Elden Ring: Should You Join Volcano Manor?

Elden Ring is a massive game with seemingly endless areas to explore and countless cryptic NPCs to meet. Sometimes these characters will ask you to complete a quest for them, but other times, they ask you questions that require a larger chunk of commitment. When exploring Mt. Gelmir in the latter half of Elden Ring, you’ll come across an NPC that asks you to join Volcano Manor. The manor itself is a strange place, but this optional commitment can open up some exciting new gameplay elements in your Elden Ring adventure. Here are the pros and cons of joining Volcano Manor in Elden Ring.

Should You Join Volcano Manor in Elden Ring?

You should absolutely join Volcano Manor in Elden Ring. Joining Volcano Manor will unlock an entirely new questline that leads to unique boss fights, NPC encounters, and items that you wouldn’t have access to otherwise. It’s also one of the best quests in all of Elden Ring, too. If you’d rather not join Volcano Manor, then declining the offer doesn’t have any negative repercussions either. If you want more content, however, then you should join.

Volcano Manor also holds the key to PVP in Elden Ring. Joining Volcano Manor will allow you to obtain the Recusant Finger item, which allows for unlimited PVP invasions similar to the Bloody Finger that you can earn from White Mask Varre.

If you do join Volcano Manor, you will receive a key that will unlock access to a new room called the Drawing Room. There are multiple new NPCs to meet in the Drawing Room of Volcano Manor, including a character who will sell you new Ashes of War for your weapons. Here’s where you can find the Recusant Finger as well.

After collecting the Recusant Finger in the Drawing Room, you can pick up the “Letter From Volcano Manor” item on the table which will give you the name and location of a Tarnished NPC that you must invade and defeat. These assassination contracts are a core part of the Volcano Manor questline, and killing these targets will eventually lead you to a secret boss that cannot be fought via any other means.

After reading the leader in your inventory, the target’s location will be marked on your map with a red icon. The first NPC that you’re sent after is named Old Knight Istvan, and he can be found in Limgrave. Heading out to the quest area, you will find a red summoning sign on the ground. Use this to invade Old Knight Istvan’s world. If you defeat him, you will get the Scaled Armor SetElden Ring Armor: The 10 Best Armor Sets & How to Get Them as a reward.  You can then head back to the Volcano Manor after completing this task to the Magma Shot.

Once Old Knight Istvan is defeated, you can keep collecting letters from the Drawing Room in Volcano Manor to learn the locations of additional assassination targets. Finding and defeating these Tarnished targets will progress the Volcano Manor storyline, allowing you to learn more about the characters found within the Manor and their fight against the Erdtree.

Elden Ring is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.

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