My heart’s racing. Palms are sweaty as I grip the controller in anticipation. My sign is down, but will my dealer turn up? Or will my cash be wasted?
Then the screen turns to black: I have been summoned.
A quick look on eBay is enough to see that runes are being sold for actual, real-life money. Runes – like souls in the Dark Souls games – are the currency of Elden Ring. They allow you to level up your character, or buy items and equipment. Now you can buy them on the black market.
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In actuality, what you’re buying is the promise of a trip to another world in the game’s slightly convoluted summoning mechanic to pick up a pile of Golden Runes, an item that can be used to gain runes ready to spend. Prices that Eurogamer has seen range from a fiver for a million runes, all the way up to around £60 for 20m runes.
After making my purchase on eBay (£11 for 2m runes), it’s down to the seller to contact me with details and summon me into their game where they, presumably, will be waiting, Golden Runes in hand.
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Without a physical product to send to me – postage, thankfully, is listed as free – is there any guarantee I’ll receive my prize? Or is this all just an elaborate scam?
The process itself was easy enough. The seller contacted me. We exchanged a password, a time, and a location for the sordid deal. I laid down my summoning sign and waited.
I feel like I’m meeting a drug dealer.
Thankfully, they upheld their end of the bargain. Entering their world, a quick spin of their character and I follow them to a pile of gold awaiting me. A few celebratory jumps and I’m booted out, back to my own Lands Between 2m runes richer.
Was it worth it? No.
I’m not one to cheat – especially not in this form – so I created a new character especially for this personal quest. With my newly acquired runes I swiftly levelled up from 9 to 94, boosting my Vagabond’s strength stat from 14 up to 99.