Elden Ring Endings guide: How to get every ending and variation

Update: We've learnt plenty of The Lands Between secrets since the game released, so we've updated this Elden Ring endings guide with some streamlined information so you can reach whichever Elden Ring ending you want, or all of them, if you fancy.

As is tradition in FromSoftware’s Soulsborne titles, there's a number of Elden Ring endings depending on the path you take through the game. Each leaves the world, and your protagonist, in quite a different state, though the requirements to unlock these endings are as vague as you'd expect in a FromSoft game.

We've found all the endings in Elden Ring and have listed them below. Naturally, this page contains Elden Ring story ending spoilers, because we’re going to talk about how you get each ending. In fact, we recommend that you don’t read this page until you’ve achieved at least one ending - because otherwise, you’ll spoil your ‘natural’ ending for yourself, whichever that may be.

Once you’ve finished Elden Ring, you can boot into Journey 2, aka New Game Plus, in order to see another.

While you can go into an end-game save file and complete side quests including those that lead to different endings, you cannot move to get another ending on the same ‘journey’ - the pathway to the final boss is forever blocked once you’ve seen your first ending. You have to play the game again to aim for a different ending.

From this point on, this page contains ENDING SPOILERS.

All Elden Ring endings explained

You can actually see how many ‘core’ endings Elden Ring has based on the game’s achievements. In real terms, there are three different endings to Elden Ring - though it is a little more complicated than that.

The achievements describe the basic endings:

• Elden Lord
• Lord of Frenzied Flame
• Age of the Stars

Beyond these three core endings, there are three variations of the Elden Lord ending depending on your who's side quests you complete and what you choose to do when mending the Elden Ring itself.

So there’s three core endings, with achievements attached, and three variations of one of the core endings, making a total of six endings.

Here’s brief descriptions of each ending and their variations:

Elden Lord endings

In all of the Elden Lord endings, the Tarnished becomes Elden Lord and ushers in a new age for The Lands Between. Exactly what this age is can vary based on your actions, however. Your world after this ending will remain the same regardless, and Leyndell will remain as the Ashen Capital until you start NG+.

To achieve this ending, all you need to do is follow the main narrative of the game - obeying the requests and directions of Melina throughout the game and eventually become Elden Lord after defeating the Elden Beast and repairing the Ring.

Depending on who you've helped during the game, you may have an extra option for how to repair the Elden Ring.

• The Age of Fracture ending is achieved by choosing to Mend the Elden Ring, which you can do by default if you just follow the critical path and Melina's instructions throughout the game.
• The Age of Duskborn ending is achieved by using the Mending Rune of the Death-Prince, which is obtained by following the quest lines related to Fia, The Deathbed Companion and D, Hunter of the Dead. This is a short questline that can easily be done, but you will have to fight Lichdragon Fortissax.
• The Age of Order ending is reached by choosing to use the Mending Rune of Perfect Order, which you get by following the quest of Brother Cohryn and Goldmask. This is another short quest and your main trouble here will be tracking down Corhyn and Goldmask.
• The Blessing of Despair ending is a dark ending that can be unlocked by using the Mending Rune of the Fell Curse, which is obtained by following the Loathsome Dung Eater's quest and giving him Seedbed Curses found on corpses across the land.

Lord of the Frenzied Flame

The Lord of Frenzied Flame ending in Elden Ring has a bit of a Dark Souls feel to it, and it sees you embrace the Three Fingers so chaos consumes the world. This is the second of the endings, and has some more complicated steps to it.

Specifically, you need to head into the sewers below the capital city of Leyndell, and then keep heading down until you reach the Subterranean Shunning Grounds area. There’s a boss down here; kill it, and then attack the altar in the boss room to find a secret door.

Again, keep heading down - down, down, down. At the bottom, you’ll find a Site of Grace, and a mysterious door made of what looks like molten rock. You also won’t be able to use your weapons in this room.

To proceed, you need to open that door, but doing so is a point of no return situation. Once you do it, there’s almost no going back on this.

To open this door, take off all your clothes and stand before the door naked. You will be granted the power of the Frenzied Flame by the Three Fingers inside, which, for now, just means your character will be scarred permanently and have glowing eyes.

At this point, continue with the rest of the game. Make your way to the Forge of Giants. Melina will leave you in anger and won't return to help you, though it does mean she won't die as well. You can choose to ‘Listen to the sounds of the flame’ to continue this ending path.

At this point, follow the linear path to the ending. At the end of the game, instead of becoming Elden Lord, you will use the power of the Frenzied Flame to let chaos take the world. Melina reappears with both eyes open and promises to deliver Destined Death to you.

Removing Frenzied Flame: If you have a change of heart, you can remove the Frenzied Flame and go for a different ending. To do so, you must complete the entirety of Millicent's side quest to obtain Miquella's Needle, which involves a trip to the Haligtree and successfully defeating Malenia. You then need pay a visit to Dragonlord Placidusax's boss arena in Crumbling Farum Azula and use the Miquella's Needle item there.

Age of the Stars

The final ending in Elden Ring, Age of the Stars, sees you refuse both of the above paths, eschewing the fingers for a different approach.

To unlock this ending, you need to complete Ranni the Witch's side quest. Ranni is the character who appears to you and gives you the Spirit Calling Summon Bell.

Broadly speaking beyond that, here’s what we know about the path to the Age of Stars ending:

• You can do Rogier's quest for additional lore about Ranni, though it's not required. If you complete his quest first, he falls asleep, before eventually succumbing to death later. If you talk to Ranni behind Caria Manor first, he immediately dies.
• If you come across Blaidd the Wolf, make sure to exhaust all his dialogue. Again, this is more for lore than an actual requirement, since you can complete the quest either way.
• Head to Ranni’s Rise, one of three towers accessed by going through Caria Manor in north-western Liurnia. You’ll find Ranni here, and can enter her service if you continue saying you want to be her vassal.
• If you've begun the Radahn Festival in Redmane Castle at any point or reached Altus Plateau without first visiting Ranni's Rise, Ranni will disappear until you've defeated Radahn. You'll miss a bit of lore, but no equipment or anything vital to the quest this way.
• Agree to enter Ranni’s service in a covenant and complete her side quests.
• When you obtain a cute-but-creepy little doll of Ranni, you’ll be able to talk to it at some Sites of Grace, both in her tower and around the Siofra Well and Lake of Rot areas. This is key to continuing the quest after she disappears.

Complete Ranni’s quest in full (our full guide is linked above) and after defeating the final boss of Elden Ring you’ll now have access to a unique blue summon sign. Instead of touching the item that leads to the Elden Lord ending, use that sign to summon Ranni - and that gives you the Age of the Stars ending.

In this ending, Ranni ushers in a new age governed by the moon, apparently sweeping away the Golden Order and its rule over The Lands Between.

That's it for all of Elden Ring's endings!

For more on Elden Ring, take a look at our comprehensive guide to The Lands Between.