If you are a first-time player of Elden Ring, many aspects of the game can be confusing. FromSoftware uses an atypical leveling system, relying on leveling stats instead. Unfortunately, every stat has a cap, beyond which leveling it becomes redundant.
What are stat caps in Elden Ring?
Leveling stats in Elden Ring will grant you benefits based on which stat you leveled up. Stat caps are levels beyond which raising that particular stat will provide reduced benefits. There are two types of stat caps: Soft caps and Hard caps. When you hit a soft cap, your gains per level will reduce. You will gain nothing by leveling up the stat when you hit a hard cap.
There are eight different stats and using Runes to increase them will also raise your character level by one. This is what each stat does when you level it up.
- Vigor: Increases your HP, Immunity, and Fire resistance.
- Mind: Increases your FP and Focus.
- Endurance: Increases your Stamina, Robustness, and Equip load.
- Strength: Increases the power of Strength-based weapons.
- Dexterity: Increases the power of Dexterity-based weapons.
- Intelligence: Increases the power of Intelligence-based weapons and Sorceries.
- Faith: Increases the power of Faith-based weapons and Incantations.
- Arcane: Increases the power of Arcane-based weapons and the chances of inflicting status effects. It also improves Item Discovery.
The next question is: how do I know what my stats’ caps are? This answer can be tricky since different stats have different soft caps and hard caps. Most stats generally hit their soft cap at 60 and hard cap at 99. But some stats have multiple soft caps that provide increasingly diminishing returns until they hit the hard cap.
Soft and hard caps for each stat in Elden Ring
Knowing your soft caps and hard caps is useful so that you don’t invest more points into stats than necessary, especially since the costs per level increase with each level. This information can be relevant if you are a returning player coming back to explore the Land of Shadows in Shadow of the Erdtree. Listed below are the soft caps and hard caps for each stat.
| Stat | Soft cap | Hard cap |
| Vigor | First cap: 40 Second cap: 60 |
99 |
| Mind | First cap: 50 Second cap: 60 |
99 |
| Endurance | First cap (Stamina): 30 First cap (Equip load): 25 Second cap (Stamina): 50 Second cap (Equip load): 60 |
99 |
| Strength | First cap: 50 Second cap: 60 Third cap: 80 |
99 |
| Dexterity | First cap: 50 Second cap: 60 Third cap: 80 |
99 |
| Intelligence | First cap: 50 Second cap: 80 |
99 |
| Faith | First cap: 50 Second cap: 80 |
99 |
| Arcane | First cap: 60 Second cap: 80 |
99 |
If you aren’t following a build guide, you might have leveled beyond certain soft caps. You can respec your stats to better suit the build you want to work towards. With so many new weapons and builds to choose from, feel free to experiment with every weapon and talisman you find interesting. Just remember to keep a few Larval Tears close at hand.
