Elden Ring Map Fragments: How to Unlock Map

Unlocking the map in the Elden Ring is one of the first steps in a great adventure. When the game starts, the player has no way to navigate and the map screen shows a dark void dotted by Sites of Grace. However, as the player collects more and more map shards, they reveal the vast world and countless locations it has to explore.

How do you unlock maps in Elden Ring with map shards?

The player unlocks the map in the Elden Ring by finding the fragments of the map. Each of these opens up a section of the overall map and shows the main roads and landmarks of each area. The first is relatively easy to find, but earning it will be one of the game’s first challenges. Northeast of Elleh Cathedral, the player will find the Gatefront. An army of Godrick’s soldiers guarded the area, and a piece of the map was in between them.

Each map is marked with a unique roadside tablet which makes it fairly easy to spot them at a distance. They’re also the only ones marked on the map in areas where you don’t have shards yet. When the player gets close enough to the map tablet, it will be marked as a small icon. So players in an area where they haven’t grabbed the map can check the world map and see if they can spot the icon.

One thing to note is that some maps are not found near the tablet. The Ainsel and Siofra rivers are underground, and players will see these maps as regularly placed items, without the tablet. There may be other maps placed like this as well, but we’re still exploring.

So finding a map for an area is something players should do as soon as possible. It’s an incredibly useful resource and helps a lot with navigation, especially when looking for Smithing Stone and Glovewort.