Elden Ring NPC Caught Stealing Players' Runes After Death

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Elden Ring players have discovered the reason they lose more runes with every death in Stormveil Castle: a certain NPC is stealing them. FromSoftware's latest opus has immediately become one of the most acclaimed and popular games of recent years, and it has enjoyed one of the most successful international launches since Red Dead Redemption 2.

Runes are the universal currency of Elden Ring, used for everything from leveling up to purchasing items and equipment. They are primarily earned by defeating enemies, but, as the game progresses, leveling up becomes exponentially more expensive. Gaining a single level can demand a very large number of kills after a certain point, and players can lose all their runes after dying twice in a row without recovering those dropped runes. Some players have even resorted to buying Elden Ring runes from sellers on eBay, taking the risk of losing real money to fraud in order to get items and level up fast. So, when fans discovered that their rune totals were dropping after each death in Stormveil Castle, they set out to find what (or who) was responsible — and now, the mystery has been solved.

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Highlighted in a recent thread by Yunagi on Reddit, one NPC has been stealing Elden Ring players' dropped runes in Stormveil Castle. Stormveil is one of the major Legacy Dungeons of the game, and its huge, winding interior contains dozens of different traps and enemies. As it turns out, the castle's most devious enemy is standing right outside the main gates: Gatekeeper Gostoc. Gostoc is an NPC who suggests that the player take an alternate route into Stormveil, which he claims is safer. As the player progresses through the castle, Gostoc will