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Editors’ Note: Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree has been announced, and we got a preview of the long-awaited DLC.
Luck, skill and runes. To make good progress in Elden Ring, you need these three things. In fact, you’ll need a lot of each if you’re planning to beat the two bosses required for access to the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC.
The first is Starscourge Radahn, an enemy on the main quest line that you’ve probably already fought if you’ve spent time with the game. The second, an optional boss, is Mohg, Lord of Blood, whom some players may have skipped. Taking down these bosses is no small feat, and the stronger your character is, the better your chances. For anyone looking to access the extremely well-received new content, here are a number of areas to quickly power yourself up and make some real progress through the game.
Runes double as currency and experience points in Elden Ring, as they’re what you’ll use to buy items and upgrade your character. That applies both to leveling up weapons, which also requires Smithing Stones, and traditional character leveling, for which you’ll need a vast quantity of runes.
You’ll get those runes by killing foes, slaying bosses and selling items. But if you’re looking to earn them quickly, there are easy ways to farm them. This article contains two rune farming methods. One is available to you early on, and the second much later in the game.
The first method I’ll describe will net you about 50,000 runes in 15 minutes. The second, which is best suited for post-game rune farming, is dramatically faster. It easily gets you a million runes in 10 minutes.
The early method: 50,000 runes in 15 minutes
You want to head to the Third Church of Marika, here.
To start off, you’ll need to head to the Third Church of Marika, which is encircled on the map above. If you’ve not already found the Site of Grace there, travel to Agheel Lake North, where you were granted Torrent by Melina. Travel on the path, running past everything, including a giant that’ll be waiting near the Church. Once you’ve activated the Site of Grace inside, go around the back and you’ll find a transporter by a little cove.
Follow the light and you’ll find a transporter.
Here’s where the transporter is on the map.
Once you go through the transportation portal, you’ll be taken to a place called the Bestial Sanctum in a region called Dragonbarrow. Inside the Sanctum is Gurranq, a creature that rewards you for bringing it Deathroots. That’s a whole other guide though: What we’re interested in here is outside.
Once you look out into the fields, you’ll see a giant dragon knight guarding the Sanctum. It’s a boss, the Black Blade Kindred. Do not fight it. It will kill you dead.
Instead, walk to the left side of the steps you’re standing on and jump into the field. The boss won’t notice you unless you’re directly in front of it, so just avoid that. Go into the fields, however, and you’ll see a bunch of diminutive, statue-looking warriors walking about. These are what you’ve come for.
They’re easy (by Elden Ring standards) to kill at almost any level, since they stagger from being hit. And you can sneak up behind them to perform a critical hit from behind, which will either defeat them straight up or take a chunk off their health. And best of all, killing them grants you a little over 1,000 runes each.
This is the Black Blade Kindred. Avoid the Black Blade Kindred.
These little buggers are what you’ve come for. Killing them gets you over 1,000 runes each.
On the left side of the balcony you jump off, all these enemies are walking around alone. The right side is more challenging, since they travel in packs of two or three. If you’re a low level, I recommend hanging to the left and picking them off one by one. Either way, you can rack up lots of runes quickly by killing a set, respawning them by traveling to the Site of Grace inside the Bestium Sanctum, and doing it all over again.
End Game rune farming: 1 million in 10 minutes
As you progress through Elden Ring, 50,000 runes in 15 minutes may no longer do the trick. The best method I’ve found will get you that amount in under a minute, but there are a few prerequisites.
To optimize results, you’ll need the Sacred Relic Sword, a weapon that you can only get by beating the final boss. You can do this method with any other weapon, it’s just that the Sacred Relic Sword’s special move has a huge area of effect that expedites the process. You’ll also want a Golden Scarab talisman, which boosts rune acquisition by 20%.
The area in question is an optional area called Mohgwyn Palace. You can access this area in one of two ways: Go through White-Faced Varre’s questline, which you can do by finding him at the Rose Church after you beat Godrick The Grafted, or by finding a portal in the west side of the Mountaintops of the Giants. If you’re confused about how to access the western half of the Mountaintops, it involves collecting two halves of the Haligtree Secret Medallion and presenting it at the Grand Lift of Rold.
I chose the latter method, since I had already unlocked the western side of the Mountaintops. You can find the portal and its location on the map below.
This path is also probably the easiest to do in relation to the Erdree DLC, since the Mohg boss fight takes place in Mohgwyn Palace. For anyone struggling with the Lord of Blood, you won’t need to travel very far to get a few more levels added to your build.
This little number will take you to Mohgwyn Palace.
Here’s where you’ll find the teleporter on the map.
Where the magic happens.
If you arrive via transporter, you’ll find yourself in a little cave. Exit and you’ll be greeted to a panoramic view of Mohgwyn Palace, as well as a Site of Grace. This Site of Grace is where you’ll be farming your runes.
If you’re standing at the Site of Grace and look forward, you’ll see a bunch of sleeping ogre creatures. There’s about a dozen of them hanging out. If you look to the left, you’ll see another area separated from you by a big canyon. Wandering back and forth on the other side of the canyon is a very ugly bird.
Luckily for us, the bird is an idiot. If you shoot it with an arrow, it will become incensed and run at you. As noted, there is a giant canyon between you and the bird. The bird falls down and dies, giving you about 11,000 runes for little effort. Then, it’s time to kill the ogre dudes. This is where the Sacred Relic Sword comes in. It has a special move called Wave of Gold, which will hit almost every enemy in the space. Just by targeting one ogre and hitting L2, I killed a bunch of them and got about 40,000 runes.
You’ll see this bird walking back and forth in the area across the canyon. Hit it with an arrow and it will get mad, chase you, fall down the cliff and die, granting you over 10,000 runes.
Now it’s time to turn your attention to these blokes. Killing them all gets you about 25,000 runes.
If you have the sword you gain access to after beating the last boss, its special move can kill all of them in one or two hits. That’s 25,000 runes in about 10 seconds.
And that’s it! Once everyone’s dead and you’ve harvested those runes, go take a quick rest at the Site of Grace so the enemies repopulate the area. Then do it all over again.
Again, you don’t need to use the final boss weapon. It won’t take you too long to clear out all the enemies here, especially if you have another weapon with a big area of effect attack. Remember to equip your Golden Scarab talisman, which will boost your rune acquisition by 20%. All told, you’ll get about 60,000 runes per run. Once you get into a good flow, it’s easy to farm a million runes in 10 minutes here.
Spend an hour on this and you’ll be the richest Tarnished the Lands Between ever saw.