The best Elden Ring Rune farming locations for fast levelling

best Elden Ring Rune farming location
(Image credit: FromSoftware)

The best Elden Ring Rune farming location is the entrance to Mohgwhyn's Palace where you can farm 40,000 Runes in minutes, infinitely. Sure, it's technically part of the route to reach Mohg, the Lord of Blood, but when you can level up as fast as this area lets you, it's easy to get distracted and forget why you're there. 

You can usually make it to this rune farming spot pretty early on the in the game - though that doesn't necessarily mean it'll be easy. So there's a range of other farming locations here for all levels of difficulty and wherever you are in the game. I've also got some tips and pointers for maximising you rune earning as you play to help make life easier. 

So let's take a look first at the best Elden Ring Rune Farm method and how to find it and, after that, and all the other options for those who can't get to Mohgwhyn's Palace just yet.

The best Elden Ring Rune farming locations

Elden Ring 40000 Rune farm

Elden Ring rune farming

(Image credit: Bandai Namco)

The absolute best Elden ring rune farming location gets you 40,000 Runes in barely a couple of minutes. Equip the Golden Scarab mentioned below and you'll earn even more. It takes a little effort to get there, but you only have to do it once there's a Site of Grace that lets you come back whenever you need a top up and reset things repeatedly. The enemies you find here are all worth 2000K each, and mostly passive - there's a few guards to deal with but most of them just sit there as you work you way through them, killing them one at a time to rake in the rewards.

You'll need to complete the Elden Ring Varre questline to unlock this farming spot so follow that guide for a detailed breakdown. See all that through and you'll earn the Pureblood Knight's medal which will transport you to an underground area called Mohgwhyn's Palace (don't worry about anything Varre says, you can use the medal as often as you like). To get to the farming area you're going to have to ride fast to a specific spot - don't be tempted to stop, as this is a dangerous area and you'll likely die if you stop. Mark this area below on the map, summon Torrent and gallop for all your worth: 

Elden Ring 40k rune farming location

(Image credit: Bandai Namco)

You'll head East through a forest and into a canyon heading south with what looks like a river of blood running through it. Follow the path uphill, past a lot of figures in rags sitting on the floor and you should reach a Site of Grace. Activate it, rest and you'll be ready to start farming. 

On the slope leading up to the Site of Grace you'll find a group of sleeping Albinaurics, each worth 2000 Runes. They don't react until you attack them and even then, only the one you hit will wake up. There are four guards who will come at you when you get close but their attacks are slow and easy to dodge, and they can be led away one by one to deal with. If you're a very low level, start with backstabs to maximise your damage, but as you level up you'll be able to hack away. Whatever your level you'll be able to earn 40,000 runes from this area every 2-3 minutes, then just rest at the Site of Grace to reset it. 

Other Elden Ring rune farming locations

Elden Ring farming runes locations

(Image credit: FromSoftware)

The best places to farm in Elden Ring will vary according to where you are - as you level up, the amount of Runes required to reach the next level increases, a wider gap every time. But fortunately as you move through the game, enemies become tougher and drop more Runes to use - for that reason, we've broken down the game into four really good farming locations for players at different points in the game, shown on the map above and gone into in more detail below. 

  1. Trolls on the Stormgate (early-game farming): This one's fairly simple, though a little risky for new players. The huge, hairy trolls on the cliffs North of the Stormgate each drop about 1000 Runes when killed, and while they hit hard, they're also very slow. If you can space them out and kill them one at a time, you can pretty effectively build up a good pool of Runes to spend in preparation for bosses like Margit and Godrick. 
  2. War for Castle Redmane (early/mid-game farming): The easiest farming spot on this list, in Southern Caelid there's a huge fortress named Castle Redmane. You don't actually need to go inside though - there's fire-wielding knights and monstrous dogs fighting it out in front of the castle, and you can just watch them kill each other while you get Runes automatically. Head to the Impassable Greatbridge Site of Grace, then just ride up the hill and watch them fight. Then you can always ride through and cut down the weaker survivors, earning you roughly 3000-7000 Runes for very little effort.
  3. Party crashing Windmill Village (mid/late-game farming): This is a good one: head to the North coastline of the Altus Plateau and you'll find a surreal, Midsommar-esque village named Dominula, Windmill Village. It's full of dancing locals who only attack once you get too close and drop a lot of Runes. There's a boss at the top called Godskin Apostle, but even before dealing with him, clearing out the locals will get you about 7000 Runes in just a few minutes. Then quickly respawn them and do it over!
  4. Backstabbing at the Haligtree (late-game farming): OK, we've yet to update our map model, but the area is still correct and the principle is still very sound. If you've unlocked the optional Haligtree area, you'll know it's mostly pretty tough. But if you head to the Prayer Room Site of Grace halfway down, then take the door North, you can run down the parapets, backstabbing a lot of enemies who are looking out to sea or just cutting through the rather easy knights and footsoldiers, each of whom drop 2000-3000 Runes each. Some of them even blow themselves up in their attempt to stop you, meaning that a few minutes can earn you 40000 Runes or even more. Just fight your way down and fast travel back to the Prayer Room when you feel your Runes are at risk (we recommend before you have to fight either the two Cleanrot Knights or the Erdtree Avatar, depending on the path you take).

How to get more Elden Ring Runes

Elden Ring rune farming

(Image credit: FromSoftware)

Generally increasing your Runes as you play is always good to do, as they're the lifeblood of everything. Even if you're not farming, there's a lot you can do to generally increase your Runic income and generally keep in mind.

  • Find the Golden Scarab! This talisman grants a permanent boost to all the Runes you earn for as long as you wear it. It's an essential piece of equipment, but don't worry - we can show you how to get the Elden Ring Golden Scarab at our dedicated page, as well as how to beat the boss fight protecting it.
  • Shatter the glowing white skulls you see around the landscape. These have little consumable Golden Rune items inside, and while they're only 200 each, eventually you'll have an inventory of dozens.
  • Keep an eye out for Gold Leaves! A rare, random weather occurrence will sometimes have Gold Leaves falling from the sky like rain (and as far as we know, it only occurs at night). While this is happening, you'll get a minor boost to all the Runes you earn, about 5% or so. That's one of many Elden Ring secrets you might not know about, but can check out here. 
  • The Gold-Pickled Fowl Foot is a fairly rare consumable that you can find around the game, one that boosts your Rune income for a short time when used. Save these for big fights you think you have a good chance of winning.
  • Like at the Impassable Greatbridge, you'll occasionally come across areas where enemies are fighting with each other. This is always your chance to sit back and effectively let them do the work for you.
  • If you want a big batch of Runes fast, try looking for early-game bosses you forgot about and are now overlevelled for. Drop a summon sign and wait for people to call you in. The rewards won't be quite as big as when you defeated them yourself but's still a good payout.
  • Head to a merchant and sell anything you don't need. We don't recommend getting rid of unique items, but the equipment dropped by foot soldiers or the excess consumables earned from crafting are a safe bet if you're not using them.
  • If you see an enemy with glowing gold eyes, they're a special kind of foe who won't be any tougher, but will nonetheless drop more Runes when killed. Take them down as a priority! 

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Joel Franey
Guides Writer

Joel Franey is a writer, journalist, podcaster and raconteur with a Masters from Sussex University, none of which has actually equipped him for anything in real life. As a result he chooses to spend most of his time playing video games, reading old books and ingesting chemically-risky levels of caffeine. He is a firm believer that the vast majority of games would be improved by adding a grappling hook, and if they already have one, they should probably add another just to be safe. You can find old work of his at USgamer, Gfinity, Eurogamer and more besides.

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