How Do Soft Caps Work in Elden Ring? A Comprehensive Guide

Understanding soft caps is crucial for optimizing your character build in Elden Ring. Unlike a hard cap, which represents an absolute limit beyond which a stat cannot increase, a soft cap signifies a point where the benefits of leveling a stat start to diminish significantly. Instead of a brick wall, think of it as a gradually sloping hill. Initially, each point you invest in a stat provides a substantial return, but as you approach and surpass the soft cap, the incremental gains become smaller and less impactful. This encourages players to diversify their character builds and not focus solely on maxing out one or two stats.

Understanding the Soft Cap Concept

In Elden Ring, each of the eight main stats – Vigor, Mind, Endurance, Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, Faith, and Arcane – has its own series of soft caps. These caps vary from stat to stat, and sometimes even within the same stat, depending on what they are influencing. For instance, Endurance has soft caps at 15, 30, and 50 for stamina, while Arcane has soft caps at 25, 45, and 60 for status effect build-up.

The key takeaway is that the stat continues to increase after a soft cap, but the benefits you receive from that increase become less and less potent. This encourages players to spread their stats, rather than funneling all points into one area. It’s a balancing act; hitting a soft cap in one stat may lead you to start focusing on another, thereby building a more well-rounded character.

How Diminishing Returns Work

The diminishing returns are not always consistent; they are typically more dramatic after each soft cap is reached. For example, the first few points in a stat like Vigor provide a significant increase in HP. However, as you approach and pass its initial soft cap (often at around 40, depending on how you calculate it), the amount of additional HP gained per point is drastically reduced. This is not to say that leveling past soft caps is useless, but that those points might be better spent on a different stat to gain a higher overall boost in effectiveness.

Practical Implications of Soft Caps

Understanding the impact of soft caps is especially crucial because it influences your character building strategy. For example:

• Damage Scaling: Weapons and spells scale with various stats. Pushing a scaling stat past its soft cap will still increase damage output, but the rate at which damage increases slows considerably. This may lead you to consider leveling up a secondary stat that also influences damage, or investing in a stat that improves your defenses.
• Stamina and Equipment Load: Endurance provides stamina and influences equipment load. It has a few soft caps. Beyond those, the increase to those stats becomes minuscule compared to earlier levels, so it may be more efficient to focus on other stats.
• Casting Speed: Dexterity can influence your casting speed. After the soft cap around level 70, there’s little benefit to increase it further for casting speed alone.

Identifying Soft Cap Ranges

Here’s a breakdown of the soft caps for key stats, keeping in mind that the specific numbers can vary depending on the in-game calculation:

• Vigor: Generally, the soft cap is around 40, but many players push it to around 55+ for late-game areas. This ensures they don’t get one-shotted.
• Mind: This stat has fewer, or less noticeable soft caps. Generally, it’s best to increase this only to the extent that it allows you to effectively use your skills, without too much wasted FP.
• Endurance: Has soft caps at 15/30/50 for stamina and generally, past 50 the value for stamina drops off significantly.
• Strength: Soft caps around 20/55. There may be additional soft caps up to 80 which are useful for two-handed scaling.
• Dexterity: Soft caps around 16/60/80 for physical damage and around 70 for casting speed.
• Intelligence: Soft cap around 60/80.
• Faith: Soft cap around 60/80.
• Arcane: Soft caps at 25/45/60 for status effect build-up, and may have other soft caps for the other things it scales.

It’s important to remember these numbers are guidelines. You should always consider how your character is playing, your weapon and spell choices, and any gear you’re using when making choices about how to allocate your level-ups.

Soft Caps vs. Hard Caps

It’s important to distinguish soft caps from hard caps. In Elden Ring, every stat has a hard cap of 99. Reaching a hard cap means that stat cannot be increased any further. Soft caps are more about the diminishing return, not a physical limit of the stats. They are more like ‘sweet spots’. You can level past these, but the gains are minor compared to leveling a stat below its soft cap.

Why Soft Caps Are Important

The inclusion of soft caps in Elden Ring serves a few important functions:

• Build Diversity: By discouraging players from maxing out just one stat, the game promotes varied builds, leading to a more diverse and engaging experience.
• Strategic Character Development: Players need to make informed decisions about stat allocation, considering both offensive and defensive capabilities, which adds depth and strategy to leveling.
• Balanced Gameplay: Soft caps prevent excessively powerful builds that would break the game’s balance, thereby maintaining a challenging and fair experience.

Conclusion

Mastering the understanding of soft caps in Elden Ring is key to crafting an optimal character build. It’s not just about maxing out your stats; it’s about finding the right balance and making strategic decisions about where to invest your runes. By paying attention to these diminishing returns and considering alternative stat investments, you’ll gain an edge, allowing you to triumph over even the most challenging of foes in the Lands Between.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. What exactly is a soft cap in Elden Ring?

A soft cap in Elden Ring is a point in a stat’s progression where the returns for each additional level decrease significantly. While you can still level the stat, the bonus you receive becomes much smaller, making it less efficient compared to focusing on other stats.

2. Are all soft caps the same across different stats?

No, soft caps vary significantly between different stats. For example, Vigor may have a soft cap of around 40 for HP gains, while Dexterity might have different soft caps for weapon scaling and casting speed.

3. Does leveling a stat past its soft cap do anything at all?

Yes, leveling a stat past its soft cap still increases its associated benefits, such as damage or health, but the gains are significantly reduced. This makes it less efficient to focus solely on one stat past its soft cap.

4. What is the hard cap for all stats in Elden Ring?

The hard cap for all stats in Elden Ring is 99. Once you reach 99 in any stat, you cannot increase it any further.

5. How does Vigor’s soft cap affect my character?

Vigor’s primary function is to increase your health. It has a soft cap around 40, though many players push it to 55+ for late-game survivability. Past this cap, gains are still given, but much less significant per level.

6. How do soft caps affect damage scaling?

When leveling a stat that scales weapon or spell damage, its effectiveness declines upon reaching a soft cap. This encourages players to consider diversifying their damage output by leveling multiple damage-related stats.

7. Is it ever worth leveling a stat past its soft cap?

Yes, in certain cases. For example, you may want to push vigor slightly higher for survivability, even after it has hit its main soft cap. Ultimately the decision is yours based on your build, playstyle and preference.

8. Do soft caps affect casting speed?

Yes, Dexterity has a soft cap of around 70 for casting speed. While it can still improve the speed to some degree past this point, the gains are not that significant.

9. How many soft caps does a typical stat have?

Most stats have multiple soft caps, with benefits diminishing at each subsequent soft cap. For example Endurance has soft caps at 15/30/50, and arcane has soft caps at 25/45/60.

10. What is the relationship between soft caps and build diversity?

Soft caps encourage build diversity by discouraging players from maxing out a single stat. Instead, players are encouraged to invest in different stats that benefit their playstyle, creating a more varied gameplay experience.

11. Do I need to memorize the soft cap values for all stats?

While memorizing is helpful, it’s more crucial to understand the general principle behind soft caps. Experimenting with different stat combinations and understanding diminishing returns will lead to an effective build.

12. How do I know when I’ve reached a soft cap?

You’ll notice the diminishing returns when leveling up. The numerical increase to your relevant stat will noticeably decrease when you’ve reached a soft cap. You’ll also start to notice that each point in that stat doesn’t seem to make a huge difference to gameplay.

13. Can soft caps change with patches or updates?

Yes, developers can adjust soft caps in patches and updates for balancing purposes. It’s good to keep an eye on community discussions for the most up-to-date information.

14. Does equipment have soft caps?

No, equipment doesn’t have soft caps. Soft caps only apply to the core character stats. However, different gear may scale with certain stats differently, so this is an important thing to keep in mind.

15. Is there an ideal level to stop leveling in Elden Ring because of soft caps?

While there isn’t an absolute ideal level, many players find the “meta” level to be around 125-150 for PvP duels. However, you can continue leveling if you wish. Just be aware of the diminishing returns offered by stats past soft cap.