After toughing it out in Stormveil Castle, one Elden Ring player discovered that a devious NPC has been stealing their runes.
The world of Elden Ring is an unforgiving one, presenting players with no small number of difficult choices. Players already have trouble trusting the game's tutorial indicators, so it's no wonder that they have a similar problem with Elden Ring's NPCs.
Many characters carry an air of suspicion about them, yet offer benefits or helpful advice to move the player along. It's a challenge in and of itself just to figure out who to trust - and one Elden Ring player learned that the hard way. While exploring Stormveil Castle, Redditor u/Yunagi found that a supposedly trustworthy NPC has actually been secretly stealing their runes when they die.
Stormveil Castle is already a notoriously difficult area - even for a FromSoftware game. As one of a collection of hardcore Legacy Dungeons, this castle is home to an incredibly powerful Boss: Godrick the Grafted. Godrick's castle is sealed off by a massive main gate, operated by none other than Gatekeeper Gostoc.
ELDEN RING CHARACTER STEALS RUNES WHEN YOU DIE IN STORMVEIL CASTLE
Players can find Gatekeeper Gostoc in a room by Stormveil Castle's main gate. He'll then describe a secret side entrance, one less crowded by guards or other enemies. Like many others, Redditor u/Yunagi considered following his advice.
Unfortunately, after taking Gatekeeper Gostoc's side entrance, u/Yunagi discovered something was happening to their runes. Every time they died, they picked up less runes than they originally had - a pretty significant loss, especially in a Legacy Dungeon. Shocked, they quickly realized who the culprit was - Gatekeeper Gostoc himself.
Despite offering a "safer" passage through the castle, Gatekeeper Gostoc is an entirely devious character. He stalks the player through the castle, stealing a percentage of their runes when they die. According to the Elden Ring wiki, this percentage is as high as 30% of the player's runes.
Additionally, u/Yunagi and a few other Elden Ring players found that they can actually catch Gostoc in the act. Given that he trails the player's path through the castle, players can actually spot him following them:
As if all that weren't enough, Gatekeeper Gostoc will also push the player directly into danger. Aiming to snag more of the player's runes, he'll push the player directly into a room with a Banished Knight.
Other players were equally surprised by this discovery. Finally, they had an answer as to why their runes kept dwindling with each try.
In the end, u/Yunagi points out that players can avoid all this by killing Gatekeeper Gostoc. That's certainly one way of addressing the issue - the world of Elden Ring is, after all, a brutal one.
Elden Ring is available to play on PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC.