Elden Ring: 10 best talismans

Elden Ring has dozens of potential builds and ultimately the only limitations are your imagination – or a balance patch. Once you’ve got your weapons, skills, and spells set up, it’s time to decide something else incredibly important: talismans. You can equip up to four talismans in Elden Ring, and each one can complement the right build. 

No matter what you’re using to deal damage in Elden Ring, there will be a talisman to power it up. In this guide we’re breaking down the ten talismans that you should collect so you have as many options as possible when putting together your ideal Elden Ring build. Might we suggest our Magic Swordsman build?

Gold Scarab 

The Gold Scarab is a simple talisman that does one thing, and it does that one thing well. If you’re grinding for runes and experience, the Gold Scarab is going to make that much easier. While it’s equipped, you will receive extra runes from defeating enemies and bosses. Keep it equipped throughout the entire game – especially in those tough fights – and you’ll find it giving you the exact boost you need to stay that little bit stronger than the foes you’re going up against. 

Crimson Amber Medallion +2 

Health is life. The toughest enemies in the game don’t seem too scary once you take away their ability to one-shot you, and you can do that with more health. You can level up your Vigor, of course, but we also need those precious stats to increase our damage output. The +2 variant of the talisman can be found in Leyndell, Ashen Capital after defeating Maliketh, and acts the same as the other two variants but works much better. 

Cerulean Amber Medallion +2 

If health isn’t necessary for your playthrough of Elden Ring, you’re probably hanging back and well away from enemies – in which case, we know you’re playing around with Focus Points, the important component needed to use Weapon Skills and magic. You can hang back and spam spells all day with enough FP, and the Cerulean Amber Medallion gives you the extra FP you need in a pinch. Again, a +2 variant is available from the Lunar Estate Ruins. 

Graven-Mass Talisman 

The Graven-Mass Talisman is one of a few essentials for hardcore spellcasters. This simple talisman offers a boost of 8% to your sorcery damage output. When combined with something like Lusat’s Glintstone Staff, this adds up to a huge buff. But better yet, it also stacks with the slightly weaker Graven-School Talisman, and wearing both will give you a 12% sorcery damage buff. That’s a lot of extra damage potential for our hardcore spellcasters. 

Radagon Icon 

The Radagon Icon is the second essential for the hardcore spellcasters reading this, and this time it’s because this talisman can actually speed up the cast time of all of your sorceries. In PVP especially this is an important buff, but will also help you attack and dodge those speedy bosses when in a bad situation. A great addition for a swift spellsword. 

Radagon’s Soreseal 

If you’re a master of rolling straight through attacks, this is the talisman for you. Radagon’s Soreseal increases all damage you take by 15% – yikes – but it also rewards you with +5 to your Vigor, Endurance, Strength, and Dexterity. If you’re using Strength and Dexterity scaling on your main weapon, the Soreseal will give you a great buff to your abilities. Just don’t get hit, and you’ll love it. 

Erdtree’s Favor +2 

Another talisman with several levels available for you to acquire, the Erdtree’s Favor talisman increases your maximum HP, stamina, and equip load. That means you can put chunkier gear on and still feel more capable in battle than ever before, especially with the upgraded version. If you want the best version of this talisman you’ll need to delve into Leyndell, Ashen Capital, and you’ll need to delve deep. 

Shard of Alexander 

The Shard of Alexander is a simple talisman that does a simple thing, but can power up the right build and strategy immensely. Simply, the Shard of Alexander greatly boosts the attack power of skills. That means if you’re a heavy weapon skill user, the Shard of Alexander is going to make your build more powerful than ever. To get this talisman you’ll need to complete Iron Fist Alexander’s questline, which is of course attached to Jar-Barin’s questline, so you can complete both at the same time. 

Rotten Winged Sword Insignia 

If your aim is to strike opponents quickly, then this is for you. Trapping a foe with hit-stun is already tempting, but the Rotten Winged Sword Insignia will reward you for it. This talisman initially gives a 6% damage buff, but that raises with successive strikes to a maximum of 22%, where it will stay as long as you keep a long combo going. Get some rapidly striking weapons, dual wield them, and max out your stamina to make the most of this talisman. 

Millicent’s Prothesis 

This is similar to the Winged Sword Insignia, but does much more for you. Millicent’s Prosthesis, which you can earn at the end of Millicent’s questline, gives you a nice boost of +5 to your Dexterity, and more importantly, also raises attack power with successive strikes. If you’re going for a hardcore DEX build, this is borderline essential. 

Written by Dave Aubrey on behalf of GLHF.