By understanding how to Summon in Elden Ring and Spirit Ashes work, you can summon NPCs and creatures to aid you in battle. That can turn the tide of a challenging boss fight, especially if you find particular options. However, to unlock this valuable skill, you need to get the Spirit Calling Bell from the mysterious Renna, which will then let you summon spirits to fight various enemies in Elden Ring.
The ability to summon in Elden Ring is a beneficial skill. Having a ghostly companion to dish damage, or use as a distraction, can be a helpful trick to pull out. It makes Elden Ring summons and Ash Spirits vital to unlocking as an ability and finding the best options. Here we’ll go through all your votes, the powers you can open, and the costs and the limitations. Here are the steps you need to take if you want to know how to summon Elden Ring.
- Using Spirit Ashes to summon in Elden Ring
- Where to get more Spirit Ashes
- How to upgrade Spirit Ashes
- In Elden Ring, you can summon other characters.
Using Spirit Ashes to summon in Elden Ring
Ash Spirits, the most common way to summon in Elden Ring, requires the player to unlock the horse, Torrent, before they can summon. If you still need to do it, our guide on how to get the Elden Ring horse will sort you out.
You should then return to the Church of Elleh, the little ruin past the Tree Sentinel, where Kalé, the merchant, is waiting. There’ll be a new NPC. A witchy-looking character called Renna. She will give you the Spirit Calling Bell and the Lone Wolf Ashes if you talk to her.
It is not necessary to equip the Spirit Calling Bell. It only needs to be kept in your inventory. However, use the Lone Wolf Ashes at any point, either through your list or by equipping them to the quick-select menu with your Flasks. In that case, you’ll summon three friendly wolves attacking nearby enemies.
There are other types of Spirit Ashes that can summon different NPCs as you explore the game. While Spirit Ashes can be used in a variety of ways, there are limitations to their use. If you’re wondering why you can’t summon in Elden Ring, we’ll explain:
- In order to summon Elden Ring Spirits with Ashes, you must be close to a Rebirth Monument, a little square statue about waist-high. You’ll know when you’re in range of one because of a tablet’s white symbol on the screen’s left side. Rebirth Monuments are reasonably common, covering most significant areas and practically every boss fight arena.
- Using Spirit Ashes costs FP. It varies significantly based on the Ash themselves, with more powerful NPCs requiring more FP. Some are so expensive that you won’t be able to summon them without seriously levelling up the Mind Attribute first.
- Elden Ring Spirits can be killed in combat! They’re no more immortal than you are, except for Skeletal variants, which can self-resurrect if not damaged while downed.
- There can only be one kind of Ash Spirit triggered at a time.
If you have the Wolves running about, you can bring out an Ash Spirit Sorcerer once they’re either dead or recalled.
Where to get Elden Ring Spirit Ashes
There are dozens of Ash Spirits to find and summon all around Elden Ring. For early players, here are a few to keep an eye out for:
- One of the best early-game options is to get Lone Wolf Ashes from Renna, the Witch. When it is activated, three wolves run about, mauling enemies.
- You can talk to Roderika at the Stormveil Shack, right after you pass through the Stormgate. Jellyfish Ashes create a spirit that shoots projectiles as it floats.
- The Erdtree Burial Watchdog is the boss at the bottom of the catacombs north of the Church of Elleh. To get the Noble Sorcerer Ashes, which fire ranged spells at targets, you must kill this horrible thing.
- The boss of Tibia Mariner lives in Summonwater Village, west of Limgrave, along the main road. Victory will get you the Skeletal Militiaman Ashes, which summon two pike-wielding skeletons that self-resurrect when killed, assuming they’re not damaged while restoring their bodies. This is the best early-game call.
Beyond this, Ash Spirits are generally found either in tombs like the one players found the Erdtree Burial Watchdog in or controlled by other Tibia Mariners, a recurring form of boss throughout Elden Ring.
How to upgrade Spirit Ashes
Elden Ring Spirits can be upgraded by Roderika, the young woman who gave you the jellyfish at Stormveil Shack. When you reach Stormveil Castle, you’ll discover she’s gone. Speak with her, then to Smithing Master Hewg, and keep going back and forth between them, ferrying messages between them. After you have done this enough, Roderika will explain how she wants to use her gift. Next time you come back here, she’ll be a merchant opposite Hewg.
Speaking to Roderika allows you to enhance your Ash Spirits, which gives summons more excellent health and attack power and even changes how many are summoned, depending on the Ash itself. You will need to find and spend Grave Glovewort, white flowers that are similar to Smithing Stones for Ash Spirits. You can find these flowers in any underground area or location associated with death/burial in Elden Ring – you’ll find plenty in the tunnels leading up to the Erdtree Burial Watchdog mentioned above.
How to NPCs summon in Elden Ring
Confusing as it is, Ash Spirits are not the same thing as summoning friendly NPCs, which is similar to how it was in Dark Souls and Bloodborne before. A Martyr Effigie is a statue of a person about the same size and standard as the Rebirth Monuments. Players must interact with them directly, unlike Rebirth Monuments, in order to trigger them. This will enable co-op play online and reveal NPC summon signs on the floor, little gold stone scripts that can be interacted with.
NPC summons have more advantages than Ash Spirits. They tend to be more robust (though not always) and don’t cost any FP. You can summon as many as you like, and they don’t override each other.
The downsides, however, are apparent. Except for the Martyr Effigy, these characters can only be summoned where their call markers appear. Other NPCs are linked to story elements and only appear in specific locations or require you to complete a quest before they get to you. An NPC sorcerer named Rogier can be found outside Margit’s boss arena. Let’s say you want to find as many NPCs as possible. In that case, we recommend talking to and helping out every character you meet across the game. It pays to network in Elden Ring.
