Verified against Elden Ring (base game) and Shadow of the Erdtree, current as of the August 2026 patch. Larval Tear counts and Rennala’s rebirth mechanics haven’t changed since launch, but always double-check an item’s exact drop location in-game if a patch note mentions balance changes.
Quick Start: Getting Your First Respec
You need three things before you can touch your stat allocation, and skipping any one of them means the option simply won’t appear in Rennala’s dialogue.
- Reach Raya Lucaria Academy in Liurnia of the Lakes and fight through to the boss room.
- Defeat Rennala, Queen of the Full Moon. You don’t need to beat the final boss of the game, or even leave Liurnia — this is the only story requirement.
- Collect at least one Larval Tear (see the full location tables below).
- Return to Rennala’s arena and talk to her directly — she stays there permanently after the fight.
- Select “Undergo rebirth?” and confirm. This is the only point where the tear is actually consumed, so backing out costs you nothing.
Once unlocked, you can repeat this as many times as you have Larval Tears in your inventory. There’s no cooldown and no additional boss fight required after the first time.
How Respec Actually Works
Each Larval Tear buys one full reallocation of every attribute point you’ve earned since character creation — Vigor, Mind, Endurance, Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, Faith, and Arcane all go back into the pool at once. What it doesn’t do is reset you to a blank slate: your stats can never drop below the minimums set by your starting class.
This floor matters more than most guides let on. A Wretch starts at a flat 10 in every stat, so a Wretch player can rebuild into almost anything — pure Vigor tank, pure Intelligence caster, whatever the run calls for. A Samurai, by comparison, starts at Endurance 13 and Dexterity 15, so no amount of respeccing lets a former Samurai drop below that — you’re permanently carrying a small equip-load and dexterity investment no matter what you respec into. If you’re planning a specific min-max build, check your starting class’s stat block before you assume a tear buys you total freedom.
Because the tear itself is the only spending limit, the real ceiling on how many times you can respec is how many tears you’ve physically found. That’s 18 in the base game alone, or 27 total once Shadow of the Erdtree locations are added — treat that number as your first-playthrough budget, not a lifetime cap.
When to Actually Spend a Larval Tear
Locations are only half the picture — with a resource this limited, when you spend one matters as much as finding it. Advice here isn’t the same for every kind of player, and treating it like it is wastes tears.
| Player Type | Priority |
|---|---|
| New player | Don’t respec before Rennala is even beatable — get through Raya Lucaria first, then use your first tear only once you’ve actually played 10-15 hours and know whether your starting class fits how you play. Respeccing at level 15 based on a guess wastes the tear. |
| Casual player | Save tears for confirmed mistakes, not experiments — a single respec that fixes an unusable build (e.g., points dumped into Faith with no incantations equipped) is worth more than three respecs chasing marginal optimization. |
| Hardcore / optimizer | Budget tears around specific gear checkpoints. A respec right after acquiring a new weapon or staff (so points go straight into its scaling stat) avoids wasted levels sitting in the wrong attribute for dozens of hours. |
| Completionist | Grab every merchant-sold tear (Siofra River, Pidia) early even if you don’t plan to use them immediately — they’re finite purchases, and 3,000 runes is trivial once you’ve cleared a couple of legacy dungeons, but the tear itself never expires. |
If you’re only going to remember one rule: never spend your first tear before you’ve actually felt your build fail at something. A hypothetical build problem and a real one look identical on paper, but only one is worth a Larval Tear.
All 18 Base Game Larval Tear Locations
Every confirmed base-game location, region by region. Most are guarded by a disguised enemy — one of the more memorable early-game surprises if you haven’t run into the trick yet, so approach unfamiliar clustered items with a hit first.
| Region | Location |
|---|---|
| Limgrave | East of Agheel Lake South — dropped by a disguised Lesser Runebear |
| Liurnia of the Lakes | Village of the Albinaurics graveyard |
| Liurnia of the Lakes | Between Rose Church and Boilprawn Shack — dropped by a disguised Grafted Scion |
| Liurnia of the Lakes | East of Caria Manor graveyard, after defeating Royal Knight Loretta |
| Liurnia of the Lakes | Purchased from Pidia, Carian Servant — 3,000 runes |
| Caelid | South of Caelid Highway South — dropped by a disguised Troll |
| Altus Plateau | South of Windmill Village ruins — dropped by a disguised Lion Guardian |
| Mt. Gelmir | East of the Road of Iniquity site of grace — dropped by a disguised Wormface |
| Consecrated Snowfield | Southeast of Inner Consecrated Snowfield — dropped by a disguised Lesser Runebear |
| Siofra River | Purchased from a Nomadic Merchant — 3,000 runes |
| Nokron, Eternal City | Southeast of the main site of grace |
| Nokron, Eternal City | Gazebo in the city center |
| Nokron, Eternal City | Night’s Sacred Ground — dropped by a Silver Sphere |
| Nokron, Eternal City | Two dropped by the Mimic Tear boss |
| Nokstella, Eternal City | Bridge — dropped by a Silver Sphere |
| Nokstella, Eternal City | Building interior — dropped by a Silver Sphere |
| Nokstella, Eternal City | Second building interior — dropped by a Silver Sphere |
The two merchant purchases are the only ones on this list that aren’t finite in a practical sense — you’ll have more than enough runes by the time you’re clearing Nokron to buy both without a second thought.
All 9 Shadow of the Erdtree Larval Tear Locations
Every DLC Larval Tear sits inside a spiritgrave — a small cluster of glowing gravestones that’s only visible at night. Rest at a Site of Grace and advance time to nightfall before searching; during the day the same spot looks like an empty patch of ground.
| Area | How to Find It |
|---|---|
| Gravesite Plain | East of the Gravesite Plain site of grace, the very first checkpoint in the Land of Shadow |
| Greatbridge, North | Northeast of the Greatbridge, North site of grace, close to the checkpoint itself |
| Pillar Path Waypoint | East of the site of grace, following the path toward the cliff edge |
| Church of the Crusade | Southwest of the church, reachable from the Highroad Cross site of grace |
| Ancient Ruins Base | Southwest of the Ancient Ruins Base site of grace, in Rauh Base |
| Ravine North | Upstream from the Ravine North site of grace, along the riverbank |
| Highroad Cross area | North of the Highroad Cross site of grace, in Scadu Altus |
| Near Prospect Town | South of Prospect Town, past the enemy encampment on the cliffs |
| Cathedral of Manus Metyr area | Beside the road leading to the cathedral, accessible via Moorth Ruins |
Two independently-published guides (TheGamer and GameRant) confirm this list but disagree slightly on the exact naming for three of the nine locations — a byproduct of how many nearby Sites of Grace some spiritgraves sit between. If your in-game position doesn’t match a label exactly, check the nearest Site of Grace name on your map instead of the location name in any guide, this one included.
Respec Target Examples: Two Ways to Spend Your First Tear
Knowing where the tears are doesn’t tell you what to respec into. Two of the most common destinations for a first respec sit at opposite ends of the build spectrum.
If you’re carrying a caster class that’s felt weak in melee, our best Incantations by Faith guide covers which spells actually justify the investment — worth reading before you commit points, since a Faith respec is wasted if you don’t already own the incantations that scale with it. Confessor and Prophet starting classes have the least stat-floor friction for this switch, since their Faith minimums are already high.
Going the other direction — into a Strength/Dexterity weapon build — is just as common, especially once players get their hands on a strong katana drop. Our katana tier list breaks down which blades are worth building a full respec around versus which ones perform fine as a secondary weapon without touching your stats at all.
New to the game entirely? Our Elden Ring beginner’s guide covers starting-class selection in more depth — picking the right class up front means you’re less likely to need an early respec at all.
FAQ
Do I need Shadow of the Erdtree just to respec?
No. Rennala and all 18 base-game tears exist without the DLC — you get a full 18 respecs from the base game alone. The DLC adds 9 more tears on top, so owning it raises your total budget to 27, but it isn’t a requirement to use the mechanic at all.
Can I drop Vigor to zero for a challenge run?
Only if you started as a Wretch. Every other class has a Vigor floor set by its starting stats — a Samurai, for instance, can never respec Vigor below 12. If a true zero-everything challenge run matters to you, that decision has to be made at character creation, not fixed later with a tear.
Are the two merchant-bought tears worth 3,000 runes each, or should I just farm?
Buy them. Early on, 3,000 runes is a real chunk of your total, but by the time you’ve reached Siofra River or Pidia’s questline, you’re routinely earning more than that from a single field boss. The tears themselves have no expiration and no alternate source, so there’s no scenario where skipping the purchase pays off later.
Does New Game Plus reset my respec count?
As with most one-time item pickups in Elden Ring, Larval Tear locations do respawn in New Game Plus, so the 27 total isn’t a lifetime cap — it resets each time you start a new cycle. Treat it as your first-playthrough budget rather than the absolute limit on how many times you’ll ever respec this character.
Sources
- Elden Ring Wiki (Fextralife) — Larval Tear
- Elden Ring Wiki (Fextralife) — Rebirth
- Game8 — All Larval Tear Locations and Map
- TheGamer — Shadow of the Erdtree: Every Larval Tear Location
- GameRant — All Larval Tear Locations In Shadow Of The Erdtree
- Elden Ring Wiki (Fextralife) — Classes
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.