Elden Ring: How To Get To Nokron [Definitive Guide]

The Eternal City of Nokron is one of the most prominent underground areas in Elden Ring, with easily one of the most jaw-dropping entrances. It houses some incredible boss fights and precious items while also providing a vista like no other. It’s also rich in lore and provides a gateway to one of the game’s major endings.

Key Highlights

• Nokron is one of the three major underground cities found during the mid-game of Elden Ring.
• It’s similar in size to the Siofra River and Nokstella, with many visual and mob similarities.
• The bosses and mobs in Nokron are focused on gimmicks and magic, so they’re generally easier than the rest of the game at this stage.
• The area also has a lot of branching paths and platforming, so you’ll need to look at every corner to ensure you don’t miss anything!
• Nokron is an optional area, but this city has several items you can get and become much stronger for Elden Ring’s late-game phase.

Getting To Nokron

Like most underground areas, getting to Nokron in Elden Ring is not so straightforward. You’ll have to complete a few side objectives, discover items, and of course, take down bosses. An important thing to note is that Nokron is considered a mid-game area, as you’ll need to progress through the game’s major biomes – Limgrave, Liurnia, and Caelid. Therefore, you should equip yourself with the best Armor, Weapons, Ashes of War, and Talismans to take on its tanky mobs.

Aligning the stars

The first step to getting to the Nokron in Elden Ring is aligning the stars. Later, you’ll also need to face off against General Radahn, one of the demigods in Elden Ring, without whom you cannot enter Nokron. To align the stars, all you have to do is get to the Altus Plateau on the northern part of the Lands Between. There are two main ways to reach the Plateau – The Grand Lift of Dectus, and the Ruin-Strewn Precipice.

The Grand Lift Of Dectus Route

For Dectus’ medallion, you need its two halves – the right and the left. For the left half, you need to reach Fort Haight found on the western edge of Limgrave. From there, enter the fort from the gate right behind the Pumpkin Head stationed at the front.

Upon entering, you’ll see a series of stairs leading you to your objective. You’re also met with several enemies throwing explosives, but they’re easy to avoid, so the enemies themselves shouldn’t pose too much trouble.

There’s also a Godrick Knight atop the Fort with a sword that has a unique Ash of War applied. You could kill him to both acquire the Ash of War and progress Kenneth Haight’s side-quest if you were previously following it.

Here you’ll see a ladder inside the tower in front. Climb it, and you’ll get the first half of the medallion inside the chest at the top. If you’re keen on reading item descriptions, you’ll realize it states the location for the right half of the medallion, that being Fort Faroth, which is your next stop.

Fort Faroth is in Caelid, or more specifically, Dragonbarrow found Northeast of Caelid. Reach the Dragonbarrow Fork Site of Grace at the area’s beginning and follow the trail laid out in front of you. Eventually, you’ll reach the Massive Elder Dragon Greyoll, and behind it lies Fort Faroth. This fortress follows somewhat of a similar layout to Fort Haight. Simply follow the path inside the fort, and you’ll find the chest atop containing the right half of the Medallion.

Accessing The Lift Via The Medallions

Once the Dectus’ Medallion set is complete, you’ll now need to reach the Grand Lift of Dectus itself, which lies on the Northernmost side of Liurnia. The best way to reach it is by taking the Bellum Highway route through Raya Lucaria’s entrance gate outside the Academy.

Once you reach the Grand Lift and have both halves of the Medallion, you’ll get a prompt to hold up the Medallion in front of the lift. Doing so will trigger a brief cutscene, and with that, you’ll reach the Altus Plateau and align the stars.

Ruin-Strewn Precipice Route

To reach the Ruin-Strewn Precipice, you’ll need to go to the Miner’s Cave which lies on the Northwestern side of Liurnia. The best way to reach the cave is by following the Liurnia river branch that takes you northwest.

There may be some challenging enemies inside the cave if you’re under-leveled, but you can always run past them. Keep progressing and you’ll see an exit, which also leads to the Ruin-Strewn Precipice. Avoid the annoying bats in the area and climb the ladders guiding you to the top of the Precipice and a Site of Grace.

Right in front of the Grace is the Magma Wyrm Makar boss fight encounter. Makar isn’t too difficult due to his weak mobility so stick to his sides and attack him from there, but watch out for his magma attacks! After defeating him, progress forth and take the elevator in front to ascend to the Altus Plateau.

Reaching General Radahn

Now that you’ve aligned the stars, General Radahn is ready for battle. In Caelid, to the east, there’s a huge bridge that leads to the area’s legacy dungeon, Redmane Castle. You can use the teleporter outside the castle near the bridge, which directly takes you inside.

It’s important to note that the teleporter would not be activated if you came to Redmane Castle before aligning the stars. Instead, there would’ve been a duo boss fight in the castle – the Lionel Misbegotten Warrior & Crucible Knight. Once you align the stars and defeat Radahn, you can still fight these bosses.

As you enter Redmane Castle with the stars aligned, there will be a resting ground in the arena where the aforementioned duo fight takes place. Upon entering, an announcer will introduce you and all the other warriors present at the Radahn festival and the backstory of Starscourge Radahn himself. This will be followed by a cutscene that gives more depth to Radahn’s character and lore.

Here in this resting ground, you will meet multiple NPCs, the most notable ones being Blaidd the Half-Wolf, and Great Jar Alexander the Ironfist. You can summon all of these NPCs to fight General Radahn with you.

Now, head straight and take the elevator in front, and descend to the teleporter that takes you directly to Starscourge Radahn. If you were here before reaching the Altus Plateau, the door leading toward the elevator would be closed instead. Along with that, the NPC who starts the festival will pass you off, saying that he, too, is waiting for the stars to align.

How To Beat General Radahn

You can only get to the city of Nokron after you’ve beaten Radahn, Elden Ring’s “mightiest” demigod. Upon entering the arena, your first objective is to get close to him. This can be tricky as you’ll need to dodge his massive arrows covered with magic flying toward you. Hiding behind the wooden walls or simply rolling through the arrows are the best ways to avoid them.

After Radahn shoots his arrows thrice and you have yet to get close to him, he’ll make another attack where arrows rain down and track your position, so it’s best just to keep strafing left or right to dodge this attack.

As mentioned, there are summon signs spread throughout his arena. And once a summon dies, it can be resummoned as well. As such, try to summon as many NPCs as you can while riding to Radahn to beat him more easily.

Once you do reach him, he pulls out his blades, and it becomes a complete melee battle. This is where you should let your summons do the fighting and occasionally come in yourself to land a few blows. After lowering his health down to roughly 50%, he’ll jump into the sky and come shooting down as a meteor. Remember to mount your horse, watch the skies, and run as far from the crashing Radahn as you can since this meteor has a huge area of effect.

This is the beginning of Radahn’s second phase, where he’ll include gravity magic in his attacks. These are mostly delayed attacks, so try to dodge them as late as you can to avoid being caught off-guard. It’s also better to keep a distance from Radahn at this stage since his close-range attacks deal insane damage. 

Entering The Eternal City

After beating General Radahn, the challenging part of your journey to Nokron in Elden Ring is over. You’ll be met with a cutscene right after Radahn’s defeat showing a meteor shower right above you, with a large meteorite crashing down in the Lands Between, specifically near Fort Haight in Limgrave.

This crash site will create a crater in Limgrave’s southeast and ultimately lead you to Nokron, the Eternal City.

Go to Fort Haight’s Site of Grace and follow the nearby smoke leading to the meteor’s crash site. Now, begin your descent down the hole created by it and use the broken land masses as platforms to jump off the ledges onto other platforms within reach. Keep descending, and you’ll eventually see an arch that’ll get you to Nokron, The Eternal City, in Elden Ring.

Significance Of Nokron

Apart from the scenic beauty Nokron provides, there are several rare items and lore facts you can discover and bosses you can fight. The area seems linear at first, with its narrow and apparent footpath stretching out to the edge. However, most of the landmasses you discover here branch off to many alternate routes. As such, you can expect a lot of hidden treasures and secrets here.

Mimic Tear Summon

As mentioned earlier, Nokron is a mid-game to even late-game area in Elden Ring, so you’ll likely need to upgrade your gear soon to prepare for the game’s upcoming difficulty spike. Thankfully, Nokron has arguably the best Ashen Remains in the game – The Mimic Tear. This is an NPC boss you can fight at the beginning rooftop section of the city by following the trail laid out.

Compared to other bosses in Elden Ring, the Mimic Tear is unique since it mimics your currently equipped gear, including armor, weapons, incantations, pyromancies, and sorceries. However, this boss only mimics the gear you have the moment you step into its arena. So you can easily cheese this boss if you want by removing your gear before entering and equipping it during the fight.

Regal Ancestor Spirit Bossfight

The Regal Ancestor Spirit is one of Elden Ring’s easier bosses you can fight in Nokron by lighting up the city’s 6 pillars scattered in the open area outside the Mimic Tear’s arena. Once you’ve lighted up the pillars, head to the Spirit’s arena and touch its glowing antlers to teleport to the boss fight itself.

This is the only boss in Nokron that drops a Remembrance which you can give to the Finger Maiden at the Roundtable Hold for exclusive Remembrance Weapons. You’ll be familiar with this fight if you’ve faced off against the regular Ancestor Spirit in Siofra River, as the two share the same looks, arena, OST, and most of their moveset. The only difference is that the Regal Ancestor Spirit has a few more attacks and can regenerate its health.

Valiant Gargoyle Duo Bossfight

This duo is perhaps the most challenging encounter you’ll face in Nokron. These gargoyles drop the Gargoyle’s Greatsword and the Gargoyle’s Twinblade, two ideal weapons for a Strength build. After defeating the boss, you can also access the peculiar stone coffin at the edge of the waterfall. Interacting with the coffin ascends you up the waterfall, leading you to the Deeproot Depths, another underground area.

To get to the Valiant Gargoyles, go behind the Regal Ancestor Spirit’s arena and head straight. At the edge of the cliff, jump down onto the platform to your left. From there, continue down the path and jump down again to the rooftop in front to enter the Siofra Aqueduct. Now, make one last jump down to the main floor of the building and head to the exit by keeping a trail northeast and you’ll immediately enter the Gargoyles’ arena.

Ranni The Witch’s Questline

Completing Ranni‘s Questline unlocks one of Elden Ring’s six major endings – The Age of The Stars. Although this is the longest quest line in the game, it rewards you with extremely rare items and bits of lore along the journey. One key item you need to progress through this quest is the Fingerslayer Blade found at the lower half of Nokron.

For the Fingerslayer Blade, you’ll first need to be in the area with the Regal Ancestor Spirit’s pillars. Upon entering, go behind the rock to your left and take the site of grace. You’ll know if you’re at the right place if the game notifies you that you’ve entered the Night’s Sacred Grounds.

From there, drop down onto the rooftops and follow the laid-out trail and jump onto the nearby roofs. At the final rooftop, drop down to the chamber below you and head outside. Descend the stairs and take the site of grace to your left and the Fingerslayer Blade inside a chest at the end of the street to your right.

Conclusion

That wraps up our guide on getting to Nokron, The Eternal City, after reaching Altus and beating Radahn, along with its importance in Elden Ring. Although being an optional arena, Nokron is rich in items, lore, bosses, and overall world design. And for someone looking to experience something unique and exciting, Nokron is a city you should definitely visit in the game.

You can learn more of Elden Ring’s secrets by checking out our guide on the unreleased Age of Absolute Ending. If you instead want to focus more on gameplay and progression, consider reading our guides on other powerful gear like The Rivers of Blood and Moonveil Katana. Along with that, if you want to embark on similar journeys, here’s a guide on the games like Elden Ring.