Once players have managed to grind through Elden Ring's typically punishing gameplay, challenging demigods, and gathering Great Runes in their quest to restore the Ring, they are confronted with a few choices. They may finish the task they were given at the start of the game, reuniting the Elden Ring and becoming the Elden Lord themselves. They may also choose to usurp Queen Marika and let Ranni the Witch take her place, ushering in an Age of Stars and destroying the old, corrupting power structure. Gamers may take another route, deciding that the system is broken and everything needs to be burned to the ground so that something else can take place.
Becoming the Lord of Frenzied Flame and choosing to embrace the power of the Three Fingers is probably the most unique of the six endings on offer at the end of Elden Ring. While most of them see the player take up the mantle of Elden Lord and maintain the status quo to some extent, choosing instead to become the Lord of Frenzied Flame brings about a massive change to the Lands Between, and essentially destroys everything in the hope that something better might eventually be born from the ashes. It's a typical FromSoftware ending; on the surface, it appears quite bleak, dark, and a little violent, but there's some hopeful optimism in the mix as well.
How To Get The Frenzied Flame Ending
While some endings, like the Age of Fracture or the Age of Order, don't really require the player to go out of their way too much to achieve them, the Lord of Frenzied Flame needs some quite specific circumstances to come about. If gamers wish to pursue this ending, there are a few things they'll need to bear in mind. Rejecting the Elden Lord title and putting faith in the Three Fingers instead locks out all other endings, so players need to be sure before they commit. Gamers will need to complete Irina and Edgar’s questline in Weeping Penninsula, with Irina's death triggering Edgar's quest for revenge.
Players will also need to give Hyetta Shabriri Grapes at Purified Ruins and Gate Town Bridge, and a Fingerprint Grape at Bellum Church. They will then need to meet Hyetta at the Subterranean Shunning-Grounds and enter through the Frenzied Flame door after removing all gear and items. Inheriting the frenzied flame before the Forge of the Giants and pursuing this path with the Three Fingers causes Melina to abandon the player as she declares them "no longer fit." There will be an additional scene at the end of the game where Melina declares her intention to deliver "Destined Death" to them no matter what.
Why Destroying Everything Might Be For The Best
While it's still up for debate what the "best" or most "canon" ending is for Elden Ring, many players believe that the Lord of Frenzied Flame ending is one of the worst. Destroying the Erdtree, removing the need for an Elden Lord, and basically burning everything down does feel semi-apocalyptic, and the cutscene for this ending looks pretty intense (especially compared to most of the others).
Destruction may seem like a needlessly cruel or over-the-top choice for the end of Elden Ring, but it's not the first FromSoftware game to offer players this option. Fire has even been used in apparently positive ways in previous games, like linking the flame in Dark Souls 3, and usually, nothing in FromSoftware games is as it first appears.
While most of the endings in Elden Ring see order and peace restored with the new age brought in by the player's Elden Lord, some could argue that this isn't that great either. The "default" Age of Fracture ending could potentially lead to all of this simply happening again, and the Age of Duskborn and Age of Order are just variations on this theme. The Age of Stars shakes things up a bit and dismantles a lot of the systems, but maybe burning it all to the ground is the best course of action.
Being the Elden Lord didn't turn out too great for previous characters, and giving the Outer Gods and the Greater Will too much control seems like a recipe for disaster. Some players have even theorized that Elden Ring is a prequel to the Dark Souls series, with the Lord of Frenzied Flame clearing the way for these games to take place. While the long-term implications of this ending aren't yet clear, it does present interesting options to players who want to break the cycle.
Elden Ring is available for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Series X|S.
