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- The Stone-Sheathed Sword, the Sword of Light, and the Sword of Darkness are all tied together.
- You need the Stone-Sheathed Sword to create the Sword of Light.
- You can transform the Sword of Light into the Sword of Darkness using three altars.
The Sword of Light – also the Sword of Darkness – in Shadow of the Erdtree is a new weapon that you have to really work for. It all begins with the Stone-Sheathed Sword that you can find at an altar, which you can then turn into the Sword of Light or the Sword of Darkness. After finding one of the three Altars of Light and Dark, the other two will be used to transform the Stone-Sheathed Sword.
The Sword of Darkness. Image taken by VideoGamer
While in this form, the weapon is fairly usless. Image taken by VideoGamer.
Sword of Darkness lets you use the Darkness Ash of War. Image taken by VideoGamer
Sword of Light lets you use the Light Ash of War. Image taken by VideoGamer
Where to find the Stone-Sheathed Sword in Elden Ring
There are three Altars in Shadow of the Erdtree that you must interact with to first obtain the Stone-Sheathed Sword. When you pick up the Stone-Sheathed Sword from one of the Altars, the other two you haven’t found will be used to change the Stone-Sheathed Sword into the Sword of Light or the Sword of Darkness. You can find the Altars here:
- Fog Rift Catacombs in the Gravesite Plain.
- Ancient Ruins of Rauh, at the end of an invisible bridge.
- Ruins Of Unte in Scadu Altus.
As mentioned, the first time you find and interact with any one of these altars, you will get the Stone-Sheathed Sword from it. If you grabbed the sword from the Fog Rift Catacombs, you can use the final two Altars to change the sword into the Sword of Light or the Sword of Darkness. For reference, we did this in the following order: Ruins of Unte, Fog Rift Catacombs, and then the Ancient Ruins of Rauh.
The Fog Rift Catacombs is found here. You can reach it from the Castle Front Grace. Image taken by VideoGamer
You can reach Ruins of Unte from the Shadow Keep, riding the coffin to Castle Watering Hole. Image taken by VideoGamer
The Ancient Ruins of Rauh Altar is in the hollow tower. You can reach it via an invisible floor. Image taken by VideoGamer
Fog Rift Catacombs Altar location
Make your way through the Fog Rift Catacombs and you’ll eventually come to a large room with a sorcerer at the end, with a ceiling spike trap above. Make your way towards the enemy and hide from the spike trap by using the small alcoves along the wall. Once you deal with the imps and the caster, walk up to the balcony where the enemy is on the raised platform.
This will trigger the ceiling trap to come down, revealing a place for you to jump into. Ride it up, jump out at the top, and get the Ash of War. Turn around and jump onto the top of the spike trap and run along it to the right, looking for a ledge you can access. The altar is here, and we highly recommend you get the Stone-Sheathed Sword here. If you got it elsewhere, this will be an Altar of Darkness to get the Sword of Darkness.
You want to be where the enemy is on the platform ahead. Image taken by VideoGamer.
Run along the top of the spike traps to get to the altar. Image taken by VideoGamer.
Examine the altar and interact with it to change the sword. Image taken by VideoGamer
The Sword of Darkness was given to us here. This might be different for you. Image taken by VideoGamer
Ruins of Unte Altar location
The Ruins of Unte can only be reached through a hidden path from the Shadow Keep. To get there, you want to go right from the Main Gate Plaza, up the ramp, right again, and down the ladder. Follow the path through the waterfall and then hit the illusory wall on your right, opposite the painting. This will lead to a coffin you can interact with.
Take this down and it’ll spit you out at the Castle Watering Hole grace. This area is full of Furnace Golems, but one of them needs to be woken up to access the Ruins of Unte. Get to the building above the golem and throw a Hefty Furnace Pot at it to wake it up. Kill it and go through the gap it was guarding. Go to the right and you’ll notice the altar to the side of the building.
The Ruins of Unte is blocked by a Furnace Golem. Image taken by VideoGamer
This is the first place we found the Stone-Sheathed Sword. Image taken by VideoGamer
If you followed this guide and got the Stone-Sheathed Sword from the Fog Rift Catacombs, you can now interact with this altar to change the weapon to the Sword of Darkness. Don’t be like us.
Ancient Ruins of Rauh Altar location
The final altar is the one that will change your Sword of Darkness – or the Stone-Sheathed Sword – to the Sword of Light. The altar is found inside the ruins of an old tower in the Ancient Ruins of Rauh that can only be accessed via an invisible floor path. Once you know it’s there, it is very well-telegraphed. To reach this, go to the Church of the Bud, Main Entrance.
There’s a sneaky invisible walkway. It’s a straight line, so don’t worry. Image taken by VideoGamer.
The path between the tower and the land is invisible. Image taken by VideoGamer.
This altar gave us the Sword of Light. Image taken by VideoGamer.
From here, go left and jump onto the little building down the ledge. Drop off the other side and go onto the green path. Follow the cliff – you’ll find the locked spiritstream item here, so destroy it if you missed it – and jump down into the spiritstream to land safely. Face north and jump up onto the ruins of the building in front – full of pests. While outside, look for where the ruins of an old bridge can be seen, leading in a straight line to the tower. Walk into this invisible path and follow it straight to reach the tower. In front, you’ll notice the altar. Use this altar to turn the sword into the Sword of Light.
How to get the Sword Of Light
With the Stone-Sheathed Sword in hand, you can transform it into the Sword of Light. The place you get it from will determine where you need to take the sword. We picked up the Stone-Sheathed Sword in the Ruins of Unte, which means we had to take it to the altar in Rauh to turn it into the Sword of Light. This will be the same if you get the stone sword from the Fog Rift Catacombs. If you picked the sword up from Rauh, you will need to take it to the Ruins of Unte to get the Sword of Light.
How to get the Sword of Darkness
Likewise, to get the Sword of Darkness you will have to remember where you first picked up the stone sword. If, like us, you got the sword from the Ruins of Unte, then you must find the altar in the Fog Rift Catacombs to transform it into the Sword of Darkness. If you picked the stone sword up from said catacombs, you will have to take it to the Ruins of Unte to get the Sword of Darkness.
It’s important to note that you can change the sword back and forth between the Sword of Light and the Sword of Darkness as many times as you want. To do so, you just need to visit the corresponding altar.
The most efficient way to do this is to pick up the stone sword in the Fog Rift Catacombs, meaning you will never have to go there to change the weapon’s form, leaving the Ruins of Unte and Rauh altars, which are easily accessible.
Sword of Light overview and stats
The Sword of Light has exactly the same stats and scaling as the Sword of Darkness. The only things that change between each form are how the weapon looks and the Ash of War you get with it. The Sword of Light can use “Light”, which blasts a ray of light around you and increases your holy attacks. This weapon scales well with Faith and Strength, making it good for a Strength/Faith build.
Sword of Light required stats
These are the stats you need to equip and use the Sword of Light.
| Str | Dex | Int | Fai | Arc |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14 | 11 | 0 | 24 | 0 |
In your quest to get every new armament in the DLC, use our guide covering how to get all weapons in Shadow of the Erdtree.
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