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There have already been a million different “farming Runes” routes talked about in videos, other articles, and on livestreams, but there’s a shockingly low amount of people who are using this in-game system that, almost constantly, will have Elden Ring players gaining more Runes overall.

What Is The Group Password Multiplayer System?

In previous From Software titles, players could set passwords to make playing with or summoning friends a bit less clunky. In Elden Ring, that system still exists, but there’s also a new system called Group Passwords, in which players can put in a key “phrase” and connect themselves to every other player using that same Password.

With this enabled, players with the same Group Password will see Bloodstains, Messages, Phantoms, and Summon Sighs from their shared group more often. And, at least for the Bloodstains and Messages, there are these unique visual signifiers (AKA a red circle around the Bloodstain and a white circle around the message) that make it clear at a glance who they’re from. It’s an incredibly neat feature that plays a big part in Elden Ring having this “strand-like” multiplayer vibe that Hideo Kojima tried to pioneer with Death Stranding.

However, the best feature (and most intrusive) of being connected to a Group Password are the messages that pop up every single time someone in that group defeats a “Shardbearer” or beats the game. This message can get sort of annoying with how often it pops up, but the benefit it brings is honestly worth it.

How Does It Work & What Does It Look Like?

After this “Shardbearer defeated” message appears, players can then look below their stamina bar to see a new passive “buff” has appeared in the form of a Gold-Pickled Fowl Foot with an up-arrow on top of it. This is the same buff iconography that’s seen when using the Golden Fowl Foot (though the buff amount and duration are different).

Additionally, it also adds to the visual spectacle of Elden Ring, because as long as this Buff is active, Golden Leaves will rain down from the Erdtree adding this extra layer of particle effects to the Lands Between. To get an idea of what this particle effect looks like, it can be very clearly seen in the Chapel of Anticipation area where players first wake up and eventually die to the Grafted Scion.

So, it’s clear now how exactly this Buff is triggered and what it does, but how are players supposed to make it something that triggers all the time? Well, there are some Reddits, Discords, and YouTube fanbases out there that have advertised their Group Password to as many people as possible. This is because, the more people in a Group, the more often that Rune Gaining buff is going to be activated. Here are a few of the biggest groups out there and their passwords:

SEEKERS: YouTuber VaatiVidya’s Community straydmn: The /r/eldenring Reddit Community FEXTRA: The Fextralife Wiki Community kindred: The Elden Ring Discord Community BERSERK: The Berserk Manga Community fcb: YouTuber Fightincowboy’s Community

The very best part is still to come, however. As it turns out, players can actually have up to five separate Group Passwords active at once! Just to give a bit of perspective, in a 100-hour playthrough of Elden Ring with only the “SEEKERS” Password active, this Group Password Rune Buff will still be active about 80% of the time. So, with five of these, it’s likely to be active near constantly. Again, the only drawback is how obtrusive this pop-up is, but it’s still well worth looking into.

How Substantial Is The Rune Buff?

Lastly, people might be wondering, how big is this Group Password Buff exactly? Does it break the game in terms of Rune farming? Well, no, not really. While the Gold-Pickled Fowl Foot is a Consumable item that gives +30 percent Rune Acquisition for 3 minutes, the Group Password Buff is only a measly 5 percent increase to acquired Runes while active, but that’s still a substantial amount added over the course of an entire playthrough.

To give a bit of context, Elder Dragon Greyoll, the big lazy Dragon in Caelid everyone farms for early-game Runes with Bleed Weapons, gives 50,000 Runes on death. With this buff active, that becomes 52,500. And, unlike Gold-Pickled Fowl Foots, this Buff requires zero resources and is constantly refreshed without any player intervention. That alone “almost” makes it worth visiting Caelid, one of Elden Ring’s most painful areas.

Elden Ring is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.

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