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Best Elden Ring spells, incantations, and sorceries

Here are the best Elden Ring spells, including early game sorceries and incantations and where to find scrolls and prayerbooks to learn more powerful spells.

Surrounded by glowing blue blades that hover around the player using one of the best Elden Ring spells
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Elden Ring 

Want to know what the best Elden Ring spells are? Magic in Elden Ring comes in two main categories: sorceries and incantations. Sorceries require investment into the intelligence attribute, while incantations use faith. Sometimes you may find a spell that requires points in arcane. This is usually a secondary requirement that doesn’t affect the spell’s damage.

Several useful spells are available early on in one of the best PC games. However, you can only learn more specialised Elden Ring sorceries and incantations by gathering scrolls and prayerbooks. By handing these items over to compatible vendors, you can discover the best Elden Ring spells, including devastating projectiles and powerful short-term buffs for the best Elden Ring weapons. With all the magic you’re flinging around, you need all of the upgrades you can get your hands on. Therefore, we highly recommend that you check out our guides on where to find Elden Ring talismans, Elden Ring crystal tears, and Elden Ring Ashes of War to give yourself as much mana as possible and upgrade your spellcaster into a magical marvel.

Elden Ring spells -throwing one of the best early spells, Glintstone Pebble.

Best Elden Ring early sorceries

Glintstone Pebble doesn’t cost a lot of FP to cast and has low requirements. It only hits a single target with a small magic projectile, but as sorcery spell damage increases whenever you level up the intelligence attribute, you can do more damage at higher levels.

You should already have the Glintstone Pebble equipped if you chose the Astrologer Elden Ring class, but otherwise, you can buy it from Sorceress Sellen for 1,000 runes. You can find her behind a door after beating the Mad Pumpkin Head boss down the stairs in Waypoint Ruins in Limgrave.

If you’re okay with putting yourself in temporary danger, you can travel to Caelid early in the game and head into the swamp to find the Rock Sling spell. There’s an area called Street of Sages in the northwest corner of the swamp, where you can find the spell in a chest. Be sure also to pick up the Meteorite Staff as it gives buffs to gravity-type sorceries like Rock Sling, and makes our list as one of the best Elden Ring staffs you can find.

Rock Sling raises three rocks from the earth for you to fling at enemies; it requires 18 intelligence and one memory slot to equip and uses 18 force points (FP) per cast. It’s a fantastic early-game spell as it does great damage, and its FP cost is rather cheap, considering its effectiveness.

Elden Ring spells - the player is casting Loretta's Greatbow, which conjures a spiritual bow from the aether.

Best Elden Ring sorcery

These early spells are great for the short term, but you can pick up the Comet Azur sorcery later on in your adv. This powerful spell unleashes a colossal blast of energy in a beam of blue light like something out of Dragon Ball Z. All of this power comes at a hefty cost, though, as you need 60 intelligence and three magic slots to equip this spell. In addition, it costs 40 FP to cast, so you can only use it a handful of times without restoring your force power, but it’ll obliterate anything in front of you.

Elden Ring Comet Azur location

To find Comet Azur, head for the Hermit Village in Mt.Gelmir. Here, Primaeval Sorcerer Azur sits near the cliffs in the northeast corner of the village. Talk to him, and he’ll give you the spell.

Elden Ring spells - crouching in a lake and throwing a line of fire with the flame sling spell

Best Elden Ring early incantations

Firstly, we highly recommend getting the Heal incantation as it’s a great way to recover health. If you chose the Prophet class, you should already have this in your inventory. Otherwise, you should seek Brother Corhyn at the Roundtable Hold, who sells the spell for 1,500 runes.

The Catchflame incantation – which the Prophet starts with, and Brother Corhyn sells for 600 runes – is another powerful choice. This fire-based spell flings small fireballs at enemies, and you can cast it repeatedly. For a bit more firepower, you can charge up the Flame Sling incantation to blast away any nearby foes as the fireball explodes. Brother Corhyn also sells this rune, but for a heftier price of 800 runes.

Many enemies and areas can inflict status ailments; poison is one of the more common afflictions you encounter. The Cure Poison incantation doesn’t require a lot of points in the faith attribute to equip and will get rid of any poison effects or buildup. Brother Corhyn sells this incantation for 1,000 runes.

Another spell worth getting early on is the Whirl O’Flame. This chargeable incantation emits flames in a spiral for lots of damage. To get it, head for the Smothering Church in Limgrave along the main road east to Caelid. Eventually, you’ll find a scarab beetle near some big dogs. Kill the scarab beetle to get the Whirl O’Flame incantation.

Finally, if you don’t mind selling your soul to the dragons, you can redeem Dragon Hearts at the Church of Dragon Communion in Limgrave. To get here, you must go through Dissenter’s Cave and exit the other site to arrive on a small island. You can get more Dragon Hearts by slaying any dragon or wyrm. An early option for punishing enemies that get too close is Dragonfire. It requires both 15 faith and 12 arcane to equip but will summon a dragon head to breathe fire for AoE damage.

Elden Ring spells - a robed character stands in the grass holding a blade covered in black flames.

Best Elden Ring incantation

One of the most powerful Elden Ring incantations is the Black Flame Blade. This spell engulfs your held weapon with a black flame. It only lasts a short time but hits for a huge amount of damage per swing.

Elden Ring Black Flame Blade location

To get the Black Flame Blade, you’ll first need a Stonesword key to open an Imp Seal close to the Liftside Chamber Site of Grace in Stormvale Castle. From here, head out into the courtyard and hug the right-hand side until you see a staircase leading downwards. Go down and slay all of the rats inside before you open up the Imp Seal. Inside the chest on the right side of the room beyond the seal is the Godskin Prayerbook, which you need to learn more powerful spells.

Getting the book is the first step – next, you need to give it to a vendor who can decipher its contents. To learn the Black Flame Blade spell, give the Godskin Prayerbook to Miriel, Pastor of Vows in the Church of Vows in Luirnia of the Lakes. He’s the big tortoise with the bishop’s hat.

Elden Ring spells - the player is standing next to a giant turtle with a bishop's hat in an abandoned church.

Elden Ring prayerbook locations

Prayerbooks can be given to vendors in exchange for incantations. We recommend giving the prayerbooks to Miriel, Pastor of Vows, who you can find at the Church of Vows in Luirnia of the Lakes.

All Elden Ring prayerbook locations:

  • Fire Monk’s Prayerbook – northwest of Liurnia Lake Shore Site of Grace, on a corpse in the Fire Monk outpost.
  • Assassin’s Prayerbook – behind the second Imp Statue door in Roundtable Hold (requires Stonesword keys).
  • Two Fingers Prayerbook – Fortified Manor, First Floor in the Leyndell, Royal Capital region.
  • Godskin Prayerbook – near the Liftside Chamber Site of Grace in Stormveil Castle. Head into the courtyard and hug the right side until you see the stairs going down the wall on the other side (requires Stonesword key).
  • Dragon Cult Prayerbook – slay the knight patrolling outside the Artist’s Shack in Liurnia of the Lakes.
  • Ancient Dragon Prayerbook – in the Crumbling Farum Azula region.
  • Giant’s Prayerbook – inside a tower at the top of Guardian’s Garrison in Mountaintops of the Giants, close to Chief Guardian Arghanthy.

Elden Ring scroll locations

To learn more sorceries, you need to find scrolls to give to certain vendors in the game. We recommend you give any scrolls you find to Sorceress Sellen in the Waypoint Ruins in Limgrave.

All Elden Ring scroll locations:

  • Academy scroll – in the graveyard northwest of the Church of Irith in the Liurnia of the Lakes region.
  • Conspectus scroll – close to the Schoolhouse Classroom Site of Grace in Liurnia of the Lakes. Head up the corridor towards the Red Wolf of Radagon boss room, but instead of going upstairs to the right, turn left to find the scroll on a corpse.
  • Royal House scroll – east of Agheel Lake South in Limgrave, inside a building opposite a giant bowl.

Those are all of the best spells in Elden Ring. Now you’re armed with additional firepower, check out our list of all of the Elden Ring bosses you can face in the open-world game and what rewards you get for beating them. It’s also worth completing the best Elden Ring quests, so you don’t miss out.

Dave is a Guides Writer at PCGamesN. He's partial to a good Soulslike and is always up for a hunt in Monster Hunter Rise. If he's not playing fighting games like Street Fighter 6, you'll find him bashing badniks in Sonic games or demolishing demons in Diablo 4. Outside of guides, Dave also attends preview events, including Dragon's Dogma 2 and Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, writing features about GTA 6 and the best Steam indies, and reviewing games, most recently WWE 2K24 and Mortal Kombat 1. Before PCGN, Dave wrote for Rock, Paper, Shotgun, and TheSixthAxis. Just don’t talk to him about old games, board games, pro wrestling, or birdwatching; he won’t shut up about any of them!