What you need to know
- A new infographic from Bandai Namco includes some interesting stats about player actions in Elden Ring since its launch.
- Hilariously, the game's community has collectively slain 12.8 billion Albinauric mobs since Elden Ring's February 2022 release.
- These mobs are very rare, so it's obvious that all of these kills came from farming a large group of them in the Mohgwyn Palace area for tons of easy runes.
- With powerful AoE attacks and Ashes of War like the Sacred Relic Sword's, it's possible to quickly wipe out all of the Albinaurics there and then respawn them by sitting at a nearby Site of Grace. It's possible to farm millions of runes per hour this way.
Earlier today, Elden Ring publisher Bandai Namco released a nifty infographic that contains several interesting stats about how players have engaged with FromSoftware's award-winning RPG since it launched in February 2022. For example, there have been nearly 82 million Colosseum PvP battles over the course of the game's lifespan, and 11.7 million Tarnished have earned the Dark Moon Greatsword.
To me, though, there's one part of the infographic in particular that stands out. Both the club and curved sword-wielding variants of the Albinauric mob have made it into the top five Most Felled Enemies list, with the former taking the #1 spot at 9.4 billion slain and the latter coming in at #4 with 3.4 billion. In total, the community has killed 12.8 billion Albinaurics.
What's so funny about this is that because of how rare Albinaurics are — you can only find them in three specific locations in the game's colossal open world — it's very clear to any seasoned Elden Ring player that these kills aren't occurring naturally during exploration like most takedowns are. Instead, players are repeatedly slaughtering a large group of these mobs found right next to the Palace Approach Ledge-Road Site of Grace in Mohgwyn's Palace for a ridiculous number of easy runes.
Each Albinauric here drops roughly 2,000 runes when killed, and since they're all asleep, it's extremely easy to backstab them or hit them with gigantic area-of-effect attacks. In the post-game, it's even possible to kill all of them with one cast of the Sacred Relic Sword's Wave of Gold Ash of War if you've got enough Faith (you can also do this before beating the final boss if you get someone to drop one for you).
In total, you can nab around 34,000 runes each time you clear out the Albinaurics, then instantly respawn them by sitting at the Site of Grace nearby. If you're using the Sacred Relic Sword method above or other types of effective AoE, it's possible to get millions of runes per hour, especially if you're playing on NG+ or are using items like the Gold Scarab Talisman or the Gold Pickled-Fowl Foot to boost your rune gains.
Even if you're not capable of efficiently killing the Albinaurics, there's also a large bird enemy visible in the distance here that you can make fall into a death pit by hitting it with an arrow. Each time this bird dies, you get 11,038 runes, making farming it our favorite way to farm runes and level up fast in the early game. Follow the linked guide for details on how to reach this spot early!
It's hilarious to me that players have farmed these Albinaurics so much that they've become the most slain mob in all of Elden Ring, especially since they're also some of the goofiest-looking enemies in the game as well. Maybe we'll see a more efficient rune farm surface once the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC arrives, but until then, these poor sleepyheads will continue to suffer for our benefit.
