You've finally gathered enough runes to level up, but suddenly the numbers aren't moving like they used to. That massive health bar growth? It’s slowed to a crawl. Your damage? Barely budging. Honestly, it’s frustrating. But this isn't a bug. You've just hit the invisible walls that the community calls soft caps.
In the world of Elden Ring level caps, there is a big difference between the maximum level you can reach and the point where you should actually stop spending runes. If you keep pumping points into a stat after it hits a major soft cap, you’re basically throwing your hard-earned progress into a bottomless pit.
Why You Shouldn't Chase Level 713
Let’s get the technical stuff out of the way first. The absolute hard cap for any individual stat is 99. If you push every single attribute to 99, you hit level 713. That is the ceiling.
But here’s the thing: nobody actually needs to be level 713.
Most players find that their "final" build sits somewhere between level 125 and 150 for the base game, or up to 200 if they’re tackling the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC. Beyond that, you’re just getting marginal gains. We’re talking about spending millions of runes for +2 HP. It’s a waste of time unless you’re trying to create a "god" character that can do literally everything.
The Vigor Trap: 40 vs 60
Vigor is the most important stat for almost every player. Period. If you don’t have enough health, the late-game bosses—and definitely the DLC bosses—will one-shot you.
Vigor has two major breaking points.
- The 40 Soft Cap: Up until level 40, your HP gains are massive. You get more health per point at level 30 than you did at level 10. It’s an accelerating curve.
- The 60 Soft Cap: Between 40 and 60, the gains slow down, but they’re still worth it. Once you cross 60, though? The cliff is real.
Going from 60 Vigor to 99 Vigor only nets you about 200 extra HP. In a game where a boss can hit for 1,200 damage in a single swing, those 39 levels are better spent elsewhere. Most veterans stop at exactly 60. If you’re a dodge-roll god, maybe you stop at 40. But for the rest of us? 60 is the sweet spot.
Mind and Endurance: The Comfort Stats
These don't make you hit harder, but they make the game feel better.
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Mind governs your FP. If you’re a pure mage, you might think you need 99 Mind. You don't. A fully upgraded Cerulean Flask restores 220 FP. To avoid wasting any blue juice, you should aim for about 38 Mind, which gives you 221 FP. Pushing to 50 or 60 is fine if you're spamming massive spells like Comet Azur, but going past 60 is almost never recommended.
Endurance is weirder because it does two things: stamina and equip load.
Stamina hard caps at 50. You get almost nothing after that.
Equip load, however, scales decently up to 60. If you’re trying to wear the heaviest armor in the game and still medium-roll, you might need to push Endurance high. But for most, 30 is plenty.
The Damage Dealers: Strength, Dex, and Magic
This is where things get complicated. Scaling is why your weapon damage increases as you level up.
For Strength and Dexterity, the major caps are at 20, 55, and 80.
- Strength (The 2-Handing Trick): If you hold your weapon with two hands, the game treats your Strength as being 1.5 times higher. This means if you have 54 Strength and you two-hand your sword, you effectively hit the 80 cap.
- Dexterity: This also speeds up your spell-casting. If you’re a hybrid mage, hitting 40 Dex is a nice bonus for your casting speed.
Intelligence and Faith follow similar patterns. If you're using a weapon that scales with magic, you’ll see diminishing returns after 50. But if you’re using a Staff or a Seal to cast spells, those tools keep getting stronger all the way up to 80.
Arcane and the Bleed Meta
Arcane is the "secret" stat. It controls item discovery, but more importantly, it controls how fast you trigger status effects like Bleed and Poison.
The status effect soft cap is roughly 45.
The actual damage scaling for Arcane weapons caps at 60 and 80.
If you’re running a Rivers of Blood or a Mohgwyn’s Sacred Spear build, hitting 45 Arcane is the bare minimum to make those bleed procs happen frequently.
Leveling for Shadow of the Erdtree
If you’re heading into the DLC, the rules change slightly. You can be level 500, and the bosses in the Land of Shadow will still crush you. This is because of the Scadutree Blessing system.
In the DLC, your raw stats matter less than the Scadutree Fragments you collect. These fragments provide a percentage-based boost to your damage and defense.
Think of it like this:
Your base levels (1-200) are your foundation.
The Scadutree Blessings are the skyscraper you build on top of it.
Even with the DLC's new scaling, you should still aim for those base-game soft caps. Having 60 Vigor before you even touch a Scadutree Fragment is the best way to ensure you don't die to a common knight in the first five minutes.
Practical Steps for Your Next Level Up
Don't just spend runes because you have them. Look at the numbers on the right side of the screen.
- Check the Blue/Red/Green bars: If adding a point in Vigor only gives you +6 HP, you've hit a cap. Stop.
- Prioritize Vigor to 40 first. No matter what your build is, being alive is better than doing 5% more damage.
- Pick one main damage stat. Don't try to be a Strength/Intelligence/Faith hybrid at level 80. You’ll be weak at everything. Pick one, get it to 55, then 80.
- Respec if you're over-leveled. If you have 80 Mind but only 30 Vigor, go see Rennala. Move those points. You'll thank me later.
The goal isn't to reach the highest level possible; it's to be as efficient as possible with the levels you have. Focus on the caps, ignore the 99s, and you'll find the game much more manageable.