You’ve probably seen the fan art. The four-armed blue witch is basically the face of Elden Ring at this point, but actually finishing the Ranni questline Elden Ring players obsess over is a different beast entirely. It’s long. It’s cryptic. Honestly, it’s kind of a mess if you don’t know which weirdly specific triggers to hit.
Most people think you just talk to her in a tower and eventually get a cool sword. That’s the "lite" version. The reality involves a dead demigod, an underground city that literally requires a meteor to hit the planet for you to enter, and a tiny doll that refuses to talk to you until you pester it like an annoying sibling.
Getting Started (Or How Not to Break Everything)
First thing’s first: you can actually meet Ranni way before you even reach Liurnia. She shows up at the Church of Elleh at night right after you get Torrent. She calls herself "Renna" then, which is a total lie, but she gives you the Spirit Calling Bell. If you missed this, don't sweat it. You can just buy the bell at the Roundtable Hold. It doesn't break the quest.
The real start happens at Caria Manor. You have to fight through those horrific "hand-spiders" (Fingercreepers) and beat Royal Knight Loretta. Once she’s down, you get access to the Three Sisters area. Ranni is in the middle tower.
The Radahn Problem
Here is where people get stuck. If you’ve already started the Radahn Festival in Caelid—maybe you touched a Grace in Altus Plateau—Ranni might not even be in her tower. She’s "busy." Basically, the game locks her out because Blaidd is busy at the festival. You’ll have to go kill Starscourge Radahn before she’ll even talk to you.
Once she does agree to let you serve her, you have to talk to her three spectral "homies" at the bottom of the tower:
- Iji, the giant blacksmith who is surprisingly chill.
- Blaidd, the half-wolf who looks cool but is destined for tragedy.
- Seluvis, who is, quite frankly, a total jerk.
You cannot leave the tower until you’ve talked to all three. There’s literally a fog wall blocking you. Just exhaust their dialogue and go back up to Ranni to say "I'm on it."
Hunting for Nokron
Ranni wants a treasure from Nokron, Eternal City. The problem? No one knows how to get there. You’ll end up talking to Sellen (the sorceress in Waypoint Ruins) who tells you that the stars control Ranni’s fate. Since Radahn literally "held back the stars," you have to kill him to get things moving.
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After the Radahn fight, a literal star falls out of the sky and smashes into the Mistwood in Limgrave. Go to the crater. It’s hard to miss—there are floating rocks everywhere.
Finding the Fingerslayer Blade
Nokron is beautiful, but it’s a death trap. You’ll fight a Mimic Tear (who is basically you, so... good luck with that) and eventually reach the Night’s Sacred Ground. You’re looking for a chest under a massive skeleton sitting on a throne. Inside is the Fingerslayer Blade.
Pro Tip: Do NOT give this blade to Ranni until you’ve finished Seluvis’s quest if you want the Magic Scorpion Charm. Once you give Ranni the blade, Seluvis "dies" (or rather, becomes a puppet), and his questline ends instantly.
The Doll and the Lake of Rot
After giving Ranni the blade, she gives you the Carian Inverted Statue. You use this at the Carian Study Hall to reach the Divine Tower of Liurnia and get the Cursemark of Death. This is technically for Fia’s quest, but you need to do this part of the journey anyway.
Now, head to Renna’s Rise (the northern tower). The seal is gone. There’s a portal at the top that dumps you into Ainsel River Main. Right in front of you is the Miniature Ranni.
"Talk to the Doll"
This is the part that makes everyone use a wiki. You have to sit at the nearby Site of Grace and select "Talk to miniature Ranni."
- She says nothing.
- You do it again.
- Nothing.
- Do it a third time.
Finally, she gets annoyed and starts talking. She tells you to go kill a Baleful Shadow further down in Nokstella. If you don't talk to the doll three times, the shadow won't even spawn. It's classic FromSoftware design: slightly obtuse but weirdly charming.
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The Final Stretch
The Baleful Shadow looks like Blaidd but red. Kill him, and Ranni gives you the Discarded Palace Key.
Wait, don’t go to the Lake of Rot yet!
Teleport to the Raya Lucaria Grand Library (where you fought Rennala). There’s a locked chest next to her. Use the key to get the Dark Moon Ring. Without this ring, you are hard-stuck at the end of the quest.
Dealing with Astel
Now you have to cross the Lake of Rot. It’s miserable. You will get Scarlet Rot. Just pack some "Preserving Boluses" and run for your life. At the end of the lake, you jump in a coffin (as one does) and it takes you to Astel, Naturalborn of the Void.
Astel is a cosmic horror nightmare with a grab attack that will one-shot you if you aren't careful. Once he’s dead, if you have the Dark Moon Ring, the seal at the back of the arena disappears. Take the elevator up to the Moonlight Altar.
The Moonlight Greatsword and the Ending
Head to the Cathedral of Manus Celes. There’s a hole in the ground. Drop down, and you’ll find Ranni’s "real" body (the doll one, but all bloodied up) having just finished off some Two Fingers.
You put the ring on her finger. She appears in her spirit form, calls you her consort, and gives you the Dark Moon Greatsword. This weapon is a beast for Intelligence builds, especially with the Moonlight Greatsword weapon art that lets you fire blue beams of light for basically no FP cost.
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What about Blaidd and Iji?
The ending is bittersweet. If you go back to Ranni’s Rise, Blaidd has gone completely insane because his programming (from the Greater Will) is fighting his loyalty to Ranni. You have to put him down. It sucks. It’s one of the saddest moments in the game. Iji doesn't fare much better; if you tell him about Blaidd’s death, he eventually gets taken out by Black Knife Assassins.
Next Steps for Your Playthrough:
If you’ve just grabbed the Dark Moon Greatsword, your journey isn't quite over. To actually get the Age of Stars ending, you must remember one thing: after you defeat the final boss of the game, do NOT touch the fractured Elden Ring. Look for a blue summon sign on the ground. That is how you summon Ranni and trigger her specific ending. If you just touch the Ring, you’ll get a standard ending and feel like you wasted fifteen hours on a blue witch.
Also, go back to Ranni’s Rise one last time and sit at the Grace at the very top. You can talk to the Miniature Ranni one last time for some extra dialogue that actually changes a tiny bit of the ending's script.
The Dark Moon Greatsword is one of the "Legendary Armaments" needed for the achievement/trophy, so if you're a completionist, you basically have to do this. Just make sure you have 38 Intelligence to actually swing the thing.
The quest is basically a tour of the best secret areas in the game. Even if you don't care about the blue lady, the loot in Nokron and Nokstella—like the Mimic Tear Ashes and the Moon of Nokstella talisman—is way too good to pass up.