“Big sword smash” is always a viable strategy in a soulslike, but Elden Ring’s incantations let you roast your foes with dragon fire and illuminate the battlefield with holy light.
Incantations are sort of like a mashup between miracles and pyromancies from Dark Souls. They’re spells that require a Sacred Seal to cast, and their power primarily scales with Faith. Incantations like Flame, Grant Me Strength can buff your character while others can summon lightning from the sky, so overall they’re great for anyone who wants a spellcasting build with a ton of flexibility. Like Sorceries, incantations take up spell slots and can be equipped and swapped out at any Site of Grace. With your spell list set up and a Sacred Seal in hand, you’re ready to start slinging fireballs at anything that crosses your path.
Get your first Seal
The quickest way to get going with incantations is to choose a starting class that gives you access to them. The Confessor and Prophet both get access to a Sacred Seal and some basic incantations. The Confessor starts with just support skills: a healing incantation and one that increases stealth abilities for a short time. The Prophet gets to be a bit more aggressive with a simple healing incantation and Catch Flame, which is a short-range fireball attack.
If you’re coming to incantations after getting started with another class, or if you, like me, play a Wretch to have full control over every stat point in your build, then you’ll need to find a Sacred Seal on your own. Luckily, getting the starter Finger Seal couldn’t be easier. After you’ve unlocked Roundtable Hold (either by beating the boss Morgott or resting at a Site of Grace beyond his zone), you can buy the Finger Seal from the Twin Maiden Husks for 800 runes. Once you’ve gotten your foot in the door with the right starting equipment, it’s time to start searching for more powerful incantations.
Become a good student
Getting better incantations means finding the right teachers. There are a handful of powerful casters who call the Lands Between home, and when you meet them they’ll happily teach you a thing or two for some runes. Brother Corhyn and D, Hunter of the Dead are two potential teachers, and they’ll both show up in Roundtable Hold, though they’ll move around the map as the game progresses.
Gurranq, the Beast Clergyman has a selection of incantations to teach, and you can find him at the Beastial Sanctum in Caelid. Gowry is another Caelid native who teaches incantations, and he hangs out in his shack near the center of the region. Finally, there’s everyone’s favorite turtle, Miriel the Pastor of Vows, who lives in the Church of Vows in Liurnia.
Each of those NPCs has a list of incantations they know, but Brother Corhyn and Miriel can learn and pass along even more. You can bring them any prayerbooks you find in the world, and they’ll add new incantations to their lists. Along with prayerbooks, you should keep an eye out for other Sacred Seals because some of them come with powerful bonuses that make incantations stand toe-to-toe with the best weapons in the game.
Channel the spirit of dragons
There’s a particular subset of incantations that are worth calling out separately. Dragon Communion Incantations can temporarily transform parts of your body and let you harness the strength of dragons. These aren’t necessarily the strongest incantations in the game, but they’re extremely flashy and quickly became some of my favorites. You can learn these incantations from the Church of Dragon Communion in Limgrave, and you can make them even stronger by collecting the Dragon Communion Seal from the Fringefolk Hero’s Grave that you pass by at the very beginning of the game.
