Best Runes Guide (17k from one enemy)

Tired of killing gargoyles and giants? Earn 17k runes with just a bow and arrow.

Overview

If you're tired of farming for enemies that drop between 5k to 8k runes and you're trying to reach level +100 and over, then this guide will help you get there. All you need is a bow, an arrow, and some patience.

Step 1 - Golden Scarab

First you'll need to acquire the Golden Scarab, this talisman will boost the runes dropped by enemies.
You can find it after defeating the Cleanrot Knight boss found in Abandoned Cave. It can be accesed by going east from Smoldering Wall site of grace and walking across canyon by using tree branches.

Head up to that corner and you'll find fallen tree branch leading to the cave.

Go straight down to the very end of cave, and defeat the Cleanrot Knight, and you'll receive the Golden Scarab.

Step 2 - Missionary's Cookbook [2]

Next you'll need to head to Murkwater Cave in Limgrave, where you will find a couple of soldiers and a boss to fight.


To avoid any spoilers, I won't name the boss in this location, but I can say that if you decide to spare the boss, they will sell you a valuable item. You'll need to purchase Missionary's Cookbook (2).

This cookbook will allow you to craft the Gold-Pickled Fowl Foot, which also increases the number of runes dropped by enemies. This consumable along with the Golden-Scarab will boost your runes drops greatly.

To craft this item, you will need:

1. Rowa Fruit x3
   
2. Four-Toed Fowl Foot
   
3. Gold Firefly

Step 3 - Gold-Pickled Fowl Foot

You can find Rowa Fruit all over the map in Limgrave, it's not hard to find. To get the Four-Toed Fowl Foot, head to the Impassible Bridge in Caelid.

There you'll find 3 birds sitting on the southern edge of the map. Kill them, rest at Site of Grace, rinse and repeat until you have enough to craft.

To get the Gold Fireflies, go to the Isolated Merchants Shack in the Weeping Peninsula. Head up the hill towards the east where you'll find a shallow pool of Land Octopus chilling out in the open.

You can pick up around 10 Gold Fireflies at this location, again, rest at the Site of Grace, rinse and repeat until you have enough to craft.

Now that you have all of the ingredients, craft as many Gold-Pickled Fowl Foot as you like, I'd recommend x100 just be safe since you'll want to use as many as you can without having to come back and forth to farm the ingredients.

Step 4 - Pureblood Knight's Medal

You'll want to start White-Faced Varré's quest line to get to the location where we'll be farming the runes. You don't need to complete the questline but you will need an item that he gives you later on so you can reach the location.

Head up to the Rose Church in Liurnia of the Lakes after you've spoken to the the Two Fingers at the Table of Lost Grace.

There he'll be waiting for you. He'll ask you about the Two Fingers, tell him they're not what they seem to be, and he'll give you a Festering Bloody Finger to invade other players. Invade other players 3 more times, and then return to Varrés. You don't need to kill the Host of Fingers once you've invaded, you just need to invade someone else, dying or killing while invading won't matter.

Once you return to him, he'll ask you to soak a piece of cloth in Maidens blood. You don't need to kill any Maidens, so head straight up to the Church of Inhibition up north.
There you'll find the dead Maiden, just go up to her and soak the cloth in her blood.

With that done, head back to Varrés and accept his gift. Once you return with the blood-soaked Favor, he rewards with a reusable Bloody Finger. If you speak with him again, you will receive the Pureblood Knight's Medal that can lead to Mohgwyn's palace where you can fight Mohg, Lord of Blood. This is the earliest access to Mohg boss fight.

Step 5 - Farming Time!

Now that you've made it to Mohgwyn's Palace, head up the stairs in front of you, touch and rest at the Site of Grace, and head back down where you teleported from.

Back down the stairs, you'll see a misty forest, from there you need to make your way to a hill-top by the left-side, use Torrent to get through all of the enemies ahead.

Now that you've made it to the location, equip the Golden Scarab, chew on the Gold-Pickled Fowl Foot, and equip a bow. Head over to the sleeping enemies, and aim at the Giant Bird in the blood swamps.
Take aim, shoot an arrow at the bird, and watch it fall to the abyss.

Congratulations! You've just gained 17k runes from a single enemy!!!!

With this simple farming spot I've gained 1million runes in just a few minutes. And so can you.

Update 1.03: Since the recent update, the barrier around the edge of the blood-swamps has been removed, so you no longer have to go to the other side of the cliff. Just go to the nearest edge, shoot the bird, and profit

End

This was the best farming strategy I've come across and it's helped me level up at great speed. I hope this guide helps you all. Leave a comment, review or like if this helped you in the Lands Between.

[Horhe]

why not just kill the sleeping enemies?

[卄モ尺モ匕工匚]

Killed Verre though

[Grimm God]

Read through the comments and was surprised to see no one mention using Rock Sling to aggro the bird. Use the spell and you can forget buying or crafting arrows.

[Jaylol]

Cool. I figured this out on my own earlier and then found this. That Bird is lol.

[squince]

I've been doing this with Spectral Lance Ash of War on a spear. You can lock on the bird and throw the lance. Once you know when you can throw it and hit the bird, instead of hitting the tree, you can get in a good rhythm. Takes less time than aiming with a bow and requires a lot less aiming.

[coyle's boytoy]

it's the worst thing ever, thank you

[Himeh]

easier to do post end game unless you have the blasphemous sword but still will take time to take down the the closer enemies

[Cobalt_Afterlife]

Are there any other items that augment rune collection?

[Light]

I can easily make the shots. I was more curious about which shortbows people found to be useful. I mean I could always just dump smithing stones in them and compare the stats at high levels. Also I can make the shot as soon as I get up from the grace point and make the bird fall in with just that one quick shot. I don't have any problems hitting the bird quickly. Also the talisman I was talking about pretty much gives you a reach with the longbow that covers the full range of possible spawn points for that bird.

[Dawnseeker]

@Light After getting up from the site of grace, manually aim at the bird from the tiny ledge next to the first albinauric and fire when it turns to walk away from the tree. You will aggro it every time. Just retested with basic shortbow. If you really hate vendor trips you can switch to any crossbow. Tested with Soldier's Crossbow and it works fine. No talismans needed.