Elden Ring’s vast character customization options make it a playground for creative builds, but most players tend to gravitate towards the obvious meta choices. If you’re looking for something fresh and rewarding, exploring underrated builds can breathe new life into your playthrough. These 19 builds highlight unconventional strategies and combinations that remain effective yet often overlooked, perfect for those who want a unique challenge or simply want to experience the game from a different angle.

1. Pure Strength Colossus
Focusing solely on raw strength and heavy weapons, this build trades speed for devastating power. Using colossal weapons like Greatswords or Great Hammers can stagger enemies easily.

2. Intelligence-Faith Hybrid Caster
Mixing sorcery and incantations opens up a vast arsenal of spells, allowing for flexible elemental damage and buffs that can turn the tide of battle.

3. Bleed Build with Curved Swords
Curved swords paired with bleed-inflicting Ashes of War are surprisingly effective and fast, often catching enemies off guard with rapid buildup of blood loss.

4. Tanky Quality Build
Balancing strength and dexterity while investing heavily in vigor and endurance creates a well-rounded fighter capable of wearing heavy armor and dishing out solid damage.

5. Arcane Ranger
Utilizing bows and arrow types that scale with Arcane, this build excels in ranged combat and status effects like poison or bleed.

6. Faith-Based Healer with Buffs
Faith builds aren’t just for offense; focusing on healing and protective spells can create a crucial support role for co-op play.

7. Dexterity Samurai
Using katanas and other dexterity weapons, this build emphasizes speed, parrying, and precision strikes.

8. Frostbite Specialist
Weapons and spells that inflict frostbite slow enemies and reduce their defense, ideal for controlling the battlefield.

9. Pyromancer Build
Focusing on fire spells and fire-imbued weapons, this build balances magic and melee for explosive damage.

10. Poison Assassin
Using daggers or curved swords with poison buildup creates a sneaky, high-damage-over-time effect.

11. Heavy Greatsword with Strength and Dexterity
A quality build using heavy weapons that scale with both strength and dexterity for versatile damage output.

12. Shield Tank
Maximizing defense and poise, this build specializes in absorbing hits and counterattacking with slow, powerful strikes.

13. Sorcerer with Melee Backup
Combining high intelligence sorcery with a swift melee weapon for close encounters.

14. Bow and Sword Hybrid
Switching between ranged attacks and quick melee strikes to adapt to different combat scenarios.

15. Stamina Regeneration Focused Build
Using Elden Ring Items that increase stamina recovery allows for sustained combat and aggressive play.

16. Elden Ring Items Collector Build
Prioritizing inventory space and discovery to maximize the chance of finding rare items and crafting materials.

17. Mounted Combat Specialist
Building around Torrent’s combat utility with weapons and buffs that enhance mounted attacks.

18. Magic Weapon Buff User
Focusing on weapons that benefit greatly from magic buffs for burst damage.

19. Pure Arcane Collector
Investing heavily in Arcane to maximize item discovery and status effects.

For players who want to speed up their progression and try these builds sooner, some consider the option to buy Elden Ring runes as a means to level up quickly. However, combining efficient rune farming with the right Elden Ring Items tailored to your chosen build will yield the best overall experience.

These 19 underrated builds offer a chance to break from the usual and enjoy Elden Ring in exciting new ways. Experiment with different weapons, stats, and items to find what feels right for your unique playstyle.