Who Is Dung Eater and Where Do You Find Him in Elden Ring?
Dung Eater is locked in a cell in Roundtable Hold, past Twin Maiden Husks, and you won’t be able to talk to him until you have reached Altus Plateau and picked up your first Seedbed Curse. He’s an NPC with his own agenda: a self-described “priest of the flesh” who wants to spread Deathroot corruption across the Lands Between, and he treats you as his instrument for doing it. He’s also summonable later as a spirit for one major boss fight, which is worth knowing before you decide whether to rush his questline or slow-walk it.
Here’s the part almost nobody flags early enough to matter: if you’ve already progressed Ranni’s questline with Seluvis, specifically if you’ve given Ranni the Fingerslayer Blade, one of Dung Eater’s two endings may already be closed to you. That’s covered in full further down, but it’s worth knowing now, before you start collecting curses toward an ending you can’t actually reach.
What Do You Need Before Starting the Dungeater Questline? (Requirements Checklist)
You need two things to trigger the first conversation: access to Altus Plateau, and one Seedbed Curse in your inventory. Everything after that branches depending on which ending you want. This is the same requirement list whether you search it as “Dung Eater questline” or “dungeater questline,” since it’s one quest with two spellings floating around online.
| Requirement | Why It Matters | Where to Get It |
|---|---|---|
| Access to Altus Plateau | Dung Eater won’t speak to you at all before this point | Reach it via the Grand Lift of Dectus or the Volcano Manor path |
| 1st Seedbed Curse | Required to open his first dialogue and receive the Sewer-Gaol Key | Found in Leyndell and other late-game areas |
| Sewer-Gaol Key | Grants access to his prison cell in the Subterranean Shunning-Grounds | Given automatically after the first conversation |
| 5 total Seedbed Curses, OR Seluvis’s Potion | Determines which of the two endings you receive | Curses scattered around Leyndell, potion from Seluvis’s questline in Ranni’s storyline |
Decide your ending before you start hoarding curses. If you know you want the Seluvis’s Potion shortcut, you don’t need to grind all five curses at all, and knowing that early saves you a genuinely tedious amount of backtracking. Our Seedbed Curse locations guide maps every pickup point around Leyndell if you’re committing to the full route.
Dung Eater Questline Step by Step (Full Walkthrough)
Here’s the full sequence, in order. Steps 5 through 8 involve a story beat and an invasion fight, so treat this as your spoiler line if you’d rather experience it blind.
- Talk to Dung Eater at Roundtable Hold with a Seedbed Curse in your inventory.
- Receive the Sewer-Gaol Key from him after the conversation.
- Travel to the Underground Roadside Site of Grace and make your way to his cell in the Subterranean Shunning-Grounds.
- Use the key to release him from his prison.
- Optional but worthwhile: use his summon sign for the Mohg, Lord of Blood fight before advancing his questline further.
- Return to Roundtable Hold and check for his message about the outer moat.
- Travel to the outer moat area and let him invade you.
- Defeat him in the invasion fight.
- Return to Roundtable Hold one more time and choose your ending path.
That last step is where the two branches actually diverge, and it’s covered in detail below. If you want more context on the Mohg fight in step 5, our Mohg, Lord of Blood boss guide covers the summon requirements and fight strategy.
How Many Seedbed Curses Do You Need for the Dungeater Questline?
You need 5 total Seedbed Curses to complete the full Blessing of Despair ending, and one of those five is already spent triggering the very first conversation. The remaining four are concentrated heavily around Leyndell, with a handful in other late-game zones. Because Elden Ring has gone through several balance and quest-timing patches since launch, double check you’re following the most current Dung Eater walkthrough before committing to a curse count, since exact drop locations occasionally shift between versions.
If you’re aiming for the potion shortcut instead, you can stop collecting curses entirely once you’ve used your first one and skip straight to Seluvis’s questline.
Dung Eater Questline Endings, Explained (Which One Should You Pick?)
Most walkthroughs treat this as one linear quest with a single finish line. It’s actually two separate outcomes, and the fork happens the moment you decide what to hand Dung Eater at the end.
| Ending Name | What You Do | What You Get | What You Lose |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blessing of Despair | Collect and deliver all 5 Seedbed Curses | The “true” corrupted ending tied to Dung Eater’s full storyline | Nothing extra, this is the complete path |
| Seluvis’s Potion shortcut | Give Dung Eater the potion instead of the curses | Receive the Dung Eater Puppet Ashes from Seluvis, ends the quest early | Forfeits the Blessing of Despair ending permanently |
There’s a workaround competitors rarely mention. Even if you take the potion route, you can still loot the Omen armor set from Dung Eater’s body afterward, but the timing is tight. If you leave the area or reload before grabbing it, the body despawns and the armor is gone for that playthrough.
What Happens If You Give Dung Eater Seluvis’s Potion Instead?
Giving Dung Eater the potion ends his questline early, grants the Dung Eater Puppet Ashes as a summon from Seluvis, and permanently forfeits the Blessing of Despair ending. It’s the faster path if you’re not chasing full completion and just want the spirit ash and a tidy conclusion.
The bigger catch is upstream of that choice. If you’ve already given Ranni the Fingerslayer Blade during her own questline, Seluvis’s storyline may already be locked off, which means the potion route was never available to you in the first place. That’s the loss aversion moment that trips up players who didn’t plan their Ranni and Dung Eater progress together. Our Ranni questline walkthrough shows exactly where that Fingerslayer Blade decision sits in her own quest chain.
Can You Still Do the Dung Eater Quest After Burning the Erdtree? (Answering the #1 Confusion)
The short answer is that ending choices tied to burning the Erdtree happen at the very end of the game, well after the Dung Eater questline resolves, so there’s no confirmed conflict between finishing his quest and choosing that path. That said, this is exactly the kind of patch-sensitive interaction that shifts across Elden Ring updates and the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion, so treat it as a “should be fine, verify before you commit” answer rather than an absolute guarantee if you’re deep into a specific ending run.
Why Isn’t Dung Eater Invading Me at the Outer Moat? (Common Fixes)
If Dung Eater won’t invade, the most common cause is skipping dialogue or arriving at the wrong spot near the outer moat area. A few things to check before assuming something’s broken.
- Make sure you’ve exhausted all available dialogue with him at Roundtable Hold first, including his message about the moat.
- Confirm the state of Big Boggart nearby, since that NPC’s questline status can affect whether the invasion triggers.
- Double check you’re standing in the correct section of the outer moat and not a similarly named area nearby.
- Rest at a Site of Grace and return if the invasion doesn’t trigger on your first approach.
Is the Dungeater Questline Worth Doing? What You Actually Get
Yes, and the reward justifies the detour even if you’re not chasing lore completion. Finishing the questline through either ending grants the Mending Rune of the Fell Curse, which negates health drain from status effects like Frostbite and Scarlet Rot for the rest of that playthrough, a genuinely useful practical effect in the game’s harder late zones. You also gain access to the Omen armor set, one of the more distinct visual sets in the game, whether you take the full curse route or the potion shortcut, as long as you grab it before the body despawns.
Players comparing this reward against other late-game armor sets often check our best armor sets in Elden Ring guide to see where the Omen set ranks for pure defense versus visual appeal. The Mending Rune itself is one of several status-negation runes in the game, and it stacks well with builds already leaning into Scarlet Rot resistance for the Caelid and Consecrated Snowfield regions.
Worth noting too: the two endings aren’t just cosmetic differences bolted onto the same reward pool. The full Blessing of Despair path is treated by the game’s own lore tracking as the canonical conclusion to Dung Eater’s arc, while the potion shortcut is closer to an off ramp that still pays out a fair prize. Neither is objectively wrong. It comes down to whether you’re the kind of player who wants every ending explored across separate playthroughs or the kind who wants one clean, complete run without loose threads.
FAQ
How do you start the Dung Eater questline in Elden Ring?
You need access to Altus Plateau and at least one Seedbed Curse in your inventory. Once you have both, speak to Dung Eater in his locked cell in Roundtable Hold, past Twin Maiden Husks. He’ll give you the Sewer-Gaol Key, which opens his actual prison in the Subterranean Shunning-Grounds and kicks off the rest of the questline.
Is the Dung Eater questline worth doing?
Yes. It rewards the Mending Rune of the Fell Curse, which stops health drain from status effects like Frostbite and Scarlet Rot, plus the Omen armor set. It also connects to Mohg’s boss fight through an optional summon and touches Ranni’s storyline through Seluvis, so it has more overlap with the rest of the game than a typical side quest.
What does the Dung Eater questline reward you with?
Completing either ending gives you the Mending Rune of the Fell Curse, which removes health drain from certain status effects for the rest of your playthrough. You’ll also get access to loot the Omen armor set from his body, though the timing window to grab it is tight if you take the potion ending instead of the full curse route.
Can you complete the Dung Eater questline after burning the Erdtree?
There’s no confirmed conflict, since burning the Erdtree happens at the very end of the game while Dung Eater’s questline resolves well before that point. This interaction can shift with patches and expansion content, so if you’re deep into planning a specific ending, verify the current state before committing rather than assuming it’s locked in permanently.
What’s the fastest way to finish the dungeater questline?
The Seluvis’s Potion route is faster since it skips collecting four additional Seedbed Curses. It ends the quest early and grants the Dung Eater Puppet Ashes instead of the full Blessing of Despair ending, so it’s a real trade-off, not a pure shortcut, and it’s unavailable if you’ve already given Ranni the Fingerslayer Blade.
The single most useful thing to take from all of this is that the fork in Dung Eater’s questline isn’t a detail buried at the end, it’s a decision you should make before you collect a single curse. Knowing whether you want the full Blessing of Despair ending or the Seluvis’s Potion shortcut changes what you need to do next, and it changes whether four extra Seedbed Curse pickups are worth your time at all.
If you’re mid-playthrough and unsure which path you’re already on, check whether you’ve handed Ranni the Fingerslayer Blade yet. That single choice quietly closes one of Dung Eater’s two doors, and it’s the detail every linear walkthrough buries deepest. For the rest of your build planning, our Elden Ring ending guide and best armor sets in Elden Ring guide cover how this single side quest fits into a full playthrough.
