Elden Ring Best Spirit Ashes: How to use spirit summons and get the Spirit Calling Bell
Learn where to find the Summoning Bell and how to use it to summon spirits in Elden Ring.
Spirit Summoning is a vitally important system that can swing the tide of battle in Elden Ring. By calling on the ghosts of powerful warriors and creatures, you can inflict statuses, deal damage, and distract the attention of even the strongest opponents.
The ability to summon other players in co-op, or NPCs to aid you on your journey remains. But there’s also a new, different kind of summon that you can call on in many areas of the world. Whether you need a boost in a boss fight, want to thin the herd before dealing with a major roaming mini-boss, or to simply cut down on the game’s inherent level of challenge, this is your guide to the best Spirit Ashes in Elden Ring, and all things to do with Summoning Spirits.
How do you get the Summoning Bell in Elden Ring?
After speaking to your maiden, Melina, and acquiring the ability to summon Torrent, return to the Church of Elleh Site of Grace – where you met the first merchant, Kale.
When you get there, a witch named Renna will call you and ask to have a word. She’ll ask if you can summon your horse Torrent, which you can. Simply answer the question with ‘I can call the spectral steed’, and she’ll grant you two items that once belonged to Torrent’s former master.
The Spirit Calling Bell is the tool that will allow you to call on these souls to help you in the fight. You can also acquire the same bell from the Twin Maiden Husks at the Roundtable Hold when you get there.
Renna will also give you your first summon: Lone Wolf Ashes. This one summons three large spectral wolves that can pull aggro, distract enemies, or keep a boss occupied while you dish out damage.
How do you summon spirits in Elden Ring?
Now that you have the bell and your first spirit, all you need to do is bind that spirit (not the bell) to your pouch or belt for easier access. When you click the button, your character will pull out the bell and summon the spirits. This process takes a few seconds and requires FP (blue meter). The cost varies depending on how powerful the spirit is.
However, spirits can only be summoned in the range of a Rebirth Monument. Those are short stone obelisks which you’ll find in various parts of the open world, and in boss rooms.
You will know when you're in range of a Rebirth Monument by the ghostly gate icon on the left-hand side of your screen. When you’re near one, the left side of your HUD, towards the bottom, will show a white glowing icon similar to a gravestone – indicating a monument is nearby.
Only one spirit can be active at a time, and only one can be summoned per Rebirth Monument. You also won’t be able to summon them in multiplayer, for obvious reasons. Summoning spirts in Edlen Ring might feel a bit like cheating for longtime Souls players, but it's a neat new mechanic, and one that is very useful and well designed.
How do you get more Spirit Ashes in Elden Ring?
The spirit summons themselves are called Spirit Ashes, and you’ll have plenty of them by the time you’re done with Elden Ring. Spirit Ashes are found in chests, dropped as loot, and earned as rewards. The more you explore, the more of them you're going to have.
How do you upgrade Spirit Ashes with Grave and Ghost Gloveworts in Elden Ring?
A little later on, you will gain the ability to upgrade Spirit Ashes. This can be done for a fee, and you’ll need Grave Gloveworts to upgrade standard Spirit Ashes, and Ghost Gloveworts for the more powerful, named special Spirit Ashes. Gloveworts can be found in many of the game’s smaller dungeons, called Catacombs, and as loot in the open world.
You won’t be able to upgrade any of your Spirit Ashes, however, until you complete the initial part of Roderika’s quest. Roderika is an NPC that can first be found at the Stormhill Shack south of the broken bridge in Limgrave West. After speaking to her, she’ll relocate to the Roundtable Hold. To advance that quest, speak to the blacksmith – Master Hewg, you’ll find a conversation option about him watching over Roderika, which later turns into you convincing him that it’s her wish to learn spirit tuning.
You’ll have to go back and forth between them until he’s convinced she wants to learn, at which point she’ll set up shop in front of his smithing table, allowing you to upgrade your Spirit Ashes.
Grave and Ghost Glovewort can typically be found in dungeons across The Lands Between, but by collecting all the various Bell Bearings for them, you'll be able to buy an infinite amount of the materials from Twin Maiden Husks in Roundtable Hold.
We did a deep dive into where you can find all of the Grave and Ghost Glovewort Bell Bearings here. Take caution, though, as many of them are found in late-game areas like the Mountaintops of Giants and Crumbling Farum Azula.
General Elden Ring Spirit Ashes tips
Elden Ring treats spirit summons as individual NPCs. Because of this, they can benefit from various buffs and group heals you might be able to cast/apply. Keep that in mind if you want to extend their fighting duration.
It’s also worth noting that certain summons spawn one ally, while others come in groups. Read the Spirit Ash description to understand if it’s worth the FP cost.
Beyond that, some summons may have weak melee damage, because they’re intended to cause an elemental effect, such as those that inflict poison damage. Considering how most enemies in Elden Ring are weak to certain elements, it sometimes pays to go for something without the raw damage because of its potential to drain the life of your enemies in other ways.
How do you get the Mimic Tear in Elden Ring?
Probably the most useful Spirit Summon, once you can finally access the area it's found in, is the Mimic Tear.
Despite its nerf in a post-launch patch, this powerful tool summons an exact copy of your Tarnished, right down to the gear and weapons they have equipped, to join you in battle.
The Mimic Tear is found past a Stonesword Key gate in the Night's Sacred Ground area of Nokron, the Eternal City.
Nokron is accessed as part of your ongoing relationship with Ranni the Witch, and to get your hands on the Mimic Tear, you first need to speak to her in her tower at the top of Caria Manor and accept her request.
Next you need to meet up with Blaidd the Welsh wolf and defeat Starscourge Radahn, before venturing into the crater left by a falling star to make your way into Nokron.
Once inside, you will fight the Mimic Tear as a boss, but not add it to your inventory just yet. After the fight, continue along the path until you reach a more open area, then go to the southeast corner where you find a Site of Grace called Ancestral Woods.
From there you can head south into the Night's Sacred Ground and make your way across the rooftops until you climb in through the window of a church.
Inside the church, there's a fog gate locked by a stonesword key across from you, and behind it you find the Mimic Tear inside a treasure chest.
The Mimic Tear isn't a conventional summon, since it uses HP to create the doppelganger rather than FP. This means it stands out from the rest of the roster of summons for more reasons that just its extreme usefulness.
That doesn't mean the other summons aren't worth using though, and we've listed some of our most used ones below.
What are the best Spirit Summons for the early game in Elden Ring?
As for summons that actually use FP as a resource, while the starting Lone Wolves are genuinely quite good, you can snag some awesome Spirit Summons from very early on in Elden Ring.
These powerful allies will really swing the tide of battle in your direction whenever you get to use them, which is more often than you would expect.
- Fanged Imp
Considering you can grab the Fanged Imp Ashes before you're even able to summon, they're rather nifty creatures. If you've ventured into any early-game Catacombs already, you might've even seen how awful these guys are to come up against.
The Fanged Imps are nimble, swift, and can deal plenty of bleed damage at once. They aren't the best summon, but they're solid when you're first starting out.
Acquiring them is easy too - if you haven't started the game yet. Simply choose the Fanged Imp Ashes as your Keepsake during character creation, and these guys will be yours as soon as you set foot in The Lands Between. Alternatively, you can buy the ashes from the merchant located at the Main Academy Gate.
- Spirit Jellyfish
You probably already found this helper, but it's deceptively good.
While the strength of some Spirit Summons is how they distract enemies from attacking you, the Jellyfish is more of a support. When enemies are outside of its melee range, it spits poison-inflicting acid from a distance. Additionally, they seem to take a lot of damage, so can be pretty useful for distracting an enemy so you can chip away at range.
This is particularly helpful with the first brick wall boss in Elden Ring, Margit the Fell Omen, who is particularly weak to poison.
You find the Spirit Jellyfish at the Stormhill Shack, southeast of Stormveil Castle.
- Skeletal Militiamen
The Skeletal Militiamen are two skeleton summons that are great to have during the early-game. With the ability to take plenty of aggro between them, and the fact they can resurrect each other, the Skeletal Militiamen are another solid Summon to grab.
You get them for completing the Tibia Mariner boss at Summonwater Village past Saintbridge to the east of Stormveil Castle.
- Lhutel the Headless
For a ranged Summon with a bit more style and power than some of the other options, check out Lhutel the Headless.
They throw spectral lances at your enemies, as well as engaging them with melee spear combos. They often teleport too, and this can sometimes be a bit of a nuisance when you want a summon to take all the aggro for you.
To add Lhutel to your arsenal, you need to complete Tombsward Catacombs on the Weeping Peninsula to the south of the starting area.
Tombsward Catacombs is in the middle of the area, to the northwest of Castle Morne. You can get their by heading south from the Bloodhound Evergaol across the bridge.
What are the best Spirit Summons for the late game in Elden Ring?
Once you've found your feet in The Lands Between, you can find a lot more powerful allies to call upon if you're willing to look.
Some of them even appear as bosses you have faced earlier in your adventure, which makes it a real treat to have them fight on your side.
- Crystalian
You fought the Crystalian at the bottom of the Raya Lucaria Crystal Tunnel where you get the first Smithing Bell. And just from that you should know how much punishment it can take from regular physical attacks.
Against foes that use blunt and pointy objects rather than magic, the Crystalian can go the distance - but for the most relentless of enemies, those who deal constant Strike damage without taking a break, Crystalian will crumble. That's okay though, you can just whip out one of the following Spirit Ashes if this happens.
To add it to your inventory, you need to explore the Selia Hideaway in the northeast of Caelid. The entrance is behind a secret hidden wall in the cliff face at the map location.
- Greatshield Soldiers
Sometimes the main point of Spirit Summons is just to distract a tough oppenent, and there's no better ally for this than the Greatshield Soldiers.
They have both quality and quantity on their side, as 5 different skeleton soldiers get summoned at once - meaning they have a better chance of helping you out for longer. Team this Spirit Ash with the Lord's Heal Incantation, allowing you to heal them, and they'll be able to stick around and take aggro for even longer.
Like the Mimic Tear above, the Greatshield Soldiers are found in Nokron, Eternal City. But this time, they're just in the top right corner of the courtyard right in front of the Nokron, Eternal City Site of Grace.
- Rotten Stray
As anyone that's been afflicted with the status can tell you, Scarlet Rot is very powerful.
You might also have noticed that dog enemies are really annoying to fight. Combine the two into one summon and you have the Rotten Stray, which can inflict Scarlet Rot, as well as deal decent regular damage, for a low FP cost.
You fight it in the middle of Caelid just to the north ofthe Sellia Under-Stair Site of Grace. Loot it from the corpse guarded by the dog in the ruined building.
- Black Knife Tiche
Now, if you want a really powerful summon who might even outdo you in battle, the Black Knife Tiche Spirit Ashes are what you should seek. This summon is no stranger to controversy, with some suggesting that Tiche makes some fights too easy.
However, if you're banging your head against the wall trying to take on a boss, they might be worth a try.
The Black Knife Tiche Spirit Ashes can be acquired by completing the Ringleader's Evergaol in north Liurnia and defeating Alecto, Black Knife Ringleader.
Where do you find Legendary Spirit Ashes in Elden Ring?
There are fewer Legendary Spirit Ashes compared to Legendary Armaments, but you'll still need to get them all if you want the achievement.
- Lhutel the Headless - Dropped by the Tombsward Catacombs boss on the Weeping Peninsula
- Black Knife Tiche - Defeat Alecto in the Ringleader's Evergaol
- Mimic Tear - Found in a chest in Night's Sacred Ground (Eternal City)
- Redmane Knight Ogha - Deafeat Putrid Tree Spirit in War Dead Catacombs
- Ancient Dragon Knight Kristoff - Defeat Ancient Hero of Zamor in Sainted Hero's Grave
- Cleanrot Knight Finlay - Elphael. Leave the Prayer Room Site of Grace, descend the stairs, and when you reach the wall with the torch on it, jump down to your right onto the stonework. To your left is a gazebo, where the Finlay ashes are.
There's a huge amount to learn about The Lands Between, so check out our Elden Ring guide.
