Kotaku Calls Elon Musk’s ‘Elden Ring’ Build ‘Dumb’ But It’s Honestly Just Fine

Recently, SpaceX and Tesla boss Elon Musk revealed the basics of his Elden Ring build on Twitter.

When Musk replied to a tweet about the ‘Tree Of Life’ mosaic from Hisham’s Palace with ‘Elden Ring vibes’ another Twitter user responded

“What class build of Elden Ring are you playing sir? Appreciate your wisdom. Struggling with mage.”

Musk replied:

“Int/Dex build, so mostly mage with some weapon skills. Shield in left hand, staff in right with rapier & claws fast switch.

“Change armor from heavy to medium for fast roll or tank.

“Move talismans around a lot.

“Many small hits in a row to damage stack is important.

“Summon!”

This is an interesting build. My main build in Elden Ring initially focused on Int/Dex as well. It’s a good combination, allowing you to play with both magic and faster melee weapons.

I also change armor depending on the situation I find myself in (though usually steer clear of heavy armor since I don’t tank with this build at all) and move talismans around a lot—again, based on what kind of monsters or boss I’m up against.

The last two lines are interesting also. I assume that “Many small hits in a row to stack damage” has something to do with status effects. Hit an enemy enough times with a blood-based weapon and you’ll inflict Blood Loss status effect.

And “Summon!” is great advice. You want ‘Easy Mode’ in Elden Ring? Summon! (And play a magic user with lots of long-range spells and use your Spirit Ashes etc.)

Kotaku Says This Is A ‘Dumb Build’

Of course, because we’re all supposed to hate Elon Musk in video game journalism land, Kotaku has written a very long, very strange “rebuttal” to Musk’s build. It has two headlines, but the more clickbaity of the two reads:

“Elon Musk’s Dumb Elden Ring Build Proves The Billionaire Is Maidenless”

Maidenless, of course, is a reference to White Mask Varré, the first NPC you meet in the game who tells you “Unfortunately for you, however, you are maidenless.” This has led to lots of headlines and memes and jokes and players taking it too personally and killing him, missing out on his entire questline and the best Rune-farming spot in the entire game.

I also thought we were supposed to stop using the word ‘dumb’ because it’s insensitive but whatever. The article is pretty bad for lots of other reasons. Its author makes a lot of very questionable claims in this excessively long-winded piece. For instance:

“Musk has four weapons equipped at all times, which can make it difficult to bring anything up to its maximum strength. Carrying all that around also adds unnecessary weight”

This is . . . true up to a point. Sure, it can add weight and if you’re hauling around very heavy weapons it can be a problem. But I often roll with a shield and a seal (which you use to cast Faith spells) in my left hand and a staff and two different swords in my right. That’s five weapons if you count the shield as one.

None of these are very heavy because I’m currently a faith/int/dex character, but this allows me to cast both Faith and Int spells on the fly, use my shield when necessary, and switch between two different melee weapons with two different skills when I need to (and trust me, having different skills that do different things—like gouts of flame, gravity stomps or bursts of magical energy—can be super useful!)

Because I typically wear very light armor and have various helpful Talismans equipped, I’m usually at a Light equip load, or sometimes Medium. Even with all this stuff equipped!

This is my character most of the time, though some fights I pile on much heavier armor if I need to.

The second part of this argument, which claims that it’s “difficult to bring anything up to its maximum strength” is true but only up to a point. Lots of things are difficult about this game, but it’s not that hard to level up your gear.

I have lots of items leveled up to the max or just one shy of max (hard to get all your preferred magical weapons up to +10 before you get to NG+ but pretty easy to get them to +9). Many of the weapons I carry are max-leveled or nearly so, and sometimes I play around with ones that aren’t just for fun. Switching up your arsenal is part of the fun! Besides, I get bored with stuff, especially if it’s too powerful like the Moonveil Katana which I think is even more OP than Rivers of Blood.

Shield-Shaming

The piece continues:

“mage characters typically don’t need shields because they torpedo spells from a safe distance, and fast switching between weapons of unequal power wastes time and puts you at a disadvantage in battle.”

Speak for yourself! I’ve always rolled with a shield with this build and I only use my ranged spells half the time. I am just as comfortable up close and personal hacking and slashing away. I choose spells when I need them and I move in close when I don’t.

And I’ll be honest. My shield is my safety blanket. I am more of a dodger, true, but I like it handy. I just feel better when it’s there, you know?

Sometimes a block is the right way to go instead of rolling. Plus, there’s this fun mechanic in Elden Ring called ‘guard counter’ that let’s you retaliate with a strong attack after blocking with your shield. It can be risky against some baddies, but it can be super effective against others.

Stop shield-shaming, Kotaku! Mages use shields, too, and it’s ridiculous to suggest otherwise.

There are FromSoftware games where shields aren’t an option at all—Bloodborne’s only shield is literally a joke and Sekiro has none at all—but if I have access to shields, I use them unless I’m going for a two-handed build or dual-wielding build.

It’s equally ridiculous to suggest that magic-forward characters only sling spells from a distance. Plenty magic users play melee much of the time and plenty of melee characters toss in a few spells. The addition of skills—or Spirit Ashes—means that lots of melee weapons can do both! And some spells are close-range. There’s variety galore in Elden Ring. Let’s embrace all builds and all play-styles instead of trying to score cheap political points or shame people for playing in ways we think are “dumb.” That’s called gate-keeping, isn’t it?

The Kotaku piece goes on from here, complaining that his build is too complicated and the entire post is just a backhanded way to insult Musk and billionaires writ large. And fine, I don’t really care about Musk or billionaires. I just think this article and the attitude it exemplifies is lame.

And yes, I know I’m writing this on Forbes with its billionaire lists and all the rest but I am not a billionaire and my political leanings are generally what you might describe as Bernie Sanders-esque democratic socialism with a healthy dose of left libertarianism—I just think cheap shots are cheap shots and they’d better at least be funny—which this article is not—and accurate, which is clearly not the case.

Then again when you’re tying Bloodborne to Roe v Wade, taking digs at Elon Musk by way of Elden Ring seems pretty par for the course.

Elden Ring is good. Go play it.