Discover the best places to farm runes in Elden Ring and enhance your character’s abilities and skills. Explore the Drowned Capital, Forgotten Forest, and Blighted Wasteland for valuable loot.
Runes in Elden Ring can be compared to two things: game money and experience points. For them, you can increase characteristics, upgrade equipment and buy the necessary items. For those who play the game at a leisurely pace and follow the storyline without being distracted by upgrading different builds, rune farming may not be necessary, but most players resort to it.
In this article we will tell you the best places to farm, what you need to prepare in advance and how you will have to act.
Preparation
There are quite a few runes in the places we’ll talk about below, but you can increase your profits even more if you collect a couple of useful items.
For example, the Golden Scarab talisman increases rune drop rates from monsters by 20%. Its bonus stacks with other items of this type, so it’s a must-have for our purpose. You can get it in the Abandoned Cave from the optional boss – the Knight of Pure Rot.
Gilded Bird’s Claw is another item for better farming. When using it, you get 30% more runes, but the effect lasts only 3 minutes. But you can take several claws. You can buy them from Patchwork, look for them in locations, or craft them using the Preacher’s Handbook. To craft, you need 3 Rowanberries, 1 Four-Toed Claw, and 1 Firefly.
Places to farm
At the start of the game
Coastal Ruins
The first point we need is located to the east of the starting area. When you first find yourself in the Betweenlands, go east. There you will meet several soldiers fighting goblins. If you kill them all, you can get 577 runes. Yes, this is not enough, but the point is that the enemies will not respond to your attacks.
Soldiers and goblins will be smashing each other so hard that you’ll only have to finish off the survivors and pick up the loot. You can also throw them through the nearby place of grace. You get practically free runes.
Animal Sanctuary
This is a location in the Starry Wastes region. It is located in the Dragon Mound area of Greyall. Here you can get 1000 runes from each killed enemy. It is not necessary to clear it completely.
There are three ways to get to the location:
- Talk to Dee, the Dead Hunter, and show him the Death Root. He will then give you a lead to a portal located in the bushes north of the Third Temple of Marika area.
- The second option is to jump over the cliff. You need to do this in the northeast near the Kalem Ruins, and then follow the eastern road until you reach the bridge.
- Use the spiritual spring near the Temple of Plague and head along the road to the northeast.
Inside the temple you will also find the NPC beast priest Gurrank. He sells some useful items for Death roots. But we don’t need him, we need small opponents in black suits. They usually patrol the location and can cause problems in battle, but if you sneak up from behind, then 1-2 hits will be enough to win. And if you do get killed, the respawn point will be very close and you can return to the area in a couple of minutes.
Fort Farot
There is another rune farming location in the same area. You can reach it directly from the Beast Sanctuary. We are looking for a specific enemy in this location, namely Greyall, the Great Dragon. This is an optional boss in Elden Ring that can drop a large amount of runes.
Don’t forget to activate the bonfire near the Fort. After that, go to Grayall. It’s best to get to her from behind and hit her with a weapon that deals bleeding or frostbite damage. The dragoness herself won’t hit you, but you’ll have to spend a little time. You can also kill the 5 small dragons nearby, but they’ll already be fighting back.
After killing Grayall, the little dragons will also die. In total, you can get almost 80 thousand runes and several dragon hearts. But unlike the previous place, this battle is one-time and you will not be able to quickly loot resources again.
But there is one trick. If you do not kill the dragoness, the little dragons will continue to respawn. And each of them gives 3500 runes. Therefore, you can not kill Grayall at once, but instead in several stages kill the little dragons.
Northern shore of Lake Eghil
Not far from the Ruins at the gate there is a bonfire Northern shore of the lake. If you go northeast from it, then on the shore you can see a small camp of Vikings. Each of the opponents in this location gives 300 runes, and a complete cleanup – about 2000 runes. By the way, the location can simply be updated near the place of grace. Yes, there is not much profit from it, but it is easy to pass.
The only possible difficulty is that the enemies will be on horseback. To knock them down, use jumping attacks, and then finish off the fallen Vikings.
In the late game
Palace of the Mogvins
You can get to this location in the first half of the walkthrough. Ideally, you need level 50+ to clear it. Also in this zone there will be an arena of one of the bosses, which you will need to defeat to open access to the DLC.
But back to the runes. Activate the place of grace near the entrance to the Palace, and then go back. You will see a road with monsters. It is not worth rushing into trouble, we need to find the second bonfire, which is on the right side – it is called the Steep Road leading to the Palace. Having reached it, you will see several mobs near the cliff. Each of them gives 2000 runes for killing, but there is a problem.
The necessary mobs are guarded by two large guards, which can cause problems at a low level of pumping. It is better to kill them one by one, spreading them out farther from each other. But if you came prepared, then there will be no problems.
You can get up to 40 thousand runes at a time for clearing mobs. You can also refresh the location with a bonfire and go through it again, thereby replenishing your wallet until you get bored.
Adviсe
- While exploring locations, you may notice illuminated skulls. They should be broken to obtain golden runes, each of which is worth 200 regular ones. Such skulls are clearly visible, so attentive players will not miss them.
- When the leaves fall from the Erd Tree and the world glows gold, it’s prime time to farm. During this time, all enemies drop 5% more runes, and this bonus stacks with other loot buffs.
- Pay special attention to enemies with golden eyes. You can get much more runes for killing them. On average, they give 4-5 times more than regular opponents.
- Overkill grants 20% more runes.