Wretch is the most diverse class in Elden Ring and also the hardest to play. You are going to choose Wretch, also known as the Naked class in Elden Ring, only if you want a challenge. Hence, this class is meant to be played by Soul veterans.
The Wretch class starts with almost nothing. You will not have any shield or armor. You will literally be naked without any essential items in Elden Ring.
You need to advance through the game in this state, survive and find your first weapons and shields to slowly make yourself into an overpowered character in Elden Ring.
This guide will help you understand how to play and use Wretch Class in Elden Ring.
How to play Wretch in Elden Ring
Wretch is similar to the Deprived class from the Dark Souls franchise. Wretch is also the only class in Elden Ring that starts at level 1 with 10 points in all stats.
You start bare bones as Wretch with only rags covering your private parts. You will have no armor at the start, but you can equip any armor you find later on in Elden Ring.
Similarly, you will only have a wooden club at the start that does mediocre damage. Wretch, however, can use any weapon you manage to find in Elden Ring.
The thing that makes Wretch the most interesting class is that Wretch has no builds and at the same time, it is the class for every build in the game.
When you start with other classes, you are most of the time locked into what type of build you can access. As you change direction, you will need to respect the stats you have and invest lots of points in other complimentary stats.
With the Wretch class, you have the open choice of picking any playstyle you want from the beginning, whether it’s a pure build or a hybrid of two or more types, Wretch is the class for picking if you know what you are doing, or what you want to do.
The fact that there are no particular Wretch builds in Elden Ring means that players have complete control over what direction they wish to choose. You can go Quality, Battle Mage, Arcane and Dexterity, and even a complete caster build, it’s all up to you.
Wretch starting tips in Elden Ring
Wretch is naturally not an easy class to play in Elden Ring. There are a few starting tips though that help you speed up your character builds.
Farm the Godrick soldiers for your first armor and shield
You need a good armor set as early as possible to advance in Elden Ring. Your best option is to head to the Church of Elleh and then find a group of Godrick soldiers nearby.
You need to farm these Godrick soldiers as many times as possible for their loot. They drop an armor set that is decent enough to help you for most of the early game in Elden Ring.
In addition, they also drop the Brass Shield which is good for blocking and reducing incoming damage for your starting levels.
The Godrick soldiers also drop a couple of hundred runes that will help finance your next purchase from the merchants.
Get the Uchigatana katana early on
Incidentally, the Godrick soldiers also drop the Lordsworn’s Straight Sword which is one of the best weapons your Wretch can equip early in Elden Ring. You can use its stance skill to do a ton of damage with each heavy attack.
You can also make your way north to reach the Deathtouched Catacombs to get the Uchigatana in Elden Ring. This is one of the best bleed weapons in Elden Ring that will help your Wretch character deal a lot of bleed damage at the start as well as farm runes easily.
Avoid any major enemy encounters
You will come across a big enemy encampment as soon as you leave the Church of Elleh that will be very hard for you to beat. Therefore, the good thing here is to avoid them until you have built up the stats.
Move forward until you have reached the site of grace and utilize the runes here to build the stats. The soldier that you fought earlier will give you enough runes for you to level up.
Level up Vigor
In the early stages of Wretch, you will not have any weapon to fight with, therefore your only friend here is the Vigor stat.
Investing in Vigor will not only build up the health pool but also deal more damage in the battle. Meanwhile, the rest of the attributes are related to the weapon which will be useless until you have one.
Get the Golden Seed Keepsake
In Elden Ring, acquiring Golden Seeds will essentially allow you to restore HP ultimately giving you a boost in stats. The Crimson and Cerulean Flask charges stored will deplete and Golden Seed can be used to increase the number of flasks.
This whole process can be done by visiting a Site of Grace and if you make your flask crimson, you will be able to cast very early in the Wretch class. Learning spells will help deal with all the dangers along the way.
