Best Elden Ring Faith build: Best lightning build in Elden Ring
Learn how to make the best Elden Ring Faith build using lightning spells
Looking for the best Elden Ring Faith build? Faith is one of the main spellcasting attributes in Elden Ring, allowing you to cast incantations with seals. These incantations tend to have elemental effects, such as fire, ice, or lightning. Lightning incantations, also known as Dragon Cult incantations, make up some of the best spells in Elden Ring, and they're the focus of this Elden Ring Faith build.
In this guide, we'll break down how to make the best Elden Ring Faith build, breaking down a list of lightning incantations that will make you feel more powerful than the gutteral growl of a thunderstorm.
Best Elden Ring Faith build: How to make a lightning build in Elden Ring
Our Elden Ring Faith build combines lightning spells with the Inseparable Sword and Bolt of Gransax to make you incredibly powerful in both close and long range battles. Lightning incantations such as Ancient Dragon Lightning Strike and Lightning Spear will deal immense damage at range, but we think it's equally important to have a strong melee option for those relentless enemies that won't stop attacking. If an enemy gets too close for comfort, cast Vyke's Dragonbolt to coat your Inseparable Sword in lightning and start slashing to shock and slice through your opponent.
As always, there are also a range of buffs that we recommend equipping to unlock this Faith build's potential. Golden Vow and Flame, Grant Me Strength will raise the damage dealt by your spells and melee attacks temporarily, but you can also add some permanent buffs with some talismans and cracked tears which we'll explain later in this build.
Elden Ring Faith build stat requirements
This Elden Ring Faith build requires the following stats:
- 40 Faith
- 40 Dexterity
- 20 Strength
40 Faith is the minimum requirement to cast all of the incantations in this Elden Ring Faith build. Since Faith is the primary attribute for this build, we'd recommend pushing it even further after meeting these minimum requirements. If you're a lower level and aren't able to reach this requirement just yet, bare in mind that some of the best spells in this build, such as Lightning Spear and Ancient Dragon's Lightning Strike, have much lower requirements.
40 Dexterity might seem rather high for an Elden Ring Faith build, but it's necessary to wield the powerful Bolt of Gransax. The Bolt of Gransax's Ancient Lightning Spear ability is a huge upgrade to your ranged attacks in the late-game, so it's well worth a large investment in Dexterity. This will also boost the melee damage of your Inseparable Sword by a considerable amount.
20 Strength is a requirement to wield both the Inseparable Sword and Bolt of Gransax. Like the points in Dexterity, this will also increase the melee damage you do and ensures that you're always ready to fight, even if you run low on FP during a tough boss battle or dungeon.
If you need to change your stats at any point, you can respec in Elden Ring by spending a Larval Tear. After reaching these requirements, we suggest continuing to level your Faith to further raise the damage of your lightning incantations, while also putting points into Mind to increase your FP and Vigor to increase your health.
If you want to use a different sword, take a look at our Blasphemous Blade build guide. The Blasphemous Blade is an incredible sword (and one of the best weapons in Elden Ring) that scales with Faith, Strength, and Dexterity, so it combines with this lightning incantation Faith build very well.
Elden Ring Faith build lightning spell locations
Here’s a list of spells that you will need for this Elden Ring Faith build:
- Ancient Dragons' Lightning Strike: this incantation is available for purchase from Miriel, Pastor of Vows, after giving them the Ancient Dragon Prayerbook.
- Lightning Spear: this incantation is available for purchase from Miriel, Pastor of Vows, after giving them the Dragon Cult Prayerbook.
- Honed Bolt: this incantation is available for purchase from Miriel, Pastor of Vows, after giving them the Dragon Cult Prayerbook.
- Lansseax's Glaive: retrieved after slaying Ancient Dragon Lansseax.
- Vyke's Dragonbolt: retrieved after killing Roundtable Knight Vyke.
- Golden Vow: this incantation is found at Corpse-Stench Shack in Mt. Gelmir.
- Flame, Grant Me Strength: looted from a corpse on a ridge behind Fort Gael on the Western edge of Caelid.
If you can't equip all of these spells, check out our Elden Ring Memory Stones location guide to increase your spell slots.
Gravel Stone Seal location in Elden Ring
Every Elden Ring Faith build needs a sacred seal, as they allow you to cast incantation spells. The Gravel Stone Seal is perfect for this Elden Ring Faith build, as it boosts the power of your lightning incantations. That increased damage will ensure that you can tear through even the hardest bosses in Elden Ring.
You can get the Gravel Stone Seal in Leyndell, Royal Capital. Climb the large petrified dragon that towers through the centre of the city and activate the West Capital Rampart Site of Grace. From there, head North and then leap over the nearby railing to find some Leyndell guards. Kill them both and one of them will drop the Gravel Stone Seal.
Bolt of Gransax location in Elden Ring
The Bolt of Gransax is a powerful melee and ranged hybrid weapon that you can find in Leyndell, Royal Capital. From the Erdtree Sanctuary Site of Grace, make your way North-West along the raised walkways above the city and look for a large, golden spear twisting out of the side of a building. Leap down onto the spear to find the Bolt of Gransax at the end.
Inseparable Sword location in Elden Ring
The Inseparable Sword is the main melee weapon for this Elden Ring Faith build. To get the Inseparable Sword, you must follow Fia's quest until you get the Twinned Armor from D. Then, give the Twinned Armor to D's brother and make your way into the Deeproot Depths, where you'll find Fia at the Prince of Death's Throne. Defeat her champions and the Inseparable Sword will spawn here at the throne.
Important gear for the Lightning Lord Faith build in Elden Ring
To make the best Faith build in Elden Ring, there are a few more items that you will need. Below, we’ll explain which powerful talismans you should equip and any other gear that you should use:
- Cerulean Amber Medallion: a talisman that boosts your maximum FP. This allows you to cast more spells before using a Flask of Cerulean Tears to regain FP. With this boost, you can also put fewer points into Mind and focus on levelling Faith and Arcane to deal more damage. You will get the Cerulean Amber Medallion as a reward for fighting the Bloohound Knight in Lakeside Crystal Cave, on the southwest edge of Liurnia Lake.
- Flock's Canvas: a talisman that boosts the damage of incantations. You can get it from Gowry after completing Millicent's questline, which we cover in our full Elden Ring questlog.
- Marika's Soreseal: a talisman that increases your Arcane, Faith, Intelligence, and Mind stats by 5 levels each. While it does also raise the damage you take from enemy attacks, Marika's Soreseal is incredibly useful for this build. The Arcane, Faith, and Mind boost will increase your damage and FP, ensuring that you can continue dealing lots of damage without needing to stop. The 5 levels in Intelligence aren't as relevant, but they're still useful if you're interested in blending this with an Intelligence mage build. You will find Marika's Soreseal through the fog wall at the bottom of the ravine near the Prayer Room Site of Grace in Elphael, Brace of the Haligtree. This is an optional area where you can fight Malenia, Blade of Miquella.
- Cerulean Hidden Tear: a Crystal Tear that temporarily removes any FP cost. Most of these lightning incantations are expensive to cast, but the Cerulean Hidden Tear will allow you to use them briefly without cost. You can get the Cerulean Hidden Tear by going to the Minor Erdtree in Mt. Gelmir, where you will find another Ulcerated Tree Spirit.
- Faith-Knot Crystal Tear: a Crystal Tear that temporarily increases your Faith stat by 10 levels. 10 extra levels in Faith will give you a huge damage boost across every spell in this build and might be enough to secure an easy win in most fights. You can get the Faith-Knot Crystal Tear from the Weeping Peninsula, on the shore between Earthbore Cave and the Church of Pilgrimage.
After getting both Crystal Tears, remember to head to a Site of Grace to mix them in your Flask of Wondrous Physick.
Faith builds don't benefit from having a specific armor set, so we recommend using something that will give you high poise. Take a look at our list of the best armor sets in Elden Ring and choose something that offers high defence. Make sure to invest in Endurance, as you want to maintain a light or medium equip load if possible. Heavy load will make your rolls much slower, which will make avoiding damage more difficult.
That wraps up our best Elden Ring Faith build. If you'd rather just focus on the main story, check out our Elden Ring walkthrough. That'll take you along the main path, but there are other endings that you can find by certain NPC quests, such as Ranni and Fia. To make this build even stronger, take a look at our Elden Ring Golden Seeds and Elden Ring Sacred Tears locations guides to upgrade your flasks.