Dragon Quest XI Guide: Erik Stats, Skills And Tips

Erik is your thief and will take part in just about any endeavor involved with getting various items whether it be through theft (Half-Inch) or various co-op Pep Powers. And as you can expect from a thief,  he’s fast and has a high evasion rate. However, don’t let his role fool you: he also happens to be the hardest hitting character in the game when the right conditions are met. Unfortunately, this isn’t something he’ll be able to do until late in the game, and when it is finally available, the setup is both MP heavy and has some forced downtime involved. Before then, he’ll be serving as a speedy fighter to act on the front lines along with the Luminary.

In short, he’s your stock thief/fighter until you hit the late game and he starts dropping several thousand damage in one turn.

Pep Effect Bonuses

STR +20% (40%), DFT +100% (150%), Evade +100% (150%)

Regular Skills and Abilities

As one might expect from a thief, Erik doesn’t have too many spells in arsenal. Furthermore, outside of Cock-a-Doodle-Doo! (removes sleep from all allies), Peep (checks the content of treasure chests) and Evac (escape dungeons), they’re also unique in how they work. Rather than doing direct damage, these spells are traps that deal damage whenever an enemy takes an action. They’re not the strongest spells (the Pep Power versions are pretty decent, though), but the damage they deal can add up when enemies start getting multiple turns in a row.

Character Builder Skills and Abilities

Swords

Swords aren’t the best choice for the early game since many of the good skills and abilities are locked, but becomes solid once they’re available. Fatal Flash is a great skill to use if you choose to use swords, capable of doing about 2.5x of Erik’s usual damage and it even has a fair chance of instantly killing the target (provided they can be affected by instant death).

Regardless of whether you choose to use Swords or not, however, picking up Dually Deadly is mandatory. It changes the damage formula of off-hand weapons when dual-wielding, allowing Erik to deal full damage with them. Just be aware that unlocking this skill requires Erik to also heavily invest in Knives, as it’s the very last skill available on this tree.

Knives

Knives are Erik’s go-to weapon in the early game (and strongest during the endgame). He has two options to consider during this time: either picking up Sleep Hit and then comboing it with Persecutter to deal 6x damage if the target is asleep/confused or doing the same combo with Cobra Strike and Victimisser except with poisoned/paralyzed enemies. Both are effective when they work, and while I went with Sleep Hit for some crowd control, I wouldn’t be surprised if the poison from Cobra Strike lands more consistently. Of course, this won’t be as much of a concern later on after boosting his ability to land status ailments via Nastier Knives.

Regardless of what you end up doing though, be sure to pick up Dual-Wielding. It does exactly what it sounds like, allowing Erik to make use of his empty left hand since he can’t use shields. Also, be aware that he can dual wield any weapon of his choosing so long as they’re the same weapon (i.e. he can only ever equip a knife in his off-hand if he’s wielding one in his main hand).

Boomerangs

Boomerangs are actually pretty good, but since Erik requires heavy investment in both Swords and Knives to make effective use of them, he won’t be investing in this tree until much later.

Once you do get around to investing in it, Twomerang (hits all enemies twice with each hit doing slightly more damage than usual) and Double Down (same as Twomerang except with increased damage and the capacity to reduce the target’s resistances to ailments) are the skills most worth using. Upon investing more in Guile, be sure to also pick up Pep-Up Power-Up.

Lastly, this isn’t a recommendation or anything, but Starburst Throw scales off of Magical Might, so if you notice anything peculiar with its damage, that’s why.

Guile

Erik’s signature tree with some of his most important active skills. Needless to say, Half-Inch is pretty crucial, allowing Erik to steal all sorts of items and even mini medals. Unfortunately, the base steal rate is rather low (about 16%) and you’re not going to see much consistency until you pick up Sticky Fingers and boost his DFT to increase those odds (maximum steal rate is 75%).

Meanwhile, though Falcon Slash would seem like a no-brainer to pick up since it’s so effective with the Luminary, you should actually have Erik skip that to pick up Divide before moving up to Critical Claim. Divide causes Erik to make two clones of himself, causing the next ability he uses to have a boosted effect (Dodgy Character will greatly increase Erik’s evasion and Half-Inch will have a much higher success rate, for instance).  In terms of this discussion, its most important boon is that it causes him to deal 3x damage, which will cause him to do heinous amounts of damage when combined with Critical Claim, a physical skill with 100% critical hit rate. Though between its high MP cost (64) and Divide’s short effect period, this isn’t a combo Erik will be able to keep up for very long.

Of course, a move with 100% crit rate has more applications than just blowing up bosses: it excels at killing Metal Slimes too. Though there are many reasons why they’re hard to kill, the leading reason is because they have ludicrously high defense. Thankfully, critical hits pierce their defense, which Critical Claim guarantees.

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That’s it for Erik’s role in Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age. He might be able to deal 1000’s of damage at a time when the situation allows it, but he’s still a thief. Please remember that. There’s a good number of items worth stealing and it would be a shame if you relied on simply waiting for them to drop, because there’s a good chance they won’t.

Need help with something else? Head to the Luminary’s Tome for more Dragon Quest XI guides.