Elden Ring Altus Plateau Walkthrough

Welcome to the Elden Ring Walkthrough for the Altus Plateau region! There are two ways you are able to enter this region of the map, either fighting a major boss or with some hidden items and taking the big lift up. It then branches out to some pretty major areas of the game, including Mt. Gelmir, and Leyndell, the Royal Capital, the main location you’ve been trying to get to in your quest to reach the Erdtree.

For all other regions refer to Elden Ring Walkthrough.

Altus Plateau

Progression Order:

If you use Great Lift of Dectus

• Fort Haight
• Fort Faroth
• East Raya Lucaria Gate
• Grand Lift of Dectus
• Altus Plateau

If you go through Ravine:

• The Ravine
• Ravine-Veiled Village
• Ruin-Strewn Precipice
• Ruin-Strewn Precipice Overlook
• Magma Wyrm Makar
• Abandoned Coffin
• Erdtree-Gazing Hill

After reaching the Plateau through either method:

• Altus Highway Junction
• Outer Wall Phantom Tree
• Outer Wall Battleground
• Draconic Tree Sentinel

There are two paths you can take to reach the Altus Plateau; either using the Great Lift of Dectus, or going through the Ruin-Strewn Precipice mine. Using the left is technically easier because you don’t need to fight any bosses to go that way, but the boss in the Ruin-Strewn Precipice is required for earning a trophy/achievement so if you want to fight all main bosses you will need to go through there eventually.

Fort Haight

If you’re choosing to go to Altus Plateau using the lift, you will need to find two halves of a medallion required to activate the lift in the first place. The first half can be found in the southeast corner of Limgrave, located inside Fort Haight.

Head inside and go to the upper floor. You can find the entrance to a tower.

Climb the ladder to the top of the tower, then you can find a chest which will contain Dectus Medallion (Left).

Fort Faroth

For the second half, you are going to need to go all the way over to the far east of Caelid, to Fort Faroth in the Greyoll’s Dragonbarrow area.

The Fort is located behind the giant dragon surrounded by smaller ones, but you can just ignore them all and run to the fort if you want to deal with them (you can kill the big dragon by attacking its back left leg, and when it dies the other dragons automatically do too). Head into the Fort and go to the opposite end of the lower floor, watching out for all the bats as they are quite strong. At the top of the ladder, you can find a chest that contains Dectus Medallion (Right).

If you want to while you’re here (and feel confident fighting or avoiding the enemies) you can grab one of the legendary talismans before leaving. Go out onto the rooftop of the Fort from where the chest is, then go to the third hole leading back inside (it has a ladder leading down into it).

You will need to go around the walkway to the area where you can look to the lower floor, then jump across to the area on the other side of the wall. Watch out for the rats, then drop to the lower floor where you can pick up Radagon’s Soreseal from a body.

East Raya Lucaria Gate

Now with both halves of the Medallion, you will need to head to the lift. The easiest way to get to it (assuming you have already been to Raya Lucaria) is using the Glintstone Key to take yourself across to the other side of the broken bridge. Head to the Main Academy Gate site of grace, then you can interact with the blue symbol to the northeast to warp across to the far side of the bridge.

After warping you can find the East Raya Lucaria Gate site of grace just to the left of the road.

You will now need to continue following the road all the way to the northeast where the lift is. There are a number of patrols along the road, but you can feel free to ignore them as you’re going. The only main part to watch out for is when you reach the area with the wooden walls across the road, as there are a number of catapults that will launch rocks at you as you make your way up the road.

Once you reach the end of the road you should see a large set of stairs between two huge statues. Head up the stairs inside to where you can find a site of grace on the right.

Grand Lift of Dectus

Inside the structure, head up the stairs to the top of the ramp. At the top while standing one of the circles there will be a prompt to “Hoist Medallion”.

You will be shown a scene where the lift begins moving, then you arrive at the Altus Plateau, with two Golems nearby.

Altus Plateau

If you head just over to the left off the top of the ramp, you can find the Altus Plateau side of grace.

When you’re ready to progress, continue down the road to the split where you can find the Altus Highway Junction site of grace.

The Ravine

If you’re aiming to head through the Ruin-Strewn Precipice mine (and fight the boss at the end) you are going to want to make your way to the very north end of Liurnia to the end of the lake. If you check out your map you should see a red hole on the map (to symbolize a mine). That’s where you are headed.

You’ll know you are heading in the right direction when you see the cliff sides close in, leading into the ravine.

You can stop on the left just before heading inside to find The Ravine site of grace.

Continue through the ravine, dealing with or avoiding the large poison spitting enemies. When you’re nearly at the end you can grab a Golden Seed on your way by a phantom tree.

Continue just ahead to the end of the area where you can find a shack, and the next site of grace on a platform beside a ladder leading up.

Ravine-Veiled Village

Climb up the ladder nearby to make your way up to the mine.

This mine has the typical miner enemies inside but also has the Vulgar Militia enemies. These enemies are short and like to hide around the areas, so be aware if you’re running into rooms that multiple of these might suddenly attack from behind.

There are also poison bombs placed all over some of the rooms, which you will automatically trigger by walking over them.

Head through the first few rooms and take the elevator up, then continue forward. Watch out when you enter the next large room with the stairs, as there are a number of the Militia enemies hiding in the room to the left, which is also full of poison traps.

Once you’re done in this room, continue following the tunnel to reach an outside area, with the next site of grace beside another elevator.;

Ruin-Strewn Precipice

Take the elevator up, then follow the path around the cliff. This outside area mostly has Bats hanging around to harass you, so watch out if they drop off walls or area sitting on floors. At the top of the next ladder, you will need to head into the area by the pillars for the next ladder up.

Watch out for the lighter-colored bats that start out sitting in the area ahead. You can hear these ones singing (and they have human-like heads). They area much stronger than the normal bats and also spit clouds of poison at you, making them generally much more dangerous to deal with.

At the top of the ladder, keep following the path along the cliff edge, then climb the next ladder at the end.

Head over to the left side of this area to progress. Watch out for two more of the humanoid bats that start out sitting on the platform at the top of the short stairs.

When you’re finished in this area and ready to continue, take the next elevator up to find the next site of grace.

Ruin-Strewn Precipice Overlook

This is the last site of grace in this area before the boss, so when you’re ready head forward and through the gold fog wall ahead.

Magma Wyrm Makar

Reward: 24,000 Runes, Magma Wyrm’s Scalesword, 1 x Dragon Heart

Magma Wyrm is a dragon-type enemy. It can’t fly like normal dragons and instead of breathing fire, it spews out magma that stays on the floor and can burn you, so watch your step. It uses ranged magma attacks, all of which are very slow and easy to evade by running sideways (hold  to run). When it does use melee attacks, it likes to strike its sword to the ground, then pulls it back after a short delay. You must get out of the way before it pulls back the sword. It also likes to make its mouth glow and then rushes forward, which you can evade by running sideways. With a mage this fight is relatively easy, you just need to dodge its magma projectiles and stay away from it. Use the pillar in the middle of the boss area for cover, run in for single hits, repeat. The main problem is that the boss has quite a lot of health and hits hard but if you play it slow and safe you can circumvent most of its attacks by using the middle pillar for cover.

Once the boss is defeated, you can go over to the back of the room to activate the site of grace.

Continue down the corridor just behind it where you can find an elevator, which you can take to the surface.

Finally, in the Altus Plateau, you can head over to the left just up the hill to find the first site of grace for the area.

Abandoned Coffin

This area is filled with destroyed carriages, with some enemies hiding in between them. You can continue up the gap in the middle of them to progress further.

Once you just pass the carriages the boss Ancient Dragon Lanseax will appear. Unless you’re coming to this area quite late and are pretty high leveled it would be recommended you just ignore this dragon for now. It has huge area lightning attacks, as well as giant sweeps it can do with a summoned lightning sword. Save it for later and come back when you’re cleaning up the late game areas for a better time.

Continue up the hill into the next area to find the next site of grace.

Ertree-Gazing Hill

Now in the Atlus Plateau proper, you will be heading towards the capital walls. Start making your way towards all the white flags you can see in the distance, but make sure to stop and grab the Golden Seed just off the path past the site of grace.

Just ahead there will be a number of wooden barriers around a camp blocking the path. If you try to go directly through you will get shot at by soldiers on turrets, so to avoid them you can go around the cliffs to the left by the taller set of trees.

Head just across the road towards the wall to find the next site of grace.

Altus Highway Junction

This is the location you’d have reached regardless of whether you had gone up the Great Lift of Dectus or through the Ruin-Strewn Precipice. Before making your way towards the capital though, you want to take a quick detour just up the road to the north. Here you can find another phantom tree where you can pick up another Golden Seed, and just further up the road a map stele where you can pick up Map: Altus Plateau.

This map only reveals the area of the plateau outside the city walls, which is where you are headed now. Make your way towards the steps leading towards the wall, and you have a bit of a decision to make. You can go directly up the steps to the front door, but there are a decent number of enemies along the path and two Tree Sentinels at the top that will see you as you approach, or you could try going around the left side, where you can sneak by a large bear then stealth into the door behind the Tree Sentinels.

Whichever route you decide to take, you can find the next site of grace just through the doors beside a large phantom tree.

Outer Wall Phantom Tree

There are a few things to grab right beside this site of grace. This large phantom tree has 2 x Golden Seeds sitting beside it, then you can also find the map stele for the area directly beside where you can obtain Map: Leyndell, Royal Capital. This reveals the rest of the Altus Plateau and the inner areas of the capital that you will be heading towards.

You might be tempted by the path that looks to be leading directly to the outer wall of the capital, but that gate is locked tight so you are going to be traveling to the far north part of the wall to be getting into the capital. Continue up the large stairs going north, but watch out for the large Gargoyle that appears when you are halfway up. This one isn’t considered a boss, but is still pretty tough so don’t feel bad about just running by if you don’t want to deal with it at the moment.

At the top of the stairs where the path leads towards the large locked gate, you can find another large phantom tree with another 2 x Golden Seed (make sure you’re using these!)

The path forward somewhat splits now, and you can either go directly through the battlefield area or around to the right. It is easier to just go through the battlefield area, as the next site of grace is at the opposite end, as well as the set of stairs you to take to continue to the next area.

Continue to the far side of the battlefield where you can find the site of grace just before the cliff and the gate leading back outside the castle walls.

Outer Wall Battleground

You can now head directly east from the site of grace, where there is a staircase leading up the side of the cliff.

At the top, the path splits to the left leading into a separate graveyard area, but to continue you need to follow the path east into the forested area. Continue on the path and you will reach a group of enemies, who are very shortly shot at by the Golems in the distance.

There is a set of three Golems in the distance here, who are in between you and where you need to go. You can go straight through them if you want, or go wide to the left where they don’t aim much at you.

Continue just up the path behind them to find the last barrier between you and entering Leyndell.

Draconic Tree Sentinel

Reward: 50,000 Runes, Dragon Greatclaw, Dragonclaw Shield

An upgraded version of the Tree Sentinel using lightning attacks, and surprisingly one of the more challenging bosses in the game. There is an easy cheese method – sneak around him (from the left) and drop the Poison Mist Spell behind him, rinse and repeat until he is dead, pack a lot of mana flasks to recast the spell. It will take a long time to kill him this way but you don’t actually have to enter combat at all, he will just stand there and takes poison damage until he dies without even noticing you. If you do actually want to fight him, the boss has two phases. First, he will use melee and shoots fire. Stay on your horse, as a mage shoot spells at him, especially when he shoots fire and he is standing still. As a melee char you want to land hits between his melee attacks. At half health he switches to lightning, this is where it gets tricky because he has the most broken attack in the game, a lighting strike that always hits where you stand and kills your mount in 1 hit. Luckily, this too can be cheesed – the moment you see him lower his lightning gauntlet you dismount (  ) and you’ll be invulnerable during the dismount animation. This completely negates the lightning attack and you won’t get hit at all. Worst case, if you dismount too early he will hit you once which deals about 700 damage but you should survive if you leveled up your vigor and refill your health after each hit. If your mount dies you can (and really should) resummon it by consuming 1 health flask, do this right away. Sometimes he uses 2 lightning strikes in a row, always get back on your horse immediately after dismounting it, and in case he does this you dismount immediately again. If you are on the mount while his lightning strike hits you will most likely die and so will your mount. It takes a few tries to get the timing down – watch his gauntlet on his hand and the second he starts lowering it is when you must dismount to completely negate the lightning strike damage. Sometimes you get lucky and he only uses lightning strikes like 5 times during the fight if you can kill him quickly, but other times he spams it a lot. He sometimes also uses a shockwave which can knock you off your mount, your best bet is to keep your distance but if he does it after you dismounted you will get hit and can’t do much about it. His other attacks shouldn’t be a problem, ride in a circle around him at all times and dash away when he prepares for a melee attack. Pack mostly health flasks even as a mage, at this point in the game you should have a minimum of 11 flasks, put 7-8 in health and 3-4 in mana. If you want to survive at least 2 lightning hits you should have 1400 health.

Once the Tree Sentinel is defeated, the gold fog wall behind it will drop, and if you have obtained at least one Great Rune then you can enter into the Royal Capital.

Altus Plateau Side Areas – Sites of Grace & Named Locations

 

Abandoned Coffin

Erdtree-Gazing Hill

Altus Plateau

Altus Highway Junction

Forest-Spanning Greatbridge

Bower of Bounty

Windmill Village

Windmill Heights

Road of Iniquity Side Path

Rampartside Path

Shaded Castle Ramparts

Shaded Castle Inner Gate

Castellan’s Hall

Unsightly Catacombs (requires 2 Stonesword Keys)

Sainted Hero’s Grave

Sage’s Cave

Perfumer’s Grotto

Old Altus Tunnel (requires Stonesword Key)

Altus Tunnel

Golden Lineage Evergaol (Named Location)

Lux Ruins (Named Location)

Perfumer’s Ruins (Named Location)

Wyndham Ruins (Named Location)

Second Church of Marika (Named Location)

Mirage Rise (Named Location)

Writheblood Ruins (Named Locations)

West Windmill Pasture (Named Location)

East Windmill Pasture (Named Location)

Village Windmill Pasture (Named Location)

Dominula, Windmill Village (Named Location)

Highway Lookout Tower (Named Location)

Minor Erdtree (Named Location)

Woodfolk Ruins (Named Location)

Stormcaller Church (Named Location)

Continue with the next area Leyndell, Royal Capital.

For all other regions refer to Elden Ring Walkthrough.