Despite being built around three player coop, Elden Ring Nightreign is still no pushover. Every Expedition has countless unexpected challenges to overcome before you even reach the final confrontation with the Night Lord. It can be overwhelming and confusing at first, so here are some tips and tricks to help you on your journey through Limveld.
Plan Your Route
There is nothing more key to finding success in a run then levelling up. It seems trivial, but bumps to your health, stamina, and stats can be what get you over the line in the final confrontation of an Expedition. As soon as you load in, open the map and devise a rough route with your team to make the most of the preparation time provided to you.
Look for camps and strongholds that pertain to elements or status effects that your chosen Night Lord is weak to. These can be viewed when you select which Night Lord to hunt and make a real difference in the damage you deal, and in the case of some status effects, can make fights much more manageable. The Gaping Jaw, for example, is weak to poison. The ailment will stop it in its tracks as it expels the poison from its body, giving you a brief window for free hits.
It’s also important to consider potential Evergaols you can hit on your path, as well as where you can dip into Churches of Marika for a free heal charge. Try to work your way in from the outside so that you still have options when the Night’s Tide starts to shrink the map space. Try to also consider how Shifting Earth world events can help your run, and save the central castle for the end of the run so you can clear it efficiently.
Consider Your Team Composition for each Night Lord
While it’s too easy to slip into the comfortability of playing a single Nightfarer, Nightreign will really push you to switch it up against certain Night Lords. While Wylder is a fantastic character for Tricephalos and Gaping Jaw Expeditions, he struggles to make a meaningful impact against Augur or Sentient Pest.
Having a ranged character you’re familiar with will go a long way to easing the difficulty of those fights. Even if you’re averse to using magic in Souls games, Ironeye is a great long-distance option with a character skill that weakens enemies and a penchant for bows. It also means he can really exploit status effects and elemental affinities, making him a great option to pair with Guardian or Raider.
Don’t forget you can double up on Nightfarers, making double Ironeye or double Recluse strategies quite viable if you have a third member to tank damage. Be wary that you will often draw aggression as a ranged character, so be ready on those dodges when a boss is about to rush you down with a relentless onslaught. You can always experiment with characters on the training grounds at the Roundtable Hold as well.
Don’t Be Afraid To Try A Different Night Lord if You get Stuck
One key reason Elden Ring seemed to gel with those who struggled with Souls games previously, is the ability to explore somewhere else if you’re particularly stuck. Part of this has come over to Nightreign in the way you can choose which Night Lord you want to go after. Once you clear the first Expedition, Tricephalos, all other Night Lords open up (besides the final boss).
You might think to tackle them in order, but the second Expedition, Gaping Jaw, is one of the hardest in the game. If you find you’re bashing your head against a brick wall, it may be best to jump into Sentient Pest or Augur, as they’re much more manageable in comparison to Gaping Jaw. Beating these Expeditions will net you powerful Relics to take into your next run, or may unlock Shifting Earth events for you to use in future runs.
There’s no shame in stepping away from an Expedition that’s proving difficult. You can always come back to it and the final boss is unlocked once you beat four Night Lords, so not all of them have to be completed to reach the credits. It may even be worth doing four Night Lords and the final boss, then go back to the more difficult Expeditions with the Relics you’ve unlocked along the way.
Pick Your Fights Wisely
If there’s one thing that can derail a run in Elden Ring Nighreign, it’s a couple of team wipes against a boss you simply aren’t ready for. It’s tempting to come across an overworld boss as you traverse to your next point of interest, but it’s important to identify if it’s a challenge worth undertaking. There’re are a couple of key identifiers I go by when working out if a boss is worth fighting.
The first and most important is how long will it take? If you know a boss’s attack patterns like the back of your hand, that’s all well and good, but it won’t heavily impact how quickly you can take it down. If damage from the entire party seems be on the lesser side, it probably isn’t a fight worth taking, as you can clear out other camps or bosses during that time.
The second thing is how comfortable are you with facing that boss at your current power level? This is something that will come to you over time, but you’ll start to pick up on when it isn’t the bestidea to engage with conflict. The Gargoyle bosses, for example, deal big damage, have hefty health pools, and dart about the arena, making them difficult and elongated fights that can often result in wipes and loss of levels.
If all else fails, the best way to gauge if a fight is worth taking is just by hitting the boss a couple of times to see how much damage you do. If it’s a decent amount and all three party can commit to it, then go for it. If it’s small bits coming off on each hit, your time is probably better spent elsewhere and perhaps you can loop back later on.
Use Weapons That Scale with Your Nightfarer
This is perhaps a no-brainer to some, but I saw many people during my matchmade runs using sub-optimal weapons. Each Nightfarer has unique stat spreads, where Raider is best suited to heavy, two-handed weapons that scale with Strength, the Executor wants fast and agile tools that scale with Dexterity or Arcane. It can tempting to take something you’re familiar with, but you may end up hamstringing yourself in the process.
It’s good practice to have at least one weapon you can use that scales with your Nightfarer’s core stats. One tactic I frequently used, is to have one weapon that scales with my key stats, and another that inflicts status ailments. I would use the status ailment weapon to inflict said ailment, and swap back to my more damaging weapon once applied, refreshing the affliction as needed.
You can have up to six pieces of equipment on you at any time, three per hand. Don’t be afraid to make use of dual-wielding if you feel comfortable with dodging as well. Maximising your damage is so important, especially against the Night Lords, so every advantage you can get counts.
Hopefully some of these tips can help you get through a couple of Expeditions. Nightreign, like other Souls games, is all about the information you gain on a failed run. Learn, adapt, move outside of your comfort zone, and I’m sure you’ll find success.
