Wretch Elden Ring Class Guide: Stats, Weapons, Armor

In Elden Ring, the Wretch is essentially the Deprived class from the Dark Souls games, serving as a choice perhaps best left for "Souls-like" veterans or those who simply want don't want to be locked into any archetype early on.

The Wretch is intentionally designed as a blank slate, where players start from rock bottom at the lowest overall level with just about zero starting equipment. While the Wretch is objectively the hardest starting class in the game, its lack of freebies early does mean, however, that it just might be the best opening point for those who control over every exact detail of their build's rise to glory. From stats to weapons and armor, here's a class guide on the Wretch in Elden Ring.

Wretch Elden Ring Class Guide: Stats

The Wretch starts at Level 1 with 10 on all of its stats. Although this does mean that players who choose the Wretch essentially have no dominant characteristics to lean into and rely on early, this is really the only way to get the truest sense of freedom while creating a character and looting early in the world of Elden Ring.

There's really nowhere to go wrong when upgrading your character here. Feel free to optimize your build around any equipment you take a particular liking to as you go.

Wretch Elden Ring Class Guide: Weapons

As advertised, choosing the Wretch class drops players right into the mix with just a Club for a weapon. Its only ideal situation for use is against weaker enemies that are weak against bludgeoning.

Wretch Elden Ring Class Guide: Armor

For armor, the Wretch starts off with just pieces of cloth to keep its family friendly. Strategy and patience are must when beginning as a Wretch, but this means that players will have absolute freedom over what type of armor they want to use.

Light armor allows you to roll faster and with slightly more frames of invincibility. Heavy armor has massive damage reduction capabilities. Medium armor strikes a balance between the two.

Elden Ring is available now for PlayStation 4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and Windows PC (via Steam).

For more on Elden Ring, feel free to check out our class guides for the Warrior, as well as the Samurai.