The NPCs called Sir Ansbach, Needle Knight Leda, and Freyja share a secret side questline in Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree DLC. This walkthrough shows the full solution. Completing this questline makes it possible to summon Sir Ansbach as an ally for the endboss, making the final fight considerably easier. However, you are not allowed to kill Sir Ansbach and you must side with him during the questline to become allies.
Missable Warning: Steps 1-9 must be completed before burning the Sealing Tree at Church of the Bud. Steps 10-13 must be completed after burning the Sealing Tree. The Sealing Tree is the point of no return, most NPCs and their questlines become unavailable after this point. You are not allowed to kill Sir Ansbach if he’s hostile at Storehouse, First Floor (archer enemy with red name).
Video Walkthrough
Step 1: Talk to Freyja at “Three-Path Cross” site of grace, exhaust all dialogue. This is needed to spawn her in Storehouse, Seventh Floor. If Freyja is no longer here it means you talked to her already, then skip to Step 2 and you’ll find her in Shadow Keep Storehouse, Seventh Floor.
Step 2: Talk to Freyja at Shadow Keep > “Storehouse, Seventh Floor” site of grace, exhaust all dialogue. She will say “I should have asked Ansbach to impart his knowledge when I had the chance”.
Step 3: Talk to Sir Ansbach at “Main Gate Cross” site of grace. If he’s no longer there, he will be in Shadow Keep at Storehouse, First Floor – from the site of grace enter the room in the north before going upstairs.
Step 4: Collect the “Secret Rite Scroll”, it must be given to Sir Ansbach in the next step. From “Storehouse, Fourth Floor” site of grace go up the stairs past a red fire mage enemy, down the next stairs on the left to enter a room. There you find it on a table. If you already collected it you can skip to the next step (can find it in inventory under Key Items).
Step 5: Talk to Ansbach north of “Storehouse, First Floor” site of grace. From the site of grace head north, past a ghost enemy shooting a fire spell, then enter the room on the right before going upstairs. Give “Secret Rite Scroll” to Ansbach > tell him of Freyja’s decisions > exhaust all dialogue > he will give “Letter to Freyja”, if not fast travel back to First Floor site of grace and visit him again or try talking to Freyja once more, then talk to Ansbach again and he will give it.
Step 6: Talk to Freyja at “Storehouse, Seventh Floor” site of grace > Pass on Letter for Freyja > talk to her again to get “Golden Lion Shield”> exhaust all dialogue.
Step 7: Talk to Ansbach at “Storehouse, First Floor” site of grace > pass on Freyja’s message. If Ansbach is no longer there, proceed to the next step.
Step 8: Talk to Needle Knight Leda at “Highroad Cross” site of grace, exhaust all her dialogue. Reload the site of grace via fast travel and talk to her until she runs out of dialogues and repeats the same line. (If you already exhausted all her dialogues after beating Rennala boss you may be able to skip this step)
Step 9: Come back to Ansbach’s Room in Storehouse, First Floor. Ansbach should be gone and there will be two summoning signs on the ground: Red to side with Leda, Gold to side with Ansbach ==> INTERACT WITH THE GOLDEN SIGN TO ASSIST ANSBACH! This is mandatory to summon him later against the endboss. If you kill Ansbach, his questline fails and he can no longer assist you in later fights. If the summoning signs don’t spawn, try fast traveling in and out of Shadow Keep a few times and make sure you exhausted the dialogues with Leda, also make sure you defeated Messmer boss at the top floor of Shadow Keep Storehouse.
Step 10: Burn the Sealing Tree at Church of the Bud to advance the story. You must have defeated Messmer at the top of Shadow Keep Storehouse to be able to burn the tree. POINT OF NO RETURN: Burning the Sealing Tree will make most other NPCs disappear and their questlines are no longer doable. Finish up any side quests before doing this. Make a save game backup here if possible.
Step 11: Proceed through Enir-Ilim area until you must fight Needle Knight Leda and her allies. Summon Ansbach before the fight by interacting with the golden summoning sign (before interacting with Leda’s red summoning sign). If you did Thiollier’s questline you should summon him too as it’s needed to advance his questline.
Step 12: After defeating Needle Knight Leda, go up the next elevator and Sir Ansbach will stand at the exit, at the stairs just before Divine Gate Front Staircase. Exhaust all dialogues with him.
Step 13: When you reach the endboss you will be able to call Ansbach for help by interacting with his golden summoning sign before the gate to the boss fight. He will assist you which can make the final boss easier. Ansbach will drop his full set after the endboss fight: Wise Man’s Mask, Ansbach’s Attire, Ansbach’s Manchettes, Ansbach’s Boots, Obsidian Lamina, Furious Blade of Ansbach.
If you finished Thiollier’s questline you can summon him for the endboss too, he will also drop his full set afterward.
This finishes the side questline of Sir Ansbach and the associated characters Freyja and Needle Knight Leda.
For all other NPC questlines refer to Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree – All Side Quests.
Rubhen says
ansbach gold summon sign isn’t there. I’ve done everything till that point….
Wayne says
If you side with Leda at the hornsent fight they will be there after
Phenie says
Followed this up to the Gold and Red signs appearing in the Storehouse, but they never did. There might be some other condition required for that part.
PowerPyx says
I played through the questline 5 times and this happened to me too on some attempts, what fixed it was exhausting all dialogue with Leda and fast traveling in and out of Shadow Keep a few times.
How I outlined it Step by Step is how it worked perfectly for me every time.
One inconsistency I got between playthroughs is that sometimes Ansbach disappeared immediately after giving his message to Freyja and I couldn’t pass on Freyja’s message to him, but upon reloading the First Floor site of grace, the summoning signs spawned regardless. Try rebooting the game too.
Phenie says
After summoning Hornsent to help me kill Messmer, I was able to continue ths quest! (I think you just need to defeeat Messmer)
Wayne says
You have to side with Leda and then go back and exhaust her dialogue for the signs to appear.
Finch says
Yeah something is wrong with the Ansbach quest line. Gold and Red summon signs in storehouse first floor aren’t appearing. I’ve done everything the guide said. Fast travelled back and forth. Some sau you have to kill the legacy dungeon boss of the area so Leda trusts Horn guy and goes after Ansbach. But Leda is nowhere to be found. She is not on Highroad cross she left a message to continue the story though.
PowerPyx says
When I did it I was on 1.12 patch and worked fine. Also I had done this just before the Point of No Return (Sealing Tree), after beating Messmer and Romina. Maybe try advancing story and coming back later.
Finch says
Some say that you should side with Leda in the Hornsent confrontation during shadow keep and then she’ll move on to kill Ansbach. The guide didn’t mention something so i sided with Hornsent. Maybe that was the wrong choice. Which side were you on?
PowerPyx says
I never had a Hornsent confrontation in Shadow Keep. Never had an opportunity to side with Leda before this. What did you do to trigger this?
Finch says
When the spell is broken, you can talk to Leda. She now doubts if the others are gonna stay loyal to Miquella and wants to hunt them. The game gives you three options Hornsent, Thiollier or none. She goes with Hornsent anyway. At the Shadow keep beside the burning boats there are a golden sign to help Hornsent and a red to help Leda. I chose Hornsent and here we are now.
PowerPyx says
In my case I never suggested any name to Leda before going to Shadow Keep. Which options you get there also depends on which NPCs you met, so if you never spoke to Thiollier or Hornsent there’s nobody to pick.
I never got the summoning signs at the burning boats in Shadow Keep for Leda/Hornsent.
Finch says
According to a Reddit user:
Just read that you have to continue to Rauh and finish Horns quest by invasion or at least getting to Romina… THEN Leda will reappear so you can finish Ans.
I’ll test if it works and I’ll let you know.
Finch says
So I finished the dlc and it doesn’t really matter. Ansbach appears even if you didn’t do the invasion. Also i didn’t even summon him for the fight and i got his loot all the same. The same happened with Thiollier too.
PowerPyx says
If the summoning signs don’t appear, it might be because Messmer hasn’t been defeated yet. In this case defeat Messmer, then exhaust all dialogue with Leda again and go back to Ansbach’s room if the signs appeared.
Spekkio says
Ok, for everyone panicking like myself. If you assist Hornsent vs Leda, the Ansbach vs Leda sign never seems to show up. I thought I was bugged and just kept progressing and I got to Leda in the Enir-Ilim area and voila, both the Ansbach and the Thioleion (I was doing his quest too) sign were there. I’m assuming if you assist Hornsent, it changes up the quest steps. Anyway, glad I’m not bugged since I want to do the final boss with both summons.
Noob Elden says
Thank you!
yoshime316 says
Did everything until step 8.
The summon signs only appeared after beating Mesmer and exhausting Leda’s dialogue.
RazviCOOL says
The reason some don’t see the sign immediately is because Leda is stuck on a previous step, I think tied to a different questline. The way I managed to get the signs to appear was to kill Mesmer after suggesting Hornsent without Hornsent’s help (not sure if it matters) then you go back to finish her dialoque, reload, then she gets to the step where she wants to go kill Ansbach.
DBGS says
Summon sign to help Ansbach not there for me either. I have not fought Messmer yet. I do have the summon signs by burning boat to help Leda or help Hornsent.
PP – did you summon Hornsent to help you in the Messmer fight? Some research I have done implies if you summon him to help with Messmer that Leda turns her attention towards Ansbach
PowerPyx says
There was nobody for me to summon in Messmer fight – so no I didn’t summon Hornsent.
Amanda says
I did not take a side between Hornsent and Leda, I skipped that encounter and fought Messmer with Hornsent. After this go back and exhaust Leda’s dialogue. Rest at grace and talk to her again to be sure you did it all. After the Messmer fight she will change her target from Hornsent to Ansbach and this is what will trigger the two summoning stones.
Finch says
Hey just want to clarify for those wondering i got the ansbach and thiollier sets without summoning them for the final battle. I completed their quests and their signs were at the door but, it was just too difficult to summon them and still win.
Dukeroner says
I first couldn’t find the signs in Ansbach’s toom either. Leda made me chose between hornsent and Thiollier. I picked Hornsent. I then went to the fiery boats plazza in Shadow Keep, and sided with Leda to defeat Hornsent.
When I went back to Three Croww Way, Leda talked to me about how Ansbach had to die. The signs appeared after all that. Hope this helps!