Elden Ring 100 Percent Guide

Getting 100% in Elden Ring

100 percent completion in Elden Ring isn't just about beating the final boss. It covers a bunch of separate systems that need to be filled in. There are achievements, collectibles, questlines, and some stuff that only shows up if you know where to look. I spent about 80 hours on my last completion run, and I still missed a few things until I went back with a spreadsheet. The game tracks several different metrics. Most players focus on the achievement hunter route since that is the clearest target. You need to collect all achievements, which means beating every major boss, finding every map fragment, maxing your affinity, getting every incantation and sorcery, collecting all armor sets, talismans, weapons, and finishing certain questlines to specific endings. The game does not tell you exactly what each achievement requires. You have to piece it together from the community. Here is what I found after my second full run when I actually bothered to track everything systematically.

There are 31 map fragments across the Lands Between. They are scattered in the open world and in a few dungeons. The problem is some of them are behind bosses you might skip if you go for a fast build. I missed three on my first completion run because I was playing a pure incantation build and dodged the underground areas where those fragments sit. The workaround was simple: I loaded a save from before I defeated two specific demigods and farmed the fragments. Do not try to collect them at the end of the game. The late-game areas are cramped and you will waste hours backtracking. One achievement requires reaching a certain level. The exact number is high enough that you cannot just follow the main path. You need to actively farm runes. The Mohgwyn Palace blood moon route gets you to level 200 in about four hours if you have the right setup. Gravelstone Talisman plus Gold-Pickled Fowl Foot stacked on top of a good weapon upgrade path. Alternatively, the Consecrated Snowfield has early-level rune farming spots that are more accessible but slower. I recommend the Mohgwyn method once you have defeated Morgott. This is where most people fail. There are more spells than most players realize. Several are quest rewards that can be missed permanently if you advance too far without talking to certain NPCs. The biggest trap is Thops. If you do not give him the secret scripture he wants, you lose his sorceries forever. He stays at the Church of Irith in Liurnia, but if you let him die fighting soldiers or just never return after triggering his quest, you cannot get the spell back. I lost one because I rushed through Liurnia on my first playthrough. On the second run I just went straight to him after meeting Ranni and got every spell before moving on.

Another common miss is the Dragon Communion incantations. You need to defeat specific dragons. The Godskin Noble in Caelid gives one you can easily overlook if you skip that area. The dragon in the Lake of Rot area is another. Make sure you check your incantation list periodically so you know which ones are still missing.

Questline Completions

Certain questlines must be completed for their associated rewards. Ranni's quest is the big one and it is also the one that locks you out of other endings if you do not finish it. Nepheli Loux, Gowry, and Alexander all have requirements that are easy to break. Alexander in particular dies permanently if you do not give him the Shard of Alexander at the right time, and then you lose his talisman reward. The fix is to track your quest progress with a notebook or just keep a running list of which NPCs you have spoken to lately. I stopped relying on memory after my first incomplete run. You need to defeat all demigods, every Great Rune boss, and every optional boss in the game. This includes the secret bosses like Maliketh, Dragonlord Placidusax, and the Black Knife Tiche fight. Some of these are hidden behind specific conditions. For example, you need to defeat Radahn to access the Altus Plateau, which unlocks the path to multiple other bosses. Planning your route matters more than speed here. You only need to see one ending for the 100 percent achievement hunt, but the community standard is to complete at least the Age of Fracture ending by defeating the final boss and choosing to mend the Elden Ring. A second playthrough on NG+ is not required unless you are chasing specific items that respawn differently. Most items persist across playthroughs.

Here is the order I used on my clean completion run, and it cut the total time down to roughly 65 hours from what was over 100 on my first attempt. Start by collecting every map fragment as you explore naturally. Do not backtrack yet. When you reach the point of no return, pause and go back through the areas you missed. This is the phase where I usually lose the most time because the game punishes forgetting to check cellars and side paths. Use a location tracker from the wiki rather than trying to memorize everything. I switched from mental notes to a live wiki checklist and it shaved about six hours off my run. After map fragments, handle your affinity farming. Do this after you have defeated Margit and Gotten because you will have better gear and rune access. Then push through the main story until you hit the late game. During the late game, prioritize quest completion before fighting optional bosses so you do not accidentally trigger quest-ending conditions.

The spell collection should be done in two waves. First wave is early in Liurnia and Altus. Second wave is after unlocking the Consecrated Snowfield and Crumbling Farum Azula areas. Some spells only appear after you trigger certain boss defeats.

Pieces that get overlooked

Armor sets are the most commonly missed category. There are about 80 sets across the game. Several come from NPCs that die early in their questlines. Gideon Ofnir dies at a specific point and you lose his full set if you do not loot him immediately. I learned this the hard way when I looted his body two days later after advancing too far. The same issue happens with a few other characters. I started checking armor acquisition directly from the wiki after that mistake instead of relying on memory or in-game tracking. Talismans are another category people miss. A handful drop from bosses that are optional but required for completion. The ones from the Haligtree area are particularly easy to skip if you take a different path to the endgame. I recommend pushing through the Haligtree even if your build does not benefit from it. The alternative is a second playthrough, and that doubles your time investment significantly. Weapons with unique names do not always drop from visible enemies. Some are found in the environment or given by NPCs. The Millicent questline rewards a weapon that most players never see because the quest can be aborted by killing her early. Again, tracking your NPC progress avoids this entirely.

Tools that actually help

The best tool I found was a simple spreadsheet with checkboxes for every category. Achievements, map fragments, spells, incantations, quests, bosses, armor, talismans, weapons. I updated it after every session. The alternative is using a site like the Elden Ring Wiki and cross-referencing your achievement list against it. Neither method is perfect, but the spreadsheet method forced me to notice gaps I would have otherwise ignored. Achievement trackers built into Steam and PlayStation do not break down what each one requires. That is a frustration that applies to every FromSoftware game. You will need external resources regardless of platform.

How long this actually takes

A fresh player starting from scratch should plan for about 70 to 90 hours. If you already know the game and have a build ready, you can do it in roughly 50 hours. The bottleneck is almost always spell and incantation collection because you need to track down specific NPCs who move or die based on timing. Armor collection is the second bottleneck for players who do not use a checklist. If you are doing this purely for the achievement and you do not care about finishing every lore document or finding every crafting material, the time drops to around 60 hours. Those extra items are not required for the 100 percent achievement count, so many people skip them. I skipped them on my second run and it saved me about eight hours of boring exploration.

Common mistakes to avoid

Do not start a new character specifically for 100 percent. You can complete the requirements on any character. Starting fresh just wastes time. Do not neglect the underground areas. Areas like the Siofra River and Nokron contain fragments and items you cannot reach from the surface. Do not assume you can get back to missed quests later. Several NPC questlines end permanently based on story progression. The game does not give you a warning when you lock something out. Keep notes. The system will not do it for you. Another mistake is trying to do everything in one sitting. The completion process spans dozens of hours of optional content. Burnout is real. I stopped mid-run for a week because I was chasing a single talisman and it had turned into a chore. Coming back with fresh hands made it faster. Not the other way around.

When to quit and what to do instead

If you find yourself missing the same three things across two full playthroughs, you are probably stuck on a questline that has a hidden fail condition. Look up the specific item you are missing and trace it back to the source. In my experience, about half of missed collectibles in Elden Ring come from broken questlines, not from failing to find a physical object. Fix the quest and the item usually follows.