Elden Ring equip load thresholds: Light, Medium, Heavy, and Overloaded explained
Here's how your equip load affects your roll type
Looking to understand more about your equip load in Elden Ring? Equip Load may seem like an unimportant stat in Elden Ring, but it actually governs something very important: your character's ability to roll out of danger. If you're interested in getting as many i-frames as possible for each roll, you'll want to pay close attention to the weight of your gear and how close you're getting to your maximum equip load.
Below we'll walk you through the various equip load thresholds in Elden Ring, beyond which your character will become limited to only certain types of dodge-rolls. We'll also cover a couple of methods for increasing your maximum equip load so you can more easily bear the weight of your favourite weapons and armour.
Elden Ring equip load thresholds: roll types explained
Your equip load in Elden Ring is the sum total weight of all your gear. It might be tempting to ignore this stat as long as it doesn't say you're overloaded. But that would be a mistake, because your equip load actually plays an important part in your ability to dodge-roll out of danger, and therefore stay alive during fights.
There are four different weight categories for your character: Light, Medium, Heavy, and Overloaded. The weight category you belong to depends on your current equip load. Here's exactly what they all mean, and the equip load thresholds required to reach them:
| Weight | Equip Load | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Light | 30% or less | Fastest, longest, and safest roll type. Max number of invincibility frames. |
| Medium | 70% or less | Slightly slower, shorter roll type. Decent number of invincibility frames. |
| Heavy | 100% or less | Slowest and shortest roll. High stamina cost. Very few invincibility frames. |
| Overloaded | Over 100% | Rolls are disabled. All other movement is slowed. |
For those who are confused: invincibility frames (or i-frames) are frames of the rolling animation where you cannot be damaged. The more invincibility frames you have, the less likely you are to take damage while rolling. So if you really want to minimise your chances of getting hit by a powerful enemy, you should stick to the low end of the equip load spectrum.
Of course, the heaviest armour generally gives you the most physical damage negation, and the heaviest weapons tend to hit the hardest. So it's a bit of a balancing act between weight and effectiveness when it comes to your gear. But even so, I'd advise steering clear of the Heavy weight class if you can, because there's a marked difference between Medium and Heavy rolls - particularly with the added stamina cost penalty.
How to increase your maximum equip load
There are a couple of major ways to improve your equip load, so that you can equip heavier gear without being penalised by Elden Ring's weight thresholds system:
Increase your Endurance attribute
The easiest way to upgrade your max equip load over time is to assign attribute points to your Endurance stat. As well as buffing your equip load, this will also improve your max Stamina and your Robustness, which is your resistance to the negative blood loss and frostbite effects. Endurance is one of the very best stats to increase early on for any Elden Ring class or build type.
Use the Arsenal Charm Talisman
The Arsenal Charm Talisman has never left my character's person since I first acquired it. This wonderfully simple Talisman buffs your max equip load by 15%. That may not sound like much, but at higher levels it can really add up, and can easily tip you into a lower weight category than you'd otherwise belong to.
You can obtain the Arsenal Charm Talisman by speaking to Nepheli Loux at the Roundtable Hold after defeating Godrick the Grafted with her help.
That's really all there is to the seemingly tricky business of equip loads, weight thresholds, and roll types in Elden Ring. If you want to take another look at your equipment after this revelation, be sure to check out our guides on the best weapons and best armour in Elden Ring. Alternatively you can spend some time hunting down the Golden Seed locations and Sacred Tear locations to improve your survival chances in the future.
