Elden Ring All Endings Explained

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Christopher Roque

Christopher is a freelance writer and avid gamer. He has been playing video games since he was young. He loves how RPG games are a good form of storytelling, and also bring a lot of fun. He spends hours playing various video games and brings his friends together. He enjoys playing Dark Souls 3 which is his favorite one in the series.

Latest posts by Christopher Roque (see all)

• Elden Ring All Endings Explained - July 17, 2022
• Dark Souls 3 Sirris Guide - June 10, 2022
• Dark Souls 3 Anri Guide - May 24, 2022

Intro

Elden Ring took over the gaming world quickly, and it’s clear why. The game is From Software’s most ambitious title to date, with a sprawling open world full of areas to explore, enemies to kill, and friends to make.

The world of the Lands Between is similarly complex regarding its narrative and how the story can progress depending on the player’s actions. This culminates in six endings, all of which have distinct differences and impacts.

Today, I’ll be explaining all of Elden Ring’s endings and telling you how to get there.

Ending 1 – Age of Fracture

From early on in the game, you are told by the members of the Roundtable Hold and various other NPCs that you should mend the Elden Ring and become the Elden Lord, as the Lands Between lack proper leadership and have fallen into chaos. There are four different ways to end the game while becoming an Elden Lord, and this would be the most straightforward way.

This ending doesn’t require many specific steps. All you have to do is the following:

Defeat All of the Main Bosses in the Game. This includes:

• Margit
• Godrick the Grafted
• Red Wolf of Radagon
• Rennala
• Starscourge Radahn
• Morgott
• Fire Giant
• Godskin Duo
• Maliketh
• Sir Gideon Ofnir
• Godfrey and Hoarah Loux
• Radagon
• Elden Beast

After defeating the Elden Beast, go up to Marika and mend the Elden Ring

The Age of Fracture is a pretty typical Fromsoft ending. It’s presented as a bittersweet conclusion where the problems plaguing the Lands Between will persist despite your new status as Elden Lord. Like the cycle of fire in Dark Souls, the cycle continues, and the world is still subjected to the Greater Will. This means that the Lands Between won’t genuinely have peace even though you’ve just taken control.

The Age of Fracture reminds me of the main ending to Dark Souls 3, where you defeat the final boss and link the flame, allowing the distortions in time and space to persist. This forces the world to continue in its broken state. The Age of Fracture is just that: an ending where the world has to deal with its continuing decadence.

Ending 2 – Age of Order

Ending 2 is another Elden Lord ending. You’ll have to complete the Brother Corhyn/Goldmask questline to get it. This makes the Age of Order a bit lengthier and more complicated than the normal ending.

1. Complete Brother Corhyn’s questline:

• First, exhaust his dialogue in the Roundtable Hold until he says he’s going to find Goldmask.
• Find Goldmask at the Road of Iniquity Side Path in the Altus Plateau, then tell Corhyn you found him.
• Find Corhyn at the same location and ask him about Goldmask.
• Get to Leyndell. Corhyn and Goldmask will be near the Colosseum. Ask Corhyn about Goldmask again. He’ll say that they’re trying to figure out who Radagon was. Help them by giving them the Golden Order Principia, which is near the Erdtree Sanctuary site.
• Purchase the Law of Regression incantation from Corhyn, then go to the Erdtree Sanctuary again.
• Find the statue with its arms spread out. Near it is some text that says “Regression alone reveals secrets.” Use the incantation there and the statue will reveal a secret. Tell Corhyn and Goldmask what it says, and exhaust Corhyn’s dialogue.
• Find the duo again at the Mountaintop of the Giants, on the bridge south of the Stargazer Ruins. Speak to Corhyn; he’s beginning to question Goldmask at this point. The Mending Rune can then be found once Leyndell turns to ash.

2. Complete the Crumbling Farum Azula dungeon.

3. Find the Mending Rune of Perfect Order. It’ll be on Goldmask’s body, which can be found south of the Ashen Capital.

4. Get to the final boss battle.

5. Defeat the Elden Beast.

6. Touch Marika and use the Mending Rune of Perfect Order.

This ending is better than the Age of Fracture because it creates a resolution. After using the Mending Rune and fixing the Golden Order’s flaws using the Rune’s “transcendental ideology,” you prevent the Lands Between from being in disarray because of the “fickleness of the gods.” However, Corhyn doesn’t believe that using the rune is a good thing. After completing Crumbling Farum Azula, you can find him in the Capital of Ash. He’s concluded that Goldmask, the “master” he searches for throughout his questline, is committing heresy. Goldmask intended to use the Mending Rune to change the Golden Order, which Corhyn sees as a rejection of the already perfect faith.

It’s implied that Corhyn might be right about Goldmask having more sinister intentions than initially thought. The description of the Mending Rune chalks the problems with the Order up to the “fickleness of gods no better than men,” but if neither gods nor men are capable of maintaining order, who is?

Overall, this ending is a bit of a question mark. At first glance, using the rune to create order has made the land safer and more prosperous. Still, it isn’t clear if this is a viable long-term solution or if it would be suitable for everyone. The Greater Will doesn’t get removed from the equation here either, so the Age of Order may be a slightly better way of perpetuating the same cycle.

Ending 3 – Age of the Duskborn

Ending 3 is another Elden Lord ending. It’s not as hard to achieve as the Age of Order since many steps can be skipped, but it requires you to defeat Lichdragon Fortissax to progress.

1. Progress Fia’s questline. You can either complete all of the steps or skip a number of them.

The normal route goes like this:

• Rest at a Site of Grace in the Altus Plateau, then return to Fia and let her hold you. She’ll give you a Weathered Dagger which you’ll have to give to D to continue the quest.
• Speak to Rogier about black knives, then speak to Fia about them and she’ll give you a map to a Black Knifeprint.
• After the previous step, an event will occur where Fia is in a new room near the blacksmith. She’ll disappear and go to the Deeproot Depths.
• Go to the tallest point in the Depths and defeat Fia’s Summons. Find her and ask to be held again. She’ll ask you to find the Cursemark of Death.
• Obtain the Cursemark. It’s on a corpse at the top of the Divine Tower of Liurnia. To get it, you’ll have to progress Ranni’s questline. Once you’ve given her the hidden treasure of Nokron, you’ll get the Carian Inverted Statue which is used to get to the corpse.
• Once you’ve given her the cursemark and reloaded the area, she’ll be asleep. Interact with her to enter the Deathbed Dream.
• Defeat Lichdragon Fortissax in the Dream. Get the Mending Rune of the Death-Prince off of Fia’s corpse after the battle.

If you wanted to skip a number of steps, you could get to the point in the story where you burn the Erdtree. After doing so, Fia will be in the Deeproot Depths and you can do the rest of the questline.

2. Get to the final boss battle and defeat the Elden Beast.

3. Go up to Marika and use the rune.

The Age of the Duskborn is when death returns to the Lands Between after a lengthy absence. Using the Mending Rune of the Death-Prince, you become Elden Lord in a world covered in fog. Instead of being immortal, all living beings now live and die.

Fia likely wants you to use the Rune to help Those Who Live in Death, since they are like her children. She doesn’t like hunters like D because they keep attacking the dead, and using the rune would help them avoid being hunted. I also think that Fia’s goal is to free her children of immortality, making her a version of Death.

This ending is significant because it is a major departure from the Greater Will and the purpose of the Elden Ring. The Golden Order and the tools used to keep it in place serve the concept of immortality, so removing it takes them out of the picture to some extent. The Age of the Duskborn also allows for a resolution to the problems plaguing the world, as all of the long-lasting immortal creatures in the Lands Between can now rest, and the remaining ones will live normal lives.

But like all the other endings, the extent to which things are changed is unclear. It’s possible that death is only a minor inconvenience to the Greater Will or that conflicts will continue even if living things can now die.

Ending 4 – Blessing of Despair

The final Elden Lord ending and arguably the worst of them, the Blessing of Despair can be achieved by completing Dung Eater’s questline and receiving the Mending Rune of the Fell Curse.

Unlock Dung Eater’s room in the Roundtable Hold. It’ll only open once you’ve gotten to the Altus Plateau, which you can access by using the Grand Lift of Dectus. To use the lift, you’ll have to find the two halves of the Dectus Medallion, which can be found in Fort Haight in Limgrave and Fort Faroth in Caelid.

Begin his questline. You can do so by showing him a Seedbed Curse; he’ll give you a key and tell you to find his real body in the Subterranean Shunning-Grounds in Leyndell. The first Seedbed Curse you can get is in Volcano Manor, near the Temple of Eiglay Site of Grace.

Dung Eater will request that you fight him at the Outer Moat, which can be found in the Altus Plateau near the Outer Wall Battleground site. Go there and defeat him.

Find 5 Seedbed Curses and bring them to his real body in the Shunning-Grounds to get the Mending Rune. They can be found at the following locations:

• In a tower near the East Capital Rampart site in Leyndell
• In the upstairs floor of the Leyndell Fortified Manor, in the room where Dung Eater would be (the floor is identical to the Roundtable Hold’s layout)
• In the Volcano Legacy Manor, accessible through the corridor near Lady Tanith. This one requires you to have explored the entire area first.
• Two of them are near the Prayer Room site, in the Haligtree area. Haligtree is north of the Mountaintop of the Giants.

Get to the final battle and defeat the Elden Beast.

Use the Mending Rune of the Fell Curse on Marika.

The Blessing of Despair ending brings a terrible curse to the Lands Between. Dung Eater is a reviled Tarnished who wants to defile everything in his path and spread the pox as far as possible. Upon using the Fell Curse on Marika, the sky is covered in sores, and fog fills the air. The Erdtree becomes white and dead, and the curse forever plagues the world.

The Dung Eater nurtures the curse; according to Seedbed Curse’s description, it is grown on corpses killed and defiled by him. The curse prevents the souls of the dead from going to the Erdtree and stays with them forever. Dung Eater himself was defiled in the same way, meaning that he could be motivated by revenge. I think that he’s just inherently evil and has a hunger for death and destruction.

The name “Blessing of Despair” implies that the ending may not be all bad. The world suffering from a curse would be terrible, no doubt. But is freedom from the Erdtree a good thing? Also, does being cursed mean that creatures can actually die? If so, this ending is a lot like the Age of the Duskborn in that the old world order is destroyed, and death is a possibility.

But I wouldn’t curse the entire world if it were up to me.

Ending 5 – The Age of Stars

The Age of Stars has you completing Ranni’s questline and summoning her to change the fate of the world. It’s one of the more complicated endings to achieve since you’ll have to complete her questline before you can get it.

• Start Ranni’s questline. You’ll have to meet her in the Church of Elleh early in your playthrough. After that, meet her in Liurnia at Ranni’s Rise. She’ll give you the chance to enter her service, which will get the ball rolling.
• Travel through Nokron and progress the questline by talking to various NPCs, including Blaidd and Prospector Seluvis. You’ll eventually find the hidden treasure of Nokron that Ranni’s looking for: the Fingerslayer Blade.
• Give Ranni the Fingerslayer Blade. You’ll eventually get a special key, and she’ll go off on her own for a while. Use the key to open the chest next to Rennala in Raya Lucaria, and you’ll get the Dark Moon Ring.
• Progress until you find Ranni’s doll body and place the Dark Moon Ring on it. This will return Ranni to her normal form, and she’ll disappear.
• Get to the final boss and defeat the Elden Beast.
• A blue summon sign will appear. Use it to summon Ranni and get the ending.

The Age of Stars ending has Ranni interacting with Marika and proclaiming to the world that the age of the stars has begun. She will then take you on as her eternal consort, and you’ll continue to serve her in the new era.

This ending brings an end to the Golden Order and has Ranni creating an order of her own, one built on the “wisdom of the moon” instead of the ideologies of the Order. In creating a new order, Ranni also removes the Greater Will’s influence over the land.

Ranni’s speech implies that the members of the new order will have to fight “fear, doubt and loneliness” as the new order comes into play. This is somewhat alarming at first glance. I think Ranni was saying that the people would have to persevere and come to accept the darkness for the new order to succeed. She is essentially taking faith and stability away from the land but giving a sense of independence and control over individual fates.

Whether or not Ranni’s decision is a good one is unclear. Like all of the game’s endings, it’s a bit of a gray area.

Ending 6 – The Lord of Frenzied Flame

The Lord of Frenzied Flame is the last ending and another departure from prior endings. This time, you’ll have to meet the Three Fingers and inherit the Frenzied Flame. This ending locks you out of the other endings, so only go for it if you’re sure you want to.

• Find the Three Fingers. They are below the Subterranean Shunning-Grounds and near the Cathedral of the Forsaken. You’ll have to remove your armor to enter the room where the Fingers are.
• Receive the Flame of Frenzy. Upon entering the room, the fingers will wrap around you and burn your body, giving you the flame which unlocks this ending.
• Make your way to the final boss.
• Kill the Elden Beast.
• Interact with Marika and choose to become the Lord of Frenzied Flame.

Upon becoming the Lord of Frenzied Flame, the head of Marika will break apart, and your head will be replaced by fire. Chaos flames will consume the world and burn everything in the Lands Between. The Order falls apart, the Elden Ring is never fixed, and the Greater Will’s influence disappears. Instead, a frenzy overtakes the land. The fingerprints of the Three Fingers appear everywhere, and the Erdtree is destroyed. This seems to be bad at first glance, but dialogue from Hyetta reveals that there may be a purpose to burning the world.

According to her, there was the One Great before the Greater Will. the Greater Will made a mistake that led to everyone in the Lands Between being born of torment, despair, and affliction. In burning the world with chaos flames, you are taking away the mistake and bringing everything together, creating one entity. I think this means that you would be uniting the world to reform the One Great and preventing the torment, despair, and affliction that Hyetta speaks of.

Still, I’m not entirely sure about it; it seems to be more harmful than good, and the benefit of uniting the world in the image of the One Great isn’t clear. There’s also the question of the Three Fingers. Are they connected to the Two Fingers? Could a giant Hand form somehow? Why are the Two Fingers part of the Order and the Three aren’t? The game isn’t really clear on why any of this has happened, so it all depends on theories like usual.

My theory is that the Three Fingers were banished from the Order and somehow found a way to control chaos flames. This is why some areas in the game are predominantly made up of frenzied enemies, and why the Fingers are locked deep underground. The Fingers might want revenge or a way to take power, which is why the ending has you burning the world with chaos flames and why the fingerprints show up everywhere; it could be that the Three Fingers are establishing their position as ruler in that moment.

Conclusion

That was my explanation for all of Elden Ring’s endings. Admittedly, they are confusing and depend on many subtle lore details like prior Souls games. These endings are also somewhat open to interpretation and can have good and bad effects on the Lands Between. Ultimately, what you choose is entirely up to you and what you think is right for the world.

I’m more of a main ending kinda guy, to be honest. I feel like going out of the way to get a different ending for games isn’t really worthwhile unless it is the best possible ending. In Elden Ring’s case, none of the endings are particularly great or terrible, just different ways of trying to solve the problems plaguing the world. I wonder if Fromsoft will ever make a game with a happy ending.

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