The Lake of Rot is a terrifying place. So, let’s see how to pass through one of the most deadly areas in Elden Ring.
It’s no secret that FromSoftware loves the idea of a poison swamp. They have been featured in all the SoulsBorne and Soulslike games with the Swamp of Sorrow in Demon’s Souls, Blight Town in Dark Souls, Black Gulch Dark Souls 2, Farron Keep in Dark Souls 3, The Nightmare Frontier in Bloodborne, and the Ashina Depths in Sekiro, These types of areas are a test of critical thinking for the players and tend to provide a massive challenge for those who don’t typically approach things cautiously. Elden Ring is no exception in this regard as multiple locations in this absurdly long open-world game will kill the player if they linger for too long.
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The largest of these areas is the Lake of Rot, the place where allegedly (according to the in-game worldbuilding) the Outer God of Scarlet Rot that has ties to Malenia is sealed deep beneath. This massive site will infect the Tarnished with Rot, a truly horrific status ailment, after stepping in it for more than a couple of seconds, but there are a few tips and tricks to get through this Elden Ring area alive.
Updated March 26th, 2023 by Jacob Buchalter: The Lake of Rot is by far one of the more infuriating areas in Elden Ring, so hopefully FromSoftware doesn’t try to ‘one-up’ it in their upcoming Shadows of the Erdtree DLC. In any case, players usually want to get through this area as quickly and painlessly as possible, which causes them to die needlessly or miss some pretty useful items. With that in mind, let’s take a minute and go over all the areas of the Lake of Rot, how to prepare for traversing this dreadful landscape, and what to expect while exploring it.
This area can be reached from the main Ainsel River, players simply need to move southwest from the Nokstella Waterfall Basin Site of Grace. Along this path will be a lift that will take the Tarnished all the way down to the starting point of the Lake of Rot.
Once the Tarnished rests at the Lake of Rot Shoreside Site of Grace, they will be able to loot the map fragment of the area from a corpse on the shore. This is the perfect time for players to teleport out and get every type of Consumable, Armor Set, or Item they’ll need to tackle the Lake of Rot, as this is an area that will quickly destroy anyone who isn’t fully prepared.
Exploration in this area is tricky and will quickly drain a lot of the player’s resources just by surviving. Therefore, a great, low-risk way of collecting items while exploring this site, other than just overly relying on Spells and Incantations, is to warp back to the Lake of Rot Shoreside Site of Grace every time the player is close to death from the Scarlet Rot. Or, players can take the standard approach and make sure to use all their resources so that they can just bash their head against this area over and over, dying repeatedly until they manage to make it to the next Site of Grace.
