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All Ancient Dragon Smithing Stones' locations in Elden Ring

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To find Ancient Dragon Smithing Stones in Elden Ring, you need to go above and beyond

Elden Ring Ancient Dragon Smithing Stones Somber locations
(Image credit: FromSoftware)
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Elden Ring Ancient Dragon Smithing Stones are special crafting materials used to push weapon upgrades to their highest level. There's also the superior Somber Ancient Dragon Smithing Stone, used to do the same thing for the special unique weapons that often come as a consequence of boss drops and similar. Basically, Elden Ring treats these Dragon Stones as the final step towards making your weapons the best that they can be, but you can only reach that point so many times, as there's only 13 Ancient Dragon Smithing Stones and a mere 8 Somber Stones for players to find - so those who like to hop between weapons will need to use some judgement and discretion. Neverless, here's where to find all the locations of the Ancient Dragon Smithing Stones in Elden Ring, including the Somber Ancient Dragon Smithing Stones.

Ancient Dragon Smithing Stones locations

Elden Ring Ancient Dragon Smithing Stones Somber locations

(Image credit: FromSoftware)

Here's where to find all the Ancient Dragon Smithing Stones' locations in Elden Ring (not including the Somber kind, we have those listed further down).

  1. On a corpse in the mouth of a giant's skull Southeast of the Church of Repose in Mountaintops of the Giants.
  2. A reward for killing the nameless dragon with lightning attacks who drops on you at the curved path at the start of Crumbling Farum Azula.
  3. A reward for killing the second nameless dragon who attacks you with red lightning Southeast from the Dragon Temple Rooftop. 
  4. Found on a corpse North of the Dragon Temple. From the North exit, head across the lefthand path to the thin corridor with the dragon statues, head up the curving staircase on the right, then go South at the top and jump on a floating pillar to reach the room across with the corpse.
  5. A reward for killing the two Night's Calvary who guard the caravan during the night, on the Southwest border of Consecrated Snowfields.
  6. On a corpse in its own room past the Onyx Lord miniboss in Yelough Anix Tunnel.
  7. Halfway up the frozen waterfall on a corpse above the Great Wyrm Theodorix boss, outside Cave of the Forlorn. Jump the ledges to reach the Ancient Stone.
  8. On the South side of Miquella's Haligtree is a Leonine Misbegotten with a huge axe, guarding a statue. The corpse leaning against the statue has the Stone on it.
  9. After killing Loretta, Knight of the Haligtree, push past the arena and down the stairs to find a tower with an elevator inside. Instead of using the elevator, go to the tower roof and open a chest before you to get the Stone. 
  10. A reward for Nepheli Loux's quest. For info on how to beat it, check out our Elden Ring Nepheli Loux questline guide here.
  11. If you complete Nepheli Loux's quest, Kenneth Haight's quest and kill Morgott, Gostoc the Gatekeeper, the tall oldball who gave you the Elden Ring Stormveil gate choice, will also be in Godrick's Throne Room to sell you an Ancient Stone for 20000 Runes.
  12. A possible questline reward for the Elden Ring Sorceress Sellen questline. When the choice comes to side with Sellen or Witch-Hunter Jerren, side with Jerren and you'll get the Stone at the end.
  13. Feed all Elden Ring Deathroot locations and give them to Gurranq the Beast Clergyman in North Caelid. Alternatively, after the Maliketh boss fight, simply attack and kill Gurranq in that temple for the Stone.

Somber Ancient Dragon Smithing Stones locations

Elden Ring Ancient Dragon Smithing Stones Somber locations

(Image credit: FromSoftware)

Now here's where to find all the Somber Ancient Dragon Smithing Stones' locations:

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  1. Inside a Gazebo behind the second nameless dragon who attacks you with red lightning Southeast from the Dragon Temple Rooftop (who drops the aforementioned regular Ancient Dragon Smithing Stone).
  2. On the Southwest side of Leyndell, specifically after it becomes the Ashen Capital. Climb up the dragon corpse to the ladder in the ruined beyond, and drop down off the right edge to see a corpse in the ash with the Stone on it.
  3. A reward for killing Anastasia, Tarnished-Eater for a third and final time, now in Consecrated Snowfield at the North side of the river's curve (.
  4. In a chest at the foot of a statue opposite Mohg's arena in Mohgwyn Palace. Warning - it's guarded by a lot of enemies.
  5. After the Prayer Room Site of Grace in the Haligtree, run down to the first path, jump down to the gazebo, then run up the sloping support beam to a tiny room with a chest in it. The chest contains a Stone.
  6. Again, once out of the Prayer Room, use the connecting rooms to make it to the outer ring on your left patrolled by the Putrid Avatar. You don't have to kill it - just run to the corpse on the far Southern side and loot it for the Stone.
  7. Though not technically obtained by killing Malenia, those who complete the Elden Ring Millicent questline and obtain Miquella's Needle through the scarlet flower will get a Somber Ancient Dragon Smithing Stone along with it. For those having trouble with how to beat Malenia in Elden Ring, we can show you how.
  8. A reward for completing Latenna's questline, given to you by Latenna upon completion in the Apostate Derelict.

How to use Ancient Dragon Smithing Stones for upgrades

Elden Ring weapon upgrade blacksmith

(Image credit: FromSoftware)
Elden Ring Bell Bearings

Elden Ring smithing stones

(Image credit: Bandai Namco)

Find all the Elden Ring Bell Bearing locations to get every other kind of Smithing Stone at our guide above!

The actual method by which you use these stones to upgrade your weapons is the same as using any Smithing Stones - head to Hewg with weapons that are ready to be upgraded with them, and by submitting the Stones and a few runes for payment, he'll give them the final upgrade. Be warned that this is not reversible! If you upgrade a weapon with any kind of Ancient Stone, you can't undo the upgrade or get the Stone back - it's destroyed in the process.

Fortunately, Ancient Dragon Smithing Stones only ever require you to use a single one for the final stage of upgrades, no matter whether you're using Somber ones or not. So for example, if you're planning on upgrading a weapon from +24 to +25, it'll always require a single Ancient Dragon Stone, never more than that.

How to get more Ancient Dragon Smithing Stones

Elden Ring Ancient Dragon Smithing Stones Somber locations

(Image credit: FromSoftware)

If you're out of Ancient Dragon Smithing Stones, Somber or not, the only way to get more of them is to start Journey 2, aka New Game Plus. Because each playthrough of Elden Ring can only ever have the 21 Stones mentioned above at most, it means you have to begin again, resetting the world and putting them all back where they were before. If you want to know whether the ones you've got in your bag carry over, our guide on everything to do in Elden Ring before NG+ has that information too!

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Joel Franey
Joel Franey
Guides Editor, GamesRadar+

Joel Franey is a writer, journalist, podcaster and Very Tired Man with a BA from Brunel University, a Masters from Sussex University and a decade working in games journalism, often focused on guides coverage but also in reviews, features and news. His love of games is strongest when it comes to groundbreaking narratives like Disco Elysium, UnderTale and Baldur's Gate 3, as well as innovative or refined gameplay experiences like XCOM, Sifu, Arkham Asylum or Slay the Spire. He is a firm believer that the vast majority of games would be improved by adding a grappling hook, and if they already have one, they should probably add another just to be safe. You can find old work of his at Eurogamer, Gfinity, USgamer, SFX Magazine, RPS, Dicebreaker, VG247, and more.