Best Elden Ring Sword of Night and Flame build: stats, weapon and talismans

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How to play with the Sword of Night and Flame build in Elden Ring

The Sword of Night and Flame build is the perfect fit if you’re looking for a play style that mixes the raw power of magic with the more direct action that comes with melee combat. This build draws on the Sword of Night and Flame’s strengths while covering for its weaknesses.

When playing this build, you want to focus on identifying the right moment during a fight to use one of the two skills this weapon has. When you hold the skill button while using this weapon, your character enters the Night-and-Flame Stance. If you press the Light Attack button while in this stance, you perform a lighter version of the Comet Azur spell that causes damage based on Intelligence. On the other hand, if you use a Heavy Attack with the Night-and-Flame Stance up, a sweep attack is executed, launching a semicircle of fire magic which scales with Faith.

Although the damage output of the two abilities is outstanding for a weapon skill, you should always consider the enemy’s weaknesses to know which might be the best option. In the long list of enemies that you find in Elden Ring, many are weak to Fire damage as well as magic.

Another aspect that you must take into consideration during combat is the casting time and range of each skill. The Light Attack skill has a quicker animation and reaches enemies far from you, but since it is a magical beam, it’s easy to miss. On the other hand, the Heavy Attack flame ability is great for dealing with single and multiple enemies that are close to mid-range from you. However, the animation is considerably long and slow, making you susceptible to being hit by them.

For you to play this build correctly, it’s important to initially focus on acclimating yourself with the skills and testing them to learn scenarios where they fit in a fight. Different from burst builds, you can’t kill bosses with one or two attacks only. So, consistently landing your skills is the best way to go.

Because the Sword of Night and Flame is not a defensive build and you can’t spend tons of points in Endurance and Strength to wear heavy armour sets, you need to dodge attacks or block the ones you can with a shield. While you will have more resistance than pure mage builds, playing a Sword of Night and Flame build does not make you a Paladin.

Elden Ring Sword of Night and Flame build best stats

In Elden Ring, some builds focus on a single stat to maximize their damage or to use late-game items. The Sword of Night and Flame build differentiates itself by forcing you to spread points all across the board. By depending on having solid figures for basic stats as well as core stats, you have to diligently allocate them.

Below, you find the figures you will be looking for in a level 150 character:

• Vigor:51
• Mind: 25
• Endurance: 30
• Strength: 12
• Dexterity: 12
• Intelligence: 50
• Faith: 50
• Arcane: 8

As you can see, the Sword of Night and Flame build requires you to balance five different attributes, which inevitably leads to some sacrifices. To use the Sword-and-Flame Stance, you need a minimum of 12 Strength, 12 Dexterity, 24 Intelligence, and 24 Faith. The damage caused by the skills is based on the last two stats, making these the most important stats for the build. However, you must have enough Vigor and Mind to survive and cast skills.

To achieve these numbers quickly, you might want to pick Confessor as your starting class in Elden Ring. It has 14 Faith and 9 Intelligence, which is great, but since it has 12 Strength and 12 Dexterity – the exact number you need to use the Sword of Night and Flame –, you won’t need to spend points on these two last stats.

Elden Ring Sword of Night and Flame build best weapon

It’s no surprise that the best weapon for this build is the Sword of Night and Flame. Luckily for you, you can get this sword pretty early in the game. You find it in Caria Manor, an area located northwest in Liurnia of the Lakes. But since it takes some time before you have met the stat prerequisites of the weapon, you might want to use other weapons or tools alongside the Sword of Night and Flame to cast spells.

As a Confessor, you start the game with a Finger Seal, which you should use to cast incantations such as Flame Sling to attack enemies. You can buy this specific incantation from Brother Corhyn once you have access to the Roundtable Hold. Once you get enough Faith points, you can start running Frenzied Bust, an incantation dropped by a Teardrop Scarab, south of the Church of Inhibition in Liurnia of the Lakes.

Another option is to take with you a staff to cast sorceries. At the early stages of the game, when you get to the Raya Lucaria Academy, you can get an Academy Glintstone Staff from defeating Glintstone Sorcerers. Later, in Caelid, you can find the Meteorite Staff, which is a fantastic staff. Visit the Street of Sages Ruins to find it.

Elden Ring Sword of Night and Flame build best armor

When it comes to which armour to wear, there are no mandatory pieces or sets for this build. The general rule is to stay with a medium equipment load for mobility. However, in case you want another criteria to help you find the best combination of equipment, you should look for at least 51 Poise. During fights, while spamming one of the Sword of Night and Flame skills, you might get interrupted if enemies break your stance. You can avoid that by having high Poise figures.

An initial solid set is the Carina Knight armour, which you find in The Raya Lucaria Academy, close to the Church of Cuckoo. With this set, you can handle most fights during early and mid-game parts of Elden Ring due to its balance between physical and magic defence.

The Spellblade Set is an interesting option for the early game if you’re using a staff to cast sorceries. It compensates for the lack of higher Poise and defence with mobility. To get this set, you need to complete Rogier’s questline.

Later in the game, we suggest using a heavier armour. You can find great options like the Leyndell Knight Set that drops from the knights you find around Leyndell Royal Capital. Another option is Royal Knight Set, which you can buy from Enia at Roundtable Hold if you have defeated Loretta, Knight of the Haligtree, a boss you find in the Elphael, Brace of the Haligtree area.

Elden Ring Sword of Night and Flame build best talisman

While there is more than one set of talismans that can work with this build, our idea with the ones we’ve selected is to bolster the core aspects of the build, like the damage and cast of both skills, as well as the necessity of weaning better pieces of equipment without affecting your equipment load.

One of the best talismans for this build is the Shard of Alexander. Unfortunately, you can’t get this one for the early stages of the build, since you earn it by completing the Iron Fist Alexander’s quest. But, once you have it, you need to equip this talisman that buffs the damage caused by skills you use.

Right after the Shard of Alexander, another great talisman for this build is the Carian Filigreed Crest. This talisman reduces the FP cost of your skills, making casting them more sustainable during a fight without worrying about raising Mind to have a bigger pool of FP.

The third talisman that you should definitely run with this build is the Great-Jar’s Arsenal. Because having higher Poise is extremely useful for this build, but you don’t have a lot of Endurance to wear heavier pieces of armour, this talisman is exactly what you need. The Great-Jar’s Arsenal raises the total amount of weight you can carry, so you don’t need to worry about going beyond medium equipment load.

Next build: Elden Ring Poison build

Need more help? Jump back to our list of Elden Ring builds or our Elden Ring walkthrough.