How to get the Black Dumpling in Elden Ring

Most pieces of armour in Elden Ring are just that, bits of armour made to give you that extra bit of defence and stop you from getting smashed to pieces by the first boss you come across. But there’s one particular piece of armour that doesn’t just protect you, but buffs your own damage too.

The Black Dumpling is one of the most intriguing items in Elden Ring with a pretty strange use case. We’re going to tell you how to get it and how it works so you can start putting it to good use in your own builds.

Where to get the Black Dumpling in Elden Ring

To get the Black Dumpling, you’re going to need to farm Albinauric Crawlers. These enemies can be found across the Lands Between, but there are three specific locations close to Sites of Grace that we recommend. These are:

• Outside the room containing the Volcano Manor Guest Hall Site of Grace (Recommended)
• In the dungeon underneath Volcano Manor, near where the Ash of War: Royal Knight’s Resolve is found
• The entrance to Subterranean Shunning-Grounds in Leyndell, near the Avenue Balcony Site of Grace

We recommend the Guest Hall Site of Grace in Volcano Manor to farm at. It’s easy to access and you can quickly kill six Albinauric Crawlers here before resetting at the Grace to start again.

Be aware before you get started that this helmet has an incredibly low drop rate – we’re talking less than 1%. For that reason, you’re going to want to increase your drop rate as much as possible, by levelling up your Arcade stat and using items such as the Silver Scarab Talisman or Silver-Pickled Fowl Foot on your runs.

How does the Black Dumpling work in Elden Ring?

Now, most bits of armour don’t require a guide to tell you how they work, but the Black Dumpling is different. The item’s description reads ‘Raises attack power when the wearer suffers from madness’. It’s not entirely clear what this means, but luckily the answer is simple. Once your madness bar is full and you’re inflicted with madness, the Black Dumpling will begin to glow and you’ll receive a 10% boost to all damage you deal for 60 seconds.

Of course, you can’t always fight against enemies that will inflict madness, so you’ll want to use the Howl of Shabiri or The Flame of Frenzy Incantations to purposely inflict the status on yourself. Just remember that as long as you have Madness, you’ll lose HP and FP over time, so use it wisely.