You’ve seen him. That gross, omen-armored freak sitting in a pile of filth in the Roundtable Hold, rambling about defiling the very essence of existence. Most players just want to kill him. Honestly, that’s the sane reaction. But there’s a much more twisted, and arguably more practical, way to handle the Loathsome Dung Eater. You can turn him into a mindless, blue-glowing doll that fights for you.
Getting the Dung Eater Puppet is easily one of the most elaborate and "missable" sequences in Elden Ring. It’s a multi-stage quest that forces you to choose between a specific ending for the game and one of the most powerful Spirit Ashes available. It’s dark. It’s complicated. If you mess up even one tiny interaction with an NPC named Seluvis, you’re locked out.
Why the Dung Eater Puppet is a Meta Game-Changer
Is he worth it? Absolutely. In terms of raw utility, the Dung Eater is a top-tier summon, right up there with the Mimic Tear and Black Knife Tiche. He is a tank. He wears the Omen Armor, which gives him absurdly high poise and damage negation. He doesn't just stand there and take hits, though. He uses a Greatsword—the Sword of Milos—which causes bleed buildup. But the real kicker? His scream. He has a unique skill that debuffs enemies, lowering their physical defense and all resistances.
Think about that. You're basically carrying around a portable debuff station that also happens to be a brick wall.
Most Spirit Ashes are just distractions. They pull aggro, they die, you finish the boss. This guy survives. I've watched him solo late-game bosses in the Consecrated Snowfield while I just sat back and watched. It feels dirty using him, which I guess is the point. He’s the most hated man in the Lands Between, and now he’s your personal bodyguard.
The Precarious Path to Preceptor Seluvis
To get your hands on this thing, you have to play a very dangerous game with Preceptor Seluvis. He’s the arrogant sorcerer living in one of the Three Sisters towers behind Caria Manor. He gives you a potion. He tells you to give it to Nepheli Loux. Don’t do that. If you give it to Nepheli, she becomes a puppet, and you lose her questline. If you give it to Gideon Ofnir to dispose of, you lose the chance to get the Dung Eater.
You have to hold onto that potion like it’s your last flask of Crimson Tears.
The timing is tight. You need to progress the Dung Eater’s "real" questline first. You find him in the Leyndell Sewers (the Subterranean Shunning-Grounds). You need to free his physical body using the Sewer-Gaol Key. Then, he’ll challenge you to a fight in the outer moat near the Capital Ramparts. Go there, beat him, and then head back to the Roundtable Hold. He’ll be back in his usual spot, tied to a chair, asking you to bring him Seedbed Curses so he can defile the world.
This is the fork in the road.
The Point of No Return
If you give him five Seedbed Curses, you get the Mending Rune of the Fell Curse. That’s for the "bad" ending. But if you want the Dung Eater Puppet, you ignore the curses. Instead, while he’s tied to that chair in the sewers, you interact with him and choose to hand over Seluvis’s Potion.
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He drinks it. He screams. He goes silent.
It’s a grim moment. You’ve basically lobotomized one of the most dangerous entities in the game. But you aren't done yet. You can't just pick him up off the floor. You have to go back to Seluvis. You need to discover Seluvis’s secret basement—it’s hidden under an illusory floor in the ruins between Ranni’s Rise and Renna’s Rise. Once you find the puppet room and read the message there, Seluvis will finally open up his "shop" for puppets.
Common Mistakes That Ruin the Quest
The most common way people fail this is by finishing Ranni’s quest too quickly. If you give Ranni the Fingerslayer Blade, Seluvis dies. Immediately. If Seluvis is dead, you can’t buy the puppet. You have to trigger the potion scene while Seluvis is still breathing.
Another issue? The Dung Eater's location. If you kill him in the moat and don't talk to his spirit in the Roundtable Hold afterward, he might not appear in the chair in the sewers correctly. It’s a finicky sequence. Elden Ring doesn't hold your hand, and this questline is the peak of that philosophy. You are juggling the fates of three major NPCs (Ranni, Nepheli, and Dung Eater) just to get a Spirit Ash.
Is it Morally Better than the Curse Ending?
This is where the lore gets interesting. Some players argue that turning him into a puppet is the "good" path. By doing this, you prevent him from spreading the Seedbed Curse. You stop him from ending the cycle of rebirth and soul-preservation in the Lands Between. You turn a serial killer into a tool for order.
Others find it even more horrific. Seluvis’s puppets are essentially trapped souls in a frozen state of servitude. It’s a fate worse than death. But honestly, when you’re facing down Malenia for the 50th time, your moral compass tends to spin a bit. Having a puppet that can soak up her Waterfowl Dance while Shredding her resistances is worth a little bit of ethical ambiguity.
How to Maximize the Puppet's Power
Once you finally have the ashes, don't just summon him at +0. He needs Ghost Glovewort. Unlike the standard Spirit Ashes, he scales incredibly well with upgrades. At +10, his HP pool is staggering.
Because he uses the Sword of Milos, he pair exceptionally well with builds that focus on:
- Physical Strength: He softens targets up for your heavy hits.
- Bleed (Hemorrhage): He helps proc the status effect faster.
- Frostbite: Since he lowers resistances, your frost buildup will actually trigger more efficiently.
He is not a "clean" fighter. He’s aggressive. He’ll charge into the middle of a mob and use his AoE scream. This makes him better for boss fights than for clearing out small hallways where he might get stuck on geometry.
Actionable Next Steps for Completionists
If you are currently sitting on Seluvis’s potion, stop. Do not give it to Nepheli. Instead, head straight for the Leyndell Sewers. If you've already burned the Erdtree and turned Leyndell into the Capital of Ash, don't worry—the manhole cover is still accessible near the Central Capital Manor site of grace.
- Locate the Dung Eater's physical body in the sewers after getting the key from his phantom at the Roundtable.
- Defeat him in the moat near the Draconic Tree Sentinel entrance to the city to "break" his spirit.
- Return to the sewer jail where his body is tied to the chair.
- Administer the potion and wait for his dialogue to end.
- Visit Seluvis’s hidden puppet lab (break the floor in the ruins near Ranni's Rise).
- Confront Seluvis and trade Starlight Shards for your new summon.
Be warned that you need Starlight Shards to actually "buy" the puppet from Seluvis’s secret menu. You can find these at various sundials across Limgrave, Liurnia, and Caelid. If you’ve spent them all on mana regeneration, you’ll need to go hunting in the Altus Plateau or Mountaintops of the Giants to find more. This is the final price for the most powerful, and most reviled, companion in the game.