3 lovable NPCs in Elden Ring whose lives you ruin with your help

Typical for FromSoftware games, Elden Ring also has a number of questlines from different characters. While most of them range from weird to creepy or even evil, there are some friendly faces too. But some of the quests also have an evil twist – you want to help, but it only leads to the downfall of these NPCs. We give you three examples.

Not only does Elden Ring have an enigmatic game world, its inhabitants are also quite strange. Right at the beginning of the game, for example, Varré, a weird bird with a white mask, greets you, mocking you for your virginity and prophesying an imminent death.

It’s all the nicer when you meet a friendly character. They’re rare, but they exist and often need your help.

In 3 special cases, however, help does not lead to the desired result, your support makes everything much worse. We’ll show you which characters this affects. If you are looking for a general overview and solutions to the quests, you will also find our guide with all quest lines here.

Warning: These are spoilers. If you want to be surprised what these quests entail, you should read no further.

Boc the Closer – In Search of Rebirth

What kind of NPC is this? Boc is probably the friendliest and most harmless character you can encounter in the entire game.

The strange mixture of human and beast is not only friendly and shy, but also apparently unlucky.

It’s easy to miss because it’s been bewitched and condemned to stand around as a bush in the landscape. You can redeem him from this curse.

However, the poor wretch tells you that all his belongings were lost in the nearby coastal cave. It was attacked there by its wilder “conspecifics”.

Nevertheless, he gives you his last possession, a sad 10 mushrooms. You can get his sewing kit back from the cave, and from now on, Boc will be your personal tailor, able to visually alter certain pieces of armor.

It quickly turns out that the unlucky raven has been through a lot and that he wants a new beginning. He would like to be reborn as a human.

You can give him this rebirth in his quest. But the result is not what Boc calculated.

Although he becomes a human, something went wrong with his transformation. You meet his human form, recognizable by his hat, but the sympathetic soul has become an empty vessel.

If you return again, you will find the corpse of his new human body. Although you only want to help, this has led to its tragic end. You can save his life with a simple compliment.

How to avoid your tragic end? Instead of getting him reincarnated, you need the “You are beautiful” head, which you can use to compliment others. If you use that, Boc thinks better, comes to terms with his animal form and realizes that he does not need to be reborn.

So be careful, because your actions have consequences in Elden Ring. We have listed the exact steps for Bocs Quest for you in our corresponding guide if you do not know exactly what you have to do.

Warrior Vessel Alexander – In Search of Strength

What kind of NPC is this? Alexander belongs to the people of the living vessels, which are to be found everywhere in the land between. Unlike most mute specimens, Alexander is a nice and very talkative warrior.

In your first encounter you have to free the boulder from a hole in the ground in which it somehow got stuck. Alexander then tells you that he wants to become the strongest warrior in the land between.

From now on you can meet him in different parts of the game world and even call for help in the epic boss fight against Radahn. Alexander quarrels with the fact that he is not strong enough and is constantly in search of his highest power.

You can also find him bathing in a lava flow, trying to harden himself. During your conversations, it becomes clear that he does see you as rivals on his quest. Nevertheless, he treats you with the utmost respect and is very friendly.

If you complete all steps of his quest, you can finally Alexander in the endgame territory, encounter the Decayed Farum Azula. Here the sympathetic giant pitcher challenges you to a fight to test his strength. But in what is actually a friendly duel, Alexander seems to have exceeded his limits if you are victorious.

It is clear from the conversations with him that he has no problem with the honorable death of a warrior. So it might not be such a tragic ending. Still, we found it very sad that one of the few good souls in the Elden Ring gave up so willingly, just for the sake of honor and pride.

After all, you don’t find many allies in the country in between and it hurts when you’re “responsible” for the death of a friend.

At the end of the fight, after his last words, the poor warrior vessel shatters and its remains, a large shard and the innards, become yours in the form of a powerful talisman. So you can at least carry a piece of him with you.

It’s still a very sad ending for one of the friendliest NPCs in the game, with a personality that’s very reminiscent of Catarina’s popular Dark Souls character Siegmeyer.

Unfortunately there is no way to reach another end of the quest here. However, his legacy can be continued through another quest that leads to the Homestead of the Vessels.

Thops – In search of the key to returning to his homeland

What kind of NPC is this? Thops is a former wizard from Raya Lucaria’s academy. After it was overrun and sealed in the civil war between the Caria family and the Librarians, he took refuge in the church of Irith in the lake country of Liurnia. You have to go there to start his quest line.

If you talk to him, he’ll offer to teach you some spells. He doesn’t expect anything in return, apart from the usual runes. In addition, the friendly wizard tells you about the academy and that he would like to return there to continue his studies.

However, since this is sealed and can only be opened by special shimmering stones, it is not possible for him to return home.

But on your travels you have to go there and find one of these keys yourself. If you have actually discovered it, you can also offer it to Thops instead. The good guy refuses, however, because he doesn’t want to take away the only key you can use for your main quest in the academy.

Though he might just accept and return to his beloved apprenticeship, your quest is more important to him than his homesickness. Even though you don’t really know each other.

Of course there is also another key to be found and you can give it to Thops. If you go to the academy later, however, it quickly becomes clear that it would have been better if the magician had never returned.

Because that’s where you finally find him, sitting at a desk – dead. Returning to his academy cost Thops his life and he probably would have preferred to have stayed in the church.

There are other NPCs in the Elden Ring whose fate ends tragically with your help. Outside Xtra has in its extensive list of characters that can still be found apart from these three characters YouTube video presented.

If you’re interested in more Elden Ring stories, you might enjoy this video about a community legend:

Such quests show: Elden Ring is not only quite complex in terms of gameplay and difficulty. Its story and side stories can also go deeper and bring unforeseen consequences.

The sympathetic NPCs in particular keep a place in the hearts of the fans, such as the actually lovable half-wolf Blaidd, who goes mad out of love for his mistress Ranni.

If you want more info on the main story of Elden Ring, here’s our lore round-up, which covers gods, demigods, betrayal, strange family circumstances, death and rebirth:

Elden Ring Lore: The complex story briefly explained