The Ranni questline is undeniably one of the most popular quests for players in Elden Ring. Aside from getting to know the lore behind Ranni, you will also get one of the best weapons in the game, which is the Dark Moon Greatsword. One thing to take note of is that you will have a different starting point if you already defeated Starscourge Radahn. Start in the “Defeat Radahn” part of this guide if you already defeated him. Otherwise, follow the guide below.
Video Guide
Talk to Renna
To start the quest, you need to talk to Renna first. You can find her in the Church of Elleh, sitting on a broken wall. Ranni will call herself Renna at first. Normally, she will spawn at night. You can find her the night after you get your mount, and she will give you the Spirit Calling Bell and Lone Wolf Ashes in exchange for your mount, allowing you to command spirits in combat. You can miss this first encounter, but you can continue with her quest.
Serve Ranni the Witch
The next encounter you will have with Ranni is when you go to Ranni’s Rise. However, to get to this area, you need to defeat the Royal Knight Loretta first in the Royal Moongazing Grounds after clearing the Caria Manor, as seen on the map above. To get to Caria Manor, you will need to find a secret entrance found at the Knightsrealm Ruins located northwest of Raya Lucaria Academy (see the image below).
Go inside and straight to the back of the ruins. You will see a wall that is actually a hidden pathway. Attack the wall and a path will be revealed.
As you make your way up towards the Caria Manor, you will be bombarded with raining elemental shards.
Once you defeated the Royal Knight Loretta, go to Ranni’s Rise and climb to the top of the tower, using the lift and the stairs outside the tower to get to Ranni.
Choose to serve Ranni the Witch, and go to the lower level of the tower and talk to the three Phantom here. Go back and talk to Ranni once again, she will tell you about a warrior named Blaidd.
Blaidd, the Wolven Warrior
The next thing you want to do is to go to the Siofra River Well. Pull the lever to get to the lower level. Keep heading north until you can get to the end of the cave.
Talk to Blaidd. This will be your first encounter with Blaidd. If you already encountered Blaidd before, he may not appear here. In that case, just continue to the next step of the quest.
Sorceress Sellen
Go to Seluvis’s Rise and accept his task to get his letter of introduction. Ask about Nokron, the Eternal City. Go to the Waypoint Ruins to talk to Sellen and give her the letter.
If you already completed the Sellen questline before, she may be in the area to the right of the Raya Lucaria Grand Library. She will be a ball of heads and you can talk to her in the area. You may not encounter any special dialogue here, but you can continue on the next part of the questline.
Defeat Radahn
Go to the Impassable Greatbridge and head up to the Starscourge Radahn.
If you are having trouble defeating Radahn, be sure to summon your allies and use the weapons on the field to hide from his arrows. Use your mount and sprint sideways while firing at him using your bow if you can. You can resummon your allies as well after they have been killed. If you already defeated Radahn before, start the questline from here.
Go to the Nokron, the Eternal City
After defeating Starscourge Radan, go to the Fort Haight West and head down the cliffs.
You can also go to the Mistwood Ruins. Keep going underground and you will eventually reach Nokron, the Eternal City.
Explore the area if you can, but you will eventually need to face the Mimic Tear boss. This boss is the exact copy of you.
Mimic Tear Boss
To make this boss a little bit easier, you can take off your armor before you go into the field. This way, the Mimic will copy the unarmored version of you. Afterward, simply equip all your armor again to defeat him.
Get the Fingerslayer Blade
From the boss arena, use the northern path as seen in the image above. When you see a broken fence to your left, turn left. Follow this path until you see a fork with a small barren path to your left.
Go to the small barren path then head left again and when you get to the edge, it should take you back to the Eternal City.
Jump on the building to your right and follow this path until you can go further into the building to your right. This will bring you to the Night’s Sacred Ground. Head south until you reach a dead end with a wide platform. Turn left and use the broken building to get to the other side of the building. Once you are in the building Climb down until you see a huge sphere.
Go outside the building and climb down the stairs. You can rest at the Lost Grace here if you need to. Otherwise, head north and defeat the enemies you will encounter. Afterward, climb up the stairs to the north and you will see the treasure chest containing the Fingerslayer Blade.
Report back to Ranni
Go back to Ranni to give her the Fingerslayer Blade. After talking to her, she will give you the Carian Inverted Statue.
Divine Tower of Liurnia
After this, you need to make your way to the Carian Study Hall.
Approach the globe and you will get a prompt to ‘Examine Pedestal.’
Go to the left of the globe, and you will find a path leading to the back. You will notice a drop here.
Continue moving forward and through the little hole in the wall ahead of you. As you pass through, you will get attacked by several “hand enemies.”
When through, take a left and keep running until you reach the dead end. From the dead-end, jump down as shown in the image below.
After that, jump on the chandelier directly after.
Right after, jump down on the wooden support.
Once more, jump down on the wooden support with the corpse.
When you reach the bottom, open the door ahead of you, and you will reach the Liurnia Tower Bridge.
Go across the bridge, and you will come across another door. This door opens up to the Divine Tower of Liurnia.
Head inside, and take the elevator to the top of the tower. There is another site of grace here for easier fast travel in the future. Continue going to the top, and you will find a corpse with the Cursemark of Death.
After this, rest at a Grace to reset. Go to the Royal Moongazing Grounds and enter the Renna’s Rise.
Climb up the tower using the stairs outside and use the portal that you will find here.
This teleporter will take you to Ainsel River Main.
In the coffin ahead of you, you will see a miniature Ranni.
There is a site of grace right after this. Sit at the grace, and talk to Miniature Ranni three times for Ranni to respond.
Defeat the Baleful Shadow
Ranni will tell you to defeat the Baleful Shadow in the area. Go to the Nokstella Waterfall Basin and head south. Defeat the Baleful Shadow here and Ranni will tell you farewell. You will also get the Discarded Palace Key after defeating the Baleful Shadow.
Go to the Raya Lucaria Academy and head to the Grand Library, open the chest that you see here to get the Dark Moon Ring.
The chest is resting to the right of Queen Rennala.
Lake of Rot
Go back to the Lake of Rot in the Ainsel area until you get to the Grand Cloister. When you get to the Grand Cloister, head down, and right before the stairs, turn left. You will see a coffin here near the edge. Before you rest in the coffin, make sure you are ready because you will be fighting a boss here. Once you are prepared, rest in the coffin and head to the north of the cave. Traverse the mist wall and you will face Astel.
It is worth noting that to cross the Lake fo Rot after defeating the Baleful Shadow would require you to have either Preserving Boluses or an incantation called Flame, Cleanse Me. These both cure the rot effect. It is imperative that you get either of these to safely cross the lake. We highly recommend getting the Flame, Cleanse Me incantation as it is always available for you to use at the cost of your FP. This is much better than grinding for a cookbook and then the recipe for Preserving Boluses.
You can find the incantation at a Fire Monk Camp located just north of the Artist’s Shack.
Please refer to our video guide to see the incantation being used over the Lake of Rot as we cross it.
Astel, the Naturalborn of the Void
When the fight starts, Astel will fire lasers at you. You want to wait for the laser to be fired and dodge to the side at the last minute. Focus on attacking him while dodging to the side. Once you down Astel, stab the eye on its head. When you bring Astel down to half health, it will teleport and summon balls of the void from the sky. Dodge to the side and be wary of his slashing attacks. They have delayed explosion damage.
Astel will also summon an AoE Lighting when you get too close. Once you defeat him, you will get the Remembrance of the Naturalborn and the trophy called “Astel, Naturalborn of the Void”.
Head up to the next area
After defeating the boss, head north (originally there would be a blue seal blocking you from going further) and you should see a Lost Grace here. This area is called the Moonlight Altar. You are able to reach this area after defeating Astel since you’ve already acquired the Dark Moon Ring. If you didn’t have the ring, there would be a blue seal stopping you from progressing further into this questline. Rest at the Grace site and keep heading north further into the cave. Use the lift at the end to get to the Deep Ainsel Well. Go outside until you can get to the Cathedral of Manus Celes.
You should see a small hole here that leads to an area underground.
Give Ranni the Ring
You will find Ranni at the end of the cave. You can choose to wear the Ring on Ranni and marry her. Talk to her once more, and she will leave behind the Dark Moon Greatsword for you. The Moon Greatsword is a gift of Ranni to her spouse, allowing you to get the Moonlight Greatsword skill. The Charged attacks of this sword will release moonlight blasts. This will complete the entire Ranni questline.
Summary
Your first encounter with Ranni will be when she gives you the Spirit Calling Bell. To serve her, you will need to complete numerous side quests and defeat the boss called Astel. Completing the Ranni Questline is necessary to get Blaidd’s Wolven armor as well. Once you complete the questline and marry Ranni, you will get the Dark Moon Greatsword, one of the most popular swords in the game as a reward.
