All eight current attributes

The Steam Early Access build uses Health, Stamina, Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, Faith, Focus, and Equip Load. They do not all behave like general power ratings.

  • Health increases the damage margin before death. Buy it when ordinary mistakes or unavoidable chip damage are ending attempts.
  • Stamina expands the action budget for attacking, sprinting, dodging, and defending. Measure it by the sequence you need, including the exit.
  • Strength scales weapons that list Strength.
  • Dexterity scales weapons that list Dexterity.
  • Intelligence scales weapons that list Intelligence.
  • Faith scales weapons that list Faith.
  • Focus increases the resource available for rune attacks; larger capacity matters only when the build can also earn and safely spend it.
  • Equip Load increases the weight the character can carry before crossing movement-class boundaries.

The four damage attributes are requirements and scaling lanes. Do not add Strength because every physical weapon “should” benefit, or Intelligence because a rune looks magical. Read the exact weapon panel.

How to allocate without a rigid level chart

Static level-by-level charts age badly because your drops, base weapon, total equipment weight, and comfort with the combat are different. Use checkpoints instead:

  1. Meet the requirement of one tested weapon.
  2. Ensure the basic punish still leaves stamina for one defensive action.
  3. Add Health until a normal learning mistake no longer ends the attempt.
  4. Add Equip Load only when the actual loadout crosses the movement target.
  5. Add Focus when it buys another planned rune use or reduces wasted generation.
  6. Put remaining offense into the scaling lane shown on the weapon.

Re-check after every major gear change. A heavy shield, quiver, or second weapon set can change the Equip Load problem without changing any armor.

Pure and hybrid scaling

A pure weapon concentrates requirements and future damage points in one lane. That is easier for a first character because every damage point continues supporting the same plan. A hybrid weapon can justify two lanes when its requirements and scaling actually use both.

Do not create a “hybrid” by keeping two unrelated weapons that never benefit from the same attributes. That is two incomplete builds sharing one character. Test both bases, choose the plan, then use the Iron Corpus respec if the old points are truly stranded.

Focus is a loop, not a target number

Ask which rune attack the build must cast, what it costs in the current menu, and how combat replenishes that Focus. Patch 1 raised Skyfall Shot to 100 Focus, a concrete example of why old screenshots can invalidate a capacity target.

A low-cost control or mobility rune may improve a build more than another bar of maximum Focus. Conversely, a burst plan may need enough capacity to hold Focus through a phase transition. The right value follows the encounter plan.

Equip Load is also a breakpoint stat

Adding Equip Load has immediate movement value when it changes what the complete equipment set can carry within the intended class. If the class does not change, the extra capacity may still support future gear or certain item interactions, but it has not automatically made the current dodge faster. See the dedicated Equip Load guide before spending points.

Common allocation mistakes

  • Holding points forever instead of funding enough Health and Stamina to learn the game.
  • Meeting requirements for every new drop and ending with four weak damage lanes.
  • Copying an endgame offensive stat total while missing the survival and gear that made it viable.
  • Spending Equip Load without weighing the exact set.
  • Buying Focus capacity without a generation plan.
  • Treating a balance-patch build sheet as permanent.

The current attribute model is expected to change at 1.0. This page is accurate to the named Early Access Build, not a prediction of the announced class redesign.