Sage’s Cave is a small dungeon in Elden Ring, which you can find in Altus Plateau. This optional dungeon has two bosses: Necromancer Garris and the Black Knife Assassin. Despite being a small dungeon, Sage’s Cave has quite a bit of loot for you to collect. This walkthrough is tailored to help you fully discover Sage’s Cave in Elden Ring.
How to Get to Sage’s Cave in Elden Ring
Sage’s Cave is located in Altus Plateau. To find this dungeon, first head to the Abandoned Coffin Site of Grace, located on the western side of the Altus Plateau region.
Head towards the north and run along the eastern side of the shallow lake. You will encounter some trees on the northern end of the lake, surrounded by jellyfish.
Behind these trees is the cave entrance, which will lead you into Sage’s Cave.
Elden Ring Sage’s Cave Walkthrough
Activate the Site of Grace and then start going down the tunnel. As you’re going down, grab the Crystal Cave Moss.
At the end of the tunnel, there will be a breakable wall in front of you. Break open the wall to uncover a secret room. In this room, you can get two Budding Cave Moss plants.
After grabbing the plants, run along the water to get to the waterfall. From there, turn to the right and take down the skeleton.
Grab the Budding Cave Moss plant from the wall to the right and then strike the wall adjacent to it to uncover another secret room.
In this room, there will be two chests. One will have 5x Rejuvenating Boluses, while the other will have the Lost Ashes of War.
After looting the chests, look at the water below, and you’ll see two dead bodies in it. Both bodies will have a Golden Rune (5) on them, and there will be a Silver Firefly sitting near them.
Your path will now fork into two. Instead of going down either path, first, strike the wall next to the two burning grates to uncover another secret area.
Behind this wall will be four skeletons ready to attack. One will have a spear, while the rest will be dual-wielding swords.
Since there are four of them and one of you, you’ll want to make some space between them and yourself. To do so, run back towards the chest and kill them as they come up the slope towards you.
After taking down the four skeletons, go back down to the wall you broke. There will be a Budding Cave Moss plant and four chests in the area where the skeletons popped out from.
You’ll get a Black Hood, a Candletree Wooden Shield, a Nascent Butterfly, and 5x Silver-Pickled Fowl Foot from these chests.
Now, go back to the point where your path forked into two. Then, go down the gloomy path to the south and walk down the tunnel until you reach the next room.
There will be four more skeletons for you to fight in this room. Two of them will have crossbows, one will have a spear, and the remaining one will have an axe.
The skeleton with the axe is your biggest threat, so it’s a good idea to deal with it first. Get its attention and then walk back into the tunnel you came from and kill it there. You can then defeat the remaining three skeletons.
After defeating the skeletons, strike the wall where the skeleton with the spear was standing to uncover a secret area. In this area, you will find a chest containing a Stonesword Key.
You can now start heading up the ramp to the northeast. Once you reach the top, you will find three chests to loot and some Crystal Cave Moss. You’ll get the Dragonwound Grease, Raptor Talons, and 10x Golden Great Arrows from these chests.
After grabbing the loot, go down the tunnel up ahead, and you’ll come out in the area under the waterfall. Go along the wall to the left and go into the alcove to get more Budding Cave Moss.
Strike the wall behind the moss to uncover another secret area with two chests. You’ll get the Skeletal Mask and Raptor’s Black Feathers from these chests.
Now, go down to the northwest corner of this area and strike the wall to uncover a narrow tunnel. This tunnel will take you to a mist wall, behind which will be the first boss of Sage’s Cave.
How to Defeat Necromancer Garris in Sage’s Cave
The first boss you will face in Sage’s Cave is Necromancer Garris. This is an optional boss that you don’t need to defeat; the main boss of the Cave is someone else.
Garris is a sorcerer that uses necromancy spells to spawn flying skeleton skulls to attack you. His most powerful spell summons a giant skull that rolls around the arena and attacks you.
To make this fight easier for yourself, you need to first take down this giant skull. If you ignore the skull and go for Garris instead, it will be a massive headache for you, and the fight will become much more difficult.
After taking down the giant skull, you can start attacking whenever Garris is about to cast a spell, a relatively long animation plays. While the animation is playing, you can interrupt Garris and land attacks on him for free while also canceling his spell.
To protect himself, Garris will summon spectral skeletons that will attack you and then instantly disappear. Watch out for these skeletons as they hit quite hard.
When all else fails, Garris will attack you with melee attacks. You can interrupt these attacks just like how you interrupted his spells.
Garris does not have that big of a health pool, so you should be able to take him down quickly. You’ll be rewarded with the Family Heads Flail when you finally defeat him.
Now, go back to the waterfall and down the left path. It will lead you down a slope, at the end of which will be a mist wall. Behind this wall will be the main boss of Sage’s Cave, the Black Knife Assassin.
How to Defeat the Black Knife Assassin in Sage’s Cave
The Black Knife Assassin should be a familiar foe to you, but there’s a big twist to the fight this time.
In this boss fight, the Black Knife Assassin will be invisible. Therefore, throughout the fight, you won’t be able to see the Black Knife Assassin at all. This will make the fight very difficult. Also, due to the assassin’s invisibility, you won’t be able to lock onto it.
The only way to see the assassin in this fight is to buy a Sentry’s Torch from the Hermit Merchant for 7000 Runes. You can equip it in your off-hand to make the assassin visible.
The assassin will have their usual moveset, but with one new attack. He will sneak up behind you in this attack and push his blade into your chest. They will also be able to use their spectral dash and run laps around you.
The best course of action in this fight is to stay in the middle of the arena and keep your eyes on the water. Because whenever the assassin comes close to you, you’ll be able to see the water splashing around.
This will give you an idea of where the assassin is, which will help you land attacks on them.
A fun way to cheese this fight is to use a Spirit Ash. For some reason, the Spirit Ash will be able to track the assassin’s movement even though they’re invisible. This will help you keep track of the assassin as well.
If you use the Mimic Tear Spirit Ash, this fight will be an absolute walk in the park. Once you’ve defeated the Black Knife Assassin, you’ll be rewarded with the Concealing Vein Talisman.
