Best Guard Counter build in Elden Ring

The Guard Counter mechanic is a Soulsbourne mechanic unique to Elden Ring. While many of the community consider it to be a bit too slow, there is an opportunity to build around it. Let’s block some hits, shall we?

Best stats for a Guard Counter build in Elden Ring

Focusing on Guard Counters in Elden Ring requires investment into Stamina. Guard Counters eat through Stamina like no business, so Endurance is a big priority. Since you also want to deal damage, focusing on a single type of physical damage scaling and Endurance is a great way to guarantee high returns. As a result, you should start as a Samurai. The following stats are for a level 150 build.

• Vigor: 60
• Mind: 11
• Endurance: 45
• Strength: 60
• Dexterity: 15
• Intelligence: Nine
• Faith: 21
• Arcane: Eight

One of the biggest benefits of Guard Counter is using heavier weapons. Guard Counter speeds these weapons’ animations up significantly, making it much more likely you land a blow with them during combat. You also want to make each Guard Counter matter so heavier options can work in your favor. A Strength score of 60 to brush up against the soft cap is perfect for that. In addition, 45 Endurance gives you loads of Stamina and Equip Load to boot. Since you will block some hits and might take hits during the Guard Counter animation, 60 Vigor is worth your while. The 15 Dexterity is nice for weapon requirements, like some of the longer-ranged Halberds and Spears.

Perhaps the weirdest aspect of the build is the 21 Faith. Having a touch of Faith is needed for specific aspects of the build, specifically for buffing pre-combat. While consumables can compensate for this slightly, having spells in your back pocket is quite nice.

Eventually, you might want a handful of Mind to let you use your weapon skill more often. Focus on that after you reach this stat threshold.

Best weapons for a Guard Counter build in Elden Ring

You are going to want Heavy Colossal weapons to make the best use of each Guard Counter. While most Colossal weapons serve a purpose for this build, we found the most success with a Giant-Crusher using Royal Knight’s Resolve. Royal Knight’s Resolve is a titanic boost to damage on each Guard Counter, making each deal absurd numbers to foes. However, other weapons like Halberds or Colossal Swords have better reach, making them slightly more consistent.

Other than the Heavy Giant Crusher, having solid weapons with range is a good idea. A Golden Halberd or Nightrider Glaive can be a consistent source of medium-range hits. As long as it deals enough damage on a single heavy attack, you can be sure it’ll hit hard on Guard Counter. Try to copy Royal Knight’s Resolve using Lost Ashes of War if you want a good toolkit of generic weapons.

You’ll also want the best shields and Seals for your build. You should use the Jellyfish Shield for its weapon skill. If you’re just slugging it out instead of guard countering, the 20 percent damage boost from Contagious Fury might make things a bit easier for you. Your Seal is the Clawmark Seal for its high Strength scaling.

Best armor for a Guard Counter build in Elden Ring

The heaviest armor in the game is available to you, so use it. Crucible Knight Armor provides excellent numeric defenses in all categories and is our choice of armor. However, you can replace the helmet with a Strength-increasing option—like the Fanged Imp Head—if you want to get a tiny bit more bang for your buck.

If you want to wear a Great Jar’s Arsenal, you can basically wear whatever you want, which means the Bull Goat armor is yours. Otherwise, you can still wear basically one step under that point without issue—most of the Crucible Knight armor and a few generic Knight armor pieces.

During fights where you aren’t going to guard counter safely, like against Malenia, you can run the Raptor’s Black Feathers to do some extra jump damage. Otherwise, buffing your Faith to acquire higher-level Incantations and buffs can be useful, and there are a myriad of helms to help you with that. The Haligtree Knight Helm is our favorite, boasting a plus-two to Faith while still having good stats.

Best spells for a Guard Counter build in Elden Ring

The Incantations you have access to at 21 Faith are very limited, but they are actually quite potent. Flame, Grant me Strength, Electrify Armament, and Bestial Vitality, to name a few, all work together to give you extra damage and survivability. Building out your arsenal further with the Fortification spells can make you more durable against specific bosses.

You can also run a handful of offensive spells to get the attention of enemies or deal with physically resistant foes. For example, Stone of Gurranq has a very low Faith requirement while keeping a good range and getting boosted by the Clawmark Seal.

Try to keep buffs on that constantly heal you to full. That’ll help with one of the most important Talismans for this build, the Ritual Sword Talisman.

Best Talismans for a Guard Counter build in Elden Ring

The Guard Counter build wants defense and generic damage, perhaps unsurprisingly for a weapon build. However, there is one Talisman that is unique to Guard Counters. And it’s quite powerful as a result.

• Curved Sword Talisman: The only reason this build actually exists. 20 percent Guard Counter damage is ridiculous, causing your hits to potentially deal thousands of damage. And you can get it very early in Stormveil Castle, meaning this build is theoretically online by the time you enter the game’s first dungeon.
• Ritual Sword Talisman: There aren’t too many generic damage options for weapons, so you’ll have to make do. The Ritual Sword Talisman gives you 10 percent damage as long as you’re at full health. This is a bit later than Curved Sword, but it’s on Altus Plateau, so early enough. Make sure you top off with healing spells or Tear flasks to make the best use of this.
• Erdtree’s Favor +2: This gives you everything you could ever ask for—Health, Stamina, and Equip Load. Unfortunately, this is an endgame item, so you’ll need to complete most of the game’s story to get it.
• Green Turtle Talisman: This little charm gives you heightened Stamina regeneration of around eight per second. Considering how much a Guard Counter build eats Stamina for breakfast, this is much appreciated. And you can get it even earlier than the Curved Sword Talisman, at Summonwater Village.