I have lost count of how many times I rode through Caelid ignoring that one jagged cut in the cliffside, only to realize later it was hiding one of Elden Ring's most useful early-game trinkets. The Abandoned Cave is not a grand legacy dungeon; it is more like a splinter under the region's fingernail—small, irritating, and easy to miss until it starts paying you in runes.

As of 2026, this detour still remains one of my favorite stops because the payoff is basically a passive income upgrade for every fight that follows: the Gold Scarab Talisman. If you're still exploring every cave, fort, and ruin in the Lands Between, this is one location you should not skip.

Where to Find the Abandoned Cave

The entrance sits east of the Smoldering Wall in Caelid. On the map, it looks like a little nick in the canyon edge, but when you're on foot, the approach can be surprisingly awkward. You have two main options:

  • Jump over the canyon from the higher ledge.

  • Use the exposed tree branches to scale down inside the cave.

I prefer the tree branch route because Torrent can be a stubborn mule on that jump. The cave's mouth is low, damp, and framed by the usual Caelid unpleasantness, so if the air starts tasting like rot and copper, you're close.

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What's Inside the Abandoned Cave

Once you actually drop inside, the cave feels less like a dungeon and more like a collapsed lung: tight, wet, and full of things that want to nibble on you. Here's a quick loot table so you know what to grab:

Category Items
Upgrade Materials Aeonian Butterfly, Toxic Mushroom
Equipment & Consumables Fire Grease, Venomous Fang
Talisman Gold Scarab Talisman

The upgrade materials are nothing to write home about if you've already spent time in Caelid, but the Venomous Fang and Fire Grease are decent extras. The real prize, though, is the Gold Scarab Talisman.

Enemies and Bosses

The cave is not exactly a relaxing sightseeing tour. The main things standing between you and the talisman are:

  • 🐀 Rats — They swarm, bleed, and generally act like furry landmines in the dark.

  • 🧪 Poison Spellcaster — Annoying support that punishes you for standing still.

  • ⚔️ Cleanrot Knight (Sickle) and Cleanrot Knight (Spear) — The two bosses of the cave.

Those two Cleanrot Knights are the gatekeepers. They fight like a pair of rusty scissors: one pokes, one slices, and both will punish greed. On defeat, they drop 7,000 runes, which is a nice bonus, but the main reward is the Gold Scarab Talisman.

I won't pretend the boss fight is a cakewalk. On my first run I walked in with two flasks and a bad attitude, and the Cleanrot Knights folded me like a cheap map. Go in with a plan, bring some healing, and use the cave's tight space to isolate one knight if possible. If you have any spirit ash that can hold aggro, this is the moment to use it.

Why You Should Bother

The Gold Scarab Talisman might not look like much, but its effect is the kind of thing that compounds over an entire playthrough. It increases the runes you earn from defeated enemies, which turns every skirmish into a better paycheck. Even if you're already deep into 2026 with multiple characters, the Abandoned Cave is worth revisiting on any new build. It's not a long detour, the loot is useful, and once that talisman is slotted, the rest of the Lands Between starts paying you a little more for your trouble.