In typical Souls fashion, Elden Ring has several different endings that determine the fate of the Lands Between. However, between the massive map and cryptic lore, it gets a bit tricky finding all of them. Especially when most of them have some sort of prerequisite by completing an NPC quest to obtain a type of Great Rune – a Mending Rune.
While most of them vary slightly, few have major variations, but one thing is common: you’ll be clueless about what’s happening in them. However, without diving deep into the game’s nuances, you’ll still have a basic idea of the best ending in Elden Ring from the visuals alone. We’ve stacked up all endings and explained how to get them in this guide.
Oh, and expect some massive spoilers ahead. So, you’ve been warned and turn away if you still can.
Age of Stars
While any ending can be good if you look at it, the Elden Ring best ending boils down to perspective. For me it’s the Age of Stars, one that has sparked many controversies among players. While it might seem a sad end to an epic tale, it’s really the new beginning of the end. After all, there’s more to it than just wandering through the cosmos with your new waifu – as seen in the stunning cutscene.
While doing Ranni’s questline, you’ll eventually learn of her ploy to create a new order, one that’s without the meddling of the Outer Gods. To achieve that, Ranni, with her consort, ascends to godhood, discarding Marika, and takes her order far from the Lands Between, uplifting humanity. This might appear like an order of loneliness, but it allows humanity to carve its own path.
Mine will be an order not of gold, but the stars and moon of the chill night. I would keep them far from the earth beneath our feet. As it is now, life, souls, and order are bound tightly together, but I would have them at a great remove.
Ranni the Witch
One might also assume this leaves the Lands Between vulnerable to other voidborn entities. These beings, however, invaded the region in pursuit of power, and with no order dictating the population’s fate, they now have no business here. Plus, the idea of ending up on an old throne that’s seen far better days just to reset this world’s cruel fate isn’t very appealing.
How To Get
To begin your thousand years journey across the stars with Ranni, you’ll have to complete her questline. Among the few maidens in Elden Ring, none measures up to the complexity of Ranni and her ethereal beauty. While being the longest, her questline is easily one of the, if not the most engrossing, one. Here’s how it quickly plays out:
- You’ll first meet her in the Church of Elleh.
- The next meeting with Ranni is in the Three Sisters Rise, where you swear loyalty to her cause.
- What follows after this is an intricate yet equally compelling journey across a slew of breathtaking locations.
- Some mandatory steps involve getting the Fingerslayer Blade from Nokron, talking with miniature Ranni in Ainsel River, and defeating the Baleful Shadow to get the Dark Moon Ring. This ensures you become her consort for the ending to take place.
Lord of the Frenzied Flame
Next up in our list of the best endings in Elden Ring is the Lord of the Frenzied Flame. Contrary to the Blessing of Despair, you can’t help but love the obscenely evil premise of this ending. And what players might love next to venturing through the cosmos with their new waifu is a world set ablaze as long as they’re content with making an enemy out of their other waifu.
It’s a chaotic end to what you’ve initially set out to achieve, and it’s clearly a hard no to running the errands of the Greater Will. After all, you’re siding up with the Frenzied Flame to become Lord of the Frenzied Flame, an Outer God that’s all about chaos. But at the end of it all, you’re still limited to another diety’s servitude.
How to Get
While the Two Fingers is all about serving the Greater Will and the Golden Order, beneath the many layers of Lyndell lies its extra digits peer who acts as the lone vassal for the Frenzied Flame. Bear in mind as once you’re imbued with the Frenzied Flame, you’re locked out from all other Elden Ring endings unless you use Miquella’s Needle in Placidusax’s arena.
As mentioned, if you haven’t yet burned the Erdtree, interacting with the three fingers triggers an extra cutscene with Melena vowing to hunt us down.
- Interact with the Three Fingers near the Cathedral of the Forsaken below the Subterranean Shunning-Grounds and Royal Capital.
- Once you’re near the door, ensure removing any armor to unlock the door leading to the Three Fingers.
Blessing of Despair
While the world is already bleak enough thanks to the Shattering, the Blessing of Despair brings an even bleaker turns of affairs. This might seem like the worst ending to some, but hey, extra points for those funky-looking gas clouds you can smell from your screen.
This ending in Elden Ring plagues the Lands Between in a curse. One where everyone born is afflicted with the Seedbed Curse. Going into the more grotesque details, those born with the curse will have pus-filled pustules like Omens, yuk! This prevents their souls from recycling in the Erdtree, something which is loathed throughout Elden Ring.
While there’s little detail surrounding it, much to player speculation, the Formless Mother might have a hand as she’s associated with Omens and the Seedbed Curse. In the end, however, you’re still not defying the Greater Will as you end up becoming Elden Lord.
How to Get
As you might’ve already guessed, the Blessing of Despair ending has much to do with Loathsome Dung Eater and his Mending Rune of the Fell Curse. It’s his very wish to see a world like this, and if this seems appealing, you can help him realize it. Here’s how to get the Mending Rune:
- After meeting his spectral body at the Roundtable Hold, you’ll be hunting down Seedbed Curses for the Dung Eater.
- Once you give him the first Seedbed Curse, you’ll find his real body imprisoned in the Subterranean Shunning-Grounds.
- Ensure completing Blackguard Big Boggarts questline to obtain a Seedbed Curse.
- After giving the Dung Eater all five Seedbed Curses, you’re rewarded with the Mending Rune of the Fell Curse.
Age of Duskborn
Moving on to another ending where you take up the mantle of the Elden Ring is the Age of Duskborn. In one way or another, these conclusions seem to alleviate the unchecked sufferings in the Lands Between. This one cures the realm from the curse of immortality that was brought about by the creation of the Golden Order.
While this restores the natural balance to the Lands Between, the cryptic lore also hints that this brings a slew of undead, Those Who Live in Death. So, in reality, you’re not entirely restoring death.
Though it would have certainly been cool if Godwin’s rotten corpse made a cameo during the final cutscene of the ending. Aside that, there’s not much difference save for the misty fog that shrouds the world.
How to Get
The Age of Dusborn is brought about by completing the questline of the enigmatic Fia to get the Mending Rune of the Death-Prince. However, this one is a bit convoluted as several NPCs are intertwined.
It turns out that there’s more to Fia than her warm hugs, and she really holds to her moniker as the Deathbed Companion. Here’s a quick rundown of her quest.
- After meeting Fia in Roundtable Hold, defeat two Shardbearers. After that, talk to her and receive the Weathered Dagger.
- After that, talk to D, Hunter of the Dead, and Rogier, who needs the Black Knifeprint found in Black Knife Catacombs.
- Afterward, you’ll find Fia beside the blacksmith with D’s corpse in a newly opened door.
- The rest of her quest will go down in the Deeproot Depths, where she awaits a Cursemark of Death. You’ll find this key item after progressing Ranni’s questline.
- Finally, give her the item to trigger the Lichdragon Fortissax boss fight. Once slain, you earn the Mending Rune of the Death-Prince by interacting with Fia’s corpse.
Age of Order
The Age of Order is one of the three variants to the vanilla ending where you become Elden Lord, but only the Lands Between ushers in a new age. The Age of Order ending in Elden Ring, however, is kind of similar to the Age of Fracture, but it takes things a notch up, well, as far as the golden cinematics are concerned.
Lore-wise, however, Elden Ring leaves much of its ambiguities to interpretation, and you can think of the Age of Order as one where you curb the influence of the Greater Will over the Golden Order. Most of the Outer Gods that have invaded the world had ulterior motives, and the Greater Will is no different.
Repairing the Elden Ring with the Mending Rune of Perfect Order creates a new Golden Order. One that is free from outside influence. Well, the gods are still there, but they’re at least well behaved in this utopian setting. All in all, this conclusion may seem like an improvement, but not all that is gold glitters. After all, who’s to say we do not share in the fickleness of the gods.
How to Get
Attaining this ending requires the Mending Rune of Perfect Order. You acquire this great rune by following the pair of dunces, known as Goldmask and Brother Corhyn, throughout the massive map. Here’s a brief rundown of this and ensure you don’t inherit the Frenzied Flame:
- Your first meeting is with Brother Corhyn at the Roundtable Hold.
- Progress the story enough for Brother Corhyn to leave in search of Goldmask.
- Brother Corhyn relocates to the Altus Plateau, north of the Altus Highway Junction site of grace.
- At this point, you’ll also meet Goldmask on the broken greatbridge near the Road of Iniquity Side Path site of grace.
- Inform Brother Corhyn of Goldmask’s Location, and he’ll go there lickety-split. After that, meet both of them at the bridge.
- For their next location, they’ll both relocate to Lyndell, Royal Capital, on a cliff west of the colosseum.
- The pair contemplate a riddle that involves using the Law of Regression Incantation in front of Radagon’s Statue in Lyndell, Capital. What happens here is a huge twist that Radagon and Marika were, in fact, one and the same.
- After informing the pair of this, you’ll find them next in the Mountain Tops of the Giants. They stand on a bridge near the Stargazers’ Ruins.
- After that, access Lyndell, Ashen Capial by beating Maliketh in Crumbling Farum Azula. You’ll find Goldmask’s dead body with the Mending Rune of Perfect order near the same colosseum.
Age of Fracture
Concluding this list with the vanilla ending to Elden Ring’s complex tapestry of narratives. There’s nothing particularly wrong with it as you become the Elden Lord like you set out to do. As a result, you rule over a fractured version of the Lands Between by mending the Elden Ring. The above-mentioned endings are just reskins of this one, but have much more to give out.
Much like Dark Souls “Age of Fire” ending, the Age of Fracture is just the calm before the storm. This means you’re very much of a puppet of the Greater Will which many of the Demigods, like Ranni, desperately tried to escape. The Lands Between, in turn, reverts to a period of short-lived peace before another grace-guided Tarnished comes to take your head.
How to Get
As Elden Ring’s standard ending, attaining the Age of Fracture is simple. There are no sidequests to partake in, and it doesn’t involve any extra items save for beating at least three shardbearer bosses. While it won’t lock you out from other endings, this path isn’t recommended for first playthroughs as you’ll miss out on a lot of content. Here’s how you can get it:
- Beat any three shardbearers bosses.
- The most apparent bosses to beat to attain the Age of Fracture ending are Godrick, Renalla, and Margot.
- Do not turn to the Frenzied Flame.
Final Thoughts
This is everything you need to know about Elden Ring’s ending. As far as the best ending is concerned, to each their own, but for me, it’s easily the Age of Stars. However, given Elden Ring replay value, we’re sure you’ll be visiting the game a couple of times to acquire all of its endings. And by then, you’ll also have a better understanding of its nuances.
