The below overviews relate to essential encounters with NPCs and key items that you will need to progress through the game, or which will significantly improve your experience regardless of class. The overviews will therefore not cover all optional bosses, locations, or items. If you’re looking for a more complete list of these for each region, you’ll find detailed overviews in their respective sections for this guide.
The two main regions of Limgrave (West and East) will provide your first encounters with numerous important NPCs and their quests. You’ll find plenty of optional bosses to gain runes and level your character as you prepare for the Stormveil Castle legacy dungeon, and ultimately the fight with your first Demi God Boss, Godrick the Grafted. It’s a good idea to thoroughly explore this region and kill as many optional bosses as possible before you enter Stormveil Castle, since you’ll be better prepared for some of the tougher encounters in there. Limgrave will also introduce you to some basic survival mechanics in the form of health / focus point flasks, and the Flask of Wondrous Physick. You can try different builds in the form of strength, dex, or magic and figure out what you might want to commit to before moving on to new regions. By the time you reach Stormveil Castle, you should have a decent understanding of build types, with a number of weapons and armor pieces to choose from. You’ll find a number of Smithing Stones, particularly in the Limgrave Tunnels, which you can use to improve your weapons for the first time.
The Weeping Peninsula can be seen as a kind of extension from Limgrave. You’ll probably want to come here first before you venture into Stormveil Castle, if only to further level your character and begin the questlines for Irina and Edgar. If you’re a magic user, you will at least want to obtain the Memory Stone from Oridys’s Rise. Any character build will benefit from the Crystal Tears which can be found at the churches in this region, increasing the amount of replenished health and focus points when using flasks.
You will gain access to the Roundtable Hold once you’ve defeated Margit, the Fell Omen. Melina will then invite you to the hold after resting at a Site of Grace. Alternatively, if you rest at a Site of Grace in Liurnia of the Lakes or Caelid before defeating Margit, you will be invited to the hold at this point instead. Once you have access to the hold, you can fast travel to it at any time. You’ll find it in the southwestern corner of your world map.
The main purpose of visiting Roundtable Hold is to progress the questlines of NPCs noted in the table below, some of which won’t appear until later in the game. You can also make use of Smithing Master Hewg here to upgrade your weapons, and eventually improve your Spirit Ashes after progressing Roderika’s questline. The Twin Maiden Husks will also become a kind of eternal merchant, to whom you can give Bell Bearings which are looted from dead NPCs, allowing you to purchase their goods from the Twin Maiden Husks instead. Finally, you should bring any Great Runes to Enia, the Finger Reader to exchange them for unique items, but be sure to duplicate them at a mausoleum first, and keep in mind that you can choose to sell them for a substantial amount of runes if you have no use for the unique items.
The main areas of Liurnia of the Lakes (South, Central, Academy of Raya Lucaria, East and West) cover a vast region which opens up the game, especially for magic users. You’ll find numerous scrolls and spells to expand your magic repertoire, and you’ll continue to progress questlines for NPCs that you first met in Limgrave, while also meeting a bunch of new ones. The Raya Lucaria Academy, where Rennala, Queen of the Full Moon dwells, is your next encounter with a legacy dungeon. Once you’ve defeated Rennala, you’ll be able to speak with her to change the appearance of your character for free, or respect your character stats in exchange for a Larval Tear. You’ll find a few of these valuable items in Liurnia, and plenty more in other regions. By the time you reach Rennala you should have at least one Larval Tear, and likely more if you follow our objective overviews.
You’ll reach the Lower Ainsel River by taking the elevator down from Ainsel River Well in eastern Liurnia of the Lakes, just north of the Eastern Tableland Site of Grace. There isn’t that much to do down here, but you’ll find some valuable key items along the way.
The Lower Siofra River is a fairly easy region which you can take on earlier than this if you prefer, but it makes more sense to come here after speaking with Ranni the Witch behind Caria Manor in western Liurnia of the Lakes. She will ask you to find Blaidd by heading down the Siofra River Well in eastern Limgrave. While you’re down here, you can find a few valuable key items after speaking with Blaidd before you leave.
Upper Ainsel River (Nokstella, Eternal City) and Lake of Rot Objectives¶
This area should be relatively easy after fully exploring Liurnia of the Lakes. However, if you find that you’re having trouble, you can come back to it after Caelid and Altus Plateau if necessary. You will need to come down here to progress the questline for Ranni the Witch, but you’ll also find some Larval Tears and a few other valuable key items.
Caelid and Dragonbarrow Route Progression Overview¶
You can come to Caelid or Dragonbarrow before you finish Liurnia of the Lakes if you prefer. However, bosses and enemies in this region are generally tougher to deal with, so you’ll probably find it easier after levelling your character in Liurnia first. Note that most encounters in Dragonbarrow are more difficult than those in the rest of Caelid, but you can come here early on to begin giving Deathroots to Gurranq, Beast Clergyman and to pick up the Golden Seed nearby. Otherwise, you might want to leave Dragonbarrow until after Altus Plateau. You will at least need to defeat Starscourge Radahn in southeastern Caelid (Redmane Castle) before you can enter Nokron, Eternal City and the Siofra Aqueduct, covered below. If nothing else, you should also speak with Gowry and Millicent to begin their questlines, even if you don’t want to spend time fighting enemies and bosses in Caelid just yet.
Although Dragonbarrow is generally much tougher than the rest of Caelid, there’s a lot you can do here without fighting too many enemies. Most of the objectives listed below can be accomplished during or just after completing the majority of southern Caelid.
At the top of the elevator you’ll find the Great-Jar outside a colosseum, defeat the three knights to complete the interaction
Upper Siofra River (Nokron, Eternal City & Siofra Aqueduct) Objectives¶
Once you’ve defeated Starscourge Radahn, you can enter this region by heading northwest from the Fort Haight West Site of Grace, in southeastern Limgrave. Here you’ll now find an enormous hole in the ground, with large pieces of rock suspended in the air above it. You can jump down the rocks here (preferably while mounted) to reach Nokron, Eternal City. You’ll find a number of useful items down here, including more Larval Tear items and the Fingerslayer Blade, which is necessary to advance the Ranni the Witch questline.
You can reach Crumbling Farum Azula by resting at the Forge of the Giants Site of Grace in eastern Mountaintops of the Giants. You will either need to speak to Melina or select “Listen to the sound of the flames” from the list of actions while resting. The latter option will only be available if you’ve interacted with the Three Fingers as part of the Lord of Frenzied Flame ending. Note that once you’ve completed Crumbling Farum Azula, you won’t be able to return to Leyndell, Royal Capital, as it will then become Leyndell, Ashen Capital instead. This will lock you out of some areas in the capital, while opening up access to others, including the final bosses there.
Welcome to our guide for Elden Ring - the critically acclaimed open world game by FromSoftware, Hidetaka Miyazaki & writer George R.R Martin. This guide is a work-in-progress and currently contains the following:
Bosses, Weapons, Armors, Spells & NPCs for every location including:
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