Elden Ring: How To Find The Most Hidden Talisman (That's Also Useless)

The hardest item to find in Elden Ring is also practically useless for most normal players. This item is so hidden, most players won’t just never find it — for a long time, this item was literally impossible to find. Due to a mistake in the 1.02 and 1.03 patches, you’d die if you tried to drop down into the hidden area where this talisman is located. Only in the latest patch can we finally delve down to get one of the most underwhelming secret items in all of Elden Ring.

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How To Find The Dragoncrest Shield Talisman

Finding the Dragoncrest Shield Talisman is extremely difficult — and basically impossible if you don’t know where to look. To get it, you need to reach a very hidden (and previously impossible to reach) area near the Bestial Sanctum in northeast Caelid.

How To Get The Dragoncrest Shield Talisman: Travel to the Bestial Sanctum site of grace. As you exit the interior, go right and around the side of the temple. Go past the ledge with two eagles — walk along the ledge and look down. There’s a large root you can drop down to. Check the map location in the screenshots for an exact spot to stand.

Drop down to the ledge, then move left and look down for another branch directly below that’s jutting out from the rock wall. Drop down to that — this is a trickier jump and you may slide off the root. From this root, jump onto the tower. Finally, you can drop down onto the stone structure far beneath the sanctum.

We’re getting closer. Now step onto the buttress tower — the large towers connected by bridges to the main structure — and drop down to the lower level. You can carefully drop down from the edge where the bridge meets the external tower. There are bat monsters patrolling the walkways, so watch out! Sprint jump back to the ledge along the cliff wall and drop down. You should see a stash of materials down here you can collect.

Drop down to the next layer, then use the external tower again to drop down. You need to jump onto a small ledge on the cliff wall, then sprint jump on the tiny ledge to another (slightly lower) ledge on the tower structure to survive the full drop down — we’re now at the next lower level of the structure.

Now, run all the way to the northeast side of the rounded structure to find a corpse carrying the Dragoncrest Shield Talisman. Finally.

There is another item down here. On the platform with the beastman statues, you’ll find the Cinqueda dagger. This unique item increases the power of bestial incantations. While it has limited uses, this is still a pretty cool unique reward. The Dragoncrest Shield Talisman? Not so much.

Why The Dragoncrest Shield Talisman Isn’t Very Useful

The Dragoncrest Shield Talisman provides +10% physical damage negation when equipped. That’s pretty good, but every player in the game will easily find the +1, +2 and Greatshield versions much earlier. The Greatshield version is practically right in your path while exploring the Haligtree area. Also, physical damage negation might be useful, but early in the game you can only equip so many talismans.

This talisman is hidden in Caelid, behind the Beastial Sanctum, and dropping down there was previously totally impossible. Patch 1.02 and 1.03 added an instant-death zone whenever players attempted to drop down. Seriously, this area is so hidden even the developers didn’t realize players were meant to explore.

There are so many better versions of this talisman that are so, so much easier to find. That makes this easily one of the most useless items in the game. Luckily, there’s a much cooler weapon — the Cinqueda dagger — located in this area. Without the Cinqueda, there’d be no reason to go down there.

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