Attributes Basics Guide

A guide about what attributes do in more detail and which ones are useful to your character.

Introduction

For the purpose of this guide, here is an explanation of the terms:

• Soft cap - It means that at this level, you begin to get less points for your levels.
  
• Hard cap - At this level it is virtually pointless to level the stat any more, since it will barely give any extra points.
  
• NG+ (New Game Plus) - The cycle of the game that begins after you beat the game the first time. The enemies are harder and harder each time you beat the game. You also get to choose a second magic branch (and in NG++ the final one).

Strength

Soft cap: 40
Hard cap: 50

Pros:
Ridiculously strong weapons
Tower shields

Cons:
Low magic power

Strongest weapon:
Peacemaker Greatsword

Strength affects damage done with heavy weapons such as Greataxes and Greatswords. These weapons are large and slow, but they can do some of the most damage in the game.

It also lets you use both normal and tower shields. However, this benefit is not incredibly handy, since the best way to get the most mileage out of your strength build is by two handing in combination with some high poise heavy armor.

If you decide to focus on this stat, you can safely avoid leveling up Agility.

Vitality

No cap

Vitality is a stat that is useful to all types of characters, and has the simple effect of raising HP. It's useful to have at least some Vitality but having too much of it is unnecessary since having a high attack stat to quickly kill enemies is more important.

Faith

Soft cap: 40
Hard cap: 50

Pros:
High magic power

Cons:
Comparatively weaker weapons

Strongest weapon:
Stare Hammer

Faith is an interesting attribute. The most important effect of raising Faith is to increase your magic power. Raising it to 12, then 18, and finally 21, allows you to allocate spell points into certain spells.

It may seem like it only affects your magic power, but it holds some secrets. It is in fact possible to beat the game without leveling Strength or Agility, due to the presence of Faith-based weapons. While not quite as high in sheer attack power as a Strength character, you will also be able to use devastating magic with your high faith stat.

One of the strongest Faith type weapons you can get early in the game is the Clawfinger, which can be gained by defeating the Worshiper. Make sure to have him kill 2 of his minions to get the legendary version. The Quamar staff, which is in the portal after the Commander, can tide you over until then. Another, more secretive path involves using the Shard of Heroes to make Commander break the hammer statue in his arena and getting the Cleric hammer. While it has less range than Clawfinger, it is faster and does significant damage.

It is also to your advantage to make heavy use of the Gauntlet while a cleric. Specifically, adding a strong Power rune to your Gauntlet can make it rather deadly and able to break through shields easily.

With a Faith character, you will mainly be locked to Hammer-type weapons, with the ultimate weapon for this class being the Stare hammer.

Endurance

No cap

Endurance is another all purpose stat and leveling some endurance will be useful to all characters. However, it is especially useful to Strength or Faith characters, since they are more likely to need heavy armor with high poise and defense, and these weapons use up more stamina to swing.

Agility

Soft cap: 40
Hard cap: 50

Pros:
Fast weapons
Bucklers

Cons:
Low magic power

Strongest weapon:
Ishaluk Staff

Agility, like Strength, is a straightforward stat that increases the power of fast weapons such as Daggers and Staves. If you choose to level Agility, there is no need to level Strength.

Agility also lets you use smaller Buckler-type shields. They let you parry, which is a good complement to fast weapons as they have a hard time simply busting through shields.

Generally, Staves can be some of the most powerful weapons for an agility focused character. They have a big hitbox and can stun enemies pretty well.

The Ishaluk Staff is the strongest weapon and it has 3 rune slots allowing it to inflict massive poison damage.

Luck

None necessary for NG
Recommended level for NG+: 30

The Luck stat is almost totally useless in your first playthrough. While a select few enemies may drop rare weapons, the vast majority of what is dropped by enemies are Small Runes. You will still get plenty of these in the game even when you have almost no luck. Since the weapons you can find scattered around are more than adequate to complete the game, the stat loss from luck isn't worth it. And you can still get rare weapons with 0 luck, as long as you have a bit of patience.

In NG+ and up though, Luck is essential. Having 30 luck will make you very likely to get an Attribute Shard out of many chests you have previously pillaged in your first playthrough. This will let you level up even when it soft caps at around 100. Therefore, it is recommended to utilize the stat reallocation ability of the Shard of Heroes when entering NG+ in order to boost Luck, then start plundering those chests.

[SundownKid]

No problem glad to help

[Wrongway]

Tyvm for this guide, affirms much of what I had expected. It is valuable info to me, not to waste agility as a means to compliment strength. This will save me uge.;p

[SundownKid]

It's another word for looting, it's to your advantage to get ALL the chests in your first playthrough and then once you redistribute to 25 luck, getting as many as you can in your 2nd and 3rd playthrough to get the attribute shards. By doing that you can be level 200+ by then when normally your level soft caps at somewhere around 100.

Another tip is that sometimes you will get a spell shard instead of an attribute shard. I don't know if the chance rises if you have, say, 30 luck instead of 25 luck, but if you save before hand, you can go back and you might get an attribute shard instead.

[nYu]

thx . whts mean *plundering *