Elden Ring: Best Places to Grind Runes

Elden Ring has a ridiculously large map for you to explore with tons of beautiful sights and terrifying enemies. If you want to be able to best those enemies to get to the more serene views, then you’ll have to collect a ton of runes to level up. Here are the best places we’ve found to grind runes in Elden Ring.

Best Places to Grind Runes in Elden Ring

First off, it’s important to mention that this is a working list. As more areas are found to be good grinding locations, we will add them to this guide. The two things that we take into account are the number of runes you get from killing enemies compared to the time it takes to clear an area. Also important is how close a Site of Grace is to the grinding spot.

Trolls in Limgrave

As of right now, this is probably the best place to grind for Runes early on in Elden Ring. If Margit is slapping you around with his cane, then you’ll want to head over to the Warmaster’s Shack (see map above) in Limgrave to touch the closest Site of Grace to the grinding location.

Just be careful when you approach the Warmaster’s Shack. During the day, there will be a merchant there named Knight Bernahl that sells many physical Ashes of War. However, a strong boss known as Bell Bearing Hunter appears in the same spot during the night. Its attack patterns are fairly straightforward, but it’s best to avoid this boss while trying to grind for Runes. Just rest until the morning if you need to.

After standing up at the Site of Grace at the Warmaster’s Shack, head directly southeast, and you’ll find an open field with five Trolls. You should be able to take them on one at a time if you don’t wander too close to one of the other trolls while fighting. Their attacks are fairly easy to dodge. Just run between their feet for anything that isn’t a stomp. Each enemy will give you 1000 runes for a total of 5000 in just a few minutes. Fast travel back to the shack and repeat.

Just like the Warmaster’s Shack at night, the field with these Trolls plays host to another small boss at night. In that field, you’ll see a troll on the left side crouching by some ruins. If you climb up onto the ruins at night, the Deathbird may appear. There are also some bats that roam this area at night so keep an eye out for them.

Flame Chariots & Burning Corpses in Caelid

This rune grinding spot is a little off of the beaten path of Elden Ring’s map in Caelid. The grinding spot here is right by the Caelem Ruins Site of Grace (see above). Here you’ll find numerous ruined buildings filled with pyres of corpses. Some of the corpses are reanimated and will start following you if you wander too close. Run away once they start to cross their arms since this means the Burning Corpse is about to explode.

Those enemies will give you some runes, but the main event here is the Flame Chariots. These enemies look like giant rusted cooper heads with ballistae and flamethrowers installed in the mouth and ears. A note mentions attacking the chimney on top of the head, but your easiest way to take them out is to dodge their attacks while riding on Torrent. Then get behind the enemy and attack the exposed Fire Monk operating the Chariot.

This spot will give you a very similar number of Runes as the Trolls in Limgrave. Each Chariot drops about 1600 Runes and the Burning Corpses will fill in the rest. This area may take a minute or so longer than the Trolls, but it’s still a solid method if you don’t want to spend a ton of time in Limgrave. Sometimes a change of scenery can make the grind feel less monotonous.

Using Items While Rune Grinding

It’s also important to note that there are items in the game that can boost the number of Runes you obtain from defeating bosses and enemies. The Gold-Pickled Fowl Foot and the Gold Scarab are both items that can boost your Rune grind. The Foot is a somewhat rare consumable item, and the Gold Scarab Talisman is a one-of-a-kind equipable Talisman.

That’s all of the best places to grind for Runes in Elden Ring that we know of so far. For more fantastic guides on this game, just check out our guide wiki.