Elden Ring endings: How many endings and the best ending explained
Spoilers!
For such a vast game, it's no surprise that Elden Ring endings are plentiful.
There are three different achievements or trophies to unlock, but within one of those, four variant endings have been found so far.
If you're looking to complete the game in every which way with one character, you'll need no fewer than six playthroughs to do so.
The good news though, is that they all follow the same critical path, and that the endings are dictated by which sidequests you've done and which characters you've cosied up to.
Whether you're up for the challenge of seeing every one, or simply want to see what's involved with each step, this page explains how endings in Elden Ring work and their requirements. Either way, spoilers are to follow!
On this page:
How many Elden Ring endings are there?
As it stands, we're aware of six different Elden Ring endings. However, these fit within three main endings, with four of those endings all belonging to the umbrella of the Elden Lord ending, which grants a trophy or achievement no matter which variant of it you unlock.
That's a lot of endings for any game, let alone one as large as Elden Ring. Thankfully, while a complete playthrough of the game can comfortably take you up to and over 100 hours, assuming you want to see everything there is to see, you can actually get through the game very quickly if you're playing on new game plus, or just really good at the game.
How to get any Elden Ring ending
While the world of Elden Ring is undoubtedly massive, the actual necessary parts of it to see an ending, at least the most basic one, are quite slim.
Our Elden Ring walkthrough and main bosses in order pages explain the critical path in more detail, but in short, you need two Great Runes to visit the capital of Leyndell, then fight your way through all of the bosses there (up to and including Morgott) then head to the Mountaintops of the Giants and take on the Fire Giant.
At this point, the world will change slightly, and you'll need to head back to Leyndell to take on the new bosses in the area. Once you've then beaten up Godfrey again, you'll be faced with the true final battle, which is two bosses one after the other.
It's what you do along this path is how the ending changes - which we'll delve into now...
How to get the Age of Fracture ending
Elden Lord is the standard Elden Ring ending. You will get the default version of this ending if you simply reach the end of the game and then choose to actually end the game. To get this ending, all you need to do is follow the story prompts and then beat the final boss. In short:
- Beat two Elden Lords
- Defeat Morgott, the Omen King
- Defeat the Fire Giant and burn the Erdtree
- Defeat Malekith, the Black Blade
- Defeat the final bosses, including the Elden Beast, in the capital
How to get the Age of Duskborn ending
Age of Duskborn is the Elden Lord ending tied to the completion of Fia's quest.
Fia is the Deathbed Companion, and to complete her quest you'll have to follow a few specific steps including some additional boss fights. Your reward is the Mending Rune of the Death-Prince, and all you have to do is choose to use it after defeating the Elden Beast.
Our Fia quest page has the steps in more detail, but in summary, you must:
- Get hugged by Fia and talk to D in Roundtable Hold
- Talk to Fia regularly and she should offer you a dagger after you've defeated two Elden Lords
- Give the dagger to D in the Hold
- Rest and visit the room past Hewg the blacksmith in Roundtable Hold and talk to Fia
- Grab the Cursemark of Death from Ranni's questline
- Find Fia underground in the Deeproot Depths after defeating the Fia's Champions boss
- Talk to Fia until you can give her the Cursemark of Death
- Talk and rest until you can interact with her to enter a dream
- Defeat the boss inside then go back to Fia's body to grab the Mending Rune of the Death-Prince
- Choose to use the Mending Rune of the Death-Prince after defeating the Elden Beast
How to get the Blessing of Despair ending
This is undoubtedly the worst variant of the Elden Lord endings, which should be no surprise to those who've already talked to dear old Dung Eater. To get this ending, you'll have to indulge Dung Eater, but also take care of some side quests beforehand.
Once all is said and done, you'll need to use the Mending Rune of the Fell Curse after beating the Elden Beast.
- Meet Rya in Lirunia of the Lakes
- Go to Boilprawn Shack in Liurnia of the Lakes and buy a prawn and Rya's Necklace off of Blackguard Big Boggart, this will make him move to a moat near the Capital Rampart
- Meet and talk to Dung Eater in Roundtable Hold
- Go and get the Seedbed Curse from the version of Roundtable Hold in the Capital
- Show Dung Eater the Seedbed Curse, and you'll get a key
- Go to the Subterranean Shunning-Grounds and find his cell to free the real Dung Eater and tell him to leave
- Go back to Roundtable Hold and you'll see a message where Dung Eater used to be telling you to go to the moat
- Go to the Outer Moat and you'll have to fight Dung Eater, and will be able to grab a Seedbed Curse from the body of Blackguard Big Boggart
- Find three more Seedbed Curses and give these five to Dung Eater back in Roundtable Hold to get the Mending Rune of the Fell Curse
- Defeat the Elden Beast and choose to use the Mending Rune of the Fell Curse
How to get the Age of Order ending
The Age of Order is the variant of the Elden Lord ending that hinges on you following through with Brother Corhyn and Goldmask's questline. It's a fairly complex quest that requires you to find and talk to two NPCs, and also have 37 intelligence at one point as well.
Once you've finished it, you'll get the Mending Rune of Perfect Order, and you can use it after defeating the Elden Beast.
- Talk to Brother Coryhyn at Roundtable Hold
- Advance the story until Brother Corhyn tells you he's going to find Goldmask; he will move to the road north of the Altus Highway Junction Site of Grace
- Go to the north of Altus Plateau and you'll find Goldmask standing on a broken section of a bridge to the south of the East Windmill Pasture Site of Grace
- Speak to Goldmask then go back to Corhyn and tell him; Corhyn will now move to Goldmask
- Talk to them both to make sure you've exhausted the dialogue, then once you've got two Great Runes, they'll move into Leyndell
- You can find them near a colosseum and they'll be talking about a riddle, solving this riddle requires 37 intelligence, and the incantation Law of Regression, which you unlock after giving the Golden Order Principia to someone who can teach incantations
- Near the Eardtree Sanctuary Site of Grace you'll be able to go down an elevator and some stairs to find a statue with a message reading 'Regression' in front of it, cast the spell here
- Goldmask and Corhyn will now move to a bridge to the south of the Stargazers' Ruins
- Once you've defeated the bosses up to and including Malekith, the Black Blade, you'll be able to find the Mending Rune of Perfect Order on Goldmask's body, which is past some evil plants near the Erdtree Sanctuary Site of Grace
- Use the Mending Rune of Perfect Order after defeating the Elden Beast
How to get the Lord of Frenzied Flame ending, or the Elden Ring bad ending
The Lord of Frenzied Flame ending, which seems to be the bad ending, has you ignoring the natural order of the world in favour of bowing to chaos.
To do this, you'll have to find the Three Fingers location and embrace them. This will leave you branded and with bright yellow eyes, and it'll also leave you locked into the ending unless you can best Malenia and use an item you get from them to reverse things.
Our Three Fingers page has the steps in more detail, but in summary, you must:
- Find the Subterranean Shunning-Grounds under the capital city, either before or after defeating the Fire Giant, though it's easier to find after that fight
- Make your way through the dungeon to the Cathedral of the Forsaken
- Defeat Mohg, the Omen
- Approach the pedestal behind Mohg after beating them to find another path
- Do some platforming to get to the bottom of this shaft and find the Frenzied Flame Proscription Site of Grace
- Take off all of your armour and weapons and approach the creepy door
- Become embraced by the Three Fingers and you'll be branded
- Defeat the final bosses, including the Elden Beast, in the capital
How to get the Age of the Stars ending, or the Elden Ring best ending
Finally, we have what seems to be the good ending in Elden Ring. It certainly feels like it anyway, given how long Ranni's quest takes and how many bosses you'll need to defeat to complete all of the steps.
You'll need to meet Ranni, one way or another, then visit Nokron, then visit another eternal city, and then overcome the Lake of Rot and a truly monstrous boss. The ending will have you following Ranni's guidance and has you giving power to the moon, and freeing the souls in the Erdtree.
Our Ranni quest page has the steps in more detail, but in summary, you must:
- Meet Ranni at Ranni's Rise, either by helping Sorcery Rogier, or defeating Radahn
- Make your way into Nokron and find the Fingerslayer Blade
- Use the portal atop Ranni's Rise to enter Nokstrella
- Pick up the Ranni doll and talk to it at the Site of Grace there until you're told to hunt a Baleful Shadow
- Talk to Ranni again to get the Discarded Palace Key, which opens the chest in the Raya Lucaria Grand Library, go and get the Dark Moon Ring within it
- Make your way to the Lake of Rot, killing the invader along the way
- Find your way to the bottom of the Grand Cloister and use the coffin within to go to Astel, Naturalborn of the Void
- Defeat the boss and head out the back of the cave and up a lift
- Head to the Cathedral of Manus Celes and use the hole in the ground to drop down
- Interact with Ranni here and you'll be able to become Ranni's consort
- Beat the Elden Beast and choose the Age of the Stars option
Whichever Elden Ring ending you go for - congratulations on a job well done!