Scarlet Rot

Status Effect

scarlet rot status effect elden ring wiki guide 100px
Effect Inflicts damage quickly over a long period
Mitigated by Immunizing Cured Meat
Immunizing Horn Charm
Cured by Flame, Cleanse Me
Preserving Boluses
Resistive Stat Immunity

Scarlet Rot is a Status Effect in Elden Ring. Status Effects are various buffs or ailments that apply either a beneficial or detrimental effect to the target. Status Effects can be applied on both enemies and players alike. Status Effects are triggered after a buildup meter is filled by repeated application of attacks that cause the effect. Both players and enemies can have varying resistances to a given Status Effect.

 

Scarlet Rot Information

Scarlet Rot does damage over time based on the target's health. Damage does not scale with weapon. The effect deals damage at a faster rate than poison, but has an overall shorter duration.
Immunity will slow the buildup of the effect on players, but will not affect the damage taken from the proc.

 

Scarlet Rot Effects

Targets afflicted with Scarlet Rot lose HP and take damage.

  • Scarlet Rot on weapons inflicts (0.18% Max HP) + 15 per second for 90 seconds, for a total of 16.2% Max HP + 1350 damage over its full duration.
  • Scarlet Rot on Rotten BreathEkzykes's Decay, and Scarlet Aeonia inflict (0.33% Max HP) + 13 per second for 90 seconds, for a total of 29.7% Max HP + 1170 damage over its full duration.
  • Malenia's Scarlet Rot inflicts (0.33% Max HP) + 26 per second for 300 seconds.
  • The Swamp of Aeonia's Scarlet Rot inflicts (Max HP * 0.02) + 8 per second for 180 seconds.
  • The Lake of Rot's Scarlet Rot inflicts (Max HP * 0.02) + 30 per second for 180 seconds.
  • The Scarlet Rot effect can be mitigated by raising your Immunity stat. Immunity can be increased by adding points to Vigor.

Scarlet Rot effect and Players

This section lists information pertaining to the Scarlet Rot effect and its relation to Players

 

Scarlet Rot Sources (Weapons)

The following weapons cause the Scarlet Rot effect:

Scarlet Rot Sources (Skills & Spells)

The following Skills & Spells cause the Scarlet Rot effect:

Scarlet Rot Sources (Others)

The following are other sources of the Scarlet Rot effect:

 

Curing Scarlet Rot

The following Skills, Spells and Items can be used to remove the Scarlet Rot effect:

 

Scarlet Rot Effect and Enemies

This section lists information pertaining to the Scarlet Rot effect and its relation to Enemies and Bosses.

 

Enemies that cause Scarlet Rot

The following Enemies, NPCs, Invaders, Bosses and Environmental hazards can inflict the Scarlet Rot effect on players:

 

 Scarlet Rot Vulnerable

The following Enemies, NPC, Invaders and Bosses are weak to the Scarlet Rot effect. Weakness indicates a target has a much lower threshold for the effect, requiring fewer applications to fill the build up meter and trigger the effect.

 

Status Effects in Elden Ring
Death Blight  ♦  Frostbite  ♦  Hemorrhage  ♦  Madness  ♦  Poison  ♦  Sleep



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    • Anonymous

      I don't know if I'm crazy, but it almost seems that attacking an enemy afflicted with rot with a weapon or spell that can also inflict rot, it does increased damage. Is this real, or I am just stupid? I'm thinking I'm just stupid.

      • Anonymous

        Malenia herself is not immune to Rot but some random assassin who is literally as far away from any rot exposure as possible is immune. C'mon guys.

        • Anonymous

          "Immunity indicates that a target is impossible or near-impossible to afflict".... what, like do you even... say what?

          • Anonymous

            To all those that wish this was better, just remember that this is already poison but better. The only advantage poison has is being slightly easier to proc

            • Anonymous

              Does this stack with Poison? It seems whenever I proc Scarlet Rot they lose the poison bubble and it only does regular Scarlet damage

              • Anonymous

                AKA the passivity destroyer. even better in conjunction with poison. if you gonna play like a b****, you're gonna die like one

                • Anonymous

                  I love using this to invade putting it on people repeatedly from a distance and watching them panic with nothing to save themselves

                  • Anonymous

                    I really like scarlet rot but I wish melee builds with it were more viable for playthrough. There are very few weapons that inflict scarlet rot, most of them are in late-game locations, and there are zero ashes of war that inflict it

                    • Anonymous

                      Malenia cause Scarlet Rot but she's not anywhere in the list of ennemies and bosses that cause it. Similarly, Radhan is weak to Scarlet Rot but once again he's not in the list of ennemies and bosses vulnerable to it.

                      • Anonymous

                        Warning majorly bugged right now if you roll in the lakew it will make you continue to build rot seriously needs a patching pls

                        • Anonymous

                          If 2 players have Scarlet Rot weapons and they are attacking the same enemies does it build up as one stack or 2 separate stacks and which ever one procs first cancels the other out?

                          • Anonymous

                            Something to be noted is that holding the Cleanrot Knight Spear gives you bonus immunity (50), which makes you more resistant to Scarlet Rot ofc

                            • Anonymous

                              The effect will build up over time when standing in pools of scarlet rot, but I've noticed that levels will continue to climb once you exit the pools, but only if you roll in it.

                              • Anonymous

                                The rot flowers the scarlet rot creates, especially during boss fights with characters fighting with scarlet rot (Malenia) look similar to a real-world plant disease called cedar-apple rust, it also produces orange colored flower-like structures on infected cedars.

                                • > "The Scarlet Rot effect can be mitigated by raising your Immunity stat"


                                  Not really. If you invest heavily in it it'll cause it to build up over 4 seconds instead of 3 seconds. It's mostly just to make you feel better.

                                  • Anonymous

                                    Currently bugged in Caelid root dungeons. Meter will build even when not in contact with anything that would cause buildup.

                                    • Anonymous

                                      All scarlet rot weapons in the game
                                      Dagger, scorpions stinger 50 scarlet rot build up base and max non customisable
                                      Straight sword, rotten crystal sword same as previous 50 build up
                                      Thusting sword Antspur rapier base and max 55 build up can apply ashes of war but cannot increase build up with affinities can also apply blood or poison with the scarlet rot also if you use the ashes seppuku with poison affinity when seppuku is active you will apply scarlet rot poison and blood loss with every strike with the weapon when seppuku wears of u will still be applying poison and scarlet rot only
                                      Great hammer,
                                      Rotten battle hammer build up base and max 65 can be customised with ashes of war and apply 2 status effects together
                                      Colossal weapons(2),
                                      Rotten greataxe (my personal favourite scarlet rot weapon)
                                      Build up base and max 65 can be customised with ashes of war you can apply frost and poison with the scarlet rot but blood loss will result in 0 scarlet rot build up
                                      Rotten staff (not a staff) build up base and max 75 cannot be customised with ashes of war
                                      Spear,
                                      Rotten crystal spear
                                      Build up base and max 55 cannot be customised with ashes of war
                                      Glintstone staff,
                                      Rotten crystal staff
                                      Build base and max 50 cannot be customised with ashes of war note this staff requires you to make contact with the staff directly on the enemy in order to build up scarlet rot making it pointless to have scarlet rot at all considering next to no sorceries are capable of doing so.
                                      You can also make any light bow, bow, or crossbow apply scarlet rot with arrows and bolts
                                      And any seal can apply scarlet rot with certain incantations.

                                      • Anonymous

                                        FYI: Rotten Stray inflicts the "strong" version of Scarlet Rot, but unlike other sources it lasts 180 seconds instead of 90 which makes it twice as strong in long fights. PvE only though.

                                        • Anonymous

                                          Ashes seem to scale with Int.
                                          Any other scaling = 50-55 Scarlet Rot on Antspur Rapier. But Cold scaling = 0 buildup

                                          • Anonymous

                                            Lowkey Rot Breath is the most broken spell they've ever added to any fromsoft game PvE wise. Crazy how they made that spell so outrageously good with such low stat req easy to get and the strong form of scarlet rot, but were too afraid to add more than 90 black key bolts.

                                            • Anonymous

                                              what are some good weapons to dual wield before end game? Scorpion's Stinger can be found mid game but there's only one of them so for NG what weapon would be good to power stance? What if I do like a bleed or frost dagger along with this?

                                              • How does buildup of deadly and normal scarlet rot work?
                                                Do each have their own buildup bar? If not, what determines which is procced if some buildup was done by each.

                                                • Anonymous

                                                  Law of regression cures it as well. Would be good to add as INT builds can use it. (req min 10 faith for seal. 37 int for spell)

                                                  • Anonymous

                                                    Now, as a new feature, this stops working on bosses (100% immunity) if they reach 15-20% health!
                                                    Have fun, your Miazaki :D

                                                    • Anonymous

                                                      I tested different sources for scarlet rot:
                                                      weak Scarlet Rot: 15 + 0,18% per tick or 1350 + 16,2% maxHP over 90 sec
                                                      - Caused by Weapons, Rot grease, Arrows/Bolts
                                                      normal Scarlet Rot: 13 + 0,33% per tick or 1170 +29,7% maxHP over 90 sec
                                                      - Caused by Spells, Rotten Stray Ashes, Rot Pot
                                                      Only one weapon had inflicts weak scarlet rot written as passive effect but they do all the same so thats what i called it.
                                                      The normal scarlet rot scales a lot better so it may be better to use rot pots instead of rot weapons for non casters.

                                                      • Anonymous

                                                        There's actually a scarlet rot source even more potent than the lake of rot: a 3.3%+26 per tick that lasts for 180 seconds. However I am not sure what exactly is this source.

                                                        My guess is malenia's virus bomb, if the initial explosion somehow didn't kill you.

                                                        • Anonymous

                                                          I love scarlet rot for the lore implications. It would be nice to have more viable builds around applying it in PvP bc rn it's just underwhelming

                                                          • Anonymous

                                                            So, to be clear- the ultimate goal of using SR is to "fill" the target's "SR bar"- thereby applying 90 seconds of the DoT? And the damage is purely a function of the target's health pool? So bringing multiple sources of 'Rot to a fight is not then beneficial then (using the dragon incantaion, having the Rotten Stray, grease, etc)?

                                                            • Anonymous

                                                              Atleast this time, Scarlet Rot has a whole lore to it. The toxic effect in Dark Souls was just there for the hell of it and it sucked so much.

                                                              • Anonymous

                                                                Can we just say that it does ~ 1170 + 29.7% of max HP over 90/s or 13 + ~0.33% per tick? It feels much easier to express that way.

                                                                • Anonymous

                                                                  Hi, i am currently build up my melee weapon.
                                                                  May i know does the scarlet rot stack with FROSTBITE effect, please?

                                                                  • Anonymous

                                                                    Rot Pot coupled with Fetid Pot and high Arcane causes almost all bosses to just die on their own without much intervention, and with plenty unused pots left over after the fight. Add Swarm Pot or Swarm of Flies, and you almost never have to swing a sword once.

                                                                    Damage-over-time play in this game almost makes me miss my Affliction Warlock in WoW. DoT and forget.

                                                                    • Anonymous

                                                                      At least in the lake of rot, Immunity doesn't seem to have any effect on scarlet rot buildup speed at all. Wearing the full Mushroom set, with Immunizing Horn Charm and Mottled Necklace+1, the buildup was just as fast as it was while wearing the Bull-Goat set without the charms.

                                                                      • Anonymous

                                                                        Heard so many people saying they easily killed bosses with scarlet rot effect, so I gave it a try myself and I am not seeing what's so great about it at all.
                                                                        It's just a bit stronger than poison, and I still gotta sit there and wait for it to do actual decent damage to bosses. Unless they nerfed it recently, for me it's about as useless for bosses as poison is.

                                                                        • Anonymous

                                                                          Heard so many people saying they easily killed bosses with scarlet rot effect, so I gave it a try myself and I am not seeing what's so great about it at all.
                                                                          It's just a bit stronger than poison, and I still gotta sit there and wait for it to do actual decent damage to bosses. Unless they nerfed it recently, for me it's about as useless for bosses as poison is.

                                                                          • Anonymous

                                                                            Scarlet Rot is way nastier in lore than it is in gameplay, and that's saying something. Kills you way slower, but it seems like it has a mind control aspect to it, like Cordyceps, that forces its hosts to try and spread it.

                                                                            • Anonymous

                                                                              Utilizing slight approximations, a bit of guessing, questionable math skills and the limited data below, I came to these results:

                                                                              Strong rot (Lake of Rot) = 30 + 2% max health for 180 seconds
                                                                              Medium rot (Aeonia Swamp, Malenia (?), some other bad places) = 16 + 1,5% max health for 180 seconds
                                                                              Weak rot (generic enemies) = 15 + 0,18% max health for 180 seconds (data stolen from the guy below, but also tested beforehand)

                                                                              These are the values on PLAYERS not on enemies, I have no clue about them, but they might follow the same formula with reduced duration, if a boss has 10000, then the weak rot would deal over the course of 90 seconds 1350 + 16,2% = 2970 which sounds strong but still reasonable as a value.

                                                                              Now, if someone could test further and confirm so we can add this on the page it would be delightful.

                                                                              • Anonymous

                                                                                The formula for a full cycle of Scarlet Rot is (15 + ((Max HP * 18) / 100)) * 90.
                                                                                Which means it deals 0,18% Max HP + 15 flat per second and last 90 seconds.
                                                                                If somebody wants to edit the info above.

                                                                                • Anonymous

                                                                                  First of all, I found out that in the Lake of Rot the buildup version from rolling in the liquid rot and the rot received directly from walking on the liquid are different. The buildup version is much weaker and is more "convenient" to have while walking around. To do it, simply roll in the liquid, get back to the ground and let the bar fill up, then walk around as you want with the weaker version as you are immune to the stronger version.

                                                                                  Second, Scarlet Rot seems to deal flat + % max health damage and it varies depending on the situation. Values are tested in Lake of Rot:
                                                                                  1450 HP (naked 40 vigor) receives 59 damage (4,07% of max health) per second and 37 damage (2,55% of max health) from the weaker version
                                                                                  1508 HP (40 vigor, erdtree favour+2) receives 60 damage (3,98% of max health) per second and 38 damage (2,52% of max health) from the weaker version
                                                                                  1644 HP (40 vigor, erdtree favour+2, radagon soreseal) receives 62 damage (3,77% of max health) per second and 40 damage (2,43% of max health) from the weaker version
                                                                                  1775 HP (40 vigor, erdtree favour+2, radagon soreseal, crimson amber medallion+2) receives 65 damage (3,66% of max health) per second and 42 (2,37% of max health) from the weaker version

                                                                                  From this we can see that getting more HP helps with not being vulnerable and low health, as the rot hits for decreasing portions of your health as your health goes up, while having low HP helps in terms of overall survivability because flasks heal a flat amount, as such receiving a lower damage means your overall healthbar lasts longer, however I'm not sure how convenient it is to get chunked for 4% or more every second.

                                                                                  • Anonymous

                                                                                    Lasts 90 seconds.
                                                                                    Tested on Elder Greyroll using Antspur rapier. ARC of 12 if that matters?
                                                                                    Did 15,000 damage over those 90 seconds, which is interesting. because it suggests some %hp scaling. But it must also do some flat damage, because it fully kills enemies with less/normal hp. so it cant simply be doing like 20% their max health. so, some flat and some % hp scaling? Maybe elder greyroll is just an exception?

                                                                                    • Anonymous

                                                                                      Does anyone now the damage calculation for Scarlet Rot? For NPCs and Bosses it seems to total 35-40% of their health pool but for players it does like 400% of their total health lol. It might be like Dark Souls 3 where different sources of scarlet do different damage % but idk.

                                                                                      • Anonymous

                                                                                        It's an interesting coincidence that "rot" means "red" in German and they made the rot in this game red (scarlet)

                                                                                        • Anonymous

                                                                                          This is odd, but for some reason if I touch Scarlet Rot even for a second. It'll progressively build even though I'm no longer near Scarlet Rot anymore. I have no idea if this is intended or if it's a bug in the PC version.

                                                                                          • Anonymous

                                                                                            friend asked me if poison swamps are back again in EL lol I told him he wish they where back we got now scarlet rot XD

                                                                                            • Anonymous

                                                                                              Antspur rapier is a weapon with scarlet rot that can be ash of war with poison aswell, im testing it, and I think scarlet rot over takes poison, not really seeing both proc off

                                                                                              • Anonymous

                                                                                                I don’t see the comment I left about the Rotten Staff, so I’ll leave this here instead of replying to it. The first Erdtree Avatar drops a Lords Rune. That’s the one next to Elphael Inner Wall. The one that drops the Rotten Staff colossal weapon is reachable from Halligtree Roots. Go through the east door and up the stairs then elevator. Go around the tower, and you’ll see it when you reach the ladder.

                                                                                                • Anonymous

                                                                                                  Some Rot inducing stuff, which all have pages on this wiki:
                                                                                                  - Rot Grease, Rotbone Bolt, Rot Pot, Black-key Bolt
                                                                                                  - Scarlet Aeonia
                                                                                                  - Rotten Stray Ashes
                                                                                                  - Rotten Greataxe, Rotten Staff, Rotten Battle Hammer, Rotten Crystal Staff, Rotten Crystal Spear

                                                                                                  • Anonymous

                                                                                                    Erdtree avatar at Elphael drops a colossal weapon called Rotten staff that does passive scarlet rot buildup. You automatically get it on its defeat, and it must also have a chance of dropping it cause it dropped another that I picked up. So I got two after killing it once.

                                                                                                    • Anonymous

                                                                                                      There is a dagger called "Scorpion's Stinger" that also applies scarlet rot (Buildup 50). Weapon already has a page here so this needs to be updated. For anyone thinking about it sadly the stinger is somber upgrade path so you can't change weapon art.

                                                                                                      • Anonymous

                                                                                                        Is the damage output from scarlet rot always the same? Is there a way to increase its damage with any items or is it like poison where it ticks for 9 damage even with 99 dex

                                                                                                        • Anonymous

                                                                                                          Weapons that cause Scarlet Rot lose it if you infuse it with Cold appearently, doesnt lose it when infused with blood not sure about other status effects.

                                                                                                          • I have all the info on Ekzkes's Decay:

                                                                                                            FP Cost: 48 (6)
                                                                                                            Slot Used: 1
                                                                                                            Int: 0 Fai: 23 Arc: 15
                                                                                                            Item Effect: Spews scarlet rot breath of Ekzykes from above.

                                                                                                            Superior incantation of Dragon Communion. Channels the power of Ekzykes, the Decaying.

                                                                                                            Transforms caster into a dragon to spew scarlet rot breath from above.
                                                                                                            Charging extends duration. This incantation can be cast while jumping.

                                                                                                            Ekzykes, Dragon Communion Revenger, did not forget his hatred even as he succumbed to the scarlet rot.



                                                                                                            [I'd give the picture too but I dont think I can in a comment.]

                                                                                                            • Anonymous

                                                                                                              Scarlet rot damage seems to be capped between 25-30k. It takes 4 applications of rot to defeat the Elder Greyroll dragon who has 100k HP

                                                                                                              • Anonymous

                                                                                                                Scarlet rotting enemies (bosses included) seems to do around 40% of their health in total. Scarlet rot on Players and NPC players seems to do 90% health damage.

                                                                                                                • Anonymous

                                                                                                                  So scarlet rot can stack with poison, bleed, and frostbite I've been experimenting with incantations and dragon spells

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