Elden Ring player Greg Henderson has confirmed that his experimental poison-bow assassin is developing exactly as intended, despite now wearing heavy armour and carrying a hammer roughly the size of a fridge. Henderson began the run determined to make something of his own. His character would rely on patience, careful positioning and poison arrows, with no build guides and absolutely no falling back on the same Strength-Faith setup he used last time.
The hammer, he explained, was a backup. “Sometimes an enemy gets too close for the bow,” he said. “Or there are two enemies. Or I’m indoors. Or I can already see him and it seems rude to spend twenty minutes poisoning him.”
Putting points into Strength was simply necessary to lift the backup. More Endurance followed so he could carry it, along with the heavier armour he needed while standing directly in front of things. The investment in Faith was an entirely separate decision prompted by the discovery that his backup could hit harder if he prayed first.
“People see the hammer and make assumptions,” said Henderson, applying another buff before approaching a lone soldier. “They don’t appreciate the role poison still plays in the overall concept.” Asked when he had last fired a poison arrow, Henderson opened his inventory, examined his ammunition and said he was saving them for a suitable encounter.
His friends first questioned the build’s direction when he announced he would be sneaking through the next area, then ran straight up the middle of it glowing gold. Henderson maintains that the operation was a stealth success because none of the enemies remained alive to raise the alarm. The original bow is still equipped for thematic reasons, although Henderson briefly removed it because its weight prevented him from wearing a larger pair of trousers.
On arriving at a Site of Grace, he encountered three other Tarnished wearing much the same armour, carrying much the same enormous hammer and performing much the same preparations. All four stopped to admire one another’s builds. Henderson rejected suggestions that he had accidentally recreated a familiar archetype. “Mine’s a poison-bow assassin,” he explained. “Those lads are just hitting things with hammers.”
