How to Unlock the Sword of Light and Sword of Darkness from the Stone-Sheathed Sword - Elden Ring Guide - IGN (2024)

Elden Ring’s Shadow of the Erdtree DLC is full of mysteries and secrets, and one of the biggest involves solving the mystery of how to unlock the true power of the Stone-Sheathed Sword. This page contains information on where to get the Stone-Sheathed Sword, and how to use it to unlock the Sword of Light or the Sword of Darkness at the Altars of Light and Darkness.

To completely solve this mystery, you'll need to discover three locations: the location of a Stone-Sheathed Sword, the Altar of Light, and Altar of Dark.

• Finding the Stone-Sheathed Sword
• Finding the Altar of Light
• Finding the Altar of Darkness
• Swapping the Sword of Light and Darkness

Important Note - There is a unique property regarding the Stone-Sheathed Sword: When you first enter the Realm of Shadow, the Stone-Sheathed Sword can technically be found at all three altars listed on the map above. This guide will show you how to find the sword as early as possible, but if you find it at one of the other two altars, they will cease to become Altars of Light or Darkness, and the altar where the first Stone-Sheathed Sword was located will become that transformational altar instead, and no longer have the Stone-Sheathed Sword at its location.

Where to Find the Stone-Sheathed Sword

First, you’ll need to find the mysterious sword that starts this little quest. It can be found in the Fog Rift Catacombs, in a small valley north of Castle Ensis, but finding it can be pretty tricky.

You’ll need to advance through the catacombs' deadly spike ceiling traps, drop into a room and avoid the spikes above before moving west and down a lift.

Soon after, you’ll reach a very large and long room with a Death Priest at the far end tossing spells at you while most of the spike-filled ceiling crashes down from above. Carefully use the alcoves on the left to advance to the altar where the Death Priest is and defeat him.

While standing on the raised area, look back north to where you first came in and approach the edge. The spike ceiling will crash down, revealing a small alcove you can hop into and ride the ceiling spikes up to a platform.

Hop onto the platform, and then turn and jump onto the top of the ceiling spike trap as it crashes down again, and lifts you up to the very top of the room. Run along the ceiling trap and look for a larger alcove on the right side of the room.

Here you’ll find an altar holding a Legendary Weapon: The Stone-Sheathed Sword. It may not appear all that incredible, being encased in stone and only dealing striking damage with no special weapon skill.

The big clue comes from its description text - which mentions that the sword was used at altars of light and darkness.

The goal is to find these altars, of which there are two, and it turns out that it’s even more well-hidden than the sword.

You can seek out either altar first — and don’t worry, choosing one won’t mean you’ll miss out on the other. If you found the Stone-Sheathed Sword at a different Altar, the one in the catacombs can now be used to transform the sword.

Where to Find the Sword of Light’s Altar

For this next part, you’ll need to make your way to Rauh Ruins, which is located west of the Shadow Keep, which you can find a lift down to as you enter the Specimen Storage tower, and cross a large bridge to the ruins.

Make your way through the eastern ruins until you are able to cross a large broken bridge, and cross over into the western portion of the ruins, dodging a Furnace Golem that guards the other side of the bridge, and pass through to find a Site of Grace.

Enter the ruins' interior and climb up a flight of stairs where Shadow Undead are flinging rot spells, then ride past them north back outside where you can find two Horned Warriors guarding an altar with a Revered Spirit Ash.

Head northwest past the altar into another section of the ruins that’s covered in scarlet rot, and ride through and take a right past an area full of Kindred of Rot and a large stone bust of a woman.

You can find an outdoor ledge here, and to the northeast is a large circular ruin of pillars, with something in the center across a broken bridge.

However, the bridge isn’t broken — it’s invisible. You can use items like Rainbow Stones or spells to test, or even look for signs from other players. So long as you walk straight from the broken bridge to the circular tower, you won’t fall off.

Here at last you’ll find a shining altar similar to the one you found the Stone-Sheathed Sword at. Interact with it, and it will ask to “Raise the Stone-Sheathed Sword to the light.”

By doing so, the old weapon will be no more, and you’ll instead gain the Sword of Light - the true legendary straight sword weapon! The straight sword scales with faith (and requires 24 faith to wield), and deals holy damage in addition to physical damage. Its true weapon skill is called Light, and will have you hold the sword high as it lets loose a blinding light whose many rays sweep around the surrounding area, dealing damage to all — as well as temporarily boosting all of your holy attacks!

If you found this altar first and claimed the Stone-Sheathed Sword at this location, then the Altar of Light will instead be located inside the Fog Rift Catacombs, and you can use the directions in the previous section to reach it.

Where to Find the Sword of Darkness Altar

If you wish instead to make your sword one of darkness, you’ll need to enter a hidden area below the Shadow Keep.

This can be done from the Main Gate after beating the Golden Hippopotamus, and getting to the drawbridge area that leads to the Specimen Storage part of the keep. Before heading across the drawbridge, look instead along the right path among the small boat pyres for a ladder leading down into the inner moat.

Follow the passage through a waterfall underground to a chamber with a collectible painting of “The Domain of Dragons”. To the right, attack the blank wall to reveal an illusory wall, which will lead to a stone coffin to take you under the keep.

This leads to a basin where you can find the large Ruins of Unte and many broken Furnace Golems (including one that will rise up out of the water to the south).

The secret lies within the ruins, but the entrance is blocked by an inactive Furnace Golem. You can look for some ruined buildings to the north to take you out onto the rooftop balconies, and toss a Hefty Fire Pot into the Furnace Golem to reactivate it, and gain entry into the ruins.

(If you don’t want to tangle with a Furnace Golem, it’s also possible to use Torrent to double jump partway up the ruins east wall and hop to the lowest broken point of the wall to get in from the back).

Thankfully, the Furnace Golem you awaken doesn't have armored legs, so it is possible to keep striking its legs to stagger it repeatedly and make it fall down, and then stab its face plate to deal massive damage - but try not to stray too far from the ruins lest the other Furnace Golem in the area rise up as well!

Inside the ruins in a large flower field, and the Altar of Darkness. If you still have the Stone-Sheathed Sword, you can raise it to the night, and be awarded the Sword of Darkness.

Like the Sword of Light, it also does holy damage, but its Weapon Skill will unleash a cloud of darkness all around to lower the enemy's holy damage negation!

If you discovered this altar first and claimed the Stone-Sheathed Sword at this location, you can instead find the Altar of Darkness inside the Fog Rift Catacombs, and use the previous section to locate it.

How to Swap Between the Sword of Light and Sword of Darkness

Regardless of which altar you use to unlock the Stone-Sheathed Sword’s true potential, the good news is you’re not bound to just one weapon - you can swap between them both as much as you like!

By taking the Sword of Light to the Altar of Darkness in the Ruins of Unte, or the Sword of Darkness to the Altar of Light in Rauh Ruins, you can raise the sword up and swap it for the other version. Even better, the sword will keep its current weapon level, so you can upgrade one version to +10, and the other version will also become a +10.

If you picked up the Stone-Sheathed Sword at either of these locations, you'll need to return to the Fog Rift Catacombs to swap the sword from Light to Darkness instead.

The only downside is that you can’t wield both at the same time, as the Stone-Sheathed Sword can only be picked up once — unless of course you get the Stone-Sheathed Sword again in New Game+.