Elden Ring Runes
Runes are the currency used in Elden Ring to level up weapons, gear and characters. Like souls in previous FromSoftware titles, runes will also drop upon death at their respective sites.
Elden Ring demi-god bosses often drop Great Runes that grant powerful buffs when activated; this guide covers how to acquire and utilize them.
What are runes?
Elden ring runes are an ancient system of letters designed for scratching or cutting into hard surfaces instead of writing with a pen, similar to ancient Italic alphabets but more modern versions like those found in northern Europe (where JRR Tolkien utilized them in his Middle-earth tales). Runes also carry symbolic significance: Fehu symbolizing domestic cattle; Uruz wild ox; Thurs wealth and Ansuz ancestral gods are just some examples.
Reading elden ring runes doesn’t follow any set rules, though. Some use their intuition; others keep a journal and record their discoveries over time; still others use a special cloth to lay out the runes while reading them.
Elden Ring features several key runes for players to encounter, such as Great Runes and Mending Runes. Great Runes are unique Key Items dropped by Shardbearer Bosses that can be activated via Rune Arcs to strengthen players up until death; Mending Runes serve a special effect in game endings.
How do I get runes?
Elden Ring uses runes as currency to upgrade and equip characters, and to purchase equipment from Merchants. Unfortunately, like Souls from previous FromSoftware games, runes lost due to death can be devastating in The Lands Between, especially if they were an essential resource to reaching certain levels.
As it’s an FromSoftware title, there are some quick and straightforward methods of collecting runes quickly and efficiently. One is simply killing enemies – each enemy drops small amounts of runes when defeated – with plenty of targets throughout The Lands Between to be killed! In addition, reading item descriptions carefully (which should always be done when fighting FromSoftware titles) could net you additional runes upon defeat of certain items.
How do I use runes?
Elden Ring players who successfully defeat enemies will earn elden ring runes as their reward, which can then be used to increase character stats through boosts or purchase items from merchants encountered along their Main Story path.
Many Bosses in Elden Ring will award players with Great Runes, powerful buffs that provide various advantages once activated. Unfortunately, however, they’re not easy to acquire; to activate one players must find and ascend the Divine Tower associated with its source Boss in order to activate it.
Elden Ring provides one of the best early/mid game rune farming spots: War for Castle Redmane. Here, players can fight Fire-wielding Knights and Monstrous Dogs while simultaneously earning runes automatically. For maximum reward potential, players should acquire the Golden Scarab talisman early as possible as it will increase rune rewards by 20%.
How do I lose runes?
Like in other FromSoftware titles, Elden Ring players drop all of their runes upon death at their burial spot and must return in time to collect them or they are gone forever.
The game’s development team has introduced an item known as the Sacrificial Twig that, when worn as a Talisman, prevents players from losing their runes upon death. This non-unique Talisman can be purchased from Patches in Murkwater Cave or found as glowing loot in dungeons and overworld areas.
Many players find that using this item to avoid losing hard-earned elden ring runes actually hinders their gameplay experience. As demonstrated in a YouTube video by user DementedEnjoyer, one player was trying to navigate down an extremely steep drop while trying to retrieve their runes, only for them to slip and be killed, ultimately forfeiting all their runes in an instant.