Mount Gelmir is a mess. It's a jagged, vertical nightmare of jagged rocks and hanging corpses that makes Caelid look like a theme park. If you've spent three hours trying to find a ladder that doesn't exist, you're not alone. The Elden Ring Volcano Manor isn't just a location; it’s a massive, complicated web of moral ambiguity and optional content that most players accidentally skip or completely break by killing the wrong boss too early.
You’re probably looking for the Blasphemous Blade. It’s arguably the best PvE weapon in the game. But getting it requires navigating a questline that asks you to hunt down your own kind—other Tarnished.
Why Everyone Gets Lost on the Way to the Manor
Most people think they have to climb the mountain. You don't. While you can scale the cliffs and fight that annoying Full-Grown Fallingstar Beast at the peak, there are much easier ways to get inside.
First, there’s Rya. You find her in Liurnia of the Lakes, near the Birdseye Telescope. If you get her necklace back from Blackguard Big Boggart (don't kill him, his boiled prawn is too good), she gives you an invitation. Later, she’ll literally teleport you to the Manor's front door from the Altus Plateau. It’s a shortcut that saves you about forty minutes of platforming stress.
Then there’s the "Abductor Virgin" method. It sounds like a community myth, but it’s real. If you let the mechanical, swinging-blade machine at the bottom of Raya Lucaria's waterwheel grab you and kill you with its internal "gulp" attack, you wake up in the basement of the Volcano Manor. You're trapped, sure. But you're there.
The Manor itself is a hub for the "Recusants." These are the rebels led by Tanith who have decided that the Greater Will is a scam. They want to burn it all down. Honestly? After seeing what happens in the Leyndell sewers, they kinda have a point.
The Elden Ring Volcano Manor Questline: Don't Kill Rykard Yet
This is the biggest mistake. I see it on Reddit every single day. Someone explores the secret dungeon, finds the teleporter, walks into the boss arena, and kills Rykard, Lord of Blasphemy.
Stop. If you kill Rykard before finishing the assassination contracts, everyone leaves the Manor. The quests vanish. You lose out on some of the best armor sets in the entire game, including the Scaled Set, the Hoslow Set, and the Raging Wolf armor (the stuff from the cover art).
The Manor operates on a "Contract" system. You pick up a letter from the drawing-room table, find a red mark on your map, and go invade an NPC.
- Old Knight Istvan: He’s in Limgrave. Easy fight. Gives you the Scaled Set.
- Rileigh the Idle: Found in Altus Plateau. He uses a crossbow and rot. Annoying, but doable.
- Juno Hoslow: The big one. He’s in the Mountaintops of the Giants. He has "the tale of House Hoslow told in blood" and uses dual whips. He is incredibly fast.
The Secret Church of Eiglay and the "Real" Manor
The lobby of the Manor is just a facade. If you roll against the wall in the first room on the right (the one with the corpse), it disappears. This opens up the "Legacy Dungeon" portion of the map. This is where the difficulty spikes.
You'll encounter Man-Serpents. Some of them have tiny heads on long necks that stretch out to bite you. It’s deeply unsettling. You’ll also find the Godskin Noble boss in the Church of Eiglay. This guy is a roadblock for many. He’s fat, fast, and rolls around like a boulder.
Pro tip: Use Sleep Pots. The Godskin Noble has a massive weakness to sleep. One pot usually puts him out for a long duration, allowing you to buff up or just wail on him with a heavy weapon.
Past the church is a sea of lava. You have to navigate across it using cages and elevators. It’s here you’ll find the Serpent-Hunter spear. This weapon is useless everywhere else in the game, but inside Rykard's arena, it turns into a beam of light that deals massive damage. You don't even need the stats to use it; the "gimmick" damage is baked into the weapon's unique skill.
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Rykard, Lord of Blasphemy: A Fight About Patience
Rykard is a spectacle. It’s a "gimmick" fight, similar to Yhorm the Giant in Dark Souls 3 or the Storm King in Demon's Souls. But it’s much more chaotic.
The first phase is the God-Devouring Serpent. It’s large and slow. Just spam the Serpent-Hunter's light attack. Don't bother with the heavy attack; it takes too long to charge and you'll get hit by the lava.
The second phase is Rykard himself. He pulls a massive sword out of the snake’s mouth. It’s gross. At about 50% health, he’ll start the "skull rain." The sky turns red, and hundreds of exploding skulls chase you.
Do not try to outrun them in a straight line. Run in a wide circle.
The biggest misconception about this fight is that you have to stand in the lava to hit him. You don't. The Serpent-Hunter has incredible range. Stay back, keep your stamina high, and time your hits to stagger him. If you have a Mimic Tear, summon it. The Mimic will also use a Serpent-Hunter, and together, you can essentially "stunlock" the boss until he’s dead.
The Aftermath: Patches and Tanith
Once Rykard is dead, go talk to everyone. Patches (if you did his quest) will move on. Bernahl will leave. Tanith will move to the boss arena and start... well, she starts eating Rykard’s corpse.
A lot of players think they should kill her here.
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If you do, her bodyguard invades you. You get her clothes and a powerful incantation, but you end the questline for good. In the current patch of Elden Ring, there isn't much "hidden" content after this, but the lore implications are heavy. She believes Rykard will eventually be reborn through her. It’s one of the darkest endings to an NPC arc in the game.
Actionable Steps for Your Next Run
To get the most out of the Volcano Manor without locking yourself out of rewards, follow this specific order:
- Trigger Rya's quest in Liurnia. It's the most "intended" way to enter the Manor and unlocks extra dialogue.
- Clear the first two contracts (Istvan and Rileigh) immediately upon arriving.
- Don't forget Bernahl. Talk to him in the drawing room. He has his own contracts in Leyndell that reward you with the Raging Wolf set. This is the only way to get that armor.
- Complete Patches' quest. If you find him in the Scenic Isle and later near the Mt. Gelmir campsite, he gives you a contract to kill Great Horned Tragoth. This rewards you with the Bull-Goat set, which has the highest poise in the game.
- Find the Serpent-Hunter. It’s right inside the boss fog. You can grab it, teleport out, and upgrade it to +6 or +7 at Hewg before actually fighting Rykard. It makes the fight trivial.
- Kill Rykard ONLY after the red marks for Juno Hoslow and the Leyndell targets are gone from your map.
The Volcano Manor represents the best of FromSoftware's level design. It's a vertical labyrinth filled with hidden walls, shortcut elevators, and some of the most "metal" imagery in the Lands Between. Just remember: the Serpent-Hunter is your friend, and patience with the NPC quests is the only way to get the best loot. If you rush the boss, you're leaving some of the coolest armor in the game on the table.