Elden Ring is home to hundreds of builds thanks to its unique combination of talismans, weapons, and magic. As you advance further and further into the game, your options skyrocket, and builds become much more interesting. However, one thing that can’t be discounted are items you get early on. The Blue Dancer Charm is unlocked quite early in Elden Ring, but it holds quite a lot of potential for late-game builds. Let’s talk about what the Blue Dancer charm actually does so you can make the best use of it.
How to Use the Blue Dancer Charm in Elden Ring
The Blue Dancer Charm improves physical damage when you have a lower Equip Load. The Charm only improves physical damage scaling, meaning that your weapon’s base stats are unaffected. However, the damage scaling improves dramatically, getting upwards of 25-30% bonus damage for having extremely low equipment load. Generic builds looking to make the best use of this must be under 30 Equip Load, but will want to be closer to 10.
Build Guide
While the Blue Dancer Charm is best used with low equipment weapons, anything under 20 will do. That means you can use longswords, katanas, daggers, bows, and even some staves to make it work.
This is a flat number. Getting more equip load does not mean you can have more equipment while still wearing the Blue Dancer Charm. If you want to dedicate yourself to this talisman, feel free to put Endurance into other stats, like Vigor or Mind.
The closer to 8 you get, the better. 8 is the “soft cap” for the Blue Dancer charm, meaning that your scaling doesn’t improve much at lower equipment loads.
If you want to make this build work, consider the following steps:
- Max out physical scaling. Your weapon must have physical scaling to benefit from the Blue Dancer Charm. This means weapons like the Cipher Pata do not scale at all when this is equipped, but staves that cast physical magic like Gravity spells will improve.
- Find a good, light weapon. Daggers and Shortbows tend to work rather well with the Dancer Charm. For instance, Reduvia for an Arcane build might find a good home with a Blue Dancer charm, since it has good damage and a ranged attack. The more likely that you don’t need a backup weapon, seal, or staff, the better! But, don’t sacrifice utility for damage.
- Figure out your Talisman setup. You really want to get to the 10-20 range for Equip Load. That means your talismans should put you no more than 20… And the closer to 10, the better! Find what armor fits while wearing your favorite talismans.
Example Blue Dancer Charm Build
The above build is a defensive version of the Blue Dancer Charm build, used by a Strength set. With the Cinquedea, the Rotten Winged Sword Insignia, and the Blue Dancer Talisman, this build is able to pump out high, consistent damage while keeping access to Beast Magic if necessary. The defensive talismans of the Dragoncrest Greatshield and Erdtree’s Favor +2 allow for slightly better defenses to compensate for the loss of armor. This build gets to 8.1 Equip Load – 9.6 with the Clawmark Seal – which gets close to the Soft Cap for the talisman.
If I was to be more aggressive, I would consider using Radagon’s Soreseal for the bonus Strength and Dexterity or the Ritual Sword Talisman for brute force. You’re going to take a lot of damage with this talisman, so you might as well assume that you’ll either be at max health or dead!
Where to Find the Blue Dancer Charm
If you haven’t found the Blue Dancer Charm yet, we don’t blame you! It’s not exactly sitting out in the open. However, that’s not to say it’s difficult to locate.
The charm is hidden within Highroad Cave. Head to the spot located on the map above, which is a few drops down from the Bridge. If you go to the bridge, look to the right for a Spiritspring down to the bottom, then hug the left wall. You’ll find the cave in no time.
This cave requires you to drop down through several rooms and find your way into side caves. Bring a lantern or a torch and be ready to jump! Fallen pillars can be a bit slippery. Otherwise, you probably already know exactly what to expect: An end-cave boss battle. This particular boss is waiting for you behind a large waterfall. Defeat it, and the charm is yours.
