Elden Ring: How to Cure Scarlet Rot

Scarlet Rot is one of Elden Ring‘s deadliest status ailments. If you’ve made your way to Caelid, east of Limgrave, you’re all too familiar with the red poison. It can kill you almost before you even know what’s happening. So how do you cure Scarlet Rot? 

Several of the enemies in Caelid inflict Scarlet Rot, and the Erdtree Avatar in the northern part of the area near Rotview Balcony has a devastating ground-pound attack that employs the stuff. The area’s Abandoned Cave, where you find the Golden Scarab Talisman, is full of it, and there’s even an entire location full of Scarlet Rot later on.

When hit with Scarlet Rot, your status effect bar will fill almost instantly, and the poison gashes your HP even faster. Having higher Immunity helps mitigate the effect. This quick Elden Ring guide will tell you how to cure Scarlet Rot, as well as where to find the cookbook for Preserving Boluses so you’ll have its crafting recipe.

How to Cure Scarlet Rot in Elden Ring with Preserving Boluses

To cure Scarlet Rot in Elden Ring, you’ll need Preserving Boluses. This item “alleviates Scarlet Rot buildup and cures Rot.” If you run into a mass of enemies or fight the aforementioned Erdtree Avatar in the area, it’s likely you won’t be able to cure the affliction fast enough once it sets in.

Be sure to add it to your quick item menu and have it selected at all times in areas with Scarlet Rot, like Caelid and the Lake of Rot. Even having it set to a Pouch slot may not be useful. Regardless, do not let the status bar get more than midway before using Preserving Boluses. 

Note: You can ride your horse through swamps and other bodies of water that have Scarlet Rot without being exposed to the status effect. The same goes for areas with liquid poison.

Where to Find Preserving Boluses

You can find a few Preserving Boluses near Rotview Balcony, as well as in several other odd places across The Lands Between. But you can’t rely on picking them up in the environment when you may need to cure Scarlet Rot more often.

Instead, you’ll need the Preserving Boluses crafting recipe, which you get from finding the Armorer’s Cookbook [6].

Where to Find the Armorer’s Cookbook [6] Location 

You can find the Armorer’s Cookbook [6] location in Siofra River, just northwest of the Siofra River Bank Site of Grace. From the Site of Grace, climb up the rocks to your left (west). At the top, turn left again, then go between the large granite/white stone column on your left and the cliff on your right. 

Just ahead, you’ll see a small camp with two Ancestral Spirits, one on the left and right. The Armorer’s Cookbook [6] item is on a corpse near the Spirit on the right. Kill them to grab it or swoop in with Torrent and swoop out. 

Preserving Boluses Crafting Recipe

Once you have the Armorer’s Cookbook [6], you can craft Preserving Boluses to cure Scarlet Rot by opening your Crafting menu and scrolling to the item, which requires:

• x2 Dewkissed Herba
• x1 Crystal Cave Moss
• x1 Sacramental Bud

As the item description for Sacramental Bud points out, it’s a difficult item to find, and though we know it’s elsewhere, we’ve only run across Crystal Cave Moss in Groveside Cave. However, the point is that you likely won’t be able to craft Preserving Boluses to cure Scarlet Rot at will, so it’s a good idea to be careful anywhere Scarlet Rot is located. 

Use the Flame, Cleanse Me Incantation

The Flame, Cleanse Me Incantation can also cure Scarlet Rot and alleviate Scarlet Rot buildup of the status effect. You can find this Incantation in Liurnia of the Lakes at a Fire Monk camp southeast of the Church of Vows or fairly well north of the Gate Town Bridge Site of Grace. 

The Incantation itself is on a corpse on the right side of the camp; it’s directly opposite the flaming stone bowls in the middle of the area. 

But that’s that for how to cure Scarlet Rot in Elden Ring. Head over to our ever-growing guides hub for more tips and tricks to lead you through the Lands Between, such as how to beat Crystalians or the Red Wolf of Radagon. If you don’t yet know how to Guard Counter, it can save your skin. We have a guide for that, too.