Elden Ring presents players with an enormous world to explore, and as such, plenty of opportunities to farm experience and gain levels. As players discover the many secrets hidden in the Lands Between, they may often find themselves holding onto massive amounts of runes, as the number needed to level up continues to rapidly increase with each level. With this in mind, it is reasonable to imagine that hitting the max level in Elden Ring would require an absurd amount of runes, and the fact is, it does. The highest level players can get in Elden Ring is 713, and that means players will need to farm well over 1 billion runes.
Gaining levels in Elden Ring is a process that should be familiar to most fans of FromSoftware’s previous games. First, players must farm experience, in Elden Ring’s case runes, which they can then use at a Site of Grace to level up. Leveling up means spending a certain amount of experience in order to increase a single stat by one point. Each time this is done, players gain one level in Elden Ring, and the amount of experience required to repeat this process increases.
Although in most cases players should be organically leveling up just enough to keep up with the growing enemy difficulty, this is not always the case. As players suffer defeat in the deadly world of Elden Ring, they will drop all of their current runes where they died. Should players fail to recover their runes by dying a second time, they will permanently disappear, which can feel like a major setback. In these moments, or whenever players feel like they are under-leveled, they can travel to one of the many farming spots in Elden Ring to quickly gain a few levels.
How Many Runes To Hit Elden Ring’s Level Cap?
Hitting the level cap in Elden Ring is a pretty lofty goal, as it will require players to farm a total of 1,692,558,415 runes. Although the level cap being 713 might seem a bit arbitrary at first, it is due to the fact that players cannot level up any of their stats beyond 99. Therefore, if we subtract 10 from that number, as a level one character is considered to have 10 on all their stats, and multiply it by eight, the number of stats in the game, 713 starts to make sense.
Getting to the max level will obviously require that players farm a huge number of runes in Elden Ring. However, there are tricks that players can use that can mitigate their rune losses as they level up, which will help them move towards their goal. A good way for players to not lose runes is to avoid hoarding them by spending them. To help with this, it is always a good idea to keep a few consumable Golden Runes on hand in order to use them whenever players are just a few runes shy of that next level up or a certain coveted item in a store. Doing this can be very helpful, especially before tackling bosses or new, potentially dangerous, areas.
Another important thing players should do to help them level up faster in Elden Ring is to find the Gold Scarab talisman. When equipped, this item will grant a buff that will net players 20% more runes, making it extremely valuable while farming. It is also a good idea to acquire the Missionary Cookbook [2], as it will allow players to craft the Gold-Pickled Fowl Foot item, which increases the number of runes obtained by 30% for three minutes and stacks with the Gold Scarab talisman. The Gold Scarab can be acquired by defeating the Cleanrots knights in the Abandoned Cave in Caelid, and the crafting book can be bought from Patches after he sets up his shop.
How To Farm Runes In Elden Ring
Farming runes is relatively easy and there are many great farming locations in Elden Ring, the best of which can be used by characters of any level. When considering a good farming spot, it is important to take into account not only the number of runes a player can get per run but also how long a run takes. Most of the best rune farming locations in the game often don’t involve fighting enemies at all, and usually involve slightly exploiting some of the game’s mechanics.
One of the best ways to acquire runes during the early to mid-game is the “ball farm” in northeastern Caelid, near the Lenne’s Rise Site of Grace. This method revolves around spawning a magical boulder that will try to flatten the player as he rides down a seemingly normal path. Players can activate this trap and dodge it to receive nearly 2,000 runes every time it falls off the ravine. Players can reset the boulder by using, or teleporting to, the nearby Site of Grace and repeat the process to get around 500,000 runes per hour without having to fight a single enemy in Elden Ring. Check out a video from Estel Lia on YouTube showcasing the “ball farm” below:
Elden Ring’s Best Rune Farming Location
Although the “ball farm” is very efficient during the early game, if players are trying to reach the highest levels they can in Elden Ring, they will eventually need to head to the area near the Palace-Approach Ledge Road Site of Grace in Mohgwyn’s Palace. This is the best rune farming spot in Elden Ring. Getting to this location early will require players to progress through White Mask Varré’s questline up to the point where he gifts players the Pureblood Knight’s Medal, which they can use to teleport to this location. To make Varre appear at Rose Church in Liurnia of the Lakes in order to progress his questline, players will first need to defeat two bosses in Elden Ring: Margit, the Fell Omen, and Godrick, the Grafted in Stormveil Castle.
After using the Pureblood Knight’s Medal and spawning at Moghwyn’s Palace, players should head northeast to get around the rock formation in the center of this region. After reaching the swamp, players should head directly south and up the ridge to find the Palace-Approach Ledge Road Site of Grace. From here, players should be able to see a birdlike enemy to the northwest, which they can attack with any ranged option in order to make him fall off the ravine, which will net players around 13,000 runes. After reaching the late game and gaining access to some of the best area-of-effect attacks, such as Elden Ring‘s Sacred Relic Sword’s Wave of Gold, players can instead use it to quickly farm the enemies sitting in that area for more than 40,000 runes per run.
For players who want to see how to get to the Palace-Approach Ledge Road in Elden Ring without teleporting, or want to see for themselves how the Moghwyn Palace rune farm works, check out the video below from Monkknom Gaming on YouTube:
Leveling Up Faster In Elden Ring’s New Game+
Using the previous farming method is a great way to help players get ready to face New Game+. In this game mode, players will start the game over again but will retain all of their equipment and non-story-related items. Enemies will get tougher with each new cycle and will continue to do so until players reach New Game+7, after which the difficulty plateaus. Assuming the player’s goal is to farm runes as efficiently as possible, New Game+ can prove to be very helpful, as the enemies do get tougher but will also reward more runes.
Why Getting Max Level In Elden Ring Is Not Worth It
With all of this in mind, many players may be considering tackling the challenge of reaching the level cap or at least farm enough runes in Elden Ring to start feeling overpowered. However, here are some arguments against doing so. For one, Elden Ring’s appeal, like most of FromSoftware’s games, is its challenge, and as such, overleveling may make the grueling-but-rewarding experience feel too easy and bland. This also severely impacts boss fights, as dodging a powerful attack feels less rewarding when it barely scratches the absurd amount of health a character with full vigor has, and players will often skip several fight mechanics and phases as they will be able to kill bosses in two or three hits.
The second reason is that most stats have diminishing returns, meaning that the more players invest in them, the less value they will receive out of each point. This, of course, means that in absolute terms, players will still get more out of having 80 Dexterity than 55, but not by much. Picking and choosing what stats to level up to create an efficient build in Elden Ring is also one of the game’s appeals and is therefore somewhat cheapened by overleveling.
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Elden RingPlatform: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC
Released: 2022-02-25
Developer: FromSoftware
Publisher: Bandai Namco Entertainment
Genre: Action, RPG
ESRB: M
How Long To Beat: 56 Hours
Expansion Packs : The Colosseum
Elden Ring