Best incantations in Elden Ring
Dish out damage, protect yourself and heal allies with these essential spells.
The best Incantations in Elden Ring put a wide variety of powerful spells in your hand, whether you’re looking to dish out huge damage from a distance, buff your character, enchant your weapon or simply heal up without having to burn a Flask of Crimson Tears.
Unlike Sorceries, which rely on a character’s Intelligence stat and are cast using a staff, Elden Ring's Incantations work best with a high Faith stat and are cast using seal weapons. As a result, you'll want to consider pairing these Incantations with making the best Elden Ring Faith build to really get the most out of them.
To help you track them down, we've listed our top picks for the best Incantations in Elden Ring below, along with details on how to use them and where to find them during your adventures.
Best Incantations in Elden Ring
Before you begin your quest to find Elden Ring's best Incantations, there are a number of important things to remember about casting magic in this game. In addition to a high Faith stat, you'll also need to invest your runes into your Mind stat to increase your Focus Points (FP) bar. You'll also need the right number of empty Memory Slots before you can equip them, which you can increase by obtaining more Memory Stone items.
Many Incantations also require a minimum Faith level to use, with most scaling their power in relation to the player’s Faith value. While some of Elden Ring's starting classes include Incantations right from the off, most must be found around the world, either by defeating bosses or purchased from certain merchants. You can also find Prayerbooks that can be given to specific NPCs to unlock additional spells for purchase.
With all that in mind, here are our picks for the best Incantations in Elden Ring, and how to get them.
Ancient Dragons' Lightning Strike
To get the Ancient Dragons' Lightning Strike Incantation, you’ll first need to hunt down the Ancient Dragon Prayerbook in Crumbling Faram Azula, which is found close to the 'Tempest Facing Balcony' Site of Grace. Then, hand it over to Brother Corhyn or Miriel, Pastor of Vows to unlock the ability to buy the spell. You’ll only be able to access the area near to the end of the game, but it's worth the wait for this incredibly strong Incantation.
Ancient Dragons' Lightning Strike calls down bolts of crimson lightning to strike your enemies, with the power to summon more bolts by charging the spell. The bolts deal massive lightning damage, and are especially effective against groups of enemies or big monsters - including many bosses - who are likely to be struck by multiple zaps from a single cast.
Bear in mind that such great power comes at a reasonably high price: 10,000 runes to buy the spell, plus at least 26 Faith points to even be able to wield it. Though, in our opinion, that’s peanuts for the immense power Ancient Dragons' Lightning Strike puts in your hand.
Black Blade
If you’ve made it through Crumbling Faram Azula and bested its tough final boss, Maliketh, the Black Blade, you’ll recognise the Black Blade Incantation. This fearsome spell comes straight from Maliketh's moveset, who you’ll need to defeat in order to harness its power for yourself.
The Black Blade Incantation is acquired by trading the Remembrance of the Black Blade item with the Finger Reader Enia in the Roundtable Hold and choosing to obtain the spell rather than the weapon.
You’ll have to dedicate two memory slots to equip Black Blade, and must have a hefty 46 Faith points to use it. In return, you’ll be able to summon the magical sword before leaping forward with a spinning slash and shooting out a wave of Holy energy. The Incantation even keeps Maliketh’s brutal power to drain the health of whoever it hits for a few seconds, along with temporarily reducing their maximum HP. Nasty!
Catch Flame
Compared to some of the powerful spells acquired towards the end of the game, Catch Flame ranks as one of Elden Ring’s best Incantations in part because you can use it from the moment you begin your adventure.
Catch Flame only requires a very modest 8 Faith points to equip, and comes as part of the Prophet’s starting loadout. Other classes can pick it up for a measly 600 runes once they reach the Roundtable Hold and chat with Brother Corhyn - meaning there’s no excuse for not having this in your arsenal.
What makes this Incantation so useful is the rapid speed at which it can be cast for just 10 FP. Although its range is very short compared to other fire-chucking spells, Catch Flame’s speed and low FP cost means it can almost be used like a fire melee weapon. You can even cast it while riding horseback on Torrent, adding to its flexibility for dedicated spell-casters and all-rounder builds alike.
Discus of Light
Holy Frisbee! Discus of Light is a projectile spell that ranks as one of the best Incantations in Elden Ring due to its ability to quickly whittle down enemies’ health with its rapid-fire double hits of Holy damage.
The spell’s effect is simple: the caster throws a ring of light towards their target. The ring deals damage to enemies as it passes through them, before returning back to the caster in a straight line - with the chance to deal damage to enemies again as it returns. (The rings can be destroyed if they collide with the environment, mind.)
Discus of Light isn’t a spell about dealing huge damage in big chunks. Its fast cast speed and very low FP cost combined with the boomerang effect means that you can sling disc after disc at enemies, ideally hitting them twice every time to rapidly drop their HP. Needing 13 Faith and Intelligence points alike, you’ll be able to buy Discus of Light from Brother Corhyn for 11,000 runes once the spell merchant moves to Altus Plateau and reunites with Goldmask as part of his questline.
Flame, Grant Me Strength
Rather than dealing damage itself, Flame, Grant Me Strength is one of the best Incantations in Elden Ring for boosting your physical attack power and fire damage, making it the ideal spell to pair with one of the game’s melee weapons or other spells that deal physical damage.
By casting Flame, Grant Me Strength, you’ll increase your physical and fire damage by 20% (a little less if you’re in PvP) for 30 seconds. This applies to both weapons and spells that deal physical damage, making it a handy Incantation for both melee builds and spell-casters to have in their loadout. You will need at least 15 Faith points to use it if you’re looking at creating a melee-focused character.
Flame, Grant Me Strength can be found fairly early in your Elden Ring journey, as long as you’re willing to venture into the slightly tougher zone of Caelid to the east of Limgrave. Around Fort Gael you’ll need to beat two flamethrower chariots guarding a corpse with the Incantation - grab it to give yourself a powerful buff.
Frenzied Burst
If you’ve encountered PvP invaders during your travels across The Lands Between, you’ll no doubt have come up against this ruthless Incantation. Frenzied Burst inflicts a potent mixture of fire damage and the Madness status effect on its target, making it a favourite of players looking to zap their foes without getting into close-quarters combat.
Frenzied Burst is picked up from one of the Teardrop Scarabs wandering between Frenzied Flame Village and the Church of Inhibition in Liurnia of the Lakes, and only requires a fairly modest 22 Faith points to use - making it a spell not solely limited to dedicated magic-users.
As well as its efficiency in causing Madness build-up and fire damage, Frenzied Burst has formidable range and can be charged to deal even more damage. Blocking it with a shield is all but useless too, as it’ll drain the defender’s stamina. Mind that if you’re the caster, you’ll suffer a small bit of Madness yourself for unleashing it. Frenzied Burst is already powerful alone, but boosting its Madness affiliation by equipping the Frenzied Flame Seal weapon (you can even dual-wield for extra scaling) makes it truly frightening.
Golden Vow
Another essential Incantation for buffing your character, Golden Vow doesn’t just benefit you - it also buffs any allies nearby, making it one of the best Incantations when playing Elden Ring in co-op.
This glowing passive spell ups your overall damage by 15% for 80 seconds, while also reducing any incoming damage by 10%. (Those values are halved in PvP.) The combination of both attack and defence, the long-lasting effect and a reasonable 25 Faith point requirement means that Golden Vow makes for a great self-casting option for melee builds with enough points in Faith, as well as for spell-users helping support their companions during fights. The damage-boosting effect can even be stacked with other Incantations, including the Flame, Grant Me Strength spell recommended above, to really supercharge your damage output.
To add Golden Vow to your spellbook, make your way up to Mt. Gelmir, where you’ll find it on a corpse in the suitably-named Corpse-Stench Shack. It’s not too out of the way, so you should stumble across it if you’re following the path towards Volcano Manor.
Great Heal
Rounding out our list of the best Elden Ring Incantations is a spell that’s simple, but essential in its simplicity. Great Heal does exactly what it says on the scroll: casting this will heal you and nearby allies for a large amount of health, scaling with your Faith stat, at the cost of 45 FP.
Great Heal is one of several healing spells found in Elden Ring, but it’s arguably the best in terms of how much HP it grants for the FP it costs and the time it takes to cast. On top of that pure efficiency, you only need 15 Faith points to equip it, so melee characters with a touch of magical ability can make use of it too. The added area-of-effect is also a bonus, making it perfect for both solo Tarnished and those summoning in some allies (or helping out other players themselves).
If all that wasn’t enough to convince you to add Great Heal to your spell slots, it’s also very easy to obtain. Once Brother Corhyn relocates from the Roundtable Hold to Altus Plateau, speak to him to buy the spell for 9000 runes. An absolute bargain for one of the best Incantations in the game.
Need more help? Jump back to our Elden Ring walkthrough, and our list of best Elden Ring builds.