Elden Ring Altar South Chelona's Rise Puzzle [Walkthrough]

The Chelona Rise is a magically sealed structure in Elden Ring you’ll find near the Altar South Site of Grace at the lower edge of the plateau. It’s one of the few mainline attractions when exploring the Moonlight Altar as a whole, and the reward for solving and breaking the seal of the Rise will ultimately give one of the sorceries in Elden Ring.

Key Takeaways

Exploring Elden Ring Altar South Site of Grace in the Moonlight Altar will reveal a hidden puzzle that rewards the player with powerful sorcery.
For the puzzle, players will have to find and kill 3 giant turtles scattered across the landmass.
The locations of each of the turtles are as follows:
1. The first one is hanging off the wall behind Chelona’s Rise to the right.
2. The second can be found below the southeastern edge of the Moonlight Altar from the upper half of the plateau.
3. The last one can only be killed by jumping straight up from the jump pad found near the Ringleader Evergaol in the northwestern part of the area.
Once all the turtles are slain, teleport back to the Rise and proceed to the topmost floor.
Here, the chest you see in front will give you Ranni’s Dark Rise, an Intelligence-based spell.

Breaking The Chelona’s Rise Seal

Once you reach the Moonlight Altar via the Deep Ainsel Well and head downhill to the area’s southern corner, you’ll eventually come across Chelona’s Rise near the Altar South Site of Grace, initially sealed. You’ll notice a pedestal in front of the seal, and examining it will give a prompt saying “Seek Three Great Wise Beasts.” So for this puzzle, you’ll need to find 3 giant turtles scattered around the Altar to unlock the Rise.

chelona rise elden ring — Pedestal in front of Chelona’s Rise (Image Credits: eXputer)

Find 3 Wise Beasts

As mentioned, we’ll have to find 3 giant ghostlike turtles hidden around the Plateau to solve the puzzle.
Finding the first turtle is fairly easy since all you need to do is go around the Rise from the right side and you’ll find the turtle hanging off the cliff.

first ghostlike turtle elden ring — First Turtle hanging off the cliff wall (Screenshot Grab: eXputer)

- Use some sort of ranged weapon like a spell, throwing knife, or a bow, and attack the ghost once to kill it.
- Next, starting off from the Altar South Site of Grace, follow the road back to the upper region of the landmass and make your way to the eastern edge.
- From here, look down from the cliff’s corner and you’ll find the second turtle standing still atop a platform.

second ghostlike turtle elden ring — Second Turtle sitting upland (Screenshot by eXputer)

- Use a ranged weapon or jump down from the edge and hit the turtle once to vanquish your second beast.
- Now, teleport back to the Altar South Site of Grace, examine the pedestal clue again, and follow the trail behind you that leads to the northwestern corner of the area.
- Stay close to the cliff edge and continue following the route uphill until you eventually reach a jump pad right beside the Ringleader’s Evergaol.

jump pad moonlight altar — Jump Pad next to the Evergaol (Image by eXputer)

- Use Torrent (your horse) to jump straight up via the pad to automatically kill the third and final turtle floating mid-air.
- Once you’ve positioned yourself at the right angle and bumped into that last beast, you’ll get a prompt saying “The seal on the rise opened”, indicating that you’ve successfully unlocked Chelona’s Rise.

Important: If you teleport to a Site of Grace mid-quest, the turtles will automatically disappear. You’ll have to re-examine the clue on the pedestal again to respawn them.

Entering The Rise

Once you’ve killed all 3 turtles and solved the Altar South’s puzzle, enter the structure and make your way to the topmost floor via the stairs and the elevator.
After reaching the top, you’ll see a wooden chest in front of you inside the room.
Open the chest and you’ll receive Ranni’s Dark Moon, one of the strongest sorceries in Elden Ring.

ranni's dark moon altar south — Ranni’s Dark Moon Sorcery inside Chelona’s Rise (Image Credit Copyright: eXputer)

Other Attractions Near The Rise

Besides the puzzle and progression of Ranni The Witch’s Questline, you can fight a unique boss near the aforementioned Ringleader Evergaol, where you found the giant floating turtle.

Enter the Evergaol by interacting with the glowing disc at the center and you’ll be teleported into an arena where you’ll need to kill Alecto, Black Knife Ringleader.

Alecto evergaol moonlight altar — Alecto, Black Knife Ringleader Boss Fight (Image Source: eXputer)

- This boss is extremely quick and agile, so you’ll need to stay on your guard and use rapid successive attacks to stagger her.
- You should also maintain your distance at all times and wait for Alecto to finish her long combo strings.
- Once the combo finishes, you’ll have a small opening to get in a hit or two on the boss and lower her posture meter.
- Repeat this process and you’ll easily kill the Evergaol boss, receiving the Black Knife Tiche summon along with 80,000 Runes as your reward.

alecto bossfight — Rewards for killing Alecto (Screenshot Captured by eXputer)

Important: If you die against your encounter with Alecto, remember to respawn at the Stake of Marika to avoid that tedious runback.

Wrapping Up

That wraps up our guide to solving the Chelona’s Rise puzzle near the Elden Ring Altar South Site of Grace. If you’re an Intelligence build, this is a must-complete side quest as it rewards you with one of the best spells in the entire game.

Plus since you’re likely in the late-game phase by this point, you should certainly have this spell in your inventory. Just be wary of a common bug you might face when attempting to solve the puzzle, which several players have pointed out in this Subreddit Post.

Remember to try out some of the best staff in Elden Ring to properly use your reward to its maximum potential. Along with that, as you’re wrapping up Ranni’s quest to get her ending, consider reading up on our Elden Ring ending rankings to see if you want to make any last-minute decisions. And if you want to indulge in other enticing narrative arcs, here’s our guide on Millicent’s Questline.

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