Elden Ring Ranni quest and how to get the Dark Moon Ring and Moonlight Greatsword
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.
On this page:
Looking for direction? Our what to do first in Elden Ring page can help.
Where to find Ranni in Elden Ring
You can meet Ranni very early on, once you have spoken to Melia and unlocked Torrent at the Gatefront Site of Grace then travelled back to the Church of Elleh. Ranni will appear there - giving you the Spirit Calling Bell that allows you to summon spirit ashes.
To begin Ranni's quest proper, you have to find her at Ranni's Rise. Reaching this location requires you to head to Carian 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.
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 before you can reach Radhan himself. By following Ranni's questline, however, you'll be able to skip this unpleasantness.
Also, at Three Sisters, there is a tower to the south called Seluvius' Rise where you'll meet the sorcerer Seluvius. 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 Seluvius again and he'll give you a letter of introduction to Selen.
If you haven't already done so when you were exploring Limgrave, Selen (our recommendation for a sorcery teacher early in the game) is located beneath Waypoint Ruins where 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 Radhan.
If you had spoken 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 Radhan, he'll mention the festival of combat 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 Radhan.
Of course, even if you've skipped the tough mini-bosses beforehand, Radhan 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 Radhan, 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.
How to find the Finger Slayer 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 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 Finger Slayer 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.
It's worth noting with the Finger Slayer 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 this 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 Nokstrella and get the Dark Moon Ring
When you next return to Ranni's Rise in Elden Ring, you'll see that Ranni has disappeared, her spot 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 as well as to another eternal city, Nokstrella. 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 Nokstrella to kill some shades. Make sure you continue talking to her a few more times by resting at other Sites of Grace until you no longer have an option to speak to her.
To find Nokstrella, continue down the path past the large centipede-like creature shooting lighting and the giant ants and you'll eventually reach Nokstrella, with a ladder taking you down to another Site of Grace.
You can explore Nokstrella'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 Nokstrella Waterfall Basin.
There's some basilisks that you can run past to avoid being cursed and you'll come to an area that's taken an ominous shade of red. Rather apt as you'll also be invaded by Blaidd. Kill him and Ranni will thank you, giving you the Discarded Palace Key.
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 to respec your character. 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 navigate Lake of Rot
From where you defeated Blaidd in Elden Ring, continue to a 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 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 bug guards 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. Approach it 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, 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'.
Once you have settled on a starting class and starting Keepsake item, you should first work out how to level up, how to respec and use Ashes of War.Need some direction from there? Try finding map fragments, Golden Seeds, Talismans and some of our best weapon and best armor set choices.If you want to improve your prowess, then we recommend rune farming - especially before taking onMagrit, Godrick the Grafted, Crystalian, Leonine Misbegotten, Starscourge Radahn (required as part of the Ranni quest), Red Wolf of Radagon and Renalla Queen of the Full Moon after you have found the Glintstone Key location.
How to find Ranni for the last time and get the Moonlight Greatsword
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.
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 her 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.
Hope you enjoy Ranni's questline!
