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Becoming a necromancer in Elden Ring is not an easy path for many reasons. One of them is that it requires you to wield one staff – the Prince of Death’s Staff.
This staff is the key to casting Death Sorceries and is found by riding a coffin from a hidden area that can be only accessed after defeating a major boss. For those who don’t know, casting sorcery spells in Elden Ring requires you to use a glintstone staff.
Glintstone staves are special tools in the game that are built for various types of sorceries such as the Primeval Current, Night, Cold, Gravity, and Death Sorceries.
With this staff, you can summon vengeful spirits to fight for you and engulf your enemies in ghostflame. It also allows you to cast Fia’s Mist, which is a potent spell that inflicts Death Blight on other Tarnished.
If you’re interested in becoming a grim reaper yourself, this comprehensive guide tells you everything you need to know about the Prince of Death’s Staff in Elden Ring!
What is the Prince of Death’s Staff?
Upon first glance, the Prince of Death’s Staff looks like an elegant tree branch embedded with sullied amber, which doesn’t scream death at all.
From its in-game description, we can assume it once belonged to the Elden Lord and Queen’s beloved son Godwyn, the Golden, who was the first demigod to die during the infamous Night of Black Knives, an event that inspired the shattering of the Elden Ring and the return of Destined Death.
While Godwyn’s corpse was buried in the Erdtree, it corrupted its roots and created the deathroot, which rose the undead, who worshipped him and crowned him as the Prince of Death.
Like many other staves, the Prince of Death’s staff doesn’t possess any weapon skills. It serves only one purpose: to boost death sorceries.
In Elden Ring, certain types of magic can only be used with different tools. For example, incantations can only be cast with sacred seals. The same goes for sorceries, which can only be cast when you have a glintstone staff equipped.
These are the spells you can cast using the Prince of Death’s staff:
- Ancient Death Rancor
- Explosive Ghostflame
- Fia’s Mist
- Rancorcall
- Tibia’s Summons.
Prince of Death Stats
| Damage | Attack | Guard |
| Physical | 25 | 25 |
| Magic | 0 | 15 |
| Fire | 0 | 15 |
| Light | 0 | 15 |
| Holy | 0 | 15 |
| Boost | – | 15 |
| Critical | 100 | – |
| Sorcery Scaling | 144 | – |
Prince of Death’s Staff Requirements
| Requirements | Value |
| Strength | 6 |
| Intelligence | 18 |
| Faith | 18 |
Prince of Death’s Staff Location
The Prince of Death’s Staff can be found in the Nameless Eternal City in the Deeproot Depths, an underground area located beneath the Erdtree, the golden tree that governs and feeds off the Lands Between.
If you want to get to this area, you’ll need to progress very far into the game’s story. After defeating Starscourge Radahn, he will open a crater that leads you to Nokron, Eternal City.
The next boss you fight in this area is the Mimic Tear, who is relatively easy to fight depending on your character’s equipment and abilities.
Once you have slain this boss, you can follow this step-by-step guide to gain access to the Nameless Eternal City:
- After defeating the Mimic Tear, you can activate the site of grace to the left and head upstairs and take a trip with Torrent to the Ancestral Woods.
- There will be five pillars that you need to initiate a boss fight with the Regal Ancestor Spirit.
- Once the Regal Ancestor Spirit is killed, return to the woods and go up the slope behind the shaman where you’ll find the site of grace.
- From there, travel northeast and get past the jellyfish spirits until you reach the end of the cliff.
- Turn left and jump down into a cave where there are more jellyfish and a site of grace.
- Keep going east through the tunnel and hop onto the floating building, which welcomes you to the Siofra Aqueduct.
- Be prepared to fight two more bosses: the Valiant Gargoyles. Continue straight up a flight of stairs that leads you to a flooded building.
- On the western area, there’s a staircase that leads to a boss area with a huge waterfall. From there, you’ll have to face the Valiant Gargoyle and the Twinblade Valiant Gargoyle.
- Defeating them rewards you with two weapons, as well as access to the coffin in the back area.
- Interacting with this coffin lets you climb inside it, the coffin becomes a boat that helps you get past the waterfall into the Deeproot Depths.
- Upon arrival, there’s a site of grace that you can activate. Head west and cross the bridge that’s made out of a giant tree and get past the giant flying ants.
- Turn right and keep running straight until you find a place with buildings covered in enormous tree branches, hop onto those branches and keep climbing until you reach the very top.
- On the top is a tower with a decaying corpse. Loot their remains and you’ll get the Prince of Death’s Staff.
Prince of Death’s Staff Builds
Now that you have the staff, you’re going to have to think of a build to use with it. The Prince of Death’s Staff scales mainly off Intelligence and Faith, which are attributes that mesh with mage builds.
People tend to run away from this weapon and death sorceries in general because of the less damage they deal compared to other sorcery spells (considering that you find the staff in the late game).
Plus, the death effect doesn’t work on NPC enemies or bosses and it’s only helpful against other players that decide to invade your world.
However, when paired with the right build, the Prince of Death’s Staff is actually powerful. Because it’s a hybrid weapon, it out scales weapons that benefit from a single stat when maxed out.
It is even considered one of the strongest and better-scaling staves in the game on 80/80 Intelligence and Faith. So, if you’re willing to invest your time into incorporating the Prince of Death’s Staff into your build, these are a few of the best ones you can follow or be inspired by.
1. Deathblade Build
- Recommended Class: Prisoner, Samurai, Astrologer
- Core Stats: Intelligence (48), Vigor (35), Faith (25), Mind (25)
- Weapons: Sword of Night and Flame
- Armor: Imp Head (Cat), Olivinus Glintstone Crown, Spellblade set, Raptor’s Black Feathers
- Talismans: Dragoncrest Shield Talisman, Godfrey Icon, Magic Scorpion Charm, Fire Scorpion Charm
- Spells: Any death sorcery spell.
2. 50/50 Death Build
- Recommended Class: Prisoner, Samurai, Astrologer
- Core Stats: Intelligence (60), Faith (60), Vigor (40), Mind (25)
- Weapons: Eclipse Shotel, Death’s Poker, Helphen’s Steeple, Death Ritual Spear, Treespear
- Armor: Greathood, Blue Silver Mail Armor, Malenia’s gauntlet
- Talismans: Radagon’s Soreseal, Marika’s Soreseal, Spear Talisman, Graven-Mass Talisman, Flock’s Canvas Talisman
- Spells: Any death sorcery spell.
3. Final Sorcerer Build
- Recommended Class:
- Core Stats: Intelligence (80), Faith (80)
- Weapons: Blasphemous Blade, Rivers of Blood, Colossal Greatsword, Jellyfish Shield (optional)
- Armor: Fia’s set
- Talismans: Graven-Mass Talisman, Magic Scorpion Charm, Alexander Shard Talisman
- Spells: Rock Sling, Ancient Death Rancor, Adula’s Moonblade, Stars of Ruin.
Conclusion
That’s a wrap for our guide on the Prince of Death’s Staff in Elden Ring! We hope that every bit of it was worth learning about, from its history, where you can get it, to what builds are perfect for it.
Because it’s hidden deep under the Lands Between, the Prince of Death’s Staff is a weapon that is really easy to miss, which is why this guide even exists in the first place. It’s also incredibly underrated, and we hope that we’ve piqued your interest in this elegant staff.
If you’d rather look for other staves or learn more about the game’s rich lore, you can always check out our other Elden Ring-related guides.
