How To Solve Every Painting In Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree
Three new paintings have been added to the Shadow Of The Erdtree DLC for Elden Ring, giving you new riddles to solve for rare items. These rare pieces of art act like treasure maps, leading your character to specific locations in the open world to find hidden loot. The Land of Shadow sees more chances to uncover painting secrets, but only if you can find the artwork first.
Paintings are hidden away off the beaten path, so they can be difficult to track down. One of the easiest ways to find paintings is to make sure you have discovered many Sites of Grace your character can travel quickly between. Discovering all the Grace Sites in the Gravesite Plain region or the other large areas in the Land of Shadow will make the map easier to explore.
In Elden Ring, Scadu Atlus is the secondary region in the Shadow Realm, with many Grace Sites that players can activate, gaining more rest points.
The Land of Shadow has distinct landmarks you can use to help determine where you are traveling, especially as you gallop through regions on the back of your horse Torrent. Use the directional compass adjacent to your health, FP, and Stamina bars to navigate throughout the world. Start at Site of Grace locations to make your journey much easier as you try to discover where paintings are hidden.
There are 3 paintings in the DLC that each depict a location within the new open world region separate from The Lands Between. However, one of the major flaws in Shadow Of The Erdtree is how fog obscures much of the landscape you find yourself traveling within. As a result, it can be difficult to spot various locations from far away unless you know what direction leads toward them on your map.
As you can see in the above video by YouTube creator HarryNinetyFour, paintings can be observed once you find them to give you a reference to the image they present. Each painting can be found in these locations:
Painting |
Location |
Closest Site of Grace |
Where To Find |
---|---|---|---|
"Incursion" |
Gravesite Plain |
Cliffroad Terminus |
Travel southeast from Cliffside Terminus along the edges of cliffs until you spot a small shack. The painting will be inside this Artist's Shack as one of the first things you can see. |
"Domain of Dragons" |
Shadow Keep |
Main Gate Plaza |
From the Site of Grace, head left and travel up the side of the Keep until you reach the dining hall. From here, go into the large battlements to the left and travel east until you see a ladder on the left-hand side. Descend this ladder to reach the waterfall below, then go behind the waterfall to another ladder, which will take you down to a series of rooms with the painting. |
"The Sacred Tower" |
Gravesite Plain |
Scorched Ruins |
Head northeast from the Scorched Ruins and investigate the bottom of the large cliff beyond the broken stone gates scattered in the area. You should find a nearby cave that contains the painting, which glows white and gold. |
As with all paintings, you have to find the view where the artist painted the displayed picture, from the right angle that would mimic the work of art. The first painting you will likely find, "Incursion," shows a view from underneath a large bridge in the Gravesite Plain. This refers to the bridge just ahead of the Three-Path Cross Site of Grace leading to the northeast section of the larger region.
From the Three-Path Cross, go directly northwest using the small trail where shadow enemies walk to eventually discover a large stone gate. At this point, turn right and search along the nearby cliff to find the spirit who painted "Incursion" still working hard on their art from some sort of memory. This white specter will disappear as you approach, but you can pick up an item after they fade away.
Solving this painting puzzle rewards your character with the
"Domain of Dragons" depicts an eerie sight of the Scadutree seemingly burning, but this is an illusion of the red sky being shown in the artwork. This painting is showing a landscapewithin the Jagged Peak region, an area dominated by dragons found past the Gravesite Plain. To reach the Jagged Peak, travel south to the Dragon's Pit, then east until you reach the Foot of the Jagged Peak Site of Grace.
Continue heading east until you reach the Jagged Peak Mountainside Site of Grace, which sits right before the boss fight against Bayle The Dread in Elden Ring. This area is extremely dangerous due to the abundance of dragons, including an Ancient Dragon that rests as an optional boss before the Grace Site. Travel past these foes for now to continue toward the painting location uninterrupted.
Due to the enemies present in this area, you may want to collect the
Go west up the jagged rocks of the mountain, while taking care to avoid the lightning strikes that hit the ground all over this area. Keep going past the dragon corpses until you find the Spirit Spring that can help Torrent reach a higher platform. Continue going west after you jump along the rocks, then drop down and head slightly north to spot the ghostly chair with the artist who created the "Domain of Dragons" painting.
The item you can collect from this painting puzzle is the Rock Heart, a consumable item that transforms your character into a dragon-like form. This only lasts a limited time, but it boosts your Dragon Communion Incantations by 20%, making it great for those who rely on a lot of magic derived from felled dragon foes. The transformation from this item makes it worth collecting, even if not every build will benefit from it.
Warning: The following article contains spoilers for Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree.
The riddle from "The Sacred Tower" painting can only be solved when you burn the Scadutree during a late story section of the DLC. Once you do this, travel back to the Moorth Ruins Site of Grace, an area you may remember where you could challenge Dryleaf Dane for the
Travel southwest from the Ancient Ruins Base past the massive giants with bows guarding the area by traveling along the small hills and trees to one side. From here, you should see a Spirit Spring, but it cannot boost Torrent's jump right away. You have to break the Spirit Seal located on the southern path just past the Spring to activate the well and allow Torrent to leap to the higher cliffs above.
Finding a way around the Land of Shadow in Elden Ring’s DLC can be difficult, but a secret Shadow of the Erdtree mechanic makes it much easier.
Go up a second Spirit Spring to reach the top of the mountain, then head south to the very edge of this structure to find the sectral painter you've been looking for. This should be a short distance past a small crypt, so use that as a landmark. You will have to drop to a lower ledge of the mountain at its southern point to reveal the painter, who seems to shine more gold than white.
Your character gains the