Ciphers are among the more confusing items in Mistfall Hunter because the name is used for several related systems. Some ciphers are rare scrolls that can be deciphered for rewards, others were attached to the limited Gylden Rush event, and items such as the Dried Flower Knot are cipher keys used to access difficult endgame encounters.

The most important ciphers for current players are the Ashen Cipher and Abyssal Cipher sent through the Second Wave launch-reward mail. Additional ciphers can also appear during expeditions, but they must be extracted successfully before they can be brought back to camp and deciphered.

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Types of Ciphers
Free Ashen and Abyssal Ciphers
Who Gets the Ashen Cipher?
How to Decipher Ciphers
Where to Find Ciphers
Cipher Rewards and Odds
Gylden Rush Ciphers
Cipher Keys Explained
Why Decipher Is Missing

For the exact NPC, reward probabilities, farming locations, and claim deadline, see our Mistfall Hunter Ashen Cipher guide.

First, Identify Which Kind of Cipher You Have

Most confusion surrounding ciphers comes from older guides describing an event or item that is different from the one currently sitting in a player’s inventory.

A standard reward cipher is a Legendary scroll that can be handed to a camp NPC through the Decipher option. The Ashen Cipher and Abyssal Cipher distributed through the August launch rewards belong to this general system.

Gylden Rush ciphers were associated with a limited event. The June Open Beta included Golden and variant ciphers that could be exchanged for event rewards, cosmetics, Gyldenblod, game keys, and physical prizes. Guides written during that test may not accurately describe the current launch version.

Cipher keys are a separate category. These items do not use the normal camp reward process. Instead, they unlock or activate specific content, with the Dried Flower Knot serving as the clearest example.

Check the item name and description before following a guide. An Ashen Cipher, a Golden Cipher, and a Dried Flower Knot may all appear in discussions about “ciphers,” but they do not necessarily have the same purpose.

How to Get the Free Ashen and Abyssal Ciphers

The Second Wave launch rewards include one Ashen Cipher and one Abyssal Cipher, along with 500 Soul Coins and a three-day Pip’s Rare Pouch Voucher.

These items are delivered through the in-game mail rather than placed directly into your expedition inventory. Log in and claim the message before September 1, 2026, at 00:00 UTC or the mail will expire.

You do not need to find these two ciphers during an expedition, and claiming them from the mail means there is no extraction risk attached to obtaining them. Once they are in your possession, the remaining requirement is reaching the level at which camp NPCs offer the Decipher option.

Claim the entire mail even if you are not ready to use the ciphers immediately. The deadline applies to collecting the message, and leaving it unopened creates an unnecessary risk of losing the rewards entirely.

Who Should You Give the Ashen Cipher To?

Give the Ashen Cipher to Sigrid. She can be found in the Victory Wine area of camp near the tavern and is associated with the quest name Sigrid the Red-Haired Omen.

Other camp NPCs can still decipher the Ashen Cipher, but Sigrid provides its matching bonus reward: a Ripple Gem used in equipment forging. Giving it to someone else still produces the normal cipher payout, but you miss the additional material.

The NPC bonus and the main cipher result are separate. Choosing Sigrid does not guarantee one of the extremely rare grand prizes or remove the common Gyldenblod rewards. It adds the cipher-specific bonus on top of whatever the normal decipher produces.

Do not assume that the Abyssal Cipher should also be given to Sigrid. The information supplied for this guide confirms the Ashen Cipher and Sigrid pairing, but not the corresponding NPC for every other cipher. Read each cipher’s description for a clue before choosing who should decipher it.

How to Decipher a Cipher

The Decipher interaction becomes available after reaching Level 5. If you obtained a cipher earlier and none of the camp NPCs will accept it, continue progressing your character before treating the missing option as a bug.

Ciphers found inside an expedition must also be brought back to camp. Finding one does not permanently add it to your account. If you die before extracting and the cipher is not protected, it can be lost with the rest of your carried loot.

After returning to camp, speak with an NPC who offers Decipher, select the cipher, and confirm the exchange. Soekja, Dew, Pip, Dramm, Cazarro, Sigrid, and Merimo can all participate in the decipher system.

The basic process is therefore:

Reach Level 5.
Claim or extract with a cipher.
Return to camp.
Read the item description for its NPC clue.
Speak with the matching NPC and choose Decipher.

If the cipher was collected during an expedition, our Mistfall Hunter extraction guide explains how to find the Returner Woodling and complete the bell channel without losing the item.

Where to Find More Ciphers

Ciphers can appear as Legendary scroll items while exploring Hallowgrove and Brandrgarde. They are not limited to one boss or a single container, which makes systematic looting more useful than repeatedly checking one exact location.

Locked chests are among the better places to search. Purple-branded enemies and the containers they protect can also produce ciphers, making marked encounters worth investigating when your equipment is strong enough to survive them.

Unidentified Items should always be checked before being dismissed. A cipher may initially appear through that broader loot category, so leaving unidentified drops behind can mean abandoning the item you were trying to farm.

Brandrgarde has the higher reported cipher chance, but Hallowgrove still contains several useful farming areas. The Einherjar Ship Grave, Supreme Hall, Divine Anchor, and the nearby harpies and abominations are all potential sources based on the supplied information.

Cipher drops are not restricted to the highest Gyldening Intensity. A faster route on a manageable difficulty can be more efficient than entering Chaos or Cataclysm and losing the cipher before extraction.

Farm Extracts, Not Just Drops

The useful farming measurement is not how many ciphers appear during a run. It is how many reach camp.

A difficult route may offer better loot density, but that advantage disappears if the group repeatedly dies while carrying the cipher. Once one drops, the goal of the expedition should change. Continuing to clear the map for ordinary loot places a limited reward at risk for increasingly smaller gains.

Place a cipher in Pip’s Safe Pockets whenever space is available. The three-day Rare Pouch Voucher from the launch-reward mail temporarily expands that protection, making it especially useful during dedicated cipher runs.

Solo players should favor routes with several chest or marked-enemy opportunities followed by a convenient extraction path. Our Mistfall Hunter solo mode guide covers the current solo restrictions and the additional risks of extracting without teammates.

In a trio, decide who will carry the cipher before moving toward the exit. The player with available Safe Pocket space or the strongest chance of surviving an ambush should hold it rather than leaving the item on the most aggressive frontline character by default.

What Rewards Can Ciphers Give?

Most cipher deciphers return Gyldenblod. Receiving the common currency reward does not mean the item was used incorrectly or given to the wrong NPC.

For the Ashen Cipher reward pool supplied for this guide, 450 Gyldenblod accounts for approximately 90.8 percent of results. Another 4.9 percent award 1,000 Gyldenblod, meaning roughly 95.7 percent of deciphers return one of those two currency amounts.

The remaining pool contains much rarer prizes, including the Golden Woodling headpiece, Strike It Rich emote, Gyldhunter Badge, Steam keys, the Enlightening Flame outfit, a Razer mouse, and a Lifetime Season Pass.

The most valuable results have extremely small probabilities. The Lifetime Season Pass is listed at 0.002 percent, while the Razer mouse is listed at 0.0024 percent. These are lottery-style rewards rather than outcomes a player should expect after finding one or two ciphers.

The correct NPC bonus does not change that underlying distribution based on the supplied information. Give the cipher to its matching NPC for the extra material, but expect Gyldenblod from the main decipher result.

Should You Save Your Ciphers?

There is little reason to hoard an Ashen Cipher while its associated reward system is active. The launch-reward mail has an expiration date, event prize periods can close separately, and the June beta demonstrated that the Decipher function can be disabled before every remaining cipher has disappeared from circulation.

Use the cipher after reaching Level 5 and identifying its matching NPC. Saving several may be convenient if you want to decipher them together, but holding them in the hope that the reward odds will improve later is unsupported by the information currently available.

The main exception is a cipher key such as the Dried Flower Knot. That item has a gameplay function and should be saved until you are prepared to use the content it activates.

How Gylden Rush Ciphers Fit Into the System

Gylden Rush has appeared in more than one discussion surrounding Mistfall Hunter, which is why older and newer cipher guides can appear to contradict each other.

The June Open Beta event ran during the June 15–22 test period and used Golden Ciphers alongside variants such as Ashen, Mantra, Ancestral, and Bloodbound. Players found them through monsters and chests, extracted with them, and deciphered them at camp for event rewards.

That beta ended with a full data wipe. Any guide describing the June test as the current version of the event should not be followed without checking whether the item and deadline still apply.

The launch period introduced new cipher rewards and another active prize window. The supplied launch-event information lists August 10 at 23:59 UTC as the end of grand-prize eligibility, with general Golden Cipher drops continuing until August 12 at 17:00 UTC. The free Ashen and Abyssal Cipher mail remains claimable until September 1 at 00:00 UTC.

These separate deadlines mean that owning a cipher, finding a cipher, qualifying for a grand prize, and claiming the free mail may not all close at the same time. Use the date attached to the specific reward or event rather than assuming September 1 applies to everything.

Dried Flower Knot and Cipher Keys Explained

The Dried Flower Knot is described as a Legendary cipher key, but it does not work like the Ashen Cipher. It is used to activate Einherjar Mode, a high-difficulty state connected to advanced Mist Lord encounters.

Bellring Games announced that Dried Flower Knot drops would begin following the next client update, alongside the opening of the Einherjar Mode Mist Lord challenge. That encounter is expected to provide a higher chance of Holy Weapons and Holy Forging Materials.

This means deciphering and cipher keys should be treated as separate systems. Reward ciphers are handed to camp NPCs for a payout, while a cipher key is retained and used to unlock specific gameplay.

Do not take a Dried Flower Knot to Sigrid expecting an Ashen Cipher reward. Check the item category and description before deciding whether it belongs in an NPC interaction or an endgame activity.

Why Is the Decipher Option Missing?

The most common reason is character level. Camp NPCs do not offer Decipher until approximately Level 5, even if a cipher has already been claimed from the mail.

A cipher found during an expedition must also be extracted. Seeing the item drop is not enough if you died or left it behind before returning to camp.

Old event ciphers can create another problem. The June beta version of Gylden Rush ended before the test server closed, leaving some players with ciphers after the decipher function had already been disabled. A cipher tied to an inactive event may therefore remain visible without having a current use.

Finally, cipher keys do not belong in the NPC decipher menu. Items such as the Dried Flower Knot are used for the content described in their item text rather than exchanged for a random reward.

The Safest Way to Handle Any Cipher

Start by reading the complete item name and description. If it is a reward cipher, protect it during the expedition, extract, and take it to the NPC suggested by its clue after reaching Level 5.

For the current Ashen Cipher, that NPC is Sigrid, who provides a Ripple Gem in addition to the normal decipher result. The most likely payout is still 450 Gyldenblod, so a common reward does not indicate that the cipher was wasted.

Use active reward ciphers while their event and claim windows remain open. Save cipher keys for the activity they unlock, and be cautious with older guides that may be describing the June beta rather than the current launch version.

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