Mage tower puzzles are a stable of Elden Ring exploration, and high in the Mountaintops of the Giants is the Heretical Rise, a sealed mage’s tower with no visible way in. Like other such sealed towers, you’ll see an imp statue holding a book, a hint pointing you toward the hidden entrance.
The riddle in the book reads, “Fallen snow makes something unseen,” which seems a bit redundant in a massive snowfield, but it’s actually an important phrase. We’ll cover how to solve the puzzle and access the Heretical Rise in this guide.
How to Solve the Fallen Snow Marks Something Unseen Puzzle
To solve the puzzle, you need to cross an invisible bridge over a huge chasm, then enter the Heretical Rise via an open-air balcony. The only chasm nearby is north of the tower, and you’ll need to go all the way to the Freezing Lake Site of Grace near the lake’s northwest coast.
Travel west from the site of grade (toward Castle Sol), and you’ll eventually run into a broken bridge that points to the Heretical Rise. Here’s where the fallen snow comes into play. The remainder of the bridge and the stairway coming off of it you need to climb to the balcony are invisible. If you don’t have any prism stones, the only way to know where the remainder of the bridge is would be to watch where it catches the snow and where it doesn’t.
Where to Find the Invisible Bridge Near Heretical Rise
You’ll need to get over your fear of heights to cross this bridge, and while the whole experience can be terrifying, the bridge itself is actually much wider than you might think. Use the falling snow and rainbow stones (if you have them) to continuously check if the path ahead of you is safe. You can also use a bow and arrows to check, but if your eyes are bad like mine, it might be a little hard to see them.
If you’re playing online, you’re also liable to see bloodstains and messages from other players helping guide your way. I don’t recommend you stop using stones and arrows, as those bloodstains are there for a reason, but they can give you an idea of where to stand.
When you reach about 100 feet or so from the side of the Heretical Rise, with the balcony above you and to the left, the invisible bridge will come to an end. Now you need to take an invisible staircase to your destination. If you’re running low on stones, you can use the environment below you as a guide. In the valley below, you should see a pair of spirit trees near the cliffside: the stairway is directly across from them. Ration what stones you have left (I only needed four or five), and make your way carefully up the stairs.
As tempting as it might be to head directly for the broken balcony, don’t. When you reach a point on the stairs where your feet are roughly on the same level as the balcony itself, make a slight right and then go straight. You’ve completed the most dangerous part of your task as soon as you enter the tower, and you see the “Heretical Rise” message on your screen.
At this point, you can safely teleport to any Site of Grace and enter the tower from the front door but know that the place is guarded by Marionette Soldiers that will spin their arms at you and roll around on the floor with their swords out. I admit almost dying shortly after reaching the inside of the Rise sent my heartrate through the roof, but if you’ve taken it slow and carefully to this point, you should be fine. Your reward for solving the riddle is at the top of the Rise in a Chest: Founding Rain of Stars sorcery. You also get the amazing prize of never having to cross invisible bridges again (in the Mountaintops. There are other places with them, though).
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