Introduction to the Lands Between: Navigating Working Elden Ring Endings
Embarking on a journey through FromSoftware’s magnum opus, Elden Ring, is a monumental task that requires patience, skill, and careful decision-making. As you traverse the sprawling, atmospheric landscapes of the Lands Between, every choice you make shapes the ultimate fate of this shattered world. Finding a working Elden Ring endings guide updated is crucial for completionists and lore enthusiasts alike, especially with the release of the massive Shadow of the Erdtree expansion. With multiple distinct conclusions available to the Tarnished, understanding the intricate questlines, missable items, and prerequisites is essential.
Whether you aim to sit upon the Elden Throne as the traditional Elden Lord, plunge the realm into eternal darkness, or introduce a completely new order overseen by a cosmic deity, your path requires meticulous planning. This comprehensive, up-to-date guide breaks down every single working ending in Elden Ring, offering a step-by-step walkthrough to ensure you lock in your desired cinematic climax without locking yourself out of vital achievements.
---
Understanding How Elden Ring Endings Work
Before diving into the specific questlines, it is vital to understand the mechanics behind triggering these conclusions. Unlike previous Soulsborne titles, Elden Ring gives players an unprecedented level of flexibility at the very end of the game, provided you back up your save files or manage your quest progression carefully.
After defeating the final bosses of the main campaign, you will find a Site of Grace. Interacting with this grace allows you to choose your path. However, certain endings—specifically the Frenzied Flame—act as a "lock-out," overriding all other choices unless you take extreme measures to reverse them.
---
The Standard Elden Ring Endings
These are the foundational conclusions of the game, revolving primarily around Queen Marika, the Golden Order, and the Greater Will. While they share a similar cinematic structure, the ideological implications for the Lands Between vary wildly based on the Mending Runes you have collected throughout your journey.
1. The Age of Fracture (Standard Ending)
This is the default ending of Elden Ring and requires no complex side quests. If you simply defeat the final boss and interact with Marika without having any special Mending Runes in your inventory, you will trigger the Age of Fracture.
- Repair the Elden Ring normally using the fractured pieces.
- Restorations bring back the status quo under the Greater Will.
- No missable side quests are required for this baseline conclusion.
While underwhelming for players seeking deep lore alterations, it serves as the safe, canonical starting point for understanding the plight of the Tarnished.
---
2. Age of the Duskborn (Fia’s Ending)
If you want to introduce the concept of "Living in Death" and elevate the Deathroot narrative, Fia’s questline is your target. This working Elden Ring ending alters the fundamental laws of the Golden Order to embrace those who live in death.
- Meet Fia at the Roundtable Hold and allow her to hold you, receiving the Baldachin's Blessing.
- Talk to her until she gives you the Weathered Dagger and asks you to find its owner.
- Give the dagger to D, Hunter of the Dead, who will later be found dead in a side room at the Roundtable Hold.
- Loot the Twinned Armor from D's body and proceed to the Deeproot Depths.
- Defeat the Fia’s Champions boss fight and give the Cursemark of Death (obtained from the Divine Tower of Liurnia) to Fia.
- Reload the area, enter her dream to defeat Lichdragon Fortissax, and obtain the Mending Rune of the Death-Prince.
- After beating the final boss, use this rune to trigger the Age of the Duskborn.
---
3. Age of Order (Goldmask’s Ending)
For those who believe the Golden Order itself is not flawed, but rather its human (or demi-god) interpreters who corrupted it, Brother Corhyn and Goldmask offer a path of absolute logical perfection.
- Locate Brother Corhyn at the Roundtable Hold, then find him on the Altus Plateau.
- Find Goldmask nearby on a broken bridge. Speak to both to reunite them.
- Meet them again near the Colosseum in the Capital City of Leyndell.
- Cast the incantation Law of Regression (requires 37 Intelligence) in front of the giant statue of Radagon while having at least 37 Intelligence. This reveals the secret: Radagon is Marika.
- Tell Goldmask this secret, then progress the story until Leyndell becomes the Ashen Capital.
- Find Goldmask’s body near the base of the Erdtree and loot the Mending Rune of Perfect Order.
- Use this rune upon defeating the final boss.
---
4. Blessing of Despair (Dung Eater’s Ending)
Often considered the "darkest" of the standard-style endings, the Blessing of Despair curses every living being in the Lands Between, dooming their descendants to be born as Omen, trapped in a cycle of suffering.
- Find the Dung Eater’s phantom in the Roundtable Hold and receive the Seedbed Curse hint.
- Locate actual Seedbed Curses hidden throughout Leyndell and Volcano Manor.
- Give the Dung Eater at least one Seedbed Curse to get the Sewermultistory Key.
- Free his real physical body located deep in the Subterranean Shunning-Grounds.
- Feed him five Seedbed Curses in total to acquire the Mending Rune of the Fell Curse.
- Present this rune at the end of the game to plunge the world into a horrific, cursed reality.
---
The Alternate and Cosmic Endings
These endings entirely bypass the traditional Golden Order framework, introducing entirely new paradigms governed by different Empyreans or outer gods.
5. Age of the Stars (Ranni’s Ending)
Undeniably the most popular and expansive ending in Elden Ring, Ranni’s questline is a massive, continent-spanning adventure that involves deep lore, multiple hidden areas like Nokron and the Lake of Rot, and iconic boss fights like Astel, Naturalborn of the Void.
- Meet Ranni at Ranni's Rise in Caria Manor (Liurnia of the Lakes).
- Join her service and interact with her phantom retainers: Blaidd, Iji, and Seluvis.
- Travel to Nokron, Eternal City, to retrieve the Fingerslayer Blade.
- Give the blade to Ranni to receive the Carian Inverted Statue, allowing you to access the Divine Tower of Liurnia and the Cursemark of Death.
- Head to Ainsel River Main, pick up the miniature Ranni doll, and talk to it at a Site of Grace.
- Defeat the Baleful Shadow in Lake of Rot, obtain the Dispersed Dark Moon Ring, and use it to open the locked chest in the Grand Library of Raya Lucaria (where Rennala is).
- Take the coffin down to the deep abyss, defeat Astel, and ascend to the Moonlight Altar.
- Enter the Cathedral of Manus Celes, drop down the hole, and place the ring on Ranni's finger.
- Upon defeating the final boss, summon Ranni using her blue summon sign on the floor to trigger the Age of the Stars, ushering in a thousand-year voyage of the cold night and the stars.
---
6. Lord of Frenzied Flame (The Flame of Frenzy Ending)
If you want to watch the world burn and utterly destroy the Greater Will, the Three Fingers await you deep beneath the capital. Be warned: taking this path brands you and locks you into this ending unless you complete a grueling cleansing questline involving Miquella’s Needle.
- Navigate the perilous platforming puzzle in the Subterranean Shunning-Grounds beneath Leyndell, Ashen Capital.
- Locate the door sealed by roots near the Frenzied Flame Proscription Site of Grace.
- Remove all your armor and weapons and walk through the door to receive the embrace of the Three Fingers. Your body will be permanently scarred, and Melina will abandon you, vowing to kill you herself.
- If you wish to undo this, you must complete Millicent’s questline, defeat Malenia, use the Unalloyed Gold Needle on the flower in her arena to get Miquella’s Needle, and use it inside Dragonlord Placidusax’s boss arena in Crumbling Farum Azula.
- Otherwise, beating the game with the flame active triggers the apocalyptic Lord of Frenzied Flame cinematic.
---
Pro-Tips for Securing Your Desired Ending
Managing multiple characters or save backups is the safest way to experience all working Elden Ring endings without playing the entire 100+ hour campaign six separate times. On PC, you can copy your save data from the appdata folder before interacting with the final game-ending prompt. On consoles, utilizing cloud storage manual uploads/downloads achieves the same result.
Always double-check your inventory for vital quest items like the Mending Runes or Ranni’s ring before heading into the final encounters of Crumbling Farum Azula and the Erdtree Sanctuary.
---
