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All Elden Ring locations, rankedGo outside and touch some grace
Go outside and touch some grace
Ever have an idea that you regret the instant you commit to realising it? That’s how I feel about my decision to rank all ofElden Ring’s major locations. It turns out that, not only are there a lot of locations in Elden Ring, but the definition of a distinct location is largely up for debate. The opening area of Limgrave, for example, could be as many as four separate regions (East Limgrave, West Limgrave, Stormhill and Weeping Peninsula) depending on how you interpret it. That’s not to mention all of the dungeons, caves, chapels, and other landmarks scattered throughout the Lands Between.
Yet like a newly minted Wretch squaring up toMargitthe Fell Omen for the first time, I am prepared to plough on despite the pain that awaits. Below you’ll find a comprehensive ranking of Elden Ring’s major regions and legacy dungeons, based on the admittedly woolly criteria of how fun and interesting each location is to explore. So grab your map, put on your boots, and update your life insurance policy as we embark upon a grand tour of From Software’s magnificent fantasy realm.
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22. Lake Of Rot
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/FromSoftware/Bandai Namco Entertainment
21. Forbidden Lands
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20. Consecrated Snowfield
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19. Roundtable Hold
I honestly wasn’t sure whether to include theRoundtable Holdin this list at all. It is technically a location in Elden Ring, although it’s entirely disconnected from the main world, and mostly serves as a menu you can walk around. Beyond serving as a waystation for the other Tarnished characters in the game, it’s not a particularly interesting place. That said, I prefer to spend time here than any of the locations lower down the list, so it’s probably worthy of inclusion.
18. Ainsel River
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There are two underground rivers in Elden Ring, and Ainsel River is the weaker of them. It’s smaller, more awkward to navigate, and involves fighting far too many giant ants. It does feature one of the more iconic locations in Elden Ring, however, a vast throne room where a giant skeleton watches over its ruined domain.
17. Subterranean Shunning Grounds
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Elden Ring’s equivalent ofDark Souls' Depths, the Subterranean Shunning Grounds is a cross between a prison and a sewer. As sewer levels go it’s pretty impressive, and is also where you find several of the game’s most important characters. Nonetheless, it is ultimately a sewer level, obliging me to mark it down.
16. Nokstella, Eternal City
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15. Altus Plateau
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This one’s likely to be controversial, but I think Altus Plateau is, overall, a pretty dull region. Yes, it has gorgeous golden lighting and pleasant, autumnal vibes. And yes, the village full of madwomen is a neat area. But it lacks the weirdness of Liurnia, or the abject horror of Caelid. Also, it has a boss called “Wormface”, which is hardly FromSoft at its most inspired.
14. Deeproot Depths
Like Consecrated Snowfield, Deeproot Depths has a bit of a “cobbled together out of leftovers” feel. But it does a much better job of mixing those leftovers into an interesting dish. It starts out with a knotty ramble through those eponymous roots, which acts a teaser for the Haligtree. Then there’s a tricky battle through a ruined town with Mausoleum soldiers and legless, fire-breathing gargoyles, before you encounter one of the weirder boss fights in the game.
13. Mountaintops of the Giants
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Now we’re getting into the good stuff. Mountaintops of the Giants is the last hurrah for Elden Ring’s open world, a frigid, rugged hike toward the Forge of the Giants, after which the game becomes a linear trek to the finish line. The Mountaintops often feel like a supersized callback to Dark Souls' Painted World of Ariamis, with its gorge-spanning bridges and snow-dusted fortifications. There are also some great sub-areas to explore, like the frozen lake where you battle a dragon, and the imposing walls of Castle Sol, where you can grab the second half of the Haligtree secret medallion. But it has one major downside – Fire Giant – a strong contender forthe worst boss in the game.
12. Siofra River
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Siofra River provides one of the great “reveal” moments in Elden Ring, namely the first time you stumble across the River Well in Limgrave, and travel down, down, down to discover a vast subterranean area frocked with ancient ruins and its own, magically suspended night sky. Indeed, there’s an oddly peaceful vibe to Siofra River’s underground forests, despite the abundance of hostile claypeople and burly viking fellows who can snipe you from a mile away with magical arrows. Even the boss fight against the Ancient Spirit has a curious serenity to it. The closest Elden Ring gets to a mindfulness retreat.
11. Academy of Raya Lucaria
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10. Mt Gelmir
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9. Caelid
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Caelid also sees Elden Ring at its most cinematic. The run up toRadahn’s Redoubtis arguably the closest Elden Ring gets to a scripted action sequence, while the battle against the mad General himself provides a rare example of camaraderie in Elden Ring’s lonely world.
8. Limgrave
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As Elden Ring’s starting area, Limgrave has an unfair advantage over the other regions. It’s the place where you encounter many of the game’s most interesting features for the first time. It’s the place where you first encounter a dragon, and where you first see many of the sub-bosses, like theTree Sentineland the Burial Watchdog.
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But this doesn’t change the fact that it is one of Elden Ring’s best areas. Its air of dilapidated beauty is quintessentially FromSoft, and there’s enough going on in Limgrave alone that it feels like a self-contained game in and of itself. My favourite part of Limgrave, though is the ride across the Weeping Peninsula down to Castle Morne (see right), and the subsequent encounter with the game’s first Golem. It’s the point where Elden Ring most strongly channels Team Ico’s Shadow of the Colossus, a powerful justification of FromSoft’s transition to an open world.
7. Nokron, Eternal City
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The fact that you can only access Nokron with the help of a meteor strike automatically makes it one of Elden Ring’s cooler locations. But there’s so much else going on in Elden Ring’s ancient, sunken metropolis. It’s crumbling, forgotten architecture and menagerie of strange inhabitants are strongly reminiscent of Robert E. Howard’s original Conan stories. It’s also here where players encounter thefabled Mimic Tear, producing both one of Elden Ring’s curious boss fights, and arguably thebest Spirit Summonin the entire game.
6. Stormveil Castle
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Stormveil is also the area of Elden Ring that has most significance when you’re not in it. At the start of the game, reaching it is your first major goal, and its crenelated towers constantly loom over your game progression like a watchful sentinel. Afterwards, it becomes a metric for your later progression, its dwindling silhouette nearly always visible from the higher plateaus as a memory of your early adventures.
5. Crumbling Farum Azula
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4. Leyndell, Royal Capital
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A strong contender for Elden Ring’s most spectacular location, Leyndell is the game’s glittering capital city at the foot of the Erdtree. Indeed, one of the most impressive things about Leyndell is how the game manages to keep its appearance a secret for so long, only revealing its full glory once you’ve completed the entirety of Altus Plateau. Between it and the later Ashen variant, it’s also arguably the most important area in the game. It has more boss unique boss fights than anywhere else, and it’s also where many of the most significant plot points play out. That said, its size and complexity somewhat play against it, making it a difficult and occasionally frustrating area to navigate.
3. Miquella’s Haligtree
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It’s absurd that Miquella’s Haligtree is an optional location. It’s one of the most elaborate and imaginative dungeons in the whole game. The entire journey through the Haligtree is one long descent, from the gnarled branches of the Haligtree’s canopy, down to a large town built around the tree’s enormous trunk. But the town is a mere taster for what awaits at the bottom of the tree, whereupon you encounter Elphael, a glittering city to rival Leyndell built as a brace for the tree itself. Navigate through this expansive cityscape, and you’re rewarded with the most infamous boss fight in the game, clashing blades with Malenia, Blade of Miquella.
2. Liurnia of the Lakes
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One might argue that the power of Liurnia relies heavily on its opening reveal, which presents players with the most famous panorama in Elden Ring. That astonishing vista, with Liurnia’s misted swamps sweeping away to the basalt crag on which sits the Academy of Raya Lucaria, is perhaps the key moment where Elden Ring cements its greatness in the minds of players.
But not only is Liurnia gorgeous from pretty much any angle, a masterpiece of virtual landscaping, it has substance to back up its style. One of Elden Ring’s largest areas, it has a ton of fascinating sub-locations to discover, from the hidden village of the Albinaurics to the deeply cursed Caria Manor, infested with terrifying spider-hands. Liurnia doesn’t reveal the full extent of its secrets until much later in the game, with its Western cliffside inaccessible until deep into Ranni’s questline.
1. Volcano Manor
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / FromSoftware Inc, Bandai Namco EntertainmentImage credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/FromSoftware/Bandai Namco EntertainmentImage credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/FromSoftware/Bandai Namco EntertainmentImage credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/FromSoftware/Bandai Namco Entertainment
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / FromSoftware Inc, Bandai Namco Entertainment
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/FromSoftware/Bandai Namco Entertainment
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/FromSoftware/Bandai Namco Entertainment
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/FromSoftware/Bandai Namco Entertainment
