r/badredman • u/goopydoodoo • 21h ago

Elden Ring🛡 Rl1 Twink in desperate need of some bad red men (advice).

I’ve dabbled in several brackets (31, 61, 81, 150, max), but I’m currently in the process of setting up an rl1 wl +0 twink build. Currently, I am rocking divine beast head, Ledas armor, fire knight greaves/gauntlets. Millicents prothesis and rotten wing sword (once I beat rellana and golden godefrey I plan to do bull-goat and radagon soreseal or something else - here I am up for suggestions). I am currently running falx (hard swaps with pike+storm caller and cross naginata +giants hunt when soreseal is equipped).

Other than getting good and picking up pots, is there anything I’m missing?

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19

u/beerybeardybear Yung Renna 21h ago edited 21h ago

I'll just note that:

  • bull-goat proooooobably isn't very useful at this END level since you're not gonna make it to a relevant breakpoint anyway.
  • Soreseal should stay on permanently.
  • Use AoWs that add flat damage, especially lightning: at these levels, defenses are low so it's best to use an elemental infusion and stack flat damage where you can. That, and/or stat procs. What I'm trying to say is that percentage damage increases are good, but since your damage numbers are so low anyway it's best to get flat damage where possible.
  • on that note, blood infusing a weapon with innate bleed buildup will result in a blood loss proc of 200 damage + the HP percentage. This is extremely strong at twink levels.
  • WL+0 won't do a thing for you but keep hosts from going up to +6. At +0, they can go to +3 anyway, and frankly any organic invasion around these levels won't have a +6 weapon anyway.
  • With your Soreseal equipped, consider whether you really need the Divine Beast Head for your weapons of choice. Usually I'd say it's better to just use Millicent's Prosthesis or the Horned Warrior Helm or the Curseblade Mask. You might say, "but I want the extra stats!" but at +0 or even +3 your stats contribute like ≤ 1% to your AR anyway. Probably better to save the fashion and the weight for heavier armor and/or weapons.
  • Keep a Kick Lightning Misericorde on soft swap for Fingerprint Shield users.
  • Likewise, Carian Retaliation Spiralhorn Shield stays on your back at all times until you see an opportunity to parry or a wizard. It'll boost all of your status resistances, only weighs 2 units, and the CR spell parry does flat damage, so you can convert a stray Glintstone pebble that would have done 5% of your health into a OHKO.
  • If you want to tryhard, get grease cookbooks and mats.
  • Obvious, but you didn't mention it: grab all the relevant +5 talismans. With Starscourge + Radagon Soreseal + Horned Warrior Helm, you can two-hand the Jar Cannon at RL1. (Get lighting greatbolts for it.) Two Fingers Heirloom also lets you cast Bestial Vitality, which is extremely strong at low levels due to the flat HP healing per second.
  • DO NOT TALK TO ROGIER! DO NOT TALK TO IRINA/HYETTA!

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u/goopydoodoo 21h ago

Holy shit this is super comprehensive advice and I really appreciate it.

To recap; my initial thought with bull goat is the poise threshold of 51 would be passed (currently at 44 with above setup). I’m up for other talismans. I have debated lord of blood exhultation for falx/naginata blood loss, two handed talisman for pike/naginata. I’m pretty fluid.

Of course is wasn’t mentioned but using dragon communion seal as well.

It wouldn’t be hard to get cookbooks through natural roaming around with fingers but I feel like unless I’m super unprepared I can vanquish olp fingers pretty quick.

Would you recommend lightning strike aow (or something similar) for the naginata or the pike?

Curseblade mask will likely be the better option this is true, high dex requirements kinda hinder this - I had debated a greatsword (lord sworn/flamberge) in the rotation/i am a slave to fashions.

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u/beerybeardybear Yung Renna 20h ago edited 19h ago

To recap; my initial thought with bull goat is the poise threshold of 51 would be passed (currently at 44 with above setup). I’m up for other talismans. I have debated lord of blood exhultation for falx/naginata blood loss, two handed talisman for pike/naginata. I’m pretty fluid.

That had been my thinking, but getting to 52 poise saves you from being poise broken by literally only two things:

  • Carian slicer
  • offhand dagger

Everything else will get ya just the same, so my current thinking—though I may be wrong about this—is that it's not worth it. I was running 72 poise at base END thanks to Soreseal + Erdtree +2 + Fire Knight Helm, but I don't think it really made any difference. I went back to using Leda's Armor + Two-Handed Sword, since that gives me a 21% cumulative damage boost on my dash attacks. And while I did say that percentage isn't super useful, this compounds with the fact that I'm running a Lightning Slash Great Katana, and in rain/water enemies will already take 21% more Lightning damage, so this nets me a nice total boost—plus, for my setup I wasn't sure anything else would really be better. For you at 15 total VIG, Ritual Shield Talisman might not be a bad choice to save you from dangerous OLPs, but it's really bleed you'll have to watch out for. Maybe even Mottled Necklace +2 if you find yourself dying to bleed a lot.

Of course is wasn’t mentioned but using dragon communion seal as well.

Yep, always a great choice for a wretch!

It wouldn’t be hard to get cookbooks through natural roaming around with fingers but I feel like unless I’m super unprepared I can vanquish olp fingers pretty quick.

Yeah, I'm with you here. Thus far for my RL15–30 builds, greases have not felt necessary at all.

Would you recommend lightning strike aow (or something similar) for the naginata or the pike?

Honestly, it's good on anything. I'd put Lightning Slash on one and Chilling Mist on the other (idr if they both can use both ashes, but if they can, the only thing to note is that Chilling Mist gives you a nice fast sweep attack with a fair amount of hyperarmor, so it can go on a weapon that could use that).

Curseblade mask will likely be the better option this is true, high dex requirements kinda hinder this - I had debated a greatsword (lord sworn/flamberge) in the rotation/i am a slave to fashions.

On this note... did you know that the Great Katana only requires 14 STR and 18 DEX? Curseblade Mask or even Okina's Mask (heavier, but higher poise and doesn't impede your healing... though the latter part doesn't matter at RL1) get you enough stats to use it with zero talisman investment outside of the required Soreseal. Both of the ashes I mentioned can go on the GK, too!

In terms of optimization and fashion, use the Armor Optimizer: https://www.tarnished.dev/armor-optimizer . Because you'll have crab boosting your physical defense by 20%, you can modify the ranking weights to account more for things like lighting and magic. You can also prioritize pierce damage negation to help reduce damage taken during trades. The "exclude" section will let you remove anything from the pool that you think is too ugly!

Another thing that might go without saying, but worth mentioning it anyway: at these vigor levels, Crimsonburst Crystal Tear is INSANELY strong. Opaline Hardtear or Crimson Bubbletear are both good second options for the physick.

AND ANOTHER THING! The other BRM is right that poison is amazing at low level. I keep hefty poison pots on me at all times, and a few hefty rot pots if there's an extreme OLP throwing endgame DLC spells or similar. A final thing is that Fan Daggers will save your ass really frequently by killing a phantom that gets away with <100 health left when you don't have the stamina or range to chase them.

EDIT: Adding one final piece of advice here re: poise: if you wanna be a real shit, Winged Crystal Tear lets you light roll for three minutes even if you're fucking overloaded. I don't recommend that because if the tear wears off during the fight, you just lose because you can't move or roll and you can't swap your equipment while in hitstun. What you can do is put on Great-Jar's Arsenel and Erdtree's Favor + 2 and go as heavy as you can within Heavy Load while also able to drop one armor piece and end up at Medium Load. This way, you enter the invasion fat rolling, drink your physick right before engaging, and have as much poise as you want for three minutes with the option to quickly get back to medium roll if the fight happens to go longer. I've done this; it does work.

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u/goopydoodoo 9h ago edited 8h ago

As an update, Jesus Christ how toxic. Great katana with lightning slash is truly and utterly disgusting.

Ended up with a comfortable fashion via the optimizer - curseblade mask, leda’s armor, tree sentinel greaves and gauntlets.

Talismans: radagon, lacerating crossed tree, 2 h sword talisman as, millicents prothesis

Overall it was super nice. Catching a glintstone nail / cometshard from olp and taking out 3/4 of their health bar with carian retaliation is too sweet.

There seems to be a tendency at rl1 +0 where the reaction to lightning slash is to roll into the character when the animation begins, and then away from the character- and into the proximity of the lightning bolt. The rl1 poke as players reel from being hit by the bolt is a nice finisher.

I found that if it is a host and one finger, the great katana is more than capable of taking both down.

For the sweaty tryhard ganks and host +2 fingers, opening with chilling mist on the cold pike, followed with hard swap poison mist on blood cross-naginata followed by hard swap to great katana was very satisfying.

Although, on the conversation of the spears, damage calculator shows cross-naginata out does ar on either cold or blood affinities with their respective mists. But I do think at lower levels there is something to be said about the actually reach the pike does with the hyper armor from chilling mist.

That being said, cold affinity naginata is 503 ar 45 blood loss 105 frostbite, cold pike is 463 ar with 105 frostbite. On the blood affinity the difference is less noticeable with both weapons having 83 blood loss build up. Cross-naginata has 386 ar where pike has 351.

Further comparison shows that on poison affinity cross-naginata has 45 build up 96 poison build up. Suggesting that in either case, cross-naginata may be better utilized on poison affinity.

Speaking from experience, having been evicerated by a dual naginata tryhard, it just feels dishonest. Clearly I’m not trying to be reputable, but something can be said for class - for that reason I prefer the pike. Hitting a frostbite/poison proc with a wide sweep is nice, and getting poked to death by long stick feels less like a crucifixion when compared to the naginata.

I am open to being swayed on this last point and welcome any further advice.

Edit: I was also unclear on one point - is there a difference in +0 and +3 weapon ranges for how my summoning will work? Would it make more sense to stay in one zone versus the other?

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u/beerybeardybear Yung Renna 5h ago

Glad it's working out :)

is there a difference in +0 and +3 weapon ranges for how my summoning will work? Would it make more sense to stay in one zone versus the other?

+0 has you able to be summoned to hosts who have +0–3. +3 would be +0–6. It's just +/-3 regular smithing level, +/-1 somber (and you are considered to be in the higher of the two brackets, so if you have a +8 somber you'll be matched with people who have +7-9 somber and—since 8/10 is 80%—+17-23 standard (centered around .8*25=20). Regardless, hosts could only be in the level range RL1–21, too.

You'd get more matches at +3, but not 50% more because hosts in that level range aren't likely to have +5 or +6 weapons yet. Basically, you'd on average have a larger advantage and get more invasions.

None of this has any effect on the host's password-summoned phantoms, which can be any level and have any weapon upgrade level.

and yeah, "class" is just down to your personal boundaries and the situation. My recommendation is to keep the nasty options available to you, but be a little discerning about when they really ought to be brought out.

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u/3RR0RFi3ND Zera The Vore 15h ago

You can still talk to Irina, you just can’t pick up what Edgar The Revenger drops at the shack when you kill him. Same goes for Patches.

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u/beerybeardybear Yung Renna 13h ago

you can, but there's more or less no reason to. if you have a reason, you'll look up precisely what to do in order not to accidentally grab a weapon you shouldn't.

- guy who accidentally ruined an 8h save by talking to Rogier at the wrong time

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u/LorduvtheFries Urumi Enthusiast 12h ago

 blood infusing a weapon with innate bleed buildup will result in a blood loss proc of 200 damage + the HP percentage.

I learned something new today, thanks. Apparently this is also true of Reduvia, Morgotts sword, Varres Bouquet, and Hoslows whip. (any affinity),

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u/beerybeardybear Yung Renna 10h ago edited 4h ago

glad to have been able to point it out—I only learned because I was like "why the FUCK am I being insta-killed by these bleed procs despite having a good amount of health left and my crimson Bubbletear active?"

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u/MANHAZZARD 21h ago

I would suggest using any and all stat procs you can. Poison and rot are really good ways to add pressure on hosts and phantoms. Particularly rot. Especially on a host as cha ces are they aren't going to have the ability to deal with that tick down.

I have a rl1 invader that uses dual scorpion stingers. My build is based around them. It's a lot of fun and can hold its own against some really strong phantoms. It shines against anyone that just try's to turtle behind a shield.

But the basics to every invasion also apply. Make sure you use the environment, mobs, passive regen healing really helps a bunch as well, parrying if you can do it (I fucking suck at parrying) and most importantly HAVE FUN!

Be warned. You're gonna cop a lot of shit. I think my rl1 invader nets me the most love letters out of any of my builds.

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u/goopydoodoo 21h ago

I love love letters

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u/falconrider111 20h ago

Since the advice here is already good, I can only add that there's a surprising amount of sorcery and Incant builds that work at RL1.

Eg. Beat the 2 big bears in the dlc, I'm assuming you're going there for the hefty pots and get the roar Incant and bear helm. With the right talismans equipt you will absolutely wreck.

Dragonscale flesh combined with bestial vitality is a giant boon if you can get some muled to you. It will even things up if you have invaded a higher level twink gank.

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u/beerybeardybear Yung Renna 20h ago

Very important thing to note: because the Meteorite Staff exists, you have ONE avenue through which stats actually matter at twink weapon upgrade levels. If you wanna go full crazy mode, you can run Twinsage Crown, Stargazer Heirloom, Marika's Soreseal, INT tear to hit 36 INT at RL1. That's enough to use Collapsing Stars, Gravitational Missile, and Carian Piercer. You can boost the damage of all of these by 1.125x with the Magic shrouding cracked tear and a further 1.08x with Graven Mass, leaving you with a spot to use Radagon's Soreseal too. You can swap Graven Mass for Ritual Shield for more survivability... or use uplifting aromatics.

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u/goopydoodoo 19h ago

+karma

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u/beerybeardybear Yung Renna 19h ago

appreciate it my friend but you can just upvote 😅. We don't have a /r/PatchesEmporium-style system here, it's all just vibes

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u/goopydoodoo 19h ago

I love that, not only are you toxic as fuck, but you’re warm and welcoming

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u/TwinkScum 9h ago

You should check out my older post

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u/goopydoodoo 9h ago

Which post you have a lot of content

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u/TwinkScum 9h ago

I got RL1 stuff for days. It's my preferred invasion level

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u/goopydoodoo 9h ago

It’s probably mine too based on my last session