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The Elden Ring Ranni quest leads to the game’s Age of Stars secret ending but, as the ‘secret’ suggests, it’s not really easy to trigger unless you know what to do. Which isn’t surprising considering that Ranni the Witch is one of Elden Ring‘s most mysterious characters. The secret Elden Ring ending she unlocks is worth it though. As long as you don’t mind following her to strange places all over the map to reach a final resolution in the last moments of the game. The process of chasing her around and triggering the ending is obscure at the best of times so you’ll need our comprehensive walkthrough to guide you through the Elden Ring Ranni quest below.
Ranni the Witch quest walkthrough for Elden Ring
Ranni the Witch is a potentially pivotal character you’ll probably meet early on in Elden Ring, specifically in Limgrave if you head to the Church of Elleh after getting Torrent, an enigmatic four-armed figure in white clothes and a broad witch’s hat. At first she goes under the not-so-creative pseudonym of Renna, but it’s not long at all before she drops that name and reverts to Ranni. You don’t need to worry about meeting her in Limgrave, however – this is an optional encounter and if you miss the chance, you can encounter her later on to start the quest properly.
All Ranni locations and quest objectives
Below we’ve listed the full order of events in Ranni’s quest, where you’ll have to go and what you do when you’re there. Check the maps for specific locations, and keep in mind that you won’t be able to do this early on in the game – you’ll have to open up a lot of the map and beat a lot of bosses before you can help Ranni achieve her goals. We’ve also split the maps into the two relevant halves – above ground and below ground (mainly the area of Nokstella and the Lake of Rot) – so make sure you’re checking the right ones each time. Just under the map beneath, you’ll find the full list of objectives – go get ’em, champ!
- The first thing you need to do is head to the Three Sisters towers West of Caria Manor. You’ll have to make it through Caria and beat the boss fight Royal Knight Loretta to get there first. Once you’re there, head to the middle tower of the three, Ranni’s Rise, and go up the lift to meet her personally at the very top. Exhaust her dialogue until she disappears, introducing you to her generals along the way.
- Find Blaidd on Siofra River, where he’ll be waiting to talk to you. This quest is actually interwoven with the Elden Ring Blaidd the Half-Wolf locations and questline, and we’ve got his specific location in Siofra there. Then you have to follow Blaidd’s quest all the way until the point where the star falls – after that, things divert again.
- Head down the new crater South of Mistwood into Nokron, Eternal City. Follow the path to the boss fight with the Mimic Tear, kill it, then take the bridge until it goes left into the grassy area. Hug the leftmost cliff until you find a Site of Grace called Night’s Sacred Ground, then jump on the roofs and follow them to the ground level church until you find a treasure called the Fingerslayer Blade.
- Take it back to Ranni at Ranni’s Rise. She’ll give you the Carian Inverted Statue, a key item that acts as a key for a very specific lock.
- Head to the Carian Study Hall in West Liurnia and use the Statue on the altar in front of the entrance to flip the entire tower. Then head up the tower to the bottom (we’re so sorry about that), and use the bridge to reach the Divine Tower across to the East. At the top of the Divine Tower is an item called the Cursemark of Death. Grab it off the corpse it’s sitting on.
- Now head back to the Three Sisters, this time heading to the Northernmost tower, Renni’s Rise. Trigger the teleporting Waygate at the top to be sent to Ainsel River Main, and pack up the Miniature Ranni. Then try talking to it multiple times at the nearest Site of Grace – eventually it’ll talk back. Spooky!
- After getting all you can from the doll, follow the River to Nokstella, Eternal City, and head downwards to the Nokstella Waterfall Basin Site of Grace (you’ll have to take a lift downwards from the water level). Just through the tunnel next to that will be an NPC Invasion called the Baleful Shadow that looks like Blaidd – kill it. After this, the Miniature Ranni will give you the Discarded Palace Key.
- Head to the Raya Lucaria Grand Library, where you fought Rennala, and use the key to open the locked chest just next to her. You’ll get the Dark Moon Ring. For more info on the chest and ring itself, take a look at our Elden Ring locked Rennala chest page!
- Head back to where you killed the Baleful Shadow and keep heading Southwest past that area to reach the Lake of Rot. Use the stepping stones to make it over the lake to the Southwest corner and the Grand Cloister building. You’ll find in here a coffin on the edge of a waterfall. Get in when prompted – it’ll carry you down to the next location.
- This’ll take you to a new boss fight called Astel, Naturalborn of the Void. Astel is a tough opponent that uses gravity attacks to enhance his natural swipes and strikes, adding delayed blasts that often trigger a moment after the initial hit. Try to stay behind or under him when possible, using a summon to hold his attention, and dodge far more than you shield – most of his attacks will punch through your defenses.
- Once Astel’s dead, head through the arena to the elevator, which’ll carry you up to surface level on the raised plateau in Liurnia. You’ll be attacked by a dragon up here, but you don’t have to fight it – just head to the Cathedral of Manus Celes in the Northeast corner and drop down the ravine below to find Ranni’s body. Interact with it to put the ring on her hand and complete her quest.
Once Ranni’s questline is over, you can complete the final parts of Blaidd’s questline if you’re pursuing that story too.
How to get Ranni’s secret ending
Once you’ve done Ranni’s questline, this gives you the choice to trigger the secret ending, but won’t trigger it automatically. After defeating the final boss of Elden Ring outlined in our Elden Ring main bosses guide, you’ll see a summoning sign on the ground that’ll allow you to bring in Ranni. Trigger it to start the Age of Stars ending, a permanent decision that’ll end the game. Or if you wan to find any of the other Elden Ring endings, check out our guide on how to get any and all of them!
Elden Ring Ranni quest rewards
There’s numerous rewards threaded through Ranni’s questline, some a direct prize for completing her quest, others given by mandatory enemies you need to beat throughout. Here’s the full list:
- Dark Moon Greatsword: A unique Greatsword with good Int-scaling, frost damage and the ability to empower itself temporarily with the Moonlight Greatsword Ash of War. It also requires Int 38 to use, and is received at the very end of the quest, after finding Ranni’s body at the Cathedral of Manus Celes. It’s also a recurring item in the Soulsborne series – so it’s an easter egg too!
- Remembrance of the Naturalborn: A remembrance dropped by Astel after killing it, which can be used with Finger Reader Enia at the Roundtable Hold to exchange for a unique Ash of War, Waves of Darkness, which adds Magic Affinity to larger melee weapons and grants a special AOE strike. You can also turn it into a flail with Intelligence scaling called Bastard’s Stars.
- Silver Tear Mask and two Larval Tears: Killing the Mimic Tear at the entrance to Nokron gets you a unique (if ugly) helmet that boosts your Arcane stat, and two Larval Tears. If you’re not sure how those are used, check out our Elden Ring respec and Larval Tears page on how you can use them to literally redefine yourself.
- Loretta’s Greatbow and Ash of War: Loretta’s Slash: You need to go through Royal Knight Loretta to reach Ranni’s Rise, and she’ll drop the Greatbow (actually a sorcery that fires a special arrow, rather than equipment), and the Loretta’s Slash Ash of War, which is used on spears and polearms to give them Magic Affinity and a strong upwards strike attack.
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