Free him, fight him once at a flooded moat, then feed his real body five human curses. Do that and you can end Elden Ring by guaranteeing that every soul born in the Lands Between afterward is denied the Erdtree’s cycle of rebirth — forever. That’s the Blessing of Despair ending, and Dung Eater’s questline is the only door to it.
It’s also one of the easiest endings to lock yourself out of by accident. Kill the wrong NPC at the wrong moment, hand an item to the wrong witch, or walk into Crumbling Farum Azula before talking to the right phantom, and the whole line goes dead with no warning. Below is the exact order, all six Seedbed Curse locations (you only need five), the choice that actually matters, and the specific point where this quest can silently end. Verified against patch 1.16.2 (May 2026), a stability-focused hotfix with no reported quest or item changes — as far as we can confirm, none of the steps below have moved since Shadow of the Erdtree.
How to Start the Dung Eater Questline (Quick Start)
- Reach Leyndell, Royal Capital, after clearing the Altus Plateau — Dung Eater’s phantom appears in a locked side room at Roundtable Hold.
- Pick up any one of the six Seedbed Curses scattered across the Lands Between (full list below) before you talk to him.
- Show him the curse. He hands you the Sewer-Gaol Key and asks you to find his real body.
- Head to the Subterranean Shunning-Grounds beneath Leyndell and find his cell.
- Choose “Leave your gaol!” to free him — or attack him now if you only want his gear and don’t care about the ending (next section explains why that’s usually the wrong call).
- Return to Roundtable Hold. His spot is empty, with a note pointing you to the outer moat.
- Travel to the moat near the Capital Rampart grace, then walk toward its center to trigger his invasion.
- Beat him in the duel, then talk to his phantom again at Roundtable Hold — he now wants the rest of his curses.
The Choice: Free Him, Kill Him, or Turn Him Into a Puppet
Free him. Every other option costs you the game’s darkest ending, and two of the three don’t even save you meaningful time.
| Choice | What Happens | You Get | You Lose |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free him (“Leave your gaol!”) | Full questline progresses; triggers the moat invasion | Blessing of Despair ending path, Sword of Milos from the duel, a cooperator sign for the Mohg fight | Nothing — this is the path that keeps every option open |
| Kill him in the cell | Quest ends on the spot | Sword of Milos and the Omen armor set immediately | The entire rest of the questline — no Mending Rune, no Blessing of Despair |
| Give Seluvis’s Potion (after the moat duel) | Turns him into an inert puppet you can then kill freely | Loot without a fight, and a later purchase option for the Dung Eater Puppet spirit ash from Seluvis | Blessing of Despair ending — same dead end as killing him early, just delayed |
A few comment threads claim you can still finish the quest on a dead Dung Eater by feeding curses to his corpse later. We didn’t find that demonstrated anywhere we checked. Fextralife’s own quest page states plainly that killing him in the cell “prevents all subsequent progression,” and no walkthrough we cross-referenced ever shows the ending recovered after that point [1]. Treat “kill first, ending later” as unconfirmed, and free him if the ending matters to you.
One more trap worth knowing before you commit: if you’ve already handed Ranni the Fingerslayer Blade, Seluvis turns into a lifeless puppet himself, and his potion option disappears from the Dung Eater interaction entirely [1]. If you want every branch of this quest open, run it before you finish that leg of Ranni’s line.
The Moat Duel — and the Point of No Return You Need to Know About
The invasion happens at the outer moat near the Capital Rampart grace, west of Leyndell’s main gate. Blackguard Big Boggart’s own questline needs to be active or resolved at this location first, or he won’t drop his Seedbed Curse when the fight triggers [1][5]. Walk toward the center of the moat after freeing Dung Eater and he spawns as a red phantom invader. Win, and you get the Sword of Milos on the spot [3].
Here’s the deadline nobody puts in bold: you have to get the Sewer-Gaol Key — meaning show Dung Eater a curse and talk to him at least once at Roundtable Hold — before you progress into Crumbling Farum Azula. Miss that window and his entire questline locks out for the save, with no prompt telling you it happened [6]. Practically: if you’re heading to Maliketh, make sure you’ve already had that first conversation.
All 6 Seedbed Curse Locations (You Only Need 5)
| Location | How to Get It |
|---|---|
| Leyndell — East Capital Rampart | From the grace, go east then south past the Oracle Envoys into a building. Down the stairs to an elevator, then west into the next building and up the right-hand ladder to a corpse in a chair on the top floor. |
| Leyndell — Fortified Manor replica room | An alternate Roundtable Hold reached via the wooden shacks near the Fortified Manor grace, on the second floor. The curse sits on a body strapped to a chair — a mirror of Dung Eater’s own cell. |
| Volcano Manor | From the Temple of Eiglay grace toward the Rykard teleporter, backtrack to a fogged door needing a Stonesword Key. Drop carefully through the hanging cages in the dark room below to a seated corpse. |
| Outer Moat (Blackguard Big Boggart) | Drops automatically once his own questline is resolved and the Dung Eater invasion fires at the moat. |
| Elphael, Brace of the Haligtree (1 of 2) | Above the ballistae near a Putrid Avatar. |
| Elphael, Brace of the Haligtree (2 of 2) | A dark room past a railing drop near the Prayer Room grace. |
Sources: [2][5]
The natural progression order lines up with these almost perfectly, so you rarely need a dedicated side trip. Grab both Leyndell curses while you’re clearing the capital anyway. Volcano Manor is the one genuinely out-of-the-way stop — do it if you’re already running Rykard’s questline. Let the moat curse fall out of Blackguard Big Boggart’s line on its own. Pick up both Haligtree curses on your way to Malenia. That’s five without a single trip made purely for this quest. The sixth is only useful as insurance if you miss one, most commonly the Volcano Manor cage drop.
Who Should Actually Bother With This Questline?
| Player Type | Priority |
|---|---|
| New player | Skip it for now. It needs Volcano Manor and Haligtree cleared, both mid-to-late areas. Come back once you’ve beaten Rykard and are pushing toward Malenia. |
| Casual player | Only worth it if you’re already passing through these zones for their main bosses. Don’t detour purely for Seedbed Curses. |
| Hardcore / optimiser | Free him the moment you have a curse and reach Roundtable Hold. It’s the only route that keeps every ending, every drop, and the Mohg cooperator sign available in one playthrough. |
| Completionist | Grab all six curses even though only five count. The extra is insurance against missing one in an easy-to-skip spot like the Volcano Manor cage drop. |
Turning In the Curses and Triggering Blessing of Despair
After the duel, talk to Dung Eater’s phantom at Roundtable Hold. He now asks for the remaining curses — four more if you already showed him your first one, five total [4]. His real body stays in the sewer cell the whole time; that’s where you deliver them. Hand over the fifth and you receive the Mending Rune of the Fell Curse [1][4].
After killing the final boss and reaching Fractured Marika, select “Use Mending Rune of the Fell Curse” instead of the default prompt to lock in Blessing of Despair [7]. The rune’s own in-game description explains the mechanism better than any summary could: “the reviled curse will last eternally, and the world’s children, grandchildren, and every generation hence, will be its pustules” [7]. Every future Tarnished-born soul is cut off from the Erdtree’s cycle, permanently — that’s the whole point of the ending, not just flavor text.
It’s one of six base-game endings (Age of Fracture, Age of the Duskborn, Age of Order, Blessing of Despair, Lord of Frenzied Flame, Age of the Stars), and Shadow of the Erdtree doesn’t add a seventh — its own closing scene sits outside this list [7].
What You Actually Get: Sword of Milos, Omen Armor, and the Puppet Ash
The Sword of Milos is a Greatsword requiring 15 Strength and 19 Dexterity, with D/D scaling and 141 base attack power. Its skill, Shriek of Milos, costs 30 FP for an area stun plus hyperarmor on you while it’s active, and the weapon passively restores 5 FP whenever you land a kill [3]. It drops whether you kill Dung Eater in the cell or beat him at the moat. One catch: it upgrades on the Somber Smithing Stone path, capped at +10 — not the standard route most other Greatswords use. If you’re also chasing the strongest version of your other base-game weapons, check our Ancient Dragon Smithing Stone locations guide separately; those stones won’t touch this sword.
The Omen armor set drops from Dung Eater’s body once you’ve completed the curse exchange (reload the area if it doesn’t appear immediately) [1][5]. The Dung Eater Puppet spirit ash is a separate reward, available only through the Seluvis’s Potion branch — and, as covered above, mutually exclusive with Blessing of Despair.
FAQ
Can I still get Blessing of Despair if I already killed Dung Eater in his cell?
No — treat it as a dead end. The quest page states directly that killing him there ends the line, and we couldn’t find a single walkthrough that actually demonstrates recovering the ending afterward, despite a few forum posts claiming otherwise. If it matters to you, don’t attack him on sight; reload to an earlier grace if you still can.
Do I need all six Seedbed Curses?
No. Five is the actual requirement. The sixth exists purely as a safety margin for players who miss a pickup on their first pass through a zone — usually the Volcano Manor cage drop, since it’s the easiest one to walk past.
Does freeing Dung Eater make him hostile anywhere else in the world?
Nothing we found documents any world-state change beyond the scripted moat invasion and the later Mohg cooperator sign. He isn’t running loose attacking other NPCs. Treat any claim otherwise as unverified until someone actually shows it happening.
Is Blessing of Despair the “bad” ending?
It’s the darkest of the six by tone, but Elden Ring doesn’t grade its endings — you become Elden Lord either way, just with a different rune. If you want to play the villain’s route through to Fractured Marika, this is it. If you’d rather skip the extra legwork, Age of Fracture is the default outcome with none of this required.
Sources
[1] Dung Eater — Elden Ring Wiki (Fextralife)
[2] Seedbed Curse — Elden Ring Wiki (Fextralife)
[3] Sword of Milos — Elden Ring Wiki (Fextralife)
[4] Elden Ring: How To Unlock The Blessing Of Despair Ending — TheGamer
[5] Elden Ring Dung Eater Quest and Seedbed Curses Locations — SegmentNext
[6] Elden Ring Blessing of Despair Guide — Attack of the Fanboy
[7] Endings — Elden Ring Wiki (Fextralife)
I've been playing video games for over 20 years, spanning everything from early PC titles to modern open-world games. I started Switchblade Gaming to publish the kind of accurate, well-researched guides I always wanted to find — built on primary sources, tested in-game, and kept up to date after patches. I currently focus on Minecraft and Pokémon GO.