Ruined Forge Lava Intake walkthrough: Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree
Here's how to complete this early dungeon and get the powerful Anvil Hammer.
The Ruined Forge Lava Intake is an optional dungeon in Elden Ring's Shadow of the Erdtree DLC. It's located in Gravesite Plain, and is one of several Ruined Forges you'll come across during your travels in the Shadow Realm.
As the name might imply, it's a great place to farm lots of Smithing Stones, and it's one of the few locations in Shadow of the Erdtree where you're able to get Ancient Dragon Smithing Stones, too, making them worthwhile stops on your adventure. Even better, you don't have to fight any bosses at the end of them in order to reap its rewards. So read on below for our Ruined Forge Lava Intake walkthrough to make sure you don't miss out on any important treasures, including the powerful Anvil Hammer.
Ruined Forge Lava Intake walkthrough
To get to the Ruined Forge Lava Intake, you'll need to travel south-east from the Site of Grace 'Castle Front' in Gravesite Plain. You'll see some monsters fighting among themselves down in the valley below, and you can sneak past them if you come up the side of the hill (all while absorbing their runes as more enemies get defeated, too). Here's the precise location of it on the map below:
As you enter the dungeon, activate the Site of Grace 'Ruined Forge Lava Intake' and continue onwards into the dungeon. You'll see a kneeling ghost figure in front of you who will give you a hint about what you need to do here to complete the dungeon. They'll mention: 'The altar of the forge cannot be far...' and it's this altar that you'll need to find in any Ruined Forge you come across to obtain its best treasures.
For now, continue round the corner into the main chamber, and go down the ladder. A glowing slab on the floor reads: 'Hit them where they're weakest'. It refers to the stone golems you'll find here, as they have a red, glinting stone weakspot on their backs. This is the best place to hit them, as attacking them head-on will do very little damage to them.
You'll meet your first stone golem just ahead in the room round to the left, though you can run in and grab the items inside it without having to fight it if you find it too difficult.
Regardless of whether you decide to fight it or not, you'll find 1x Smithing Stone (4) and 1x Smithing Stone (1) on the ground, and 1x Smithing Stone (5) on the corpse next to the golem.
Leave this room and watch out for the fire slime lurking on the ceiling. They're quite easy to take care of - just a couple of hits and they'll melt into the ground. Continue down the narrow passageway, and another fire slime will fall from the ceiling. Once you've dealt with it, you'll find 1x Smithing Stone (2) on the corpse in the corner.
Follow the stairs down and you'll come to a large chamber. Climb down the ladder at the far end, and immediately in front of you'll be able to grab 1x Smithing Stone (4) and 1x Smithing Stone (1) off the ground.
Turn around and head into the main part of the room, keeping an eye out for the stone golem facing the wall to your left. There are a few routes you can take here, but let's clear out this ground floor first.
Before you go up the stairs, you'll find 1x Somber Smithing Stone (2) on a corpse in the corner next to the stairwell. Next, stay on the ground floor and follow the room all the way round to the left, where you'll find a little nook behind a large, crumbling wall with another stone golem in the corner. Behind it is a corpse with 1x Somber Smithing Stone (6) to grab, which you can rush in and collect without fighting the golem if you're quick. That's it for this part of the chamber for now.
Next, climb the stairs next to where you found the Somber Smithing Stone (2), and grab the 1x Smithing Stone (3) and 1x Smithing Stone (1) off the floor to the right, as well as the Greater Potentate's Cookbook (13) from the corpse in the corner.
Continue your way up the rocky stairway until you reach another straight platform. Before heading right, there's 1x Smithing Stone (7) on a corpse at the end of the platform (watch out for the fire slime on the ceiling again), and you can also jump across the top of the ruined wall to reach another corpse that has 1x Rada Fruit to loot from it.
You're too low down to jump back up to the ledge now, so simply drop down into the main area and climb the stairs again. Now, head right and go down the ladder.
You'll come out to a small raised ledge with a lever in the corner. Pull the lever, and watch the large metal drill structure above you start to descend into the room.
Drop down to the platform directly below you. You'll see another stone golem in the corner, and it's guarding a corpse that has a Smithscript Dagger on it, one of the new weapons in Shadow of the Erdtree.
Again, you don't have to fight the golem if you don't want to. Simply grab the dagger and then jump down onto the drill that's just been lowered into the room. Don't worry about falling in the lava if you misjudge your jump - if you're quick, you'll be able to leap back onto it without taking too much damage.
Now, run up the drill back up towards the entrance. There's a single fire slime that appears here and starts spitting fire missiles at you, so whatever you do, don't try and dodge roll past them, as you're liable to fall off. Just soak up the hits with a nice big shield if you have one, as it's much safer that way.
Once you've dealt with the fire slime, continue running up the drill until you get to the very top. Don't be tempted to jump down to the lower platforms that come into view, as these aren't new areas you haven't seen before - it's simply the start of the dungeon again. If you do jump down, you'll have to retrace your steps all the way back to the bottom of the drill again, as there's nothing new to collect there.
At the top of the drill, you'll spy that fancy-looking altar that the ghost mentioned right at the start of the dungeon. Jump off into the room, and interact with the altar.
You'll be rewarded with an Anvil Hammer and 1x Ancient Dragon Smithing Stone.
That wraps up the Ruined Forge Lava Intake, so simply take the teleporter back to the entrance, and continue your journey through the Shadow Realm.
Next destination: Dragon's Pit
Need more help? Improve your stats by finding all of Shadow of the Erdtree's Scadutree Fragment locations and Revered Spirit Ash locations. Alternatively, see which Erdtree bosses you've still got left to beat, and track down some great new early weapons to help you on your adventure.