Elden Ring Sage's Cave Guide: How to Beat the Invisible Black Knife Assassin

Far and wide across The Lands Between, you’ll find dungeons, caves, and catacombs. Some of them are certainly more exciting than others, and many of them hide away some of the most precious items in Elden Ring.

Sage’s Cave is in Altus Plateau, and is a myriad of mysteries. The cave itself is full of hidden paths and illusive walls, as well as an abundance of chests. This time around, too, none of the caves chests are trapped. Each one contains more loot, making Sage’s Cave an absolute must-visit.

With hidden paths galore, we’ve explained how to make your way through Sage’s Cave in Elden Ring without missing out on any loot, and how to beat the Black Knife Assasin who’ll be awaiting you at the end.

Sage’s Cave Items

• Crystal Cave Moss
• Budding Cave Moss
• Golden Runes
• Silver Fireflies
• Lost Ashes of War
• Rejuvenating Boluses
• Silver-Pickled Fowl Foot
• Nascent Butterfly
• Black Hood
• Candletree Wooden Shield
• Stonesword Key
• Golden Great Arrow
• Dragonwound Grease
• Raptor Talons
• Raptor’s Black Feathers
• Skeletal Mask
• Family Heads
• Concealing Veil

How to get through Sage’s Cave

Start your journey to Sage’s Cave by travelling to the Abandoned Coffin Site of Grace, which is slightly northeast of Caria Manor.

From the Grace, hop on Torrent and ride mainly north, but ever so slightly east, through the lake. Take caution of the enemies here, and the entrance to Sage’s Cave is in the cliffside along the edge of the lake.

It’s dark in Sage’s Cave, so make sure to have a torch or lantern to hand. Grab the Grace inside the cave and go left along the tunnels

You will come to a dead end, but roll, and the wall will disappear. Continue forward and to the right, and don’t neglect the Crystal Cave Moss and Budding Cave Moss scattered around this cave.

As you emerge by a waterfall, be wary of the skeleton enemies lurking. Go right and just behind you will be another wall. Roll, and a hidden path will reveal itself.

Ahead, there are two chests. The chest on the right contains Lost Ashes of War, and the other chest has Rejuvenating Boluses tucked away inside.

Once again, continue past the chests, loot the Golden Runes from the corpses in the next part of the cave, and pick up the numerous Silver Fireflies too.

From where the corpses are, look behind you and towards the two fires. The wall here is another fake, but has more skeletons behind it. Roll at the wall, and brace yourself for an attack before continuing ahead.

In this room, there are four more chests. From left to right, they each contain the following: Silver-Pickled Fowl Foot, Black Hood, Candletree Wooden Shield, and a Nascent Butterfly.

Leave the room and go left along another tunnel. You’ll soon come to a room with a fire and more skeletons to tackle. At the end of the room, guarded by a skeleton, is another chest containing a Stonesword Key. You'll need to roll into another wall again first, though.

Just to the right of the chest, and left of the wooden platform in this room, is another tunnel to go down. In the small room at the end are three more chests.

In the chest that sits alone in an alcove to your right is 10x Golden Great Arrow. As for the other two chests, the left one contains Raptor Talons, while the right one has x4 Dragonwound Grease inside it.

Continue past the room and down the tunnel ahead until you reach a waterfall. Platform along the left and go directly left into the first tunnel you find.

There are another two chests to open. The left contains Raptor’s Black Feathers, and the right contains a Skeletal Mask.

Now, in this room, roll at the wall to the right of the chests. Just ahead is the yellow mist that’ll take you to face off with Necromancer Garris.

Fortunately, he's a simple fight. Avoid his magic, and you'll have no issue attacking him or his skeletal-armadillo friend. If you beat him, he'll drop the Family Heads item.

After this, you'll want to go about felling the Black Knife Assassin and collecting their drop, which is a real challenge. Return to the waterfall, and rather than take the first tunnel, continue to platform along till you reach a second tunnel with a yellow mist gate.

How to beat the Black Knife Assassin in Sage’s Cave

Any fight with a Black Knife Assassin often proves to be a challenging one. These assassins can be found all over The Lands Between. When they’re not bothering you as dungeon bosses, main boss Rennala, Queen of the Full Moon summons one, or they’re chasing you around Ordina.

They’re unavoidable, and they’re some of the most annoying enemies in Elden Ring because of how relentless and hard-hitting they can be.

As you may have already learnt by now, Black Knife Assassins are incredibly fast and agile. They can attack repeatedly, close the distance with short teleports, and can often catch you off guard when they’re speeding around you and trying to attack. In this case, ranged attacks are going to be near impossible to use. So, if you’re running an Intelligence build, opt for the Moonveil Katana rather than spells in this fight.

On the whole, you’ll want plenty of health flasks to hand, and any Talismans that can help with your attack power or HP. The Assassin’s Crimson Dagger can restore HP when you land critical hits, and funnily enough, you acquire this talisman from a Black Knife Assassin, too.

For this particular fight, the Black Knife Assassin also happens to be invisible. Fortunately, you can use the Sentry's Torch item to reveal them, or you can look for footsteps in the water around the boss arena. Keep an eye on these as these can tell you when the assassin is looking to attack.

This fight is one that will need Spirit Ashes, as your summons can also be used to reveal the assassins location. If you can work out exactly where the assassin is, and learn when they're going to attack, you'll be able to go in for backstabs. You won't be able to lock onto the enemy for this fight, seeing as they're invisible, so you're likely going to do a lot of sleuthing while trying to stab them.

While the Sentry's Torch and summons are of great use in this fight, any large AoE attacks or skills that you have will come in handy for this invisible fiend. For example, the Carian Greatsword spell or the Rivers of Blood katana skill, Corpse Piler, can be great for this attack with their wide, sweeping slashes.

Once the Black Knife Assassin has been felled, they will drop the Concealing Veil item.

That's it for Sage’s Cave. For more of the Black Knife Assassin, I recommend paying a visit to Black Knife Catacombs if you haven’t already. Meanwhile, for more on Elden Ring, take a look at our walkthrough for The Lands Between.