The Complete Guide to Flasks in Elden Ring

As an avid Elden Ring fan and content creator, I‘ve put over 300 hours exploring the Lands Between and uncovering its intricate mechanics. And one of the most complex yet essential systems every Tarnished should understand is the Sacred Flask – your lifeline and sustain through the merciless challenges you‘ll face.

In this comprehensive guide, I‘ll show you how to maximize your flask potential by:

• Finding every Golden Seed and Sacred Tear
• Optimizing your HP vs. FP balance
• Complementing with the Mind stat
• Employing advanced combat tactics

So whether you seek to Raid dungeons most foul or slaughter Demigods in legendary, flasks will determine if you return to those Sites of Grace. Let‘s begin the path to your true Elden Lord potential!

Golden Seeds & Sacred Tears – Your Keys to More Flasks

Golden Seeds and Sacred Tears are the unique items that upgrade both the number of uses and amount restored by your flasks respectively. As a quick overview:

• Golden Seeds: Grant additional charges to your flasks (more drinks)
• Sacred Tears: Increase the healing effect of individual flask charges

Here is a reference table for exactly what you‘ll gain:

As you acquire more seeds and tears, visit any Site of Grace to invest them into your flasks.

Now let‘s explore where to find these precious upgrades!

Golden Seed Locations

Here is a quick overview of notable seeds per area and strategies to accumulate a surplus of 5+ to hit the flask cap:

• Limgrave – 11 Seeds
  • Abundant, explore Weeping Peninsula
• Liurnia – 7 Seeds
  • Clear minor Erdtrees, dungeons
• Caelid – 11 Seeds
  • Many in overworld, challenge Tombs
• Altus Plateua – 8 Seeds
  • Follow highway, strike mining camps
• Mountaintops of the Giants – 10 Seeds
  • Brave the slopes, golden trees

Limgrave and Caelid provide the most seeds early to mid game. I recommend thoroughly exploring these zones, clearing camps and smaller dungeons until you possess at least 5 seeds before moving north. This gives 12 flasks charges – 10 Crimson for HP, 2 Cerulean for your chosen combat art.

Collect any extras across Altus and the Mountaintops as you‘re able. Seeds also carry over into New Game+ cycles if you somehow don‘t find them all!

Sacred Tear Locations

While Golden Seeds are scattered abundantly through the world, Sacred Tears have precise locations, nearly all in Minor Erdtrees:

• Limgrave – 4 Tears
  • Stormhill Shack, Third Church of Marika
• Liurnia – 6 Tears
  • Raya Lucaria Gate Town, Church of Irith
• Caelid – 2 Tears
  • Sellia Hideaway, Church of Dragon Communion
• Altus – 5 Tears
  • Perfumer‘s Grotto, Minor Erdtree
• Snowfields – 4 Tears
  • Converted Tower, Castle Sol

I recommend collecting at least 4 tears before Margit to give +4 healing, then continuing up to 7 for +5 by Leyndell. This sustains reasonable HP gains as enemy damage spikes. Tears in excess can be spent on bonus FP once you‘ve acquired sorceries.

Now let‘s optimize exactly how many crimson and cerulean charges you need…

Allocating Your Flasks for Each Build

Once you‘ve unlocked up to 14 total flask charges, you can allocate crimson and cerulean at any Site of Grace. But what distribution makes sense?

The community recommends 10 Crimson and 4 Cerulean as the ideal balance for regular melee builds. This provides enough emergency HP while keeping your FP topped off for skills.

But advanced players tailor based on specific combat styles:

Melee Builds

For heavy weapons and tanky armor relying on skills, aim for:

• 10-12 Crimson Flasks
• 2-4 Cerulean Flasks

You‘ll use weapon arts often, but don‘t need expansive FP. Focus charges on HP sustain.

Spellcaster Builds

If wielding sorceries, incantations, dragon communion spells – lean towards:

• 8-10 Crimson Flasks
• 4-6 Cerulean Flask Flasks

FP drains rapidly flinging spells. Divert charges to fuel your mana while staying mobile.

Bow & Arrow Builds

For long ranged sniping and kiting bosses, balance with:

• 10-12 Crimson Flasks
• 2-4 Cerulean Flasks

Stamina limits consecutive shots. Sip FP when you can for skill shots.

For PVE, start around 10 HP & 4 FP, then tweak to your playstyle. And remember to re-optimize when respeccing stats!

Next we‘ll see how Mind directly complements flask usage…

Mind Increases FP Alongside Your Flask

While Cerulean Flasks provide immediate FP restoration mid-fight, raising your maximum FP through the Mind stat reduces overall flask dependence.

Here is how much FP is gained per Mind level:

As a mage, I only need 4-5 Cerulean flasks thanks to 50 Mind granting 164 FP. This covers 5-6 casts of Comet Azur or a full FP bar for sustained combat.

For melee builds, even 20-25 Mind allows continual use of weapon arts like Hoarah Loux‘s Earthshaker or Bloodhound Step without quickly exhausting.

Soft cap Mind to 40-50 then divert points to damage stats once your FP is sustained. That FP alongside your cerulean flasks means endless skills to conquer any foe!

Now let‘s see how to leverage flasks in specific combat scenarios…

Advanced Tactics – Boss Strategies & PVP Outplays

Truly mastering flask usage involves dynamically responding to each perilous encounter:

Optimizing your Flask for Boss Attempts

Elden Ring‘s spectrum of demigods and legendary foes all test different aspects of your builds. Use these tips to spec your sacred flask for each bout:

Vs. High Damage
Malenia, Radahn, Maliketh

• Max both HP & damage negation with flask
• Divine Fortification reduces holy/death damage
• Prioritize lasting over burst damage

Vs. Poison & Rot
Mogh, Ekzykes

• At least 6 Crimson to continually cleanse
• Fill any leftover with FP or stamina
• Slow rot with high robustness

Vs. Magic
Rennala, Astel

• Magic Protection greatly reduces sorceries
• High vigor and focus on physical damage
• Bait certain attacks and retaliate

Vs. Blood Loss
Mohg Lord of Blood

• Purifying Crystal Tear negates build up
• Repeat applications block hemorrhage procs
• Guard counters help control his aggression

By preparing your flask, you can overcome any archnemesis. Now for dominating other Tarnished…

Outplaying Invaders in PVP

While NPC hunters can be felled through perfect execution, human invaders bring another level of unpredictability. Rely on these advanced flask tactics to defend your world:

• Split Up Crimson & Cerulean – 10 ceramic and 4 just won‘t cut it. Divide your charges so one hit doesn‘t wipe both types.
• Hide & Charge – Create opportunities to drink safely. Favor hit and run to replenish resources.
• Mix Crystal Tears – Use clarifying to cure scarlet rot then switch to purifying for hemorrhage immunity. Keep them guessing!
• Leverage Terrain – Funnel bloodthirsty duelists through tight, exposed space and punish overextensions.

By mastering these keys of adaptability, you‘ll reign undefeated over any trespassing ops.

Conclusion – Continue Your Journey Towards True Mastery

After hundreds of hours perfecting my flaskcraft, these advanced mechanics have shaped me into the Elden Lord I am today. Yet still I hone my skills, extracting every last drop of advantage from those crimson and cerulean bottles.

I hope this definitive guide has enlightened your own potentials within the flask system and provided a roadmap to overcome the game‘s toughest tribulations. Fear no enemy, Tarnished, for we shall drink to their demise!

May your Sacred Flasks ever run full as you embark onto legend…

– Godrick the Flasked

Let me know if you have any other questions in the comments below!