There are plenty of complex, powerful, and beautiful weapons in Elden Ring. But every now and then, you need a run with a giant, spiky stick. The Great Stars is a fantastic weapon to build around, so let’s go over how to make it work best.
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The Great Stars is a Great Hammer weapon type, just like the Battle Hammer weapon. You can find one on the Altus Plateau, in a troll-drawn carriage the southwest of the Road of Iniquity. You can find a second one as part of White Mask Varré questline, though only during offline invasions.
Best stats for a Great Stars build in Elden Ring
These recommended stats come from a level 120 Elden Ring build with the Hero starting class. Most starting classes, like the Vagabond, can reach this statline without too many extra levels.
- Vigor: 40
- Mind: Nine
- Endurance: 30
- Strength: 60
- Dexterity: 12
- Intelligence: Seven
- Faith: 30
- Arcane: 11
In terms of stat caps, the only soft cap you need to worry about is Strength. 60 Strength is perfect for the build because it makes the Great Stars a powerhouse in terms of damage. 40 Vigor is kind of a soft cap, since you get about half the amount of health per Vigor point after 40, but you aren’t at the limit yet. Feel free to put more points in Vigor as you level up. Just make sure you have 12 Dexterity, or else you can’t wield the Stars in the first place.
Tip: After level 120
While level 120 is a good baseline to work toward, many builds reach level 150 by the endgame. We recommend investing in Vigor, Mind, and Faith at this point, since your weapon doesn’t scale much harder above 60 Strength.
30 Endurance is nice to improve your Stamina and give yourself the capacity to wear heavier armor pieces without a sweat. This isn’t strictly necessary for the build, so you can extend into Mind instead if you like to cast spells and spam weapon skills. The extra armor is quite nice for a Great Hammer’s relatively slow swings, so find a good middle ground for your own playstyle.
The only other stat worth discussing is our casting stat. 30 Faith is quite high for a Strength-focused build. But, since you hit the soft cap on Strength already, you can comfortably spread your wings and invest in Faith for buffs—healing over time, defensive spells, and even weapon enhancements.
Best shields and seals for a Great Stars build in Elden Ring
Your weapon of choice, the Great Stars, is more than enough to provide you a highly damaging Strength build with access to bleed. The rest of your gear includes a shield that buffs Stamina regeneration, seals that scale with Strength, and solid heavy armor.
Bear in mind that the Great Stars has moderate Strength and Dexterity scaling, so give it the Heavy Affinity and Royal Knight’s Resolve Art of War. It deals massive damage with single hits, so Royal Knight’s Resolve helps you make the most of them. Theoretically, you could make use of the Great Stars’s Bleed with a Bleed Affinity, but there are much better weapons for that infusion.
As for your sidearms, the Great Turtle Shell is far from the strongest shield for defense in Elden Ring. But, it provides bonus Stamina regeneration, which is perfect for you. Your seal of choice is the Clawmark Seal, thanks to its slight Strength scaling. It also buffs Bestial Incantations like Bestial Sling, so you have some solid ranged options with your gigantic mace.
Best armor for a Great Stars build in Elden Ring
As for armor, there isn’t much that helps out your Great Stars build. Heavier armor, like Blaidd’s Set, fits the aesthetic of your giant rusty mace while providing fine defenses to help you live through hits. If you want a tiny bit of Faith or Strength, replacing your helmet with an Imp helmet of choice can be a fine replacement for generic heavy armor helms. If the enemies you’re fighting are weak to Bleed, you can instead use the White Mask for a small damage buff.
Best spells for a Great Stars build in Elden Ring
With a small amount of Faith, your best Incantations are buffs, including a Weapon buff you can apply consistently. These include Bestial Vitality, Bloodflame Blade, and Flame, Grant me Strength. You can also equip some of Gurranq’s Bestial Incantations to get ranged attacks in keeping with your theme, like Stone of Gurranq.
In terms of must-have spells, make sure you have a body buff and weapon buff. These are two buff categories that stack with one another. Our favorites are Flame, Grant me Strength for raw damage and Bloodflame Blade for extra bleed. However, for specific bosses, getting a wide array of body buffs is a great idea.
Aggressive incantations are less important, since this build never gets high incant scaling—unless you invest hard into Faith in the later levels. Bestial Sling is a great way to quickly stagger enemies in a build full of slow attacks, and Stone of Guranq is a very slow but strong ranged option for this build type.
Best Talismans for a Great Stars build in Elden Ring
Talismans for the Great Stars build are quite varied, with a few options for offense, defense, and utility. You want to focus on powerful generic damage boosters with one or two defensive options most of the time. Specific boss fights might have you change out a Talisman or two.
- Erdtree’s Favor +2: A small, all-around boost to Health, Stamina, and Weight Limit. The extra weight is especially helpful if you want to carry multiple off-hand weapons. You need to clear the Ashen Capital to get this Talisman, though.
- Dragoncrest Greatshield Talisman: 20 percent physical damage reduction is fantastic, even with all our armor. You get this at the bottom of the Haligtree.
- Claw Talisman: This early-game Talisman from the rooves of Stormveil Castle provides a 15 percent bonus to jump attacks. Combine this with Royal Knight’s Resolve and you’ll be bonking like a champion.
- Ritual Sword Talisman: This Talisman offers a 10 percent damage boost to general attacks, but only while at full health. Considering you can regenerate health with Bestial Vitality, this isn’t difficult to keep active at all times.
The following Talisman usually replaces the Ritual Sword Talisman during specific, bleed-weak boss fights—like the Fire Giant.
- Lord of Blood’s Exultation: Alongside the White Mask, if the boss you’re fighting is weak to Bleed, you can get some serious physical damage out of this trinket. Get it from the Subterranean Shunning Grounds. Just make sure you also use Bloodflame Blade if you’re using this Talisman.
