What does absolution do in Elden Ring? Answered

Absolution in Elden Ring functions similarly to previous games in the Souls series. When absolved, two things happen. First, all angry NPCs who are hostile due to the player’s action revert to a neutral state and interact as normal. Second, any merchant NPCs that don’t drop Bell Bearings on death will be resurrected, opening their inventories for sale once again.

Request absolution requires a rare key item called Celestial Dew. Once it’s in hand, head to the Church of Vows in Liurnia of the Lakes.

Go to the altar surrounded by water at the back of the church and, when prompted, select Atone and use the Celestial Dew to complete the absolution.

There’s one hangup, though. There are only a few vials of Celestial Dew in Elden Ring per playthrough, meaning you can only kill and anger NPCs so many times. Most of them are found in locations visited during Ranni’s questline, with most in either Nokron or Nokstella. The merchant in Ainsel River also sells a single vial.

Bear in mind that NPCs who drop Bell Bearings, specifically named ones like D, Rogier, Iji, and others will not come back to life following absolution. These NPCs have a significant story impact, and as such, the choices players make around them carry much more weight. These and other NPCs are directly tied to the various endings in Elden Ring, and their death makes reaching those endings impossible. That is a deliberate design choice on FromSoftware’s part, as important NPC death in Souls games is almost always permanent.