Elden Ring Dung Eater questline and Seedbed Curses

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Dung Eater quest walkthrough
Seedbed Curse locations
Dung Eater ending
Rewards

The Elden Ring Dung Eater questline involves finding five Seedbed Curses that are scattered across the Lands Between. You'll use these to provoke the ending known as the Blessing of Despair for the Loathsome Dung Eater. As the name suggests, he's a frightening figure that's been cursed with undeath and has ambitions to install said curse into the Elden Ring itself. But he needs your help.

He needs you to find Seedbed Curses to get it going, so if you're determined to blight the world with him, we've got a full Dung Eater questline with Seedbed Curse locations laid out below.

Complete Dung Eater quest walkthrough for Elden Ring

Elden Ring dung eater questline seedbed curses locations walkthrough — (Image credit: FromSoftware)

Our walkthrough for the Elden Ring Dung Eater questline for the Blessing of Despair ending can be broken into these easy steps and locations:

After Altus Plateau, meet Dung Eater at Roundtable Hold
Bring the Dung Eater one Seedbed Curse
Find the Dung Eater's body with the Sewer Gaol Key
(Alternate quest ending) Kill the Dung Eater
Fight Dung Eater at the Leyndell Outer Moat
Talk to Dung Eater again at Roundtable Hold
(Alternate quest ending) Give Dung Eater Seluvis' potion
Bring Dung Eater four more Seedbed Curses
(Proper quest ending) Get the Mending Rune of the Fell Curse

Elden Ring Fia Deathbed Companion quest

Elden Ring endings — (Image credit: FromSoftware)

Of course, if you want alternative bleak endings, check out our Elden Ring Fia questline and ending here!

It's a quest that actually provides two separate attempts to end it early (though you can't get the Dung Eater Blessing of Despair ending if you do), with different rewards for either killing or taking over the Dung Eater yourself. We'll go through those as the opportunities arise, though if you want to get the proper, bleak quest ending, ignore steps four and seven.

Otherwise, use the map to work out locations for all the key steps mentioned above, or click on those steps/scroll down for more details about what to do! The Dung Eater questline is one of the more open quests, with an emphasis on exploration when it comes to the Seedbed Curses spread around the map. Of course, we'll lay out where to find them below, and what it takes to get them.

All Seedbed Curse locations in Elden Ring

There's a total of six Seedbed Curses located around Elden Ring, though one can be locked off. Fortunately you only need five to complete the Dung Eater's questline.

From the Leyndell East Capital Rampart Site of Grace, take the first Elevator down, then go up the ladder on the right. A corpse on a chair holds a Seedbed Curse.
On the West side of Leyndell is a recreation of the Roundtable Hold, with the same layout. In the room where the Dung Eater would normally be is another corpse with a Seedbed Curse.
In the Volcano Manor dungeon, find the portal at the end to Rykard's arena, but turn back rather than go through it and head up the stairs and through a door that needs one of the Elden Ring Stonesword Keys. Inside is a giant room where you jump on the tops of hanging cages to reach the bottom - deal with the enemies down there to find another corpse with a Seedbed Curse.
From the Prayer Room Site of Grace in the Haligtree, progress down until you reach the room with the two Cleanrot Knights. Rather than go in though, jump over the railing and drop down until there's a room behind you with a corpse on a chair. Loot it for the Seedbed Curse.
Head back to the Prayer Room, and this time follow the main path until you reach the two crossbowmen looking down. Jump across to the platform on the right with the Scarab, then run along the support columns Northwest to the balcony, then head inside to find the corpse with the Seedbed Curse on a chair.
If you've been following Blackguard Big Boggart's questline to the end, you'll get a Seedbed Curse from him in the Outer Moat. However, if you reach step 5 of the Dung Eater's quest, Big Boggart dies and you can no longer get it.

Clearly some of these require you to reach the Haligtree, which is an area that requires you to know how to get to the Consecrated Snowfield in Elden Ring, as finding Miquella's Haligtree and the town of Elphael requires you to pass through it.

1. Meet Dung Eater at the Roundtable Hold after Altus Plateau

The most common trigger for the Loathsome Dung Eater appearing is when a player makes it to the Altus Plateau for the first time, the Northern region around the Erdtree that can be accessed by figuring how to use the Grand Lift of Dectus in Elden Ring. Once you're there, the Dung Eater should appear at the Roundtable Hold, in a newly-unlocked room just past Sir Gideon and the Twin Maiden Husks. He might look like an invader spirit, but there's no combat allowed in Roundtable, so talk to him instead and exhaust his dialogue.

2. Bring the Dung Eater a Seedbed Curse

The Dung Eater wants a Seedbed Curse, a special item found on corpses he's killed and mutilated. Pick any one from the map to bring to him - the first one is probably easiest, but any of them will do. Once you bring it back to him, he'll explain that this form isn't his real body - that's been imprisoned in a cell beneath Leyndell. He'll give you the Sewer-Gaol Key, asking you to break him out.

3. Use the Sewer-Gaol Key to free the Dung Eater in the Subterranean Shunning-Grounds

Finding the Subterranean Shunning-Grounds isn't easy - from Leyndell, head to the Avenue Balcony Site of Grace, head down the stairs and jump the railings on the right into a broken town area. Climb down the well with a ladder in it to reach the Shunning-Grounds. Be warned that if you haven't completed Boggart's quest by this point, do that now! Once you free the Dung Eater, he'll go straight for Boggart and kill him.

Once you're here, progress until you find the Underground Roadside Site of Grace, then head out of that room and go left. Past the ogres will be a hole in the ground where you can drop into a sewer. Take the left path, and follow it round past some giant plants, up a ladder, and fight off the giant hands that attack you. The Dung-Eater's cell is across, and you can use the Sewer-Gaol Key to open it. Talk to him and tell him to leave in dialogue to continue the quest. Alternatively…

4. (Alternate choice) Kill the Dung-Eater to end the quest early

If you attack the Dung-Eater in his cell, it becomes a straight-up fight between you and him. He's a pretty tough NPC with a giant sword and lots of health, so play carefully. If you kill him, you get his armor - the incredibly resistant Omen set - and the Sword of Milos, a bone Greatsword that restores FP with everyone you kill. Of course, you can't get the Dung-Eater's ending this way, so only kill him if you want a different, less cursed future.

5. Fight the Dung Eater in the Outer Moat

Heading back to the Roundtable Hold, you'll find a message from the Dung Eater in his library that reads "I'll defile you next. Come to the outer moat." Head down into the water North of Leyndell, just next to Blackguard Big Boggart, and you'll be invaded by the Dung Eater. Kill him here - this won't end the quest, as it's the red spirit of the character, rather than his physical body.

6. Talk to the Dung Eater again at Roundtable Hold

After your friendly spar in the moat outside Leyndell, head back to the Roundtable Hold and the Dung Eater will be in his usual spot. You can talk to him again, and he's changed his mind about defiling you - now he thinks it would be better if you defile him, asking you to bring more Seedbed Curses to his body. Again, there is an alternative path:

7. (Alternate choice) Give Seluvis' Potion to the Dung Eater for a Puppet

You can end the quest early (again, preventing the Blessing of Despair ending), by turning the Dung Eater into a puppet summon. This requires a few steps, but effectively makes the Dung Eater into an imprisoned NPC you can summon like you do with your Ashes. If you want to do that, here's the process:

Follow the Elden Ring Ranni questline and secret ending to the point where you talk to her in Ranni's Rise, and her three minions, including Seluvis.
Talk to Seluvis in his tower, South of Ranni's, and he'll give you "Seluvis's Potion".
Take the Potion to the Dung Eater in his Subterranean Cell, not Roundtable Hold. Interact with him and administer it to him. (We're told that if you wait until he falls unconscious and then kill him, you can get his armor without sabotaging this conclusion, though we haven't tried it ourselves).
North of Ranni's tower are some ruins with an illusion floor that disappears when attacked. Go down the steps and read the message inside about not touching.
Head back to Seluvis and confront him, and he'll make the Dung Eater into a puppet in exchange for 5 Starlight Shards.

8. Bring the Dung Eater four more Seedbed Curses

At this point, you simply need to find four more Seedbed Curses for a total of five. Don't bring these to the Dung Eater at the Roundtable Hold, but the one in the cell (yes, he's back in there), now tied to a chair. Use the map above to find all the ones you need, and pour them into the Dung Eater until he's satisfied.

9. Get the Mending Rune of the Fell Curse

After giving the Dung Eater the fifth Seedbed Curse, you'll have completed his quest and he'll award you with the Mending Rune of the Fell Curse, a key item necessary to getting the Blessing of Despair ending he wants you to achieve. Not only that, but if you reload the area and come back, he'll have dropped the Omen Armor set for you to pick up.

How to get the Dung Eater ending in Elden Ring

For the Dung Eater's Blessing of Despair ending in Elden Ring, take the Mending Rune of the Fell Curse all the way to the end of the game, killing all the Elden Ring main bosses. Once you've finished off the final boss, you'll get the chance to use the Rune, as outlined in our Elden Ring endings, where we also talk a little more about the world the Dung Eater wants to create/ruin.

Dung Eater questline rewards

There's a few rewards that players can get from the Dung Eater quest, though a lot of them require aborting it early by killing or puppeteering ol' faecal face. The only one that remains consistent throughout is the Omen armor - you can get this in all endings and variations, and it's a decent (if ugly) set of armor, incredibly heavy but also fairly durable. It even increases the damage dealt by the Omen Bairn and Regal Omen Bairn items by 5% for each piece of the armor you wear (if you don't have the latter, you can get it as reward for how to beat Morgott in Elden Ring).