Varre questline: the shortest route through White Mask Varre’s story in Elden Ring
The varre questline is one of the earliest NPC arcs a player can trigger in Elden Ring, and it is also one of the few that introduces the game in a region that was once treated as an end-game area. White Mask Varre first appears as a wounded stranger just outside the First Step site of grace in Limgrave, and he reacts to almost nothing the Tarnished does in the open world until the player returns to the Roundtable Hold for the first time. The reason the arc feels unusual is that it never behaves like a standard side quest: it has no quest log entry, no map marker, and no clear quest-complete notification. The quest is advanced almost entirely through reading his body language, the items he gives the player, and the order in which the player chooses to use them.
What makes the varre questline worth planning carefully is that it directly unlocks an alternative path to a major late-game zone and offers one of two possible rewards depending on how the player treats the final choice. Getting the arc wrong usually does not break anything, but it does cut the player off from a specific ending tied to a faction that is set up across the wider Lands Between. This guide walks through every confirmed step, the items involved, the locations that matter, and the choices that determine the final outcome.
How the varre questline actually starts
Varre is not a hidden NPC, but his first dialogue is easy to miss because the game does not flag it. After leaving the First Step site of grace and heading east toward the ruined village, players will find a man slumped against a wall of stone with arrows in his leg. Speaking to him begins the conversation. He introduces himself as White Mask Varre and tells the Tarnished that other outriders are no longer responding. He asks the player to deliver a letter to a place the player has not yet heard of: the Roundtable Hold.
At this stage the varre questline is technically already active, but the player can leave the conversation at any point and Varre remains in place. There is no urgency. The only real trigger for advancing the quest is reaching the Roundtable Hold for the first time and finding Varre standing near the Twin Maiden Husks, the merchants who run the central hub. Once there, players can return the letter, and Varre rewards the Tarnished with a fingerprint grate, a reusable item that can be placed on the ground to lure invaders into the host’s world.
Step-by-step walkthrough of the varre questline
The questline has a small number of well-defined beats. The list below is the order in which the arc is intended to be completed. It is possible to skip steps or to wander out of sequence, and the game does not lock players out for doing so, but the arc’s final choice is only available when the player has completed everything in roughly the right order.
- Speak to White Mask Varre near the First Step in Limgrave and accept his request to deliver a letter.
- Reach the Roundtable Hold by resting at any discovered site of grace and selecting the “Travel to Roundtable Hold” option once it appears in the menu.
- Return the letter to Varre near the Twin Maiden Husks and receive the Festering Bloody Finger item along with a fingerprint grate.
- Defeat Godrick the Grafted in Stormveil Castle if the quest is being played in the intended sequence. This step is not strictly required by the quest but is implied by the story, and some later items and locations only become available afterwards.
- Use the Festering Bloody Finger to invade other players’ worlds. Three successful invasions are required for the next dialogue to unlock.
- Return to Varre at the Roundtable Hold and exhaust his new dialogue. He will give the player the Lord of Blood’s Favor item, which requires soaking a cloth in the blood of a maiden.
- Travel to the Church of Inhibition in the western part of Liurnia of the Lakes and soak the cloth in the Deathbed Bird’s blood. The maidens who disappear from this area after the event are not random: they have to be killed in order to receive the next key item.
- Return to Varre once more. He provides a new painting, the “Hitching Post” painting, which the player must take to the Rose Church in northern Liurnia.
- Examine the painting at the Rose Church and use the now-bloodied cloth there. The cloth becomes the Lord of Blood’s Exultation, a powerful consumable.
- Use the item at the final location to enter the Mohgwyn Palace, which is where the varre questline converges with the main story.
Each of these steps is small on its own. The reason the questline is so often written about is that the rewards and the access to Mohgwyn Palace arrive only after a chain of decisions that are easy to perform in the wrong order.
Item checklist: what Varre gives you and what he asks for in return
The varre questline is item-driven rather than dialogue-driven. The table below lists every object that appears in the arc, who gives it to the player, where it leads, and the verification step that confirms it has been used correctly.
| Item | Source | Where it is used | What confirms it worked |
|---|---|---|---|
| Letter to the Roundtable Hold | White Mask Varre, Limgrave | Roundtable Hold, near Varre | Varre gives a fingerprint grate and a Festering Bloody Finger |
| Festering Bloody Finger | Varre at Roundtable Hold | Other players’ worlds (invasions) | Three successful invasions, then return to Varre for new dialogue |
| Fingerprint Grate | Varre at Roundtable Hold | Open-world location chosen by the player | Lures an invader into the host’s world when used |
| Lord of Blood’s Favor | Varre after three invasions | Church of Inhibition, Liurnia | Cloth becomes soaked in blood after the Deathbed Bird event |
| Hitching Post painting | Varre after the bloodied cloth | Rose Church, northern Liurnia | Painting warp can be activated and used to enter Mohgwyn Palace |
| Lord of Blood’s Exultation | Produced at the Rose Church altar | Optional consumable that boosts attack when blood loss is nearby | Item appears in the inventory and can be used or kept |
None of the items are missable in the sense of disappearing from the world, but two of them are time-sensitive: the Festering Bloody Finger can only be used to invade, and the painting only warps the player once the bloodied cloth has been used at its location.
Why the varre questline is so easy to break
Most confusion around the quest comes from a small number of predictable problems. The first is that Varre’s dialogue after the Roundtable Hold meeting is only triggered when the player has spoken to him twice in the same area. If the player never returns to the Roundtable Hold after the initial conversation, the quest never opens. The second is that the Festering Bloody Finger mechanic is poorly explained: it is an invasion item, and most players are not told that they need three successful invasions before the next dialogue becomes available. A failed invasion does not count, and dying during an invasion does not count, so players who treat the item as a single-use convenience often stall the quest without realising it.
There is also a soft progression gate. The Deathbed Bird event at the Church of Inhibition only triggers after Godrick has been defeated and the player has moved into Liurnia. The maidens at the church are not infinite, and once they are gone the opportunity to soak the cloth is closed. That is why the varre questline is usually completed after the second major boss rather than before it.
For a more general look at how NPC arcs in Elden Ring are structured and how quest design changes between the open world and the major boss fights, the Free the Artist walkthrough in Baldur’s Gate 3 explains how a different studio handles a similar optional arc. The comparison is useful because both quests are designed to be picked up early but completed much later, and both reward planning over wandering.
How to reach Mohgwyn Palace through the varre questline
Mohgwyn Palace is the late-game zone that the varre questline ultimately opens. There are two confirmed ways to reach it: through Varre’s painting at the Rose Church, or by completing a specific late-game story path that requires far higher stats and stronger gear. The varre questline is the intended short cut, and it lets a player access the zone roughly halfway through a normal playthrough, which is unusual for a region that contains a major boss with a high rune cost.
The Rose Church is a small ruined building in the northern cliffs of Liurnia, near the Caria Manor road. When the player interacts with the painting given by Varre, the painting displays a small static scene of a hanging tree in a field. Using the bloodied cloth at the altar causes the player to be teleported directly into the palace. The trip is one-way in the sense that the player cannot warp back to the same point in the palace, but they can warp out using any discovered site of grace inside the zone.
For players who prefer to use the painting for a quick teleport and then leave, the path is short, and most of the rewards inside the palace are aimed at the major boss fight rather than the surrounding dungeon. That is the practical reason most players do the varre questline first and treat the rest of the palace as a return visit.
The two endings tied to the varre questline
The questline is the only path that lets a player join the faction associated with Mohgwyn Palace without committing to a longer main-story branch. The choices at the end of the arc are not framed as a binary dialogue option. They are framed as whether the player uses the painting and enters the palace, and what the player does once inside.
| Choice | Where it happens | Effect on ending |
|---|---|---|
| Complete the varre questline and use the painting | Rose Church, northern Liurnia | Unlocks access to Mohgwyn Palace early; allows the Lord of Blood ending |
| Use a Festering Bloody Finger but skip the rest of the quest | Any invasion target | No effect on the ending; Varre’s later dialogue never opens |
| Reach Mohgwyn Palace through a different story path | Late-game subregion | Same ending is available but the varre questline remains incomplete |
| Ignore the varre questline entirely | Never spoken to Varre | The Lord of Blood ending cannot be chosen |
The endings are not mutually exclusive with the rest of the game’s endings. Players can decide at the very end of the game which conclusion to take, but only players who completed the varre questline and used the painting can choose the option associated with this faction. Players who tried to use the painting before soaking the cloth at the Church of Inhibition will see the painting remain inert, which is the most common way players believe the quest is bugged.
Common problems and how to fix them
There are a small number of predictable issues that can stall the varre questline. Each of the problems below lists the symptom, the most common cause, and the diagnostic check that confirms the cause before any change is made.
- Varre does not give the Festering Bloody Finger at the Roundtable Hold: this usually means the player has not returned the original letter. The diagnostic is to check whether the option “About the letter” is still in Varre’s dialogue. If it is, the quest has not moved forward.
- Festering Bloody Finger appears to do nothing: it is an invasion item, not a co-op item. The diagnostic is to use it from the inventory while the player is not in a co-op session, then wait for an invasion target. Failed invasions do not count toward the three required for the quest.
- Lord of Blood’s Favor does not become a bloodied cloth: the Church of Inhibition event has not triggered. The diagnostic is to confirm that the maidens are still alive and that Godrick has been defeated. Without Godrick’s defeat, the bird event does not begin.
- The painting at the Rose Church does not warp the player: the bloodied cloth must be used at the altar first. The diagnostic is to check the inventory for the Lord of Blood’s Exultation. If the item is missing, the cloth has not been used at the painting.
None of these problems require reloading an earlier save. They are usually solved by progressing the main story to the right point, returning to the area the quest expects, and then using the item in the correct context.
How the varre questline fits into the wider game
The arc is one of several designed to let the player approach late-game content in a non-linear way. Other NPCs in the same general design space include the merchant Kale, the smith Hewg, and the many small quest givers scattered across Liurnia. The varre questline is the only one that gives a permanent teleport into a late-game dungeon, which is why it is so often treated as the recommended path rather than an alternative one.
For context on how Elden Ring’s wider quest design is built, the walkthrough of Godskin Noble in Elden Ring shows how a different late-game boss is integrated into the same dungeon design philosophy. Both encounters benefit from players who have used the varre questline to enter early and explore the dungeon, then returned later with stronger gear.
Outside of Elden Ring, the Judy Cyberpunk 2077 walkthrough offers a useful comparison because it is another quest that introduces the player to a major faction by exposing them to a small, controlled relationship before the wider conflict. Both quests are designed to be completed slowly, and both reward players who pay attention to small environmental cues rather than the main quest tracker.
Build and stat considerations for the varre questline
Most of the quest is exploration rather than combat, so the only stat that matters in the early parts is whether the player can survive the three required invasions. Invasions in Elden Ring scale with the host’s rune level, so a player with a higher rune level can expect stronger invaders. A practical build for the invasions is one that can both deal and take damage without relying on spirit summons, which often disappear in other players’ worlds. Players who prefer to grind quickly through the invasion phase should consider a build that focuses on a single weapon rather than a hybrid stat spread.
For the Deathbed Bird fight at the Church of Inhibition, the bird is a smaller, faster enemy rather than a boss. It uses frost and minor health drain, so a fire-based weapon or any shield with frost resistance makes the fight easier. The maidens who must be killed for the cloth are weak, but they run, so a ranged weapon or a short chase build speeds the section up considerably.
The Mohgwyn Palace approach is built around handling a wide range of enemy types. Most players enter the palace at around rune level 90 to 120, but the varre questline allows entry as low as rune level 60 if the player is willing to use a summons-heavy build. None of this is a strict requirement, and the quest does not refuse to start at lower levels; the higher-level requirements are only relevant if the player plans to clear the entire palace immediately.
How long the varre questline actually takes
The quest is short in pure steps but long in real time, because the three invasions can take anywhere from a few minutes to a full hour depending on matchmaking and how many of them the player wins on the first try. The rest of the quest is a series of short interactions that can be completed in roughly 30 minutes if the player already knows the route. The full arc from the first Varre dialogue to entering Mohgwyn Palace is usually between 90 minutes and two hours for a player who has already played the game once.
The pace is governed entirely by the order in which the player chooses to do things. Players who are still in early Limgrave when they meet Varre will naturally complete the quest over the course of several hours as they return to the Roundtable Hold and progress through the second main story boss. Players who meet Varre late, after Stormveil Castle, will finish the entire arc in a single session if they have all of the required items in their inventory.
What to do after the varre questline
Once the player has entered Mohgwyn Palace through the painting, the immediate next step is to identify the boss of the zone. The boss is a difficult encounter with a wide area of effect, so the recommended approach is to scout the arena and identify the small sites of grace that can be lit before the fight begins. The varre questline itself is technically complete at this point, and the rest of the content is independent of the arc.
For players who want to keep the rest of the game’s progression in order, the practical next steps are to continue the main story, return to Limgrave to handle any unfinished business there, and then move on to the other major dungeons. The Lord of Blood ending is unlocked by completing the boss fight, not by completing the quest, so the quest itself does not need to be revisited.
Frequently asked questions
Does the varre questline start automatically or do I have to talk to Varre first?
The quest starts the first time the player speaks to White Mask Varre near the First Step site of grace in Limgrave. There is no automatic trigger. The player must approach him and select the dialogue options that accept the letter request.
Can I skip the invasion part of the varre questline?
No. Three successful invasions using the Festering Bloody Finger are required before Varre gives the next item. Players can use a friend or a known player as the invasion target, but the invasions themselves cannot be skipped without breaking the arc.
Where is the Church of Inhibition in the varre questline?
The Church of Inhibition is in the western part of Liurnia of the Lakes, just south of the road that leads toward Caria Manor. It is a small ruin with a few kneeling maidens, and it is the only location that lets the player soak the cloth in blood for the quest.
What happens if I use the painting before soaking the cloth?
The painting at the Rose Church will remain inert, and the player will not be teleported. The bloodied cloth must be used at the altar first, which produces the Lord of Blood’s Exultation consumable and activates the warp.
Is the varre questline required for the Lord of Blood ending?
Yes. The Lord of Blood ending is only available to players who have completed the varre questline, used the painting, and reached the palace’s boss. The ending cannot be selected otherwise, even if the player reaches the boss through a different story path.
Can I do the varre questline after killing Mohgwyn Palace’s boss through another path?
The quest is technically still completable, but the relevant dialogue and item chain have already moved past the relevant point, so most of the rewards are no longer meaningful. The quest is best done before reaching the palace through any other route.
Does the varre questline give any unique equipment?
Yes. The Lord of Blood’s Exultation is a unique consumable that boosts attack power when blood loss is nearby, and the Festering Bloody Finger is a reusable invasion item. The quest does not give weapons or armour directly.
Can I play the varre questline in co-op?
The exploration parts can be done in co-op, but the three required invasions must be performed in the host’s world. Co-op partners cannot trigger the invasion for the host, so the player must complete that section alone or with a friend acting as the invasion target.
What is the recommended level for the varre questline?
There is no hard level gate. Most players complete the quest between rune level 30 and 80, depending on the order of the main story. The level matters most for the three invasions, which scale with the host’s rune level.
Does failing the varre questline lock me out of any other content?
Failing the quest only locks the player out of the Lord of Blood ending and the early access to Mohgwyn Palace. Every other ending, dungeon, and NPC arc remains available, and the player can still reach the palace through a different story path later in the game.
Leave a Reply