Best Putrescence Cleaver build in Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree: Stats, Talisman, and Armor

After defeating the Putrescent Knight boss in the Stone Coffin Fissure dungeon, you’ll acquire its remembrance that allows you to claim the Putrescence Cleaver Greataxe weapon. This guide covers the best Putrescence Cleaver build in Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree including stats to focus on, the best talisman, and armor.

Best stats for Putrescence Cleaver build in Elden Ring

The Putrescence Cleaver is a fantastic weapon in Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree that can deal incredible damage when the player invests in the right stats. This Greataxe scales with three stats: Strength, Arcane, and Dexterity. Below you can find the scaling levels of the Putrescence Cleaver at level 1 versus level 10.

Level 1

• Strength: D
• Arcane: D
• Dexterity: E

Level 10

• Strength: C
• Arcane: C
• Dexterity: E

As you can see from the scaling levels above, your primary focus should be to invest in Strength and Arcane to get the most damage out of the Putrescence Cleaver.

Additionally, the in-game description of this weapon states “Gains power from the wielder’s arcane attribute.” In other words, you should invest the most points into Arcane. Once you begin to see diminishing returns in attack power with Arcane, move on to investing points into Strength to maximize the weapon’s damage output. Of course, you want to also invest points into Vigor and Endurance.

I wouldn’t invest any points into Dexterity except to reach the minimum requirement to wield the weapon. The attributes required to wield the Putrescence Cleaver are Strength (28), Arcane (15), and Dexterity (10).

Best Talisman for the Putrescence Cleaver in Elden Ring

There are a ton of Talisman in Elden Ring that will go great with the Putrescence Cleaver. I’ll give you my recommendations of four that really make the weapon shine. The four Talisman you should equip are listed below.

• Shard of Alexander: Greatly boosts the attack power of skills. (Dropped from Iron Fist Alexander at the end of his questline).
• Two-Handed Sword Talisman: Enhances attacks with two-handed weapons. (Found in the Temple Town Ruins).
• Dragoncrest Greatshield Talisman: Enormously boosts physical damage negation. (Found in a chest in the Haligtree).
• Two-headed Turtle Talisman: Greatly raises stamina recovery speed. (Found in a cave, under a waterfall, east of Rivermouth cave).

The four Talisman listed can really bring your Putrescence Cleaver build to the next level. First, Shard of Alexander increases the weapon’s unique skill “Spinning Guillotine,” which you will be using a ton. And considering the Spinning Guillotine skill uses mostly stamina, you want the Two-headed Turtle Talisman equipped to fill the stamina bar quickly.

The Two-Handed Sword Talisman is great if you plan on using this weapon with two hands as it will increase your damage output. If you don’t want to two-hand the Putrescence Cleaver, then feel free to replace it with anything you see fit. As for the Dragoncrest Greatshield Talisman, it’s always smart to increase your physical damage negation and this talisman really goes well with any build in the game.

Best armor for Putrescence Cleaver in Elden Ring

When it comes to armor for a Putrescence Cleaver build, I recommend choosing a set that has decent poise. Some examples of sets that have great poise are the Verdigris Armor set or Lionel’s Armor. The only downfall of choosing a set with high poise is that they usually require a large amount of Endurance to prevent becoming heavy-loaded. So you’ll have to focus more on the Endurance stat to make these armor sets work.

At the end of the day, the armor you wear for a Putrescence Cleaver build isn’t the most important. Try to choose armor that has the highest defense, without leading you to be heavy-loaded to prevent fat-rolling.