The Drainage Channel is a location in Elden Ring that you will not reach until the end of the game. This is because you have to activate both the Grand Lift of Dectus and the Grand Lift of Rold to reach the Mountaintops of the Giants.
The Drainage Channel Site of Grace is located inside Elpheal, Brace of Haligtree, a dungeon home to many enemies and a fairly complex system of levels and platforms.
The following guide will tell you the exact route you need to take to reach the Drainage Channel in Elden Ring. Keep in mind that this pathing does not account for enemies. You can either ignore all enemies and save time or take on everyone and everything to clear the way.
Drainage Channel location in Elden Ring
To reach the Drainage Channel in Elden Ring, you must first reach Ordina, Liturgical Town, which lies in the northern part of the Mountaintops of the Giants.
You can reach the town by fast-traveling to the Inner Consecrated Snowfield Site of Grace and then going north to the Ordina, Liturgical Town Site of Grace. There is an Evergaol puzzle here that you need to solve to reveal the town’s secret. You must light some candles on four statues to solve the puzzle.
Doing that will allow you to reach Miquella’s Haligtree Portal at the top of the stairs behind the town. The portal’s location has been marked on the map below.
Using this teleporter, you can travel directly to the Haligtree Canopy area. There, you need to proceed further until you finally reach the grace point’s “Prayer Room” site.
How to reach the Drainage Channel?
The map image above shows the Site of Grace you’ll be at to start your journey to the Drainage Channel. You can move out and jump down the ledge towards the right side at this grace point.
Afterward, you must jump further and move onwards through the narrow path. The way will be littered with enemies so you can avoid them using evasive strategies like dodge roll and keep moving forward. Next, you need to jump toward the right end of the stairway, go up the stairway, and then jump toward the left side of the ledge.
After you leave that hall and come out in the open, don’t take the stairs. Instead, jump right on the broken pillar that connects the way to the room below.
Enter the second entrance on the right, avoid getting hit by the guards, move up the stairs, and then jump on the inclined pillar on the left, immediately drop down, and take a sharp right into the huge hallway. You will see a grace point here, so take your time to activate it and rest for a while.
This grace point is at “Elphael Inner Wall,” so even if you are killed along the way, you can respawn at this location and continue again. From here onwards, make your way down, turn right, and keep going straight until you see the large tree branch at the end.
Climb on it, follow it, and at the end, jump down. However, remember that the area you have approached now will be filled with scarlet rot.
Once you reach the end, you need to jump down on the large tree branch, and then once you reach its end, jump down towards the other branch. After that, you will see another entrance leading inside the building.
On your left side, you will see a ladder that will take you further down, close to the Drainage Channel grace point. After taking it, go down the path. Once you come out of the hallway into a larger area, you will see the Drainage Channel Site of Grace on the right.
How to Cheese the Ulcerated Tree Spirit in the Drainage Channel?
You’ll encounter a difficult mini-boss within the Drainage Channel: The Ulcerated Tree Spirit. Given its high damage output and the area’s scarlet rot, taking down this boss can be a real hassle.
Though you can use traditional methods like summoning and taking the boss head-on, you can also cheese this monstrosity if you’re looking to progress through the area quickly.
To cheese the Ulcerated Tree Spirit in The Drainage Channel, all you have to do is climb on top of the root in the area and make your way to the back. Since the Tree Spirit won’t be able to reach you, you can use ranged attacks (like bows and arrows to chip away at its health until it is dead)
We recommend throwing knives or bleed arrows as the status effect infliction will kill the boss much quicker. During this cheese strategy, you can also summon a Mimic Tear to double your damage output.
