Skip to main content

How to summon spirits in Elden Ring

Three soldiers about to attack in a castle.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Staying alive in Elden Ring is easier said than done. The game throws a gauntlet of nightmarish enemies your way, and one wrong move can deplete your entire health bar. That makes it imperative for you to master all your abilities and equip the best gear possible – but you should also consider using spirits.

Recommended Videos

Difficulty

Easy

Duration

10 minutes

What You Need

  • Spirit Calling Bell

Spirits are NPC characters that will aid you during certain fights. Even longtime FromSoftware fans are probably unfamiliar with how spirits work in Elden Ring, as there's nothing quite like them in Dark Souls, Bloodborne, or any other game from the iconic studio. But if you're looking to conquer Elden Ring's most challenging boss fights, you'll want to know everything you can about spirits. Here's a look at how to summon spirits in Elden Ring, along with a look at how to get the Spirit Calling Bell and where you can call upon these otherworldly companions.

how to summon spirits in elden ring
Image used with permission by copyright holder

How to get the Spirit Calling Bell

Depending on what route you choose to take when starting off your adventure in Elden Ring, you can very easily pick up a spirit or two before knowing how to use them. The items themselves don't give any clues, and the game is as vague as ever when it comes to tutorializing them. You can try equipping them, but even with enough FP, you will never be able to call them out until you get a key item called the Spirit Calling Bell. Here's how to get your hands on it.

Step 1: Meet Melina and unlock your horse, Torrent. If you just follow the natural progression the first couple of Sites of Grace lead you, around the third one you visit you will encounter Melina and enter an agreement with her. As part of this deal, she will also give you Torrent to help you traverse this massive landscape.

Step 2: Once you have the ability to call Torrent, you need to backtrack to the Church of Elleh, which was likely the second Site of Grace you touched after exiting the tutorial zone. It's where the merchant that kind of looks like Santa is set up. Just make sure you do so at night. If it isn't night when you get there, pass time until it is and then fast-travel back there.

Step 3: Once you're at the church at night, you will notice a new NPC resting on a broken wall. This is Renna the witch. Speak to her and she will ask if you're Torrent's owner now. Say you are and she will give you the Spirit Calling Bell, plus the Lone Wolf Ashes, a great summon, for free.

how to summon spirits in elden ring
Image used with permission by copyright holder

How to summon spirits

Now that you have all the tools, you can summon spirits at (almost) any time!

Step 1: Equip your summon of choice in whatever slot you like.

Step 2: Whenever you're in an area where you see a glowing gravestone icon in the bottom left of the screen, you can summon your spirits as long as you have enough FP.

Step 3: Be aware that you can only summon a spirit once before you need to regain your charge by resting at a Site of Grace, even if you have enough FP to summon them more than that.

You don't need to equip or do anything with the Spirit Calling Bell. As long as you've acquired it, your character will automatically ring it to summon the spirit you have equipped and ready. We expect plenty of weird, hidden things in Elden Ring, but this one is so easily missed for a main mechanic that it almost seems unfair. Hopefully calling a pack of spectral wolves makes your next boss fight go a little easier.

Jesse Lennox
Jesse Lennox has been a writer at Digital Trends for over five years and has no plans of stopping. He covers all things…
Elden Ring Nightreign preload guide: release date, file size, and more
A knight sitting at the roundtable hold in Elden Ring Nightreign.

After the massive base experience with Elden Ring, plus the huge Shadow of the Erdree DLC, we still haven't had our fill of FromSoftware's greatest work. Elden Ring Nightreign takes the base mechanics of the main game and transforms it into a co-op survival game with roguelike elements. While you can play alone, this is a game built for you and your friends to conquer together, although the lack of cross-platform support is a big downer. All the trailers and footage make this game look like a greatest hits of FromSoftware, with tons of returning bosses, armor sets, and locations that we can't wait to discover. To make sure you're not waiting a second longer than you need to, here's all the preorder information about Elden Ring Nightreign, including when preloads begin and how big the game is.

Elden Ring Nightreign release date

Read more
How to make a saddle in Minecraft
A Minecraft character in a stable.

You tamed a horse in Minecraft, but the beast still has a mind of its own -- it absolutely will not follow your lead. You can corral it inside a fence, but trying to ride it isn't working like you hoped. Aside from flying, horses are one of the fastest ways to travel, but to take control of your mount, you need a saddle. Previously, you weren't able to craft a saddle and would have to get one in other ways, including trades at villages, exploration, and fishing. However, after many years, we are finally able to make a saddle for ourselves and we will show you exactly how to do it.

Read more
How to join the FBC: Firebreak closed beta test
A crew in FBC: Firebreak.

We're just weeks away from the release of Remedy's upcoming video game set in the Control universe, FBC: Firebreak. Unlike Control or Alan Wake 2, FBC: Firebreak isn't a single player third-person shooter but a co-op focused multiplayer game. The trailers how off a distinctly Remedy-style game, with strange events and monsters around every corner, but if you were drawn to the studio's past games for being single-player experiences, you might be unsure about this one. Thankfully, you have the chance to dive into the Oldest House early by signing up for the closed technical test. Here's our memo on how to do it.

Read more