You've finally reached the Altus Plateau, your weapon is feeling a bit weak, and you realize you’re out of Smithing Stones. It’s a classic FromSoftware headache. You could spend hours farming those annoying imps or mining nodes in tunnels, but honestly, that sucks. There is a better way. By finding every Elden Ring bell bearing smithing stone, you can simply buy your way to a max-level weapon. No more farming. No more stress. Just pure, unfiltered power.
Buying your upgrades from the Twin Maiden Husks at Roundtable Hold is basically the only way to keep multiple weapons viable. Elden Ring encourages experimentation, but that experimentation dies the second you run out of upgrade materials. If you want to swap from a Bloodhound's Fang to a Claymore, you need these bearings.
The First Hurdle: Getting Started in Liurnia
Most players stumble upon their first bell bearing by accident, usually in the Raya Lucaria Crystal Tunnel. It's tucked away in the cliffs of eastern Liurnia. You have to kill the Crystalian boss at the end. He’s a tanky jerk if you’re using slash damage, so bring a mace or just jump-attack him until his poise breaks. Once he shatters, he drops the Smithing-Stone Miner's Bell Bearing (1).
Give this to the husks. Suddenly, you can buy Smithing Stone 1 and 2.
It feels like a massive weight off your shoulders. You aren't hunting for scraps anymore. You're a customer. But this is just the beginning. The game scales fast, and those level 1 and 2 stones won't carry you through the mid-game. You need to push further north into the yellow, autumn-hued forests of Altus.
Why the Altus Plateau is the Real Turning Point
The second bearing is in the Sealed Tunnel, right outside the gates of Leyndell. You don't even have to kill a boss for this one. Just walk in, hit the illusory wall, and open a chest. It’s that easy. This gives you access to Smithing Stone 3 and 4.
At this point, the game's difficulty spikes. If your weapon isn't at least +12, the Leyndell knights will absolutely wreck your day. Finding the Elden Ring bell bearing smithing stone sets is about more than convenience; it’s about survival. I’ve seen so many players quit because they felt underpowered, not realizing they could have just bought their way to a +12 weapon in five minutes.
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The third bearing is much later. You have to reach the Mountaintops of the Giants. Specifically, the Zamor Ruins. It's cold, it's miserable, and the enemies there hit like freight trains. The bearing is in a chest down some stairs. Once you have it, you can buy stones 5 and 6.
The End-Game Grind in Farum Azula
Crumbling Farum Azula is a nightmare. It's a floating city filled with dragons and beastmen who hate you. This is where you find the final two regular smithing stone bearings.
The Smithing-Stone Miner's Bell Bearing (4) drops from the Godskin Duo. Yeah. That boss fight. The one everyone hates. You have to beat them to progress the story anyway, so the bearing is a mandatory reward. It lets you buy stones 7 and 8.
But wait. There's a catch.
You cannot buy the Ancient Dragon Smithing Stones. Those are limited per playthrough. You can't just farm them or buy them from a shop. You get 13 per run, and that’s it. Choose your +25 weapon wisely.
Somber Stones: A Different Beast
If you're using a "special" weapon—anything that uses Somber Smithing Stones—the hunt is slightly different. These weapons only go to +10, but the power jumps are massive.
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- Somberstone Miner's Bell Bearing (1): Sellia Crystal Tunnel. Kill the Fallingstar Beast. It’s a tough fight in a tiny room.
- Somberstone Miner's Bell Bearing (2): Altus Tunnel. Kill the two Crystalians. Again, strike damage is your friend here.
- Somberstone Miner's Bell Bearing (3): First Church of Marika in the Mountaintops. It’s just sitting on a corpse outside.
- Somberstone Miner's Bell Bearing (4): Near the Tempest-Facing Balcony in Farum Azula.
- Somberstone Miner's Bell Bearing (5): Found on a corpse in the lower levels of Farum Azula, near the Beside the Great Bridge grace.
Having these allows you to take any unique weapon to +9 instantly, provided you have the runes. It changes how you play. Found a cool boss weapon? Level it up immediately. No waiting. No backtracking.
The Rune Problem
Buying stones is expensive. A Smithing Stone (8) costs 6,000 runes. To take a weapon from +0 to +24, you're looking at hundreds of thousands of runes.
This is why the Elden Ring bell bearing smithing stone hunt usually goes hand-in-hand with a trip to Mohgwyn Palace. You know the spot. The bird. The archers. The massive rune farm. You spend ten minutes shooting a giant crow off a cliff, and suddenly you have enough money to buy a literal mountain of stones.
It feels a bit like cheating, doesn't it? But it isn't. The developers put these mechanics in the game for a reason. They want you to try the moonlight greatsword. They want you to see if those dual katanas are actually better than your hammer.
Common Misconceptions About Bell Bearings
A lot of people think bell bearings carry over to New Game Plus (NG+). They didn't used to. When Elden Ring first launched, you had to find them all over again every single time you restarted. It was tedious.
Thankfully, FromSoftware listened.
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Now, if you offer the Elden Ring bell bearing smithing stone to the Twin Maiden Husks, they stay in the shop's inventory when you start NG+. This is a massive quality-of-life improvement. It means you can spend your endgame runes on a hoard of stones before you finish the final boss, or just wait until you restart to stock up.
Another thing: Don't confuse these with the "Dull" or "Glintstone" bell bearings. Those are for sorceries and incantations. They're useful, sure, but they won't help you hit harder.
Strategic Next Steps for Your Playthrough
Don't just run blindly into these areas. If you're struggling to find a specific bearing, check your map for "black holes." These are the entrances to tunnels. In Elden Ring, the map actually shows you where the mines are. They look like little orange-rimmed dark circles. Every one of those circles contains upgrade materials, even if they don't have a bell bearing boss.
- Prioritize the Sealed Tunnel: It’s the easiest major upgrade jump. Getting stones 3 and 4 early makes the mid-game manageable.
- Collect the Somber Bearings First: Since special weapons only need one stone per level, they are much cheaper and faster to upgrade than standard weapons.
- Save your Ancient Stones: You only get a handful of +10 and +25 upgrades. Don't waste them on a weapon you "kinda" like.
- Kill the Bell Bearing Hunters: These are field bosses that appear at night in certain shacks (like the Warmaster's Shack). They drop specialized bearings for meat, medicine, and gravity stones.
If you've missed a bearing, go back. It's worth the twenty-minute detour to avoid the hours of farming later. The freedom to swap builds on the fly is what makes the late game of Elden Ring so much fun. You aren't locked into your choices. You're only locked by your willingness to explore those dark, damp tunnels.
Go talk to the Twin Maiden Husks. See what you're missing. If their shop looks empty, you've got work to do in the Lands Between.