Is it necessary to grind in Elden Ring? To go out of your way to semi-mindlessly strike down the same wretches again and again? Not really. But that’s not going to stop us!
I was hesitant to spotlight any rune-farming spots until the dust had settled. For a large portion of the game, the best advice is to explore to your heart’s content and face whatever threats pop up — to seek out those caves ‘n’ catacombs and play organically. But the community has figured out The Spot for farming runes, at least when it comes to the endgame in Elden Ring. It’s even good enough to warrant a respec for maximum gains.
You may feel the need to farm runes in Elden Ring toward the end, particularly when it comes to the last handful of main-story bosses and a certain optional fight. And, hell, sometimes it’s just nice to take out your frustration on random fodder before trying to break through an intimidating brick wall that’s showing no signs of cracking.
With the game’s open structure (and potential to reach zones more or less “out of order”), what qualifies as the endgame can vary from person to person. That’s why I really like this location for rune farming, to the point where I just had to share it. It’s tucked out of the way, and in fact, it was the literal last location I found in Elden Ring — way after I had finished the story, even. It’s a freaky place, full of hard-hitting foes in huge groups.
If you feel in your gut like you’re near the end of Elden Ring, this guide is for you.
Seek it out if you’re in the home stretch or are looking to bulk up before New Game+
**Spoilers below**
So, the location in question is Mohgwyn Palace. It’s a great way to hurtle past level 150.
This zone is hell — even more so than Caelid. While Elden Ring‘s rotted-out southeastern region is ominous, the blood-soaked Mohgwyn Palace goes further. It feels like a truly cursed place you aren’t meant to see. Funny enough, though, it’s ripe for rune farming.
There are multiple ways to reach Mohgwyn Palace, but the easiest — at least for me — was to take a random teleporter in a distant land. Such is the way in Elden Ring.
How to get to Mohgwyn Palace in Elden Ring
That creepy masked NPC at the beginning of Elden Ring, right before the Tree Sentinel boss, can get you to Mohgwyn Palace. By chatting with him, beating Godrick, chatting some more, and seeking him out at the Rose Church, you’ll be able to invade players to eventually get the Pureblood Knight’s Medal, which is your ticket to Mohgwyn Palace.
There are quite a few steps, so here’s a rundown on how to get to Mohgwyn Palace through White Mask Varré:
- Meet up with him at the Rose Church after talking to the two fingers at the Round Table Hold.
- Invade three players with the Festering Bloody Finger.
- Return to Varre and say yes to joining the Order. He’ll give you the Lord of Blood’s Favor.
- Go to the Church of Inhibition and interact with the corpse in Liurnia. You can then use that Maiden’s blood to progress.
- Return to Varre and exhaust his dialogue. He’ll eventually give you the Pureblood Knight’s Medal.
- Using this item will teleport you right outside of the area where you fight Mohg, Lord of Blood.
If you manage to get here early, through White-Faced Varré‘s questionable questline (I only half-finished it), more power to you; he seemed too sketchy in that Dark Souls “wait why are all my NPCs suddenly dead?” sort of way. The site of grace you’re looking for — Palace Approach Ledge-Road — is a hectic horse ride away. If you can get up on the hillside, you’re golden. I’ve got an exact screenshot of this Site of Grace further down.
The best rune-farming strategy for Elden Ring involves a nearby group of foes who are mostly just sitting around — but there’s an alternate method for lower-level characters at Mohgwyn Palace that involves sniping a crow monstrosity. The nightmare-fuel creature is relentless up close, but if you hit it with an arrow, it’ll run off a cliff and die.
I haven’t fully tested this method myself, but I wanted to at least mention it, in case your progress in Elden Ring happens to align with it. For me, and anyone who’s at the end and/or skipped the Varré quest, here’s the way, as well as a ridiculous farming setup.
Reaching Mohgwyn Palace later via a teleporter
I’ve marked the location of the teleporter to Mohgwyn Palace in the screenshot above with a red circle — it’s directly west of the Inner Consecrated Snowfield site of grace.
You might not recognize this slice of the map, and if so, you’ll need to uncover it the hard way. For a long time, it seemed like there might be a sneaky way down to this zone from the upper Mountaintops of the Giants (which is part of the main story’s critical path) using carefully planned horse double-jumps. Nope! Instead, to access the Consecrated Snowfield, you’ll need to ride an elevator (the Grand Lift of Rold) using a pair of obscure items: two halves of the Haligtree Secret Medallion. One is found in a village in Liurnia; the other comes from a boss at Castle Sol in the snowy Mountaintops of the Giants.
Once you locate the teleporter (pictured below), it might not be active yet. To hitch a ride to Mohgwyn Palace, you’ll need to take out a red phantom who’s prowling the area.
After activating the teleporter, you’ll materialize in a cave. (I hope you have a lantern!)
From there, you’ll step outside, and see a site of grace in the distance — this is our goal. It looks far off, but you can summon Torrent and run right to it. The hard part is over.
The site of grace is called Palace Approach Ledge-Road. Here’s an aerial map view:
Farming runes in Elden Ring‘s endgame
The key thing to reiterate, before I go into any optimizations, is that this area is ideal for farming runes in general. Steps away from this site of grace, there are about a dozen enemies, some of whom are passive until attacked. It’s a bad idea to fight them all at once, but even if you’re casually grinding for runes one kill at a time, the payout is big.
In an ideal scenario, you will use one of many possible area-of-effect skills (or long-range spells) in Elden Ring to safely kill these cartwheeling Albinaurics all at once. Warp back in, reset, and repeat. This rune-farming spot is *really nice* with an endgame setup.
Wave of Gold is cheesy goodness
The sweet sauce — and this is the part where I had to temporarily respec my character (with no regrets, because it’s worth it) — is using an AoE skill to take out all of the enemies at once. There are different options thanks to the customizable Ashes of War.
Personally, I took notes from a YouTube video I came across from Paul Gilbert — I used the last boss’s soul (aka “Remembrance”) to fashion the Sacred Relic Sword. (Spoiler pic.)
Sacred Relic Sword requirements
This weapon requires 14 Strength, 24 Dexterity, and 22 Faith, and its Wave of Gold skill fires “a wide, golden wave” that just keeps going and going. I reworked my stats so I could wield it, then spent my stockpile of Somber Smithing Stones to fully upgrade it, and went to town on these gray-skinned lads. I just hit L2 once, and the deed was done.
If the idea of taking a few steps, hitting a single button, warping back, and doing it again a few more times to level up sounds appealing to you, Mohgwyn Palace is worth finding.
I wish I had known about this endgame rune farm before fighting a certain duo, but it helped me conquer the hardest (optional) fight in Elden Ring, so I can’t complain. It’s good for stocking up on boss armor, smithing stones, and other items before New Game+.
Yep, we’re talking 40K low-effort runes in a matter of seconds.
Two final notes about rune farming in Elden Ring
In general, any rune farming you’ll do in Elden Ring can benefit from the Gold Scarab, which is a talisman found in an Abandoned Cave in Caelid. It’s a bewildering place that’s tricky to run through, but it’s worth your while to trod through the scarlet rot.
If you’re open to item crafting and everything that entails, it’s also worth stocking up on a consumable item called Gold-Pickled Fowl Feet to further bolster your rune farming.
You can do one, or the other, or both for maximum potency — they stack.
And if you haven’t set any group passwords yet, that’s a low-effort way to increase your Rune gains. Tag along with a popular group like “SEEKERS” for a frequent buff.
Published: Apr 22, 2024 02:32 pm