Elden Ring Community Quests Give Tarnished Another Reason to Return

I don’t need much convincing to return to the Lands Between.

I’ve played Elden Ring through three times, including a run with Shadow of the Erdtree, so naturally Bandai Namco has decided I need another reason to go back.

Elden Ring players are being called back to the Lands Between for a new series of Community Quests, with four month-long challenges running from September through December 2026.

Rather than giving individual players another traditional questline to complete, the event sets enormous shared targets for the entire community, ranging from summoning familiar NPCs to collecting millions of items.

And yes, one of the challenges involves Warrior Jar Alexander.

The pot people have my full support.

The first challenge, Path of the Tarnished, runs from September 1 until September 28.

Players collectively need to summon Sorcerer Rogier 300,000 times, obtain two million Stonesword Keys, collect 1.5 million Cookbooks and somehow get their hands on one million Sacred Tears.

Completing the community targets will unlock commemorative artwork created by Shimaq, alongside a Sorcerer Rogier Twitch chat badge designed by Carsondrewit.

There’s no special platform requirement to participate. Bandai Namco says players simply need to play Elden Ring on their preferred platform during the relevant quest period, with progress updates and reminders being shared through the official Elden Ring Discord server.

Considering how determined this community can be when presented with something unnecessarily difficult, two million Stonesword Keys suddenly doesn’t sound quite as ridiculous as it probably should.

Path of the Tarnished is only the beginning.

October brings Path of the Cardinal Sin, asking the community to commit 50,000 Cardinal Sins, summon three million White Phantoms, obtain one million Festering Bloody Fingers and collect three million Golden Seeds.

Then Path of the Elden Lord begins on November 2, with players tasked with summoning Warrior Jar Alexander 50,000 times, collecting three million Rune Arcs, obtaining 500,000 Legendary Armaments and upgrading 100,000 Standard Spirit Ashes to +8.

Finally, December’s Path of Shadows takes players into Shadow of the Erdtree territory.

The final questline calls for one million Scadutree Fragments, 15,000 trips to the Abyssal Woods, 10,000 drinks of St. Trina’s Nectar, 70,000 Larval Tears and 500,000 Revered Spirit Ashes before the event concludes on December 28.

Each questline offers commemorative artwork and a themed Twitch chat badge, while Bandai Namco is also holding a separate Discord emote contest alongside the in-game challenges.

The Community Quests arrive just days after another reason for players to revisit Elden Ring.

The Tarnished Edition launched for Nintendo Switch 2 on August 28, bringing the base game and Shadow of the Erdtree together on a Nintendo platform for the first time.

New content also arrived for existing players through the Tarnished Pack, introducing the Heavy Knight and Idus Knight starting classes, four armour sets and three new appearance options for Torrent.

Bandai Namco lists the pack at $4.99, with availability across PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S and Steam.

Patch 1.17 laid the groundwork a day earlier, adding support for the new content alongside balance changes, additional weapons, new NPC invasion events and adjustments to weapons, skills, sorceries and incantations.

So there is considerably more waiting for returning Tarnished than a few community counters.

There aren’t many games I would willingly play through three times.

Elden Ring is one of them.

My first journey through the Lands Between gave me some of my favourite gaming memories, although a worrying number involved confidently approaching something before discovering it could kill me in approximately four seconds.

Then there was Malenia.

Three days.

Three days.

That’s how long I spent trying to beat her on my first playthrough. I even made videos documenting the struggle, so unfortunately there is evidence of my gradual descent into madness.

But that’s also part of why I hold Elden Ring so dear. Finally overcoming something that had repeatedly flattened me into the floor made those victories genuinely memorable.

Since that first run, I’ve returned to the Lands Between twice, taken Rivers of Blood firmly into favourite-weapon territory, developed an undying loyalty to the Living Jars, and eventually ventured into the Realm of Shadow with Shadow of the Erdtree.

Now Bandai Namco is essentially asking everyone to return and do ridiculous things together.

That feels strangely appropriate for Elden Ring.

I’ll see you in the Lands Between.

I’ve apparently got an Alexander to summon.