Elden Ring: How to avoid losing runes when you die

Runes are the basic currency in Elden Ring, but you’ll lose quite a lot of them since deaths are unavoidable. As long as you can go back to the spot where you perished, you can pick up the currency that you dropped. But, if you still get dropped along the way, then they’re gone for good. However, there’s a nifty item that you can use to circumvent that. Here’s our Elden Ring guide to help you avoid losing runes whenever your character dies.

Note: For more information, check out our Elden Ring guides and features hub.

Elden Ring guide – How to avoid losing runes when your character dies

The item that prevents you from losing runes if you die in Elden Ring is called the Sacrificial Twig. This can sometimes be found while exploring (i.e., as glowing loot in dungeons/overworld). However, this tends to be sold by merchants as well. There’s one in particular that can be found in the Isolated Merchant’s Shack at the southwestern tip of the Weeping Peninsula, a region that’s south of the Limgrave starting area.

The Sacrificial Twig can be purchased for 3,000 runes, and the merchant has three of these. Don’t worry since you can find others even if this guy’s inventory is limited.

In any case, the Sacrificial Twig item in Elden Ring is actually a talisman. As long as you have it equipped, your next death won’t cause you to lose runes. However, the Sacrificial Twig is also destroyed in the process.

This has almost no use in the early to mid-game when each level only requires less than 20,000 runes. However, this is something that you might want to consider much later once you need tens to hundreds of thousands of runes per level. You definitely don’t want to lose them in case you perish, and, if you’re in a tougher area, it might be harder to get back to your “corpse.”

Note: Lastly, there’s an item called the Twiggy Cracked Tear that briefly stops the loss of runes in the event that your character meets an unfortunate demise. This is used as part of a mixture once you’ve obtained the Flask of Wondrous Physick.

Elden Ring is available via Steam. For more information, check out our guides and features hub.