SegmentNextElden Ring Miquella's Haligtree Walkthrough: Canopy Route and Loretta
Miquella's Haligtree is the hidden legacy dungeon at the far northern edge of the map, beyond the Consecrated Snowfield, and the only one that asks for a key item, a puzzle and a portal before it lets you in. It does not even appear on the map, and it needs no map fragment. The dungeon has two halves. The tree itself, from the canopy down to the promenade where Loretta waits, is this page. The fortress at its base, Elphael, Brace of the Haligtree, where Malenia sits among the roots, has its own walkthrough.
Everything here is optional and pitched at level 120 and above. What it holds is worth the trip: Malenia's Great Rune and Remembrance, Marika's Soreseal, the Miquellan Knight's Sword and the Haligtree Crest Greatshield, two Ancient Dragon Smithing Stones, the endings of Millicent's and Gowry's stories, and the needle that undoes the Frenzied Flame ending.
How to get to Miquella's Haligtree
The route has five stages, and the first two can be done long before the rest.
| Stage | Where | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Right half of the Haligtree Secret Medallion | Village of the Albinaurics, Liurnia, below the cliff of the Cathedral of Manus Celes | Clear the Perfumer, strike the large pot to reveal Albus, and exhaust his dialogue |
| Left half | Castle Sol, northern Mountaintops of the Giants | Beat Commander Niall, then ride the lift by the rooftop grace to the top of the northeast tower |
| Grand Lift of Rold | The Forbidden Lands, after Morgott | Pick Hoist Secret Medallion instead of the Rold Medallion; the lift descends to a new area |
| Hidden Path to the Haligtree | Below the lift | An invisible bridge, an illusory wall and a Stray Mimic Tear on the way to the Consecrated Snowfield |
| Ordina, Liturgical Town | North across the Snowfield's frozen lake | Stand on the arcane plate, light the four statues, and take the portal at the top of the northern stairs |
The two medallion halves
The Haligtree Secret Medallion works like the Dectus Medallion did for the first great lift, and it is split the same way. The right half is the easy one: Albus hides as a pot in the Village of the Albinaurics, and Sir Gideon Ofnir at the Roundtable Hold will tell you where the other half is once you show him this one. Two things happen as soon as you carry it. Ensha invades the Roundtable Hold the next time you return, and Latenna at the Slumbering Wolf's Shack will finally talk, as the Latenna page explains. The left half is the reason the Haligtree is an endgame area: it sits at the top of Castle Sol, behind Commander Niall, in the far north of the Mountaintops of the Giants, which means Morgott and the Rold Medallion come first.
The Hidden Path and the Snowfield
With both halves, the Grand Lift of Rold offers a second prompt. Hoist the secret medallion and it carries you down to the Hidden Path to the Haligtree, a cave held by Vulgar Militiamen. Go through the door ahead and up the stairs on the left to the first small platform; the railing to its left is broken above a long drop, and an invisible walkway runs out from it. Following it leads to a room with a silver scarab, a wall that vanishes when struck, a chest, and a whole network of invisible bridges with loot and enemies along them. The secret catacombs down here hold a Stray Mimic Tear and, past the invisible bridge, a chest with one of the nine Deathroot. You can skip all of it by staying on the main path past the large enemy and through the tunnel, up the big staircase past the giant octopus, and out into the Consecrated Snowfield, where the first grace waits a little further on. A Sanguine Noble guards a teleporter on the Snowfield's western side that leads to Mohgwyn Palace, which the progression route recommends clearing before the tree.
Ordina's four flames
Ordina, Liturgical Town stands north of the Snowfield's frozen lake and looks deserted. Standing on the arcane plate turns it into its evergaol version, and the task is to light the candles held by four statues. The first is up two ladders beside a blue torch, west of the roof you start on, and an invisible Lesser Black Knife Assassin hunts you there. The second is south, down the stairs, reached by dropping beside a ladder and climbing it. The third is west of that, up a balcony and two more ladders to a tower top watched by Albinauric Wolfback Archers. The fourth is northeast across the connected roofs, up a ladder beside another blue torch, with a soldier on the roof to clear first. When all four burn, the central path opens, the wall at the top of the northern staircase disappears, and the gateway behind it sends you to the Haligtree Canopy.
The canopy: Haligtree Canopy to the Town Plaza
You arrive on the branches at the Haligtree Canopy Site of Grace among giant ants and Oracle Envoys of every size. There is no need to fight them. Run past and look for a ladder on a branch behind them; it leads down to the Haligtree Town Site of Grace. A corpse sitting on a chair southeast of the canopy grace carries a Smithing Stone 8, and the Haligtree soldiers in this half drop more of them, which makes the tree one of the better places to farm the stone.
Haligtree Town is where the side loot clusters. The ladder on the platform outside the grace climbs to a split platform; jump the gap for the Pearldrake Talisman +2. Southeast of the grace a wooden bridge ends at a corpse with a Smithing Stone 7, and a gazebo to the east holds a Smithing Stone 8. Two Misbegotten stand between you and the Haligtree Town Plaza Site of Grace; run through them. From the plaza, north leads to the Iron Greatsword, a drop onto the roof of the first house and then the second, past a snail and a Crystalian, reaches the chest with the Viridian Amber Medallion +2, and a building to the south guarded by three ghouls holds one of the tree's three Somber Smithing Stone 9. The Somber Smithing Stones page marks the only Somber Smithing Stone 8 in the dungeon as well.
Loretta, Knight of the Haligtree
A bridge leads from the plaza to a greenish-black portal and the promenade beyond it, where Loretta, Knight of the Haligtree appears. You fought her phantom at Caria Manor; this is the real knight and she is a good deal stronger. She is mounted and you are not, her polearm casts from its base and cuts from its blade, and she resists blood loss, frost, fire and magic while lightning hurts her. Her Glintstone Pebble comes in volleys of four, or five below half health, and rolling toward her beats rolling away. The Glintstone Blades she summons make a second sound when they launch and still take a moment to arrive, and in the second phase two sets come out separately, so expect to dodge twice. The four-arrow bow only threatens with the two middle arrows. Stay close, watch her hand for the sweeping strikes, and if it goes badly, a Mimic Tear with your aggro talisman removed will hold her while you cast.
Loretta pays 200,000 Runes, Loretta's Mastery and Loretta's War Sickle, and opens the Haligtree Promenade Site of Grace. Enia at the Roundtable Hold then sells the Royal Knight Set. North of where she fell lies one of the dungeon's two Ancient Dragon Smithing Stones, and a small building beside a statue to the west holds a Smithing Stone 8. Beat her before entering the Prayer Room below, because Millicent waits there and the fight can spill onto her.
Down to Elphael
From the promenade grace, travel north to a flight of stairs that descends to an elevator. It takes you to the second half of the dungeon, Elphael, Brace of the Haligtree, and its Prayer Room grace, where Millicent asks about Malenia. The last Putrid Avatar lives near the border between the two halves and drops the Rotten Crystal Staff, and the final two Seedbed Curses for the Dung Eater lie northeast of the Prayer Room, down the staircase. The Elphael walkthrough picks up from there: the Inner Wall, the Drainage Channel, Millicent's last choice and Malenia, Blade of Miquella.
Loot in the upper Haligtree
| Item | Where |
|---|---|
| Pearldrake Talisman +2 | Up the ladder outside the Haligtree Town grace, across the gap |
| Viridian Amber Medallion +2 | Chest reached over the house roofs from the Town Plaza |
| Iron Greatsword | North of the Haligtree Town Plaza grace |
| Smithing Stone 7 | Corpse at the end of the wooden bridge southeast of Haligtree Town |
| Smithing Stone 8, four of them | The chair southeast of the canopy grace, the gazebo east of Haligtree Town, the building by the statue west of Loretta, and soldier drops |
| Somber Smithing Stone 9 | The building south of the Town Plaza with three ghouls, one of three in the dungeon |
| Ancient Dragon Smithing Stone | North of Loretta's arena |
| Loretta's Mastery, Loretta's War Sickle, 200,000 Runes | Loretta |
| Royal Knight Set | Enia, after Loretta |
| Rotten Crystal Staff | The Putrid Avatar near Elphael |
| Deathroot | Chest past the invisible bridge in the Hidden Path's secret catacombs |
Miquella's Haligtree FAQ
Is the Haligtree required?
No. Neither Loretta nor Malenia blocks an ending, and the regions guide lists it among the hidden areas rather than the main route. Its rewards, above all Malenia's Great Rune and Marika's Soreseal, are the reason to go.
Can I skip the Ordina puzzle?
No. The portal at the top of Ordina only opens once all four statues are lit. The Snowfield itself has a horse-jump shortcut from beside the Shack of the Lofty that our Consecrated Snowfield page describes and does not recommend, and even that only skips the medallion, not the town.
What level should I be?
Our boss pages put Loretta at 120 and up and Malenia at 120 to 130, and the Elden Ring wiki hub lists the region at 120 to 150. The dungeons guide names Elphael and the Haligtree the hardest legacy dungeons in the game.