Highlights

• Elden Ring is an open-world game with a vast landscape and a variety of non-playable characters (NPCs) to encounter with different personalities.
• Many NPCs in Elden Ring can be killed, some of which offer in-game benefits upon their death, while others should be spared for their value when alive.
• Players have the role of judge, jury, and executioner when deciding whether to kill or spare these NPCs.

Elden Ring is a vast open-world game that is full of brutal enemies for the player to slay and also be slain by. The Tarnished are given an amazing landscape to discover and search from top to bottom. Along the way, they will come across a myriad of different personalities. The land is filled with non-playable characters to discover and their stories to be told. Some of these characters are warm and inviting, while others are not so inviting.

Whether the NPC is one of the more favorable or not, many of them have something in common: mortality. Yes, many of the NPCs in Elden Ring are killable just like FromSoftware's other classics. Some NPCs players should even kill for the in-game benefits that their death may bestow upon them. Conversely, other characters should be left alone as they are too valuable alive.

Either way, it is up to the Tarnished to be the Judge, Jury, and Executioner of these NPCs.

Updated October 7th, 2023 by Jacob Buchalter: With Elden Ring fans eagerly and eternally awaiting the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC, the game is almost always on the minds of the gaming community as a whole. And, while it's never recommended to kill any NPCs on a first playthrough, plenty of players do it. And, sometimes, there are even a few NPCs where the rewards are still pretty worthwhile. For the people who aren't all too invested in each and every NPC story in Elden Ring, here are the ones that are actually worth killing early on.

12 Iron Fist Alexander

Starting things off with a sacrilegious first choice, the beloved pot-bro Iron Fist Alexander actually has a pretty decent reward if killed early. That said, very few people naturally ended up doing this, as he's just such a beloved character. However, players who don't seem to relate to the giant boisterous sentient pot can kill him as soon as they meet him near the Saintsbridge Site of Grace for the Warrior Jar Shard Talisman. Of course, if they do his entire questline they'll get the Shard of Alexander Talisman, which is just a flat improvement on the Warrior Jar Shard, but this reward isn't gained until players are basically at the end of the game.

11 Knight Diallos

While at first Diallos looks every bit the standard naive noble with natural good looks, this guy is actually a pretty tragic character. He's someone who sees himself as the 'shame' of House Hoslow, and he's constantly down on himself and assuming everyone around him sees him the same way.

However, if players progress his questline all the way through, they'll see that he finally starts making his own choices and finding his own happiness in Jarburg, but it takes quite a bit of progress into Elden Ring for Diallos to get to Jarburg. So, if players don't really care about his questline, his story, or the Companion Jar Talisman, they can kill him as soon as they find him outside of the Roundtable Hold to get both the Hoslow's Petal Whip and his Mask.

10 Tanith Of The Volcano Manor

The whole Volcano Manor side plot and the concepts it brings along with it are probably some of the most interesting parts of Elden Ring's story. While the Greater Will, Marika, and the Tarnished are also all interesting, Rykard and the Volcano manor give players a lot of information about the time before the Erdtree, info about the Crucible Knights, and reveals that there is a faction in the Lands Between that resists the Erdtree's influence.

However, players have to really dig into conversation logs and item descriptions to get a clear picture of this, and most just see the Volcano Manor as an optional path to reaching Rykard faster and gaining some neat extra gear along the way. For the people who aren't into this idea, however, they can 'kill' Tanith in the Volcano Manor. Alternatively, they could just progress the Vocalno Manor questline to the end and then kill her at the end of it, either way works, but waiting until Tanith is 'feasting' to kill her does reward something extra with the Aspect of the Crucible: Breath.

9 Kenneth Haight

Kenneth Haight can only be described as a damsel in distress. Found in the game's first area called Limgrave, Kenneth has been overthrown in his castle and is stranded on a broken piece of a building. When passing by, the Tarnished can hear Kenneth calling for help.

Unfortunately for Kenneth though, he drops a very important resource for the early game. Upon death, Kenneth drops a Golden Seed which is used to increase the number of healing flasks the player can hold. Guess the Tarnished is not the Knight in shining armor Kenneth was hoping for.

8 Gatekeeper Gostoc

At Elden Ring's first major dungeon Stormveil, players will notice that the front gate is completely shut tight. With the inability to press on, they will go through a little room on the side of the gate where they will meet a peculiar man. Gatekeeper Gostoc reveals his disdain for Godrick and aids the player in traversing the castle. Gostoc is not as generous as he seems though.

At various points in the dungeon, Gostoc can be found stalking the player or conveniently being seen in hidden places near the player as they progress. This is because when the player dies, Gostoc will take 30 percent of the Runes the player dropped. Not only that, but Gostoc will even actively try to trap the players in different dangerous scenarios to get them killed, such as closing them in that pitch-black room with the Banished Knight.

7 Merchant Kale & All The Other Nomadic Merchants

The Nomadic Merchants are NPCs that players will often come across during their adventures throughout the Lands Between. These helpful fellows provide the player with an abundance of different resources and items, for the right price. Granted, if players look into their backstory and dig deep, they'll find that the Nomadic Merchants probably have the most horrifying backstory out of anyone in Elden Ring, but that doesn't stop them from being very helpful NPCs.

Most of them are extremely nice and friendly, and this makes killing them so much harder. The merchants are scattered throughout the world, so it can be pretty annoying to find them again. Because of this, most players end up killing them to get their Bell Bearings, making the Twin Maiden Husks a one-stop shop for all of their needs.

6 Knight Bernahl

Found at the Warmaster's Shack in Limgrave, Knight Bernahl aids the Tarnished by selling/teaching them all kinds of Ashes of War. This can be extremely helpful to players at the beginning of the campaign because this early on, most Elden Ring players are severely lacking in AoW choices. Granted, Bernahl does provide only the most basic ones, but these can still absolutely turn the tide of battle.

Knight Bernahl is also one of the main NPCs of the Volcano Manor quest line, during which he goes by Recusant Bernahl instead of Knight Bernahl. At the end of this questline, however, he leaves the Manor and will invade the player later on. Killing him during this invasion is recommended rather than doing it earlier, but either way works.

5 Ensha Of The Royal Remains

This brazen skeletal man is a servant of Gideon Ofnir who can be found leaning against Gideon's door frame in Roundtable Hold. Unsuspecting players were most likely caught by surprise when they got attacked by Ensha in the hold after obtaining either of the Haligtree Secret Medallion Halves.

This event triggers Ensha to turn into an invader and attack the Tarnished where they feel most safe, AKA in the Roundtable Hold. Because of this, most players are forced to kill Ensha anyways, which is fine considering his lack of conversation made it pretty difficult to get attached to him anyway.

4 Patches The Untethered

When speaking about killable NPCs in a FromSoftware game it would be blasphemous to omit the king of killable NPCs. Patches is a staple in the series because he will constantly try to hoodwink and betray the player in just about every appearance. Veterans of the franchise are no strangers to the antics of this trickster, whether it's in Bloodborne, Armored Core, Dark Souls, or Elden Ring.

In Elden Ring specifically, Patches has a lot of different interactions to be had. Although many players have a soft spot for Patches, for some reason, killing him is actually a pretty decent decision in the early game of Elden Ring. After slaying Patches players will acquire a +7 Spear which is a considerable weapon for how early someone can fight him, though these rewards aren't nearly as good as the rewards players can get from going through his entire questline, buying everything from his shop, and keeping him around as an NPC Merchant.

3 Millicent

Whilst traveling the plague-ridden lands of Caelid, being a helping hand to someone is just about the last thing on most players' minds. After traveling through poison swamps, getting trampled by giant birds, running from those bloodthirsty massive 'dogs', and even getting eviscerated by giant shrimp, players will end up being pretty suspicious of just about anything.

However, if the player does take care to search some interesting places in Caelid they will come across a sick woman named Millicent. Millicent is plagued by the Scarlet Rot, as she has some sort of odd 'genetic' connection to Malenia, and she asks the Tarnished's aid in curing her. After this, the player can continue her quest all the way until deep into Miquella's Haligtree and is then given a series of choices. One of the options is to kill Millicent, granting the player Millicent's Prosthesis Talisman. Additionally, players can kill her even earlier, though her questline is one of the most robust ones in the entirety of the game.

2 Preceptor Seluvis

One of the most pretentious characters in any of From's games makes his appearance relatively early on in The Lands Between. Seluvis is a conceited, deeply twisted, and outwardly snobby sorcerer that the Tarnished meets during Ranni's incredibly long questline.

Technically the player cannot 'directly' kill this NPC, but while doing the quest for Ranni, Seluvis will die. Unfortunately, the player is not the one to swing the sword, but they will certainly reap the benefits, and they can actively choose to be the direct reason why Seluvis is killed. Once he's dead, Seluvis will drop his Bell Bearing that gives access to his twisted shop of Spirit Ash 'puppets'.

1 Blaidd, The Shadow Of Ranni The Witch

During Ranni's quest, players will meet some of Elden Ring's best and worst NPCs. One of the good ones, however, is Blaidd. Blaidd is Ranni's associate, shadow, and most trusted guardian. He will help the Tarnished throughout the game, even during boss fights like Radahn's, and is often a welcome friendly face whenever he appears.

Blaidd, however, will turn hostile at the end of Ranni's quest, and there's no avoiding this. This heart-wrenching fight is hard to get through, not because of difficulty, but because Blaidd is a friend. Killing him does give the player his amazing armor though, and a mask modeled after Blaidd's head/face can also be found nearby as well. This is a very rare example where players actually get absolutely nothing for killing Blaidd early, so it's one of the only entries on here that players will need to follow the questline for the rewards.

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