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Locationmajor

Divine Tower of West Altus

The Divine Tower of West Altus is a sealed landmark in the Altus Plateau, reached through the Sealed Tunnel west of Leyndell, Royal Capital.

Importancemajor

Key takeaways

  • The tower restores Rykard’s Great Rune, not the runes of another shardbearer.
  • You must defeat Rykard, Lord of Blasphemy before the tower’s entrance will open Before then, the door reports that it is “tightly locked shut”.
  • The only route to the tower is through the Sealed Tunnel, reached from the moat outside Leyndell.
  • The tower itself contains no regular enemies or conventional boss encounter Its important interaction is at the summit, before the corpse of a pair of Two Fingers.
  • Activating the restored Great Rune requires a Rune Arc Rykard’s Great Rune restores HP whenever a foe is defeated, with the commonly documented effect being 80 HP plus 7% of maximum Vigor.
  • The Sealed Tunnel is worth clearing even if you are not interested in the Great Rune because it contains Smithing-Stone Miner’s Bell Bearing [2], a Stonesword Key, upgrade materials and the Onyx Lord’s weapon reward.

Overview

Base game, Elden Ring Spoiler warning: This guide discusses Rykard, Lord of Blasphemy, Great Runes, the Sealed Tunnel boss and the tower’s Two Fingers.

Base game, Elden Ring Spoiler warning: This guide discusses Rykard, Lord of Blasphemy, Great Runes, the Sealed Tunnel boss and the tower’s Two Fingers.

Introduction

The Divine Tower of West Altus is a small, optional end-point location in the Lands Between. It stands on a remote offshore-looking rock formation west of Leyndell, Royal Capital, but it is not reached from the surrounding coastline. The tower is accessed through the Sealed Tunnel, a mining dungeon hidden in the moat south-east of Leyndell’s outer wall.

Its sole major purpose is to restore the power of Rykard’s Great Rune, obtained by defeating Rykard, Lord of Blasphemy in Volcano Manor. Unlike several other Divine Towers, the West Altus tower has no conventional boss, enemy population or substantial treasure haul. Most of its challenge belongs to the Sealed Tunnel, which serves as the approach route rather than as a subarea of the tower itself.

The location is easy to overlook because the map presents the tower, tunnel and Leyndell outskirts as closely connected, while the game gives little direct explanation of how they relate. The important distinction is:

Introduction

NameDetails
Divine Tower of West Altusthe tower proper and its Great Rune restoration chamber.
Sealed Tunnela separate dungeon in the Capital Outskirts, containing the route to the tower, mining materials, a Bell Bearing, an Onyx Lord and additional loot.
Volcano Manorthe separate region where Rykard is fought and his Great Rune obtained.

Boundaries and included locations

The name Divine Tower of West Altus properly refers to the tower structure, its entrance and its upper restoration chamber. It does not formally include every location visible around it.

For practical exploration, however, a complete visit normally combines the following locations:

Divine Tower of West Altus

This is the destination beyond the Sealed Tunnel. It consists mainly of an exterior entrance, a short internal ascent and the summit chamber. There is no conventional dungeon progression inside the tower once the entrance is unlocked.

Sealed Tunnel

The Sealed Tunnel is a separate underground mine in the Capital Outskirts. Its numerous illusory walls conceal the route towards the tower. It contains miners, Vulgar Militia, an Abductor Virgin, upgrade materials, a Stonesword Key, the Smithing-Stone Miner’s Bell Bearing [2] and the Onyx Lord boss arena.

Leyndell’s outer moat

The entrance to the Sealed Tunnel is found in the depressed moat outside the city walls, south-east of the Outer Wall Phantom Tree area. The tunnel is therefore associated geographically with Leyndell’s Capital Outskirts, even though the destination it serves is listed as a Divine Tower in Altus Plateau.

Places not included

The following are connected by proximity or progression, but are not subareas of the tower:

In particular, Altus Tunnel is not the Sealed Tunnel. They are separate mines with different bosses and rewards.

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Places not included

Geography and setting

The tower rises from a coastal or isolated rock formation west of Leyndell. From the surrounding Capital Outskirts, it appears to be an inaccessible structure separated from the mainland. The apparent separation is part of the location’s design: the player does not approach it across open water or by finding a bridge in the overworld. Instead, the route bends underground through the Sealed Tunnel and emerges at the tower’s base.

The architecture follows the Divine Tower pattern used for the other shardbearers’ towers. Its monumental stonework, enormous scale and summit chamber are associated with the institutions surrounding the Elden Ring and the Two Fingers. The West Altus tower is particularly tied to Rykard’s rejection of the established order, because it is the place where his Great Rune can still be returned to working order despite his transformation into the Lord of Blasphemy.

Named geographical directory

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Named geographical directory

Access and route

Requirements

You can reach the Sealed Tunnel before defeating Rykard, provided you can reach the Capital Outskirts. You cannot complete the tower’s actual function until Rykard has been defeated.

Before Rykard is defeated, the tower entrance remains locked. The Sealed Tunnel can therefore be explored earlier, but the tower itself is progression-gated.

The first hidden wall is located near the Sealed Tunnel grace. A further hidden wall is behind the chest containing the Bell Bearing, and additional illusory walls continue the route deeper into the dungeon.

If the tower door is still locked

If the entrance says it is tightly locked, you have not yet defeated Rykard in the current playthrough. The required victory is over the boss encounter in Volcano Manor, including both the God-Devouring Serpent phase and Rykard’s second phase.

The order in which you complete the Sealed Tunnel and Rykard does not matter. You can clear the tunnel first, defeat Rykard later, and then return to the already-cleared route.

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Requirements: The practical requirements are

  1. 01
    Reach Altus Plateau or the Capital Outskirts.
  2. 02
    Find the Sealed Tunnel in the moat south-east of the Outer Wall Phantom Tree area.
  3. 03
    Traverse the tunnel and defeat the Onyx Lord, or at least reach the exit beyond his arena.
  4. 04
    Defeat Rykard, Lord of Blasphemy, at Volcano Manor.
  5. 05
    Return through the Sealed Tunnel.
  6. 06
    Enter the tower and restore Rykard’s Great Rune.

Recommended route from Leyndell

  1. 01
    Start from the Outer Wall Phantom Tree area or another nearby Capital Outskirts Site of Grace.
  2. 02
    Travel down into the moat outside the south-western side of Leyndell’s outer walls.
  3. 03
    Look for the Sealed Tunnel entrance at the southern end of the depressed area.
  4. 04
    Rest at the Sealed Tunnel Site of Grace.
  5. 05
    Strike the illusory wall ahead, near the torch and Summoning Pool.
  6. 06
    Continue through the mine and inspect suspicious dead ends. Several of the walls are illusory rather than ordinary blocked passages.
  7. 07
    Collect the Bell Bearing chest and other tunnel loot before descending further.
  8. 08
    Continue towards the Onyx Lord’s arena.
  9. 09
    After defeating the Onyx Lord, use the passage beyond the arena to reach the tower.
  10. 10
    Ride the lift or use the internal ascent to reach the summit.
  11. 11
    Interact with the glowing Great Rune before the Two Fingers.

The Sealed Tunnel approach

Although it is not part of the tower proper, the Sealed Tunnel is essential to a complete West Altus visit.

Dungeon layout

The tunnel is built around mining chambers, wooden platforms, roots, hidden walls and vertical drops. Its main navigational trick is that ordinary-looking rock faces may conceal the next section. Do not assume that a dead end is genuine until you have checked nearby walls.

Suggested tunnel route

The Bell Bearing is particularly valuable because giving it to the Twin Maiden Husks at Roundtable Hold unlocks the purchase of regular Smithing Stones [3] and [4], according to the standard Bell Bearing progression. The dungeon itself also supplies additional smithing materials, making it a useful stop before upgrading weapons for the later Altus Plateau and Mt Gelmir encounters.

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Suggested tunnel route

  1. 01
    From the Site of Grace, move towards the Summoning Pool.
  2. 02
    Strike the illusory wall near the torch.
  3. 03
    Enter the mining chamber and check the side route around the roots.
  4. 04
    Search the chest containing Smithing-Stone Miner’s Bell Bearing [2].
  5. 05
    Check the wall behind or near the chest rather than assuming the chamber ends there.
  6. 06
    Continue down through the lift and root-covered section.
  7. 07
    Explore the side chambers for smithing stones and the Stonesword Key.
  8. 08
    Be cautious around the Abductor Virgin.
  9. 09
    Proceed through the final passage to the Onyx Lord.
  10. 10
    After the boss, continue through the exit rather than returning to the entrance. This passage leads directly to the tower.

Divine Tower walkthrough

Once Rykard has been defeated, the tower is a short, mostly safe objective.

1. Enter from the Sealed Tunnel

The route from the Onyx Lord’s side of the tunnel leads to the tower exterior. If the door remains closed, return after defeating Rykard.

2. Climb through the tower

The internal route is not a full dungeon. There is no comparable enemy gauntlet, puzzle or branching treasure route. Follow the ascent until you reach the upper chamber.

3. Find the Two Fingers

At the summit is the familiar Divine Tower restoration scene: a monumental chamber containing a corpse-like pair of Two Fingers and the interaction point for the associated Great Rune. The Two Fingers do not attack.

4. Restore Rykard’s Great Rune

Interact with the glowing rune prompt near the Two Fingers and choose the option to restore the Great Rune’s power. This permanently enables the rune for the remainder of the current playthrough, although it still needs to be equipped and activated with a Rune Arc before its effect is applied.

5. Equip and activate it

The effect is lost when you die or equip a different Great Rune. Rykard’s rune provides healing when a foe is defeated, making it more useful during exploration and repeated encounters than during a single boss fight. The documented effect is 80 HP plus 7% of maximum Vigor per defeated foe.

Tower directory

There is no verified tower shop, merchant, ordinary resident, mission-giver, conventional boss or separate tower-specific treasure directory beyond the restoration interaction.

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5. Equip and activate it: At a Site of Grace

  1. 01
    Select Great Runes.
  2. 02
    Equip Rykard’s Great Rune.
  3. 03
    Use a Rune Arc.

Enemies and boss encounters

Divine Tower of West Altus

The tower proper has no regular enemy roster and no boss fight. Its summit is an interaction area rather than a combat arena. This is why the location can feel disproportionately small compared with the effort required to reach it.

Sealed Tunnel enemies

The approach dungeon contains the meaningful combat content:

Enemy placement is fixed for the dungeon, although ordinary enemies respawn after resting at a Site of Grace. The Onyx Lord is the dungeon’s boss encounter and does not respawn after defeat in the normal playthrough.

Onyx Lord

The Onyx Lord uses a large curved greatsword and gravity magic. His attacks include gravitational pulls, projectiles and area attacks that can punish players who remain at mid-range without watching his casting animations.

Defeating him awards 16,000 runes and the Onyx Lord’s Greatsword.

Enemy and boss directory

Tower proper

Sealed Tunnel

Separate prerequisite location

Rykard is not a resident or boss of the Divine Tower. He is the prerequisite boss whose Great Rune is restored there.

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Sealed Tunnel enemies

Enemy and boss directory

Enemy and boss directory

Items and rewards

Tower rewards

The tower’s reward is functional rather than an inventory item:

The Great Rune itself is obtained from Rykard in Volcano Manor, not from the tower.

Sealed Tunnel rewards

The Bell Bearing is found in a chest, not awarded by the Onyx Lord. This distinction matters because the boss reward and the tunnel’s upgrade-unlocking reward are separate acquisitions.

Reward comparison

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Reward comparison

RewardLocationRequirementUse
Rykard’s Great RuneVolcano ManorDefeat RykardCan be restored at the tower
Restored Rykard’s Great RuneDivine Tower of West AltusDefeat Rykard and reach summitEnables the rune’s effect
Smithing-Stone Miner’s Bell Bearing [2]Sealed Tunnel chestFind hidden routeUnlocks purchases of Smithing Stones [3] and [4]
Onyx Lord’s GreatswordOnyx LordDefeat Onyx LordCurved greatsword weapon
16,000 runesOnyx LordDefeat Onyx LordCurrency and experience

Lore and progression

Divine Towers are the places where the Tarnished restores the power of Great Runes taken from shardbearers. The West Altus tower’s association with Rykard is thematically uncomfortable: Rykard abandoned the Golden Order and sought to consume the gods, yet the established tower still provides the means to make his Great Rune usable.

Rykard’s rune reflects the predatory logic of his blasphemous power. Rather than increasing attributes or improving a specific combat statistic, it rewards the defeat of enemies with health restoration. In practical terms, it supports sustained exploration, clearing groups and recovering from minor damage without spending healing flasks.

The tower also demonstrates the game’s distinction between:

Completing only one or two of these steps does not grant the full benefit.

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Lore and progression

NameDetails
Obtaining a Great Runedefeating its shardbearer.
Restoring a Great Runevisiting the correct Divine Tower.
Activating a Great Runeequipping it at a Site of Grace and consuming a Rune Arc.

Progression changes and missability

There is no ordinary NPC quest at the tower and no known tower-specific missable reward caused by advancing a character quest. The main practical miss is failing to collect the Bell Bearing or side loot while passing through the Sealed Tunnel.

Rykard-related progression elsewhere can affect dialogue and Volcano Manor activities, but those changes belong to Volcano Manor and should not be confused with a change to the Divine Tower itself.

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The tower’s main state change is straightforward

Progression stateTower status
Before reaching the Sealed TunnelNot accessible
After reaching the tunnel but before defeating RykardRoute can be explored, tower entrance remains locked
After defeating RykardTower entrance opens
After restoring the Great RuneRykard’s Great Rune becomes usable
After death or changing Great RunesRykard’s effect is inactive until another Rune Arc is used

Recommended exploration checklist

At the Divine Tower

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Sources