The new Deep of Night mode in Elden Ring: Nightreign makes players rethink which character they’re playing and why, but our handy tier list and explanations for it can help to make better sense of things.
Each of Elden Ring: Nigtreign’s nightfarers brings something different to the table. While that’s good and adds some variety to the game, it’s not necessarily ideal when players don’t know what boss they’re coming up against. For example, Wylder’s free fire attacks aren’t necessarily going to be of any value against the Darkdrift Knight, and Revenant’s high faith stat can’t do much against Gaping Jaw.
That means players are best served picking characters that have a generalized set of skills and tools that can work against as many bosses as possible. Here’s how each character fits into this new mode, and what they bring to the table.
Raider, Recluse, and Duchess stand as the best characters at the top of our tier list for Elden Ring: Nightreign’s Deep of Night mode.
While all characters are viable to at least some degree and players may have better relics for their absolute favorites, there’s still a hierarchy to the game’s challenge mode. Here’s a tier list breaking down how all of the characters stack up:
| Tier | Characters |
|---|---|
| A-tier | Raider, Recluse, Duchess |
| B-tier | Guardian, Ironeye |
| C-tier | Revenant, Wylder, Executor |
Raider, Recluse, and Duchess are all strong in Elden Ring: Nightreign’s Deep of Night mode and can lead the way in strong runs. In each cases, the characters offer strong damage with a high degree of flexibility when it comes to viable weapons and abilities.
Raider and Duchess both have abilities that work against any given opponent, while also being able to readily find weapons that can attack night lords’ elemental or status effect weaknesses. Some creativity may be required in terms of giving Raider non-colossal weapons or leaning on Duchess’ underappreciated intelligence stat, but both have the potential to work well against any boss.
Recluse is also particularly strong, but this largely stems from her deceptively high faith stat. While players mostly equate her with sorcery, her incantations are as good as Revenant’s. Being able to effectively use any kind of magic lets Recluse adapt to any night lord.
Ironeye is one of Elden Ring: Nightreign’s most popular characters and while he’s not one of the best for Deep of Night, he certainly isn’t bad.
The ability to amplify allies’ damage is always good, even if his own DPS isn’t great. While some night lords are tricky, Ironeye can pivot to a more arcane-focused build, applying poison or scarlet rot or whatever else enemy bosses are weak to.
Guardian is arguably Elden Ring: Nightreign’s worst character, but he’s a bit better off in Deep of Night. Guardian’s big issue in standard runs is his limited damage, but this can be remedied to some degree by using the new “deep” relics and following the other best strategies for Deep of Night. This allows the character’s bulk and ultimate to shine a bit brighter. He’s still very limited in terms of his damage potential, but he’s easy to use here.
(Image Credit: Bandai-Namco)
While Wylder, Revenant, and Executor are among the best options against certain Elden Ring: Nightreign bosses, the random night lord in Deep of Night runs is a major hit to each of these characters. Though each of them can hypothetically work against any given night lord, there are certain hero-boss combinations that are just difficult to work around.
Wylder and Revenant will both struggle against night lords such as Gaping Jaw unless players get an ideal drop. Similarly, Executor is essentially a meat shield against the Shape of Night unless players find a holy agility weapon.
These situations can be managed to some degree, but Elden Ring: Nightreign players are also just better served opting for the other characters higher up in our tier list when they’re playing Deep of Night.
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