12 Elden Ring Nightreign tips to get a head start hunting Nightlords

You've probably noticed if you're here, but Nightreign review calls it "a merciless bully." (We mean that lovingly, of course.) Beating the Nightlord at the end of your run means juggling level progression, weapon upgrades, and elemental weaknesses, all while being chased by a flaming wall of death. No pressure.

These Elden Ring Nightreign tips aim to make all those mechanics and systems a bit more sensible and equip you with some reliable strategies for success during your next expedition. I'll start off with some suggestions for what to prioritize during day one and two, and then offer some general tips to keep in mind as you chase down your next Nightlord.

For more help perfecting your runs, check out our guide on how to unlock Nightreign's Dark Souls outfits. And if you want a rundown on all the Nightlords you'll face, make sure to read our Nightreign boss guide.

Flask charges are your friends, so get them early

Unless you're one of the handful of demigods capable of no-hit Soulslike runs, you're probably going to take some damage while playing Nightreign. In fact, considering how hard Limveld's bosses hit, you're probably going to take a lot, which means your health-restoring sacred flask is going to get a workout. Thankfully, you can increase your maximum number of flask charges by visiting Churches of Marika, which will be colored gold on the map if you haven't visited them.

A safe way to start a Nightreign run is to check your map for the closest church while flying in. Land, kill the nearby cluster of enemies that you're usually dropped next to for an initial level-up and some loot, and then beeline to your first flask charge increase. We've found that getting two additional flask charges by the end of day one provides a comfortable health reserve.

Target Forts and Great Churches for early upgrades

After touching down and picking up extra flasks, prioritize Forts and Great Churches, both of which have easy bosses that can be killed early in a run for low-risk upgrades and drops. (If you're not sure which area types on the map are which, check the Guide in the Visual Codex in the Roundtable Hold. It explains map locations in more detail.)

Most Forts will have a room with three chests on their lower level, and a knight boss upstairs on the ramparts. Another chest on the rampart will almost always contain a Stonesword Key, which lets your team open an Evergaol and fight the boss inside.

Great Churches will either have a boss fight on the ground floor, or a hole in the ground leading to a basement level with a boss fight and an altar guaranteed to drop incantation seals. Like Forts, they have a high chance to drop Stonesword keys from altar chests, and there are more chests hidden in the rafters.

Day two is for clearing bosses

Once you've got your sturdy foundation of flask charges and initial weapons in day one, you've got one goal for day two: Killing bosses for more runes, loot, and ive perks. If your squad doesn't have weapons with affinities that match the boss's weakness, prioritize any enemy regions on the map showing that same affinity. You'll have a higher chance of finding weapons with that damage type when you kill that area's boss.

Afterwards, your goal should be killing as many bosses as you can before day two ends. When you're steamrolling Camps and Ruins without issue, move up to Evergaols with any Stonesword Keys you have. The difficulty of Evergaol bosses can vary, but unless a Death Rite Bird comes out, you'll probably be fine. Day two will also mark Great Enemy bosses on the map. They hit hard and have a lot of health, but they offer some of the best gear for battling Nightlords on day three. Aim to be at least level 8 before you take them on (10 will probably feel a lot safer).

Unlock the Duchess ASAP

One of Nightreign's two unlockable characters, The Duchess is an all-star. She makes great use of dexterity-based weapons, but the real draw is her Restage ability, which repeats a percentage of all damage dealt to enemies in the last few seconds. It's on an extremely low cooldown, meaning a Duchess on your team can repeatedly churn out free damage.

Better still, Restage maintains the elemental damage and status buildup of duplicated attacks, so your squad can hammer bosses incredibly hard with your most-effective damage types. You can unlock Duchess very early in the game by killing the first expedition boss, so you don't have to wait too long to add Restage to your repertoire.

Don't sleep on ranged weapons, even if you're not Ironeye

Nightreign bosses are rowdy. Nightlords have a habit of leaping and dashing across their arenas, making it a headache for melee characters to get close. And even when you can, their attacks can be so relentless that it's hard to find openings for landing your own hits. Thankfully there's nothing stopping you and your friends from jumping into an expedition with three Ironeyes to unload on bosses that might be difficult for melee-focused fighters to face toe-to-toe.

But don't let that convince you that only Ironeye should be picking up ranged weapons. His ability to dish out consistent ranged damage puts him at the top of our Nightfarer tier list, but every Nightreign character has unlimited ammunition for any ranged weapon they pick up. If you've got a bow on hand and you're struggling to get close, it can be worth shooting off some arrows even if you're one of the more melee-focused heroes.

Press Y on the map to see what gear you'll likely find in an area

Different zone types in Nightreign are more likely to provide an associated type of armament. Great Churches have guaranteed incantation seals; Camps tend to have bow racks full of ranged weapons; Arcane Towers have staffs for sorceries. Keeping all those associations straight in your head, however, can be difficult.

Luckily, you don't have to. On an Xbox controller, press Y while looking at the map to show additional details like the armament types associated with different areas. You'll probably internalize where to find bows and seals before long, but it can save time when you're deciding where to sprint next as the night circle closes in.

Grab Smithing Stones for eventual gear upgrades

If you and your team have found some respectable blue-rarity weapons but weren't lucky enough to find any promising purple drops, it's a good idea to start day two by heading to a Mining Tunnel for smithing stones.

There are Mining Tunnels all over the map, so you'll likely be near one when the second day starts. Inside there'll be either a troll, knight, or pumpkin head boss that's guaranteed to offer a Smithing Stone (2), which can be used to upgrade a blue-tier weapon to a purple at anvils near merchants, increasing its stats. It's a great way to ensure that you've got a strong weapon with an affinity that matches a boss's weakness—or just an upgraded weapon that you really like using.

Try charging your character abilities

While Nightreign might change up a lot of Elden Ring's gameplay, it's still very much a FromSoft game—and unfortunately, that means the exact functionality for a lot of mechanics remains pretty opaque. That includes character abilities, many of which are easy to use for hours without realizing they can be even more effective if you hold their button down.

Guardian's whirlwind, Wylder's pile bunker ultimate, Raider's headbutt—all of them get a bit of extra juice if you charge up the ability as you're firing it. Before your next expedition, try spending a couple minutes in the Roundtable Hold's sparring ground to make sure you're getting the full mileage out of your Nightfarer's kit.

Ults are great for resurrecting teammates in a pinch

Speaking of abilities: Guardian isn't the only Nightfarer whose ultimate is great for reviving teammates. As the tutorial explains, you can revive your teammates by dealing damage to them—but that doesn't just include weapon attacks. If you're playing a character whose ultimate deals damage, you can use it in a pinch to revive a teammate in a dangerous spot.

Because you're invulnerable while using your Nightfarer's ultimate art, it's even possible to revive a teammate while a boss is doing its best to knock your skull in. Yes, it means giving up on your lovely ult damage, but you can't do any damage if your team wipes. Wylder in particular is great for a clutch ultimate revive: His grappling hook lets you zip directly to a teammate so you can explode them back to life. Teamwork!

You can spend your Murk to gamble for relics

Relics are Nightreign's form of long-term progression, letting you give your characters extra stats and expedition modifiers by equipping colored gems into their grail slots. Unfortunately, the modifiers on relics that you earn at the end of expeditions are entirely random, which can make it frustratingly slow to get a good set of relics for your character of choice.

Thankfully the Small Jar Bazaar in Roundtable Hold means you don't have to rely entirely on end-of-expedition RNG. At the merchant, you can buy a set of predetermined relics with the murk currency you earn from expeditions, but you can also gamble on additional randomized relics. The odds aren't any better than expedition rewards, but the extra rolls don't hurt if you're looking to make your runs easier, and it takes only seconds instead of 45 minutes.

Of course, spending all your murk on relics means you won't have any left over for unlocking Nightreign outfits that make you look cool. Buyer beware.

Most weapons will give you their ive bonuses when they're just sitting in your inventory

There's a lot of info to take in when you start playing Nightreign, so you might have missed exactly how weapon bonuses work. Whenever a weapon drops in an expedition, it has a randomized bonus effect like "increased ranged weapon attack" or "damage reduction at full health."

What's easy to overlook is that you'll get almost all of the bonuses from Nightreign weapon ives, even if you're not actively wielding them. That's how you're cobbling together a build throughout a Nightreign expedition; you're not just looking for a higher attack stat and a good damage element. You're comparing the bonus effects on weapon drops to optimize your playstyle. A Raider who's dual-wielding greatclubs will hit a lot harder if their inventory's full of weapons that increase damage dealt while wielding two armaments.

There are exceptions, however. Some weapons will have a small hand icon next to their bonus effect. If you see that icon, it means you'll only benefit from that effect while you're wielding that weapon in one of your hands.

Avoid Cataclysms unless your squad is very capable or very brave

During an expedition, you might notice areas on the map that are covered with a blue/green circle. These are Cataclysms, and they do two things: First, they buff the health and damage of all enemies inside of them. Second, when you enter them, you'll be invaded by hostile phantom Nightfarer doppelgangers. The result is a difficult, frantic battle against a pile of buffed enemies while a player character's ghost does its best to murder you.

If you want to tackle one, make sure you've got your whole team with you and that you've all got a good amount of levels built up, because things in a Cataclysm can go sideways real fast. The rewards, unfortunately, are hit or miss: slain Nightfarer phantoms will offer an upgraded version of that hero's default weapon, but there's no guarantee it'll be something your target Nightlord is weak to or something useful for your build.

Our advice: Get your next upgrades somewhere else unless you're extremely confident.