Elden Ring Incantations are one of the most diverse spell systems in the game, covering everything from devastating fire and lightning offense to powerful healing and party-wide buffs. A well-built Faith character can handle almost any encounter in the Lands Between with the right combination of spells and the right Sacred Seal.
Elden Ring Incantations require the Faith stat to cast and use a Sacred Seal as the casting tool. Unlike Sorceries, which scale primarily with Intelligence, Incantations scale with Faith, and some Dragon Communion variants also scale with Arcane. This makes Faith one of the most flexible offensive stats available.
The best Elden Ring Incantations for combat performance include Golden Vow, Flame, Grant Me Strength, Black Flame, Lightning Spear, and Rotten Breath. Each serves a different function, from pre-fight buffs to sustained DPS to status effect pressure on bosses. Understanding which spells complement each other is the key to building a strong Incantation kit.
Elden Ring Incantations: How They Work
Before picking your spells, it helps to understand the technical foundation of Elden Ring Incantations so you can build around the system efficiently.
What Stats Do Incantations Use?
Incantations are cast using Sacred Seals. Each Seal has a different Spell Boost value tied to one or more stats:
- Standard Incantations: Scale primarily with Faith
- Dragon Communion Incantations: Scale with Faith and Arcane
- Godslayer Incantations: Scale with Faith (and bonus from Godslayer’s Seal specifically)
- Dragon Cult Incantations: Scale with Faith (Lightning category)
Most general Faith builds should aim for 50 to 80 Faith, 30 to 40 Mind (for FP management), and 50 Vigor. Adding Arcane to 30 to 40 is recommended if you want to include Dragon Communion spells in your kit without losing effectiveness.
How to Use Incantations in Elden Ring
The following steps get you casting Incantations from scratch:
- Level your Faith stat to meet the requirement of the spell you want to use
- Obtain a Sacred Seal (the Finger Seal is available from the Twin Maiden Husks in Roundtable Hold)
- Memorize the Incantation at a Site of Grace using the “Memorize Spell” menu
- Equip the Sacred Seal in either hand
- Press the attack button with the Seal equipped to cast
You can hold a Sacred Seal in your offhand while a weapon occupies your main hand, allowing you to switch between melee and casting without changing equipment.
Best Incantations in Elden Ring: Buff Spells
Buff Incantations are the backbone of any serious Faith build. Casting them before entering a boss fight dramatically increases your damage output and survivability throughout the encounter.
Top Buff Incantations
- Golden Vow: Increases attack and defense for you and nearby allies. One of the highest-priority spells for any Faith build. Cast before every boss fight without exception.
- Flame, Grant Me Strength: Raises Physical and Fire attack power. Pairs exceptionally well with melee builds that use Fire-infused weapons or fire-based Incantations.
- Blessing of the Erdtree: A sustained health regeneration buff. Valuable for long boss fights where maintaining health between hits extends your survival window.
- Blessings Boon: A similar regeneration option requiring fewer stat investments, suitable for hybrid builds early in a playthrough.
Stacking Golden Vow with Flame, Grant Me Strength and then opening a boss fight with your strongest damage spell is the standard opener for optimized Faith DPS.
Healing Incantations Worth Keeping
- Heal: Restores a chunk of HP and can affect nearby allies in co-op play. A staple for any Faith build.
- Heal From Afar: A projectile version of Heal that restores HP on impact, useful for co-op sessions where players are spread across the arena.
- Great Heal: A more powerful and FP-heavy version of Heal for situations requiring large health restoration in a single cast.
- Blessing of the Erdtree: Functions as a combat-active regen that frees you from stopping to cast Heal mid-fight.
Best Elden Ring Incantations: Offensive Spells
Offensive Elden Ring Incantations cover three main damage categories: fire, lightning, and holy. Each category has distinct strengths against specific enemy types.
Fire Incantations
- Black Flame: A dark fire projectile that deals percentage-based HP damage, making it extremely effective against high-health bosses. The damage continues burning after the initial hit.
- Giantsflame Take Thee: A massive fire explosion with enormous range and AoE coverage. High FP cost but exceptional burst damage for Faith/Strength hybrid builds.
- Flame of the Fell God: Launches a delayed fireball that explodes after a short time. Strong against enemies that hold still or move slowly.
Lightning Incantations
- Lightning Spear: The most versatile offensive Lightning Incantation. Good range, solid damage, and low FP cost make it reliable against almost any target.
- Knight’s Lightning Spear: A more powerful version that also provides a brief buff effect upon casting.
- Fortissax’s Lightning Spear: A powerful dual spear throw with exceptional damage. Requires significant Faith but rewards patient farming for a Dragon Cult Incantation.
Holy Incantations
- Pest Threads: Fires multiple homing projectiles that track and pierce enemies. Excellent against humanoid bosses with large frames.
- Wrath of Gold: An area burst Holy incantation that staggers enemies within range. Strong in PvP and against clustered enemies.
All Dragon Incantations Elden Ring: The Full Breath Build
Dragon Incantations Elden Ring are sourced from the Dragon Communion system, where you trade Dragon Hearts at the Cathedral of Dragon Communion or Farum Azula’s altar to learn breath attacks.
Best Dragon Communion Incantations
- Rotten Breath: Inflicts Scarlet Rot buildup with a sustained breath attack. One of the most famous Incantations in the game due to its ability to proc Rot on bosses rapidly, including some of the hardest encounters.
- Borealis’s Mist: A freezing breath that builds Frost on enemies. Frost buildup reduces enemy damage resistance when triggered, setting up a significant damage amplification window.
- Magma Breath: Lays lava pools that deal sustained Fire damage. Useful against enemies that stand in place or move slowly through the affected area.
- Glintstone Breath: A Magic damage breath attack for the rare situations where Magic is the resistance-neutral damage type.
- Dragon Maw: A powerful close-range bite and breath combo with high poise-breaking capability.
Requirements for Dragon Incantations
Dragon Communion Incantations require both Faith and Arcane to scale effectively:
| Incantation | Minimum Faith | Minimum Arcane |
|---|---|---|
| Rotten Breath | 15 | 12 |
| Borealis’s Mist | 23 | 15 |
| Magma Breath | 14 | 10 |
| Glintstone Breath | 15 | 12 |
| Dragon Maw | 26 | 16 |
The Dragon Communion Seal scales the power of all these spells and is specifically recommended for builds that focus on Dragon Incantations. Using the Dragon Communion Seal doubles down on the Arcane scaling that makes these spells effective.
Best Sacred Seals for Elden Ring Incantations
The Sacred Seal you choose affects both your casting speed and the damage your spells deal. Different Seals boost different categories of Incantations.
Sacred Seal Comparison
- Finger Seal: The all-around starter Seal available from Roundtable Hold. Good for general Faith casting without specialization.
- Golden Order Seal: Boosts all Incantation damage equally. Strong for hybrid builds that use spells from multiple categories.
- Godslayer’s Seal: Provides a significant bonus to Godslayer Incantations (like Black Flame). Ideal if your offense centers on that category.
- Dragon Communion Seal: Scales Incantation power with Arcane. The mandatory choice for Dragon breath builds.
- Gravel Stone Seal: Boosts Dragon Cult Lightning Incantations specifically. Combines well with Lightning Spear and Fortissax builds.
For most general Faith builds, the Golden Order Seal combined with a high Faith investment is the safest starting point before specializing.
Pro Tips for Elden Ring Incantations
Pro Tips: Elden Ring Incantations
- Cast Golden Vow before every boss fight: The attack and defense buff from Golden Vow lasts long enough to cover most boss fights. Getting into the habit of casting it before every fog gate is one of the highest-impact changes a Faith player can make.
- Pair Rotten Breath with Rot-resistant armor: Rotten Breath inflicts Scarlet Rot on you as well if you stand in the cloud. Wear equipment with Rot resistance or cast from a distance to avoid self-inflicting the status.
- Use two Seals with different category bonuses: Dual wielding Sacred Seals allows you to switch between them to benefit from different category bonuses without changing loadouts. Equip a Godslayer’s Seal for Black Flame and a Gravel Stone Seal for Lightning Spear, then switch as needed.
- Memorize your most-used spells in slots 1 and 2: The memorized spell slot order determines your scroll-through speed mid-combat. Keep your main damage spell and main buff in the first two slots for the fastest access during fights.
- Level Mind to at least 30 early: Running out of FP mid-boss fight is one of the most common issues for new Incantation builds. 30 Mind provides enough FP to cast a full buff rotation plus several damage spells before needing to manage resources.
Common Mistakes Elden Ring Incantation Players Make
- Neglecting Vigor for offensive stats: Faith builds often get tempted to push Faith as high as possible at the expense of Vigor. Fix: Cap Vigor at 50 before pushing Faith beyond 60. Dying in two hits negates all your offensive potential.
- Using the wrong Sacred Seal for the wrong spells: Players sometimes use the Finger Seal for a Dragon Communion build that needs the Dragon Communion Seal to scale properly. Fix: Match your Seal to the primary category of Incantations in your kit before committing to a playstyle.
- Skipping pre-fight buff rotations: Many players cast spells reactively during a boss fight rather than entering fully buffed. Fix: Develop a standard buff opener (Golden Vow plus Flame, Grant Me Strength) and execute it before every boss fog gate without exception.
Reduce Lag While Playing Elden Ring Online With ExitLag
Elden Ring’s multiplayer system, whether co-op or invasions, requires a stable connection for consistent summon reliability and in-game performance. High ping causes summon failures, delayed co-op player actions, and desync during PvP encounters.
Why Connection Quality Matters in Elden Ring
Spell casting in Elden Ring PvP is particularly sensitive to latency because animation timing determines whether a cast lands or gets interrupted. High ping causes your opponent’s position to appear different from where they actually are on the server, leading to spells that visually connect but register as misses.
Additionally, frequent disconnections during co-op sessions force the entire summoning process to restart, which wastes time and frustration during difficult boss fights.
How ExitLag Helps Elden Ring Faith Builds
ExitLag is a game connection optimizer that routes your traffic through the lowest-latency available paths to the FromSoftware servers in real time. It is not a VPN and does not modify game files or interact with anti-cheat systems.
For Elden Ring, ExitLag’s Multipath Technology routes your packets through multiple simultaneous network paths. If one route degrades mid-session, the others maintain connection stability without any interruption. The result is more reliable summons, lower ping during PvP, and stable co-op performance even during intense multi-player boss fights.
Download ExitLag for PC and keep your Faith build performing at its best in every online session.
Elden Ring Incantations: Final Build Summary
Elden Ring Incantations reward players who invest time into understanding the system, from choosing the right Sacred Seal to timing pre-fight buffs correctly. A properly built Faith character is one of the most flexible and powerful archetypes in the game.
Recommended Core Incantation Kit
| Incantation | Role | FP Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Golden Vow | Pre-fight buff | 40 FP |
| Flame, Grant Me Strength | Damage buff | 28 FP |
| Black Flame | Primary offense | 18 FP per cast |
| Lightning Spear | Ranged offense | 18 FP per cast |
| Rotten Breath | Boss pressure | 36 FP per cast |
| Heal | Emergency recovery | Variable |
This core kit handles the majority of encounters in both the base game and the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC. Adjust by replacing one or two damage spells based on the enemy type you are fighting and the Incantation category your Sacred Seal best boosts.
Best Elden Ring Incantations are ultimately those that match your build’s stat distribution and your preferred combat distance. Start with Golden Vow and Black Flame, learn the timing, and expand your kit from there as your Faith investment grows.
All game images used in this blog post belong to FromSoftware and Bandai Namco Entertainment. They are used for informational and educational purposes only and do not imply endorsement or affiliation with the rights holders.
Got questions or want to connect with other players? Join the conversation at the ExitLag Forum!
