[GameSpot] - Elden Ring Rune Farming: The Best Early Areas To Level Up Fast

[343iBot]

Early into FromSoftware's latest title, Elden Ring, you may find yourself feeling a bit underpowered. While that feeling is an intentional part of the game, there are a few ways to farm yourself some early runes and get a few extra levels quicker than you might normally. There are a few important tasks you need to do first in Elden Ring, like making your way to Gatefront Site of Grace, where you will get Torrent the spectral horse and the ability to level up using runes. From here, you can make your way to a few different farming spots, depending on how confident you are in your skills.

Bestial Sanctum Farming - 1,000 to 1,300 runes per enemy

You will first need to head over to the Third Church of Marika

The best farming location early in the game is actually a higher level location that you can find your way to using a warp gate. In order to get there you will need to find your way to the Third Church of Marika, located in East Limgrave. The easiest way to get here is to start at the Gate Front Site of Grace and follow the road path east. After crossing over a bridge, you will take the path north and continue following it until you run directly into the church. This location is outside the first map fragment you find, but you can get the map fragment for East Limgrave by continuing to follow the path after the Third Church of Marika.

Once you get to the Third Church of Marika, you will want to head inside and activate the Lost Grace and grab the Flask of Wondrous Physik, since you are already here. Head to the river located on the north side of the church and follow it east until you find a warp gate located behind some trees. This warp gate will take you to the Bestial Sanctum.

After taking the warp gate this is where you spawn in, with the Site of Grace behind you

Once you arrive at the Bestial Sanctum, there will be a towering enemy standing directly infront of you. This is a boss you will not want to fight until much later in the game but luckily if you do not attack it or get close to it, it will leave you alone. The first thing you want to do is to turn around and head into the Sanctum where you will find a Site of Grace and the Gurranq, Beast Clergyman, who you don't need to worry about right now. After that, head outside and start looking for some small, black-hooded enemies standing around the area. These enemies will be pretty tough for someone at a low level, but they don't have too much health. They are also mostly standing alone, so you can sneak up for a critical strike.

You will find about two dozen of these enemies spread out in the different zones marked above

Depending on what weapon the enemy is wielding, each one will net you between 1,000 and 1,300 runes, which is a significant amount early in the game. This area is also good because if you do get killed by one of them, it's easy to ride in on Torrent, snag your runes, and ride out. Having the Site of Grace in the Sanctum also means you can quickly reset the enemies. There are a few other places to check out if this area proves too difficult.

Fort Faroth Dragon - 3,500 Runes per enemy or 80,000 Runes once

All of the dragons are located in the indicated area, with the small dragons on the western side

This next method offers players the chance to snag an easy 80,000 Runes, as long as they are willing to go on a bit of a journey. Players will want to head to the eastern region of the map, Caelid. Players can find the area by taking the dirt road path northeast from Limgrave. The fort is located in the northern middle section of Caelid. The Site of Grace is right outside the fort, along with your target; a massive sleeping dragon.

You will stand here and wail on the dragon until it eventually dies

If you approach the dragon's backside from the Site of Grace, you can stand next to it and continuously attack it without it attacking you or any other enemy attacking you. Depending on your level and your weapon, this process will be time consuming. If you have a weapon that inflicts blood loss, use that to help speed up the process. Once the dragon is defeated, it will die along with the smaller dragons that are on the other side of it, netting you a cool 80,000 Runes. Once the dragon is killed, it will not respawn, nor will the smaller dragons.

If you don't kill the big dragon, the smaller dragons can be farmed for 3,500 Runes each, with there being five or six of them. As long as the big dragon is left alive, the smaller dragons will respawn whenever you go to a Site of Grace. The downside here is that for early game players these smaller dragons will be pretty tough to kill, even though they spawn with half of a health bar. This farming method is better used later in the game, so it will be up to you if you want to take the 80,000 Rune bonus early or wait to farm this area later on.

Agheel Lake North Viking Camp - 2,000 Runes per run

The viking camp is located in the red circle, with a few horseback enemies between here and the Site of Grace

Just east of the Gate Front Ruins you will find the Agheel Lake North Site of Grace. Just northeast of there is a small viking camp, with a few horseback enemies between the camp and the Site of Grace. Each horseback enemy will net you about 300 runes and clearing out the entire camp of the wolves and vikings will put at about 2,000 Runes per run. The only enemies that are a bit challenging to beat are those on horseback, but a couple jumping heavy attacks will knock them off their horses and leave them open to a critical hit. Unfortunately, this method won't get you runes as quickly as the aforementioned dragons, but it will be much easier to do without dying. The final method nets the lowest amount of Runes, but is easy and fast.

Seaside Ruins - 577 Runes per run

The mob of knights and goblins is located to the east, within the indicated area

The Seaside Ruins Site of Grace is located to the southeast of where the player first emerges into the Lands Between. From this Site of Grace, players will head east to find a group of knights fighting a group of goblins. Taking down the entire group will net players 577 Runes, which is a pretty low amount. The advantage to this method is that the enemies are distracted with killing each other, so it's easy to run in and start killing them before they start to focus on you. You receive Runes whenever an enemy dies nearby, even if another enemy kills it. The Site of Grace is nearby, so a run should only take 2 to 3 minutes. It's not the most efficient method, but it is the safest.

Regardless of which method you choose, getting some extra levels and stat points early on in Elden Ring will be useful, especially when trying to beat the first main boss of the game Margit The Fell Omen.

View the full article