You get Rykard’s Great Rune for defeating Rykard, Lord of Blasphemy, a giant snake-like boss. You will then take it to Divine Tower of West Altus to activate it. Using this rune gives you healing every time you defeat enemies. This effect remains as long as you are alive.
If you die, then you must consume a Rune Arc to activate it again to use its full effect. Simply equipping Rykards Great Rune will not do anything in Elden Ring.
Rykard’s Great Rune Activation Tower Location
You must go to the Divine Tower of West Altus to activate Rykard’s Great Rune. On the outskirts of Leyndell Royal Capital, you can find the Sealed Tunnel. Get to the tunnel entrance by traversing the hillside path outside the capital.
The entrance to the tunnel is at the edge of a shallow river, as seen on the Elden Ring map above. You can complete the tunnel similarly to any other tunnel you have completed up to now.
You start the tunnel by going down an elevator, clearing out the miners, and then killing the boss. However, here, you will find an additional path that leads to the back of the tunnel to a new building, the Divine Tower of West Altus.
To find this secret exit, you must turn right after the grace in the tunnel and open the illusory wall.
There are multiple illusory walls in quick succession, and opening all of them will lead to a deep well with many branches growing through it. Platform your way down these branches.
The path is open from here, and you will have no problem finding your way out. Once you reach the divine tower, simply go up to the top and activate Rykards Great Rune in Elden Ring.
What does Rykard’s Great Rune do?
Like all Great Runes, simply equipping it won’t activate it. You need to equip it and then consume a Rune Arc to gain the benefits of a Great Rune. These effects disappear when you die, meaning you must consume another Rune Arc to re-activate the Great Rune. If you do not do this, the Great Rune will not work.
Rykard’s Great Rune restores HP whenever you kill an enemy. This allows you to clear out large mobs of enemies without using too many flask charges.
In addition, since most of the open-world bosses also have smaller enemies with them, you can kill them to get back some HP if you are running low on flask charges.
