Last updated: 5 September 2026

Elden Ring Rune Farming Guide — Best Spots at Every Stage

Stuck on a boss in Elden Ring and desperately under-levelled? Or just want to reach your target build stats without the slow grind? Rune farming is the answer — and the difference between knowing a good spot and not knowing one is often hours of time saved. This guide covers the best rune-farming locations from the very start of the game through late-game, including the famous Mohgwyn Palace method.

01Early Game: Stormhill and Gatefront Ruins (Levels 1–30)

Before you reach the first major boss, the open area around Stormhill and the Gatefront Ruins is reliable grinding territory. The Knight at the Gatefront Ruins Camp — the one patrolling alone near the Site of Grace — drops roughly 300–400 runes per kill and can be pulled without aggroing the whole camp. Kill, rest at the nearby Site of Grace, repeat.

A more efficient early route is to follow the road north from Gatefront toward Stormveil: multiple knight-type enemies patrol in a tight loop and can be lured and killed individually. Expect 1,000–3,000 runes per full loop depending on your combat efficiency. This range is enough to push a starting class from level 1 to around level 20–25 in a session.

At this stage, equipping the Gold Scarab talisman (found in Abandoned Cave, Caelid, later in the game) or consuming a Gold-Pickled Fowl Foot (craftable or found as loot) boosts rune acquisition by 20% and 30% respectively. The Fowl Foot lasts 3 minutes in real time — pop one right before starting a farming run for a meaningful yield increase.

02Mid-Game: Bird on the Cliff — Mohgwyn Palace (Levels 30–60)

The single most famous rune farm in Elden Ring is the Palace Approach Ledge-Road Site of Grace in Mohgwyn Palace. A giant bird patrols a cliffside nearby. Hit it with a ranged attack or a thrown item — it charges off the cliff and dies, dropping around 11,000 runes with no Golden Scarab. With the scarab equipped, that rises to roughly 13,000 runes.

Each kill-and-reset loop takes as little as 15–20 seconds once you know the route, which is why this farm is still widely reported as yielding tens of thousands of runes per minute with rune-boosting items active — well over a million runes per hour at a brisk, consistent pace. At level 50 you need around 8,000 runes per level, so a single kill can pay for most of a level.

To reach Mohgwyn Palace early (before defeating Mohg himself), follow White-Faced Varré's questline: after defeating your first shardbearer and Great Rune, speak to Varré at the Rose Church in Liurnia to receive Festering Bloody Fingers, then use one to invade three times (or invade the NPC at Writheblood Ruins in Altus Plateau) to earn the Lord of Blood's Favor. Report back to Varré, then collect a maiden's blood vial from the Church of Inhibition and deliver it to him to receive the Pureblood Knight's Medal, which teleports you to just outside Mohgwyn Palace. This is accessible well before the intended midgame.

• Required item: anything with ranged reach — bow, crossbow, a Throwing Dagger works
• Setup: rest at Palace Approach Ledge-Road → walk south along the ledge → aggro the bird → it charges off the edge
• Runes per kill: ~11,000 base; ~13,000 with Gold Scarab; ~17,000 with Gold Scarab + Gold-Pickled Fowl Foot (the two buffs stack multiplicatively, +20% then +30%)
• Runes per hour: well over a million at a brisk, consistent pace, per multiple community-tested runs

03Late-Game: Albinauric Village (Levels 60–100)

If you do not want to use the Varré shortcut, or you want a farming spot with more engagement, the Mohgwyn Dynasty Mausoleum inside Mohgwyn Palace itself has a dense cluster of Albinauric enemies near the Palace Approach Ledge Road. These are slow, passive enemies that can be killed quickly with area-of-effect attacks.

With the Sacred Relic Sword's Wave of Gold Ash of War, you can clear the entire Albinauric cluster in one sweep. The Sacred Relic Sword is obtained by trading the Elden Remembrance with Finger Reader Enia at Roundtable Hold after defeating the Elden Beast — making this a true endgame farming method. A single Wave of Gold sweep through the Albinauric cluster yields 40,000–50,000 runes per pass with Gold Scarab equipped.

Full loop: rest at Palace Approach Ledge Road → walk down into the cluster → cast Wave of Gold → rest again. Under 60 seconds per loop, around 2.5–3 million runes per hour — significantly faster than the bird farm for players with access to it.

04Shadow of the Erdtree DLC: Specimen Storehouse Method

If you own the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC, the Specimen Storehouse in Shadow Keep is a strong repeatable rune farm: soldiers and librarian-type enemies on the first floor drop a few thousand runes each and respawn every time you rest at the Storehouse's Site of Grace. Clearing the floor and resetting nets roughly 9,000–10,000 runes every 30 seconds for a build that can push through the room quickly.

One enemy to avoid mistaking for a farming target: the Aging Untouchable (also called a Winter Lantern) found in the Abyssal Woods is invulnerable until parried, drops only a few thousand runes, and — unlike the Storehouse soldiers — does not respawn once killed, so it cannot be farmed repeatedly. It is worth fighting once for its unique talisman drop, not as a rune source.

Note that this requires DLC access and at minimum Shadow Keep unlocked, which is mid-way through the DLC's main content.

05Multipliers: Maximising Every Farming Run

Rune income scales multiplicatively with item buffs. Stack these for maximum yield:

• Gold Scarab talisman (+20% runes): found in Abandoned Cave in Caelid. Requires reaching and clearing a scarlet rot cave — challenging early, but accessible by level 40–50. Worth every effort.
• Gold-Pickled Fowl Foot (+30% runes, 3 min): craftable with the Missionary's Cookbook [2], sold by the wandering merchant Patches (found in Murkwater Cave, then later at Scenic Isle in Liurnia) for 800 runes, using 3 Rowa Fruit, 1 Four-Toed Fowl Foot, and 1 Gold Firefly. Both buffs stack multiplicatively — together they give +56% rune income.
• Comet Azur or AOE spells: for mages, AoE damage allows clearing large groups simultaneously, turning a 10-enemy run into a single cast. Scaling your damage output multiplies effective runes-per-hour more than item buffs alone.
• Spirit Ashes: bringing strong summons (Mimic Tear, Black Knife Tiche, Lhutel the Headless) into farming areas lets you clear enemies you might otherwise struggle with, maintaining a faster loop.

06What to Do With Runes: Smart Spending

Stockpiling runes without spending them is risky — you lose everything on death. Key principles for smart rune management:

• Level when you have enough: don't save for multiple levels at once unless you're mid-boss run. Die once and lose 40,000 runes you could have spent.
• Spend on your primary attribute first: determine your target build (Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, Faith, Arcane) and reach its softcap (60 for most damage stats) before spreading points.
• Don't neglect Vigor: 40 Vigor (approximately 1,400 HP) is the practical minimum for surviving most bosses. 60 Vigor (roughly 1,900 HP) covers almost everything in the base game.
• Endurance for equip load: if your weapons + armour pushes you over medium load (70% of your equip load stat), add Endurance levels to maintain medium roll speed. Heavy rolls are a significant disadvantage.