Mohg, Lord of Blood isn’t just another optional demigod you check off out of habit in NG+. He’s a hard gate that directly controls how fast you reach Elden Ring’s most lucrative endgame systems, and in NG+ that time cost compounds fast. Whether you’re rushing toward DLC access, setting up a high-efficiency rune farm, or shaving hours off a completionist route, Mohg dictates your pacing more than almost any other boss.
In NG+, enemy scaling makes casual detours expensive. Every extra dungeon, every unnecessary shard hunt, and every misrouted grace adds friction. Mohg sits at the center of that friction because his arena unlocks content that dramatically outpaces anything in the base game for runes, gear progression, and future-proofing your save.
DLC Access Is Locked Behind Mohg
FromSoftware tied Shadow of the Erdtree access directly to Mohg’s defeat, and there’s no workaround. You cannot brute-force your way into the DLC through exploration, glitches, or NG+ carryover flags. If Mohg lives, the DLC door stays shut, period.
For NG+ veterans, this changes his role from “late-game optional” to “mandatory early priority.” The faster you reach and kill Mohg, the sooner you can transition into DLC scaling, which is tuned for high-level characters and rewards aggressive progression. Any delay here is wasted time that could be spent earning DLC-tier gear and runes.
Mohgwyn Palace Is Still the Best Rune Engine in NG+
Even after multiple balance passes, Mohgwyn Palace remains unmatched for raw rune-per-minute efficiency. The Albinauric farm near the Palace Approach Ledge-Road grace scales absurdly well into NG+, especially when paired with AoE-heavy builds or optimized bleed setups.
Killing Mohg early means unlocking this farm before NG+ enemy health spikes fully slow you down elsewhere. For speed-focused players, this translates to faster stat caps, quicker weapon experimentation, and fewer forced respecs. You’re not farming because you’re underleveled; you’re farming to stay ahead of the curve.
Varre’s Questline Is the Ultimate Time-Saver
Walking to Mohg the “intended” way through the Consecrated Snowfield is a routing disaster in NG+. It’s long, dangerous, and filled with mandatory combat that offers terrible returns on time invested. Varre’s questline teleport skips all of it.
By completing Varre’s early steps and using the Pureblood Knight’s Medal, you gain instant access to Mohgwyn Palace with minimal combat and zero late-game prerequisites. This is why offline-friendly invasion methods, correct dialogue timing, and avoiding quest-breaking mistakes matter so much. One missed step can lock you into hours of unnecessary travel.
Mohg Defines Your NG+ Priorities
In NG+, Mohg isn’t about challenge or lore curiosity. He’s about efficiency. Killing him early accelerates everything that comes after: DLC readiness, rune generation, build optimization, and overall route cleanliness.
Treat Mohg like a keystone boss, not a side objective. If your goal is to move fast and stay powerful, every smart NG+ run starts with a plan to reach him as soon as possible.
NG+ Prerequisites Checklist: What Carries Over and What You Must Re-Do
Before you sprint toward Mohg in NG+, you need to understand what the game quietly resets and what it lets you keep. This is where most “fast” runs bleed time without realizing it. Mohg access is gated less by difficulty and more by knowledge of NG+ persistence rules.
Treat this checklist like a pre-run loadout screen. If something isn’t locked in before you start NG+, you’re adding unnecessary steps to an already tight route.
What Carries Over Into NG+
Your character power is almost entirely preserved, which is why early Mohg kills are so consistent in NG+. Levels, stats, equipped weapons, armor, talismans, Spirit Ashes, Flask upgrades, and upgrade materials all carry over intact. If you capped Vigor, optimized DPS breakpoints, or prepped bleed or frost setups, you’re good to go from the first step.
Most key items also persist, including the Pureblood Knight’s Medal if you already earned it in a previous cycle. This is the single biggest time save available. If you have it in your inventory at NG+ start, you can teleport straight to Mohgwyn Palace immediately after reaching a Site of Grace.
Remembrances, crafting materials, cookbooks, and maps also stay unlocked. This means zero friction for consumable-heavy routes, buff stacking, or aggressive flask usage on Mohg himself.
What Does NOT Carry Over (And Matters for Mohg)
All NPC quest progression resets completely, and that includes Varre. Even if you completed his quest in your previous run, you must re-trigger every step in NG+ unless you already possess the medal. This is where most speedrunners either save minutes or lose hours.
Great Runes are wiped, meaning Godrick’s, Radahn’s, and Mohg’s must be re-earned. While Mohg doesn’t require a Great Rune to access, this matters if you rely on rune activation for early DPS checks elsewhere in your route.
Site of Grace unlocks are also reset. You’ll need to physically reach Rose Church again to advance Varre’s dialogue if you’re doing the quest fresh. There is no shortcut here other than clean movement and avoiding optional fights.
Absolute Fastest Path If You Already Have the Pureblood Knight’s Medal
If the medal carried over, your route is brutally simple. Touch the First Step grace, open your inventory, and use the medal. This bypasses Varre entirely, skips Liurnia, and drops you into Mohgwyn Palace within minutes of NG+ start.
From there, it’s a straight shot through Palace Approach Ledge-Road to both the Albinauric farm and Mohg himself. This is the gold-standard NG+ setup for DLC-ready characters and anyone optimizing rune-per-minute from the opening hour.
If you’re planning multiple NG+ cycles, this alone justifies completing Varre’s quest once and never thinking about it again.
Fastest Path If You Must Re-Do Varre’s Quest
If you don’t have the medal, Varre becomes mandatory. Talk to him at the First Step, then progress until Roundtable Hold unlocks. Return to Varre and exhaust his dialogue so he relocates to Rose Church in Liurnia.
At Rose Church, accept the Festering Bloody Fingers and complete three invasions. These can be done online or offline via NPC invasion targets, which is critical for consistency. You do not need to win; you only need to invade and exit or die.
Afterward, obtain the Lord of Blood’s Favor and soak it in maiden blood. The fastest method is the dead maiden at the Church of Inhibition, which avoids combat-heavy legacy dungeons. Return the item to Varre, receive the Pureblood Knight’s Medal, and teleport immediately.
Common NG+ Mistakes That Kill Your Mohg Timing
The biggest mistake is assuming Varre progresses automatically. Missing a single dialogue exhaust forces unnecessary backtracking, especially if he doesn’t move to Rose Church. Always re-talk until his lines repeat.
Another major time loss is overcommitting to combat during invasions. Winning does nothing extra, and chasing kills just burns minutes. Invade, disengage, and reset.
Finally, players often delay Mohg “until later” because they feel overpowered already. In NG+, that mindset costs you access to the best rune engine and delays DLC scaling advantages. Mohg isn’t optional if speed and efficiency are your priorities.
Fastest Route Overview: Varre Questline Teleport vs. Consecrated Snowfield Portal
When it comes to reaching Mohg, Lord of Blood in NG+, there are only two legitimate routes in the entire game. One is surgically fast, repeatable, and available almost immediately. The other is brutally long, progression-gated, and functionally a trap for anyone optimizing time.
Understanding why the Varre teleport dominates isn’t just about speedrunning mentality. It’s about minimizing mandatory bosses, legacy dungeons, and traversal friction so Mohg becomes an early-game objective instead of a late-game detour.
Route 1: Varre Questline Teleport (Optimal, NG+ Meta)
The Pureblood Knight’s Medal route is the uncontested fastest and most reliable way to reach Mohgwyn Palace. In NG+, all required flags can be triggered within the opening hour, often faster if you’re efficient with fast travel and dialogue exhaustion.
The key advantage is front-loaded access. You bypass Liurnia exploration, skip both halves of the Haligtree Medallion, and completely avoid the Consecrated Snowfield’s visibility debuffs and high-aggro enemies. From a routing perspective, this removes multiple RNG-heavy traversal segments that can easily cost 30–60 minutes.
This route is also offline-safe. NPC invasions fully satisfy Varre’s requirements, which means no waiting, no matchmaking delays, and zero risk of getting hard-stalled by PvP skill gaps. For consistency across multiple NG+ cycles, nothing else comes close.
Route 2: Consecrated Snowfield Portal (Slow, Mandatory Progression)
The Snowfield portal is technically the “intended” way to reach Mohg, but it’s catastrophically slow for NG+ players. You must defeat Morgott, clear Castle Sol for the Haligtree Secret Medallion, reach the Mountaintops of the Giants, and then navigate the Snowfield’s low-visibility zones.
Even with Torrent mastery and optimized movement, the Snowfield introduces forced combat, long rides between Sites of Grace, and constant aggro from enemies with oversized hitboxes. One bad stagger or dismount can snowball into multiple deaths, especially if you’re rushing under-leveled for time efficiency.
From a speed standpoint, this route exists only if Varre’s quest is completely unavailable. It is never optimal, never safer, and never faster for players whose goal is early Mohg access or DLC readiness.
Why Speedrunners and NG+ Veterans Always Choose Varre
Varre’s teleport compresses the entire Mohg route into a single inventory action. No overworld traversal, no legacy dungeon clears, and no mandatory boss gauntlets beyond what NG+ already assumes you’ve mastered.
More importantly, it aligns with early-game NG+ power curves. Mohgwyn Palace unlocks Albinauric farming immediately, letting you spike levels, upgrade weapons, and normalize difficulty before tackling scaling-heavy content or DLC zones.
If your priority is efficiency, consistency, and unlocking endgame systems as fast as possible, there is no real choice here. The Varre questline teleport isn’t just faster. It defines the NG+ routing meta.
Step-by-Step Speed Path: Limgrave to Rose Church in Under 10 Minutes
Once Varre is established as the optimal vector, the only thing that matters is execution. This segment is about collapsing Limgrave and Liurnia traversal into a clean, repeatable sprint with zero unnecessary combat and minimal grace touches. On NG+, your damage, survivability, and Torrent control let you bypass almost everything the game expects you to engage with here.
The goal is simple: trigger Varre’s relocation to Rose Church as fast as possible, then immediately prep his invasion requirement. Any deviation from this path introduces wasted travel time or RNG-heavy encounters that offer nothing in return.
Spawn in Limgrave and Trigger Varre
Start at The First Step Site of Grace. Ignore Tree Sentinel entirely; even killing him is a time loss unless you’re routing runes for a separate goal. Talk to White-Faced Varre, exhaust his dialogue, and answer “They didn’t seem right” when prompted to ensure his questline flags correctly.
Immediately fast travel to the Church of Elleh. Touch the grace if you haven’t already in this cycle, then fast travel straight to the Gatefront Site of Grace. This hard-locks the early Limgrave network and prevents unnecessary backtracking later.
Rush Margit and Godrick Without Detours
Sprint through Stormgate using Torrent to slip past aggro. You do not need to clear the ballista zone; zigzag through projectile lanes and hug the right wall to avoid knock-offs. Enter Margit’s arena and delete him with raw DPS. On NG+, this fight should take under 30 seconds even with conservative play.
Proceed directly through Stormveil Castle using the main gate. The side path is safer for NG, but slower for veterans. Run past Exile mobs, ignore loot, and abuse I-frames through flamethrower hitboxes. Godrick is another burst check; phase transitions are your only real time sink here, so push damage aggressively.
Fast-Track to Liurnia and the Rose Church
After Godrick, immediately touch the Secluded Cell grace and then the Lake-Facing Cliffs grace to unlock Liurnia fast travel. From there, mount Torrent and ride northwest, skirting the lake’s shallow edges to avoid lobster aggro. Do not cut through Academy Gate Town; the elevation changes and enemy density cost more time than they save.
Your target is the Rose Church in southwestern Liurnia. Approach from the east to avoid Sanguine Noble pathing. Once inside, speak to Varre again and exhaust all dialogue until he hands you the Festering Bloody Fingers.
Offline-Safe Invasions and Common Time Losses
You only need three invasions to progress, and they can all be done offline. Use the Festering Bloody Fingers anywhere convenient; win or lose doesn’t matter. The fastest option is invading near a grace where you can immediately sever or get killed to reset.
Common mistakes here are overthinking invasions, riding across half the map to find “safe” spots, or accidentally skipping Varre’s initial dialogue back in Limgrave. If Varre isn’t at Rose Church, it’s always a dialogue flag issue, not a progression one.
Executed cleanly, this entire sequence takes under 10 minutes from spawn to invasion-ready. At that point, Mohgwyn Palace is effectively unlocked, and the rest of the route becomes a straight-line sprint rather than a world tour.
Varre’s Invasion Requirement: Online, Offline, and Guaranteed NPC Alternatives
This is the final gate before Varre hands you the pureblood medal and unlocks Mohgwyn Palace early. It’s also where most “fast” routes quietly hemorrhage time due to confusion, unnecessary travel, or bad assumptions about online requirements. On NG+, this step should be mechanical, offline-safe, and over in minutes.
Varre’s condition is simple: perform three invasions using Festering Bloody Fingers. Success is irrelevant. You do not need kills, wins, or even to load into a full fight; the game only checks that the invasion attempt completes.
Fastest Online Method (If You’re Connected)
If you’re online, invade anywhere with high traffic and a nearby grace. First Step, Main Academy Gate, or Rose Church itself all work. The moment you spawn, immediately sever with the Finger Severer or sprint into the host to get deleted.
Each invasion should take under 30 seconds end to end. Do not fight, do not emote, and do not chase; PvP is pure RNG and costs time even if you’re overgeared.
Offline-Friendly Method Using Festering Bloody Fingers
You can complete Varre’s requirement fully offline, and this is the most consistent option for speedruns or unstable connections. Use the Festering Bloody Fingers anywhere on the map; the game will attempt matchmaking, fail, and still count the invasion attempt after a short delay.
Stand next to a grace, activate the finger, wait for the invasion to resolve, then rest and repeat. No movement, no combat, no risk. This is slower per attempt than online severing, but it is 100 percent deterministic.
Guaranteed NPC Invasions (No Matchmaking, No RNG)
If you want absolute reliability with zero waiting, NPC invasions now fully satisfy Varre’s condition. This is the fastest true offline method when executed cleanly.
The optimal target is Magnus the Beast Claw in Writheblood Ruins, in the Altus Plateau. Rush Altus via the Dectus Lift or Ruin-Strewn Precipice, ride straight to the ruins, and trigger the invasion. Kill or die; both advance the counter.
If you want all three invasions handled in one location, nearby NPC invaders in Altus and Caelid can finish the requirement immediately. This route is ideal for players already grabbing medallions or pushing Altus early for NG+ scaling.
Critical Turn-In and Blood Soak Shortcut
After completing three invasions, return to Varre at Rose Church immediately. Exhaust his dialogue until he gives you the Lord of Blood’s Favor. Do not leave the area before receiving it.
For the blood soak, the fastest option is the dead maiden in the Chapel of Anticipation. Warp via the Four Belfries, interact once, then return to Varre. Church of Inhibition also works, but the Frenzy Tower and elevation changes introduce avoidable risk.
One missed dialogue line or an unfinished invasion attempt will hard-lock the medal reward. If Varre does not give the Pureblood Knight’s Medal, the issue is always an incomplete flag, never NG+ progression.
Once the medal is in your inventory, Mohgwyn Palace is no longer optional content. You have effectively skipped half the midgame, and Mohg is now a straight-line objective rather than a late-game detour.
Pureblood Knight’s Medal Explained: When and How to Use the Mohgwyn Palace Teleport
At this point, Varre’s quest has done its job. The Pureblood Knight’s Medal is not a flavor item or a late-game curiosity; it is the single fastest hard skip to Mohg, Lord of Blood in NG+. Used correctly, it bypasses the Mountaintops, Consecrated Snowfield, and every legacy dungeon tied to the standard route.
This is the moment where most players lose time through hesitation or misinformation. The medal works immediately, with zero story locks, and it remains functional regardless of your rune level, shard count, or Great Rune progression.
What the Pureblood Knight’s Medal Actually Does
Using the medal teleports you directly to Mohgwyn Palace, placing you at the Palace Approach Ledge-Road grace. This is the optimal spawn point, not the Mausoleum Midpoint or the blood swamp, and it is already positioned for a straight sprint to Mohg’s arena.
There is no activation condition, no cooldown, and no failure state. You can use it from any location, including Roundtable Hold, as long as you are not in combat or mid-animation.
When to Use the Medal for Maximum Time Save
The correct answer is immediately after Varre hands it to you. There is no benefit to delaying, and every extra region you clear before Mohgwyn Palace is pure inefficiency if Mohg is your target.
NG+ veterans often overthink this step, assuming they need to stabilize builds or grab late-game upgrades first. You do not. Mohg’s Palace is tuned generously for NG+, and the route to him avoids combat almost entirely if you know the path.
How to Use the Teleport Without Wasting Seconds
Open your inventory, navigate to Key Items, and use the Pureblood Knight’s Medal. Do not hotbar it; the animation lock is identical, and hotbar misinputs cost more time than they save.
The teleport drops you in a hostile zone, but no enemies are actively aggroed on spawn. Take two steps forward, touch the grace immediately, and reset the area. This locks in the checkpoint and eliminates any death tax during the sprint.
Common Medal Mistakes That Slow Down NG+ Runs
The most common error is assuming the Snowfield portal is required. That route exists for players who ignored Varre, and it is several hours slower in NG+ terms.
Another frequent mistake is trying to fight through the blood swamp or Albinauric packs on arrival. You do not need runes, drops, or combat here. Torrent sprinting and clean line routing beat every DPS check on this map.
Finally, if the medal is missing, the cause is always Varre’s flags. An incomplete invasion count, unsoaked Favor, or unexhausted dialogue will block it. NG+ does not change this logic, and the game never bugs this step.
Why This Teleport Is the Definitive DLC-Ready Route
Using the Pureblood Knight’s Medal turns Mohg into an early-game kill in NG+, not an endgame wall. You are entering his zone with full flask upgrades, optimized weapons, and complete mechanical knowledge.
For players rushing DLC access or clean boss sequencing, this teleport is not just fast. It is the backbone of the entire route, and everything after this point is execution, not navigation.
Common Time-Loss Mistakes That Ruin Speed Runs to Mohg
Even after locking in the Pureblood Knight’s Medal route, most NG+ speed losses happen inside Mohgwyn Palace itself. This zone punishes hesitation, overconfidence, and muscle memory from casual runs. If your goal is fastest possible access to Mohg, every mistake here compounds fast.
Over-Clearing Mohgwyn Palace Instead of Line Routing
The single biggest time sink is treating Mohgwyn Palace like a standard legacy area. Albinaurics, crows, and blood dogs are not obstacles; they are distractions baiting you into unnecessary combat.
Your route should be a clean sprint from grace to grace with zero DPS checks. If you stop to fight anything before the mausoleum approach, you are bleeding minutes for no gain.
Forgetting the Purifying Crystal Tear
Skipping the Purifying Crystal Tear is the most common fatal error in NG+ Mohg attempts. Without it, Nihil forces either a death, a panic heal dump, or a reset that erases all time savings.
Grab the tear once, slot it permanently, and forget about it. Activating the Flask during Mohg’s phase transition is faster and more reliable than trying to out-heal the ritual with raw flask spam.
Wrong Grace Order and Unnecessary Backtracking
Touching the wrong grace creates hidden inefficiencies. Palace Approach Ledge-Road is not optional, and skipping it forces longer corpse runs or sloppy resets if you die to fall damage later.
Always lock in graces in forward order, even if you feel confident. Speed runs are about consistency, not gambling on perfect execution every time.
Parkour Errors on the Mausoleum Descent
The drop-down section before Mohg is where clean runs go to die. Rolling too early, misjudging ledge spacing, or trying to rush vertical drops saves nothing and often costs everything.
Take controlled drops, buffer your landings, and reset stamina between falls. A clean descent is faster than one death and a reload, every time.
Over-Buffing and Inventory Mismanagement Before the Fog Gate
Pre-fight buff stacking is a trap unless your build is optimized for it. Fumbling through menus, swapping talismans, or reordering flasks kills momentum and invites misinputs.
Your loadout should already be locked before entering the mausoleum. If you are changing gear at the fog wall, the run was inefficient long before this point.
Summoning, Co-Op, or Testing RNG
Summons introduce loading delays, AI variance, and boss HP scaling that works against speed. Even spirit ashes cost animation time and positional control during Mohg’s opening phase.
A clean solo kill with predictable aggro patterns is always faster. Speed runs thrive on repeatable outcomes, not hoping RNG behaves.
Resting or Farming “Just in Case”
Resting to top off flasks, farming Albinaurics for runes, or detouring for upgrades defeats the entire purpose of the NG+ route. You already have everything you need to kill Mohg efficiently.
If you find yourself thinking “one quick stop,” the run is already off-pace. Execution, not preparation, is what closes this route cleanly.
Optional Prep Before Mohg: Minimal Gear, Flask Setup, and Skip-Friendly Tips
At this point in the route, anything you do before touching Mohg’s fog gate should either increase DPS or reduce execution risk. If it doesn’t do one of those two things, it’s dead weight. NG+ gives you the freedom to ignore comfort setups and focus purely on speed, consistency, and clean inputs.
This prep is optional by design. You can kill Mohg with zero changes, but these micro-optimizations shave seconds and smooth out the fight enough to protect the run from stupid deaths.
Minimal Gear That Actually Matters
Your weapon should already be upgraded to its NG+ ceiling, and that’s non-negotiable. Mohg’s HP pool is massive, and under-tuned weapons drag the fight into extra Nihil cycles, which is the opposite of fast. Pick whatever your build already deletes bosses with; respecs are wasted time.
Equip the Purifying Crystal Tear if you have it. It trivializes Nihil and lets you stay aggressive instead of panic-chugging. If you don’t have it, the fight is still fast, just riskier, so don’t detour unless you already grabbed it earlier in the playthrough.
Talismans should be locked before entering Mohgwyn Palace. Anything that boosts raw damage, bleed buildup, or stamina efficiency is better than defensive crutches. If a talisman only helps you survive mistakes, it’s not contributing to speed.
Flask Allocation for Speed, Not Safety
Reallocate flasks at the last grace before the descent, not at the fog gate. In NG+, you want maximum offensive uptime, which usually means leaning heavier into FP if your build uses skills or incantations for burst damage.
Crimson flasks are only there to survive chip damage or a missed dodge. If you’re drinking more than two in the fight, something else went wrong. Cerulean flasks should be just enough to fuel your kill plan without forcing a mid-fight reallocation panic.
Your Flask of Wondrous Physick should already be mapped and muscle-memoried. Use it either at the fog gate or immediately after the opening aggro, not mid-combo where animation lock can get you clipped.
Skip-Friendly Mental Checklist Before the Fog
Before you drop into the mausoleum, mentally confirm three things: weapon is equipped, flasks are set, and no menu inputs are required after the fog wall. This is how you avoid the classic NG+ mistake of realizing something’s wrong while Mohg is already throwing bloodflame across the arena.
Do not rest again unless you died. Resting resets enemy states and costs more time than it ever saves. Clean runs are about forward momentum, not comfort resets.
If you’re playing offline, nothing about this prep changes. Varre’s questline teleport already did the heavy lifting, and Mohg himself behaves identically. Consistency beats convenience every single time.
One Last Speedrunner Rule Before You Commit
Once you step into Mohg’s arena, you’re done preparing. No swaps, no buffs you forgot, no “I’ll adjust mid-fight.” Commit to the plan and execute.
Mohg is a DPS check disguised as a spectacle boss. Hit hard, manage spacing, and end the fight before it has a chance to slow you down. That mindset is what turns NG+ into a straight shot instead of a slog.