All Soft Caps for Stats (2024)

This is a guide to all soft caps in the Elden Ring DLC Shadow of the Erdtree. Learn about base game soft caps, DLC soft caps, about their importance and the diminishing returns from soft caps.

All Soft Caps

Vigor Soft Caps at 40 and 60

For Vigor, you will want to reach the soft cap of 40 VGR (1450 HP) early on since each level before that gives the most HP bonus (average of 34 HP/Lvl). The soft cap of 60 VGR (1900 HP) is the next best soft cap to reach afterwards that still gives significant gains (average of 22.5 HP/Lvl).

Past 60 VGR, it is best to invest into other stats since HP gains are almost negligible in small increments (average of 5 HP/Lvl). The overall return is significantly low from 60-90, giving only 200 HP for 39 points, 50% less than 400 HP and 95% more costly than the 20 points invested in 40-60.

Mind Soft Caps at 60

For Mind, the soft cap is 60 MND (350 FP, average of 5.4 FP/Lvl). The efficient amount, however, is 38 MND (221 FP) since a single max level Flask of Cerulean Tears without recovery buffs will fully refill this FP capacity. For full refills past the 38 MND mark, it is recommended to the Cerulean Tear Scarab or the Cerulean Seed Talisman.

FP gains after 60 MND is nearly half of the previous average (2.5 FP/Lvl). You will want to consider a more resourceful point investment elsewhere after the 60 MND mark. It costs 39 points for a 150 FP increase from 60-99, 77% more costly with only a 16% gain difference to the 22 points for a 129 FP increase from 38-60.

Endurance Soft Caps at 50; Equip Load at 60

For Endurance, the soft cap for Stamina is 50 END (1.5 STA/Lvl) while Equip Load is at 60 END (1.4 Eq.L/Lvl). For Stamina, gains after 50 END are significantly less or almost negligible (0.3 STA/Lvl) while gains for Equip Load still hold some weight (1.02 Eq.L/Lvl).

Having enough Stamina is essential to increasing your energy for attacks, skills, spells, jumps, sprints, dodges and guards. How much you wish to invest based on this before the Stamina soft cap of 50 END depends on which of these actions you will frequently use.

For Equip Load, having enough is important for keeping your weapon, armor, and talisman loadout in a certain weight class with Medium Load being the go-to for dodge I-frames and stamina recovery. For example, the Bull-Goat Armor Set is the heaviest at 63 weight alone, requiring 40 END minimum without equip load support items and then investing more from there to accommodate other equipment.

Strength Soft Caps at 60 and 80

For Strength, the soft caps for physical damage scaled by STR are 60 STR/80 STR. Reach those soft caps to get the highest, point-efficient damage for your STR-scaled weapons. Tested on the Greatsword one-handed (1H), 60-80 nets 55 AP while 80-99 only nets 20 AP.

When a weapon is two-handed (2H), your STR is multiplied by 1.5x, making 54 STR a comfortable mark to get 81 STR attack power with two-handed weapons. For maximizing damage on a single hand (which is commonly the case set if you use a shield), 80 STR is the go-to soft cap.

Note that two-handing gives weapon damage increases even past the 99 STR hard cap (starting at 67 STR) with the 1.5x multiplier. Making use of this depends on whether you still need points elsewhere since going past 80 STR is a tall order but still with signifcant gains (+53 AP from 2H at 99 STR).

Dexterity Soft Caps at 60 and 80

For Dexterity, the soft caps are similar with STR for weapon scaling: 60 DEX/80 DEX. Tested with the Nagakiba, 60-80 nets 38 AP but 80-99 only nets 14 AP. Any further damage increase is supplemented by the weapon's other stat scalings such as STR. Unlike STR, DEX has no bonus for two-handing.

Since most DEX weapons are also paired with an STR scaling stat, Quality affinity for weapons becomes more effective than pure increases from Heavy or Keen once you have fully invested the values of both stats at the soft cap. For example a 60 STR/60 DEX Quality Nagakiba (591) has a potentially higher damage ceiling than one with a 60 DEX-only Keen (540) or 60 STR-only Heavy (524 AP) infusion.

Dexterity Spellcasting Speed Soft Caps at 70

DEX also affects the hidden casting speed stat for spells. 70 DEX grants the fastest spellcasting speed. You can invest 40 DEX and pair Radagon's Icon to meet this speed cap. You can also, without DEX investment, equip the Beloved Stardust obtained from Ymir for maximum casting speed at the cost of more damage taken.

Intelligence Soft Caps at 50, 60, and 80

For Intelligence, sorcery scaling soft caps at 60 INT/80 INT while the soft cap for elemental damage AP is at 50 INT. Reach these soft caps primarily for increasing the effectiveness of your sorcery spells and magic attack power. Using the Academy Glintstone Staff, 60-80 nets 41 SS while 80-90 only nets 28 SS.

For INT scaling elemental damage AP (Magic), the soft cap starts at 50 INT and the last at 80 INT. For the Dark Moon Greatsword, 50-80 nets 45 MAG AP and 80-99 only nets 15 MAG AP.

Faith Soft Caps at 45, 50, 60, and 80

For Faith, incant scaling soft caps are either 45 FAI, or 60 FAI/80 FAI depending on the catalyst used, 60/80 being the most common. For elemental damage AP, the soft caps are 50 FAI and 80 FAI similar to INT. Reach these the incant scaling soft caps for maximizing the effectiveness of your incantations (notably damage and amount healed) and elemental attack power soft caps for maximizing Holy and Fire Damage.

The Finger Seal falls under the main 60/80 FAI soft cap curve, with 60-80 netting 38 IS and and 80-99 netting 25 IS. For elemental damage AP (Holy or Fire), the Blasphemous Blade, 50-80 nets 26 FIRE AP and 80-99 only nets 9 FIRE AP.

Arcane Soft Caps at 45, 50, 60, and 80

For Arcane, stat gains are more varied across different cases. The incant scaling soft cap is 45 ARC. Soft caps for elemental damage AP in general is 50 ARC/80 ARC. For status buildup, 45 ARC/60 ARC/80 ARC. Lastly the soft cap for physical damage AP influenced by the stat itself is 60 ARC and 80 ARC. You will want to reach soft caps in Arcane to maximize damage from Arcane-scaling weapons, Occult affinity, and specific status effect buildups (Bleed, Sleep, Poison, Madness).

Using the Dragon Communion Seal, the stat gain diminishes past 45 and gives steady results up to 99. 45-60 nets 15 IS, 60-80 nets 20 IS, and finally 80-99 nets 19 IS.

For the Rivers of Blood, the soft cap for its bleed buildup stat is at 45 ARC, having siginificant reduction onwards up to 99 (only 7 BLOOD gained). Elemental and physical damage gains remain valuable up to 80, with 60-80 netting 17 physical AP and 50-80 netting 27 FIRE AP. Gains are significantly less for both at 80-99, netting only 6 physical AP and 5 FIRE AP.

Soft Caps Explained

Points of Diminishing Returns

HP gained as you level up Vigor increases as you reach the first soft cap and starts dropping afterwards.

Soft Caps are points in your stats where further investment leads to significantly low or negligible stat gains (diminishing returns). Overinvestment can make your playthrough harder and tedious. This can lead you to spending more time rune farming or doing respecs with a Larval Tear (limited per playthrough) just for stat correction.

Understanding soft caps are important for knowing your feasible min-max build options early on. This means knowing when to start investing heavily into other stats after your core and primary stats. Remember that more points invested leads to higher levelling rune costs. Higher costs means it will become harder to adjust your build to make up for weaknesses over time.

Build Guide for Beginners

Hard Caps Limit Further Gains

Hard Caps, on the other hand, are points where you can no longer make any further investment. Each attribute has a hard cap of 99. Having all stats at 99 requires you to be at RL713 which is extremely costly and will take a significantly long time to ever get to even with multiple NG+ playthroughs.

It is best to invest into hitting the soft caps first due to diminishing returns in overinvestment. You can begin focusing on hard caps after you have hit the soft caps for all of your needed attributes.

How to Level Up Fast and Level Cap

DLC Soft Caps

Scadutree Blessings Soft Cap at Blessings Level 12

Damage Bonus	Damage Negation

The soft cap for Scadutree Blessings is Blessing Level 12 for both damage bonus and damage negation bonus gains. For an effective return on dealing and taking damage in the Elden Ring DLC Shadow of the Erdtree, reach Scadutree Blessing Level 12 and then slowly collect as many Scadutree Fragments as you can to level up your blessing before the end of the DLC.

From Level 13 onwards, there will be significantly less gains for both bonuses (for example, a damage bonus average of 1.29% of per level, significantly less than the 5.73% damage bonus gain from Level 11-12). The damage negation bonus is negligible past the soft cap but getting the last levels from Level 13-20 will net you a total of 10.35% damage bonus, still a significant number to climb for before reaching the end of the DLC.

Scadutree Blessing Scaling Explained

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