Shadow of the Erdtree – Beast Claw Build Guide

You’ll run into several new weapon types as you explore Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree. These range from the slow but strong Great Katanas and the defensively focused Duelling Shields, to the lightning-fast Hand-to-Hand Arts and Beast Claws. This build guide will focus on the latter, discussing ways to get the most out of the first Beast Claw weapon you can find in the DLC.

Tracking down the first set of Beast Claws in Shadow of the Erdtree is deceptively simple, owing to their proximity to the DLC entry point. Simply named “Beast Claw”, these can be infused and have their Ash of War altered to better suit several playstyles. This guide will offer a build emphasizing their surprising affinity towards the Cold Infusion, but it will also suggest some alternative builds at the end that take advantage of other aspects of the Beast Claw.

Where to Find the Beast Claw

The Beast Claw (Weapon) can be found in the very first area of the DLC, the Gravesite Plains. After going up the steps from where you first enter the DLC, turn right and head into the woods to the southeast. In these woods is a hostile NPC called “Logur the Beast Claw” who wields the Beast Claw as his weapon of choice. He can be a little hard to spot, but he’s usually found in the middle of the woods and there will be a bird-like screech when you’re getting close to him. He will also attack you on sight, so it’s very possible that he will find you before you can find him. For a full guide on tracking him down, look here.

Weapon Overview

The Beast Claw (Weapon) is a paired weapon that serves as a more mobile alternative to the various claws found in the base game. Many of its attacks advance you forward, helping to ensure that your attacks land on your target even if they step back. These attacks also tend to be quite fast, allowing you to build up status quickly and also allowing you to dodge quickly after using them thanks to a low recovery time.

One useful aspect of this weapon category is its access to a special retreating attack. By charging up a heavy attack and tapping dodge during the charge, you can slash while stepping back, allowing you to retreat while dealing some damage. The Beast Claw is also the only weapon that can use the Ash of War: Savage Claws and Ash of War: Raging Beast .

The Build

This build leans heavily into the Beast Claw’s Cold Affinity, mixing in Sorcery to take full advantage of the Int Scaling this affinity adds. By applying frostbite with rapid slashes and then resetting it with Magma Sorcery, this build can rapidly shred an enemy’s health bar while remaining dangerous at any range. Access to powerful Gravity Sorceries is also a huge boon to this playstyle, allowing you to manipulate enemy positions and break their stance more easily.

Stats (Level 150, Wretch Starting Class)

This build is leaning heavily into Sorcery, so we’ll be going with 60 Intelligence. 60 Vigor is all but mandatory for taking a hit and not dying, and 40 Mind will give us a decent amount of FP for utilizing Weapon Skills and Sorceries. We set Strength to 20 since the claws scale well off Strength, even with a Cold Infusion, and we set Dexterity to 11 to meet the minimum requirement for using the claws. 18 Faith means we can use all the Magma Sorceries, especially Rykard’s Rancor, and we can push this higher as we level up past 150 to gain access to Golden Vow and some other powerful Incantations if we want. Arcane does not affect Frostbite build-up, so we can leave it at 10.

Equipment & Talismans

Since we don’t have a lot of endurance, we’ll have to rely on lighter armor. For visual flair and reasonably good defense, we recommend the Blue Cloth Set. You’ll be two-handing the Beast Claw in melee, with the Carian Regal Scepter in your left hand for easy access when you need to cast spells. If you want to squeeze extra damage out of the Magma Sorceries, you can have a Gelmir Glintstone Staff in your second Right-Hand Slot and swap to it before casting Magma Sorcery with the Regal Scepter. This will allow you to get a 10% damage bonus to Magma Sorceries while still benefiting from the Regal Scepter’s superior Sorcery Scaling.

Now let’s talk about Talismans. In most circumstances, the Dragoncrest Greatshield Talisman should be your defensive talisman of choice. It’s hard to argue with a 20% reduction to physical damage taken. You can use the Talisman of the Dread to amplify your Magma Sorcery damage by 14%, while the ever-useful Rotten Winged Sword Insignia provides boosts to all damage as you continue attacking. With good timing, you can use the Rotten Winged Sword Insignia’s damage bonus to power up your spells too.

The fourth Talisman Slot could hold several useful options. The Blessed Blue Dew Talisman can provide you with FP regeneration, helping to reduce your use of Blue Flasks when exploring and making sure you can always use your Ash of War if you want to. FP Regeneration is always handy, but this is especially true of spell-heavy builds. Alternatively, the Two-Headed Turtle Talisman is a fantastic choice for keeping your stamina bar topped up. Attacking, casting spells, dodging, all of it uses stamina, and you’ll need to manage it carefully with this build, making this talisman a very attractive option.

Spells and Weapon Arts

This spell list has been chosen to offer a good selection of offensive options alongside a powerful defensive choice. Under most circumstances, this build wants to be fighting enemies up close to build up frostbite and trigger the Rotten Winged Sword Insignia, before retreating to launch Magma Sorceries and reset the frostbite. That said, against groups of weaker foes this build can instead set up Roiling Magma and fire a Gravitational Missile into it to pull enemies into the blast, or utilize Rings of Spectral Light to inflict magic damage and frostbite at a distance.

It also has Meteorite of Astel, which can deal incredible damage against larger foes (like dragons) and often staggers them. Defensively, Cherishing Fingers can be used to deal AOE damage if you’re in danger of getting surrounded, but also deflects incoming spells. This can make any fight against spellcasters considerably easier.

In terms of Weapon Arts, this build benefits greatly from a few different weapon arts. Ash of War: Savage Claws can be a great choice for dishing out damage, and since it attacks with both claws even when used one-handed, it can be used to deal decent melee damage without putting away your staff. As an additional benefit, its multiple strikes can help to trigger the Rotten Winged Sword Insignia. Another excellent Weapon Art option is Ash of War: Divine Beast Frost Stomp which can help with building up frostbite while also dealing a decent amount of magic damage. The other Beast Claw exclusive Ash of War can also be beneficial here. Ash of War: Raging Beast allows you to dash (with Invincibility Frames) in any direction and then perform a slashing attack, which can be great for repositioning or taking advantage of an opening.

Alternative Build Ideas

Naturally, as an infusable weapon, the Beast Claw is very flexible and can be used in plenty of different builds. One obvious route would be to focus on Arcane and a little bit of strength for a bleed build, taking advantage of the bleed already present on the claws and their surprisingly good strength scaling on a Bleed infusion. They have incredible strength scaling with a heavy infusion too, so you could also consider going all in on a strength build to take full advantage of this. A strength/faith build focusing on Crucible and Bestial Incantations and taking advantage of the Clawmark Seal could also be fun.