Elden Ring: Pest Threads [Location & Stats]

The Elden Ring Pest Threads is an example of such an incantation that is useful for almost any starting class and is great for dealing a large amount of damage to a single target. But like many legendary or useful items in the game, acquiring Pest Threads is more complex and requires you to complete many steps and follow a questline to unlock it.

What Is Pest Threads In Elden Ring

The Pest Threads is a Servant of Rot Incantation type, capable of inflicting significant damage to large enemies. Essentially, it shoots out Pest Threads, which track your enemies and deal damage on impact. Additionally, enemies struck by the attack get slowed down, which can be useful for creating openings.

Furthermore, in my experience, the attack is more effective against the larger bosses, such as the Elden Beast and the Dragonlord Placidusax, due to their sheer size. The main reason for the effectiveness is due to the fact that the attack treats different limbs (such as wings, arms, and legs) separately.

How To Get Pest Threads In Elden Ring

The Elden Ring Pest Threads can be bought from Sage Gowry for 7,500 Runes in Caelid. He will be found in his shack but will only sell you the incantation after you progress through Millicent’s Questline. The ultimate goal of Millicent’s Questline is to cure her of Scarlet Rot. But completing the quest also gives you access to alternate endings.

In my opinion, getting through the entire quest can be tricky, as there are many items you’ll need to fetch and face off against multiple bosses. That is why I’ll highlight the major steps you’ll need to complete to get through the quest.

Getting The Unalloyed Gold Needle

You can initialize Millicent’s quest by talking to Gowry in his shack in Caelid. The location of the shack is shown in the image above. After a bunch of dialogue, you can choose to help him out. The first item that you’ll need is the Unalloyed Gold Needle.

• To acquire the Unalloyed Gold Needle, you need to kill Commander O’Neil.
• He can be found in the Swamp of Aeonia.
• The closest Site of Grace to the boss is the Inner Aeonia Site of Grace.

O’Niel, from the few times I fought him, is quite a tough boss and can be tricky to defeat due to the Exile Soldier spirits that it summons at the beginning of the fight. And in the second phase of the fight, you’ll need to encounter more of those spirits.

Here are a few of my expert tips to help you defeat the boss with slight ease:

• Use a defensively capable Spirit Ash Summon to draw attention away.
• Utilize the Rock Sling Spell found in nearby ruins for significant damage.
• Equip gear causing Frostbite or Hemorrhage for extra damage.
• Initiate the fight by sneaking up on Commander O’Neil before ally summoning.
• Rely on Torrent, your horse, as a crucial ally to avoid Scarlet Rot debuff.
• Bring Preserving Boluses to counter Scarlet Rot effects.
• If struggling, consider multiplayer for additional assistance.

Once you defeat O’Neil, you will get many useful rewards, but more importantly, you’ll acquire the Unalloyed Gold Needle.

Now, I’ve listed below what you need to do with the needle:

1. Take it back to Gowry and hand it over to him.
2. Exhaust all of Gowry’s dialogue to receive Sellia’s Secret.
3. To obtain the repaired needle, you need to travel away from Gowry (or rest at a nearby Site of Grace) and then return.

With that, you can now head towards the next major step of the quest, which is to visit Millicent at the Church of the Plague.

Visiting The Church Of The Plague

The Church of the Plague can be found east of Gowry’s Shack, on top of a cliff. As far as I’m aware, you should have access to a road that leads directly to the church if you activate the beacons using the secret of Sellia that Gowry gave you.

• Regardless of your path to reach the church, you’ll find Millicent inside the ruins.
• Talk to Millicent and hand over the needle to her.
• To progress, you must return to Millicent after resting at any nearby Site of Grace.
• Keep talking to her until she hands over the Prosthesis-Wearer Heirloom Talisman.
• After acquiring the Talisman, you can head back to Gowry’s Shack.

Acquiring The Valkyrie’s Prosthesis

After you’ve helped out Millicent, you can actually go back and unlock Gowry’s shop.

Here are the steps that you need to follow:

1. Once you have obtained the quest reward from Millicent, make your way to Gowry’s Shack in Caelid, where Millicent and Gowry will be waiting.
2. Don’t talk to Gowry immediately; visit the closest Site of Grace and return to reset the world.
3. Millicent will be in the shack upon your return, with Gowry nowhere in sight.
4. Engage in conversation with Millicent, discussing her search for her arm and her attempts to heal Scarlet Rot.
5. After completing the dialogue, rest at a site of grace.
6. Return to find Millicent missing and Gowry on the chair.
7. Gowry will reveal his item shop to you with many incantations.
8. However, the Pest Threads Incantation will remain unavailable until you assist Millicent in recovering the arm.

Therefore, your next task is to retrieve Valkyrie’s Prosthesis (Millicent’s arm). Coming across it isn’t too difficult; it just requires you to reach a location and deal with a single enemy. You can get the Valkyrie’s Prosthesis through the following steps:

1. Make your way to the Altus Plateau and head toward the Shaded Castle.
   • If you’ve already discovered this location, you can fast-travel directly to the Shaded Castle Site of Grace.
2. Proceed to the top floor of the Castle, where a Knight stands guard over a chest.
3. Inside the chest lies the Valkyrie’s Prothesis, but you must first defeat the Knight, which shouldn’t be too difficult.
4. After defeating the Knight, retrieve the Valkyrie’s Prothesis from the chest.

Giving Millicent Her Arm

After you’ve got the Prothesis Arm, you only need to hand it over to Millicent. Doing so will finally reveal the Pest Threads incantation in Gowry’s shop. However, you need first to find Millicent.

1. To find Millicent, you must go to the Erdtree-Gazing Hill Site of Grace.
2. Using it as a point of reference, head north to discover Millicent near a hill.
3. Speak with Millicent and hand her the arm.

Millicent will thank you for your efforts. Her questline is not over; you can continue it if you wish. But you can head back to Gowry and purchase the Pest Threads; the quest can also be continued later.

With that, you know all about Elden Ring Pest Threads; it is a powerful incantation that becomes more effective as the size of your opponent increases. However, unlocking it can be a tedious process as you need to follow Gowry and Millicent’s questlines to purchase the incantation finally.

But having other strong weapons, such as Hammers, can be just as effective. Also, check out our Frenzied Burst Build, which utilizes another powerful incantation in the game.

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