Elden Ring Nightreign best relics and relic rites explained

Choosing the best relics in Elden Ring Nightreign goes a long way to helping you defeat whatever fearsome Nightlord you're facing next. You can equip three relics of different colours overall, granting a variety of bonuses that range from being great to kind of garbage due to their weird specificity.

You can also change what colour relics you can equip using goblets and chalices for relic rites, and you can even find class-specific relics that provide some extremely powerful buffs unique to your chosen Nightfarer. Here I'll run through the Nightfarer-specific relics, my picks for the best out of the others, plus explain this whole relic rite thing and how it functions.

How to get relics in Elden Ring Nightreign

There are two ways to get relics in Elden Ring Nightreign:

1. Earn them through expeditions: Either completing or failing them. Beating a Nightlord for the first time grants a unique relic.
2. Buy them from the Small Jar Bazaar: You can purchase these with Murk, which you get for simply trying to complete expeditions, and the stock will expand as you defeat more Nightlords. His selection may seem lacklustre at first, but if you purchase Scenic Flatstone at the bottom, you'll get a random relic which can potentially be pretty good.

Before you blow all your Murk, that it's also used to buy Nightreign outfits for your Nightfarer once you unlock those.

Elden Ring Nightreign best relics

As with basically everything else in Nightreign, relics are randomised, offering you a selection of up to three affixes that range from being really useful to absolute trash. In fact, there's only one type of relic which is fixed, and those are the ones that you get for defeating a Nightlord for the first time, such as Night of the Beast for Gladius, or Night of the Baron for Adel.

All relics have a chance to roll special affixes that offer class-specific bonuses—marked with the classes' name next to them like [Wylder]—and these are the rarest and most powerful in the game. Once you defeat four Nightlords, you'll be able to buy a selection of these relics at the Small Jar Bazaar shop.

Wylder

• Art activation spreads fire in area
• +1 additional character skill use
• Follow-up attacks possible when using character skill (Greatsword only)

Guardian

• Reflect a portion of the damage received when ability is activated
• Create a whirlwind when charging halberd attacks

Ironeye

• Extend duration of weak point
• Art charge activation adds poison effect

Raider

• An aura surrounding the Totem Stela grants increased poise
• Damage taken while using character skill improves attack power and stamina

Recluse

• Collecting any affinity residue activates Terra Magica
• Suffer blood loss and increase attack power upon Art activation

Executor

• Roaring restores HP while Art is active
• Cursed Sword boosts attack but attacking drains HP

Duchess

• Dagger chain attack reprises event upon nearby enemies
• Improved character skill attack power
• Become difficult to spot and silence footsteps after landing critical from behind
• Defeating enemies while art is active ups attack power

Revenant

• Trigger ghostflame explosion during Ultimate Art activation
• Power up when fighting alongside family

There are even more than these ones listed as well. You can get these randomly, but you can also get class-specific relics by getting Stonesword Key when you start your run.

Until then, these are the ones I recommend:

• Items confer effect to all nearby allies: This basically allows you to use Gold Pickled Fowl Foots, Boiled Prawn, and Boiled Crab for the whole team whenever you consume one.
• Starting armament deals X damage: Considering every Nightlord has a specific affinity weakness, being able to guarantee yourself one of those weapons from the very start is super handy. You just need to make sure that in the course of the two days, you upgrade your starting weapon with Smithing Stones.
• X damage +: If you can guarantee yourself a weapon that fits an affinity or the boss weakness using the above, you can also buff that with this affix.
• Increased rune acquisition for self and allies: More runes means more levels, more levels means unhappy Nightlord. You can also stack these yourself, or with allies.
• HP restoration upon X weapon attacks: Provided you can match the weapon type in this affix with what you find in an expedition (great spear, greatsword etc.), it gives a nice healing bonus to strength-based attackers like Wylder or Raider who don't hit successively as much, and so struggle to proc those effects.
• FP restoration on successive attacks: Though less good for strength-wielders like Wylder and Raider, this is great for just about anyone else with fast dex-weapons, if you're utilising spells and skills and so spending your FP.
• HP restored when using Cured Meats, Medicinal Boluses, etc: This one lets you have an entire inventory filled with health restoration consumables, which is pretty good when the healing flask limit is so important, and it also stacks with the top relic, giving this to all allies.
• Stat + X: Though I wouldn't generally take a stat bonus vs. an active effect, it's easy to match stats to the class you're bringing. If you're unsure what stats do, go to the Visual Codex in the west wing of the Roundtable Hold, then go Handbook, then Attributes.
• Improved X resistance: Not something I'd usually take, but once again, if you know the Nightlord you're fighting, you can bring improved resistance against their affinity so they do a little less damage.
• Rune discount for shop purchases while on expedition: Basically what it says, cheaper stuff when you buy from a merchant.

The problem with most relics in Nightreign is that they offer incredibly specific buffs that rely on you getting lucky during an expedition and finding weapons that fit them. For example, I could take "Improved Roar & Breath attacks", but will I actually find a Sacred Seal with those spells? It's a risk versus just taking one of the universally useful buffs above, especially early on.

How to use goblets in Elden Ring Nightreign

Once you complete the first Tricephalos expedition, you'll be able to purchase a goblet for each character from the Small Jar Bazaar in the Roundtable Hold. Each of these says that it unlocks a new relic rite; what that actually means is that you can swap the relic colour combo for your Nightfarer. All you need to do is:

1. Go to the relic altar
2. Cycle along to the character you bought a goblet for
3. Click the arrow at the bottom of the relic display to expand it (or down on D-pad on controller)
4. Select the new goblet to equip it

If you complete the third Remembrance quest for each character (after the one that gives you a relic for them), you'll get a chalice which lets you change relic rites for one that has a white slot, allowing you to slot whatever relic you want into it.

How to sell relics in Elden Ring Nightreign

If a lot of your relics suck—which they will if you're anything like me—and you got the pointy end of the RNG stick, you can always sell them for Murk so you can work towards buying a fancy outfit for your character. Simply head to the relic rite table, cycle all the way to the right, and then sell them to the small jar there. Just be careful you don't sell anything good!