The best Talismans in Elden Ring
The best items to boost recovery, shorten casting times and reduce damage.
Finding Talismans in Elden Ring can help boost your odds of survival. When equipped, they offer permanent boosts to your character's stats and abilities, making them much better than constantly relying on limited consumable items to give you a leg up against Elden Ring's tough monsters. In this guide, we've put together our top picks for the best Talismans in Elden Ring, as well as where to find them, and how to get more Talisman slots so you can equip greater numbers of them.
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Best Talismans in Elden Ring
Gold Scarab
This Talisman increases the amount of runes obtained from defeating enemies by 20%, easily making it one of best Talismans for farming runes and levelling up fast, or for using those runes to buy gear and upgrades.
Acquiring the Gold Scarab is no mean feat, though, as you'll have to journey to the dangerous area of Caelid and complete its Abandoned Cave dungeon. If you haven't reached Caelid yet, you can find a shortcut by exploring the ruins very close to where you begin back in Limgrave, taking you to Sellia Crystal Tunnel, which will teleport you to the middle of the region. From here, you'll find the Abandoned Cave just east of 'Smouldering Wall' Site of Grace. To learn more about how to obtain this great Talisman, read our walkthrough on how to get the Gold Scarab in Elden Ring.
Erdtree's Favor
This Talisman slightly raises maximum HP, stamina, and equip load, giving your Tarnished a vital boost to some of your most critical stats. Variants of this Talisman can also be found later in the game, raising your maximum HP, stamina and equip load further. You can get this first one, though, near the start of the game as it's located in Fringefolk Hero's Cave in Limgrave. You can see its exact location on the map below:
That said, you will need two Swordstone Keys to open the path toward the Erdtree's Favor Talisman, and you'll also have to avoid the dungeon's chariot deathtraps until you reach a point where the path narrows. From here, it's possible to drop down to a hidden location beneath the main path. Here, you'll come across some imps as well as a fire trap, but pass beyond those and you'll come to a large area with an altar at the end where Erdtree's Favor is located. Beware, though, as you'll be ambushed by two Grafted Scions in front and behind you here, which may be a tough fight for you if you're low-level. Similarly, fighting on the narrow path is not recommended as it's very easy to fall to your doom. You're better off running past the Scion in front and then grabbing the Talisman, as you'll still have it in your possession even if you die trying to escape.
Radagon's Icon location
This Talisman is a must for Sorcerer builds as it will shorten your casting time for both Sorceries and Incantations.
You'll be able to find this in Raya Lucaria Academy shortly after defeating the Red Wolf of Radagon mini-boss in Liurnia. To find it, start at the 'Debate Parlor' Site of Grace. Go out the door but before you head further into the courtyard, turn right and go to the back corner and you'll see a side path over the balcony with a ladder at the end. Climb the ladder and you'll see a broken window you can enter that takes you to a floor above the Debate Parlor. Head to the right and you'll find a chest with the Radagon's Icon inside.
Green Turtle Talisman location
Stamina is one of the most important stats in Elden Ring, so the Green Turtle Talisman's ability to increase stamina recovery speed makes it a crucial Talisman to get. Good news is that it's not only easy to find early on, it also requires the least amount of pain to obtain. You'll need a Swordstone Key to access it, but once you've got one, head to Summonwater Village in East Limgrave. From there, head east of the village and you should find steps leading underground, once you've unsealed the path with the Swordstone Key.
Normally, you'd expect to find a mini-boss but this area is just populated with adorable harmless turtles. Head past them and open the door at the end to find a chest with the Green Turtle Talisman inside.
Dragoncrest Shield Talisman location
This Talisman boosts physical damage negation, giving an important boost to your overall defences. It also comes in two other variants with even greater effects, which can be found further into the game. It's possible to get this first iteration of the Talisman quite early on, but it's also hidden in a potentially dangerous area if you're at a low level: the Bestial Sanctum in Caelid. Normally, getting there requires a challenging journey from Limgrave (as well as fighting a very tough boss), but there's also a teleporter you can unlock to get there much faster, located just north of Third Church of Marika at the base of a cliff hidden behind a bush (though you may need to speak to D at Summonwater Village in north Limgrave and progress his questline before he'll tell you about it).
Once you're at Beastly Sanctum, head outside to the cliff edge and you'll notice that there are more structures below. To get there safely, you should find a spot northwest with large roots sticking out, providing you a platform to drop down. Torrent is recommended for this to help make some of the trickier jumps.
When you've made it as far down as you can, follow around the path and you'll pass a platform with a corpse holding a Cinqueda dagger. Head further along and you'll find another corpse with the Dragoncrest Shield Talisman.
Pearldrake Talisman location
This Talisman boosts non-physical damage negation, giving you better defence against magic. Like Dragoncrest Shield Talisman, this also comes in different variations, but here is how to get the base version early.
Head to Four Belfries in Liurnia and there will be three teleports, with each requiring an Imbued Sword Key to activate. If you haven't acquired any yet, there's fortunately one inside a chest at the top. Activate the first teleporter as you ascend and this will take you to a small part of Crumbling Farum Azula, a late game area. You can drop down to a few other platforms below you, one which has two very powerful enemies, but if you drop to another platform on the edge you'll find a corpse with the Pearldrake Talisman. To escape, you can either die and respawn back at your last Site of Grace or kill the two enemies before it's safe to fast-travel back out.
How to get more Talisman slots in Elden Ring
You start with one Talisman slot, but you can unlock three more for a total of four Talisman slots by defeating the following bosses along the critical story path:
- Margit, the Fell Omen
- Godrick the Grafted and Rennala, Queen of the Full Moon to obtain their Great Runes, then speaking to Finger Reader Enia at the Roundtable Hold
- Godfrey, First Elden Lord
Note, if have encountered a bug where you cannot get more than two slots, then following the March 17th, 2022 update you can visit the Twin Maiden Husks in the Roundtable Hold, where they should appear in their shop line-up.
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