The Great Runes are the remains of the shattered Elden Ring, and even separated, they hold great power. Those who hold the Elden Ring rule the Lands Between as corrupted demigods. One of the game’s objectives is to find the locations of each Great Rune so they may be recombined into the Elden Ring.
Each Great Rune has an effect that can be activated with a Rune Arc. However, before players can access this power, they’ll need to be powered up by visiting the right location.
Every Great Rune in Elden Ring
There are six Great Runes in Elden Ring, each of them held by a mighty demigod. Players only need to obtain two of them to enter Leyndell, Royal Capital, and pass through to the end of the game. However, each of them is tied to a side quest, and to get the whole story, players will need to obtain all six.
Godrick’s Great Rune
- Location: Stormveil Castle, Limgrave
- Where to Power Up: Divine Tower of Limgrave
- Effect: Raises all attributes by five points.
This rune is obtained by beating Godrick at Stormveil Castle. It’ll be the first Great Rune obtained by most players and forms the anchor for the Elden Ring.
Great Rune of the Unborn
- Location: Grand Library of Raya Lucaria Academy, Liurnia of the Lakes
- Effect: Allows players to respec.
Beating Rennala in Raya Lucaria Academy gets players the Great Rune of the Unborn. Players can respec once they have this item in exchange for a Larval Tear. This is the one Great Rune that can’t be equipped and, as such, doesn’t require players to power it up.
Radahn’s Great Rune
- Location: Redmane Castle, Caelid
- Where to Power Up: Divine Tower of Caelid
- Effect: Raises max HP, FP, and Stamina
Once players take down Radahn, they’ll get his Great Rune. This rune is the most difficult to power up since the Divine Tower of Caelid is a dungeon.
Rykard’s Great Rune
- Location: Volcano Manor, Mt. Gelmir
- Where to Power Up: Divine Tower of West Atlus
- Effect: Restores health after defeating an enemy.
Rykard’s Great Rune is handy for exploration or clearing dungeons. Getting that little chunk of health back after killing every enemy really saves flasks. Not so great on most bosses since it only heals when an enemy is defeated.
Morgott’s Great Rune
- Location: Elden Throne, Leyndell, Royal Capital
- Where to Power Up: Divine Tower of East Atlus
- Effect: Greatly increases max HP
Having 25% more HP seems like it would be useful, but other Great Runes offer better benefits. There’s really no reason to equip this over Godrick or Rykard’s Great Rune.
Malenia’s Great Rune
- Location: Haligtree Roots, Miquella’s Haligtree
- Where to Power Up: Isolated Divine Tower
- Effect: Attacks dealt after taking damage recover HP but reduces all other healing by 25%.
Malenia’s Great Rune effectively makes the game play more like Bloodborne by introducing the Rally mechanic. However, the nerf that players suffer to Crimson Flasks makes this rune not worth using.
Mohg’s Great Rune
- Location: Mohgwyn Dynasty Mausoleum, Mohgwyn Palace
- Where to Power Up: Divine Power of East Altus
- Effect: Grants a blessing of blood to phantoms.
This Great Rune’s effect is a bit complicated. It automatically gives any Summoned Spirits a buff called Blessing of Blood. A red aura surrounds the spirits, and these effects are in place:
- Heals the player by 10% of their maximum HP for each enemy they kill.
- Each time they (or the player) inflict bleed, the spirit gets a damage-increasing buff.
- If the player has Mohg’s Great Rune activated when invading another player, they’ll get three Phantom Great Runes that apply the Blessing of Blood buff to any enemy (regular or bosses) nearby.
Overall, Mohg’s Great Rune can be very useful under the right circumstances but only really shines when players specifically build around it.
