Bandit | Elden Ring Wiki

Best for arc/Dex builds and that's pretty much it.
You have plenty of somber weapons for early game and DLC, the Clinging bone is my mainstay.

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That 9 int is a waste. Prophet or Hero are much better picks if you're going to lean into an arcane hybrid build.

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Literally the best starter class! Shield, bow, a bleed weapon and decent armor! My favorite guy!

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Good starter for new runs. Flail w/ wild strikes, Regalia of Euchaid and Serpent bow. Dirty deeds, done dirt cheap

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Doing a full run sticking with the general Bandit dagger/parry shield/bow setup is some of the most fun I've had with this game. Since you're really limited in boss fights and have no crowd control you have to think ahead sometimes and actually use crafting and consumables, which I basically never touch if I'm doing any other type of character. Super different experience if you've already done a few playthroughs.

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Pick bandit, get reduvia, get bloody slash and put it on your great knife for blood infusion, put great knife in offhand, margit won't know what hit em

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if you play this class and you allow yourself to be hugged by Fia then you just need some love :)

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Make no mistake- your starting knife is a blade that can easily carry you to endgame. Young bandit, use the tools you have at your disposal: the shortbow, to pull enemies to you one by one; the buckler, to parry them; the knife, to rend their flesh. I suggest switching the buckler for another knife, obtainable from a demihuman hiding in the bushes, lakeside crystal cave, in Liurnia. It can take some time, so use some fowl feet. You can also use whips, they combine well with knives- one for range, and one for close combat. You can infuse the knives with poison or blood at first- the earliest ashes are poison mist, poison moth flight, and bloody slash. Don't underestimate the power of that last one. Then when you get the black whetblade, the occult infusion will be unlocked. That will allow your weapons to scale with your arcane stat, so you can focus on that for damage. Reminder: daggers don't do well against enemies immune to hemorrage, use whips instead. Strike damage is effective against those bleed-immune.

This world will put your patience to the test.
Good luck, young bandit.

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its a nice class because of the parry shield :3

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Tbh i thought this class was total garbage in terms of starting gear for a while. Finally started a run with it today and one of the first things i did was chain parry a nights cavalry to death. Suffice it to say ive changed my mind

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Best class if u want to make an arcane build with less than 14 str and smithscript weapons (dagger, cirque). It can dual wield daggers with great knife and reduvia without leveling up so it's a huge plus. Also the drippiest class so it wins by default no debate if u don't agree ur a loser + no bisces + yo moms fat

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noob trap class. if u wanna have the worst stat spread for the rest of ur playthrough then pick this one

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the artwork for this class goes so hard

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Clinging bone is a very strong weapon for this class, since it has very low Strength scaling/requirements and does great damage with Arcane and Dex.

Very easy to get early since Ensha is a pushover.

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Strong candidate for the +5 strength talisman.

The Bandit starts out with 9 strength. There are plenty of weapons of interest you only need 9 and the rest you may want for an Arc/Dex build are in the strength range of 12-14 strength (see list below).

Arc builds also get a pretty stat-efficient interest in leveling faith. In that case you'll want to get the 30 soft-cap in faith. You can end up shortchanging Vitality, Endurance, or Mind to an restrictive degree if you were to level your Strength up - plus other classes would be more efficient at that point. Use the +5 strength talisman for flexibility at end game - you actually won't need it most of the time.

Weapons you'd want at 9 strength:
Great Knife, Reduvia, Clinging Bone, Venomous Fangs, Raptor's Talons, Serpent Bow, Scavenger's Curved Sword, Noble's Slender Sword, Noble's Estoc, Rogier's Rapier, Thorned Whip, Spiked Caestus

Weapons that I prefer two-handed at 9 but need the +5 for a one-hand:
Rivers of Blood, Eleonora's Poleblade, Ripple Crescent Halberd, Uchigatana

Weapons at +5 STR:
Regalia of Eochaid, Ripple Blade, Morgott's Cursed Sword, Antspur Rapier, Hoslow's Petal Whip, Scythe, Estoc, Cleanrot's, Godskin Stitcher, Nightrider Flail, Urumi,

The big sacrifice is the Bloody Helice and Cross Naginata requiring two-hands still with the +5 but I do that anyways for those...

(skipped some halberd and spears because meh)

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Most goated class ever. Exp required

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BANDIT, SL99

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Start as Bandit, get Reduvia as soon as you're in Limgrave, and put on a movie since you'll be coasting through the rest of the game.

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If you are running bandit I recommend picking up the whip at castle morne, hits with hardness of 4 and deals strike damage, good to mix with other dex weapons and is available as soon as you start the game

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4 legendz only

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4 stat points and you can wield Bloody Helice with soreseal, neat

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The optimal class if you plan on meeting the minimum requirements of the Uchigatana and Wakizashi for a Light Rolling Arcane build. Parry on the Waki, Bloody Slash on the Uchi, make them both Occult, and put on some classic Elden Bling like the Ronin's Armor and the Traveler's Slops. Unironically, I consider the Bandit to be the perfect class if you want to create a Ronin, unlike the Samurai which has 1 too many points in Strength, which results in you needing to sacrifice 1 point from Endurance, which isn't a good idea for a build that wants to Light Roll. This is the true niche of the Bandit class.

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Bandit, my beloved.

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Hero may have been the class I journeyed across the Lands Between with and slayed demigods with, but the Bandit will always have the most cherished place in my heart because it was literally my introduction into modern AAA quality games. Remembering those first magical moments in this amazing open world always brings a huge smile. I love this game. — The Fist of Fury

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normally i don't do revised deep lore comments but this one's a quick rewrite regardless (astrologer yet again gets shafted too btw): the high level of arcane compounded with the requirements of 2 certain weapons of the [minimal amount of arcane weapons] category also leads me to believe that the bandit's origin lies in the kingdom of eochaid, which would be an apparent reference to forossa from ds2 (long forgotten/fallen kingdom only mentioned in game, citizens turn to banditry to survive, only characters directly related to it are huge red-clad sword users but only one of them is a good guy)

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Picked this in memory of greirat

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deep lore comment part 2: no real world inspirations/influences or berserk references i could find surprisingly, this left me with just looking at the starting gears description compared to others and without much effort i can say that this classes origin is that they're a ravenmount assassin in training or even being sent away by them on a form of asceticism to prove their worth (the assassin's claws are only good for looking moderately cool and bleeding which the high base arcane does nothing but benefit for this class), that's pretty much it cause this class doesn't really have much else going on

see you

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i didnt even know it was a class made for advanced players, i just picked it because it looks cool. and this is the first souls game i fully completed and it was quite the challenge. needless to say, if you want a good start for high dex (farming stuff and building up bleed very quick) choose this and immedietly go for reduvia

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Started out with this class without realizing it was for vets. It's actually a lot of fun and yes very challenging bc you're highly focused on dodging but my stamina is practically untouchable even at only 19 endurance!!! Using various buffs is very important. I'm running as dex and faith actually and it's amazing. One regular holy pot does over 1500 damage at level 128. I've also noticed at higher levels I'm extremely stealthy without even trying. Lower level groups don't even notice me one-shotting their comrades with lightning bolts from 20 feet away. It's hilarious. I haven't beaten the game yet because this build is still limiting but that's led to more adventure and discovery. Beaten almost every single lower boss and great enemy, finished every dungeon, and collected almost every single valuable item.

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It sucks that you'll never be able to make a proper rogue/thief in any traditional Souls title, on account of them being so focused on direct combat and having bare-bones stealth mechanics. Oh well, From did make an entire game where you play as a shinobi and hunters in Bloodborne were originally also covert in the lore.

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Could someone revert the recent optimization note? It's way more narrow/less useful than the previous entry...and not at all accurate for the strength, 10 isn't the cutoff.

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The most flexible choice if you can't decide between arcane/fth or arcane/int or just want the option to respec to the other later since we don't know what the DLC will have.

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The lower strength is super optimized if you're willing to use the Radagon seals - +3 for the Scar Seal gets you access to to the popular 12 strength weapons you may want as an Arcane build (both Ripples, Reglia, Elenora) and the +5 gets you just enough for Morgott's one-handed.

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Choose this as my starting class (very recently got the game) I like it a lot, even though sure, other classes may outwardly seem better this class has its own perks; like if you are a big fan of using bows it’s perfect. So ignore the people who tell you the class sucks, it’s about your own experience and it’s your choice how you want to play. We who choose bandit, we choose to play the fun way- our way. Those are the true gamers.

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tried this class again after thinking it sucked on my first playthrough, and actually it's pretty good (especially with the recent dagger buff in 1.08). I have poison moth flight on my great knife and use the shortbow for range, the buckler can parry very good, so I've got pretty much everything covered with the starting equipment and dex/arc.
might not be the most effective but I'm having fun so who cares

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god **** just lengthen the sleeves on the shirt please

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"How to make a whole starting class and build worthless with an huge overall status effects nerf"

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aka "weaker Samurai"

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Ignoring daggers/claws/fists, here are some min/max (base str/faith) Bandit melee things with acceptable range:

2H Eleonara’s Poleblade (phys/fire)
2H Regalia of Eochaid (phys/magic)
2H Antspur Rapier
2H Ripple Crescent Halberd (with grease)
2H RoB

Powerstanced Thorned Whip (strike damage type).
Powerstanced Shotel and/or Scavenger’s Curved Sword.

Spectral Lance on 2H Celebrants Rib Rake.

Faith-knot Crystal Tear grants access to incantations: lightning spear, Flame Grant Me Strength, fire breath, rot breath, etc.

Essentially there are a lot of situational things in your toolbelt, which is thematically fitting IMO.

These options also have low weight, so you can even reach for the recently-buffed “light roll”, which feels amazing both defensively and offensively.

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This is better than samurai for Dex/Arc builds that have low strength so it's ideal for daggers, whips, claws, and certain curved swords. When you hit 12 strength or more, you would tie with the samurai for best builds.

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Also the best class for the bleed whips (uncluiding Blood Urumi) no matter if you wanna go mostly dex or full arcane.

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Best starter for an arcane build which is incredibly fun if you DONT katana spam

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Honestly I don't understand why people insist so much on talking about Hero here.
If you're looking at this class it's because you want as little strength as possible because fast attack weapons that scale well with dexterity and arcane use a maximum of 9 to 10 strength.
Even weapons like Rivers of Blood and Eleonora's Poleblade can be used as long as they are held with both hands...

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Hero should be the better choice in the long run for bleed builds but I value role-play above all.

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If anyone wants to start an arcane build slot and have a good build at 125; unless you ONLY want to use low str weapons like daggers, Hero is a better class in most cases.
Hero starts with 16 str which is required for weapons like cross-naginata, bloody helice and 14 for morgott's cgs.
In a Dex/Arcane build you are going to need a bit of strength and Bandit doesn't really have an advantage over hero in that regard.
Also hero is a much more versatile class, having the best point allocation for PURE strength build, Strength/Arcane or Strength/Faith builds.

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Regalia of Eochaid is a realy good weapon of choice 2 handed you dont even need to lvl str.

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For players running a low str dagger playthrough, i recommend leveling a warpick sub weapon for strike damage. Easy to pick up in the early game and would help with stone foes.

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1 - Start with the best shield for parry
2 - Start with the best dexterity scaling dagger in the game (if you're not going to invest in strength)
3 - Start with the best short bow in the game (if you're not going to invest in strength)
Translating if you are going to embrace this class focused on dexterity and arcane here is my tip
Take the Reduvia dagger (right hand) and use it in conjunction with your starting dagger (left hand) for quick bleeding.
Take the Ash of War: Poisonous Mist and put it on your starting dagger to poison your enemies and for the arcane status to affect it
Pick up Serpent Bow to hit enemies from great distances and poison them with 2 Mighty Shot with poison arrows
Use your short bow to fight enemies that move a lot (ex: Night's Cavalry)
Remember that the crafty is your best friend and buy items from the merchants when necessary (common arrows, throwing daggers, etc.)

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Arccane actually helps you survive holy damage, not just for loot discovery increase. This class is good for agile and evasive fast attack playstyle.

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Only good for the buckler tbh

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bandit what bandon't

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A great start for critical hit oriented builds or those who like running out in a good looking shirt and pants with [insert stabbing instrument of choice here] in hand. Also it starts with the best parry shield ever.

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If you know what build you're doing or what weapons/spells you're aiming to use, just Google a class optimizer. The RPG aspects are interesting enough but arbitrarily comparing base stats or painting in broad strokes like "for [singular stat] builds, ..." doesn't accomplish much in a game of this scope

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Samurai is a better bandit in every way, >>unless<< you don't plan to level dex, they have the same attributes in casting (9-8) and samurai can level up arcane to fill the gap + dual uchigatana...But i love bandit. If you plan to build for bleed build you can also consider Prophet (for two incantations related to bleed needed 14 faith) who is really srongh with 7 int, the trade off is confessor with 9h and 14 faith, up to you if you think you'll need more int or faith.

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You don't even need heavy armors, just use bloodhound step + 2 claws or 2 daggers, then side step enemies like NBA.
So far my favorite classes are single wield Samurai, longsword Vagabond, spam Astrologer, and elusive Bandit.

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Does start with buckler and a quickstep weapon, so if you want to try to Parry everything like this is bloodborne this is probably for you

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Not a great starting class, all things considered. Very mediocre gear and well... there's not all that much use for Arcane early on. Sure, there's some spells and and exactly one sacred seal and staff each that require and scale with Arcane, but most of that stuff isn't accessible early and even if it were, you also got INT and Faith requirements to worry about which the bandit doesn't meet. I'd probably just go Prophet instead. Catching up on Arcane is gonna be easy enough and getting a seal and high faith is gonna be more useful early on.

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any way to get his outfit asides from starting class?

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Will make this as my second character, first has to be a mage. I did enjoy playing as a stealth archer in Skyrim.

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Looking to respec, I focused too much on strength not understanding this character at first, but now I really like a Rid**** build I have in mind...

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Hero is probably a bit better min max wise for an arcane build. Depending on your strength and mind needs, you could be saving 4 points. I kind of regret going with bandit, but it's too early for me to know for sure if those points won't be utilized with bandit or waisted if I went with hero. Something to consider.

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Only true gamers play the class with a focus on the stat that other chumps consider a dump stat for their first blind playthrough

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This is it boys. This is the one.

ARC Chads Rise UP!

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i am planning semi-rogue and semi-sorcerer playstyle

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Bandit dex/arcane build will be my first playthrough, can't wait! It's gonna be interesting making this build as we don't know everything about arcane yet. I hope that it will affect bleed/poison/occult.

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It will be funny to laugh at those who say that arcane and garbage...

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this ***** sexy af

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HIGH ARCANE MYSTERY BOX LET'S GOOOOO

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Seems very similar to the Thief class from Dark Souls. Starts with dagger & buckler, and the Arcane stat boosts item discovery.

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Would this be like ds3 Assassin?

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