Best Lightning Perfume Bottle build in Shadow of the Erdtree

✓ At a Glance

• Weapons – Lightning Perfume Bottle with Rolling Sparks Ash of War and Finger Seal
• Stats – Dexterity and Faith
• Incantations – Golden Vow and Howl of Shabriri
• Talisman – Aged One’s Exultation, Shard of Alexander, Perfumer’s Talisman, and Lightning Scorpion Charm
• Armor – Black Dumpling Helm
• Mixed Physick – Bloodsucking Cracked Tear and Lightning-Shrouding Cracked Tear

This is broken and one of those builds that make Shadow of the Erdtree’s toughest bosses a trivial jaunt through the park. With this, complaints of the expansion being too hard will evaporate into the digital ether. It’s centred around one of the DLC’s new weapons – the Perfume Bottle, specifically the lightning variety – coupled with the Rolling Sparks Ash of War. Basically, exploding sparks of lightning with massive AoE damage and DPS.

The benefit of this build is that you can gather up all the required bits and pieces, gear, incantations, talismans, and what not after defeating the Golden Hippo at Shadow Keep in Scadu Altus. This is quite early on in the game, though you’ll need to get past the Dancing Lion, Rellana, and the Hippo first.

Stats and attributes

The two big stat focuses for this build are Dexterity and Faith because the Lightning Perfume Bottle scales with both of these. When the Perfume Bottle hits +25 max level, attribute scaling is C for both Dex and Faith. The weapon hits the usual 50-60 soft cap for Dexterity, so once you hit that, invest more into the Faith secondary stat up to around the same level. 

Alongside, heaps of Vigor, and therefore HP, never go amiss in the Shadow of the Erdtree. To round things off, invest a decent amount into both Mind and Endurance for Incantations/Ash of War and the inevitable need to dodge away from attacks. If you have any spare points, sink them into Vigor, Faith, Dexterity, Mind, and Endurance. This is roughly what you should be aiming for:

Attribute	Level
Vigor	60
Mind	20
Endurance	30
Strength	3
Dexterity	60
Intelligence	9
Faith	60
Arcane	8

Weapons

• Lightning Perfume Bottle
• Finger Seal or any other Seal

As above, the weapon for this build is the Lightning Perfume Bottle, which you can grab in the lake area just northeast of the Cerulean Coast site of grace. It’s near the Furnace Golem patrolling the the river. Head east from the golem towards the golden lightning sheep. The Perfume Bottle is on a corpse in the middle of the water. You’ll want to upgrade it to +25 if at all possible, or as close to the cap as your smothing stone stocks allow for the best results.

The weapon is in the water on a corpse. Captured by VideoGamer

Head east of the Furnace Golem. Captured by VideoGamer

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Lightning Perfume Bottle stat requirements:

• Strength 3
• Dexterity 16
• Faith 14

You’ll also need a Seal. Any old Seal will do as it’s just used to trigger Incantations. We went for the Fire Knight’s Seal for example, but even the basic Finger Seal you get early on in Elden Ring works.

Ash of War

To get the most out of this build, we need to couple the Lightning Perfume Bottle with the Rolling Sparks Ash of War. Here’s the in-game description: ‘’Scatter perfumed powder before you, triggering rolling explosions of deadly sparks.” So, essentially, Rolling Sparks is what gives the build its explosive edge and combat rests pretty much on spamming the Ash of War for big damage. We went for Standard affinity and quality for the simple reason that it’s the only choice on offer for the Lightning Perfume Bottle.

You can pick up the Rolling Sparks Ash of War by downing a flying scarab in the small camp filled with Perfumer enemies up on the hill just southeast of the Shadow Keep main entrance in Scadu Altus. A bow or any basic spell should do the job.

Incantations

Incantation	Effect
Golden Vow	Increases attack and defense for self and allies
Howl of Shabriri	Shrieks, building up madness in nearby foes

Golden Vow is a no-brainer and boosts both attack and defence, negating some of the reduced damage negation of our talisman choices. As for Howl of Shabriri, it synergises with our talismans, mixed physick, and armor picks for even more damage when you fill up your Tarnished’s madness gauge build-up before a fight.

Talismans

Talisman	Effect
Aged One’s Exultation	Madness in the vicinity increases attack power
Shard of Alexander	Greatly boosts the attack power of skills
Perfumer’s Talisman	Raises potency of arts employing perfume
Lightning Scorpion Charm	Raises lightning attack, but lowers damage negation

The Aged One’s Exultation is a brand new talisman for the expansion. You can find it in the Abyssal Woods. It increases attack power when using madness, in this case triggered by the Howl of Shabriri incantation and further improved by the Black Dumpling helm. The Shard of Alexander will drastically boost the attack power of the Rolling Sparks Ash of War, a crucial component of this build. 

The Lightning Scorpion Charm increases lightning attack. The Perfumer’s Talisman, another new talisman, increases damage from the Lightning Perfume Bottle. They all work with one another to get the most out of this build.

Armor and gear

• Black Dumpling helm
• Perfumer Set/Rakshasa Set

The big one here is the Black Dumpling helm. It raises attack power when the wearer suffers from madness, which synergises with Howl of Shabriri and the Aged One’s Exultation. Beyond that, it’s up to you. The Perfumer Set is thematically in line with the build if aesthetics are important.

You can go for something a bit more risky, like the Rakshasa Armor, Rakshasa Gauntlets, and Rakshasa Greaves. Combined they increase your damage output significantly, but also increase the damage you take from enemies. To get the set, you’ll need to defeat Rakshasa in the Eastern Nameless Mausoleum down from the Ruins of Unte in lower Scadu Altus.

Mixed Physick and Great Rune

For Mixed Physick, combine the Bloodsucking Cracked Tear, which enhances attacks at the cost of HP, and the Lightning-Shrouding Cracked Tear for a further boost to lightning attacks. The Bloodsucking Cracked Tear is new to the DLC and is obtained by defeating the sleeping Furnace Golem at the Ruins of Unte in lower Scadu Altus. Chuck a Fire Pot into his head and he’ll wake up.

As for the Great Rune, Radahn’s Great Rune is a solid option. It mitigates some of the damage negation lost by using the Lightning Scorpion Charm and the HP nerf of the Bloodsucking Cracked Tear talisman.

General combat tips

To get the most out of the build, you’ll want to do the following before a big fight:

• Use Golden Vow
• Use Howl of Shabriri until the madness build gauge feels up and causes you damage
• Chug your Mixed Physick
• Top up on HP and FP with the Flask of Crimson Tears and Flask of Cerulean Tears

From there, dive into the fight, get up close, and spam the Rolling Sparks skill. Though lock-on targeting an enemy will produce decent damage, you’re better off using free aim and targeting the lower half of an enemy, like their legs. Keep an eye on the madness status effect eating away at your health bar as well so you aren’t caught off guard.

In most cases, enemies, even major bosses, should fall in a matter of seconds. For general roaming and exploration, the Lightning Perfume Bottle’s standard attack and charged attack without any madness or Mixed Physick buffs will work well to deal with most mobs.