Elden Ring: How To Solve The Carian Study Hall Pedestal Puzzle

"Elden Ring" has taken the world by storm, surpassing expectations with its extremely positive review scores and topping the UK box charts, beating out the units sold at the launch of "Dark Souls 3" by 26%. All of this means that more players than expected are exploring the Lands Between and battling through FromSoftware's boss fights. That also means more people are being introduced to how side quests work in these types of games. Side quests in FromSoftware games can be a bit obtuse when it comes to making proper progress through them, sometimes leading players to finding puzzles they can't complete. One perfect example of this is the puzzle inside Carian Study Hall, which requires a specific item to advance.

Of course, the benefit to that type of game design means that there are plenty of secrets for players to discover naturally, which makes for an enjoyable experience. Still, if this is your first Souls-like experience and find yourself totally stuck, here is how to solve the Carian Study Hall puzzle.

"Elden Ring" players will want to tackle the default version of Carian Study Hall first. The Study Hall is located directly to the east of the Raya Lucaria Academy, where a small island can be found branching off into the ocean. Once there, players will need to head through the first room and find an elevator in the back. Players will need to fight through Preceptor Miriam and her spirit summons. This fight will cover a staircase, across a bridge and up to a circular balcony area. After defeating Miriam, players will need to explore a bit.

In the area right before the circular balcony, players will find the Carian Glintstone Staff, an excellent weapon for spell-casters. If players use a ladder to get into the rafters above the balcony, players will also find the Cerulean Seed Talisman, which boosts the amount of FP recovered when consuming the FP flask (also great for magic users). 

Most importantly, there is a pedestal in the first room of the Carian Study Hall, where an item can be placed. Using this will reveal the inverted version of the tower — but first you will need to find the required item.

In order to get the necessary item to advance, players will need to complete the first half of Ranni the Witch's questline, which will involve a good bit of adventuring. The first thing you need to do is to head to the Caria Manor, which is located in the northwestern part of Liurnia. 

After advancing into the mansion and past a bunch of sentient hands, players will find themselves fighting Royal Knight Loretta. After defeating Loretta, an area called The Three Sisters will open up. Players want to head to the middle tower, which is Ranni's Rise. At the top of the tower, Ranni will ask you to serve her and you should agree to do it. After talking to her crew and convening with Ranni one more time, players will be tasked with finding the region known as Nokron, Eternal City.

Players will need to defeat General Radahn, the shard bearer in Caelid, in order to even get to Nokron. But that is easier said than done.

Defeating General Radahn in Caelid is a necessary step, since Nokron cannot be accessed until he is defeated. Unfortunately, this boss fight is one of the tougher ones in the game, especially since the gimmick it's designed around makes it so the outcome can largely feel out of your hands. In this fight, there are multiple gold summoning signs placed around the boss' arena. In addition to drawing Radahn's attention away from you, the summons also do a decent amount of damage to him. These can also be re-summoned once they die out, so keep an eye peeled for the gold signs.

As for your personal role in this battle, if you have a ranged build, you'll do best to keep your distance and deal damage from afar until he goes down. If he turns his attention to you, ride around on Torrent until he goes back to killing the NPCs. For melee builds, your best plan of attack is getting on Torrent and trying to get yourself underneath his backside to attack. Sure would be great if Torrent could still attack like the developers originally intended, wouldn't it?

Radahn is fast and hits pretty hard, so you will need to be on your toes. He also has a one shot meteor attack that he begins using when he drops to half health, so avoid that best as possible. Blood loss is very effect against Radahn, so using a weapon with built-in bleed effects or using blood loss grease is your best bet. As one post on the "Elden Ring" Reddit discussed, this fight really feels like it's more about luck than skill.

After Radahn is defeated, a star crashes into Limgrave, leaving a massive hole in the ground. This crater can be reached by fast-traveling to Limgrave and then heading towards all of the rocks floating above the hole.

Platform down into the hole to enter Nokron. While this is the city in question, you will need to navigate through this section and into a courtyard. From there, head down an alley that looks like it leads to a cliff and jump down. You will find yourself at the Mimic Tear boss fight, where you have to fight a duplicate of yourself, which is armed with the same equipment as you. 

After beating your double, head across the bridge until you can jump down into a grassy forest area on the left side of the area. There, stick to the left side, hugging the wall until you find an opening leading to a Site of Grace. From there, you can see a bunch of buildings that look similar to the courtyard area. Now jump onto the roof.

You will need to navigate across rooftops until you reach an archway going over a street. The building with Nokron's is down to your left, but if you go across the archway there will be a locked room inside the church. Open it with a Stonesword Key and you will find the Mimic Tear spirit ashes, which allow you to summon a copy of yourself. Then head back to Ranni's Rise, where you will be rewarded with the Carian Inverted Statue. That's only half of her quest, but you now have the specific item necessary to navigate through Carian Study Hall.

Head on back to the Carian Study Hall, where you can finally place the statue in its proper setting. This flips the building upside down, meaning will now be walking across and navigating around much tighter spaces. You will also need to defeat Preceptor Miriam again, although she doesn't have as many places to run to. After clearing out the enemies in the area, you will need to start navigating your way back down. Jump to the chandeliers, then down onto some rafter beams. At the bottom, you will find an elevator.

The elevator takes you to the Divine Tower of Liurnia, where you will have to fight the Godskin Noble. It drops the full Godskin Noble armor set, which is pretty ugly-looking but has solid stats. Advance towards the tower where you will also find the Stargazer's Heirloom and the Cursemark of Death. The Cursemark of Death is a necessary item to continue with Ranni's side quest, while the Stargazer's Heirloom is a solid Talisman for magic users.