Elden Ring Nightreign is here, inviting trios of Nightfarers into the perilous land of Limveld, where they must scavenge and survive for two days before taking on an abominable Nightlord. Gear up and get ready with our tips, tricks, and guides, which tell you everything you need to know for a successful Nightreign run.
Getting used to Limveld can take a short while, but the below tips will help you with getting accustomed to the changing map and all of its secrets, as well as giving you some pointers as to how each day in Limveld should go. Here’s our Nightreign strategy guide, featuring tips, tricks, and all of our guides to help you with surviving your next Expedition.
Elden Ring Nightreign tips, tricks, and guides
We’ve dished out some tips and tricks that we’ve learnt during our time with Nightreign that all players ought to bear in mind, and below that, you’ll find links to all of our Nightreign guides in case you want to know more about anything specific.
Get Flask Upgrades from Churches
Limveld will typically have three to four Churches that you can visit, all of which contain a single Flask Upgrade and some consumable items you can gather.
We highly recommend plotting your route around these and ensuring you hit all of them; if you manage to collect three Flask Upgrades, you’ll walk into your fight against the Nightlord with 8 Crimson Flasks total. Without hitting any Churches, you’ll be going into your final fight with just 5 Crimson Flasks, and trust me, for most Nightlords, you’ll want as many Flasks as possible.
Pay attention to weapon passives
There are a lot of weapons in Nightreign, and if you look closely at them, you’ll notice that most weapons come with a passive effect. This could be increased magic damage negation, increased ranged attack power, continuous HP recovery, and a whole range of different effects.
The most important thing to note when it comes to these effects is that weapon passives benefit you even if you aren’t actively wielding the weapon. This means that by the end of a run, you should ideally have an inventory full of weapons – even if you aren’t using more than one or two of them – with passive effects that complement your character.
For example, let’s say you’re playing the ranged attacker and bowsman that is Ironeye. You’ll want to kit him out with a bow, of course, as well as a dextrous melee weapon – just in case – and then fill his four remaining inventory slots with weapons, shields, or staffs etc. that have passive effects that help him. These could be passives such as increased ranged damage or improved critical hits, or even effects that increase his fire attack power or resistance to specific status ailments depending on which Nightlord you’ve chosen to come up against.
Passive effects such as improved item discovery or defeating enemies restores HP are also good during the beginning of a run, but you’ll eventually want to replace these with better passives as your fight against the Nightlord inches closer.
Teardrop Scarabs will drop Talismans
You have two Talisman slots in Nightreign, and while you might find Talismans as random drops, they are guaranteed to drop from Teardrop Scarabs around Limveld.
Better yet, if you visit any of the Forts in Limveld and enter the tower at the top of them, you can actually interact with a desk and receive a ‘local clue’ which will reveal all Teardrop Scarab locations on the map.
Avoid Caves and Tunnels when the Night’s Tide is closing
Nightreign is very overwhelming initially. You’ll need to get used to all of the game’s mechanics while time is not on your side, but after a few runs, you’ll soon get to grips with what you need to do and how much time you have to do it.
One thing you definitely want to avoid is being caught up in Tunnels or Caves – especially if you’re unfamiliar with their layouts – as the Night’s Tide closes in. This can quickly see you downed and losing a level if you don’t exit the tunnel quickly, and there might not be any opportunity to go and retrieve the Runes you have lost.
As a result, try to visit caves or tunnels at the beginning of Day 1 or Day 2 rather than leaving them to the last-minute.
Shifting Earth events can help you predict where the Night’s Tide will close
If you or someone you’re matchmaking with in Nightreign has a Shifting Earth event active, such as The Crater or the Rotted Woods, this makes predicting where the Night’s Tide will close that little bit easier. On Day 2, the Night’s Tide typically tends to close around the corner of the map where the Shifting Earth event is situated, giving players ample time to spend the second day of their expedition exploring it.
As a result, you probably don’t want to be on the opposite side of the map during Day 2 whenever a Shifting Earth event is active.
Ultimates can be used to revive
While most of the Nightfarers’ Ultimates in Nightreign are used for dishing out damage against bosses, many of them can actually be used to revive any downed teammates in a pinch. The Guardian’s Ultimate can revive teammates if he targets them with it, the Executor’s Ultimate can be used to safely revive allies while tanking damage, and the Duchess’ Ultimate can be used to turn invisible so you can revive teammates safely.
Most notably, the Revenant’s Ultimate grants a period of immortality to her team, and will automatically revive a player if they are downed while this is active. Similarly, however, you can activate her Ultimate while an ally is down to revive them without needing to personally hit them. Her summons will also, sometimes, try to revive allies, but they’re not the most efficient at doing so.
Splitting up from one another is okay
While you and your team will want to stick together for end-of-Day bosses and Great Enemy bosses, it’s perfectly okay to split up sometimes if you’re confident.
For example, have your tank raid one set of Ruins while your spellcaster and dextrous player (these are just examples) go explore a nearby encampment. This way, you can earn double the amount of Runes in half the time, and you can swap locations to retrieve any boss drops and items you may need.
You ultimately want to cover as much ground as possible and hit as many POIs as possible during a run, and sometimes, it’s best to split up to be able to manage this. Remain wary, though, and flee to safety – or back to your team – when faced with a particularly tanky foe such as an Ancestor Spirit or Ulcerated Tree Spirit.
You can view Merchants on the map
Merchants are used to purchase some specific items and random weapons in Nightreign’s Limveld, and they’re always accompanied by a Smithing Table so you can upgrade your weapons. This means that you’ll no doubt want to visit one at least once during each run to see what they’ve got in stock, and fortunately, you can see where they’re located on your map by pressing ‘Y’ on Xbox or ‘1’ on PC.
Pressing this always reveals what type of weapons you can expect from each point of interest around Limveld, and can really help inform exactly what route and which locations you and your team want to visit.
Avoid Great Enemies until Day 2
You’ll quickly figure out the difference between Great Enemy bosses and your standard enemy bosses in Nightreign; you should focus on the standard bosses on Day 1 and save the Great Enemy bosses for when you’ve more levels and gear on Day 2.
Some standard bosses you should always try to hit quickly, as they take little to no time at all to defeat; these are Oracle Envoys that spawn at Great Churches with the Holy affinity, Flame Chariots that spawn at encampments with the Fire affinity, and Abductor Virgins will spawn at forts that do not have any affinity. Hit them early to collect their Runes, their Dormant Power drops, and get levelled up.
Then, once Day 2 rolls around and a bunch of bosses are marked on your map, you’ll be adequately geared up to take them down without the risk of them killing you in a single hit.
Keep an eye out for Walking Mausoleums
Walking Mausoleums appear to be a very rare spawn in Nightreign, and in approximately 50 or so runs, I have only seen one. When one is available, it’ll appear as a large red circle on your map (this is larger than the orange quest marker you may see).
Head on over there and you’ll be able to climb up the Mausoleum’s legs to enter, where you’ll then be able to duplicate any of your weapons at least once; this also duplicates the passive effect on the weapon!
Make the most of these whenever they’re available, as it’s one way of duplicating a strong weapon for one of your teammates, or stacking up a specific passive effect you need for the build you’re aiming for.
Do not panic when someone on your team is downed
If someone on your team is downed, do not panic. In this scenario, it’s easy to panic and begin rushing to your teammate, neglecting the fact that there’s a boss on your tail following you to them. Before you know it, two of you are downed, making your remaining ally’s task to revive one of you, while managing the boss, very difficult.
If someone on your team is downed, communicate! Have one remaining player maintain the boss’ aggro and lure them away from the downed player to the best of their ability, while another teammate goes in for the revive. Better yet, use someone’s Ultimate to revive a downed teammate if things are really on the ropes; a Guardian Ultimate can revive two players if they both crawl next to one another. They’ll then be back up in no time, and you can finish off that boss!
Nightreign guides
Here are all of our Nightreign guides so far to help you out with your Expeditions.