Elden Ring: Shadow Of The Erdtree Leda questline walkthrough

Looking for a walkthrough of the Elden Ring: Shadow Of The Erdtree Leda questline? Leda is one of many new NPCs to feature in Shadow Of The Erdtree and is in fact, the very first you'll meet as a staunch follower of Miquella, the Kind.

Leda's sidequest encompasses almost all of the NPCs in this DLC and has many pathways to choose from. In true FromSoftware fashion, this can be a confusing chain of events and choices that will ultimately impact your journey to Miquella in the Land of Shadow. To see all possible outcomes, read our Leda quest walkthrough below.

Elden Ring Leda questline steps

Below is a breakdown of Leda's quest in Elden Ring: Shadow Of The Erdtree. We recommend seeing our full explanation for each stage, however, as this is a quest with many winding paths and will take you through to the last boss in the DLC.

Here are the steps needed to complete Leda's questline in Elden Ring:

1. Speak to Leda in Mohgwyn Palace and touch the withered arm as instructed.
2. Pick up Leda's letter at the Castle Ensis Checkpoint Site Of Grace.
3. Meet with Leda again, this time at the Highroad Cross Site Of Grace in Scadu Altus.
4. Break Miquella's charm.
5. Speak to Leda at the Highroad Cross and choose either Hornsent or Thiollier.
6. Within the Shadow Keep, choose from gold and red summoning signs to either aid Hornsent or Leda in their fight.
7. Defeat Messmer.
8. Speak again to Leda at the Highroad Cross.
9. Find the Secret Rite Scroll and deliver it to Ansbach within the Specimen Storehouse (first floor) of the Shadow Keep. Rest at a Site Of Grace then retrieve the 'Letter for Freyja' from him.
10. Speak to Freyja at the Storehouse, Seventh Floor Site Of Grace within the Shadow Keep, then return to Ansbach and rest at a Site Of Grace.
11. Aid either Ansbach or Leda. Choose from the summoning signs in Ansbach's room at the Shadow Keep.
12. Progress through the main story enough to reach Enir-Ilim (Travel to the Church of the Bud in the Ancient Ruins of Rauh and beat the boss there).
13. After burning the tree beyond the church and travelling to Enir-Ilim, advance to the Cleansing Chamber Anteroom Site Of Grace.
14. Fight Leda.

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How to start Leda's quest in Shadow Of The Erdtree

As mentioned above, Leda is the very first NPC you'll encounter in the Shadow Of The Erdtree DLC. She is a Knight of Miquella and is a staunch loyalist who promises to offer you aid in the Land of Shadow if you follow the footsteps of Kindly Miquella.

This promise does come to fruition as Leda acts as something of a guide, offering clues as to where you need to go to progress the main quest of finding Miquella.

After touching the withered arm in Mohgwyn Palace and exploring Belurat, Tower Settlement, make your way to Castle Ensis in the eastern region of the Gravesite Plains. There will be a letter from Leda at the Castle Ensis Checkpoint Site Of Grace, which explains that the tower of shadow is locked behind shadowy branches. To expel the branches and reach Miquella, you'll need to go to the ruins beyond the Shadow Keep and 'burn the tree that seals the path'.

In short, the way forward and the next time you meet Leda will be at the Highroad Cross Site Of Grace in Scadu Altus. To get to this region, you'll need to progress through Castle Ensis and defeat Rellana, Twin Moon Knight, the boss who guards access to the area.

Rellana has two Greatswords and a mixture of Carian Sorceries. Her name, moon title and Sorceries are of course a hint to her true identity as a Carian Princess. However, she turned her back on her heritage to serve Messmer. She can be formidable but you can summon Dryleaf Dane to help with this fight. I found luck shooting her from a distance with spells and Weapon Skills whilst she focused her short-range strikes on Dane (sorry Dane!).

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Meet Leda at the Highroad Cross

After defeating Rellana, travel out of the gates to Scadu Altus and see Leda at the Highroad Cross Site Of Grace. She will explain that Miquella has placed a charm on her fellow travellers which has allowed them to serve Miquella together and quelled any frictions amongst them.

Here, you can pick up the 'Monk's Missive' and 'May the Best Win' gesture (which you'll need later on to gain Hand-to-Hand Arts, a new weapon type). You can also converse with both Leda and Hornsent and ask Leda about Hornsent and his people.

Long ago, Queen Marika commanded Sir Messmer to purge the tower folk. A cleansing by fire. It's no wonder the hornsent holds the Erdtree in contempt.

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How to break Miquella's charm

Now, to progress Leda's quest in Shadow Of The Erdtree you must break Miquella's charm and restore free will to the denizens of the Land of Shadow in the process.

To do so, travel north within Scadu Altus towards the Shadow Keep. There are many ways to travel, you can follow the path towards Rauh Base or the eastern section of Scadu Altus beyond Bonny Village. For me, I simply ran north within Scadu Altus, past the Briar Golem and towards the main front doors of the Shadow Keep until I heard the charm break.

You'll know when the charm has broken when you hear a shattering sound and receive the following notification:

Somewhere, a great rune has broken...

And so too has a powerful charm.

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Should you choose Hornsent or Thiollier?

After breaking the charm, return to Leda at the Highroad Cross Site Of Grace. She will confirm that Miquella's charm has broken and whilst her devotion to the god remains unchanged, she becomes paranoid as to whether her comrades feel the same devotion to Miquella or not.

She resolves to 'weed out' the non-believers and asks you who she should target first. Here you can suggest the following options:

Beware from this point on story spoilers concerning Leda, various other NPCs and quest outcomes.

• Suggest Thiollier: Leda will consider this and determine that Thiollier is no threat to Miquella due to his love for St Trina. She asks you to pick again, leaving the Hornsent as the next object of pursuit. This leaves you free to pursue Thiollier's questline if you wish.
• Suggest the hornsent: Leda will require time to consider this. Rest at a Site Of Grace and speak to her again. She agrees to pursue the Hornsent at the Shadow Keep and after another rest, both NPC will disappear from this Site Of Grace.
• Make no suggestion: Temporarily pause making a desicion and come back later. If you wait too long, Leda will choose to pursue Hornsent at the Shadow Keep anyway.

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Choose to help Hornsent or Leda

True to their word, both Hornsent and Leda will move to the Shadow Keep. Specifically, you'll want to travel to the map location above. There will be two summon signs in the eastern corner above the large stone incline. This is located opposite the stairs with the patroling Messmer soldier which leads to the large lift, right before the Specimen Storehouse.

There are a few possible outcomes depending on what you choose here:

• Assist Leda: Hornsent will die, ending his story here. Upon speaking to Leda at the Highroad Cross afterwards, she will decide that Ansbach needs culling too. You'll recieve the Lacerating Crossed-Tree Talisman which enhances dash attacks.
• Assist Hornsent: Leda will die temporarily and you'll receive Leda's Rune (worth 40,000 Runes) and Leda's Spirit Ashes (Swift Slash). The next section regarding Ansbach will skip and you'll next see her at the Enir-Ilim fight at the end of this questline.
• Do nothing and ignore the signs: Hornsent survives. In my case, the summoning signs did not appear for me. It may be because I chose to suggest the Hornsent first in the above section, or it may have simply bugged out. Either way, I progressed and defeated Messmer without taking a side in Leda and Hornsent's confrontation. Additionally, I summoned the Hornsent during the Messmer fight, allowing him to exact his vengeance. Upon returning to Leda at the Highroad Cross, she expresses that the Hornsent is no longer a threat and she will move on to another quarry - Ansbach.

If you ignore picking a side, Hornsent and Leda will both survive this confrontation. Afterwards, Hornsent is somewhat driven to madness and decides that killing Messmer wasn't enough to quell his vengeance. He decides to persue vengeance by targeting the rest of Marika's offspring, he says:

Now comes the piper to collect from Marika, her offspring, and all the Erdtree's denizens

Although technically, Miquella is a child of Marika, Leda doesn't seem to think Hornsent is a threat anymore (and Hornsent seems happy to leave him be for now, possibly remembering Miquella's promise to help his people during the Messmer cullings). Leda says he will likely get himself killed in his quest for vengeance regardless. Hornsent's questline ends here and Leda turns her attention to Ansbach instead, an old general who once served Mohg.

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Progress Ansbach's quest

To progress this quest (if you sided with Leda or ignored the above choice), you must next speak to Ansbach in the Specimen Storehouse (first floor, Shadow Keep) and assist him. This involves the following steps:

1. Speak to Ansbach from within his room in the Storehouse first floor. (From the Storehouse First Floor Site Of Grace, walk around the large specimen to the left, continue up the stairs then take another left. Turn left around the bookshelves and then take a right into a little room where Ansbach is studying).
2. Progress up the Storeroom until you discover the Storehouse, Fourth Floor Site Of grace.
3. From the Storehouse, Fourth Floor Site Of Grace, turn left at the balcony and go up the flight of stairs.
4. Continue up the next flight of stairs, past the patrolling Messmer soldier.
5. Take the stairs downwards to the left. Take a right into a room overlooking more specimens.
6. Inside this room, to the back-right corner will be a desk and lootable item.
7. This is the Secret Rite Scroll, pick it up and return to Ansbach with it.
8. Ansbach will relate the information to you from the scroll. Essentially, Miquella plans to use Mohg's corpse to resurrect Radahn and make him his king consort and in doing so, abandon Mohg's soul. Understandably, Ansbach is upset by this.
9. Rest at a Site Of Grace and return to Ansbach, he will give you a letter to pass onto Freyja.
10. Give the letter to Freyja who is located at the Storehouse, Seventh Floor Site Of Grace.
11. Perhaps surprisingly, the thought of Radahn being resurrected dishonourably doesn't bother her. She will give you the Golden Lion Shield as a reward for sharing this knowledge with her.
12. Rest again and return to Ansbach's room to pass on Freyja's message.
13. Rest again and speak with Leda at the Highroad Cross where she will confirm that Ansbach is her next target.

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Choose to help Ansbach or Leda

After completing these steps and resting at a Site Of Grace, Ansbach will no longer be in his usual room. Instead will be two summon signs to choose from, either to help Leda or Ansbach. These are the following outcomes depending on what you choose:

• Assist Leda: Ansbach dies. Leda will disappear from the map for now. You'll receive an alternate aid in an upcoming fight and the Retaliatory Crossed-Tree Talisman which enhances attacks executed after rolling or backstepping.
• Assist Ansbach: Leda dies temporarily and you'll receive Leda's Rune (worth 40,000 Runes) and Ansbach's Longbow. Ansbach will be a summonable aid in an upcoming fight.

Whichever option you choose will ultimately affect your next encounter with these NPCs. To get to this point, you need to advance to Enir-Ilim. This will take a fair bit of progression as this is ultimately where Miquella is located.

To access this area beyond the Belurat, Tower Settlement, you need to travel to the Church of the Bud within the Ancient Ruins of Rauh and defeat Romina, Saint of the Bud. Afterwards, light the tree beyond with Messmer's fire. Then, you'll be transported to Enir-Ilim where you'll need to progress and climb the tower until you discover the Cleansing Chamber Anteroom Site Of Grace (see the map image below).

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Defeat Leda

Upon discovering the Cleansing Chamber Anteroom Site Of Grace in Enir-Ilim, advance to the next room and Leda will appear. She has come to the realisation that your efforts to find Minquella aren't the same as hers and that you have come to challenge him for power. She cannot accept this so she initiates a fight to stop you.

The choices you have made so far will determine who appears in the fight and on which side. These are the following possibilities:

• Sided with Leda both times: Have the option to summon the Sanguine Noble Nataan to assist you in the fight.
• Sided with Ansbach: Have the option to summon Ansbach to aid you in the fight.
• Sided with Hornsent: Will fight Dryleaf Dane, Hornsent, Redmane Freyja and Leda.
• Told Moore to 'put it behind you': Will fight Dryleaf Dane, Moore, Redmane Freyja and Leda.
• Told Moore to 'remain sad forever': Will fight Dryleaf Dane, Redmane Freyja and Leda. Moore will have died earlier.

After this fight, you should receive Leda's Sword and 300,000 Runes, plus whatever you loot from the surrounding corpses. We got Freyja and Dryleaf Dane's weapons and armor (having already acquired Moore's earlier on in our playthrough). Don't forget to also loot Leda's body to the right of the archway to get her armor, the Oathseeker Knight set.

Now that most of Miquella's followers are dead, that just leaves the god himself. You can continue through Enir-Ilim to face him. Depending on your choices, or rather, if there is anyone left alive, they may visit you before progressing to the boss area.

For me, Ansbach awaited. He wished me luck for my impending fight and revealed that he knew it was the Tarnished that vanquished his former lord, Mohg. He expressed no ill will towards the Tarnished, however, as it was an honourable fight.

This concludes Leda's questline in Shadow Of The Erdtree.

That's all for Leda's quest in Elden Ring Shadow Of The Erdtree. For more Elden Ring tips and tricks, check out our best weapons, best armor, Talismans, builds or boss locations guides. If you need more help with the Shadow Of The Erdtree quests, we've also got guides for the Ymir questline and the Moore questline.