Faith is the incantation stat. You need it to cast sacred incantations, it raises their power, and it boosts weapons with Faith scaling. For incantations its soft caps are 60 and 80, while Faith-scaling weapons (Sacred and Flame Art) level off at 50.
What Faith does
Incantations like Heal and Catch Flame have Faith requirements, and sacred seals turn your Faith into incantation power. Weapons with Faith scaling also hit harder as you level it, and Faith is closely tied to fire and holy damage. You raise it the usual way: spend Runes at a Site of Grace once Melina has given you the ability to level up.
Faith soft caps
Faith has two sets of breakpoints: one for incantation power through your seal, and one for weapon damage. Past each breakpoint you still gain, just less per level, and nothing goes beyond the hard cap of 99.
| Faith | Incantations | Faith-scaling weapons |
|---|---|---|
| 20 | – | Small drop for elemental affinities and weapons with innate elemental scaling |
| 30 / 45 | Casting breakpoints on some seals | – |
| 50 | – | Main soft cap: elemental damage from Faith (mainly Sacred and Flame Art) drops off sharply |
| 60 | First major incantation soft cap | Further drop |
| 80 | Final incantation soft cap | Last breakpoint, not worth it for elemental weapons |
Exactly where your seal’s casting breakpoints fall (30, 45, 60 or 80) depends on which catalyst you use, so compare the incantation scaling number on your status screen as you level. A pure caster will want 60 and later 80; a melee build with a Sacred or Flame Art weapon can happily stop at 50. See Affinities for how those two affinities work.
Faith requirements for seals and weapons
These minimum requirements are worth knowing:
| Faith needed | Armaments |
|---|---|
| 10 | Finger Seal, Dragon Communion Seal |
| 12 | Golden Halberd |
| 14 | Erdsteel Dagger, Erdtree Greatbow |
| 16 | Grafted Dragon |
| 18 | Magma Wyrm’s Scalesword, Treespear, Vyke’s War Spear |
| 24 | Sword of Night and Flame, Winged Scythe |
| 27 | Godslayer’s Seal |
| 30 | Cipher Pata |
Some incantations scale with other stats through specific seals: the Clawmark Seal uses Strength, the Frenzied Flame Seal uses Strength and Dexterity, and the Dragon Communion Seal uses Arcane, each with breakpoints at 30 and 45.
Which builds want Faith
Incantation casters, healers and buffers build around it. Faith also suits melee characters who use fire or holy weapons, or who back up their weapon with buffs and heals. If you change direction later, Rebirth lets you respec.
Starting classes with the most Faith
| Starting class | Faith |
|---|---|
| Prophet | 16 |
| Confessor | 14 |
| Wretch | 10 |
The Prisoner starts lowest with 6.
Gear that raises Faith
- Two Fingers Heirloom: talisman, +5 Faith.
- Greathood: +2 Faith and +2 Intelligence, 10% less HP.
- Haligtree Knight Helm and Imp Head (Corpse): +2 Faith each.
- Haligtree Helm, Ruler’s Mask, Commoner’s Garb, Commoner’s Garb (Altered) and Commoner’s Simple Garb: +1 each.
- Marika’s Scarseal / Marika’s Soreseal: +3 / +5 to Mind, Intelligence, Faith and Arcane.
- Faith-knot Crystal Tear: +10 for 3 minutes in the Flask of Wondrous Physick.
- Fingerprint Nostrum: +6 for 90 seconds. Godrick’s Great Rune: +5 after a Rune Arc.
Gear and buffs can’t push Faith past 99.