White Mask Varré, the first NPC you meet in Elden Ring, infamously points out that you’ve arrived in the Lands Between “maidenless.” It can be tempting to kill Varré then and there, but doing so precludes you from completing his storyline, which is well worth doing — as you’ll find out in this Elden Ring guide to completing Varré’s side quest.
Seeing Varré’s story through to its conclusion will give you a taste of PvP, grant you access to a secret optional area, and even potentially earn you a new Great Rune. And we promise, you will get your revenge for that “maidenless” comment.
Chapter 1: Welcome to the world
Step 1: Maidenless
Upon first encountering Varré near the First Step site of grace, all you can do is exhaust his dialogue. He’ll give you some advice, thoroughly insult you, and generally be unpleasant. The best revenge — for now — is to succeed, so go ahead and play the game. Meet your maiden, travel to the Roundtable Hold, talk to everyone, and defeat Godrick the Grafted to get your first Great Rune.
Step 2: To Rose Church
After you acquire your first Great Rune and talk to Finger Reader Enia in the Roundtable Hold, Varré will move to a location in Liurnia called Rose Church. Meet him there to continue his quest.
Step 3: Jolly competition
Varré will give you some Festering Bloody Fingers and instruct you to invade three fellow Tarnished. Use the item from the multiplayer menu and you’ll invade another player’s world; for the purposes of this quest, the results of the encounters don’t matter, as this is simply meant to be an introduction to PvP in Elden Ring. As long as you successfully invade three other players, you can return to Varré and advance the quest.
Alternatively, if you’d prefer not to invade other players (or simply want to speed things up), there’s another option, which FromSoftware added in a post-release patch. Invading the NPC Magnus the Beast Claw, which is accessible from an invasion sign in Writheblood Ruins in Altus Plateau, will also satisfy Varré’s request. After killing Magnus, return to Varré to advance the quest.
Chapter 2: Commitment
This is where things start to get really dark, as Varré sees fit to test your commitment to the Lord of Blood.
Step 4: A bloody favor
Varré provides you with an item called Lord of Blood’s Favor, a simple white cloth that comes with a not-so-simple instruction: stain the favor with the blood of a maiden.
You have a few options for doing so, and not all are as distasteful as it might at first seem.
- You can find and kill an NPC named Irina, at the entrance to Weeping Peninsula (if she’s still alive).
- You can find and kill an NPC named Hyetta, who can first be encountered at the Lake-Facing Cliffs site of grace in Liurnia, after you’ve finished Irina’s questline by completing Castle Morne and finding her father.
- You can return to the Church of Anticipation by using an Imbued Sword Key at the Four Belfries. There, you’ll find the corpse of a maiden with whom you can interact to bloody the cloth.
- You can travel to the Church of Inhibition in Liurnia, where you’ll find another maiden corpse.
Once you’ve bloodied the Lord of Blood’s Favor, return to Varré at Rose Church for the next step.
Step 5: So sweet a scream
Varré will perform a ritual that seems to cause your character great pain, then make some creepy comments and provide you with an infinitely reusable invasion item, the Bloody Finger.
Speak to him again and he’ll add the Pureblood Knight’s Medal, the key to gaining audience with the Lord of Blood.
Chapter 3: Blood and bloody ashes
Step 6: Proof of the Dynasty
Read the Pureblood Knight’s Medal’s item description, which states that “it is not yet time” to meet with Mohg, the Lord of Blood, “for Mohg yet slumbers beside the Divinity. Be patient. The new dynasty is nigh.”
Ignore all that and use the item, which will transport you underground to the Mohgwyn Dynasty Mausoleum. Congratulations — you’ve reached one of the most well-hidden zones in the game.
Step 7: Explore the Mausoleum
Make your way through Mohgwyn Palace. Take your time, as the area is littered with powerful upgrade materials and golden runes. Eventually, you’ll find a red invasion sign on the ground.
Step 8: Wonderful vengeance
Run a few steps past the invasion sign and touch the Dynasty Mausoleum Midpoint site of grace, then examine the sign to invade Varré’s world as a red phantom.
After defeating Varré, you’ll find him on the ground when you return to your world. Speak to him a couple of times to exhaust his dialogue, then savor the sights and sounds of his well-deserved expiration. How sweet it is.
Varré will leave behind a handful of Festering Bloody Fingers and, finally, Varré’s Bouquet, a blood loss-inducing strike weapon that scales primarily with arcane.
Step 9: Salt in the wound
As one final act of revenge, you might as well keep exploring Mohgwyn Palace until you reach the area’s primary boss — you guessed it, Mohg, Lord of Blood, himself. It’s not an easy fight, but it’s worth it to know that the dynasty Varré worked toward his whole life will never come to fruition.
And thus ends the tale of White Mask Varré. What would you rather be, maidenless — or lifeless?
If you’re looking for more Elden Ring side quest guides, check out our walkthrough of Millicent’s storyline, beginning in Sellia, Town of Sorcery.