Temple Town Ruins

Separate neighbouring areas

The Rauh Base and Ancient Ruins of Rauh are sometimes discussed together in walkthroughs because their routes interlock, but they are not interchangeable names. Temple Town Ruins is the lower settlement, not the whole of Rauh.

From Moorth Ruins

This is the clearest route for a first visit.

The entrance is deliberately unobvious. The town appears sealed from several directions, and the surrounding walls encourage players to search for a gate that does not function as the main entrance. The breach in the south-western wall is the intended way into the interior.

From the Rauh Base side

Temple Town can also be approached while exploring the lower Rauh Base and Scorpion River routes. This is useful if you have already collected the Rauh Ruins map fragment or are travelling west through the region, but it is less direct for a first visit because the landscape has several visually similar walls and submerged structures.

Returning after death

Once the Site of Grace is activated, the location becomes a useful staging point for:

There is no lift, dungeon entrance or special key requirement associated with Temple Town Ruins.

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Route 1: Secure the checkpoint

This removes the risk of losing a large rune stockpile while learning the enemy positions.

Route 2: Clear the lower town

Explore the submerged and partially collapsed buildings first. Shadow Undead are less threatening individually but can clutter the streets and distract you while a larger construct or Hornsent warrior attacks. Check corners, roof edges and broken interiors rather than assuming that every visible building is empty.

The lower section contains ordinary loot including crafting materials, runes, smithing stones and glovewort. Some items are placed in exposed ruins, while others are guarded by enemies or positioned along the edges of the flooded structures.

Route 3: Deal with the constructs

Guardian Golems and Guardian Golem Archers occupy the more open parts of the settlement. The archers are particularly dangerous because the town’s walls and collapsed buildings can funnel the player into predictable lanes.

The Guardian Golem enemy type is not unique to Temple Town, but the combination of elevated firing positions, water and broken walls makes the encounter space more dangerous than an ordinary open-field fight.

Route 4: Reach the upper ruins

The upper route is reached by climbing broken structures and making use of the local Spiritspring. Search for the higher ledges and rooflines rather than treating the town as a flat street layout. The vertical route is where several of the location’s most important rewards are placed.

The Two-Handed Sword Talisman is one of the major reasons to explore the upper ruins. It rewards players who commit to fighting with a weapon held in both hands, making it especially relevant to strength builds, quality builds and characters using large weapons. Confirm its position visually before dropping from a roof or ledge, because several falls in this area are one-way until you circle back.

Route 5: Complete the temple section

The temple-related section contains the Divine Bird Warrior Ornis spirit ash. Its placement reflects the area’s lore: Ornis was remembered as a guardian figure of the temple quarter, and the Horned Warriors claimed descent from him.

Once the upper ruins are clear, revisit the lower streets to confirm that no item remains behind a collapsed wall or beside a submerged building.

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Temple Town Ruins Site of Grace

The location has one verified Site of Grace:

It is positioned in the lower part of the area and acts as the natural base for both the settlement and the surrounding Rauh Base routes.

No shops or merchants

No merchant, smithing service, summoning NPC, cook, map seller or other permanent service has been verified inside Temple Town Ruins. Decorative ruined buildings should not be treated as functioning businesses.

Guide Stele and message

The location contains a Guide Stele and a message on the north-eastern side that reads:

The message is useful environmental guidance. It points towards the intended solution to the town’s apparent lack of an entrance: search for a breach and a route around or through the wall rather than expecting a conventional gate.

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Ordinary enemies

The verified enemy directory for the location includes:

The enemies are fixed encounters rather than a procedural layout. Individual minor drops may vary by enemy and are not the same as fixed treasure pickups.

Horned Warrior

The curved-greatsword Horned Warrior is the most dangerous ordinary humanoid opponent in the settlement. It combines aggressive melee pressure with the poise and damage expected from a high-level Hornsent warrior. The first defeat is associated with a Somber Smithing Stone [9] according to the location directory, making this encounter worth completing even if you initially choose to run past it.

Try to fight it in a space where the camera has room to follow its movement. Narrow corners and broken masonry can make its sweeping attacks difficult to read.

Golden Hippopotamus

The Golden Hippopotamus is listed as an unmarked boss encounter connected with Temple Town Ruins. It does not use the conventional fog-gate presentation of a major remembrance boss. Treat it as a field encounter and prepare for a large-area fight in which the creature’s body can obscure attacks and movement.

Because the encounter is unmarked, a completion checklist should record it separately from traditional dungeon bosses.

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Major fixed rewards

These are the location’s most important collection targets. The area directory lists all five among the notable loot.

Minor fixed loot directory

The precise placement of minor pickups is easier to follow in-game than by name alone because several are hidden among collapsed walls, water and plant growth. Use the Grace as a reset point and search the town in a clockwise loop.

Nearby, but not inside Temple Town Ruins

This is a separate nearby collectible. It should not be counted as an item inside the town proper. To activate the encounter, visit the fairy ring after nightfall and interact with the gathering of spirit animals. The Larval Tear is valuable for players using Rennala’s respec system, but it is not unique to the Temple Town interior.

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Environmental storytelling details

These are interpretations based on the location’s layout and item text. The game does not provide a complete historical account of the settlement’s founding, population or exact date of destruction.

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Night-time state

The Larval Tear encounter northeast of the settlement requires night-time conditions. If the fairy ring appears inactive during the day, rest at a Site of Grace and change the time before searching for it.

Major progression changes

No location-specific world-state change, quest invasion or NPC relocation has been verified for Temple Town Ruins. The ruins therefore function primarily as an exploration area rather than as a quest-dependent settlement.

As with all Elden Ring content, the safest practice is to collect named items before completing major DLC story events if you are following a no-miss exploration run. However, there is no verified Temple Town-specific missability trigger in the available location records.

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For melee characters

Use the walls and collapsed buildings to split enemy groups. Guardian Golems are easier to manage when they cannot support one another, while the Horned Warrior should be fought away from archers and deep water.

For ranged characters

The town provides many firing lanes, but Guardian Golem Archers can punish stationary play. Fire from cover, move after each attack and avoid exposing yourself to two elevated enemies at once.

For shield users

A shield can help against the Horned Warrior’s direct pressure, but large enemies and the Golden Hippopotamus can still overwhelm stamina. Keep enough stamina for a retreat rather than spending the entire bar on blocking.

For spirit users

The open areas near the ruins are more suitable for summons than the narrow entrance route. Summon after reaching a safer space or after drawing one enemy away from the main group.

Scadutree Blessing

If the enemies feel disproportionately strong, leave and collect more Scadutree Fragments elsewhere in the Realm of Shadow. DLC damage scaling makes blessing upgrades especially important, and Temple Town contains a fragment of its own, but collecting it may require surviving the area first.

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