eBay has become the black market for Elden Ring players to buy and sell runes, with some offering millions of the in-game currency for real money. FromSoftware’s newest title is set in the Lands Between, where players (known as the Tarnished) are tasked with collecting pieces of the Elden Ring by defeating bosses and leveling up their character. While Elden Ring launched with some frustrating bugs, FromSoftware has since patched many of them, and the Souls-like action RPG has been well-received by most reviewers and fans.
Like FromSoftware’s other games, Elden Ring is filled with challenging bosses and hordes of enemies to defeat, meaning players have to level up their stats and equip powerful items in order to survive. To do this, players have to collect runes, the name for the resource that acts as both currency and experience. Killing foes and selling items are two ways to collect runes, though alternative strategies have been discovered that make the process even easier. One easy trick to farm 100,000 runes in Elden Ring was discovered by YouTuber TagBackTV, who revealed the path players should take and the boss-killing strategy they should exploit to garner a hefty stack of runes – about 2,000 Runes per repetition. Other Elden Ring rune farming guides have popped up over the internet, but some players are bypassing them all together and taking an easier approach to obtain in-game wealth.
As reported by Eurogamer (via GamesRadar), Elden Ring players are buying and selling runes on eBay for real-world currency. The online marketplace is now home to sellers advertising in-game runes for sale, anywhere from 2,000,000 runes for $14.99 USD to a massive 34.6 million runes for $45 USD. Sellers are promising runes for “Fast level Up” and “Fast Item Drop,” claiming to customers that they’ll summon them into their world, meet at a predetermined meetup spot, and drop the pile of Golden Runes for the buyer to loot.
Since Elden Ring isn’t an MMO, the transaction requires multiple steps and a lot of trust. Sellers cannot send runes into a player’s account directly. Instead, they use Elden Ring’s co-op mechanics to summon them into their game before completing the exchange. eBay does not currently have a foolproof method to ensure buyers receive their in-game goods, either, so as with other types of digital transactions on online marketplaces, players will need to find a reputable seller or risk being scammed. It should also be noted that buying runes isn’t the quick win it’s advertised to be. Defeating bosses and forging the Elden Ring takes more than runes – it requires time spent learning the game and its systems, as well as collecting better equipment.
As with any game, cheating often robs players of a true sense of achievement. While even Elden Ring’s creator apologized for its difficulty, FromSoftware’s latest RPG is said to be the most approachable Souls-like game yet, with plenty of avenues for a successful run. Buying an excessive amount of runes may help speed up the process slightly, but it likely won’t make a player the Elden Lord overnight. It’s also been suggested that the rune sellers are using an item duplication exploit previously seen in Dark Souls 3 to garner infinite runes, meaning players are shelling out real-world money for something that was free and easy to obtain.
Elden Ring is available now on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.
Source: Eurogamer (via GamesRadar)