The Golden Vow is a buff spell that we’ve sworn by since the original Elden Ring. This basic faith-based incantation boosts damage and damage negation to the user and also boosts any nearby allies, making this one of the most important spells in your arsenal. But, putting points in Faith can take away from your other builds – so Shadow of the Erdtree has a solution. Instead of casting a spell, you can use a consumable item to give you the same effect.
That’s the Golden Vow Tool, an item that casts the same spell and gives a big boost to your damage output and defense. It’s exactly as useful as it sounds, and if you aren’t happy with the few you’ll find while exploring the Realm of Shadow, here’s how to get an infinite supply.
#1 What Is The Golden Vow?
The Golden Vow is a new craftable item that increases attack and defense when used – this is a consumable item, but it costs FP. The buff affects nearby allies and lasts for 45 seconds. Attack is increased by 12.5% and defense is increased by 8.8% – it doesn’t sound like much, but this buff item is one of the best for pure dexterity or strength builds. If you don’t want to charge up with the Golden Vow spell or skill, this is the only way to buff yourself in the middle of battle.
The Golden Vow spell lasts longer and provides a bigger buff, but the tool is superior to the weapon skill version. Whatever the reason, it is possible to farm an infinite supply of Golden Vow tools, and here’s how to do it. Before you can start farming, you’ll need to unlock the recipe – here’s where to find the Battlefield Priest’s Cookbook [3].
#2 How To Unlock The Golden Vow Recipe
To craft your own Golden Vow tools, you’ll need the Battlefield Priest’s Cookbook [3]. The cookbook is located north of Castle Ensis at the large army camp at the base of the Shadow Keep. To reach this area, you’ll need to complete Castle Ensis and defeat Rennala, Full Moon Queen or skip Castle Ensis by traveling southeast from the entrance and using the spiritspring on the ledge to reach the Fort of Reprimand. Exit the fort and travel north to find the camp and completely skip Castle Ensis.
At the large campground, travel toward the main entrance to the Shadow Keep. Continue into the camp to find a large bonfire with a greatbow knight and a cluster of Messmer Soldiers. To the left of this group, there’s an open tent you can explore. Loot the cookbook from the dead body to unlock the Golden Vow recipe. This is the only recipe you’ll unlock, but it’s worth it.
Both ingredients for the Golden Vow are exceedingly rare and only available from a few sources. Shadow Sunflowers and Blessed Bone Shards are the materials you’ll need to collect to craft Golden Vow tools – one becomes easy to farm, while the other is going to take effort. Let’s start with the easier ingredients first. How’s how to get infinite Shadow Sunflowers.
#3 How To Farm Shadow Sunflowers
For each Golden Vow you’ll need two Shadow Sunflowers. These rare items are found growing in secret areas of the Realm of Shadow, but to get a renewable supply, you’ll need to defeat the Scadutree Avatar optional boss.
To access the Scadutree Avatar, drain the water in the Shadow Keep, Church District area. The lever to drain the water is through the left path opposite the lift shortcut in the cathedral statue room. This bridge leads to the outer wall with a giant lever that lowers all the water, allowing you to fully explore the Church District. To find the optional boss arena, enter the ruined cathedral and go right in the area full of exploding undead that spawn in the center of the church. Go through this large room and take the stairs down to the lift. Ride it down and cross the bridge to reach the Scadutree Base area. This shadowy grove is where you’ll encounter the Scadutree Avatar, a difficult boss you’ll need to kill three times to keep it dead permanently. After the boss is down, Shadow Sunflowers will respawn at two locations.
Four Shadow Sunflowers will spawn at the Scadutree Base area. You can reset the area and more will respawn when you return. This is essentially an infinite amount, and collecting is much easier – but if you can find even more at the Scadutree Chalice in the Scaduview area. This is the area with the Commander Gaius boss fight. Defeat him and you’ll be able to reach the giant Scaduview Tower. At the base of the tower you’ll find a chalice where there are multiple fragments and more Shadow Sunflowers.
After defeating the Scadutree Avatar, collecting plenty of Shadow Sunflowers is easy. But collecting the Blessed Bone Shards you need is a lot harder.
#4 How To Farm Blessed Bone Shards
Blessed Bone Shards are the real challenge when it comes to crafting Golden Vows. You only need one for the crafting recipe. These rare items can be found all over the Hinterlands region in the far northwest, but they don’t respawn. The only way to get an infinite supply is by hunting soldiers in Messmer’s army.
There are two farming spots we use to hunt down Blessed Bone Shards. One is located at the entrance to the Shadow Keep – go left and fight through the Messmer Soldiers, enter the first door, defeat the Black Knight and then jump to the second Black Knight. Defeat them both and enter the Armory. Defeat the dual-wielding Black Knight, then go upstairs to the large dining hall. Clear out the archer Black Knight and defeat the other guard. Following this route, you should get at least one Blessed Bone Shard. Yes, they’re that rare.
If you’re looking for an easier method, go to the High Road Cross Site of Grace to the north of Castle Ensis. Instead of hunting Black Knights, you’ll want to hunt both soldiers and Black Knights on the roads and in the large camp to the south of the Shadow Keep. This area is packed with enemies – the camp is full of soldiers. Search the road to the left of the camp for more patrolling troopers. Take them all down and clear out the entire area for a shot at one or two Blessed Bone Shards.
Blessed Bone Shards are so rare, you might want to boost your drop rate. Here’s how to increase your chances of getting uncommon loot drops from enemies.
#5 How To Boost Drop Rates
To get more rare loot from enemies, you can boost your Arcane stat – but that’s really only useful if you’re really liking your magic build. For the rest of us, these are the items you’ll want to find to increase item discovery to the maximum.
Outer God Heirloom: The only DLC exclusive item on our list, this talisman boosts your Arcane stat by +5, which isn’t a huge increase but every little bit helps. The accessory is located in a chest at the top of Prospect Town, an optional area located on the high plateau to the left of Belarut, Tower Settlement. Take the narrow mountain road up to reach the village full of Bloodfiends.
Silver Scarab: A much better talisman for our purposes, the Silver Scarab boosts item discovery by +75 when equipped, making this one of the best items for farming items. It is located in an extremely hidden location, so finding it is almost impossible without a guide. To get it, you’ll need both Haligtree Secret Medallions – one is found at the top of a tower in Castle Sol in the far north of the map. The other is given by a hidden Albinauric in Albinauric Village, in the cave in the southwest of the Liurnia of the Lakes region. Smash all the pots in the village and you’ll eventually find him.
With both pieces of the Secret Medallion, interact with the Grand Lift of Rold and ride down to the Hidden Path to the Haligtree area. This path normally leads to the Consecrated Snowfield, but we can get the Silver Scarab here. To the left of the stairs, there’s a missing section of the stone railing. Jump down near the small window below to land on an invisible platform. Enter the interior and look for a glowing Glovewort. There’s an Illusory Wall behind it – attack the wall to reveal a chest with this talisman. It’s one of the best in the game, and wearing it will get you so many more Blessed Bone Shards.
Silver-Pickled Fowl Foot:And last, you’ll want to consume a Silver-Pickled Fowl Foot to boost item discovery by +50. Using the Silver-Pickled Fowl Foot and the Silver Scarab is enough to greatly enhance your farming. You can craft these items by getting the Missionary Cookbook [3] from one of the dead bodies at the Smoldering Church, a ruin right next to the path from Limgrave to Caelid. You can’t miss it when you’re entering the Caelid region.
The tricky part is crafting Silver-Pickled Fowl Foot. You’ll need Rowa Fruit, Silver Fireflies and Four-Toed Fowl Feet. Rowa Fruit are extremely common plants that grow in Limgrave. Silver Fireflies are slightly harder to find, but they’re also a common spawn in the Siofra River underground area. The trickiest to get is the Four-Toed Fowl Feet.
The easiest way we found these items is by shooting arrows at the flock of 17~ birds on the beach to the northwest of the Fourth Church of Marika. The church is in the northwest of the Weeping Peninsula area, and there’s a large flock of birds you can shoot with arrows. Equip the Silver Scarab and you’ll earn way more of these rare fowl feet. Once you’ve got a supply of Four-Toed Fowl Feet, you’ll essentially have access to infinite of these items.
And with your discovery boosted to max, you’ll make the farming process so much easier. This guide got a lot more complicated very quickly, but for that boost to damage and defense, the Golden Vow tool is absolutely worth it. Every little boost counts in Elden Ring.
