Elden Ring’s Shadow of the Erdtree DLC introduces lots of new ways to slay our enemies. There are tons of powerful new weapons, but magic users have a lot of viable choices as well. One of the more unique Sorceries is Impenetrable Thorns.
As powerful as the spell is, you will need to know how to build around it.
The best Impenetrable Thorns build in Elden Ring
Impenetrable Thorns is a Scadutree Sorcery that joins the ranks of Thorn Sorceries in Elden Ring, primarily scaling off your Faith stat. This build will require an unconventional stat scaling, so if you’re running a different build, you should respec your character.
| Build parameters | Requirements |
|---|---|
| Recommended level | 150 or more |
| Primary stats | Vigor, Arcane |
| Secondary stats | Dexterity, Faith |
| Weapons | Staff of the Guilty Maternal Staff Ripple Blade (weapon swap) Dragon Communion Seal (weapon swap) |
| Armor | White Mask Any armor set (maintain medium load) |
| Talismans | Lord of Blood’s Exultation Graven-Mass Talisman Carian Filigreed Crest Radagon Icon |
| Weapon skills | Wild Strikes |
| Additional spells | Impenetrable Thorns Golden Vow Bestial Vitality (optional) |
Stat distribution
The main stat needed is Arcane since causing blood loss with Impenetrable Thorns is the focus of this build. Vigor is generally not a major priority for a caster, but since Impenetrable Thorns consumes a little of your health, invest a lot of points here. Points into Dexterity will benefit your cast speed, while Faith is there for scaling and prerequisite purposes.
This is what your endgame stats should look like:
- Vigor: 50
- Mind: 15
- Endurance: 25
- Strength: Base level
- Dexterity: 20
- Intelligence: 21
- Faith: 25
- Arcane: 60
This build caps out at around level 180. Any additional points should go into more Arcane until you reach the 80 soft cap for maximum bleed potential. This will also benefit your Ripple Blade because of its innate Arcane scaling.
Gear breakdown
The two main weapons of this build are the Maternal Staff and the Staff of the Guilty. The Maternal Staff is a new weapon added in the DLC that scales off Arcane. You’ll be using this to channel Impenetrable Thorns.
On your offhand, Staff of the Guilty provides a boost to your Thorn-based Sorceries, improving the damage of Impenetrable Thorns even further.
For your weapon swap, having the Dragon Communion Seal is a perfect choice for an Arcane build. You’ll need this seal to use Golden Vow for the damage and defense buffs and Bestial Vitality to regenerate the health you lose each time you cast Impenetrable Thorns. You can also incorporate the Ripple Blade for when you run into enemies invulnerable to bleed. You can use any type of grease on this weapon to exploit enemy weaknesses.
The choice of armor for this build is quite flexible. We recommend using the White Mask to boost damage after causing blood loss. The rest of the armor pieces are up to preference—just remember to maintain a medium equip load.
Talisman breakdown
Four talismans work perfectly for this build.
- The Lord of Blood’s Exultation is a must-have for any bleed build. The damage boost you gain with this talisman also stacks with the White Mask helm.
- The Graven-Mass Talisman will boost the damage of your Impenetrable Thorns further. This talisman is ideal for any Sorcery build.
- The Carian Filigreed Crest will help you maintain FP costs as you spam Impenetrable Thorns. If you can manage your FP, you can swap this out for an Outer God Talisman for more Arcane stats as you level it up to 80.
- The Radagon Icon is perfect for any caster, allowing you to shorten the cast time of Impenetrable Thorns. This talisman will let you use the spell more often against tankier enemies.
How to get Impenetrable Thorns in Elden Ring
This Sorcery can be found towards the end of Shadow of the Erdtree. Once you reach the upper floors of the Shadow Keep, you’ll need to make a little detour from Messmer’s boss fight area to find this. The fastest way to get here would be from the Dark Chamber Entrance Site of Grace just outside the boss room.
Just before you enter the boss area, take an alternate path going down into a passageway to the right. Head down to the bridge area until you should see a shadow enemy looking down. Kill him and drop down to find a bat enemy with a corpse.
Check the corpse to acquire the Impenetrable Thorns Sorcery.
