Go to Fort Faroth in East Caelid. You can run there pretty much just after starting the game. You need a bleed weapon or access to Blood Grease to add bleed to your weapon.


















After making it to Fort Faroth, attack the tail of the dragon until it dies to bleed. This should take a few minutes and you can also poison it for added damage. If you have friends, summon them and let them summon you for the kill. Everyone gets the full 74k Runes and the host gets the additional 5 Dragon Hearts. You can increase this to almost 100k Runes by using the consumable item Gold-Pickled Fowl Foot. It will increase Runes gained by 30% for 3 minutes. Use this after bleeding the dragon a few times because it will take longer than 3 minutes to kill the dragon from full hp. Patches sells these in Murkwater Cave after he opens shop (see below for location).

The earliest bleed weapon is the Reduvia and is dropped by the NPC invader Bloody Hunter Nerijus just outside the Murkwater Cave.

















You can also use bleed grease if Nerijus is too difficult for you to beat. The bleed grease recipe can be found in a chest in the room at the top of the main stairs of Fort Haight.