Elden Ring Nightreign is a difficult game, and even experienced players can expect a long learning curve in the beginning. This guide provides tips and tricks to help you get started.
Best Character Classes:
- Executor is the best damage dealer in the game, but requires perfect dodge timing. His starting weapon deals blood loss damage every few hits for massive damage bursts.
- Ironeye is the safest class for beginners, he uses a bow and arrows so you can attack from a safe distance. This class is also good at reviving teammates from a distance.
- Raider is good as part of a team, his ultimate totem ability buffs the attack power of the entire team. Has the highest health of any class and good at staggering bosses.
- Wylder is a good allrounder to learn the game. Equipped with a shield, he can block most physical attacks, while still dealing decent damage. However, not all attacks can be blocked, and his damage output is lower than Executor.
For extended reading on all classes refer to our in-depth Elden Ring Nightreign Character Classes Guide.
Best Team Setup:
- Executor + Raider + Ironeye: Executor is the main damage dealer, his ultimate transforms him into a beast that is also good for reviving fallen teammates. Raider is a good damage dealer and can support the team with his totem ultimate ability which buffs the damage output of everyone. Ironeye can mark enemies which makes everyone deal +10% damage, with a big damage burst once the mark breaks. Raider places his totem ultimate > Ironeye marks the boss > Executor and Ironeye use their ultimate ability for massive damage.
- Executor + 2x Ironeye: A skilled melee player who is good at dodging can draw the attention of the bosses while the two Ironeyes shoot from a safe distance. This constellation offers relative safety for the two Ironeye players but still gives good damage output thanks to the Executor player.
- 3x Ironeye: If the melee players on your team die too often, try switching everyone to Ironeye. Note that Ironeye is also a decent melee fighter when equipping a melee weapon in the left hand. You can rush in by marking enemies using the character skill, then land melee hits. When out of stamina, let his skill recharge and repeat. This works well against shielded enemies. When a player gets killed, the other two can revive almost instantly by shooting arrows. However, damage output with this setup isn’t as good as with melee characters, so boss fights will drag on for longer, but are easier since you can stay out of the danger zone. The player who gets attacked should focus only on dodging while the other two shoot arrows from safe distance. Note that if you are too far from an enemy the arrows deal reduced damage, so stay at medium range.
Of course any other team setup can work too. Each player should test every character class to find what suits them best. Wylder is also good but his abilities don’t help the team as much. Guardian has low damage output and is an inefficient tank as he has no skills to draw enemy attention. Duchess is a good alternative to Executor, her ultimate turns her invisible which is great for reviving teammates, but has lower health and lower damage output. Revenant and Recluse are difficult to play and not efficient in boss fights.
Best Relics Loadout:
After each match you unlock so-called “Relics”. 3 of these can be equipped to each character to gain passive buffs. The downside is that the relic effects are completely random. But there’s a way to get specifically the ones you want! Back up your save game, go to the Small Jar Bazaar in Roundtable Hold. Buy the “Scenic Flatstone” for 600 Murk (currency obtained from every match). This will give one random relic with a random effect. If you don’t get good relics, restore your save and repeat. To make this more efficient, you should have at least 6000 Murk so you can buy 10 Relics at once.
Here are the best must-have Relics:
- Starting armament inflicts blood loss / Starting armament inflicts frost – by far the best and most important relic to get. Blood Loss deals massive damage every few hits, which doubles your total damage output, melting away bosses in record time. Frostbite works the same way, every few hits causes a big damage burst. You can only equip ONE starting ailment effect, you can’t double-dip them. The only exception is the Executor character, since his starting Katana always has blood loss, you can stack it with frost to get insane damage output. Blood Loss does more damage, while Frost tends to trigger more frequently. When you use this relic, keep using your starting weapon and upgrade it to purple by using smithing stones at the table next to merchants. The blue smithing stones are bought at any merchant for 6500 runes, the purple smithing stones are a reward for clearing any Mine/Tunnel (marked on map). Then you never need to worry about finding other random weapons which also removes the randomness.
- Other “Starting armament inflicts [ailment type]” – have at least one team member use the ailment the boss is weak against. The boss weakness is displayed by an icon in the Expedition selection screen. If you’re unsure what each symbol means, we list the weaknesses in our Elden Ring Nightreign Boss Guide. Using the boss’s elemental weakness will make you deal around 20% more damage (varies by specific resistance values of each boss), but more importantly it will break the boss’s ultimate attack (which alternatively can also be broken by using your own ultimate ability).
- Flask Also Heals Allies – every time you heal, your teammates also get healed if they’re nearby. This turns everyone into a healer for the whole team! It vastly extends how long your health flasks will last. If all 3 players have a relic with this effect, it greatly enhances your team’s survivability in long boss encounters.
- Increased rune acquisition for self and allies – this will earn everyone more runes, allowing you to hit level 15 more consistently. This makes a huge difference, as each level up raises your stats.
To summarize: make sure everyone has blood loss on their starting weapon, and have everyone equip “flask also heals allies”.
For the other relic use whatever supports your playstyle. Since everything is randomized, it can take a while to get the relics you want, but is well worth the time investment in the long run. After the first expedition you can also buy “Vessels” from the shop that let you equip other colors of relics.
Best Route to Level Up and Prepare for Bosses:
Always follow this process and you should get to level 13-15 pretty consistently, upgrade your weapon to purple, and end up with 7 health flasks:
- Day 1: Go to 2 Churches for health flask upgrades + clear out 2 camps along the way to level
- Day 1: Complete a mine to get a purple smithing stone
- Day 1: Go to the big castle in the center of the map, there are always 2 merchants here (one on the cliff outside the castle, one on the broken wall). Go to a merchant to buy blue smithing stone (6500 Murk). Upgrade your starting weapon to purple at merchant (using the blue + purple smithing stone)
- Day 1: At the big castle in the center of the map, enter through the sewers through the ravine below the castle, defeat the miniboss in the sewer. Then go up and clear out all other minibosses in the castle, they drop lots of passive buffs and runes.
- Day 1: Go to Day 1 Boss. You should be Level 9 heading into the Day 1 Boss.
- Day 2: On Day 2, go to remaining Churches and clear out remaining locations to level up. The ones you already cleared will have a golden site of grace icon in the middle, so don’t revisit already cleared locations (the ones you already cleared won’t reset on Day 2). If you get Gaol Keys, use them on Goals (the stone circles). Focus on bosses, not on the weak mobs. Bosses give more runes and drop passive buffs. Don’t waste precious time on weak mobs, ignore them, they’re not worth it. All 3 players should stick together, this way you are awarded runes when a teammate kills an enemy (if too far apart you won’t get runes).
- Day 2: Go to Day 2 boss, should be Level 13-14.
- Day 3: Finish Day 3 boss. If you have any runes left over, you can buy Warming Stones from the final merchant and items that give you increased attack/defense. You can also drop them from your inventory to other teammates.
General Gameplay Tips:
- Player who has the boss aggro dodges, the other two attack – if a boss is attacking you, just dodge backwards. Then the other two players attack the boss from behind. When the boss focuses on another player, that person needs to dodge. Don’t attack if the boss is focusing on you, you’ll get hit and there’s not enough time to heal.
- Revive fallen teammates fast – A single teammate can be revived quickly. But if two players are down it’s tricky for the last player to revive them, as he gets attacked by the boss at the same time. When someone goes down, revive immediately! Ironeye is very helpful here because he can shoot arrows at the downed teammate to revive from long distances. Only exception is when a boss is nearly defeated, then it’s better to focus on killing the boss instead of reviving teammates.
- Stay together – always stay close to your teammates so you are awarded the runes from every kill. Don’t run off in different directions.
- Blood Loss Relic on Starting Weapon – as pointed out in the Relics Loadout section above, the most important thing to improve damage is to equip a relic with “Starting armament inflicts blood loss”. This is an absolute game changer. You will deal about twice as much damage with this! If playing Executor equip Frost as the starting ailment, as his weapon has Blood Loss already equipped.
- When you take a hit, heal yourself – Bosses can often kill you in one hit. If you go down you’re a burden on your entire team. Stay alive as long as possible, use a health flask whenever health drops below 60%. Otherwise the risk is too high that another hit would kill you. You can usually only take 1 hit from bosses before you need to heal. Each time you die, the time it takes teammates to revive you increases, which stacks up to 3 times. Then it would be too time-consuming to revive. The revive timer resets when touching a site of grace.
- Don’t waste any time, if you die recollect lost runes – Every second is precious, the circle around the map will shrink every few minutes. While having the map open keep running to the next location already, don’t stand around. When leveling up at sites of grace, you can interact briefly and keep running while buying the level-up to save a few seconds. Avoid deaths, these slow down your progress. If you die you lose a level, but can recollect your lost runes.
- The big castle in the middle is a must-do location each match to level up fast – The castle always spawns in the middle of the map (except when the Shrouded City Shifting Earth event is active). Enter through the sewer in the ravine below the castle. Beat the miniboss there, then go upstairs and clear out all minibosses. Clearing out the castle is the fastest way to level because there are so many enemies close together.
- Play Co-Op, not solo – the game isn’t balanced for singleplayer. You’ll have a much easier time in 3 player co-op. Note that the game doesn’t support 2 player co-op. Finding a good dedicated team will help, when matchmaking with random players you never know their skill level.
- Boss Strategies & Weaknesses – knowing what ailments bosses are weak to, and what instakill teamwipe mechanics they have, is crucial before heading into those fights. There’s no point spending 45 minutes to get to the boss without knowing what will wait for you there. A few bosses have moves that can instakill the entire team in one hit. These moves are stopped by using an ultimate ability of your own, or attacking with the ailment the boss is weak against. For full boss strategies refer to our Elden Ring Nightreign Boss Guide.
More Guides:
- All Character Classes & Best Classes Ranked
- How to Unlock Duchess Character Class
- How to Unlock Revenant Character Class
- Boss Guide (All Nightlord Endbosses)
- How to Unlock Dresser & All Outfits Showcase
- Elden Ring Nightreign Trophy Guide & Roadmap
