Stormveil Castle is the first legacy dungeon in Elden Ring and that makes it the first go-to place for all the players. Elden Ring is a massively open-world game that doesn’t hold players’ hands on what to do or where to go next. This can make things a bit more complicated for newcomers and even the veterans of the Souls’ games alike.
But it is not all bad news as Elden Ring does give pointers in the form of its NPCs and Sites of Grace (rest points where players can refill their health bars and reset the whole world). Each Site of Grace has a streak of golden sparkles that point towards the next one, leading to the main objective. From Limgrave, there is no other choice for (new) players other than to follow this trail and reach Stormveil Castle, towering over Limgrave’s Northwest region.
Stormveil Castle has two main boss fights including Margit, the fell omen, and the shard bearer himself, Godrick, the grafted. After defeating the main boss of the Stormveil Castle, Godrick, players are presented with a dilemma. Where to go next? This can become extremely problematic if the players decide to go in the wrong direction (thankfully Elden Ring offers fast travel from one site of grace to another). There are basically two paths players can follow to complete Stormveil Castle. We will be discussing both in detail below and why one is superior to the other in terms of story progression.
Recommended – Liurnia of the Lakes (Raya Lucaria Academy)
The recommended path to follow completing Stormveil Castle is to leave the arena towards North where you defeated Godrick, the grafted. Open the gate on the opposite side of the entrance and leave the Stormveil Castle through a tunnel. This takes the players out on a cliff with Liurnia of the Lakes to its North.
This area offers a site of grace that point further northwest, through the lakes, to reach the next legacy dungeon, Raya Lucaria Academy. This massive structure can be approached from two its gates initially, Eastern Gate and Northern Gate. We have marked the path to both gates for players to follow.
Both gates leading to Raya Lucaria are closed with a magic seal. To pass the gates and reach the Academy, players need to find a key item, Academy Glintstone Key. This key item is being guarded by a Glintstone Dragon, West of the Raya Lucaria academy. By obtaining the key, players can now go inside the second main dungeon and face the second shard bearer, Rennala, queen of the full moon.
Liurnia of the Lakes offers a lot of other activities like Lateena Albinauric’s quest, Blackguard’s quest, Erdtree avatar boss fights, and Lore markers. Enemies in this area are difficult but not impossible to tackle. The journey to the next dungeon, Raya Lucaria Academy, is a long but not perilous one.
Not Recommended – Caelid (Redmane Castle)
Another path players can take after defeating Godrick, the grafted is to go back and travel East of Limgrave. This can be achieved by fast traveling to any site of grace on the path highlighted on the map. Road to Caelid is a wide one and there are two paths players can follow to enter this land of red death.
Caelid is a breeding ground for Scarlet Rot (one of the worst status ailments in the history of video games) and everything that is unholy. From Rot lakes to massive Crows and Dogs, Caelid is a nightmare no one wish to have. Everything in Caelid is hellbent upon inflicting scarlet rot on the players making the journey to the next legacy dungeon, Redmane Castle, an arduous one.
Redmane Castle has no prerequisites for entry but reaching it is a whole different story. Players need to go through Sellia, Town of sorcery, which is standing upon a scarlet lake, and needs to finish its puzzle to proceed. Every enemy in Caelid is way above players’ level at this point and weapons don’t do enough damage to ensure a successful encounter.
The worst part about Caelid? You won’t be able to face Starscourge Radahn if you progress straight to Castle Redmane after completing Stormveil Castle. Players need to start Radahn festival (progress Ranni’s quest or go to Atlas Plateau first) in order to defeat the next shard bearer. This makes the whole journey through the nightmarish Caelid pointless so early in the game.
From our own experience, we recommend players travel North first before venturing East. Liurnia of the Lakes is much safer and offers a legendary boss, Rennala, who is much easier to tackle. But if you are feeling daring, be our guest and go east. But it is not something we will wish upon even our worst enemies.
