Elden Ring Nightreign Executor build, tips, and best weapons

It can be hard to nail down the best Executor build in Elden Ring Nightreign, given the chaos of the game's random loot table—especially since he's a bit of a strange case. The Executor can excel in a couple of key areas, with a few build routes available to you based on what you can snag in any given run. And, as always, getting a legendary weapon with a powerful art might trounce all of them.

There are, however, some good ideas to keep in your back pocket. Each Nightfarer has some unique relics, ives, and weapons to look out for, and the Executor's no different. And given how quickly the rain can close in on your position, you'll want to learn these no-brainers so you can snap them up and keep moving.

In this guide, I'll be imparting to you my cursebound, occult knowledge of what's best to look out for—and I'll also be giving you a quick rundown of the Executor's abilities and arts, as well. The Executor has a high skill ceiling, but that shouldn't dissuade you from giving this parry god an honest try.

Elden Ring Executor build

Again, I want to take this opportunity to reiterate that the best relics, weapons, and ives will all be dependent on both how your current run's going and what boss you happen to be facing. For example, you'll want to be rocking poison in some fashion to take on the Gaping Jaw. Take the following words not as gospel, but a rough sketch you can fill in with some nice coloured pencils of your choosing.

You'll also notice in the following lists that I've not included "on Critical Hit" options. While the Executor often stance-breaks enemies with his Cursed Sword, I've found that same stance is immobile enough that he rarely ever gets a chance to capitalise on them. If you're in a team, it's best to focus on stance-breaking and survivability first, letting your Duchess teammate go in for the glory kill.

Elden Ring Executor best relics

Relics represent your only real ability to have a concrete game plan each run—and while you can tailor them to specific weapons or items, it's best to go for generally strong relic ives in order to stay flexible. Like all Nightfarers, the Executor has some unique relic affixes that'll be marked with [Executor]—these are absolutely worth keeping an eye out for.

Here's a list of solid relic recommendations to get you started:

• [Executor] Roaring restores HP while art is active
• [Executor] While character skill is active, unlocking use of cursed sword restores HP (obtained from remembrance)
• Stamina recovers with each successful attack (this lets you apply pressure in your Cursed Sword stance without depleting your blocking stamina)
• Starting armament inflicts X (if you want to match a weakness—otherwise, the Executor enjoys base bleed buildup on his starting weapon)
• Attack power up when facing X enemy (to be matched with the above)
• Improved X resistance (target the Nightlord's status type)
• X damage negation up (target the Nightlord's damage type)
• Poison and rot in vicinity increases attack power (if using a poison or rot weapon)
• Improved stance-breaking when wielding X (any type—though 'wielding two weapons' is good for the opportunity to double up on status build when dual-wielding)
• FP restoration upon successive attacks (to help fuel status-build up weapon arts)
• FP restoration upon katana attacks (a lot of the best status weapons are katanas, go figure)
• Arts gauge charged from successful guarding
• Improved guard counters
• Draw enemy attention while guarding
• Increased rune acquisition for self and allies
• Rune discount for shop purchases while on expedition
• Dexterity/Vigor/Arcane/Endurance + (to boost your weapon damage, health, status build-up, and stamina respectively)
• Rune discount for shop purchases while on expedition
• Items confer effect to all nearby allies

Elden Ring Nightreign Executor best weapons and ives

Given the Executor's focus on Dexterity and Arcane—with S-tier scaling in both of them—his pool of good weapons is narrowed down quite a bit. On the other hand, his ives are far more wide-reaching, and since you gain ives from any weapons you've picked up (unless they have the hand icon, in which case they need to be equipped) you'll want to become familiar with all of them.

The Executor makes the best use out of katanas, daggers, curved swords, twinblades, scythes, whips, and claws—but given his Arcane scaling, there are weapons in other categories that might fit him well. As a general rule of thumb, if a weapon has status build-up, it's likely got some Arcane scaling, too.

The Executor can also, despite their abilities, do very well with a status-build ranged weapon such as the Serpent Bow—owing to his high Dexterity. While it doesn't synergise with the rest of his kit, it's nice to have a way to deal damage and apply status effects at-range.

As ever, bleed is the most potent status effect to look for on a weapon—but given how smithing stones can be tricky to come by, I'd snap up any status build weapon of a higher rarity, rather than funnelling yourself into one status type. Here are some of my recommendations for weapon ives:

• X while walking (while in your cursed sword stance, you move slowly enough for these to trigger—making them free damage and a must-have)
• Successive attacks negate damage
• Taking damage boosts damage negation
• Successive attacks improve attack power
• FP restoration on attacks (with a good status build weapon art)
• Taking damage restores FP (with a good status-build weapon art)
• Bleed in vicinity increases attack power (if you have a poison or rot weapon, keep an eye out for that version of this affix)
• Improved guarding ability
• Improved guard counters
• Improved stance-breaking (all types, including 'when X')
• Improved guard-breaking (all types, including 'when X')
• Improved poise from successful guarding
• Defeating enemies restores HP

Elden Ring Nightreign Executor best talismans

During your runs, you'll also snag some talismans from certain chests or, predominantly, by whacking the scarabs populating the lands between. When it comes to the Executor, you'll want to go for talismans that improve your survivability, since you'll often be danger-close.

You'll notice a few guarding ability, stamina, and poise granting talismans on this list. In an ideal world, you don't need these, given the Executor's cursed sword parry ability—but let's face it, you probably aren't Let Me Solo Her, and you'll likely mess up your parry timing on occasion. These talismans help shore up your Cursed Sword stance's standard block.

The best talismans for the Executor, in order, are:

1. Millicent's Prosthesis: Improved dexterity and successive attacks boost attack power
2. Lord of Blood's Exultation: Blood loss in vicinity increases attack power (if using a bleeding weapon)
3. Godskin Swaddling Cloth: Successive attack HP restoration
4. Winged Sword Insignia: Successive attacks boost attack power
5. Green Turtle Talisman: Improved stamina recovery
6. Greatshield Talisman: Improved guarding ability
7. Bull-Goat's Talisman: Improved poise
8. Viridian Amber Medallion: Increased maximum stamina
9. Erdtree's Favor: Increased maximum HP and stamina
10. Gold Scarab: More runes from defeated enemies
11. Silver Scarab: Improved item discovery
12. Carian Filigreed Crest: Reduced skill FP cost (if given a good weapon skill)

Elden Ring Nightreign Executor tips

The executor is a mixed bag—part status-building skirmisher, part parry-tank, part crowd-clearer with his ultimate art. Outstanding Executor players will learn how to use his unique tools for each situation, and be able to swap between them on the fly. Here are a few tips to keep in mind when playing him.

1. Know when to enter your Cursed Sword stance

Unlike other characters, the Executor's Cursed Sword stance is available to him whenever he likes. When he enters it, he gains the ability to deflect, and a strong stance-breaking two handed weapon—in exchange for losing his status build-ups and mobility.

It's easiest to think of the Executor as having two 'modes', aggressive and defensive. Your aggressive mode is when you're using your standard weapons, applying status build-ups while the enemy is focused on your allies. Your defensive mode is your Cursed Sword stance, to be pulled out when you've got aggro—or to keep a priority target busy.

You neither want to stay in your Cursed Sword stance for too long—as your damage will suffer—but you also want to make sure you use it, as deflecting is extremely potent.

2. Your Cursed Sword stance has deflection frames and guard counters

This is a bit of a niche trick, but as you enter your Cursed Sword stance, you also have deflection frames—this means you can use Cursed Sword reactively, making it a far more versatile ability. Try to think of your Cursed Sword activation as a kind of block, and make good use of it when fighting with your regular weapons out.

In addition, don't forget that you can Guard Counter out of a deflection with your cursed sword—achieved by hitting the right trigger on controller immediately after successfully deflecting, or blocking, an attack.

3. Your Ultimate is an estus flask, and you can end it early

Aspects of the Crucible: Beast is a powerful offensive ultimate, allowing you to stunlock medium-weight enemies with your big claws. But it can also be used defensively, seeing as it refills your HP.

You can also end it early by activating it again, conserving some of your charge for the next use. This makes it a great utility against bosses who either deal too much damage to you to stay in it for long (big dogs have big hitboxes), or just as a backup tool in case you're in a long boss fight and out of healing options.

4. Solo her

The Executor is a primo 1v1 specialist—while working with a team, make good use of this fact. In boss fights with multiple enemies, don't be afraid to plant your feet in your Cursed Sword stance and play defensively, while your allies deal with the rest of your foes. Doing damage is important, but freeing up your mates to tangle with other enemies is a huge benefit.

5. Don't trip over timing, and keep your guard up

Unlike Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, the Executor's deflect ability has a hugely forgiving deflect window—likely to compensate for Nightreign's online component. As such, you shouldn't try to deflect right as attacks come in. As long as you're in the approximate ballpark, you'll be okay.

Secondly, your Cursed Sword stance does have a standard block. While you should typically aim to deflect, you can deflect out of a block pretty rapidly by simply releasing the deflect button and tapping it again. As such, you should keep your guard up—better your stamina bar be deleted by an unexpected attack, than you taking an unexpected dirt nap.