The White Mask helm is part of the War Surgeon set which belongs to White Mask Varré who you encounter in Limgrave at the start of Elden Ring.
Varré is located near the First Step Site of Grace but will change locations as you advance in the storyline.
Like with other armor sets in the game, the White Mask is one of four armor pieces. If you want to complete the War Surgeon set, you will have to find its Gown, Gloves, and Trousers as well.
Getting the White Mask helm will help your character gain various defensive stats as well as a good attack boost. However, getting the helm is easier said than done.
There are several hoops to jump through, which is why the following guide will help you find the White Mask to complete your War Surgeon set in Elden Ring.
White Mask Location
Elden Ring has a ton of quests that you must take on during your journey. Thanks to the open world, you do not necessarily have to be concerned about completing quests in any specific order. That, however, differs if you are looking to get the White Mask.
It is important to note that you cannot get the White Mask if you have defeated Mohg, Lord of Blood in Elden Ring. If you kill the powerful Omen demigod beforehand, the War Surgeon helm will be permanently locked out of the game.
The only way to get the White Mask after defeating Mohg is to start a New Game Plus and then make sure to only kill the Lord of Blood boss after getting the White Mask.
Now that you know the lock-out condition of the armor piece, your next step will be learning how to reach one of the most challenging locations in Elden Ring.
How to reach Mohgwyn Palace
You need to defeat a Nameless White Mask invader in the Mohgwyn Dynasty Mausoleum to get the White Mask. The only problem is that the Mohgwyn Palace is a hard location to reach.
There are several high-level enemies and treacherous obstacles on the way to the palace grounds, which becomes more prominent after realizing how far away the Mohgwyn location area is from when you first speak with Varré.
There are two ways here to reach the Mohgwyn Palace and kill the invader NPC for the War Surgeon helm.
The first way allows you to get the helm early during your progression but at a somewhat risk. The second takes a lot longer but is probably safer.
Reaching Mohgwyn Palace early
Getting the White Mask early on in the game will help your character get a low-level bleed build. That will suffice for the early-game enemies until you can level up for a more powerful bleed build.
The safest way to reach Mohgwyn Palace, especially when you are under-leveled, is to complete the entire White Mask Varré questline.
Varré will be waiting for you at the Rose Church at the start of Liurnia. He will give you 3x Festering Bloody Finger, a consumable multiplayer item that allows you to leave behind messages for other players, join them for cooperative gameplay, and engage in PvP duels.
Varré will ask you to use the Festering Bloody Fingers to invade three players. You are not required to defeat them in PvP to complete this task. You can also complete the task by defeating Magnus, the Beast Claw, in Writheblood Ruins.
Once done, return to Varré and he will ask you to join him to serve Mohgwyn.
Do note that you can fight Varré during your progression but defeating him will make his questline incomplete. If you do kill Varré, you will have to wait until you have the necessary levels and equipment to get to Mohgwyn Palace the conventional way.
Since your goal is to get the White Mask as quickly as possible, agree to serve the Bloody Lord. You will then be given the Lord of Blood’s Favor, a piece of cloth that needs to be dipped in the blood of a maiden. You can do that at the Church of Inhibition, northeast of Liurnia.
When you return with the blood-soaked cloth, Varré will give you the Pureblood Knight’s Medal. You can use this item to teleport to Mohgwyn Palace. This is also the only way to access both the palace and the Mohg boss early on in the storyline.
Teleport to Mohgwyn Palace and head to the bloody lake in the center of the palace grounds. Keep running around until you encounter the Nameless White Mask NPC. Defeat him to loot the White Mask from his corpse.
Take note that the White Mask has a drop chance. There is no guarantee that killing the first White Mask invader will get you the helm. Thankfully, these Nameless invaders will keep spawning around the bloody lake. You have to keep killing them until the White Mask drops.
You can encounter the Nameless White Mask NPC invaders in the marked locations below.
Reaching Mohgwyn Palace the normal way
The second way to reach Mohgwyn Palace is going to require time and patience. You must defeat Morgott, the Omen King, to gain access to the Grand Lift of Rold and the Mountaintops of the Giants to enter the Consecrated Snowfield, a secret area in Elden Ring that requires you to complete the Haligtree Secret Medallion.
Inside the Consecrated Snowfield area, head to the Yelough Anix Ruins to the north. You will find a portal there that is guarded by an Albinauric. Either kill or go past him to enter the portal, which will take you straight to Mohgwyn Palace.
Make your way to the bloody lake, as mentioned above, and start killing the Nameless invaders until one of them drops the White Mask.
How to defeat the Nameless White Mask in Elden Ring
Until now, you have only been focusing on how to get to the White Mask location in Elden Ring. When you finally find a Nameless White Mask NPC, you will realize that he is no pushover.
The Nameless invaders are powerful enemies that do heavy bleed damage. They have around 4,000 health and can easily kill you with a couple of attacks if you are under-leveled.
The only way to survive a Nameless White Mask invader, especially if you followed the first way to reach Mohgwyn Palace early, is to dodge all of his attacks.
Remember that Mohgwyn Dynasty Mausoleum has a level 90 minimum requirement. That makes a Nameless encounter a dangerous affair if your character is anywhere below.
What does the White Mask do in Elden Ring?
The White Mask helm gives your character various physical and magical defensive stats.
The helm also increases attack power by 10 percent for 20 seconds, but only after enemies (or you) are inflicted with blood loss. This makes the White Mask perfect for blood loss builds, which are fairly powerful in Elden Ring despite a few nerfs over the years.
That 10-percent attack buff after inflicting bleeding on an enemy will make quick work of most of the enemies in the game.
You can also stack that 10-percent buff with the 20-percent attack power buff you receive from the Lord of Blood’s Exultation talisman. Both items go well in any bleed or blood loss build.
If you are using any incantations, the White Mask attack power will also boost your spell damage.
