Elden Ring Endgame Preparation Guide: Soft Caps and More!

It's been almost a month since the release of Elden Ring, and it's plainly obvious by now that we're looking at one of the best games of 2022, and probably the decade as well. FromSoftware has outdone itself, and though certain aspects of Elden Ring endgame remain elusive and obtuse, it's a wonderful sandbox to spend time in.

Getting ready for the final frontier of Elden Ring, however, is no mean feat. While we could simply throw all the numbers at you, they won't mean much without proper context. Further still, knowing just what it is you need to do with specific stats and boosts is absolutely crucial in this game.

So, ideally, you will have already gone through our previous starter guides for Elden Ring:

When you've got all of that sorted out, you'll still have about 30-40 hours at least before the game's endgame difficulty wall hits you. Believe us when we say that you'll know it when you see it. To that end, it pays to be prepared, and coincidentally, preparation tips are precisely what we've got for you today.

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What is Elden Ring Endgame?

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While it's a pretty popular term by now, 'endgame' refers either to the final section of a given game or to its post-campaign content. Either way, it's the single most difficult stretch of gameplay available, and it's usually pretty challenging to get through.

The general consensus about Elden Ring's endgame, specifically, is that it needs a bit of tuning for sure. It's incredibly difficult and, though it is rewarding in its own right, this particular part of Elden Ring's progression isn't for the faint of heart. You're going to want to pull out all the stops and put on your hardcore pants for sure, is what we're getting at.

When does the Endgame begin?

It's important to note that, in Elden Ring, there's no hard line where the regular game ends and the endgame begins. According to the community, however, Elden Ring's difficulty curve turns sharply upwards after the Royal Capital. 

The Royal Capital - Leyndell - is a core Legacy Dungeon that will definitely test your character every step of the way. Just be aware that the game doesn't really let up after that, and if you're having a ridiculously difficult time playing this Legacy Dungeon, it may be wise to take a step back and rethink your approach.

How to prepare for the Endgame?

Well, that's the million-dollar question, isn't it? Thankfully, our guide consists of basically 0 spoilers and should help you get acquainted with some of the more obtuse info-bytes that are crucial for a successful and thorough completion of Elden Ring.

Getting Ready for Elden Ring Endgame

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As should be plainly obvious by now, getting ready for Elden Ring's comprehensive endgame section isn't a magical, mysterious process that leaves you empowered through some game-breaking means. Instead, it consists of grinding, proper stat allocation, gear hunting, and meticulous preparation for each of the game's final few fights. And ho boy are those a doozy if you're not min-maxing properly.

Naturally, there's no outright way to play Elden Ring the wrong way. If you get to the endgame while using just one-half of a broken-down Steam Controller with a shoddy 2005-era Bluetooth connection - more power to you. For the rest of us regular mortals, we're going to want to choose our gear and build our character sheets a tad more carefully.

Stat Soft Caps

Here's the first complication you'll need to be mindful of: it does not pay off to keep investing in just one stat over and over again. There are soft caps put into place, and there's virtually no point in going over those. Hard caps are 99 across the board, but each skill also has specific breakage points that result in diminishing returns should you keep putting points into it.

Elden Ring Stat Soft Caps

We've specified all of that in this section, and be sure to keep this information in mind! The stat information is made available thanks to Twitch streamer getcheddar, so be sure to look him up if you want access to more granular Elden Ring endgame information.

Rune Farming in Elden Ring

Now, while some will claim that farming runes in Elden Ring is basically synonymous with cheating, we don't subscribe to that idea. It's a simple statement of fact that over-leveling won't help you with every single fight in the game. And, besides, if you want to make things easier on yourself, why on earth would you not?

So, our favorite Elden Ring Rune farming setup is the Mohgwyn Palace location. Whether you reach that place via the mysterious teleporter, just west of the Inner Consecrated Snowfield site of grace, or if you locate it manually, it's important that you have access to the Palace Approach Ledge - Road site of grace.

When that is secured, just make sure that you have the Gold Scarab talisman from the Caelid's Abandoned Cave. This will substantially increase your Rune gains across the board, and it stacks with Gold-Pickled Fowl Feet!

Equip it, load into the designated site of grace, and then just pick off enemies one by one. Optimally, you may wish to have a powerful AoE spell to one-shot them all. Either way, the end result is that you'll have roughly 40,000 Runes every time you clear out the area. Not bad, eh?

Example Builds for Elden Ring's Most Difficult Content

Now that we've cleared up all the key prep work ahead of entering Elden Ring's final stages, it's time to talk builds. For this, we've looked at what our friends over at PC Gamer have done with their impeccable Elden Ring build guide, and chose to feature three of the classes that we believe will serve you best.

To that end, below you'll find a melee, a caster, and a ranged class example. Whether you use these to prop up your own custom character build or copy them over as-is, they ought to help you get through some of the hardest content FromSoftware has ever produced. And, hell, that's got to count for something, right?

Carian Battlemage (Prisoner)

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Starting off with the Prisoner character, this multi-purpose caster will allow you to wield phenomenal DEX-scaling weaponry and a variety of potent long-range spells. The class is an endgame powerhouse in most respects, and should prove incredibly flexible in almost every situation. Just... don't get hit too often, perhaps.

Berserk-er (Hero)

An obviously inspired warrior build, this character will punish enemies for even thinking about coming close to you. It's a versatile and forgiving fighter class that doesn't fiddle about with complex spells and miracles. Instead, it's just you, your armor, and your slab of brutal, (slightly) sharpened metal. What's not to like?

Ancestral Hunter (Bandit)

As for our ranger of choice, this build will offer one of the most capable ranged combatants you could come up with. The goal is, basically, to turn your character into a proper ranged multitool that switches from one niche to another simply by equipping a different bow. For CQB - because you know it's going to happen - the Spear and/or Pike should prove handy in keeping enemies at bay long enough to turn them into pin-cushions.

Closing Thoughts

And that about does it! We tried to provide you with as comprehensive a loot at Elden Ring endgame in general as we could. Though this does mean that we couldn't go into too much detail in the end, we believe you should be armed with plenty of useful knowledge about the game's systems by now. Sean Martin's Elden Ring character builds sure did come in handy - be sure to check those out, too!

Now, we do have a few more recommendations before you plunge headfirst into The Lands Between. Here's some more light reading you may wish to consider:

All of the above will provide you with ample context needed to understand the inner workings of Elden Ring. And without undue spoilers, mind. We've kept those at an absolute minimum because we know that exploration and lore are two key driving forces behind players' engagement with Elden Ring.

Trust us - this is the kind of game you want to experience at your own pace. The guides available via 2Game will help you do precisely just that. Have fun!

Play Elden Ring on PC today!

It’s been almost a month since the release of Elden Ring, and it’s plainly obvious by now that we’re looking at one of the best games of 2022, and probably the decade as well. FromSoftware has outdone itself, and though certain aspects of Elden Ring endgame remain elusive and obtuse, it’s a wonderful sandbox to spend […]