When it comes to leveling up in Elden Ring, Runes are the only thing you need to worry about. Armor and weapons may give you a boost in damage and defense, but a player’s real strength comes from how many runes they’ve farmed to increase their character’s level.
Best Early-Game Rune Farms
Farming runes at the start of an Elden Ring playthrough does take a bit of a setup. There’s no one place you can head right after spawning that will give you limitless runes, but we can get you to a fairly high level before the first boss.
Greyoll The Dragon – Caelid
The first place where players can amass a ton of runes with minimal effort is right outside Fort Faroth in Caelid. In order to get here, you will need to take a teleporter located just behind the Third Church of Marika in Limgrave. (Refer to maps below)
Before you take the teleporter, make sure you have a Bleed weapon. You can find one inside a chest in one of the broken carts next to the Agheel Lake Site of Grace in Limgrave. Just make sure you have the right stats to wield it.
The teleporter will take you to the Bestial Sanctum, which is in the northernmost corner of Caelid. Following the path marked on the map below, players will want to ride Torrent past any dangerous creatures and head straight to Fort Faroth. There is a grace here you might want to rest at, as you’ll need to come back later for the Dectus Medallion.
When you get here, you’ll notice a massive white dragon that almost looks like a piece of scenery. But it is alive, and you can kill it. In fact, if you place yourself near its body behind its wings, you can deal damage and proc bleed. It may take a few minutes, but once the dragon is defeated, you will gain tens of thousands of runes, which will give new players a nice bump in levels.
The Rolling Ball at Lenne’s Rise – Caelid
Greyoll may have been the largest sum of runes players can acquire at the start of the game, but there is a rather small farm that players can use that doesn’t require any combat. You won’t be swimming in runes like the later farms, but Lenne’s Rise is a place that can offer new players a safe space to farm without a ton of setup.
From the Bestial Sanctum, players will head south to Lenne’s Rise, where there is a grace out front. Rest here, as you will need to repeatedly rest for this farm to work. Once you’re at the grace, hop on Torrent and head on the path that leads west. When you approach the cliffside, a Metal Ball will spawn and roll toward you. Position yourself so the ball rolls off the cliffside as you jump out of the way. When the ball hits the bottom, it will die, and you will gain somewhere around 2,000 runes.
This can be repeated infinitely but may be too mind-numbing for the return on your invested time.
Mid-Game Rune Farm
So, you’ve defeated a few demigods, have a couple of Great Runes, and are looking to get overpowered before taking on Radahn or the Fire Giant. There’s really only one way to farm Runes effectively at this stage in the game, and it also sets the stage for late-game farming.
Giant Bird Farm – Mohgwyn Palace
We won’t go too deep into how to get to Moghwyn Palace, as we already have a few guides directing players to the blood-soaked dynasty. In the simplest form, you need to complete Varre’s questline, which has a few steps and can only be completed once players defeat their first Demigod and collect a Great Rune.
When you get to Mohgwyn Palace, players will need to rest at the Palace Approach Ledge-Road site of grace. If you use the teleporter from the Consecrated Snowfield, this is where you will end up by default. If you do Varre’s questline, you’ll need to ride Torrent across the bloody swamp to reach the grace.
For this farm, players need a bow and arrows. It doesn’t matter what bow; you just need the stats to use it. After resting at the grace, walk to the ledge in the spot pictured above and shoot the massive bird in the distance. Once you hit it, the bird will run at the player and fall off the cliff, netting them 11k runes.
Sit at the grace and repeat the steps above to rake in runes faster than you can use them.
You can increase the number of runes you acquire with each kill by wearing the Gold Scarab talisman and/or by using a Gold Pickled Fowl Foot. These can be combined to maximize your rune acquisition.
Late Game Rune Farm
The last and most effective Rune farm in Elden Ring is only a few steps away from the bird farm. However, you will need to have defeated Radahn or Radagon/Elden Beast to use this farm. We strongly recommend you use the Sacred Relic Sword, which is acquired from the Elden Beast Remembrance, in order to use this farm efficiently.
Albinauric Farm – Mohgwyn Palace
From the Palace Approach Ledge-Road site of grace, walk down the path until you are standing in the spot pictured above. With the Sacred Relic Sword equipped, use the Wave of Gold ash of war to kill all of the Albinaurics on the hill. This will net players an insanely high number of Runes in one sweep.
Rest at the grace and repeat to farm runes to your heart’s content.
Additionally, players can walk to the first set of sleeping Albinaurics and use the ash of war on Radahn’s Remembrance weapon. This may need to be done a few times per run to kill all of the enemies, but it’s still pretty effective for those who haven’t beaten Elden Ring’s final boss.
