Strength Build ( Soul Level 120 ) PVP
rating: +46+–x
Build summary An all-rounded strength build character
Recommended starting class(es) Temple Knight
Recommended Soul Level **

Recommended stats (Leave at default (**) if not raised)
Vitality 51
Will/Intelligence 18
Endurance 40
Strength 50
Dexterity **
Magic **
Faith 16
Luck **
Recommended equipment

Weaponry (Right-hand)

Off Hands (Left-hand)

Armor

Arguably the most recommended armor to choose would be Anicent King (male) and Binded Cross (female). Either armor set has reasonably low weight and no stamina regeneration penalty as well as good fire defense.

Although if necessary, you may have to change around with different parts of the armor or even the whole set depending on what you're equipping with both hands. You could opt for other lighter armor like Venerable Sage Robes (male), Saint Robes (male), Shaman Clothes (male), Rogue Clothes (female) and Old Raggedy Robes (female). Either armor set has very low weight and good magic defense.

To be honest, just simply play around with different armor pieces you find during the game and wear the ones you personally like. You could even wear one heavy armor pieces or maybe two from either Fluted Armor (unisex), Gloom Armor (unisex), Dark Silver Armor (male), Dull Gold Armor (female). It won't give much of a penalty to your stamina regeneration if you choose to do so.

Most important thing is, make sure your character doesn't exceed more than 50% of his/her equip weight so at least they won't be rolling slowly.

Rings

Soul form

Body form

For obvious reason, you definitely need Cling Ring for the increased maximum HP whenever you're in soul form, be it a blue phantom or black phantom, else you wouldn't really be able to withstand much hits.

Clever Rat's Ring is amongst one of the most recommended choice of ring because it grants hyper-mode, meaning you have a 50% attack power increase when your HP is below 30%. It could easily turn the tide of battle against your opponent if you manage to connect your hits in this state. Can also be stacked with Morion Blade for the extra bonus.

The Friend's Ring or Foe's Ring can be considered a good choice for either blue phantom or black phantom respectively due to the passive 20% damage increase. Instead of relying on hyper-mode, maybe you rather play the battle safely by keeping your HP as full as possible while enjoying the benefit of constant damage increase.

In addition to Clever Rat's Ring while in body form, the Dull Rat's Ring can support nicely well with the hyper-mode. The latter activates in the same manner as the former when your HP is below 30% but instead grants you a 50% defense increase, making it somewhat harder for an opponent to finish you off.

The other recommend choice of ring is Eternal Warrior's Ring, which apparently increases the speed of your stamina regeneration, allowing you to recover fast enough to attack and roll.
Recommended spells/miracles

Magic

Without a doubt, the Curse Weapon is the most commonly used spell for the strength-build. What it does is simply boost your weapon's physical damage by 50% for a minute, allowing you to dish out a hefty damage against your opponent. It does however drain your HP upon using this buff, therefore it is best to use a cracked (without meeting stats requirement) Talisman of Beasts to lessen the draining effect.

The other interesting choice of spell is Warding, which greatly reduces the physical damage taken for 40 secs. This could give you a major advantage over opponents who uses pure physical weapons such as the other strength-builds and dexterity-builds. Plus it's very quick to recast once the buff has finished.

In addition to Warding, you may want to consider having Poison Cloud. As described, the cloud inflicts a poison effect, which drains the opponent's HP but that's not all. It can also reduce half of their healing effects from consuming grasses, making it an ideal spell if you encounter difficulty to finish an opponent off.

Soulsucker is a useful magic spell, which is normally intended for farming purpose. When getting into melee range with a non-boss enemy, it can instantly kill them while you receive twice as many souls. The downside is that the spell is slow to cast, meaning you have to quite stealthy, therefore it's highly recommend you need to be in soul form and equipped with Thief's ring. It also has other use such as helping a buddy of yourself or a random stranger to de-level.

The best soul farming method to use Soulsucker will be in 4-3 with PBWT, where you can sneak up behind three black phantom skeletons.

Unfortunately, Soulsucker won't be available in your possession until you have completed the first game with a good ending to earn Maiden in Black's Demon Soul. Upon rescuing Yuria in 1-3 during the new game, you should be able to learn the spell.

Magic note:

There is no magic requirement at all from learning Yuria magics, therefore you can just leave the default magic stat alone and learn Curse Weapon without facing any problems.

If you prefer to use Warding and Poison Cloud combo, you need to de-level the magic stat down to 6 once you've learn Freke spells. Talk to Yuria for remembering the spells.

The best method to de-level is to go and find yourself a Soul-sucking partner, who's maybe one of your buddies or some random stranger. You can always go asking around the forum. If not, you could keep invading other players' worlds with Black Eye Stone and jump off to your death or use White Eye Stone to return to your world, which results in losing a soul level.

For a less popular option, if you have unlocked Mephistopheles in Nexus, you could attack her or have her attack you if you finish all her requests. She will use soul-suck on you for about two to three times. Once she stopped using the spell, run away and reload your profile. Then return and let her soul-suck you again. Rinse and repeat until you have reached your desired stat.

Faith

Second Chance is the only convenient faith spell you will ever bring to a proper battle. When the spell is in effect, it will revive you back to 50% HP upon death. Additionally, the buff duration is unlimited and the effect will only disappear once the spell is cracked.

Evacuate is a useful faith spell when you're planning to do some farming as it allows you to immediately recall back into Nexus without losing any souls you've collected.

Useful items

Both the Sticky White Stuff and Black Turpentine are items, which buffs your weapon for a decent amount of extra damage. The latter does a bit more damage, although for a lesser duration than the former. They're considered rather useful when Curse Weapon is finished, although admittedly whenever you get the chance, you could always consume Old Spice to recover MP and recast Curse Weapon once more. Still, it never hurts to have some of these.

Also, they're your best options of weapon buffs if you're planning to go with the Warding and Poison Cloud combination since you won't be able to use Curse Weapon.
Gameplay tips and progression

Build Summary:

  • Terrifying 2H damage bonus from high Strength
  • Can withstand up to reasonable amount of damage from high Vitality
  • Powerful knockdown effects with weapons from Extra Large Sword, Large Hammer or Large Axe class
  • Able to use a variety of different Crushing weapons and other unique weapons such as Dragon Bone Smasher or Meat Cleaver

Walk-through

Starting equipments

When you're still in 1-1, pick up the Purple Flame's Shield, Flame Resistance's Ring, Ring of Great Strength and other goodies from the dragon nest area. When playing online, you may have special week events where everyone's World Tendency is set to Pure White. If that's the case then the two dragons won't appear and you can safety take everything. If not then it's no big deal. The trick is to activate the Red Dragon's breath on the bridge then quickly run back to the area to pick up the items before he returns. Repeat the process again to pick off the remaining loot. Be wary of the Blue Dragon's tail swipe.

After you beat the Phalanx boss in 1-1. Head over to 4-1. The trick to easily dispatch the skeletons before the first fog gate is to use the leftover Turpentine on the Halbred. Hold up the Heater Shield to block their regular slashing attack, thus staggering them in the process. Simply switch over to two-handed and poke. If the skeleton happens to do a power charge attack, attack straight away to interrupt. It should take about 3 hits to kill one. Make sure the Thief's Ring is equipped so you can avoid taking on two skeletons at a time and don't wear the full Mirdan set as your movements and rolls will be slower.

Upon dispatching all the skeletons around the stair, enter the first fog gate. Go up to the small cliff area, which is located on the left when entering on the bottom left tower. Ignore the black skeleton. Grab the Crescent Falchion and jump off. With the Crescent Falchion, it makes things easier for you to clear out most of the enemies in the area. Proceed to work your way into beating 4-1.

Pick up the Copper Key on the bottom of the right tower to unlock the cell where Graverobber Blige is hold up under a hidden passage. Then pick up all the goodies you can find such as the Compound Long Bow found near the lone skeleton archer on the inner tower, the Adjudicator's Shield found behind the black skeleton in the ruined building and the Regenerator's Ring found on the far path where the last crystal gecko is spotted.

Then finally defeat the Adjuidicator boss to unlock 4-2. In the mean time, you can use 4-2 to do some soul farming on the Reaper, to level up your stats and farm for Darkmoonstones to upgrade your Crescent Falchion.

If you have retrieved Compound Long Bow earlier on in 4-1, all you're simply doing is snipe the Reaper from the top, which should take a few arrows to kill it. Once it's dead, all the Shadowlurkers in the same area will die too. Then you suicide off the cliff, kill the Reaper, retrieve your bloodstain and jump off again. If you need to restock for arrows then buy some from Graverobber Blige who you should have rescued during 4-1. This will be your best farming source until you have unlocked 4-3 for the Storm-beasts method.

When you're ready, take on World 2.

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