How to level up quickly in Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree

Aakrit Sharma
Elden Ring gameplay screengrab

While reaching max level in Elden Ring depends upon your ability to farm runes, that method is complemented by another mechanic within the Realm of Shadows in Shadow of the Erdtree DLC.

Leveling up in the game will not only allow you to wield better weapons, but it will also allow you to survive for longer in combat and will increase your damage output.

So, here’s how you can level up quickly and get stronger in the game so that you can take on all the bosses without much difficulty.

How to level up in Elden Ring

There are two routes for leveling up quickly in the base game:

  • Establishing a good Rune farming circuit where you kill enemies and reset the area by resting at a Site of Grace so that you can repeat the cycle as long as you want to.
  • Using items that boost your Rune gain when defeating enemies.
Elden Ring's open world
To level up faster, make sure you get all the Rune increment items.

There are several great locations to farm Runes, and players should be moving from one place to the other as they progress in level and gear.

Currently, the best way to farm Runes is by equipping items like the Gold Scarab. No matter the location you choose, if you have these with you, the amount of Runes you can earn greatly increases.

How to get stronger in Shadow of the Erdtree DLC

Unlike the base game, leveling up using just the Runes won’t make you stronger in the Realm of Shadows. To become powerful here, you’ll need to unlock Shadow Realm Blessings by using Scadutree Fragments.

There are 50 fragments that you can find in total, and for each Blessing level you unlock, you’ll receive a damage boost and incoming damage negation.

Shadow Realm blessings option in Site of Grace menu.
Scadutree Fragments are the only way for you to get stronger.

These Scadutree Fragments can usually be found at the following locations:

  • In front of Miquella’s Crosses
  • Within the Churches of Marika
  • Carried by Shadow Undead with sparkling pots.

Once you’ve unlocked your first Scadutree Fragment, you’ll see a new option in the menu called Shadow Realm Blessing. Here you can spend all your Fragments to unlock different Blessing levels.

Best locations to farm Runes

You can collect a massive amount of Runes in Elden Ring by defeating the enemies in these locations:

Caelid

Visit the Greyoll’s Dragonbarrow in Elden Ring and go to the Farum Greatbridge Site of Grace. Here, you’ll find enemies that can be attacked from behind sneakily and the reward for every kill is a whopping 1000 Runes.

Greyoll's Dragonbarrow location to farm Runes in Elden Ring
The exact location of the Farum Greatbridge Site of Grace is marked in the image.

Mohgwhyn’s Palace

Follow these steps to get 40,000 Runes every minute in Elden Ring:

  1. Complete the Varre questline.
  2. Use the Pureblood Knight’s medal to reach Mohgwhyn’s Palace.
  3. Follow the river with bloodstained water until you reach a Site of Grace. Activate it.

Near the Site of Grace, you’ll find sleeping Albinaurics, and killing one will grant 2000 Runes. There’s an entire group of Albinaurics in the region and you can wake them up individually through attacks. The area also has four guards but killing them isn’t an arduous task due to their slow attacks.

Mohgwhyn's Palace location to farm Runes in Elden Ring
The exact location of the Albinaurics farming spot is marked in this image.

The best way to farm this spot is by using a weapon that does massive AoE damage. For example, Moghwyn’s Sacred Spear is a wonderful weapon to use here. All you need to do is walk up to a group of enemies and trigger the Bloodboon Ritual a couple of times to dispatch all of them.

Overall, you’ll get over 40,000 Runes by defeating the enemies in this region and you can repeat the process infinitely by resetting at the Site of Grace.

How to get more Runes

The following items boost the amount of Runes that you get whenever you defeat an enemy:

ItemEffectHow to get
Gold-Pickled Fowl FootIncreases the Runes you get after defeating opponents for about three minutesCrafting
Gold ScarabIncreases the amount of Runes you get from defeating opponentsDefeat two bosses at the end of the Abandoned Cave in Caelid
Celebrant’s SkullGrants 20 Runes on a successful hitOn a corpse at Altus Plateau
Celebrant’s CleaverGrants 10 Runes on a successful hitEnemies in Dominula, Windmill village drop it
Celebrant’s SickleGrants 10 Runes on a successful hitRare drop from enemies in Dominula, Windmill village
Celebrant’s Rib-RakeGrants 10 Runes on a successful hitRare drop from Celebrants of Dominula, Windmill village

What is the max level in Elden Ring?

The max level in Elden Ring is 713 and you can achieve this by increasing every attribute to 99. Once you’ve maxed out every attribute, you won’t be able to spend Runes to level up.

Now that you know how to level up quickly, here’s where you can find the Ancient Meteorite Ore Greatsword in Shadow of the Erdtree, which is the best Strength weapon in the game. Also, this simple trick will help you defeat Furnace Golems easily in the game.

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