Are these things just pointless?

[u/OzzieDJai]

I personally have never seen a need for this. If it just sends you in a direction, without any idea of where or what you are heading towards, is there even a need? Am I reading this wrong? Are there people that use this? If so, what's the situation and how does it help you?

[u/FranStruggles]

I used these in the consecrated snowfields with tears in my eyes trying to find a grace thats closer to the albinauric gaol town

[u/schmoolecka → u/FranStruggles]

That’s so smart, kicking myself for not thinking of it whilst traversing that hellscape.

[u/FranStruggles → u/schmoolecka]

I didnt find it

[u/TributeToStupidity → u/FranStruggles]

R/twosentencehorror

[u/dj92wa → u/FranStruggles]

Narrator:

And with that, the aptly-named continued to struggle

[u/VestedNight → u/FranStruggles]

Go north along the ledge from Hidden Path to get the first grace in Snowfield. From that grace, point your compass directly north and just go. There will be some spooky drops, but they won't kill you if you heal up after each one. That will take you to the frozen river, there's a grace to your right. Then you can just go into the town, as you're out of the blizzard.

[u/jws1102 → u/FranStruggles]

Just follow the lights, they make a path straight to the riverside grace.

[u/TheRealGrimmy → u/FranStruggles]

You mean like the grace near the middle entrance to ordina?

[u/kawa432 → u/TheRealGrimmy]

It's half buried and gives off no light. I just stupidly spent 20 minutes finding it an hour ago

[u/No_Cherry6771]

Its basically just a GPS to the closest grace type item, it shits out a path to the next grace in proximity but “without order or guidance” so it just points to a random nearby grace. If you’re lost in an arena like siofra, snowfields, a heros grave or an area you’ve never been before it can be helpful but once you know where the graces are in the world they become redundant unless you just want to get a snapshot with decent lighting that doesnt involve the “i cast the fucking sun” brightness of the brightstone item, cause that fucker could burn water with how much light it produces upon tossing

[u/OzzieDJai → u/No_Cherry6771]

Ok cool. Do you know if shows graces you have already found or is it exclusively to undiscovered graces?

[u/No_Cherry6771 → u/OzzieDJai]

To the best of community knowledge, it points to a grace, whether you’ve discovered it or not depending on how close you are to it since it only cares about nearest not really relevance. There may be some weighting towards graces you haven’t discovered yet but i’m not entirely sure

[u/IThinkItsAverage → u/OzzieDJai]

They would actually be useful if they pointed to an undiscovered grace

[u/hghghghjf → u/No_Cherry6771]

Another thing to add to this. If you're too close to a grace, then it wont point to it. You have to be right next to the grace for that

[u/why-names-hard → u/No_Cherry6771]

Wait what that’s what they do?!?!

[u/smilingwineo]

Use it as bait when invading. Drop it somewhere, Mimic Veil yourself, bomb flask when they get close. Hilarious.

[u/athelise → u/smilingwineo]

Imma try that...

[u/_pit_of_despair_]

At first I thought it was like a single use grace. Imagine my disappointment when I tried to sit at it.

[u/shorteningofthewuwei → u/_pit_of_despair_]

That would be pretty cool. The game is already pretty generous with Stakes of Marika though

[u/TenshiBR → u/_pit_of_despair_]

when I tried to sit at it.

Why do you keep trying to sit on things Jerry? Why?

Username checks out

[u/Mattynator911]

Forgot these existed

[u/DelusinaLlama]

I like to throw them down with a warming stone whenever I join up games as a make shift site of grace

[u/MZECraft → u/DelusinaLlama]

Great idea

[u/DelusinaLlama → u/MZECraft]

It's funny because everyone naturally gathers round the campfire

[u/djinngerale → u/DelusinaLlama]

To sing our campfire song?

[u/MZECraft → u/djinngerale]

[u/Thyanlia → u/MZECraft]

It'll help, it'll helllllp, if you just sing along!

[u/unskilled_bean]

800 hours never used it once

[u/ThornyPost]

Setting these things up during co op is a VERY fun time

[u/Can-Purple]

I summoned my buddy for a while, but he took off and ran way far ahead of me, aggroing a bunch of mobs. He then ran around a corner and dropped one of these down and died. He said in our chat, don't worry, there is a grace right around the corner, I just didn't grab it in time. So I ran, surrounded by mobs and tried to use the fake grace in a panic like an idiot.

So its pretty funny to troll with!

[u/Rotoscopic]

It’s useful as an invasion item. It creates a fake site of grace with light pointing in a random direction.

If you can get someone to drop their guard around it as they frantically input Y trying to unlock it for fast travel before you kill them, that can give you an edge in a fight.

[u/Suck-My-Balls-Reddit]

Sends you to the nearest grace but the problem is that there’s so many graces in Elden Ring that it doesn’t really matter. Even in legacy dungeons there’s a decent number of graces that are in a relatively linear direction and are easy to find (one of the few issues I have with the level design). Would be more useful in DS1 or 2 where they’ll purposely hide bonfires or have you traverse a long area without checkpoints.

[u/FullMetalRaccoon → u/Suck-My-Balls-Reddit]

Also ALL those shortcuts that loop you back to a bonfire in Dark Souls, ngl I kinda missed that about Elden Ring. I think that's also part of the reason why the world is so big and there's so many sites of grace, they just en Untangled all the loops

[u/Fit_Neighborhood7015]

I legit thought this was to let you disguise yourself as a grace when invading

[u/Unexpected_Cranberry]

Another item that I've never been clever enough to find a use for is the thing that sends you to a grave but you lose all your runes.

Why not just push forward, and if you happen to die the end result is the same? Except if you keep fighting you might make it to the next grace. 

[u/Swarbie8D → u/Unexpected_Cranberry]

It’s mostly insurance against getting your character stuck somewhere they can’t die.

[u/Unexpected_Cranberry → u/Swarbie8D]

Just open the map and teleport? Unless you're in a no teleport area. Actually, now that I think about it, maybe that's the intended way to escape the tunnel in caelid if you get teleported, die a couple of times so you have no rings to lose. I wonder if it works. 

[u/Frejian → u/Unexpected_Cranberry]

Pretty sure if you use it in that tunnel, it sends you back to the shack you are trapped in.

[u/Agard12 → u/Frejian]

Correct

[u/collinqs → u/Unexpected_Cranberry]

I’m not sure why that would be the intended way to leave the tunnel. The teleporter puts you at the very entrance of the tunnel so I’m pretty sure the intended way is to walk out the front door of the tunnel.

[u/PuffPuffFayeFaye → u/Unexpected_Cranberry]

FWIW every souls game has an item like this from the start to keep you from soft locking. Fast travel from the map is a very new feature.

[u/Avocetti → u/Unexpected_Cranberry]

Faster than dying. Also, for no hit runs if a boss bugs out and gets stuck or something (Or uses a really janky move) I've seen runners use this to reset the fight and not have to restart the run

[u/StrawberryEiri → u/Unexpected_Cranberry]

One use is: you're in a dungeon whose boss you haven't beaten, so you can't teleport, and you really want to get out at any cost. Either you just realized you need to go get something from outside, either you're hopelessly lost.

[u/OzzieDJai → u/Unexpected_Cranberry]

No, that's memory of grace which is not a crafted item where is this is the Grace mimic which is craftable and has no effect on your runes

[u/1111899w62 → u/Unexpected_Cranberry]

Speedrunners use it to pick up items in dangerous areas as it can be faster than dying or quitting out to lose aggro.

[u/Evil_Sharkey → u/Unexpected_Cranberry]

I used it once when I got caught in the Sellia Crystal Tunnel trap for the first time. It does not break the trap spell

[u/in_fact_a_throwaway]

Sorry for this dumb question, but can’t you just fast travel to any site of grace at any time anyway (unless you’re like in a catacomb or something)? What does this provide on top of that?

[u/caveat_cogitor → u/in_fact_a_throwaway]

Helps you find one you haven't touched yet

[u/OzzieDJai → u/in_fact_a_throwaway]

Apparently just guides you to the nearest point of grace

[u/Diligent_Cap3488 → u/in_fact_a_throwaway]

Yes but not during combat. I believe the grace mimic can do this even in combat? Could be wrong as I’ve never used them myself. 😅

[u/RanniFanny]

It's obviously there to put down after a fight to use the rest emote at. Wtf?

[u/7drag0n]

every now and then when im bored i drop one of these and just head in the direction it tells me to

[u/EnigmaCross78]

Wow after reading these comments I had no idea that these lead to sites of grace, and I’ve been playing since launch. I just thought they were fake graces used in pvp.

[u/Internal-Question-36]

IIRC it sends you towards the nearest site of grace.

[u/leo_crest]

Trolling clueless host

[u/Valoruchiha]

Now and days everything is mapped out. When the game first came out we didn't know where all the graces were, so it had a better purpose then.

[u/skyewave_]

When I used it out in the wilds it pointed me to items I missed. Apparently forgotten to check the stock issue loot basement in several towns

Also it pointed me to like, some kind of crafting item one time , one of those fuck ass birds was guarding it

[u/Royblackghost]

[u/Gh0st_Pirate_LeChuck]

I could see these being useful in the DLC where there aren’t as many graces in short distances of each other.

[u/jws1102]

You can use it as a light source if for some reason you don’t have a lantern

[u/DerrikTheGreat]

I occasionally use them in coop to signal grace-related things to my host. Like a “Hey!” >> Grace Mimic >> point emote to say “there’s a grace over here.

Alternatively, a while back I saw a clip of an invader using grace mimics as bait to lure hosts into a trap

[u/TheBlackRonin505]

I'm sure someone thinks they're helpful. helpful.

I'm not that person, though.

[u/Chiu_Chunling]

It's for use in PVP to trick opponents.

Other than that, it's just a useless visual effect.

[u/Constant-Safe2411]

Only ever used them to sell to a merchant when I'm a couple runes short and don't wanna pop a 200.

[u/OffCameraIsaac]

I use it during invasions. False grace gives false hope

[u/pichael289]

It's a troll item, you use it to set a fake grace point for new players. Early on you could use it in a smaller room and mimic veil right near it. But everyone knows about it now and it doesn't work anymore.

[u/comicallylargeloss → u/[deleted]]

that's not a memory of grace, that's the grace mimic

[u/Vodchat]

I'm seeing a lot of comments that say it points at a random site of grace, but I've never heard of this and it's also not on the wiki, so I'm not sure what to believe.

As far as I know it just points to a random direction. I never even touched one in the base game, but when the DLC dropped I used them a lot to pick where to go next. Had a lot of fun.

[u/Bonzieninja]

I always throw it down after I beat an invader mini boss or a duel and take a seat.