Best Elden Ring Prisoner build with Talismans & Weapons for a magic melee hybrid

The Prisoner build is one of the more unique builds you can make in Elden Ring, especially if you want to utilise plenty of Dexterity, Spells, Talismans and Armour to help in your quest across The Lands Between. 

As one of the initial starting classes, the Prisoner in Elden Ring can be a little finicky to understand. However, it can make for some devastating Intelligence and Dexterity builds. While there are a myriad of builds that utilise the Prisoner starting class, I'm here to break down some of the stats, Talismans, Armour and more that will help your Prisoner run riot in the game.

As the Prisoner class, you will start at level nine with the following Stat breakdown:

• Vigor: 11
• Mind: 12
• Endurance: 11
• Strength: 11
• Dexterity: 14
• Intelligence: 14
• Faith: 6
• Arcane: 9

As you can see, it prioritises Intelligence, Dexterity, and Mind, making it an optimal class for Spell and Dex-oriented builds.

You will also start with some decent gear, giving you the option of sorcery or melee combat from the beginning. This means you'll have the Estoc, Glintstone Staff, Rift Shield, a Magic Glintblade sorcery, and the Prisoner armour set from the get-go. You'll be swapping out most of these quite quickly though. 

When it comes to the stats that you want to focus on, Intelligence is your key stat and the one you want to be the highest by the end of your playthrough. This is where all your damage scaling will come from with your later weapons and spells.

The other stats you will want to focus on are Dexterity, Vigor, and Mind. Dexterity will be more important during the early hours when Intelligence-based gear is rarer. Vigor and Mind are constants that you will use throughout, as you'll need the required health to get in your enemies' faces and use your spells and skills. 

For the start of our Elden Ring Prisoner build you will need to find a mix of fast and deadly melee weapons, along with staffs that will allow you to perform sorceries. We've broken down our ideal weapons below:

You will want to rush to find the Uchigatana. This is one of the best standard Dexterity weapons in the game and is very powerful from the beginning due to its bleed effect and fast attacks. You can find this early as it's located in the Deathtouched Catacombs in Limgrave and only requires 11 Strength and 15 Dexterity. 

You'll also want to find a better staff as soon as you can. Our choice until you get the best staff later in the game is the Academy Glintstone Staff. It's super easy to find in the Liurnia region as many enemies can drop it for you, especially as you get closer to the Raya Lucaria Academy.

However, any of the staves that are better than the standard Glintstone Staff will work.

Now we get into the weapons that are key for taking you through most of the game and will allow you to be victorious during the late-game difficulty spike. The Elden Ring Moonveil katana is the best magical katana in the entire game and the best melee weapon for Intelligence users.

It requires 18 Dexterity and 23 Intelligence, scaling well with the latter. It's faster than the standard Uchigatana and has a really strong bleed effect, but the skill - Transient Moonlight - is where it shines.

Moonveil can be found in the Gael Tunnel in Caelid once you defeat the Magma Wyrm, so make your way here as early as you can to set yourself up well.

To cap off your weapons, the Lusat's Glintstone Staff, as you'll see in the image above, is the one you should be aiming for in the endgame. It requires 10 Strength and a whopping 52 Intelligence, and its extra effect will enhance all sorceries cast from the staff while consuming extra FP.

It's also located in Caelid and can be found in a chest after defeating the Nox Swordstress and Nox Priest at Sellia, Town of Sorcery. 

For the armours, you'll also want to rush toward the first set as it will last for a while. However, we've also broken down our ideal armours for you to look out for:

The Land of Reeds armour set is what the Samurai start with, but it can also be bought for 4500 runes from the Isolated Merchant's Shack in north Caelid. We have some Elden Ring rune farm locations nearby that you can take advantage of if you don't quite have the funds.

The Briar Set is another great choice of armour that can be acquired after a couple of dozen hours. This requires you to go to The Shaded Castle, which is west of the Altus Plateau region. You will need to defeat the boss at the end of this castle called Elemer of the Briar first, and after you can purchase the full set from Enia in the Roundtable Hold. 

Lastly, we have the White Reed set, which is a much-improved version of the initial Land of Reed's armour. You'll have to get this in two parts by visiting the Mountaintop of the Giants region. The chest piece, gauntlets, and greaves can be found in Spiritcaller's Cave by looting a body on the floor. The helmet - which is called the Okina Mask - can be gained from defeating the invader Bloody Finger Okina in the east section of the region.

Some strong talismans can help round off the build by complimenting the weapons you have. Below, we have a selection of Talismans we think would work best with your Prisoner build, along with an in-depth explanation.

Firstly, the Carian Filigreed Crest can be purchased from Iji the Blacksmith, who is near the road to the Caria Manor. This will reduce the FP cost of your skills, allowing you to throw out more damage. 

This pairs extremely well with the Assassin's Cerulean Dagger, as it will restore FP from critical hits, meaning you can get the FP you used from Transient Moonlight straight back. You can find this by defeating the Black Knife Assassin boss at the bottom of the Black Knife Catacombs in northwest Liurnia.

There are also some Elden Ring Legendary Talismans that work well with this build. Radagon Icon is the first one, and it can be found quite early on, located inside the Raya Lucaria Academy legacy dungeon. This will shorten the cast time of all spells. The other option is Marika's Soreseal, which you grab later in the Haligtree legacy dungeon. This will raise your Mind, Intelligence, Faith, and Arcane stats by five, but increase the damage you take by 15%. 

Another decent choice is the Crimson Amber Medallion which just increases your max HP but is very useful due to how often you may get in the face of enemies. The first version can be purchased from the Nomadic Merchant in the east of the Weeping Peninsula, while the best version is found in the capital of Leyndell after you make changes to the area. 

When it comes to spells, it's your choice and the best option is to go for a mix of ranged damage and utility spells. Using the merchants and finding the spellbooks are important ways to get more powerful spells.

If you don't think you want to play as the Prisoner in Elden Ring, there are plenty of other classes for you to try out with a variety of builds, including:

• Astrologer
• Bandit
• Confessor
• Hero
• Prophet
• Samurai
• Vagabond
• Warrior
• Wretch

That's all for our walkthrough of the best Prisoner build in Elden Ring, and now you have an idea of the stats and the equipment you should be focusing on to get the most powerful character you can. Be sure to check out our Elden Ring homepage for more guides, like everything we know about Shadow of the Erdtree so far.