2022 Game of the Year Elden Ring is an open-world fantasy game developed by FromSoftware, following similar themes to their previous popular games such as the Dark Souls series, Bloodborne and Sekiro. However, being less linear than the previous games, Elden Ring features a variety of caves, dungeons and ruins to explore the across expansive Lands Between.
Among these side areas of exploration is the Carian Study Hall, which you can find east of the Academy Gate Town. By traveling up the hill east of the Eastern Liurnia Lake Shore Site of Grace, you will come directly up to the Study Hall. Once you enter the building, here’s how to navigate the hall (even after flipping it to its inverted state), find the various valuables hidden within, and finally get to the Divine Tower of Liurnia.
Carian Study Hall: Regular
The Carian Study Hall technically has two states. On first arriving here, it will be in its regular form. Upon entering the Carian Study Hall, there will be a very obvious Site of Grace, as well as a ghost left of the entryway. On both sides of this room, there are paths leading to an elevator which will take you up.
You might be tempted to jump into the archway you see pass by as you rise on the elevator, but don’t! It only leads to a bottomless pit and will end your game. Another mean trick from FromSoftware.
Once you reach the top of the elevator, to the far right you’ll find a Golden Rune (3). Watch out for the Fingercreepers above it and the spirits that will spawn. To the left is a stairway which will spawn Preceptor Miriam as you approach. Fight through the spirits that spawn while avoiding her spells. Chase this malevolent NPC up the stairs, across the bridge and up the next stairway, where you’ll find a Carian Glintstone Staff. Continue through the archway near the item and head up the elevator. When you step out onto the balcony, down the right side of the entryway you used there will be a Golden Rune (4).
To the left side will be Preceptor Miriam, a few Spirits and a ladder that takes you up onto the beams crisscrossing above. Once you climb onto the beams, go straight across and turn right at the third cross-section of beams to another ladder (watch out for the rats!). Once at the top, on the beam adjacent to you will be a Cerulean Seed Talisman.
Preceptor Miriam:
Preceptor Miriam will continuously cast spells at the player while teleporting through the area as she takes damage, all while the player is under attack from Spirits and Fingercreepers. She will still spawn in the inverted study hall even if she was killed earlier in the regular study hall. Killing her in the regular tower will drop the Magic Downpour sorcery, and killing her in the inverted tower will drop Lucidity, another of the game’s powerful sorceries. It’s worth taking her on twice as a result.
In both phases of the Study Hall, ranged attacks are particularly effective against Miriam. She will not attack if you are standing in the small room at the top of the second elevator in the regular tower. Meanwhile, the elevation advantage in the inverted tower will usually cause her attacks to strike the platform.
The Spirits that spawn with Miriam are not tied to her, so you could run past her first spawn point to clear them out before going back to fight her (relatively) safely. This is only recommended for the regular Study Hall, though.
That covers everything of note that can be done and acquired in the regular Carian Study Hall. There is still more to the area, though, if you return with a specific item in hand.
Carian Study Hall: Inverted
You’ll have noticed at the entrance of the Carian Study Hall there’s a pedestal with a prompt to place an item. Once you have progressed far enough through the Ranni questline (full details of progression through it is available in our comprehensive guide), she will give you the Carian Inverted Statue that you can place on this pedestal and use to turn the tower upside down.
The room with the Site of Grace won’t change with the rest of the tower, so head up the same paths you used before. The elevator can no longer be used since the tower is inverted, but you can fall or jump onto the lower ledges. Jump through the inverted archway and be careful of the Fingercreepers that will attack once you’re through.
Continue onwards. You’ll see a platform across from you, and Preceptor Miriam will spawn on it to begin attacking you. Immediately turn left and walk towards the far wall. Hugging the wall, carefully drop onto the ledge below. Follow the ledge towards Preceptor Miriam and the two Fingercreepers. A few Spirits will also spawn, but will get stuck on the edge of the platform.
Once you have defeated the Fingercreepers and the Spirit, drop onto the ledge where the Spirit was stuck and follow it to the right, while being careful not to get hit by Miriam’s attacks. You will come to a slope that leads down to where Preceptor Miriam is attacking from. There will also be three Fingercreepers and the other two Spirits.
After that, look down and drop onto the middle chandelier below you, then carefully jump onto the chandelier to the right. From there, drop onto the crisscrossing beams where you can collect a Glintstone Firefly. Finally, drop onto the large platform in the middle and stand on the button. The elevator will take you down to a large circular room. Head towards the inverted door, which will take you out onto a bridge towards the Divine Tower of Liurnia. Don’t forget to activate the Site of Grace.
Divine Tower Of Liurnia
As you walk across the bridge (you can also use Torrent here), a Godskin Noble miniboss will spawn to block your path. Defeating him will reward you with the Godskin Noble gear and allow you to continue across the bridge to the Divine Tower. Inside the tower is an elevator that will take you up to a Site of Grace, and at the top of the stairs by this valuable point of respite is the peak of the tower. Here, you can get the Stargazer Heirloom Talisman and the Cursemark of Death.
The Cursemark of Death is essential to completing Fia’s questline, obtaining the Age of Duskborn ending and encountering Lichdragon Fortissax.
Godskin Noble:
The Godskin Noble is a recurring boss throughout Elden Ring. While the one on the Divine Tower of Liurnia’s bridge doesn’t boast the lengthy boss health bar, it is still just as annoying.
The Godskin Noble uses quick melee attacks and also has a Blackflame ranged attack. When this foe reaches a low enough heath threshold, it will also use a roll attack that lasts a long time as well as a body slam. Torrent can be summoned while on the bridge to help dodge these techniques, or to aid you in keeping your distance if you plan to play ranged. You can also move behind the stone obstacles on the bridge, ensuring that the Godskin Noble will get stuck on them during the rolling attack.
