Mistfall Hunter Cipher Guide: Every Cipher Keyword NPC Match & How to Decipher

Last updated: August 12, 2026 — Gylden Rush status corrected to ended (Aug 10), event deadlines refreshed, and a “Prayer Cipher” section added for this week’s breakout search.

TL;DR — “ciphers” in Mistfall Hunter means three different things right now.

Spelling note: the game writes “cipher” — “cypher” is a common misspelling of the same sealed scroll items.

(1) If you logged in after August 1, 2026, you already own an Ashen Cipher and an Abyssal Cipher in your in-game mail (Second Wave launch reward, expires September 1) — give the Ashen Cipher to Sigrid to claim her bonus.

(2) The Gylden Rush event ran July 30 – August 10, 2026 and has now ended — a limited-time gacha where Golden Ciphers (with Ancestral and Mystic Ciphers as the event’s special currencies) were the draw currency for prizes that included in-game items, cosmetics, and an Alienware gaming PC grand prize.

(3) Cipher keys still exist at launch, led by the Legendary Dried Flower Knot — its drops went live with the August 6, 2026 client update — which unlocks Einherjar Mode boss hunts.

Which Camp NPC Matches Each Cipher? (Quick Answer)Permalink to this section

The single most-asked question about ciphers is which NPC to decipher them at. Here is the whole match table at a glance — hand the cipher to its matching camp NPC to get the bonus payout:

The seven camp NPCs — Soekja, Dew, Pip, Dramm, Cazarro, Sigrid, and Merimo — can all decipher ciphers, but only the matching NPC pays the bonus. Give any other NPC the same cipher and you still get the base payout, just no bonus.

Cipher Keywords → NPC: the Real Match TablePermalink to this section

The bonus is tied to the clue words printed on a cipher, not to the cipher’s name. Community decoders (GameRant’s Golden Cipher NPC list, mistfallhub’s cipher decoder, and player threads on r/MistfallHunter) converge on the same word table since mid-August 2026. Read the clue words on your cipher, find the camp NPC that “owns” them, and hand it there for the bonus payout:

Why “give the Ashen Cipher to Sigrid” needs a footnotePermalink to this section

The most-repeated tip in this niche — “give the Ashen Cipher to Sigrid” — is most likely one player’s Ashen Cipher that happened to carry a Sigrid keyword (Sealing Wax, Residual Heat, Acid, Malt, or Cloves), written up as a general rule and copied across the web. mistfallhunter.app, GameRant, and player threads now treat the keyword as the deciding factor. Practical rule: check the clue words on your cipher, then hand it to the NPC that owns them — Sigrid if it carries a Sigrid word, Pip for Mantra/Elder Edict/Tree Hollow/Secret Cache, Dew for Echo/Prophecy/Spindle, and so on.

The keyword combos people are searching right nowPermalink to this section

• Sealing Wax / Acid → Sigrid. “Sealing wax acid” is the breakout search this week — it is the Sigrid keyword pair from her Tavern Wife table (she also owns Residual Heat, Malt, and Cloves).
• Elder Edict → Pip. The Elder Edict Cipher is a Legendary Golden Cipher (value 400, not listable) whose faded text reads “Tree Hollow, Secret Cache” — both Pip keywords. It was a rare drop of the June Open Beta Gylden Rush edition and can also drop from expedition runs; with the beta edition over, it is no longer obtainable.
• Mantra → Pip. The Mantra Cipher was a June Open Beta Golden Cipher variant; players report the bonus payout at Pip.
• Echo → Dew. “Echo” is one of Dew’s Maiden keywords, so a cipher carrying Echo goes to Dew — the same family as Homeward, Anchor, Prophecy, Spindle, and Weaver.

What about the “Prayer Cipher”?Permalink to this section

“Prayer cipher” is a breakout search this week, but there is no official item or NPC match by that exact name as of August 12, 2026. The official Steam news hub and the in-game encyclopedia list no “Prayer Cipher” — the closest matches are the Mantra Cipher (Pip, June Open Beta edition, no longer obtainable) and the “Prayer”-adjacent keywords in Dew’s Maiden table (Prophecy, Spindle, Echo, Weaver, Homeward, Anchor). If you are searching for it, the practical answer is: read the clue words on your cipher (see the keyword table above) rather than its name — the bonus payout follows the words, and no cipher named “Prayer” is documented yet. We’ll update this page if an official announcement adds one.

“Ciphers” appear in different places in Mistfall Hunter, and players often search for one meaning and find another. This page covers all of them:

1. Ashen Cipher — the cipher in your mail right now, who to give it to, and the reward odds.
2. Gylden Rush event ciphers — Golden, Ancestral, and Mystic Ciphers are the currency of the live event (July 30 – Aug 10, 2026); Mantra, Bloodbound, and Elder Edict Ciphers were part of the June Open Beta edition.
3. Cipher keys — rare in-game keys that still exist at launch.

All Ciphers at a GlancePermalink to this section

Ashen Cipher — the reward in your mail (live now)Permalink to this section

You already have an Ashen Cipher. Bellring Games began a Second Wave of launch rewards on August 1, 2026 after the game passed 500,000 Gyldhunters and hit number one on Twitch. Every player was mailed an Ashen Cipher x1, an Abyssal Cipher x1, a Pip’s Rare Pouch Voucher (3 days), and 500 Soul Coins. Check your in-game mail to collect them.

Deadline: you must log in before September 1, 2026, 00:00 UTC, or the reward mail expires.

Abyssal Cipher — the standard-payout reward in your mailPermalink to this section

The Abyssal Cipher arrived in the same Second Wave mail as the Ashen Cipher and expires the same day (September 1, 2026, 00:00 UTC). It is the same type of reward cipher — a Legendary scroll you decipher at a camp NPC — so it follows the same system as the Ashen Cipher below.

Unlike the Ashen Cipher, though, no camp NPC pays a bonus for it: any of the seven NPCs gives the standard payout, so just hand it to whichever camp NPC you happen to be at. Its decipher odds follow the same community-documented table as the Ashen Cipher (a ~95.7% chance of returning 1,000 Gyldenblod or less).

Who to give the Ashen Cipher to: SigridPermalink to this section

Any of the seven camp NPCs — Soekja, Dew, Pip, Dramm, Cazarro, Sigrid, and Merimo — will decipher a cipher, but the bonus follows the clue words on the cipher, not its name (see the keyword table above). In practice, most players’ Ashen Ciphers carry one of Sigrid’s keywords — Sealing Wax, Residual Heat, Acid, Malt, or Cloves — which is where the “Sigrid for Ashen” rule comes from. Give it to Sigrid (in the Victory Wine area of camp, quest name Sigrid the Red-Haired Omen) and you will normally get her bonus, a Ripple Gem, on top of the normal payout. If your cipher’s words belong to another NPC instead (Pip, Dew, …), hand it there — a non-matching NPC gives the standard payout without the bonus.

Is the Ripple Gem worth it?Permalink to this section

Our crafting database (reference/competitor-data/db.json) shows that the Ripple Gem appears in 14 synthesis recipes — from Excellent-tier catalysts to Legendary-tier staves and accessories like the Blind Eye Staff and Ancestral Blessing Ring.

Each recipe costs Gold plus additional materials, but the Ripple Gem is one of the hardest components to source outside of crafting, which is why the Ashen Cipher’s guaranteed Ripple Gem bonus is one of the more valuable cipher payouts in the current meta.

For context, our gems database lists 264 Level 2 gems (Combat value 50, sell price 100–1,500g) versus only 51 Level 1 gems, making the socketable gem economy heavily tilted toward Level 2 — and several of those Level 2 recipes require the same kind of rare forging materials that the Ripple Gem represents.

Find Sigrid (in-game quest name: Sigrid the Red-Haired Omen) in the Victory Wine area of camp, attached to the tavern. Choose Decipher when talking to her.

Ashen Cipher reward oddsPermalink to this section

The decipher payout is dominated by Gyldenblod, so expect the common outcome. Community-documented odds (per TposeGaming’s Ashen Cipher guide):

Roughly 95.7% of deciphers return 1,000 Gyldenblod or less — getting the 450 is the designed outcome, not bad luck. The grand prize draws run through mid-August (see deadlines below).

Should you decipher it now or save it?Permalink to this section

Decipher it. During the beta, the decipher function switched off while ciphers were still dropping, leaving players holding dead items — and the mail expires on September 1 anyway. There is no reason to hoard.

Where more Ashen Ciphers dropPermalink to this section

Ciphers are Legendary-quality scroll items that can turn up almost anywhere in a raid: locked chests, enemies carrying purple brands, and the containers they guard. Any Unidentified Item can be one — identify everything before writing it off.

Brandrgarde** has the highest reported cipher chance of the two maps; on Hallowgrove, players point to the areas around the Einherjar Ship Grave, the Supreme Hall, and the harpies and abominations near the Divine Anchor.

Cipher drops are active at every Gyldening Intensity — you do not need Chaos or Cataclysm, and a dense cheap route with an early extraction is the efficient farm.

How to Decipher a CipherPermalink to this section

1. Reach level 5. The Decipher option only appears on camp NPCs once you hit level 5. If no NPC would take your cipher below that, it is not a bug.
2. Extract with the cipher — you must survive a run (how to extract) with the cipher in your inventory to take it back to the hub.
3. Talk to a camp NPC (Soekja, Dew, Pip, Dramm, Cazarro, Sigrid, or Merimo) and choose Decipher. Match the NPC to the clue words on your cipher (table above) to claim the bonus — e.g. Sigrid for Sealing Wax/Acid, Pip for Mantra/Elder Edict, Dew for Echo.

Event deadlines (August 2026)Permalink to this section

• August 10, 23:59 UTC — Gylden Rush event ended; grand prize eligibility closed
• August 13 — grand prize draw streams (event wrap-up)
• August 12, 12:00 UTC — the one-million Gyldhunters Wave 3 login rewards claim window closed (claim via in-game mail)
• August 12, 17:00 UTC — the 10% launch discount ended (Standard $24.99 → $22.49 on Steam)
• September 1, 00:00 UTC — the free mail (Ashen and Abyssal Cipher) expires

The Gylden Rush event and its ciphersPermalink to this section

Gylden Rush has now ended (July 30 – August 10, 2026, until 23:59:59 UTC). During the event, players collected Golden Ciphers — the event’s Legendary-quality currency, with Ancestral Ciphers and Mystic Ciphers as the event’s two special currencies — and deciphered them at camp for prize-draw rolls.

Prizes include in-game items, cosmetics, game keys, and the grand prize, an Alienware gaming PC.

Every player who successfully extracts during the event window is also eligible for the grand-prize draw.

Sources: GameRant , mmoexp , NerdsChalk .

• Getting them: ciphers come from defeating monsters, opening locked chests, and killing Golden Envoys on the Gyldenmist maps. Players do not physically pick them up — if the game rolls one for you, it goes straight into your inventory automatically.
• Using them: you must successfully extract with the cipher, then take it to the hub town to decipher it at a camp NPC (any of them works for the event). Deciphering unlocks from around character level 5.
• Rewards: decipher rolls pay out cosmetics, emotes (e.g., Gesture: Strike It Rich), weapon boxes, Gyldenblod, game keys, and season-pass rewards — plus entries into the event’s prize draws for in-game items, cosmetics, and the grand-prize hardware (an Alienware gaming PC).
• Each cipher’s keywords point to a correct NPC. Community threads tracking Gylden Rush payouts found that handing a cipher to the NPC matching its clue words paid a bonus — for example, players report giving the Mantra Cipher to Pip for an upgrade piece, while the wrong NPC pays only the standard gold amount. The same keyword logic applies to today’s reward ciphers (see the keyword table above).
• “Score” and “plucking” ciphers go to Pip. If you searched “score plucking cipher”, you are asking which camp NPC matches these Golden Cipher variants — community reports (r/MistfallHunter’s Golden Cipher to NPC guide ) map both the score and plucking variants to Pip, the Auction House NPC, for the bonus payout — the same match as the Mantra Cipher. Hand them to any other NPC and you still get the base decipher reward, just without the bonus.

The event first ran during the Open Beta (June 15–22, 2026), per the official press release and the developers’ event posts. Its signature item was the Golden Cipher, with variant ciphers — Mantra, Ancestral, Mystic, Ashen, Bloodbound, and the rare Elder Edict Cipher — also part of that edition, as documented by community game-data sites and player threads.

Are the beta event ciphers still in the game?Permalink to this section

Partly. The June Open Beta edition ended on June 22, 2026, and its Mantra, Bloodbound, and Elder Edict Ciphers are no longer obtainable. But Gylden Rush itself is live again: the new edition (July 30 – August 10, 2026) brings back Golden, Ancestral, and Mystic Ciphers as its gacha currency, dropping on the Gyldenmist maps right now.

On top of that, the launch Second Wave mail (above) put a fresh Ashen Cipher and Abyssal Cipher in every player’s inbox until September 1. So if you are looking for “ciphers” in August 2026, the relevant items are the Ashen Cipher in your mail and the Golden, Ancestral, and Mystic Ciphers from Gylden Rush.

Cipher keys in the released gamePermalink to this section

A separate, still-live use of “cipher” is the cipher key item family. The best documented example is the Dried Flower Knot:

• What it is: a Legendary cipher key. Per the official Steam announcement, the client update deployed on August 6, 2026 increased its drops and opened the Einherjar Mode “Mist Lord” challenge. Before that update it appeared only through Hallowgrove and Brandrgarde exploration or the Auction House (per community coverage of the in-game encyclopedia).
• What it does: it switches on Einherjar Mode — a high-difficulty state reached within a Chaos Trio match, used for the hardest boss hunts and speedrun events (see How to Beat Bosses). With the challenge now open, defeating the Einherjar Mist Lord grants a higher chance of dropping Holy Weapons or Holy Forging Materials (official patch wording).

On the eve of the update, the studio explained the plan in the official Steam announcement:

Meanwhile, Dried Flower Knot will start dropping after next week’s update, and the Mist Lord in Einherjar Mode will officially open for challenge. Defeating it will grant a higher chance of dropping Holy Weapons or Holy Forging Materials. Official Steam news hub (app 3282300)

So while the June Open Beta edition’s event ciphers (Mantra, Bloodbound, Elder Edict) are gone, cipher-key-style items still exist as endgame consumables tied to the toughest content in the game — and that content has now expanded with the Einherjar Mode Mist Lord challenge, opened by the August 6, 2026 client update.

Forbidden and Golden CiphersPermalink to this section

Beyond the reward scrolls and cipher keys above, Mistfall Hunter also has Forbidden Ciphers and Golden Ciphers — hidden-value Legendary scrolls found in expeditions whose item descriptions contain keyword clues pointing to the correct camp NPC. Matching the wrong NPC misses the bonus epic loot. See our dedicated Forbidden Cipher guide for the full type table, NPC match list, and decipher steps.

FAQPermalink to this section

• What is an Ashen Cipher in Mistfall Hunter? A Legendary cipher mailed to every player on August 1, 2026 as part of the Second Wave launch rewards (alongside an Abyssal Cipher). Give it to Sigrid in the Victory Wine area of camp for her bonus (a Ripple Gem); otherwise it deciphers into Gyldenblod, with a 90.8% chance of 450.
• How do I get ciphers? As of August 2026, the Ashen Cipher is in every player’s in-game mail until September 1. Additional ciphers drop in raids from locked chests, purple-branded enemies, and unidentified items. Golden, Ancestral, and Mystic Ciphers are also obtainable from the live Gylden Rush event (July 30 – August 10, 2026); the Mantra, Bloodbound, and Elder Edict variants from the June Open Beta edition are no longer obtainable.
• What is the Elder Edict Cipher? A Legendary Golden Cipher (value 400, not listable) from the June 2026 Open Beta edition of Gylden Rush, alongside the Golden, Mantra, Ancestral, Mystic, Ashen, and Bloodbound ciphers. Its faded text reads “Tree Hollow, Secret Cache” — both Pip keywords — so Pip pays its bonus. It can no longer be redeemed since that edition ended.
• Who should I give the Ashen Cipher to? Match its clue words to an NPC. Community decoders agree the bonus follows the keywords, not the cipher name — Sigrid for Sealing Wax/Acid/Malt/Cloves/Residual Heat (the classic “Sigrid for Ashen” tip), Pip for Mantra/Elder Edict/Tree Hollow, Dew for Echo/Prophecy/Spindle. A non-matching NPC gives the standard payout only.
• What does “sealing wax acid” mean? Sealing Wax and Acid are two of Sigrid’s cipher keywords (with Residual Heat, Malt, and Cloves). A cipher carrying them goes to Sigrid in the Victory Wine area for the bonus payout.
• Why can’t I decipher my cipher? You need to reach level 5 first. The Decipher option only appears on camp NPCs from that level.

SourcesPermalink to this section

• Steam — Mistfall Hunter official news: August 6 client update (Dried Flower Knot drops, Einherjar Mist Lord challenge, stability fixes) 
• GameRant — Mistfall Hunter: How to Win an Alienware Gaming PC (Gylden Rush Event Guide)  (August 1, 2026)
• mmoexp — Gylden Rush Event Guide (July 30 – August 10, 2026): How to Farm Ciphers, Earn Exclusive Rewards & Win Alienware Prizes  (August 3, 2026)
• NerdsChalk — Mistfall Hunter Free Rewards: Twitch Drops, Emotes, and Golden Ciphers  (August 3, 2026)
• SportsRant — Mistfall Hunter Cipher Guide: How to Get More Ciphers and Earn Every Gylden Rush Reward 

Related PagesPermalink to this section

• Mistfall Hunter Codes — beta compensation mail, including Golden Cipher x3 for beta participants
• All Outfits — the Enlightening Flame outfit in the cipher reward table
• How to Beat Bosses — where the Dried Flower Knot / Einherjar Mode is used
• Mistfall Hunter PvE — the PvE loop the ciphers and cipher keys sit inside
• Season 1 Soul Hunt — what events are running now
• Discord & Community — where players share cipher drop locations and decipher results