Bandit is a starting Class in Elden Ring. The Bandit has High Arcane and Dexterity. It starts the game level 5, with a dagger, parrying shield, bow and arrows. The Classes only determine the starting Stats and Equipment of the player, but as the game progresses, players can freely change their build to their preferred playstyle. There are 10 Classes in Elden Ring that the player can begin the game with.
A dangerous bandit who strikes for weak points. Excels at ranged combat with bows
Bandit Starting Equipment for Elden Ring
This class starts with the following equipment:
Armor:
Starting items for Bandit in Elden Ring
This class starts with the following items:
- Memory of Grace
- Player choice of Keepsake
Bandit Builds in Elden Ring
Elden Ring Bandit Notes & Tips
- This class' stats are optimized for:
- Comes equipped with a Buckler shield. Due to its unique skill, Buckler Parry, players who pick Bandit will immediately have one of the best parry tools once they start playing.
- Recommended only for veteran players, as the Bandit starts off squishy and their equipment is not well-suited for head-on, aggressive combat.
Anonymous
- Anonymous
Start as Bandit, get Reduvia as soon as you're in Limgrave, and put on a movie since you'll be coasting through the rest of the game.
- Anonymous
If you are running bandit I recommend picking up the whip at castle morne, hits with hardness of 4 and deals strike damage, good to mix with other dex weapons and is available as soon as you start the game
- Anonymous
4 stat points and you can wield Bloody Helice with soreseal, neat
The optimal class if you plan on meeting the minimum requirements of the Uchigatana and Wakizashi for a Light Rolling Arcane build. Parry on the Waki, Bloody Slash on the Uchi, make them both Occult, and put on some classic Elden Bling like the Ronin's Armor and the Traveler's Slops. Unironically, I consider the Bandit to be the perfect class if you want to create a Ronin, unlike the Samurai which has 1 too many points in Strength, which results in you needing to sacrifice 1 point from Endurance, which isn't a good idea for a build that wants to Light Roll. This is the true niche of the Bandit class.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
Hero may have been the class I journeyed across the Lands Between with and slayed demigods with, but the Bandit will always have the most cherished place in my heart because it was literally my introduction into modern AAA quality games. Remembering those first magical moments in this amazing open world always brings a huge smile. I love this game. — The Fist of Fury
- Anonymous
normally i don't do revised deep lore comments but this one's a quick rewrite regardless (astrologer yet again gets shafted too btw): the high level of arcane compounded with the requirements of 2 certain weapons of the [minimal amount of arcane weapons] category also leads me to believe that the bandit's origin lies in the kingdom of eochaid, which would be an apparent reference to forossa from ds2 (long forgotten/fallen kingdom only mentioned in game, citizens turn to banditry to survive, only characters directly related to it are huge red-clad sword users but only one of them is a good guy)
- Anonymous
deep lore comment part 2: no real world inspirations/influences or berserk references i could find surprisingly, this left me with just looking at the starting gears description compared to others and without much effort i can say that this classes origin is that they're a ravenmount assassin in training or even being sent away by them on a form of asceticism to prove their worth (the assassin's claws are only good for looking moderately cool and bleeding which the high base arcane does nothing but benefit for this class), that's pretty much it cause this class doesn't really have much else going on
see you
- Anonymous
i didnt even know it was a class made for advanced players, i just picked it because it looks cool. and this is the first souls game i fully completed and it was quite the challenge. needless to say, if you want a good start for high dex (farming stuff and building up bleed very quick) choose this and immedietly go for reduvia
- Anonymous
Started out with this class without realizing it was for vets. It's actually a lot of fun and yes very challenging bc you're highly focused on dodging but my stamina is practically untouchable even at only 19 endurance!!! Using various buffs is very important. I'm running as dex and faith actually and it's amazing. One regular holy pot does over 1500 damage at level 128. I've also noticed at higher levels I'm extremely stealthy without even trying. Lower level groups don't even notice me one-shotting their comrades with lightning bolts from 20 feet away. It's hilarious. I haven't beaten the game yet because this build is still limiting but that's led to more adventure and discovery. Beaten almost every single lower boss and great enemy, finished every dungeon, and collected almost every single valuable item.
- Anonymous
It sucks that you'll never be able to make a proper rogue/thief in any traditional Souls title, on account of them being so focused on direct combat and having bare-bones stealth mechanics. Oh well, From did make an entire game where you play as a shinobi and hunters in Bloodborne were originally also covert in the lore.
- Anonymous
Could someone revert the recent optimization note? It's way more narrow/less useful than the previous entry...and not at all accurate for the strength, 10 isn't the cutoff.
- Anonymous
The most flexible choice if you can't decide between arcane/fth or arcane/int or just want the option to respec to the other later since we don't know what the DLC will have.
- Anonymous
The lower strength is super optimized if you're willing to use the Radagon seals - +3 for the Scar Seal gets you access to to the popular 12 strength weapons you may want as an Arcane build (both Ripples, Reglia, Elenora) and the +5 gets you just enough for Morgott's one-handed.
- Anonymous
Choose this as my starting class (very recently got the game) I like it a lot, even though sure, other classes may outwardly seem better this class has its own perks; like if you are a big fan of using bows it’s perfect. So ignore the people who tell you the class sucks, it’s about your own experience and it’s your choice how you want to play. We who choose bandit, we choose to play the fun way- our way. Those are the true gamers.
- Anonymous
tried this class again after thinking it sucked on my first playthrough, and actually it's pretty good (especially with the recent dagger buff in 1.08). I have poison moth flight on my great knife and use the shortbow for range, the buckler can parry very good, so I've got pretty much everything covered with the starting equipment and dex/arc.
might not be the most effective but I'm having fun so who cares
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
"How to make a whole starting class and build worthless with an huge overall status effects nerf"
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
Ignoring daggers/claws/fists, here are some min/max (base str/faith) Bandit melee things with acceptable range:
2H Eleonara’s Poleblade (phys/fire)
2H Regalia of Eochaid (phys/magic)
2H Antspur Rapier
2H Ripple Crescent Halberd (with grease)
2H RoB
Powerstanced Thorned Whip (strike damage type).
Powerstanced Shotel and/or Scavenger’s Curved Sword.
Spectral Lance on 2H Celebrants Rib Rake.
Faith-knot Crystal Tear grants access to incantations: lightning spear, Flame Grant Me Strength, fire breath, rot breath, etc.
Essentially there are a lot of situational things in your toolbelt, which is thematically fitting IMO.
These options also have low weight, so you can even reach for the recently-buffed “light roll”, which feels amazing both defensively and offensively.
This is better than samurai for Dex/Arc builds that have low strength so it's ideal for daggers, whips, claws, and certain curved swords. When you hit 12 strength or more, you would tie with the samurai for best builds.
- Anonymous
Also the best class for the bleed whips (uncluiding Blood Urumi) no matter if you wanna go mostly dex or full arcane.
- Anonymous
Best starter for an arcane build which is incredibly fun if you DONT katana spam
- Anonymous
Honestly I don't understand why people insist so much on talking about Hero here.
If you're looking at this class it's because you want as little strength as possible because fast attack weapons that scale well with dexterity and arcane use a maximum of 9 to 10 strength.
Even weapons like Rivers of Blood and Eleonora's Poleblade can be used as long as they are held with both hands...
- Anonymous
Hero should be the better choice in the long run for bleed builds but I value role-play above all.
If anyone wants to start an arcane build slot and have a good build at 125; unless you ONLY want to use low str weapons like daggers, Hero is a better class in most cases.
Hero starts with 16 str which is required for weapons like cross-naginata, bloody helice and 14 for morgott's cgs.
In a Dex/Arcane build you are going to need a bit of strength and Bandit doesn't really have an advantage over hero in that regard.
Also hero is a much more versatile class, having the best point allocation for PURE strength build, Strength/Arcane or Strength/Faith builds.
- Anonymous
Regalia of Eochaid is a realy good weapon of choice 2 handed you dont even need to lvl str.
- Anonymous
For players running a low str dagger playthrough, i recommend leveling a warpick sub weapon for strike damage. Easy to pick up in the early game and would help with stone foes.
- Anonymous
1 - Start with the best shield for parry
2 - Start with the best dexterity scaling dagger in the game (if you're not going to invest in strength)
3 - Start with the best short bow in the game (if you're not going to invest in strength)
Translating if you are going to embrace this class focused on dexterity and arcane here is my tip
Take the Reduvia dagger (right hand) and use it in conjunction with your starting dagger (left hand) for quick bleeding.
Take the Ash of War: Poisonous Mist and put it on your starting dagger to poison your enemies and for the arcane status to affect it
Pick up Serpent Bow to hit enemies from great distances and poison them with 2 Mighty Shot with poison arrows
Use your short bow to fight enemies that move a lot (ex: Night's Cavalry)
Remember that the crafty is your best friend and buy items from the merchants when necessary (common arrows, throwing daggers, etc.)
- Anonymous
Arccane actually helps you survive holy damage, not just for loot discovery increase. This class is good for agile and evasive fast attack playstyle.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
A great start for critical hit oriented builds or those who like running out in a good looking shirt and pants with [insert stabbing instrument of choice here] in hand. Also it starts with the best parry shield ever.
- Anonymous
If you know what build you're doing or what weapons/spells you're aiming to use, just Google a class optimizer. The RPG aspects are interesting enough but arbitrarily comparing base stats or painting in broad strokes like "for [singular stat] builds, ..." doesn't accomplish much in a game of this scope
- Anonymous
Samurai is a better bandit in every way, >>unless<< you don't plan to level dex, they have the same attributes in casting (9-8) and samurai can level up arcane to fill the gap + dual uchigatana...But i love bandit. If you plan to build for bleed build you can also consider Prophet (for two incantations related to bleed needed 14 faith) who is really srongh with 7 int, the trade off is confessor with 9h and 14 faith, up to you if you think you'll need more int or faith.
- Anonymous
You don't even need heavy armors, just use bloodhound step + 2 claws or 2 daggers, then side step enemies like NBA.
So far my favorite classes are single wield Samurai, longsword Vagabond, spam Astrologer, and elusive Bandit.
- Anonymous
Does start with buckler and a quickstep weapon, so if you want to try to Parry everything like this is bloodborne this is probably for you
- Anonymous
Not a great starting class, all things considered. Very mediocre gear and well... there's not all that much use for Arcane early on. Sure, there's some spells and and exactly one sacred seal and staff each that require and scale with Arcane, but most of that stuff isn't accessible early and even if it were, you also got INT and Faith requirements to worry about which the bandit doesn't meet. I'd probably just go Prophet instead. Catching up on Arcane is gonna be easy enough and getting a seal and high faith is gonna be more useful early on.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
Will make this as my second character, first has to be a mage. I did enjoy playing as a stealth archer in Skyrim.
- Anonymous
Looking to respec, I focused too much on strength not understanding this character at first, but now I really like a Rid**** build I have in mind...
Hero is probably a bit better min max wise for an arcane build. Depending on your strength and mind needs, you could be saving 4 points. I kind of regret going with bandit, but it's too early for me to know for sure if those points won't be utilized with bandit or waisted if I went with hero. Something to consider.
- Anonymous
Only true gamers play the class with a focus on the stat that other chumps consider a dump stat for their first blind playthrough
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
Bandit dex/arcane build will be my first playthrough, can't wait! It's gonna be interesting making this build as we don't know everything about arcane yet. I hope that it will affect bleed/poison/occult.
- Anonymous
It will be funny to laugh at those who say that arcane and garbage...
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
Seems very similar to the Thief class from Dark Souls. Starts with dagger & buckler, and the Arcane stat boosts item discovery.
- Anonymous
Most goated class ever. Exp required
0
+10
-1