Elden Ring Nightreign can be brutal for new players. I have never felt more lost in a Soulsborne than the first few runs on Nightreign. Although the game does have a tutorial to teach the basics at the very start, it doesn’t reveal the secret tips and tricks to win at the end of every run. After spending over 60 hours in the game and defeating all bosses, I have compiled all my knowledge into this single guide, so that you don’t make the same mistakes I did. So without further ado, here are the best Elden Ring Nightreign tips and tricks to use.
1. Planning Your Route is Key
The most important thing that you need to learn in Elden Ring Nightreign is planning your route. This may sound basic, but how you plan your route can completely change the game’s leveling experience. When landing, the first things you must prioritize are all church locations, nearby mines, and ruins or camps with the Night Lord’s weakness element.
Now, create a path from one church to the other, stringing between the ruins, enemy camps, and mine entrances. Doing this simple thing will maximize your productivity on day one.
The next day, locate the newly marked elite bosses and any churches or camps with Night Lord’s weakness element, creating a path that links them all. Always do the objects in the outer area of the circle first before targeting the PoIs inside the circle.
2. Night Lord’s Weakness
Before you begin your expedition, the very first thing you must check is the weakness of the Night Lord you are planning to fight. How do you do that? All you need to do is look at the element or ailment marked on the boss at the Commence Expedition window. The element marked on the boss is the element it is weak to, not the one it uses. However, in rare cases, it can be both.
For example, if the boss is marked with the poison sign, it is weak to poison attacks and the ailment. However, make sure you don’t confuse yourself between the Holy and Lightning symbols, which was something that confused me at the start.
Once you have identified their weaknesses, you can equip Relics to change the element of your weapon to that of the weakness. Other than that, you can now focus on ruins and camps marked by that weakness in Limveld first, to increase your chances of getting a weapon that deals that specific damage.
3. Don’t Chew More Than You Can Swallow
The classic Soulsborne guts can become lethal in Nightreign. Throwing yourself at a boss much stronger than you to defeat it by ‘getting good’ is no longer a favorable option. Your death has consequences and is not just about losing runes anymore. Dying reduces your level in the game and drops all your runes.
But the biggest issue of dying continuously to the same enemy is the passing of time. The circle won’t wait for you to redeem your honor by defeating them. It will start closing in, leaving you underleveled for the Night Boss fight. And losing against the Night Boss will completely end your run.
So, know how to pick your battles in Elden Ring Nightreign. Day 1 should mainly focus on Ruin and Camp bosses, and day 2 should focus on elite Bosses. If you feel that defeating a boss will take too much time or you die too quickly, it’s better to grab your runes and run to another area.
4. Retrieve Runes to Recover Your Level
Dying is more punishing in Elden Ring Nightreign than in other Soulsborne games, except Dark Souls 2. Here, you drop all the runes you are carrying and lose a level for dying. One good thing is that you won’t constantly lose your level by dying to the same boss.
Thankfully, retrieving your runes after dying also gives you the runes for the level you lost. Knowing this is very important, as you can prioritize running away without having the feeling that you have just lost a level.
5. Prioritize Shifting Earth Events
The Shifting Earth events are one of the best parts of Elden Ring Nightreign, and they can be a rune farm haven. Whenever you trigger a Shifting Earth event, try to get there as quickly as possible, but on day 2. Heading into the Shifting Earth area on day 1 can be a nightmare, as the place is generally crawling with strong enemies. So stick to day 2 when you do get there.
Furthermore, there is always a specific power in the event, which rewards a good passive buff. For events like the Rotted Woods, you need to get the power first, as it makes you immune to Rot buildup, letting you easily take on the packed elite bosses in the area without having your health tick away every second.
6. Keep an Eye on Weapon Passives
Every weapon in Elden Ring Nightreign can be useful to your character, even if they do not scale well with them. This is because each weapon can come with multiple passives. The passive abilities that don’t have a “hand” sign beside them signify that the buff will be granted just by having the weapon in the inventory.
For example, a Polearm is useless for Iron Eye as he prefers bows. However, if the Polearm’s passive increases 15% Holy damage and you are wielding a Holy bow, then it is definitely worth picking up for just the passive.
7. Head to the Mines
Getting better weapons is essential for scaling your power in Elden Ring Nightreign. But sometimes you won’t find a good enough weapon. If you have my luck, you may not even find a weapon your character scales with in the entire run. That’s why being able to upgrade weapons is such a fail-safe way to keep your strength up for the final battle.
You need a Smithing Stone 2 and a Smithing Table to upgrade your weapons to the Epic rarity. The difficult part here is finding a Smithing Stone 2, as a Smithing Table is available next to merchants.
One Nightreign tip to get confirmed smithing stones is to head into the mines. The Smithing Stone 2 is guaranteed to drop in Mines from specific enemies. So, one of the first things you must do on day 1 is head into the Mine entrance and grab a Smithing Stone 2 inside. Now, you can keep the stone until you find a weapon you want to upgrade, or use it on your starter weapon if you don’t see anything better.
One thing to note is that you shouldn’t head into the mines when the zone is closing. I have died enough times from zone damage inside the mines to know never to put myself in that situation again.
8. Items Are More Useful Than Ever
Remember those useless Warming Stones in Elden Ring that lit the path? They are pretty incredible in Nightreign now! Every item in Elden Ring Nightreign is valuable, especially Warming Stones that heal allies near them. It basically lets you freely heal when the boss is not aggroed on you and save your flasks.
Furthermore, items like Pickled Turtle Necks or Boiled Crabs are still excellent for buffs. Pairing them with a relic attribute that transfers item effects to nearby allies can allow you to buff your entire team with one item.
9. Use Relics With Team Effects
Many of the Relics come with team-wide passives. These can range from healing nearby allies when using a flask to increasing rune acquisition for everyone in the party. Elden Ring Nightreign is first and foremost a team game.
Equipping relics that amplify your damage and the team’s damage can help you win more fights. These relics, however, become useless when playing solo, so only save them for multiplayer games.
10. Employ Passive Damage Skill Drops
One of the best parts about Nightreign’s combat is the new passive damage skills that drop after defeating bosses. These skills are triggered when the player performs a specific action. For example, surge sprint creates an ice blizzard, which builds up frost and ice damage. Sounds insane? It is!
There are passive skills that spawn glint blades around you in regular intervals without consuming FP. These let you deal extra damage to enemies without any additional effort. And some of these are incredibly cool to give up.
And that’s it! These best tips and tricks for beginners in Elden Ring Nightreign should prepare you for the challenge. If you are having trouble understanding any of the tips, tell us in the comments below!
