Bilawal Bashir 
Elden Ring players who want to overhaul their character build can do so with a Larval Tear and a respec, if they know the right location.
With the Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree DLC out, many players want to respec to tackle new challenges and try new weapons and spells. Some players dumped all points in buffing their health, or maybe they want to roll a strength-based character for the DLC; respec can help. Everything can be respec-ed, but it requires some effort.
Players seeking to respec their skills and attributes in Elden Ring can only do so after spending some time in the game. The respec unlocks after players tackle a challenging boss, defeat them, and then gain the ability to change attributes.
How to do a character respec in Elden Ring
To respec stats in Elden Ring, players must defeat Rennala, Queen of the Full Moon, and obtain a rare item called Larval Tears.
The first thing players need to do is to play the game until they reach the Academy of Raya Lucaria. The Academy is located in the Liurnia of the Lakes region and is likely to be the second major region that players visit in the game.
The academy’s major boss is Rennala, Queen of the Full Moon. Defeating her yields a remembrance and the Great Rune of the Unborn. Rennala doesn’t die when players defeat her but instead becomes an NPC that can be found in her boss arena.
To respec, talk with Rennala and select the “Rebirth” option. This allows players to retain their character level, but redistribute their levels however they want. Nothing comes easy in a FromSoftware game, though. Players need to offer a Larval Tear for each rebirth, and they’re one of the rarer items in Elden Ring.
Larval Tear locations in Elden Ring
Larval Tears can be found in a variety of locations both as drops from enemies and purchasing them from merchants. The majority of guaranteed Larval Tear finds in the Lands Between come from corpses and as loot.
Players will be introduced to the idea of a respec early on in an Elden Ring playthrough, likely long before they find Rennala. This is because there are “jumpscare” enemies that appear to be weak, only to suddenly transform into a much stronger one. These enemies drop a Larval Tear upon defeat.
Here’s the location of each of these Larval Tear enemies:
- Wandering Noble that transforms into Runebear in Agheel Lake South
- Giant Crayfish that transforms into Grafted Scion near Boilprawn Shack
- Wandering Noble that transforms into Troll by Caelid Highway South site of grace
- Wandering Noble that transforms into Lion Guardian southeast of Windmill Village
- Putrid Corpse that transforms into Giant Wormface near Road of Iniquity site of grace on Mount Gelmir
- Wandering Noble that transforms into Runebear near Inner Consecrated Snowfield Site of Grace
All of these can be obtained once per save during the base game. There are many others that can be found, however.
Nokron, Eternal City is the best location to find a number of Larval Tears quickly. While they cannot be “farmed” there, numerous enemies drop them. The giant, sentient silver balls that chase down players in Nokron, Eternal City offer a guaranteed Larval Tear drop, and the Mimic Tear boss fight is guaranteed to drop two.
Alongside this are two merchants that sell Larval Tears. These merchants include:
- Pidia, Carian Servant in Caria Manor
- Nomadic Merchant in Siofra River
The Land of Shadows in the Elden Ring DLC makes it quite easy to farm Larval Tears to respec characters. The Land of Shadows adds a new type of Larval Tear that looks different, but works the same way. These are found in glowing rings of gravestones that appear at night. Here is every one of their locations:
While there are only nine of these locations, this still allows players to respec their Elden Ring character nine times, or switch back and forth between builds four times. Alternatively, players can always simply save scum. This can be done on consoles by uploading save data to cloud storage, respeccing, then downloading the previous save data. PC players can do this by backing up and importing their Elden Ring save data.
How many times can I respec in Elden Ring?
Players can respec the stats as long as they have a Larval Tear in their possession. However, there are only a limited number of tears in each game cycle. Players can hypothetically have a friend drop them, though they also have the same limitation.
There are 18 Larval Tears in Elden Ring and nine more in the DLC, allowing players to go through 27 rebirths. However, starting a New Game+ resets the count so players can regain the tears.
