What if I told you that you could reach level 35 in Elden Ring, less than half an hour after first arriving in Limgrave, by killing a single enemy that doesn't even fight back? Sounds unlikely, but it's true. This is a notoriously easy way to amass almost 100,000 runes not long after creating your character, which way over-levels you for the starting zones. Watch or read any guide to creating an 'OP' Elden Ring character and this is always one of the first steps.
But like many things in Elden Ring, some players are divided about whether you actually should. The 'legitimate' way to kill the creature in question—a hulking great dragon enjoying a peaceful slumber in Caelid—is to weaken it by killing the younger dragons around it. But curious players inevitably found a way to kill the big dragon easily, effortlessly, and in a matter of minutes, despite its incredibly deep pool of health points. For the curious, here's how it's done.
- Go here and pick up the Gold Pickled Fowl Foot. This consumable boosts runes gained from killing enemies by 30% for 3 minutes. If you don't grab it, you'll 'only' get 50,000 runes for killing the dragon.
- Cross the Bridge of Sacrifice, locate the broken down wagon, and loot the morning star, a melee weapon that inflicts bleed damage.
- Head to the Third Church of Marika and look for this portal in the bushes behind it. Activate it and you'll be taken to the Caelid region. This is a dangerous place for a low level character, so run away from everything.
- Travel south through Greyoll's Barrow, cross the bridge (you can easily outrun the dragon guarding it on Torrent, don't worry), and find the Site of Grace located immediately outside the entrance to Fort Faroth.
- Look for the colossal sleeping dragon nearby. Equip your morning star (you might need to two-hand it to wield it depending on your class), and repeatedly attack the dragon. It won't fight back at all.
- You'll do minimal damage, but the bleeding inflicted by the morning star will periodically take off large chunks of health. Keep hammering away and, just before it dies, use the Gold Pickled Fowl Foot. If you time it right, the dragon will die and drop 97,000 runes.
It's debatable whether FromSoft knew players would figure this out. The fact that there's a Site of Grace directly next to an unprotected, unguarded section of the dragon's body suggests that it might have. But gaining this many levels at this stage in the game makes early locations like Stormveil Castle relatively trivial, and I can't imagine the designers being happy with that. Either way, a lot of players are doing it—and probably feeling a bit guilty about it.
But I'm of the opinion that if something is in the game and it doesn't involve mods, hacks, or other exploits that meddle with the code, it's fine. If people want to get a head start with their character, that's their choice. For me personally, it's been a great way to start a new magic-focused character and immediately start casting more fun, interesting spells. Even in a hot farming spot like Greyoll's Barrow, it would take forever to legit earn that many runes.
This reminds me of the infamous Drake Sword from the original Dark Souls. There was a specific spot you could stand under a bridge, where a dragon's tail would be hanging down. If you spent ages shooting the tail with arrows, it would drop a powerful sword that made the early parts of the game a lot easier. The normal way to get this sword was to battle the dragon head-on, but a lot of players preferred to take advantage of this alternate method.
This was never patched out of Dark Souls, which makes me doubtful that FromSoft will address the sleeping dragon in future updates. It could easily reduce the damage dealt by bleed weapons, reposition the smaller dragons to cover its weak spot, or implement any number of changes to make life harder for people. But I don't think it will. When players figure out ways to 'exploit' its games, it tends to just leave them to it—and so it should.
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