invaders-cookbook

[invaders-cookbook]

That @huggingtentacles blog sure is something. You never know what's going to hit you. Happy Birthday to her!

[invaders-cookbook]

Highly recommended this build to new invaders and PvP players in general, it's fun and powerful, and it gives you plenty of breathing room. He's is most impressive about it is that you don't need to rely on Radagon's Soreseal, meaning that you are exceptionally tanky.

Amazing job. Can't wait to see this in the wild!

Introducing my newest, and possibly dumbest, Elden Ring "cosplay" invasion build:

OCEAN MAN.

Right hand: +12 Rusted Anchor w/ Waves of Darkness, frost infusion

Left hand: +12 Clayman's Harpoon w/ Piercing Fang, frost infusion

Armor: Octopus Head (fun fact: listening to Ocean Man while farming this headgear is guaranteed to make it drop faster. This isn't even a joke) + Scaled Set for the rest

Talismans: Green Turtle Talisman, Great-Jar's Arsenal, Spear Talisman, Bull-Goat's Talisman

Stats that matter at rl60: 40 VIG/22 END/26 STR/13 DEX/12 INT

(I started as a Vagabond so my stats aren't optimized, start as Hero if you decide to invade as Ocean Man yourself for some reason)

[invaders-cookbook]

This is true. Blade of Maya, Jeenine and Chase the Bro all famously play female characters in Elden Ring. It is a common trend among good players.

Here's a fun insider fact from Elden Ring PvP side of fandom:

Most Elden Ring invaders are women. Like whenever you get invaded it's 70% just female characters.

Idk why but all of these good PvP players are all playing women for no reason. Even the best of the best. All girlies.

[invaders-cookbook]

Invader's Cookbook #4: Crafting, Consumables, Community Assistance.

Warning: this issue of Invader's Cookbook is only for those who have completed the base game. If you're a new player, using advice from this guide may ruin your natural progression path.

Part 1: Community

As you become better at PvP and it becomes more interesting to you, Elden Ring stops being a PvE game with PvP attached to it, and becomes a PvP game with PvE attached to it. And if you do dueling and invading with any regularity, you will discover that certain resources are way more limited than they should be. Which is fine for a PvE playthrough, but in PvP it becomes a detriment to the variety of the things you can do in any given encounter.

For example, starlight shards is an item that gives you enough Focus Points regeneration that allows sorcery builds to rival melee builds in invasion scenarios. There are only a few dozen of them in the entire game without going to NG+ and they are completely unfarmable.

That is why some players opt to simply duplicate their items via reloading their saves and dropping them to their friends. It is not considered cheating, not by the dedicated PvP community and not by From Software either.

There are a bunch of ways to go about acquiring items.

1. Find a person who plays PvP and who has already acquired all the items

Pretty straightforward. If you don't have such a person, shoot a DM to @huggingtentacles she can usually help.

2. r/PatchesEmporium

Patches Emporium is a community on Reddit where you can place a request for certain items, and if you're willing to fulfill someone else's request, you can successfully gain all the items you need.. Typically they will ask you for a "mule". A mule means transferring their items between characters through your character. You simply pick up the items, and give them back to another character they have. In return they might share some stuff you might want.

3. Join a PvP-focused discord community

You can find plenty of them online, Elden Ring PvP is the most popular one. Plenty of streamers on twitch, big and small, also have similar communities.

Part 2: I got the stuff, what now?

Now you probably have enough crafting materials to craft literally every item in the game in ridiculous amounts. Which is good, you will need them for the following items:

1. Boluses

Boluses to cure status effects are the most important, especially Preserving Boluses that help against Scarlet Rot. Make a bunch of them.

2. Uplifting Aromatics

Finally you can use those perfume bottles for something! Having up to 10 is quite strong. It makes you take 90% less damage on your next hit, as well as gives you a noticeable damage boost. Very important to cross places where you might get ambushed around the corner. You can also use this aromatic to buff mobs in the area!

3. Greases

You can only use greases on weapons with physical affinities: Keen, Heavy, Quality and Standard. Now you are able to replace regular greases with Drawstring Grease, which does significantly more damage, albeit it lasts for a shorter period of time. You can use it quickly mid-combat, highly recommend

4. Everything else

Dried livers, various Pots Cured Meat, Exalted Flesh, Bolts, Arrows, Pickled Turtle Necks, Throwing Daggers, Warming Stones. All of these amazing items are important to use in most PvP activities. Learn to utilise them to their fullest potential.

Part 3: And what about making builds faster?

Through other players you can also acquire weapons and runes. However, you can't acquire weapons that are higher level than the one you have already upgraded on your character. You'll have to upgrade a weapon to a certain level if you want someone to drop you weapons of that level.

A typical fast playthrough to meta level 125-137 would be getting a +10 somber weapon as fast as possible, and then having every other item dropped from another player, then finishing the playthrough with all of that stuff and the appropriate level using the infinite runes you got. (Do you see why I don't recommend this to first time playthroughs? Don't ruin your experience.)

Closing Thoughts

One aspect of Elden Ring PvP that's rarely talked about is how the developers never quite anticipated the amount of PvP some people do. Some items are simply too ridiculous to farm for PvP purposes. Imagine having to farm for half an hour only to waste all of that in one single invasion! Some builds like sorcery simply shoot themselves in the foot by not having vital things like starlight shards.

It's not all bad though. After all, trading items and helping eachother makes for a more meaningful community interaction among players, even if it's purely transactional. In fact, I met many cool players through trading favours like that, and I hope you will as well.

Aren't sure about talking to strangers to get Elden Ring items? Try talking to @huggingtentacles she is always happy to help out new invaders!

[invaders-cookbook]

Cheatsheet: Hybrid Sorceries

Other Cheatsheets

So you want to play a hybrid sorcerer? Heres a quick rundown.

Schools Overview

Death - Int/Fth, magic damage focus. Main strength is in long-lived homing projectiles. Has some access to frost and deathblight status.

Very high requirements in both int/fth.

min: 16 int, 14 fth - Rancorcall

max: 42 int, 30 fth - Explosive Ghostflame

Gelmir - Int/Fth, fire damage focus. Creates lingering lava pools and fire clouds. Spells tend to have slow casting speed.

Required stats are low fth + high int.

min: 19 int, 10 fth - Magma Shot

max: 40 int, 18 fth - Rykard's Rancor

Claymen - Int/Arc, magic damage focus, only 2 spells in this school. Creates bubbles that slowly drift toward enemies.

Tends to have low stat requirements overall.

min: 19 int, 15 arc - Oracle Bubbles

max: 25 int, 18 arc - Great Oracular Bubble

Thorns - pure Fth, costs life to use and deals bleed status. Only 2 spells in this school.

No int requirement.

min: 21 fth - Briars of Punishment

max: 24 fth - Briars of Sin

Staff Overview

Prince of Death (Int/Fth, +10% damage to Death School)

Has 'backloaded scaling' - ie. it gets most scaling at high levels of Int+Fth. Almost never good in 'normal playthroughs', great NG+ staff though.

Most damaging staff given infinite levels (ie. 80+ int/fth)

Gelmir (Int/Fth, +15% damage to Gelmir School)

More mid-game oriented than the above. That said, it is drop-only and very rare.

Arguably the hardest item in the game to farm.

Albinauric (Int/Arc)

Scales much better to arc than int, effectively a pure-arcane staff.

Guilty (Fth, +20% damage to Thorn School)

Pure fth staff, drop-only.

OTHER TIPS

The personal opinion section.

Unfortunately, most hybrid staves are rather niche - in most cases using an int-only staff and having minimum stat requirements on your hybrid stat will give better results.

School damage bonuses stack and only ask that you hold the staff. (eg. You can hold a Gelmir Staff in the Off-Hand and cast with whatever big-dmg staff)

Weapon choice can be a pain, Int+hybrid doesn't have many options.

[invaders-cookbook]

Join in!

Happy Pride Month to the Gays of Soulsborne community!

In honour of Pride Month, if any of you are actively playing Elden Ring, join our Group Password to celebrate! Every time one of us becomes Elden Lord or defeats a shardbearer, we will get a small boost in rune gain. We will also have eachother's messages and summon signs highlighted!

The password is, all caps:

PRIDE

Reblog and join the celebration with your fellow Tarnished!

[invaders-cookbook]

The Dexterity Cheatsheet

Was inspired by this video. which asked the question; 'what does Dexterity have as a build niche?'. Hence, decided to come up with a easy reference for all the reasons to play a dex-character.

At its most basic, Dex gives the following...

1. Attack Power for weapons with Dex scaling 2. Cast speed 3. Reduces fall damage 4. Harder to fall-off horseback

Bonuses 3+4 are not relevant in most combat scenarios, and should not be taken into account for buildmaking.

Weapon Infusions

Dexterity has 2 infusions; [Keen] and [Lightning].

Keen - the physical infusion. Raises weapon AR scaling with Dex, also scales damage on certain Weapon Skills.

Lightning - The elemental counterpart to Keen. In PvP, lightning is advantaged over other elemental damage - as it tends to be the lowest defense on player characters.

Lightning is also affected by environment. Wet targets (eg. in rain) have reduced lightning mitigation. Hiting water with lightning causes an 'explosion' that deals an burst of AOE damage.

However, elemental infused weapons cannot be buffed by most sources. Lightning Infusion also splits damage between physical and lightning; hence mitigated by both the enemy's physical and lightning defenses.

Cold - Adds magic damage, int scaling and Frostbite status. Also retains more of a weapon's physical scaling than other caster infusions. Hence, on a innately dex-scaling weapon - Cold will scale well from both Int and Dex; hybrids take note.

Weapon Skills/Arts

Damage for Weapon Skills is very complex.

In general - skills that swing the weapon care about the weapon's attack rating (AR). Skills that shoot projectiles care about stats. (A detailed explanation can be found in this video)

Listed here are Weapon Skills of specific Keen/Lightning affinity. There are many excellent 'general use' Weapon Arts, just not innately dex-focused.

Thunderbolt Lightning affinity, bullet art. The infamous spam tool of arena duels; effectively gives ranged magic without needing to build a caster and while using any weapon. Lightning Slash Enhanced hit. Adds a fixed lightning damage buff to your weapon regardless of whether it lands. 'Elemental Slash' type weapon arts are one of the few ways to buff weapons with elemental infusions. Beast Roar Keen affinity, bullet art. Another infamous ranged spam, this time a physical projectile. As with Thunderbolt, effectively gives access to ranged on any weapon.

Cast Speed

"Shortens the animation when casting spells"

This is a complex stat, do note that...

This is based on specific breakpoints unique to each spell, there is no global %cast speed modifier. In general, 70 Dex is the cap for cast speed. Items that add Cast Speed (eg. Radagon's Icon) add 30 virtual dexterity (vdex), treating your cast speed as if you had +30 Dex.

Hence, if you plan to make a dex-caster hybrid - spell choice and your dex-int/fth split affects how much of an impact cast speed will make.

Consumables

"Consumables with scaling in Dexterity"

Throwing Knives (All) - Exceptional dex scaling on Fan Daggers (A) and Kukri (S). Others like Poisonbone Dart have significant scaling in both Dex + Arc.

Throwing Pots (Lightning) - 2 variants, Lightning Pot and Dragonbolt Pot.

Spark Aromatic - Damaging perfume, unusual in having fire damage while being dex scaling.

Noteworthy Weapons

This is not a list of best weapons, but weapons that are noteworthy within each class for dex characters.

Many weapon classes such as Halberds have broadly good movesets and can be scaled in many ways. Similarly, a weapon can be good purely off its moveset, even if the numbers are not the most optimal.

Dagger - Misericorde, Scorpion's Stinger, Celebrant's Sickle, Bloodstained Dagger, Great Knife Dex friendly weapon class in general. Misericorde is a critical-hit tool with high AR on Lightning, it also has the longest reach in class. Though in practice, this means little Scorpion's has innate rot and a dex bias scaling. Celebrant's has sheild pierce and high AR. Bloodstained and Greatknife are both regular weapons with innate bleed, while also scaling well with dex. However, do note that unless you started as a Bandit, these weapons are hard to acquire.

Straight Sword - Warhawk Talon, Noble's Slender Sword Among regular straight swords, these 2 have a bias toward dex scaling. The difference in reach and AR between regular straight swords is quite minor. Broadswords etc. are all very useable.

Greatsword - Flamberge Of the regular weapons, Flamberge is the only one with a distinct dex bias. Most other Greatswords have a Str bias, though many (eg. Claymore, Knight's Greatsword) are very playable on dex.

Colossal Sword UGS - Zweihander, Greatsword, Godslayer Greatsword For regular weapons, Zweihander has the lowest str req and scales best on Keen. Greatsword has higher str req, but has more AR on Lightning. Godslayer has faster standard attacks and is a rare source of dex-scaling fire damage.

Thrusting Sword - Cleanrot's Knight's Sword, Estoc, Antspur Rapier A dex-biased class overall, in general... Cleanrot's has longest reach and most AR at lower dex levels. Estoc has the most AR at dex softcap 80. Antspur has a 'Scarlet Rot' status while being infusable.

Heavy Thrusting Sword - Dragon King's Cragblade Longest weapon in class, innate lightning damage, has very high dex req. (37). HTS in general is a dex-biased weapon class, any of the regular options are also good.

Curved Sword - Bandit's Curved Swords Only weapon in class with a clear dex bias. Shamshir and Scavenger's are also good options.

Curved Greatsword - Bloodhound's Fang Bloodhound Fang scales very well to dex and is obtainable early. Dismounter is longest in class and infusable, but is drop-only.

Katana - Uchigatana, Nagakiba All weapons in this class (except Meteoric Ore Blade) are dex focused. Nagakiba has the longest reach by a significant margin, Uchigatana has the most AR for both Keen and Lightning. In short; Uchi for damage over reach, Naga for reach over damage. The Hand of Malenia is also noticeable longer than other katanas but still falls short of the Nagakiba. It is also not infusable.

Halberd - Guardian's Swordspear Unusual in having mostly sweep and slash moves. Highest AR in class on Keen, the 'big numbers stick'. Its Lightning infusion is noticeably worse than Keen for some reason, also has high str req. (16) for a dex weapon. Remainder of the Halberds (beside Gargoyle and Nightrider) can all be built toward Dex. Here, Banished Knight's Halberd tends to be the jack-of-all trades in AR and moveset.

Spear - Cross Naginata, Bolt of Gransax Of the regular spears, Naginata has innate bleed and dex scaling bias. Unusual in having a slashing attack-chain by defqult. Being a spear, the min-max setup is to dual wield and ignore the 'core-moveset'. But if you already knew that, you dont need to read this post. Bolt of Gransax; unique weapon with exceptional range (2nd highest) and innate lightning damage. Has very high dex req. (40), scales VERY poorly with str despite having 20 str req.

Greatspear - Lance, Treespear Lance is the only regular weapon in class. Treespear scales very well to dex (physical damage only) and has innate holy damage, it also one of the rare buffable weapons with an innate element. Vyke's War Spear scales well to dex, but is mostly a status weapon for pvp, hence its AR is not generally a consideration.

Reaper - Scythe, Grave Scythe The Scythe has longer reach, dex bias on Keen and features a unique double heavy attack. Grave Scythe has more AR in all cases except 80 dex + Keen. However, it has higher str req. and weight. Worth noting; is that Grave Scythe is rare drop. While the Scythe is a guaranteed drop and can be found early.

Hammer - Monk's Flamemace A str biased class in general. Monk's is the only regular hammer with a dex bias, it is drop only. The default Hammer does not have any dex bias, but has great range and moveset. It is likely a better choice than the Monk's even for dex builds.

Greathammer - None A very str-biased class, no standouts for dex.

Axe - Forked Hatchet Only weapon in class with a dex bias. However, it makes a poor weapon due to low range and damage. A dex weapon by technicality not practicality.

Greataxe - Butchering Knife Only weapon in class with a dex bias, highest AR on Keen. However, Lightning infusion narrows the AR gap for many of the regular Greataxes. Worth noting, as the Butchering Knife has very short heavy attacks.

Colossal Weapons - Duelist Greataxe Class with overwhelming str bias. Both the regular Duelist Greataxe and Rotted variant are the only weapons in class with dex bias. However, they suffer from low AR and have a significant str req. Another "dex weapon by technicality".

Whips - Urumi Exceptional dex scaling, has unique charged heavy attack with great precision and reach. All other whips also have a dex bias (except Giant's Braid). Fists - Katar Only fist with piercing damage and a dex bias. Has slightly longer reach than most.

Claws - Raptor's Talons, Venomous Fang This is a status focused class. Raptor's is another case of a weapon that technically has a dex bias, but this does not make it a good weapon. Venomous Fang is the only infusable weapon with innate poison status, it also has very high base AR.

Twinblades - Godskin Peeler Weapon class predominantely used for statuses. Peeler has a dex-bias relative to other twinblades, it also features a distinct moveset.

STARTING CLASS

Vagabond - A favourite shell for PvP characters. While it may not seem like a dex starter, this class saves a ton on stats for defense. This allows one to start with general defensive base and build dex as you see fit. Most weapons also have some str req. so the base str is also rarely wasted.

Samurai - 2nd highest dex, while having a good spread of hp, endurance and str. Wastes no points for 'caster' stats, good option for full martial dex characters.

Prisoner - Exceptional dex and int, very low base faith. Great starter for that specific hybrid stat combination.

Warrior - Highest dex of all starter classes. That said, its often less efficient in the long run (vs. Vagabond/Samurai) due to having an unusual stat distribution (few use cases for having extra Mind + Int + Arc).

Bandit - High Dex + Arc. Similar to Warrior in being less effecient for pure dex due having odd 'spare stats'.

In short, Vagabond/Samurai will be your go-to for generalist dex characters. The remainders are options provided you have a specific dex hybrid in mind. When in doubt, use the Elden Ring build planner here.

Thanks and Credits

Chrightt and his community for providing much of the in-depth math this post is based on. Rorydobson for the Elden Ring build planner.

[invaders-cookbook]

Invader's Cookbook #3: Keeping your mind and body healthy

Invasions in Elden Ring are insanely difficult to the point of being unwinnable sometimes. It's part of the charm, it's what makes them so appealing to people like me. The game doesn't shy away from putting you into situations where your winning chances are absolutely random, and it's up to you to deal with them. You never know when the tides are going to turn, which makes them so exciting.

But this excitement comes at a cost of risking extreme frustration. Winning against the odds feels great, but not everyone is going to beat the odds, especially if you're new to invasions! Frustration can come both from outwards (the game put you into an unwinnable situation) and inwards (You see that you're underperforming and lose a winnable situation) That's why it's important to keep your cool and mitigate the effects of frustration.

Here are the things that help me personally to not only to mitigate frustration, but also significantly improve

1. Keep your body healthy.

I am not exaggerating when I'm saying this, your winrate spikes tenfold when you take care of yourself! This is so important. I know it's kinda general life advice, but you'll be surprised how much it actually matters.

I am not kidding, you play 200% better after a shower. Try it, I'm serious.

Remember to eat healthy food sometimes! Full regular meals improve your mood and performance drastically! I can't overstate how much better you play when you have a full meal!

And PLEASE sleep well. I am serious. Sleep is integral part of your physical and mental health. I know it's tough to keep a good sleep schedule, and not everyone has time to sleep, but please do, whenever you can, try your best to have regular sleep! If you're reading this post when it's past your bedtime, first of all, reblog and tell me in the tags, and second, GO TO SLEEP! NOW!!!

2. You are not going to beat the odds every time. That's how odds work. But you can set them in your favour.

You lost again, because the coop has already completed the entire area and you were backed against a fogwall against multiple players. What were you supposed to do?

I agree, that situation is really, really bullshit. But that's invasions. Every time you use that bloody finger you roll a cosmic dice, and if you roll low, you simply don't get a good situation. What works for me is changing my goals in a particular invasion. It goes from "Kill the host" to "Kill that single phantom" or "Deal the most damage I can possibly do" or just simply "Not die for as long as I can". Land a cool combo! Befriend the host*! Poison them! Go out on your own terms!

Sometimes changing your goal according to the situation is enough to offset your frustration.

* – DO NOT do this when there is another phantom around. You're getting blocked for this. You are not only a dickhead, you also lower the pool of possible co-invaders that can connect with you and help you out in the future. Respect your teammates.

3. Take breaks

Invasions are intense as hell, and you can't just invade back to back untill you exhaust yourself! Try to take breaks from the game, so your skills are always at 80-100%! The more you play without breaks the worse it gets.

This also helps if you're having a bad losing streak. Generally I'm trying to take 10 minute breaks if I get two consecutive losses. Interestingly enough, putting myself on a 10 minute time-out forces me to find something else to do, which kinda helps me with chores. It's not for everyone, but my ADHD ass loves this.

You can use your break to do some stretches, or go for a walk, or do the dishes. Anything, really! It's up to you! Whatever frustration you had will fade away and you will be at your maximum capacity again!

Another thing you can use your break for is some wrist and eye exercises! It's good for your health and will make you more relaxed and focused.

4. Change things up: try a new build, start a new playthrough!

This is what I personally enjoy doing. Experiment with different playstyles and try invading at different level ranges. For that of course you need a new build and a new character. Creating a character with invading in mind is very fun and challenging, and it allows you to do some more calm stuff on the side when you're not in the mood for invading on your main character.

Not sure what build to choose? Ask @huggingentacles for build suggestions!

[invaders-cookbook]

Invader's Cookbook #2: Circumventing your healing disadvantage

In an invasion, you will meet up to 3 people at a time. Aside from their base HP, they have something called potential HP. Potential HP is the sum of all of their HP restored by healing items that they can use in your encounter with you.

Typically it's just the healing flasks, so as an invader, you must utilise as many healing tools as possible to circumvent your healing disadvantage.

Healing Flask

At maximum upgrade level, in the invasion you will have 7 healing flasks, which you can distribute between Cerulean and Crimson tear flasks. How many Cerulean tear flasks you need depends on your build. My typical healing distribution on a melee build is 5-2. If you're not a heavy caster or ash of war user, perhaps 6-1 is better for you. Those who use casts as their main source of damage should consider having 4-3 distribution.

Your healing flask at maximum upgrade level will heal 810 HP per use. While it does sound like a lot, it's really not. At maximum upgrade level, the host will have 14 flasks, and their phantoms will have 7 each. You only have 7 flasks to work with. How does that look in numbers?

A host with 14 +12 flasks can heal 11340 HP

The invader and the phantoms with 7 flasks heals half that, 5670 HP. If you took my advice and are using less than maximum amount of red flasks, let's say 5-2 distribution, that'll be 4050 potential HP.

The phantoms are on the team of the host, and therefore their potential healing adds up.

That's a huge disadvantage! Now, how do we overcome that?

Improve your healing with this one simple trick: The Long Heal.

Utilise the items that make your healing flask stronger. For that, you will have to get away from the coop to get some space to perform manipulations with your inventory. This is what I like to call Long Heal. To perform the Long Heal, before using your flask, open your inventory and equip the following items:

You may see the multiplication symbols there. That's because all buffs stack multiplicatively!

So by equipping all of these items you will have a 45.52% increase of the effectiveness of your healing flask, giving you a grand total of 1176 HP per healing flask. The advantage of the Long Heal adds up quickly! Instead of giving you merely 4050 HP, 5 flasks now grant you 5880 potential HP!

When to use The Long Heal?

Not everything is sunshine and rainbows, though. The Long Heal got it's name because of how much time you need to spend to pull it off. It's certainly not something you can pull off mid-fight in the heat of the moment. For that you need to have a safe distance between you and your opponents to have the time to equip the items, heal and swap them off. And you need to swap them off, because the Crimson Seed Talisman wastes a talisman slot whenever you're not healing, Crimson Tear Scarab and the Guardian Garb lower your resistances and make you look really ugly.

The Long Heal is most effective against passive coops that don't engage you first. As annoying as they are to deal with, the Long Heal will give you more HP to work with. Less passive coops will chase you down, so use the terrain and the enemies around the area! If you get unlucky and get cornered, use the Phantom Bloody Finger to teleport away to the nearest invasion spot. While it's a gamble, it might save your life if the situation is dire.

Regeneration

The slowest, yet the most efficient form of healing. It works during combat and is always useful to have. For regeneration I suggest you use Bestial Vitality incantation. It costs 18 FP to use and regenerates 5 HP per second for 120 seconds, healing a total of 600 HP (33 HP/FP)

This is the most cost-effective incantation, and you can use it on any build. Unless you started the game as a Prisoner, in which case you need to put an additional point in faith.

To use this incantation, all you need is any sacred seal and Two Fingers Heirloom talisman. Quickly swap to your talisman to cast the incantation, and then simply swap it off for something more useful.

On top of that, you can stack Blessed Dew Talisman (2HP/sec) and the Icon Shield (3HP/sec) to increase your regen up to 10HP/sec. Use this when you run out of healing flasks, or when you really want to show the passive coop that you're in here for the long run.

Warming Stones

Finally, we got to Warming Stones. They cost 20 FP to use, and regenerate 750 HP over 30 seconds.

If you have accepted the Flame of Frenzy, you can use the Frenzyflame Stones, that cost 15 FP to use and regenerate 1050 HP over 30 seconds.

Both of these stones stack with eachother, granting you 1800 HP over 30 seconds, which is almost enough to fully heal a 60 vigor character.

Oh, and they also cost crafting materials to use. I explain where to get them in my Consumables, Crafting Materials and Community Assistance post.

[invaders-cookbook]

Invader's Cookbook #1: Your first Invasion Build

Invading is hard to get into due to the amount of preparation you need to succeed. You need quite a bit of practice to be really good, but you don't always have to be good to be successful at invasions. Your build determines your options. In the first part of Invader's Cookbook you will learn how to make your first build for invading.

Your attributes and Upgrade Level

For your first build, I will suggest a Lightning Dexterity Build for Rune Level 60. It has good all-around damage and survivability, and gives you plenty of options in most situations. The amount of available weapons also makes this build very fun to play!

Start as Vagabond and distribute your attributes like this:

Vigor -> 35

Mind -> 10

Endurance -> 24

Strength -> 15

Dexterity -> 30

Intelligence -> 9

Faith -> 9

Arcane -> 7

It is very important that during your playthrough you do not upgrade any weapon further than +12 or +5 Somber! Matchmaking is based on your level, as well as your weapon upgrade! If you upgrade even one weapon over the +12/+5 Somber threshold, you won't find any matches!

Your Talismans

Your Talismans are necessary additions to your build. There will be 3 talismans that are the most useful for this build and I highly recommend to wear them at all times. These are: Radagon's Soreseal, Great Jar's Talisman and Bullgoat's Talisman.

Your last talisman slot is free for you to choose. You can swap them mid-fight situationally, or wear something like Millicent's Prosthesis for a permanent buff. It's up to you to decide. Useful Situational talismans are: Green Turtle Talisman, Two Fingers Talisman, Shard of Alexander, Arrow's Sting Talisman and Blessed Dew Talisman.

Situational swapping requires thought and some skills, but it's much stronger than not doing it at all.

Use Bullgoat's Talisman to hit at the very least 75 poise. The fashion is up to you!

Weapons

Your arsenal is your most important asset. As an invader, you must swap weapons to adapt to any situation. Don't just carry them in your additional slots, they take up your equip load which can be used to wear heavier armour for better defences and poise!

Dual-wielded Noble Slender Swords will be your main damage-dealing tool. I recommend Endure and Storm Stomp ashes of war on them. Endure helps you trade blows and escape dangerous situations, while Storm Stomp gives you a combo option to deal damage.

Cleanrot Knight Sword with Thunderbolt is a great tool to finish off enemies that are far away, as well as just a good overall weapon that is effective both in the main hand and the offhand.

Antspur Rapier with Bloodhound's Step serves two purposes: Scarlet Rot application and escaping from unpleasant situations. Scarlet Rot is incredibly effective against opponents with high latency. Use Keen affinity to be able to use Rot Grease on the weapon to increase status build-up.

Cold Nagakiba is a an amazing trick that allows you to deal massive damage and apply frostbite using Spinning Slash Ash of War.

Bolt of Gransax is an amazing spear that allows you to shoot a very powerful projectile on high distances. It's most effective when your opponents haven't noticed you yet or are fighting something else. The drawback is high FP cost, but it can also be strengthened by Shard of Alexander talisman

Godskin Stitcher is a great chase-down weapon for those who are running away, as well as a powerful head-to-head combat tool! Most ashes of war are very useful, though I heavily prefer using Piercing Fang or Lightning Strike, Hey, wanna improve at playing Heavy Thrusting Swords? Check out this video!

Grave Scythe is a head-to-head combat weapon that is also great at punishing shield users for installing Elden Ring on their gaming device! Use Sword Dance ash of war for big damage, or Quickstep for powerful combos and dodges!

Claymore is a very reliable weapon that is useful in most situations. Use Piercing Fang, Impaling Thrust or my personal favourite: Storm Stomp. The latter allows you to land a quick and powerful R2 attack on an opponent you land it on.

Stormhawk Axe is a nuclear option that deals significant damage over a big area. Use it sparingly, for it leaves you at great risk of getting hit if you miss. Use for ambushes and sudden turn-and-burns when your opponents least expect it!

Don't forget that this is not a full list of available weapons or ashes of war. You can experiment with any weapon you find interesting or useful! My personal inventory stretches multiple pages at this point. Dexterity Builds are incredibly versatile! Anything that can be infused with Lightning or has Dexterity scaling can be used effectively, even heavier weapons like the Zweihander!

Miscellaneous

Physick Flask

Lightning-Shrouding Cracked Tear is mandatory for this build. It will buff your damage significantly, making your build the most powerful for your level.

The remaining physick slot is up to you. My personal choice lies between Crimsonburst Cracked Tear, Crimson Bubbletear and Opaline Hardtear.

Consumables

Your best case scenario is the one where you have 14 fully upgraded healing flasks, 20 Cracked Pots, 10 Ritual Pots, 10 Perfume Bottles, and as many various boluses as you can gather. For crafting materials see my post on Crafting Materials, Consumables and Community Assistance

How to decrease the downtime between invasions!

Invading is famously time consuming and we simply do not have time to sit around and wait for a suitable world to be found. These two tips will dramatically improve your chances of invading:

Tip #1: Visit as many areas as possible. This will increase the pool of areas you can invade in. Visit every cave, catacomb or secluded area you can find. Note that you don't have to complete them, you just have to visit them once.

Tip #2: Acquire both the Bloody Finger and the Recusant Finger. Use them one after another in succession untill the invasion starts. The way invasions select players to invade is painfully slow without this method, as it scans the pool of available players once every 20 seconds. With this method you can cut it down to 5!