You shouldn’t be a god-killer at the start of a FromSoftware game.
In anticipation of Shadow of the Erdtree’s launch, I got heavily into Elden Ring once again this year. I finished my original playthrough with a powerful spellsword build (except when I had to defeat Malenia, where I cheesed it with a bleed boy), but for NG+ I wanted to try something different—after all, I’d barely touched my hoard of larval tears. Specifically, I wanted something unstoppable. Something that would make every boss keel over instantly. The inverse of the usual FromSoftware experience, basically.
Naturally, I joined the ranks of the Blasphemous Blade club. For the uninitiated, this disgusting greatsword can be earned by defeating Rykard, Lord of Blasphemy, the boss of Volcano Manor. Like a lot of Elden Ring’s optional bosses, he’s a bit of a tricky bastard, but sweating through this fight is a small price to pay for Elden Ring’s most OP weapon.
You can’t really go wrong with a greatsword in Elden Ring, but what makes the Blasphemous Blade special is its unique skill: Taker’s Flames. Oh boy. Greatswords already have a helluva reach, but thanks to Taker’s Flames the Blasphemous Blade becomes an unstoppable mid-range weapon. The skill sees you lift the sword aloft, charge it up, and then bring it down, where it shoots out a flaming explosion that annihilates everything in its path. It’s apocalyptically powerful.
Taker’s Flames scales with faith and spits out fire damage, so if you’ve got a decent faith stat and you aren’t fighting anything with lots of fire resistance, it’s done for. Everything that isn’t a boss will go down in one hit. Most bosses don’t fare much better, especially if you’ve paired it with the appropriate talismans. When I tangoed with Radahn again, which initially took many, many attempts, he went down in a few hits. Glorious.
Taker’s Flames isn’t all about the damage, though. It also heals 150HP, on top of 10% of your max HP. And it does stance damage, so if a boss survives, there’s a good chance they’re going to fall on their backside, giving you plenty of time to use the skill again, or simply go in with some regular-but-still-very-powerful attacks. Even when you’re not using Taker’s Flames, you’ll be healed whenever an enemy dies while you’re holding the sword.
There are a lot of ways to build a character around Blasphemous Blade. You can go tanky and wield a shield in your off-hand, pair it with the Sword of Milos so you can recover FP with every kill (very handy, given how much FP you’ll be using thanks to Taker’s Flames), or focus on fire damage with an assortment of fire-based incantations. It’s good to have some back-ups for when you need to fight an someone like Mohg, Lord of Blood, though, who doesn’t give a shit about fire.
Speaking of Mohg, when I fought him just before jumping into Erdree—defeating him is the last step you need to complete before starting the DLC—I did think «OK, maybe I’m not too overpowered». But the moment I stepped into the Lands of Shadow, I was back on my bullshit. Now, it’s worth noting that Erdtree is still a change of pace.
