Elden Ring: How to get the rare madness talisman Aged One’s Exultation

Note: this talisman can only be found in a late-game area of Shadow of the Erdtree and as such, this guide contains heavy spoilers. It’s recommended for players to discover the entire map before reading any further, to prevent spoilers.

The Abyssal Woods is a pretty scary place, even for seasoned Elden Ring veterans. No other area in the game directly tells you to hide and sneak around to survive, and at first glance, it seems like the game means it. Roaming the map are five Untouchables, enemies smothered in the madness that permeates the land, so much so that if they catch sight of you once, you’re (likely) dead. The enemies have a very long range madness-inflicting gaze, can teleport directly to your location (even if you break line of sight), and should they land a grab on you, will inflict massive damage and madness buildup. This grab is so deadly, that even characters with 50 Vigor and wearing gear with high Focus will still likely be one-shot. Even should you manage to sneak up on them, you’ll find that the madness aura that surrounds them also protects them from all known types of damage. No wonder the game tells you not to engage them in combat.

However, for the truly brave, there is one other way to deal with them — just like most terrifying things in Souls games, the real solution is parrying. That’s right, if you manage to parry the grab attack, you will not only knock them off balance, allowing for a critical hit, but you will remove their madness aura, preventing the passive madness buildup and allowing you to damage them normally. To parry these monstrosities successfully, you need a shield that has the Parry skill — we personally used the Gilded Iron Shield — and you need to parry right when the grab animation is about to connect with your character.

While four of the Untouchables drop Swollen Grapes, a crafting material used alongside Spiritgrave Stones to craft Surging Frenzied Flame consumables, one Untouchable drops an exceedingly rare talisman: the Aged One’s Exultation. Specifically, this Untouchable is the first one found to the south of the Woodland Trail Site of Grace, found in the image above. This talisman boosts your character’s attack power by approximately 15% whenever madness is inflicted in the vicinity of your character — including if you have madness inflicted on yourself. This buff only lasts for approximately one minute, but it can be refreshed once it falls off.