How to Play the Drifter in Elden Ring – Best Strategies and Weapons

The Vagabond class in Elden Ring is another tank/strength build that focuses on dealing heavy melee damage. The Drifter starts at level nine and has high Vitality, Strength, and Dexterity. Starting items include a longsword, halberd, and heating shield. There are two routes that are great for this class.

The first way you should take this course is to focus on your strength and endurance so you can land lots of hits and increase your gear load. This allows you to wear heavier armor and have more confidence. Greater balance means your attacks won’t be interrupted if enemies hit you over the head with a sword. Being constantly hit by enemies will drain your confidence and allow you to come under visceral attack. If you focus on your gear load and stamina, a big shield with 100% damage reduction while guarding will make you nearly unstoppable.

The other route you can take is to put a lot of your stats into strength and become a two-wielding beast. You still need to spend points on stamina to have a high gear load, or you can use the Great-Jars Arsenal talisman. Two-handed greatswords are the best option as they aren’t too heavy but still deal tremendous damage. Once you make it to the first stage, you can run to the Gatefront ruins, which you must pass to progress in the game, and grab the Lordsworn’s greatsword. Another early greatsword is the Claymore, which you can obtain in Castle Morne. All you have to do is walk past the mound of burning harpies and enter the first room on your right and open the chest there.

Dual wielding is great for jumping attacks as you can easily use both weapons. You must dodge right after the attack, as most bosses will counterattack quickly. Because of this, you should invest some points in Stamina, since Drifter is a very aggressive class. Dual weapon attacks cost a lot of stamina, so more stamina is never a bad thing.

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You can buy the Knight’s Set from the Twin Maiden Husks in the Roundtable Hold if you want to get better armor in the early game. Another great outfit is the Iron Set armor, which can be purchased from the Nomadic Merchant next to the Castle Morne Rampart Sit of Grace. You may want to swap out these sets for better armor later in the game once you’ve defeated some powerful bosses.

As mentioned before, you should get your Vitality, Strength and Stamina stats down, find a nice big gun or two, good armor with 100% damage reduction, and a powerful big shield if you want one. Your gear load needs to be increased no matter how you play this build, and you can do that by upgrading stamina or using talisman slots. However, their talisman slots are best used for other buffs.