Have Elden Ring’s enemies and bosses been pushing your buttons? Or do you have a particular playstyle or build in mind that you want to upgrade to as soon as possible? Or is all those attributes upgrading, item purchasing, and weapon upgrading just becoming too much to work for? Then you need Runes and tons of them. Luckily we have found the perfect location to farm Runes in Elden Ring.
The best place to farm runes is Mohgwyn Palace, and it’s a relatively hard area, so you are expected to clear it at an advanced level, though you can access it early in the game.
Though we want you to play the game and be mesmerized by each new place you visit as it was intended the first time, if you are going for a new game+ or a build-specific playthrough and just need Runes, then follow along.
White-Faced Varre Quest
White-Faced Varre is an NPC you run into right at the start of your adventure in the Lands Between, and he makes fun of your maiden’s existence. In the first meeting with him, exhaust all his snarky dialogues and continue with your journey nothing important at the beginning.
You meet him the second in Liurnia of the Lakes region after you have defeated Godrick the Grafted. He will be present at the Rose Church within the central area of the region; the location is marked in the picture.
Talk to him this time, and he will start putting doubts in your mind regarding the Roundtable hold. The Two Fingers select the “Two Fingers seemed off” option while replying to him, and he will begin to trust you and reward you with 5 Festering Bloody Fingers and encourage you to use it.
Using these bloody fingers will let you invade other players’ worlds and indulge in some PVP. To progress the quest, you must invade 3 times, and it’s not necessary to win each fight just invading is enough to proceed to the next step.
After you are done invading, revisit him in the exact location and this time, he will grant you another item, Lord of Blood’s Favor, and you have to choose to “pledge” your allegiance to him. This key item or objective requires you to soak it in a maiden’s blood.
The closest maiden’s body you can get to is in the Church of Inhibitions in the Liurnia region, marked in the picture below.
The body will be right beside the church’s idol and you can interact with it by having this item in your inventory. Return to Varre with the now blood-soaked favor and talk to him where he will reward you with Pureblood Knight’s Medal.
Use this medal from your inventory, and you will be sent to Mohgwyn Palace and have access to the best farming location in the game, though do be aware that enemies here will be over-leveled if you visit it early on.
Mohgwyn Palace Portal.
If you couldn’t hold yourself and “accidentally” killed Varre and are sad that you lost access to this incredible location, then worry not there is another way of getting here. This way is only accessible late in the game once you have reached the Mountaintops of the Giants region.
To reach the Mountaintops of the Giants, you must first defeat the main boss of Leyndell, Morgott, The Omen King, and receive the Rold Medallion by talking to Melina at the grace site. This medallion you can use at the Grand Lift of Rold connects both these areas.
Once you have made your way to the snowy region, you can access the portal, which looks more distinct from the rest as it is surrounded by blood alluding to the Lord of Blood’s domain i.e. Mohgwyn Palace. The location for the portal is marked on the map below.
Rune Farming In Mohgwyn Palace
This area is filled with enemies that drop many ruins and locations that yield high returns. You can easily reload the area with conveniently placed Grace sites and use the same methods to grow your rune bank account.
Once you teleport to this region, you make your way out of the cave and to the first grace site. From here, there are two ways you can quickly farm runes.
- Just beyond the cliff beside the grace, you can see a bloody swamp where a giant crow enemy will be patrolling. Equip a bow and use free aim with L1 to target the crow and hit him with an arrow to make it run towards you, only to have him fall in a ditch and die, rewarding you with some 13,000 Runes.
- Moving down the path from this grace site, you can see multiple enemies sitting all over the area, and each one, when defeated, gives 2,500 Runes, and there are so many of them. You can easily make a large amount and reload and kill them again.