The Lands Between is rife with hidden areas to explore, secrets to discover, and optional bosses to fight. That being said, it’s easy to miss a few things here and there in a game as massive as Elden Ring. While it’s perfectly fine to skip over some items and locations, there are a few secret areas that are very significant and contain some of the best items in the game.
The Cathedral of the Forsaken is home to Mohg, the Omen, a boss who is almost as challenging as his counterpart Mohg, Lord of Blood. If you want to obtain certain secret items like the Fingerprint Shield and the Frenzied Flame Seal, you’ll need to reach the Cathedral of the Forsaken first. To get there, you’ll first need to visit the Subterranean Shunning Grounds, accessible from Leyndell, Royal Capital.
Leyndell, Royal Capital
As you progress through the Lands Between, you’ll eventually reach the mid-game area of Altus Plateu. This sprawling golden landscape is full of beautiful sights and dangerous foes, but its most notable feature is the massive city it contains. Leyndell is a necessary area to visit during your adventure, so if you haven’t reached it yet then don’t worry because you will come across it eventually. Once you’re inside Leyndell, you should progress through the zone until you have the opportunity to enter the Subterranean Shunning Grounds. The entrance is easy to miss and the area itself is optional, so make sure you know where to go if you want to eventually reach the Cathedral of the Forsaken.
The Subterranean Shunning Grounds can be accessed easily by starting at the Avenue Balcony Site of Grace, and then heading down the staircase directly ahead of you. Pass through the large metal doors at the bottom of the staircase, then immediately turn left and approach the balcony railing. Follow the balcony railing to the right until you see a small rooftop you can jump to, and then jump off the balcony and land on the rooftop. Once you’re on the roof, jump off to the right and head straight while hugging the the wall to the right of you. You will pass by a large arched doorway if you are going the right direction. Ignore the doorway and keep heading straight while hugging the wall, and you will quickly see a small well. At this point, all you have to do is jump into the well and follow the linear path that leads to the Subterranean Shunning Grounds.
Subterranean Shunning Grounds
Once you’ve reached the sewers, you’ll need to do a bit more travelling before you reach the cathedral. The sewer area is quite a large maze, so it’ll be helpful if you know where you’re going. Start out at the Underground Roadside Site of Grace, then exit the room you’re in and head left until you reach the end of the corridor. Once you’re at the end, jump into the large opening in the grated floor on the left side. You’ll land inside a long tunnel full of rats, so be careful and keep moving. Head northwest through the tunnel for a few seconds and then immediately turn right at the first opportunity to enter a narrow, dark pipe. Follow along the path of the pipe, but be wary and take it slow because almost immediately after entering there will be a practically invisible hole in the bottom of the pipe. This can be avoided by running around it or jumping over it, but if you don’t know it’s there then you will almost certainly fall into it. If you end up falling down the hole then you’ll need to fight your way back up to the starting point, which can be quite a dangerous inconvenience.
Assuming you’ve successfully avoided the hole or already started over, continue on and make sure to watch out for the second hole in the floor of the pipe. This one is just as easy to miss as the first one, and equally as annoying to fall into. If you successfully reach the end of the pipe, you can turn right and pass through the gated doorway. Continue following the path, and watch out for the slug ambush that happens shortly after you pass through the door. Once you reach an exit room with a ladder, an omen will jump from the ledge to attack you. You may need to fight him, but if you’re quick enough you can avoid him and get up the ladder before he can catch you. Once you’re up the ladder, go straight and pass through the large metal doors that are dead ahead of you. As soon as you exit the doorway, you will find yourself on a tight ledge with a narrow staircase. Ignore the staircase to your right, and carefully walk off the ledge to your left. You will land below on yet another narrow stairway, and this one you can follow down until you exit into a hallway full of putrid corpses. Run through the hallway and follow the path until you reach a staircase that leads down to a ladder. However, don’t go down the ladder. Instead, turn around and walk into the doorway that is on the lower level adjacent to the staircase.
Enter a pipe through the doorway, and then immediately turn right when the pipe forks in two directions. You will be briefly running uphill if you are going the right way. Continue going straight until you reach a dead end with a basilisk, and then turn right again. You will once again run uphill, and this time you will exit into a large room with another deadly omen. This one is especially powerful, and nearly impossible to avoid, so be prepared for a rough fight. It uses a combination of hard-hitting magic attacks and fast swipes with its sword to try to overwhelm you, so keep moving and stay on your toes. If you are dead set on avoiding it, your best bet is to throw a firebomb or alluring skull somewhere away from the ladder in the far west corner of the room, and then sprinting for the ladder and climbing up as fast as you can while it’s briefly distracted. Either way, your goal is to get up that ladder that sits directly behind the omen. Once you make it up the ladder, you will pass through a small arched doorway and enter a large room full of pipes that you can walk on. Before you walk across the pipes, it’s very important to go straight across the wooden walkway and open the large gate doors ahead of you. Opening these doors will allow you to have a shortcut that connects directly to the original Underground Roadside Site of Grace you started at in case you die anywhere in the next section.
After you’ve opened the shortcut doors, walk across the pipe you just passed by and follow it until you reach the end at the most elevated point in the room. There are a few fanged imps that will try to snipe you and ambush you in order to knock you off the pipe, so stay alert and be grateful for the shortcut you just opened. Once you reach the end of the pipe, make a running jump off to the left and land on the raised wooden platform below. Then turn right through the arched doorway, but watch out for the fanged imp that will body-block you from exiting to the other side. It’s advisable to kill this one as quickly as possible, or else you’ll need to roll-spam your way through. Once you reach the wooden platform on the other side, there will be a shortcut ladder you can kick down, as well as a pipe with a large hole in the top. Jump to the pipe, and enter through the hole in its ceiling.
Go straight and follow along the pipe until you get the pipe forks to the left, and then immediately take the left turn. As you follow the pipe down and to the right, you will eventually come to another hole in the ground. This time, go ahead and jump down the hole. After you land, continue going straight until the pipe forks again, and then take a left. If you did everything right, you’ll end up at a ladder. Head down the ladder and you’ll be in a room full of living jars. You don’t need to fight them, and it’s probably better that you avoid them after your long trek to get to this point. Simply walk to the right side of the room, and ride the elevator down to the next Site of Grace at the bottom. Once you’ve rested at the Forsaken Depths Site of Grace, all you need to do is head directly through the doorway ahead of you and follow the staircase down to the boss room fog door. Once you pass through the fog, you’ll finally arrive at the Cathedral of the Forsaken. Now all that’s left is for you to defeat Mohg, the Omen, and then you can claim the cathedral for yourself.
