Traveling through the vast open world of Elden Ring, you can easily find yourself in an area with very strong enemies. To stand a chance of victory, you will need to constantly improve your stats and collect runes from defeated foes. Unfortunately, this process can be quite time-consuming. In this guide, we'll share a few ways to level up your hero as quickly as possible.
To start your victorious march, you first need to find the right location. Head to the Third Church of Marika. You can easily find this place in the first biome.
Walk around the ruins from the outside to reach a body of water. There, you will need to find some bushes. They don't look much different from other vegetation, but once inside, you'll see a bluish glow and a portal.
Go through it — your hero will be transported to a completely different location. A huge monster will be standing with its back to you, but you can easily bypass it on horseback. Descend the road from the hill until you reach a bridge. Nearby will be a Site of Grace.
This is the area where you will spend all your time coming up.
The enemies in the newly discovered location look like small people, but don't be fooled — they are dangerous opponents. Defeating them, you will collect about 1000 runes from each creature, which is a lot for the game (some bosses give only about 2000 runes).
The little people move slowly, so the best start to a fight is to sneak up and strike from behind. This way, you'll take away half of their health immediately. If they notice you, the creatures will start attacking very quickly, dealing huge damage and causing a bleeding effect.
With careful play, in five minutes, you will be earning between 3000 to 10,000 runes. Return to the bonfire to respawn the defeated enemies.
From the already discovered Site of Grace, go left and bypass the bridge from the side. The path is easy to find by following the world map. We recommend using a horse, as you will encounter many enemies, as well as poisonous traps, which are better to overcome quickly and on horseback.
You will reach another Site of Grace — make sure to activate it. The road leads under the bridge. Continuing forward, you will see a glow behind you — it's a self-guiding trap-ball. It appears behind the character, and you can only dodge it on horseback. It's not enough to just jump away — you need to direct the trap in a specific direction.
Immediately after the projectile appears, use acceleration and go up along the cliff, not the rock face. This will aim the ball not straight but at an angle. Upon breaking, the device will yield about 1900 runes, which is the fastest and easiest way to farm experience in the game. It's important to stand close enough to the ball at the moment of impact, otherwise, the reward will not be counted. Then return to the Site of Grace, rest, and reload the trap to do it all over again.
This method is an excellent alternative for those who, for some reason, are not ready to fight with the local inhabitants we wrote about earlier.
If you want to level up even faster, you'll need to find a special item — the Golden Scarab. It increases the amount of runes dropped from enemies by 20%, making it incredibly useful. Unfortunately, it's not possible to obtain it in the early stages of the adventure. You need to be in the Caelid biome and reach the telescope at the heart of the zone. There, you will find a Site of Grace — Smoldering Wall.
From there, move to the right on the map. It's better to do this on horseback, as you will encounter huge dogs, which you definitely should not fight right now. You will come to a cliff. Look down and you will see an entrance to a cave with a Site of Grace — Abandoned Cave.
There, you will have to fight two bosses — Cleanrot Knights, but the path to them is much more difficult than the fight itself. The entire cave is permeated with Scarlet Rot. It's similar to poison, but accumulates in the body much faster, killing the character in just a few seconds. Before moving forward, you'll need to find an antidote.
There are two ways to overcome Scarlet Rot, but for that, you'll need to unlock another region — Liurnia. This is a marshy area, surrounded by mountains. There, you'll find many interesting things. Move along the right side until you discover the Craftsman's Shack. From there, head north and you'll see a small camp of fire mages. By dealing with the enemies, you'll receive the spell Flame, Cleanse Me, which slows the accumulation of poison and Scarlet Rot, as well as heals. To use it, you'll need a mage's staff and 12 faith points.
If you're not leveling up magic, you can always turn to crafting. You'll need to find the Siofra River. This is a secret location underground. You can get there from the Mistwood. Reach the Site of Grace — Siofra Riverbank. Near the cliffs, take the necessary manual from a corpse. There, you'll find the recipe for protective pills, which slow the accumulation of rot.
Once you've prepared everything necessary, return to the cave with Scarlet Rot, defeat the knights, and obtain the Golden Scarab.
When your character is sufficiently strengthened, you might get tired of farming runes in one area. Fortunately, in the Lands Between, there's another place you can only access after extensive gameplay.
Firstly, you need to gain access to the northern location Consecrated Snowfield. Find the Site of Grace — Inner Consecrated Snowfield and move northwest towards the mountains. You'll discover a portal, and by going through it, you'll find yourself in Mohgwyn Palace. Find there a Site of Grace, near which you can farm runes.
You can also reach the secret fortress by another path. At the beginning of the game, you meet Varre, who tells you some useful information. You can encounter the character again. After defeating Godrick, head to the Rose Church in Liurnia.
Talk to Varre near the ruins; he will gift you five fingers, allowing you to invade other players' worlds. Use three fingers; the outcome of the battles doesn't matter. Speak to Varre again, and he will give you a piece of cloth that needs to be dipped in a maiden's blood.
In Liurnia, find the Church of Inhibition, where next to a broken column, you will find the required woman's corpse. The path to the church will be quite challenging — the hero constantly accumulates madness, and in the end, must fight an aggressive spirit.
After obtaining everything necessary, return to Varre, hand over the cloth, and offer him the fingers. In return, he will give you the Pureblood Knight's Medal. Use it and transport yourself to the same Mohgwyn Palace.
Move along the cliffs on one side, and you will come to a Site of Grace. Note that before reaching it, you will encounter many albinaurics — they are exactly what we need.
Completely annihilating these creatures will yield about 34,000 runes. The albinaurics are not too aggressive, so defeating them will not be too difficult. If you combine this method with the Golden Scarab, you can farm a huge amount of runes while being in complete safety.