Elden Ring: How Fall Damage Works (2024)

Elden Ring has followed in Sekiro's footsteps and has a dedicated jump button. In the world of soulsborne games, this is revolutionary. It's opened up new methods of traversal that seemed impossible just a few years ago. Small ledge in your way? That's no longer a game-breaking obstacle, just hop on over it.

But, with a new mechanic comes experimentation, and with jumping, this means falling to your death a lot. Fall damage in Elden Ring seems random, but it isn't. There are a lot of times when you'll aim for the bushes and end up a runeless bloodstain instead. Here's everything - and we mean everything - you need to know about how fall damage works in Elden Ring.

Updated November 29, 2023, by Sean Murray: Don't die to an unfortunate misjudged jump. This guide to fall damage in Elden Ring is here to help you leap from ledges without fear (or at least less fear). We've also updated this guide with improved formatting and more links to other helpful Elden Ring topics.

How Fall Damage And Death Are Calculated

We've all looked at a drop and thought, "Aye, I'll live that, no problem," only to hear our Tarnished's knees crumble into dust upon impact with the ground below. We've survived similar falls and barely taken any damage, so what gives? It can make the game feel random, but it's actually very precise. Thanks to YouTuber Illusory Wall, we know how it all works now.

You take fall damage starting at 16m and die anytime you fall 20m or more. That's a really narrow window, so it feels like you should survive a 30m fall if you can survive a 15m one with no damage at all.

A 16m fall will cause you to lose 30 percent of your health. This is a fixed ratio, meaning increasing your Vigor won't make you take less fall damage. A 19.99m fall will make you lose 50 percent of your health. A centimeter more and you die. The damage increases in a fairly linear way from 16m to 20m.

The reason it all feels so random is that it's really hard to judge a difference of four meters in a video game. Also, when you fall almost 20m you have half your health left, so intuitively it feels like you should be able to survive a much bigger fall, but that's simply not the case. No matter what, if you drop more than 20m, you die.

There are also some specific parts of the game where a fall below 20m will kill you, but that's because you passed through a kill plane designed to stop you from falling for ages and then dying anyway, or getting stuck. The most notable examples of this are when you fall off shore-side cliffs, into the ocean, and down elevator shafts.

How To Survive A Fall

It's important to reiterate, there is nothing that will help you survive a drop of 20m or more. However, there are some items and tools that will help you judge a fall or mitigate all fall damage up to 20m entirely.

Rainbow Stones are your best bet for avoiding falls that will outright kill you. Just drop one off a ledge you're eyeing up and Rainbow Stones shatter if the fall is deadly. You can find them in the overworld and also craft them as soon as you have the Crafting Kit. This is sold by Merchant Kale at the Church of Elleh site of grace, right in your initial spawn area in Limgrave.

Where To Find The Crafting Kit
Zoomed Out Map	Zoomed In Map	In-Game View

If you have to do a big jump, try colliding with the slopes or edges on your way down. If they jut out enough, these can count as landing spots and help break your fall, turning them into loads of small ones rather than one big one.

The Longtail Cat Talisman, Soft Cotton, and Assassin's Approach incantation will negate all fall damage, but a 20m drop will still kill you. They only turn fall damage off, they don't increase the distance you can fall.

Longtail Cat Talisman	Soft Cotton	Assassin's Approach
This can be found in the Acadamy of Raya Lucaria, at the bottom of the big lift. Go via the Schoolhouse Classroom site of grace. It's on a body behind a rogue pendulum statue. These are hard to kill, so feel free to doge past it, loot the body, and get the hell out of there.	You need the Nomadic Cookbook 7 to make this. It's found in Limgrave at the end of a broken bridge just east of Stormveil Castle. It takes three Rowa Fruit and one Smouldering Butterfly to make one piece.	You need to get the Assassin's Prayerbook from the Roundtable Hold and give it to someone who can teach incantations. Down the stairs by the blacksmith and through two sets of Stonesword Key doors. The incantation costs 12 FP to cast and requires 10 Faith to use.

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Honestly, none of these are really worth your while as they only prevent you from taking damage during that four-meter window, and it's not that much damage anyway. The only need for any of this is if you're already badly damaged and there's a long drop you absolutely have to make.

Do Dexterity And Equip Load Affect Fall Damage?

In short: Yes, both Dexterity and your equipment load have an effect on the amount of fall damage you take in Elden Ring.

Dexterity can reduce the amount of fall damage you take, but before you go respeccing into it, you'll want to know how little it really does. Below 21 Dexterity, the stat has no bearing on your fall damage. From 21 to 99 Dexterity, you take slightly less fall damage. At 99 Dexterity, you take 20 percent less fall damage overall.

Your equipment load can increase the amount of fall damage you take. A light or medium equip load will have no impact on your fall damage, but a heavy or overloaded equip load will increase fall damage. At exactly 70 percent equip load - the amount needed to become heavy - you won't see a damage increase, but from 71 percent to 100 percent the damage you take will increase up to 10 percent. Falling just under 20m will now do 55 percent damage, and 16m will do 33 percent damage. Nothing to write home about.

These differences are so minuscule they're barely worth writing or thinking about, but people want to know the answers, so here they are. In short: Don't worry about your Dexterity or equip load, it barely matters in relation to fall damage.

Does Time Spent Falling Matter And Can Torrent's Double Jump Save You?

No. It doesn't matter how long you fall for, it has no impact on the damage you take. If you get stuck in a fall animation for around 12 seconds, you die, but that's just to stop players from falling out-of-bounds forever or getting stuck on a glitched rock. A longer fall may kill you, but that's likely because if you fall further, the two tend to go hand in hand.

Can the goodest boy in Soulsborne history save you with their trusty double jump? Also no. Torrent's double jump won't save you from a lethal fall. The only thing that seems to matter to Elden Ring is where you started and where you land. If you land 20m below where you started, you die.

Two other notable occurrences when falling on Torrent include him dying but you living, and some spirit springs having different radii that protect you from fall damage. The former is likely because Torrent already had low health or because he fell 20m and then the animation that knocks you off caused you to land just under 20m. The latter is possibly due to how the developers intended you to explore areas, but the crux of it is some spirit springs have a much larger fall protection radius than others. Play it safe and just aim for the bullseye.