work, and u/AshuraRC calculated the soft caps for every stat in Elden Ring. I have compiled a list of all these stats so that you know how to spend your hard-earned runes best.
Vigor Stat Soft Cap
Vigor is the first and one of the most important stats in both Elden Ring and the Soul games. Upgrading this stat gives the player increased health, fire resistance, and immunity. So, upgrading the vigor is first on every player’s character-building list.
Moreover, Elden Ring grants many health points on every level upgrade compared to the Souls games. The problem is that the value of bonuses starts to decrease after level 40 and drops significantly after level 60. Furthermore, the medium cap comes at level 90; beyond this stage, your rune investment is completely useless.
- Level 1-39: +26 health points at every level.
- Level 40-59: +13 health points at every level.
- Level 60-89: +5/6 health points at every level.
- Level 90+: +3/4 health points at every level.
- Level 99: Hard Cap
Mind Stat Soft Caps
The mind is the next stat in the list that governs your player’s Focus Points or FP. The Focus Points control your sleep, madness resistance, and magic abilities. So, if you want to use all spirits and ashes of war efficiently, I suggest that you focus on the mind stat.
Fortunately, the game has four soft caps for the mind stat:
- Level 1-20: +6 Focus Points at every level.
- Level 21-50: +8/9 Focus Points at every level.
- Level 51-55: +4 Focus Points at every level.
- Level 56-60: +2/3 Focus Points at every level.
Endurance Soft Cap
Stamina is a major factor that the player needs for attacking, defending, and several other activities. All Dark Soul veterans will understand the importance of stamina and robustness in character build.
However, endurance governs other stats like robustness and carrying the load as well. Moreover, all these factors follow the basic rules, except for the stamina, i.e., your stats will increase with every upgrade, but the stamina stat follows a different pattern. Here’s how:
- Level 1-12: Alternative +1-2 stamina points at every level.
- Level 13-18: Alternative +2-1 stamina points at every level.
- Level 19-32: Alternative +1-2 stamina points at every level.
- Level 33-50: Alternative +1 stamina point per three levels.
- Equip load soft caps at levels 25 and 60.
Strength Soft Cap
As the name suggests, your character’s strength implies how effectively you can wield a weapon. For instance, you can deal more damage from a single critical strike, even with an inferior weapon, by leveling up the strength.
Similarly, some rare and powerful weapons require high-strength stats to use them effectively. Lastly, your strength mainly governs how much damage you deal with and how much physical damage you can take.
All Strength Soft Caps:
- Level 20: First
- Level 55: Second
- Level 80: Third
- Level 99: Hard Cap
Dexterity Soft Cap
The effect of dexterity is very similar to strength. However, it affects several other physical attributes of your character. For instance, besides the basic upgrades like attack damage, defensive power, and resistance to various physical factors, you can also equip dexterity-based weapons in the game. Furthermore, dexterity also affects your casting speed, resistance to knocking attacks, and decreased fall damage. In short, the player must invest a few points in dexterity even if he doesn’t want a dex-based character build.
All Dexterity Soft Caps:
- Level 20: First Cap
- Level 55: Second Cap
- Level 80: Third Cap
- Level 99: Hard Cap
Intelligence Soft Cap
Intelligence is a unique stat mostly related to magic. However, it also affects other attributes like casting speed, better use of weapons, high-level magic spells, and spirits.
Moreover, upgrading your intelligence also increases your defense against various magical attacks. In short, different physical and mental attributes are affected by your intelligence, so make sure to invest in some runes now and then.
All Intelligence Soft Caps:
- Level 20: First Cap
- Level 55: Second Cap
- Level 80: Third Cap
- Level 99: Hard Cap
- Sorcery Caps: levels 60 & 80.
Faith Soft Cap
Faith is to intelligence, as dexterity is to strength. In other words, your character’s faith affects the same attributes as intelligence. Higher faith stats means that you can wield better weapons and incantations, cast stronger spells, and resist magical spells.
So, if you are a magic knight, I suggest that you invest in either faith or intelligence to save some runes. However, another way to boost your magic is to divide the runes between intelligence and faith for the best efficiency.
- Level 20: First Soft Cap
- Level 55: Second Soft Cap:
- Level 80: Third Soft Cap
- Level 99: Hard Cap
- Incantation Caps: level 60 & 80.
Arcane Soft Cap
Arcane is a magical stat or, better, a superstitious one. It is the improved form of the luck stat from Dark Souls. The attributes affected by upgrading your arcane range from dropping better items to increasing holy defense and bleed buildup.
Furthermore, arcane also boosts your vitality and enhances the power of certain items. Lastly, arcane is a catalyst for your magic spells, acting as either a hybrid or pure catalyst for certain magical spells. Overall, an arcane stat can save you from the strange concept of sudden death in Elden Ring.
- Level 20: First Soft Cap
- Level 55: Second Soft Cap:
- Level 80: Third Soft Cap
- Level 99: Hard Cap
- Weapon Caps: levels 20, 50, 80
- Hybrid Catalyst Caps: levels 30 & 45.
- Pure Catalyst Caps: levels 60 & 80.
FAQs:
Elden Ring Soft Caps Cheat Sheet
This Elden Ring soft cap cheat sheet, made by getcheddarttv on Reddit, shows all of the caps on each stat in Elden Ring. The reason for multiple numbers, for example, 20/55/80, is that there are several soft caps for every stat where the stat cap is.
See below for an example.
What is a soft cap in Elden Ring?
A soft cap is a level for various stats beyond which the value of bonuses decreases after upgrading. For example, you get +26 health points for upgrading vigor till level 39. However, from level 40 to 60, you only get +13 health points for each upgrade.
Does a soft cap affect enemy stats?
Yes, there are some reports that non-boss enemies become more powerful as you upgrade any stat past a soft cap. However, the bosses aren’t affected by your stats.
So, if you want a favorable gameplay experience, I suggest you shouldn’t upgrade beyond the soft caps unless necessary.
How much vigor is suitable for Starscourge Radahn?
Starscourge Radahn is the first boss in Elden Ring that really gives you trouble, and frankly, you need decent HP. So, I suggest upgrading your vigor to 30-40 before facing him.
What is the difference between faith and intelligence in Elden Ring?
Faith is the counterpart of intelligence in terms of bonuses in Elden Ring. However, upgrading faith also grants your miscellaneous bonuses like faster casting and wielding better weapons and incantations. So, magic knights must invest balanced runes in both stats for maximum bonuses.
How many endings does Elden Ring have?
Elden Ring is an RPG, just like the Dark Souls series. So, your decisions and actions will directly affect the course of the story. Currently, Elden Ring has six different endings depending on how you choose to play the game. However, rumors are even more endings will be added in future updates.
What is arcane in Elden Ring?
Arcane has the same attributes as luck in Dark Souls. It can have unpredictable effects on your gameplay. For instance, a higher arcane means dropping better items, increasing holy damage, and bleed building. Moreover, it also acts as a hybrid or pure catalyst for certain magical spells.
Conclusion
Elden Ring is currently one of the most popular games in the world. It carries several attributes and mechanics from its predecessor, the Dark Soul games.
However, the game doesn’t offer much information regarding the soft caps for various stats. Fortunately, the gaming community has calculated these so that you can efficiently spend your runes and build balanced characters.
