Elden Ring's best spells are all listed here, broken up into both Incantations for Faith users and Sorceries for those working on Int builds. If you're starting out on your journey across the Lands Between for the first time, it might be tempting to only equip all the most damaging spells, but in reality you'll probably need a mix of high power spells and quick, low cost attacks that you can throw out mid-combat whenever you need them.
Below we'll go over the top five best spells for both of the main spellcasting types in Elden Ring. Keep in mind that these are general use spells known for their reliability in PvE, rather than those tied to very specific builds and set-ups.
Want some more specificity? Check out the Elden Ring best builds!
The best spells, sorceries and incantations in Elden Ring
We've outlined all the best spells for you to check out below, selecting five amazing options for intelligence and faith builds. There's advantages to each side and no wrong answer if you do either one right (though right now intelligence seems to be the choice for raw firepower), but it's also true to say that the rarest, highest requirement spells aren't always best, as alluded to above.
Magic scales up as you improve your seals, staves and improve either intelligence or faith, so even the low-level spells can become incredibly potent - but their FP cost won't go up either. Regardless, here's some great spells to sort through and how you can get them.
Best Sorceries
Obviously there's a lot of personal preference going on here, but we would say that the best Elden Ring sorceries always come in one of two categories - either simply projectiles that do respectable damage for comparatively little cost (great for general exploration and combat), and gigantic boss-destroying cosmic explosives that do huge damage in one go. We've put a selection of the two below for you to check out. Sorceries are generally less diverse than Incantations, but they're also a lot punchier, capable of doing more damage when applied and handled correctly.
- Rock Sling: A fairly cheap projectile spell, Rock Sling does real stagger damage with startling high range, and proves very difficult for regular enemies to dodge. Found in the Street of Sages Ruins, along with the Elden Ring Meteorite Staff, both of which you can find described here.
- Glintstone Pebble: It's one of the earliest sorceries, but one of the best. Firing incredibly quickly for incredibly low cost, this is another great default projectile spell. The Astrologer class actually starts with this, or you can buy it either from Thops or Sellen.
- Carian Piercer: A slightly higher cost spell for close-to-mid range, this creates a longsword that stabs forward, doing very high damage at very fast speed. Dropped by a Scarab in the Eastern gardens inside Caria Manor, North Liurnia.
- Ranni's Dark Moon: A more powerful version of Rennala's Full Moon, firing a large projectile that explodes for massive damage, dealing Frostbite damage and making any targets more vulnerable to following magic attacks. This is found in Chelona's Rise, a tower on the raised plateau in Liurnia you'll need to practically complete all of Ranni's questline to access, outlined in our Elden Ring Ranni questline and secret ending guide. Once you're there, you'll actually need to complete a little puzzle, which we've explained in our Elden Ring Seek three great wise beasts puzzle and turtle locations guide.
- Comet Azur: A high-cost, high-damage superbomb that can hit enemies from a great range, and even be charged for increased damage. This boss-breaker is found in Mt. Gelmir, specifically the South area of Hermit Village. Ride East, past the Demi-Human Queen Maggie boss fight, and there'll be a Site of Grace on your left. Next to that is an NPC, Primeval Sorcerer Azur, who will simply give you the spell when talking to him.
Best Incantations
Incantations and Faith spells are a little more wild than their intelligence-based counterparts, but they're also a lot more diverse, with elements like dragon spells, bestial spells, giants' spells, lightning magic, fire magic, healing, buffs… There's plenty to choose from and many that are particularly powerful, but we managed to whittle it down to five strong choices that'll go well in any priest's pack.
- Heal: There's multiple variations of healing spell for Priests and Prophets, but this one is probably the best, balancing FP cost, casting time, and effectiveness nicely. In fact, the Prophet class starts with this spell, but anybody else can buy it from Brother Corhyn in Roundtable Hold. If he's moved on from there, you can check our Elden Ring Brother Corhyn location page to see all the places he might be.
- Beast Claw: Beast Claw is a famously-powerful short-range spell that sends out a spray of magic projectiles across the ground, doing good damage without costing much. You can get it from Gurranq, the Clergy Beastmaster, but you'll need to pay him a couple of Deathroot. If you need to find some Elden Ring Deathroot locations, we can help you with that on our dedicated guide page.
- Flame Sling: The first of many good fire spells for Faith builds, it's a simple, effective projectile attack that doesn't break the bank for FP, much like the Glintstone Pebble for sorcerers. Corhyn also sells this one, and it's the only place you can get it.
- Dragonfire/Dragonice: These are basically two versions of the same spell - one that does Fire damage, one that does Cold - where you create a dragon's head in front of you that sends out a powerful breath attack. You can buy both with Dragon Hearts at the Cathedral of Dragon Communion in Southwest Caelid, though you'll have to kill some dragons to get those hearts.
- Flame of Frenzy: A chargeable spell that causes the player to shoot wide-spread jets of fire randomly in front of them out of their eyes. This spell isn't as good against general enemies, but it works well on huge bosses who take most of the projectiles, shredding their health. It also inflicts the Madness effect, which deals extra damage and lowers FP - but will afflict you too if you cast it in succession too much. You can find it in the Callu Baptismal Church, the building at the top of the hill in the middle of the Weeping Peninsula, South of Ailing Village.
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