Elden Ring: How To Reach Max Level (& What It Is) (2024)

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How Many Runes To Hit Elden Ring's Level Cap?

Elden Ring's Best Rune Farming Locations

How To Level Up Fast In Elden Ring

Why Getting Max Level In Elden Ring Is Not Worth It

Elden Ring offers players plenty of opportunities to farm XP and get to the maximum level cap. However, this isn't necessarily the smartest choice. The highest level players can get in Elden Ring is 713, meaning players must farm well over 1 billion Runes, which is an absurd amount. Leveling up means spending a certain amount of XP to increase a single stat by one point.

Each time this is done, players gain one level in Elden Ring, and the amount of experience required to repeat this process increases. As players suffer defeat, they will drop all of their Runes where they died, permanently disappearing upon dying again. In these moments, or whenever players feel under-leveled, they can travel to one of the farming locations in Elden Ring to quickly gain a few levels.

10 Tips If You're Finding Elden Ring: Shadow Of The Erdtree Too Hard

To take on Elden Ring's notoriously challenging DLC, there are many ways to prepare, skills to learn, and items to use that make it more manageable.

How Many Runes To Hit Elden Ring's Level Cap?

1 Billion+ Runes

Elden Ring: How To Reach Max Level (& What It Is) (2)

Hitting the level cap in Elden Ring is a pretty lofty goal, as it will require players to farm a total of 1,692,558,415 Runes. Although the level cap being 713 might seem a bit arbitrary at first, it is because players cannot level up any of their stats beyond 99.

If we subtract 10 from that number, as a level one character starts with 10 on all their stats, and multiply it by 8, the number of stats in the game, 713, makes sense.

Getting to the max level will require players to farm a vast number of runes in Elden Ring. However, there are tricks that players can use to mitigate their Rune losses as they level up, which will help them move towards their goal. A good way for players to not lose runes is to avoid hoarding them by spending them.

To help with this, keeping a few consumable Golden Runes on hand is recommended whenever players are just a few Runes shy of that next level or a certain coveted item in a store. Doing this can be very helpful, especially before tackling bosses or new, potentially dangerous areas.

Elden Ring's Best Rune Farming Locations

Lenne's Rise In Caelid

Farming Runes is relatively easy, and there are many great farming locations in Elden Ring, the best of which can be used by characters of any level. When considering a good farming spot, it is important to consider the number of runs a player can get per run and how long it takes.

Most of the best Rune-farming locations in the game often don’t involve fighting enemies at all and usually involve slightly exploiting some of the game’s mechanics. One of the best ways to acquire Runes during the early to mid-game is the 'ball farm' in northeastern Caelid, near Lenne's Rise Site of Grace.

This method revolves around spawning a magical boulder that will try to flatten the player as he rides down a seemingly normal path. Players can activate this trap and dodge it to receive nearly 2,000 Runes every time it falls off the ravine.

Players can reset the boulder by using, or teleporting to, the nearby Site of Grace and repeat the process to get around 500,000 Runes per hour without fighting a single enemy in Elden Ring.

Palace Approach Ledge-road Beneath Caelid

Although the 'ball farm' is very efficient during the early game, if players are trying to reach the highest levels they can in Elden Ring, they will eventually need to head to the area near the 'Palace-Approach Ledge-road' Site of Grace in Mohgwyn’s Palace. This is the best Rune-farming spot in Elden Ring.

Getting to this location early will require players to progress through White Mask Varré’s questline until he gifts players the Pureblood Knight's Medal, which they can use to teleport to this location.

To make Varré appear at Rose Church in Liurnia of the Lakes to progress his questline, players must defeat two bosses in Elden Ring: Margit, the Fell Omen, and Godrick the Grafted in Stormveil Castle .

After using the Pureblood Knight's Medal and spawning at Moghwyn’s Palace, players should head northeast to get around the rock formation in the center of this region. Upon reaching the swamp, head directly south and up the ridge to find the 'Palace-Approach Ledge-road' Site of Grace.

From here, players should be able to see a birdlike enemy to the northwest, which they can attack with any ranged option to make him fall off the ravine, which will net players around 13,000 Runes. After reaching the late game, you will access some of the best AoE attacks, such as Elden Ring's Sacred Relic Sword'sWave of Gold Skill .

Instead, you can use it to quickly farm the enemies sitting in that area for more than 40,000 Runes per run. Stargazer on YouTube suggests equipping the Starscourge Greatsword to maximize the efficiency of this farm. This melee weapon deals AOE damage that can wipe out all enemies at once within one or two hits.

Should You Level Past 150 In Elden Ring: Shadow Of The Erdtree?

Although level 150 was a common stopping point for many players in base Elden Ring, Shadow of the Erdtree might warrant even higher levels.

How To Level Up Fast In Elden Ring

Defeat Enemies That Drop Lots Of Runes

Elden Ring: How To Reach Max Level (& What It Is) (12)

There are a multitude of ways to level up quickly in Elden Ring if you're bored with using the same farming method repeatedly. The only other way to speed up the process is to obtain larger amounts of Runes at once, allowing you to spend on more than just one level at a time in the process.

Clear Elden Ring's Dungeons

There are a plethora of dungeons scattered around the Lands Between and even more within the Land of Shadow in Shadow of the Eritrea. Dungeons and castles are typically filled with tougher enemies that drop a higher amount of Runes upon death.

Upon clearing them the first time, players will activate all Sites of Grace within each one, allowing you to quickly travel between locations and repeatedly clear all nearby enemies. Moreover, if you haven't tackled the dungeons within the DLC just yet, you will be able to encounter the boss fights at the end, such as Rellana, Twin Moon Knight in Castle Ensis in Elden Ring.

Farum Azula is another excellent dungeon where you can acquire many Runes and level up quickly. If you've defeated the Godskin Duo , you can head back outside the boss arena to find a knight patrolling adjacent to the doorway.

If you sneak up on him with a melee weapon, the knight is susceptible to a backstab. By running back to the nearby Site of Grace and repeating the process, you can receive over 100,000 Runes per minute.

Help Players Defeat Bosses In Co-op

Additionally, Elden Ring's co-op is the best way to level up. If you have already beaten a particular, you will most likely have a tactical advantage over other, less experienced players who are struggling.

By placing down your Summon Sign outside a boss arena, using a Tarnished Furled Finger, you will receive 25% of the total Runes dropped by that boss, which will add up very quickly the more you make yourself available to summon.

This is especially useful as when you defeat a boss in Elden Ring; they permanently despawn from your gameplay. This gives you another chance to fight the same boss again, acting almost like a boss farm, in which bosses notoriously drop the most amount of Runes out of all other enemies in Elden Ring.

Leveling Up Fast In New Game+

Using the previous farming method is a great way to help players prepare for New Game Plus in Elden Ring. In this game mode, players start the game over again but retain all of their equipment and non-story-related items.

Enemies will get tougher with each new cycle and will continue to do so until players reach New Game+7, after which the difficulty plateaus. Assuming the player’s goal is to farm Runes as efficiently as possible, New Game+ can be very helpful as the enemies get more challenging but will also reward more Runes.

Why Getting Max Level In Elden Ring Is Not Worth It

Players Get Diminishing Returns

Elden Ring: How To Reach Max Level (& What It Is) (14)

With all this in mind, players may be considering tackling the challenge of reaching the level cap or at least farm enough runes in Elden Ring to start feeling overpowered. However, there are some arguments against doing so. For one, Elden Ring’s appeal, like most of FromSoftware’s games, is its challenge, and as such, over-leveling may make the grueling but rewarding experience feel too easy and bland.

This also severely impacts boss fights, as dodging a powerful attack feels less rewarding when it barely scratches the absurd amount of health a character with full vigor has. Players will often skip several fight mechanics and phases as they will be able to kill bosses in two or three hits.

Additionally, most stats have diminishing returns, meaning the more players invest in them, the less value they will receive from each point. In absolute terms, players will still get more out of having 80 Dexterity than 55, but by a very small amount. To spend hundreds of thousands of hard-earned Runes to go up a single level, only to marginally improve, is not worth your time or expenditure.

However, to play the DLC, it is recommended to spec between 100–200 levels for Shadow of the Erdtree to handle the tough encounters within the Shadow Realm. While it is still not worth maxing out your levels even here, where the average enemies and bosses are that much harder, it is still balanced around an end-game character.

This is especially apparent, given that most weapon stats found here will be balanced for higher levels. Picking and choosing what stats to level up to create an efficient build is also one of the game’s appeals and is somewhat cheapened by over-leveling.

As the DLC also introduces new weapons and builds in Elden Ring, you can redistribute your levels and stats using a Larval Tear with Rennala, Queen of the Full Moon. Moreover, instead of over-leveling your stats for the DLC, collect Scadutree Fragments, which will bolster damage output and negation within the Land of Shadow, removing the need to go higher than necessary.