When you reach the Raya Lucaria Academy in Elden Ring, you will find its South Raya Lucaria Gate locked by a magical barrier.
There is no other way to enter the Academy. There are no hidden passages. The only way into Raya Lucaria Academy is through the South Raya Lucaria Gate. Hence, you need to know how to remove the barrier and unlock the gate.
As you step in front of the South Raya Lucaria Gate in Elden Ring, you will find yourself surrounded by a horde of guards. Although clearing these guards out is an easy task, getting rid of the blue magic barrier that locks this gate is a tricky process.
How to unlock the South Raya Lucaria Gate in Elden Ring
Since there is no way to bypass the barrier and enter the Raya Lucaria Academy, we are left with no choice but to enter by unlocking the South Raya Lucaria Gate.
You can come to this location via the path leading away from the Academy Gate Town, but you will have to fight some Raya Lucaria Soldiers past the Flame Chariots. You will then come across a bridge that leads directly to the South Raya Lucaria Gate.
You will find a Site of Grace next to the gate, with a Stonesword Key on a corpse beside it as well. Aside from that, you will also be able to find a map piece that marks an island right beside the Academy.
On that island, you will find the Academy Glintstone Key, which is an important item needed to unlock the South Gate. While the map tells you the location of the Key itself, it does not tell you a vital piece of information.
This Academy Glintstone Key is guarded by the Glintstone Dragon Smarag. That said, you don’t necessarily have to fight this dragon, you can just bypass it by walking around and obtaining the Key.
How to get the Academy Glintstone Key
The map that you acquired earlier shows you the location of the Academy Glintstone Key on a nearby island, called the Meeting Place. This is a small Island to the west of the Raya Lucaria Academy.
You must first travel to the Island shown on the map. You can open this map up from the Information Tab in your inventory and navigate to it. You can have a look at the image below to find out its exact location if you don’t already have the game map fragment on you.
Now it is up to you to put on a fight with and defeat the Glintstone Dragon Smarag, or just sneak past it. The fight against this dragon is a difficult one and is not recommended if you are at a lower level.
To sneak past the dragon, make your way from the back of the rock formation and move to the northwestern part of it clinging to the edge. Once you arrive at the northern edge of it, you can actually climb the rock formation from the slope.
You can walk over it to the end and then drop down onto a corpse in the corner which glows purple – the Glintstone Sorcerer’s Corpse. You can loot this corpse to obtain the Academy Glintstone Key.
You can make a quick getaway by clinging to the walls and then hopping on your Torrent. If you do manage to awaken the Glintstone Dragon Smarag, you can still escape from it with the help of your Torrent.
How to open the Raya Lucaria Gate
Once you have obtained the Academy Glintstone Key, pretty much all of your work is done. All you have to do now is simply walk through the South Raya Lucaria Gate in Elden Ring.
Head back over to the Site of Grace and stand in front of the barrier. If you have the Glintstone Key in your inventory, a unique option should appear. You can then either press the Triangle or the Y button depending on your platform to pass through the barrier and finally enter the Raya Lucaria Academy.
You can find another Site of Grace right as you enter through the South Raya Lucaria Academy Gate. Northwest from this point is a path leading to a teleporter. This teleporter takes you to northeastern Liurnia. To your southwest is an elevator, which grants you access to the Academy of Raya Lucaria.
Note that the Academy Glintstone is a one-time-use item. This means that once you have used this key to enter the Academy, you can neither give it to any NPC nor give it to any other players that wish to enter the Raya Lucaria Academy themselves.
