Elden Ring Ranni quest guide: Nokron Eternal City, Lake of Rot, and Moonlight Altar
Many an Elden Ring player has been enticed by Ranni’s charms. She’s a strange and mysterious character and the fact that you have to go through a tough trial to even meet her immediately makes players intrigued to see what more she has to offer. Turns out she has quite a lot to offer, as she’ll send you on a long and winding quest, and doing as she asks even unlocks a secret ending.
We’ll explain where to find Ranni, and how to complete every step of her gauntlet of a quest featuring multiple tough areas and bosses.
How to find Three Sisters in Elden Ring
FromSoftware
Three Sisters, which leads the way to Ranni’s Rise, is on the western side of the map. It’s slightly below Volcano Manor and the surrounding region. To get there, you’ll need to approach from the south, heading up along the west side of Liurnia of the Lakes.
Once you’ve reached Kingsrealm Ruins, find a large wall on the north side of the ruins. Strike it and it will reveal itself as an illusion, letting you continue on to Three Sisters. The boss Royal Knight Loretta will stand in your path, but defeating her will open the way to Ranni. However, she will refuse to let you serve her unless you’ve already defeated Starscourge Radahn, a boss found in Caelid.
How to find Nokron Eternal City in Elden Ring
FromSoftware
Once you’ve defeated Caelid, a meteor will fall from the sky, however, make sure you go and talk to Ranni before investigating it, or you won’t be able to claim the treasure it revealed.
She’ll task you with investigating the fallen meteor, which landed in the Mistwood Outskirts, where you can investigate the floating rocks and head down into Nokron Eternal City. This is a tough dungeon, and at the end you will need to fight a mimic of yourself. Defeat it and head across the bridge into a more open area.
Stay as far left on the map as you can and eventually, you’ll encounter a Site of Grace. From there, hop along the building ledges to reach the Night’s Sacred Ground, a place full of horrible slime enemies.
Once you’ve reached the bottom, you’ll want to use the Stonesward Key (if you have it), as this will unlock a dungeon that rewards you with the powerful Mimic Tear Ashes summon.
Whether you complete or bypass that dungeon, you can continue up – fighting a sentient boulder along the way – to the statue of the dead creature where there is a chest containing the Fingerslayer Blade.
Give it to Ranni and your reward will be the Carian Inverted Statue.
Carian Study Hall and Godskin Noble
FromSoftware
We’ve already done a full guide on Carian Study Hall in Elden Ring, how to clear it, and how to solve its pedestal puzzle. For Ranni’s quest, all you need to do is place the Carian Inverted Statue into the pedestal, which will invert the whole area.
Head over to the elevator which takes you out onto a new platform where you’ll have to kill Preceptor Miriam (for a second time if you already cleared the dungeon normally). The Lucidity Sorcery spell is your reward.
Now you can reach the area with the chandeliers, where you’ll need to perform a careful drop onto the beams below you. Here you can finally get on board an elevator that was previously out of reach, and it will take you to the Divine Tower of Liurnia.
A boss battle is up next, this time with the Godskin Noble, although he will be easier to defeat than in your previous encounter as you’ll be able to use your horse in this wide open space. Charging and retreating continuously is the way to go for this fight, and you’ll get the Godskin Noble armor set for your efforts.
All that’s left to do is climb to the top of the Divine Tower, where you’ll find the Stargazer’s Heirloom and the Cursemark of Death.
Renna’s Rise and the Baleful Shadow
FromSoftware
Return to Three Sisters and Ranni isn’t there anymore, however, with the Cursemark of Death you can now access Renna’s Rise. Inside is the Snow Witch armor and apparatus to teleport you to a previously inaccessible area of the Ainsel River Well. Nearby is a coffin with a Miniature Ranni next to it – pick it up.
Use the nearby Site of Grace to talk to it, and you’ll be directed to kill the Baleful Shadow in Nokstella Eternal City. Thankfully, you can get right to it by heading up the right-hand path from where you appeared. As you progress along the path, you can talk to the Miniature Ranni at every grace site along the way to learn more about her backstory too.
Defeat the boss in there, open Rennala’s chest with the Discarded Palace Key is drops, and you’ll get the Dark Moon Ring. Now – and I’m really sorry about this – it’s time to head to the Lake of Rot.
Lake of Rot
FromSoftware
I hope you’re ready to tank a ridiculous amount of damage, as you have to carefully yet quickly navigate this large area and get to the door on the other side. Sounds easy, except for the fact that touching almost anything here will infect you with Scarlet Rot.
If you have the health and healing capabilities, then you might be able to tank the run across, but we recommend a more measured approach. If you bring boluses you can mitigate the rot effect to some extent, but your main goal is to find the pressure plates that raise platforms in the rot, allowing you to more safely traverse the area.
There are plenty of things to side-track you in this area too, so don’t just rush straight through it, but either way, your objective is the Grand Cloister Site of Grace. Carry on down the river and eventually find a coffin. Interact with it and you’ll be transported to the next area.
Astel Naturalborn of the Void
FromSoftware
This secret boss may have an incredibly intimidating name, but provided you’re at a high enough level and well-equipped, he’s not too difficult, especially if you took our earlier advice and picked up the Mimic Tear summon.
You should stay close for this fight, as his ranged attacks are a pain to deal with. That said, make sure you back off whenever it charges up a big ball of energy, as that AoE attack does massive damage. In phase 2 things get really heated as meteors rain from the sky. Rolling or blocking can deal with these, but either way try to close the distance between you and Astel so you have a moment to strike.
You’ll get Rememberance of the Naturalborn for defeating him, which you can trade at the Roundtable Hold for your choice of two powerful items. Once that’s done a Site of Grace will appear next to a tunnel and it’s off to yet another new area – we warned you, Ranni really puts you through a gauntlet.
Moonlight Altar
FromSoftware
This beautiful locale would be the perfect holiday destination if it wasn’t for the Glintstone Dragon Adula roaming about the place. Strictly speaking this boss is optional if you don’t feel like it, but we recommend you take it down, as it’s no different from any other dragon you’ve faced in the game.
Whether you fight it or not, your next destination is the Cathedral of Manus Celes, where you can get a lot of Starlight Shards. After a quick grace site pit stop, jump down the hole nearby until you reach a dead Two Fingers. The Ranni doll can be interacted with here for a cutscene, and viola! Your secret Elden Ring ending involving Ranni has been unlocked.
There is a more substantial reward though, in the form of the massive Dark Moon Greatsword. This also unlocked one more secret boss, as if you return to Ranni’s Rise you can fight Blaidd the Half-Wolf to earn his armor and Royal Greatsword.
