Life Lessons: Become a Sanguine Slasher With Our Backhand Blade Bleed Build in Shadow of the Erdtree
For those of you who prefer to get up close and personal with their enemies in Elden Ring, the new Backhand Blades pack some serious power if you play them right.
Elden Ring continues its run with the new Shadow of the Erdtree expansion. The Land of Shadow holds new secrets, weapons, armor, enemies, bosses, and quests to keep your Tarnished occupied. The DLC’s new enemies hit hard and fast, making it necessary to make the most out of your stats and the newly introduced leveling system to stay on top of their threats.
With eight new weapon types introduced in the DLC, your Tarnished is presented with a lot of options to fine-tune their approach to the new world they find themselves in. FromSoftware deftly places many of these weapons in your path early on, allowing you to test them out and create a new build that adds layers to your combat abilities, equipping your character to deal with the latest horrors that Hidetaka Miyazaki puts in your path.
Bleed Your Enemies Dry With the Backhand Blades
Among the new weapon types for your Tarnished to wield are the Backhand Blades, a pair of Reverse-handed Swords that combine swift slashes with great mobility in the form of their Blind Spot Ash of War. These new swords can be obtained within the first five minutes of your time in the Land of Shadow and can potentially stay in your main hand till you roll the credits on it!
With their rapid flurries of slashes and excellent running and crouching attacks, the Backhand Blades showcase the best of what Reverse-handed Swords can do in Shadow of the Erdtree. And with a few modifications and clever stat allotments, your Tarnished can become a whirlwind of attacks and dodges that can bring down even the most dangerous enemies in the Land of Shadow with relative ease.
Life Lessons: Become a Sanguine Slasher With Our Backhand Blade Bleed Build in Shadow of the Erdtree
One of the best advantages of this build is that you can get your hands on the Backhand Blades right from the start of the DLC. They are located to the northeast of the Graveyard Plains Site of Grace that you begin the DLC with (the exact location is shown above). With them in hand, it’s time to put this build together.
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Begin by upgrading the Backhand Blades as much as you can at the Roundtable Hold. If you managed to get your hands on all of the Smithing Stone Miner’s Bell Bearings, you can buy all the materials you need from the Twin Maiden Husks. Enemies in Shadow of the Erdtree can take a lot of damage and deal out a lot more, and you will want to have your weapons at their full potential before taking them on.
Next, it’s time to allocate your stat points. If you have been playing a Dexterity or Arcane build, you should have all you need to get started. We highly recommend investing in Vigor, Mind, Dexterity, and Arcane to get this build going. You should look at having at least 50 Vigor in order to trade damage while taking Dexterity to 60 and Arcane to 40 in order to capitalize on Bleed buildup and physical damage.
Put any other points you can spare into Endurance and Mind. You may need to visit Renalla in Liurna with a Larval Tear at hand to respec your character.
Your Ash of War for this build should be the Bloodhound Step with the Blood affinity on your weapon. We highly recommend this option as it allows you to weave in and out of combat while you hack and slash away at enemies, creating the space you need to heal or recharge your FP when you need to.
Furthermore, you can slap on your strongest armor without having to worry about your equip load as you essentially remove the need to dodge-roll in combat, leaving you free to invest your stat points into maximizing your damage.
The three Talismans you will need to make this build work are as follows:
- Lord of Blood’s Exaltation: Found in the Leyndell Catacombs in the Lands Between, this gives you a damage buff every time you inflict the Bleed status on an enemy.
- Rotten Winged Sword Insignia/Millicent’s Prosthesis: Either one grants a damage buff when you land attacks in quick succession, a given with these fast swords.
- Crusade Insignia: Grants a damage buff for every kill you can manage in combat.
Our recommendations for your fourth Talisman slot would be the Dragoncrest Greatshield Talisman to boost your defense or the Green Turtle Talisman to improve your Stamina regen, allowing you to stay mobile while in combat. Additionally, you can swap out the Crusade Insignia for elemental defense during boss fights, a good choice against bosses like the Divine Beast Dancing Lion.
Playing this build involves getting in a few hits with a running R1 attack and a few slashes to get the damage buff from your Talismans, inflicting bleed on enemies to stack the damage buff from the Lord of Blood’s Exaltation. Use the Bloodhound Step in place of your regular dodge to avoid enemy attacks as well as get back in attacking range against enemies that like to create distance. You will need to forego a Shield for this build, as the Backhand Swords work best when they are used in two-handed mode.
Try to further increase Dexterity to 80 and Arcane to 60 as you level up, optionally adding in the White Mask to further improve your damage buff every time you inflict Bleed on your enemies. You can get the White Mask in the blood lake at Moghwyn’s Palace by defeating two invaders that spawn there.
It’s time to take your new build out into the field and take on the best of what Elden Ring and Shadow of the Erdtree have to offer.
