How to break those glowing cracked statues in Elden Ring

They’re so conspicuous! And yet…

Very early into Elden Ring, I kept seeing these random, cracked, slightly glowy, conspicuous-as-hell statues. And 50 hours in, I finally know how to break them open.

Backing up a step, there are many different types of statues in this game, some of which you can directly interact with. I’m not talking about those. I mean the statues that are partially sliced open, and often embedded in the ground or toppled over. Like this one!

**Spoilers below**

If you’re anything like me, you might’ve tried two-handing your weapon, various jump attacks, and explosive throwables, to name a few tactics that seemed like a good idea at the time. No dice — at least, not that I’ve seen. Instead, you need to use a big boy.

That’s right, a big boy

Had I spent more time scoping out this stormy Limgrave hillside with several trolls roaming nearby, I probably would’ve figured out the solution way sooner. In fact, on a return visit, the a-ha moment happened organically: a giant just casually strolled through it on his way to my character, and the cracked statue exploded, revealing a shiny item.

What was inside? Unfortunately, just some low-level smithing stones — a useful find in the early game, but far less helpful down the road when they’re more plentiful.

If you missed the statue pictured above, you might’ve seen this one in the heart of Stormveil Castle, which you would’ve gone past on your way to the boss.

It’s not-so-conveniently resting next to a large, gnarly enemy — large enough to make me think it could also be strong enough to bust open the statue… but it didn’t work for me.

Instead, I had to lure a troll back the way I came. That did the trick.

Interestingly, it seems that at least one other large-scale enemy in Elden Ring is capable of opening these glowing cracked statues. I’m going to be purposefully vague here.

Trolls aren’t the only solution

Since it’s further into the game, I won’t say where this tunnel is at, or what kind of regularly scheduled monstrosity was able to hit it hard enough, but here’s the before pic.

And here’s the after:

From every example I’ve seen, these glowing cracked statues just give out various tiers of upgrade materials for your weapons and shields. A potentially good haul, but not necessarily something I’d want to go out of my way to get, if that makes sense.

This is just the latest in a line of “Wow, I really overthought that!” moments in the game. I’m loving it. Especially now that I’ve hit a brick wall and it’s time to go wandering again.

Jordan Devore

Jordan is a founding member of Destructoid and poster of seemingly random pictures. They are anything but random.