Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree Best Eternal Sleep Build

Elden Ring’s Shadow of the Erdtree expansion has been a real treat for those who are fans of inflicting Sleep on foes, given that we now have access to Eternal Sleep. It’s the same status effect, but with a little bit of a buff, considering its capable of putting weaker enemies into an almost-permanent slumber.

As such, it’s not great against bosses unless they happen to be of the Godskin variety, but it is damned good fun to send mobs for a catnap against their will, before quickly clearing them out. It also makes Rune farming a hell of a lot simpler… So without further ado, here’s our guide to the best Eternal Sleep build in Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree.

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• Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree Best Eternal Sleep Build
• Elden Ring Eternal Sleep Build: Stats and Class
• Elden Ring Eternal Sleep Build: Weapons
• Elden Ring Eternal Sleep Build: Ashes of War
• Elden Ring Eternal Sleep Build: Talismans
• Elden Ring Eternal Sleep Build: Sorceries and Incantations
• Elden Ring Eternal Sleep Build: Armour and Gear

Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree Best Eternal Sleep Build

First things first, if you’re going to create a Sleep build in Elden Ring or expansion, Shadow of the Erdtree, you need to know how Sleep (and Eternal Sleep) works against different enemies.

I also want to preface this by saying that as far as status effects in Elden Ring go, Sleep is one of the less supported ones. We did, thankfully, get some new Sleep gear in Shadow of the Erdtree to help with this type of build, but all in all, you’re going to run into some roadblocks when facing bosses with high immunities to Sleep, and will need a back-up weapon (or spells). That said, sleep can still stagger even the worst of foes, creating openings for more powerful attacks.

The average Sleep status won’t kill enemies, but - you guessed it - it will send them into a temporary slumber. This slumber lasts for a very short amount of time or until you attack them again, making it useful for running through troublesome dungeons where you’d rather not slay every mob.

If you’re inflicting Eternal Sleep on your average foe, however, they’ll fall into a slumber and won’t get up. They will remain down until you have attacked them multiple times (rather than once) or inflicted a Critical Hit, or until you rest at a Site of Grace.

Eternal Sleep works a little differently for bosses or more elite enemy mobs, though. For a start, some are immune to Sleep altogether, so you’ll want a back-up plan for when that’s the case (we’ll talk more about this later in the guide). For those that aren’t immune, inflicting Eternal Sleep will cause them to take a quick power-nap or to be staggered, depending on their resistances. They’ll get back up after a few seconds, so this is the ideal time to wail away at them with a more powerful weapon, or retreat to heal and buff if needed.

Elden Ring Eternal Sleep Build: Stats and Class

This Eternal Sleep build is a ‘for fun’ build that uses DLC weapons, so you likely won’t have your hands on the main gear for this build until venturing into Shadow of the Erdtree. As a result, this build is intended for those at around Rune Level 150-200, when you’ll likely be stepping into the Realm of Shadow or New Game Plus.

That said, we do recommend some base game weapons and gear to help you along if you’re hoping to play around with Sleep on a new save.

Considering Sleep build-up scales with Arcane, much like Bleed, this Eternal Sleep build will have a high Arcane stat. We also want to put points into Dexterity for our weapons, and can put extra points into that if needed. As a result, I recommend a Bandit starting class for its 13 Dexterity and 14 Arcane.

Your Flask spread will depend on your playstyle and just how much FP you consume, but I find 10 Crimson and 4 Cerulean to be the sweet spot with most builds, including this one.

As for your stat distribution, I recommend aiming for the following. Though, there is a lot of wiggle room with these stats.

• Vigor: 60
• Mind: 20
• Endurance: 30
• Strength: 12
• Dexterity: 22
• Intelligence: 21
• Faith: 25
• Arcane: 45/60

You should prioritise Vigor, Mind, and Endurance - as well as the stats needed for your initial weapons - at first, before then focusing on Arcane and Dexterity. That said, you can finish the base game with less than 60 Vigor, though I highly recommend having 60 Vigor before entering the DLC.

Top up your Mind and Endurance to a point that feels right to you. You want enough FP and stamina so that it doesn’t become a detriment to you in battle. There’s nothing worse than dying during an otherwise good boss fight attempt because your stamina was drained, meaning you couldn’t dodge. I recommend a minimum of 20 for both Mind and Endurance, with ideally even more for Endurance.

We want a minimum of 12 Strength for our weapons, and we can neglect the stat otherwise. You also only need a minimum of 22 Dexterity for Thiollier’s Hidden Needle, but you can put more into either stat where needed for any secondary, back-up weapons you choose to use.

We need a minimum of 21 Intelligence and 24 Faith for the suggested Spells and Incantations in this build, but if you’re opting for a secondary weapon over any spell-casting or buffs, you can actually get away with having just 15 Intelligence and ignore Faith altogether. I recommend ignoring Faith when you’re first starting out, as buffs - and OP Incantations - are something you won’t need to use until later on in the game when bosses become significantly tougher.

Last, but not least, the bread and butter of this build is Arcane, which has soft-caps of 45/60/80. As such, after meeting stat requirements for weapons and leveling your Vigor, I recommend trying to reach 45 Arcane as soon as possible. Later, you’ll want to try and bump this up to 60 Arcane so we can speed-up the build-up of our status effects.

Elden Ring Eternal Sleep Build: Weapons

You have few choices when it comes to an Eternal Sleep build in Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree. The main two weapons you want to use are the Velvet Sword of St. Trina (found in a cave accessed by platforming northwest of Stone Fissure Cross), and Thiollier’s Hidden Needle (a reward from completing Thiollier’s quest) and defeating the final boss of the DLC. On top of this, we’ll also be using the Ripple Crescent Halberd (a drop from Albinauric enemies).

I’ve found that Thiollier’s Hidden Needle is much quicker at building up Sleep on singular foes, while the Velvet Sword of St. Trina does the most damage overall at +10, and its skill - Mist of Eternal Sleep - is much more useful against mobs. It’s up to you whether you choose to switch between the two or stick to the one weapon you prefer the most; I personally preferred Thiollier’s Hidden Needle and used this in most instances, alongside the Ripple Crescent Halber and some spells.

Thiollier’s Hidden Needle can also do a nice chunk of damage when landing a Critical Hit on foes, and you can do this without them falling asleep. For example, I tried this build against Sir Gideon Ofnir, the All Knowing in Elden Ring’s base game. He wasn’t quite put to sleep, but I was able to stagger him for 1-2 seconds, giving me ample time to attack using the Velvet Sword of St. Trina, before ultimately finishing him off with Impenetrable Thorns because he would not stop firing discs of Holy damage at me.

As such - and as I keep saying - you really want a back-up weapon or spells with this build, because the primary weapons will test your patience if you’re hoping to quickly get through bosses. If this weapon or said spells scale with Arcane, that’s even better, because that’s what this build is all about!

If you’d rather stick to a melee build overall, you can consider weapons such as Morgott’s Cursed Sword or Rivers of Blood for some easy Bleed stacks. Alternatively, an Arcane weapon that can be coated with Eternal Sleep Grease - such as the Ripple Crescent Halberd or Ripple Blade - pair really nicely with this build. And to remain consistent - and get as much out of sleep as possible - I personally recommend the Ripple Crescent Halberd with consumables.

If, on the other hand, you’d rather use Sorceries and Incantations as back-up (or use both that and melee, if you’ve the stats for it), you want to use a Staff and/or Sacred Seal that scales with Arcane. For this reason, I have the Maternal Staff equipped for Sorceries. It has an S scaling with Arcane, meaning that when things get tough, we can whip it out and start casting a Sorcery such as Impenetrable Thorns. Similarly, we have the Dragon Communion Seal - also with an S scaling in Arcane - for any Incantations we want to use.

All in all, the main weapons you want are as follows:

• Thiollier’s Hidden Needle (and/or Velvet Sword of St. Trina)
• Ripple Crescent Halberd (with Eternal Sleep Grease)
• Maternal Staff for Sorceries
• Dragon Communion Seal for Incantations

If you’re a fan of using consumables, you can also use Eternal Sleep Pots on enemies!

Elden Ring Eternal Sleep Build: Ashes of War

We’re using Somber weapons in this Shadow of the Erdtree build for the most part, so Ashes of War aren’t a big deal. If you happen to opt for a standard secondary weapon, an Ash of War like Bloody Slash is something you can’t go wrong with. Anything with Bleed will ultimately benefit from our high Arcane stat.

Raptor of the Mists can also be good fun if you’re a fan of using jump attacks, or Vacuum Slice if you fancy a ranged skill for those high-pressure moments where you’re low on Flasks.

Elden Ring Eternal Sleep Build: Talismans

With this Eternal Sleep build, we’re going to, of course, use St. Trina’s Smile Talisman to boost our attack when sleep is nearby. Aside from that, we’re mainly looking at Talismans that boost our attack power as Thiollier’s Hidden Needle and Velvet Sword of St. Trina could use the boost.

• St. Trina’s Smile - sleep in the vicinity increase attack power.
• Rotten Winged Sword Insignia - greatly raises attack power with successive attacks.
• Millicent’s Prosthesis - raises Dexterity, and raises attack power with successive attacks.
• Dragoncrest Greatshield Talisman - greatly negates Physical damage.
• Carian Filigreed Crest - lowers FP consumed by Skills.
• Claw Talisman - boosts jump attacks.

St. Trina’s Smile and the Rotten Winged Sword Insignia are must-haves for this build, to really get produce as much attack damage as we can. I then recommend Millicent’s Prosthesis or the Claw Talisman depending on how often you use jump attacks, or whether you need the Dexterity.

Aside from that, the Dragoncrest Greatshield Talisman is one of the best for damage negation, and the Carian Filigreed Crest lowers our FP consumed by Skills, and we’re using our Skills a lot in this build.

Alternatively, if you happen to run a Bleed weapon - or Impenetrable Thorns - alongside your Sleep gear, it might also be worth using the Lord of Blood’s Exultation Talisman. This increases attack power when blood loss is nearby.

Similarly, the Graven-Mass Talisman or Flock’s Canvas Talisman will boost the power of your Sorceries and Incantations respectively, so you could consider either of these if you have Sorceries and Incantations as back-up attacks.

Elden Ring Eternal Sleep Build: Sorceries and Incantations

Using Sorceries and Incantations as a part of this Eternal Sleep build is entirely up to you, and what stats you have. If you’re running Thiollier’s Hidden Needle or Velvet Sword of St. Trina with the Ripple Crescent Halberd, you might find that you don’t actually need any additional way of attacking an opponent. The same can be said for if you choose to run a Bleed weapon with either Sleep weapon.

That said, if you are able to spare 25 Rune Levels to Faith, the following Sorceries and Incantations have come in clutch for me.

• Impenetrable Thorns - summons three waves of thorns from the ground, with incredible range. Inflicts Bleed on foes and staggers them.
• Golden Vow - raises attack and defense of self and nearby allies.
• Flame, Grant Me Strength - enhances Physical and Fire attack power.

Golden Vow and Flame, Grant Me Strength are two important Incantations for buffing attack power that I recommend for almost every build that can afford to dip into Faith. I also recommend the Impenetrable Thorns Sorcery highly here given the sheer amount of damage it can do in a single hit when cast with the Maternal Staff.

You can forgo most other Sorceries and Incantations, as frankly, if your Ripple Crescent Halberd doesn’t do the job, then Impenetrable Thorns definitely should. That said, I recommend Pest Threads (or Pest-Thread Spears) and Borealis’s Mist as two personal favorites to use in a pinch, but you can by all means go for whatever spells you have the stats for and find fun to use.

Elden Ring Eternal Sleep Build: Armour and Gear

Armour doesn’t matter for this build, as there ultimately isn’t any in Elden Ring that’s going to help us out with inflicting the Sleep status. So, go for whatever you think looks cool or suits this build.

I opted for the Godskin Apostle set as it felt quite apt for this build, but Rellana’s set and Fia’s set suit the build well, too. There’s also the Navy Hood which raises Mind by +1 that pairs well with plenty of other armor.

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For more on Shadow of the Erdtree, take a look at our other builds using DLC gear. There’s our Dryleaf Arts build, Beast Claws build, and our Lightning Milady build. Additionally, here’s where to find all Larval Tears in the Realm of Shadow in case you’re in need of a respec.