A good Elden Ring Patches questline walkthrough will take you through the highs and lows of this cowardly lion. Patches the Untethered is a recurring rogue in FromSoftware games, and he's here in Elden Ring too, with his own quest that was extended with new phases and stages in the wake of the 1.04 patch (no pun intended). Taking you from the depths of Murkwater Cave to the stately, overheated Volcano Manor, we'll explain all the key locations in this full walkthrough for Patches' questline in Elden Ring below.
Patches the Untethered quest walkthrough guide for Elden Ring
- Fight Patches in Murkwater Cave and spare him
- Use the trapped treasure chest
- Talk to Patches in Scenic Isle
- Get captured by the Abductor in Raya Lucaria
- Find your way out of Volcano Manor
- Get pranked by Patches at Mt. Gelmir First Campsite
- Speak to Patches at Volcano Manor
- Assassinate Great Horned Tragoth
- Return to Patches for the Magma Whip Candlestick
- Kill Rykard
- Find Patches in Shaded Castle
- Return to Murkwater and spare him again
The full Patches quest walkthrough in Elden Ring is a fairly long one, though whole steps can be missed depending on your progress within the game's main story. Use the map above and walkthrough below to plan your progress, and read the text after this list to make sure you don't miss anything! You can click on any of these steps to get more information, or scroll down.
As part of this quest, you'll need to know how to get the Elden Ring Raya Lucaria Academy Glintstone Key! Check our guide to see how.
The Patches questline, like many quests in Elden Ring, can actually jump forward depending on your movements through the campaign and which of the Elden Ring main bosses you've killed. This isn't necessarily a good thing - it can prevent you from getting unique weapons and boss fights obtained at specific points. Find Patches as early as you can for all these stages, and remember to exhaust dialogue whenever possible, just in case.
When it comes to the additions of the 1.04 update, that simply added the final step 12 (as least as far as anybody seems to know). Prior to the update, Patches simply vanished after your encounter with him in the Shaded Castle, and nobody seemed to know where he had gone. Now it's shown that he returns to Murkwater and reopens Patches' Emporium - a rather grandiose name for a cheeky bandit selling a few scrappy tidbits out of his backpack.
Patches can also be summoned as part of the NPC dogpile strategy for how to beat Radahn in Elden Ring, but it's not a part of his questline, and frankly it's also not worth it except for a quick joke. See the guide to see what exactly he has to offer in that fight.
1. Find the Patches boss fight in Murkwater Cave and spare him
In Limgrave, head to Murkwater Cave, a small opening in the wall of the cliffs down in the river. Inside will be some bandits, followed by a very easy boss fight with Patches himself. Do not kill him! Wear him down to half health, whereupon he'll surrender. Don't attack him from that point on, simply step back until the message "Enemy Felled" comes up. Talk to him and accept his surrender to make him into a merchant.
2. Use Patches' trapped treasure chest to go to Mistwood
Come back later and interact with the treasure chest close to Patches (his bandit minions will always attack upon entering, even if Patches himself is friendly). This will teleport you to Mistwood and lock your fast travel power - find a Site of Grace on your own to unlock it again. Head back to Patches one more time afterwards and have dialogue with him.
3. Find Patches in Liurnia's Scenic Isle
Patches will later leave and move to Scenic Isle in Liurnia. Talk to him, and he'll suggest getting captured by a special Virgin Abductor (the rolling iron maiden robots) in Raya Lucaria Academy. Doesn't sound especially safe, but who are we to argue with good ol' trusty Patches?
4. Get kidnapped by the Abductor in Raya Lucaria Academy
The Abductor is indeed in Raya Lucaria Academy, at the bottom of the rotating, water wheel elevator. Allow the Abductor to use its special grab move on you, pulling your character into its open chassis (this will kill you in the process, so make sure you don't have a lot of Runes).
5. Escape Volcano Manor
You'll be teleported to Volcano Manor dungeons, and again need to find a Site of Grace to unlock your Fast Travel power (though this does get you up to Altus Plateau, which means you don't need to figure out how to use the Grand Lift of Dectus in Elden Ring). Avoid enemies where possible, and scurry through the relatively straight path to the nearest Site of Grace.
6. Get tricked by Patches near the entrance to Mt. Gelmir
Find Patches to the West of First Mt. Gelmir Campsite Site of Grace, where he's relaxing by a cliff. Follow the trail of Rainbow Stones near him to the cliffedge, whereupon a cinematic will show him kicking you down the ravine. How shocking, who would have expected this?
7. Get your assassination target from Patches at Volcano Manor
After escaping, head to the entrance of Volcano Manor and Patches will be in the main entrance hall (if you've made it to Volcano Manor already and joined the family through Tanith, the quest will automatically leap to this point). After completing any of Tanith's assassinations, he'll ask you to assassinate Great Horned Tragoth by giving you a special letter that marks Tragoth's location on your map.
8. Kill the Great Horned Tragoth in Liurnia
Head to the Ruin-Strewn Precipice in Liurnia, and there'll be a red summon sign on the floor. Use it to invade Tragoth and kill them - he's a fairly tough NPC with a huge hammer, so evasion or ranged attacks are better than stalwart blocking and melee.
9. Get your assassination reward from Patches
Once Tragoth is dead, head back to Patches in Volcano Manor, and talk to him for the Magma Whip Candlestick. This is a good faith/dex weapon that does a lot of fire damage over a decent range. The next time you show up here, Patches will hang around for a while but provide no useful help while he does.
10. Kill Rykard, Lord of Blasphemy
Now you need to kill the boss of Volcano Manor, Rykard, Lord of Blasphemy (aka, the God-Devouring Serpent), either by completing all of the Volcano Manor's assassination tasks, or completing the Volcano Manor legacy dungeon. If you kill Rykard before the other parts of Patches' quest, the quest will automatically jump forward to the next step.
11. Get the Dancer's Castanets from Patches at Shaded Castle
Head to the Shaded Castle on the North Altus/Gelmir border and progress all the way through it to the bridge full of statues, just outside the boss arena for Elemar of the Briar. Patches will be there and give you the Dancer's Castanets to hand over to Tanith. You can do that if you like; she's in Rykard's arena, doing… something we won't spoil, but she doesn't seem to care much about them. In fact, at time of writing handing over the Castanets seem to have no effect, but we'll update if we find out anything new. Patches falls asleep after handing them over, and will disappear next time you show up.
12. Go back to Murkwater and spare Patches again
Patches will now return to Murkwater Cave - and he'll attack you! However, do not attack back! After a couple of attempts to strike you, Patches will realise who you are and surrender without issue. After that, talk to him once more, then come back later to see him back to normal, now running his shop out of Murkwater Cave again. There's no new stock, but it offers you the chance to buy things you couldn't before - if you're having trouble with how to beat Morgott in Elden Ring, try buying Margit's Shackle! It's more helpful than you'd think.
Patches questline rewards
Patches questline has numerous rewards spaced out over the course of its completion, though as mentioned, it's possible to miss certain steps and opportunities along the way. However, we'll lay out all the noteworthy rewards below, in order of obtaining them:
- Grovel for Mercy (Gesture) - Obtained for sparing Patches' life in your first encounter.
- Leather Armor, Gloves and Boots (armor) and Spear +7 (spear weapon) - Obtained for killing Patches, though we don't recommend this, as it ends his quest early.
- Patches' Emporium (merchant) - After sparing him, Patches becomes a merchant with some good early-game stock.
- Bull-Goat Helm, Bull-Goat Armor, Bull-Goat Gauntlets, Bull-Goat Greaves (armor set) - One of the best armor sets in the game, the Bull-Goat armor provides the best poise in physical defence in all of Elden Ring, though it is very heavy. You get it off Great Horned Tragoth once you kill him.
- Magma Whip Candlestick (whip weapon) - Obtained by talking to Patches after killing Great Horned Tragoth.
- Patches' Crouch (Gesture) - Obtained by sparing Patches once again in the final encounter in Murkwater Cave.
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