How to complete the Shifting Earth: The Crater event in Elden Ring Nightreign

Elden Ring Nightreign crater - Fire Prelate
(Image credit: FromSoftware)

Completing the Shifting Earth: The Crater event in Elden Ring Nightreign is fairly challenging, but the reward is well worth it. If you delve into this mysterious volcano that appears in the north of Limveld, you'll find the Special Smithing Table and be able to forge a legendary weapon, which is to say, upgrade any weapon into a legendary one.

While you can claim named legendary weapons in Elden Ring Nightreign from bosses, this is the only way to create a new, custom legendary, and so it's fairly desirable depending on the Nightlord you're facing. It's worth noting that the Shifting Earth: The Crater event will only last a few runs for you, whether you succeed or fail, so if you want to complete it and get the achievement, you should head down there sooner rather than later.

Since the Shifting Earth events rotate fully (there are four overall) and then become random, it'll take a long time for this event to come back, but considering it's the first event for everyone, chances are you'll matchmake with other players who have it active on the map—at least at first—even after it ends for you. All said, here's how to complete the Shifting Earth: The Crater event, find the Special Smithing Table, and forge a legendary weapon.

Elden Ring Nightreign Special Smithing Table location

As mentioned in the pop-up you get when the first Shifting Earth: The Crater event begins, you need to find "An ancient temple built to honour the smithing arts," which means tracking down the Special Smithing Table. This special location where you can turn any weapon into a legendary is mentioned in the Nightreign visual codex in the Roundtable Hold, but it doesn't mention that this table is the final goal of The Crater event.

Delving into the crater is quite tricky, so I'd recommend doing this on day two of your expedition, especially as the night two boss location always seems to be just to the north of the crater when it's active on the map, meaning you'll be close to it when you're done.

To complete the Shifting Earth: The Crater event, follow these steps:

  1. Drop down into the crater—though not into the lava at the very bottom as this is instant death—and descend around its circumference
  2. You'll eventually come to face a Fire Prelate enemy—ignore him and drop through the hole he's standing in front of
  3. Continue along the lower walkway, past the group of patrolling Thorn Sorcerers with flaming staves, before turning left to spy a golden fog door guarded by two Fire Monks and a Fire Prelate
  4. Defeat the Fire Prelates boss, go through the door, turn right and run down the descending corridor with the Flame Chariots, before turning right again back out onto the walkway
  5. Continue along, avoiding the Finger Creeper enemies, until you find a broken section of the walkway that descends into a little crater
  6. Drop off the bottom of this onto the pillar below and keep dropping down until you reach the Special Smithing Table altar—be very careful here not to drop into the lava and die
  7. Defeat the Magma Wyrm that appears in front of the altar

Do all that and you're ready to interact with the Special Smithing Table, complete the event, and even get an achievement for it.

How to forge a legendary weapon in Elden Ring Nightreign

If you interact with the Special Smithing Table, you'll be given the option to upgrade one of the weapons in your inventory. This can be any rarity, but it's important to note you can only do this once per character, per expedition, so everyone in your squad can claim a legendary.

Provided you have the Relic that gives you the necessary damage type on your starting weapon, this can be a great way of guaranteeing you get a legendary weapon that matches the Nightlord's weakness, since you can upgrade your starter weapon if you choose.

Once done, use the spectral hawk tree just by the edge of the lava to escape the crater and save yourself a long and impossible climb back up.

Elden Ring Nightreign tipsNightreign tier listBest Nightreign rune farm route Best Nightreign team compsNightreign best relicsNightreign bosses list

Elden Ring Nightreign tips - Start your run right
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Nightreign best relics - The rite stuff
Nightreign bosses list - Every Nightlord

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Sean Martin
Senior Guides Writer

Sean's first PC games were Full Throttle and Total Annihilation and his taste has stayed much the same since. When not scouring games for secrets or bashing his head against puzzles, you'll find him revisiting old Total War campaigns, agonizing over his Destiny 2 fit, or still trying to finish the Horus Heresy. Sean has also written for EDGE, Eurogamer, PCGamesN, Wireframe, EGMNOW, and Inverse.

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