The importance of runes in the Elden Ring ecosystem can be daunting for beginners. In simple words, runes are what you spend in the Elden Ring ecosystem. They will be pivotal if you want to upgrade your character, weapons, or buy something from the vendors. The purpose of this guide is to explain how you can effectively farm runes to help you at different stages of the game.
Table of Contents
Methods of Farming Runes in The Early Game
Big Balls Farming
This method of farming is one of the simplest in the rune farming ecosystem. To start off, travel to the Church and from there, use the teleporter behind it to go to Lens Rise. Jump on your horse, travel downhill, and wait for the rolling ball to come. You should then dodge it while going back to grace to repeat this process. Boulder hunting allows you to earn 2,000 runes, a 2,500 losing Scarab talisman, and with the right perks, you can get 312 Gold Pickled Foul Foot bonuses. This strategy can be very helpful in the early game if you are looking for a few thousand Elden Ring runes. Unbuffed, you can expect to earn 8,000 runes per minute and 12,000 with buffs.
The Giant Dragon Glitch (Early Game)
This strategy is based on the giant sleeping dragon located in Caelid. Acquire a bleeding weapon such as a Samurai’s Uchigatana or a Bandit’s curved swords. Make your way to Fort Faroth in Caelid, and with your bleeding weapon, strike the dragon’s tail. Keep attacking until its health is almost at the brink. Remember not to let the dragon die completely. Make sure to rest at the nearby Site of Grace before the dragon dies. You have roughly 6 seconds to reset before the dragon vanishes for good. The good thing is the dragon does reset, and you still get the runes, which is around 50,000 per kill, or up to 100,000 if you have a Gold Pickled Fowl Foot and Gold Scarab talisman. Farming millions of early game runes becomes simple after repeating this procedure a handful of times.
The Bird Farm
The Bird Farm is a good way to make in-game currency during the early stages of the game. To unlock the Palace Approach Ledge-Road area, you first need to finish Varre’s questline. Equip a bow with arrows; a longbow is recommended due to its range. When you spawn at the Site of Grace, you will need to look downhill to see a bird at the edge of a cliff. Lock onto the bird and shoot it with your bow. It will panic and fall off the cliff, which will grant you roughly 22,000 runes. Rest at the Site of Grace so the bird can respawn, and repeat the process.
Mid-Game Rune Farming Techniques
The Bird Person Farm
The Bird Person Farm is a rather silly AI exploit where you shoot a large crow-type enemy. Lead it to a cliff, shoot it, and for no effort, get a free 10,000 run payout. That trick is rather easy, as you do need to stand at the precise cliff area. Move to the edge of the cliff and hug the wall to your left. There is a rocky wall at the cliffside. This position guarantees the bird will run off when aggroed. If you stand too far back or at a strange angle, the bird might not jump off. Then lock your aim onto the bird and shoot an arrow. The bird is not the smartest, so he is likely to give out a squawk and charge heads straight into the cliff. You will get roughly ~ 103,000 runes per minute if unbuffed and 143,000 with buffs. If you are on the not set bird farm, with buffs, you’ll even manage 143,000 runes.
The Glitch Farm
This strategy does not concern itself with fighting. It focuses on manipulating the game’s map structure to cause a large-scale enemy suicide. If done correctly, you will fall out of bounds and make the game obliterate everything above, resulting in a massive amount of runes. This exploit has been refined over updates, but it still works in the most recent patch. At the very least, you will need 25 faith and the Golden Vow spell, which can be obtained from the house northwest of the Bridge of Iniquity Site of Grace. After collecting all necessary Elden Ring DLC items, travel to the Ledge Road Grace and ride until you see this rock. You can reach the desired elevation from this cliff, so jump onto it and double jump up here. I know this jump is difficult, but if you follow the channel, it will be much more effortless. Then, go to the rock’s cliff and jump down. From here, I want you to go to the edge while casting a golden vow, so you can walk off the edge and into the void. At this point, I want you to know that you will fall for longer than what you are used to. Whatever you do, do not stop casting. Resetting the fall timer and dying in the killbox plane is not an ideal situation, so as long as you keep casting, you will not die.
To put it simply, you are free-falling longer than the game expects, which skips the death zone. Just keep falling, and you will be in darkness for around 30 to 60 seconds. After a set amount of time, the game will give up on you, and everything above gets unloaded. You should suddenly see a large burst of runes at a deer count. After collecting the runes, you need to open the map and fast travel back to the grace. If you do not teleport out, you will eventually hit the true death zone and lose the runes you just gained. This is a dream come true for AFK farmers. You are not fighting anything, so you just leap into the void and get showered with the runes like it is payday. While the yield can be massive, the collection process is tedious. You do earn 150,000 per run, but it takes quite a bit of time. So, without any buffs, you will only earn around 60,000 runes a minute, and can reach up to 80,000 with buffs.
Bestial Sanctum’s Vulgar Militiamen Farm
You can farm vulgar militiamen at Bestial Sanctum. These foes are not very challenging to beat, and give a good number of runes. This location is perfect for mid-game farming, as you can easily progress through the game, and it helps advance your income.
Methods for Farming Runes in the Late Game
Albinauric Farm Mohgwyn’s Palace (Late Game)
Mohgwyn Palace is the easiest and best place to farm runes and farm in the late game. To unlock access to it, you need to complete the quest line “The White Faced Farest.” Speak to him and try not to take his life after he says you’re a maiden. Go proceed to kill Godrick. Come to the round table and talk to those big fingers. How did they even get there without feet? After that, head into the Rose Church, which is not far from here. The white mask guy is standing right there. Talk to him and he will grant you three festering, bloody fingers. Now you can invade and dominate the other people they have. If you play offline, go to the Rive Blood Ruins, and there you will find this sign for the bloodless invasion. After defeating him, head over to the VA at the Rose Church, and after selecting anoint me, he will grant you an item called The Lord of Blood’s Favor. Finally, go to the Chapel of Anticipation and soak it in blood. Once you talk to him again, he’ll talk to you like he’s grabbing your hand like crazy, and he is even after this. Calm down. You can still use the heal medal that Pedal provided to you, prácticos.
And just like that, you’re here at the supreme rune execution site in the game. We won’t discuss Homunculus’ “defects”. What do we mean by that? Anyway, mask cutscenes can be done easily to earn double style points. Go ahead and unlock the sight of grace on the cliff. From there, you are presented with 3 paths to farm. Use your AOE over there, rest at grace, and repeat. Each run nets you close to 20,000 runes. Some extra runes can be snagged mid-run if you spin to the left and lock on to the crow down in the swamp, aka the bird person farm we mentioned earlier. A well-placed arrow stunning the crow off the cliff will garner around 11,000 bonus runes. This spot provides the quickest rune gains throughout the entire game. You can decimate around 10 to 12 enemies in roughly 5 seconds. With the Sacred Relic Sword, literally press a button to get around 20,000 runes. The mils of runes are something else in this game. Without buffs, you’ll be getting 360,000, and with golden scarab + fowl, you’ll hit 560,000. That’s nearly half a million runes in seconds.
DLC Barbecue Farm (Shadow of the Erdtree DLC)
This strategy employs a furnace golem located in one of the regions of the DLC. Bluff a great blast of fire that sets a multitude of foes on a bridge to the flames. Now all you have to do is pick up the runes. Get further into the DLC until you get to the row of ancient ruins west side of Grace. There is a long bridge near this grace that is constituted by ghostly foes. After coming halfway through the bridge, a large furnace golem will fire up and begin to mesmer fireblow as you draw near. The moment it fully stands up, it prepares to inflict some severe damage to be inflicted. The golem will hurl a spiral flame beam bridge-wide and along the bridge. Then watch the barbecue and collect 14k runes per run. If you perform this at nighttime, you can increase the rune bounty. Important, don’t get seasoned yourself. Perfect for players who prefer not fighting because no combat is required. It’s like set and forget, but in a good way. Done incorrectly, it can pose a danger, but if it is done right, one can immediately start once you hit the DLC region. You will earn around 175,000 runes per minute without buffs or around 274,000 runes at the Golden Scarab and Faloot combo.
Tips on How to Gain Runes Efficiently
Use Rune Boosters
To further boost your rune gains, equip the Golden Scarab Talisman and use the Gold-Pickled Fowl Feet. The Golden Scarab Talisman gives a 20-30% boost to rune drops, and Gold-Pickled Fowl Feet increases rune acquisition by 30% for about 3 minutes. With these two items, you can improve farming efficiency.
Optimize Your Build
Select a build that caters to your preferred playstyle and the farming method you are using. If you are farming enemies with bleed attacks, try using a bleed-focused build. Alternatively, a high Arcane build can help clear groups of enemies fast when using AoE spells.
Explore Different Areas
Do not restrict yourself to one farming location. Try to move around in the Lands Between and discover new places to efficiently earn runes. Some locations may be optimal for your current stage in the game.
Make Use of Summoning and Invasion Systems
Participating in boss fights with other players through summon signs or simply invading other players offers additional runes. This is an engaging way of earning runes, especially if someone likes engaging in PvP as well as practicing boss fights.
Farming Efficiently
Knowing the mechanics of the game, like enemy respawn timers, Site of Grace resettables, and time-dependent resets of enemies, allows having more flexibility in farming runes. These specific elements in the game allow a greater consistency in farming the runes.
Rune farming stands prominent when discussing the methods of progressing in a challenging game like Elden Ring. Mastering the methods and optimizing one’s approach helps in accumulating runes and enhancing power. Newcomers and seasoned players will find these strategies appealing to navigating the Lands Between effortlessly and meet with success. So sharpen your blades, set your spells, and embark on your journey to become the Elden Lord.
