Elden Ring Incantations Guide: All Incantations Explained

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Cody has been in the video game business as part of media and content creation for more than 10 years. During that time, he has contributed and even led some of the largest sites in the world dedicated to gaming and entertainment. He has also dabbled some in PR and was a tester for Activision in the past working on the Call of Duty series. When not playing games or writing about them, he enjoys cooking, sharpening his Japanese skills, and watching the latest anime shows.

Bottom Line Up Front

Incantations are half of the magical abilities that are the primary spells in Elden Ring. Unlike the sorceries that focus more on the Intelligence stat in the game, incantations are based on the Faith stat. This is a stat that isn’t always too commonly picked by classes as a primary stat, but it offers valuable spells.

Incantations are pretty varied, doing what you might expect and so much more. Some of the incantations are support spells, creating barriers to reduce damage from certain elements, or healing you and your companions.

Others, though, take control of the elements to deal intense damage. There are currently 101 different incantations in Elden Ring.

Elden Ring Incantations Overview

When you hop into Elden Ring for the first time, it can be quite a daunting experience. You have so many classes to choose from, each with its own focus on skills and stats. If there is one stat, other than maybe Arcane and Endurance, that a lot of players ignore or avoid, it is the Faith stat.

Faith is the primary stat for a few different classes, and it is a powerful one that can create some of the most broken builds in the entire open-world game. If you like to run classes like the Prophet or even the Samurai, there are some fantastic incantations you can add to make some of the best builds in existence.

What I also appreciate about the incantations is that they are even extraordinary supplemental magical abilities for players who don’t focus on the Faith stat. Just about every build-out there could benefit from one or two of the best spells in this category. To help you out, I’m going to break down all of that and more below.

How They Work

Incantations are entirely separate from sorceries. Together, they make up the magical spell side of Elden Ring. I get all of this can be a bit confusing, even for existing FromSoftware fans. But to simplify things, think of sorceries for Intelligence players and incantations for Faith players.

Incantations primarily use the Faith stat to boost how strong they are, but other stats like Arcane can make them better in the long run, especially if they have to do with certain weapons. In general, you want Sacred Seals as the primary method of casting an incantation against your opponent in combat.

There are a lot of incantations in Elden Ring, which can make the entire situation even more overwhelming. There is a grand total of around 101 incantations in the game and you may not even obtain all of them in a single playthrough, though this is recommended.

Of these 100+ incantations, there are also three of them that are considered legendary incantations. They are the most powerful of them all. Incantations are so lovely because they are ranged spells so you don’t run the risk of attacks the way that more melee-focused users do. And they generally tend to be among the most broken styles of playing.

How to Unlock More

When it comes to unlocking incantations, it is honestly quite simple. The primary way of unlocking them, unlike in Ashes of War, is through most of the NPC traders in the Lands Between. These particular NPCs are trainers of the incantations and will teach them to you for a price.

Some of these incantations can only be found in certain books in the world, which usually give you access to more than one incantation in it. Others can easily be found through traders at places like Roundtable Hold, Leyndell, and Limgrave.

My Favorite Incantations Builds

When it comes to creating a character in Elden Ring, you have to think about so much more than the incantations you add to your gear. In fact, I would argue that most of the time, your incantations should be an afterthought or supplementary part of your gear.

You want to focus first on the armor, weapons, stats, and class you want to have. From there, you can add in the various skills and incantations you want.

To help you with this, I have three preset builds for you below. These are three of the very best incantation-focused builds in the entire game that will help with most bosses and be quite fun to use. Let’s take a look.

Blasphemous Beastmaster Build Explained

First up is one of the Blasphemous builds. As you may already know, the Blasphemous Blade is one of the best weapons in all of Elden Ring, and this build takes full advantage of that, while also gearing up with some nice incantations. Here are all of the gear items and stats you’ll want to use for this build:

Main Stats: Strength and Faith
Secondary Stats: Vigor and Mind (save these for after soft-capping the other two)
Recommended Class: Any (Though classes with a focus on Faith or Strength might be worth it)
Weapons and Arms: Blasphemous Blade, Cinquedea, and Clawmark Seal
Armor: Any. Just avoid some of the heavier armor that affects your speed and rolls
Talismans: Dragoncrest Shield Talisman, Green Turtle Talisman, Radagon’s Soreseal, and Ritual Sword Talisman
Skills: Taker’s Flames
Incantations: Beast Claw, Bestial Sling, Flame, Grant Me Strength, Golden Vow, and Stone of Gurranq

This is one of the most versatile and powerful builds you can make using some incantations. As you can see, there are a lot of incantations that it is involved with, so you’re going to need some swiftness in switching up your gear on the fly.

The goal here is to use the Stone of Gurranq and the Blasphemous Blade as your primary weapons. The former is for ranged attacks while the latter is for up-close moves.

Other than that, you want to use the other incantations to buff your character, AOE attacks to take out multiple enemies at once, and for mitigating the damage from bosses.

If you like a nice mix of melee and ranged attacks, this might be the build for you.

Dragon Priest Prophet Build

Next up is the Dragon Priest build. This is one of the most popular ones that involve some incantations. Here is everything you’ll need for this particular build, from your gear to stats:

Main Stats: Vigor and Mind
Secondary Stats: Faith and Arcane (I recommend leveling up all of your stats evenly and switching between them often)
Recommended Class: Prophet (though it could work with some other classes, this is the one that makes the most sense)
Weapons and Arms: Any
Armor: Any
Talismans: Any
Skills: Any or none at all
Incantations: Catch Flame, Dragonfire

As you can see, there isn’t much to this build at all. Despite this, it is one of the most popular ones because it is one of the best builds for early in the game. You can shape it however you like as you go, adding talismans and weapons that make it wholly your own.

The goal for this build is to give you two excellent easy-to-unlock spells that will give you some intense fire and dragon damage against foes. In the earlier parts of the game, this ranged Prophet build will decimate most foes and even some bosses from afar.

If you’re looking for a build that will get you through most of the early areas in Elden Ring that are malleable for later parts, too, this is the one to go with.

Sanguine Samurai Build

On the opposite end of the spectrum is the Sanguine Samurai build. This is one of the best builds in the entire game and it is due to the fact that it is also one of the hardest to make until near the end. It revolves around maxing out all of your vital stats and getting some rare equipment.

Here’s what you need to make this endgame and New Game Plus-centric build:

Main Stats: Dexterity and Arcane
Secondary Stats: Vigor and Mind
Recommended Class: Samurai (Though any class can, technically, make this build rather easily)
Weapons and Arms: Dragon Communion Seal, Rivers of Blood, and Sacrificial Axe
Armor: Okina Mask or White Mask, and everything else from there is up to you. Just avoid any heavier armor that affects your rolls too much
Talismans: Carian Filigreed Crest, Green Turtle Talisman, Lord of Blood’s Exultation, Shard of Alexander, and Rotten Winged Sword Insignia
Skills: Corpse Piler
Incantations: Flame, Grant Me Strength

As you can see here, there is only a single incantation that you use for this endgame build. But it is one of the best in the game and it is the center of this entire build when it comes to taking on bosses. Flame, Grant Me Strength is a necessary buff for your physical and fire attacks.

This entire build is built around melee and fire-infused hits so this only makes the build even more robust. Rivers of Blood will be your primary weapon here, while the Sacrificial Axe will occasionally be used to get back FP.

Flame, Grant Me Strength is a must for bosses, and this will allow you to mow down enemies with your insanely powerful melee hits.

This is a trickier physical fire melee build but one of the best in all of Elden Ring, especially for Samurai fans.

Best Elden Ring Incantations Explained

To further help you out, I’ve come out with the ten best Elden Ring incantations. Out of the 100+ ones that exist, these are the 10 that you absolutely need to know about in no particular order. Some of them are legendaries, sure, but most of them are reasonably common spells that you can find relatively early in the game.

I tried to keep a nice mix of spells, including both support and offensive ones. There are some healing incantations, defensive ones that help in a lot of bosses, and even some offensive ones that show the true might and power of a Faith-centered build. Let’s get started.

1. Lord’s Heal

Where to Unlock: Brother Corhyn or Miriel, Pastor of Vows, for 8000 Runes. You’ll need the Two Fingers Prayerbook first.
FP Cost: 55
Stamina Cost: 45
Incantation Type: Healing/Support

Lord’s Heal is among the best healing and support spells in Elden Ring. Technically, there are some spells that will restore more health than this one, but it is relatively easily found in the game midway through it without too much of an issue.

In addition, its healing capabilities are impressive. It grants massive healing to not only yourself but all of your companions nearby to you. This includes both other players online and even the spirits that you have summoned. In this way, it is the essential Faith incantation for a healer in the group.

If you like to play with other players online, this is a must-have. You can be a dedicated healer with this one and keep your team alive for long periods of time. I recommend mixing this one with the Sacrificial Axe or another similar weapon that will grant you FP back so that you can use this whenever you need to in a fight.

2. Flame, Grant Me Strength

Where to Unlock: Head to Fort Gael and look for the dead body that is behind the fort there. It is in between some Flame Chariots. Loot this particular body, and you’ll find this spell there.
FP Cost: 28
Stamina Cost: 16
Incantation Type: Buff

As you saw in the above builds that I recommended to you, there was a common thread between a couple of them: the spell Flame, Grant Me Strength. This is one of the best incantations in the game for a reason, and you can pretty much nab it for your equipment relatively early on in the game.

It is a fairly simple spell that gives you a 20% boost to both your physical and fire damage. It only lasts for around 30 seconds, but this boost can be an intense one, especially if you plan your entire build around it.

The goal here is to make a build that is all about dealing physical and flame-style damage to enemies. There are a lot of bosses that benefit from you having a buff to those damage types, so it makes this spell one of the most popular for producing some of the best endgame builds in all of Elden Ring.

3. Swarm of Flies

Where to Unlock: Head to the Mohgwyn Palace and look for the wall in a small cave north of the Palace near the Ledge-Road Site of Grace. There is a corpse here you can loot for this spell.
FP Cost: 14
Stamina Cost: 24
Incantation Type: Damage

Swarm of Flies is precisely what it sounds like: it summons a swarm of flies that you then send out to the enemies in front of you and damage them for a fair bit. Even after some nerfs to this powerful incantation, it is still among the best in the entire game.

This comes down to a couple of core factors. For one, this spell is excellent when it comes to dealing straight-up damage to a group of enemies in front of you. This damage scales well, but the main crux is the hemorrhage bonus that the incantation has.

It will inflict hemorrhaging on the enemies that it hits, which is unbelievably impressive in its own right. This is a status that will affect most bosses quite well, too.

It is especially great for some of the stricter bosses out there, like Mohg, Lord of Blood. If you want a more niche but fascinating type of build in Elden Ring, be sure to equip this spell for your character.

4. Glintstone Breath

Where to Unlock: You can get this in Caelid at the Cathedral of Dragon Communion Altar, but you will need one dragon heart from some of the dragon bosses to unlock it.
FP Cost: 28
Stamina Cost: 40
Incantation Type: Damage

The Glintstone Breath spell is beloved for one reason alone: its unbelievable damage. This is a charge spell, so it is possible to charge this one up to four times its potency and four times the FP cost. It takes quite a long time to charge up fully, but it might be worth it in the right situations.

If you are able to charge up this spell fully, you’ll be able to send out a dragon’s breath that is absolutely massive and will affect a vast area near you. The best part is that while you are breathing this out, you can turn your character around in a circle if you’d like and hit everything that is near you.

There are some limitations to the ability, like not being able to jump while using it and the overwhelming amount of time it takes to charge up and cast. But it is ultimately worth it as one of the best AOE spells in the game that can demolish a large group of enemies in no time.

5. Golden Vow

Where to Unlock: You need to head to Mt. Gelmir and find the Corpse-Stench Shack there. It is one of the items available here.
FP Cost: 47
Stamina Cost: 50
Incantation Type: Buff

The Golden Vow spell is one of the best buff incantations in all of Elden Ring. What it does is boost your overall damage by 15%, in addition to ensuring that your defense is boosted by 10%. These boosts aren’t that extraordinary compared to the 20% and higher buffs that some other incantations have.

That said, what is impressive about it is that it lasts for a whopping 80 seconds, which is longer than some of the full-on fights you’ll have with random enemies in the Lands Between.

My favorite part is that it doesn’t just do this for you but all of your companions, too. And it stacks well with other buffs like Flame, Grant Me Strength.

6. Dragonfire and Dragonice

Where to Unlock: The Dragon Communion Altar in Limgrave. It costs one dragon heart for each spell, so you’ll need two dragon hearts if you want both.
FP Cost: 28 (fire), 36 (ice)
Stamina Cost: 40 (fire), 48 (ice)
Incantation Type: Damage

These two go together quite well because they are pretty much the same spells but changed up ever so slightly. Dragonfire is the fire variant, while the Dragonice spell inflicts ice and frostbite on the enemies. Both are excellent additions, especially in the case of Dragonfire for flame builds.

They both are breath spells, so you’ll need to charge them up, but you can hold them down for quite some and move your character while you are using it to hit any enemies near you.

These are some of the best damaging spells you can find in the incantations category. While you could add both to your repertoire, I recommend picking one and sticking with it for the build you’re trying to make.

7. Catch Flame

Where to Unlock: Two main ways to get this. The first is to pick the Prophet class, and you’ll automatically have it in your equipment. Otherwise, buy it for 600 Runes from Brother Corhyn at the Roundtable Hold.
FP Cost: 10
Stamina Cost: 17
Incantation Type: Damage

This is one of the earliest spells you can get on this list and is surprisingly one of the best. Catch Flame will get you through most of the game if you pick an excellent fire build that uses it well. It allows you to throw out a flame to attack any enemies near you with some impressive fire damage.

It is extremely low cost, too, but this is all balanced by the fact that it has a tiny range, which is quite unusual for a magic spell. The reason behind this is possibly to encourage players to use it as a magical alternative to a melee weapon, which can lead to some intriguing builds. I highly recommend everyone to use this when first starting out.

8. Bloodflame Blade

Where to Unlock: To get the Bloodflame Blade, you’ll need to head to Liurnia of the Lakes and find the Teardrop Scarab near the lake. Take it out, and it will drop this particular incantation.
FP Cost: 20
Stamina Cost: 10
Incantation Type: Buff

The Bloodflame Blade is quite hard to find if you don’t know where to look, but it is absolutely worth it for a bargain ability. It doesn’t take much to use this buff spell that boosts your weapon with the ability to deal some extra fire damage for 60 seconds.

In addition, it also applies the hemorrhage status effect, which, as mentioned on this list, is an unbelievably helpful skill. This is mainly for the builds that have melee weapons that already use fire and hemorrhaging, and it can be an impressive addition that completes a near-perfect build that can last you through the entire game.

9. Beast Claw

Where to Unlock: Head to Gurranq, Beast Clergyman at the Bestial Sanctum, and give him five Deathroots for this as a reward.
FP Cost: 10
Stamina Cost: 27
Incantation Type: Damage

The Beast Claw is one of the stranger spells that works exceedingly well in unique builds. What it does is let the player charge up and send out a wave of claw attacks in a wide cone area. It deals some solid damage, with the only drawbacks being that it takes time to charge and it will only deal damage to enemies once per use.

The idea is to take the Beast Claw spell and use it with the Clawmark Seal. This allows you to create a melee-focused fighter that also uses this as an excellent AOE ability. Unlike most incantations, it has even been buffed with Patch 1.07, so it is more viable than ever.

10. Elden Stars

Where to Unlock: Head to the Deeproot Depths near the Great Waterfall Crest Site of Grace. Find the tree root that takes you into a cave and take out the enemies there to find a body at the back that has this spell.
FP Cost: 41
Stamina Cost: 48
Incantation Type: Damage

Elden Stars is one of the three legendary incantations in Elden Ring, and it shows. This damage spell is unlike anything else you’ve seen in the game, summoning a massive glowing golden object in the sky that falls down with smaller versions around it.

The smaller stars deal a bit of holy and stance damage, while the larger one deals massive holy and stance damage to any enemies hit by it. While it takes some practice to master the Elden Stars power, it is immensely powerful against large swarms of enemies and frees you up to move around while it is falling down.

FAQs

Question: How Can I Use Incantations Elden Ring?

Answer: First, you want to make sure you have the correct incantations Seal equipped on your character in the gear menu in Elden Ring.
Once you have this, switch your main arm to have the seal, and then you can press the necessary button to use the incantation. For controller players, for instance, that’s your left or right bumper, depending on the hand.

Question: Are Incantations or Sorceries better Elden Ring?

Answer: I wouldn’t say that incantations or sorceries are better than the other one in Elden Ring. They both have some excellent spells under them, and it ultimately comes down to you.
If you are a Faith player or someone who likes to play alongside your friends online, incantations will work best. But for Intelligence and mostly solo players, sorceries might be slightly better.

Question: Who can Teach me Incantations in Elden Ring?

Answer: You can learn incantations from a variety of characters in Elden Ring. Characters like Brother Coryhn, Miriel, Gowry, and many others can teach you incantations.
These characters are found in places like Roundtable Hold, Limgrave, Liurnia of the Lakes, and more. You’ll need some runes to exchange for these incantations, though.

Farm Runes to Boost Your Stats for Incantations

At the end of the day, it ultimately comes up to you what type of character you want to make in Elden Ring. With so many stats involved in the game and all of the various classes that exist, there is a lot of room for experimentation. That said, I highly suggest giving some incantations a try.

Even if you opt for a more melee-focused character like a Samurai or the good old-fashioned Wretch, incantations can be a valuable part of your build. That is why it is essential that you take the time to experiment and see what incantations fit your playstyle the most.

To help with this, it is also important to grind out Runes in the game so that you can level up as much as possible to up your stats and make your incantations that much more powerful.

Runes are like experience points in this game, allowing you to level up to improve everything. If you want to know how to best farm for Runes in Elden Ring, you’re already in the right place.

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