Elden Ring: Confessor and Prophet beginner's guide — Fighting through the power of Faith

Among Elden Ring's assorted classes, the Confessor and Prophet share a stat, with both classes featuring fairly high starting Faith. If the power of using a giant sword isn't compelling enough on its own, using the power of an entire pantheon of gods can help you heal yourself in battle, or just burn your enemies down.

Faith-based combat isn't as bluntly practical as using Strength-based weapons, while also lacking some of the flashiness afforded to dedicated sorcerers. It's not quite as exhaustively heavy as other magic research, though you'll still need to familiarize yourself with some important stats. Here are some beginner's tips that'll help you make a holy, evil-vanquishing paladin of justice.

This is not meant to be an exhaustive guide to building game-breaking combinations in Elden Ring. Instead, it's meant to help beginners (or anyone who needs a bit of help) figure out how to start with Faith-based classes. As such, it is mostly spoiler-free.

Elden Ring: Guide to Confessor, Prophet and Faith combat

Elden Ring is one of the best Xbox games currently available, and a huge part of that is in how it allows more freedom than ever before, even in prior FromSoftware games. If you're going for the Confessor or Prophet, you'll be starting out with more Faith than other classes. Regardless of which class you chose, it's important to note that without some very particular strategies, Faith isn't the complete opposite to an Intelligence-based magic build.

Instead, a great way to start out is using high Faith to supplement your other skills. You can still easily branch into heavy melee combat; you'll just have extra tools at your disposal. Both the Confessor and the Prophet start with a healing spell, with Quick Heal and Heal, respectively. Early on, these spells are livesavers and can allow you to take risks other classes can't, especially while your Flask is still relatively low on charges.

Both the Confessor and the Prophet also start the game with a Finger Seal, which is used for casting Incantations. Other classes will have to find or purchase a seal before they're able to branch off into Faith-based powers.

However, much like if you were building a sorcerer in Elden Ring, you'll need to keep track of your blue bar, or your FP. Like Magic, Incantations use up FP, which doesn't naturally regenerate on its own. Spamming Incantations will have you quickly deplete that bar and unable to continue healing or chucking fireballs towards foes.

Your Flasks can be balanced between Health and FP, so you'll have to find the number that works for you. More hybrid playstyles that use some melee combat will want to lean towards more Health Flasks, while relying more and more on spells means you should get extra Flasks to restore your FP.

Incantations, like Sorceries, also require Memory Slots. Each Incantation takes up a slot, so you'll need to find the scattered memory stones to unlock more slots. At any time, you can swap out the Incantations you have currently equipped by going to a Site of Grace.

As for finding Incantations, there are a couple of good starting points. The first is Brother Corhyn, who is initially located at the Table of Lost Grace within the Roundtable Hold, which you can access almost immediately after unlocking your horse, Torrent. While his storyline will eventually progress elsewhere, you can pick up several Incantations from Corhyn at the Roundtable Hold up until very roughly midway through the main story of the game.

Another great source of Incantations is with Miriel, Pastor of Vows, also known as the Turtle Pope. He teaches all kinds of magic and unlike Corhyn, won't move. Miriel can be found at the Church of Vows, which is located east of Raya Lucaria Academy, so it may take you a bit longer to get to Miriel compared to Corhyn.

Both Miriel and Corhyn can be given any Prayerbooks you find across the Lands Between, which will expand the available roster of spells that you can then purchase.

No matter which class you went with, for early level-ups, focus on Vigor, Strength or Dexterity, and Mind. This will increase your attack power with your starting weapons, improve your health and give you additional FP for your Incantations. Unless you really want to multiclass into sorceries, you should avoid putting points in Intelligence. If you want to use Dragon Powers, you'll need to also begin putting points in Arcane.

Because Dragon Powers are technically counted as Incantations, the Confessor and Prophet will have an early advantage in working to unlock these powers. The requirements vary, but Dragon Powers all need high amounts of Faith and Arcane. The results, when unleashed, can be absolutely devastating towards groups of foes and bosses alike.

Confessor tips

• Confessor stats: Vigor 10, Mind 13, Endurance 10, Strength 12, Dexterity 12, Intelligence 9, Faith 14, Arcane 9

As you can see from the Confessor's starting stats, you'll have a decent amount of strength and dexterity, so you can go with some heavy weapons or lighter gear. The Confessor starts with the Assassin's Approach Incantation, which makes you silent and harder for enemies to detect, if they aren't looking right at you. It allows you to play the game stealthily, sneaking up and getting in backstabs on powerful enemies in order to even out the playing field.

Prophet tips

• Prophet stats: Vigor 10, Mind 14, Endurance 8, Strength 11, Dexterity 10, Intelligence 7, Faith 16, Arcane 10

The Prophet starts with the Oh, Flame Incantation, giving you an additional offensive option when compared to the Confessor. Flame magic is extremely useful against early bosses and can be used to interrupt otherwise extremely dangerous attacks from more common enemies, giving you a bit of breathing room in fights.

The biggest challenges facing the Confessor are also the biggest challenges facing the Prophet. Low Vigor and Intelligence mean that you won't start out with a lot of health, and you'll have to burn a few level-ups if you also want to use any powerful magic. It's also worth keeping in mind that the Prophet starts at Level 7, instead of Level 10. This won't mean much outside of the starting areas of the game, but very early on, that's three extra relatively inexpensive level-ups you can grab.

Elden Ring: General Faith tips and tricks

Because Faith builds generally supplement a Strength or Dexterity-focused playstyle, you'll need to be somewhat well versed when it comes to melee combat well. I personally like to stay fairly light on my feet, which means aiming for at least a medium weight, like with the Confessor's surprisingly solid starting armor set. This means you can stay mobile and dodge around deadly attacks, which is extremely important given your lack of health early on.

You'll also want to be able to perform the Guard Counter. Using a shield, once you successfully block an enemy attack, you can then press Heavy Attack to immediately reply with a faster-than-usual powerful swing. The Confessor starts with a decent shield, but the Prophet will have to find or buy one.

Many Incantations are solely healing or damage-dealing spells, but you can use a few, such as Flame Sling to deal Stagger damage. When an enemy becomes staggered, they briefly fall down and are vulnerable to a critical strike from a melee weapon. Depending on the size of the enemy, you may see a glowing orange spot indicating where to strike.

It is highly recommended that wherever possible, you use your Spirit Ash Summons. These can put the hurt on a boss and most importantly, keep enemies distracted and away from fighting you directly. Even just a moment can be all you need to heal. You can also heal your summons if you have any Incantations that act within a range, so be sure to heal your pals up when you're on long treks in dangerous areas.

You should also familiarize yourself with exactly how long Incantations take to cast. Go to a Site of Grace, then find an empty area nearby where you can safely practice casting an Incantation. You don't want to be taken by surprise and killed because it takes two seconds longer to heal than you thought.

Elden Ring: List of useful Incantations

We've rounded up some useful Incantations that you should try to acquire, no matter what class you're using.

Elden Ring: Best Faith weapons and equipment

Using the Ashes of War system in Elden Ring, you can alter your gear to scale better based on Faith, instead of having to continue to dump points into Strength or Dexterity. Flame Ashes of War will add Fire Damage and increased Faith Scaling, while Sacred Ashes of War add Holy Damage and increased Faith Scaling. Outside of that, there are a few pieces of Faith-specific gear to keep an eye out for.