Elden Ring has some super cheesy rune farming spots

Elden Ring is a game of tough challenges and overcoming adversity, but equally it's a game about filling your pockets with precious runes and feeding your need to watch numbers get bigger.

For much of the early game—which, remember, will be a good amount of time in this massive open world—you'll be starved of opportunities to level up. You'll get through your first few levels quick enough, but each time you do the rune cost rises, and pretty soon the manageable enemies you've been feasting on won't be enough.

Thankfully, you don't have to play by the rules, slowly harvesting runes as you explore the world and fight your way through its dungeons. There are places all over the Lands Between where you can net yourself a mountain of runes, often with little risk, by exploiting certain abilities, enemy patterns or the terrain. Welcome to the life of an Elden Ring rune farmer.

Gold Scarab

Before you start farming runes, you'll want to grab a very handy item that increases how many runes you get per kill: the Gold Scarab. You'll need to make your way to a small hidden dungeon, The Abandoned Cave, and then defeat its boss, technically a pair of bosses, to get this precious object. Thankfully, neither boss is particularly tough, and summoning some assistance, whether it be through Ashes or another player, will let you take them out while they're distracted. Check out our Gold Scarab guide for the specifics.

The consumable Gold-Pickled Fowl Foot will give you another boost. This can be purchased from Patches, or from the Twin Maiden Husks after you've given them Patches' bell bearing. They can also be found dotted around the world. Once you get your hands on the Missionary's Cookbook [2], also sold by Patches, you'll be able to craft them yourself.

Elden Ring rune farming guide

Limgrave is the first area you'll explore, and once you get Torrent you'll be able to ride across it pretty swiftly while avoiding most enemies, unless you want to beat them up. If you've got your steed, you might want to check out this farming spot shown off by PowerPyx on YouTube. The method only begins in Limgrave, but will actually take you to a much higher level area.

They claim it'll net you about 300,000 runes per hour, which is enough for many, many levels at the beginning of the game, even if you only do it for 10 or 20 minutes. The catch is that this method will send you from Limgrave to a much higher level area, with enemies that will take you out very quickly. Magic builds will have an easier time, though it's still absolutely viable for melee characters.

First you have to head to the Third Church of Marika in Limgrave—it's located east of the first few Sites of Grace. From there, you need to go northeast until you find a portal sitting in water. This is actually connected to a side quest that you'll get for a character later on, but meeting them first isn't required.

The portal takes you to Greyoll's Dragonbarrow, a high-level area in the north of Caelid that features one of the game's strangest characters, who you'll see right behind you when you arrive, along with a site of grace. Watch out for the big creature on the stairs in front of you as you leave, as you won't want to mess with it.

Outside, you'll find some small, relatively weak enemies, and beyond them a bridge with another site of grace next to it. Grab the site of grace if you want, but don't cross the bridge. Instead, go back to the small enemies, because they are who you'll be farming.

These little guys go down fast, and while a magic build will be helpful here, melee characters can still stagger them or employ stealth. The video claims you'll get 637 runes per kill, and there are quite a few of them, but upon testing it I found I was actually getting considerably more: 1094 runes per kill. The nearby site of grace will then let you keep respawning them. Just don't give them an opportunity to retaliate, as they can kill low level characters in a hit.

Since you're already in Dragonbarrow anyway, you might as well hit up another cheesy farming spot nearby. This one is courtesy of TagBackTV on YouTube, and you don't need to get in any fights to fill your rune coffers.

You'll need to make your way over to the Lenne's Rise Site of Grace, southeast of the one you should have activated next to the bridge earlier. You still don't want to cross that bridge, so instead double back a bit and take the route that will bring you to the smaller bridge to the east. Make sure to do this during the day, as there's a boss that appears on the bridge at night. There are a few enemies to avoid and some poison traps, but the Site of Grace is right at the end of the bridge, so it doesn't matter if you take a bunch of damage.

Activate the Site of Grace and heal up, and then head down the path that takes you under the bridge you've been avoiding. Close to the top of the path is a trap—a magical boulder that will only appear when you're in front of it. Dash out of the way of the boulder and it will continue its trajectory, squashing something below and earning you a not-too-shabby 1952 runes. Then teleport back to the Site of Grace and do it all over again.

You can also get another big payday by taking on the boss on the small bridge. You want to wait until after you've got the Lenne's Rise Site of Grace. Start there, then ride over to the boss at the other end of the bridge. Don't fight him, though. Instead, get him to chase you through all the poison traps. If you keep him following you, the poison will eventually kill him, giving you an impressive haul: 42,000 runes. This is just a one-time thing, but nice nonetheless.

Once you've conquered Stormveil Castle, the first Legacy dungeon, you'll probably have quite a lot of runes in your possession. But can you ever really have enough? Luckily there's a farming spot just up the road.

You can find the spot near the Liurnia Highway North (past Stormveil Castle) Site of Grace, and you don't really need to do much here, since you can gain runes while AFK.

Right next to the checkpoint are a bunch of soldiers fighting spiritual attackers and one giant (which you need to run over with your horse to trigger). The giant will smash most of the soldiers pretty quickly and grant you about 43 runes per kill. It's not much, but if you want to mindlessly do it while watching Netflix it could be useful. If you're in the area, you might as well.

Raya Lucaria Academy is the next Legacy dungeon you'll encounter, and if you've got a strength build and a penchant for helping your fellow Tarnished, you can net yourself a very nice haul by farming its boss. Our features producer Nat used this method, with assistance from PCG contributor Samantha Greer and her massive sword.

As Nat explains, "the big bad of the Academy, Rennala, is ridiculously easy to stagger," which means strong characters can toss her around like a rag doll. If that's your build, you should have an easier time with her, so you might want to use your skills to help other players and continue raking in the runes.

Elden Ring spoilers but I was helping @its_natclayton with a boss and uh...totally fucking wrecked them lmao pic.twitter.com/ZbdO3RCfTxFebruary 27, 2022

"Following our victory, Samantha spent the rest of the night laying down summon signs for other players, nabbing herself a healthy 10,000 souls per run. Not too shabby for a 5-minute brawl with a witch who can't fight back, on account of being flipped around like pancake batter."

If you've tried PowerPyx's farming method you'll already have visited Caelid by travelling through a portal. And you might want to stick around, as there's a very handy farming spot in this area that, like the Liurnia Highway North Site of Grace, allows you to get runes while just sitting around and chilling, and in much greater quantities.

You'll need to reach the Impassable Greatbridge in the far south first. The best route to take isn't from the Site of Grace you unlocked in Caelid earlier, as it's far away and covered in enemies that will do you in quickly. Instead, head east from Limgrave, and then south, following the road through Caelid. You might as well pick up the Caelid map and unlock Sites of Grace on your way.

Near the Impassable Greatbridge Site of Grace is a battle between soldiers and giant demon dogs. They'll start fighting the moment you approach them, and from there you can just sit back and relax. I recommend perching on the rocks next to the damaged wall, as you get a good view and you'll be out of danger.

The soldiers will net you fewer than 200 runes each, but there are loads of them, while the dogs will give you 313. The soldiers always win the fight, but you can prolong it by dragging in a few other dogs that are hanging out just north of the battlefield. You should walk away with 2,000-3,000 runes per run, and with the Site of Grace right next to it, you can repeat the battle almost immediately.

Just watch out for the soldiers on the tower next to you, as they will shoot you with their crossbows. There's some loot at the top of the tower, but you can ignore them if you want, as they won't be able to hit you if you're past the big fire, which you will be if you're sitting on the rock.

The best farming spot found so far will see you delving underground into a pretty tough area, but don't worry—it's super straightforward. TagBackTV discovered this sneaky spot, and you can see how they do it in the video below.

To get to this farming spot takes a bit of work. You'll need to have completed Varre's quest first, which involves visiting him in Liurnia's Rose Church, invading three other players, soaking a rag in the blood of a corpse you'll find in the Church of Inhibition, found northeast of the East Raya Lucaria Gate and then giving him back the rag. You'll get a few rewards straight away, but you'll need to speak to him one more time to get what you'll need for this farming run. It's the Pureblood Knight's Medal, and ignore Varre when he tells you to wait. It can be used instantly.

The metal will transport you underground, Just up the steps you'll find a map and the Grand Mausoleum Entrance site of grace. You'll then want to turn around and jump down, after which you'll be able to ride Torrent. And you'll need to: this place has a few nasty surprises that you'll want to gallop away from. But as long as you keep moving and go around the edge of the area, you should be fine.

Eventually you'll go up a slope and at the top you'll find the Palace Approach Ledge-Road site of grace. Rest here to reset all the enemies undoubtedly chasing you. You've made it! The next part is easy: look over the cliff edge at the area below you. See that mean looking bird wandering around? Shoot it with an arrow (or bolt if you're using a crossbow) and watch it eagerly leap to its death to try and get to you. Fortunately it is a flightless bird. For your trouble, you'll net yourself 13,245 runes.

TagBackTV estimates that you'll get 3-4 million runes per hour, depending on things like the Gold Scarab and how many times you don't nail it with the first shot. The bird is far away, so you need to time it right, and sometimes it will get right to the edge and then stop, instead of falling. Still, it's a very simple, quick way to get a huge chunk of runes.

With the exception of the this underground farming spot, most of the above can be attempted as soon as you've got Torrent to carry you around quickly, giving you a ridiculous supply of runes right from the start. That should make getting through Stormveil and defeating its lords a lot easier.

And keep checking back, as we'll be adding more locations as we discover them.

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