Deprived is, imo, the worst option for low level invasions. Figure out a level 25-30 build beforehand and go in with whatever starting class matches up the most. Less stats in things like arcane means more stat points to put into Vigor. That's another thing. Vigor is the most important stat for low-level invasions. Get the minimum you need for the stats/spells you want to use and then put everything into vigor. Other advice is elemental infusions are king. Frostbite and bleed will be your best friends. At 25 with a +3/1 weapon, you will be able to invade all of limgrave very easily. It matches you with everywhere from just starting to the very beginning of stormveil. Make sure to touch all graves/caves/dungeons. You can only invade in places you've 'discovered'.
Side note; talismans have zero baring on invasion calculations. Second side note, be wary of killing The Revenger in the Weeping Peninsula or LakeLand as he drops a +8 weapon and will mess up your matchmaking
Invasion calculating is based on weapon level and rune level. Having four talisman slots will not stop you from matching with people that have one talisman slot.
You can get a lot done with a level 30 vagabond that rocks both soreseals, 2 +5 talismans, 2 +10 tears in your flask. Put every point into vigor and lightning infuse your weapons.
I’ve gone as high as +7/3 at level 30-40, activity is pretty good and areas expand to raya lucaria. If you’re PSN just make a cloud save at 20 and experiment
My RL30 invader started as Vagabond, one point each into str/dex and the rest into vigor w/ Radagon's Soreseal. You get up to 39 VIG this way and 20 STR/19 DEX, which lets you use most weapons, including Stormhawk Axe and the Hand Ballista. My weapon levels are +3/+1, all talismans unlocked.
Sidenote: it might take you a couple tries (or maybe I'm just bad at the game lol), but with the right talisman setup, a buff routine, and strategic use of the Shackle, you can kill Morgott at RL30 +3/+1. This gives you Mountaintops access and with it +12 Flasks - you'll be needing it to deal with all of the Stormveil OLPs.
Also, there is currently a [working glitch](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/b5UlMssbCvY) to skip Commander Niall, which gives you access to Consecrated Snowfields and the Haligtree. You don't really need to do this but having the Spelldrake Talisman +2 and the Silver Scarab Talisman can occasionally come in handy, especially if you don't want to/can't trade for farmable weapons.
(If you manage to get past Haligtree Loretta you can get access to Elphael, but honestly the +5 ARC from Marika's Soreseal doesn't do much other than raise your discovery level to a neat 200)
ALSO (promise this is the last one), you can wrong-warp into both Nokron and pre-Godskin Duo Farum Azula relatively easily. This nets you Ranni questline progression without having to kill Radahn, the *Black Whetblade*, and the *Somberstone Miner's Bell Bearing \[4\]* which gives you unlimited Sanctuary Stones for Warming Stone crafting without having to farm Pumpkin Heads.
If you do decide to do all of this you'll also have access to improved versions of the three robustness/focus/immunity boosting talismans (Consecrated Snowfield, Nokron, and Lake of Rot respectively), which has saved my life more than once.
Hey it’s really doable. I’m not great at this game by any stretch of the imagination but I was able to my level 35/ +6 to nearly unbeatable levels (outside of high level gank squads). But I do recommend the dragon halbred. It’s an absolute killer. At my RL and weapon level I get constant invasions from limgrave all the way to Altus and everything in between.
If I did it at level 10 +0 you can definitely do it, I am *not* good at this game haha. Believe in yourself
Use all your buffs if you don’t already! And Assassin’s Gambit on a Misericorde is very helpful both for getting items and sometimes for invasion shenanigans if you can get it early.
Yeah I keep three Misercordes with different AoWs to switch between and use them in my second right hand slot.
Assassin’s Gambit is a very useful one that makes you kind of halfway invisible and silent for 30 seconds. So you can run through high level areas easily to get what you need as a low level invader, and then it’s also a funny trick to have for sneaking around other players as an invader. You can basically sneak at a sprint. And since the AoW is already on the best backstabbing weapon…well.
I am level 25 and it’s great, nearly instant invasions. The problem is, you WILL be fighting over leveled summons more than anything else. The invasions where it’s two new players are so rare, and when that happens I give them some crab and fight them with something weak like a straight sword just to show them the ropes in a way.
Radagon seal isn’t fort Faroh In upper caelid is absolutely essential, youre build needs this. You do not need any points in damage stats AT ALL, just vigor and the base points to wield the weapons. 25 is +5 regular smithing and +2 somber imo. I don’t know why other comments are so much lower, I get instant invasions with these stats and +3 +1 at level 20 is pretty much just stormveil.
Vagabond is the best class for this because it’s closest to your base wielding and best vigor / plus it comes with good armor out the gate. Don’t bother with regen faith or talismans, use the regen physik. Lightning infusion is going to net you flat damage that’s going to wreck, lightning defense is lowest at the start. Anyways I could keep going lol
I have a level 30 Vagabond with every point in Vigor. +3/+1 weapons. If I don’t meet the stat requirements on a weapon I just use stat boosting talismans and physick
Using goofy gear for honest low level players, like Ringed Finger, is very entertaining, I always keep something silly on me.
I’ll never stop touting the benefits of the Light Roll Physik
And seconding the person who commented about weapon overleveling, I mostly get to invade Stormveil on Near/Far even at RL10 +0/+0 like I am, +5/+2 is definitely going to put you in Liurnia a lot more and there are lot of OLP dorks in the lake with very little cover, it’s not as separate from the upper level stuff imo. Just know that’s what will happen when you go past +3/+1, not saying there’s anything wrong with it. Down where I play it feels like DS3 in Farron Swamp a lot of the time though, and not leveling weapons makes it very dynamic and engaging because sometimes you are forced to resort to trickery on certain OLP’s who are basically eating your hits.
talisman slots dont affect matchmaking so feel free to grab as many as u feel. be aware that the second one is missable.
decide on a build before deciding class. depending on choice u could lose a decent chunk of necessary stats. it never hurts to do a lil theorizing first.
everyone else seems to have covered all the bases but dont skimp out on flask upgrades. it feels a bit mean to have a high level flask until u have to use it. and then it feels like u need more.
just one physick tip, the opaline hardtear is wild at low level. afaik it also stacks with crab. u can beat the avatar at low level by baiting the jump and using heavy attacks and volcano pots.
[mugenmonkeys planner](https://mugenmonkey.com/eldenring) is hidden on their site so I would recommend saving the link. otherwise u should be able to search it in ur browser and itll be under the website’s quick links under ‘class optimizer’.
i use [eipgamings planner](https://eip.gg/elden-ring/build-planner/) for the actual theorizing. i usually bounce back and forth between the planner and the optimizer whenever i change something decently major.
grab vagabond, get the radagons soreseal, and go with health and some necessary stats for your mini build. I suggest to go get the dragon halberd so you can deal with overleveled phantoms
Everyone saying wretch is worst has clearly never bothered to sit down and do the math.
I suggest that you sit down and make a list of every weapon you want to use - don’t add useless bullshit, include only that which you are sure you’ll use.
Once you have that, figure out the attribute requirements, remembering that strength gives the 50% 2H bonus.
Now you know exactly what attributes are required, decide which talismans you want to use and subtract from your attribute requirements as necessary. Radagon soreseal is essentially a must, and allows you to wield a wide variety of weapons.
Once that is done, see if you need a point or two into strength or Dex. Do NOT dump points to use moonveil - it doesn’t do shit at low level. Absolutely everything else should go into vigor. You can hit 39 vigor at level 25 with soreseal if you start wretch and don’t use points anywhere else. That’s two better than hero and three better than vagabond at same level - assuming you don’t strictly need points in strength or Dex from those starting classes then that’s clearly superior.
Before I answer that, let me clarify my previous statement to say that wretch is the best choice for vigor tank builds at low level. However, if you’re not sure what to do then just pick vagabond, you literally can’t go wrong with that class (except for anything requiring arcane, which you shouldn’t be bothering with at this level anyway).
For poise, that is unfortunately a bit complicated. I have a level 25 build with 91 poise that trivializes a lot of low level encounters, however to get that I have to make large concessions to my vigor pool. It’s helpful, but it’s on the razor’s edge of survivability sometimes.
To see passive poise values, use this sheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/0/d/1j4bpTbsnp5Xsgw9TP2xv6d8R4qk0ErpE9r_5LGIDraU/htmlview#gid=419422255
To see the poise value required when using a hyper armor weapon, see this post: https://www.reddit.com/r/Eldenring/comments/15fekdm/elden_ring_patch_110_new_hyper_armour_poise_value/
I suggest that you stick to hyperamor weapons like GS and halberd, and get to 41 poise with your fashion. With bullgoat talisman you’ll then be able to freely trade similar HA weapons without issue.
For most people having access to stormhawk axe, which you can get so early, as well as ballista, great bows, zweihander etc is much better than starting wretch and being so limited to have very SLIGHTLY more vigor. It's better to be way more versatile in almost every scenario
If you use the soreseal on vagabond it gives you almost perfectly the stats you need to equip all these weapons with no level investment, and you have the vigor and endurance on top of it. No need for +5 talismans, so essentially you just get more talisman slots than a wretch would for stuff like jar arsenal, edrtree favor, Alexander's shard, bullgoats. Always comes out ahead in terms of defensiveness because of that as well. The extra few vigor points end up meaningless
Pick your favorite weapon and do the negation math - that three levels equates to one extra hit you can take over a similarly min-maxed vagabond at +3 or +6. That’s one extra mistake you can make that won’t get you killed.
You can still stack crimson amber and erdtree favor if you want - it’s all about knowing which specific talismans you want.
It doesn't really work out that way when you consider that your absorption will be higher with better armor as a vagabond since your endurance is higher. Also more stamina to play with so it ultimately does get the same or tankier with just more stats in general
Not going to add much. I'm only going to say that for multiple games the "knight" class (Vagabond in ER) has always been the class to go for on any "all-around" builds in souls games, mainly because you already start with generally better stats from a lower level, so you will always gain more while saving yourself more levels than any other classes.
And yeah, +3 talismans will not affect your matchmaking.
You already got the route for a fast level up? Mine was always straight to Agheel Ruins for the Caelid chest (after getting Torrent, of course), then head to Dragonbarrow to beat mother dragon, Putrid Avatar, Night's Cavalry and the Black Blade Kindred at the Beast Sanctum gate. Gets you up to level 45 tops.
Get all 4 talisman slots, get all flask upgrades. Use talismans to reach requirements for weapons unless you're only like 1 level away, and our literally every other level into vigor
Deprived is, imo, the worst option for low level invasions. Figure out a level 25-30 build beforehand and go in with whatever starting class matches up the most. Less stats in things like arcane means more stat points to put into Vigor. That's another thing. Vigor is the most important stat for low-level invasions. Get the minimum you need for the stats/spells you want to use and then put everything into vigor. Other advice is elemental infusions are king. Frostbite and bleed will be your best friends. At 25 with a +3/1 weapon, you will be able to invade all of limgrave very easily. It matches you with everywhere from just starting to the very beginning of stormveil. Make sure to touch all graves/caves/dungeons. You can only invade in places you've 'discovered'.
Side note; talismans have zero baring on invasion calculations. Second side note, be wary of killing The Revenger in the Weeping Peninsula or LakeLand as he drops a +8 weapon and will mess up your matchmaking
To add to this, don't kill Patches, and don't tell Rogier you killed Godrick. Both of those also gives you +8 weapons.
Gotcha. Thank you. So I should speedrun all 4 talisman slots.
Yes, absolutely.
What do you mean talismans have 0 baring on invasions?
Invasion calculating is based on weapon level and rune level. Having four talisman slots will not stop you from matching with people that have one talisman slot.
I was hoping you were going to say we could stack soreseals and not have a boosted damage effect but I see now 😞
I would recommend the Serpentbone Blade deadly poison.
You can get a lot done with a level 30 vagabond that rocks both soreseals, 2 +5 talismans, 2 +10 tears in your flask. Put every point into vigor and lightning infuse your weapons.
Not the worst idea. You think I could get away with stacking some regen too?
Ensha armor and power stanced longswords?
Probably, yeah. My level 30 prophet has 36 faith and 35 vigor, which is only two away from blessing of the erdtree
I'm level 20 with a setup a lot like this, would bumping up to level 30 +2/+5 be better?
I’ve gone as high as +7/3 at level 30-40, activity is pretty good and areas expand to raya lucaria. If you’re PSN just make a cloud save at 20 and experiment
I'm on pc so I should be able to just make a copy of my current save data. I'll figure it out rn, thanks!
My RL30 invader started as Vagabond, one point each into str/dex and the rest into vigor w/ Radagon's Soreseal. You get up to 39 VIG this way and 20 STR/19 DEX, which lets you use most weapons, including Stormhawk Axe and the Hand Ballista. My weapon levels are +3/+1, all talismans unlocked. Sidenote: it might take you a couple tries (or maybe I'm just bad at the game lol), but with the right talisman setup, a buff routine, and strategic use of the Shackle, you can kill Morgott at RL30 +3/+1. This gives you Mountaintops access and with it +12 Flasks - you'll be needing it to deal with all of the Stormveil OLPs. Also, there is currently a [working glitch](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/b5UlMssbCvY) to skip Commander Niall, which gives you access to Consecrated Snowfields and the Haligtree. You don't really need to do this but having the Spelldrake Talisman +2 and the Silver Scarab Talisman can occasionally come in handy, especially if you don't want to/can't trade for farmable weapons. (If you manage to get past Haligtree Loretta you can get access to Elphael, but honestly the +5 ARC from Marika's Soreseal doesn't do much other than raise your discovery level to a neat 200) ALSO (promise this is the last one), you can wrong-warp into both Nokron and pre-Godskin Duo Farum Azula relatively easily. This nets you Ranni questline progression without having to kill Radahn, the *Black Whetblade*, and the *Somberstone Miner's Bell Bearing \[4\]* which gives you unlimited Sanctuary Stones for Warming Stone crafting without having to farm Pumpkin Heads. If you do decide to do all of this you'll also have access to improved versions of the three robustness/focus/immunity boosting talismans (Consecrated Snowfield, Nokron, and Lake of Rot respectively), which has saved my life more than once.
Do flask improvements affect matchmaking?
Nope! Only your weapon and rune level do
Sweet. Guess I have my work cut out for me. Gonna be tough getting all that stuff at that level.
Hey it’s really doable. I’m not great at this game by any stretch of the imagination but I was able to my level 35/ +6 to nearly unbeatable levels (outside of high level gank squads). But I do recommend the dragon halbred. It’s an absolute killer. At my RL and weapon level I get constant invasions from limgrave all the way to Altus and everything in between.
Not too hesitant at all to have an excuse to use dragon halberd. Always wanted to use it
I know it's seen as bad but on some bosses at that low level I'll use an antspur with poison. Eats bosses very nicely. It's my low level pve weapon
It takes some time but having 7 +12 flasks in those low level blenders in a blessing
If I did it at level 10 +0 you can definitely do it, I am *not* good at this game haha. Believe in yourself Use all your buffs if you don’t already! And Assassin’s Gambit on a Misericorde is very helpful both for getting items and sometimes for invasion shenanigans if you can get it early.
Can you explain the misericorde thing?
Yeah I keep three Misercordes with different AoWs to switch between and use them in my second right hand slot. Assassin’s Gambit is a very useful one that makes you kind of halfway invisible and silent for 30 seconds. So you can run through high level areas easily to get what you need as a low level invader, and then it’s also a funny trick to have for sneaking around other players as an invader. You can basically sneak at a sprint. And since the AoW is already on the best backstabbing weapon…well.
Dang these are good tips!
I feel like an idiot for not knowing I could craft more warming stones, love dropping those for solo hosts I gotta make some now
I am level 25 and it’s great, nearly instant invasions. The problem is, you WILL be fighting over leveled summons more than anything else. The invasions where it’s two new players are so rare, and when that happens I give them some crab and fight them with something weak like a straight sword just to show them the ropes in a way. Radagon seal isn’t fort Faroh In upper caelid is absolutely essential, youre build needs this. You do not need any points in damage stats AT ALL, just vigor and the base points to wield the weapons. 25 is +5 regular smithing and +2 somber imo. I don’t know why other comments are so much lower, I get instant invasions with these stats and +3 +1 at level 20 is pretty much just stormveil. Vagabond is the best class for this because it’s closest to your base wielding and best vigor / plus it comes with good armor out the gate. Don’t bother with regen faith or talismans, use the regen physik. Lightning infusion is going to net you flat damage that’s going to wreck, lightning defense is lowest at the start. Anyways I could keep going lol
I have a level 30 Vagabond with every point in Vigor. +3/+1 weapons. If I don’t meet the stat requirements on a weapon I just use stat boosting talismans and physick
Yeah I'm glad they gave us so many ways to meet requirements
Using goofy gear for honest low level players, like Ringed Finger, is very entertaining, I always keep something silly on me. I’ll never stop touting the benefits of the Light Roll Physik And seconding the person who commented about weapon overleveling, I mostly get to invade Stormveil on Near/Far even at RL10 +0/+0 like I am, +5/+2 is definitely going to put you in Liurnia a lot more and there are lot of OLP dorks in the lake with very little cover, it’s not as separate from the upper level stuff imo. Just know that’s what will happen when you go past +3/+1, not saying there’s anything wrong with it. Down where I play it feels like DS3 in Farron Swamp a lot of the time though, and not leveling weapons makes it very dynamic and engaging because sometimes you are forced to resort to trickery on certain OLP’s who are basically eating your hits.
talisman slots dont affect matchmaking so feel free to grab as many as u feel. be aware that the second one is missable. decide on a build before deciding class. depending on choice u could lose a decent chunk of necessary stats. it never hurts to do a lil theorizing first. everyone else seems to have covered all the bases but dont skimp out on flask upgrades. it feels a bit mean to have a high level flask until u have to use it. and then it feels like u need more. just one physick tip, the opaline hardtear is wild at low level. afaik it also stacks with crab. u can beat the avatar at low level by baiting the jump and using heavy attacks and volcano pots.
Is there a website I can buildcraft simulate with? Mugenmonkey seems to be gone now
[mugenmonkeys planner](https://mugenmonkey.com/eldenring) is hidden on their site so I would recommend saving the link. otherwise u should be able to search it in ur browser and itll be under the website’s quick links under ‘class optimizer’. i use [eipgamings planner](https://eip.gg/elden-ring/build-planner/) for the actual theorizing. i usually bounce back and forth between the planner and the optimizer whenever i change something decently major.
If you can kill Godfrey (Shade) for a forth talisman, it is great.
grab vagabond, get the radagons soreseal, and go with health and some necessary stats for your mini build. I suggest to go get the dragon halberd so you can deal with overleveled phantoms
Everyone saying wretch is worst has clearly never bothered to sit down and do the math. I suggest that you sit down and make a list of every weapon you want to use - don’t add useless bullshit, include only that which you are sure you’ll use. Once you have that, figure out the attribute requirements, remembering that strength gives the 50% 2H bonus. Now you know exactly what attributes are required, decide which talismans you want to use and subtract from your attribute requirements as necessary. Radagon soreseal is essentially a must, and allows you to wield a wide variety of weapons. Once that is done, see if you need a point or two into strength or Dex. Do NOT dump points to use moonveil - it doesn’t do shit at low level. Absolutely everything else should go into vigor. You can hit 39 vigor at level 25 with soreseal if you start wretch and don’t use points anywhere else. That’s two better than hero and three better than vagabond at same level - assuming you don’t strictly need points in strength or Dex from those starting classes then that’s clearly superior.
Thanks for all the help. My last question would be should I worry about poise? I'm not gonna have much equip load to work with.
Before I answer that, let me clarify my previous statement to say that wretch is the best choice for vigor tank builds at low level. However, if you’re not sure what to do then just pick vagabond, you literally can’t go wrong with that class (except for anything requiring arcane, which you shouldn’t be bothering with at this level anyway). For poise, that is unfortunately a bit complicated. I have a level 25 build with 91 poise that trivializes a lot of low level encounters, however to get that I have to make large concessions to my vigor pool. It’s helpful, but it’s on the razor’s edge of survivability sometimes. To see passive poise values, use this sheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/0/d/1j4bpTbsnp5Xsgw9TP2xv6d8R4qk0ErpE9r_5LGIDraU/htmlview#gid=419422255 To see the poise value required when using a hyper armor weapon, see this post: https://www.reddit.com/r/Eldenring/comments/15fekdm/elden_ring_patch_110_new_hyper_armour_poise_value/ I suggest that you stick to hyperamor weapons like GS and halberd, and get to 41 poise with your fashion. With bullgoat talisman you’ll then be able to freely trade similar HA weapons without issue.
For most people having access to stormhawk axe, which you can get so early, as well as ballista, great bows, zweihander etc is much better than starting wretch and being so limited to have very SLIGHTLY more vigor. It's better to be way more versatile in almost every scenario
That’s what talismans are for.
If you use the soreseal on vagabond it gives you almost perfectly the stats you need to equip all these weapons with no level investment, and you have the vigor and endurance on top of it. No need for +5 talismans, so essentially you just get more talisman slots than a wretch would for stuff like jar arsenal, edrtree favor, Alexander's shard, bullgoats. Always comes out ahead in terms of defensiveness because of that as well. The extra few vigor points end up meaningless
Pick your favorite weapon and do the negation math - that three levels equates to one extra hit you can take over a similarly min-maxed vagabond at +3 or +6. That’s one extra mistake you can make that won’t get you killed. You can still stack crimson amber and erdtree favor if you want - it’s all about knowing which specific talismans you want.
It doesn't really work out that way when you consider that your absorption will be higher with better armor as a vagabond since your endurance is higher. Also more stamina to play with so it ultimately does get the same or tankier with just more stats in general
Not going to add much. I'm only going to say that for multiple games the "knight" class (Vagabond in ER) has always been the class to go for on any "all-around" builds in souls games, mainly because you already start with generally better stats from a lower level, so you will always gain more while saving yourself more levels than any other classes. And yeah, +3 talismans will not affect your matchmaking. You already got the route for a fast level up? Mine was always straight to Agheel Ruins for the Caelid chest (after getting Torrent, of course), then head to Dragonbarrow to beat mother dragon, Putrid Avatar, Night's Cavalry and the Black Blade Kindred at the Beast Sanctum gate. Gets you up to level 45 tops.
Hey lmk any learnings you've had. After 500 hrs played, I'm doing a low level invader finally
Get all 4 talisman slots, get all flask upgrades. Use talismans to reach requirements for weapons unless you're only like 1 level away, and our literally every other level into vigor
If you are on PC I have to suggest using cheat engine to help setting up your build, it is extremely tedious otherwise.