Elden Ring: How to Level Up

Runes pile up fast in Limgrave, and for the first hour or so there is nothing you can do with them. Elden Ring: how to level up is a question with a gate in front of it — the option is not unlocked by default, it is handed to you by a character you have to go and meet.

You need Melina first

Melina offers you an accord at a Site of Grace, and that accord is what lets you spend runes on levels. Until then, "Level Up" simply does not appear in the Site of Grace menu.

She turns up once you have rested at a few Sites of Grace in Limgrave. If she has not appeared yet, the reliable nudge is to keep resting at new graces as you find them and to head toward the Gatefront ruins on the main road north.

Where you actually level

Once the accord is made, levelling happens at any Site of Grace:

1. Rest at a Site of Grace.
2. Choose Level Up.
3. Put points into a stat and confirm.

The rune cost climbs with every level, so early levels are cheap and later ones are a grind. There is no cap you will realistically hit in a normal playthrough.

What to raise first

Two stats matter before anything else:

• Vigor — your health pool. Almost every "this boss one-shots me" problem is a Vigor problem. Take it to 40 before you optimise anything else.
• Your damage stat — Strength or Dexterity for most melee weapons, Intelligence for sorceries, Faith for incantations. Check the weapon's scaling letters in the equipment screen and feed the stat it scales best with.

Endurance is the third priority: it governs stamina and how much armour you can wear without over-encumbering yourself into a slow roll.

Runes are lost on death, not destroyed

Die and your runes drop where you fell. Get back and pick them up and nothing is lost. Die a second time before reaching them and they are gone for good — so if you are carrying a level's worth, spend them before pushing into somewhere new.

Respeccing

Levels are not permanent. After you beat Rennala in Raya Lucaria, you can redistribute your stats using a Larval Tear. That makes early stat choices far less scary than they look — you are not locked into a bad build.