Look, the Lands Between is a nightmare if you're under-leveled. You walk into Caelid, a giant crow looks at you funny, and suddenly you're staring at the "You Died" screen for the tenth time in an hour. It sucks. We've all been there. You just want to wear that cool armor or cast that high-INT spell, but the rune grind feels like a second job.
If you want to know how to level up fast in Elden Ring, you have to stop playing "fair." This isn't about skill; it's about efficiency. It’s about finding the gaps in the game's logic and exploiting them until your pockets are overflowing with gold.
Why Speed-Leveling Changes the Game
Most people think they have to follow the path. They go from Limgrave to Liurnia, slowly picking up 200 runes here and 500 there. That’s a mistake. Elden Ring is an open world, and FromSoftware basically begs you to break it. You can reach level 50 before you even touch Margit the Fell Omen. Honestly, you should.
Leveling up fast isn't just about making the game easier. It’s about accessibility. If you're stuck on a boss like Radahn or Malenia, ten extra points in Vigor is the difference between a one-shot kill and actually having a chance to learn the moveset. The game is brutal. Why not punch back?
The Early Game Goldmine: Greyoll’s Sleepy Demise
Before you do anything else, you need to head to Dragonbarrow in North Caelid. It looks scary. It is scary. But there’s a massive dragon named Greyoll just laying there. She doesn’t move. She just sits there while her smaller dragon children guard her.
Here is the trick: get a weapon with Blood Loss (the Morning Star is easy to find in the Weeping Peninsula). Stand behind her tail where the babies can't see you. Start whacking. Because of the bleed proc, you’ll do massive chunks of damage regardless of your level. When she finally dies, she drops a staggering 50,000 runes.
Pro tip: Pop a Gold-Pickled Fowl Foot right before her health bar hits zero. That 50k turns into roughly 96,000 runes. That's enough to jump from level 1 to level 35 or 40 in about ten minutes of mindless clicking. It’s the single best way to start a new build.
How to Level Up Fast in Elden Ring via Mohgwyn Palace
Once you’ve exhausted the early "free" runes, you need a repeatable farm. The holy grail is Mohgwyn Palace. Most players don't find this place until the end of the game, but you can get there almost immediately by following White Mask Varre’s questline.
You find Varre at the Rose Church in Liurnia. Do his invasions. Soak the cloth in the blood of a maiden (the one at the Church of Inhibition is easiest). He gives you a medal. Use it. Boom—you’re in a high-level endgame area while you’re still wearing starting gear.
The Bird and the Cliff
Once you reach the Palace Approach Ledge-Road Site of Grace, look across the chasm. There’s a giant, ugly crow pacing around. Shoot it with a single arrow. The AI pathfinding loses its mind, and the bird runs straight off the cliff.
- Rune Reward: ~11,000 runes.
- Time Spent: 15 seconds.
- Repeatability: Infinite.
You sit at the Grace, the bird respawns, you shoot it again. It’s mindless. It’s boring. It is the most efficient way to reach level 100 in under an hour. If you have the Sacred Relic Sword from the final boss (NG+), you can clear the Albinaurics on the hill for even more, but for a first playthrough, the bird is your best friend.
Misconceptions About the Grind
People talk about the "Boulder Farm" in Limgrave like it's some revolutionary discovery. It's not. It’s slow. You dodge a ball, it falls off a cliff, you get 1,900 runes. Why do that when the bird gives you five times the amount for less effort?
Another thing? Don't hoard your Golden Runes (the items in your inventory). Use them. I see so many players saving "Hero's Runes" for a rainy day. The rainy day is now. If you're five levels short of the requirement for the Moonveil Katana, crack those skulls open.
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Avoiding the "No-Skill" Trap
There is a legitimate argument that over-leveling ruins the experience. I get it. Part of the fun is the struggle. But Elden Ring is unique because the "difficulty" is often just a stat check. If a boss has 4,000 HP and you’re doing 100 damage per hit, the fight isn't "hard," it’s tedious.
Leveling up allows you to experiment. You can respec at Rennala later, but you need the raw levels first to make those builds viable. Want to try a hybrid Faith/Strength build? You're going to need a lot of points.
Gear That Boosts Your Gains
You shouldn't just farm raw; you need multipliers. The Gold Scarab talisman is non-negotiable. It increases rune gain by 20%. You find it in the Abandoned Cave in Caelid. The cave is a nightmare filled with Scarlet Rot, but the reward is worth every Bolus you consume.
Then there’s the Gold-Pickled Fowl Foot. You can craft these using Rowan Fruit, Four-Toed Fowl Feet, and Gold Fireflies. Don't waste them on random mobs. Save them for when you’re about to kill a boss or during a dedicated 30-minute farm session at Mohgwyn.
The Hidden Value of Co-op
People forget that helping others is a great way to level. If you put your sign down near a boss you’ve already beaten, you get a portion of the runes when the host wins. It’s zero-risk. If you die as a summon, you don't lose your runes. It's a "safe" way to bank levels while actually practicing the game's mechanics.
I spent three hours helping people with Morgott the Omen King. I walked away with nearly 400,000 runes and a much better understanding of how to dodge his annoying light daggers.
Actionable Steps for Your Next Session
Stop wandering aimlessly. If you want to see progress, follow this sequence.
- Get a Bleed Weapon: Even the Reduvia from the invader outside Murkwater Cave works perfectly.
- Kill Greyoll: Ride to Caelid, find the fort behind the giant dragon, and bleed her out. Use a Fowl Foot right before she dies.
- Start Varre's Quest: Get to Liurnia, talk to the guy at the Rose Church, and get that Pureblood Knight's Medal.
- Farm the Bird: Get to the Palace Approach Ledge-Road and shoot that crow until your Vigor is at least 40.
- Grab the Gold Scarab: Brave the Abandoned Cave in Caelid to make every future kill worth 20% more.
Doing this doesn't make you a "cheater." It makes you an efficient Tarnished. The game provides these tools for a reason. Elden Ring isn't just a test of your reflexes; it's a test of your knowledge. Use the map, use the exploits, and stop letting the bosses bully you. Leveling up is the only way to turn the Lands Between from a deathtrap into your personal playground.