There are four grinding methods we’ve found that are easily the best – and each method is useful for a different point in your adventure. All of them can be done in the base game, and they’ll help you progress immensely. We were able to level up to 150 in just a handful of hours, blazing through the rest of the map and easily wiping the floor with progression bosses. You’ll need great equipment too, which we’ll also discuss quickly below, but most of the farming is incredibly simple and doesn’t require any specific weapons. Here are all the methods to level up fast in Elden Ring – we’ll start with the lowest level requirement and move on to the highest.
If you really want to start leveling right away, skip straight to the Monstrous Crow Farm. If you haven’t beat the game, that’s the best method available. If you’re just starting out, here’s where you’ll want to go first.
#1 Lenne’s Rise Rune Farm
In a new game, your options for farming are limited. The best rune farms are locked to Mohgwyn Palace – an area you can only reach much, much later. For now, let’s focus on the best and easiest farm available to low level players. You’ll want to visit Lenne’s Rise.
Lenne’s Rise is a tower in the Caelid region to the east of the starting area of Limgrave. Caelid is a dangerous place, but you’re free to ride around on Torrent and basically access the area from the very start. To reach Lenne’s Rise easier, go to the Third Church of Marika on the far eastern border, north of Mistwood. There’s a portal here that will teleport you directly to the Beastial Sanctum in Caelid. Use the sanctum Site of Grace, then ride south to find Lenne’s Rise across the bridge.
Reach the Lenne’s Rise Site of Grace and rest here. This is where you’ll farm and it’s incredibly simple – no weapons needed, no fighting skills required. Ride down the road to activate a boulder trap. Let the boulder roll down and off the cliff. When it breaks, it will drop 2,000 runes. Ride down the road further and you can get another 2,000 runes from a second boulder. If you’re running this farm at night, you can get a lucky roll and earn 9,000 runes per boulder.
After the boulders are destroyed, return to the Site of Grace and rest. Repeat the process until you have enough runes to level up as many times as you want. This is a super simple, brainless farm – you can complete a run in less than a minute. It may take a few attempts before. I recommend using this farm to get to Level 40 or Level 50. You’ll be plenty prepared for Stormveil Castle after grinding here – you can earn almost 200,000 runes in just an hour of grinding. Skip the starting slog and just do this to speedrun and buff your Tarnished to a presentable level for all that starting content.
#2 Elder Dragon Greyoll Farm
If you’re bored of farming boulders, there’s a slightly more difficult farm south of Lenne’s Rise. Ride down to the Fort Faroth Site of Grace and you’ll find an impossibly huge dragon. This giant field boss is Elder Dragon Greyoll and they can also be farmed for huge rune rewards. Defeating this enemy gives about 70,000 runes per kill, but it takes a lot of patience. You’ll need a good weapon to even begin, so let’s get one of the best in the game.
We want the Bloodhound’s Fang – a Curved Greatsword that’s critical for this farming method. Travel to the Forlorn Hound Evergaol location near on the hill to the west of the bridge leading to the Weeping Peninsula in the south of Limgrave. Defeat the optional boss you can summon here to earn the Bloodhound’s Fang. This weapon is so good, some players continue to use it until the very end. And it’s all thanks to its Bleed effect. By applying bleed to enemies, they’ll eventually hemorrhage and take a massive hit to their health. That bleed effect is what we need to kill Greyoll.
Return to Greyoll and run past all the baby dragons – go around the left side of the dragon and attack the tail. If you find the right spot, Greyoll won’t be able to fight back. The baby dragons will ignore you, allowing you to chop down the Greyoll tree. This can take a very long time, but the rewards are amazing. The bleed effect is what really does damage here. You don’t need to be strong or high level. You just need to apply bleed. Keep doing it until Greyoll is down.
Greyoll does not respawn normally, so you need to be careful. After killing Greyoll, quickly sprint down to the Fort Faroth Site of Grace and rest. If you’re fast, you’ll earn the runes but reset Elder Dragon Greyoll before she despawns permanently. This isn’t the most effective farming method, and it requires a lot of patience, but it does drop so many runes we couldn’t ignore it. It also gets you a great weapon you can use to clear out Stormveil Castle and rush toward Altus Plateau. Next up, we’re going for the best farming method in Elden Ring.
#3 A. Monstrous Crow Farm [Getting There]
The current best farming method in Elden Ring is still the perfect way to grind to Level 120 or higher in no time at all. The method is the easiest yet – the problem is just getting to the location. The farm is located in Mohgwyn Palace, an endgame location that’s normally only available after completing Leyndell, Royal Capital.But there’s an easier way. By finishing an NPC quest, you can unlock access to Mohgwyn Palace much earlier. Before getting into the farming method, let’s talk about accessing Mohgwyn Palace. This is a big quest, so skip to the next entry to learn how farming actually works. Getting there is going to take a lot of time.
To reach Mohgwyn Palace early, you’ll need to complete White Mask Varre’s quest. This is the very first NPC you’ll encounter at the start of the game, but to start his quest you’ll need to progress the story. Complete Stormveil Castle and reach the Liurnia of the Lakes region – then talk to Enia in the Roundtable Hold. At this point, Varre will appear at the Rose Church island to the south of the Raya Lucaria Academy.
At Rose Church, talk to him twice. Rest and talk to him again to get a Festering Bloody Finger item. There are two ways to progress at this point. You can use the Festering Bloody Finger to invade players three times – as in, actually engage in PVP – or you can travel to Writheblood Ruins on the Altus Plateau and find a summon sign on the ground. Invading the NPC three times will complete the quest step. You don’t need to kill him. You don’t need to kill anyone in PVP either. Just invading three times is enough. Return to Varre after invading to progress the quest.
Next, you’ll gain an item called the Lord’s Bloody Favor. We need to get some blood – you can kill NPCs, which we don’t recommend, or get the blood off a dead body. The quickest location is at the Church of Inhibition. From the Grand Lift of Dectus, travel up the hill toward the Frenzied Flame Village – there’s a burning fire that causes madness when you approach, so hide while traversing up and past the village. Above the village, you’ll find the church with a dead body sitting in a chair.
Deal with the NPC Invader or just ignore them and sprint straight to the church. After collecting the items from the body, you can use the favor. Now we have the blood – and we’re almost done with this quest. Return to Varre and talk to him twice. He’ll give you the Pureblood Knight’s Medal. That’s what we need.
The Pureblood Knight’s Medal is a reusable tool that teleports you directly to Mohgwyn Palace. This is an extremely high level area, so don’t expect to fight any enemies here. Rest at the nearby Site of Grace, then backtrack across the bloody swamp to reach the cliffs – to start farming, you’ll need to rest at the Palace Approach Ledge-Road Site of Grace. Once you’re there we can get started.
#3 B. Monstrous Crow Farm [Rune Grinding]
We’re in the right spot to farm for hundreds of thousands of runes with very, very little effort. Before starting, you’ll need a bow. Any bow will work. You can purchase a Longbow from the Twin Maiden Husks in the Roundtable Hold, and all the arrows you’ll ever need from Merchant Kale at the Church of Elleh. This church is one of the first locations you’ll find after exiting the tutorial – and I recommend buying 500 or more arrows. You can’t carry them all, but your supply of arrows will automatically restock from your storage whenever you rest at a Site of Grace, which we’ll be doing a lot.
Return to the Palace Approach Ledge-Road and look far in the distance. There’s a bloody swamp with a tree and a giant bird stalking around below. Equip any bow and shoot the giant bird. If you hit it, you’ll activate it and trick it into trying to charge you. It will sprint toward the ledge and drop off the side – dropping about 10,000~ runes. Shoot the bird, wait for it to fall, rest at the Site of Grace and earn your reward. Rest and repeat as many times as you need to level up infinitely.
To make this grinding method even more efficient, you can collect the Golden Scarab Talisman. This is found in Caelid – reach the Smoldering Wall Site of Grace in central Caelid then cross the vines to reach a difficult optional dungeon called the Abandoned Cave.Defeat the bosses at the end to get the Golden Scarab – this gives a 20% increase to all runes dropped. You can boost that number even more by using Gold-Pickled Fowl Feet consumables.
The farm itself is really simple. To save yourself arrows, aim the bow and fire between the branches of the tree. With a little experimentation and repetition, you’ll learn how to sprint from the Site of Grace, fire an arrow, hit the bird, then rest. You can get this grinding method down to an exact science. It takes about 15 seconds tops. That’s at least 40,000 runes per minute or 2,000,000 runes per hour. Even at Level 170 and up, this is still an incredibly powerful rune farming method. It isn’t the best farming method, though. There’s one method that’ll earn you more runes, but you’ll need to beat the main story to do it.
#4 Sacred Relic Sword Farm
The final farming method on our list is easily the best – for each run, you’ll earn more than 30,000 runes. In three basic runs, that take seconds each to complete, you’ll get 100,000 runes.This method isn’t just fast, it’s incredibly simple. It’s easier and more effective than farming the giant bird, and it’s even in the exact same location. You’ll need to farm straight from the Palace Approach Ledge-Road Site of Grace. The biggest problem with this farm is how late it comes in Elden Ring. This is only available after completing the game. You’ll need to defeat the final boss and use its Remembrance to create the Sacred Relic Sword. This method requires that sword.
After defeating the Elden Beast, craft the Sacred Relic Sword at the Two Fingers in Roundtable Hold. What makes this sword so special is the inherent skill. The Wave of Gold launches a giant burning blast of faith energy that burns everything it touches. Power up your Faith stat and this skill can wipe out entire armies of enemies. That’s what we’re counting on.
Just down the hill from the Palace Approach Ledge-Road, there are literally dozens of Albinauric enemies on the road. Use the Wave of Gold to kill them all in one hit. Go down the hill further to wipe out any stragglers, then return to the Site of Grace to rest. Repeat for infinite runes. Combine with the Golden Scarab Talisman and Gold-Pickled Fowl Feet to almost 50,000 runes per run. That’s 150,000 runes per minute. That’s almost 9,000,000 runes per hour. There just isn’t a better way to farm runes and after beating the main story, there’s literally nothing from stopping you. Runes are essentially infinite at this point.
And all of these methods are going to help you overcome the incredible challenge of the Elden Ring DLC. Even if you’re fully powered up, some bosses can still crush you instantly if you’re not tracking down the Scadutree Fragments found all over the Realm of Shadow. Just remember that level isn’t everything, but it absolutely helps. Enjoy your easy levels and let us know your favorite methods for grinding levels in Elden Ring.
