Best rune farm route in Elden Ring Nightreign

Trying to establish a fast, clean rune farm route in Elden Ring Nightreign is a troublesome affair. You’ve only got two days to get as strong as possible before you face off against the Nightlord, but you’ve also got to grab a decent weapon, potentially upgrade it, collect passive bonuses, and any consumables or talismans you want—it’s a lot to get done in a matter of minutes.

Unlike the original Elden Ring where all you had to do to farm runes was slaughter twenty dozing Albinaurics with a legendary sword skill over and over, in Nightreign you actually have to be tactical about the time you spend.

Luckily for you I’ve spent far more time than I’d like farming runes and have a few handy tips for boosting rune acquisition. I’ve also put together the best route you can take to gather runes while still jumping through the other hoops you need to successfully defeat any given Nightlord.

Elden Ring Nightreign best rune farm tips

Unlike the original Elden Ring, rune farming is a little different in Nightreign. In that game, quickly filling your XP coffers relied on being able to rest at a site of grace to make enemies reappear so you could rinse and repeat, but nothing respawns in Nightreign.

You have priorities to fulfill beyond merely levelling up as well, such as acquiring a decent weapon with an affinity the Nightlord is weak to and grabbing more gear with passive bonuses, as well as talismans and consumables.

Before I lay out the recommended route, there are a few things you should do if you want maximise your rune gain:

• Equip a relic with the “Increased rune acquisition for self and allies” effect. If you’re playing with friends on comms and you all have them, definitely equip this on every character. Remember to do this in the Roundtable Hold before starting a run. It’s also worth noting that these seem to stack for each player, meaning you can equip multiple on your individual Nightfarer.
• Use Gold-Pickled Fowl Feet before you beat bosses. You could also equip a relic with “Items confer effect to all nearby allies” if you have it, so everyone gets extra runes when you do use one.
• Interact with the bushes surrounded by golden fireflies. You’ll see these around the map as you’re exploring and they grant a temporary buff to rune acquisition, so are well worth grabbing when you’re running around defeating normal enemies.
• Find a Gold Scarab or a passive buff. Chances are you probably won’t get a Gold Scarab talisman when defeating scarabs around the map, but if you do it will give some extra runes. You’ll also occasionally be given the option to take a buff that lets you increase the amount of runes obtained after you defeat a boss.

Elden Ring Nightreign rune farm route

With those above tips in mind, and after a whole lot of trial runs, here’s my recommended route for the best Nightreign rune farming while also grabbing what you need to defeat a Nightlord:

Day one

1. Head to a fort first if possible (castle icon) and defeat the boss and enemies. This will get you your first couple of levels, but also a good chance at a Stonesword Key in the chest at the top of the fort behind the boss, and a map in the upstairs corner room for nearby talisman scarabs.
2. Head to a church if nearby to grab a flask upgrade plus potentially some Gold Pickled Fowl Feet, plus Boiled Crab, Prawn or Exalted Flesh.
3. Now do as many bosses as you can, aiming for encampments, cathedrals, and ruins. If possible, aim for those marked with the symbol that matches the Nightlord’s weakness, as you’re more likely to get a weapon of that affinity there. If you visit a cathedral, check behind the altar for weapons and a Stonesword Key, and check the basement if there is one for Sacred Seals with healing spells attached.
4. To finish off day one, do what Evergaols you can using your Stonesword Keys and make sure to use your Gold Pickled Fowl Foot before they conclude. Evergaols grant an extra 10, 20, or 30,000 runes as their optional reward, making them pretty lucrative.
5. Complete the night one boss and make sure to save one Gold Pickled Fowl Foot and pop it shortly before you end the fight.

Day two

1. The second day should be all about hunting Great Enemy roaming bosses if you want maximum runes—these appear on the map with little monster face icons. This should also net you some decent weapons if you haven’t already got one. Be warned, these are tough, and you’ll want to be around level 7 or up to face them, though it depends on which boss, too. One great place to find lucrative Great Enemy bosses is in the Shifting Earth event regions, such as the Fallingstar Beast and Valiant Gargoyle in The Crater, who both offer big rewards.
2. While you’re doing this, grab any remaining churches you can for more Gold Pickled Fowl Foot you can use while defeating Great Enemies, and additional flask charges for the final boss. Also use up any last Stonesword Keys on Evergaols.
3. Same as the previous night, save one last Gold Pickled Fowl Foot for when you defeat the night two boss to get that rune bonus.

While your path obviously depends on the arrangement of the map, just generally fighting bosses—fort, encampment, ruin, cathedral, evergaol on first day, roaming on second—will net you a lot of runes, especially if you use those fowl feet at the right time so you have the buff when each boss dies. It’ll give you lots of potential passive buffs and weapons you can grab for additional bonuses.