Elden Ring: The best rune farming spots and locations
Aim for the trolls!
Elden Ring rune farming helps you get plenty of the the world's currency - which is used for levelling up, buying items or upgrading your gear - fast.
They're gained either by defeating enemies or as items picked up all over the world, and you'll also drop whatever you're carrying should you die.
While the greater freedom to run away from combat might have you run the risk of being underleveled, it also means it's easier to pick the battles that are guaranteed to bring in more runes at a quick and steady pace.
You might be tempted to focus on the trolls, which can be intimidating but also bring in 1,000 runes when felled, or pick a spot with a high concentration of targets, though be warned that it's easy to get overwhelmed by a crowd.
This page covers some of the best Elden Ring rune farming spots across the game, which will make your journey in the Lands Between that much easier.
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Looking for some direction? Our what to do first in Elden Ring, Elden Ring walkthrough, Site of Grace locations and main bosses in order pages can help.
Elden Ring rune farming spot in Stormhill
The first and quickest farming spot to farm runes is on Stormhill, just west of Limgrove, which is accessible as soon as you have access to horse Torrent after first meeting the Melina at a Site of Grace.
While it might be safer to fight the two chained trolls pulling the caravan (and the enemies behind it) when you're riding through West Limgrave along the main path to the Gatefront, there's a location where you can fight five trolls at once - which will net you a total of 5,000 runes (1,000 runes per troll).
To reach this part of Stormhill, follow the cliff face along the East of the Gatefront Site of Grace and you'll come to an air current that Torrent can jump to reach the top of Stormhill.
Be careful that trolls are quite intimidating and hit hard - especially when you're low-level - and once you've taken down half their health they'll stop swinging at you with their arms and pull out the sword on their back. In short - this is by no means a safe farm run.
Your option is to take them on one at a time or bait them two at a time. As the trolls' attacks can hurt each other, you can try using Torrent to give them the runaround while their arms and then their swords do the work for you.
There's a risk to this, however, because if you ride a bit too far away, trolls may unleash a roaring wind attack that can knock you off your steed and leave you stunned for a dangerous amount of time. We'd advise against baiting all five trolls at once! However, on your first attempt, make sure to bait a troll into destroying a statue in the area to gather six Smithing Stones (1) to help you get started on upgrading your weapon.
Elden Ring rune farming spot in Caelid
Despite Caelid being a terrifying area to travel to early on, it's also got Elden Ring's best and most fun rune farming spot, and it's possible to get there right at the beginning, although it takes a bit more work, and we recommend you unlock the horse Torrent first.
To reach Caelid quickly, East of Limgrave but to get there quickly, head to Dragon-Burnt Ruins South of Lake Agheel, which is close to the beginning of the game. There you'll find steps taking you beneath the ruins with some rats. Kill them and open the door ahead to find a treasure chest.
This is a trick chest, however, and when you open it smoke will appear, transporting you all the way inside Sellia Crystal Tunnel, which you won't be able to fast-travel out of until you've escaped!
Naturally, the enemies in here are quite high-level, including some who can cast strong magic spells, but you can leave by following a path downwards to where you'll find the tunnel's Site of Grace. From here, follow the path until you discover you're North of Caelid under a spooky blood red sky.
While you can explore the area at your peril, we recommend just continuing heading South from where you are to other Sites of Grace, which will make the journey that bit more manageable. Riding Torrent will also help, especially as you'll likely cross some swamps that will inflict you with Scarlet Rot if you attempt to wade through on foot.
Once you've reached South of Caelid, you'll find a Site of Grace for the Impassable Greatbridge, which leads to Redmane Castle in the South East. Next to this Site of Grace is where you'll find your farming spot.
You might have encountered the terrifying giant dogs on the way here, but in this area you'll find three of them feasting on carcasses, oblivious that there's a band of soldiers about to start an ambush. You can just sit back in a hidden spot and watch the fight between soldiers and dogs play out, and you'll automatically recoup runes from anyone killed.
However, the dogs are only worth around 300 runes each, while the soldiers always triumph in sheer number. The trick then is to go down into the fighting and slowly pick off the soldiers who are focused on the dogs and therefore vulnerable to backstabs.
If any soldiers start targeting you instead, just bait them into one of the dogs or better yet, ride on Torrent or summon an ash spirit to help you out. You can even bait four more dogs just North of this area to continue the carnage, which will rack up even more runes.
Assuming you don't get killed during the skirmish, you'll be able to net around 5,000 or 6,000 runes for each run. A Stake of Marika is also available so if you do get killed for any reason, you'll be able to jump back into another farm run attempt - just remember to recover any runes you've dropped!
Elden RingElden Ring rune farming spot in Windmill Village
By far the easiest spot for farming runes in Elden Ring, the Windmill Village has a Midsommar vibe as the villagers are all under some kind of spell and merrily dancing, oblivious to your presence. It also means none of them react to your presence until you start attacking, and even then it's only the ones in the same immediate vicinity.
This farming spot is located in Altus Plateau, which you can reach after travelling through Liurnia. As the name suggests, you'll want to look out for windmills to the North of the region.
As you'll be approaching from South West of Altus Plateau, you'll want to enter the Outer Wall then follow the path North until you reach the Outer Wall Battleground Site of Grace. Here you'll find a gate that takes you to the Northernmost part of the region, where you'll find the Windmill Village.
The only thing you'll need to be wary of in the village are a couple rabid dogs who will notice you, while, if you head too far up, you'll encounter a tough boss (a Stake of Marika) will clue you in on when you should stop. Otherwise, once you've picked off all the villagers, you'll gain around 6500 runes in a run.
On the other hand, as the villagers are quite spaced out (though just follow the sound of their singing to find them), a more optimal method is to just focus on the first two groups from the Site of Grace.
The first group is just three villagers, while the second is a bit larger so you might run the risk of being overwhelmed, but you'll gain over 3,000 runes just from these alone in less than a minute, and then you can simply run back or fast-travel to the Site of Grace then rinse and repeat as necessary.
Elden Ring rune farming spot in Elphael, Brace of the Haligtree
This rune farming spot is the hardest to access as you're required to make your way to the Haligtree, a completely optional part of the map not tied to the story path West of the Mountaintops of the Giants.
Just to reach the Haligtree requires opening up a secret path by following the questline for Latenna the Albinauric, and taking on some very tough bosses along the way, but when you reach the city beneath it, Elphael, you've basically reached Farmville Central.
The enemies here drop thousands of runes, even the most basic grunts, and if you've been upgrading your weapon, two or three heavy attacks will be enough to kill them.
From the Prayer Room Site of Grace, just follow the path to a balcony and you'll find a soldier looking over it with his back to you. After that is a sword-wielding soldier but he's carrying a torch in the other arm so he's open to your attacks, while two grunts come up behind him who'll blow themselves up.
Continue along, you can pick off another soldier sitting over the balcony, which then alerts two soldiers at the far end. They're, however, also easy to finish as their shields are fairly weak. From just this group you'll rake in over 17,000 runes!
Of course, by the time you've reached this point, you'll also likely need far more runes to level up. Either way, this will definitely make any late grinding far easier and will hopefully take the sting out of the moments a careless death cost you a ton of runes.
Good luck rune farming in Elden Ring!