Elden Ring How to Summon Ashes

In Elden Ring you can summon so-called Ashes or Ashen Remains. These are NPC spirits fighting alongside you. This is extremely useful when fighting bosses because your summoned Ashes will help to attack and distract the boss. When they draw the aggression of the boss you can attack from behind for bonus damage. This guide explains everything you need.

Step 1: Get the Spirit Calling Bell

First you need the key item called Spirit Calling Bell. You get it by talking to the witch sitting on the ruins next to the merchant at Limgrave – Church of Elleh (site of grace). She only spawns at night, after unlocking the ridable mount. Tell her “I can call the spectral steed” and she’ll give you the Spirit Calling Bell.

If you haven’t unlocked the mount yet, you must first sit at the Gatefront site of grace, just north of Church of Elleh, there a maiden spawns and offers you the Spectral Steed, accept it and return to Church of Elleh. You can pass time until night while sitting at the site of grace.

This is the witch’s location:

She also gives you the Lone Wolf Ashes, which is a very good Ash for the start. It spawns 3 wolves, they are great at distracting bosses’ attention away from you.

Step 2: Equip and Summon Ashes

Go to Equipment > click on a slot in the bottom row > equip one of the Ashes. For example, the Lone Wolf Ashes.

Now when the Ash is ready to be summoned, you can select it by pressing D-Pad Down and pressing Square-Button . There is no need to equip the Spirit Calling Bell anywhere, you just need to have it in your inventory to summon ashes. Only the Ashen Remains must be equipped.

Also see Elden Ring All Ashen Remains Locations.

Ashes can always be summoned during main bosses and most non-open-world side bosses, but only once per fight. They cost FP (mana) to summon. They cannot be summoned everywhere. Against open world bosses they are usually unavailable. If it’s a boss behind a yellow wall of mist the Ashes can usually be summoned right away. They are best used at the start of the fight, let them distract the boss to land some hits from behind to deal bonus damage.

Also note that some of the late-game Ashes require 100 FP to summon which is more than you start out with. So for the good Ashes you must upgrade the Mind stat to level 18 to get 100+ FP.

For more guides check out the full Elden Ring Wiki & Strategy Guide.