The Stone-Sheathed Sword is one of the strangest weapons in Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree, and I absolutely love it.
At first glance, the Stone-Sheathed Sword seems like a fine strength weapon. It starts with C scaling in Strength and that can become B scaling with some Somber Smithing Stones. With a little extra effort, though, the sword can become an awesome dark- or light-infused Strength/Faith weapon.
There are three different altars hidden in the Land of Shadow that will give you the sword. Once you have it in your possession, the other two altars will let you transform it into the Sword of Light or Sword of Darkness. Each version adds Holy damage and Faith scaling, and the only difference is whether the new weapon art spews dark clouds or brilliant light.
You can transform the sword back and forth between Light and Darkness by revisiting the altars, but you won’t be able to get it back to its stone form once you’ve done your first transformation. If you’ve got a Strength/Faith build, this is an awesome little weapon, so here are the various places you can pick it up.
Fog Rift Catacombs
If you want to get your hands on the Stone-Sheathed Sword as early as possible, you’re going to need to head into the Fog Rift Catacombs. This sprawling dungeon is located in the woods northwest of the Castle Front Site of Grace, and you can walk there the moment you enter the Land of Shadow.
There are multiple levels to explore in the catacombs and tons of different things to discover, so for the sake of brevity we’re going to focus specifically on grabbing the sword here. First you’ll need to get to the elevator that takes you down to the second level of the dungeon. From there, you’ll come to a long room with an altar at the end and a spiked ceiling looming above.
Get to the altar, and then stand near the railing to trigger the ceiling dropping. You’ll see a space in the ceiling that you can jump into, and then you’ll be able to ride up to a secret area. Once you’ve reached the top, trigger the ceiling to drop again, and this time jump onto the ceiling and run to the back right corner. Here you’ll find an altar that either contains the Stone-Sheathed Sword or, if you’ve already picked up the sword elsewhere, allows you to transform it into either the Sword of Light or Sword of Darkness.
Ruins of Unte
The second place you can pick up the Stone-Sheathed Sword is in the Ruins of Unte beneath Shadow Keep. Check out our guide for how to get to the Ruins, and then start at the Ruins of Unte Site of Grace. You should notice an inactive Furnace Golem wedged into the side of a building directly ahead of you. I’m sorry about this, but you’re going to need to bring the golem back to life. Climb onto the roof of the building next to it and throw a Hefty Furnace Pot right at its head.
As the golem gets up, he’ll unblock an entrance to a courtyard. Fight the golem if you want, or you can follow my lead and run straight past it and into the courtyard. Quickly go to the right to avoid his massive fire blast, and you should notice a small altar. It will either give you the Stone-Sheathed Sword, or if you picked up the Sword from the Fog Rift Catacombs, it will allow you to transform it into the Sword of Darkness.
Ancient Ruins of Rauh
The Ancient Ruins of Rauh are another labyrinthine area in Shadow of the Erdtree, and they also mark the DLC’s point of no return. Hidden in the area is an altar that will let you get the Sword of Light, assuming you already picked up the Stone-Sheathed Sword from the Fog Rift Catacombs. First, you should travel to the Rauh Ancient Ruins, West Site of Grace and get ready to move quickly.
Head west up a set of stairs, and you’ll reach a large square room. There’s a hallway on the west side of this room that will lead you to an elevator. Ride the elevator up, and you should see a small area with a gazebo in the middle.
Run straight past the gazebo, into a rot-infested area, and turn to your right. There will be another elevator that takes you down. Once you reach the bottom, take a left and run all the way down the hall until you come to a room that’s filled with my least favorite enemy in the entire game: Kindred.
If you have the patience of god, or the fighting prowess of a demigod, you can kill all the Kindred before continuing, but I’d recommend just running straight to the back of the room. You should see an opening on the left and right side of the wall. It doesn’t matter which exit you take, they both lead to the same balcony.
From here you’ll see a tower in the distance, and getting there is as easy as running straight across the gaping chasm beneath you. There’s an invisible floor here that’s usually marked by messages from other players, but don’t worry if there’s no markings. The path runs straight across to the tower, so it’s easy to stay on. You’ll find the altar as soon as you make it across.
