Elden Ring Katana Builds Guide (2024)

Katanas are some of the strongest weapons in Elden Ring due to their ability to inflict bloodloss damage, which takes off chunks of your enemy’s health in seconds. There is a total of 8 Katanas you can get in the game, but it can often be hard to build them to their full potential.

In this guide, we’ll explore two very different but equally as powerful Katana builds that leverage the power of this highly sought-after weapon type. The builds below everything from the basics like stats and starting classes to more complicated mechanics like Talismans and Ashes of War.

Elden Ring Rivers of Blood Katana Bleed Build Overview

The Rivers of Blood Katana Bleed Build leverages the Katana’s inherent bloodloss abilities and dials them up to the max with its Ashes of War, incantations, summons, and Talismans. This build can be extremely powerful against almost every enemy in Elden Ring.

• Class:Samurai
• Flask Spread:3 to 1 ratio of HP and FP
• Stats:Dexterity and Arcane (primary), Vigor, Mind, and Endurance (secondary)
• Weapons:Rivers of Blood Katana and Nagakiba
• Ash of War:Corpse Piler and Seppuku
• Incantations: Bloodflame Blade
• Spirit Summons:Dung Eater Puppet or Lone Wolf Ashes
• Armor:Black Knife Set with White Mask
• Flask of Wondrous Physick:Dexterity-knot Crystal Tear and Greenburst Crystal Tear
• Talisman: Radagon’s Scarseal, Rotten Winged Sword Insignia, Lord of Blood’s Exultation, and Green Turtle Talisman

Elden Ring Moonveil Katana Magic Build Overview

The Moonveil Katana Magic Build mixes the Katana’s blood loss abilities with Magic to deliver a robust build that excels at range and when up close and personal.

• Class:Samurai
• Flask Spread:Equal split between HP and FP
• Stats: Intelligence and Dexterity (primary), Vigor, Mind, and Endurance (secondary)
• Weapons:Moonveil Katana and Carian Glintstone Staff
• Ash of War:Transient Moonlight
• Incantations: Flame, Grant Me Strength, and Golden Vow
• Spells: Carian Phalanx, Night Comet, and Carian Greatsword
• Spirit Summons:Lhutel the Headless or Spirit Jellyfish
• Armor:Land of Reeds Set
• Flask of Wondrous Physick:Magic-Shrouding Cracked Tear and Stonebarb Cracked Tear
• Talisman:Graven-School Talisman, Graven-Mass Talisman, Shard of Alexander and Carian Filigreed Crest

Best Stats Choices

Stats at level 60

Stats at level 100

Stats at level 150

Best Weapons for Katana Builds

For the bleed build, your main weapon will be the Rivers of Blood katana, which scales with Dexterity and Arcane. This weapon can be acquired after you defeat Bloody Finger Okina near the Church of Repose in the Mountaintops of the Giants.

Your secondary weapon will be the Nagakiba. Like the Rivers of Blood, this Katana also scales with Dexterity and Arcane, making it the perfect addition to the build. You can get this weapon by defeating Bloody Finger Hunter Yura near Murkwater cave in Limgrave.

For the Magic build, the best weapon to use is the Moonveil Katana. This mainly boils down to its Ash of War, which allows it to deal with Magic Damage on top of its standard bleed damage. This weapon scales primarily with Dexterity and Intelligence, which opens this build-up to using sorceries. The Moonveil Katana can be obtained from Gael Tunnel in Limgrave.

To use your sorceries, we recommend using the Glintstone Staff as this build primarily uses Carian sorceries. You can find the Glintstone staff in a chest in Sellia, which is in Caelid.

Best Ashes of War Picks

The Rivers of Blood Katana comes equipped with the Corpse Piler Ash of War by default, and this will be the main way you’ll deal damage to your enemies. This Ash of War conjures a blood blade that moves with swift strikes and inflicts additional bleed damage to your enemies.

For the Nagakiba, use the Seppuku Ash of War. This skill makes your character plunge their sword into their stomach, which instantly takes away a little bit of health and grants you the ability to deal more bleed damage. Stacking this with the Rivers of Blood Katana’s inherent Bleeding capabilities and Corpse Piler will let you deal immense bleed damage.

For the Moonveil Katana, stick to its default Ash of War, Transient Moonlight. This skill conjures up a blue arc of Carian magic that damages your enemies. The long range allows you to deal with your enemies from a safe distance.

Best Incantations for Katana Builds

Incantations can be used on both builds but aren’t necessarily a requirement. For the bleed build you can use the Bloodflame Blade Incantation. The Bloodflame blade incantation essentially buffs your Katana’s hemorrhage/blood loss capabilities, which lets you build up the status effect even quicker.

You can use Golden Vow for the Magic build, which increases your damage output and defense, and Flame, Grant Me Strength. This incantation raises your standard and fire damage output (the latter isn’t relevant to this build)

Best Spells To Choose

Spells are only relevant to the Magic Katana build. Since the Moonveil Katana itself deals Carian Damage and our chosen Staff for this build is also adept at casting Carian spells, it only makes sense to use Carian sorceries to deal as much damage as possible and to establish synergy between all forms of offense. Use the following Sorceries for this build:

1. Carian Phalanx: Carian Phalanx spawns several swords near your character. These swords then attack the enemy you’re locked on to or the enemy nearest to you.
2. Night Comet: Night Comet is a homing attack that seeks out your opponents, like the Carian Phalanx, it attacks the enemy you’re locked onto or the one nearest to you.
3. Carian Greatsword: This spell is perfect for crowd control as it spawns a wide-reaching and high-damage-dealing sword that sweeps across the entire area.

Best Spirit Summons Picks

Regarding the spirit summons, you’ll want a summon that complements your build’s playstyle and shortcomings. Pick from any of the two following summons for the Bloodloss build, both of which deal bleed damage.

1. Dung Eater Puppet: The Dung Eater Puppet is a tanky single-unit summon that deals bleed damage to enemies. His large health pool makes him a worthy addition to your arsenal. You can acquire this
2. Lone Wolf Ashes: on the other hand, Lone Wolf Ashes summons three wolves that swarm your enemies from every side. Each wolf’s health is fairly low when compared to the Dung Eater but they tend to inflict blood loss much quicker.

For the Magic Katana build, you’ll want summons that works to take away the enemy’s attention from you so you can use your spells without interruption. For this reason, we recommend the following:

1. Lhutel the Headless: Lhutel the Headless is a tank that works slowly and has harder-hitting attacks and a very large health pool, which makes him perfect for tanking enemy attacks while you conjure your spells.
2. Spirit Jellyfish: The Spirit Jellyfish tends to move around much more, which is perfect for distraction. It inflicts the poison status effect on your enemies, giving you a slight head-up during most combat situations.

Best Armor for Katana Builds in Elden Ring

For these builds, any armor set will work just fine, but we recommend the Black Knife Set for the Bleed Build and the Land of Reeds Set for the Magic Katana Build. The former provides decent damage negation while also being lightweight, letting you be as mobile as you want. The latter provides less protection, but due to the ranged nature of the Magic build, this won’t be a big problem.

The Black Knife set can be picked up from under an archway behind Ordina, Liturgical Town in the Consecrated Snowfield area, while the Land of Reeds set can be bought from the Isolated Merchant in North Caelid.

Best Flask of Wondrous Physick

The Flask of Wondrous Physick allows you to use two temporary buffs in a single-use Flask. For the Katana builds, we recommend the following:

Katana Bleed Build

1. Dexterity-Knot Crystal Tear: The Dexterity-Knot Crytal Tear increases your Dexterity, which is always helpful for this build.
2. Greenburst Crystal Tear: This tear increases the rate at which your Stamina recovers. This will ensure you can use the Corpse Piler Ash of War more frequently.

Katana Magic Build

1. Magic-Shrouding Cracked Tear: This tear raises the potency of all your magic attacks, strengthening your spells and Ash of War for the Moonveil Katana.
2. Stonebarb Cracked Tear: The Stonebarb Cracked Tear makes it easier to stagger your enemies, significantly buffing the Transient Moonlight Ash of War.

Best Talismans

Talisman allows you to buff your builds in several ways. There are a total of four Talisman slots that you can unlock and use. For the Katana builds, these are the best Talisman:

Katana Bleed Build

1. Radagon’s Scarseal: Radagan’s Scarseal increases Vigor, Endurance, Strength, and Dexterity by 3 each, but this comes at the cost of you taking +15% more damage.
2. Rotten Winged Sword Insignia: This Talisman increases the power of consecutive attacks, letting you deal more damage the more you attack a single target.
3. Lord of Blood’s Exultation: Lord of Blood’s Exultation increases your attack power by +20% when you or your enemy experiences blood loss.
4. Green Turtle Talisman: The Talisman increases the speed at which you recover your Stamina. This stacks well with the Greenburst Crystal Tear.

Katana Magic Build

1. Graven-School Talisman: The Graven-School Talisman increases the potency of all sorceries by +4%, lending you a decent damage buff.
2. Graven-Mass Talisman: The Graven-Mass Talisman, on the other hand, increases damage from your sorceries by an additional +8%. You can attain a +12% damage buff when used with the Graven School Talisman.
3. Shard of Alexander: This Talisman boosts the power of your Ashes of War by +15%.
4. Carian Filigreed Crest: The Filigreed Crest lowers the amount of FP used by Ashes of War by 25%, letting you spam the Transient Moonlight skill more often.