The Duchess is a highly agile Nightfarer in Nightreign, ideal for those who love to get in lots of quick hits before dodging away to safety. She’s got amplified evasive maneuvers thanks to her passive, can quickly restage a spectral version of events to repeat damage dealt to enemies, and can even turn the team invisible to pull off sneaky backstabs.
All in all, the Duchess is an incredibly strong Nightfarer who’ll be loved by those who want to be very aggressive towards bosses while also being able to quickly seek safety with her Passive Ability and Ultimate. Without further ado, here are some suggestions for a Duchess build in Nightreign.
Nightreign Duchess build guide
Nightreign Duchess skills, passives, and art
The Duchess’ kit consists of the following Passive Ability, Skill, and Ultimate:
- Passive Ability: Magnificent Poise – allows the Duchess to dodge and attack optimally, sometimes dodging repeatedly if need be. Reduces stamina reduction from attacks and evasive actions, and allows up to two consecutive evasive actions.
- Skill: Restage – allows the Duchess to stage a spectral reprisal of recent events to damage nearby foes repeatedly. Great for duplicating critical hits or status ailment procs.
- Ultimate: Finale – allows the Duchess to turn herself and her allies invisible for a short period of time. Great for backstabs and sneaky revives.
As you can see from Duchess’ kit, it would make sense for her to be a highly dexterous character, but this isn’t actually the case. While her Dexterity scaling is B (as is her Faith scaling), which is by no means terrible, her best stat is Intelligence, which she has A scaling for.
This means that the Duchess has a few ways of being played. You can, by all means, grab a staff and some sorceries and sit back hurling Glintstone Pebbles at enemies, but this isn’t going to make the most of the Duchess’ evasive abilities. Ideally, you want to look for any Magic-infused weapons, especially on Duchess’ preferred weapon – daggers – but you could also look out for Intelligence-scaling swords (like the Crystal Sword or Sword of Night and Flame) or Magic-infused katanas.
I especially like using Bleed weapons on Duchess, and if they come accompanied with a Magic infusion (or I at least have ample amounts Magic Grease), even better. This means we’re making the most of our Intelligence scaling by dealing Magic damage, but we can also attempt to pull off some Bleed stacks to use our Restage ability on.
This is very easily done with an Executor or Ironeye on our team, and that leads us onto which Nightfarers synergise with Duchess.
Best Duchess team synergies in Nightreign
Duchess is a highly versatile character who works well with most other Nightfarers in Nightreign, but there are a few of them that I particularly enjoy playing alongside.
The first of these are both Ironeye and Executor. Given Duchess’ decent Arcane stat, she is capable of pulling off some decent Bleed stacks with the right weapon. Executor also does this naturally (and exceptionally), and Ironeye can do this very well – from a distance – using a bow with Bleed on it (though, these can be hard to come by).
With at least two Nightfarers on your team running Bleed alongside other damage types (in the Duchess’ instance, Magic), you’ll be able to pull off Bleed stacks regularly and can then use Duchess’ Restage Skill on these to deal almost double the damage. It makes incredibly light work of bosses susceptible to Bleed. The same can be said for Frost or Sleep!
In Ironeye’s case specifically, this can apply to even more status ailments. If he has a bow with Poison or Scarlet Rot infused, and the Duchess manages to find a dagger or Dexterity weapon with the same infusion, you’ll be able to consistently whittle away boss health using these ailments. And these ailments are highly necessary for some Nightlords.
The Duchess can also be good fun to play alongside Revenant. With Revenant’s summons capable of taking a decent amount of aggro, these help give Duchess ample opportunity to sneak up behind foes. That said, if you do plan on playing Duchess with squishier characters such as Ironeye or Revenant, you might want to consider taking along a third, tankier Nightfarer to draw the enemy’s attention away from you.
Best Duchess relics and passive effects in Nightreign
When it comes to relic traits and the passive effects of equipment in Nightreign, there are a few different things to look out for when it comes to the Duchess.
First and foremost, the Duchess benefits from anything that boosts her Stamina or Stamina Recovery Speed, as she’ll be using a lot of the stuff to dish out multiple quick attacks and then dodge. On top of that, given that the Duchess is built for backstabbing foes, anything that boosts her Critical Hit Rate or Critical Hit Damage is great.
While relics and their traits are largely randomised in Nightreign, the relics you acquire from Nightlords, Remembrances, and the Small Jar Bazaar are fixed. As a result, there are a few specific ones you can consider equipping. These are as follows:
- Night of the Baron (dropped by Gaping Jaws): Improved Critical Hits +1, Art Gauge fills moderately upon Critical Hit, and Critical Hit boosts Stamina Recovery Speed.
- Night of the Miasma (dropped by Fissure in the Fog): Nearby Frostbite conceals self, changes compatible armament’s skill to Chilling Mist at the start of Expedition, and attack power is increased when facing frostbite-afflicted enemies.
- Night of the Wise (dropped by Sentient Pest): Increased Maximum FP, starting armament inflicts Poison, and Poison and Rot in the vicinity increases attack power.
- Night of the Fathom (dropped by Augur): Increased Maximum HP, Flasks also heal allies, and items confer effect to all nearby allies.
- Golden Dew (from Duchess’ Remembrance): Improved Character Skill attack power for Duchess, and boosts attack power of added affinity attacks (meaning this pairs nicely with the Night of the Wise and Night of the Miasma Relics above).
Night of the Miasma isn’t catered to Duchess, but can be great for her if you’re hoping to pull off Frostbite stacks and secure more backstabs while you’re at it. You can use your starting dagger to inflict Frost, which then conceals the Duchess, thus allowing her to pull off more backstabs. If the enemy is Frostbitten, too, her backstabs will deal even more damage!
If you instead wanted to start an Expedition with a Poison dagger, try the Night of the Wise Relic (dropped by the Sentient Pest). This Relic is good for everyone, but can be particularly good for Duchess given it provides another boost to her FP, which she’ll be using if you have her casting any magic and making the most of her Intelligence stat.
Similarly, Night of the Fathom is incredibly useful on any character – if you’re not too sure what else to equip – given its shared healing, item effects, and the boost to your Maximum HP.
On top of that, if you do opt for a Relic that gives your starting weapon a specific affinity – whether that’s Magic, Poison, Frost, Fire, or whatever else – any Relics with the ‘boosts attack power of affinity attacks’ compliments the former nicely, ensuring you get even more out of your added affinity attacks. In an ideal world, you’ll also always use a weapon that has some sort of affinity for the sake of being able to deal more damage where possible, so this never goes amiss.
Other things to keep an eye out for – when it comes to the Dormant Powers dropped by bosses – is ‘increased enemy damage after Critical Hit’ or passive effects along those lines. If you’re opting for the Night of the Miasma Relic, any Dormant Powers that allow you to conjure clouds of Frostbite when dodging are great for Duchess. Firstly, she dodges often, and secondly, she’ll regularly be concealed thanks to the equipped Relic, which allows nearby Frost to conceal the wearer.
For more on Nightreign, take a look at our tips and tricks for successful runs, how The Crater event works, and how the Rotted Woods event works.