Great Runes are the single biggest permanent stat swing you can equip in Elden Ring — and most players pick the wrong one because they read the name, not the effect. There are eight in total: seven from the base game's shardbearers plus one carried over as a respec tool, and exactly one of them gives you a flat +25% max HP the moment you spend a Rune Arc.
This guide ranks every Great Rune by how much it actually changes a run, gives the exact effect and boss for each, and shows how to switch one on so it stops sitting dead in your inventory. Everything here applies to the base game at patch 1.16.1 / 1.17 (PS4, PS5, Xbox, PC, and Switch 2 via the Tarnished Edition). These are base-game Elden Ring items — they do not exist in Elden Ring Nightreign, which is a separate game with its own Relic system.
Quick answer: which Great Rune should you equip?
For almost every build, equip Morgott's Great Rune — a flat +25% to maximum HP is the strongest single defensive boost in the game and it never stops being useful. If you want offense and utility instead of raw survivability, Godrick's Great Rune (+5 to every attribute) effectively hands you five free levels' worth of stats across the board. Radahn's (+15% HP, FP and Stamina) is the balanced middle pick. The rest are situational or, in Rennala's case, not a combat buff at all.
- Best overall (survivability): Morgott's Great Rune — +25% max HP
- Best for flexibility / hybrid builds: Godrick's Great Rune — +5 all attributes
- Best all-round balance: Radahn's Great Rune — +15% HP, FP, Stamina
- Best for aggressive players: Malenia's Great Rune — heal by attacking (with a catch)
- Best for invaders/co-op: Mohg's Great Rune — buffs your summoned phantoms
- Not a combat rune: Great Rune of the Unborn — respec only
How do Great Runes work in Elden Ring?
A Great Rune is a Key Item dropped by a shardbearer (a demigod) boss. Picking it up does nothing on its own. To get the blessing you have to do three things in order:
- Restore its power at that rune's specific Divine Tower. Until you do, the rune is greyed out and unequippable.
- Equip it from the Great Runes menu while resting at a Site of Grace. You can only have one Great Rune active at a time.
- Consume a Rune Arc. The blessing then lasts until you die — at which point you spend another Rune Arc to switch it back on.
Per the official item description on the Elden Ring wiki, "After equipping a Great Rune, consuming a Rune Arc will grant you its power until death." That death clause is the whole reason people forget these exist: die once and the buff silently drops.
Two more facts worth locking in early. You need two Great Runes and a conversation with Finger Reader Enia at the Roundtable Hold before the game lets you enter Leyndell, the Royal Capital — so you will collect at least two whether you care about the buffs or not. And Great Runes (plus the Mending Runes used for endings) are not carried into New Game+; you re-restore them each cycle.
The ranking: all 8 Great Runes from best to worst
1. Morgott's Great Rune — +25% maximum HP
Boss: Morgott, the Omen King (Leyndell, the Royal Capital). Divine Tower: Divine Tower of East Altus (Capital Outskirts).
This is the default answer for most of the game. A flat +25% to your maximum HP is enormous — on a mid-game character sitting around 1,500 HP, that's roughly 375 extra health for the price of a single Rune Arc, with zero downside. It scales with you: the more Vigor you invest, the bigger the raw number the +25% multiplies. If you are not doing something specific with another rune, Morgott's should be the one you have on. (Pair it with the right Vigor investment — see our How Much Vigor Do You Need in Elden Ring breakdown for the HP soft caps.)
2. Godrick's Great Rune — +5 to all attributes
Boss: Godrick the Grafted (Stormveil Castle, Limgrave). Divine Tower: Divine Tower of Limgrave.
The most flexible rune in the game. Raising every attribute by five points — Vigor, Mind, Endurance, Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, Faith and Arcane — quietly does a lot: more HP, more FP, more stamina, higher damage, and, crucially, it can push you over weapon or spell requirement breakpoints you couldn't otherwise hit. Want to swing a weapon that needs 5 more Strength, or cast an incantation gated behind Faith you don't have? Godrick's lets you fake the stats. It's the pick for hybrid and requirement-hungry builds, and it's usually the first one people unlock because Godrick is the first shardbearer.
3. Radahn's Great Rune — +15% HP, FP and Stamina
Boss: Starscourge Radahn (Redmane Castle, Caelid). Divine Tower: Divine Tower of Caelid.
The balanced option. +15% to HP, FP and Stamina simultaneously is less raw survivability than Morgott's, but the extra FP and Stamina genuinely matter for spellcasters and stamina-hungry heavy weapons. Casters who feel starved of blue bar between rest stops get real mileage here; so do colossal-weapon users who run out of stamina mid-combo. If you find Morgott's pure-HP boost overkill for your playstyle, this is the smarter spread.
4. Malenia's Great Rune — heal by attacking (Crimson Tears healing reduced)
Boss: Malenia, Blade of Miquella (Elphael, Brace of the Haligtree). Divine Tower: the Isolated Divine Tower (reached via the Tower of Return in the Weeping Peninsula).
Thematically perfect and mechanically double-edged. While active, attacks made shortly after taking damage recover a portion of lost HP — Malenia's own Waterfowl-style lifesteal, handed to you. The catch, straight from the item description: "the blessing of this half-rotted rune reduces the healing power of Flask of Crimson Tears." You trade flask potency for aggressive, trade-heavy sustain. In the right hyper-aggressive build it's a monster; if you rely on your flasks it will get you killed. High skill ceiling, and you have to beat the hardest boss in the game to earn it.
5. Mohg's Great Rune — blessing of blood to phantoms + Phantom Great Rune on invasion
Boss: Mohg, Lord of Blood (Mohgwyn Dynasty Mausoleum). Divine Tower: Divine Tower of East Altus.
A multiplayer specialist. Its blessing "grants a blessing of blood to summoned phantoms, and imparts a Phantom Great Rune upon successful invasion." In plain terms: it buffs the phantoms you summon, and rewards invaders. If you play co-op or PvP a lot it earns a slot; for a solo campaign it does effectively nothing, which is why it ranks low here despite being tied to one of the game's best-known fights.
6. Rykard's Great Rune — restores HP on each kill
Boss: Rykard, Lord of Blasphemy (Volcano Manor, Mt. Gelmir). Divine Tower: Divine Tower of West Altus.
Situationally fun, generally outclassed. While active, you recover health every time you kill an enemy. Against packs of trash mobs it keeps you topped up for free; against a single boss — where you kill exactly one thing at the end — it does nothing until it's already over. It's a farming/exploration rune, not a boss rune, and Morgott's flat HP does more work in the fights that actually kill you.
7. Great Rune of the Unborn — respec only (not a combat buff)
Boss: obtained from Rennala, Queen of the Full Moon (Raya Lucaria Academy, Liurnia). This one is different. It cannot be equipped for a blessing at all. Instead it unlocks the ability to respec your character — redistribute your levelled attributes — by handing it to Rennala along with a Larval Tear. Invaluable for build experimentation, useless in a fight. It's on the list because it's officially a Great Rune, but it plays by entirely different rules, and ranking it against combat runes is apples to oranges.
8. Scadutree Avatar's Great Rune (Shadow of the Erdtree) — a tool, not a stat rune
Added in the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC and dropped by the Scadutree Avatar beneath Shadow Keep. It functions as a tool rather than the equip-and-activate combat runes above, and it only exists if you own the expansion. Most players ranking "Great Runes" mean the seven base-game shardbearer runes; this is the footnote that makes the total eight. (New to the DLC? Start with our How to Access Shadow of the Erdtree guide.)
How do you get more Rune Arcs to keep a Great Rune active?
Because the buff drops on death, Rune Arcs are the real limiter — a maxed Great Rune is worthless if you have none. There are three reliable supplies:
- Buy them from the Nomadic Merchant and later the Twin Maiden Husks at the Roundtable Hold, though stock is limited.
- Kill invaders / red phantoms — defeating a hostile phantom in your world drops a Rune Arc, one of the steadiest sources for online players.
- Loot and farm — they appear throughout the Lands Between, and specific enemies (notably Teardrop Scarabs) drop them.
One tip most guides skip: a Rune Arc used with no Great Rune equipped still gives a small bump to maximum HP, so it's never truly wasted — but you're leaving a much bigger buff on the table.
Which Great Rune is best for a first playthrough?
Get Godrick's first (you can't avoid it — he's the first shardbearer), restore it, and run it early for the flexible +5 all-stats while your character is still weak in every category. The moment you clear Leyndell and pick up Morgott's, switch to the +25% HP and leave it there for the back half of the game. That two-rune progression — Godrick's for the front half, Morgott's for the back — covers 90% of runs without any theorycrafting. Save Malenia's and Mohg's for a specific build or a second playthrough.
FAQ
How many Great Runes are there in Elden Ring? There are seven base-game Great Runes, one from each shardbearer boss (Godrick, Rennala, Radahn, Morgott, Rykard, Mohg and Malenia), plus one added in the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC — eight in total. Rennala's is the Great Rune of the Unborn, which only enables respeccing rather than a combat blessing.
What is the best Great Rune in Elden Ring? For pure combat, Morgott's Great Rune (+25% maximum HP) is the best all-round pick because the boost scales with your Vigor and has no downside. Godrick's Great Rune (+5 to all attributes) is the best for flexibility and hitting weapon or spell requirements.
How do you activate a Great Rune? Restore its power at the matching Divine Tower, equip it from the Great Runes menu at a Site of Grace, then consume a Rune Arc. The blessing lasts until you die, after which you must consume another Rune Arc to reactivate it.
Do Great Runes carry over to New Game Plus? No. Great Runes and Mending Runes are not kept in New Game+; you re-obtain and re-restore them on each cycle. Your equipped weapons, levels and most items do carry over.
Do you need Great Runes to finish Elden Ring? You need at least two restored Great Runes and to speak with Finger Reader Enia before you can enter Leyndell, the Royal Capital, so progressing the main path forces you to collect two. Actively using their blessings with Rune Arcs is optional but strongly recommended.
Does Malenia's Great Rune really heal you? Yes — while active, attacks made shortly after taking damage restore some lost HP. The trade-off is that it reduces the healing power of your Flask of Crimson Tears, so it suits aggressive, trade-heavy players more than flask-reliant ones.
The bottom line
Great Runes are free power most players underuse. Restore Godrick's early for the flexible +5 to everything, swap to Morgott's +25% HP for the second half of the game, and keep a stack of Rune Arcs so a single death doesn't strip your buff. Malenia's and Mohg's are build-defining in the right hands; Rennala's is a respec tool, not a fight buff. Pick by effect, not by name.
Want more Elden Ring guides that get the details right?
- How Much Vigor Do You Need in Elden Ring — the HP soft caps that make Morgott's Rune hit even harder
- Best Starting Class in Elden Ring — all 12 classes ranked by stats
- How to Access Shadow of the Erdtree — DLC unlock requirements, including the Scadutree Avatar's rune
Facts verified against the Elden Ring wiki (Fextralife), Eldenpedia (wiki.gg) and Bandai Namco's in-game item descriptions. Applies to base-game Elden Ring, patch 1.16.1 / 1.17.
