Elden Ring: What Are Spirit Ashes & How Do You Use Them?


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Elden Ring: What Are Spirit Ashes & How Do You Use Them?

FromSoftware’s latest hit, Elden Ring, is a brand-new entry to the popular Souls series. This open-world RPG is set in a mysterious and twisted realm known as The Lands Between, where danger lurks at ever corner. To help you emerge victorious, FromSoftware has added many new features and mechanics to make the series feel fresh and new.

One of these new features is the ability to summon ghostly companion spirits to your aid in combat. These companions can be anything from skeletal soldiers, to fallen warriors, to giant lumbering jellyfish! But just how do you summon these spirits? What do you need to do to get started? And how can you use them effectively?

We’ll be going over all of this and more in this article: What are Spirit Ashes, and How do You Use Them in Elden Ring. Let’s get started!

What Are Spirit Ashes?

What are spirit ashes?
Image: FromSoftware Inc & BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment via Koby Ross Gibson / HGG

Spirt Ashes are a new mechanic in Elden Ring. They allow you to summon companions to help you out in combat encounters. These companions come in many different shapes and sizes, each with different fighting styles and stats, all depending on the creature being summoned. Many exist to distract enemies, some can deal strong damage to them, and others can even boost your own stats!

Early on in the game, you can receive Spirt Ashes that allow you to summon weaker creatures like wolves and jellyfish. As you progress through the game, you can acquire ashes for summoning giant winged birds, dead knights and archers, and many more.

Upon unlocking them, Spirt Ashes are placed into your inventory like any other item. You can go into your equipment menu and use them from there. Activate them, and you’ll play an animation and spawn a spirit at the cost of either focus points or health points, depending on the spirit you are calling.

Keep in mind, however, you cannot use Spirt Ashes just anywhere. You can use them in most boss fights, as well as out in the open world if you are near a Stake of Marika. If you’re able to summon a spirit, you will see an icon appear on the bottom left of your screen. This icon will look like a little archway with a ghostly color to it.

How Do You Unlock Them?

Now that we’ve covered what they are, let’s go over what exactly you need to do to unlock them.

After starting a new playthrough and reaching the open world for the first time, you’ll want to rest at some of the nearby Sites of Grace. After you do this a few times, an NPC named Milena will spawn and a cutscene will play. She will tell you about leveling up and instruct you on how to summon your horse.

Elden Ring Map Screen Shot
Image: FromSoftware Inc & BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment via Koby Ross Gibson / HGG

Only after you’ve met Milena, you can talk to another NPC named Renna. She is a witch wearing all white, and she can only spawn at the Church of Elleh (shown above). Simply travel back to the church after meeting Milena, and she should be sitting on top of a ruined wall. She’ll call you over once you get close, so don’t worry about walking past her.

Just engage in conversation with her and at the end, she will give you something called “The Spirit Calling Bell” as well as some “Lone Wolf Ashes” to summon three wolves to aid you in combat. You don’t actually need to use the bell itself, just keep it inside your inventory at all times.

How Do I Get More Spirit Ashes?

Players can obtain more Spirit Ashes in many different ways. You can find them in chests simply by exploring the world. They can also spawn on corpses that you need to loot. Sometimes bosses will drop them after you defeat them. There are dozens throughout The Lands Between, just waiting to be collected.

Where to get more Spirit Ashes
Image: FromSoftware Inc & BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment via Koby Ross Gibson / HGG

An easy way to get your hands on an additional Spirit Ash early on in your adventure is by traveling to the Summonwater Village, shown in the image above. Here, you will find a boatman peacefully canoeing through the waters. This is a boss, and you can start the fight by approaching him.

This is a very, very easy fight to win. His attacks are incredibly slow and easy to dodge, and the only thing you really need to worry about is the skeleton hordes he summons. Even these can be easily defeated in only a few hits. Just be sure to hit them again when they are downed, otherwise, they will self-revive and get back in the fight!

I’d recommend using your horse to traverse the area. Sometimes you can get surrounded by skeletons, and your steed makes a great way to fall back. As for the boss itself, simply spam melee attacks when you are close to him, and he will quickly be killed. Once you have vanquished the boss, you will be rewarded with the “Skeletal Militiaman Ashes.”

Upon being activated, this will trigger two skeleton warriors to spawn to help you out in combat. It’s not exactly an overpowered Spirit Ash, but it is certainly a useful item to have in any fight, especially if you are just starting out your playthrough.

Tips & Tricks

A simple but important tip is assigning a Spirit Ash to one of your quick-select slots, in the same way you would one of your flasks. This makes summoning spirits much easier and faster.

You can do this by going into your “Equipment” menu and scrolling down to the bottom of the page. There, you will find eight different spots for Quick Items. Simply select an empty one and then choose a Spirt Ash.

Equipment Menu Elden Ring
Image: FromSoftware Inc & BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment via Koby Ross Gibson / HGG

Be mindful of how many health points or focus points they consume upon use. If you use one that consumes focus points, give yourself more Flasks of Cerulean Tears when you visit a Site of Grace. Don’t use any Spirt Ashes that consume health points when you are running low on health, especially if you don’t have any healing items available!

Lastly, you should use the right Spirt Ash for the right situation. The Lone Wolves Ash is great, as it spawns three different creatures at once. This is perfect to use for distracting enemies so you can sneak up on them from behind. Other Spirit Ashes are better for directly dealing damage to opponents, such as the powerful Mimic Tear. This one summons an exact copy of your character to fight alongside you!

Join the High Ground

And so ends our article covering what are spirit ashes and how do you use them in Elden Ring. What did you think of our guide? Let us know in the comments, and be sure to subscribe to our weekly newsletter and check out some of our other guides covering Elden Ring. We offer regular weekly content on all of your favorite games!

Happy gaming!

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