Elden Ring Nightreign’s Sentient Pest Gnoster boss is a surprise challenge if you’re not prepared. The two-part boss makes finding an opening for attack rather difficult, and the wrong party combinations make this battle longer and more grueling than it needs to be.
Our Nightreign Sentient Pest boss guide breaks down the Sentient Pest’s attacks and how to counter them, along with the best party combinations for this fight.
Elden Ring Nightreign Sentient Pest boss guide
Sentient Pest attacks and counters
Both parts of Gnoster have a small handful of attacks, and they don’t change much as the fight progresses. They do get faster after the halfway point, though. The moth and scorpion join together at that point and race around the battlefield at a much faster pace, making it tough for close-range fighters to find an opening to attack.
We’ve split Gnoster’s attacks between both bug types below, the moth portion and the scorpion portion.
Moth attacks
Gnoster’s moth portion relies on long-range poison and magic attacks, so if you run across any magical damage negation buffs during your journey, it’s worth picking them up.
Glintstone Stars
- This attack isn’t exactly like the eponymous sorcery, but it’s close. The moth’s wings glitter with points of light that shoot into the air as beams before coming back down at you. During the second half, the moth fires more stars at a faster pace
- Dodge forward and sideways to evade
Beam of light
- The moth summons a large beam of light from the heavens that strikes the earth for several seconds. A disc of white light signals where this attack will happen, and you have maybe two seconds to move out of range before the beam hits. Gnoster only uses this attack in the battle’s second half
- Dodge or sprint out of range. Getting caught in the beam almost always results in death
Poison cloud
- Gnoster emits a green cloud of poisonous gas that spreads in front of it in a wide arc.
- Dodge backward out of the cloud to avoid. If you have sound on, a faint, ringing bell sound signals when Gnoster is about to use this attack
Scorpion attacks
The scorpion has a few unique attacks as well, including one ability that makes it invulnerable for a short time.
Stone blades
- The scorpion slams its front claws or side legs into the ground and raises a fan of stone blades. The initial attack and the blades can damage you
- The easiest way to evade these attacks is if you’re playing as a ranged character, since you can just not deal with them at all. Melee characters aren’t so lucky. You’ll have to learn when to dodge the stones to avoid taking damage or dodge backward and away from the scorpion before the attack to miss the stones completely
Claw smash
- The scorpion slams one or both of its claws into the ground
- Dodge forward or sideways
Scorpion ram
- In the battle’s second half, the scorpion’s speed triples, and it ferries the moth around. It will, frequently and without warning, rush forward in a straight line and attempt to run you over
- Dodge sideways
Stone bug
- The scorpion turns to stone and becomes invulnerable. The bug only does this in the battle’s first half
- Focus your attacks on the moth or wait until the stone effect wears off
Sentient Pest Gnoster weaknesses
Sentient Pest’s biggest weakness is fire, as the boss selection menu indicates. However, in our experience, we also found the bug is prone to blood loss and frostbite. Fire weapons tend to be fairly commmon in Limveld, though, so you should (hopefully) have less trouble finding something to exploit that weakness than you would in finding an ice or bleed weapon.
You can also equip the Night of the Beast relic from the Tricephalos fight to give your starting armament fire affinity. That, plus two smithing stone upgrades, gives you a strong edge in battle, even if you can’t find a more powerful weapon during the expedition.
Best team combinations for Sentient Pest Gnoster
The Gnoster fight is so much easier if you have at least two ranged characters. Melee characters struggle to attack the moth in the first half and are exposed to more damaging attacks if they go after the scorpion. Landing hits in the second half is also a steep challenge, thanks to how quickly Gnoster moves. Two ranged characters let your party maintain decent damage output while the melee character – if there is one – lands hits whenever they can or distracts Gnoster.
In our experience, the best melee characters for this fight are:
Guardian struggles to keep up and, unless you get multiple stamina and poise buffs, can’t tank Gnoster’s attacks very well. Revenant is also a hit-and-miss depending on what weapons you were able to find. Gnoster steamrolls her spirit summons quickly, so they don’t serve as useful distractions – or much else, for that matter.
Two Ironeye and one Wylder or Duchess make for a highly agile party that can deal heavy damage while remaining out of harm’s way. Wylder is a slightly better pick than Duchess, thanks to their character skill’s mobility use. Recluse is also a useful third or a replacement for one Ironeye, though their power always depends on whether you were able to pick up a strong variety of weapons with elemental affiliations.
For more Nightreign help, check out our Raider build and Revenant build guides, and get familiar with all the map events in Nightreign’s version of the Lands Between.