Here's how to complete this dungeon and claim the Ancient Meteoric Ore Greatsword within.
Guide by Katharine Castle Managing Editor
Updated on
The Ruined Forge of Starfall Past is an optional dungeon in Elden Ring's Shadow of the Erdtree DLC. It's one of many Ruined Forges you'll find in the Shadow Realm, and they all contain important treasures: this one specifically has another Ancient Dragon Smithing Stone for your collection, and the powerful Ancient Meteoric Ore Greatsword weapon, making it a worthwhile detour on your journey through the Shadow Realm.
This forge is a little trickier than the one you might have completed in Gravesite Plain, however, so to help you puzzle through it, read on below for our Ruined Forge of Starfall Past walkthrough.
You'll find the Ruined Forge of Starfall Past on the southern edge of Scadu Altus. It's a little way south-west of the Site of Grace 'Moorth Ruins Cross', just before you get to the Fort of Reprimand. You may encounter a Ghostflame Dragon on your way here, too. If you do (or just need to take cover), ride directly west and you should come across the forge in front of you. Here's its precise location on the map below:
Activate the Site of Grace 'Ruined Forge of Starfall Past' and continue into the main chamber. There are lots of regular Smithing Stones to loot from the ground here, so pick up as many as you want to bother with, making sure to grab the 5x Smithing Stones (3) from the corpse on your left.
Use the narrow walkway to cross to the other side of the chamber, taking out the gargoyle to your left and grabbing the Smithscript Spear off the corpse to your right.
Then, activate the lever to open the large door below you. Drop down and take out the other two gargoyles in front of the door.
A fire slime may start shooting projectiles at your from the other side of the door, so watch out for those as you make your way down. Luckily, there are a couple of small alcoves to dip into if you don't have a long-range weapon to hand.
Once you've dealt with the fire slime, you'll enter another large room. A stone slab on the ground warns you about the Stone Golems (one of which will be just behind you as you read it). This Golem has a molten furnace on its head that it can use to fling lava at you, so keep an eye where you're dodging and rolling to if you decide to fight it. You can just run past it, though, as it's not guarding any items.
Head down the corridor to your right, watching out for two fire slimes - one of which will attack from behind as you reach the alcove with the stairs.
Before you head up there, though, the chamber at the end of the corridor has 1x Somber Smithing Stone (7) to grab from the corpse on the floor. Watch out, though, as there's another golem standing just beside the doorway. Again, though, you can run in, grab it and leave before it wakes up.
Head back to the staircase you just passed and climb up it. Follow the path round and watch out for more fire slime projectiles as you come round the corner.
There's another Stone Golem here, too (seemingly petting a fire slime) to your right as you enter. Behind them, there's 1x Somber Smithing Stone (8) on a corpse, but once again, you can dash and grab without having to engage the golem if you want to make it through the dungeon as quickly as possible.
There's nothing else in this room, so head on up to the next chamber and you'll come back around to a higher level of the room you were in earlier. To your left is a seemingly empty room with an item at the end of it, but whatever you do, don't rush in here, as there are lots of fire slimes waiting to drop down on your head from the ceiling.
Once you've defeated the barrage of fire slimes and grabbed the Smithing Talisman from the corpse (which enhances weapon-throwing attacks), drop down onto the narrow ledge below here:
Behind you, there's another fire slime hugging the ceiling above a corpse with 2x Smithing Stone (8) on it, so make sure you don't fall prey to that one either.
Now, go across the narrow pathway past another Stone Golem sitting in the corner until you reach another lever and a corpse with 1x Glass Shard on it.
This opens the second major door of the dungeon in front of you. Now, you have two options here. You can either:
- Explore through the door (and potentially deal with two more Stone Golems)
- Go straight to the end of the dungeon by pulling the lever a second time and riding the door up to the raised platform on the other side of the room.
Through the door is technically a dead-end (don't make the mistake of trying to jump down the pit at the end of it, like I did), but if you're quick, you can grab the Smithscript Cirque (one of the new Backhand Blade weapons in Shadow of the Erdtree) from the corpse without having to fight the two Stone Golems again.
Once you've got this, there's nothing else to see here, so leg it back the way you came and before you go through the doorway, pull the lever in the alcove to your left.
This will start to raise the door and you want to jump on top of it and ride it upwards. Hopefully the Stone Golems won't have caught up to you by this point - otherwise, you'll have to make your way back round to the lever above you again to try again.
Ride the door up and you'll soon spot a glowing altar to your left. Examine this and receive your rewards for completing the dungeon: the Ancient Meteoric Ore Greatsword and an Ancient Dragon Smithing Stone.
That's the Ruined Forge of Starfall Past completed, so feel free to activate the teleporter to take you back to the start of the dungeon.
Next destination: Fort of Reprimand.
Need more help? Improve your stats by finding all of Shadow of the Erdtree's Scadutree Fragment locations and Revered Spirit Ash locations. Alternatively, see which Erdtree bosses you've still got left to beat, and track down some great new early weapons to help you on your adventure.
