How to Get to the Hinterland in Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree

Elden Ring players need an emote if they're going to make it to the Hinterland.

By Tanner Dedmon

Elden Ring's vast Realm of Shadow map in Shadow of the Erdtree has one particular area  in the northeast part called the Hinterland that's going to give players quite a headache. That's not because it's a particularly difficult area, but actually getting into the Hinterland is the challenging part. If you want to get into the Hinterland, you don't need an invisible bridge, a big jump, or some Skyrim-level platforming to scale the sides of mountains – instead, you need an emote, and you need to know where to use it.

I personally spent forever running around the edges of cliffs and mountains looking for some way to cross over into this new area partially to complete some quests and partially because it was driving me insane not being able to get there only to find that the answer was something that's far from obvious. To save you the same struggle, here's how you get into the Hinterland in Elden Ring.

How to Find the O Mother Emote in Elden Ring

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The tunnel into the Bonny Village in Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree.

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First, you need the "O Mother" emote. Elden Ring and FromSoftware games in general sometimes employ the use of emotes as pseudo-rituals in order to earn favor or gain access to certain areas, and that's the exact situation we're looking at here when getting into the Hinterland area.

To get this emote, you'll need to make it to the Bonny Village location. To do so, head to the Moorth Ruins which are shown marked above. More specifically, head to the exact spot just south of the Moorth Ruins map icon, and you'll find a tunnel there that will take you down and into the Bonny Village.

Once you're in the rundown town, you'll see a Site of Grace. From there, head northeast towards the cliffsides of the Bonny Village area. You should see a headless statue there that most likely has some messages in front of it by now to signify its importance. Interact with it, and you'll get the O Mother emote.

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The O Mother emote is found here in Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree.

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How to Reach the Hinterland in the Northeast

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The statue barring entrance to the Hinterland in Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree.

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With the O Mother emote in your possession, you're almost ready to enter the Hinterland. But to get to the area, you're going to have to make it to the ominous Shadow Keep and do some exploring within.

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The quickest way to get where you need to go in the Shadow Keep is to start at the Shadow Keep, Back Gate Site of Grace which is close the most northern protrusion on the map. From that Site of Grace, look east, and you should see a room with only a statue in front of you. Stand in front of it, perform the emote, and the statue will move away to reveal another door. You can see the location in the image above, but note that it looks a bit different here since I've already moved the statue. 

From there, you're free to explore the Hinterland area. Gaining access here is required if you want to complete some side character's stories and face all the bosses in Shadow of the Erdtree, but it's worth visiting anyway just to see how different it is from other parts of Elden Ring.

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