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This post was last updated on April 1, 2026
With over a hundred sets of armor to find and equip in Elden Ring, Fromsoftware can not be accused of letting down the elden bling players. Even better, unlike previous games you can alter armor to give sets a fresh look and change the armor’s appearance.
However, the feature isn’t perfect, and not all armor can be altered and the ones that can mostly just end up being changed to have a cape or not. If you want to change it up, you only need to find a couple of items and win a boss fight, which is a small amount of work for an Elden Ring feature.
Read on as we guide you through the steps you need to take to alter garments and clothes in the game and even how to do it for free.
Where Do You Need To Go To Unlock Armor Alterations?
To unlock armor alterations in Elden Ring you need to find two key items, the Tailoring Tools and Sewing Needle. Fortunately, both of these items are in the Coastal Cave in Limgrave, so your character doesn’t even need to be that high level to get them.
To get to the cave you need to be on the western beach (from Merchant Kalé travel north west until you can safely traverse the cliff) and keep close to the cliff as you travel south. If you have gone the wrong way or too far look for the demi humans lurking out the front of it.
There is a site of grace (Coastal Cave) inside the cave that you should activate and rest at to unlock fast travel within the cave. Then you simply need to follow the pathway through the cave killing or avoiding any demi humans as you see fit.
Midway through the cave you will find a ledge lending down to a small clearing (the boss area), as well as a golden summon sign (Old Knight Istvan). Jumping down will trigger the Demi human chief boss fight.
The Two Demi Human Chiefs Boss Fight
The two demi human chiefs that attack you are not the most difficult bosses to deal with, but the fact that there are two of them as well as several normal demi human enemies it can make it a challenge to first time souls players.
It is possible to start the boss fight stealthy as the demi human chiefs are apart from each other and each minding their own business. A sneak attack will take care of a good chunk to the first chief allowing you to gain a slight upper hand.
Once the group is alerted to your presence you can even the odds by making use of spirit summons such as the lone wolves to draw agro away from you and keep the non boss enemies busy. AOE attacks and skills are also useful for this fight.
Once the two demi human chiefs have been defeated you will get the pop up telling you that you have received the tailoring tools and sewing needle.
Note: You might want to continue walking through the Coastal Cave as it leads to one of the Dragon Communion Altars.
Altering Demigod Armor
With the tools in hand you might find that you can change most sets but not the demigod armor. This is because you’ll need another key item, the gold sewing needle and golden tailoring tools. These are a little easier to find as they are in a chest in the Church of Vows (with turtle pope) in Eastern Liurnia of the Lakesand, found on the right.
How to Alter Armor With The Tailoring tools
With the Tailoring tools in hand, to use them to alter armor you simply need to travel to a site of grace. The Coastal Cave will be the nearest one but any will do the trick. While resting at a grace you need to select alter garments from the menu to bring up the Alter garments screen.
In this screen you’ll be able to see the items that you are able to alter as well as a preview of the altered armor. You should note that it isn’t free and each time you alter armor there is a rune cost.
When you have selected the armor piece that you want to alter, you will also notice that the armor’s stats will change and in the case of the black knives armor it will remove the perk of silent footsteps. That stats that change include; weight, poise, and ability.
If you have found the altered version of armor while exploring then you can change it to the default with this process too. For instance the Banished Knight Armor pieces found in Farum Azula can be altered to default.
Note: Not every armor piece in Elden Ring can be altered and in most cases the only cosmetic change will be removing the cloak.
How to Alter Armor Sets For Free
If you don’t want to spend runes, there is a free way to alter armor and that is to help out the demi human Boc. Unlike every other demi human in Boc is super friendly, in fact he is probably one of the sweetest characters in the game. To get him to help you out you’ll need to follow some of his questline.
- Find Boc – Boc is hidden as a small tree southeast of Agheel Lake North site of grace. He will start talking to you while you are in the area so you will be able to follow his voice to the correct tree. Hitting the tree will break the spell and turn him back to norml.
- Once you free Boc exhaust his dialog where he will say how grateful he is and even offer ten mushrooms in thanks.
Note: only hit the tree once or you might accidentally kill him. - Boc will then move to the entrance of the Coastal Cave (if he isn’t there, rest at a grace and check or go back to his tree location and chat more). He will say that he is useless and that he has been kicked out of his tribe. If you already have the tools you will get the option to hand them over to Boc .
- You can then meet Boc in a few locations but the best place to track him down is at the East Capital Rampart Site of Grace in Leyndell Royal Capital.
If you have not progressed that far he is also found at:
Lake-Facing Cliffs Site of Grace
East Raya Lucaria Gate Site of Grace
Altus Highway Junction Site of Grace - Interacting with him he will offer to alter garments for free, which will bring up a new screen. Select alter garments to start. The options will show exactly the same as if you are doing it yourself only it will not cost runes.
You don’t need to complete his quest past this if you don’t want to but if you want to keep his services then don’t give him a Larval tear if he asks for one.
Final Thoughts
On paper Altering garments sounds like a cool feature, and unlike some of Elden Ring’s other abilities it is super easy to unlock. However, for dedicated Elden Bling players hoping to get the most out of their drip it can be left wanting. This makes it fully worth the time helping Boc so you don’t need to spend runes on seeing if an armor looks slightly better with or without a cloak.
