Elden Ring Mt. Gelmir Walkthrough

Welcome to the Elden Ring Walkthrough for the Mt. Gelmir region! Mt. Gelmir is located in the northwest corner of Altus Plateau, and is primarily used as the overworld route to reaching Volcano Manor. There is one boss along the way (that you could completely ignore if you wanted to) then an important boss in the side area The Shaded Castle tucked right between Mt. Gelmir and Altus Plateau, who awards a trophy/achievement as well as one of the Legendary Armaments.

For all other regions refer to Elden Ring Walkthrough.

Mt. Gelmir

Progression Order:

Going to Volcano Manor:

Bridge of Iniquity
First Mt. Gelmir Campsite
Ninth Mt. Gelmir Campsite
Full-Grown Fallingstar Beast
Road of Iniquity
Volcano Manor

The Shaded Castle:

Shaded Castle Ramparts
Shaded Castle Inner Gate
Elemer of the Briar
Castellan’s Hall

Going to Volcano Manor

The main purpose of going through Mt. Gelmir is to go to Volcano Manor. The main way to make that trip is to take the path all the way around the north end of Altus Plateau, then cross the rope bridge across the valley just east of Writheblood Ruins.

Just past the rope bridge on the other side, you can find the first site of grace for the area.

Bridge of Iniquity

Follow the route to the north that the guidance has pointed you towards. If you stay on this lower level you eventually hit a dead end where you can’t progress further. To continue up the mountain you need to watch out on the left side of the path, close to where the group of two Abductor Virgins hang out there is a ladder leading up the cliff. You can spot it if you hug the left wall and watch for the two torches on either side.

Make the long climb up to the top, making sure you don’t hang out near the ground too long or the Abductor Virgins can knock you back down.

Hang a left immediately at the top of the ladder to make your way closer to a graveyard, along with another site of grace.

First Mt. Gelmir Campsite

To continue further up the mountain, head to the northwest towards the watchtower. You are going to be heading just past it, then across some rocks towards the part of the mountain farther north.

At the next cliff there is another ladder that you need to climb up to continue, but watch out for the Grafted Scion that will drop down from above (you can choose to fight it or ignore it and just make your way up the ladder.

At the top of the first ladder there is another ladder each on the right and left. The left side leads to a merchant so you might want to head that way, but either route eventually leads to the top of the mountain after a second ladder.

At the top, continue to the west across another rope bridge.

On the other side, you can find the next site of grace.

Ninth Mt. Gelmir Campsite

You now need to go up one more level to the top of the mountain, before you can get to the next section leading to Volcano Manor. You can climb the ladder if you want, but it’s much quicker to just use the Spiritspring directly to the right of it instead.

Full-Grown Fallingstar Beast

Reward: 21000 Runes, 1x Somber Smithing Stone [6], x5 Smithing Stone [6], x10 Gravity Stone Chunk, 1x Fallingstar Beast Jaw

This is a 1:1 copy of the normal Fallingstar Beast found in Caelid – Sellia Crystal Tunnel, using the same moveset. The Full-Grown version is actually easier because you are in a bigger arena and can ride your mount, making this boss rather easy to beat with magic spells. Ride around it in a big circle, always stay moving, and shoot it with spells repeatedly. Keep as far away as possible, the sweet spot where your spells can hit it but it can’t hit you. When it charges towards you do a dash to the side to speed up.

If you decide you don’t want to deal with it you can just run past it, it doesn’t stop you from progressing through the area. Whether you fight it or not, head towards the west side of the mountaintop where there will be a large thing section leading away from the mountaintop. Go to the end and jump down to the section just below.

Before going too close to the Manor, head towards the north part of the area where you can find a phantom tree with a Golden Seed.

You can now head south towards Volcano Manor. The path to the left leads towards the door, but you should head down the path to the right leading underneath the area first to grab the area map.

You can find the map stele and Map: Mt. Gelmir just before the area with the hanging bodies, just watch out for the giant hand that might grab you as you go near.

You can then head a short distance past the fire in the middle of the path to find another site of grace.

Road of Iniquity

Head back up the path again and towards Volcano Manor.

There is a troll hanging out in front of the door which you can fight if you want, or just run past it directly into the front door of the castle (the troll doesn’t drop anything unique when killed).

Head up the stairs inside and through the doors to enter Volcano Manor.

Volcano Manor

Inside on the lower floor is a non-combat area with NPCs you can interact with, along with a site of grace just in front of the fireplace.

The Shaded Castle

The Shaded Castle is a side area located directly between Mt. Gelmir and Altus Plateau (it’s included in the map section for the form, but the sites of grace are listed under the latter). You can go to it at any time after you reach Altus Plateau if you want, you just can’t see the actual location on the map unless you’ve obtained the map for Mt. Gelmir. To reach it you can start from a site of grace such as Erdtree-Gazing Hill, then head all the way north through the valley.

Once you’re through the narrow cliff area, you will find the castle sitting in a large poison area.

To enter the castle, head slightly northwest where there will be some rocks leading up towards a broken section in the wall.

Watch out for the corpse enemies as you enter (they are all over the castle and inflict poison if they grab you) and head just to the right where you can find the first site of grace inside the castle.

Shaded Castle Ramparts

From this site of grace, you want to drop off into the central area with all the poison water and Wraith Callers hanging around, then start heading towards the center of the castle.

Once you round the corner into the next open area there will be a ladder on a platform directly to the right beside a Wraith Caller hanging out. Climb that ladder up to the next area.

At the top head just to the left, where you can see an opening leading into the next courtyard, with the next building you need to enter directly ahead.

You can go directly through the middle of the courtyard if you want (just watch out for the mounted Wraith Caller patrolling the middle) or jump on top of the buildings and directly up to the next walkway.

Head just inside the next building for the next site of grace.

Shaded Castle Inner Gate

Continue following the path forward, then climb the ladder just to the left.

Make your way into the next room and through to the other side, watching out for the few Nobles and a Page that will try to ambush you on the way through.

Outside take an immediate right and start making your way across the bridge to the other side, but watch out for the Cleanrot Knight that will try to stop you. There will be a one more of these you need to go through on your way to the boss.

Head through the next building, and you will be in another open area with another Cleanrot Knight. The tower you might see if walking out of is your route to the boss.

Before heading up to the boss make sure to go to the south side of this platform and drop the ladder down. This gets you a bit of a shortcut back up from the site of grace if you die to the boss.

When you’re ready to head to the boss, take the lift in the tower and head down the long walkway full of statues to the boss room.

Elemer of the Briar

Reward: 24,000 Runes, Marais Executioner’s Sword, Briar Greatshield

First of all, a ranged build or shooting spells from afar is useless against this boss. He will constantly throw swords at you when going a few meters away from him. You will have to learn to dodge his melee attacks perfectly, land 1-3 hits between his combos and repeat. Play with light armor so that your stamina recharges faster. Having 25 Endurance helps to have more stamina, if you haven’t upgraded stamina it’s more tricky. Because the boss attacks quickly and constantly you always need to watch your stamina bar so that you have enough left to dodge and land a counter-hit. Playing with heavy armor would make you too slow for this. If you get hit you need to dodge back after he finishes a combo and quickly heal, then immediately dodge his next attack (he doesn’t leave long breaks between attacks). You have to stay close to him at all times. His close-range melee attacks are easy to dodge once you learn his attack pattern, but it takes some learning and you have to get good at dodging, which can be challenging at first if you played a ranged build/mage so far. If you play a mage, use the Carian Slicer spell, which is a magic melee sword attack. The good thing is that this boss doesn’t have overly much health, but he is very aggressive and has a very large move set. Start by summoning some ashen remains to distract him a little bit. He will kill your ashen remains quickly but it will at least give you some help at the start of the fight and opens him up for attacks from behind. There are 3 moves you can exploit: after his melee combos you can get 1-3 hits in, the best one is when he stabs the sword forward as you can easily dodge behind him and land 2 quick hits. Another good one is when he smashes his shield on the ground, dodge backward and then land 2 quick hits. For anything else, you’ll want to dodge towards him and slightly to the side to get behind him. When he starts spinning his sword and makes it turn red, he will throw it forward in a straight line, then you can dodge towards him and quickly get behind him, while his spinning sword attack is going you can land 4-5 hits from behind to deal a lot of damage quickly. He doesn’t do this move too often but he should do it 1-3 times during the fight, and it’s the best opening to take down 20% of his health in one go. This one of the more skill-based fights due to the perfect dodging required and you can’t run away from him because of his throwing swords that will hit you anywhere, so it’s more of a case of “get good” and learning his move set and dodging perfectly.