UPDATE: Yeah, this build STRUGGLES in the late game. The 1.04 update bugged out Malenia’s heal, so I’m gonna wait until 1.05 before taking her on again.
Spiked gloves set to cold makes the end game a lot easier on fist build. I keep 3 sets. 1 with endure, 1 with royal knight resolve, 1 with barbaric roar. I use claw talisman, axe talisman, erdtree +2, flex the last one depending on your needs.
Idk, ran through entire game with caestus, only struggled with malenia's waterflow attack (like 95% of players). Otherwise caestus is pretty good, just don't focus big enemies.
Bro I'm subscribing just because of your note in the beginning section to "stop the video here if you want to have an organic, explorative play thru". That's so true, this game is almost impossible to avoid looking things up online but you convinced me to just find the turtle talisman and give pugilist a shot. I have the Katar and see a lot of potential in it
Any chance you could make a video of this build later into the game? I'd love to see how you've progressed and your experience with the build, ups and downs, etc etc
I'm using them at +13 and they're pretty cool. Not quite one and done because of you can't get in range it's annoying but all in all I use them often paired with this ice axe. Also grease the gloves up every time you fight bigger battles
@@MarckCat eh, might not be the best option, but fighting your way through a horde of elite swordsmen, dragons and demigods with nothing but a couple gauntlets will never not be worth it.
@@MarckCat They are no match against high poise meta builds but who cares. It's a fun build and the tryhards are the real losers here. They miss out on the fun for the sake of a furlcalling remedy. 😂
Exactly what I was looking for! I somehow accidentally switched to the claws somehow on an endgame build and fell in love. Prompted me to do a new run using fist weapons and found this guide. So helpful!
heads up, you can obtain the flail pre-margit and 2h with 14 dex. you can then use its weapon art to bleed the dragon boss in dragonbarrow where it cant attack you for 75k souls. this is much faster and easier than the numen rune and also happens to be in the same zone as the spiked caestus merchant, hope this helps.
That button tapping is hilarious. I mainly just play online competitive games so I was short attention span this is the first RPG I played in forever that I liked but I still hate cutscenes and story stuff and do the same thing tap the button to try to get the hell out of the cutscene I just want to play.
This is neat to find now, as I decided to start a new Wretch build in preparation for the DLC, and go all fists. It's easily been the most fun I've ever had. I beat Mohg and Radahn within a week, and I'm going to try and get to the DLC this week (I'm at level 114 now, so I'm close to DLC-viable). The Spiked Caestus and the Clinging Bone have been so much damn fun to use. I couldn't believe the Stagger damage on the Charged attack for the Caestus, especially if you can do two in a row. The three-punch combo knocks -everything- down.
Nice video. I wanted to play the brawler for awhile now and didn't even realize the one merchant had 'em. I'm going to try it after my assassin play through. 😊
I've been using the lord of blood exultation, rotten winged sword insignia and swapping out the claw talisman but I didn't know about that blue talisman or the hammer one thank you for that! I have an occult spiked caestus with an arcane/dex build and the endure ash of war. I don't stagger and just keep wailing lol. Malenias great rune helps a lot too. Still working with different stuff. Great video!
You could also get the Turtle Shell shield from the Weeping Peninsula (don't upgrade it) and just wear it on your back for the stamina recovery buff. Instant ninja turtle build.
I've recently had the idea to remake Oblivion classes in the Souls games and in Elden Ring, however possible. I'm starting chiefly with the Monk class, as it's not one I really got into when I did play Oblivion back in the day (not to mention, it's just kind of a cool and underutilized class). That being said, hand to hand combat is apparently one of the combat sets. So unlike a cleric build in which I would typically have a mace or morning star, I'm opting for fist weapons -- particularly the spiked caestus. Thank you for your video as it helped give me some idea as to how I can start the build!
I love casting Invisible Weapon on the Caestus. Cuz then it feels like you're a Baki-level martial artist and the bleed procs are you wrecking their internal organs
With my spiked caestus run I went and beat radahn asap to be able to go to nokron and get the black whetblade to add more bleed to the spiked caestus. I’ve been told that making it occult and dumping points into arcane is a viable way to get big damage while still increasing the bleed
the bit where you spam-skipped the dialogue just reminds me of how it gets me every time i skip through rennala's dialogue when you leave without doing a respec between the cadence and rhythm of the line, and the timing of skipping the rest of the line, she just says, "i would bURth"
There is a shield you can find on the way to Castle Morne. On the wall by the Castle Morne Ramparts SOG you can use the wind to get up on top of the tower to find this game version of the grass Shield. Here is the Turtle Shield.
Little side note if you wanna increase your bleed damage there is a tailsman for that called lord of bloods exultation And to increase your bleed damage level up your arcane this is just a suggestion you don't have to do it
Loved the content. I went bloodhound step and blood flame blade incant. Just started the build tonight. I plan on getting the talisman to increase damage around blood eventually too. Not sure what armor to use yet tho...
From my roughly five hours of experience with fist-only, I was not expecting how viable it would be even with poor scaling, underleveled and no specialised talismans. My only problem is that, while the jump attack is amazing for high damage and breaking poise, against a boss like Radahn it can be very hard to hit even if you're right up against him. Hitting the horse is the best solution, but his drifting can make it near-impossible sometimes.
That's why I kinda fused my brawler build with some faith/fire spells to give him some dmg boost or for ranged fire attacks. So far it's been pretty fun
Or you can get the holy fist weapons from the Roundtable. Just kill the tarnished eater with the butcher knife at calid's border and rest at the grace inside that church. Melina will congradulate you and take you to the roundtable hold. Only one thing left to do form there is to jump from the balcony and get to the room where the weapon is located. I don't know if you need to kill the frosty thorn invader first though.
@@Alli340 No she doesn't. It may seem like that because you headed straight for Stormviel Castle or had completed a noteworthy feat shortly after you accepted her service. For all of my playthroughs after the first, I know I have rested at more than 4 sites, not including the caves, mines and catacombs.
One more question what should I do to get more damage with the star fists? I have them maxed out and they are heavy now but I don't hit for that much I think my strength is around 65
At 120, I've moved away from put STR/DEX and gone an even split of STR/DEX/ARC with a Bleed Parry Ash. The weapon doesn't deal as consistent of flat damage, but it procs bleed pretty much every attack chain.
@@Indestructoboy so like 40 vigor / 25 end / 55 strength / 55 dex / 45 arcane to hit all the break points at ~level 160. (that would make hero the most optimal starter by like 5 levels if you do make a updated video)
You can use it 2handed, same like switching from 1hand to 2hand with a great sword. He puts on the second left caestus then(in 2hand mode). Then you do just simple attacks, like 2 weapon attacks. Sry for my bad english. :) So you just need to buy that 1 caestus, to use it one, or 2 handed. :) Hope it helps.
It's a quality weapon that scales with both Dex and STR evenly so those two are you priorities. You can even have it scale with other stats later on. And don't ignore your hit point. You're going to be in the thick of things a lot.
I think there's an argument to be made that Star Fists are better for more STR heavy builds than STR/DEX splits. I'll add in a comparison when I update this for late game.
Bleed builds are among the worst in the game. Half of the enemies you fight, especially toward the end cannot bleed. Even the final boss can't bleed. So if you don't have a back up for that, then GG fam, enjoy the next 12 hours of getting NO WHERE.
UPDATE: Yeah, this build STRUGGLES in the late game. The 1.04 update bugged out Malenia’s heal, so I’m gonna wait until 1.05 before taking her on again.
Good to know. I wanna run this so bad cause it scratches my boxer itch.
Spiked gloves set to cold makes the end game a lot easier on fist build. I keep 3 sets. 1 with endure, 1 with royal knight resolve, 1 with barbaric roar. I use claw talisman, axe talisman, erdtree +2, flex the last one depending on your needs.
It's okay if you click over to the spiked iron balls, but even then, it's rough.
Idk, ran through entire game with caestus, only struggled with malenia's waterflow attack (like 95% of players). Otherwise caestus is pretty good, just don't focus big enemies.
This is easily the best build guide I’ve ever seen the map tracing in the back was beyond genius
Bro I'm subscribing just because of your note in the beginning section to "stop the video here if you want to have an organic, explorative play thru".
That's so true, this game is almost impossible to avoid looking things up online but you convinced me to just find the turtle talisman and give pugilist a shot. I have the Katar and see a lot of potential in it
Any chance you could make a video of this build later into the game? I'd love to see how you've progressed and your experience with the build, ups and downs, etc etc
I'm using them at +13 and they're pretty cool. Not quite one and done because of you can't get in range it's annoying but all in all I use them often paired with this ice axe. Also grease the gloves up every time you fight bigger battles
Fist weapons are best in pvp, I am literally unstoppable at SL 150. Not the best option for pve
@@MarckCat eh, might not be the best option, but fighting your way through a horde of elite swordsmen, dragons and demigods with nothing but a couple gauntlets will never not be worth it.
@@mr.cup6yearsago211 loving Katanas for pve, Claws for pvp
@@MarckCat They are no match against high poise meta builds but who cares. It's a fun build and the tryhards are the real losers here. They miss out on the fun for the sake of a furlcalling remedy. 😂
Exactly what I was looking for! I somehow accidentally switched to the claws somehow on an endgame build and fell in love. Prompted me to do a new run using fist weapons and found this guide. So helpful!
I love the way you do your guides with “it’s here, but I’ll leave the exploration up to you”
heads up, you can obtain the flail pre-margit and 2h with 14 dex. you can then use its weapon art to bleed the dragon boss in dragonbarrow where it cant attack you for 75k souls. this is much faster and easier than the numen rune and also happens to be in the same zone as the spiked caestus merchant, hope this helps.
can i just say that your editing style with the map in the background is brilliant! instant sub.
great vid! time to become Mr Fister
This is an awesome build. I’ll definitely be saving this for my next play through as it lines up pretty well with the theme I’m going for
Earned my like/sub at 0:11 . That edit was lovely lmaoo
Have a pugilist build because of this vid. I am a fan of Caestus now. I'll be returning to all of the prior souls games and doing the same.
right, that intro is so true. i plan on doing a fist build next
I really wanted to do a caestus only run and you just helped me start thanks dude
Great video, very informative. Thank you for posting!
Thank you so much! This helped me get a head start in a build I wanted to do!
That button tapping is hilarious. I mainly just play online competitive games so I was short attention span this is the first RPG I played in forever that I liked but I still hate cutscenes and story stuff and do the same thing tap the button to try to get the hell out of the cutscene I just want to play.
Dope video man I liked the build a lot
I am getting into this series for the first time, and I wanna run this build so bad. When you finish with it, will you make a video about the build?
Oh I’m about 90% through the game. It has a few flaws in regards to bad hit boxes, but it rips through just about anything the game puts in your way
This is neat to find now, as I decided to start a new Wretch build in preparation for the DLC, and go all fists. It's easily been the most fun I've ever had. I beat Mohg and Radahn within a week, and I'm going to try and get to the DLC this week (I'm at level 114 now, so I'm close to DLC-viable). The Spiked Caestus and the Clinging Bone have been so much damn fun to use. I couldn't believe the Stagger damage on the Charged attack for the Caestus, especially if you can do two in a row. The three-punch combo knocks -everything- down.
Nice video. I wanted to play the brawler for awhile now and didn't even realize the one merchant had 'em. I'm going to try it after my assassin play through. 😊
I've been using the lord of blood exultation, rotten winged sword insignia and swapping out the claw talisman but I didn't know about that blue talisman or the hammer one thank you for that! I have an occult spiked caestus with an arcane/dex build and the endure ash of war. I don't stagger and just keep wailing lol. Malenias great rune helps a lot too. Still working with different stuff. Great video!
You could also get the Turtle Shell shield from the Weeping Peninsula (don't upgrade it) and just wear it on your back for the stamina recovery buff.
Instant ninja turtle build.
I've recently had the idea to remake Oblivion classes in the Souls games and in Elden Ring, however possible. I'm starting chiefly with the Monk class, as it's not one I really got into when I did play Oblivion back in the day (not to mention, it's just kind of a cool and underutilized class). That being said, hand to hand combat is apparently one of the combat sets. So unlike a cleric build in which I would typically have a mace or morning star, I'm opting for fist weapons -- particularly the spiked caestus. Thank you for your video as it helped give me some idea as to how I can start the build!
I love casting Invisible Weapon on the Caestus. Cuz then it feels like you're a Baki-level martial artist and the bleed procs are you wrecking their internal organs
Ho ho ho, now this is really an interesting build.
Coolest shit I’ve seen finna try it now
This was really helpful when making the Makoto niijima character. Was hard as hell killing basic enemies by punching them to death
very cool build, will try eventually. also commenting for the algorithm :^)
TIL selling runes gives you the same amount of runes as popping them from the inventory
Noice, definetly gonna try some cestus action
With my spiked caestus run I went and beat radahn asap to be able to go to nokron and get the black whetblade to add more bleed to the spiked caestus. I’ve been told that making it occult and dumping points into arcane is a viable way to get big damage while still increasing the bleed
the bit where you spam-skipped the dialogue just reminds me of how it gets me every time i skip through rennala's dialogue when you leave without doing a respec
between the cadence and rhythm of the line, and the timing of skipping the rest of the line, she just says, "i would bURth"
Boxing is f dope
There is a shield you can find on the way to Castle Morne. On the wall by the Castle Morne Ramparts SOG you can use the wind to get up on top of the tower to find this game version of the grass Shield. Here is the Turtle Shield.
yes but it is quite heavy and spoils the blue dancer charm talisman bonus
@@TheTunzo ether way it can be good for a more heavy style if people want it
Great vid 👌
Insane amount of effort went into this video, I can tell. Really impressive editing and narration. You should consider professional video editing
i didnt even know the green turtle talisman was a thing, sounds kinda similar to green dog talisman tbh
Ah, my mistake. Dunno how I didn’t catch that
Little side note if you wanna increase your bleed damage there is a tailsman for that called lord of bloods exultation
And to increase your bleed damage level up your arcane this is just a suggestion you don't have to do it
Thank you I can now make the ultimate mike tyson build
Best guide
Nice vid, man! Definitely going to use this as a guide. How do you feel about using cold alignment to get frostbite and bleed?
I actually just got Hoarfrost Stomp on the regular Caestus, so I'll be trying that out over the next day or so.
Beating the game three times as mage I think it's finally time I do something interesting and I do like fisticuffs
Nah it's time to do mage fist build
@@eziss5249 definitely might be more interesting
@@stevenurena9588 have you done mage fist build? Looking to try that now
Loved the content. I went bloodhound step and blood flame blade incant. Just started the build tonight. I plan on getting the talisman to increase damage around blood eventually too. Not sure what armor to use yet tho...
Try vyke lighting, it's soo cool it cover your weapon and whole body in Red lighting
The spiked version is in caelid
I use bloodhound step instead of parry being able to teleport out of danger is better to me than trying to parry enemies who hit hard
Impressive
From my roughly five hours of experience with fist-only, I was not expecting how viable it would be even with poor scaling, underleveled and no specialised talismans.
My only problem is that, while the jump attack is amazing for high damage and breaking poise, against a boss like Radahn it can be very hard to hit even if you're right up against him. Hitting the horse is the best solution, but his drifting can make it near-impossible sometimes.
That's why I kinda fused my brawler build with some faith/fire spells to give him some dmg boost or for ranged fire attacks. So far it's been pretty fun
Upvoted for two dogs lmao
Or you can get the holy fist weapons from the Roundtable. Just kill the tarnished eater with the butcher knife at calid's border and rest at the grace inside that church. Melina will congradulate you and take you to the roundtable hold. Only one thing left to do form there is to jump from the balcony and get to the room where the weapon is located. I don't know if you need to kill the frosty thorn invader first though.
she takes you to the roundtable after unlocking 3 sites of grace and resting at the third one
@@Alli340 No she doesn't. It may seem like that because you headed straight for Stormviel Castle or had completed a noteworthy feat shortly after you accepted her service.
For all of my playthroughs after the first, I know I have rested at more than 4 sites, not including the caves, mines and catacombs.
Awesome build, what stats priorities at this build? And will be great if you can upgrade this build to mid/late game 👍🏻💪🏻
Imma try this in NG+
Is this build still good on the current version of elden ring?
I eventually swapped to Starfist, but the rest is still recognized as the best build to handle a majority of the DLC
@@Indestructoboy Where do you find the star fist?
@@Indestructoboy Also how should I be upgrading my actual charracter?
Numen room isn’t there anymore /: tried it today what a bummer
Indestructoboy: are you into fisting?
Elden ring: oh yeah!
@5:20 "dogs"
Has anyone ever told you that you sound like chris griffin?
Hahaha extra charge on our Gatorade 🤣
Did you try to do an Early Fist build back on Patch 1.00? Since I recall in the Beta that Fists were capped at a very low damage out put.
Do you do the illustrations you used? They are great.
All the graphic design is all me.
and thank you!
@@Indestructoboy nice I assume you are on Instagram? I’d love to see more of your illustrations
Who needs armor and big weapons, all I need are my fists and spiked gloves lol
Jar Warrior Build End game fists only I will punch everything to death
- Caedes Malum
The kiryu kazuma build
One more question what should I do to get more damage with the star fists? I have them maxed out and they are heavy now but I don't hit for that much I think my strength is around 65
0:32 💀😂
Do you think this could be optimised for late game?
I’m at L100 now with almost the same build. I swapped Hammer for Claw talisman, but it’s been ripping through everything in this game.
Thanks man will definitely try this, looks like a hell of a lotta fun. Also great vid keep up the great work
what armour are you wearing?
Green Turtle Talisman? You mean 'dog', right? :D
what do you scale the fists with? what are you attribs at 100-150
At 120, I've moved away from put STR/DEX and gone an even split of STR/DEX/ARC with a Bleed Parry Ash. The weapon doesn't deal as consistent of flat damage, but it procs bleed pretty much every attack chain.
@@Indestructoboy so like 40 vigor / 25 end / 55 strength / 55 dex / 45 arcane to hit all the break points at ~level 160. (that would make hero the most optimal starter by like 5 levels if you do make a updated video)
Do you have two caestus's on or one?
You can use it 2handed, same like switching from 1hand to 2hand with a great sword. He puts on the second left caestus then(in 2hand mode). Then you do just simple attacks, like 2 weapon attacks. Sry for my bad english. :) So you just need to buy that 1 caestus, to use it one, or 2 handed. :) Hope it helps.
yikes i sold my hammer talisman 😅 any other substitutes?
Claw is actually better, and it’s available before Godrick in Stormveil
Nanomachines son
what are the stat priorities for the main dmg stat?
It's a quality weapon that scales with both Dex and STR evenly so those two are you priorities. You can even have it scale with other stats later on. And don't ignore your hit point. You're going to be in the thick of things a lot.
@@pimp3090 can i climb with it just in dexterity? and put on sharp or something?
Spiked caestus in caelid at the merchant for the bleeding (4k runes to buy)
why not get star fists?
I think there's an argument to be made that Star Fists are better for more STR heavy builds than STR/DEX splits. I'll add in a comparison when I update this for late game.
Bro.
Bro…
Man, i like that video, but your capture of the game is not fluid
For someone who loves the caestus your pronouncing it wrong. Try pronouncing it with a K
I'm making amber heard
dude you need to sneeze or something damn
I have a speech impediment.
@@Indestructoboy L
Bleed builds are among the worst in the game. Half of the enemies you fight, especially toward the end cannot bleed. Even the final boss can't bleed. So if you don't have a back up for that, then GG fam, enjoy the next 12 hours of getting NO WHERE.
lmao what
Bait
Soooo much nasal speech. Like did u have an allergy attack before making this?
I have a speech impediment
@@Indestructoboy ah I've have allergies to dust so I sound like this when I get dust in my nose like today lol
Guide sucks man…don’t show your character and the map, one or the other
Lol eat a fat one