Needle Knight Leda is the first character you meet before entering the Shadow Realm in Elden Ring's Shadow of the Erdtree DLC. Her quest series extends to the end of the main story and also includes many of the other NPCs in the expansion. You can find out how to complete her quest series and collect as many rewards as possible here.
Important NOTE: Leda's quest cannot be failed no matter what you do. It just has different variants where you can reduce the number of her allies while increasing yours. At the end of the main story, she will always meet you before the final boss and challenge you to a fight.
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Needle Knight Leda at the Cocoon of the Heavenly
You can meet Leda for the first time in the Mogh Palace at the Cocoon of the Celestial after the boss fight against Mogh. We explain in detail how you can start the DLC so that Leda appears in the linked guide. You can talk to her here or not, in any case she will go to her next position in Scadu Altus as soon as you enter this area for the first time.
Leda at the cross of the high road
The next time you will meet Leda is in Scadu Altus at the cross on the high road. If you follow the main path through Ensis Castle, you can't miss her. However, if you take the secret path around the outside and enter Scadu Altus, you can. Her exact location is marked on the following picture:
Here you can speak to Leda again and exhaust all of her dialogues. To continue, you have to break the large rune.
Break the large rune
Breaking the Great Rune is a story event that occurs as soon as you either enter the entrance area to the Shadow Keep in the north of Scadu Altus or when you walk across the rope bridges east of Bonny Village. A corresponding message at the bottom of the screen tells you when the rune is broken.
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Also, kill the first boss, the Golden Hippo, in the Shadow Keep and activate the Place of Mercy in the boss area. Then return to the cross on the High Road.
Hornherold and Leda’s dialogues exhaust
At the cross, exhaust all of the Horn Herald's dialogues until he tells you that he wants revenge on Messmer. Then sit briefly at the Place of Mercy to reload the area. If the Horn Herald then disappears, you have done everything right.
Then talk to Needle Knight Leda and exhaust all of her dialogues. She wants to track down those who are not on Miquela's side. You can suggest Thiollier, the Horn Herald, or no one as your target. Your decision doesn't matter here, because whatever option you choose, it will always ultimately target the Horn Herald.
In the meantime, reload the area at the Place of Mercy and exhaust all further dialogues with her until she says that she will follow the Horn Herald to the Black Keep. Don't be surprised: Unlike the Horn Herald, she does not disappear from here after reloading the area.
Support Leda against Hornherold
Now teleport back to the first place of grace in the Shadow Keep and follow the path until you come to a long passage with burning boats. Before the entrance to the warehouse you can now see the Summoning Signs of Leda (Red) and the Horn Herald (Gold) discover on the ground.
Choose Leda's red call sign on the left. You will then be teleported to the Horn Herald's world and must kill the Horn Herald together with Leda. Once he is defeated, you will return to your world and receive the Horn Herald's complete armor set and his sword “Falx”. You will also receive the “Mangled Entanglement” talisman after speaking to Leda again at the cross on the high road.
Important NOTE: The Horn Herald's quest ends here and you will miss out on the Ash of War “Quick Cut” if you had killed Leda's Phantom instead. However, if you want to continue Leda's quest and complete the next step with Ansbach, you will have to side with Leda here. Also note that if you kill the Horn Herald at this point, you will no longer be able to be called as an ally against Leda and the final boss at the end.
Making progress in the mission of Ansbach and Freyja
If you haven't already done so, follow Ansbach and Freyja's quest up to the point where you gave Ansbach the secret rite scroll and thus helped Freyja. In the linked guide, we describe the individual steps in detail.
Support Leda against Ansbach
Go to the cross on the high road again and talk to Leda. Exhaust all of her dialogues so she sets Ansbach as her next target for elimination. Then go to Ansbach's location in the sample warehouse (after Place of Grace “Warehouse, first floor”). He himself will be gone, but in his place you will now find reputation symbols for Leda (red) and Ansbach (gold). Help Leda and kill Ansbach in his world. This will give you Ansbach's entire armor set and his longbow. Back at Leda, you will also receive the “Revenged Entwinement” talisman.
Important NOTE: You can only fight Ansbach against Leda if you have previously helped Leda kill the Horn Herald in front of the rehearsal camp. This step is also only possible until you have killed Messmer! This step means that Ansbach, like the Horn Herald, will no longer be an ally for you in the fight against Leda and the final boss.
Defeat Leda in Enir-Ilim
Now continue to follow the main path. Kill Messmer, burn the seal tree in the ancient ruins of Rauh and reach Enir-Ilim. Shortly before the end you will automatically meet Leda, who challenges you to a fight. If you have always acted in Leda's interest up to this point, you cannot now call the Horn Herald and Ansbach for help. If you have completed Thiollier's quest up to this point, you can summon him. In addition, the call symbol of the “Sanguine Noble Nataan“ which can be called instead of Ansbach and the Horn Herald.
In the fight, you will always fight against Leda, Dryleaf Dane, Redmane Freyja and Moore. However, Moore will not be there if you choose the dialogue option “Be sad forever” after breaking the large rune. He will then die earlier and will not take part in the fight.
After you have defeated them all, you can find the armor and weapons of Moore, Freyja, Dane and Leda in the battle area and one room further. Note that you can find the rest of Leda's equipment at the settlement church on the Graveyard Plain. You can reach this by following the cliff road south of the tower settlement of Belurat into the higher area.