Elden Ring Ranni questline and how to get Ranni to appear

Journey deep beneath the Lands Between and find the Moonlight Greatsword.

Image credit: Eurogamer/FromSoftware

Guide by Alan Wen Contributor

Updated on Aug. 13, 2026, 12:39 p.m.

The Ranni quest in Elden Ring is one of the longer side objectives in the game - and one with some of the biggest challenges. Not only is learning about one of the game's three witches one of the most rewarding in terms of lore, but you'll earn the powerful Moonlight Greatsword, a recurring weapon that can be found in virtually every FromSoftware game.

It is also the route to arguably the best Elden Ring ending, Age of Stars.

Ranni's questline has many steps, some which can be easy to miss and prevent you from progressing - and hopefully this step-by-step quest explainer puts helps ensure you see your servitude to her through to the end. In this guide, we detail all of Ranni's quest steps in Elden Ring, as well as where you'll find the Dark Moon Ring, Discarded Palace Key, and Fingerslayer Blade needed for it.

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Where to find Ranni in Elden Ring

You can meet Ranni very early on in Elden Ring, once you have spoken to Melina and unlocked Torrent at the 'Gatefront' Site of Grace then travelled back to the Church of Elleh. The mysterious witch Renna will appear there - giving you the Spirit Calling Bell that allows you to summon spirit ashes. Renna is later revealed to be Ranni's alias, so this is technically your first meeting with the witch.

To begin Ranni's quest proper, you have to find her at Ranni's Rise. Reaching this location requires you to head to Caria Manor, located above the lake of Liurnia in the northwest. You can reach it from Kingsrealm Ruins via a fake wall, where, behind it, you'll see a giant blacksmith called Iji to your left while the manor is further north.

Explore the manor and you'll eventually reach the top where you have to fight Royal Knight Loretta. Upon defeating her, you'll be able to pass through a door that takes you to Three Sisters - an area with three towers. The tower you're looking for is Ranni's Rise. Activate the Site of Grace, then head to the top and you'll meet with the witch once more who introduces herself with her real name this time.

Accept being in her servitude and you'll begin your quest to find Nokron, the Eternal City.

Before you're able to leave her tower however, you'll need to speak to apparitions of Iji, Blaidd, and Seluvis on each floor of the tower. Once that's done, return to Ranni. She'll say that she's going to enter a deep slumber, and you'll finally be able to exit the building.

How to reach Nokron the Eternal City in Elden Ring

Nokron is just above the Siofra River Well Depths in Elden Ring, and you can actually teleport to a part of it earlier on. To find the proper entrance to the Eternal City, however, you first need to defeat Starscourge Radahn, who's located in Redmane Castle over in Caelid.

You may have already visited the castle if you had gone to Caelid earlier to farm Runes near Impassable Greatbridge. Be warned that if you come here too early, you'll have to fight two very tough mini-bosses - a Crucible Knight and a Misbegotten - before you can reach Radahn himself. By following Ranni's questline, however, you'll be able to skip this unpleasantness.

Before beating Radahn and heading into Nokron, pay a visit to Siofra via the Siofra River Well in Weeping Peninsula. Here, you'll be able to speak with Blaidd in the location shown on the map below, and he'll share his suspicion of Seluvis.

After speaking with Blaidd, return to the Three Sisters to speak with Seluvis. Here, there is a tower to the south called Seluvis' Rise where you'll meet him in the flesh. He'll tell you to give a potion to Nepheli, an NPC you may have already met at the Roundtable Hold or who you summoned to help in the Godrick boss fight. Talk to Seluvis again and he'll give you a letter of introduction to Sellen too.

As a heads up, by giving Seluvis' potion to Nepheli, she will die and be turned into a puppet bu Seluvis. You also do not need to do this to complete Ranni's quest. If you do wish to complete Seluvis' quest, make sure to do it before giving Ranni the Fingerslayer Blade. Otherwise, you will not be able to finish Seluvis' quest.

If you haven't already done so when you were exploring Limgrave, Sellen (our recommendation for a sorcery teacher early in the game) is located beneath Waypoint Ruins. Here, you'll need to fight a mini-boss before you can open the door to the room she's trapped in. Once you give her the letter, she'll explain that you need to kill Radahn.

If you did go and speak to Blaidd, who was looking for a way to Nokron from the Siofra River Well Depths, go speak to him again to tell him about Radahn. He'll mention the Redmane Festival at Redmane Castle and, once he says he'll meet you there, you can safely head back to Redmane Castle to initiate the next steps to actually fight Radahn.

Of course, even if you've skipped the tough mini-bosses beforehand, Radahn himself is still incredibly difficult with very powerful attacks that can one-shot you if you don't have high defence or enough HP. Fortunately, you can also summon other NPCs to help in the fight, while the vast size of the area means you can also summon Torrent.

Once you've defeated Radahn, a cutscene will play and you'll see a star falling to earth, which has crashed in East Limgrave. Fast-travel to West Fort Haight and you'll see that part of the area has been reduced to floating rubble, with a larger crater forming the path to Nokron.

elden ring Starfall Crater map location — Image credit: Eurogamer/FromSoftware

How to find the Fingerslayer Blade

There's plenty to explore in Nokron, including a Mimic Tear you'll have to fight who'll drop a Larval Tear. You can also find a Mimic Tear location to use as Spirit Ashes from the Ancestral Woods Site of Grace, and is our pick for the best summon in Elden Ring. Don't miss it!

Beyond that, what you're looking for specifically is the Fingerslayer Blade, which isn't a weapon, despite the name, but a key item that will allow you to progress Ranni's questline. It can be found inside a room beneath a statue of a giant finger reader pictured below.

It's worth noting two things before continuing. The first is that once you have given Ranni the Fingerslayer Blade, you will be locked out of completing Seluvis' quest. If you wish to complete this, make sure to do it before handing the Fingerslayer Blade over to Ranni. The second is that with the Fingerslayer Blade in your possession, you can now start the Fia quest, if you wish to pursue the Age of Duskborn ending.

Return to Ranni's Rise and give the Fingerslayer Blade to Ranni, and she will give you the Carian Inverted Statue. The item isn't necessary to this questline, but as it might take a while for the next part of the quest to happen, you could try making your way to Liurnia's Divine Tower as this is key to unlocking the path.

How to reach Nokstella and get the Dark Moon Ring

When you next return to Ranni's Rise in Elden Ring, you'll see that Ranni has disappeared, and her spot has been replaced with a Site of Grace. Where you'll want to go now is Renna's Rise - the tower to the north of Three Sisters.

The entrance was previously blocked by a seal, but you should be able to enter now; here you'll find a chest containing the Snow Witch's clothes, while at the top is a teleport which will take you to the Ainsel River underground.

You will have been able to explore the Ainsel River Well Depths earlier via a lift in East Liurnia, but it will have only taken you so far. The teleport in Renna's Rise is how you reach the other parts of the area, as well as another Eternal City, Nokstella. Nonetheless, we do recommend exploring the other section of Ainsel River as that's where you'll be able to find the Map Fragment for the area.

From where you're teleported, head forward and you'll pick up a key item, a miniature Ranni doll. There's also a Site of Grace nearby called Ainsel River Main. Rest there and you'll see that you have an option to speak to the doll.

You won't get any replies initially, but try speaking to her a few more times and she will eventually respond and instruct you to go to Nokstella to kill some shades. Make sure you continue talking to her until you no longer have an option to speak to her.

To find Nokstella, continue down the path past the large centipede-like creature that shoots lighting and the giant ants, and you'll eventually reach Nokstella, with a ladder taking you down to another Site of Grace.

You can explore Nokstella's buildings, which include a couple of giant iron balls that can be killed to farm Larval Tears. You'll want to follow the path on the ground, populated by ant-riding monks and blobs emitting electrical energy (killing them will, however, have them sending a shockwave that can damage other enemies in its AOE). You should eventually reach a lift on the left that will take you down to Nokstella Waterfall Basin.

There's some basilisks that you can run past to avoid being deathblighted, and you'll come to an area that's taken an ominous shade of red. Rather apt as you'll also be ambushed by Blaidd. Kill him and Ranni will thank you, giving you the Discarded Palace Key for your efforts.

If you read the item description, you'll know that this key can be used to open the locked treasure chest in the Grand Library of Raya Lucaria, where Rennala is located. Inside the chest is the Dark Moon Ring. Don't forget to do this or else you'll find your progress blocked later on.

How to find the Lake of Rot

From where you defeated Blaidd in Elden Ring, continue into the building on the right and you'll find another lift that takes you even further down, and you'll discover that there's still more to this underground area. You've come to Lake of Rot, which does exactly what it says on the tin. Stay too long in the water and you'll be inflicted with the dreaded Scarlet Rot, Elden Ring's equivalent of toxic.

In order to reach the Grand Cloister up ahead, you have two choices. You can carefully navigate the lake by visiting small islands with a switch that gradually raises other structures. These structures also have switches which will raise more structures and, by pressing them, you'll create a crossing across the lake. You'll, however, want to take a break to wait for the rot gauge to slowly go back down or have some items or spells - such as the Flame, Cleanse Me Incantation - to cure the rot status.

Alternatively, just get inflicted with rot and leg it for the Cloister, making sure you refill your HP with your flask - if you've been upgrading your flask with Golden Seeds and Sacred Tears, then you'll easily make it with charges to spare. There'll also be a Site of Grace where you can naturally restore your health, cure your status and replenish your flask.

From there, make your way down with a few careful drops down some ledges on the side; while it looks like you have to jump over the first gap, you can actually drop down to the next ledge below to advance.

Be careful of the pests gathered below - sneak past or take care of them then, before turning left to follow the stream to what looks like a dead end save for a stone coffin at the edge of the waterfall. Interact with the coffin and a cutscene will play as you climb in to ride it down to a new destination.

In this new location, a boss fog wall should prepare you for what's ahead: Astel, Naturalborn of the Void.

He's similar to the centipede/scorpion-type monsters that fire electricity at you in Uhl Palace Ruins, except he's bigger and hits harder. He also packs some large AoE attacks and floats around, so you want to make sure you're either doing aerial attacks or that your weapon can reach his head, which you'll automatically lock on to.

Once he's dead, proceed onwards. If you didn't go back to the Grand Library to get the Dark Moon Ring, make sure you do that now, otherwise you'll be met with a seal blocking your path until you have the 'Ring of Oath'.

How to find Ranni at the Cathedral of Manus Celes

Got the ring? Then head on up the lift, which is a long ride as this takes you all the way back up to the surface. In fact, it takes you to the Moonlight Altar, an area above the Village of the Albinaurics. The village is also home to one of the Haligtree Secret Medallion locations.

At the altar, you'll find a fierce dragon that you can fight or you can move on and make your way to the Cathedral of Manus Celes in front of you. Inside, you'll find quite a few Starlight Shards, but what you're looking for is a hole in the floor which will take you deep down to where Ranni is.

Slip the Dark Moon Ring on Ranni's finger and she awakens to thank you once more before disappearing for the last time, leaving behind the Darkmoon Greatsword. Not the sword you expected, at least at first, as its unique skill is what transforms it into the Moonlight Greatsword.

And that's the end of Ranni's quest. You can, however, still find Blaidd outside the steps of Ranni's Rise, where you can fight him once more to claim all his gear for yourself, and you can also speak to Iji once more for some more lore to tie things up.

It's also very important to note than once Ranni's quest has been concluded, you can then opt in for the 'Age of Stars' ending after defeating the final boss at the end of the game.

Hope you enjoy Ranni's questline! Need more help? Jump back to our list of Elden Ring bosses or our Elden Ring walkthrough.