The Elden Ring Murkwater Cave is a small dungeon located in Limgrave. You’ll face loads of Highwaymen enemies and a boss named ‘Patches’ in this optional dungeon. The Murkwater Cave contains quite a bit of loot, including Cloth Garb and Trousers, Grovel for Mercy, and Patches’ Bell Bearing.
To help you out with completing the Murkwater Cave dungeon in Elden Ring, we’ve prepared this guide where we’ll show you how you can complete the entire dungeon, step by step.
How to Get to Murkwater Cave in Elden Ring
The Murkwater Cave is located on the north-eastern side of Limgrave. From Lake Agheel, head towards the river to the north. Near the center of the river, you’ll notice a cave in the wall on the left (look for a flame basket).
If you haven’t explored this area before, be careful as you will get ambushed by Bloody Finger Nerijus as you approach the cave opening.
This is an incredibly powerful opponent whose attacks deal great Bleed damage. Luckily for you, Bloody Finger Hunter Yura will show up to help you in this fight, though he might be a little late.
If you’re not in the mood to fight Nerijus and just want to go inside the Murkwater Cave, there’s a way you can skip the Nerijus fight altogether.
Immediately run towards the south (back towards Lake Agheel). Nerijus will start running after you, but eventually, he will despawn, and a message will pop up on your screen saying, “Bloody Finger Nerijus has returned to their world.”
Now that Nerijus is gone, you can freely go inside Murkwater Cave. Once you’re inside, activate its Site of Grace to have a handy spawn point when you eventually fight Nerijus.
If you defeat Bloody Finger Nerijus, you’ll be rewarded with the Reduvia Dagger and a Furlcalling Finger Remedy.
Elden Ring Murkwater Cave Walkthrough
Before you enter the cave, note that it is quite dark there, so it might be a good idea to buy a torch from the Merchant Kalé in the Church of Elleh for 200 Runes before you go into the cave.
You’ll see a Summing Pool statue and some Cave Moss in the first room when you enter the cave. Go through the tunnel to get to the next area and find two Highwayman. One will be walking around while the other will be sitting down, opposite the first one.
This room is filled with tripwires that are tied to bells. If you step into the tripwire, the bells will ring, and they will bring in 5 Highwaymen from the adjacent room.
So whatever you do, make sure not to step into the tripwires. You’ll have to kill the two Highwaymen stealthily.
After killing the Highwaymen, go down the path to the left side of the room. This will take you to a small room with a chest containing a Mushroom.
If you didn’t ring the bells in the previous room, you’d have to fight 5 Highwaymen in this small room. Since there are 5 of them, you’ll have to get them to fight you one at a time.
You can do so by staying at the entrance. Only one Highwayman will be able to pass through at a time, so this will make the fight much easier.
After defeating the Highwaymen, go down the path along the back wall, which leads to the right. This path will take you to a mist wall.
Behind the wall is a massive room with a firepit and a chest. This chest contains Cloth Garb and Cloth Trousers.
When you loot the chest, you’ll start hearing a strange voice that will call you out for stealing. After the voice is done talking, a mysterious man will drop down into the room.
The man will reveal himself to be Patches, a two-faced, sly NPC player previously encountered in Demon Souls.
How to Defeat Patches at Murkwater Cave
Patches fights you with a spear and a tower shield. He also has a flask from which he drinks, then spits out an AoE mist towards you, decreasing your attack power.
This is one of the easiest “boss” fights in the game. Patches will mostly try to keep his distance from you and block your attacks with his shield. Then, he’ll do a simple jab with his spear or a kick attack.
His attacks can easily be dodged by just moving out of the way. And to penetrate his defense, you just need to strike him from the back.
Patches has a very small health pool, so this fight should not take very long to finish. You don’t need to deplete his health pool completely; he’ll surrender when you get him to about 40% HP.
You can either spare Patches or kill him. If you spare him, you’ll get the Grovel for Mercy Gesture, and Patches will subsequently show up as a merchant in the Murkwater Cave, and you’ll be able to start the Patches Questline.
If you kill Patches, you’ll get his Bell Bearing (which can be used to unlock items for purchase in the Roundtable Hold), Leather Armor, Gloves, Boots, and his Spear (+7). And whether you spare him or kill him, you’ll get two Golden Runes (1).
When you come back to the Murkwater Cave after sparing Patches, he’ll have a chest next to him which you can interact with to activate a transporter trap. This will transport you to an area near the Site of Grace at Mistwood Outskirts.
After using the transporter, if you come back to the Murkwater Cave for the third time, you will unlock the Calm Down! Emote.
