Each Elden Ring ending brings its own particular twist to the conclusion of your adventures in the Lands Between, whether it’s cursing the entire world, or just taking a well-deserved sit on the throne that you spent that last 50 hours fighting for. The thing is, it’s not immediately clear how to get a lot of the Elden Ring endings.
There are a variety of important characters you meet throughout the game, but who’s to know which ones will provide a possible ending, and who just amounts to a regular NPC quest. While there aren’t good or bad endings per se—you may have noticed the Lands Between has a certain moral greyness—one has proved to be overwhelmingly popular, and it’s not the game’s plain old ending.
In this Elden Ring ending guide, I’ll walk you through each of the game’s endings and what you need to do to get them. If you want more depth, we have lots of NPC quest guides that you can see in the boxout on the right, and these will explain the step-by-step with a little more detail.
Be warned that this guide will, of course, feature big spoilers in regards to the game.
Age of Fracture
Age of Fracture ending
This is the standard Elden Ring ending, the one that Melina (opens in new tab) has been leading you to throughout the game. Once you’ve defeated the Elden Beast, walk over and touch Fractured Marika, choosing the option to mend the ring. The Tarnished will become Elden Lord and sit upon the throne.
To get this ending, you have to defeat at least two of the demi-gods, Morgott, the Fire Giant, claim the giant’s fire to burn the thorns blocking your path, defeat Malekith in Farum Azula, and then beat the final bosses in Leyndell, Ashen Capital.
Age of the Stars
Age of Stars ending
This is one of the two alternate endings, in which you help the witch Ranni replace Marika, with you as her eternal consort. The Age of the Stars begins, a thousand year voyage guided by the wisdom of the moon. You ascend with Ranni to godhood, and the moon replaces the Erdtree.
To activate this ending, you have to complete the Elden Ring Ranni quest (opens in new tab) and use her summon sign in the arena after you’ve beaten the final boss (opens in new tab). It’s probably the longest and most elaborate questline, so this ending takes some work to prep.
Age of Duskborn
Age of the Duskborn ending
This is Fia’s ending and an alternate version of the Age of Fracture in which you remove the curse of immortality plaguing the Lands Between. To do this, you have to complete Fia’s questline (opens in new tab) to gain the Mending Rune of the Death Prince, which you can use on Fractured Marika.
The quest isn’t too hard to follow, but here’s a basic summary of steps:
- Meet Fia at the Roundtable Hold
- Talk to D near Summonwater Village
- Around when you get to Altus, Fia will give you a dagger and ask you to find its owner
- Give the dagger to D
- Return later to find Fia has murdered D
- Find Fia in the Deeproot Depths at the Altar of the Death Prince and agree to help her find the centipede mark
- Follow Ranni’s questline until you give her the Finger Slaying Blade from Nokron and she gives you the Carian Inverted Statue.
- Use the statue to unlock the Carian Study Hall (opens in new tab) and head to the top to find Ranni’s corpse and the centipede mark
- Give the mark to Fia, and return later to find her sleeping, and a sign that lets you fight Lichdragon Fortissax. Defeat the boss.
- Claim the Mending Rune of the Death Prince from Fia’s body
After Ranni, this is probably the second-longest ending, especially as it takes quite a bit of work to make your way to the Deeproot Depths, whether you’re coming at it from the Subterranean Shunning-Grounds, or the Siofra River (opens in new tab) Cistern.
Age of Order
Age of Order ending
Like Age of Duskborn, this is another variation on the default ending that requires you to use the Mending Rune of Perfect Order on Fractured Marika. You get this from Goldmask and Brother Corhyn’s questline (opens in new tab). This restores the Erdtree to its former glory, and makes things appear much the same as they were before, save for the fickleness of the gods, since you killed them.
To get the rune, you have to meet Brother Corhyn in various places along your journey. Here’s a brief summary of how to do it:
- Around when you get to the Altus Plateau, Brother Corhyn will disappear in search of Gold Mask. You can find him near the Altus map post. Keep following the road, head through the portal by the merchant, and look behind you to see Gold Mask on the bridge. Tell Corhyn where he is, then go back to Gold Mask and talk to them both.
- Once you get into Leyndell, Gold Mask and Corhyn will be on the cliffs by the colosseum pondering a riddle. To solve it you’ll need the Law of Regression spell (opens in new tab). You can get this from a prayer book in the rafters of the Erdtree Sanctuary by climbing the branches. This spell requires 37 intelligence, so I suggest a respec (opens in new tab) or use talismans (opens in new tab) and a rune arc. Head out of the Erdtree Sanctuary and down the elevator to find a white message talking about regression. Face towards the statue and cast the spell. Head back to Gold Mask and tell him what you found.
- Next you can find them on the bridge south of the Stargazers’ Ruins in the West Mountaintops of the Giants
- Finally, after beating Malekith, find Corhyn in the centre of Leyndell, Ashen Capital, and then head back to the cliffs by the colosseum. Here you’ll find a dead Gold Mask with the Mending Rune of Perfect Order on his body.
Besides the high intelligence spell you have to cast, this questline is pretty easy, since Corhyn and Gold Mask basically follow the same track as you throughout the game.
Blessing of Despair
Blessing of Despair ending
This is the Dung Eater’s ending, in which you use the Mending Rune of the Fell Curse on Fractured Marika. Anyone who has done the Dung Eater questline (opens in new tab) will probably realise this is a bad ending, since you curse the world and all of its inhabitants. As if the folks of the Lands Between didn’t already have it bad enough.
The idea of this ending is simple, since all you need to do is give Dung Eater five Seedbeed Curse items to gain the Mending Rune of the Fell Curse. However, these can be quite difficult to find. To begin the quest, you’ll find Dung Eater past the Twin Maiden Husks in the Roundtable Hold around the time you arrive in Altus. If you show him a Seedbed Curse he’ll give you a key to his cell in the Subterranean Shunning-Grounds below Leyndell. Any easy one to grab is from his mirrored position in the Leyndell Roundtable Hold.
From there, you have to fight him and then deliver four more Seedbed Curses to him, as we’ve lined out here:
- Optional: Find Rya in Liurnia and then speak to Blackguard Big Boggart at Boilprawn Shack nearby.
- Buy the Rya’s necklace from him and then buy at least one Boiled Prawn from him to progress his questline.
- Blackguard Big Boggart moves to Leyndell in the outer moat.
- Required: After entering Altus Plateau, speak to the red phantom version of the Dung Eater in Roundtable Hold.
- Retrieve at least one Seedbed Curse item from Leyndell, Volcano Manor, or Miquella’s Haligtree, then show it to the Dung Eater to get a key.
- Visit the Subterranean Shunning-Grounds beneath Leyndell via the well near the Avenue Balcony Grace.
- Find the human form of the Dung Eater and let him out of his cell.
- Go back to Roundtable Hold and speak with the Dung Eater. Defeat him in the outer moat.
- Collect four more Seedbed Curses and give them to the human form of the Dung Eater below the capital for the Mending Rune of the Fell Curse.
Lord of the Frenzied Flame
Lord of the Frenzied Flame ending
This is Elden Ring’s bad ending, even worse than the Blessing of Despair, since you basically burn the Erdtree and reality with it, unleashing the Frenzied Flame of the Three Fingers. If you got the Frenzied Flame from the Forge beneath the Subterranean Shunning-Grounds in Leyndell, all other endings are inaccessible until you get rid of it. I explain how to do that in the final section of this guide.
But first, how to meet the Three Fingers and get the Seal of the Frenzied Flame. Here are the basic steps if you want the Seal of the Frenzied Flame, otherwise you can just find the location below the Subterranean Shunning-Grounds:
- Optional: Complete Irina’s quest (opens in new tab) in the Weeping Peninsula.
- Start Hyetta’s quest (opens in new tab) at the Lake-Facing Cliffs site of grace after Godrick and give her the Shabriri Grape you found in the previous room by the ghost.
- You’ll have to meet Hyetta two more times and give her Shabriri Grapes, first on the west side of the Purified Ruins, then by the Gate Town Bridge grace, both in Liurnia. For the second, you might have to go back and see her again to get her to move.
- Head to Bellum Church where she’ll ask for a Fingerprint Grape. Get this by defeating Festering Finger Vyke at the Church of Inhibition.
- Finally, you’ll find Hyetta near the Frenzied Flame door below the Subterranean Shunning-Grounds. Take off your clothes and open the door to meet the Three Fingers. If you talk to Hyetta after, you can get the Seal of the Frenzied Flame. The next time you rest at a grace, Melina will leave you.
- Required: Find the Frenzied Flame door, take off your clothes, and get branded by the Three Fingers.
Neither Irina or Hyetta’s quests are required for the ending, but they will result in the the Frenzied Flame Seal for your trouble.
How to remove the Frenzied Flame
So, curiosity got the better of you and you couldn’t resist that evil-looking door below Leyndell. Luckily, there’s a way to get rid of the Frenzied Flame and unlock the other endings, but it requires a few things. First, you’ll have to complete Milicent’s questline (opens in new tab) that begins near Sellia in Caelid. It’s a pretty long one, and takes you all the way to Elphael, Brace of the Haligtree.
Once you’ve finished it and got the Unalloyed Gold Needle back from Milicent, you’ll have to defeat Malenia, Blade of Miquella (opens in new tab). After the fight, a Scarlet Bloom will appear in the arena, letting you turn the Unalloyed Gold Needle into Miquella’s Needle. Now, head to the Mountaintops of the Giants’ kiln and activate the flame to head to Farum Azula.
You need to head to the arena of the secret optional boss, Dragonlord Placidusax. No need to fight it, just equip the needle once there, and use it to get rid of the Frenzied Flame. But alas, you’ll still have the burn scars.
www.pcgamer.com
