Elden Ring Fastest Rune Farming Methods And Exploits

Gaining XP and leveling up is one of the oldest mechanics in video game history. Therefore, it’s no surprise that Elden Ring also has its own take on that mechanic. So, if you’re stuck on a soul-crushing boss or are just looking to upgrade your stats, and helping people in Co-op isn’t giving you runes faster in Elden Ring, then we’ve got some fantastic Elden Ring Rune farming Locations and XP leveling methods for you!

Related: Elden Ring: All Sacred Tears

Elden Ring: Rune Farming Methods

Since you’re here and reading our rune farming/exploits guide, it must be that you’re all caught up and want to level up faster in Elden Ring. Let’s jump right into the methods.

The Castle Troll – (1000 Runes per run)

A great early game farming spot can be found right before the battle with Godrick in Stormveil Castle. Before entering the boss fight, you can find a Site of Grace located in a secluded cell. Near that site, you will encounter a Troll guarded by two soldiers. Considering trolls drop 1000 Runes per kill, and there is a Site of Grace right next to it, this is a great rinse and repeat Elden Ring Rune farming location for early game. Additionally, you can target the guards as well for some extra runes. So simply deal with the troll, fast travel or simply run back to the site of grace, rest, and repeat!

More From Exputer: Elden Ring Best Incantaitons 

Gatefront – The Troll Carriage (2000 Runes per run)

Following the troll theme, there is yet another location that can get you twice the number of Runes from the last one.

If you make your way over to Gatefront Site of Grace, you can take the path which leads downwards. On this path, you will eventually run into two trolls pulling a carriage which end up getting attacked by several soldiers. As the trolls are shackled to the carriage, they have trouble moving and performing fast attacks. Just look out for their stomping. You can take out these trolls with ease and get 2000 Runes per run. Rinse and repeat until you’ve leveled up to your heart’s content.

Although the troll carriage is not the greatest method out there, this is certainly the best for the early game. The reward to a risk factor is quite balanced. However, if you are willing to be riskier for more Runes, consider the next location. 

An Interesting Read: Elden Ring Best Talismans

Stormhill – 5 trolls at once (5000 Runes per run)

Yet again, following the troll theme, Stormhill trolls are the most extreme version of all the troll farming locations. Just west of Limgrave, head over to the Gatefront Site of Grace. From there onwards, head east along the cliffs. An air current should help your mount, Torrent, take a ride up to the top of Stormhill.

Here you will immediately run into five giants. As we already established, each troll drops 1000 Runes, so we’re looking at 5000 potential Runes here. The only problem is dealing with all 5 of these trolls. Luckily for you, you have your Torrent horse, and they do not. What you want to do is carefully maneuver between them and try to get them to hit one another and also bait them out.

Resetting the trolls can become a pain however, this is one of the riskier yet rewarding Elden Ring Rune farming locations in the early game.

Impassable Greatbridge – AFK Farming method (4000 Runes per run)

The method about to be discussed is quite unique as you do not even have to do much. Well, besides getting to the location, that is. To get to the desired location, we need to make our way over to Sellia Crystal Tunnel. This can be done by accessing a “trap” chest found inside the ruins labeled as Dragon Burnt Ruins south of Lake Agheel.

Essentially Sellia Crystal Tunnel is a hell-like location, and you can fight the bosses there if you want. But to get to the location you need to keep heading south until you find the Impassable Greatbridge Site of Grace. From there, you need to turn around, making your way near the tower and close to the battlefield, as shown in the picture. 

You’ll notice a bunch of dogs begin to harvest on dead bodies, which will be followed by a group of soldiers spawning to attack the dogs. A fight will break out between the two parties, and as the soldiers die, you will gain Runes.

Although you can speed up the process by fighting the soldiers but that would just become a typical grind location. We want our process to be completely AFK. So simply stand back in the location of the Site of Grace, this will ensure you do not get caught in the crossfire. After 3-4 minutes, all the enemies should be dead, granting you 4000 runes. Pretty unique Elden Ring rune farming location, right?

Nokstella, Eternal City – Slugs (4000-5000 per run)

The location about to discuss almost feels like an exploit, but it is part of the game. We want to make our way over to the Nokstella, Eternal City Site of Grace, for this farming location, but the journey could be a hassle.

Begin your journey from the Site of Grace found at the Lake-Facing Cliff in Liurnia and head north from there. You will eventually run into a location known as “Ainsel River Well”. Take the lift to that location which will lead you underground.

Once underground, stick to the path on the left, which will eventually lead you to the Nokstella, Eternal City Site of Grace. If you head up the stairs nearby, you will run into our victims for this current location, giant slugs. 

When you kill one slug, it triggers a chain reaction causing the others to die through a jolt of electricity. So, try to keep the slugs nearby as you kill some of them, inducing the deathly attack on the other slugs. You can get 4000-5000 Runes per run, and with the site of grace nearby, you should be able to rinse Nokstella, Eternal city slugs, fairly easily. Making it one of the better farming locations in the game.

Windmill Village – Villagers

One of the late-game farming locations, Windmill Village, provides quite the rewards for dealing with a bunch of villagers.

Head to the north and keep moving through the outer wall after you’ve reached Altus Plains. Along this border, you will eventually find the Windmill Village Site of Grace. That location has villagers which you can mercilessly kill to gain Runes.

You can begin slicing them with your blade and should be granted with a couple of thousand Runes.

East Capital Rampart (3000 Runes per run)

Although East Capital Rampart location is quite late into the game and may not be useful, it does grant 3000 runes per run. But what is better about it is that the enemies to be fought are not that tough.

After you defeat the Draconic Tree Sentinel and make your way to the city of Leyndell, you will be able to reach the Easy Capital Rampart Site of Grace. Taking a left from the side and moving along the path will lead you to a fire-breathing monster. You can easily kill it to receive 3000 runes, and repeating this method could be a good farming location.

Related: Elden Ring Blacksmith Location Guide

Elden Ring: Rune Farming Exploits (Fastest ways)

We’ve talked about some of the vanilla methods and locations inside the game to farm some locations. Those Elden Ring Rune farming locations are alright and will get the job done. But, if you do not mind exploiting bugs or just need quite a lot of Runes quickly, then consider the following methods.

The Boulder – Lenne’s Rise (600,000 Runes per hour)

Although there is no official name for the mentioned exploit, Lenne’s Rise Site of Grace has an interesting “boulder” that attempts to crush you. If you dodge it, you get granted with quite the Runes. 1952 Runes, to be specific. It is not known what the reason behind the Runes award is, but it works, and that’s good enough!

To reach Lenne’s Rise, you need to first go through a portal. Head to the eastern corner of the river just north of the Third Chuck of Marika in Limgrave. You will find a purple portal at that location which shall teleport you to our desired location.

That “desired location” is Dragonbarrow, to be specific. There will be a miniboss right where you spawn, but you need to make your way past it and then continue left. There will be a small bridge to the tower, and you need to turn south across it.

You should come across Lenne’s Rise Site of Grace while going through all these steps. After resting, get your mount out because you will be needed it. Face westward and go down the curved pathway. Eventually, a giant ball will spawn behind you in hopes of crushing you. However, as you are on your horse and should be expecting it, you can dodge the upcoming boulder.

Regardless, you get 1952 runes, and with sheer simplicity, you can go up to 500,000 runes per farming. This is done through repeating the same action and fast traveling to the site of grace nearby.

Alternatively, if it feels faster, you can also run back to the site and simply rest. The boulder is currently one of the best farming exploits/locations out there. Due to how simple the process is, with no fighting whatsoever, it could likely get nerfed in the future, but as of now, take as much advantage as you can! 

Dragon – Fort Faroth (100k Runes in 5 minutes)

In Caelid, there seems to be an exploit that has players mesmerized. At least for now. The giant easy-to-kill dragon is available right from the start, and you don’t need anything specific.

Just make your way over to the grace site outside of Fort Faroth. To get to Fort Faroth, you can follow a similar path from the last exploit. Take the portal in the lake next to the Third Church of Marika and then make your way over to the location on the map. If you are confused, just have a look at the map location in the previously mentioned exploit.

You should notice something rather large waiting for you. And indeed, we are going to be taking on that large dragon and getting the Runes from it. Normally the game would want you to fight her baby dragons first and then kill her. But if you make it back to the Site of Grace, the baby dragons don’t notice you, and you can simply attack the main dragon.

For dealing with the dragon, the one item that you will need is a weapon with bleed. You can either find a weapon that naturally has the bleed effect. Or get ashes of war which lets you switch a weapon to blood, making it a bleed weapon. You can get one of them from a knight in Fort Haight in east Limgrave. Also, equipping this bleed armament as the two-hand weapon will give you decent damage numbers.

From here onwards, it is simply slashing at the dragon over and over until it is just one shot away. Before taking the final slice, consume a Gold-Pickled Fowl Foot. This will make it so that not only do you get extra runes but will also cause the smaller dragons to die and give you their Runes. Ultimately, you will be awarded 100k Runes. 

Also, note that not all enemies can be parried in Elden Ring. So, don’t try to parry fire attacks of dragons. 

A Similar Read: Elden Ring Best Ranged Weapons

For just a 4-5 minute run, killing the dragon is the greatest way to get a huge boost of Runes. Unfortunately, it is a one-time thing, but the method was surely worth the mention. 

Elden Ring: Runes

XP follows a similar methodology to previous soul games. Let’s take a very brief moment to define them before moving to our Rune farming locations.

What are Runes

Runes are the main currency of the game. They can be used as XP to level up your character and as currency at the various vendors spread throughout The Lands Between. Therefore, you will have to be clever with your use of them. Do you want to be at a higher level or purchase more items? Luckily with Elden Ring Rune Farming, you will have enough to do both.

How to get Runes

You will encounter many enemies in your journey through Elden Ring. Many are mandatory bosses for the main story; many are optional. But what they all have in common is that they will grant you Runes upon defeating them. Therefore, all our farming methods will entail dealing with enemies which are easy to handle and give the most Runes in the shortest time.

However, you will have to be careful with managing your Runes, mainly while farming them. Mostly because, in typical Souls-like game fashion, you lose Runes upon death. Although you get a chance to return to the place to reclaim your losses, you can kiss those Runes goodbye if you die during that process.

Additionally, you can gain Runes from consumable items such as Fringefol’s Rune. These are reward items that give a fixed number of Runes. However, they’re good to stockpile your Runes as they’re not lost upon death, acting as a “bank” for runes. Therefore, it is a good idea to hold on to them until you actually need your Runes. You also get a Keepsake at the start of the game known as “Lands Between Runes”, it also grants players extra runes. 

You can also get Runes by trading in valuable items with Merchants. Furthermore, certain enemies with golden eyes spawn, which, when killed, drop bonus Runes. As of yet, according to the Elden wiki, the reason for why or how they spawn is unclear. However, it could be the enemies that have killed that player in the past that spawn with this trait. On the subject of golden eyes, read out Elden Ring Golden Seed locations guide and increase your flask usages. 

How to use Runes

If you’re just starting out, perhaps hold off with the Runes farming until just a couple (not many) hours into the game. It’s not too far from the tutorial level, but you won’t be able to use your Runes to level up until you meet Melina in the early game. Once you’ve met her and agreed to her accord, you can begin utilizing your Runes to level up at any Site of Grace. There are eight main stats in which you can invest your Runes, so have fun customizing your strengths!

Additionally, you can use Runes to purchase items through Merchants that you would come across as the story goes on.

Summary

With that, we have the various methods and Elden Ring Rune farming locations. Of course, there are plenty of other methods out there, but these are classified as some of the best locations as of yet. If you have any questions, let us know in the comments below. 

Read next: Elden Ring Twinblade Location Guide