Rune Farming

The best Elden Ring rune farm: shoot the giant bird at Mohgwyn Palace for over 11,000 runes a run, and how to get there early through White Mask Varré.

The fastest way to level up in Elden Ring is the bird farm at Mohgwyn Palace. One arrow, a short walk and a reload give you over 11,000 runes, and a run takes well under a minute. Most players think of Mohgwyn Palace as a late-game area, but you can get there right after Godrick through White Mask Varré‘s questline. After that, dying with 50,000 or even 100,000 runes in your pocket stops being a disaster.

Tip from Reddit user u/ssjkakaroto, who also wrote our Early Optimization Route.

The bird farm, step by step

  1. Bring a bow. Any bow or crossbow works, for example a Longbow with a stack of normal arrows. You do not need any damage: the arrow only has to wake the bird.
  2. Rest at the Palace Approach Ledge-Road. Sit at the Palace Approach Ledge-Road Site of Grace in Mohgwyn Palace.
  3. Walk to the edge. Walk a few steps north towards the ledge. Below you is a lake of blood with a giant bird in it. Leave the sleeping enemies around you alone.
  4. Shoot the bird. Aim at the bird and fire one arrow. It wakes up, tries to come for you and falls off the edge to its death. You get the runes without a fight.
  5. Repeat. Go back to the grace, rest so the bird comes back, and do it again.

Each bird gives a little over 11,000 runes. At a steady pace that is several runs a minute and millions of runes an hour.

Get even more runes

  • Wear the Gold Scarab for 20% more runes from every kill.
  • Eat a Gold-Pickled Fowl Foot for another boost while it lasts.
  • Spend your runes often. Level up or buy what you need between batches, so a mistake never costs you a big pile.

How to reach Mohgwyn Palace early

The quick way in is the Pureblood Knight’s Medal, a reward from Varré’s questline. Short version:

  1. Find Varré at the Rose Church. After you have spoken to him at the First Step and been to the Roundtable Hold, he moves to the Rose Church in Liurnia. Answer that the Two Fingers did not seem right and talk until he gives you five Festering Bloody Fingers.
  2. Invade three times. Invade three other players online, or, if you play offline, use the invasion sign at the Writheblood Ruins on the Altus Plateau to invade Magnus the Beast Claw. Beating Magnus once is enough.
  3. Soak the cloth. Varré gives you the Lord of Blood’s Favor. Soak it in a maiden’s blood. The closest one is Vyke’s dead Finger Maiden in the Church of Inhibition in northern Liurnia.
  4. Get the medal. Bring the soaked cloth back to Varré, then talk to him again for the Pureblood Knight’s Medal. Use it from your inventory to travel straight to Mohgwyn Palace.

Be careful once you arrive. The enemies in Mohgwyn Palace are much stronger than you are this early, so go straight to the farming spot and do not explore. Later in the game you can also reach the palace through the waygate in the Consecrated Snowfield.

Other early rune farms

  • Lenne’s Rise, Dragonbarrow. A rolling boulder you can trick into killing enemies for you. Good if you are not ready for Mohgwyn yet.
  • Trolls near the Warmaster’s Shack, Limgrave. A small group of trolls south of the shack, about 1,000 runes each. Slow, but safe for a brand new character.

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