Great Rune Options Before Lyndell { Early/Midgame Spoilers }

[CtenosaurOaxacana]

So no matter what entrance you try to use, 2 Great Runes are required before you can progress into the Lyndell Royal Capital. As far as I know, you can access 5 out of 7 of the Great Rune bosses before entry.

~ Limgrave/Stormhill is very straight forward, go through that legacy dungeon to beat boss and get Great Rune.

~Liurnia of the Lakes is also pretty simple, though requires finding a key for entry to the central dungeon first.

~ Caelid's boss unlocks after getting to Altus Plateau first, or progressing far enough in Ranni's quest. Also a required boss to get access to secret underground Lyndell entrance.

~ Mount Gelmir's boss requires either doing a series of quests at their dungeon, or exploring & fighting through it as usual.

~ Mohgwyn Palace's boss can only be accessed via a pvp questline, if you want to get to them before Lyndell anyway.

~ The 6th boss is in the capital itself

~ The 7th boss is beyond the capital at the Haligtree, a secret area beyond a secret area.

Also, none of the 'mending runes' count as 'great runes' for entry, these quest runes are only for choosing different endings.

Can anyone confirm if all this info is correct, especially the bit about being able to choose 5 out of 7, and not counting mending runes? There isn't some secret 8th or 9th Great Rune either, right?

[CtenosaurOaxacana]

Bump, because I'd really like confirmation from Elden Ring veterans about whether this info is correct or not.

[Sabaithal]

You forgot to list the one in Liurnia lakes academy. Though you can't equip that one, it does count as a great rune.

[Mother Serpent]

All of this seems correct. However, there's something I'm willing to try in another run. You can also get to the Capital through a teleporter right next to Fia, in the Deeproot Depths. All you need to do to get to this place is kill Radahn in Caelid.
Since it's possible to activate the Festival just by getting to the Plateau, it is theoretically possible to get inside the Capital by killing a single shardbearer, instead of two.

[Sabaithal]

Originally posted by Mother Serpent:

All of this seems correct. However, there's something I'm willing to try in another run. You can also get to the Capital through a teleporter right next to Fia, in the Deeproot Depths. All you need to do to get to this place is kill Radahn in Caelid.
Since it's possible to activate the Festival just by getting to the Plateau, it is theoretically possible to get inside the Capital by killing a single shardbearer, instead of two.

Technically the festival is activated by getting both halves of the decanus medals. Or at least that's what's listed as the official reason.

Though I am genuinely curious to see if the game changes something if you do manage to get in there without having 2 runes.

[Ragingfirefrog]

Originally posted by Mother Serpent:

All of this seems correct. However, there's something I'm willing to try in another run. You can also get to the Capital through a teleporter right next to Fia, in the Deeproot Depths. All you need to do to get to this place is kill Radahn in Caelid.
Since it's possible to activate the Festival just by getting to the Plateau, it is theoretically possible to get inside the Capital by killing a single shardbearer, instead of two.

I'm not sure. I can't say about the rune amount, but the game wouldn't let into the capitol until I visited the round table. It would probably be the same with the great runes. The door after the draconic tree sentinel is blocked and the teleporter by fia is deactivated.

[Mother Serpent]

Originally posted by Ragingfirefrog:

I'm not sure. I can't say about the rune amount, but the game wouldn't let into the capitol until I visited the round table. It would probably be the same with the great runes. The door after the draconic tree sentinel is blocked and the teleporter by fia is deactivated.

Interesting... I didn't know the teleport would be deactivated. I intended to try this myself in NG++, but it looks like this solves the mystery.

Also,

Originally posted by Sabaithal:

Technically the festival is activated by getting both halves of the decanus medals. Or at least that's what's listed as the official reason.

I can confirm the Festival starts after you get to the Plateau, even if you skip the lift and just go though the Wyrm cave. In NG I tried to explore the most without killing sharebearers. I killed only Godryk, and went to the Plateau through the Wyrm. The Festival was hapenning when I got to Stormveil Castle.

[Sabaithal]

Originally posted by Mother Serpent:

I can confirm the Festival starts after you get to the Plateau, even if you skip the lift and just go though the Wyrm cave. In NG I tried to explore the most without killing sharebearers. I killed only Godryk, and went to the Plateau through the Wyrm. The Festival was hapenning when I got to Stormveil Castle.

Another multi-condition one then. Not hugely surprising I suppose.

[CtenosaurOaxacana]

Can anyone confirm though whether there's an 8th Great Rune boss anywhere, and if any of the Mending Runes for different endings count?

Also, it's definitely difficult but possible to get the Great Rune at Moghwyn Palace before entering Lyndell, right? Or did I get confused about certain requirements for White Mask Varre (aka first NPC you probably meet in the game)?

Originally posted by Sabaithal:

You forgot to list the one in Liurnia lakes academy. Though you can't equip that one, it does count as a great rune.

I mentioned them together in the first point on the list, because they're the two earliest, easiest, and most simple to reach. I'll go ahead and split it in two though.

Originally posted by Mother Serpent:

All of this seems correct. However, there's something I'm willing to try in another run. You can also get to the Capital through a teleporter right next to Fia, in the Deeproot Depths. All you need to do to get to this place is kill Radahn in Caelid.
Since it's possible to activate the Festival just by getting to the Plateau, it is theoretically possible to get inside the Capital by killing a single shardbearer, instead of two.

Someone else already tried but it didn't work. They went into Nokron after Radahn fight & took the secret entry into Deeproot, but then when they finally reached the teleporter into Lyndell they were denied: 'You cannot use this without more Great Runes'

Originally posted by Sabaithal:

Technically the festival is activated by getting both halves of the decanus medals. Or at least that's what's listed as the official reason.
Though I am genuinely curious to see if the game changes something if you do manage to get in there without having 2 runes.

You can activate the Radahn 'festival' / boss battle by using any method to gain access to Altus Plateau, or by proceeding far enough through Ranni's questline until you're prompted to go face Radahn. Neither path requires any other Great Rune boss kills to reach that point. But there's still the problem of the portal requiring 2 runes for entry, just like the normal route.

Originally posted by Ragingfirefrog:

I'm not sure. I can't say about the rune amount, but the game wouldn't let into the capitol until I visited the round table. It would probably be the same with the great runes. The door after the draconic tree sentinel is blocked and the teleporter by fia is deactivated.

I've heard that visiting the roundtable at least once was a required step too, and possibly even talking to the Two Fingers behind the door unlocked after getting 1st great rune. I can't confirm any of that though.

[Mother Serpent]

Originally posted by Vulpes Velox:

Can anyone confirm though whether there's an 8th Great Rune boss anywhere, and if any of the Mending Runes for different endings count?

Also, it's definitely difficult but possible to get the Great Rune at Moghwyn Palace before entering Lyndell, right? Or did I get confused about certain requirements for White Mask Varre (aka first NPC you probably meet in the game)?

I killed Mogh before getting to Lyndell, so I can confirm that you can get his rune before going to the Capital.
Also, it's unlikely there's a 8th Great Rune in the game since every other sharebearer is connected to a Steam achievement. I'm currently only missing a couple ending achievements, so I would think I got all the special bosses From put in the game. Also, only one Divine Tower allowed for multiple Great Rune activation, and the Great Runes you could activated thee were from the brothers Mogh and Morgott. So, everything points to only 7 Great Runes in the Game (counting with Renala's, which doesn't need to be activated).

[TripSin]

You don't actually have to participate in the shtshow that is Dark Souls PvP for Varre's quest. You can just sever yourself out as soon as you invade three times.

[Sabaithal]

Originally posted by TripSin:

You don't actually have to participate in the shtshow that is Dark Souls PvP for Varre's quest. You can just sever yourself out as soon as you invade three times.

Or just go in wearing nothing but an octopus head and a torch and ♥♥♥♥ around until either the host runs off a cliff, or someone kills you when you all get bored. Had lots of fun doing this, drawing stuff with prism stones, having fistfights, etc.

[TommyEV]

Originally posted by Vulpes Velox:

~ Mount Gelmir's boss requires either doing a series of quests at their dungeon, or exploring & fighting through it as usual.

The quest takes you past the capital so you can only kill him directly if you want.

[strangerism]

isn't there a sending gate to the Capital's divine bridge in Weeping Peninsula tower? I haven't seen it mentioned here

[Mother Serpent]

Originally posted by strangerism:

isn't there a sending gate to the Capital's divine bridge in Weeping Peninsula tower? I haven't seen it mentioned here

It takes you to a isolated area in the capital. There's no way to explore the Capital by using this sending gate.

[TommyEV]

Originally posted by strangerism:

isn't there a sending gate to the Capital's divine bridge in Weeping Peninsula tower? I haven't seen it mentioned here

Yes but you can't go down the elevator unless you get very specific help from an invader.